Why Doesnt "Me Too" Apply to Democrats?

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Poll supports national government to resolve conflicts and bring unity back to country

BANGKOK: -- A national government could be a solution to bringing unity, reconciliation and true reform to the country rather than an elected government.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa....ack-to-country/

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Moms can register to receive new-born subsidy from Sep

BANGKOK, 25 July 2015 (NNT) – The government is set to provide pre-registration for mothers to access the new-born subsidy on 1 September 2015, while the subsidy program will begin in October.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa....bsidy-from-sep/

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Aviation agencies urged to boost personnel quality

BANGKOK, 25 July 2015 (NNT) – Transport Minister Air Chief Marshal Prajin Juntong has asked all aviation-related agencies to speed up the improvement of their personnel’s abilities to boost the country’s aviation industry.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa....sonnel-quality/

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SOUTHERN INSURGENCY
Officials condemn bomb attack that targeted monks, troops in Pattani
THE SUNDAY NATION

BANGKOK: -- PM'S OFFICE Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana and the Army condemned a bomb attack that killed a monk and a soldier and injured six others in Pattani's Sai Buri district early yesterday.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843315-officials-condemn-bomb-attack-that-targeted-monks-troops-in-pattani/

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SPECIAL REPORT
Release of ex-Pulo leader after many years in jail seen as a positive sign
SUPITCHA RATTANA,
PUCHIS PIRUNLAONG,
SOMCHAI SAMART
THE SUNDAY NATION

BANGKOK: -- THE early release of Hajisama-ae Sulong, former leader of the separatist Patani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo), has fuelled interest in dialogue as it is seen as a peace offering in the South.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843316-release-of-ex-pulo-leader-after-many-years-in-jail-seen-as-a-positive-sign/

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COAL-FIRED POWER PLANT
High alert in Songkhla for hearing on power plant
THE SUNDAY NATION

BANGKOK: -- AMID concerns about possible violence during a public hearing on a coal-fired power plant in Thepha district, the governor of Songkhla has issued an order prohibiting any unauthorised gathering at the venue.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843317-high-alert-in-songkhla-for-hearing-on-power-plant/

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UPDATE:

PM delighted with large turnout for 'Bike for Mom' souvenirs
PANYA THIOSANGWAN
THE SUNDAY NATION

BANGKOK: -- PRIME MINISTER Prayut |Chan-o-cha was overjoyed to |see thousands of people show |up at the Thai Army Sports Stadium in Bangkok yesterday to get free royally-granted souvenir shirts and pins for the "Bike For Mom" cycling event, Army spokesman Col Winthai Suwari said.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843257-joyous-crowd-flock-to-receive-bike-for-mom-royal-gifts/?p=9662449#entry9662449

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CABINET SHAKE-UP
Be decisive on Cabinet reshuffle, Abhisit tells PM

THE SUNDAY NATION

BANGKOK: -- DEMOCRAT Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday urged Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to be decisive about a Cabinet reshuffle, saying indecision could have negative repercussions.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843318-be-decisive-on-cabinet-reshuffle-abhisit-tells-pm/

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UPDATE:

Pathum Thani deputy police chief, five officers transferred
The Sunday Nation

Pathum Thani police deputy chief Pol Colonel Sommai Prasit, along with five top police officers of the Pak Klong Rangsit Police Station, have been transferred from their posts to assist with work at the Royal Thai Police headquarters with effect from yesterday.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843226-six-senior-police-officers-of-pathumthani-province-removed/page-2?p=9662457#entry9662457

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Chuwong case investigation to be completed by August
The Sunday Nation

BANGKOK: -- Police should be able to conclude the investigation into the June 26 death of construction tycoon Chuwong Saetang by early next month, Metropolitan Police commissioner Lt-General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said yesterday.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843319-chuwong-case-investigation-to-be-completed-by-august/

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Farmers insure rice on 1.3m rai
The Sunday Nation

BANGKOK: -- MANY farmers have insured their rice crop - covering some 1.33 million rai - in the wake of severe drought that has ravaged many parts of the country, the secretary general of the Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC) Prawet Ongartsithikul revealed yesterday.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843321-farmers-insure-rice-on-13m-rai/

