An Uber driver trying to evade the authorities could have caused the bomb scare at Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on Thursday night, say airport security officials.

As these drivers are illegal in the country, one of them could have left behind his two cellphones temporarily as he moved his vehicle away from the airport and tried to disguise his location from the authorities.

What he left behind – the two phones in a clear plastic container and connected by cable to a power bank – was found by a jogger at around 5.30pm, and the alarm raised. For about half an hour, the road in front of the Novotel hotel within the airport compound was closed as bomb disposal experts and sniffer dogs pored over the package and area.

“I think the driver was trying to hide his phone,” Suvarnabhumi’s vice-president of security Kitti- pong Kittikachorn, told The Straits Times. “For sure it’s not a bomb. It’s not a fake bomb.”

Airport staff regularly use the tracking feature on the Uber mobile application to locate and nab Uber drivers operating around the airport, he explained.

Uber is a mobile application that matches private drivers with potential passengers. Although there are reportedly tens of thousands of Thai motorists who have signed up as Uber drivers, their services remain illegal in the kingdom. More recently, the Thai authorities also outlawed the motorcycle taxi version of Uber, called UberMoto.

Mr Kittipong said he saw the Uber application open on one of the phones in the suspicious package.

The incident on Thursday rattled nerves, given the occasional political violence that has erupted over the course of the kingdom’s recent history. Explosions had taken place during the last round of street protests which paralysed the then Puea Thai-party run government and led to the 2014 coup that ushered in the current junta.

While Thailand’s southern border provinces have been battered by a largely localised separatist insurgency, the South-east Asian region as a whole has had to confront the growing spectre of terrorism.

A string of blasts took place last year. In February, two small improvised explosive devices exploded in a walkway linking a skytrain station to Siam Paragon shopping mall in downtown Bangkok.

And in April that year, a car bomb went off in the basement carpark of Central Festival mall on the southern holiday island of Koh Samui. Seven people were injured.

The most deadly attack, however, occurred in August when a bomb that went off near the popular Erawan shrine in Bangkok’s Rat- chaprasong intersection killed 20 people, including one Singaporean.

Meanwhile, Mr Kittipong said the authorities will be tracking down the owner of the abandoned mobile phones.

“He’s in trouble for sure,” he said.

This article was first published on June 11, 2016.
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BEIJING – A number of scams have surfaced as opening day for the Shanghai Disney Resort nears.

A number of scams have surfaced as opening day for the Shanghai Disney Resort nears.

Media reports in the city said a fake website mimicking the resort hotel site had ranked among the top search results.

But when a reporter called the website number to reserve a room, she was asked for her credit card details, including the three-digit security number, and her mobile phone and ID numbers, according to kankannews.com. Experts warned consumers not to reveal such key information as the security number.

The Shanghai park, the first Disney theme park on the Chinese mainland and the third in Asia after Tokyo and Hong Kong, is due to open on June 16.

In the past two months, at least 200 people claiming they could provide job opportunities at the park have been exposed by police.

In April, police arrested three suspected gang leaders alleged to have conned more than 3 million yuan (S$622,000) out of 30-plus victims by promising them jobs at the Shanghai Disneyland park.

A taxi driver surnamed Li was the first to report the scam to police.

He said he saw a recruitment advertisement and dialed the number. He was promised a managerial position at the park, quit his job and paid 13,000 yuan as a fee, but the job turned out to be a cleaner’s position.

After discovering that his colleagues had found jobs at the park by sending their CVs direct to Disney and not paying any fees, he reported the case to police.

Mi Yangjun, a police information officer, said one of the suspects, surnamed Xu, who once worked for an employment agency, told police she believed she could make big money by pretending to offer job opportunities at Disneyland.

In May, a wealth investment product promising an annual yield of 10 per cent was issued by Shanghai Guozhou Financial Information Service Co, which said the funds would be used to develop and operate the Shanghai Disney Resort.

However, the product was withdrawn by the local financial market watchdog due to false advertising.

NEW DELHI/KOLKATA, India – A 40-year-old social worker, Judith D’ Souza, from Kolkata was abducted by suspected militants in Kabul.

A 40-year-old women from Kolkata state, who was working for an international non-profit organisation in Afghanistan, was kidnapped by suspected militants outside her Kabul office late on Thursday evening, Indian and Afghan officials and her family said. The Indian government is making efforts to secure her release, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said.

