Severe flooding and mudslides in southern Thailand have killed 21 people, stranded thousands of tourists

Severe flooding and mudslides in southern Thailand have killed 21 people, stranded thousands of tourists and threatened to delay shipments of rubber in the world's largest rubber-producing country, authorities said today.   Trains to the region have been cancelled and three airports have been shut, including one on the popular island of Koh Samui. As well as Koh Samui, foreign tourists - including Britons - have also been stuck at resorts in Krabi and Koh Phangan. The Thai navy evacuated about 1,200 people from Koh Samui and Koh Tao, a remote island popular with backpackers.  Stranded tourists sit on the floor of Samui airport in the flooded resort island of Koh Samui, Thailand, waiting to escape the island. Three airports in the south of the country have been closed so farThailand's...

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Posted in: airport on Koh Samui,the Nakhon Si Thammarat and Surat Thani airports have also been shut.

Private paid-for sex in your hotel room is not a crime in Thailand

Private paid-for sex in your hotel room is not a crime in Thailand, as long as the prostitute is neither underage nor there as a result of kidnapping, deception, force or misuse of authori...

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Posted in: Private paid-for sex in your hotel room is not a crime in Thailand

Police Captain Suprapan Phothiphirom from the Tourist Police station in Pattaya said the FTPA's job is to ensure the safety and security of foreign tourists and give them information and assistance.

''We have always faced a shortage of Tourist Police personnel, especially ones who can speak different languages,'' he said.On a recent Friday night, Spectrum went on patrol with the tourist police and their foreign assistants along Walking Street, which stretches 750 metres and is closed to traffic from 7pm to 3am.At about 8:30pm the foreign assistants and Thai volunteers began to set up, as they do every night, their mobile unit. Desks and chairs were placed in the middle of the street with bottles of drinking water and a box for donations.Shortly after, a white Tourist Police van arrived and was parked across the street. A large TV monitor to show public relations videos was then placed on the vehicle.By 9pm, about 30 people which included assistants, local volunteers and two policemen...

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Posted in: FTPA's job is to ensure the safety and security of foreign tourists and give them information and assistance.

650 Taiwanese nationals have been arrested in South Korea and Thailand for alleged involvement in telecommunication fraud cases

650 Taiwanese nationals have been arrested in South Korea and Thailand for alleged involvement in telecommunication fraud cases since September 2006, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday.The suspects, 439 in South Korea and 235 in Thailand, were mostly recruited by fraud rings with bases there to open bank accounts or collect money from the victims, the ministry said.The telecommunications fraud rings, once very active in Taiwan and China, have recently relocated to South Korea and countries in Southeast Asia after Taiwan and China forged an agreement in 2009 to jointly crack down on cross-Taiwan Strait crime, according to police sources.One of the fraud cases involving Taiwanese nationals even trigged a diplomatic row between Taiwan and the Philippines after Manila deported 14 Taiwanese...

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Posted in: 650 Taiwanese nationals have been arrested in South Korea and Thailand for alleged involvement in telecommunication fraud cases

Two impetuous strangers shot five teenagers - four boys and one girl, whose injuries were fortunately minor, after attending Pattaya Music Festival.

Pattaya, 21st March 2011 [PDN]: At 2 a.m., while Police Lietenant General, Krissakorn Tong-in of Pattaya Department was patrolling the Pattaya Music Festival area, some teenagers approached him to tell him that their friends had been shot at the area of 7-11 at Boonkanjanaram Temple Soi ( moo.12, Nongprue, Banglamung, Chonburi). The police hurried to the crime scene along with Sawang Somboon parame...

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Posted in: after attending Pattaya Music Festival.,Two impetuous strangers shot five teenagers - four boys and one girl,whose injuries were fortunately minor

The undersea cable laid from the mainland to Lan Island for all utilities to the Island which is 7.5 kilometers long was damaged costing millions of Baht earlier this month.