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Forum raises questions about legal boundaries on the Net
PRAVIT ROJANAPHRUK
THE SUNDAY NATION

BANGKOK: -- THE question of liability when it comes to comments online is still a contentious issue and many members of the public are not quite sure about what is legal or not when it comes to talking about the military junta or the monarchy, a symposium on Internet censorship was told.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843322-forum-raises-questions-about-legal-boundaries-on-the-net/

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Phongthep visits Pheu Thai politicians jailed for libel
The Sunday Nation

BANGKOK: -- Former Pheu Thai Party MP Phongthep Thepkanjana yesterday visited party spokesman Prompong Nopparit and former party MP Kiatudom Menasawat who have both been sentenced to one year in jail for libel.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843323-phongthep-visits-pheu-thai-politicians-jailed-for-libel/

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EDITORIAL
Govt needs a better grasp of fishing sector's woes
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- PM should take a step back and focus on how conditions can be improved for workers and the oceans allowed to recover

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843324-govt-needs-a-better-grasp-of-fishing-sectors-woes/

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Ministry of Culture to hold textiles exhibition celebrating HM the Queen

BANGKOK, 25 July 2015 (NNT) – The Ministry of Culture is set to hold Thai textiles exhibition at the National Museum in Bangkok as tribute to Her Majesty the Queen on 14 August, the Minister of Culture has said.

The Minister of Culture Vira Rojpojchanarat has revealed that the Ministry will be hosting the Thai textiles exhibition as tribute to Her Majesty Queen Sirikit on 14 August 2015, at the National Museum in Bangkok.

The exhibition titled ‘Wichitbhusapattraporn’, will feature rare Thai textiles and textiles from mountain tribes and other Thai ethnic groups, along with Thai textures from 40 National Museums in other provinces. The Ministry’s officials and the general public are free to submit their own rare textiles, to be put on display at this exhibition.

The exhibition will then be developed into a permanent textiles museum situated in the Bangkok National Museum in 2016 from the initiation of the Prime Minister.

The Minister of Culture has said that another textiles exhibition, titles ‘Thai Textiles, Thai Identity’ will also be held at Siam Paragon shopping center on 19-23 August 2015, showcasing the evolution of Thai textiles which dates back up to three thousand years.

He added that the Ministry will also hold the Thai Textiles Marketplace event at Khlong Phasing Krung Kasem Canal next to the government house. This event will allow the public to see and purchase textiles and clothes gathered here from all over the country, directly from the manufacturers themselves.

-- NNT 2015-07-26

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In Kenya, Obama blends blunt messages with warm reflections
JULIE PACE, AP White House Correspondent

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — President Barack Obama mixed blunt messages to Kenya's leaders on gay rights, corruption and counterterrorism Saturday with warm reflections on his family ties to a nation that considers him a local son.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843325-in-kenya-obama-blends-blunt-messages-with-warm-reflections/

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Movie theater shooter's mental problems didn't stop gun buy

By RAY HENRY, JAY REEVES and REBECCA SANTANA

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — John Russell Houser was deeply troubled long before he shot 11 people in a movie theater in Louisiana, but decades of mental problems didn't keep him from buying the handgun he used.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843327-movie-theater-shooters-mental-problems-didnt-stop-gun-buy/

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Man killed by shark while diving off Australian coast

HOBART, Australia (AP) — A woman watched her father being mauled to death by a large shark on Saturday while the pair were diving off the Australian island state of Tasmania, police said.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843328-man-killed-by-shark-while-diving-off-australian-coast/

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RT@ChannelNewsAsia: British PM @David_Cameron to hold EU referendum in "June of next year", says the @Independent http://t.co/6g0NunlKbW http://t.co/orP50iH6X9

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Opinion: The need for police on Phuket's streets
The Phuket News

The need for obvious police presence on Phuket's busiest tourist street is paramount.

