2014 National Science and Technology Fair to be held in Chiang Mai

CHIANG MAI, 6 August 2014 (NNT) -The Ministry of Science and Technology will hold the 2014 National Science and Technology Fair featuring science activities including a showcase of mammoth robots and a 30 meter long bone of a dinosaur. The fair is targeting over a million visitors.

The 2014 National Science and Technology Fair will be held at the National Science Museum on the theme of Science Ignite for Life Improvement during 12th – 18th August 2014 at the Chiang Mai International Convention and Exhibition Center.

The fair is on during the week of National Science Day, in recognition of the remarkable talent for science of both King Rama IV and King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and in order to present modern science and technology developments in a manner that will inspire today's youth.

Highlight activities include a Lanna agricultural technology showcase, a future energy exhibition and an Ice Age exhibition showcasing mammoth robots and a 30 meter dinosaur bone and 4D movie. Entrance is free.

[nnt]2014-08-06[/nnt]

Aggressive Car Windshield Cleaners Gang Arrested
By Khaosod English


The suspects point to equipment they allegedly used.

BANGKOK - Police have arrested a group of car windshield cleaners in Bangkok who reportedly dirtied their potential patrons' cars before they offered to clean them.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749219-aggressive-car-windshield-cleaners-gang-arrested-in-bangkok/

SURROGATION
Draft law on surrogacy ready to be submitted for NLA review
Opas Boonlom
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- THE USE of a surrogate mother remains a grey area for Thailand but there is hope that draft legislation now ready for review by the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) will finally bring clarity - and protect children born through the use of assisted reproductive technology (ART).

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749220-draft-law-on-surrogacy-ready-to-be-submitted-for-nla-review-thailand/

UPDATE:

 

INVASION
Homes encroaching on forest reserve torn down
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- TWO LUXURY HOMES in the compound of former Department of Special Investigation (DSI) chief Tarit Pengdith's family estate in Nakhon Ratchasima province have finally been demolished.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749014-tarits-resort-homes-in-khao-yai-demolished/page-2#entry8204169

BUSINESS
Private sector to push for business reforms
Pranee Muenphangwaree,
Nakarin Srilert
The Nation

Fighting corruption also high on agenda for new Parliament

BANGKOK: -- Private sector representatives in the new Parliament will push for more than 100 draft bills and legal amendments that cover business promotion, trade facilitation, mergers - and countering corruption - to be considered by the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) as part of the country's economic reform agenda.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749223-thai-private-sector-to-push-for-business-reforms/

TELEVISION
Nation Channel teams up with Siamsport for top quality sports TV
Kitinan Sanguansak
The Nation


NBC president Adisak Limprungpatanakit, left, Siamsport Syndicate executive chief Pongsak Pholanan and Siamsport director Adisai Varinsirikul, right.

BANGKOK: -- Siamsport has joined hands with Nation Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) to produce sporting content for Nation Channel in what has been hailed as "a phenomenal partnership" in digital television.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749226-nation-channel-teams-up-with-siamsport-for-top-quality-sports-tv/

RICE BIDING
First rice auction since junta took power open to all traders
Petchanet Pratruangkrai
The Nation


Thai traders have shown high interest in checking the quality of stockpiled rice and joining the first rice auction since the National Council for Peace and Order assumed power in May. The auction is scheduled to take place tomorrow

BANGKOK: -- The Commerce Ministry is scheduled to open bidding for 167,000 tonnes of rice tomorrow in what will be the first auction to reduce the size of the state's stockpile since the National Council for Peace and Order took power on May 22.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749228-first-rice-auction-since-ncpo-took-power-open-to-all-traders/

DIGITAL TV
Junta pressed to raise digital TV vouchers to Bt1,000
Watchiranont Thongtep,
Usanee Mongkolporn
The Nation


