Instead, Kussin says, he’s decided to buy a less-expensive ticket to Portugal.
Latest news
Thailand massacre: ex-cop kills 24 children in knife and gun rampage
Want create site? Find Free WordPress Themes and plugins.
NA KLANG, Thailand, Oct 6 (Reuters) – A former policeman killed 34 people, including 23 children, during a knife and gun rampage at a daycare centre in northeast Thailand on Thursday, police said, before later shooting dead his wife and child at home and turning his weapon on himself.
In one of the world’s worst child death tolls in a massacre by a single killer in recent history, most of the children who died at the daycare centre in Uthai Sawan, a town 500 km (310 miles) northeast of Bangkok, were stabbed to death, police said.
The age range of children at the daycare centre was from two to five years, a local official told Reuters.
Police identified the attacker as a former member of the force who was dismissed from his post last year over drug allegations and he was facing trial on a drugs charge.
The man had been in court earlier in the day and had then gone to the daycare centre to collect his child, police spokesperson Paisal Luesomboon told broadcaster ThaiPBS.
When he did not find his child there, he began the killing spree, Paisal said. “He started shooting, slashing, killing children at the Uthai Sawan daycare centre,” Paisal said.
“It’s a scene that nobody wants to see. From the first step when I went in, it felt harrowing,” Piyalak Kingkaew, an experienced emergency worker heading the first responder team, told Reuters.
“We’ve been through it before, but this incident is most harrowing because they are little kids.”
A large van that police said contained bodies of 22 people, mostly children, was seen by Reuters departing from a police station headed towards the city of Udon Thani, 80 km (50 miles) away, where autopsies would be performed.
‘I BEGGED HIM FOR MERCY’
A Reuters photographer also saw late on Thursday the body of the shooter, Panya Khamrapm, being moved in a bodybag from a van to a police station in the province.
Photographs taken at the daycare centre by the rescue team and shared with Reuters showed the tiny bodies of those killed laid out on blankets. Abandoned juice boxes were scattered across the floor.
“He was heading towards me and I begged him for mercy, I didn’t know what to do,” one distraught woman told ThaiPBS, fighting back tears.
“He didn’t say anything, he shot at the door while the kids were sleeping,” another woman said, becoming distraught.
Police said the attacker’s weapon was a 9 mm pistol and it had been obtained legally.
Thailand’s police chief said the perpetrator had tried to break into the premises and had mostly used a knife in the killings.
“Then he got out and started killing anyone he met along the way with a gun or the knife until he got home. We surrounded his house and then found that he committed suicide in his home,” Damrongsak Kittiprapas told reporters.
He said a few children had survived, without giving details.
About 30 children were at the facility – a pink, one-storey building surrounded by a lawn and small palm trees – when the attacker arrived, fewer than usual, as heavy rain had kept many people away, said district official Jidapa Boonsom, who was working in a nearby office at the time.
“The shooter came in around lunch time and shot four or five officials at the childcare centre first,” Jidapa told Reuters.
The attacker forced his way into a locked room where the children were sleeping, Jidapa said. A teacher who was eight months pregnant was also among those stabbed to death, she said.
The massacre is among the worst involving children killed by one person. Anders Breivik killed 69 people, mostly teenagers, at a summer camp in Norway in 2011, while the death toll in other cases include 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut in 2012, 16 at Dunblane in Scotland in 1996 and 19 at a school in Uvalde, Texas, this year.
DRUGS CHARGE
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha was expected to visit the region on Friday. In a statement on Facebook, he called Thursday’s rampage a “shocking incident”.
Prayuth ordered all government departments to fly the national flag at half mast on Friday to mark a tragedy that “had caused grief to the entire nation”, his spokesperson Anusha Burapchaisri said.
King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida will visit families of the victims in Udon Thani on Friday, according to a local announcement.
The government said it would provide financial aid to the families to help cover funeral expenses and medical treatment.
The White House and the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres both expressed shock at the attack and sent condolences to the victims’ families.
Gun laws are strict in Thailand, where possession of an illegal firearm carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years. But ownership is high compared with some other countries in Southeast Asia. Illegal weapons, many brought in from strife-torn neighbouring countries, are common.
Mass shootings in Thailand remain rare, although in 2020, a soldier angry over a property deal gone sour killed at least 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned four locations.
Did you find apk for android? You can find new Free Android Games and apps.
Odyssey has been the lead content writer and content marketer. He has vast experience in the field of writing. His SEO strategies help businesses to gain maximum traffic and success.
Continue Reading
Want create site? Find Free WordPress Themes and plugins.
This win-win cooperation, based on mutual benefit, is China’s version of the New World Order
At a time when, on May 19, the Western allies of the US were deliberating their shared future at the 49th G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, and reaffirming their support for Ukraine which is thousands of miles away from Japan, Chinese President Xi Jinping was speaking at China-Central Asia Summit in Xian, offering economic grants for enhancing the financial capacity of Central Asian States. Western media, comparing both events, kept pitching the idea that China is consolidating its influence over former Soviet republics because Russia is fixed in the Ukraine conflict.
However, I think otherwise: China has been present in Central Asia for 20 years, and the China Central Asia trade is too big to ignore. The China-Central Asia Summit was attended by all five former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Xi’s speech at the event promised a development path independently chosen by all six countries with a focus on respecting and safeguarding their sovereignty, security, independence and territorial integrity. In the China-Central Asia Summit declaration, the participant states agreed to increase trade, boost rail and road connectivity, increase flight connections and speed up the construction of cross-border railway connecting China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
They approved mechanisms to boost cooperation in areas such as fossil fuels, renewable energy, education, science, tourism and healthcare. They also decided to explore potential for further agricultural cooperation, and China agreed to increase imports of agricultural products from Central Asia. It is pertinent to mention here that China will provide 26 billion yuans of financing support and grants to Central Asian countries.
