Thailand Live Friday 9 Sep 2011

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Thailand Live Friday 9 September 2011

News, Bits and Tweets

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

For breaking news,national, regional and international news updates on a daily basis only, this thread is closed to commentary so that those who wish to follow the news can find it here...

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

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Related topic: Thailand Live Thursday 8 September 2011

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Today's Thailand weather and forecasts:

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Phuket Taxi Bullying Continues

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Chalerm vows to help get fugitive ex-PM Thaksin pardoned

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PM Yingluck to seek pardon for 2 Thai activists jailed in Cambodia

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Thaivisa Party in Hua Hin on September 24

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The Miracle Years of Amazing Thailand: TAT sets ambitious goal to double tourist arrivals

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Our transfers no different to Democrats: Chalerm

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NATURAL DISASTER

More heavy rain expected in Thailand's Northeast, East

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Pledging scheme could destroy Thai rice exports

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Credit cards for Thai farmers to be launched by Nov 1

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There's method in the Thai government's madness

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Parents to get choice of school tuition items

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Transport agency seeks action against graft on Thai highways

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Police, gambling links uncovered - but no bribes: Bangkok

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Officials involved in encroachment: Forest Dept probe

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Workers seek social security guarantee

By The Nation

The informal laborers' network lamented they suffered greatly and their incomes lowered and blamed the Bt300-daily-income policy for the rising living cost and their jobs being taken by transnational workers whose wages were cheaper. The network planned to demand from Labour Minister Phadermchai Sasomsap the clarity about the Social Security Act section 40 if the government would pay contribution to the fund for them.

A seminar on the informal workers' strategy and management from 2012-2016 was hosted on Wednesday by the Labour Ministry and attended by informal worker representatives.

Calling for the government to create the income guarantee for informal workers, Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion manager Phulsap Tulaphan said the informal workers were affected from the rising commodity price resulted from the Pheu Thai Party's voter-wooing policy for Bt300 daily wage hike and Bt15,000 monthly salary for Bachelor degree graduates. The employers also sent jobs to immigrant workers who charged one fourth cheaper than them, she added.

Phulsap's colleague Sunthree Hatthee Sengking urged Labour Ministry and related agencies to protect Thailand's 24 million informal workers including home-base workers, contract farmers and domestic workers. She urged the government to ratify the International Labour Organisation (ILO) home-based worker convention 177 and ILO domestic worker convention 189.

Sunthree said there were less than 500,000 informal workers joining the social security system through the Social Security Act section 40. This was because many weren't confident if the Yingluck Shinawatra administration would pay the contribution to the fund for them at the same rate, in which the informal worker subscribers paid Bt100-Bt150 and the government paid Bt30-Bt50 so that the workers could get the compensations in case of illness, disability, and death (as well as the retirement pension in case of Bt150 distribution). Sunthree went on that the network would soon meet Labour Minister Phadermchai Sasomsap for clarity about this matter.

An informed source reported that, since May, 480,000 informal workers joined the social security system through the Social Security Act section 40, while the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee (TLSC)'s call for the government to back the draft legislation on Occupational Safety and Health and the draft legislation on Social Security Act amendment, which currently were at the Senate's consideration. The draft legislation on Social Security Act amendment stated that the government shall pay distribution to SSO fund for the informal workers according to the section 40 at up to 50 per cent of the workers' distribution.

-- The Nation 2011-09-09

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Register births to protect the young: Plan International

By The Nation

Global child rights organisation Plan International, marking the 60th anniversary of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness last week, stated that stateless children are more vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and violation of their basic rights and should be registered from birth.

"Birth registration is the first step in ensuring all children have legal existence and can enjoy their basic rights such as education and health care. Identity and nationality are a birth right of every child," said Ming Viado, Plan's Asia coordinator for Universal Birth Registration.

According to UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) there are 12 million stateless people globally.

"Children who are not registered at birth are more likely to be rendered stateless as they are unable to prove their parentage or place of birth. The situation is worse for children who are born to stateless parents," said Plan, in a statetment. "Each year 50 million of the world's new born babies - twothird of them in Asia, remain unregistered. The reasons include lack of political will, inadequate infrastructure, low awareness among parents and high costs of obtaining a birth certificate. Discrimination based on gender and ethnicity is also one of the factors."

"In South Asia only a third of all children under five are registered at birth. Governments with low registration rates must put systems in place to make registration services accessible to all without any discrimination," added Viado.

In northern Thailand, Plan works with local partners and communities, helping thousands of unregistered children obtain citizenship. There are an estimated one million stateless people in the country.

