Daily news from Thailand

[thailandgr]

Two toddlers among the victims of crash involving a minivan and a pick-up truck during so-called Seven Deadly Days.


Thailand has the world's second most dangerous roads in terms of per capita deaths [Matichon TV via AP]

A minivan and a pick-up truck both packed with passengers have collided in eastern Thailand, killing 25 people.

Police said the minivan driver lost control after making a U-turn and ploughed into oncoming traffic in the eastern province of Chonburi on Monday. Both vehicles burst into flames.

"The victims were killed by fire or the impact," police Lieutenant-Colonel Wiroj Jamjamras at Ban Bueng provincial police station told AFP news agency, adding two toddlers were among the dead.

Wiroj said 15 people were inside the minivan while 12 passengers were packed into the pick-up truck - all of them Thai nationals.

Two passengers were injured but are expected to survive, he said. Wiroj ruled out drink-driving as the cause of the accident.

Footage broadcast on Channel 3 showed firefighters tackling the burning, twisted wreckage of the two vehicles.

Despite relatively good infrastructure, Thailand has the world's second most dangerous roads in terms of per capita deaths, according to data collected by the World Health Organization in a 2015 report.

Fatalities tend to rise in the New Year week and during Songkran, a religious festival in April, when millions of low-paid workers return to the countryside from their city jobs to see family.

Both weeks are dubbed the "Seven Deadly Days" in Thai media, with the government keeping a daily death tally during those two periods to try to encourage better road safety.

As of Sunday - the fourth day of the country's New Year holiday week - 280 people had died on Thailand's roads, a 10 percent increase from last year.

About 43 percent of the recorded road accidents involved drink-driving and 82 percent involved motorcycles.


The government is keeping a daily death tally during the holidays to try to encourage better road safety [Matichon TV via AP]


http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/massive-road-accident-kills-25-people-thailand-170102140942688.html

[thailandgr]

 The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation today released the latest figures of traffic fatalities showing a total of 367 people were killed and 3,342 injured in the first five days of the weeklong "No Drunk Driving" campaign.

Only yesterday which was the fifth day of the campaign, there were a total of 445 traffic accidents on highways and roads across the country.

A total of 87 people died and 465 were injured.

Drunk driving is blamed as cause of most fatal accidents.

In total, the department said 367 were killed, and 3,342 were injured in the first five days of the week-long campaign to stop drunk driving.

Chonburi province in the East has the highest accumulated death toll of 31, while Chiang Mai has the highest accumulated traffic accidents of 129 cases.

Motorcycle remains the vehicle that involved most road accident or 84.06% of total road accidents.

[thailandgr]

Phuket Cabaret Employee Caught Stealing on Video

A cabaret show employee was caught on video while expertly stealing a pair of sunglasses from a woman’s bag on Sunday night.
The 32-second clip, which shows a uniformed employee of the Aphrodite Cabaret Show in Kathu pretending to pose with a tourist while digging his hand into her bag to extract the glasses, went viral on social media the same night.
The show’s general manager, Thummaros Sukapirom, apologized for the incident.

The Video:

“An employee named Chanon Jumnongkit, who plays a supporting character in the show, is the one who stole the glasses,” said Mr Thummaros.

“After the show on Sunday, all our staff came out to the front of the venue to take photos with tourists as usual, which is when the incident occurred. As soon as we saw the video, we asked him to explain what happened and he admitted that he had done it,” Mr Thummaros added.

Mr Chanon was fired and handed over to the police for legal processing. The sunglasses were returned to their owner.

“We are extremely unhappy about it. During the six years that our show has been running, we have never had any problems.

We apologize and have briefed all our staff to prevent such incidents from occurring in future,” Mr Thummaros said.

[deepblue]

Ο οδηγός του Μινι Βαν οδηγούσε για 31 ώρες. Φυσικό και εύλογο ήταν να αποκοιμηθεί πάνω στο τιμόνι !

