NZ woman dies in Chiang Mai after eating toxic seaweed
- Published: 2/10/2011 at 12:00 AM
- Bangkok Post News
Chiang Mai health authorities are launching a full-scale investigation of food outlets across the northern province after a young New Zealand woman died from a viral infection believed to have come from eating toxic seaweed.
Carter: Contracted a viral infection
Sarah Katherine Carter, 23, died early on Sunday morning at Chiang Mai Ram Hospital. A friend, Amanda Eliason, 24, who also ate the seaweed underwent emergency heart surgery and is now believed to be out of danger.
A third New Zealand woman in their group, Emma Langlands, 23, who ordered a different meal from a stall in a food market at Chiang Mai's Night Bazaar, suffered food poisoning but is not seriously ill.
"We have never had such a case in Chiang Mai before," Chiang Mai public health chief Wattana Kanchanakamol said yesterday.
He said a preliminary report into the death of Carter indicated a viral infection.
Dr Wattana said epidemiologists were ordered to track down the cause of the infection by collecting food samples from the Night Bazaar food market where it is thought the women last ate.
"The examination result is expected to be known in the next five days," he said.
Dr Wattana said one factor in the case could be the fluctuating weather conditions in Chiang Mai, which could result in food deteriorating more rapidly than expected.
Health officials were being sent to other tourist attractions around Chiang Mai to carry out food hygiene tests.
Carter's devastated father Richard told the website stuff.co.nz the hospital had called when his daughter was admitted and he had talked to her.
"It appeared to be just bad food poisoning. She appeared withdrawn and not sounding that good, but seemed all right. But within an hour of our conversation the thing just spread to her heart and strangled her heart."
At that stage his wife was in transit at Suvarnabhumi airport and he had to call her with the news.
Richard Carter told a news channel his daughter had the world at her feet and wanted to start an overseas trip in Thailand after having just graduated from university.
"[Sarah] touched the hearts of all the people that she came in contact with, a truly remarkable girl. We were just so proud of her achievements," he said.
Sarah called her parents the night she fell ill to reassure them she was okay. But within an hour of that call, a toxin spread rapidly to her heart and killed her shortly afterwards.
Sarah studied chemistry at Victoria University in Wellington and had been working at Wellington accounting firm BDO Spicers for the past year.
Her friend, Amanda Eliason, from Kaponga in the province of Taranaki, underwent emergency surgery on Saturday when the toxin attacked her heart.
Her parents, Peter and Kay, flew to Thailand on Monday."The balloon pump that was attached to her heart has now been removed and the cardiologist is now happy that she has no permanent damage to her heart," Kay Eliason said.
"We have our daughters, so we're the lucky ones really," she said.
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Red Bull 'made me kill my father'
- Published: 2/9/2011 at 12:28 AM
- Bangkok Post News
ST PETERSBURG, Florida : Attorneys for an accused cold-blooded killer claim sleep deprivation and Red Bull energy drinks caused a psychotic episode that ended when he smothered his 83-year-old father with a pillow a year ago.
Stephen Coffen was supposed to be watching his father in the elderly man's home when the death occurred.
Even Tom Coffeen, his brother, scoffed at the Krating Daeng defence.
"It's crap," Mr Coffeen told local TV. "I don't even think the man (his brother) even drank Red Bull. They cannot 100 per cent tell me he did not know what he was doing."
Thai (left) and overseas versions of Krating Daeng (Red Gaur) drink
One night in December, 2009, Tom reportedly received a call from his brother, who told him to come home immediately. When Tom got to his father's home, Stephen wouldn't let him in and said they had to talk.
According to Tom, Stephen, who lives in California and hadn't seen their father in more than 10 years, started saying, "Dad is evil. Dad is evil."
He says his brother then admitted that he killed their father, but in self-defense.
After Stephen was arrested and charged with second degree murder, he changed from self defence to an insanity defence, claiming he snapped after arriving from California.
He snapped, his lawyer told the court, because of Red Bull and lack of sleep.
Red Bull is the worldwide marketing arm of Krating Daeng (Red Gaur), the most popular energy drink in Thailand. It has never before been accused of murder.
His attorney claims that the lethal combo of the energy drink and lack of sleep put Stephen Coffeen into a frenzied state that led him to smother his father.
"The insanity at the time of the offence is normally a perfect storm where all sorts of factors come into play all at once, all at the same time causing the break down," said the lawyer, George Tragos.
If the judge accepts the insanity defence, Stephen Coffeen will go to a mental institution for a minimum of six months.
The trial is to continue on Feb 17.
