Thailand Live Friday 21 Dec 2012

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Thailand Live Friday 21 December 2012

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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UPDATE

Phuket-UAE aircraft catches fire: passengers safe

Full story:

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UPDATE

Bangkok Criminal Court concludes Army killed 14-year-old boy during 2010 violence

Full story: http://www.thaivisa....-2010-violence/

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NEW SUPREME COURT OFFICE

Fine Arts Dept loses conservation battle

Kesinee Tangkhieo,

Pakamas Jaichalard

The Nation

One historical building definitely to be demolished to make way for new Supreme Court office

BANGKOK: -- The construction of the new Supreme Court office is going ahead despite a public uproar that the project will most likely endanger at least one of the two registered historical buildings nearby.

Full story:

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BOT WARNING

BOT worried about populist policies pushing up public-debt level

Sarun Kijvasin

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Bank of Thailand has expressed concern over the country's public-debt level if the government continues its budgetary deficits, particularly for its populist policies.

Full story:

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SAMUI

Samui focuses on infrastructure after worst blackout experience

Bamrung Amnatcharoenrit

The Nation

SAMUI: -- The recent 72-hour blackout on Samui island, the longest in its history, has forced the tourism sector there to realise the importance of sustainable infrastructure development, especially electricity supply, through alternative energy projects that will secure growth in the long run, Tanongsak Somwong, president of the Tourism Association of Koh Samui (TAKS), said.

Full story:

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NBTC panel finds no wrongdoing in Thaksin broadcast, urges caution on programming

Watchiranont Thongtep

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- A National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) subcommittee on TV programming and content has found no wrongdoing in relation to the appearance of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a live broadcast of a Thai boxing match in Macau aired by Channel 11 early this month.

Full story:

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Single visa with Cambodia to be discussed

Nuntida Puangthong

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Foreign ministers from Thailand and Cambodia will discuss the possibility of launching a single visa at the eighth Joint Commission meeting next week, a senior official at the Foreign Affairs Ministry said yesterday.

Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul and his Cambodian counterpart Hor Namhong will co-chair the meeting in Bangkok on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss several issues, including the single-visa initiative.

The idea of a joint visa for visitors to both Thailand and Cambodia has been mooted as a way to boost tourism.

If the two countries could agree on the single-visa policy, it might pave the way for a single visa for the five countries of the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS), said Damrong Kraikruan, director-general of the Foreign Affairs Ministry's East Asia Department.

The ACMECS visa scheme would be similar to the Schengen visa, which allows entry to many European countries. ACMECS comprises Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, but only Thailand and Cambodia have expressed interest in launching the single-visa policy as a pilot project, Damrong said.

Other issues on the Joint Commission table will include infrastructure connectivity, the road link between Trat and Sre Ambel in Cambodia's Koh Kong province, as well the opening of a border checkpoint between Ban Nong Aian in Sa Kaew province and Stung Bot in Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey province.

-- The Nation 2012-12-21

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PAD leaders fail to show up, warrants sought

Kesinee Taengkhiao

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Public prosecutors yesterday threatened to seek arrest warrants for yellow-shirt leaders after they failed to turn up to acknowledge charges related to the anti-Thaksin Shinawatra protests in 2008.

Full story:

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Both sides at fault for lack of progress in 2012

Avudh Panananda

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The debate on charter change and reconciliation remains inconclusive as 2012 draws to a close, and next year will likely see more of the same with a worrisome prospect of intensified conflict.

Full story:

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Sukhumbhand pushed to reconsider

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Several other Democrats are offering to stand as candidates for the opposition party in the Bangkok gubernatorial election early next year, mounting pressure on current governor Sukhumbhand Paripatra to reconsider the decision to run for a second term.

Full story:

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Thailand needs urgent action on human trafficking

Full story:

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AFP: Thai court orders extradition of Italian mafia boss

Full story:

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GUEST COLUMN

A new energy landscape and the implications for Thailand

Chodechai Suwanaporn

BANGKOK: -- In the coming years, the global energy trend will drastically change from the present state, with far-reaching consequences for economic development and global trade. As an energy-dependent country, Thailand will have to live with the new reality of high and volatile energy prices. The new global energy landscape is being redrawn, with the US becoming the leading supplier of oil and gas.

Full story:

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SPECIAL

Urgent wake-up call for Koh Samui

Thanapat Kitjakosol

The Nation

SAMUI: -- After worst blackout in its history, officials ponder how to deal with shortcomings on tourist paradise; Power shortage, garbage, drinking water and chronic floods high on agenda

Full story:

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Ban on feeding fish at diving sites

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department has banned visitors from feeding fish in popular scuba diving spots in the Andaman Sea because they say such action affects the natural food chain.

Also, some fish seemed more aggressive and preferred bread to seaweed. This problem is most severe at Maya Bay in Krabi province.

Songtham Suksawang, chief of the Trang Marine National Park Innovation Institute, said the regulation will initially be imposed at Koh Surin and Koh Similan, and as with the ban on feeding monkeys at the Khao Yai National Park, violators will be fined.

-- The Nation 2012-12-21

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Bangkok to celebrate as World Book Capital

Supalak Patcharopaswattanakul

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration announced yesterday that it is planning activities to celebrate being named World Book Capital 2013 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

Full story:

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Pattani couple held with large yaba haul

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- A husband and wife hailing from Pattani were arrested with 280,000 yaba tablets worth Bt8.4 million at the Thanyaburi tollgate on Tuesday evening, Pol General Pongsapat Pongcharoen, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, said yesterday.