The undersea cable laid from the mainland to Lan Island for all utilities to the Island which is 7.5 kilometers long was damaged costing millions of Baht earlier this month. Pattaya City Mayor sent an urgent letter dated March 15, 2011 to the Chief of Department of Special Investigation or DSI to come to investigate and the Chief of Eastern Special Centre  Mr. Prawit Chaibuadaeng was assigned to visit the scene for inspection. The officials visited Lan Island and the local residents took them to Tarai Village on the island and took a boat out to the location of undersea electric transmission board and cables, that had been destroyed. From investigation, the main generator system had been found burnt and destroyed like it had been set on fire by petrol soaked materials, the traces...

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Posted in: The undersea cable laid from the mainland to Lan Island for all utilities to the Island which is 7.5 kilometers long was damaged costing millions of Baht earlier this month.

On Tuesday night, Pattaya Police were called to investigate a tragic accident that happened front of Ban Suan Suwattana in Soi Nern Plab Wan causing one fatality.

On Tuesday night, Pattaya Police were called to investigate a tragic accident that  happened front of Ban Suan Suwattana in Soi Nern Plab Wan causing one fatality. At the accident police  found  Miss Ampai Seemard, aged 21 from Srisakaid Province who was sitting on the road, crying while holding the body of her younger sister Miss Nisai Seemard, aged 20,diceased. Nearby a white Mazda was parked and its owner, a local man Mr. Suwapit Rueang-pi-tak-goon, was waiting to make a statement. He told police that he was driving home and he witnessed the accident that happened between the motorcycle of these 2 ladies, who were coming on the opposite direction, when a motorcycle and side-car forced them on to his lane and the girl fell under his car before he could take any evasive...

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Posted in: On Tuesday night,Pattaya Police were called to investigate a tragic accident that happened front of Ban Suan Suwattana in Soi Nern Plab Wan causing one fatality.

Two deaf-mute teenage boys were assaulted by two foreigners, but the boys could not identify the suspects when the police presented the suspects in front of them.

Two deaf-mute teenage boys were assaulted by two foreigners, but the boys could not identify the suspects when the police presented the suspects in front of them. Pattaya, 23rd March 2011 [PDN]: At 11.30 p.m., Police Lieutenant, Chuangchote Kwansirimongkol, Inspecting Officer of Pattaya Police Department, Chonburi was informed that a foreigner assaulted and stole from a handicap. It took place at an area near the Walking Street entrance (Moo.9, South Pattaya, Nongprue, Banglamung, Chonburi). The police hurried to investigate immediately. The victims were two teenage deaf-mute boys. They wrote their names down on papers for police to identify them as Mr. Sirichai Kwansirimongkol, aged 17 and Mr. Ball (unknown real name), aged 14.The victims reported that while they were walking on the...

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Posted in: but the boys could not identify the suspects when the police presented the suspects in front of them.,Two deaf-mute teenage boys were assaulted by two foreigners

Irish missionary priest Fr Shay Cullen has threatened to ‘‘name and shame’’ well-known hotel chains whose premises are allegedly involved in underage sex tourism across Asia,

Irish missionary priest Fr Shay Cullen has threatened to ‘‘name and shame’’ well-known hotel chains whose premises are allegedly involved in underage sex tourism across Asia, writes John Burke.The Nobel Prize nominee runs Preda, the Philippines-based child protection agency.He said that Preda would publish the names of prominent hotels and tourist businesses on internet website YouTube to highlight the practice of top hotels in Asia offering ‘‘young girls’’ to foreign businessmen and touris...

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Posted in: Irish missionary priest Fr Shay Cullen

María Nieves García Alcaraz sentenced to life imprisonment

María Nieves García Alcaraz, originally from Torraba in Albacete, was today sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Thailand after pleading guilty to drug trafficking, a crime that is usually punishable by death under Thai law.In pronouncing condemn, the judge said the crime dedicated by García Alcaraz would normally carry the death penalty, but this was reduced after taking into account the fact that the defendant had pleaded guilty.Thai prosecutors accused the 52-year-old Spaniard of "drug possession and importation for distribution", after  3.1 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine were found in her luggage as she passed through Bangkok airport on August 9th last year, after arriving on a flight from the Ethiopian capital Addis Adaba.The defendant, who appeared in court dressed...

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Posted in: María Nieves García Alcaraz sentenced to life imprisonment