sushi5734

Who takes the DNA? Yep the police they could just switch a samples with some fishermen. I would want samples taken by UK police and analysed by a UK forensic lab.

The main suspect was very well known on the island and,

1. next to the bodies in the middle of the crime scene chatting to the police.

2. he's been identified as the mystery man on the CCTV footage.

3. threatened the Scottish guy whilst in the company of a plain clothes policeman.

4. Refused to give a DNA sample.

And it's taken 7 days to bring him in!!

I have not seen the cctv footage. Does this: 2. he's been identified as the mystery man on the CCTV footage. refer to the guy who was said to be running around in the victim's underwear?

Yes, apparently they used some kind of advanced process to do this, although they probably used tracing paper on the monitor!

It's IR CCTV by the looks of it and not as clear as you'd hope but it does look like him.

One thing for sure is that he's on the beach, right in the middle of the crime scene with the BiB, all very cosy!

I saw the earlier channel 3 interview with him and a frankly very nervous looking worker from AC bar, saying that McAnna had blood on him.

One inescapable problem they have with all this is that the 2 DNA profiles are of Asian/Mongoloid people, if it is at all possible a completely independent body needs to test the forensic evidence and most important take the suspect samples, because the Thai police have shown that they can't be trusted.....unfortunately this will never happen.

cth shows a couple of mlb games a day on the fox sports HD channel, obviously they are on early in the morning.

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As others have posted already, would you buy a house for a girl you'd just met back home? In her name, with absolutely no ownership rights? So many people have been scammed because they become completely irrational and you'll get no sympathy from Thais or foreigners if you get stung.

Where did you meet this girl? What does she do for a living?

The fact that mother in law and her son (is that the girlfriends son or in fact a brother in law? Or could it even be the girlfriends Thai fella) are going to take up occupancy rings MASSIVE HUGE alarm bells.

Buying a house with a mortgage is a safer way to go but again would you do the same back home? Renting a house is much cheaper and totally safe.

Buy a condo or rent, if she is truly committed to the relationship then she will understand, if she has a hissy fit, then tell her to sling her hook.

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This would seem to be the same old sabre rattling 'crackdown' if they were serious then all land borders in the country would be strictly enforcing the rules at the same time for a few months, that would be an effective way to deal with those that abuse the system. I'm not sure whether it's by accident/incompetence or design but there's always a way here in Thailand.

I am glad that there always seems to be another option open, because even if you play by the rules and work within the system, you are at the mercy of Thai bureaucracy and could easily find yourself needing to do a border run. I am fortunate that I've been on a non immigrant B visa here for 6/7 years and I've never needed to do a visa run, but it's been a close run thing at times.

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They had one or two restaurants a year or two ago, now they have about 10 in Bangkok and one in Pattaya, I haven't had the chance to try them here in Thailand, but they were pretty good for a high street street chain back home. Pizza is very popular with Thai people, although they usually defile it with seafood sauce, yuk!

The more competition in the marketplace the better it is for the consumer.

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At my school we are assessed at least once a year by Thai and foreign teachers, we evaluate each other's lesson planning, classroom management and overall teaching performance, there's a ton of other categories but I don't have the forms to hand. We also have to give a best practice presentation to the whole department and senior management a few times a year. I have observed both good and bad teachers whether they be graduates or not, teachers with a degree do tend to be a bit better on the whole but that doesn't stop a graduate being a useless tw@t or a non degreed teacher from being absolutely fantastic.

As for the bar stool assessment, yes of course that happens but normally when someone is an absolute embarrassment.

I would guess that schools willing to accept people with no qualifications, are more likely to treat their teachers like dirt and as a result have a high turnover of staff and in a vicious circle of needing to take anyone that turns up....som nam naa!!

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It's a complete fantasy by the MoE, but that won't stop quite a few people being put through a lot of stress and anxiety. As for the people trolling 'get qualified or leave' I doubt that any of you are teachers, qualified or not and probably haven't been within 500 meters of a Thai school. Anyone who has taught in Thailand would immediately recognise how ludicrous these proposals are. Most people in my country UK take an undergraduate degree then move on to a PGCE after graduation, not too many people take a 4 year education degree. The main reason for this is that qualified teachers need specialist knowledge i.e. if your going to teach maths then you should have a degree in the field of mathematics. The one year PGCE is mainly classroom based with continual observation from teaching mentors as well as your lecturers, it's pretty intensive and stressful by all accounts. The latest government training scheme puts graduates in the classroom after just 6 weeks. The gap between a graduate and a Newly Qualified Teacher who has taken and passed a PGCE is not completely unsurpassable and, I know this is insane and I doubt it will happen, but why not provide a training course to bridge that gap? I have a BSc so I feel that I have the subject knowledge to teach my subject, however over the years I have watched, listened to advice from both Thai and foreign teachers, some qualified, some not, even some without degrees, who I consider to better teachers than me, as they have far more experience than I do. Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Well the MoE makes the rules here, so their "fantasy" is your reality. The main thrust of these proposals is simply that people who work as teachers shoud be qualified as such. This is common sense to many of us; any parent would agree.