Jamnan

BANGKOK: -- Broadcasting professionals, digital terrestrial TV stations, and media and advertising associations are making a last-ditch pitch to the junta to persuade it to raise the value of digital TV vouchers to Bt1,000 instead of Bt690 and to make public relations campaigns for digital television a national priority.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749229-ncpo-pressed-to-raise-digital-tv-vouchers-to-bt1000/

MORTGAGE LOAN
Mortgage loans expected to rise 10% next year
Sucheera Pinijparakarn
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Home loans will resume growth of more than 10 per cent next year as consumers and developers are now able to manage their long-term plans as confidence in the economy is returning, according to the Housing Finance Association.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749230-mortgage-loans-expected-to-rise-10-percent-next-year-thailand/

EDITORIAL
Honesty is shown by actions, not superstitious ritual
The Nation

The fashion for swearing oaths has undermined public accountability

BANGKOK: -- The Football Association of Thailand (FAT) last week came up with a "noble" way of tackling the country's match-fixing problem by getting 130 referees to swear an oath before the Emerald Buddha statue in Bangkok.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749231-honesty-is-shown-by-actions-not-superstitious-ritual-thai-editorial/

Things are getting crowded again as DMK rides the budget boom
By Coconuts Bangkok
 


BANGKOK: -- Just a couple years after being pulled from retirement, Don Mueang Airport is booming, serving nearly 16.5 million passengers last year.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749234-things-are-getting-crowded-again-as-dmk-rides-the-budget-boom/

Tourist arrivals drop 10.47 percent to 13.6 million in seven months



BANGKOK: -- Tourist arrivals for the seven months of this year dropped by 10.47 percent to 13.6 million compared to 14 million for the same period last year largely due to political instability, said Mr Anuparb Kasensuwan, director-general of Tourism Department, on Tuesday.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749237-tourist-arrivals-in-thailand-drop-1047-percent-to-136-million-in-seven-months/

The Democrat party to demand truth about Khao Yai land and house



BANGKOK: -- The Democrat party will demand an investigation into the conduct of former Department of Special Investigation chief Tarit Pengdit and his wife, Mrs Wassamon, over the allegation that both of them might have encroached on national forest reserve near Khao Yai.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749240-the-democrat-party-to-demand-truth-about-khao-yai-land-and-house/

Phuket's Soi Gonzo bars ripped out
Tanyaluk Sakoot


Soi Gonzo today, looking toward the back of the Aussie Bar and Bangla Rd. Photo Tuk Suksungnern

PHUKET: -- The same-same girlie bars lining both sides of Soi Gonzo, one of the grubbier side-streets off Patong’s famed Bangla Rd, have been ripped out.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749242-phukets-soi-gonzo-bars-ripped-out/

Cash help for tourists hurt in Phuket
Tanyaluk Sakoot


Antonio Papaleo, the first injured tourist to receive aid under the scheme, is now out of hospital. Photo Tony Boyd

PHUKET: -- The stabbing of an Italian journalist by a gang of young Thai robbers on July 3 has ushered in a new system that will help fund medical treatment for visitors who are attacked and injured in Phuket.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749244-cash-help-for-tourists-hurt-in-phuket/

AirAsia flight makes emergency landing in Phuket
Darawan Naknakhon


An AirAsia Airbus A320-200, similar to the one that was damaged. Photo Russavia

PHUKET: -- An AirAsia Airbus had to make an emergency landing at Phuket International Airport at 5:15 pm yesterday (August 5) after a bird strike.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749245-airasia-flight-makes-emergency-landing-in-phuket/

RICE-PLEDGING SCHEME
Yingluck allowed to submit further evidence to fight charges
Natthapat Phromkaew
The Nation August

BANGKOK: -- Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra can submit more evidence or propose more witnesses in the rice-pledging scheme case within 30 days, deputy spokesman of the Office of the Attorney-General said yesterday.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749246-yingluck-allowed-to-submit-further-evidence-to-fight-charges-rice-pledging/

BURNING ISSUE
Junta signals the return of 'bureaucratic polity'
Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation 

 

BANGKOK: -- It is pretty clear that the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is not building a foundation for democracy in Thailand as it claims - but is returning "bureaucratic polity" to the country.

