• Activists to call for sanctions over Thailand's elephant ivory trade

    Sukree Sukplang / Reuters file

    Thai custom officials display seized ivory tusks during a news conference at the customs office of Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok in this Feb. 25, 2011, file photo.

    BANGKOK -- Ivory is easy to find on the stalls of Chatuchak Market and River City mall in Bangkok. On display at just one shop are hundreds of pounds of carved elephant tusk, unthinkable in most capitals but freely and legitimately for sale in Thailand.

    As many as 30,000 elephants were slaughtered globally last year, environmental groups say, and populations are rapidly dwindling, with poachers undeterred by a ban on the international ivory trade in existence since 1989.

    Thailand allows its nationals to trade in ivory from elephants that have died of natural causes inside its borders.

    But animal activists say the system is abused and ivory from Africa and elsewhere is "laundered" through the country.

    The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) holds a conference in Bangkok from March 3 to 14 and -- to the embarrassment of the hosts -- environmental groups such as World Wide Fund for Nature and TRAFFIC plan to table a motion calling for sanctions against Thailand.

    "One of the reasons Thailand is being hit so hard in the CITES conference is, if you look at the numbers of domestic elephants and the numbers of Thailand's ivory carvers, it doesn't add up," said William Schaedla, director of Southeast Asia for TRAFFIC, an NGO for monitoring wildlife trade.

    TRAFFIC estimates the country's elephant population and the natural death rate would provide only 18.5 pounds of ivory per registered carver a year. But poor enforcement and regulation mean Thai merchants can lay their hands on much larger quantities.

    'A bottomless pit'
    After the 1989 ban, countries were supposed to inventory their pre-existing stockpiles so CITES could keep tabs on them. Thailand never did, animal rights groups say.

    "There's an undisclosed amount of ivory in the country, so essentially a bottomless pit to launder through," said Schaedla.

    Thai ivory is supposed to be certified, but according to Schaedla this involves an easily forged slip of paper that the government doesn't bother to track, meaning African ivory can easily enter the market.

    These failures mean Thailand now faces sanctions that, at their strongest, would ban its participation in international trade in the most endangered CITES-listed species, including reptile skins and rare orchids in which it has thriving markets.

    Only Thai nationals should be able to buy ivory inside the country but buyers from Europe, the Americas and China are more common. Crackdowns are rare, and mostly occur during the run-up to CITES conferences, NGOs said.

    Efforts have been made to clean up the laws governing elephants, but lobbying from ivory carvers and elephant owners derailed the process.

    "The resolution of this issue is about political will, and Thailand has repeatedly kicked the can down the road," said Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC's director for South and East Africa.

    Some believe sanctions aren't enough, and that the only way to save Africa's elephants is to ban all ivory markets, including those in Thailand and China, the world's largest.

    "Our position is any legal market provides a parallel illegal market," said Mary Rice of the Environmental Investigation Agency, a London-based NGO.

    Ivory 'should be illegal'
    The EIA estimates that over 90 percent of the ivory on sale in China is illegally sourced.

    "We must target the demand side and ensure markets in China and Thailand for ivory are banned. Ivory should be illegal without exception," Shelley Waterland of the Born Free Foundation told a news conference in Bangkok on Thursday.

    Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on Wednesday Thailand would "consider" a ban on the domestic ivory trade, but some officials apparently see no need.

    "The Thai government has a system to control the ivory trade from domestic animals already," said Theeraphat Prayurasith, deputy director of Thailand's Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Protection.

    "We do not use African ivory in this country, and the quantities are not too large to be from domestic ivory. It is the right of Thai people to use domestic elephants," he said.

    Activists will argue at the CITES conference that this system is not working, and the Thai ivory trade is a big factor behind dwindling African elephant populations.

    "No one is going to hammer them and hit them with sanctions if they do something. But there's an appearance of subterfuge and stalling," said Schaedla.

    Reuters

    Related:

    Family of 12 elephants slain by poachers in Kenya

    South Sudan's elephants could be gone in five years, group warns

    Elephants slaughtered, orphan found in latest Africa poaching

  • Globe-trotting British cyclists killed in road accident in Thailand

    Jerry Root / AP

    British couple Peter Root and Mary Thompson, both 34, pose in an undated photo. They were killed in Thailand in a road accident during their round-the-world cycling odyssey.

