More boosters are not needed, US study shows

People in good health who have already had three Covid-19 boosters may not benefit from administering any more as they appear unlikely to guard against new strains of the virus, according to a local medical expert who cited the results of a recent US study.

This is because existing Covid-19 vaccines are based on the Wuhan strain of the coronavirus, whereas the dominant new strains have mutated greatly, said Dr Thiravat Hemachudha, chief of the Thai Red Cross’s Emerging Infectious Diseases Health Science Centre.

He was responding to questions about why Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat — who has reportedly had six Covid-19 vaccine shots — recently contracted the virus for the third time.

“Since these vaccines aren’t really effective in protecting against new infections, there is no need to keep injecting them repeatedly, Dr Thiravat said. “The mRNA vaccines, in particular, are associated with a heightened risk of heart inflammation.”

The bivalent booster that is widely used in Thailand is only 4% effective in protecting against Covid-19 infections, he said, citing findings from a new US study conducted by Cleveland Clinic on more than 50,000 people.

“Worse yet, receiving more Covid-19 booster shots seems to be linked to a higher rate of new infections, a trend that is still not clearly understood,” he said.

Virologist Yong Poovorawan described the rising caseloads as a seasonal epidemic that is expected to continue until August.

While the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.16 is the dominant strain for new infections in Thailand at present, a study conducted on 250 people in the country has shown that the severity of a second infection is less than the first time round, said Dr Yong, chief of the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine.

“So getting infected a third time [or more] isn’t unusual. The Covid-19 virus has now become more like the influenza virus. The subvariants … change constantly,” he said.

The remaining immunity from previous Covid-19 infections or vaccinations does, however, provide some protection against severe illness and death from new infections, Dr Yong said.

The mutation rate of the virus has over the past year been observed to be closer to that of Type A influenza, he said.

Nonetheless, Dr Opas Karnka­winpong, permanent secretary for public health, insisted booster shots are still recommended for those with underlying medical conditions.

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Honouring a hero

People pay their last respects at the funeral of Pathum Thani governor Narongsak Osottanakorn at Wat Phra Si Maha That in Bangkok on Thursday. (Photo: Varuth Hirunyatheb)
People pay their last respects at the funeral of Pathum Thani governor Narongsak Osottanakorn at Wat Phra Si Maha That in Bangkok on Thursday. (Photo: Varuth Hirunyatheb)

Honouring a hero 

People file into a chapel to pay their last respects at the funeral of Pathum Thani governor Narongsak Osottanakorn at Wat Phra Si Maha That in Bangkok on Thursday. Narongsak, 58, who died from cancer on Wednesday, gained fame for directing the 2018 rescue of the Wild Boars football team trapped in a flooded Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai, where he formerly served as governor. 

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Six Thais stranded due to fake Japan jobs

The foreign affairs and labour ministries are trying to help repatriate at least six Thai workers who were lured into travelling to Japan for a work contract that didn’t exist, forced to work illegally and then abandoned when they refused to comply.

The six workers have already been rescued by Thai consular officials from a city in Ibaraki Prefecture and are now awaiting repatriation, said Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin yesterday.

They are expected to return to Thailand early next month, he said.

Prior to their rescue, the wife of one of the workers had sought help via a Facebook page called Ban Dung Update, operated in Udon Thani’s Ban Dung district, which prompted the local administrative and labour authorities to investigate her complaint, said the minister.

Wasana Suwankhram, 42, said her husband, Saksit Mankep, 43, was lured by an illegal job broker identified only as Ms Ruen into believing he would be able to make 50,000 to 100,000 baht a month in Japan if he agreed to pay her 150,000 baht for the job placement service, which he did.

He left for Japan on April 18 along with a number of other Thai workers, but when they arrived in Japan, they found the promised work contracts didn’t exist, said the wife.

Upon learning about her husband’s fate in Japan, she reported what happened to local police, who refused to receive her complaint based on the logic she was not the victim, she said.

According to Ms Wasana, her husband and the other workers were later “sold” to a Thai woman identified as Ms Kai, whose Japanese husband operates a restaurant.

The new employer forced the husband and other Thai workers to work without pay, said Ms Wasana.

