Fearful that Thailand’s new labor rules will get them into trouble, tens of thousands of migrant workers are returning to neighboring Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, causing hardship to themselves and their Thai employers. Labor regulations that took effect June 23 could give foreign workers without proper permits up to five years in prison, while their employers could face fines of up to 800,000 baht (USD23,500). Officials and workers’ advocates estimate that roughly 30,000 workers have returned home since the rules took effect. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, under pressure from industries employing the migrants, says he’ll institute a 120-day extension of the deadline for worker registration.
Vietnam buffalo fight suspended
A traditional water buffalo fight in northern Vietnam was suspended after an animal attacked and killed its owner, in the first human fatality since the sport resumed after the Vietnam War. The buffalo was killed and samples were taken to determine whether the animal had been given a stimulant to make it more aggressive, said Do Van Viet, a local official in the resort town of Do Son where the fight took place. The buffalo at first chased the owner of the other animal but failed to catch him and then turned on its owner, who died several hours later from multiple wounds, Viet said. State media identified him as 46-year-old Dinh Xuan Huong, who trained fighting buffaloes for other owners for 10 years and this year had owned and trained a buffalo for himself for the first time.
Anger over ex-CIA contractor’s memoir
Pakistan intelligence and security officials reacted angrily to the release of a memoir by an ex-CIA contractor, saying his 2011 acquittal in a high-profile murder case and subsequent return to the U.S. was an arrangement between Pakistan and the U.S., not among individuals. Raymond Davis’ book exposed the alleged role of Pakistan’s former spy chief Shuja Pasha in quashing a murder trial against Davis by paying USD2.4 million to the families of two men Davis killed while working for the CIA in Pakistan in 2011. The incident triggered a diplomatic crisis when police arrested Davis for the killings. But, seven weeks later, the families of the slain men told a court that they pardoned Davis, ending a tense showdown between the U.S. and Pakistan.
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