Driver Sumon Eiamsombat had driven five back-to-back trips between Chanthaburi and Bangkok for at least 31 hours beginning 4am on Sunday until the time of the accident on Monday afternoon, according to Pornsak Thaijeamaree of Chanthaburi’s land transport department.
πηγή https://www.facebook.com/deanbangkok

[halfway inn]

Thailand’s new King rejects the army’s proposed constitution

 The Economist
 Jan 11th 2017 | Asia



For more than two years Thailand’s ruling junta—which seized power in a coup in 2014—has been cooking up a constitution which it hopes will keep military men in control even after fresh elections take place. In August the generals won approval for the document in a referendum made farcical by a law which forbade campaigners from criticizing the text. Yet on January 10th, only weeks before the new charter was supposed to come into force, the prime minister said his government was tweaking the draft. Prayuth Chan-ocha said changes were necessary because King Vajiralongkorn, the country’s constitutional monarch, had declined to give the document royal assent.

There is much to dislike about the proposed constitution, which will keep elected governments beholden to a senate nominated by the junta and to a suite of meddling committees. But Mr Prayuth says the king’s objections relate only to “three or four” articles—all of which appear to limit the sovereign’s power slightly. The generals say the palace has asked them to amend a rule which requires the monarch to nominate a regent when he is absent from the kingdom (probably because King Vajiralongkorn plans to spend much of the year reigning from his residences in Germany). They also say they will revise an article which makes the constitutional court the final arbiter at times of “political crisis”—a role which had traditionally fallen to the king—as well as an article which introduced a requirement for some royal proclamations to be countersigned by a minister.

Thais have been watching for signs of friction between the armed forces and the monarchy—the country’s two biggest sources of political power—since the death in October of Bhumibol Adulyadej, King Vajiralongkorn’s long-reigning father. The new king is viewed warily by Bangkok’s elites, who have sometimes worried that he sympathises with populist politicians whom the army has twice kicked from power. On the whole relations have looked cordial. King Vajiralongkorn has stacked his privy council with generals plucked straight from the junta’s cabinet; the junta has looked to the palace to help adjudicate a long-running and volatile dispute over who should fill a vacant post at the head of Thai Buddhism, which the military government had appeared ill-equipped to handle alone.

But although the king’s right to reject the draft constitution is enshrined in an interim charter which the generals themselves wrote, his decision to interfere remains a surprise. Under King Vajiralongkorn’s father the palace preferred to maintain the fiction that Thailand’s monarchy holds a symbolic role which is “above politics”, even while it meddled furiously behind the scenes. The bluntness of King Vajiralongkorn’s intervention—and the determination it reveals to resist relatively small checks on royal power—is both a snub to the junta and a worry for democrats, some of whom had dared hope that the new king might be happy to take a back seat in public life.

The junta says it will make all the requested changes within a few months, and that the new text will not need to be put to a second referendum. But it has clearly been caught by surprise. It says it will first have to revise the interim charter which has been in force since the coup. This document allowed for the king to reject the draft constitution in its entirety but appeared not to anticipate that he might simply ask to strike out lines he did not like.

Some Thais worry that a lasting power struggle is brewing. Others see a minor spat over language, which will quickly be forgotten. Since the 1930s Thailand has written and torn up 19 constitutions; hardly anyone expects this effort to be the last. The one certainty is that the redrafting will delay by several months the general election that was supposed to be held at the end of this year. Mr Prayuth has implied that elections cannot now be held until after King Vajiralongkorn’s coronation, which itself cannot take place until after his father’s elaborate cremation, scheduled for October. All this boots the long-promised polls well into 2018.

11 January 2017
The Economist/news/asia

[Oytopikos]

Thailand’s infamous sex industry is under fire, with the tourism minister pushing to rid the country of its ubiquitous brothels and a spate of police raids in recent weeks on some of the largest establishments providing sex services in Bangkok.

Those who work in the industry say curbs on commercial sex services would hurt a flagging economy that has struggled to recover after political turmoil took the country to the brink of recession in 2014.

Thailand is predominantly Buddhist and deeply conservative, but is home to an extensive sex industry, largely catering to Thai men. Hordes of tourists also flock to the bright lights of go-go bars and massage parlours in Bangkok and main tourist towns.

