Thai

BANGKOK — A court in Thailand said Wednesday that it has issued an arrest warrant for a co-owner of the Miss Universe Organization in connection with a fraud case.

Jakkaphong “Anne” Jakrajutatip was charged with fraud then released on bail in 2023. She failed to appear as required in a Bangkok court on Tuesday. Since she did not notify the court about her absence, she was deemed to be a flight risk, according to a statement from the Bangkok South District Court.

The court rescheduled the hearing for Dec. 26.

According to the court’s statement, Jakkaphong and her company, JKN Global Group Public Co. Ltd., were sued for allegedly defrauding Raweewat Maschamadol in selling him the company’s corporate bonds in 2023. Raweewat says the investment caused him to lose $930,362.

Financially troubled JKN defaulted on payments to investors beginning in 2023 and began debt rehabilitation procedures with the Central Bankruptcy Court in 2024. The company says it has debts totaling about $93 million.

JKN acquired the rights to the Miss Universe pageant from IMG Worldwide LLC in 2022. In 2023, it sold 50% of its Miss Universe shares to Legacy Holding Group USA, which is owned by a Mexican businessman, Raúl Rocha Cantú.

Jakkaphong resigned from all of the company’s positions in June after being accused by Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission of falsifying the company’s 2023 financial statements. She remains its largest shareholder.

Her whereabouts remain unclear. She did not appear at the 74th Miss Universe competition, which was held in Bangkok earlier this month.

This year’s competition was marred by various problems, including a sharp-tongued scolding by a Thai organizer of Fátima Bosch Fernández of Mexico, who was crowned Miss Universe 2025 on Nov. 19. Two judges reportedly dropped out, with one suggesting that there was an element of rigging to the contest. Separately, Thai police investigated allegations that publicity for the event included illegal promotion of online casinos.

On Monday, JKN denied rumors that Jakkaphong had liquidated the company’s assets and fled the country, but there has been no immediate reaction regarding the arrest warrant. She could not be reached for comment.

Jakkaphong is a well-known celebrity in Thailand who has starred in reality shows and is outspoken about her identity as a transgender woman.

Saksornchai writes for the Associated Press.

Reports say doctors diagnosed the woman with critically low blood sugar, likely leading to her weakened condition.

A woman in Thailand has shocked staff at a Buddhist temple when she started moving in her coffin after being brought in for cremation.

Wat Rat Prakhong Tham, a temple in the province of Nonthaburi on the outskirts of the capital, Bangkok, posted a video on its Facebook page, showing a woman lying in a white coffin in the back of a pick-up truck, slightly moving her arms and head, leaving temple staff bewildered.

Pairat Soodthoop, the temple’s general and financial affairs manager, told The Associated Press news agency on Monday that the 65-year-old woman’s brother drove her from the province of Phitsanulok to be cremated.

He said they heard a faint knock coming from the coffin.

“I was a bit surprised, so I asked them to open the coffin, and everyone was startled,” he said.

“I saw her opening her eyes slightly and knocking on the side of the coffin. She must have been knocking for quite some time.”

According to Pairat, the brother said his sister had been bedridden for about two years, when her health deteriorated and she became unresponsive, appearing to stop breathing two days ago.

The brother then placed her in a coffin and made the 500km (300-mile) journey to a hospital in Bangkok, to which the woman had previously expressed a wish to donate her organs.

The hospital refused to accept the brother’s offer as he didn’t have an official death certificate, Pairat said. His temple offers a free cremation service, which is why the brother approached them on Sunday, but was also refused due to the missing document.

The temple manager said that he was explaining to the brother how he could get a death certificate when they heard the knocking. They then assessed her and sent her to a nearby hospital.

The abbot said the temple would cover her medical expenses, according to Pairat.

According to the Thailand News website, doctors later diagnosed the woman with severe hypoglycaemia, or critically low blood sugar, and confirmed she had not experienced cardiac or respiratory failure.

Army blames armed opposition groups for allowing scam centres to operate under their protection.

Myanmar’s military says it has raided an internet scam hub on the Thai border, arresting nearly 350 people, as part of a highly publicised crackdown against the booming black-market compounds.

The army on Wednesday blamed armed opposition groups for allowing scam centres to operate under their protection but said it had taken action after wresting back territorial control.