PHUKET: This week’s story on the incredible lack of police presence on one of the busiest tourist streets in Phuket, which is one of the busiest tourist provinces in the country, beggars belief.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843342-opinion-the-need-for-police-on-phukets-streets/

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RT@RichardBarrow: It’s sad to see that monks in Southern #Thailand cannot go on the alms round without an armed guard - RT @south_mcot: http://t.co/uLAlYN4Ecy

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Chinese reports say man attempts to set fire on plane

BEIJING (AP) — A man attempted to set a fire on board a Chinese flight early Sunday, but was restrained by passengers and crew members and taken into custody, the aviation authority said.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843392-chinese-reports-say-man-attempts-to-set-fire-on-plane/

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PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
The right to differ
Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Sunday Nation

BANGKOK: -- Eighteen months ago their group didn't even exist. Today the human rights lawyers and activists known collectively as Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) are a cohesive gathering dedicated to helping those whose views and actions pit them against military might.

The group, which owes its existence to the military junta that staged last year's coup, is headed by Yaowalak Anupan who, along with her new colleagues, was quick to identify the need for legal representation of those prosecuted by the junta, or the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) as it became known, in the wake of the May 22, 2014 coup. These individuals include individuals deemed to have broken security laws or suspected of lese majeste as well as those summoned by the NCPO for "attitude adjustment".

Bur the turning point for TLHR wasn't just the coup, Yaowalak tells The Sunday Nation from her modest rented office in the Huay Kwang area. It was, she says, the realisation that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) would not be setting up a hotline to help opponents of the coup who were being detained without charge in secret locations, those who had been charged and those who claimed to have been tortured.

The attitude of a senior human rights figure, whose name Yaowalak prefers not to give, summed up the situation perfectly.

"He said: 'This job is too big for us'," Yaowalak explains.

Yaowalak and her colleagues saw this not as a discouragement but as a challenge and today the group is composed of 12 full-time staff and some 10 pro bono lawyers who help on a case-by-case basis and are paid a modest per diem by the group for providing legal assistance. Among these is rights lawyer Anon Nampa, whose name has become well known over the past 18 months.

Yaowalak herself accepts no salary but depends on private free-lance work. The 48 year-old award-winning lawyer says her staff are mostly young lawyers, aged between 25 to 30 and that they are mainly driven by idealism.

"The one in charge of legal cases and human rights violation documentation told his former employers he had to resign to join TLHR in order document what was going on for the sake of history," she says.

The group depends on donations and funding, mostly foreign, from the European Union and the Open Society Foundations among others. Yaowalak brushes aside suggestions that such assistance might be controversial given that some supporters of the coup and the unelected government of Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, who is also head of the NCPO, are wary of foreign interventions in Thai politics. Nor does she see any contention in the fact that the group offers legal representation to anti-coup groups and individuals such as Red Sunday group leader Sombat Boonngam-anong and the 14 student members of New Democracy Movement.

"We're used to it," says Yaowalak, a native of Narathiwat province near the Thai-Malaysian border, of the criticism and allegations that the group is no more than a tool of the Western imperialists. "They have always criticised us. The Thai state has never supported Thai [rights] NGOs even before the coup.

"If they claim we're undermining national security, our response is that this is not the case as Thailand is a signatory to [various international] rights conventions. Such claims are merely aimed at discrediting us. The way we spend our budget can be scrutinised at any time," says Yaowalak who studied law at Ramkhamhaeng University.

"It's like we have become a party of conflict to the [military] state so Thai organisations won't be funding us," she continues, adding that some Thai individuals do make modest donations to the group. The highest recognition so far has come from the French Embassy, who recognised the group with a human rights award known as "Prix des Droits de L'Homme de l'Ambassade de France 2014".

Born into a middle class family, her late father worked as a middle-ranking police officer while her mother run a small food stall. After completing high school, she followed in the footsteps of her student peers and travelled to Bangkok to enrol at Ramkhamhaeng University where she worked towards a degree in law.

Her CV is a testament to her interest in human rights and women's rights and while she didn't much relish the year she spent practising business law with a private legal firm, she is nonetheless grateful that the lucrative work allowed her to accumulate substantial savings.