A 29-year-old man who was among the six Thai workers said he and his wife paid Ms Ruen 300,000 baht for the fake work placement service before they travelled to Japan.

He said Ms Ruen appeared to be more like a member of a human trafficking gang who had sold him and other Thai workers to another woman named Ms Nok before they were resold to Ms Kai.

Ms Kai also asked his wife to work as a prostitute. He said at least 50 Thai people had fallen victim to this gang operated by Ms Ruen.

A 45-year-old woman from Udon Thani who asked to be referred to as Maem said she had also been lured by Ms Ruen into believing she would make 60,000 baht a month in Japan.

Ms Maem said she and two other Thai women took refuge in a cottage once in Japan.

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DUP/Chinese man held over ‘Royal Gold’ scam

‘Gang’ faces money laundering charges

Police have arrested the alleged leader of a Chinese call centre scam gang and 10 other members wanted for duping people into investing in gold in a scheme they claimed was linked to the Crown Property Bureau.

The scammers peddled their “Royal Gold” investment scheme from the notorious Kings Romans casino in the Golden Triangle in Laos and tricked their victims out of about 500 million baht in total, according to the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD).

Teng June, 32, a Chinese national and the alleged leader of the gang, was arrested while in Bangkok’s Bang Khunthian district, Pol Maj Gen Athip Pongsiwapai, commander of the TCSD, said yesterday. Nine Thais and one stateless woman were also apprehended in Chiang Rai and Chanthaburi provinces in recent days, he added.

Seized from the alleged gang leader and his accomplices were three luxury cars, over 5 million baht in cash, 30 gold ornaments, luxury watches, brand-name bags, computers, mobile phones, SIM cards, bank account books, gold certificates and other items.

All the suspects were charged with conspiring in fraud, putting false information into a computer system and laundering money. They are being held in police custody pending legal action.

Earlier, the Crown Property Bureau filed a police complaint about a group of criminals that used its name to open a website under the name of “Royal Gold” to promote gold investment opportunities.

From January to May, hundreds of people fell victim to the scheme, causing about 500 million baht in damages, said Pol Maj Gen Athip.

TCSD investigators said they found that Mr Teng led the operation, which was headquartered in the compound of the Kings Romans casino in Laos’ Bokeo province.

The Chinese national allegedly controlled operations and delegated tasks to other scammers.

Pol Col Siriwat Deephor, deputy TCSD commander, said the scammers created false Facebook accounts using beautiful women as their profile photos, apparently to garner the attention of netizens.

They approached potential targets and persuaded them to invest in gold via the Royal Gold website that the gang set up, featuring stock price graphs and trading volumes, he said.

The gang claimed the website invested in gold with links to the Crown Property Bureau in a bid to build credibility, he said.

During the initial investment stage, he said the gang provided investment returns of 10% to the victims.

When the victims wanted to withdraw some money, he said the gang duped them into transferring more money for “taxes and other services” before disappearing.

Pol Col Nethi Wongkularp, superintendent of TSCD sub-division 2, who led the operation to arrest the suspects, said the gang used the money to buy cryptocurrency before transferring it to the digital wallet accounts of people they previously hired for money laundering.

“The investigation found that those who were hired to open bank accounts and digital wallet accounts mostly lived in Chiang Rai province,” he said. “Each was hired for 3,000–4,000 baht.”

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Thais in court over mass graves, trafficking camps

KUALA LUMPUR: Four Thai nationals will face charges in a Malaysian court on Friday over the 2015 discovery of mass graves and suspected human trafficking camps at the country’s border with Thailand, Malaysia’s home affairs minister said on Thursday.

The dense forests of southern Thailand and northern Malaysia have been a major stop-off point for smugglers bringing desperate people to Southeast Asia by boat — most of them Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar and squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh.

The discovery of camps and graves on the Thai side of the border in 2015 led authorities in Thailand to crack down on people smugglers, but prompted traffickers to abandon at sea thousands of migrants making their way to the border area in overcrowded boats.

Four people wanted in connection with the two countries’ probe into the camps discovered in 2015 were extradited from Thailand this week, and were expected to be charged today at a sessions court in Malaysia’s northern Perlis state, Home Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said in a statement yesterday.