    By Gregory Katz, Associated Press

    A British couple's round-the-world cycling odyssey ended in tragedy when both of them were killed in a road accident in Thailand.

    Peter Root and Mary Thompson, who had been chronicling their journey in a blog, died Wednesday when they were hit by a pickup truck in a province east of Bangkok, Thai police said Monday.


    The couple, both 34 and from Guernsey in the Channel Islands, left Britain in July 2011 and had cycled through Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and China.

    The trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the couple, who met in art school and spent six years saving money and planning their journey, Peter's father Jerry Root told the Associated Press in an interview.

    "They were both inspirational," Jerry Root said. "They didn't just talk about it, they did it. I couldn't be prouder of them."

    He said they were both experienced cyclists who knew the rigors and risks of extended bicycle travel.

    "They were camping wild, as they called it," he said. "What helps me is to think of how happy they were with each other. They were leading the life they wanted to. It was the happiest, the most fruitful of lives."

    The couple had been posting photos and details of their trip on the website Two on Four Wheels. They also had many followers on Twitter and Facebook who were tracing their journey and vicariously enjoying their adventure, which included a trip through remote parts of Central Asia.

    A video they posted from that part of the journey shows them camping in the desert, riding through hills, stopping to swim in rivers and lakes, and braving heavy snowstorms. They also cycle through tense situations as armed conflict breaks out during their journey through Tajikistan.

    Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

    There is also footage showing Thompson suffering a gash to her knee after an apparent collision with a truck.

    The couple look tanned, joyous and relaxed — if a bit windblown — in the footage. It is apparent life on the road agreed with them.

    "They never talked about the trip as having a destination or a deadline or a time scale," said Ben Thompson, Mary's brother. "They didn't have firm plans, they had rough ideas. They just loved people. They were always dragging people to the campfire to share a story and a beer and some food."

    After Southeast Asia, the couple were planning to make their way to New Zealand for a brief respite, he said.

    Thai Police Lt. Col. Supachai Luangsukcharoen said Monday that investigators found their bodies, their bicycles and their belongings scattered along a roadside, along with a pickup truck that crashed between some trees.

    Supachai said the truck driver, 25-year-old Worapong Sangkhawat, was seriously injured in the crash. He told police his truck hit the cyclists as he was reaching down to pick up a cap from the vehicle's floor, Supachai said.

    The driver has been released on bail and faces charges of causing death by dangerous driving, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.

    Police said the couple's bodies were being kept at a rescue unit in Chachoengsao, 20 miles (30 kilometers) east of Bangkok, until they could be repatriated.

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Protesters vowing to drive out Thai prime minister rally in Bangkok

    Sakchai Lalit / AP

    Anti-government protesters calling for Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down, protect their eyes as police fired tear gas to disperse them in Bangkok Saturday.

    By Wire services

    Thai police fired tear gas in clashes with hundreds of protesters in Bangkok on Saturday ahead of a rally seeking to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in a rally that authorities feared would grow into the biggest demonstration the country has seen since she took office last year.

    The rally, which was expected to draw tens of thousands of protesters, was mostly peaceful in its early stages.

    Anti-riot police wielding plastic shields fired gas canisters at protesters who tried to climb over cement and barbed wire barriers blocking entry to the rally site. Police said "between 300 and 400 protesters'' clashed with police.

    At least seven police were wounded and up to 132 protesters arrested in the clash near the United Nations headquarters in Bangkok, a stone's throw away from the main rally site.


    Earlier in the week, Yingluck ordered nearly 17,000 police to deploy and invoked a special security law, citing concerns that the rally could turn violent. She also accused demonstrators of seeking to overthrow her elected government.

    The demonstration underscores the still-simmering political divisions that have split the country since the army toppled Yingluck's brother Thaksin Shinawatra in a 2006 military coup.

    Saturday's protest was organized by a royalist group calling itself "Pitak Siam" — or "Protect Thailand." Led by retired army Gen. Boonlert Kaewprasit, the group accuses Yingluck's administration of corruption, ignoring insults to the revered monarchy and being a puppet of Thaksin.

