Teerasil double trouble for Cambodia as Thailand ease into semi-finals
TUESDAY, JANUARY 03, 2023
Defending champions Thailand cruised into the semi-finals of the 2022 Asean Football Federation (AFF) Championship on Monday with a 3-1 defeat of Cambodia that saw them top Group A.
Teerasil Dangda scored the first goal for the War Elephants at Thammasat University Rangsit Campus in Bangkok, slotting home a penalty at the end of the first half.
Sumanya Purisai bagged the second goal for the hosts five minutes into the second half, before Chanthea Sieng grabbed a goal back for Cambodia in the 68th minute.
Teerasil secured victory for Thailand with his second goal in the last minute of the game.
Thailand finished top of the group on goal difference from Indonesia, both teams on 10 points. Cambodia were third on six points, followed by the Philippines (three) and Brunei (no points).
Photographer : Wanchai Kraisornkhajit
Thailand will face the Group B runners-up in the two-leg semi-final, in a repeat of last year’s final. The away leg is on January 7 while the home leg in Bangkok is on January 10. All Thailand matches are broadcast live on MCOT HD30 and T-Sport 7 channels.
Brazil bids farewell to ‘king of soccer’ Pele with 24-hour wake
TUESDAY, JANUARY 03, 2023
The Brazilian coastal city of Santos, which sporting giant Pele turned into a byword for soccer brilliance during a glittering club career, started bidding goodbye to its hero on Monday with a 24-hour wake.
Mourners lined up to see Pele’s body in an open casket in the centre of the field at the Vila Belmiro stadium, home of the Santos Football Club. Pele died on Thursday at 82 after battling colon cancer.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino was among the first to arrive for the service and said he would ask every country to name a stadium after Pele, the only man to win the World Cup three times as a player.
Infantino told reporters. “FIFA will certainly honour the ‘king’ as he deserves. Additionally he had asked all football associations in the world to pay a minute of silence at every match worldwide.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento – Pele’s given name – was born in 1940 in the small country town of Tres Coracoes, but moved to Santos in 1956 and lived there for most of his life.
In the early hours of Monday, his body arrived under fireworks in the city of about 430,000 people from Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein Hospital.
Former Brazil midfielder Ze Roberto and Pele’s son Edinho helped placing his coffin in the field, TV footage showed. Floral wreaths were sent by the likes of Neymar, Vinicius Junior and Real Madrid.
On Tuesday, a procession carrying Pele’s coffin will pass through the streets of Santos, ending at the Ecumenical Memorial Necropolis cemetery, where he will be buried in a private ceremony.
Santos’ press office said some 5,000 journalists from all over the world had been accredited to cover the wake of Pele, who scored more than 1,000 goals for Santos.
Several government officials are expected to attend the memorial, including newly sworn-in Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, a longtime Santos supporter.
Sao Paulo state military police said in a statement they had prepared a special operation called the “King Pele Operation” to ensure public order.
BCG Expo explores Isaan designs through recycled materials
TUESDAY, JANUARY 03, 2023
Stephanie Adair
The Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Model for a sustainable economy can be implemented in many industries, and that includes furniture manufacturing. Have you ever wondered about what happens to the scraps and pieces left behind after your favourite rug is made?
An exhibition booth at Isaan BCG Expo at the Khon Kaen Innovation Centre presents unique furniture designs made from recycled materials combined with Northeastern Thai traditional arts. The booth was set up for a special chef table event where the menu was designed by combining Mexican and Northeastern Thai cuisine.
Jiraparnn Tokeeree, Founder and Design Director of Touchable brand spoke on the concepts of her designs.
“I’m from Khon Kaen and I had the opportunity to study in Bangkok since I was a young girl. I always travelled back and forth between Bangkok and Khon Kaen because I felt attached to my hometown. As soon as I was invited to this project, I thought, ‘Hey, what should I do? We’ve been implementing BCG for a long time, but I’ve never displayed it like this before. I want to show the public what can be done with the scraps of materials, whether it’s a piece of silk or a tree.
“When we talk about products made with BCG, it’s the mat that originated from the sedge plant, which is a local plant of Khon Kaen.
“A handmade mat can be more than just a mat, so I tried turning it into chairs of various colours like this. It creates added value, and instead of earning 100-200 baht per mat, we can earn 10,000 baht per chair. When people who saw the value of handicrafts saw this, they were amazed,” she says.
“Do you see the yarn in our booth? They are yarn scraps from the carpet-weaving factory. There was a mountain of yarn left over. I saw them throwing it away. So I felt that I wanted to do something that would add value to their waste. The workers and I had so much fun creating with these yarns at my factory.”
