Updating All Day, Every Day
AP A passenger from a helicopter that went missing on September 27 over one of Myanmar's tallest mountains walked into a remote village Tuesday, saying both pilots also survived but were injured and needed help, organisers of the search said.
PhuketWATCH Daily Media Wrap
PHUKET: The daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media. Beware of inconsistent imitations.
Today's Top News Items
afp Stargazers in the Americas and Asia will be treated to a lunar eclipse Wednesday, a celestial show that will bathe the moon in red to create a ''blood moon.'' [High tides are expected to pound the Andaman coast.]
reuters The number of tourists arriving in Thailand in September dropped a preliminary 7.0 percent from a year earlier after a drop of 11.9 percent in August, showing the country's big industry continues to feel the pinch of a long political crisis.
bangkokpost.com Tourists paid five percent less for a hotel room in Thailand in the first half of this year, as domestic political turmoil spurred price-slashing and promotions. Krabi was the only destination on the survey to experience a price increase with the average hotel rate paid per night jumping five percent to 3226 baht. The Phuket rate dropped 10 percent.
Press Trust of India The operator of a Thai tourist boat, which was swamped by a huge wave killing two Indians onboard, has been charged with reckless driving causing death, police said. Ekkapong Kinglek, 25, the boat operator, claimed though life vests were provided the two chose not to wear them.
Tourists' Murder on Koh Tao
bangkokpost.com The British embassy stayed away and the Myanmar embassy directly contradicted claims they were pleased with the Koh Tao murder investigation, as police attempted at a major media conference to refute torture charges and convince the public that two arrested Myanmar workers are killers, not scapegoats.
http://bangkokpost.com/news/crime/436485/govt-insists-missions-ok-with-probe
theguardian.com Thai police officers threatened the two suspects with electrocution during a violent interrogation before the pair agreed to admit to killing Hannah Witheridge and David Miller, according to a Burmese embassy lawyer who spoke to the men. A third Burmese man is being held in custody as a witness.
abc.net.au ''I insist that all officials in this case have done a good job. A perfect job,'' national police chief General Somyot Poompanmuang told a news conference in Bangkok.
time.com ''So far, the police investigation has been disturbingly unprofessional," Thailand's Khao Sod newspaper said in an editorial. ''There are also legitimate concerns that the alleged confessions of the two Burmese suspects were obtained under duress.''
independent.co.uk Amnesty International is urging the Thai junta to conduct an independent investigation into allegations that two Burmese workers who ''confessed'' to the murders of two British backpackers did so under duress and torture.
nationmultimedia.com Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is prepared to explain the Thai police conclusion - that two Myanmar workers killed two British backpackers on Koh Tao last month - to the Myanmar government, if asked, during his visit to Nay Pyi Taw tomorrow.
Latest on the Ebola Outbreak
xinhua The Spanish nurse confirmed as the first person to become infected by the Ebola virus outside of Africa is being treated in Madrid with a serum derived from the blood of a person who overcame the disease, Spanish media reported.
Phuket World of People
e27.co It's hard to believe that there is a sizeable number of tech startups based in Phuket, Thailand; after all, the island town is more of a travel and tourism hub - more well known for bikinis and martinis than internet and venture capitalists.
http://e27.co/phuket-turning-to-be-a-slow-but-steady-travel-tech-startup-hub-20141007/
travpr.com Krabi Province, along the southwest coast of Thailand, is gearing up for a record-breaking high season beginning in November 2014 and ending in April 2015. Krabi has continued to attract more and more tourists each year looking to vacation on its beautiful beaches, and it appears this year will break all preceding records.
nationmultimedia.com Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha insisted the junta would maintain martial law for the purpose of long-term security, but relaxation would be considered step by step when the situation improved.
Phuket Update An ''overwhelmingly majority'' of the more than 7000 readers who took part in a tabloid newspaper's poll on Phuket voted against opening the island's controversial Nemo dolphinarium near Phuket Zoo.
foxnews.com A UN official warned of pending ''humanitarian tragedies'' and pleaded desperately with the world to intervene on behalf of Kurds trapped in a Syrian city near the Turkish border, as Islamic State fighters stood on the brink of taking it.
nationmultimedia.com The organiser of a Luxury Festival and high-end travel fair in Bangkok from October 11-19 projects that Phuket will remain an attractive destination for yachtsmen. The Luxury Festival will feature brand-name products including watches, property, supercars, and yachts.
bangkokpost.com Plans are afoot to transform Pattaya's image from nightlife destination to ''green city'' to woo more families.
scmp.com Students at the forefront of the pro-democracy protests that have swept the city have agreed to hold talks with top government officials including Chief Secretary Carrie Lam on Friday to find a solution to the political impasse.
cnn.com Events in North Korea have left the world wondering: Where's leader Kim Jong Un and is he still running perhaps the most isolated country on Earth?
newsweek.com Their inventions have found their way into bedside lamps, television screens, and smartphones, and have the potential to give light to the 1.5 billion people who don't have access to electricity grids, according to the Nobel Assembly. In recognition of this, scientists Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura, whose invention of blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) ''triggered a fundamental transformation of lighting technology,'' were awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Physics.
bangkokpost.com Singha Corporation is expanding its portfolio with a new cider called Syder Bay, to be launched next week.
smh.com.au Canberra is the best place in the world to live. And Australia is the best country, despite its problems. That's the result of an Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development report, which has ranked 34 countries on nine measures of well-being.
news.com.au A four-year-old girl mistakenly took hundreds of bags of heroin to her day care centre in the US and passed them out to classmates, thinking they were sweets. Police said the girl's mother gave her the drug-filled backpack because her regular schoolbag was ruined by the family pet.
