allan michaud

It's a start but as they only arrested a 17 year old kid from Thailand it's clear the real smugglers on the Thai side have avoided any trouble.

I had realised that Thailand has a bad road death record, but I had not expected it to be so high on a world scale.

They have been at number 3 for several years now with around 50 deaths a day, what I find laughable is how a big fuss is made about the 2 holiday periods and how dangerous they are, yet the figures shown are routinely less than the daily average.

Reducing the slaughter is not that difficult, get the police to do their jobs and stop people. Increase penalties for drunkenness and dangerous offenses and have a massive radio and TV campaign over a long period. Have experts appearing on a wide range of shows to make sure the message is getting across to everyone. Strict controls on public transportation, both drivers and buses. Having proper checks on vehicles in general would also help as there are far too many death traps on the roads. I routinely see large trucks and even buses "crabbing" down roads at high speed, it's so clear the drivers are struggling to control their vehicles properly, it's hardly surprising their are so many accidents. The police should not be stopping these vehicles, especially buses and prosecuting the owners.

It's not rocket science, just common sense and some education. However, it won't be easy given 26% of the population believe in fairies, the police are a complete joke, the politicians are too busy lining their pockets and drunk driving is not taken seriously by anyone. As someone who has driven/ridden extensively in 15 countries, from Europe to Africa and Asia, my current home, Cambodia, has the worst drivers I have ever seen. However, due to the state of the roads the speeds here are low, so I don't find it anywhere near as bad as Thailand, which for me is by far the most dangerous country I have driven/ridden in. Almost every journey I have taken in Thailand involves a close call or some total f^@%wit doing something insane.

However TIT.

Clearly he must have been killed by Suthep's side in an attempt to discredit the police. (sarcasm)

Seems like all the redneck Fox News viewers are busy on this post.

Hang em high, Ye ha!

He did alright by telling Americans they were being spied on. But then decided to release other information as we. The guy deserves to hang as a traitor. And I hope they get him.

He told Americans that they are being spied on and because of this he deserves to hang?

Is this what the world has come to now?

Telling Americans they are being spied on by itself is okay in my book. However, have you read all the other secrets he has released? And it's not just American secrets, he has released secrets of other countries as well. So yes, that's treason.

I am amazed at the comments on here. A recent poll in the US showed 57% now consider him a whistleblower rather than a traitor. I guess all you guys making the 'traitor' comments are all ok with being spied upon by your govt. A congressional investigation also found that the NSA program that he exposed had not resulted in any (zero) information whatsoever to stop an act of terrorism.

So Thailand get's the technology later than its poorer neighbor?

It was the same with 3G, Cambodia had countrywide coverage before Thailand got it's act together and finally issued 3G licenses. Considering half the roads in the country are still a mess the coverage is amazing. I work in really remote areas and quite often get reception when in the jungle. The speeds I get here are much better than anyone I know back home in the UK.

This is a very worrying incident but of course there are lots of questions as always, due to awful reporting.

1. I notice no mention of the Police. <deleted> were they doing ignoring an apparently angry and armed mob?

2. I would be interested to know if the crowd was largely Muslim or was it purely Buddhists or was it mixed?

3. Did the crowd offer any reasons why they wanted to shut it down? Political, religious or otherwise.

I'm sure other questions will spring to mind, but I sincerely hope this was not driven by religious or ethnic divisions.

I don't agree with disrupting a praying session but:

Islamic Officials Slam PCAD's Mosque Siege

A bunch of guys disrupting a praying session by closing the gate and blowing whistles is not really a siege...

Firing a gun and clearly intimidating people is acceptable? and don't forget this is a title written by a journalist or his editor..

IF approval is given, b10 billion will be borrowed per week to pay b130 billion debt, so some farmers will have to wait another 13 weeks. That will make them happy.

Meanwhile BAAC refuses to recognise inflated value of farmer's rice and will only extend credit on MARKET value. Farmers, welcome to the world of the economically sane.

So around 17 weeks for some to get paid. Like you say that will go down well. While the farmers voted for this bunch of thieves they do not deserve to get screwed over like this, I am certain many are getting into serious trouble with loan sharks and they are not to blame for the late payment so they should be compensated for the additional bank interest fees they are incurring. Total clusterf$%#, but oh so predictable. Good to see the bank is not being stupid.

Shame the govt doesn't seem able to sell the rice mountain for love nor money. These muppets have wrecked the countries main export business in just 3 years. Way to go Thaksin.

... having said yesterday that he would try to open talks with the opposition.

The numbers blocking roads is interesting as I think it's pretty clear no one is paying this lot to protest.

