kiwikeith

In fairness if you've got bars on your windows for security purposes or not,thieves who are desperate enough will come tooled up to enter no matter what your security measure are.

Window bars aren't that difficult to remove if you know how.

" Locks" only keep honest people out.

harsher sentences must be imposed for these type of accidents hit and runs in my opinion should be classed as murder the driver must have seen the victim but he couldn't stop because he was driving too fast these type of people are lethal .

Not murder, the driver was probably under stress and panicked.

Just to be fair:

I live near a road with quite a few car accidents. And Thai drivers engaged in an accident usually stop and leave their cars.

I think that's called hit and run.

Well surely he shouldn't be too difficult to find , being it was a public van full of passengers, many of which would have been Thai too I would imagine.

If they do find this cowardly <deleted> eventually, after he has sobered up or rid himself of traces of Yabba or whatever, I wonder, being as the German guy was related and with close connections to someone famous in Thailand, I wonder if he will get away with a few days in a temple and a small fine, or will the family be looking for a big payout or long tem sentence ?

RIP to the German guy.

Now I know why they drive so fast, so they don't miss out on passengers at the next pickup point, maybe he ran to pick them up by hand.

Seriously suicide drivers, Thai drivers drive at you and flash their lights to get out of their way!

So if your making a U turn and some loonatic is flying at 140k down the Rd flashing his lights at you in a 60 k speed zone then the loonatic is in danger of killing himself so be careful not to injure them.

I was obviously considered for a mugging as I came out of Bangkok Bank Emporium branch yesterday. I was in there about 30 minutes, came out and headed to the BTS staircase by Benjasiri park carrying a bag with my passport, bank book etc but no cash. As I was walking underneath the stairs to go up I noticed some shifty looking local guy was following me about a metre behind me, I sensed him so I stopped to let him past me. My girlfriend commented that he looked pretty dodgy and I agreed so we waited a few seconds and carried on. He was waiting for me at the bottom of the BTS steps. As I approached he moved out into my path so me and the gf both stopped and just looked at him (we commented/joked later that we both had a defiant/aggressive expression of "well come on then, if you're going to try and rob us then get on with it").

He stared at us a couple of seconds and turned his back and jogged off into Benjasiri Park. Very dodgy, almost certainly waiting outside for someone to leave the bank.

Not sure what happened to this guy on Asoke, but don't assume if you're doing nothing wrong then nothing will happen, especially in the current economic climate.

Why would the desperate not contemplate it when they know they will get little more than a slap on the wrist. It's surprising that it doesn't happen more frequently.

Even the beggars ( ie those who the govt was said to have moved into care some months ago and created a beggar free Bangkok) are cursing non givers these days. Soi 11 a case in point.

Similar story to me when I left Atm in prattunam had to run across RD into traffic as dodgy guy tried to pick pocket as I went up stairs of overbridge.

As for Beggars into care I see the beggar in Prattunam market that lies face down and crawls along with a cup is still around been around for years dont know how he survived this long poor man maybe he avoided being taken into care because of his low profile.

He is the worst/saddest case of a beggar I have ever seen.

Except for the odd "fire sale" prices never go down. Sellers ride out the tough times by keeping the old price unchanged.

If you are lucky enough to find a fire sale or someone desperate after gamble your lucky, as usualy many Thai jump in the line for a feed.

The property market is on fire in NZ , Australia , and UK I dont know about rest of Europe.

Some economic experts are predicting a bubble burst, in NZ's case poor areas drop back 10 to 20% when this happened in the past.

Rich areas hardly moved, in the history of record keeping of property sales the graph is rising and never has fallen except for the dips in the line.

The world is filling up rapidly and property is getting more scarce.

Thailand moves slowly with location being the key factor as in any country.

If tourism declines to new low levels I don't think Thailands property will drop much, they seem to sit on property here for long time and it takes a long time to sell houses here, I have watched Bank owned mortgage takeovers sit for years and they want higher prices for some than others in the same Soi that are better and not broken into and stripped like their properties.

Take your time if you want to buy no need to rush into any deals as of the very slow selltime and if your a cash buyer you might be in a better position to barter.

But as some of the above posters have said , the world is so unstable at present no one knows for sure what will happen if the bubble bursts.

I decided to rent and you can get bargains here , as Thais will stubbornly sit on unrented houses demanding high rents and only letting them a few months of the year until they have to pay the bank and will take a long term rental for a rate much lower than they thought they could get.

As posted above location location, and check the plumbing as many houses back vent and smell from new.

