Thailand Live Thursday 13 Sep 2012

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ASEAN energy ministers agree to enhance cooperation on clean energy

PHNOM PENH, Sept 13 -- The 30th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting concluded Wednesday, agreeing to strengthen the bloc's efforts in addressing climate change and enhancing ASEAN energy cooperation towards a greener energy sector and a low-carbon economy.

The meeting, themed ‘ASEAN Green Connectivity,’ aimed to boost cooperation in the energy sector amongst the bloc’s members and to promote the efficient use of energy, green energy and an ASEAN international power grid.

The meeting was chaired by Cambodian Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem and was joined by all ASEAN ministers of energy as well as the body's secretary general, Surin Pitsuwan.

Opening the meeting, Prime Minister Hun Sen said the meeting will enhance solidarity and unity amongst ASEAN member states and prompt them to work together to achieve the bloc’s goal.

He said it will also contribute to the efforts being made to realise an ASEAN Community by 2015.

Energy security remains a major challenge for the bloc, he said, urging the ASEAN Energy Ministers to focus on developing renewable energy such as hydropower, wind power, solar energy, biomass energy and biogas energy as well as biodiesel energy in order to build a green energy region for ASEAN.

The Cambodian premier said civilian nuclear energy is also an important source of energy, but such energy needs broad promotion about evolution, technology, advantages, and risks to prevent possible dangers that cause by disasters.

Thai Energy Minister Arak Chonlatanon said the meeting has given importance on Green Energy and the ASEAN member countries were seeking for more cooperation on the matter in preparation for the creation of the ASEAN Eonomic Community (AEC) in 2015.

Mr Arak said that the meeting also discussed alternative energy and said that Thailand was doing significant actions in this field, particularly regarding biofuel. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-09-13

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RT@Porpich: 1:54pm Water from Noi river, tributary of Chao Phraya overflows the Ban Pan Market in Sena district, Ayutthaya via @news1005fm

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Thai treatment to refugees is inadequate: Human Right Watch says

Despite of long experience, Thai treatment to refugees from Myanmar and elsewhere is still inadequate and below standard, Human Right Watch said in a report Thursday.

The 143-page report, "Ad Hoc and Inadequate: Thailand’s Treatment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers," indicated that Thai refugee policies are not grounded in law and cause refugees of all nationalities to be exploited and unnecessarily detained and deported.

The report focuses on the plight of Myanmar refugees, the largest current refugee group in Thailand. It examines treatment and conditions of refugees both inside the camps on the border and outside the camps, who are not officially recognized as refugees.

"Thailand presents refugees with the unfair choice of stagnating for years in remote refugee camps or living and working outside the camps without protection from arrest and deportation," said Bill Frelick, Refugee Program director at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report.

-- The Nation 2012-09-13

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RT@Porpich: 12:08pm Irrigation Dept warned water in Chao Phraya to rise up after MET expected the torrent on Sep 13-17 in the North &Central (@Voice_TV)

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Explosion at Kurusapa Ladprao Printing Press, Lat Phrao; three workers wounded, sent to hospital /MCOT

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Comatose French tourist dies from motorbike crash injuries

Phuket Gazette

French tourist Jerome Sebastien Heras died yesterday from injuries sustained in a motorbike crash earlier this month.

PHUKET: -- French tourist Jerome Sebastien Heras, 35, who was left comatose by a motorbike accident in Karon on September 3, died of his injuries early yesterday morning.

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Funeral begins for revered abbot of Phuket’s Wat Chalong

Phuket Gazette

Phra Ajarn Lim, who died on Tuesday, was ordained at Wat Chalong at 1pm on July 5, 1962, and given the name “Uttamuyano”, meaning “a man of deep wisdom”. Photo: Kritsada Mueanhawong

People may arrive to pay their respects until Tuesday, when a merit-making ceremony will bring the funeral service to a close. Photo: Kritsada Mueanhawong

PHUKET: -- A seven-day funeral service began yesterday for the revered Abbot of Phuket’s famed Wat Chaithararam, well known among foreigners simply as Wat Chalong (Chalong Temple).