Didn't their last rally fizzle out? If people are saying Suthep doesn't have the numbers today, the reds seem to be in worse shape.

I get the distinct impression that the vast majority of Thai's are thoroughly sick and tired of the bullshit being throw by both sides. Neither seem capable of getting huge crowds and I don't think their real support (unpaid) is actually that good. Most people want change but both sides are simply becoming more extreme, making any intelligent debate almost impossible. I think most Thai's would celebrate if all the leaders (politicians and cronies in the police and military) on both sides were locked up and the keys thrown away.

Just as a side comment, I was in Khon Kaen just before Christmas and witnessed a procession of a couple of thousand (at most) red shirts driving around the town. Khon Kaen still seems very 'Red' generally, but talking to people and the wife's relatives, I got the impression Thaksin does not hold such widespread reverence as he once did.

Abduct Chalerm.. Who wouldn't pay to see that?

More importantly, who in their right mind would pay one satang to have him freed??

(Goes for all 3 by the way!)

Who in their right mind would want to abduct Chalerm and detain him ? Pity the poor fools chosen to guard him, imagine locked in a room with him ranting and raving 24 hours a day !

I think it would be fun to be a fly on the wall, so to speak, and follow him around all day. I have a feeling it would be a real eye opener.

Surprised no one's blamed the red shirts for doing this in an attempt to discredit the anti-government protesters!

Who would do such a thing! I mean, it's quite alright to suggest the BKK protesters kill each other, but the reds, never.

OTOH less than a year ago he had a major falling out with Thida. Not that she's a vindictive cow, mind.

We have to face reality here, either side is more than capable of having had him shot for any number of reasons. Snowballs chance in hell of us finding out the truth.

The navy is just trying to draw attention away from it's thugs working for the anti government protesters. They were caught red handed by the police with id's and guns. Could they be the men in black?

I'd have to agree with that, just why were they carrying silencers as was reported? Very fishy.

Whatever else happens Kittirat has to go for the sake of the country and what's left of it's image.

Lying and incompetence are simply not acceptable for a Finance minister of any country.

But they were only "white lies" so it's ok.

If I remember correctly a taxi driver said he dropped the suspect off in Jaransanitwong road.

From the video, the clothes, the cap and the face of the suspect are clearly visible and the pictures have been widely circulated in the media.

Perhaps the police need to put some billboards featuring stills from the video for it's hard to believe no one: passerbys, neighbours, vendors, motorcycle taxi drivers saw where he went.

Unless he isn't here.

Perhaps he is Cambodian, perhaps he was whisked away in a van, a change of clothes, back across the border in 2 or 3 hours.

Just a thought.

And quite possibly he is now in a shallow grave by now, no way his backers want him being caught.

"Farmers would be paid for their rice if the PDRC wins its fight against the government"...

Come again? Hope he doesn't mean to pay the above market prices. Help us and we continue the rice scheme? Not possible... is it?

IMHO any replacement government would have to accept the debts of the previous for rice already delivered. But if they have any sense, their first act after taking office would be to refuse accept another grain at any price until the stockpiles are cleared to an acceptable level. Make it very clear that the scam is well and truly over and the court cases now begin.

Agreed, the farmers will have to be paid as is only reasonable and I am sure a legal obligation. However, the problem for many of the farmers is they are broke now and more are getting into big trouble by going to loan sharks. If this continues much longer there will be open revolt as more people lose homes, cars etc to these parasites. Both sides are playing with the farmers now. I feel Suthep and co might be sensible to call for efforts to be made to allow the farmers to be paid, such as in exchange for delayed elections, that would make them look good. But, whatever happens this scam must stop, there is no way Thailand can afford to lose that much money each year ($5 billion), especially when the farmers see so little of it.

The figures given last week finally shed some light on just how bad this has been.

Govt figures said over 3 years (incl 2012-13 season) they had bought 50mill tons at a cost of Baht701billion

They also said they had 10 mill tons remaining in storage with 5 mill awaiting shipping. It was not clear if the 5mill was in addition to the 10 mill or part of it. They also stated they had only made back Baht180 billion. All of which means they sold 40mill tons (or possibly as much as 45mill) for Baht180 billion. If we assume they sell the remaining 10million tons at the same rate they will be getting another Baht45bill for a total loss of Baht 476billion (USD15billion). I hope the next (non Thaksin) govt can recoup some of this stolen money but I doubt it, certainly the farmers didn't see much of it.

Obviously these recent govt numbers are also very dubious as it means the average cost per ton was only Baht14,000 (when its supposed to be 15,000 for white and 20,000 for Hom Mali) and that’s assuming the full 701billion went on rice and does not include expenses such as storage and administration. It also means the rice sold so far has gone for just Baht 5,100 per ton or possibly even as low as 4,000 per ton, which seems a shocking admission.

