Thailand Live Friday 11 January 2013

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 10 Jan 2013

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ENVIRONMENT

Klity Creek villagers awarded Bt3.8m

Pongphon Sarnsamak

The Nation

PCD ordered to clean up lead-contaminated area

KANCHANABURI: -- After a 15-year legal battle, villagers living near Kanchanaburi’s lead-contaminated Klity Creek have finally scored a decisive victory over the state pollution-control agency in the country’s first environmental case to see a final court ruling.

Full story:

MEDICAL CARE

Ambulance refused to photographer at Parliament

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Medical staff at Parliament House yesterday refused to use an ambulance on standby to ferry a seriously ill news photographer to hospital.

Full story:

BANGKOK

Ratanakosin's homeless to be moved on

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Interior Ministry will join hands with Bangkok City Hall and police to relocate vendors and homeless people from the banks of Klong Lod, in a bid to boost tourism in Bangkok.

Full story:

THAI-MALAYSIA RELATIONS

KL offers to act as a go-between in South

Piyanart Srivalo

The Nation

PUTRAJAYA: -- Malaysia supports Thailand's efforts to negotiate an end to the separatist violence in the South and is ready to assist with a peace initiative and act as a mediator if requested, National Security Council (NSC) secretary-general Lt-General Paradorn Pattathabutr said. Paradorn accompanied Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung on a visit to Putrajaya in Malaysia yesterday.

Full story:

Tourist Dies on Rented Motorbike in Pattaya

Full story:

Two women arrested at Don Mueang Airport for smuggling yaba in genitalia

Full story:

EDITORIAL

There's only one answer to the issue of infidelity

The Nation

Until social values go through a marked change, extramarital affairs and 'minor wives' will remain a fact of life, like it or not, in this country

Full story:

Muay Thai/K-1

Sudsakorn Sor Klinmee to try out for premier league side Pattaya United FC

BANGKOK: -- Sudsakorn Sor Klinmee, a successful Muay Thai fighter and Thai Fight veteran, is considering a change of career according to a report today in Siam Sport.

Full story:

Democrats probed over referendum campaign

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The political party registrar has appointed a fact-finding committee to probe the Democrats' campaign against the national referendum on Constitution amendment, Election Commission secretary-general Puchong Nutrawong said on Wednesday.

Puchong said EC chairman Apichart Sukhagganond, in his role as political party registrar, had ordered the panel to consider whether an article posted by Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva on Facebook and a speech by former secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban urging people in Nakhon Pathom not to vote in the referendum, were against the Constitution and thus a cause for the party to be dissolved.

The panel has 30 days to gather the information, said Puchong.

-- The Nation 2013-01-11

Constitution Court turns down reds' demand for clarification on ruling

Chanikarn Phumhirun

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Constitution Court is in no way obliged to provide clarifications on its ruling on charter amendment, court president Wasan Soypisudh said yesterday.

Full story:

SCHOOL HAIRSTYLES

Mixed bag of reaction as rule lifted

THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- Schoolchildren are delighted to finally be free of the long-standing regulation that requires boys' hair to not exceed 5-centimetres in length and girls' hair to not go beyond the earlobe.

Full story:

CHILDREN'S DAY

Thanom's motto still top favourite

THE NATION

Survey reveals youngsters want adults to stop cheating, be good role models

BANGKOK: -- Good children are the country's future and smart children help the nation develop" - this was the National Children's Day motto set by former PM Field Marshall Thanom Kittikachorn in 1973 and an Abac poll has discovered that it is the biggest favourite among children.

Full story:

AEC could bring infectious diseases, warns expert

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Thailand will be at risk from breakouts of several infectious diseases, particularly diphtheria, when it enters the Asean Economic Community (AEC), an expert in disease control warned yesterday.

Full story:

Japan PM visiting Thailand on Jan 17-18

Piyanart Srivalo,

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make his first official visit to Thailand on January 17-18, his first official trip since assuming the post.

The trip is part of his visit to strengthen ties with three Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia and Vietnam.

Abe will be granted an audience with His Majesty the King during his official visit on January 17.

The Japanese PM will arrive in Thailand at noon and visit the Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology in Bangkok's Suan Luang district at 2pm.

He will be given an audience with the King at 5pm and hold a meeting with PM Yingluck Shinawatra at 6pm.

The Japanese PM will stay at the Four Seasons Hotel and leave Thailand at 8.30am for Indonesia and Vietnam.

-- The Nation 2013-01-11

City district chiefs told to be fair

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Bangkok's 50 district chiefs have been told to carry out their duty without any bias in relation to the gubernatorial election to be held on March 3.