A police investigation found that Seri Chumpong, 39, and wife Farida Mat-aree, 29, brought the drugs from the North and stored them in Angthong and Ayutthaya before distributing them among retailers in Bangkok. Following a tip-off, police kept a lookout for them on the Asia Highway. Upon spotting the couple, police demanded to search their vehicle and found a cache of drugs. In a subsequent search at a condominium in Bangkok's Bang Kapi district, police also reportedly found records of drug-related transactions.

The couple has reportedly confessed to transporting drugs from the North to Angthong more than 10 times in the past two years, and each time they got Bt700,000. They also got Bt200,000 per trip when moving drugs from Angthong to Bangkok retailers. Police will be seizing the couple's assets worth Bt50 million in the South as well as hunting for their accomplice in Chiang Rai.

-- The Nation 2012-12-21

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Thailand, Cambodia agree to prepare mine clearance plan for demilitarized zone

Full story:

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TAO torched in Narathiwat; officer killed in Yala

The Nation

NARATHIWAT: -- Heavily armed men carrying containers of benzene burned a Tambon Administrative Organisation office in Narathiwat's Bacho district to the ground after demanding to know whether there were any Buddhists present.

Thirteen staff members of the Bacho TAO were about to leave for lunch when seven armed men stormed the office, said TAO clerk Abdulwaha Dullayapinit.

One of them fired into the air before asking in the Yawi dialect whether there was a Thai Buddhist working there.

Abdulwaha told them there were no Buddhists at the office, but the men accused him of lying. The clerk then said the only Thai Buddhist employee, Suchanart Lee, was on leave. The men then used the benzene to douse a room used to store documents and torched it before speeding away.

Staff members fled the building, alerting fire-fighters and asking local villagers to help put out the blaze. However, fuelled by the paper documents, the fire razed the building to the ground.

Abdulwaha told police that the suspects seemed to target Suchanart, the only Thai Buddhist working at the office. He speculated that the men had brought the benzene to torch Suchanart.

Meanwhile, Pol Sergeant Washira Saengsri, 32, was shot and killed while manning a road checkpoint in Yala's Krong Pinang district.

Washira succumbed to gunshot wounds to the neck at a nearby hospital. An initial police investigation found that the victim and other combined-forces officers were at the checkpoint on Highway 410 from Yala to Bannang Sata when the sound of gunfire was heard and Washira, who was sitting on a motorcycle, fell to the ground.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital. Police said insurgents may have been hiding in a house in the area and used a rifle equipped with a telescopic sight to shoot the victim at long range.

-- The Nation 2012-12-21

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Govt may become lenient on migrants

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Labour Ministry will be asking the Cabinet to give employers another three months before making migrant workers part of the legal system.

The ministry's permanent secretary Somkiat Chayasriwong disclosed the measure yesterday after emerging from a meeting with representatives of the Federation of Thai Industries and the Thai Chamber of Commerce.

These representatives expressed concerns about labour shortage, if the government went ahead with deporting more than 300,000 alien workers who have failed to get their nationality verified by December 14.

Somkiat said the ministry now planned to ask the Cabinet to be lenient and give employers three more months to complete the process of registration and nationality verification for their alien workers.

"But employers must inform the Employment Department within one month after this measure is announced," he said.

According to him, the measure will take effect immediately after the Cabinet approves it.

-- The Nation 2012-12-21

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DTAC

DTAC plans 50% 3G coverage on new network a year ahead of deadline

Sirivish Toomgum

The Nation

BANGKOK: --Total Access Communication (DTAC) says it will be ready to set up its 2.1-gigahertz network soon, totalling about 6,500 sites nationwide next year, which will be able to provide third-generation cellular service to 50 per cent of the population.

Full story:

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'Mr Condom' spearheads fight against Thailand's new AIDS crisis

Unsafe sex is being blamed for the alarming rise in HIV infections among young people, writes Lindsay Murdoch in Bangkok.

BANGKOK: -- Thailand's ''Mr Condom'', Mechai Viravaidya, who has saved millions of lives by raising awareness of HIV/AIDS, says his country is facing a new crisis from the infection.

Full story:

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Australian's girlfriend dies after fall from 19th floor apartment

By Staff Reporter

PATTAYA: -- The body of a 19 year old girlfriend of an Australian resident was found in a Jomtien Condominium carpark on Friday morning, having fallen from their balcony

Full story:

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Entire family killed in midnight motorcycle crash

By Staff Reporter

PATTAYA: -- Banglamung Police were called to a fatal accident which killed a complete family, riding a motorcycle which crashed into a power pole just after midnight on Thursday.

Full story:

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The Apocalypse As It Happens - Live Reports

The last place on Earth, and a lucky few ready for lift-off

Full story:

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UPDATE

Air Berlin jet makes emergency landing in Thailand

BANGKOK, Dec 21, 2012 (AFP) - An Air Berlin jet carrying 249 passengers burst a tyre as it made a dramatic emergency landing on a Thai resort island after experiencing engine trouble, the director of Phuket airport said Friday.

Full story:

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Phuket airport reopens for normal service after temporary forced closure following German Air Berlin flight emergency landing /MCOT

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Thai stock index opens on Friday at 1,373.22, down 4.18 points /MCOT