Thailand Live Friday 14 December 2012

News, Bits and Tweets

with webfact

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 13 Dec 2012

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ARMY

Airship crash hurts four

The Nation

PATTANI: -- The Royal Thai Army's airship crashed yesterday while providing surveillance for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's visit to Pattani, falling from an altitude of 15 metres.

Full story:

POLITICS

1st-car scheme causing traffic jams

Suriyan Panyawai

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The government's first-car tax rebate scheme has been a smashing success and a boon for the auto industry, but has helped spawn tremendous traffic snarls on Bangkok streets, traffic officials said.

Full story:

UPDATE

Bangkokians favour both Sukkhumbhand and Sudarat for governor: poll

Full story:

POLITICS

Abhisit, Suthep not detained

Piyanut Tumnukasetchai,

Atapoom Ongkulna

The Nation

Democrat Party supporters appear in a show of moral support for Abhisit and Suthep at the party headquarters

Democrat leaders charged with murder by DSI

BANGKOK: -- Former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his deputy Suthep Thaugsuban were allowed to go home after acknowledging murder charges at the Department of Special Investigation yesterda.There were no clashes between their supporters and the red shirts.

Full story:

Hesitating deputy premier Chalerm decides to make southern trip

Full story:

CHARTER REVIEW

Coalition backing for referendum

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Coalition partners are expected to back the idea of holding a public referendum before the third reading of the charter-amendment bill, PM's Office Minister Varathep Ratanakorn said yesterday.

Full story:

EDITORIAL

Time to rein in populism and excessive spending

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Levels of household and national debt in Thailand are rising to alarming levels; we cannot continue on this path of overconsumption without disaster striking eventually

Full story:

UPDATE

CRES was simply maintaining law and order in 2010 : Thawil

Full story: http://www.thaivisa....in-2010-thawil/

BURNING ISSUE

Yingluck has nothing to lose with charter poll

Avudh Panananda

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra made a wise choice recently in opting for a referendum to precede the rewriting of the Constitution.

Full story:

Court delays red-shirt terror

Kesinee Taengkhiao

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Criminal Court yesterday postponed the interrogation of a witness in the terrorism cases of 24 red-shirt leaders until today because two defendants did not appear in court.

The 24 red-shirt leaders, who include Veerakarn Musigapong, Deputy Commerce Minister Natthawut Saikua, Pheu Thai MP Jatuporn Promphan, and Pheu Thai MPs Kokaew Pikulthong and Weng Tojirakarn, were charged with terrorism in connection with protests they led between February 28 and May 20, 2010.

Red-shirt lawyer Winyat Chatmontri testified to the court that Natthawut did not appear in court because he was accompanying Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on a trip to Pattani for a meeting with officials from the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre.

Winyat said another defendant, Charan Loypoon, did not appear because he was detained at a prison in Ayutthaya on charges of attempted murder and violating the Firearms Act.

The court said it would interrogate the witness today, but warned the defendants not to delay their appearance further.

-- The Nation 2012-12-14

Drug hauls in Chiang Mai, Nong Khai

The Nation

CHIANG MAI: -- Police have arrested two men along with 60,000 yaba tablets in a sting operation, while in Nong Khai province, officers patrolling the Mekong River seized 30kgs of marijuana worth Bt300,000 in Sangkhom district, it was announced yesterday.

Chiang Mai deputy police chief Pol Colonel Weerawut Niamnoi presented suspects Phuwadon Siri-ang and Nitat Klinkajorn, both 38, along with two pistols and ammunition. On Wednesday night Phuwadon was nabbed at a bar while allegedly delivering 40,000 yaba tablets to an undercover cop in exchange for Bt2.5 million in cash, he said. A search of his room allegedly found 20,000 more yaba pills and police then arrested Nitat who owned the pickup truck Phuwadon allegedly used in the drug delivery.