Academics might define the term "bureaucratic polity" in different ways, but it simply means the country is reigned, ruled and run by the bureaucracy. Under this system, military is best, civil servant is good and politician is worst.

The junta chief, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, worked to prove that the country could be run by a bureaucracy alone during the two months after he staged the coup on May 22 to topple an elected government. The coup in theory has cut the linkage among people, politicians and political institutions. The country has had no government since then, but all of the state apparatus is functioning under the guidance of the military junta.

The junta later installed a provisional charter and gave birth to the National Legislative Assembly, dominated by security officers. The national assembly will be the crucial power to produce laws as well as the next constitution and a fundamental structure for the future.

It is widely understood that Thailand has turned from the reign of absolute monarchy to democracy since the 1932 revolution. But democracy in Thailand contains only forms of elections. Politics in Thailand simply means power-sharing among the elite. Political institutions and civil society, which are the foundations of democracy, are never strengthened.

The old elite would not allow the electoral and parliamentary system to last for long. No elected government, except one under Thaksin Shinawatra, over the past 82 years was able to last until the end of its term. Thailand has experienced more than a dozen military coups d'etat. Every coup-maker shared the same pretext - saying that he wanted to rid the country of corrupt politicians.

In Thailand's long political history, it has enjoyed only short periods of democracy, with elected governments running the country with a full mandate from voters. The few years after the student uprising to overthrow the dictatorship under Field Marshall Thanom Kittikachorn in 1973 was counted as a remarkable period of democracy. The country later was run by military regimes and quasi-democracies under a dominant military between 1976 and 1988.

The quasi-democratic regime under General Prem Tinsulanonda between 1980 and 1988 was regarded by many of the intellectual elite as stable, and perhaps setting a model that would be suitable for Thailand forever. Thai constitutions, except those of 1997 and 2007, always opened doors for non-elected persons, mostly military generals, to sit as the prime minister.

The Prem regime is the role model for many elite political architects. He is a former Army commander who was "invited" by political parties and elected politicians to take the premiership after elections during the 1980s. To that extent, political parties and politicians were only minor parts of the arrangement. They were furniture, rather than the structure of the country's administration.

Thailand was then mostly run by military officers and bureaucrats. The prime minister had no accountability to the people. His power was supported by the military. Prem faced challenges from young officers and two coup attempts, rather than lawmakers in the House of Representatives. He never gave a damn about the politicians in Parliament. They would create no trouble for his government as long as they were allowed to join the Cabinet.

Political parties and politicians were allowed to take power and run the country with their platforms and policies after Prem, but the administrations never went smoothly. Two coups in 1991 and 2006 overthrew them.

The May 22 coup by General Prayuth could be regarded as the second attempt to complete the mission for restoration of a bureaucratic regime since the previous coup in 2006 failed to weaken politicians, notably in Thaksin's camp, and their political institutions.

The NCPO is working hard these days to keep politicians, notably the disobedient ones, away from power arrangements. Many are not qualified to sit in the national assembly or the reform council, and have no need to have a say in the Constitution Drafting Committee.

The new constitution could be foreseen as a conservative one, less democratic, giving less power to politicians but more power to the military and bureaucracy to lay a strong foundation for the return of bureaucratic polity.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Junta-signals-the-return-of-bureaucratic-polity-30240338.html

[thenation]2014-08-06[/thenation]

Politicians 'should keep away'
The Nation


Pornthip Jala, former secretary-general of the Council of State, reports to Parliament as National Legislative Assembly member yesterday. The NLA will be inaugurated by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn

Abhisit and Pheu Thai man agree parties, agencies should stay out of reform council

BANGKOK: -- Representatives from political parties and independent organisations as well as other political players should not join the National Reform Council, Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva has said on Facebook.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749247-reform-council-thai-politicians-should-keep-away/

