Thai PM vows action on guns after deadly mall shooting

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's prime minister on Wednesday vowed "preventive measures" after a shooting at a Bangkok shopping mall left two people dead and raised fresh questions about the kingdom's gun control.

Shoppers returned in dribs and drabs as the Siam Paragon mall reopened less than 24 hours after the shooting -- Thailand's third high-profile deadly gun attack in four years.

The shooting at one of Bangkok's biggest, most upmarket malls will come as a fresh blow to Thailand's efforts to rebuild its vital tourism industry after the pandemic.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin joined a minute's silence at the mall before offering the government's condolences to the families of the two female victims -- one Chinese and one from Myanmar.

"I am confident Siam Paragon and government officials did their best to minimize the casualties and damage," he said.

"Let this be the only time this happens. My government insists we will give priority to preventive measures," he added, without giving details.

The victim from Myanmar was named by her country's foreign ministry as 31-year-old Moe Myint.

Police have charged a 14-year-old suspect with premeditated murder, attempted murder, carrying and firing a gun in a public place and owning an unlicensed firearm.

Police Major General Nakarin Sukontawit said the boy, a student at a $4,000-a-term private school just metres from Siam Paragon, was undergoing psychiatric tests to see if he would be fit to stand trial.

Investigators said Tuesday the boy had been undergoing treatment for mental illness but had stopped taking his medication and reported hearing voices telling him to shoot people.

UNICEF Thailand deputy representative Severine Leonardi said the incident should accelerate efforts to improve the kingdom's youth mental health services.

- Past promises -

Samran Nuanma, Assistant National Police Chief, told a news conference on Wednesday that the weapon used in the attack was a blank-firing pistol.

"But the barrel was modified for live shooting," Samran said.

"We will increase regulations and laws to control the use of firearms."

But past promises of tightening gun laws have not prevented tragedies.

The Siam Paragon shooting came just days before the anniversary of a massacre at a nursery in northern Thailand that left 36 people dead.

And in 2020, a former army officer gunned down 29 people in a rampage at a mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima.

By one estimate, Thailand has 10 million guns in circulation -- one for every seven citizens, and one of the highest rates of ownership in the region.

Many firearms are smuggled into the country, but Kritsanapong Phutrakul, a former police officer and now academic, said internet sales were becoming a problem.

"Only a small number of police officers have the knowledge, capabilities and experience to track the gun market online," he told AFP.

After talks with the PM, National Police Chief Torsak Sukwimol said he had ordered specialist officers to investigate online gun sales.

- Tourism impact -

Thailand is desperate to rebuild its tourism sector after travel restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic saw visitors dwindle.

China -- which sent around 10 million visitors a year to the kingdom before the pandemic -- is a crucial market, but numbers are not returning as fast as Thai officials would wish.

This is partly because of fears in China about whether Thailand is safe, and the fact that one of the mall shooting victims was Chinese is unlikely to improve this situation.

Srettha spoke to the Chinese ambassador Tuesday and issued a statement saying the government would implement "the highest safety measures" for tourists.

At Siam Paragon on Wednesday, AFP reporters saw that security was stepped up in some places, with bags being searched -- but not on all entrances to the sprawling mall.

Russian tourist Alexander Samylin, 35, told AFP he was not worried about safety.

"It's very safe here in Thailand, this could happen anywhere," he said at the mall.

Agence France-Presse

Thailand hits new daily record COVID-19 deaths

BANGKOK - Thailand on Tuesday reported 15 new coronavirus deaths, setting a daily record for the third time in four days in its worst-outbreak yet, as an expert warned of big problems ahead from insufficient testing.

"If we are not screening people who can quietly spread the virus, there will be subsequent outbreaks and mutations, rendering immunization ineffective," Thiravat Hemachudha, head of the Thai Red Cross Emerging Infectious Diseases Centre wrote on Facebook.

His comments comes amid public criticism of the government for its slow response to the latest outbreak and delayed vaccine roll-out, with some calling for the health minister's resignation.

Thailand has reported more than half of its 59,687 COVID-19 cases this month alone, and 69 of its total 163 fatalities. It has closed parks, gyms, cinemas and schools in the outbreak epicenter Bangkok, but malls and restaurants remain open.

It has also introduced a fine of up to 20,000 baht ($635) for not wearing masks in public, which even the prime minister fell foul of. Three new cases were reported among Government House staff on Tuesday.

The new outbreak coincides also with the detection locally of the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant blamed for big jumps in infections in many countries.

Thiravat earlier told Reuters that Thailand's third wave comes from the saturation of undetected cases accumulated since last year. The roughly 10-20 cases per day prior to the new outbreak were because testing was insufficient, he said.

Thailand has not conducted mass-testing but uses a targeted testing approach. Reliable testing data has been difficult to obtain.

Labs are currently processing around 40,000 to 50,000 samples daily, the health ministry said.

"Real proactive surveillance means everyone needs to be tested, with or without symptoms and in all areas," Thiravat added.

Testing in Thailand is free only if an individual has had potential exposure and presents flu-like symptoms. Private hospitals offer drive-through testing for 2,500 baht to 5,000 baht ($80 to $160). 

-reuters

Scared but desperate, Thai sex workers forced to the street

BANGKOK — A shutdown to contain the coronavirus has killed Thailand’s party scene and forced sex workers like Pim out of bars and onto desolate streets. She’s scared but desperately needs customers to pay her rent.

Red-light districts from Bangkok to Pattaya have gone quiet with night clubs and massage parlors closed and tourists blocked from entering the country.


That has left an estimated 300,000 sex workers out of a job, pressing some onto the streets where the risks are sharpened by the pandemic.