Around the Asean Region
AP Burma pardoned and began freeing 3073 prisoners in an amnesty that virtually excluded political prisoners despite a presidential pledge to free all such detainees by year's end.
rfa.org Human rights groups have asked Malaysia not to deport more than 150 of China's ethnic minority Uyghurs back home, fearing they could be persecuted on their return. Malaysian authorities detained the 155 undocumented Uyghurs, including 76 children and 37 women, last week after finding them in two cramped apartments in the capital Kuala Lumpur during a raid, according to news reports.
abc.net.au A boat carrying about 20 people to a wedding on the Indonesian resort island of Bali has gone missing after breaking down, officials said.
bnionline.net Mohamed Farid, 35, a Rohingya from Kha Moung Zeik (Fakira Bazar) was tortured to death by the Burmese Border Guard police (BGP) at their headquarters in Maungdaw, Arakan State between 3rd October and 5th October according to Halim, a Maungdaw based human rights watchdog.
wsj.com Air pollution in Singapore reached its most hazardous level this year as haze caused by fires in Indonesia shrouded the island state.
Phuket World of Sport
smh.com.au Socceroos star Tim Cahill has been linked to an investigation by British authorities into a tax avoidance scheme.
channel4.com Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen lambasts his ex-coach and teammates in his autobiography - the latest chapter in a sporting life that has rarely been far from controversy.
Coming Events on Phuket 2014
October 23 Chulalongkorn Memorial Day
November 1-3 Patong Carnival
November 6 Loy Kratong
November 14-23 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket
December 5 King's Birthday
December 10 Constitution Day
December 25 Christmas Day
December 26 10th Anniversary, 2004 Tsunami
December 31 New Year's Eve
Coming Events on Phuket 2015
February 13-15 Phuket Yacht Show
Unfortunately it seems that the Kingdom severely violated core chums rights of 2 suspects in Koh Tao murder.
ICCPR Art.13 Sec.3 stipulates :
(d) ...to be informed, if he does not have legal assistance, of this right;
and to have legal assistance assigned to him, in any case where the interests of justice so require, and without payment by him in any such case if he does not have sufficient means to pay for it;
Bravado by authorities, that suspects initially were not assigned lawyers, as they "didn't request for it", as otherwise authorities for sure would provide "for their basics rights", was pity indeed.
Then another version came, that interrogation has to be done fast - it took first 24 hours, so there was no time to get lawyers for them - that doesn't withstand any critics.
Moreover delay in calling an attorney for suspect looks like a joke as suspects are participating in extremely important for their future life procedural acts - giving confessions in murder - that could lead either to death penalty or life sentence.
After that some mystical lawyer appears who told some strange things: first to corroborate account of police , by saying that he "was told by suspects that they did the crime" , second, that he was present when they confessed.
This looks quite illogic, so whether he was present at some later formal act when confession repeatedly was recorded into documents, or , could it be that he simply is source if confession - that he told to police that suspect confessed to him, and the police built a case on it?
Such or similar crazy idea shouldn't be discounted, as in BVI in the beginning if the century a murder case against 4 Americans was built solely on another inmate, convicted criminal and pathological liar, evidence that accused "told him he did the crime".
Actually such a fake lawyer playing in hand of police is not their genuine attorney for sure.
Then today allegations have been aired that suspects were tortured , or at least beaten before confession, not by police - by-nobody-knows-whom.
Same same as with their friends, who complained about mistreatment during interrogation only to be rebuked by authorities that if someone mistreated them it was not them and they know nothing about it, and "will investigate".
This all sounds of course quite appalling.
These are at least severe violation of procedure , and by the mean of correct following procedure rules the rule of law is maintained.
In such countries as US not informing timely about right to call attorney in most cases would invalidate all substantial evidence on the matter obtained during that time.
And what if after involvement of another lawyer now suspects will withdraw confessions?
I wouldn't judge on substantial evidence as those drops of information in media are insufficient to make a thourogh evaluation what evidence police really have in hand, but these severe violation of procedure can potentially nullify a case against these suspects.
All police in the country, especially higher-ranked are very children of old system, even if they began after 22nd of May to do good deeds, so no surprise here..
I wonder if Thai police will allow intrusion into the case by UK to gather indecently evidence for full inquest scheduled for January 6, or UK will has to rely on file gathered by Thai authorities.
Posted by Sue on October 8, 2014 08:02