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Pattaya Tailor robbed

By Staff Reporter

PATTAYA: -- Police were called to Chris Collection, an Indian tailor shop in central Pattaya on Wednesday to investigate a reported robbery.

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Gold thief or victim of mistaken identity

By Staff Reporter

PATTAYA: -- Pattaya Police were called to the scene of a motorbike accident this week, and may have caught a local thief at the same time.

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Gangland Execution In Huay Yai-Pattaya

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Brutal Man Beats Bleeding Woman at Full Love Inn

PATTAYA: -- A young Thai woman was badly beaten at a Soi Bongkot motel. Her unknown assailant then fled on a motorbike. Police found evidence of the woman having her menstrual period, which may have thwarted the man’s intent to have sex, so he beat her.

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BANGKOK

Residents have been warned of four days of possible floods

File photo : Sukhothai

BANGKOK: -- Deputy Bangkok Governor Malinee Sukavejworakit warned residents in 27 communities outside the city's embankments to move their belongings to higher ground while officials of 50 Bangkok districts were instructed to be on full alert.

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SET index closed at 1257.40, down 2.56; Bt/USD30.90; GBP49.66; AUD32.12; EUR39.78; CAD31.50; HKD3.97; SGD24.99; JPY39.5

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BMA inspects chemical waste in Lat Krabang Industrial Estate

BANGKOK, 13 September 2012 (NNT) – The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has inspected the areas around the Lat Krabang Industrial Estate after reports of chemical waste polluting the environment.

Officials from the BMA and the Pollution Control Department inspected water quality in the areas near the ICD warehouse inside the industrial estate. A farm owner earlier reported that some people had sneaked into others’ farmland to dump chemical waste, which is now covering 27 rai of land area. A massive number of aquatic animals that people had raised in the estate also die.

BMA officials have poured limewater into the ponds to balance the ph level. Initially authorities have forwarded samples of contaminated soil and water to the Pollution Control Department to identify the type of chemicals causing the pollution.

-- NNT 2012-09-13

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3 workers injured in Kurusapa Ladprao explosion

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- A 16-year-old printing machine at Bangkok's Kurusapa Ladprao Printing Press exploded Thursday, injuring three workers and caused damges initially estimated as Bt35 million.

Pol Col Setthasak Yimcharoen of Chokchai police station said that the "Commercial Web" machine explosion also caused this Soi Lat Phrao 59 printing house's celing to collapse, glass windows shattered and the three injured workers suffered from burnts, one of whom seriously.

Police was investiagting the cause of explosion.

Printing House officials told police the "Commercial Web" machine, which could print 18,000 in one hour, was imported from Japan about 16 years ago and was checked on weekly basis.

-- The Nation 2012-09-13

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Heavy rain prompts flood, landslide warning

Phuket Gazette

Although Phuket was not included in the TMD initial warning they have advised people to prepare for the affects of heavy rain. Image: TMD

PHUKET: -- The Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) has issued its sixth official warning in 36 hours for flash flooding, forest run-off and landslides in Phang Nga, Krabi and Trang – but has yet to issue a warning for Phuket.

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RT @tulsathit: Chalerm, angered by Chuwit's immigration corruption clips taken at border, damned the latter to "rot forever in hell."

RT @tulsathit: Chalerm: Any politician who ever gambled or owned gambling den must be damned for 7 generations and rot in hell forever.

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Legal action seen against defecting insurgents

BANGKOK, Sept 13 - Legal action will be taken against insurgents who have committed crimes before surrendering to the 4th Army Region commander early this week, said an Internal Security Operations Commands (ISOC) spokesman on Thursday.

Maj-Gen Ditthaporn Sasasamit made the statement after nearly one hundred self-identified insurgents met with 4th Army Region Commander Lt-Gen Udomchai Thamsarorach in Narathiwat province Tuesday to express their intention to stop fighting with the authorities in the southernmost provinces.