Now look at the farmers, I understand there are roughly 1million involved in the scheme, so on average that's 16.67 tons per farmer per year, for which they receive roughly 20% or Baht3,000 extra per ton over the normal price. So each farmer has received on average Baht 50,000 each year. Now that SHOULD equate to an annual cost of just Baht 50 billion, even if we add say 20% for storage and admin that's still only Baht60mill, when the government seems to be suggesting it is losing well over Baht150billion annually. Personally I think this is still on the low side as I don't see how the govt only paid an average of 14,000 per ton for all their rice and the Banht701billion can't include costs of storage and admin.

So an unattended bag (weighing in excess of 21kg) was sent from Kenya to Thailand without anyone checking it? Serious security risk.

The rice farmers must be mad. The unelected electoral commission are responsible for this not the government. If they think the PRDC are going to support rice farmers they are sadly deluding themselves

No, the govt had time to pay them but didn't have the money, which is why they were so dependent on getting the 2.2trillion loan passed. As soon as that failed (thank Buddha!) they had no way to pay. Yes, the EC have since then done everything possible to stop them paying the farmers, which I do not agree with, but the fact remains the govt lost massive amounts of money on this scam, seemingly upwards of $10billion, and were unable to pay their bill to the farmers when it was due. All the lies about govt to govt deals have not helped, PTP caused this and thankfully they were stopped from plunging the country into decades of debt.

when Osama Bin Laden was just a peripheral figure in the middle east. He’s dead now

And has been since at least 2010.

May 2011, and your point is?

He cannot be a red shirt he is to well dressed !!!!!

"He cannot be a red shirt he is to well dressed!!!!!"

Firstly is your comment a sad attempt at being funny? or a show of a bigoted attitude? I'm just asking alt=whistling.gif pagespeed_url_hash=3700464609 width=19 height=18>

If you were truly interested as to who he is then try opening your eye's and ears, his identity was known yesterday, but no surprise that the one sided, unbalanced and bias reporting of this news story is late and not telling the full story. alt=w00t.gif pagespeed_url_hash=1451809591 width=18 height=20>

Really, so please tell us who he is? He is clearly not the Navy Seal and I am not aware of anyone being arrested and I have been trying to search online. Please post more info... and have a quick look for your sense of humour while your at it.

Please click the picture to zoom-in!

What do you think?

The shape of the mouth is a much closer match. The Navy guy has more rounded mouth corners, the guy on the CCTV footage has upward turned corners, a bit bow shaped upper lip.

I'd also point out the ears, the Seal looks nothing like it. So has this other guy been arrested cos he's a dead ringer for me?

I put little stock in the foreign media...This report demonstrates my antipathy in part....A foreign reporter making the facile comments she makes indicates they usually don't have a clue...I am sent foreign newspaper clippings from friends in Holland and Canada. I find that the reports are in large part copying or paraphrasing the Thai mainstream domestic media with all its' agenda's. An indepth analysis just takes too much work for most of them...These foreign reporters can get away with that, as their audience at best have only a cursory interest in Thai Politics...They have enough political stuff going on in their own country, to get their shirt all in a knot about Thailand...Another reality leading to this, is that the Thai English Language Media is the only one these reporters can read.....The UDD/RS/PTP are unilingual in the main, and really don't care what us inconsequential Farangs think about politics here. We are the only one's puffed up about our pontification, as is the norm for political junkies.

I know a number of journalists, including some from Al Jazerra and I have to say most are very responsible and do as good a job as possible. There are plenty of lazy ones too but I think you are being unfair. As one said above, it's hard to cover anything in any depth unless you have enough time and generally reports on Thailand will be very brief, 2-3 minutes tops. As a film maker I know that one of the hardest things to do is to decide what you do not have time to say.

The more the truth comes out the more it looks like a cover up by the anti government protesters and their leaders. But it seems to have failed.

In your hardly humble and ever so slightly biased opinion.

Well, I support neither side as I feel the elites need to be brought to account as much as Thaksin and his cronies do. However I have to say this looks very, very dubious to me. The police cap is just so hard to believe, why would they leave it behind? Personally I would not put ANYTHING past ANY of these self serving thugs that call themselves politicians (on either side). For me this one ranks along side the sniper shooting of the Red Sergent Major in 2010, it's very difficult to know just who did it. In that case I felt the most benefit would have been to Thaksin, in this instance I see the main beneficiary as Suthep. I don't think anyone here on TV can be certain who did what.