Thailand Live Sunday 26 Dec 2010

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Thailand Live Sunday 26 December 2010

News, Bits and Tweets

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Keep up to date with live updates from the news, hour by hour.

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Commentary is still open for Thailand news in the relevant thread posted in News Clippings.

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Related topic: Thailand Live Saturday 25 Dec 2010

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SOOPSIP

Well, That was one big pain in the year

By The Nation

For the last Soopsip of 2010, here's a Top 10 roundup of the best, most heart-rending, most inspiring bits of tittle-tattle we came up with.

Try not to get too emotional.

Best Scandal: The Film & Annie Saga

It was a fate that could befall anyone (and does), but unfortunately heartthrob Rattaphum "Film" Tokongsap happens to suffer from a squeaky clean image. So when word got out that he'd had a child out of wedlock with actress Annie Brooke, the front pages were booked up for more than a month.

In fact, it was never established that Film was the father, but he took enough of a bashing to ordain as a monk and was planning to move to Britain.

Our already polarised society was split right down the middle on "Film-Annie", picking him or her, but the government declined to organise a national referendum.

Best Liar EVER: Nathan Oman

In a year in which Thais disagreed on pretty much everything, there was no debate that the would-be cinema superstar was pathologically incapable of telling the truth.

We haven't even bothered checking whether he's still using that name.

Best Uniform: Colonel Kai Oo

Actor Ken Wongpuapan owned the popularity polls until 47-year-old Army Colonel Sansern "Kai Oo" Kaewkamnerd came along as spokesman for the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation. His good looks, command of the (official) facts and often-witty

delivery of them made him a national heartthrob, complete with Facebook fan pages, music videos and appearances on trendy magazine covers.

Best Menage a Trois: Peck, Tanya & Pinky

Keeping tongues wagging for months, the celebrity pair Peck Sanchai and Tanya Tanyares with actress Pinky Savika as the alleged third leg starred on leaked voice clips, including a hot phone chat on YouTube that the courts had to block.

Last we heard, husband Peck was singing that reconciliation refrain, but this story could have some life in it yet.

Best Break-up: Marsha and Krit

Like a poorly planned movie, there were two optional endings to the long-time romance of DJ Krit Sripoomseth and singer-actress Marsha Wattanapanich. Spectators much preferred the one about Krit cheating and burning money to the pair's own official happy version.

Best Queue: Krispy Kreme

The line-up for the addictive doughnuts at Thailand's sole outlet at Siam Paragon ends on the moon - people are that loony for them. The smart money is spent at a nearby road underpass, where clever entrepreneurs maintain a "private" stock. They can save you the wait by having their own people queue up. It costs a little extra, of course.

Best TV-Twitter Tie-in: 'Wanida'

The Channel 3 soap opera has a life of its own on Twitter - not that tweeple have a lot to talk about anyway. The show's on in primetime, and you can get a steady stream of comment about what's happening and what the different characters are wearing.

Best Marine Life: Paul the Octopus

No one knew football like that eight-legged German, who was never, ever wrong in his World Cup analysis. He soon after died, still bubbling, having made the matches telecast from South Africa just a little more fun.

Best Overhype: iPhone 4

It was a poor, poor citizen this year who went without a Krispy Kreme doughnut and the latest gadget from Apple. Released in Thailand in September, the iPhone 4 was a must-have, so of course demand quickly outstripped supply. Hopefully that's been corrected, and you didn't get into a fistfight while buying one this week.

-- The Nation 2010-12-26

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Thai food top impression attracting tourists to Bangkok: Survey

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Thai Democrat Party in election mode: PM Abhisit

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Suthep lauds Thai police for crackdown on drugs

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Leaked DSI reports connect Thai soldiers to two shootings

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Bus services to be doubled

The Nakhon Ratchasima Bus Terminal will more than double its usual 200 Bangkok-Nakhon Ratchasima bus trips to 500 trips per day during the New Year holidays as about 25,000 commuters are likely to use the service every day, terminal director Wattana Pattarachon said Saturday.

The terminal has also arranged 20 officials per day to inspect the safety of the buses, he said. Officials would keep a tab on bus drivers to ensure they won't drive for more than four hours per day, to reduce the chance of them dozing off behind the wheel. The drivers will have to take alcohol-breath tests prior to a trip and at checkpoints along the road, he added.

-- The Nation 2010-12-26

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Burmese refugees sent back home

Tak -- Two hundred and thirty-three refugees from Burma Saturday agreed to go home after Thai soldiers told them that fighting between Burmese troops and Karen rebels on the other side of the border of Tak's Phop Phra district had ended.

Colonel Supachoke Thawatpeerachai Saturday urged the refugees to return home and said Thai authorities would accommodate them. So the refugees started to pack their belongings and crossed the bridge over to the Burmese side on foot. UNHCR officials and those from other NGOs also observed them.