    Addressing several thousand protesters on the rally's central stage on Saturday, Boonlert vowed the demonstration would remain peaceful. But he said: "I promise that Pitak Siam will succeed in driving this government out."

    He then led the crowd in a chant: "Yingluck, get out! Yingluck, get out!"

    The rally was being held at Bangkok's Royal Plaza, a public space near Parliament that has been used by protesters in the past.

    Police allowed protesters into the site, and two roads leading to it were open. But in an effort to control access, security forces erected concrete barriers on another road leading to Royal Plaza. When between 50 to 100 protesters tried to break through one of the barriers, a contingent of around 500 police fired tear gas and beat them back with batons.

    While Pitak Siam is a newcomer to Thailand's protest scene, it is linked to the well-known "Yellow Shirt" protesters, whose rallies led to Thaksin's overthrow. The same movement later toppled a Thaksin-allied elected government after occupying and shutting down Bangkok's two airports for a week in 2008.

    Thaksin remains a divisive figure in Thai politics. The Yellow Shirts and their allies say he is personally corrupt and accuse him of seeking to undermine the popular constitutional monarch — charges Thaksin denies.

    Yingluck was taking Saturday's rally seriously. Her Cabinet invoked the Internal Security Act on Thursday in three Bangkok districts around the protest site, and she later addressed the nation to explain the move, citing concerns of violence.

    The security act allows authorities to close roads, impose curfews and ban use of electronic devices in designated areas. Measures began taking effect Thursday night, with police closing roads around Yingluck's office, the Government House, and placing extra security at the homes of senior officials, including the prime minister.

    In a nationally televised address Thursday, Yingluck said protest leaders "seek to overthrow an elected government and democratic rule ... and there is evidence that violence may be used to achieve those ends."

    National police chief spokesman Maj. Gen. Piya Uthayo said Friday that 16,800 police officers had been called in from around the country to provide security for the rally.

    Boonlert, the protest group's leader, is best known for his role as president of the Thailand Boxing Association. His name is unfamiliar in the anti-Thaksin protest movement, but his message appears to have resonated with Yellow Shirt supporters who have laid low in recent years after Yingluck's party won the last elections.

    Analysts said they did not view the protest as an immediate threat to Yingluck's government, but were watching it closely.

    "Anytime you have tens of thousands of people converging, assembling in a central Bangkok location, it becomes a government stability concern," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

    But he added: "I think it's a serious concern more than a serious threat."

    Thailand has been gripped by bouts of political instability since 2006, with Thaksin's supporters and opponents taking turns to spar over who has the right to rule the country.

    The most violent episode came in 2010, when Thaksin's "Red Shirt" supporters led a two-month occupation of central Bangkok to demand the resignation of an anti-Thaksin government. The protests sparked a military crackdown that left at least 91 people dead and more than 1,700 injured.

    Thaksin has lived in self-imposed exile since 2008, when he jumped bail to evade a corruption conviction and two-year jail term. He retains huge popularity among the rural poor, who want to see him pardoned and returned to power. But he is reviled by the urban elite and educated middle class, who see him as authoritarian and a threat to the monarchy.

    Buoyed by Thaksin's political machine, Yingluck was elected by a landslide victory in August 2011. She initially was criticized for her lack of political experience — she was an executive in Shinawatra family businesses — but has won praise for leading the country through one of its longest peaceful periods in recent years.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Thai Muslims protest outside US Embassy, Google office in Bangkok

    Pauline Willrodt / EPA

    A young Thai Sunni Muslim demonstrator holds a sign as he takes part in a protest with 250 other demonstrators outside the United States Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, on September 27, 2012.

    The protesters from the Muslim Group for Peace later moved on to the Thailand office of Google Inc. to demand it withdraw the controversial film "Innocence of Muslims" from its YouTube service.

    Slideshow: Anger over film spreads throughout Muslim world

    Khaled Abdullah / Reuters

    Protests ignited by a controversial film that ridicules Islam's Prophet Muhammad spread throughout Muslim world.

    Launch slideshow

  • Car crash politics: Laws don't touch rich in Thailand

    AP

    Police officers look at a motorcycle and Ferrari that were involved in a hit-and-run accident during an investigation at Thong Lor police station in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday.