Jiraparnn has customers all over the globe and has been in cooperation with the Thai-French Chamber of Commerce for many years.
“Right now, the whole world encourages design in all sectors to use recycled materials that can be brought back to life. We collaborate with the Thai-French Chamber of Commerce almost every year. In the past, we sold interior design items made from scraps of wood or from any material. This year it’s still the same. I saw the mat and was so inspired, that I presented this collection to France and it has already been shipped.”
Devotees climb into coffins for Thailand’s strangest New Year ceremony
TUESDAY, JANUARY 03, 2023
Every New Year holiday, people pour into Wat Takian temple on the western outskirts of Bangkok to participate in a strange ceremony they believe will remove their bad luck and bring good fortune throughout the year.
Devotees of these spooky rites lie in open coffins with flowers and incense sticks clasped between their wai-ing hands, resembling corpses as they enter the crematorium.
Buddhist monks then chant prayers over the coffins while those inside devote the merit made to their deceased family members. Once the ceremony is completed, participants consider themselves reborn and freed from bad luck, ready to start their new year afresh.
Each round of the coffin-lying ceremony takes about 20 minutes and the temple can handle up to 12 rounds per day. After each ceremony, the coffins are cleaned and disinfected to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
The temple charges no fee for the ceremony, instead leaving it up to participants to donate as much as they like.
A temple staffer told The Nation that the aim of lying in a coffin is not only to remove bad luck but also a reminder of the truth that no one escapes death. Participants in the ceremony are inspired to live their life prudently and discretely.
Death-mimicking ceremonies to dispel bad luck are common to Buddhist cultures across Asia, including in Thailand, China, Tibet, and Japan.
However, the practices differ from place to place.
In some Thai-Chinese communities, instead of using a coffin, a grave will be dug and filled with belongings of the person who wants their luck to be cleansed. Chinese Buddhists also believe that this ceremony helps prolong the participant’s lifespan.
LG unveils vision for more personalized, smarter TV ahead of CES 2023
TUESDAY, JANUARY 03, 2023
LG Electronics Inc. unveiled a vision for its TV business on Monday ahead of the opening of CES 2023, emphasizing connectivity and customization.
The consumer electronics giant will dedicate itself to fulfilling the vision of Sync to You, Open to All, it said, based on its advanced organic light-emitting diode display technologies and webOS, its own smart TV operating system.
At the world’s most influential tech trade show, set to open on Thursday, LG will unveil the new OLED evo TV that boosts brightness by around 70 % compared with existing OLED TVs and reduces the reflection of light on the screen.
OLED evo is the major TV maker’s second-generation OLED panel, with more light per pixel than before and improved brightness and better colour accuracy. Blacks are deeper and darker, and other colours are richer and creamier on LG OLED evo TVs, according to the company.
The new TV also became smarter with an improved artificial intelligence processor, which enables it to analyze even a show producer’s intention of making a certain scene and automatically adjust the brightness and other effects.
When turned on, the webOS home screen will appear on the latest OLED evo TV, the company said, just like a smartphone, allowing users to pick whatever applications they wish to watch.
LG said its smart TV platform now offers more than 2,500 applications and is fitted with a more advanced recommendation algorithm tailored to individual tastes and needs.
The South Korean tech firm is counting on success in the high-margin, premium TV segment to keep its competitive edge over rivals.
The tech firm’s TV business logged an operating loss of 55.4 billion won ($43.5 million) during the July-September period, due to bigger marketing expenses amid intensified market competition and high logistics costs.
Pandemic-driven pent-up demand for home appliances, including TVs, has lost steam, and aggressive rate hikes in major economies to bring inflation under control have significantly weakened consumer spending power.
According to research firm TrendForce, global TV shipments in the second half are forecast to undergo a 2.7 % on-year decline to reach 109 million units.
TV shipments in the fourth quarter are expected to grow by 10.8 % on-quarter to 56.96 million units but down 3.5 % from a year ago, it said, adding that the annual shipment for 2022 is expected to reach a decade low of 202 million units.
During an earnings call in late October, LG said it planned “to ease cost burden by raising the sale prices of our premium lineup,” of which demand is still robust among deep-pocket consumers.
Poipet casino buildings gutted by fire demolished by machinery
TUESDAY, JANUARY 03, 2023
Officers from the Banteay Meanchey provincial land management department – in collaboration with engineers and construction workers hired by Grand Diamond City Hotel and Casino – have carried out the demolition operation on one of the buildings that was destroyed by fire on December 28.