Of course he cannot confirm because they don't know who he/they are, but they are sure they are a foreigner. The average Thai male is 167 cm, compared to the suspect's 170 cm. They cannot be ruled out, given there are multiple groups that could have carried out the bombing. Most of what we get from the BiB are hunches without any sound evidence. They should only report to the press when thy have solid evidence.

Like a decent computer enhanced picture, they will never catch a fly with the pic they are circulating.

Perhaps he meant a "wired" bomb? not a "wide" one

I very tried - read bat news too mut

They said the leads had gone cold - but this discovery would have been the best source of info that could get.

Finger prints, witnesses, clothing, source of materials etc

No, no forensic trace left here same erewan and different bomb this one wide

1,339 police on a pre-dawn PR blitz doesn't make me feel safer.

Me as well, 1339 service men installing high tech facial recognition cameras, replacing the over 1000 broken and blurry ones would be a good start rather than the charge of the light brigade.

Shouldn't the headlines read "malls told to install more cameras because they won't have graft like the gov does when buying things needed." Or maybe " malls told to install more cameras because the police can't afford them."?

Well said.

Pattaya......."but rather than pay for new cameras to be installed, the better solution would be to fix and properly maintain the cameras the city already has. About 1,260 of the 1,400 installed cameras in the city are broken, he said.

He noted there currently is no budget for repair work."

No Budget! well thats a shame and great news for would be criminals.

So could they not spend the billions of BHT saved when they cancelled the Chinese submarine contract!!!

Its up to this amature lot who have lost a lot of face to fix this CCTV problem, most malls have plenty of dosh so they should be legally required to install not asked to upgrade immediately, you could probably buy better cameras at Panthip Plaza.

Come on RTP get out there fix your cameras up instead of loosing more international face.

It looks to me like the second bomb was being discarded. If so, it may have been a back-up in case something went wrong with the first one. Enough time lapsed between the detonation of the first bomb and the ditching of the second for it to have been known that bomb one was successful. If indeed it was such a back-up, then both bombs timers must have been set by mobile phone. Two inferences: (1) the objective was to cause just one serious event; and (2) the bomb makers and masterminds were skilled and knew precisely what they were doing. Just my penny's worth.

But why have it timed for 16 hours later when detonation sooner would be better if discarding it? Did they hope it would float into a busier area? What are the currents like there? It is all quite odd but I would bet there was nefarious intent there. Lots of more private places to discard it.

nah... it was 30 minutes after the first bomb went off, police were probably scrambling and the guy was probably scared to get caught in a police check, so he needed to get rid of it quickly.

A bomb is heavy and doesn't float.

Detonation time... probably set by him with his phablet before dropping the bomb into the water, ti give ample time to leave the area.

Very plausable! he put the bomb down then played with his cell phone, then he moved the bag along the bridge a bit placed it down and kicked it over the side.

He probably was setting the timer, both bombers were using cell phones.

Both bombs used ball bearings, and supposedly both used TNT although I don't know how police know this as they stated that they got no residue from Erewan.

Your right, he had plenty of time to walk away and he did not seem to be panicked.

So the motor bike guys say he does not look like the police sketch but looks 100% like the passport photo shown to them?

So the sketch is bad, I said this all along, so what now? will foreign media post the right image.

Maybe the fake passport has the wrong image and the thai police know more than they tell.

Don't think this guy will be caught at all.

Australia want pics of flight to aussie but we dont need yourrrrrr heeeelp.

We do ouselves.

Just for the record the most favorite name in israel for babies is Mohamad.

Another bungle if they catch this guy world war 3 begins.

IN most countries this case would have been thrown out, alone on the confessions being signed a month later by the tranlators who can't read or write and can not speak Thai or the b2's dialect very well.

So who do we believe?

neither !

yesterday the mocyc remembered him vaguely by shirt colour but not really any features -today hes 100% sure its the same guy ....

someones twisted his arm .......by cash or by threat is my best guess

Different motorcycle taxi.

You are referring to the one on the day of the bombing.

This guy, Nikhom Tantula, is referring to previous days.

That's what I thought and if he gave him that many rides he should be able to identify him one would think.

So if this is the case they know he is ?????

If this type of bomb hasn't been used before in Thailand then of course the makers must be foreign because Thai people are incapable of using the Internet to find detailed instructions on how to make bombs. That's right, isn't it?

The timers must have been expertly set, was that not a cell phone the bomber got out of his plastic bag, he did not pretend to take a pic the phone was angled forward, to me it looked like he swiped the screen and brought something up then walked away pressed call and up she went, a timer would be a bit amature and if set wrong +could have killed the poor guy.

Forensic evidence police said a few days ago "there was no residue to collect".

They opened the place up and left evidence as souvineers for the public and the BBC.

