Tharae Catholic Community prays for HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha on Christmas Eve
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2022
Thailand’s largest Catholic community prayed for the recovery of Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha Narendiradebyavati during their celebration of the birth of Jesus on Saturday night.
As part of their long-held tradition, residents of the Ban Tharae Catholic community in Sakhon Nakhon’s Muang district gathered at St Michael’s Cathedral at 7pm Saturday for a Christmas Eve mass and procession.
Representatives of the community also staged a play to re-enact the gospel story about three wise men following the Star of Bethlehem to find the infant Jesus in a manger.
After the prayer, the Catholic worshippers entered the cathedral for a mass led by arch-bishop Antony Weeradej Jaiseree, the head of the Tharae-Nong Saeng archdiocese.
The princess fainted while training her pet dog in Nakhon Ratchasima on December 14. She is now in stable condition at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok.
Ban Tharae is the largest Catholic community in Thailand. Its members celebrate Christmas Eve with an elaborate procession every year. They are descendants of Catholics who migrated from Vietnam to Thailand during the Vietnam war.
Space agency delivers Christmas greeting from outer space
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2022
The National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand marked Christmas Day on Sunday with a photo of what it calls the “Christmas tree of the universe”.
The Christmas tree is actually a cluster of stars in the NGC 2264 region that form the shape of an upside-down Christmas tree.
“In this picture, the Christmas tree is upside down with a bright star above the cone nebula as the treetop,” the institute said on its Facebook page. The blue gas on the top of the photo is nicknamed “fox fur nebula”, it said.
“These objects are located in the Monoceros constellation, 2,600 light years away from Earth,” the institute said.
A red light is emitted from the hydrogen alpha and the tree shape is formed by a cluster of stars. The cone-shaped gas on the bottom of the photo is called “cone nebula”.
Thai police instructed to stop revealing nationalities of foreign suspects
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2022
The Royal Thai Police (RTP) has instructed all law-enforcement authorities to stop revealing the nationalities of suspects for fear that sensationalist reports will hurt international ties.
RTP spokesman Pol General Roi Ingkhapairoj issued an urgent order via police radio on Saturday, calling on all nine provincial bureaus to ensure the nationalities of suspects are no longer revealed to the media.
The police general said the way police officers announced cases involving foreigners to the press has affected Thailand’s ties with countries the suspects come from.
Hence, Roi said, from now on, investigators will only be allowed to provide details of cases without revealing nationalities.
This order only applies to cases that have not been tried and resolved in court, he said.
He added that police investigators should always be accompanied by spokespersons or officers assigned with the job of dealing with media when giving interviews.
Sources say that Roi issued the order after ambassadors from several countries filed complaints saying that police interviews resulted in lurid media reports, which gave people the wrong idea of their countries.
The envoys pointed out that they always cooperated with Thai police, yet the media sensationalised reports, which hurt their countries’ reputations.
Baht steady against dollar but expert warns of year-end volatility
MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2022
The baht opened at 34.76 to the US dollar on Monday, weakening slightly from Friday’s close of 34.73.
The currency will likely move between 34.65 and 34.85 against the greenback during the day and between 34.50 and 35.20 during the week, Krungthai market strategist Poon Panichpibool said.
Poon said that the baht could swing sideways and weaken in the short term due to the strengthening dollar and sales of risky assets.
However, he doubts the Thai currency will breach its resistance level since exporters are waiting to sell the dollar and foreign investors are reluctant to short the baht amid expectations it will strengthen.
Poon cautioned, however, that the low level of year-end transactions in the currency market could see the baht fluctuate heavily or in a wide range.
Meanwhile, lower-than-expected US jobless claims should ease market worries of another US Federal Reserve interest rate hike that would support further dollar strengthening, Poon said.
But he forecast the dollar would be buoyed if investors’ worries over the Covid-19 situation in China eased.
He also advised investors to use hedging tools such as options to manage risks in a highly volatile currency mark.
