Word: thai
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Agriculture Ministry admitted that more than 6 million chickens had already been culled. As China learned after its SARS coverup last year, viruses thrive in a climate of secrecy and denial?and can cost a country dearly. The E.U., Japan and other countries immediately banned the import of Thai chickens. Thaksin's own credibility has also taken a hit. Thai officials anonymously told local newspapers they were aware of the presence of avian flu in November but were told to keep it quiet and blame the culling of poultry on an outbreak of chicken cholera and bronchitis. Away from...
...Thai lawmaker Hangthong Tumwattana was visibly upset when he turned up at his family's 12-bedroom mansion on the night of Sept. 5, 1999. A scion of one of Thailand's richest business clans, Hangthong's personal fortune had been depleted by costly political campaigns and his familial relations strained by an ugly inheritance feud. "He was nervous, hands shaking as he ate," recalls younger brother Nopdol Tumwattana, who lived at the compound in Bang Khen in northern Bangkok with Hangthong and may have been the last person to see his brother alive. Hours later, after calls from panicked...
...case would not stay closed. Four years on, Hangthong's younger sister Narumol, convinced her brother was killed over their late mother's fortune, hired a Scottish forensics specialist and enlisted the aid of a Thai medical examiner to scrutinize the evidence. Their conclusion: blood spatters at the scene, the angle of the entry wound and other factors strongly indicated murder. Last Friday, after an investigation that lasted more than two months, prosecutors charged Nopdol with murder, but he isn't the only one on trial. The sensational case has raised so many questions about the way cops handled...
...Thailand, business disputes are often settled out of court, sometimes murderously. Economist Chris Baker, who helped conduct a survey for the World Bank, said most Thai businessmen don't trust the legal system, because they believe courts and cops can be bought. "Violence was quite a big option," says Baker. The country has an estimated thousand or so professional gunmen who earn their livings mainly by "solving" business conflicts. Few are ever caught. Shortly after Nopdol's arrest, Thaksin told the press that fingerprint evidence showed that more than one person was involved in Hangthong's death. Instructing police...
...TIME reporter bought Samurai from a stall along Taweewong Road in Phuket, Thailand. "We've had Last Samurai for three days already," said vendor Nook (not his real name). At his booth, just 50 yards from an official Warner Bros. store, Samurai was available with Thai, Chinese or Bahasa Indonesia subtitles. Business has improved, Nook says, since police stopped shaking him down for a monthly $60 payoff. Now he pays just $150 a year for an official ID card. Piracy has become so normalized that it has its own bureaucracy. Two days later, a reporter bought Samurai in Shanghai...