Maja Cubarrubia, Country Director of Plan in Thailand said: "Children and youth who weren't registered at birth and have already been deprived of rights to education, healthcare and employment are vulnerable to being lured or forced into harmful activities, including human trafficking and sexual exploitation."

-- The Nation 2011-09-09

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Prices for top-end condos in Thailand to keep rising

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Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link - Completely inconvenient means of travel

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Uttaradit forest-runoff kills one person, ten reportedly missing; 300 households inaccessible /MCOT

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Justice Spokesman: Thaksin Not Required to Serve Jail Term to Request Amnesty

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Defense Minister Denies Rift with Army Chief over Reshuffle

The defense minister has denied that there is any rift among the commanders of the armed forces over the annual reshuffle list, despite asking the Council of State to interpret some articles of the Public Administration Act for the Defense Ministry.

Defense Minister Yutthasak Sasiprapha revealed that the annual military reshuffle list has been completed with a unanimous decision.

He insisted that there was no rift between he and the commanders of the armed forces over the reshuffle list as speculated by the media.

The defense minister slammed the media speculation, as it will create discomfort in the army.

Yutthasak affirmed that he has asked the Council of State for legal interpretation for only some articles of the the Public Administration Act for the Defense Ministry on his power to appoint ministry officials.

-- Tan Network 2011-09-09

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One killed, 10 missing in flash floods, mudslide in Uttaradit

Uttaradit - Heavy rains trigged off flash floods and mudslide that hit three villages here, killing one villager and injured over ten others. Ten other villagers also went missing.

Uttaradit disaster prevention and mitigation chief officer Surachai Thatkawin said the flash floods and mudslide occurred at about 2 am, affecting Moo 2, Moo 3 and Moo 4 villages in Tambon Namphai of Nampad district.

The three villages were also blacked out because power poles and cables were destroyed by floods.

The floods also damaged a bridge linking the three villages to the main road, causing them to be inaccessible.

At press time, Surachai was seeking a portable bridge from the Disaster Prevention Zone 8 head office to establish a link to the villages so that rescuers could go in to help the villagers.

-- The Nation 2011-09-09

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Bangkok residents put on flood alert

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Multicolored shirt group to gather at 4pm at Lumpinee Park to protest against royal pardon for Thaksin /TANN

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Warning —Facebook's birthday? It's an email-stealing scam: http://bit.ly/rc8yum /via@TweetSmarter

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Finance Ministry Increases Village Fund

The Finance Ministry continues to roll out measures to assist the grassroots as it has increased the size of the village fund to 7 billion baht, in the hopes of better tackling informal debt problems.

Finance Minister Theerachai Bhuvanartnaranubala said his ministry has resolved to increase the Village Fund by 1 million baht for each village to address the problem of non-banking debts more effectively.

This increased the fund size to 7 billion baht.

The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperative and the Government Savings Bank have been tasked with distributing the additional grant on behalf of the state.

Theerachai reaffirmed that the increased fund is adequate to support the program to address informal debts.

He noted that the government has yet to settle informal debts, valued at 2.3 billion baht under the program.

The finance minister said the informal debt settlement program is part of government measures to assist low-income earners.

He noted that more assistance programs are in line, such as the debt refinancing scheme for those with no more than 500,000 baht in debt, and the rice pledging scheme, which is to be launched soon.

-- Tan Network 2011-09-09

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Oil Smuggling Rings Seized on the East Coast

Officials have busted an oil smuggling ring in Rayong Province.

At least 10,000 liters of illegal oil was found.

Rayong Provincial Police, in cooperation with Illegal Petroleum Suspension Center, arrested 54-year-old Boonreab Soijit, 46-year-old Thongssuk Kamchoo, and seven other suspects.

The suspects are charged with oil smuggling.

At the scene, two fishing boats containing 6,000 liters of gasohol 95 and 9,000 liters of stove oil, along with 10,800 liters of diesel, ten trucks, and one oil pump were found.

Officers revealed that the special panel investigated the case, as two suspecious boats reached the shore, in coincidence with ten trucks being parked nearby.

Officers inspected and confiscated all evidence.

In the initial inspection, Boonreab was found to be conducting illicit shipping, as he does not have a permit.

He admitted that his boat is modified to contain illegal oil.

Thongsuk also pleaded guilty, saying he left Bua Luang Bridge and drove to a cargo ship 30 miles from the Rayong Coast to buy diesel, worth around 100,000 baht.

He said Prasert Chantaree is a coordinator and oil distributor.

Officials are holding all suspects for further investigation.

-- Tan Network 2011-09-09

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Dark clouds gathering over low-key Yingluck

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