News from Thailand – August 6, 2014
Handy: a bulletproof vest that is also a life jacket. In fact, it's Navy's own design, developed by Nathiphat Rattanaphithak, second in command of the 1st Naval Military Police Battalion.
The vest also has its own name: Suea Ko Loi Nam (buoyancy vest). With his invention, Nathiphat has acquired the title of 'most outstanding navy researcher' of the year. Yesterday he received the accompanying decorations.
The vest weighs 4 kilograms and can stop bullets from the M16. When the wearer falls into the water, the vest fills with air and acts as a life jacket. It also has an amber flashing light to attract the attention of rescuers. [Not from attackers, I assume.] The vest has already been tested several times in the water and see here: it works well!, says Nathiphat.
The reason for the development was the death of a soldier who had fallen into the Mekong. He was injured and was unable to swim as a result. The weight of his body armor pulled him under the water.
– It is not allowed in the Netherlands and it is not allowed in Thailand, but TIT (This is Thailand) which means as much as: A ban does not mean that you are not allowed to do it, you are just not allowed to do it if the police are watching.
Yesterday, officers at nine intersections (photo home page: Klong Tan intersection) in Bangkok photographed motorists behind the wheel guilty of one of Thailand's most practiced hobbies: making phone calls. Because also applies in Thailand: hands-free calling is allowed, the phone to the ear is taboo.
Yesterday morning 38 motorists had stopped; Adul Narongsak, deputy chief of the municipal police, expected another 2008 wrongdoers to be caught for the rest of the day. According to him, the number of drivers chatting behind the wheel or chatting on Line continues to increase despite the ban imposed in 400. Those caught can be fined between 1000 and XNUMX baht. The ban also applies to motorcyclists.
– Nine passengers on the overnight train from Bangkok to Sungai Kolok have been robbed and one may have been drugged. After arriving yesterday morning, they filed a report with the police. The passengers said they had lost ten mobile phones and 2.500 baht. They must have been stolen while they were on one ear. The thefts, they suspect, took place between Surat Thani and Nakhon Si Thammarat. They believe the perpetrator got off at a station in Surat Thani or Thung Son (Nakhon Si Thammarat) district.
One of the victims said he had the feeling that he had been drugged when he woke up at 6 am. Others complained of dizziness, he said. The police do not want to draw the conclusion that the passengers are sedated. That is why they are tested for drugs.
– Now that the scheduled time of return is approaching, the lawyer of former Prime Minister Yingluck says it again. She does not flee the country, but returns from her holiday abroad to defend herself against the charge of dereliction of duty in the rice mortgage system.
We are now waiting for a decision from the OM whether Yingluck will be prosecuted. The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) advised that after a lengthy investigation. Yingluck has reneged on her duties as chair of the National Rice Policy Committee; it has not acted against rampant corruption and spiraling costs.
Yingluck's lawyer accuses the NACC of 'unfair practices'. Yingluck has asked several times to call additional witnesses, but the NACC only gave permission once. The attorney calls the NACC's investigation rushed; according to him, the results are incomplete. Today he will hand over a petition to the Public Prosecution Service with new information plus a plea for 'fairness and justice'.
Yesterday morning, the NACC handed over five boxes with 4.000 pages of evidence to the Public Prosecution Service. The Public Prosecution Service will now form a panel chaired by the deputy public prosecutor to study the evidence. It has 30 days to do so. Thereafter, the case may be brought before the Holders of Political Positions Division of the Supreme Court. Yingluck can still bring in new witnesses. The Public Prosecution Service decides whether they are admitted.
– Major General Jennarong Dechawan, along with four others, has been formally charged with extortion of street vendors in Patpong. The police accuse him of threatening 'gangster-style' behaviour, extortion of money and accepting bribes.
According to Jennarong, he is as innocent as a newborn baby. Yesterday he apologized to the army because the accusation tarnished the army's image. According to him, he actually helped the street vendors in the fight against mafia figures, by whom they were extorted. Jennarong does not want to say who those figures are.
About XNUMX vendors greeted him yesterday at the police station, where Jennarong had received the accusation. Some gave him flowers, others held up placards stating that he had nothing to do with the extortion.
Jennarong and his buddies fell into an undercover police operation when they took bribes at a hotel on Surawongse Road. The 55-year-old military specialist works in the office of the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Defense.