By the way, I am not trolling when I say "get qualified or leave", I am simply trying to advise unqualified people of their best alternatives; in the not too distant future there will be no place here for unqualified "teachers".

They can ask and even beg for western qualified teachers all they want, but actually getting them is a completely different matter!!

One of my best friends is a qualified teacher and is half Thai friend, he has family ties here and was looking at the possibility of teaching at an international school, however all of the top tier schools are in Bangkok and but didn't want to live there, I casually suggested the possibility of teaching in a normal school to fill time, he said it would actually damage his career by working anywhere other than a good international school in Thailand.

It would be far better to train the teachers we already have here, if they aren't sufficiently skilled or qualified then let's raise them to the required standard, isn't that the idea of education? I'm sure most committed teachers here wouldn't begrudge taking a few training courses and having their lessons observed if it meant being fully licensed. I anticipate that there will be some form of seminar or course as the MoE and TCT will see this as an opportunity to make some money, rather than improve standards...not exactly a shock!

The reality is that many foreigners are teaching here without degrees and many of them teach to a higher standard than the average Thai teacher. These teachers have already been pushed into the loopholes and now teachers with a non education degree will probably be forced into the same situation, so the situation on the ground will not change much.

What concerns me more than qualifications being checked, is that at the moment criminal records are not checked at all, no one seems to give a s#!t about safeguarding children, a simple criminal background check required to renew any visa and work permit would get rid of a lot of dodgy characters.

My issue with the 'go home or get qualified' comments is that no one in their right mind is going to go home to take a PGCE so that they can work in a government school or normal private school, it's just ridiculous! There are a lot of dedicated, well educated, professional teachers (in respect of their conduct not membership of a professional body) come under that group and you have to ask, when they clear the classrooms of these undesirable graduates, who will be left? Thai teachers, Filipino teachers and those working without any qualifications at all, is that really an improvement?

Ask any parent which they would prefer, when you explain to them that western qualified teachers are not really interested in working in normal Thai schools, even if you doubled or trebled the pay.

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It's a complete fantasy by the MoE, but that won't stop quite a few people being put through a lot of stress and anxiety.

As for the people trolling 'get qualified or leave' I doubt that any of you are teachers, qualified or not and probably haven't been within 500 meters of a Thai school. Anyone who has taught in Thailand would immediately recognise how ludicrous these proposals are.

Most people in my country UK take an undergraduate degree then move on to a PGCE after graduation, not too many people take a 4 year education degree. The main reason for this is that qualified teachers need specialist knowledge i.e. if your going to teach maths then you should have a degree in the field of mathematics. The one year PGCE is mainly classroom based with continual observation from teaching mentors as well as your lecturers, it's pretty intensive and stressful by all accounts. The latest government training scheme puts graduates in the classroom after just 6 weeks.

The gap between a graduate and a Newly Qualified Teacher who has taken and passed a PGCE is not completely unsurpassable and, I know this is insane and I doubt it will happen, but why not provide a training course to bridge that gap?

I have a BSc so I feel that I have the subject knowledge to teach my subject, however over the years I have watched, listened to advice from both Thai and foreign teachers, some qualified, some not, even some without degrees, who I consider to better teachers than me, as they have far more experience than I do.

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Yep I forgot about the psn account region thing, I use a UK account and its fine although I had to buy a European version on gta v to make sure I could get future dlc.

Good list of shops, you're right everything coming through customs is being raped at the moment, a friend of mine has been asked for 4000 baht to release a jar of coffee and a few other bits sent from the states.

I can just imagine the Thai customs guys going through the parcels,

Semtex....ok

Ak47.....ok

Slow loris....ok

Tiger penis.....ok

Jar of coffee.....red alert there's a farang with a parcel from his mum let's shake him down.

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I saw a ps4 advertised for 25500 and I know my local game shop here in korat sells them but not sure how much. Both the xbox one and ps4 look like being great consoles but I think it makes sense to wait for a year or so for prices to come down and a better selection of games, both the 360 and ps3 had major hardware issues when their consoles launched. I had two consoles that died with the red ring of death until I finally got one of the newer revamped 360's, Microsoft's customer service was pretty good, but I wouldn't want to have had to deal with customer support from here in Thailand.

I access psn here on my ps3 and play online with no problems, however I need to make sure I don't update to the official firmware, by the way The psn is not free on the ps4.

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One of the benefits of the PS3 is that you can play online with a genuine game as long as you have an up to date custom firmware, plus the online is free. With the 360 I've never been able play online without updating the the official software and removing my hack.