In Nong Khai, 30kg of marijuana were seized at Ban Jeung pier in Tambon Kaeng Kai at 6am yesterday, following a tip-off about drug smuggling. Navy officials spotted two men on a long-tailed boat landing the drug haul at the pier but the duo fled, abandoning the drugs.

-- The Nation 2012-12-14

Drugs, ammo, bomb gear found at post office

The Nation

HAT YAI: -- Seventy-six packages containing narcotic substances, bullets and bomb-making materials have been seized at Songkhla's Hat Yai Post Office, the working team following transactions of drug rings and southern insurgents announced yesterday.

Full story:

Wildlife sperm banks established

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- In a bid to increase the population of wild animals in Thailand, sperm banks holding specimens from endangered and rare species have been established while a pilot project to release thousands of animals in national forests is being pushed forward, officials said at a seminar yesterday.

Ampika Thongpakdee of the Zoological Park Organisation of Thailand said there are 20 sperm banks where semen and cells of rare and endangered species are kept frozen.

Also this year, the Rare Wildlife Conservation and Research Institute was set up to coordinate efforts by the government, the ZPO and universities.

The ZPO has joined with world zoo organisations to promote wildlife biodiversity through research and through the release of endangered animals into the wild.

The ZPO has taken care of 5,890 animals of 454 types. For example, the ZPO has bred the Eld's deer, known in Thai as lamang, and Sarus cranes, which are at risk of extinction. The ZPO has produced about 200 Sarus cranes, and released around 70 Eld's deer into the forests.

Tuangrat Pothieng of the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department said her agency will release more than 9,000 animals of 29 types to 30 forest preserves in a project that started in 2011 and continues through next year.

From 2014 to 2018, the National Parks Department would breed more rare species and then evaluate the results of the project in 2019 and 2020.

The annual seminar on wildlife in Thailand was held at Kasetsart University, ahead of the December 26 National Wildlife Protection Day.

-- The Nation 2012-12-14

Thailand Threatens to Deport 1 Million Illegal Migrant Workers

Daniel Schearf

BANGKOK, THAILAND — Thailand is threatening to deport more than a million migrant workers, most of them from Burma, if they do not complete required documentation by a December 14 deadline. Rights groups say the nationality verification process, while aimed at providing legal protection, is being exploited by corrupt officials, brokers and employers to further abuse vulnerable migrants.

Full story:

Case against Tan Thaugsuban to be decided in January

The Nation

Public prosecutors will decide on the case against the son of senior Democrat Party politician Suthep Thaugsuban and his accomplices on January 15.

BANGKOK: -- Tan Thaugsuban and three other suspects are accused of encroaching on forestland in Surat Thani's Samui district, illegally occupying plots and building on them.

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) launched a probe into the alleged encroachment and found there were grounds to believe that Tan and his accomplices committed wrongdoing.

DSI officials brought the investigation report to public prosecutors at the Department of Special Litigation yesterday.

The chief of the department, Winai Damrongmongkhonkul, said the suspects would be summoned to hear the order on January 15.

Tan's lawyer Wiroj Phumsirisawas said the case was politically motivated. He insisted his client held the land plots legally, because he possessed the land-title deeds.

"There is also evidence of purchase," he said.

Samart Ruangsri, one of the alleged accomplices, said he sold the land plot to Tan.

"If the DSI thinks I illegally obtained the land title deeds, it should look into all the other land plots around mine too," he said.

-- The Nation 2012-12-14

Academics call for new agency to deal with domestic violence

SAOWANEE NIMPANPAYUNGWONG

THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- Thai authorities should tackle the issue of domestic violence by finding an agency to host and be responsible for rehabilitation programmes for violent offenders, academics said at a Bangkok seminar yesterday.

Full story:

Police officers, teller accused of robbing Lao

CHARNYOOT KOTTHAM

THE NATION

Nakhon Phanom

NAKHON PHANOM: -- Four police officers were dismissed yesterday after they and a bank teller were arrested for robbing three Laotian employees of Bt3.5 million as they were returning to their sawmill in Laos.

