Thailand burned almost 3 tonnes of drugs worth about US$105 million yesterday to mark the UN day against drug abuse and trafficking, while Myanmar burned illegal drugs worth US$272.5 million.
Thailand's haul of methamphetamines, heroin, opium, ecstasy, cocaine and marijuana was set ablaze in an environmentally friendly incinerator in the central province of Ayutthaya, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.
"Thailand is seriously cracking down on drugs in order to overcome the drug problem and reduce drug addiction and its consequences," Deputy Health Minister Morakot Kornkasem said at the ceremony.
Morakot said Thailand would focus on preventing chemicals used to make drugs from being smuggled into the kingdom, and on rehabilitation of addicts.
The destroyed drugs came from 12,672 resolved court cases, the FDA said, and most of them were methamphetamines.
In Myanmar, more than 4 tonnes of opium and 4 million tablets of methamphetamines as well as drug-making chemicals were torched in a ceremony in Shan state, home to some of the country's most prolific drugs traffickers.
"Being aware of the menace of drugs to mankind, Myanmar has not spared any efforts to totally eradicate the problem from the face of the earth, by using all means -- even sacrificing lives," national police chief Khin Yee said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but