Ball bearings in both bombs -- no conection.

Now the 2 drawings of the suspect have 2 different hair styles.

Surely the Tuk Tuk who is supposed to have picked the guy up and drove him back and forth over a few days would know if he had a false nose

So they might have used a timer on the second bomb but to me it looks like a cell phone detonation of the first and now the authorities with no forensic evidence or a trace say they must be expert bomb makers because of the excellent timers.

Maybe the BBCEED can find some more forensic evidence to solve this Tale of Two Bombs

Another peice of info I read a few days ago was that the yellow shirt was unique to a botique in Jakarta where did that come from???

And another feed on google trying to link terrosts from that area to this ??

Damned if you do damned if you don't. But eitherway it had to be done.

Quite right, also I don't think he should have been the one to make that decision, the forensic investigation team head should have made the call after a complete and thorough investigation which we all know did not happen.

Not even the BBC shrapnel delivery has not fazed them.

Now that they have a route they should be launching a mass appeal for anyone along that route during that time who may have taken photos or video or any vehicals who were along that route with a dash cam to come forward and subit the pics or video. They just may get lucky and get a better pic of his face.

Exactly, in one of the pictures a man in blue clothes is standing straight in front of the suspect he must of had a good look at him.

I think the police sketch is all to hell this man looks fine featured and his body is lean.

What about all the computer technology that can enhance the pics and give his height arm ,leg and body measurements? or is that just in the movies?

More food for thought, the BBC have picked up shrapnel from across the street which the Thai police did not want when deliverd to them as no one there to take it.

Forensics may well identify similar material in the soy where he was picked up.

There's a shop in that Soi that sells only second-hand steel pipes. I once had a need for about 2 metres length of 8" internal diameter, 5-8 mm thickness steel pipe, and found it in that shop. As far as know, there are not too many shops specialised in selling used steel pipes. The police might want to investigate whether the that shop has recently sold any steel pipe of the type and size used in the bombs.

Similar to what I was thinking---- car repair shop -- ball bearings-- steel pipe sold in the soy you say and the above posters comment did the Tuk Tuk driver say he looked like the poster impression? as I think the CCTV footage doesn't look anything like him.

According to SKY NEWS the red and white shirts handed themselves in to police and have been released as a chinese tourist and his Thai tour guide.

But! we think that ten people were involved but now we must be down to one as we released the chinese tourist and his Thai guide

Just let the pigdogs go and revoke their citizenship

Correct but makes to much sense, refrain them and spend more taxpayers money on reforming them.

I guess my definition of "identified" is you know the name of the suspect already.

Took the words right out of my mouth, they have not identified anyone just suspects with no names at present.

looking for motives?

find out who will take advantage of a worsening economic situation in the country

Check out the stock exchange see who was trading on the Thai Bht to fall before the bomb went off, this happened b4 9 11.

They also said there was no Military personnel involved in human trafficking.

but why should international terrorists target Thailand?

same reason they do in other countries.. headline grabbing for starters, spark fear and unrest, looking at the broader and bigger picture of Thailand cozying up to China.

Does this mean that international agencies told them there in no foreign involvement, Khun Obama CIA do this, No dont worry just open everything bussines as usual, but don't forget to collect shrapnel from BBC>

I'm afraid it doesn't matter who they ask for help...

[media]

[/media]

The BBC finds shapnel and takes it to police headquarters, no one home to accept it, Diabolical embaressment now shown on press world wide.

They failed to collect bomb residue, they said there was none?

They cleaned the site washed it down and reopened it , should have been locked down and had forensics all over it.

When will they find the burmese who obviously did this!

Maybe they should ask the BBC and all other members of the public for help and urge them to bring in all souvineer shrapnel immediately!

"OK Thailand, lets see the forensic evidence left behind by the bomb"

"No have . We clean right away. Make like new. Tourist happy. OK?"

"Well, the list of names associated with cellphones in use in the area"

"No have. 16,000,000 not registered. We still let use. Everybody happy. OK?"

"Video of suspect as he move through Bangkok?"

"90% of camera not work. Need money for other things. Tourist think work, feel happy. OK?"

"Photos of people entering Thailand at airports and from immigration?"

"No have. Computer not work. Just act like camera work. Only for collect money. Make bad man happy. OK?"

Unfortunately it probably very true

Airports did not get locked down.

Shane Looker slipped out of the country without a trace, interpol hve not sited him.

Perhaps some money need investing in the airport,border and city CCTV systems a straight out airport tax of 500 bht would do wonders if it was used to fix CCTV . Facial recognition where is that technology in the LOS dont they have it?