Every game Thailand plays at AFF Championship will be broadcast now
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2022
Lottery Online, the operator of the “Kong Salak Plus” lottery platform, has purchased the broadcasting rights of AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2022, so all Thai football lovers can enjoy the games.
This comes after many people were forced to watch the December 20 Thailand-Brunei match via online streaming sources as no digital television operators had bought broadcasting rights for the tournament.
“I was frustrated that the match was not being broadcast even though the national football team had won 5-0 against Brunei,” Lottery Online CEO Panthawat Nakvisut said on Saturday.
Panthawat Nakvisut
He said his company had reached an agreement with the Sports Authority of Thailand to broadcast every match played by the Thai football team in the tournament.
He added that the next match, Thailand against the Philippines, will be broadcast live on the 9 MCOT HD channel on Monday.
“This move will help contribute to Thailand’s football industry,” he said.
AFF Championship has been held every two years since 1996, except the one in 2020, which was postponed to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thailand has won the tournament six times, in 1996, 2000, 2002, 2014, 2016 and 2021.
Apart from playing the Philippines on Monday, the Thai national team is scheduled to face off against Indonesia on December 29 and Cambodia on January 2.
Chinese researchers develop new method to preserve female fertility
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2022
A group of Chinese scientists has developed a new method to preserve ovarian follicles of mice at very low temperatures, increasing their viability by more than 30 % after recovering, compared with conventional methods.
The results shed light on a promising approach for fertility preservation in women, according to the study published in the journal Nature Communications.
For prepubescent girls or women in urgent need of cancer treatment, follicle cryopreservation is almost the sole option to preserve their fertility.
However, the protective agents used in the current method of follicle cryopreservation often lead to poor results due to their high concentration and toxicity, said the paper.
Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China, in collaboration with counterparts from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, reduced the demand for the highly toxic protective agents and lowered their concentration by 75 %, said the paper, increasing the viability of mouse follicles by more than 30 %.
In further research, egg cells obtained from these follicles were fertilized in vitro and developed into healthy mouse pups after embryo transfer, said Zhao Gang, the research leader at the university.
The patent for this technology has been filed and is expected to be applied clinically in related hospitals in Anhui province in the next year, Zhao added.
Suspect in Abe murder judged mentally competent to be indicted
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2022
The Nara District Public Prosecutors Office has judged that Tetsuya Yamagami, the suspect in the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Nara City in July, is mentally competent to be held responsible for the criminal act, according to sources.
Yamagami, a 42-year-old jobless man, was referred to prosecutors on suspicion of murder and has been under psychiatric evaluation. The prosecutors made their judgment based on the evaluation results.
The period during which he may be detained in relation to the evaluation expires on Jan. 10. The prosecutor’s office aims to indict him by Jan. 13, when the period for detaining him over the murder charge expires.
Yamagami shot Abe, who was delivering an election campaign speech on a street near Yamato-Saidaiji Station on the Kintetsu Line in the city, around 11:30 a.m. on July 8, according to the police. He was arrested on the spot on suspicion of attempted murder.
On July 10, the charge against him was revised to murder and he was sent to the prosecutor’s office.
During questioning after the arrest, Yamagami testified that he held grudge against the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, commonly known as the Unification Church, as his mother has been a follower of the religious organization and she donated large amounts of money to it.
Yomiuri Shimbun file photo Tetsuya Yamagami
As the reason for attacking Abe, Yamagami was quoted as explaining that he believed Abe had ties with the religious organization.
In a letter he sent to a journalist the day before the shooting, Yamagami wrote of Abe, “He is not my primary enemy,” also saying, “He is no more than one of the most influential sympathizers of the Unification Church.”
Anticipating that Yamagami’s mental competence to be held responsible at trial would become an issue, the prosecutor’s office had him detained for a psychiatric evaluation that took four months, from July 25 to Nov. 29.
Specialist doctors repeatedly interviewed Yamagami to examine how he had grown up and probe his psychological condition at the time of the crime. The prosecutor’s office held hearings about the outcome of the evaluations.