Work at TLHR is less certain and Yaowalak and her staff are well aware that the group's existence is temporary.

"When the military regime is gone we will disband. We are an ad-hoc organisation and we didn't think we would have to be around for more than a year. But rights violations have not abated so we will continue in parallel with the NCPO, possibly a little longer, as some of the legal cases will outlive the junta," says the unassuming lawyer who now considers Bangkok as her home,

Providing legal representation for those prosecuted by the military for their political stance offers a unique challenge.

Of the 48 cases being handled by the group, 23 involve lese majeste and involve a total of 81 clients.

The group is critical of the use of military courts to try some civilians in accordance with the NCPO's order No 37/2014, pointing to the questions of independence and impartiality of such a court.

"The military court comes under the Ministry of Defence, the judging panels are under the Ministry of Defence and two out the three members of these panels are military officials who may not have completed legal studies," TLHR stated in its report, which was to have been presented at a June press conference that was cancelled after the NCPO ordered the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT) not to allow its venue to be used.

A second problem is the trying of military cases in abnormal times, which results in defendants being deprived of the right to appeal. This is in contravention of the rule of law as well as Article 14 (5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which stipulates that defendants must have the right to review of their case by a higher court. Other problems include bail, filing of the Case and delays in prosecution.

While she and her colleagues deeply resent being followed and monitored by security officers, TLHR will not plead with the junta to stop the practice. "We don't recognise the legitimacy of the NCPO," Yaowalak points out.

"We've turned down the invitation for reconciliation talks twice. But they said they'll invite us again.

"I am surprised though that the junta has tolerated our existence … and least so far," she concludes.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/The-right-to-differ-30265239.html

-- The Nation 2015-07-26

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RT@cnni: Newly released photos depict scenes inside the White House on 9/11. http://t.co/nTlY7CyT2D http://t.co/IAfSy4X3sd

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Education ministry setting up center to push for Thailand as education hub

BANGKOK, 26 July 2015 (NNT) - The Ministry of Education is establishing a center to develop Thailand as the education hub of ASEAN. The center will coordinate ASEAN-related affairs and implement the association’s policies at the local level.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843394-education-ministry-setting-up-center-to-push-for-thailand-as-education-hub/

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Heavy rains forecast in Northeast

UBON RATCHATHANI, 26 July 2015 (NNT) – The Meteorological Department has forecast heavy rains in the Northeast during this week.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843395-heavy-rains-forecast-in-northeast/

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Phuket tour bus crashes on Bypass Rd, 3 still trapped inside
Eakkapop Thongtub

PHUKET: Thirteen victims were rushed to hospital after the tour bus they were riding in crashed in front of Phuket Outlet mall this morning (July 26), while another three remain trapped including a 5-year-old boy.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843396-phuket-tour-bus-crashes-on-bypass-rd-3-still-trapped-inside/

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Min of Transport to quicken MRT Purple Line launch

BANGKOK, 26 July 2015 (NNT) – The Ministry of Transport has decided to quicken the launch of Metropolitan Rapid Transit Purple Line, as the construction is nearing completion.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843397-min-of-transport-to-quicken-mrt-purple-line-launch/

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2 Bars Closed Down Under Junta's Sweeping Booze Ban

By Khaosod Eng.

Police raid a bar in Pathum Thani that violated the junta's new booze ban by selling alcohol within 300 meters of a university, 25 July 2015.

PATHUM THANI — Two bars in the northern suburb of Bangkok were the first establishments to be shut down under a new order issued by the military junta that bans selling alcohol within 300 meters of universities and schools throughout the country.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843405-2-bars-closed-down-under-juntas-sweeping-booze-ban/

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TJA urges all media to respect children’s rights

BANGKOK: -- The Thai Journalists Association called upon the mainstream and social media to refrain from presenting still pictures or videos about violence against children which may cause mental damages or reputation of the affected children and their parents.

Full Story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/843412-tja-urges-all-media-to-respect-childrens-rights/