Gen Ditthaporn said the insurgents will not be free from being charged as their surrender was not in accordance with the Internal Security Act (ISA), Article 21, which permits insurgents to renounce separatist activities in exchange for amnesty.

The spokesman explained that the province where the insurgents met with the commander has been under a curfew and a state of emergency, not the ISA.

The insurgents will be prosecuted under the law according to their offences, said the ISOC spokesman.

Gen Ditthaporn also denied claims that the meeting was a setup, reaffirming that all alleged insurgents who turned themselves in on Tuesday were under outstanding arrest warrants and each of them knows well the possible punishment they will serve once prosecuted.

The general noted that initially, the arrest warrants against the insurgents may be revoked but legal action will nonetheless proceed.

Following concern regarding the public disclosure of the insurgents, the ISOC spokesman said Gen Udomchai had ensured their safety for them, adding that their decision to meet with authorities is a good sign which could also happen in nearby Pattani, Yala and Songkhla provinces.

The group, calling themselves Badan Penyeelarasan Wawasan Baru Melayu Patani, on Tuesday handed Gen Udomchai a letter declaring they have formally quit the insurgency.

Among them was Waeali Copter Waji, alias Jeh Ali, a key suspect in connection with the assault and arms robbery at the 4th Development Battalion in Cho Ai-rong district in Narathiwat which claimed four soldiers’ lives on January 4, 2004. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-09-13

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Injured man admits he planted bomb

Police arrested a man believed to have been injured by a bomb in relation to the South insurgency after he reportedly confessed that he planted the mine to harm security officials but ended up hurting himself by stepping on it.

Woha Baeloh, 42, who lost both his legs after stepping on a mine on Monday and remains in hospital at Rangae district, confessed that he had made a bomb and planted it under a tree near the TonyongmasYi Ngor Road. He said he had also hung Thai and Malaysian flags on the tree to attract Thai officials.

The suspect told police that he worked with 10 other insurgency sympathisers and had planted seven bombs in the Rangae district since August 31. It is suspected that the mine which nine-year-old Muhammadsafik Lateh lost his right leg to was also planted by Woha.

-- The Nation 2012-09-13

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RT@veen_NT: Starting 30 Oct 2012 Thai Airways will fly direct to Sapporo, Japan with direct flights from Bangkok at Bt23,900 during introduction period.

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Weather service warns of heavy rain in flooded areas

BANGKOK, Sept 13 – Thailand's Meteorological Department warned of heavy to very heavy rain in a number of areas including provinces already battling floods, from today through Monday.

Department deputy director Somchai Baimuang said varying volumes of heavy rain are forecast in the North, Northeast, the central region, the East and the west coast of the South.

A weather system trough will lie above the Central and the East on Friday and Saturday, and while the southwest monsoon strengthens over the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand.

Mr Somchai warned the public of severe weather today through Monday, with rain amounting to as much as 90-100 millimetres in flood-hit provinces.

The weather agency reported all information to the Water and Flood Management Commission (WFMC) to lay out flood preventive measures.

The public should closely monitor the situation but should not panic, he said. The amount of rainfall this year is [so far] 20 per cent less than last year.

Thailand will possibly face two storms from next month onwards, he said. In that case, the department will be able to issue a warning at least ten days in advance.

Meanwhile, typhoon Sanba, centred east of the Philippines with maximum sustained wind of about 155 km/hr, is moving toward Okinawa, Japan on the weekend and will have no effect on Thailand. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-09-13

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RT@porpich: 10:02pm Road under Punnawithi BTS Station flooded for an hour and not decreasing yfrog.com/nx3otorj (@Rawangpai) #thaifloodeng

RT@porpich: 10:13pm Road under Udomsuk BTS station also flooded fb.me/1zEhxXRVt (@nnanews) #thaifloodeng

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RT@RichardBarrow: Looks like Sukhumwit is a river tonight - RT @Rawangpai: 22.00น. น้ำท่วมใต้ BTS ปุณณวิถี เกือบชม. ยังไม่ลด http://t.co/urGsZqFZ

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to continue:

Thailand Live Friday 14 Sep 2012