Judith D’Souza (40), working as a senior technical advisor on gender with the Aga Khan Developmental Network in Kabul was abducted from Taimani area along with two other persons yesterday evening. Judith was scheduled to return to India next week for her annual holiday, her family said at their CIT Road, Entally home. She had been working in Afghanistan for the past one year.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said government was doing everything to rescue her.

“Our embassy is in touch with senior Afghan authorities and the government is also in touch with her family in Kolkata. All efforts are being made by the Afghan authorities to secure her early release,” an official source said in New Delhi.

Judith’s father Denzel D’Souza said in Kolkata that the family received information that three persons – Judith, a security guard and the driver of the vehicle, were abducted. “External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj rang up and spoke to me and assured that the government is making all-out efforts to bring her back,” Judith’s sister Agnes D’Souza said.

Responding to a tweet by one of Judith’s family members, Swaraj said “She is your sister and India’s daughter. We are doing everything to rescue her. Pl take care of your sick father.”

No group immediately claimed responsibility for her abduction.

Chief Executive of Aga Khan Trust for Culture, India, Ratish Nanda said every effort is being made to secure her safe release. “On Thursday, June 9, a staff member of the Aga Khan Foundation was abducted. An investigation by the authorities has been launched, in conjunction with security officials and various partners. Every effort is being made to secure the safe release of the staff member,” he said in a statement in New Delhi.

The family, Denzel said, received information about the abduction in the early hours of the day. “We received a call around 1-30 a.m. by the Embassy officials. We were told that three persons have been abducted – my daughter, the driver and the security guard. Thereafter, there has been no news, and no phone calls from the government. We are all very tense and anxious. We just want her to return safely home,” said Denzel.

“We are now waiting. We hope that the government does something and gets my sister back,” Agnes said, adding the Afghanistan government should also take steps to trace her. “Just two days back she called us from Afghanistan. She said that she would return to Kolkata on June 12 for her annual holidays. She never said that her life was at risk. We did not get any phone calls since 1-30 a.m. last night. Our friends, her colleagues in Delhi are trying to get in touch with the Centre. We are also getting in touch with the state government,” she said.

For the past year, Judith has been working for the Aga Khan Foundation in Afghanistan. Prior to that, she worked for various NGOs and organisations in Kolkata and Delhi.

Family members said that the last time Judith had visited home was over two months ago. But at no point of time had she ever indicated she faced any threats to her life.

Trinamul Congress member of Parliement Derek O’Brien said he spoke to the family of the abducted woman and contacted External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

In 2013, another woman from Kolkata, Sushmita Banerjee, daughter of educated middle-class parents, was shot dead by the Taliban in Paktika in Afghanistan, where she lived with her Pathan husband Jaanbaz and his family. Banerjee, who had married Jaanbaz, a “kabuliwallah (Afghan money lender)” in Kolkata, defying her parents, braved numerous odds to make rugged Afghanistan her home. The social worker, who ran a pharmacy for women in her village in Afghanistan, authored four books about her life in a “strange land”. The Taliban targeted Banerjee for her liberal views on women’s welfare- and modern ways. She was picked up one night, interrogated for three hours and shot 20 times.

TOKYO – The government took the extraordinary step of summoning the Chinese ambassador to the Foreign Ministry at around 2 a.m. Thursday to lodge a strong protest against the unprecedented entry of a Chinese Navy vessel into the contiguous zone around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture.

Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua was summoned about one hour after the vessel entered the contiguous zone outside Japanese territorial waters, to hear a demand that Beijing exercise self-restraint.

“This is the first time I have summoned someone in the middle of the night, but I believe that shows the seriousness of this situation,” Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki said to the ambassador. “I want you to be aware of this point.” The government was concerned that the Chinese warship’s entry into the waters could lead to an accidental collision.

Cheng reportedly told Saiki that China “does not want the situation to escalate” and that he would convey Saiki’s message to Beijing.

The Chinese Navy vessel had been warned by a Maritime Self-Defence Force (MSDF) destroyer before it entered the contiguous zone, but it pulled away and moved into the zone.

According to a senior Foreign Ministry official, the Chinese ship then made movements that indicated “it might advance into Japan’s territorial waters.”

If a Chinese Navy vessel were to intrude into territorial waters, the government has decided it would order maritime security operations in which it would dispatch MSDF vessels.

Given the possibility that the Chinese ship could have entered territorial waters during Thursday’s incident, the government went on a heightened state of alert that included providing instant updates to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and sharing information with the United States. The Chinese vessel eventually left the contiguous zone after about two hours.

