Day: January 8, 2023

Thailand’s Princess Bajrakitiyabha remains unconscious more than three weeks after collapsing due to a heart problem, a palace statement said in an update on the health of the the 44-year-old potential heir to the throne.

The eldest child of Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn lost consciousness on Dec. 15 due to severe heart arrhythmia resulting from inflammation following a mycoplasma infection, according to a statement issued by the palace late Saturday.

The princess’s “overall condition is that she remains unconscious,” the palace said.

“Doctors continue to provide medicine and use equipment to support the functions of the heart, lung and kidney as well as using antibiotics while monitoring her condition closely,” it said.

Princess Bajarakitiyabha fell ill while preparing her dogs for a competition in northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima province, where she was initially treated before being taken by helicopter to Bangkok.

She is one of three children of King Vajiralongkorn who have formal titles, making her eligible for the throne under a palace succession law and the country’s constitution.

The king has yet to formally designate an heir and there has been no official discussion on the prospect of the princess taking the throne.

Princess Bajarakitiyabha, a trained lawyer with master and doctorate degrees from Cornell University, has served as Thai ambassador to Austria, Slovenia and Slovakia and in roles with the attorney general’s office, the Royal Security Command and as Thai ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

She was born on Dec. 7, 1978. Her mother is the king’s first wife, Princess Soamsawali.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

Thailand will require international travelers to show proof they are fully vaccinated for COVID before flying to Thailand, according to the country’s aviation regulator, as it prepares for more tourists after China reopened its border on Sunday.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand said in a statement Saturday that starting early Monday, all foreign arrivals starting early on Monday must prove they are vaccinated or provide a letter certifying that they have recovered from COVID within six months.

Unvaccinated travelers must show a medical certificate explaining why they have not received the vaccine.

CAAT said airlines would be responsible for checking documents before passengers board and has released a list of how many doses are required for various types of COVID-19 vaccines on its website.

The new measure will remain in effect at least until the end of January, CAAT said.

The vaccination requirement was scrapped by Thailand last October but has been revived as China reopens its border following the easing of its zero-COVID policy.

The first commercial flight from China to Thailand, Xiamen Airlines flight MF833, will arrive to Bangkok from Xiamen on Monday carrying 286 passengers, government spokeswoman Traisuree Taisaranakul said Sunday.

Foreigners traveling to Thailand from a country where a negative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test result is a condition for entry are required to show proof of health insurance that covers COVID-19 treatment, the Health Ministry said.

The new entry requirements do not apply to Thai passport holders or passengers transiting through Thailand.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

A boat with 185 Rohingya refugees landed on the shores of Indonesia’s Aceh province on Sunday, a local disaster agency official said, following hundreds who arrived late last year fleeing desperate conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Over half of those who arrived around 2:30 p.m. Sunday were women and children, Ridwan Jamil, head of Aceh Besar disaster agency, told Reuters.

Photos Ridwan shared showed the refugees sitting in groups and lying down on the sand.

Hundreds of Rohingya have reached Aceh in the past few months, including a boat that washed ashore carrying 174 in late December.

The United Nations refugee agency said that 2022 could be one of the deadliest years at sea in almost a decade for the Rohingya, who have long been persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

For years many Rohingya have fled to neighboring states such as Thailand and Bangladesh, and to Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia.

Fishermen in Aceh had spotted three boats they strongly suspected were carrying Rohingya refugees in waters near Rondo Island, state news agency Antara reported late Saturday.

It was unclear whether the boat that landed was one of them.

Nearly 1 million Rohingya live in crowded conditions in Bangladesh, including many of the hundreds of thousands who fled a deadly crackdown in 2017 by Myanmar’s military, which denies committing crimes against humanity.

Rights groups have recorded a significant increase in the number leaving the camps. It is not clear what is driving the larger exodus, but some activists believe the lifting of COVID restrictions around Southeast Asia could be a factor.

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America

Frightened villagers fled to higher ground fearing a tsunami when a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck late Sunday just off the coast of the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.

The violent quake’s epicenter was in the sea just off the northern bay of the largest island Espiritu Santo, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the archipelago’s capital Port Vila.

Kayson Pore, a 22-year-old student from the village of Hog Harbour in Espiritu Santo, said he was looking for crab on the beach with half a dozen friends when the earth shook.

“It was very huge,” Pore told AFP by telephone.

“We were right on the sea, we were looking for crab on the coast,” he said.

“We ran for our lives and then we ran to our homes.”

At his home in the village of about 1,000 people, the quake had knocked objects to the ground, breaking cups in the kitchen, Pore said.

“People were moving to higher ground,” he added, for fear of a tsunami tidal wave.

But Pore said he had seen no structural damage to homes in his village.

The shallow quake hit around 11:30 pm local time (1230 GMT) around 27 kilometers (17 miles) deep, according to the US Geological Survey, which placed it about 25 kilometers from the Espiritu Santo village of Port-Olry.

People could feel the quake as far away as Port Vila, on the island of Etafe, said Natasha Joel, a receptionist at the Grand Hotel and Casino in the capital.

However, the tremor was “a bit small” there and no guests were evacuated from the hotel, she said.

A tsunami warning was initially issued for Vanuatu, New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands but cancelled about an hour and a half after the quake.

‘A Big One!’

“Tsunami waves reaching 0.3 to one meter above the tide level are possible for some coasts of Vanuatu,” the NWS Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii said.

Waves smaller than 0.3 meters were possible for New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, it added.

The French embassy in Vanuatu advised people to stay away from the coasts in a post on its official Facebook page.

Residents reported on social media that there had been damage.

“A Big One!!” one person posted on Facebook. “Lots of things broken all around.”

New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency said there was no tsunami threat to its country.

Vanuatu is part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide, and experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

The Solomon Islands, an island nation just north of Vanuatu, was hit in November with a 7.0-magnitude quake, though there were no reports of serious injuries or major structural damage.

In 2018, a 7.5-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island left more than 4,300 people dead or missing.

Vanuatu is ranked as one of the countries most susceptible to natural disasters like earthquakes, storm damage, flooding and tsunamis, according to the annual World Risk Report.

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America