In addition, the prosecutor’s office extended the period of detention for psychiatric evaluation to make its judgment more careful.
According to sources, the psychiatric evaluation of Yamagami did not find any mental illness that could greatly affect his ability to judge between right and wrong.
The prosecutor’s office also considered such points as that Yamagami prepared a homemade gun and checked Abe’s schedule of street speeches in advance.
Finding that he had acted based on a plan before the attack, the prosecutor’s office judged it possible to lay a criminal charge against Yamagami.
Christmas will feel very different without Queen Elizabeth, says Britain’s Kate
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2022
Britain’s Princess of Wales paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth at a carol service in Westminster Abbey, saying the royal family’s first Christmas without the late monarch would “feel very different.”
The carol service took place last week and was broadcast on Saturday.
King Charles, accompanied by Queen Consort Camilla, joined his son Prince William, Kate and other members of the family at the service in the abbey, where late Queen Elizabeth’s funeral was held in September.
Kate, who is William’s wife and became Princess of Wales after Charles ascended to the throne, hosted the event and dedicated it to Queen Elizabeth and “all those who are sadly no longer with us.”
“So, whilst Christmas will feel very different this year, we can still remember the memories and traditions we shared,” Kate said in an introduction to the service. Queen Elizabeth died on Sept. 8 aged 96, after 70 years on the throne.
“Her Majesty held Christmas close to her heart, as a time that brought people together and reminded us of the importance of faith, friendship and family, and to show empathy and compassion,” she said.
The family presented a united front at the service on Dec. 15 – the same day that the final episodes of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan‘s Netflix documentary series were released.
Harry, who stepped down from royal duties in 2020, piled fresh criticism on his family in the series, including accusing his older brother William of screaming at him during a summit to discuss his future.
Migrants face freezing Christmas at US-Mexico border
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2022
Hundreds of migrants prepared to camp in the cold at Mexico’s northern border over Christmas, hoping for a swift reversal in U.S. migration restrictions as they endure the bite of a winter storm ravaging the United States.
After the US Supreme Court, this week ruled that restrictions known as Title 42 could stay in place temporarily, many migrants are facing a Christmas weekend of what Mexico’s weather service called a “mass of arctic air.”
“I want to spend Christmas in a place where it is not cold, I would really like to be under a roof,” said Franyer Chavez, a Venezuelan migrant in El Paso,Texas. “Everyone here would like to spend Christmas under a roof because the cold is strong.”
Temperatures in the border cities of Matamoros and Reynosa, where several thousand people are camping outside or in bare-bones shelters, are expected to hover around freezing on Saturday and only slightly improve on Sunday (December 25).
Further west in Ciudad Juarez, where hundreds of migrants have been lining up to seek asylum at the border with El Paso, Texas, temperatures are forecast to drop to minus six degrees Celsius (21 degrees Fahrenheit). Many have been sleeping in the streets.
Officials have provided more space in shelters in recent days, but some migrants are wary.
Title 42 allows the United States to return migrants to Mexico or certain countries without a chance to request asylum. It had been due to end on Dec. 21 before the court ruling. Without clarity on when it will finish, some officials worry their cities could be overwhelmed if more migrants turn up.
Discount vouchers for hotels, restaurants and tour packages can be bought via www.nybigsurprise.com from December 28 to 31 as part of the “Save Partner New Year Big Surprise” campaign.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) said on Saturday that the campaign aims to boost domestic tourism.
“Apart from giving tourists lots of options, the campaign also aims to boost the recovery of tourism-related businesses,” TAT said.
More information will be available at the “Sale Hear” Facebook page on Wednesday from 4pm.
The princess fainted while training her pet dog in Nakhon Ratchasima on December 14. She is now in stable condition at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok.
Ban Tharae is the largest Catholic community in Thailand. Its members celebrate Christmas Eve with an elaborate procession every year. They are descendants of Catholics who migrated from Vietnam to Thailand during the Vietnam war.
Panthawat Nakvisut
Yomiuri Shimbun file photo Tetsuya Yamagami
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