China has sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, where it is continuing its assertive maritime advances such as the construction of man-made islands. Yoji Koda, a former commander in chief of the MSDF fleet, said, “China intended to divert international attention from the South China Sea.”

Three Russian Navy vessels also sailed into the contiguous zone before the Chinese warship entered the area. “China used Russia very well so as not to generate excessive tension,” Koda said.

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has reportedly asked the Congress not to stand in his way of implementing his controversial anticrime campaign.

Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has warned lawmakers not to stand in the way of his war against drugs and criminality by conducting investigations.

In a speech during his thanksgiving party on Wednesday night, Duterte said he told some congressmen, including incoming Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, during a meeting in Davao City on Tuesday night not to make the mistake of conducting a congressional inquiry on his anticrime campaign when it gets off the ground.

“Don’t investigate me. The road will end with me. The buck stops here. We are going to have a fight,” he said. “I am doing what is right, as long as it is the truth.”

In his hourlong profanity-laden speech at the Cebu Country Club, Duterte told some 300 supporters he was offering a 5.5-million-peso (S$163,000) reward for every drug lord slain in Cebu. The amount is 500,000 pesos more than the 5-million-peso bounty for every drug lord that he announced during his victory party in Davao City last week.

He explained that the higher amount was a “premium” because “those who live in Cebu are good people.”

Cebu City Mayor-elect Tomas Osmeña has offered policemen 50,000 pesos for every suspected criminal killed.

The tough-talking Duterte, who won the presidential election on May 9 on an anticrime platform, said the reward was a plea for drug lords to stop. “Stop it so there will be no trouble,” he said.

Duterte also warned policemen to stop misdeclaring the actual volume of seized drugs.

“I do not want to go to the extreme but I am asking for the reversal of these things. If I cannot get it the right way, then, I will do it the wrong way because I have a sworn duty to protect the Republic,” he said.

He called on prison officials to solve the problem of illegal drugs being sneaked in and out of their facilities and should not wait for him to make a move.

Duterte pointed out that he had traced the source of the illegal drugs to New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City, south of the capital city of Manila.

“Where do you find in this planet, in the world, where the penal institutions, where the lowlifes are gathered there and they continue to take ‘shabu’ (methamphetamine) and commit crime and live like kings?” he said.

“I told the officers there, you solve your problem now or I will solve it for you when I get to you. I do not want anybody standing there,” he said.

The NBP has been subject of several greyhound operations or “Oplan Galugad” since last year.

Duterte criticised the previous administrations for failing to take a hard stance on illegal drugs that he said were now “flooding the country.”

In Manila, Alvarez denied Duterte had warned the incoming Congress not to interfere in his efforts to solve crime and illegal drugs in the country. The incoming Speaker of the House of Representatives said Duterte had been vocal on how he wanted to have as little to do with Congress’ affairs as possible.

Incoming Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said Duterte respected the separation of powers between the executive and the legislative branches. “That is just speculation,” said Cusi of Duterte’s reported warning.

Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas, the expected majority leader, said when he and other House leaders led by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. met with Duterte in Davao City on Tuesday, Duterte gave assurance that he would not interfere in their work.

“He categorically stated that he respects the independence of the legislature and will not impose his will on it. He solicited our support for his legislative agenda,” said Fariñas.

Fariñas said he found Duterte one of the rare leaders who remained humble despite their popularity. “Out of the seven Presidents I’ve worked with, I found him to be the most humble,” Fariñas said.

Ako Bicol Rep. Rodel Batocabe, who represented the party-list bloc in the Davao City meeting, said Duterte would not stand in the way of Congress’ work.

“He just enlisted our help in the fight against drugs by reimposing the death penalty since according to him, if the death penalty is properly implemented, it will be an effective deterrent against crime,” Batocabe said.

BEIJING – With the growth of social media, there is much more information on the community today, but they are still fighting for their legal rights.

When his fellow playmates wrote love letters to girls, Devin Ji Guangyu, then 12 or 13, did the same, but also found boys to be attractive.

He looked up to male classmates who excelled in studies and sports, but thought it was just mere admiration.

In his teenage days, he first learned about the term tongxinglian (homosexual) from fellow anonymous users in online chat rooms, when the Internet had just begun to get popular in China.

At 17, he gathered up enough courage to check out a gay gathering in his hometown, Anshan in Liaoning province. It turned out to be his first time learning everything about gay culture from some 30 other gay men.