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Organizer of child sex ring in Thailand sentenced to 25 years
- John Wrenshall admits to running sex ring involving boys at his Thailand home, officials say
- Wrenshall pleads guilty to three counts, officials say
- Some of the boys reportedly were as young as 4
New York (CNN) -- A Canadian man who admitted to running a sex ring involving young boys at his home in Thailand was sentenced by a federal judge in Newark, New Jersey, to 25 years in prison, court officials said Monday.
John Wrenshall pleaded guilty to three counts, including conspiracy to engage in sex tourism, conspiracy to produce child pornography and distribution of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said in a statement.
"John Wrenshall created a place where innocent children were sexually brutalized as a vacation pastime," Fishman said. "It is fitting that a man who has condemned children to live with unimaginable scars for his pleasure and profit should spend decades of his own life in a prison cell."
Wrenshall's attorney could not be immediately reached for comment.
Since January 2000, court authorities said the 64-year-old Canadian arranged illicit trips for Americans and others who paid him to engage in anal sex, oral sex and other sexual acts with Thai boys, according to the statement.
His customers were permitted to videotape and photograph their abuse, the statement said.
Wrenshall also personally victimized the boys in an effort to "train" them for his customers, it added.
Some of the boys were as young as 4.
London's Metropolitan Police arrested Wrenshall at Heathrow Airport in December 2008.
Three of his clients -- Wayne Nelson Corliss, Burgess Lee Burgess and Mitchell Kent Jackson -- already have pleaded guilty and were sentenced on sex tourism and related charges, the statement said.
Corliss was sentenced to 20 years in prison in November 2009, while Burgess and Jackson each received 6½-year sentences.
"Criminals who prey on children are committing unspeakable acts, causing irreparable harm and robbing the innocent of their innocence," said Peter T. Edge, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "(Homeland Security Investigations) will track down these criminals, wherever they think they can hide, arrest them and bring them to justice."
In 2009, 2,888 people were charged with having sex with children under the age of 15 in Thailand, which has become a destination of choice for sex tourists looking to prey on children.
Their targets are often the thousands of homeless and impoverished migrant children who end up working on Thai streets or in bars every year where they fall prey to traffickers and pedophiles, according to the Human Help Network Foundation Thailand, a nongovernmental organization charged with social and economic development in Thailand.
________________________________________________Small fish, big business: Asia's billion dollar live reef fish trade
STORY HIGHLIGHTS- Trade in live reef fish for restaurants in Hong Kong and mainland China worth around $1 billion
- Rare fish like leopard coral grouper are increasingly popular and expensive
- Fished from waters around southeast Asia's Coral Triangle; many areas fished out
- Issues of sustainability are not high on the agenda for most suppliers, restaurants and diners
(CNN) -- In Hong Kong, where factory space is stacked in skyscrapers, the 15th floor of an industrial block houses vast tanks in which thousands of rare fish swim under the eerie, purple glow of UV lights.
Normally found thousands of miles away on the reefs of the tropics, the coral grouper are being bred on land in one of the world's most densely populated metropolises to feed a local population that consumes 3.6 times the global average in seafood.
Sold live, fish like leopard coral grouper are highly valued in China, where ostentatious dining calls for expensive and attractive centerpieces for celebratory or business banquets -- last week during the Lunar new Year a single fish could cost around $130.
But even the tons of fish swimming in the tanks of OceanEthix incongruous high rise facility can't sate a growing market for live reef fish in Hong Kong and mainland China that is worth around $1 billion each year.
"No one quite knows the size of the market here," says Lloyd Moskalik, OceanEthix managing director, who suggests the black market for live reef fish could be as large as the actual recorded figure.
Gallery: Main routes of live fish trade in Asia --Lloyd Moskalik, OceanEthix
"We've got five wholesalers and each could take 2 to 3 tons of red leopard coral grouper a week -- that's around 2,000 fish each. There have to be around 30 to 50 wholesalers in Hong Kong who could do the same, so that gives you get an idea of the size (of the market)."
The turquoise waters of the Coral Triangle in southeast Asia, home to the highest diversity of sealife in the world, is where the majority of the fish found swimming in Hong Kong and mainland China's restaurant aquariums originate.
But unsound fishing practices, fueled by increasingly high demand and high prices, are pushing species like the leopard coral grouper and the reefs themselves to the brink.
"The demand for live coral grouper completely exceeds supply. If demand keeps up, you won't see this species in the wild in three to five years," says Moskalik.
The town of Taytay on the Philippine island of Palawan is a microcosm of a trade that takes place across the region. The waters around the bay currently account for 70 percent of the country's live fish exports, but the World Wildlife Fund has warned that stocks of grouper there are close to collapse.