Convicted doctor may screen drug addicts
The Nation


Dr. Wisut Boonyakasemsanti

BANGKOK: -- The Probation Department is considering assigning Dr Wisut Boonyakasemsanti to screen and rehabilitate drug addicts as a social-service activity under the rules of his probation.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749248-convicted-gynaecologist-dr-wisut-may-screen-thai-drug-addicts/

SURROGATION
Raid on Bangkok clinic linked to surrogacy fiasco
The Nation, Agencies

 

BANGKOK: -- A CLINIC ON Phetchaburi Road in Bangkok was inspected yesterday following tips that it may have arranged the service of a surrogate mother last year, who gave birth to a baby boy born with Down's syndrome left with the Thai mother and a twin girl adopted by an Australian couple.

 

Full story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749249-raid-on-bangkok-clinic-linked-to-surrogacy-fiasco/

21st Century Fox withdraws bid for Time Warner

(BBC) Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox has withdrawn its bid to purchase US entertainment giant Time Warner for an estimated $80bn (£47bn).

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749252-fox-withdraws-bid-for-time-warner/

Bryde's whale carcass washed up on Hua-Hin Beach

PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN, 6 August 2014 (NNT) - A large whale carcass has been found on the famous Hua-Hin Beach of Prachuap Khiri Khan province.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749268-brydes-whale-carcass-washed-up-on-hua-hin-beach/

Hundreds of food shops in Bangkok to start charging between 25-35 baht a dish on Friday

BANGKOK, 6 August 2014 (NNT) – The Ministry of Commerce is looking to gain the cooperation of at least 1,000 food shops in Bangkok in selling reasonably-priced dishes at between 25 and 35 baht, in an effort to reduce the cost of living.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749270-hundreds-of-food-shops-in-bangkok-to-start-charging-between-25-35-baht-a-dish-on-friday/

 

 

 

 

UPDATE:

 

Scores of items stolen from single carriage another blow to railway officials

SONGKHLA, 6 August 2014 (NNT) – In another upset to State Railway and Railway Police officials who have recently been scurrying to boost public confidence in train travel, ten mobile phones and an amount of cash belonging to passengers on a carriage of a south-bound train from Bangkok were reportedly stolen early Tuesday morning.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749116-entire-car-of-train-passengers-drugged-thai-police-suspect/page-3#entry8204866

UPDATE:

 

Train passengers say they were drugged, robbed
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- Nine passengers on a southern overnight train believe they were drugged by a thief who got away with 10 mobile phones and Bt2,500 in cash, Songkhla's Hat Yai Railway Police said yesterday.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749116-entire-car-of-train-passengers-drugged-thai-police-suspect/page-3#entry8204897

Corrections Dept transferred heads of 6 major prisons after a large number of mobile phones and other prohibited items were

discovered during prison raids. /The Nation

 

NCPO chief has told military members of the new National Legislative Assembly (NLA) to put away their phones during government meetings. /Bangkok Post

Australia investigates 'paedophile' father in Thai baby scandal

PERTH, August 6, 2014 (AFP) - Australian authorities were Wednesday investigating the father at the centre of a Thai surrogate baby scandal who was exposed as a convicted paedophile, to determine whether his young daughter is at risk.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749277-australia-investigates-paedophile-father-in-thai-baby-scandal/

Apple has scheduled a Sept 9 event to unveil its long-anticipated large-screen iPhone, the online news site Re/code reported Tuesday. /Bangkok Post

UPDATE:

 

Ministry to terminate licences of clinic and doctors for commercial surrogacy

 

BANGKOK: -- The Public Health Ministry is considering to terminate the operation licence of a clinic and licence of doctors there after it was found to be the place for commercial surrogacy, particularly the case of "Nong Gammy" who was born with Down syndrome and abandoned by his Australian couple.

 

[b]Full story: [/b]http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/749249-raid-on-bangkok-clinic-linked-to-surrogacy-fiasco/#entry8205185