Now 27, Ji is working for Blue City, the parent company of a gay dating app, Blued in Beijing.

Blue City’s Danlan (literally “light blue”) portal was founded by Geng Le, an ex-policeman from Qinhuangdao, Hebei province, in 2000 as a personal online diary of sorts. It slowly evolved into a forum for the Chinese gay community.

In April 2013, Blue City rolled out Blued, which now boasts 27 million users.

While there is little organised religion in China to condemn homosexuality, the topic of LGBT is considered taboo. Homophobia reigned in the vast land of 1.3 billion people, where homosexuals used to be criminalised under the crime of “hooliganism”, until it was abolished in 1997.

It was not until 2001 that homosexuality was declassified as a mental illness. Until then, people who displayed a tendency for homosexuality were forced to undergo electric shock treatment.

“Due to lack of supervision and enforcement, clinics offering such ‘treatment’ still exist today,” said Wei Jiangang, person-in-charge of Beijing Gender Health Education, a non-governmental organisation focusing on issues of gender, sexuality and sexual health.

Zou Shenglong, 26, from Jing­dezhen, Jiangxi province, shared that he was not aware of the concept of homosexuality even though he sensed he had feelings for men.

He only discovered the existence of same-sex love in his university days through movies, young adult novels and academic research for a sociology course, which he admitted was carried out mostly to satisfy his own curiosity.

A gay novel titled Sorry Sorry prompted his revelation in 2010.

“I spent the following week thinking about the plot and then it hit me: ‘I am one of them’!”

Last year, he came out to his suspicious sister, a nurse, who was earlier notified of his profile on Blued by an acquaintance. She wanted to know if his “condition” could be “corrected”.

“I patiently explained that it is not possible,” Zou said.

Chinese traditional patriarchal values emphasise marriage and childbearing to continue the family’s bloodline. Stigmatising homosexuality has led to misunderstandings of LGBTs; the most common perception is that it was an “illness” that could be cured.

To please their parents, some lesbians and gay men partner up to enter into civil marriage. There are also gay people who hide their sexual orientation and marry straight women.

While it is difficult to measure and quantify acceptance of LGBTs across all levels of society, Beijing Gender Health Education’s Wei said the number of media reports on LGBT issues has increased from 300 to 800 a year in the last five years.

Discussions on the issues of LGBT have also expanded to include the pink economy and LGBT creative content.

Homosexual-themed drama series are gaining popularity online, where government censors allow a somewhat larger degree of leeway compared with traditional media.

The LGBT community’s willingness to pamper themselves and improve their appearances makes them a perfect target audience for advertisers.

Geng said in a recorded lecture that while the LGBTs make up 5 per cent of the total population – which accounts for 70 million in China, the size of Britain’s population – their individual consumption power is three to five times higher than straight people.

Compared to the days when knowledge about LGBTs was hard to come by, as illustrated in the stories of Ji and Zou, the growth of the Internet and social media today means an abundance of information is just a click away.

There are WeChat official accounts dedicated to discussing LGBT issues.

Gay couple Tommy and Joe shared their everyday life through their WeChat official account “Three Men in One House”. (“Three men” refers to the couple and Joe’s son from a previous marriage.)

“Rainbow Babies”, meanwhile, was managed by a lesbian couple, Douzi and Zhimabing, who were married in the Britain in 2014. They are now raising their twin babies conceived through in vitro fertilisation with donated sperm.

The LGBTs in China have come a long way, from hiding their identity to coming out of the closet. They are now fighting for their legal rights in China.

Same-sex marriage has not been legalised and there are also no laws to punish discrimination against sexual minorities. In April, a court in Changsha, Hunan province, heard China’s first court case on same-sex marriage, although a judge later ruled that the gay couple could not get married.

Geng, whose Blue City works with the health department to run HIV test centres in Beijing, was optimistic about the future of the community in China.

“I believe China will become more and more open as it pursues civilised development. When more media report on this issue, the government will be more willing to work together with us, and gay people will have more courage to come out of the closet and face their identities.”

Wei said a large part of the work of the NGOs in China still focus on increasing the visibility of LGBTs at the moment. “We can only move on when the education system, government policies and social benefits for the LGBTs can guarantee adequate protection for the group. But now we don’t have these yet.”

As for Zou, his wish is simple: “I hope everyone understands that we are essentially all the same.”