Thailand’s beaches and temples have been the poster child for Asian tourism for decades and the country expects a record number of arrivals in 2016.

Tourism Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul played down the role of the sex industry in drawing visitors.

“Tourists don’t come to Thailand for such a thing. They come here for our beautiful culture,” Kobkarn said.

She went on to say,”We want Thailand to be about quality tourism. We want the sex industry gone.”

Prostitution is illegal in Thailand but the law is almost invariably ignored. Experts say it will be hard to rid Thailand of an industry that is so entrenched and that provides pay-offs to untold numbers of officials and policemen.

Those trying to promote the welfare of sex workers say Kobkarn’s goal is unrealistic.

Her push comes amid an attempt by the country’s tourism authorities to transform Thailand into a luxury destination to attract moneyed tourists.

The military government is in denial about the proliferation of prostitution and its contribution to the economy and tourism, said Panomporn Utaisri, country director of NightLight, a Christian non-profit group that helps women in the sex trade to find alternative work.

“There’s no denying this industry generates a lot of income,” said Panomporn.

There are no government estimates of the value of Thailand’s sex industry, or how much of the income from tourism comes from sex tourists.

There are about 123,530 sex workers in Thailand, according to a 2014 UNAIDS report, compared with 37,000 sex workers in neighboring Cambodia.

Last month, police raided dozens of brothels in major cities in what they said was a routine operation.

Police said they were looking to prosecute venues employing underage and illegal migrant workers, but only one of the venues raided was shut down.

There was no link between the tourism minister’s aim to rid Thailand of its sex tourism industry and the raids, a police spokesman said.

The tourism sector accounts for about 10 percent of gross domestic product and sex worker groups said the minister’s vision of a prostitution-free Thailand would dent that.

“The police presence already drives off a number of clients who come to relax or drink at bars,” said Surang Janyam, director of Service Workers in Group (SWING), which provides sex workers with free medical care and vocational training.

“Wiping out this industry is guaranteed to make Thailand lose visitors and income.”

Many sex workers come from the impoverished northeast and see selling their bodies as a way out of poverty.

One former sex worker from the northeastern province of Maha Sarakham, who declined to be identified, told Reuters she entered Bangkok’s sex trade at the age of 19 and earned up to 5,000 baht ($143.14) a night, nearly 20 times the minimum wage of 300 baht ($8.59) per day.

“No one wants to work in this business, but it’s fast and easy money,” she said.

(Source: Reuters. Additional reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Robert Birsel)

http://www.buriramtimes.com/thailands-sex-industry-fire-tourism-minister/

[thailandgr]

 Police make arrest after "windscreen washer" video goes viral

Thong Lor police went to the Klong Toei intersection last night after a Facebook video showed a gang of windscreen washers menacing a driver.
They arrested  20 year old Pongwat Sinchai, 20 and fined him 1,000 baht for causing a public disturbance.
They also arrested two girls aged 14 and 15 who were involved.
The video - posted by someone using the name Mai PhCh - was viewed 1.2 million times in just one day.
It showed the gang approaching a car and offering to clean the windscreen.
The driver does not want that but they continue just the same. Then they want money for their "service".
When none was forthcoming foul language was used as they surrounded the car and banged on the windows.
Police denied they were doing nothing and letting the gangs operate without sanction.
They said the gangs came out at night and members of the public should report it so that something can be done.   

[Oytopikos]

CNN names Isaan as top world destination

Thailand’s Northeastern region, known locally as Isaan, has been named by US news network CNN as one of the world’s top 17 places to visit this year.

Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said: “Isaan has a long history, with some of Southeast Asia’s oldest settlements found here. In modern times, the region is famous for its fiery salads, country music, stunning scenery and elaborate temples.

“There is so much to be enjoyed here and most of it unseen by tourists, so we encourage people to explore and discover their own amazing Isaan stories.”

The flowers of the Red Lotus Sea in Kumphawapi district of Udon Thani are usually in full bloom from New Year’s until around February. Tourists can hire a boat to see the red lotuses up close and enjoy the natural scenery of the lake and other waters that are home to a variety of fish, birds, wildlife and aquatic plants.

