Wednesday, May 23, 2007: Gunman runs amok
A bloody two-hour gunfight between an enraged gunman and scores of police officers at an open market on the outskirts of Bangkok ended yesterday in the death of four people, including the attacker. Seven others were injured, some of them seriously.
Kiartipong Meksawat, 21, armed with an AK47 assault rifle, went on a shooting spree just before dawn yesterday after stabbing to death a security guard, Sa-ard Khamsri, at the Thai Market in Pathum Thani's Klong Luang district.
Police said Sa-ard became Kiartipong's first victim after he questioned whether Kiartipong was the rightful owner of a motorcycle parked at the entrance of the market.
Moments later, the shooting spree began as police arrived at the crime scene to investigate an incident that soon became even more bloody than they initially anticipated.
Market women and wholesale buyers ducked for cover as gunfire was exchanged between the young man and police.
A durian seller, On Thongsuk, 46, and Pol Sergeant Issara Maneesaeng, were the gunman's next victims, while a pickup truck driver Theerayuth Sri-ariyakul, 30, who refused to give the gunman a lift, was shot and wounded.
A motorcycle taxi driver, Prasert Wabanthap, also took a stray bullet in his right leg.
Kiartipong was running for cover when he shot at Issara, hitting the officer in the head. Several others - including Pol Lt Col Ritthinan Puipanthawong, who was also injured - scrambled to get away from the hail of fire.
Doctors at the Thammasat Hospital in Rangsit sub-district performed surgery to remove the bullet from Ritthinan's stomach. He was later transferred to the Police Hospital in Bangkok, where he was put in the intensive care unit.
During the gunfight, Pol Private Virote Boonlawong was hit in the leg and stomach. Doctors said he is still in a critical condition as the bullets hit main blood vessels.
Two hours after the stabbing incident at Soi Aiyara 1/1, not far from where the first victim lay dead, Kiartipong was finally shot dead by police.
Initial investigations provided a glimpse into Kiartipong's personality.
It is known that he meditated, visited temples, yet also owned handguns, loved to play violent video games, read 'Guns and Ammo' magazines and had no friends except his sister, who visited him regularly.
"He was a loner," said Metropolitan Police Area 2 commander, Maj-General Amnuay Nimmano.
Police searched his apartment and found two fully loaded AK47 magazines, 35 rounds of bullets for .22mm handguns, three knives and one samurai sword, ninja-style throwing stars, weapon magazines and combative computer games.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007: Violence in Thailand claims five lives
Violence in Thailand claims five lives
Four Muslims and a Buddhist were killed and six troops wounded in four separate attacks in Thailand's rebellious Muslim-majority far south, police said on Wednesday.
At least 10 masked gunmen fired into a Muslim village late on Tuesday, killing three men and a woman, police said in Yala, one of the three southern provinces caught up in three years of separatist insurgency in which more than 2,100 people have died.
"They used all sorts of guns, shooting randomly" and the four people were killed in different houses, a police investigator told Reuters by telephone.
Monday, May 21, 2007: Militant attack kills 1, wounds 5 in Thai south
Militant attack kills 1, wounds 5 in Thai south
YALA, Thailand (Reuters) - Suspected Muslim militants shot dead a Buddhist man on Tuesday, set his body ablaze and left a booby trap which wounded four people, including a British photographer, a Reuters witness said.
The bomb was hidden under a pile of dirt near the charred body of the unidentified man in his 30s and his burnt motorcycle and also wounded a bomb squad officer and two policemen, he said.
Bangkok-based British photographer Philip Blenkinsop, on assignment for Time magazine, told Reuters by telephone from hospital he was hit by stones on the face and had hearing difficulties.
"I can't hear you well, you'll have to speak up," he said.
Doctors were also checking his eyes as they saw some scratches on them.
Militants fighting a separatist war against largely Buddhist Thailand often leave booby traps at the sites of their almost daily attacks in three years of violence in which more than 2,100 people have been killed.
On Sunday, they wounded seven policemen and defence volunteers and four civilians, both Muslims and Buddhists, near a market in nearby Narathiwat province, police said.
Sunday, May 20, 2007: Thai shootings kill 2, bomb wounds 11
Thai shootings kill 2, bomb wounds 11
PATTANI, Thailand --Suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed two Buddhist civilians and wounded a third in southern Thailand on Sunday, while a bomb wounded 11 people, including five policemen, police said.
In Yala province, a gunman on the back seat of a motorcycle shot a 51-year-old woman and her 17-year-old son as they were riding her motorcycle to a rubber plantation, police Lt. Col. Somporn Toharb said. The woman was killed and her son was seriously wounded.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007: Earth Quake
We just had an earth quake.
It wasn’t one of those Erwin Allen type EARTH QUAKES where everything crumbles on top of Shelley Winters while Chuck Heston shakes his fist at the sky. It was a gentle swaying of the 27th floor that my inner ear noticed first and was confirmed by the movement of the blinds. Just like a little rocking of the boat. This means there was probably a BIG earth quake somewhere to the south as we don’t really sit on the earth quake danger belt.
It lasted for what may have been a minute or two. Its hard to say. I have felt buildings sway before; specially our old place in Makati during the big Typhoon blowout of late 2000. That was scary. This was… interesting.
Friday, May 11, 2007: Busy
I am sorry that I've been largely offline and that blogging has been so light. My time this week was divided between the stuff I normally have to do and the stuff I need to do for the Common Tones project.
This means recording for at least three hours if not more a day, and an hour or more mixing the results. I have been actually spending the first hour of day mousing together the previous nights noodlings.
I have brought several other devices into use (The Sherman Filter Bank and Electro Harmonix Octaver) but I am still exclusively using the Novation XioSynth as my keyboard.
It rained a lot this week. Big heavy rains. Today was largely clear and sunny though which was a nice change.
Friday, May 4, 2007: Batteries & Rain
Batteries! NOT ENOUGH BATTERIES... Need more AAs and 9volts...
Since the power thingy for the XioSynth is set for North American voltages I can't plug it in here so I am forced to use AAs. Which I don't mind as they last about 6 hours. Except that 6 hours of these days is... one night's worth of recording. The Digitech Digi Delay EATS 9 volt batteries. I need to take a trip over to the Pantip zone and get a power supply for both the Boss Giga Delay (another AA eating machine) and for the Digitech. I am now down to my last pack of AAs...
Rainy season is truly here. Yesterday afternoon we got the BIG RAIN. Drops the size of grapes and so much coming down at once that you couldn't see more than a few feet in front of you. I enjoy that though, as its usually over soon enough and things cool down nicely. I don't like days and days of drizzle though.
Sandy is learning the meaning of "five more minutes" in regards to recording. Food gets cold, tea gets too strong, and so on. The musicians reading this will understand what I'm talking about
