• Kyodo


A Japanese man died Sunday after two Thai men beat him Friday night outside his restaurant in the eastern Thai coastal district of Si Racha, Chonburi Province, police said.

Police in Si Racha, about 100 km southeast of Bangkok, said they do not know why the two men assaulted 51-year-old Yoshio Kinebuchi, but said the men tried to steal his necklace but did not take any money. They fled by motorcycle.

Police suspect Kinebuchi had business-related problems because his restaurant is one of some 20 others competing in the crowded industrial area. He had run his eatery there for more than 10 years.

Kinebuchi’s Thai wife, Prapit Thongkhao, told police that her husband and their 5-year-old daughter, Miho, were outside the restaurant when the two men approached. The two started hitting Kinebuchi all over his body until he collapsed, according to police.

A nurse at a Si Racha hospital where Kinebuchi was admitted Friday said he was conscious that night, and that doctors treated a cut on the back of his head as well as bruises all over his body.

Kinebuchi was bleeding from his nose and mouth when he was admitted to the hospital. He vomited and looked exhausted early Saturday morning and eventually lost consciousness. Doctors decided to X-ray his skull to check for possible brain damage.

The doctors found that his brain was swelling and decided to transfer him early Saturday afternoon to another hospital in Chonburi because no neurologist was available at the Si Racha hospital.

Kinebuchi’s condition worsened overnight and he was transferred to a hospital in Bangkok, where he died. His body was sent to the autopsy unit at Police Hospital in Bangkok on Sunday, according to officials at the Bangkok hospital.

Bug catch nets arrests

KATMANDU (Kyodo) A Japanese man has been arrested along with a Nepalese for allegedly collecting wild insects in Nepal without a permit, a local newspaper reported Sunday.

Kuniyoshi Furuta and Tej Basnet were arrested by a ranger from the Daman forest office in the Makawanpur district for allegedly collecting insects without the required government authorization, the government-owned Gorkhapatra newspaper said.

It is the first case in which someone has been arrested for collecting insects without proper authorization, it said.

The ranger seized 49 varieties of insects from the two and 10 small plastic cases used for keeping them.

Furuta told officials at the Daman forest office that he had taken the insects for breeding in Japan.

He said he had spoken to a senior scientist of the Nepal national agriculture research council for advice before entering the forest to collect the insects, the paper said.

Furuta, who had collected insects from Ilam in eastern Nepal last year, said the scientist told him no permit was required, it said.