    By Ploy Bunluesilp , NBC News

    BANGKOK, Thailand – Shortly before dawn on Monday in an upscale area of Bangkok, a 27-year-old Thai man driving a Ferrari crashed into a policeman on a motorcycle.  The driver dragged him more than 100 yards along the road before fleeing the scene. The policeman, 47-year-old Sgt. Maj. Wichien Glanprasert, was killed. 

    The furious reaction to the incident this week has shown one thing above all: most Thais have no faith in their justice system.

    ‘I don’t believe in Thai justice’
    The driver of the car was Vorayuth Yoovidhya, scion of one of the richest families in Thailand. His grandfather, Chaleo Yoovidhya, founded the Red Bull energy drink empire. Forbes magazine ranked the family as Thailand's fourth richest (not including the royal family) earlier this year with a net worth of $5.4 billion.  

    Thais know from long experience that the wealthy are rarely held accountable for their crimes. 

    Red Bull heir held over deadly hit-and-run in Ferrari

    “As long as you are rich and powerful, you can get away with everything,” said 40-year-old Ubonwan Weeyanond. “I don’t believe in Thai justice, it’s only a privilege for the rich, not for poor people.” 

    Vorayuth fled back to his family's compound after the accident – police followed oil streaks for several blocks to the gate of the family mansion.

    Str / AFP - Getty Images

    Vorayuth Yoovidhya, the 27-year-old grandson of late Red Bull founder Chaleo Yoovidhaya, during the police investigation on Monday.

    The family then enlisted the help of local police official Lt. Col. Pannapon Nammuang to concoct a tale that somebody else – the family driver – had been at the wheel when the accident happened, according to Bangkok police.

    But online outrage forced the police to change their tune.

    Bangkok’s top police official, Lt. Gen. Comronwit Toopgrajank sidelined Pannapon (who denied wrongdoing, but admitted knowing the family well) and declared he would bring the culprit to justice.

    "We will not let this police officer die without justice. Believe me," Comronwit said Tuesday. "The truth will prevail in this case. I can guarantee it."

    Vorayuth was charged with causing death by reckless driving and escaping arrest by police, but was released on $16,000 bail Tuesday.

    Comronwit said that Pannapon, the officer who allegedly tried to cover up the crime, could be fired and brought up on criminal charges, according to a Bangkok Post report on Wednesday.

    ‘Do they think people are stupid?’
    Still, Thais remain skeptical that the wealthy young man will see the inside of a prison cell.


    “Thai police often make someone a scapegoat.  They should not cover up the case because how many people in this country have a Ferrari?” said Varattaya Intarakong, a 38-year-old business owner. “Do they think people are stupid? But I believe that this guy will not be jailed.”

    This wouldn’t be the first time the child of a wealthy and influential Thai person got off without punishment after committing a crime.

    In a notorious case in December 2010, a 16-year-old girl driving a Honda Civic without a license collided with a passenger van that spun out of control. Nine people were killed in the crash. But the girl who caused the crash came from a privileged family and received only a two-year suspended sentence. 

    ‘Teach him how to be responsible’
    Vorayuth's case has generated particular anger because he failed to stop to help the policeman, and tried to get a member of his family's staff to take the blame instead.

    Several Thais commented online that people who try to shift the blame onto a scapegoat should not be granted bail.

    The dead policeman's brother, Pornanand Glanprasert, said he's particularly bitter about Vorayuth's failure to stop and help.

    “I can't accept how the driver hit my brother and sped away. If he hit him and got out of the car immediately, my brother might have survived,” said Pornanand. “When I realized that he’s a son of well-known people, I want his family to teach him how to be responsible, not run away like this.”

    ‘Double standards’
    The issue of "double standards" for the wealthy and privileged is highly politically charged in Thailand. Many Thais argue that the courts sell justice to the highest bidder, and the tattered reputation of Thailand's judiciary has sunk even lower in recent years due to several clumsy political interventions by the courts. 

    But the prospects for things to improve appear dim. The current Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubumrung was himself involved in an infamous case a decade ago when several witnesses saw his son, Duang Yubumrung, murder a policeman in a nightclub with a pistol.

    Duang went on the run for months, the family invented a mysterious scapegoat who they claimed was actually to blame, and witnesses began changing their testimony -- suddenly declaring that perhaps Duang was not the shooter after all.

