MANILA – An alleged American paedophile was reportedly planning to reenact the erotic movie Fifty Shades of Grey with Filipino minors, police said.

At a news briefing on Thursday (Oct 26), Superintendent Maria Shiela Portento showed reporters sex toys and other sexual paraphernalia seized from the suspect, 58-year-old Robin Hoyt Alderman.

“These are the things he planned to use in reeenacting the movie,” said Portento who is from the PNP Women and Children Protection Centre (WCPC).

The movie is based on a best-selling novel about a rich young businessman and a woman in her senior year in college.

Last week the police, in coordination with the US Department of Homeland Security, arrested Alderman upon his arrival at Terminal 2 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Alderman, who had just returned from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, was suspected of online sexual exploitation.

“His ongoing communications with the victim … constituted procuring, hiring and obtaining minor for the purpose of pornography and sexual exploitation, all of these are violations of the expanded Anti-Human trafficking law of the Philippines,” Portento said.

The 15-year-old victim was referred to the Manila Social Welfare and Development, and a follow-up rescue operation was conducted which resulted in the rescue of two more girls aged 14 and 15 years old.

Alderman faces charges before the Department of Justice, the authorities added.

“He’s already committed it (the crime) even without the actual exploitation. He’s a sex traveller,” said Police Supt. Villamor Tuliao, chief of WCPC’s anti-trafficking-in-person division.

He said Alderman was planning to rent an old apartment, an old dilapidated van to abduct other victims and buy motorcycles for the abduction of young, poor and even homeless Filipino girls for sexual exploitation.

“He was also making video and selling them,” he said, adding that the American would be tried for his offences and would be turned over to US authorities after he serves his sentence in the country.

According to Tuliao, this was not the first time Alderman had entered the country. The police said it was his second or third time in the Philippines and he had also been to Vietnam and Taiwan several times.

“Since WCPC started in 2015, we have conducted 744 operations, rescued 3,233 women and minors, arrested 657 suspects and filed 486 cases in courts,” Tuliao said.

Bangkok – Thailand’s new king picked bits of bone and ash from his father’s remains on Friday to be enshrined as royal relics, after the cremation of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej capped an extravagant funeral that brought the nation to a standstill.

The lighting of the funeral pyre late Thursday night, which was held behind closed doors, closed the book on the 70-year reign of a monarch who was elevated to saint-like status.

The grand send-off, held a year after Bhumibol died aged 88, was a spectacular show of the enigmatic rituals that gird a powerful monarchy cloaked in myth and spirituality.

On Friday Bhumibol’s son and successor, 65-year-old King Maha Vajiralongkorn, ascended the steps of the glistening crematorium complex to select relics from his father’s ashes.

The monarch poured fragrant water on the pile of remains, before using his hands to place bits of bone into six golden, diamond-encrusted urns that will be moved in procession to the Grand Palace later Friday.

Throughout the ceremony aides skirted around the king on their knees, a requirement in a palace with rigid hierarchies.

“After the religious ceremony… all the six urns will be put into a fourth procession to go back to Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall and the golden stupa inside the temple of Emerald Buddha,” said an official announcer describing the ceremony.

The five-day funeral, which ends Sunday and cost some $90 million dollars, has seized the attention of a nation where love for king Bhumibol runs deep.

More than 300,000 mourners in black crammed into Bangkok’s old quarter to watch the colourful procession on Thursday that carried his funeral urn to the sprawling purpose-built crematorium.

Many wept and prostrated as the gilded urn passed.

Others around the country have tuned in to televised broadcasts of the processions, monk-led rituals and traditional music and performances marking Bhumibol’s send-off to heaven.

But the funeral’s climax – the lighting of the pyre – was not broadcast live Thursday night as most media were whisked away from the area.

Later in the evening smoke could be seen rising from the illuminated funeral pyre.

The passing of Bhumibol, an anchor of stability across decades of political tumult, has ushered Thailand into a new era of uncertainty.

The new monarch has yet to command the same level of devotion and his approach to the crown – and relationship with the military government – remains inscrutable.

A severe royal defamation law that lands critics decades in jail also shields him from criticism and has scrubbed any debate about the monarchy’s role in Thailand.

A 20-year-old woman with none of the four limbs in India’s central Chhattisgarh state is inspiring many after she has been appointed as a computer operator at a government office.

Born with a rare disorder, tetra-amelia syndrome, Khushboo has never experienced the life with limbs; however, she never allowed the condition to become a disability and did schooling like any other child and further attained a computer course degree.

Having no limbs were not the only obstacle for her, poverty and father’s death just after her birth also posed problems aplenty for Khushboo and her family.

Her illiterate mother, Dhamati, worked as a domestic help in several houses and provided education to Khushboo and her two elder sisters.