Mr Saifuddin did not say what charges the four would face but stressed that Malaysia was “committed to maintaining border security and viewed issues of cross-border crime seriously, particularly human trafficking and migrant smuggling”. Reuters

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3k Hindus to congregate for world congress

About 3,000 Hindus from 60 countries are expected to attend the World Hindu Congress 2023 hosted for the first time in Bangkok in November.

Susheel Kumar Saraff, chairman of World Hindu Congress (WHC) 2023, said the event would take place during Nov 24-26, organised under the theme “Jayasya Aayatnam Dharmah” or “Dharma, the Abode of Victory”.

The WHC is held every four years to celebrate the religion’s virtues and the success of Hindus around the world. The first-ever congress was held in New Delhi in 2014 and later in Chicago in 2018.

For WHC 2023, Mr Saraff expects over 3,000 Hindus from 60 countries who are members of Hindu communities or organisations to attend.

Mr Saraff said that Southeast Asia and Thailand have long been connected to Hindu culture.

Much of the ancient architecture in this region was inspired by Hindu or Indian architecture, such as Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Borobudur Temple in Indonesia, My Son Temple in Vietnam and Wat Phu in Laos.

Hosting WHC 2023 is an opportunity for Thailand to promote its tourism and economy to Hindu communities worldwide, including expanding networks for future investment and cultural exchanges, said Mr Saraff.

The WHC is an international event that connects Hindu leaders, activists and thinkers to exchange ideas and lead their community forward. The aim is to revitalise Hindu virtues through seven meeting topics concerning Hindu lessons.

The conference will feature prominent figures in economics, education, media, politics, feminism, youth and civil groups.

Some 16% of the world population, or 1.2 billion people, identify as Hindus and are living in 200 countries.

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DSI agrees to look into Stark’s finances

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has agreed to investigate Stark Corporation over suspicions of fraud by its former executives, which came to light after the publicly listed wire and cable maker failed to submit its financial statements in time as required by law.

The DSI was petitioned by Stark’s acting chief executive, Vonnarat Tangkaravakoon, to investigate the company’s financial records, as the company’s auditors on Feb 24 detected irregularities in the company’s financial statements, which pointed to wrongdoing by Stark’s executives and managers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has previously warned that the company is likely to default on five tranches of corporate bonds repayment worth nearly 9.2 billion baht, as Stark’s financial statements for 2021 and 2022, which it finally submitted on June 16, showed the company has more liabilities than assets.

As a result, the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) said the company faces a possible delisting from the bourse.

The case has dealt a severe blow to investors’ confidence in the country’s capital market and economic and financial system.

In a press statement released on Thursday, DSI director-general, Pol Maj Suriya Singhakamol, said the department will launch a special probe into Stark Corp, as there is evidence suggesting its executives violated Securities and Exchange Act.

A team of DSI investigators will work with other relevant agencies, including the SEC, and the Royal Thai Police’s Economic Crime Suppression Division (ECD), to look into the case.

They will meet on Monday to discuss the issue.

According to a source at the DSI, there is evidence suggesting at least three former Stark executives were involved in the alleged fraud and violation of the Securities and Exchange Act.

The source said the DSI had been informed by the Immigration Bureau that the three suspects did not leave the country through official immigration checkpoints, though it remains unknown as to whether the suspects had escaped the country via natural border passes.

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Wagner Group: a force at war with itself

One of the most notable features of Russia’s war in Ukraine has been Moscow’s increasing reliance on what are known as private military companies. Forces such as the Wagner Group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin have borne the brunt of much of the fiercest fighting, especially during the bloody battle for Bakhmut.

In June 2023, the ministry of defense – apparently with the backing of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin – announced it would bring these irregular forces and militias under its direct control.

At a recent press conference, Deputy Defence Minister Nikolai Pankov extolled the virtues of serving in “volunteer formations and organizations.” He claimed that there had been a significant increase in citizens who wanted to “defend the motherland” in these groups and set out details of how to sign up.

The announcement was seen as an indication of Russia’s desperate need for manpower and the Kremlin’s desire to avoid a full-scale mobilization of the population.