See further: Major General suspected of extortion merchants in Patpong
– No naps, no phone calls, no playing games, no chatting. The soldiers and agents, who are members of the recently formed NLA (emergency parliament), must leave their cell phones at home, Co-leader Prayuth Chan-ocha has ordered. The NLA members must not disappoint the population.
Prayuth is expected to become interim prime minister. Cat in the bakkie, because the majority of NLA members are police and (current and retired) army officers. He is also preferred in opinion polls.
The well-known anti-government activist Phra Buddha Isara, on the other hand, thinks he is not suitable for the post of prime minister. 'I feel that it would be disgraceful. General Prayuth tells us all the time that he doesn't want power, he just wants to help the country. I'm glad he's following the king's advice.'
According to Isara, the permanent secretary of the PM's Office is a better candidate because he is 'clever and prudent' and knows the civil service well. Prayuth himself falls silent when reporters ask him the key question.
The formation of the NRC, the National Reform Council, will start on Saturday, a council of 250 members that will devise reform measures. Eleven committees nominate 550 candidates. The NCPO (junta) selects 173 of these; the remaining 77 will represent a province.
– A group of rubber farmers, who have been ordered to leave their country by the company of former action leader Suthep Thaugsuban, has enlisted the help of the NCPO. The company, Srisuban Farm Co, has asked the court for an eviction notice. According to the company, the farmers occupy company-owned land, but the farmers are fighting this.
– Two alleged members of a gang that steals cars were arrested yesterday in the province of Samut Prakan. A third is still a fugitive. The two men have confessed to having stolen more than thirty cars in and around Bangkok in the past year. The cars were sold for amounts ranging from 80.000 to 90.000 baht. The third man is suspected of the theft of a hundred cars.
– A Japanese woman fell from the 27th floor of a condominium in Thong Lor (Bangkok) around midnight last night and died. There she shared an apartment with her American husband. In the apartment, the police did not find any indications that indicate a scuffle. A hospital prescription for anti-stress medication was found. According to the husband, they had an argument, after which he left, which is confirmed by CCTV footage.
– Three international human rights organizations are calling for an investigation into the claim of red shirt activist Kritsuda Khunasen that she was tortured by the army during her detention of 29 days. This weekend she said so in an interview on YouTube. After her release, Kritsuda fled to Europe with her boyfriend, where she wants to apply for asylum.
The NCPO denies the allegation; she would dish up the story to make her asylum claim credible. “Why would the army torture her and then release her? That doesn't make sense.' [Source of this quote is missing.]
The three organizations are the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Human Rights Watch in New York and the International Commission of Jurists.
– The wild gaur herd in Kui Buri National Park (Prachuap Khiri Khan) is at risk of extinction due to inbreeding and a possible recurrence of the disease that killed 29 animals last year. So said Kanita Ouitavon, head of the Wildlife Forensic Science Unit at the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.
According to her, the genetic hypotype diversity is low, which is considered a dangerous indicator of inbreeding. Examination of the dead animals has shown that the inbreeding trend in the park is increasing, with the result that the animals are less immune to diseases. Last year's deaths are attributed to foot and mouth disease and black disease (necrotic hepatitis).
Contrary to what the newspaper reported yesterday, the park has not opened. The park management first wants to trace the source of the diseases that broke out last year.
– The Anti-Money Laundering Office has so far not encountered suspicious financial transactions in the South of Thailand. This has emerged from an examination of the cash transactions of the past three years in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat. It is suspected that money from abroad [to finance the violence] is funneled to the South via a roundabout route.
The Amlo blacklist of suspects has been expanded to four thousand names. Financial institutions that transact on behalf of these individuals will be fined 1 million baht, and the management will face the risk of imprisonment.
The purpose of the blacklist is to suppress financial support for terrorism so that Thailand will not be included by the Financial Action Task Force on the list of countries failing to counter terrorism and facing international financial sanctions.
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post
The tester of the bulletproof/life jacket naturally also has his name to test something like this
WET PAT..
Yes, nice dicks behind the wheel of the car or on the motorbike with three children on it and then surprised faces about a ticket of 300 baht and asking why I, everyone is calling all day, went 2 weeks ago with the sky train overcrowded and almost everyone was playing with his phone, and that gentleman or lady in the car is not so awake from a print of 1000.bath, they should go to the Netherlands and call in the car 130 hours or 5500 bath, that hurts .
Dear tonymarony, the fine in the Netherlands for non-hands-free calling is currently 220 euros and therefore has the highest fine for non-hands-free calling. In Thailand they would therefore also have to increase the fine considerably to prevent calling and chatting behind the wheel.