Full story:

SOUTHERN VIOLENCE

Govt asked to pay more compensation

THE NATION

Network urges payment of Bt7.75 million each to families of slain teachers

BANGKOK: -- The government should increase compensation for families of teachers killed in the southern violence to Bt7.75 million each, equal to the sum paid to relatives of those killed in the political unrest, said Udsa Pasakul, president of a network that is helping teachers prepare for the Asean Economic Community.

Full story:

Youtube clip of slaphappy Army officer rankles netizens

By Coconuts Bangkok

BANGKOK: -- Netizens have been condemning an ill-mannered, allegedly drunk Thai Army officer who was caught on tape slapping a motorist near Tiwanon Intersection in Nonthaburi on the evening of December 11. He claimed to be a high-ranking official but was later identified to be a Private.

Full story:

Hungarian suspect Kvalka retraces steps to Peter Reisz killing

Phuket Gazette

Gyorgy Lajos Kvalka (left) explains to police that he rushed into the house to stop the fight between Peter Reisz and Moshe David. Photo: Atchaa Khamlo

Mr Kvalka (left) shows officers how he helped load Mr Reisz’s body onto the back of the pickup and drove it to a rubber plantation near Patong Hill, where he and Mr David dumped it. Photo: Atchaa Khamlo

PHUKET: -- Gyorgy Lajos Kvalka, the second suspect arrested in connection with the murder of Peter Reisz in Phuket late last month, today reiterated to police his claim that he played no part in the killing of the Hungarian businessman.

Full story:

Kim Jong Un voted Person of the Year in TIME poll

A majority of online readers of TIME magazine have selected North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as their pick for the annual "Person of the Year."

Full story:

Bomb ambush army patrol in Narathiwat's Cho-airong district, followed by fierce gunfight; six soldiers wounded /MCOT

Schools in four Songkhla districts remain closed

By Digital Media

SONGKHLA, Dec 14 -- Schools in four districts of Songkhla remained closed as teachers in so-called "red zones"--deemed by the authorities as high rsk -- urged the government to step up security measures for teacher protection similar to the measures provided for teachers in the neighbouring three southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala.

Schools in the four districts under the Office of the Songkhla Educational Service Area Zone 3 are closed for the second day in accordance with the resolution of the Federation of Teachers in Three Southern Provinces.

The Federation on Wednesday agreed to close all schools yesterday and today to permit security agencies sufficient time to assess their operations in providing teacher protection after two teachers were killed when apparent insurgents invaded a school lunchroom at Baan Bango School in Mayor district on Tuesday.

Teachers working in the “red zones”, villages with high rates of insurgent activity, are worried that they could be targets of insurgent attack as well.

The Songkhla teachers called for government protection including the same security measures as teachers in the three southernmost provinces.

The schools will reopen Monday or not would depend on the Federation's decision. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-12-14

Thai stock index opens on Friday at 1,355.97, up 2.16 points /MCOT

Police hope observation tower puts teeth in much-touted Walking Street 'safety zone'

Calling it a symbol of truly tighter security, Pattaya police are using their new observation tower to keep a better eye on tourists and crime on Walking Street.

Full story:

Pattaya Police investigate possible discovery of drug-making factory at Jomtien Condo

PATTAYA:--Early on Thursday Morning Pattaya Police were called to View Talay Condominium 1 in Jomtien after a cleaner discovered, what she believed to be a drug-making facility in a room where the occupants had just checked-out from.

Full story:

Thailand faces acute labour shortage; mass repatriation of migrant workers looms

By English News

BANGKOK, Dec 14 – Thailand faces an imminent acute labour shortage with more than one million migrant workers expected to be repatriated this weekend for failing to have completed nationality verification as required by the government, a senior member of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC) said today.

Full story: http://www.thaivisa....s/#entry5930131

Thailand is the third-most dangerous country for internet users

By Coconuts Bangkok

According to eWeek, Thailand is the third-most dangerous country in the world for internet users.

Full story: