Soe Win, the great grandson of Myanmar’s last monarch King Thibaw, told AFP his family were angered by “A Lady’s Flame”, a new hit prime-time soap that recounts a bloody dynastic power struggle.

The show is set in a fictional kingdom but almost entirely mimics the final years of the Konbaung dynasty in the 19th century in the country formerly known as Burma.

It portrays the scheming among a key queen and princesses who orchestrated the massacre of nearly a hundred people to ensure Thibaw had no rivals to the throne following his father’s death in 1878.

While the massacre is historical fact, Thibaw’s scions are upset with their family’s portrayal by a country that shields its own monarchy from any criticism

“We have asked Thais this, would they accept it if one of our companies here did the same thing about their country,” Soe Win told AFP.

“If no action is taken, we will ask for help from their (Thailand’s) royalty,” he added.

Neighbours Thailand and Myanmar were bitter rivals for centuries and fought a number of bloody wars.

One of the most momentous battles saw Myanmar forces attack the city of Ayutthaya, second capital of the Siamese kingdom, and raze it to the ground in 1767, forcing the inhabitants to abandon the city.

In Thai historical soaps and dramas the Burmese are often portrayed as having villainous or treacherous tendencies, something that has previously caused anger in Thailand’s western neighbour.

Soe Win said he was particularly incensed by scenes in “A Lady’s Flame” in which royal family members slapped each other.

“It’s quite insulting, as if we are wild,” he said.

For many Burmese the fall of its monarchy at the hands of the British just a few years after Thibaw took the throne was a deep psychological scar.

He died in exile in India though there are plans to return his remains to his homeland.

His family are playing a much more visible role now that the military who suppressed them have given way to a civilian-led government.

Wichai Madee from Thailand was washing an Indian elephant with a colleague at Adventure World in the western prefecture of Wakayama when the giant animal swung its trunk and hit him.

“The animal might have somehow become angry. It swung its trunk and the trunk hit the person who was working in front of the elephant,” a police spokesman told AFP.

“The person apparently was pushed hard and hit either the cage or the ground and hit his head.” Other zoo staff called the police saying “an employee was attacked by an elephant”, according to private broadcaster TBS.

The 37-year-old trainer was taken to hospital but later died, police said. The incident happened before the zoo opened its doors to the public.//AFP

As the only child of an absentee father of Moroccan descent and a Dutch-Indonesian mother, Klaver, 30, knows what growing up in The Netherlands as an outsider is like. “I was shocked to be told on Twitter to go back to my own country, or told ‘I will not vote for you because you are Moroccan’,” Klaver said during a debate late Sunday.

“So many people have faced these kinds of comments. We should be judged based on what our future represents, not on the basis of our origins.”

While far-right politician Geert Wilders campaigns on an anti-immigrant, anti-Islam platform including calling some Moroccans here “scum”, Klaver is sending a message of tolerance.

Since taking over as party leader in May 2015, he has boosted his party’s fortunes. Polls predict it may leap from six MPs in the outgoing parliament to possibly 18.

Although unlikely, some even give the bright-eyed Klaver an outside shot at becoming the next Dutch prime minister depending on how coalition talks go.

‘Immigrant country’

The country’s youngest-ever party leader, Klaver was raised mainly by his grandparents in social housing, in a sprawling flatlands suburb of the southern city of Roosendaal.

Unlike “what certain politicians will lead you to believe, The Netherlands is an immigrant country,” Klaver told AFP in a recent interview.

“I am a product of that immigration,” added the curly-haired, olive-skinned Klaver.

His campaign mainly focuses on stopping what Klaver calls “the right-wing wind that’s blowing through all of Europe”.

And the Dutch vote is being seen as a key litmus test of the rise of populist and far-right parties ahead of other national elections in Europe this year.

Klaver first rose to prominence in 2009 when at just 23 he was elected the youngest-ever member of the influential Social and Economical Council of The Netherlands, which advises government and parliament on key policy.

Six years later, he was elected unopposed as the leader of GroenLinks, which had been haemorrhaging voters since a disastrous 2012 campaign.

With Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberal VVD party only slightly ahead of Wilders’s Freedom Party in the polls, the young Klaver could emerge in a “kingmaker” role.

He has already called for closer cooperation between leftwing parties like Labour, the progressive D66 and the Socialist Party, seeking to form a powerful bloc against any potential government led by Rutte’s Liberals, who will need a majority coalition to reign in the 150-seat house.

‘JFK’

Often compared to Canada’s liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to whom Klaver bears a striking resemblance, he calls John F. Kennedy his biggest inspiration.

Even his full name, “Jesse Feras Klaver” echoes the initials of the famous US president, assassinated in Dallas in 1963.

Kennedy “was a man who said you should stand by your norms and principles,” said Klaver, who has several pictures of a youthful Kennedy on his office walls alongside those of his own wife and two young sons.

But some of his critics are not impressed by his youthful assertiveness — Labour Party leader Lodewijk Asscher has called him a “touch arrogant.”

Klaver subscribes to many of the ideas of celebrated French economist Thomas Piketty — the author of an unlikely bestseller on capitalism — including that globalisation has created an unequal society and an unequal concentration of wealth.

“We need to make Europe work for everybody, not just for a small group of rich people who have been lucky and are just getting richer,” Klaver said.

He is reminded every morning of his mission as he clasps his coffee mug, engraved with JFK’s words: “One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.”//AFP

The command centre already put 120 needy and homeless persons as well as beggars into custody during March 1-7. Of this number, 29 are foreign nationals.

The crackdown will help protect children from abuses by human trafficking networks. Sansern said there are now ten operation teams working in Bangkok and peripherals to ensure law and order especially with regard to needy, homeless persons and beggars.

Those in custody have been screened and will be sent to the Mitmaitree welfare home of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration for further help, including occupational training, while foreign nationals who entered Thailand illegally will be sent back to their home country.

Valentina Novozhyonovam, 23, has gone missing during her trip to Thailand’s Koh Tao island since February 15. An ongoing investigation suggests she might have had an accident while free diving – her favourite hobby.

Koh Tao is a part of Surat Thani’s Pha Ngan district.

Surat Thani Governor Uaychain Innak orders that the search continues, with police and various units co-ordinating their efforts to locate her both in the sea and in the land.

The search on Sunday focused around Poh Ta Toh peninsula in the Chalok Ban Kao Bay. It’s one of the most popular diving spots.

Novozhyonovam’s mother has flown to Thailand after learning that her daughter went missing.