Working with the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development and the Philippine government's Coral Triangle strategy, attempts have been made to turn the area's 3,700 fisherfolk into stakeholders, making them more aware of the consequences of over-fishing.
Standing in the shadow of an enormous sign that bears the town's name (similar to the one in the Hollywood hills), Taytay's former mayor Roberto "Tito" Rodriguez says illegal fishing has fallen dramatically.
He's an environmental convert who realizes the value of fishing to the area's economy and says that over the last few years 90% of local fisherfolk have switched to legal fishing means.
Yet many believe that if illegal fishing is falling it's more likely because the fish are no longer there.
Merleen Gabuco, a resident of a fishing village in Taytay bay says a fishing trip now takes three days compared to just hours years ago. She might earn around $40 for a grouper that takes many months to grow to market size, the same cost as a fishing expedition.
Palawan's recorded live reef fish catch reached a high of 700 tons in 2007 and fell to 400 tons in 2009, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Mavic Matillano, a researcher for WWF in Palawan, estimates that 140 tons is the maximum of what could be sustainably caught each year and that only 31% of the area's reefs are in good shape.
As well as experiencing coral bleaching from higher than normal temperatures in recent years, Taytay has had to face up to destructive and illegal fishing techniques, like blast fishing and cyanide, which also kills coral reefs across the Coral Triangle.
--Melinada Ng, Worldwide Seafood
The boom of blast fishing is rarely heard these days, says Hernan Fenix, a local government fisheries official, but the amount of cyanide used (to catch fish by stunning them) is hard to gauge; there are no outwards signs of poisoning to the fish, but coral is often bleached to death.
Making sure that sustainable fishing techniques are used is also hard to enforce.
While marine protection zones have been set up, covering around 10 percent of fishing grounds around Taytay bay, a lack of adequate protection has previously led to clandestine plundering of spawning grounds.
Over three nights, one man was suspected of fishing two tons of young grouper, says Matillano. He couldn't be prosecuted as there was no evidence except for him to be seen driving a new car weeks later.
Back in Hong Kong, concepts of sustainable fishing are slowing catching on, but with so much demand for live fish there remains a general indifference to the issue among the majority of suppliers, restaurateurs and diners.
Despite the best efforts of groups like the WWF to provide sustainable seafood guides, "sustainability is not an issue for the majority in Hong Kong," says Melinda Ng, Director of Sales and Marketing for Worldwide Seafood.
Pressure from conservation groups and their clients led to Worldwide Seafood putting an end to selling grouper from southeast Asia two years ago, but it is not easy to find out if seafood is sustainably caught.
Around 40 percent of the fish coming into Hong Kong's bustling Aberdeen wholesale market is wild caught, yet no certificates are needed by the Fish Marketing Organization concerning how or where they are caught.
Wai Kit Chen, the deputy manager of the market, where 35 tons of seafood are landed each day, said he had never heard of fishing with cyanide.
Innovative aquaculture like OceanEthix's may be part of the solution to keeping the fish like coral grouper on the menu, but some restaurateurs are trying to go fully sustainable and avoid the live fish trade altogether.
It took Colin Gouldsbury four years to research and source fully-sustainable fish supplies for his Hong Kong seafood restaurant, DotCod.
"I don't particularly like farmed fish -- they cause a whole load of other problems," he says.
"I can guarantee that (our seafood) is sustainably sourced. If I can do that in Hong Kong, not an easy task, then I'll keep doing it."
But with the price of red coral grouper estimated to rise by around 10 percent each year, it seems a sea-change in a cultural attitudes to dining may be needed to preserve the wild reef fish in places like Taytay and across the Coral Triangle.
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New bail request for 7 red leaders
- Published: 2/9/2011 at 03:13 PM
- Bangok Post News
United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship chair Thida Thavornseth on Wednesday filed a fresh request with the Criminal Court for the release on bail of seven red leaders being detained on terrorism charges.
Mrs Thida, accompanied by lawyer Narinpong Jinapak, president of the Lawyers Association, offered 600,000 baht as surety for each of the seven suspects: Natthawut Saikua, Weng Tojirakarn, Korkaew Pikulthong, Nisit Sinthuprai, Kwanchai Sarakham, Wiphuthalaeng Pattanaphumthai and Yoswaris Chuklom or Jeng Dokchik.
The UDD chair said she lowered the surety from 3 million baht to 600,000 baht because Chaiwat Sinsuwong, a suspect on terrorism charges in connection with the People's Alliance for Democracy's blockade of Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports in 2008, was granted bail with 600,000 baht surety.
The court was considering the request.
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1 comment:
Thank you very much for the news.
Good jobs Khun Amie.
Chalard
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