    When he came out of hiding, Duang was cleared of murder, and despite widespread public revulsion, the distasteful saga did not damage his father's political career.

    Ferraris and fiery crashes around Asia
    Monday's incident is just the latest in a series of Ferrari crashes in Asia that have exposed national political divisions.

    In Singapore, where many residents are concerned about the level of immigration, particularly from mainland China, there was widespread outrage over an accident in May. A wealthy Chinese man crashed his Ferrari at high speed into a taxi, killing himself, the taxi driver and a Japanese woman who was a passenger in the taxi. 

    And in China an explosive story concerning another Ferrari crash is creating a political storm in Beijing.

    The South China Morning Post reported this week that a Ferrari crash in March -- which was swiftly covered up -- killed Ling Gu, the 23-year-old son of one of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s most trusted aides, Ling Jihua.  

    The younger Ling was allegedly driving recklessly with two semi-naked girls when the crash happened, leaving one of them paralyzed, according the newspaper.

    The newspaper says his father's political career was damaged by his attempts to cover up the crash. Perhaps it’s a sign that even China's powerful have less impunity than Thailand's wealthy.

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  • Red Bull heir held over deadly hit-and-run in Ferrari

    EPA

    Police officers in Bangkok, Thailand, inspect a Ferrari owned by Vorayuth Yoovidhya, a grandson of the creator of the Red Bull energy drink, on Monday. Police allege the vehicle was involved in a hit-and-run incident that killed a police officer.

    By The Associated Press

    BANGKOK -- A grandson of the creator of the Red Bull energy drink has been arrested for driving a Ferrari that struck a police officer and dragged his dead body down a Bangkok street in an early-morning hit-and-run, police said Monday.

    Police took Vorayuth Yoovidhya, 27, for questioning after tracing oil streaks for several blocks to his family's gated estate in a wealthy neighborhood of the Thai capital.

    He was facing charges of causing death by reckless driving and escaping an arrest by police but was released on a 500,000 baht ($15,900) bail.

    Vorayuth admitted he drove the charcoal gray sports car but said the police officer's motorcycle abruptly cut in front of his vehicle, said police Maj. Gen. Anuchai Lekbamroong, the lead investigator in the case.

    Attempt at cover up alleged
    Bangkok's top police official, Lt. Gen. Comronwit Toopgrajank, said he took charge of the investigation after a lower-ranking policeman initially tried to cover up the crime by turning in a bogus suspect.


    Comronwit himself led a team of officers to search the compound of late Red Bull founder Chaleo Yoovidhaya, one of Thailand's wealthiest men before he passed away this year, and confiscated a Ferrari with a badly damaged front bumper and broken windshield.

    The victim, Sgt. Maj. Wichean Glanprasert, 47, was killed during a motorcycle patrol before dawn. Thai media reported that the car dragged the officer and his motorcycle for several dozen yards as it sped through the residential neighborhood.

    Comronwit said he suspended the police officer who attempted to subvert the investigation.

    "A policeman is dead. I can't let this stand. If I let this case get away, I'd rather quit," he told reporters. "I don't care how powerful they are. If I can't get the actual man in this case, I will resign."

    Complete World News coverage on NBCNews.com

    Family wealth
    Vorayuth did not speak to the media but the family lawyer said the family will be take responsibility for the damages.

    AP

    Vorayuth Yoovidhya, a grandson of late Red Bull founder Chaleo Yoovidhaya, is taken into custody by police in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday over suspicion of his involvement in a deadly hit-and-run incident.

    The Yoovidhaya family was ranked the 4th richest in Thailand this year by Forbes magazine, with a net worth of $5.4 billion. Red Bull creator Chaleo Yoovidhaya died in his 80s in March, leaving his heirs a wide range of businesses, including shares in the globally popular energy drink brand, hospitals and real estate.

    The family also co-owns the sole authorized importer of Ferrari cars in Thailand.

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    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Muay Thai boxing guides youth in Bangkok

    Nicolas Asfouri / AFP - Getty Images

    Muay Thai boxers fight in the Buriram province of Isan, Thailand on June 28, 2012. Muay Thai is deeply entwined with the history of Thailand itself, developed from the need for hand-to-hand combat centuries ago as a form of defense from perpetual invasions from neighboring countries.

