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Richard S. Ehrlich - Latest News [Page 2]
Ex-British Spy's "Great Game" In Afghanistan
Monday, 20 February 2023, 2:20 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
By Richard S. Ehrlich BANGKOK, Thailand -- A former wartime British spy in Afghanistan and Pakistan for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), also known as MI6, says he regrets disguising himself as a foreign correspondent but is proud of his ... More >>
San Francisco's Cookies Cannabis In Thailand
Sunday, 12 February 2023, 6:51 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
Cookies, a popular San Francisco-based cannabis and fashion company, opened its first Asian franchise on January 21 with billowing marijuana smoke, a Buddhist monk's blessings, Muay Thai boxing, and ceremonial drumming within sight of the American ... More >>
Thai Coup Leader Suspended From Power
Saturday, 3 September 2022, 12:30 am | Richard S. Ehrlich
A Constitutional Court suspended Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha from office on August 24, immediately replacing him with his deputy, while judges decide when Mr. Prayuth's prime ministry should end after he seized power in a 2014 coup and won ... More >>
Tourism, Air Tickets, & Medical Sleaze
Thursday, 4 August 2022, 2:30 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Vietnam arrested foreign ministry, tourism, air, medical, and manufacturing officials and expelled them from the ruling Communist Party, amid multi-million dollar corruption scandals which are testing Hanoi's reliability in the U.S. Indo-Pacific ... More >>
Marcos Dynasty Elected President In The Philippines
Friday, 20 May 2022, 5:13 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
In a stunning victory, Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. won the Philippines' presidential election, bringing him to the frontlines of U.S.-China confrontations in the South China Sea amid denials that he is Beijing's puppet "Manchurian ... More >>
American THC For Medical Clinic In Bangkok
Wednesday, 4 May 2022, 12:42 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
BANGKOK, Thailand -- A Las Vegas-based cannabis company has become the first foreign franchise to jointly open a medical marijuana clinic in Thailand, treating Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cancer, eating disorders and insomnia in Bangkok's flashy tourist zone. ... More >>
Russia Woos Southeast Asia To Buffer Sanctions
Tuesday, 19 April 2022, 3:26 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Moscow is trying to profit by offering weapons, investment, tourism and diplomatic support to Thailand and other best friends in Southeast Asia, to buffer Russia's international losses caused by U.S.-led sanctions against its ... More >>
Saudi Arabia Agrees To Stop Punishing Thailand
Tuesday, 8 March 2022, 1:10 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
BANGKOK, Thailand -- More than 30 years after a Thai janitor stole a blue diamond from Saudi royals and the murder of four Saudi diplomats, Riyadh has agreed to stop punishing Bangkok with financial sanctions which cost billions of dollars in lost ... More >>
West Point & China Influences Cambodia
Thursday, 24 February 2022, 1:20 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Hun Manet, trained by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, may become Cambodia's next leader after his pro-China father Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen recently anointed him, prompting scrutiny about how the heir apparent would ... More >>
U.S.-China Rivalry For Thailand
Tuesday, 8 February 2022, 3:51 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
NONG KHAI, Thailand -- You can see China's inexorable southern thrust along the Mekong River where tall, fanciful, Chinese buildings sprout nearby on the Laos side of this sleepy northern border, sparking hopes and fears about Beijing's influence ... More >>
Silk Road Train Encircles China's Dreaded Desert
Wednesday, 10 November 2021, 4:17 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
Ancient Silk Road travelers cursed China's largest desert as "Takla Makan," an ominous Persian-Turkic expression which translates as "enter and you may never return." Undeterred by its sandstorms and merciless terrain in the oblong ... More >>
River-Rich Laos Invites Bitcoin Miners
Tuesday, 12 October 2021, 3:07 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
BANGKOK, Thailand -- After China's recent cryptocurrency crackdown, impoverished Laos is now allowing Bitcoin mining, fueled by abundant hydroelectric power from the Mekong River and shrugging off U.S. warnings of disastrous environmental problems. ... More >>
Police Suffocation
Friday, 10 September 2021, 12:59 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's prime minister and public appeared horrified after watching provincial police chief "Joe Ferrari" allegedly torture and kill a drug suspect by wrapping his head with layers of plastic bags until he suffocated. ... More >>
Al Qaeda in Afghanistan Zapping Foreign Lands
Tuesday, 24 August 2021, 2:37 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
BANGKOK, Thailand -- During the first days of America's bombardment and invasion of Afghanistan 20 years ago, the Taliban government collapsed in panic, abandoning Kabul in November 2001. More >>
U.S. Embassy In Laos: Facebook & "A Terrorist"
Tuesday, 3 August 2021, 12:47 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
BANGKOK, Thailand -- The U.S. Embassy in Laos has publicly apologized and blamed Facebook's auto-translation for describing an ethnic Hmong-American Olympic Games teenage gymnast as "a terrorist" on the American Embassy's official site, ... More >>
U.S. Sees "Threat" In The Golden Triangle
Friday, 30 July 2021, 1:48 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
BANGKOK, Thailand -- In Southeast Asia's crime-infested Golden Triangle, Chinese entrepreneur Zhao Wei is constructing a sprawling casino resort and airstrip despite being sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department as a "threat to the United ... More >>
U.S. Ghosts Of War Haunt Afghanistan
Thursday, 22 July 2021, 11:22 am | Richard S. Ehrlich
BANGKOK, Thailand -- When the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan secured Bagram Air Base in January 2002, a Special Operations officer said he motivated newly arrived 82nd Airborne Division troops with a human skull, because the young Americans became enthusiastic ... More >>
U.S. Expats Demand Washington Provide Vaccines
Wednesday, 2 June 2021, 4:02 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Some of Biden's and Trump's most active boosters here in Southeast Asia have joined forces, demanding the State Department vaccinate all American expats in Thailand, as a model for international distribution, instead of discriminating ... More >>
Pentagon & Beijing In Pacific's Liquid Heart
Tuesday, 25 May 2021, 4:04 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
Tiny Palau invited the Pentagon to build ports, bases and airfields on its Pacific islands, after Chinese President Xi Jinping bullied Palau by destabilizing its fragile economy, according to defiant President Surangel Whipps. "President Whipps' ... More >>
U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan: 1989 Vs. 2021
Tuesday, 4 May 2021, 12:36 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
BANGKOK, Thailand -- President Biden's announced withdrawal from Afghanistan will be the second time since 1989 that the U.S. retreats from that country -- and twice after years of boosting war but losing control over Islamist insurgents. When previously ... More >>
