‘No idea’ how to stop Thai violence
The News Review:
- ‘No idea’ how to stop Thai violence
- Attackers hurl grenade at mosque in southern Thailand wounding two
- Viktor Bout’s Last Deal
- Funny tummies
- Home > Business > Investors’ rethink
- n the road again
‘No idea’ how to stop Thai violence
NEWS.com.au – Mar 18, 2008
getElementById(”print-logo”)){ document. getElementById(”print-logo”)… Mr Chalerm said Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej will hold an emergency meeting with security officials on Friday following the weekend hotel attack. Two people were killed and 10 others injured Saturday when a car bomb exploded in the parking lot of a smart hotel that had been considered a safe zone for business and political leaders visiting the province of Pattani. The conflict is entering its fifth year but Thailand has made little visible progress even in identifying the people or groups behind the attacks. No group has claimed responsibility for the violence which has killed nearly 3000 people since early 2004 and the government has yet to publicly identify any of the militancy’s leadership. While the previous military government launched a raft of peace-building measures almost daily shootings and bomb attacks continued to rock the region. In the latest attacks a Muslim militant was killed after a gun battle with 70 security forces in Narathiwat province police said while two Muslims were hurt after rebels hurled a grenade into a mosque in Yala. The restive region was once an autonomous Malay sultanate but was annexed by Buddhist Thailand a century ago.
Attackers hurl grenade at mosque in southern Thailand wounding two
China Post – Mar 18, 2008
Muslims and Buddhists who work for the government are viewed as collaborators and targeted by insurgents. Violence appears to have intensified recently with suspected insurgents attacking targets that were considered safe havens. ver the weekend a powerful bomb went off at the C. Pattani hotel in Pattani province. The hotel has long been used as a base for visiting journalists foreigners and government officials. Two people were killed and 14 wounded by the bomb which was hidden in a parked car outside the hotel.
Viktor Bout’s Last Deal
Mother Jones – Mar 18, 2008
As the fugitive leader of the world’s largest and most lucrative illicit-arms-trafficking network he had plenty of capable lieutenants to manage his affairs. But Bout by all accounts enjoyed his work and liked to be on location when deals were closed. So it was that on Thursday March 6 he landed in Bangkok Thailand having flown all night from his home in Moscow. He had come to meet representatives of what he hoped would be his newest customer the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and to finalize an arrangement to deliver millions of dollars of military-grade weapons from Eastern European warehouses to the FARC’s jungle outposts. It was a welcome new line of business for the 41-year-old Russian who had chafed lately under U. European and UN sanctions that had frozen his assets and severely curtailed his ability to travel… Moreover it was popular with Western tourists among whom the arms dealer could conceal himself without raising suspicion. It was not a country where Bout enjoyed the tacit security that came with knowing well-placed government officials as he did throughout much of Eastern Europe and Africa but it was many time zones removed from where his pursuers were likely to be hunting for him and he must have thought as good a place as any to conduct his latest transaction. Bout arrived shortly before noon at Bangkok’s five-star Sofitel Silom Hotel a modern 38-story glass structure that towers above a traffic-congested tree-lined street in the city’s commercial district. He checked in at the front desk and made a 3 p. reservation for a conference room before retiring to his suite on the 14th floor. He remained there for several hours perhaps taking the opportunity to catch up on sleep before rising at the appointed time to meet his FARC contacts.
Funny tummies
The Age – Mar 18, 2008
It’slike me going to the emphysema ward at the Royal Melbourne handingout cigarettes. “People argue and say to me ‘But peanuts are not nuts. They arelegumes’ and I say ‘Great! So put that on my gravestone!’ I wentto Thailand for a holiday – world capital of peanut cuisine -forget skydiving! But I reckon it is the best food in the worldwhen it isn’t killing me. ”So I went armed with a card translated into Thai that read’If I eat nuts I will die’. ‘To show that he understood one guy at a restaurant picked up adead lobster and shook it in my face. I thought ‘What is thelobster a doctor or is he going to use the claws to open up mywindpipe?’”The bar owners were really good about it. I guess they didn’twant a dead guy on stage in the middle of a ping-pong show… GAGS AT A GLANCECorinne Grant ut of rder* Melbourne Town Hall $27. Charlie Pickering Thirteen Ducks* Victoria Hotel Little CollinsStreet city $25. Adam Rozenbachs Traces of Nut* Port Hotel city $20. Maeve Higgins Ha Ha Yum!* Melbourne Town Hall Cloak Room$25.
Home > Business > Investors’ rethink
Nation Multimedia – Mar 18, 2008
Jerdphan asserted that commercial bonds issued by the four major Australian banks were secure with at least "AA-" ratings. However with rating agencies in the dock over questions of accuracy and ethics as the result of the sub-prime debacle in the US investors should carefully weigh the possible risks. Anusorn said BTAM had at least seven more funds in the pipeline ranging from soft commodities to a four-star-hotel property fund and a Stock Exchange of Thailand 50 Index equity fund with hefty dividend stocks. Meanwhile Asset Plus Fund Management has unveiled three new South Korean government-bond funds. The three funds are the FIF-Fixed Income 12M9 Fund the initial public offering for which expires tomorrow; the Asset Plus Premium Dividend available until next Monday; and the Asset Plus Premium 6M3 which will be open from Thursday to March 26. Ki Nan TsuiThe Nation.
n the road again
Mayo News – Mar 18, 2008
It’s the second leg of a challenge which will see the Ballaghaderreen native run 60 marathons over the next four years. Donnelly is undertaking this mammoth task is in aid of the Sea Change Foundation an organisation which deals in ‘micro-finance’ giving tiny loans to the poorest of the poor around the world. “It’s giving people a leg up rather than a hand out” Donnelly explained when we met at the Anglers Rest Hotel in Headford last week. “It’s about helping people to help themselves and get them out of extreme poverty with a bit of dignity. I decided that whatever I did to help this it had to be extreme. So I decided I was going to run around the planet. ”If you’re thinking the name Johnny Donnelly sounds familiar it’s because the 36-year-old was the Saw Doctors drummer for over a decade… “I thought how lucky myself and Aisling were that everything worked out fine and that thankfully all our kids are happy and healthy and I decided I wanted to give something back” he explained. “And extreme poverty is something that is close to my heart. ”Having visited India and Thailand Donnelly had some experience of ‘how the other half live’ and running in South Africa brought him face to face with people living in cardboard boxes. “nce you knock on poverty’s door to help it’s very very hard to walk away and not return because it’s something that stays with you” he says. John Grealish a board member of the Sea Change Foundation convinced Donnelly that his was a charity worth supporting. The long list of marathons will include some of the toughest endurance tests in the world. Despite being ‘terrified of snakes and scorpions’ Donnelly is due to run in the Namibian Desert as well as the Marathon Des Sables – “151 miles across the Sahara Desert carrying food and water on your back for the duration camping out at night”.
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