    Nicolas Asfouri / AFP - Getty Images

    Students from 96 Penang, a Muay Thai boxing camp, rest during their daily training session in Bangkok on June 26, 2012. The gym, located under an expressway overpass in a run-down slum area, has a fine reputation for developing and preparing fighters. Most of the students are sent by parents from Isan, a rural region in northeastern Thailand, in the hopes their sons will become good fighters and can help the family financially as many come from poor backgrounds.

    Nicolas Asfouri / AFP - Getty Images

    A student from 96 Penang, a Muay Thai boxing camp, prepares for a daily training session in Bangkok on June 26, 2012.

    Nicolas Asfouri / AFP - Getty Images

    Students from 96 Penang, a Muay Thai boxing camp, grapple during a daily training session in Bangkok on June 26, 2012.

    Nicolas Asfouri / AFP - Getty Images

    Students from 96 Penang, a Muay Thai boxing camp, rest after a daily training session in Bangkok on June 27, 2012.

    Nicolas Asfouri / AFP - Getty Images

    A young Muay Thai boxer celebrates a win in the ring on June 28, 2012. Boxers range between eight to 25-years-old and compete in different categories.

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  • Thailand bids farewell to princess in elaborate procession

    Sukree Sukplang / Reuters

    Mourners hold pictures of Princess Bejaratana Rajasuda Sirisobhabannavadi as her urn is escorted to the cremation pyre in Bangkok, on April 9. Princess Bejaratana, who was the only child of King Vajiravudh, Rama VI passed away from on July 27, 2011, aged 85.

    Narong Sangnak / EPA

    Thai soldiers pull a royal chariot carrying the royal urn containing the remains of late Princess Bejraratana Rajasuda Sirisobhabannavadi march in procession on the way to a funeral pyre outside the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand, 09 April 2012. Cousin to the reigning Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), Princess Bejaratana, the only daughter of King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) passed away on 27 July 2011 at the age of 85 from a blood infection.

    Chaiwat Subprasom / Reuters

    The royal chariot with the urn of Princess Bejaratana Rajasuda Sirisobhabannavadi is pulled by men dressed in ancient uniforms to the cremation pyre in Bangkok, on April 9. Princess Bejaratana, who was the only child of King Vajiravudh, Rama VI passed away on July 27, 2011, aged 85.

    Damir Sagolj / Reuters

    Royal guards escort the royal urn of Princess Bejaratana Rajasuda Sirisobhabannavadi to the cremation pyre in Bangkok April 9. Princess Bejaratana, who was the only child of King Vajiravudh, Rama VI, passed away on July 27, 2011, aged 85.

    Sukree Sukplang / Reuters

    Mourners hold pictures of Princess Bejaratana Rajasuda Sirisobhabannavadi as her urn is escorted to the cremation pyre in Bangkok, on April 9. Princess Bejaratana, who was the only child of King Vajiravudh, Rama VI, passed away on July 27, 2011, aged 85.

    Nicolas Asfouri / AFP - Getty Images

    Thai soldiers walk of the royal chariot carrying the royal urn of Thai Princess Bejaratana Rajasuda Sirisobhabannavadi (not seen) during the ancient rites of the royal cremation ceremony at Sanam Luang in Bangkok on April 9. Thai Princess Bejaratana, the first cousin of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, was admitted to Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital on July 13 for bloodstream infection and passed away on July 27, 2011 after her condition worsened.

     

  • Man holds knife to wife's throat in horrific 6-hour standoff

    A tense standoff in which a Thai man held his wife hostage with a knife to her throat ended after six hours when police used a Taser gun to disable him.

    A crowd gathered to watch as 30-year-old Sakdawut Hamsiri threatened his wife, Thawee Naiyanit, on a street in Bangkok.

    Police are pressing charges against Hamsiri in connection with physical restraint and narcotics usage, The Associated Press told msnbc.com.

    His wife was sent to hospital to be treated for minor injuries.

    Sakchai Lalit / AP

    Sakdawut Hamsiri holds a knife to his wife Thawee Naiyanit's throat on a street in Bangkok, Thailand, on April 5, 2012.

    Sakchai Lalit / AP

    A policeman talks to Hamsiri during the standoff.

