UPDATING All Day, Every Day
bangkokpost.com Thai police have arrested a young man in connection with the Erawan shrine bombing. He reportedly holds a Turkish passport.
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/bankok-police-arrest-turkish-man-looks-similar-bomber-23077/
news.com.au Tens of thousands of Malaysians have streamed into central Kuala Lumpur to call for the prime minister's resignation over corruption allegations and demand broader reforms.
bangkokpost.com Smoky haze caused by widespread land-clearing fires in Indonesia eased in some southern provinces including Phuket but concerns persist in other parts of the South.
PhuketWATCH Daily Media Wrap
PHUKET: The daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media. Beware of inconsistent imitations.
Today's Top Stories
nationmultimedia.com Thick haze has caused health concerns on Phuket. ''The problem comes from forest fires in Indonesia,'' the Songkhla-based office of the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said. Smoke haze was blanketing Satun, Phang Nga and Phuket.
uatoday.tv Vets have conducted health checks for orangutans in preparation for their repatriation to Indonesia. Thirteen of the 14 orangutans were confiscated from an entertainment business on Phuket in 2008.
http://uatoday.tv/society/thailand-conducts-health-check-for-indonesia-orangutans-preparing-them-for-repatriation-483320.html
bangkokpost.com The primates have been under care in the years since they were discovered in cages by a roadside on Phuket. No case has been made against the smugglers.
Human Trafficking in Thailand
nationmultimedia.com Global food company Nestle is being sued in the US over claims that its Fancy Feast cat food brand contains fish from a Thai supplier that uses slave labor. Nestle said in an e-mailed statement that forced labor ''has no place in our supply chain''.
bangkokpost.com Former member of the Satun Provincial Administration Organisation Anat Hayeemasae has been sentenced to 22 years and six months in jail for trafficking a Rohingya victim. According to Phuketwan.com, Anat was found guilty of human trafficking after investigators brought back a key witness who had been intimidated into fleeing to Malaysia.
The Bombing in Bangkok
nationmultimedia.com After questioning some 200 witnesses over the August 17 Erawan Shrine bombing, police investigators are still unable to rule out any of the possible motives, a senior police officer.
fortune.com Analysts have already turned sanguine, predicting the Bangkok bombing's effect on visitors will taper off in time for the high season that starts in October (assuming that no other fatal attack follows it).
bangkokpost.com Police chief Gen Somyot Pumpanmuang has warned against assumptions that the deadly Erawan shrine bombing might be linked to Thailand's deportation of Uighur Muslims to China last month.
Phuket World of People
Phuket Update Police have arrested Ta Zin Moe, 24, who alleged threw acid over a 22-year-old friend, permanently blinding her and leaving her in a critical condition at Vachira Phuket Hospital. The attack outside a Patong restaurant came because the friend was blamed for Ta Zin Moe being sacked, police said.
Phuket Update One day after a Chinese tourist drove his rented motorbike into the back of a traffic police officer in Karon, another Chinese tourist in the same Phuket district bowled over a row of motorcycles in a narrow Kata soi then crashed a rented jeep into a power pole.
Phuket Update Two Turkish men were arrested on Koh Hey (Coral Island) by tourist police for working without works permits. Chalong police allege Ahmet Komurco, 37, and Altin Cem Salih, 49, were selling tour packages.
Phuket Update Hooters of America and its Bangkok-based franchisee Destination Resorts have announced an investment of 100 million baht to open the largest international Hooters restaurant in Pattaya and to celebrate the grand opening of Hooters Bangkok. Hooters has an outlet on Phuket.
independent.co.uk Rumors of the presence of a Nazi train filled with gold and other treasures that vanished at the end of the Second World War have swirled around the Polish town of Walbrzych for years - but now a government official says a ''deathbed confession'' has revealed its actual location.
theguardian.com The driver of a truck dumped by the side of a road in Austria with the bodies of 71 refugees inside has been arrested, Hungarian police said, amid indications that those trapped in the vehicle including four children had suffocated to death.
latimes.com Prosecutors in Sicily have detained 10 suspected people traffickers believed to have crammed migrants into the airless hold of a vessel crossing from Libya in which 52 died. Those arrested used sticks and knives to beat back migrants packed into the hold when they tried to climb through a hatch for air, police alleged.
breitbart.com A former Subway franchisee now claims embattled Subway spokesman Jared Fogle confessed to engaging in sexual acts with children as young as age nine in Thailand. Cindy Mills, a Subway franchisee from 2006 to 2012, says Fogle had confessed to her he had sex with minors, telling Business Insider, ''He would just tell me he really liked them young.''
huffingtonpost.com An unelected, all-male village council in India has decided to punish a man who eloped with a married woman by ordering his two sisters to be raped. The two women, ages 23 and 15, fled their village in the Baghpat district after the decision was handed down on July 30.
washingtonpost.com Jozef Wesolowski, the Vatican's former ambassador to the Dominican Republic and the highest-ranking Holy See official to be charged with sexually abusing young boys, was found dead August 28 as he awaited trial. He was 67.
news.com.au Joining the likes of Ha Long Bay in Vietnam and Krabi in Thailand, the lesser-known Bacuit Archipelago is perhaps even more breathtaking - 45 limestone karst cliffs punctuated with secluded lagoons and coves.
Around the Region
wsj.com Malaysian police were bracing for what is expected to be a massive weekend protest in Kuala Lumpur against Prime Minister Najib Razak's management of the economy and the growing debt problems at a state investment fund.
Phuket World of Sport
bangkokpost.com Thailand will host the Finals of the World Grand Prix in Bangkok next year, according to a Volleyball Association of Thailand official.
Coming Events on Phuket 2015
Phuket Update The annual Por Tor (Hungry Gost) Festival organised by the Phuket City Municipal Office and Tourism Authority Thailand (TAT) Phuket Office is being held in Phuket Town and everyone is being invited to join.
Until September 12 Por Tor (Hungry Ghost) Festival
September Quicksilver surf carnival at Patong beach
October 15-23 Phuket Vegetarian Festival
November Patong Festival
November 20 Laguna Phuket Triathlon
November 25 Loy Kratong festival
November 29 Challenge Laguna Phuket 2015
November 29 Phuket King's Cup Regatta
December 5 HM The King's Birthday
December 26 Tsunami memorial ceremonies
Thailand is the only country ( as far as I know) where police at road block stops you and give you a fine for ..no helmet, no insurance, no driving license..and than?? Off you go, you continue your drive, the ticket is a free pass for the rest of the day. Now a policeman, who did give a ticket to a tourist was a little hurt ( most was drama)by the same tourist he allowed to drive off again without driving license.
Next: demolition derby by another tourist, lot of damage, lucky no people wounded or killed.
Solution: Make a 'rule' that tourists go to nearest police station first for a check of their foreign driving licenss, if ok, than police give a 'ok for rental' paper ( charge probably 100 thb?). Only with that Phuket police paper rental companies are allowed to rent out cars/motorbikes. it is so simple. And it can save lives.
Posted by Kurt on August 29, 2015 07:29
Editor Comment:
Untrue, Kurt. People without motorcycle licenses usually have the motorcycle impounded. There may be some leniency with tourists. The core problem is that people can hire cars and motorcycles simply by producing passports. The problems with passports are again being highlighted in serious ways by the Erawan bombing. The ease with which passports are handed over makes them easy to steal or copy. It's a national security issue that has yet to be pursued. You'd expect the opening of Region 8 HQ on Phuket to bring greater effort to control expat criminals especially.