I've got both a 360 and a PS3, I think the 360 is better for online gaming but the ps3 better if your playing backups.

Online gaming isn't actually too bad here in Thailand, I have a 15mb connection and it's not lightening fast but definitely playable and if you manage to find some local players it's actually pretty good. Yes you risk a ban if you're playing online on a modded machine but all that means is that you can't access online, your machine will still work offline so you haven't really got anything to loose. Obviously the best thing to do is have both a modded and an unmodded machine for online, which I plan to do by buying a second hand ps3 when I next go back to the UK.

Lol, yep it doesn't pay to go original here! You could try world games in klang plaza 4th floor in the corner closest to the car park (you'll need to get the lift because of refurbishments) they usually have a wide selection of original ps3/360 games, I'm sure they'll order it from Bangkok if you really want it.

I might be selling my modded 360 with kinect and a stack of games as I don't use it much since I bought a ps3.

Probably in MBK? I know my local game shops in korat have it on ps3, I bought my copy from the playasia website but ended up being ripped off for 640 baht import tax.

Anyone else playing GTA V online on the PS3 ?

Add me if you fancy some games on local connections PSN ID: owt4nowt_kenobi

Anyone else playing GTA V online on the PS3 ?

Add me if you fancy some games on local connections PSN ID: owt4nowt_kenobi

I wanted a European copy as I am playing GTA V online, on my UK account and apparently you can't buy the downloadable extra content if your disc and account regions don't match.

Its worth considering getting one that will play games from a hard drive, as you can download your own games or get your HDD filled at a shop. They are about 14-15k and if you have the up to date custom firmware and a genuine copy of the fame you can play online, but you have to be very careful not to update to the official sony firmware.

http://www.nadzproject.com/product_55303.165175_th

Buying here in Thailand might be easier than trying to import one yourself! you are quite likely to be stung for import tax, I bought a copy of gta5 for 2200 baht and I had to pay 640 baht import tax =\

ps3's aren't region locked.

I reckon some Thais buy imported cars because they are so expensive just to brag about them.

Yeah, you Westerners would never do something like that. That's why you all drive base model March MT's right? - I mean, given the definition of "car" anything more expensive would be simply throwing away money

Touché, most people want something nice to drive, however it's pretty extreme here, status is a everything.

A lot of the parents of my students are very wealthy and they drive some very expensive cars 20-30 million baht, it's purely about showing their wealth/keeping up with the Jones. I can see the sense in buying a nice car but over £80k for a hybrid 3 series is too rich for my blood, if I had the money I'd go for a volvo x90 or x60, I do like the 3 series, I have driven the 328....I'd stretch to 3 million for that.

If I had to get a bmw it wouldn't be a hybrid, not for that price anyway. There's paying a premium price for a better product and there's insanity. I reckon some Thais buy imported cars because they are so expensive just to brag about them.

Thought is was 5% for cars with 40% ASEAN made parts.

The new Active Hybrid 3 BMW is a steal at just over Bht 4m and works for me as a luxury performance car. It is assembled in Malaysia.

Its 4.2 million baht or £80,000 for a hybrid 3 series bmw and you call that a steal? You need to put down the crack pipe or you're too rich =] the luxury 320i is 2.7 million baht which itself is already a fortune. In order to make the hybrid worthwhile you'd need to save £30,000 in fuel over the life of the car.

Seemed cheap to me too but that's the price on their Facebook page (world games Korat) however most of it is written in Thai so it could be the deposit =], either way for the time being I'm happy with my current generation ps3 and 360 as I can play free downloaded games, stream films live tv etc.

Not sure about whether or not you need an original Xbox controller or not but they decent controllers and are pretty durable, I've bought third party game pads before and they've been useles. The shop below sells official controllers I think its in Bangkok somewhere, you can either go for a wired one 1290baht or get a wireless controller but you'll need a wireless adaptor 1690 baht.

http://www.nadzproject.com/product_84115.129632_th

I will probably go for a PS4 but ill wait until it comes down in price a bit, I haven't been sold on the Xbox one at all and I don't thinking the only one sonys preorders are outstripping Microsoft by a country mile. They made a massive cock up with the trade in, selling second hand games saga, I think they lost a lot of trust in gamers and showed their arrogance.

I have both Xbox 360 and PS3 and there are things I like about both, online is free on the psn but it won't be free with the ps4 or Xbox one.

Online was very good with Xbox live and I prefer the Xbox controller it has proper triggers for shooters kinect was great for kids games but not for real games, apart from forza 4, where being able to clip the apex of a corner was much easier when you looked into the turn. PS3 is great for playing games from a hard drive and I really like the operating system, much easier to tweak.

I've seen the Xbox one advertised for 15000 baht already here in korat, no doubt the PS4 will follow soon enough.