Myanmar’s military descended on the gambling and fraud hub Shwe Kokko on Tuesday morning, according to state-run The Global New Light of Myanmar.

“During the operation, 346 foreign nationals currently under scrutiny were arrested,” the daily reported. “Nearly 10,000 mobile phones used in online gambling operations were also seized.”

It said the Yatai firm of Chinese-Cambodian alleged racketeer She Zhijiang was “the entity involved” in running the Shwe Kokko area.

She was arrested in Thailand in 2022 and extradited last week to China, where he faces allegations of involvement in online gambling and fraud operations. She and his company, Yatai, were previously under British and US sanctions.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the border regions linking Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia have emerged as centres for online fraud.

According to the United Nations, these areas have generated billions of dollars through the trafficking of hundreds of thousands of people coerced into working in scam compounds.

China pressure

Myanmar’s military government has long been accused of turning a blind eye but has trumpeted a crackdown since February after being lobbied by key military backer China, experts say.

Additional raids beginning last month were part of a propaganda effort, according to some monitors, choreographed to vent pressure from Beijing without badly denting profits that enrich the military government’s militia allies.

Since a 2021 coup led to a civil war, Myanmar’s loosely governed borderlands have proven fertile ground for scam hubs, which analysts say are staffed by thousands of willing workers as well as people trafficked from abroad.

In October, the military arrested more than 2,000 people in a raid on KK Park, an infamous scam centre on the border with Thailand.

In September, the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned more than 20 companies and individuals in Cambodia and Myanmar for their alleged involvement in scam operations.

Cambodia says the mine that wounded four Thai soldiers was a remnant of past conflicts, but Bangkok says the explanation is insufficient.

Cambodia has denied laying new landmines along its border with Thailand after Bangkok suspended the implementation of an enhanced ceasefire signed last month over an explosion that wounded four Thai soldiers.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Cambodian Ministry of National Defence expressed regret at the landmine explosion the previous day in Thailand’s Sisaket province near the countries’ shared border, saying the blast had taken place in an old minefield.

The ministry said such unexploded ordnance was “remnants of past conflicts” and urged Thai soldiers to avoid patrols in mine-contaminated zones.

Despite the dispute, “both military forces on the front lines had communicated with each other, and, as of now, the situation remains calm, with no tension having been reported,” the ministry added.

Thailand and Cambodia signed their enhanced truce in Malaysia last month after long-running territorial disputes between the Southeast Asian neighbours led to five days of combat in late July.

The conflict, which killed at least 48 people and temporarily displaced an estimated 300,000, marked their worst fighting in recent history.

The enhanced ceasefire, signed in the presence of United States President Donald Trump, sought to build on an earlier truce brokered in July and included the withdrawal of troops and heavy weapons.

It also called for Bangkok’s release of 18 Cambodian prisoners of war.

The Thai government on Tuesday insisted the Cambodian explanation was insufficient and said it was halting the release of the Cambodian soldiers, which had been slated for Wednesday.

Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said his country’s decision would be explained to the US and Malaysia, the chair of the regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which has facilitated the ceasefire process.

“What they [Cambodia] have said is not sufficient. We have to see what Cambodia’s stance is from now on,” he said.

The Thai military late on Monday said officials had inspected the landmine explosion site in Sisaket and found an explosion pit and three more antipersonnel mines.

Spokesperson Major General Winthai Suvaree said the explosion occurred in an area that Thai soldiers had previously secured. He said that since October 17, the soldiers had removed landmines and laid defensive barbed wire there.

But the wire was destroyed on Sunday, and the soldiers checking the site on Monday stepped on the mine, Winthai said.

“The evidence led to the conclusion that intruders secretly removed the barbed wire and laid the landmines in the Thai territory, targeting the personnel who conduct regular patrols there,” Winthai said, according to the Bangkok Post.

“The act shows Cambodia’s insincerity in reducing conflict and reflects hostility which violates the jointly signed declaration,” he added.

The military said a sergeant lost his right foot in the explosion and the other three suffered minor injuries from shrapnel or the impact of the blast.

There was no immediate comment from the US or Malaysia.

While the Thai-Cambodian truce has generally held since July 29, both countries have traded allegations of ceasefire breaches.

Analysts said a more comprehensive peace pact adjudicating the century-long border dispute at the core of the conflict is needed.