    Sakchai Lalit / AP

    Police said Hamsiri was under the influence of drugs.

    Sakchai Lalit / AP

    Police electroshock Hamsiri with a Taser to bring the incident to an end.

  • Rungroj Yongrit / EPA

    Alleged bomb suspect Mohammad Hazaei (center) with police officers during a crime re-enactment outside the rented house where an explosion occurred on Feb. 14, in Bangkok, Thailand, on Feb. 20, 2012.

    Iranian bomb suspect takes part in Bangkok crime re-enactment

    Mohammad Hazaei, an Iranian national who was arrested at a Bangkok airport shortly after a series of explosions in the Thai capital on Feb. 14, faced further questioning and took part in a police re-enactment on Monday, the European Pressphoto Agency reports.

    Israeli officials have said they suspect a link between blasts in Bangkok and two earlier incidents in Georgia and India. Israel accused Iran of being behind attempted attacks against its diplomats in those two countries.

    Related content:

  • Iran claims two major steps toward nuclear self-sufficiency

    Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad showed off new fuel rods at a research reactor in Tehran. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Updated at 1:30 p.m. ET: Iran claimed Wednesday that it has taken two major steps toward mastering the production of nuclear fuel, a defiant move in response to increasingly tough Western sanctions over its controversial nuclear program.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said that Iran was destabilizing the world.

    Israel has accused Iran of waging a campaign of state terror and has threatened military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, while Iran has blamed the Jewish state for the recent killings of Iranian atomic scientists. Iran has denied responsibility for three bombing incidents this week.

    In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad oversaw the insertion of the first Iranian domestically-made fuel rod into a research reactor in northern Tehran, the country's official IRNA news agency reported.

    Separately, the semiofficial Fars agency reported that a "new generation of Iranian centrifuges" had been installed and had gone into operation at the country's main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz in central Iran.

    The West suspects Iran's nuclear program is aimed at producing atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies, insisting it's geared for peaceful purposes only, such as energy production.

    The crisis has already resulted in sanctions placed on Iran's economy, and there are fears that it could escalate to military action.

    Iran: Nuclear facilities immune to cyber attack

    Iran's nuclear announcements came as the country said Wednesday it halted oil exports to six European countries — the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Portugal — in response to recent new European Union sanctions.

    State TV later quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying crude oil exports to Europe had not yet been cut, reversing that earlier report.

    Hasan Tajik said six European diplomats were summoned Wednesday and told that Iran has no problem replacing customers — an implied threat that Tehran would carry out plans to cut European Union countries off immediately to preempt sanctions set to go into effect in July.

    Iran has said it is forced to manufacture nuclear fuel rods, which provide fuel for reactors, on its own since international sanctions ban it from buying them on foreign markets. In January, Iran said it had produced its first such fuel rod.

    IRNA boasted that the nuclear fuel announcement is the final step in the entire cycle of nuclear fuel — from extracting uranium ore to producing the finished rods.

    Amid rising tensions with Israel, Iran says they are willing to resume nuclear talks with the World Security Council. The Woodrow Wilson Center's Robin Wright talks about Iran's nuclear developments.

    'Terror operations'
    Israel's Netanyahu reiterated claims that Iran was behind explosions this week that targeted Israeli diplomats in India and the former Soviet republic of Georgia, as Israeli officials strongly suggested Iran was behind bomb blasts in Bangkok Tuesday.

    "If this aggression isn't halted, ultimately it will spread to many other countries," Netanyahu said.

    "Iran's terror operations are now exposed for all to see," Netanyahu added, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. "Iran is undermining the world's stability and harms innocent diplomats. World countries must condemn Iran's terror acts and draw a red line."

    PhotoBlog: Graphic photo of bomb scene

    On Monday in New Delhi, an explosion tore through an Israeli diplomatic vehicle, wounding the driver and a diplomat's wife, according to Indian officials.

    On the same day in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, authorities say attackers planted an explosive device on the car of a driver for the Israeli Embassy, but it was discovered and defused before it went off.

     Meanwhile, Thailand's government was struggling to piece together what three Iranian men were plotting when a cache of explosives detonated by mistake in their home in Bangkok's busy Sukhumvit Road area Tuesday.