The CNN list was put together by the network’s travel experts and international reporters who named their favourite destinations around the world for a travel feature on the news organisation’s influential website.

Some of the other destinations on the CNN list are Penang in Malaysia, Colombia, Bordeaux in France, Bhutan, Albania and Senegal.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/breakingnews/30306925

[Oytopikos]

THAILAND: Illegal migrants from Thailand are living in fear in the United States as the new administration under President Donald Trump issued a new order to crack down on 11 million undocumented foreigners.

The Foreign Ministry yesterday also expressed concern about the new order, warning Thai people in the US to comply with the laws of the host country as more than 100,000 undocumented Thais are believed to be living there.

“Thai nationals living and working in any country must respect local laws. Undocumented people take their own risks if they get arrested and deported,” said Chittipat Thongprasert, deputy director-general of the Consular Department.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued tough new orders on Tuesday to begin a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigrants, putting nearly all of the country’s undocumented foreigners in the crosshairs, according to AFP.

Two memos issued by DHS Secretary John Kelly ordered border patrol and immigration officers to deport illegal immigrants as quickly as possible, with only a few exceptions, principally regarding children.

Undocumented immigrants convicted of crimes will remain the priority for deportation, but it will now also include anyone who has been charged or potentially faces criminal charges.

Chaiwat Wattalo, a Thai national living in the US, said that Thais – notably those who lived and worked illegally – were in a panic after the new order.

“There are plenty of rumours about the crackdown. We have to check on each other all the time. It would be big trouble if any of them were arrested as their incomes would be disrupted,” he said.

Mr Chaiwat has worked legally in the US for years, but worries about fellow Thais who arrived in the past few years and do not have proper documentation.

“It would be okay for those who live in sanctuary cities like Los Angeles and New York City, since authorities are flexible, but people who live in Arizona or Texas might get into trouble,” Mr Chaiwat added.

Banlue Sornbali, a Thai businessman in Los Angeles, said he expected the majority of Thais in the country would be safe since they had documents.

“Those who live here illegally should be careful. Even minor crimes such as quarrels or fights could lead to big trouble like an arrest and deportation,” he said.

He added that Thais who work or conduct business legally also need to be careful when they engage with other foreigners, no matter what their nationalities are.

“I myself need to check the background of all my staff and workers in my business since they could cause legal difficulties as well,” he said.

Thai Consular offices in the US do not have exact figures of how many Thai nationals currently reside in the US.

phuket gazette

[thailandgr]

BANGKOK, 26 February 2017 (NNT) – Airports of Thailand (AOT) has stressed that no non-public registered vehicle will be allowed to pick up passengers from Suvarnabhumi Airport, as all passenger serving vehicles are required to be registered legally.

AOT’s Suvarnabhumi Airport General Director Sirote Duangratana has said regarding the decision to ban Uber cars from picking up passengers at Suvarnabhumi Airport, that the service does not conform to the AOT’s code of security which prohibits any unauthorized use of vehicles for commercial purposes at the airport’s controlled zone.

The AOT could consider allowing Uber cabs to operate if proper registrations are completed with the Department of Land Transport, which is an issue for the future.

Violators will face 2,000 baht fine, and will be recorded in the airport's database.

http://nwnt.prd.go.th/CenterWeb/NewsEN/NewsDetail?NT01_NewsID=WNECO6002260010019

[halfway inn]

New law raises minimum age of smokers to 20 in bid to discourage youths

March 04, 2017

IN A MOVE to discourage youths from smoking, the National Legislative Assembly yesterday raised the minimum age for young people to buy cigarettes to 20 years old from the current 18 years old.

Under the new Tobacco Control bill, anyone who sells cigarettes to under-age teenagers could be jailed for three months or fined up to Bt30,000 or both.

The new law also stipulates that people who sell cigarettes must be at least 18 years old and each cigarette pack must contain 20 cigarettes, prohibiting the sale of individual cigarettes.

read more....http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30307907

[thailandgr]

CANCUN, MEXICO - The Gulf blockade on Qatar poses a potentially serious disruption of air passenger traffic between Thailand and the Middle East, one of the world's busiest flight sectors.