City clerk Ninnart Chalitanont said this while chairing an orientation meeting with Bangkok district chiefs to prepare for the election. She said the Bangkok Election Commission would announce the qualifications of gubernatorial candidates by January 11. Candidates who are not sure can hand their documents over to the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority to check.

Each candidate is allowed only 500 people to help with the campaign. Also every candidate must hand over a list of campaign staff, who will be trained on election law.

A total of 6,548 ballot stations will be set up, of which 3,414 will be temporary ones and the remainder will be in school buildings. There are more than 4 million eligible voters in this election.

Ninnart said district chiefs need to manage all ballot stations and everything must be ready in time. She has advised all district chiefs to be fair as it is their role to support the Election Commission.

"Though many district chiefs have been promoted from assistant district chief and have experience in managing elections, they should still be careful because it is a sensitive issue,'' she said.

-- The Nation 2013-01-11

BURNING ISSUE

Internal rifts could decide race for city governor

Avudh Panananda

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The campaign season for the three-horse race for the position of Bangkok governor is well underway.

Full story:

UPDATE

Clemency a 'win-win' for P Penh, Bangkok

The Nation

Cambodian move to free jailed PAD activists early eases tensions as ICJ ruling looms

BANGKOK: -- Cambodia's announcement yesterday that it would grant clemency to two Thai activists jailed in the country has been seen as a move to reduce political pressure on both the Thai and Cambodian governments while helping to ease tensions between the countries over disputed land adjacent to the Preah Vihear temple.

Full story:

400 trafficked Rohingya people rescued in Songkhla

SANTIPARP RAMASUTRA

THE NATION

SONGKHLA: -- Officials yesterday rescued some 400 Rohingya people from Myanmar who had been kept at a rubber plantation for three months by an alleged human-trafficking gang in Songkhla's Sadao district on the Malaysian border.

The gang reportedly planned to traffic the Rohingya for Bt60,000 per head to clients in Malaysia to work on fishing boats. The authorities raided the plantation in Tambon Padung Besar and rescued the Rohingya, who included five girls and 61 boys under the age of 15.

Police arrested five Rohingya men who were minding the group, and seized a shotgun, a home-made pistol, 10 cellphones and a notebook.

A police investigation found that the Rohingya were smuggled into Thailand via Ranong province and were transported in 10-wheeled trucks to a temporary shelter on the rubber plantation, which reportedly belonged to a local politician. The gang had transported a total of 2,000 Rohingya people in this way before, the police found.

Officials evacuated the Rohingya out of the area and contacted related agencies to aid them, while police continued to investigate the accused human traffickers.

-- The Nation 2013-01-11

After Phuket, ambassadors target tourist safety in Krabi

Phuket Gazette

PHUKET: -- The British, Canadian and Dutch Ambassadors to Thailand met with the top cop in Krabi yesterday to discuss tourism-safety measures and to follow up on several prominent police cases.

Full story:

Savile abused 500 children: report

LONDON: -- JIMMY Savile sexually assaulted children as young as 10 during nearly four decades of activity as a paedophile that took place in a string of institutions, including numerous hospitals, prisons and the BBC, the official inquiry by London’s Metropolitan Polic and Britain’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children will say today.

Full story:

Three Kurdish Women Murdered In Paris

Full story:

Singaporeans becoming more tolerant of gays, lesbians: study

Full story:

Thai stock index opens on Friday at 1,407.60, up 1.61 points /MCOT

World's safest airlines named

Finland's national carrier, Finnair, has been named the world's safest airline by a European group of airline safety enthusiasts.

Full story:

Thai tycoon gets yet another extension in F&N bid

SINGAPORE, Jan 11, 2013 (AFP) - A Thai billionaire Thursday got a new deadline to submit an improved bid for Singapore conglomerate Fraser and Neave in a drawn-out battle with an Indonesian rival that has been compared to a poker game.

Full story:

Red Shirt activists sue former PM Abhisit

By English News

BANGKOK, Jan 10 – A lawyer representing the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) led two Red Shirt activists to file petitions at the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) accusing former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his deputy Suthep Thaugsuban of attempted murder.

Full story:

Thailand hopes to explore natural gas in overlapping zone

By Digital Media

BANGKOK, Jan 11 – Thailand needs to urgently negotiate with Cambodia to exploit oil and gas reserves affected by the disputed maritime boundary, or overlapping claims area (OCA), given its increasing domestic energy consumption, according to a senior Energy Ministry official.

Full story:

Thai Consulate In Perth To Re-Open Soon /ThaiVisa Member.

Full Details: http://www.thaivisa....o-re-open-soon/