Poipet town governor Keat Hul told The Post on January 1 that search and rescue operations at the hotel and casino were completely finished on December 30 after a 39-hour search-and-rescue operation was carried out following the extinguishing of the fire earlier.
Poipet authorities announced a final death toll of 26 with 57 injured, a number they did not anticipate would rise further.
The joint commission also assessed that all of the casino buildings were too damaged by fire to possibly repair and needed to be demolished immediately.
“Now we see the engineers and construction workers on-site are moving heavy machinery into place to dismantle and demolish the casino buildings,” he said.
According to Hul, authorities used a total of 1,009 police officers and firefighters from 14 different units along with 221 additional rescuers from Thailand. There were 58 ambulances and fire trucks on the scene to render medical aid and put out the multi-story blaze.
Of the four buildings the fire spread, three of them consisting of five stories each are considered a total loss, including one that boasted a pedestrian bridge that stretched over the border at the entrance of the Poipet International Border Checkpoint.
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined and is not likely to be known until the property damage is fully surveyed by the demolition crew.
Of the 26 victims killed in the fire, 17 were Thai, one Chinese, one Nepali and one Malaysian. The other six have not been identified yet because their bodies were burnt.
“In this incident, not a single Cambodian employee was killed that we know of, but we are awaiting the results of the autopsies. They will examine the bodies of the six victims who were burnt and use DNA to identify them later,” Hul said.
Prime Minister Hun Sen called the incident one of the worst tragedies to occur in recent memory anywhere in Cambodia and a truly sad way to end 2022.
At the same time, he said the government will equip some equipment that can be used to intervene to rescue in high-rise buildings when there is a fire by providing trucks that can put out fires in those structures.
Hun Sen also called for the use of more powerful fire engines at all locations that have high-rise buildings present due to the need for powerful hoses with water pressure that can hit the upper floors of those buildings with enough water.
Poipet authorities used the Ministry of Interior’s fire trucks as well as fire engines from Thailand to put out the blaze before it spread to other buildings, but the lack of appropriate fire engines already stationed in Poipet and under the town hall’s control may have delayed matters.
Hul also thanked the Thai side for participating in the firefighting operation and rescuing more than 1,000 patrons and more than 500 staff members during the emergency response.
On December 30, Ichitomo Taninai, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese embassy in Phnom Penh, also sent this condolence message on behalf of his government and the Japanese people.
“I am deeply saddened to learn of the fire at the casino in Poipet. [We] would like to express our deepest condolences to the families of the deceased and wish the injured a quick recovery. May the souls of the deceased rest in peace,” he wrote on his official Facebook page.
๋Local govt official in Japan makes tarts to boost industry
TUESDAY, JANUARY 03, 2023
To promote Tochigi Prefecture’s agricultural products, a government official with a sweet tooth has been making tarts using locally sourced fruits and vegetables in cooperation with farmers and uploading them on social media.
Mikihisa Shiratori, 37, director of the prefectural economy and distribution division of the prefectural government, holds tart-baking events at various farms in the prefecture. Utilizing both policies and sweets, he hopes to boost the area’s agricultural industry.
Instagrammable info
Colourful and vibrant tarts made using pears, strawberries and mangos are all over Shiratori’s Instagram account(@tarte892). However, his homemade fruit tarts are not the only photos on his social media account. He also posts photos of his vegetable tarts made using nira garlic chives, asparagus, rice and other nontraditional dessert ingredients.
One might think the tarts are just made to attract attention, but they are also “delicious as a sweet snack,” he said.
Shiratori, a native of Miyagi Prefecture, joined the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry in 2009 and was temporarily transferred to Tochigi Prefecture’s agricultural policy department in April 2021.
As he is in charge of branding agricultural products and advising agricultural groups, he regularly visits farms to discuss ways to develop sales channels and expand production.
In November 2021, Shiratori visited Abe Nashien pear orchard in Utsunomiya. Shiratori said he came up with the idea of making a pear tart after seeing how the fruit was harvested.
When he served the tart to the orchard employees and others, he received positive feedback. He thought it would be interesting if he could use the tart to promote the prefecture’s farmers and products.
Farm events
Since then, Shiratori has been visiting farmers in various parts of the prefecture about once a month to ask them to donate some of their harvests and allow him to hold a tart-baking event on their farm.
He usually makes a tart crust measuring between 21 and 27 centimetres in diameter at home and brings it to the event. The tarts made at these events are served to farmers and other guests, and the photos are posted on his Instagram and Twitter accounts.