The move came after an assistant to Ban Valley Neu village headman Boontham Suwansri fell ill from meningococcal infection following his visit to the refugees at an old helipad near the village. However, it wasn't confirmed if the man, who reportedly crossed over to the Burma side often, got the disease after visiting the refugees. Boontham is being treated at Mae Sot Hospital for high fever though his condition is stable.

-- The Nation 2010-12-26

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Judicial reform panel to present proposals to PM

By The Nation on Sunday

A number of proposals on how to improve the judicial system will be made to the prime minister next month, including better pay and further education opportunities for police officers.

Sawaeng Boonchalermwipat, a law lecturer at Thammasat University and chairman of the subcommittee for the analysis of judicial reform, said senior staff at the Office of the Attorney-General should also be barred from sitting on the boards of state enterprises while the Supreme Court should focus on handling technical legal issues only.

Sawaeng said many of the views were gathered from various related agencies. On the decentralisation of the judicial system, Sawaeng said there was a need to have a provincial-level committee to oversee police work, with some members being chosen from the public.

Police volunteers at the local level are also needed, as well as more female police officers to handle cases relating to women, minors and domestic violence.

Some educational institutes should be tasked with providing the police more educational opportunities, said Sawaeng. As for the Office of the Attorney-General, Sawaeng said it appeared that the organisation's structure was too centralised and prone to conflict of interest; hence staff there should not be sitting on any boards of state enterprises. They should also be barred from providing legal advice to any state organisation to avoid conflict of interest. He also suggested reforming the organisation's structure in a way that resembled the courts of law. Any review or examination of government projects valued at over Bt1 billion should be done by a committee and not just one person.

Regarding the Appeal Court, the suggestion is for the court to have the power to summon more as well as additional testimony. The age of a person eligible to take the examination to become a judge should be set at 30.

Sawaeng admitted that all the reform proposals would be difficult to carry out but he believed that if the prime minister was committed, then it could be achieved. He said similar proposals were made to the junta-appointed Surayud Chulanont government but they were not taken up.

-- The Nation 2010-12-26

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Body of man found in rubber plantation

By The Nation on Sunday

Narathiwat

The body of an unidentified man was found yesterday morning in a rubber plantation in Narathiwat's Yi-ngor district.

Police examined the body, which was found by a rubber tapper. The dead man had two gunshot wounds, on his forehead and his chin. Police said he might have been dead for two days. The body was submitted for an autopsy at Yi-ngor Hospital.

Narathiwat deputy police chief Colonel Apirat Sangkhao said they would investigate the identity of the man, who is not a local resident, and probe if he was involved in the southern insurgency or involved in the drugs trade.

Meanwhile, in Bacho district, a village defence volunteer, Karapi Baelosamae, 31, was shot dead by two gunmen in his home at 9.30pm on Friday, in front of his wife. Police suspected the attack might be a part of the region's ongoing unrest or stemmed from a personal conflict.

-- The Nation 2010-12-26

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AFP: Somali Pirates Seize Thai Vessel, 27 Crewmen

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[george]

Today is 6th anniversary of Boxing Day Tsunami.

Details of Phuket tsunami memorial services:

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Austrian Man Accused Of Conducting Lewd Acts With Minors In Pattaya

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Tourists defy cold spell for floral delights

By The Nation on Sunday

While upper Thailand is currently facing a cold spell, with Buri Ram yesterday declaring all its districts to be cold-spell disaster zones, many tourists headed to mountainous attractions to admire flowers in the chill.

In Buri Ram, 300,000 people were said to be in need of winter clothes and blankets and the Bt1-million emergency budget approved by the provincial governor would be insufficient. The province plans to ask for an additional Bt29 million from the Comptroller-General's Department to buy clothing, Buri Ram's disaster prevention chief Pornchet Saengthong said.

Despite the cold weather, about 3,000 tourists visited the Phanom Rung Historical Park and the Muang Tam Sanctuary. The numbers are expected to go up during the New Year holidays.

In Udon Thani, thousands of Thai tourists went to admire some 10,000 tulips that bloomed at the Phu Foi Lom Forest Park as part of the tourism-promotion event named "Tulips bloom at Phu Foi Lom" yesterday, amid the cool 18-19 degrees Celsius weather.

Up north, in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district, the winter tourism also increased border trade with business of about Bt400 million a day.

-- The Nation 2010-12-26

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Govt 'Incere' to resolve the Preah VIhear dispute

By The Nation on Sunday

Thailand is "sincere" about resolving the Preah Vihear Temple dispute with Cambodia, said Atavit Suwannapakdee, deputy spokesperson of the ruling Democrat Party, brushing aside recent reports from Cambodia to the contrary.

Atavit said yesterday that currently the Constitution Court is considering whether the Joint Border Committee (JBC) report must be approved by Parliament or not, as might be required under Article 190 of the current charter.