It was also taken as further evidence of the animosity between Prigozhin and defense minister, Sergei Shoigu. Prigozhin flatly refused to sign a contract, but the Akhmat group of Chechen forces became one of the first to sign up.

Pankov’s announcement is significant. It wasn’t until Putin signed changes to defense regulations in November 2022 that the inclusion of “volunteer formations” was legalized for the first time.

Changing the law

Previously, Article 13 of the constitution of the Russian Federation had explicitly banned “the creation and activities of public associations, the goals and actions of which are aimed at creating armed formations.”

Article 71 of the constitution also states that issues of defense and security, war and peace, foreign policy, and international relations are the prerogative of the state, and therefore private companies cannot be involved.

The criminal code also identifies mercenary activity as a crime, including the “recruitment, financing or other material support of a mercenary” as well as the use or participation of mercenaries in armed conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other senior defense officials. Photo: AFP / Alexey Druzhinin / Sputnik

Putin’s amendments to the Law on Defense appear to change this. The amendments were implemented by Shoigu’s order of 15 February 2023, which set out the procedure for providing volunteer formations with weapons, military equipment and logistics as well as setting out conditions of service.

There have been signs of increasing prominence and acceptance of private forces within Russia. In April 2023, the deputy governor of Novosibirsk announced that employees of private military companies would be able to use the rehabilitation certificate issued to state military veterans of the Ukraine war to access a range of services.

There have also been reports in the Russian media that Wagner recruitment centers have opened in 42 cities across the country (the Wagner Group notoriously recruited heavily from Russian prisons.)

There is a range of irregular forces operating in Ukraine, including Ramzan Kadyrov’s Chechen forces, the Kadyrovtsy, which officially come under the command of the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardiya), alongside private forces such as Wagner, Redut, Patriot and Potok.

These volunteer formations offer a more flexible force than conventional military forces which operate under a notoriously rigid chain of command.

They also provide a convenient “cut-out” for the Russian state: private groups and individuals bear the human, financial and political costs that would otherwise be borne by the government.

And the Kremlin can fudge the list of official military casualties, otherwise a source of considerable public anxiety directed at the government and its leader.

Fierce factional rivalries

But the increasing visibility of these groups in Ukraine and the public infighting between the ministry of defense and the groups’ leadership is a reminder of the system of patronage and fealty that characterizes political culture in today’s Russia.

Turf wars are common, as rivals compete for resources, influence and, of course, the ear of Vladimir Putin himself. You only have to look at the insults hurled at each other by Prigozhin and Shoigu.

Prigozhin has been very vocal in his criticism of Shoigu and the Russian generals running the war, frequently accusing them of incompetence and corruption. The long-running acrimony between the pair reportedly stems from the defense minister cutting off Prigozhin’s access to profitable defense contracts.

A Wagner Group sleeve patch. Image: Facebook

This rivalry serves Putin’s interests to a certain extent. As long as any potential challengers are busy fighting each other, they pose little threat to his position. But it also hinders the country’s combat effectiveness as the fragmentation of forces makes command and control difficult, and means there is little unity of effort.

The move by the Russian defense ministry to bring “volunteer formations” under its control must be understood against this backdrop of fragmentation and in-fighting, as well as the ongoing conscription round. The current conscription window, which opened on April 1 and closes on July 15, has a stated goal of recruiting 147,000 soldiers.

The Kremlin is keen to avoid full-scale mobilization and has been exploring all options to sustain its war in Ukraine. Taking control of private forces may allow Putin to put off full-scale mobilization for a little longer.

Tracey German is Professor of Conflict and Security, King’s College London

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Turning Singapore’s spillover into Malaysia’s hybrid, multi, and edge cloud ecosystem advantage

Opportunity to capitalise on Singapore’s moratorium on data centre construction
Innovation, collaboration, and govt support needed for Malaysia to grow data centre sector

Growth in Malaysia’s data centre and cloud ecosystems is influenced by factors such as internet behaviour, application ecosystems, and energy generation, as discussed by industry representatives at the 2nd Datacentre & Cloud…Continue Reading