Chiang Mai
Police defend theft charges on British backpacker Chris Dodd

PHOTOS: Chris Dodd, BBC
Police are defending their actions when they charged a British backpacker with theft after he picked up a mobile phone at Chiang Mai airport last February.
29 year old Chris Dodd spent 10 days in jail in February after he was charged with stealing the phone belonging to a German tourist and remanded in custody by a court. Chris insists that he intended to hand the phone in when he arrived at his accommodation.
Read the original Thaiger story HERE.
The charge was dropped after his family and friends back home raised 828,690 baht to pay a fine on his behalf. Dodd has since returned home and continues to protest his innocence.
He has also complained in interviews with the local media that he was forced to have his dreadlocks shaved while he was detained and had to sleep in an overcrowded jail where nobody spoke English.
Dodd, a tattoo artist, told the BBC that he found the phone just as he was about to get into the taxi after arriving at the airport.
The broadcaster says he told them he picked it up the phone and while looking for its owner he moved it to a different location, which is considered theft in Thai law.
Pol Colonel Krissana Pattanacharoen said police at Chiang Mai International Airport had been approached at 8.40pm on February 26 by a German tourist who said she had lost her mobile phone in the terminal.
CCTV footage showed a foreigner with dreadlocks and white cap pick up the phone from the floor of the passengers’ lounge before leaving the airport in a public van.
Police then traced the van to a guesthouse in Tambon Sripoom, Muang district and found the phone in the possession of British backpacker Dodd, who comes from Poole, Dorset.
“The SIM of the phone we confiscated from the British man had been removed, and the password and language changed,” said Krissana.
“All the data had been wiped clean. Police then took him to the Pupingrachaniwet police station to be charged.”
Based on the evidence, police charged him with theft and he was taken to Chiang Mai prison pending trial. He was freed on bail on March 11.
Krissana insisted that the shaving of the dreadlocks had been done in accordance with the regulations.
“We strictly follow the laws with respect to basic human rights,” Krissana added.
“We are gathering information from his interviews to consider legal action against him.”
BBC quoted Dodd as saying: “I was stripped naked, sent in, given a blanket. Then, the next thing you know you’re being taken into the cells, where they house massive amounts of people.
“Nobody spoke English. It was really intimidating. You just have to fight for a space on the floor and you have people’s legs all over you.”
SOURCE: The Nation
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Coronavirus (Covid-19)
Chiang Mai night markets reopening tomorrow

Night markets in Chiang Mai will be reopened tomorrow after the province went 6 consecutive days with no new Covid-19 cases.
According to Chiang Mai Governor, Charoenrit Sanguansat, the province and the provincial disease control committee agreed to ease up restrictions on social and business activities after the number of infections continually dropped and no new infections were reported during the past week.
As a result, flea markets, night markets, and walking streets across the province will be reopened tomorrow onwards.
However, the governor still reiterates that marketplaces and visitors must follow the disease control measures strictly.
Since the start of the second wave of Covid-19 in mid-December, Chiang Mai has tightened restrictions to prevent the virus spread in the province, with the order to close all markets and social activities for 14 days on January 6.
SOURCE: Nation Thailand
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Environment
Thailand on fire – NASA satellite website tracks the country’s farm fires

Thailand is burning. The burning off of harvested crop plantations is lighting up the agricultural areas. The truth is starkly revealed in the live NASA satellite feeds which track the fires around the world.
CHART: Fires in the past 10 days around parts of Thailand – Firms.Modaps
Concentrations of the current fires can be seen in Central Thailand, north of Bangkok, parts of Isaan, north east of Bangkok, and around Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. Notably the concentration of fires in northern Cambodia and across the north-western border in Myanmar, is also causing plenty of problems as the foreign smoke drifts across the borders. No matter what Thai officials do to enforce the rice, sugar and corn plantation burn-offs, there is little they can do about the haze drifting across the borders.
Bangkok, so close to clusters of fires, is in for a bad air pollution day anytime the light winds of the start of the year blow from the north or the east. The lack of rain adds to the problem, the annual problem, that engulfs Thailand’s capital during days between December and April, with the worst month, statistically, being March.
The alternative method of preparing for the next harvest, mechanical removal of the refuse and waste after harvesting, is both unpopular in Thailand and economically unviable for the small farmers whose margins remain thin with the multi-national buyers of their produce pushing for lower and lower prices every year.
In Chiang Mai, from January to the end of March, the locals even call it the ‘burning season’. Coupled with the hot season, the farmers in northern Thailand burn their fields to prepare land for the next harvest and also to get rid of biowastes like corn that can’t be sold in the market. It’s officially illegal to do the burn offs but the lack of enforcement leaves the problem unresolved and the smog and haze remain as predictable as the annual wet season.
Chiang Mai also has a local geographic problem which exacerbates the bad smoke pollution. The city is in a valley, surrounded by hills, trapping in the smoke and helping block any breezes that could otherwise blow it away.
For today, Bangkok’s air pollution is better than the past two days but still registering as ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’ with city readings mostly between 140 – 170. Parts of the city, mostly south-east and south west, were registering readings above 300 in the past few days.
SOURCE: IQair.com
Watch this video for some more information about Bangkok’s smog…
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Coronavirus (Covid-19)
Chiang Mai records 4 new Covid cases linked to same venue

The northern city of Chiang Mai has confirmed 4 new cases of coronavirus, all of which are linked to the Warm Up café in the Muang district. The province of Chiang Mai now has 11 active cases and has recorded 57 cases in total, according to deputy governor, Weerapan Dee-on.
“The 54th patient in Chiang Mai is a Thai man aged 23 from Sansai district. He displayed no symptoms. The 55th patient is another Thai man aged 28 from Muang district. He also showed no Covid-19 symptoms. The 56th patient is a Thai woman aged 28, who works in Bangkok but recently returned home to Sankamphaeng district. She had symptoms of coughing and a blocked nose. The 57th patient is another Thai woman aged 22 from Muang district. She displayed symptoms of coughing and tiredness.”
According to a Nation Thailand report, all 4 frequented the Warm Up café on New Year’s Eve.
Earlier this week, the province confirmed a 25 year old woman who’d been socialising at multiple entertainment venues had tested positive for the virus. At that stage, her infection brought the total number of cases detected in the province to 50. Following her positive diagnosis, officials embarked on a track and trace process, to determine who may have had contact with the patient. Through this, a 28 year old man who works at the Warm Up café also tested positive. On December 31, he worked from 3pm – 1am.
Officials have now tested 283 contacts who were at the venue that night and results are pending. All bars and other nightlife venues have been closed for 14 days by order of the provincial communicable disease committee. Deputy governor Weerapan says anyone else who was at the Warm Up café between December 31 and January 3 must come forward for testing.
SOURCE: Nation Thailand
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