The risk looms large as four neighbouring nations -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt -- close their airspace to Qatar Airways, a major carrier in the sector.

The impact could be significant because the airline has a large aircraft capacity between Thailand and Qatar, industry executives who are familiar with the airline said.


The impact of Qatar’s neighbours closing their airspace to Qatar Airways could be significant to the region. (EPA photo)

Qatar Airways operates five daily non-stop flights between Doha and Bangkok, double-daily Doha-Phuket flights and four Doha-Krabi flights a week. It has also set sights on the debut of the first Doha-Chiang Mai non-stop from Oct 31, with four flights a week.

The airline operates high-capacity wide-body jets such as Airbus 380 superjumbo, Boeing 777-300ERs and Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" jets between the two countries. The status of Qatar Airways' Thailand-Qatar flights could not be confirmed as the airline could not be reached for comment.

Speaking to the Bangkok Post on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) World Airport Summit in Mexico on Tuesday, Bangkok Airways president Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth said it was too early to assess the impact on Thailand with the development still unfolding.

However, he said the effects of the possible suspension of Qatar Airways flights to Thailand on Bangkok Airways, as one its largest code-share partners, could be substantial.

"Qatar Airways is one of the Big Three Gulf carriers, which together deliver nearly a third of overall code-share partners to our network," he said.

The two others are the UAE's Dubai-based Emirates and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad.

Mr Puttipong said an airspace ban on Qatar would mean Qatar Airways is effectively grounded.

Qatar is a small peninsula jutting out from the eastern seaboard of the Arabian Peninsula, with Saudi Arabia to the west and the UAE to the south and east.

The ban limits the inbound and outbound tracks of Qatar Airways flights to the north and northeast, out over the Gulf and, potentially, over Iran.

This means Qatar Airways has a potentially narrow strip to operate in, through friendly Iran, which would result in the airline altering its routes.

On some routes this will increase flight times, as well as Qatar's fuel bill, although the airline has not yet said how much difference the changes would make to trip durations.

IATA, the airline industry's trade body, has opposed the restrictions on air travel imposed on Qatar, saying air connectivity needs to be restored immediately.

"We are not in favour of the ban. We would like connectivity to be restored as soon as possible," IATA director-general Alexandre de Juniac said in response to questions.

"The situation [in Qatar] is different from the laptop ban. It is a political, strategic, military decision. I will not comment on the decision," he said. "However, we would like aviation relations and borders to reopen as soon as possible and connectivity restored -- flights to and from Qatar and for all other airlines [operating in Qatar]."

Mr de Juniac said the IATA knew some countries have issued a Notice to Airmen with regards to the situation, a notice filed to alert aircraft pilots of potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the safety of the flight.


http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/transport/1264655/thailand-braced-for-qatar-ban-chaos

[thailandgr]

Video: Insane moment Thai zookeeper is bitten by crocodile

                                                             

Footage shows the moment a crocodile bit a zookeeper's head before viciously thrashing him from side to side while he screamed in agony

           

 

Insane moment a zookeeper places his HEAD inside a huge crocodile’s mouth … and the result is predictable

• Video shows a man performing a crocodile show last Sunday in Thailand

• In the video he kneels before a crocodile and places his head inside its mouth

• The crocodile remains still for ten seconds before snapping down on his head

• He is thrashed violently from side to side while letting out a horrifying scream
  –

Horrific footage has surfaced showing the moment a crocodile bit a zookeeper’s head before viciously thrashing him from side to side while he screamed in agony.

The video was filmed last Sunday showing a man performing at one of Thailand’s famed crocodile shows for a small group of people on the tourist island of Ko Samui.

In the video, the zookeeper kneels before a crocodile which is lying in wait with its jaw wide open.

 

–

–

Footage shows the moment a crocodile bit a zookeeper’s head before viciously thrashing him from side to side while he screamed in agony

–

 –
The man places his head inside the crocodile before it suddenly snaps down on his head and violently thrashes him around.