“I want that she gets a permanent job which will further help her if I am not around,” said Dhamati, who carries Khushboo everyday to her office in the forest department.

Sole breadwinner of her family, Khushboo has to type the GPS-data in her computer system and submit the report to her senior, who also acknowledges her for her efficiency.

Just like her mother, she wishes for a permanent job too.

“I want my job to be permanent so that I can look after my family in a better way,” she said.

Bangkok – The booze taps were turned off and the wild go-go bars were closed for business in Bangkok on Thursday as the normally hard-living city went quiet for the cremation of a king.

Bemused tourists – many attracted by the Thai capital’s good-time reputation – were left to cool their heels as the country paid its last respects to a revered monarch.

“I’m a little bit disappointed because I leave Bangkok tomorrow,” German tourist Dennis Siemers told AFP.

“On the other (hand) I understand that the people are not in the mood for any big party.” Streets were deserted in Bangkok’s infamous red light district, where bars and clubs were dark on the eve of the massive funeral for the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The five-day event has brought Bangkok – one of the world’s most visited cities – to a halt, with pubs, restaurants and many malls shutting down out of respect for a figurehead revered as a demi-god.

On Soi Cowboy – a normally flourescent-lit strip packed with beered-up tourists and near-naked dancers – booming music was replaced by the sound of rats scuttling underfoot.

Elsewhere in the city clusters of tourists were easy to spot on Thursday, appearing as awkward pools of colour in a sea of black-clad Thais honouring their king.

Even the ubiquitous 7/11 shops, much loved for their normal 24/24 business hours, were closed for most of Thursday.

Khaosan Road, a grubby lane of bars and restaurants popular with Bangkok’s backpacker set, was also forced to suspend the party.

The few restaurants that stayed open on Wednesday night were ordered to pull alcohol from the menu. Bored waiters sat around in black outfits waiting for customers who never came.

“You wouldn’t be able to move here two weeks ago” for customers, British tourist Adam Brinton said on the near-deserted road, which he had visited earlier in the month.

It is not the first time visitors to the “Land of Smiles” have seen their holidays disrupted.

Coups, violent protests and floods have paralysed Bangkok in recent years, dampening the lucrative tourism industry, but it has always bounced back.

Still, business owners said this October has been especially tough, with the junta government urging entertainment venues to mute the fun in the run-up to the cremation.

“We have to pay salaries, pay the rent, and I’m still worried how to cover that,” said Manjeet Singh, who owns a restaurant and tailor shop near Khaosan Road.

Most bars and restaurants are expected to reopen by Friday, which Singh hopes will end the dry stretch.

“We’re really expecting that business should shoot up as soon as this ceremony is finished,” he said. “We’re very much looking forward to a bright November.”

His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen of Bhutan offered last respects to His Late Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, during the Royal Cremation Ceremony at Sanam Luang in Bangkok on Thursday.

His Majesty conveyed messages of condolence to His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand, on behalf of the people of Bhutan.

Following a yearlong mourning period in Thailand for the beloved King, His Late Majesty King Bhumibol was cremated yesterday. His Late Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away on October 13 last year.

Due to the special relations between Bhutan and Thailand, and the deep admiration in Bhutan for His Late Majesty King Bhumibol, prayers were offered at Kuenselphodrang in Thimphu, presided over by His Holiness the Je Khenpo (abbot of Bhutanese clergy), for His Late Majesty. Members of the Royal Family of Bhutan attended the prayer ceremony.

Bhutan observed a day of mourning on October 14, 2016, and schools and offices remained closed, to enable Thai nationals living and working in Bhutan, as well as Bhutanese, to offer their prayers and respects. The National Flag was flown at half-mast.

Their Majesties visited Thailand on October 16 last year, to offer respects as His Late Majesty King Bhumibol lay in state in the Grand Palace’s Phra Thinang Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall.

Bhutan and Thailand established diplomatic relations in 1989, and Drukair, the national airlines, began regular flights to Bangkok, opening up travel and communication between the people of the two countries.

His Majesty The King visited Thailand as Crown Prince in 2006, to attend the 60th Anniversary of His Late Majesty King Bhumibol’s Accession to the throne. The relations between Bhutan and Thailand attained an exceptionally warm and intimate dimension following the visit, with an outpouring of affection for His Majesty from the people of Thailand.

The relations between Thailand and Bhutan remain stronger than ever today, with numerous Bhutanese travelling to Thailand for studies, work, medical treatment, business, and holidays, and an increasing number of reciprocal visits from Thai nationals.

Among the many areas of co-operation between Bhutan and Thailand, the Queen’s Project has been receiving wholehearted support from the Royal Projects of Thailand geared towards empowering local economies through strengthening cottage enterprises, for similar projects in Bhutan.