The trade between China and Central Asia has touched a new limit of $70 billion last year, with Kazakhstan sharing $31 billion. While in Hiroshima, G7 offered support to Ukraine, pledging to strengthen disarmament and non-proliferation efforts, towards the ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons. Interestingly, the talk about a world without nuclear weapons was held in Hiroshima which was the first victim of US nuclear power. According to Reuters News Agency, China has, with its engagement, put itself at the forefront of the race for political influence and energy assets in the resource-rich regions, while Russia is distracted by its war in Ukraine and the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan has diminished the US presence in the region. In believe Russia and China are on the same page as long as the Global South perspective is concerned, and both have their parallel stakes in Central Asia while the US does not enjoy the same leverage in the region that China and Russia do. Russia is linked with the region through history, language and huge labour force of Central Asian States that works in Russian cities and sends huge remittances to their home countries while China is constantly investing in the Central Asian economy, unlike America which offers money in return of military bases.
The US has, in the past, invested in social activities of Central Asian States through NGOs but a crackdown on foreign-funded NGOs in 2010 dented US political base. Central Asian analysts believe China is offering trade and financial support to Central Asian States without demanding any help against any third country. They believe the Ukraine war offers lessons for every country that borders either China or Russia. Experts say that the China-Central Asian Summit by reiterating “we will jointly foster a new paradigm of deeply complementary and high-level win-win cooperation” has sent a loud and clear message that it wishes to enhance the economic capacity of all Central Asian States.
This win-win cooperation, based on mutual benefit, is China’s version of the New World Order. Wherever China is engaging in any country, it is proposing dialogues based on mutual benefit. China is, therefore, writing a new history of refraining from self-serving demands in exchange for cooperation. The China-Central Asia summit concluded with mutual cooperation, prosperous, harmonious, and well connected’ Central Asia.
Did you find apk for android? You can find new Free Android Games and apps.
Want create site? Find Free WordPress Themes and plugins.
Hong Kong— Zachary Kussin was ready. The New Yorker had marked the date on his calendar months in advance and checked the Hello Hong Kong website every day for more information, all in hopes of scoring a free airline ticket.
The Hello Hong Kong initiative was introduced to lure back tourists and revitalize the city’s tourism industry, which took major hits as the financial hub was almost impossible to access for three years due to Covid regulations.
At a splashy event in February 2023, city officials announced that some 500,000 free airline tickets would be distributed both to local residents eager for a vacation and international travelers keen to visit Hong Kong.
It sounded too good to be true for Kussin, who has never been to Hong Kong and felt that with the high cost of airfare from the U.S. to Asia he wouldn’t be able to afford to visit on his own.
Supply and demand
Tickets were distributed in stages, broken down by country or region. On May 17, residents of the United States and Canada could try their luck.
To be eligible for the giveaway, users had to sign up for an account with Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s flag carrier, then opt-in to receive promotional emails from the airline. On the day of the giveaway, hopeful travelers needed to log into their Cathay accounts, then wait for a promo code, which they could then use to book a gratis ticket.
However, huge demand meant that long digital queues formed even before tickets were available.
Kussin tells CNN that he waited half an hour just to log into his account, only to get an error message when he did. He refreshed and tried again, he says, only to be put back at the end of the line and told he had more than an hour to wait. Ultimately, his quest was unsuccessful.
A representative from Cathay tells CNN that the tickets were all snapped up in two and a half hours.
“We are very encouraged by the enthusiastic response from our Cathay members who registered for the exclusive ticket offer to Hong Kong,” the rep says. “As the home carrier of Hong Kong, we are excited to be supporting this campaign to welcome visitors from around the globe to discover the beauty of our beloved home city.”
“I was completely stonewalled,” Kussin says. “I’ve been hearing the same story from (other) people. They waited in a massive digital queue, they couldn’t sign in, and if they did they couldn’t find the promo code.”
“Airfare is so up across the board right now, and going to Hong Kong is really expensive. It would have been such a good deal and it would have sorted my vacation for the year.”
Did you find apk for android? You can find new Free Android Games and apps.
I am an experienced financial analyst & writer who is well known for his ability to foretell market trends as well.
Want create site? Find Free WordPress Themes and plugins.
Chennai: A Kuala Lumpur-bound international flight made an unscheduled stop here on Friday after a passenger complained of chest pain, officials said.
The flight with about 280 passengers was proceeding from Jeddah.
Soon after the flight landed following clearance, the passenger was rushed to a nearby government hospital, officials added.
Did you find apk for android? You can find new Free Android Games and apps.
I am an experienced financial analyst & writer who is well known for his ability to foretell market trends as well.
-
Sports2 years agoFoxz168 is the most modern football betting available
-
Work1 year agoEBL Portable Power Station Voyager
-
Apps1 year agoTiktok Video Downloader You Can Inspire To Use It
-
Technology1 year agoHow To Drain A Lawn | Fix Waterlogged Grass
-
Technology2 years ago5 Strange Car Design Terminology, Description
-
Technology2 years agoAdvantages of Using Personal GPS Tracking Systems
-
Health1 year agoEight Reasons Why You Should Drink Ghee with Milk at Night
-
Digital Marketing2 years agoWhat is the work of an influencer marketing agency?