Updating All Day, Every Day
bangkokpost.com Phu Hin Rong Kla National Park in Nakhon Thai district of Phitsanulok province has increased the entrance fee for foreign tourists from 200 baht to 400 baht each from Feb 1, a Public Relations Department report said.
bangkokpost.com Authorities temporarily closed a Pattaya gentlemen's club for illegal operation following a raid where more than 100 foreigners and young Thai women were found partying.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/465261/pattaya-gentlemen-club-shuttered
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 News Items
bangkokpost.com The prime minister orders increased security at public places following the two bomb blasts near Siam Paragon, as forensic officials gather evidence at the scene.
euronews.com Canada says the release of another Al-Jazeera journalist from jail in Egypt is ''imminent''. The news about Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy comes just a day after another reporter from the station, Australian Peter Greste, was freed.
bangkokpost.com Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda has urged a corruption court be set up to accelerate graft-related cases which he says take too long.
Phuket World of People
bloomberg 0.56 percent. That's Thailand's official unemployment rate as of end-2014. It's among the lowest in the world, and compares with 9.4 percent in India and 6 percent in the Philippines in the region.
nationmultimedia.com The national human rights agency will submit a petition to the prime minister, the president of the National Legislative Assembly and the chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee to express its opposition to a CDC proposal calling for the watchdog to be merged with the Ombudsman.
news.sky.com Police in Brussels have detained a Slovakian man outside the European Parliament and found a gun and chainsaw in his car. They spotted the man earlier in the day acting suspiciously and questioned him.
bangkokpost.com Police say they have ended the 10-year "career" of a transsexual con artist who has lifted 100 million baht from mostly Japanese victims.
afp An Egyptian court confirmed death sentences against 183 men convicted of killing 13 policemen, in a verdict slammed as ''outrageous'' by rights group Amnesty International.
scmp.com Gaming revenue in Macau fell for the eighth straight month in January, by 17.4 per cent from a year ago to 23,748 million patacas.
nationmultimedia.com The Place Luxury Boutique Villas in Koh Tao has won TripAdvisor's 2015 Travellers' Choice Award as the best romantic getaway in Thailand, followed by Layana Resort and Spa on Koh Lanta and Bo Phut Resort and Spa on Koh Samui. Other romantic getaways are the Shore at Katathani in Phuket, the Sarojin Khao Lak, Ariyasomvilla in Bangkok, Sandalwood Luxury Villas in Koh Samui, Code in Koh Samui, Point Yamu by Como in Phuket and Lanna Samui in Koh Samui.
telegraph.co.uk Too much exercise really can kill you, scientists have discovered, after finding runners who speed along at 7mph or more are doing themselves more harm than good.
bangkokpost.com Thai tourism operators have high hopes for Chinese tourists this year, whose arrivals are expected to reach 5.6 million in 2015. A big jump in Chinese tourists could help offset the decline of Russian visitors after the sharp devaluation of the rouble.
independent.co.ukStarting Monday, thousands of Croatia's poorest citizens will benefit from an unusual gift: They will have their debts wiped out. Named ''fresh start,'' the government scheme aims to help some of the 317,000 Croatians whose bank accounts have been blocked due to their debts.
Around the Asean Region
THE WORLD'S most pressing public health crisis isn't AIDS or Ebola or malaria - it's a soaring number of motorcycle fatalities. And it's costing developing countries billions, reports foreignpolicy.com.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/02/02/death-rides-a-moto-cambodia-helmets-road-fatalities-motorcycles/
Phuket World of Sport
afp Tiger Woods fell to 56th in the world rankings released Monday and is in danger of failing to qualify for next month's World Golf Championships event at Doral.
Coming Events on Phuket 2015
bangkokpost.com A five-day Songkran holiday in April is hardly enough. The cabinet has added an extra holiday on May 4, to make a second five-day holiday, for tourism.
February 26-28 Phuket Old Town festival
March 1-15 Heroines festival
March 4-8 Bay Regatta
April 11-13 Phuket Bike Week
April 17-19 Songkran Festival
Thailand low unemployment is slowly killing its future economic opportunity as there is no stimulus to develop knowledge, skills, no pressure to be competetive.
Unskilled/semi-skilled sector is high;y overheated as there are many more jobs than there are workers in Thailand for those jobs, that is evidenced by millions of guest workers at these jobs.
Actually, these unskilled/semi-skilled sectors, with a help of government policies, should be adjusted and downsized - YES - it means killing jobs in these sectors to create pressure and need for people to get better education.
Overheating of the bottom of the economy coupled with a design of society fabric that is a kleptocracy, that in turn kills meritocracy,only make the problem more procrastinated.
Thailand is stacked in what is called "middle income trap", when productivity growth reserves are exhausted,a country is not (extremely) poor, and it's by far not reach, and can't move out of status quo.
Posted by Sue on February 3, 2015 06:53