The crocodile remains perfectly still as the zookeeper performs his routine with two wooden sticks for the audience.

During the routine he waves the stick around the crocodile’s open mouth and momentarily pokes it inside.

The daredevil decides to raise the stakes by placing the sticks to one side and shoving his entire head inside the motionless crocodile’s mouth.

He holds his position for ten seconds before the crocodile suddenly snaps down on his head and violently thrashes him around.

The man lets out a horrifying scream as the audience watches in shock.

He is left on the ground reeling from his injuries as the crocodile slides back into the water.

The man showed the crowd previous wounds, including a missing finger, before he began the stunt, the video description said.
–

[thailandgr]

Hurry Up! Not just Don Mueang - Suvarnabhumi hit by long immigration queues



Following last weekend's five hour immigration queue debacle Bangkok's main airport is giving Don Mueang a run for its money.
Facebook users posted about the bad situation at Suvarnabhumi Airport and a Thai visa reporter on the scene can confirm that matters were some of the worst in memory.
#PChang posted on ChangTrixGet Facebook on Wednesday night that both airports were suffering shortages of immigration staff. Unmanned counters meant queues going back "tens of meters" reported Sanook.
Tourists were shaking their heads and grumbling about the situation.

A Thaivisa reporter leaving the country early Thursday morning reported huge queues after midnight. Only about half of the desks were manned as the queues snaked around the area causing bottlenecks at the downward escalators.
Though it seemed that those who were present had been told to speed up their act.
Our reporter said: "I timed the immigration officers and the great majority of people were being dealt with in 20 to 40 seconds each which seemed an improvement.
"But when someone came along who took a few minutes or needed an extra inquiry before getting stamped out the queue grew and grew as a result as there were so few officers present.

On one side of the escalators, only two officers were at work - and they were snowed under.
"Having lived in Thailand for 35 years I can say this was the longest I have ever waited to be stamped out of the kingdom".
"It was interesting to note that the frustrated officer who dealt with me barked "rew rew, hurry up" to the next foreign tourist in line.
Earlier visitor Jerome Taylor posted on his Twitter @JeromeTaylor that there were "insanely long queues" in the afternoon commenting that this was not what tourists wanted after long and tiring flights to Thailand.

[thailandgr]

16 Thai airlines suspend their operations after failing safety assessments



SIXTEEN airlines registered in Thailand have failed safety and related regulatory assessments conducted by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT), requiring them to suspend operations until they get new Air Operator’s Certificates (AOCs), as authorities enforce stricter rules in accordance with requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).


The ICAO is due to send delegates to inspect Thailand’s new aviation safety regulatory system later this month or in early October, after which the agency is expected to consider lifting its “red flag”, which was imposed in 2015 due to safety concerns.

According to a government committee chaired by Deputy Premier Prawit Wongsuwan, Thai authorities had already issued AOCs to nine airlines under the new regulatory system, while another 11 airlines were in the process of applying for AOCs.

New challenges

Due to the Thai aviation sector’s rapid growth rate over the past decades, there have been concerns about safety and other issues facing a large number of airlines registered in Thailand.
In addition, the regulatory system needs to be overhauled to cope with new challenges resulting in the restructuring of multiple agencies, including the CAAT.
As a result of failing to pass the CAAT’s assessments, all 16 airlines were ordered to suspend their service as of last Friday, in line with the ICAO’s regulations.
According to Colonel Sirichan Nga-thong, a spokesperson for Prawit, the ICAO had already inspected the safety and other related aspects at Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang international airports as well as those of the CAAT in July. The results are understood to be satisfactory with no significant safety or related concerns.

After ICAO delegates review the country’s overall aviation safety and regulatory system, the agency is expected to report its assessment within the next 60 days, especially regarding the status of the red flag affecting Thailand.
Thailand has faced a shortage of qualified personnel and training officials regarding aviation and safety issues following years of a boom in the aviation and tourism sectors.
The number of foreign tourists has increased rapidly over past decades to about 30 million this year.



http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30325783