Shiratori held an event at Abe Nashien last year and made fruit tarts using such seasonal pears as the Nikkori variety and Western pears.
“[Making tarts] helps us promote the farm and also gives us an idea of how we can sell processed products in addition to direct sales,” said Hideo Abe, 45, a representative of the orchard.
Shiratori said he has become better acquainted with the farmers through making tarts, and as a result, has received more requests for advice on management, production and sales.
He is now getting busier as he has started receiving event requests from farmers outside the prefecture who have seen his social media accounts.
“I would like to create effective policies based on the feedback from the farmers, as well as continue to work with them in interesting ways to provide information regarding the production sites,” Shiratori said.
Vegetable dessert
With the help of farmers in Kanuma, the No. 1 production area of nira garlic chives in the prefecture, Shiratori made a nira tart using the prefecture’s original Yumemidori variety, which has thick leaves and a sweet taste.
He placed boiled nira on top of a yoghurt-based cream to cut through the bitterness and added honey gelatin to add a bit of sweetness.
On the day of the event, he invited his friends from agricultural organizations and the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry from Tokyo to show where Yumemidori is grown and to promote the brand, he said.
North Korea’s Kim sacks No 2 military official amid nuclear, missile push
MONDAY, JANUARY 02, 2023
North Korea has sacked Pak Jong Chon, the second most powerful military official after leader Kim Jong Un, state media reported on Sunday.
Pak, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party and a secretary of the party’s Central Committee, was replaced by Ri Yong Gil at the committee’s key meeting last week, state-run television KRT’s news reader said.
KRT footage showed Pak sitting in the front row of the podium with his head down during the meeting while other members raised their hands to vote on personnel issues. His seat was later shown unoccupied.
Pak’s dismissal comes despite Kim mostly lauding the military’s advances in weapons development during the meeting, unlike other areas where he pointed out some faults and called for improvement.
‘No place to rest’ – Thousands stranded at Philippines airport after power outage
MONDAY, JANUARY 02, 2023
Thousands of exhausted passengers on Monday remained stranded outside the ageing Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila after a New Year power outage caused hundreds of flight cancellations.
“In the 24 hours that we’ve been waiting, we are now very exhausted from lack of sleep. My body is aching from all the waiting,” Kirana Mangkabong, a 32-year-old overseas worker, told Reuters. “There’s no place to rest, we just find random corners where we can rest.”
Long queues were seen forming at crowded airport terminals by passengers waiting to rebook their flights.
Cesar Chiong, general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority, said the airport was early on Monday handling a maximum of 15 arrivals per hour compared to 20 during normal operations.
The outage was the result of the unprecedented failure of both primary and secondary power supplies, he said, adding it will take around 72 hours for airlines to normalise their operations.
About 65,000 passengers were affected after 361 flights were either delayed, cancelled or diverted to other regional airports on Sunday, while numerous other flights were forced to re-route to avoid Philippine airspace.
Flag carrier Philippine Airlines said it was arranging recovery flights out of the United States, Singapore and Malaysia, and diverting some flights to domestic airports. Budget carrier Cebu Pacific cancelled 54 domestic flights on Monday.
The Ninoy Aquino International Airport has previously been ranked among the world’s worst international gateways, with flight delays a regular occurrence, and a history of upgrades being delayed or abandoned due to disputes between the airport and contractors.
Six national parks to start e-ticketing from Saturday in pilot project
MONDAY, JANUARY 02, 2023
Six national parks will test e-ticketing from Saturday as an alternative to cash for tourists to pay entry fees, the Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation announced on Monday.
The department said the e-tickets would be issued at Ao Phang Nga National Park, the Mu Ko Similan National Park, Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park, Khao Yai National Park, Doi Inthanon National Park and Erawan National Park from Saturday in a pilot project.
The department said tourists can start buying e-tickets from Monday by using the QueQ app but the e-tickets can be showed to park officials at the entrance of the six national parks from Saturday onwards.
Those who buy e-tickets on the QueQ app can pay for the tickets by using their credit card or using the Thai QR Payment service.
The department said the new e-ticketing system would reduce the burden on park officials in storing large amounts of cash before transferring them to the department.
The department explained that the e-ticket service was started at the six parks first because they had mobile phone signals that are needed for park officials to check QR codes on the purchased e-tickets.
Once the system is found to be stable and after mobile phone signals cover more parks, the services will be extended to cover all parks in the future, the department added.
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