Five people were killed in southern Thailand, including two Buddhist clergymen who were slashed as they collected food offerings, as tension between Buddhists and Muslims mounts in the region, police and news reports said yesterday.
Sectarian violence is rare anywhere in Thailand, and the murders of monks in recent days are the first such attacks in the Muslim-dominated south in several years. About 90 percent of Thailand's 63 million people are Buddhists.
Four young men fatally slashed the head of a novice -- 13-year-old Jedsak Nhusang -- with knives in front of a temple in Yala province, while a monk accompanying him on the traditional morning alms rounds escaped unharmed, police captain Ranon Surawit said.
Ten minutes later, also in the provincial capital, four men fatally knifed Vichai Boonpan, a 65-year-old monk, in the neck. The men involved in the killings all approached the monks on motorcycles.
Shortly afterward, in the nearby community of Lamai, one monk was stabbed in the back and another punched twice, police lieutenant-colonel Mut Thopah said.
Thailand's southernmost provinces have been tense since Jan. 4, when suspected Muslim separatists torched 21 government-run schools and raided an army camp in Narathiwat province, killing four soldiers and stealing hundreds of rifles.
Also yesterday morning, in Narathiwat province, two men on a motorcycle shot police sergeant-major Prasart Lahtheh, 57, as he was riding on his motorbike with his wife near their home. Prasart, an investigator, was hospitalized in stable condition, captain Sunan Sangsawat said.
In a third southern province, Pattani, three killings were reported Friday night.
Police sergeant Mayaki Waesamah, 33, also an investigator, was fatally shot in the head while at work, said a police officer who requested anonymity. Local television iTV reported that two villagers were slashed to death in their homes.
Mut said no suspects had been arrested in the attacks on the monks.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of