At least five of Hambali's henchmen are still on the loose in Bangkok, a newspaper reported yesterday, but the prime minister reiterated that the alleged terrorist kingpin's operations in Thailand were wiped out with his arrest last week.
The hunt for the five men would rely on information revealed by Hambali, who is being interrogated by US authorities at a secret location, the Bangkok Post said quoting a highly placed intelligence source who was not identified.
But Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra denied the report in the respected English daily.
"Our investigations show that there are no more Hambali men in Thailand. Yes, there are some of his Thai Muslim sympathizers who cooperated with him, or unwittingly helped him in some way," Thaksin told reporters yesterday.
"They are being interrogated. We are checking how deep these people's links are. If it's found that they are not hard-core agents and merely sympathizers we will not prosecute them," he said.
Hambali, the operations chief of the al-Qaeda linked Asian group Jemaah Islamiyah, was captured last week night in the ancient temple city of Ayutthaya, 80km north of Bangkok, by Thai forces and the CIA.
He was handed over to US authorities on Wednesday night and flown to an undisclosed location.
Thaksin revealed Sunday that an accomplice of Hambali had scouted the venue of the Oct. 20 to Oct. 21 APEC summit in Bangkok, reinforcing suspicion that he was plotting an attack.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
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