“I’m afraid of the virus but I need to find customers so I can pay for my room and food,” Pim, a 32-year-old transgender sex worker, told AFP in an area of Bangkok where previously bawdy neon-lit bars and brothels have gone dark.

Since Friday Thais have been under a 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew. Bars and eat-in restaurants closed several days earlier.

Many of Bangkok’s sex workers had jobs in the relative safety of bars, working for tips and willing to go home with customers.

When their workplaces suddenly closed most returned home to wait out the crisis.

Others like Pim went to work on the streets.

The government said it is ready to enforce a 24-hour curfew if necessary to control a virus that has infected more than 2,000 people and killed 20, according to official figures.

Pim is paying a heavy price for the movement restrictions – she has not had a customer for 10 days and the bills are stacking up.

Her friend Alice, another transgender sex worker, has also been forced to move from a go-go bar to the roadside.

“I used to make decent money sometimes $300-600 a week,” Alice said.

“But when businesses shut down my income stopped too. We are doing this because we’re poor. If we can’t pay our hotel they will kick us out.”

High risk

The occasional tourist loiters near clusters of sex workers, before a furtive negotiation and a quick march to a nearby hotel, one of the few still open on Bangkok’s main tourist drag.

The already high risks of sex work have rocketed as the virus spreads.

Sex workers have flocked back to homes across the country in anticipation of several weeks of virtual lockdown before Thailand’s night economy comes back to life.

There were fears the malaise could last for months, yanking billions of tourist dollars from the economy and leaving those working in the informal sector destitute.

They include sex workers – an illegal but widely accepted part of Thailand’s nightlife.

There were concerns that a Thai government emergency scheme to give 5,000 baht ($150) to millions of newly jobless over the next three months will exclude sex workers because they cannot prove formal employment.

The Empower Foundation, an advocacy group for the kingdom’s sex workers, said entertainment venues make around $6.4 billion a year, many of them selling sex in some form.

Women are suffering the most from the virus measures, it said. Many are mothers and their family’s main income earner, forced into sex work by lack of opportunities or low graduate salaries.

The group has written an open letter to the government urging it to “find a way to provide assistance to all workers who have lost their earnings”.

As the 10 pm curfew looms, Pim and Alice prepared for a final forlorn patrol for customers.

“I think the government has been really slow. They don’t care about people like us who work in the sex industry,” Alice said.

“We’re more afraid of having nothing to eat than the virus.”

Agence France-Presse

3 dead, 17 injured in Thai building collapse–police

BANGKOK– At least three workers died and 17 others were injured when a six-story building under construction collapsed just outside Bangkok, police said Monday, as rescuers searched for an unknown number of missing people.

The planned student accommodation block crashed down at around 4.30 p.m. (0930 GMT) in Pathum Thani province, north of the capital, a police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.


“Three construction workers were found dead and 17 injured were rescued,” said the officer.

Rescue workers and police were using cranes to search for any people trapped inside the debris late Monday.

“We can’t say how many are trapped inside but we are working hard to rescue them,” the officer said, adding that police would launch an investigation into why the building collapsed.

Labor groups have warned about lax safety standards and low wages at Thai construction sites, especially for migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, who are often paid below the country’s minimum daily wage.

The nation has seen a building boom in recent years as the property market has soared.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Old bomb explodes in Bangkok scrap shop, killing 7

BANGKOK, Thailand—Police say workers at a scrap shop in Thailand’s capital accidentally detonated a large bomb believed to have been dropped during World War II, killing at least seven people and injuring 19 others.

Police bomb squad chief Kamthorn Auicharoen says construction workers found the bomb buried at a building site and sold it to the scrap shop in northern Bangkok.

He said workers at the shop were using a blowtorch to take the bomb apart when it exploded Wednesday.

The massive blast ripped apart the scrap shop in Bangkok’s Lad Plakao neighborhood and damaged nearby houses.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Oil prices drop after Iran nuclear deal

BANGKOK – Oil prices sank Monday as a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers made it more likely that the sanctions choking Iranian oil exports will eventually be lifted.

Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, was down $2.43 at $108.62 a barrel at midmorning Bangkok time in electronic trading on the ICE futures exchange in London.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell 85 cents to $93.99 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.


After marathon negotiations in Geneva, Iran on Sunday reached an agreement with the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany to limit enrichment of uranium to 5 percent, far below the level needed for nuclear weapons.

Iran got limited relief from sanctions that have hobbled its economy, but an embargo on its oil exports remains in place while negotiations continue for a more enduring deal to ensure the country only uses nuclear technology for peaceful purposes such as power generation.

If Iranian oil returns to international markets, the additional supply is likely to make crude less expensive.

Benchmark U.S. crude is down from about $110 in October because of ample supplies and muted demand.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

— Wholesale gasoline dropped 4.6 cents to $2.665 gallon.

— Heating oil shed 4.8 cents to $2.991 a gallon.

— Natural gas added 7.7 cents to $3.845 per 1,000 cubic feet.

source: business.inquirer.net

Raonic beats Berdych to Thailand Open title

BANGKOK — Canadian Milos Raonic used his thumping serve to ace his way to victory over top seed Tomas Berdych Sunday, with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 win at the Thailand Open.

Third seed Raonic took full advantage of his big serve to beat his Czech opponent, firing 18 aces — his last to set up a pair of match points.

After winning the first set in a tiebreaker, the Canadian tightened his grip in the second to earn the fifth title of his career.



The trophy, his second of the season, will help the 11th-ranked Canadian as he bids for a place in the eight-man season-ending championships in November in London.

Raonic beat Berdych, who is ranked 6th in the world, at their last meeting in Cincinnati in 2012.

Berdych remains the only member of the ranking top 10 without a title in 2013.

source: sports.inquirer.net