    Police released images of  three suspects, two of whom were arrested in Thailand, while a third was detained in Malaysia Wednesday.

    Bangkok blasts wound Iranian attacker, 4 others

    Israel's ambassador to Thailand, Itzhak Shoha, said Wednesday that homemade "sticky" bombs discovered in a Bangkok house after the accidental blast were similar to devices used in India and Georgia, building on his country's claims the incidents are part of a covert terror campaign by Iran.

    "They are similar to the ones used in Delhi and in Tbilisi," Shoham said. "From that we can assume that there is the same network of terror." That and the arrests of Iranians in Thailand "again leaves not too much room to assume who was behind it," Shoham said.

    Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast called the allegations "baseless," saying Israel was trying to damage its relations with Thailand and fuel "conspiracy" theories.

    Thai bomb disposal teams searched the Iranians' house again Wednesday looking for more evidence.

    Two of the men were initially detained but Thai immigration police chief Lt. Gen. Wiboon Bangthamai said a third suspect, named as Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, had flown to Malaysia.

    The man boarded a flight bound for Kuala Lumpur Tuesday night, Bangthamai said.

    However on Wednesday, police in Malaysia said the third suspect had been arrested.

    Security forces in Thailand were also searching for an Iranian woman who they said had originally rented the house.

    Confessions?
    Late Tuesday, Israel's Channel 10 TV quoted unidentified Thai authorities as saying the captured Iranians confessed to targeting Israeli interests.

    Thai police have named the Iranian pair in custody as Saeid Moradi, who lost at least one leg in a self-inflicted grenade blast as he tried to flee police, and Mohummad Hazaei, who was detained Tuesday as he tried to board a flight to Malaysia.

    Both men are now facing four criminal charges, including possession of explosives, attempted murder, attempted murder of a policeman and causing explosions that damaged property.

    Israel accuses Iran of bombings in India, Georgia

    Top security agencies called a news conference in which authorities acknowledged to being caught by surprise and said they had little information about who the alleged attackers were or their possible targets.

    National Security Council chief Wichean Potephosree said the government had not yet determined if there was any link between the events in Bangkok, New Delhi and Tbilisi.

    "We haven't found any links but we are still investigating," Wichean said. "We admit there was magnetic component, aiming at individuals, but the origin of the magnets still has to be investigated."

    Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran's nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News

    When police searched the house, the bomb squad found and defused two explosives, each made of three or four pounds of C-4 explosives inside a pair of radios.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. 

    More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

     

  • US warns of terror attack threat in Bangkok; Hezbollah suspect arrested

    By Msnbc.com and wires

    Americans are under the "real and very credible" threat of a terrorist attack in Bangkok, the U.S. ambassador to Thailand warned Friday, as authorities in the country arrested a Lebanese member of Hezbollah.

    Ambassador Kristie Kenney was elaborating on an "emergency message" sent by the embassy to American citizens earlier Friday warning of a possible terrorist attack.

    Thailand's deputy prime minister later said a Lebanese suspect had been detained and that police had stepped up security.

    "A Lebanese suspect from the Hizbollah group has been taken into custody by Thai officials and police are investigating further," Chalerm Yumbumrung told Reuters.

    "Following concern raised by the Israeli embassy about a possible attack by a group of Lebanese terrorists in Bangkok, Thai police officials had been coordinating with Israeli officials since before the new year."

    Earlier, the US embassy warned its citizens that "foreign terrorists" may be looking to launch attacks in tourist areas of Thailand's capital.

    "U.S. citizens are urged to exercise caution when visiting public areas where large groups of Western tourists gather in Bangkok," the embassy said in a statement. "We also encourage you to keep a low profile in public areas, particularly areas frequented by foreign tourists."

    It also said Americans should "maintain a heightened awareness" in public, be alert for unattended packages and bags and report any suspicious behavior to law enforcement personnel.

    It was the first U.S. warning of a foreign terror attack in Bangkok in recent memory.

    Bangkok, a magnet for tourists with its vibrant nightlife and a transit point for those heading for Thailand's beaches, has faced political turmoil in recent years but threats of foreign attacks are rare.

    Embassy spokesman Walter Braunohler declined to release more details saying, "At this time we don't have any further information to share."

    Msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.