"To claim that Thailand is insincere in addressing the border dispute peacefully ... is not fair to the government. We hope it will be understood that the government is sincere in trying to arrive at a peaceful accord," said Atavit.

Meanwhile, Democrat Party spokesperson Buranaj Smutharaks said the prime minister had set up a working committee to evaluate the government's efforts in solving the Preah Vihear dispute.

The party has produced a 63-page report that will help shed light on the issue. The document, which includes questions and answers on relevant issues, will also be produced in CD form and posted online so people will understand the government's efforts in protecting the national interest.

Asked by reporters if all this was being done to please the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), who will be staging a protest on the government's performance on the issue in January, Buranaj said it was being done to help the PAD understand the government's way of defending the national interest.

Regarding the JBC, Atavit, who is among the reviewers of the committee's work, said he hopes the PAD will better understand the government's position.

In a related development, ASTV-Manager Daily online cited a group called "15 Move" as stating that a Cambodian parliamentarian, Ngun Nhel, had informed a Thai lawmaker on Thursday that Cambodia wants the Thai Parliament to approve the JBC agreement in order to put to rest the dispute, and for peace and friendship between the two nations.

The report stated that the Thai Parliament could not give the green light due to internal political conflicts.

A summary of 33 questions and answers pertaining to the Thai-Cambodian border dispute was posted on PM Abhisit Vejjajiva's Facebook yesterday. The notes posted with Abhisit's approval, include the answers to the questions from the yellow shirt PAD. The notes also said the government was firm on protecting the country's sovereignty and rights. It would not accept the French map drawn to 1:200000 scale, nor change its stance in exchange for other interests.

The notes received hundreds of comments within a few hours.

-- The Nation 2010-12-26

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PM advises Thais to celebrate New Year carefully; insists that government not intervene in Red Shirts bail application process /MCOT

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Phuket activities commemorate 6th anniversy of tsunami, tourists attend merit-making ceremony /MCOT

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PM: Police salary will be increased

BANGKOK, 26 December 2010 (NNT) - Good news for the nation's law enforcement officers. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva announced in the middle of a seminar that he would raise police basic salary as early as April next year, thanks to his concern that the raise for the cops would take effect later than other state officials'.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said during a seminar attended by over 700 policemen that the government was going to reform the law enforcement system by raising the basic salary for police which was now quite low; he promised that the matter will be put forward as soon as possible as he believed that the pay rise for policemen were probably the last group of state officials who received a pay rise.

-- NNT 2010-12-26

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PM booed by red shirts while giving alms to monks

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was booed and jeered by some 10 red-shirt people while he was giving alms to Buddhist monks at the Klongtan Intersection Sunday morning.

The prime minister took part in the merit making ceremony of the Klongtan Community at 7:30 am.

During the ceremony, some 10 red shirts showed up and started shouting at the prime minister.

No violent incident took place as police managed to control the situation.

-- The Nation 2010-12-26

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PM asks the people to travel safely and be careful of accidents during New Year

BANGKOK, 26 December 2010 (NNT) - Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has reminded the people to travel safely during the New Year's long holiday.

Prime Minister Abhist Vejjajiva said in his weekly show that he wanted the public to travel safely and cautiously during the New Year, given the period accounted for more accidents than any other period. 350 people lost their lives during the last New Year alone.

Like several years before, drunk driving was the number-one cause of accidents last year. He warned those under the influence not to get behind the wheels, and those tired and sleepy to take a break instead of going on driving as they might cause serious accidents.

Lastly, he wished everyone a great time during this New Year.

-- NNT 2010-12-26

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Frost happens on Doi Inthanon

Chiang Mai - Frost happened on Doi Inthanon Mountain here Sunday morning as the grass minimum temperature dropped below than 0 Celsius degree, a senior official said.

Kriangsak Thanomphan, chief of the Doi Inthanon Park, said frost could be seen along the road from Tambon King Maeparn to the mountain top in the morning.

He said the grass minimum temperature on Doi Inthanon dropped below than 0 debree while the normal temperature on the mountain top dropped to about 4 Celsius degree.

Kriangsak said it was the second consecutive day that frost happened on the mountain top.

-- The Nation 2010-12-26

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PM Abhisit Admits Thaksin Lives In Dubai

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Tsunami haunts Phuket tourism six years on

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THE IMPOSSIBLE

McGregor's film in Thailand halted over death threat

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Tourism and Sports Ministry expects 5 million tourists in Phuket this year with Bt100 billion earnings /MCOT

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Thai navy prepares to rescue 27 crewmen captured by Somali pirates

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[george]

TOT: Six companies buy 3G bidding appliance document, e-auction expected in Jan /MCOT

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AFP: Kenya arrests Thai woman in airport ivory bust

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[Maestro]

to be continued

Thailand Live Monday 27 December 2010