LED chief Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol said her office would assist the workers in submitting requests for 21 days of unpaid wages.

This would enable them to get paid before the company pays plaintiffs in the bankruptcy, she said, adding that overdue would be paid in June and July.

She said workers could file complaints with the department in its capacity as the company’s receiver in a bid to get compensation for losing their jobs without advance notice. Labour Protection and Welfare officials, who met with LED officials yesterday, said it would provide aid to retrenched workers including legal help for anyone seeking compensation.

The department said the workers would get financial aid from the Employee Welfare Fund of up to Bt18,000, while they could also apply for unemployment benefits set at 50 per cent of their wage and payable for four months.

Bowornmongkol Police, whose jurisdiction covers the pier where the first body part was found, will handle the investigation.

DNA tests will be conducted on the remains to determine if they came from the same person, deputy police spokesman Maj-General Songpol Wattanachai said.

City police have contacted police in Rayong’s Muang district for information after a woman filed a complaint there claiming that her husband was abducted a few days earlier.

A FACT-FINDING probe is being undertaken to determine if the seizure of 204 cars late last year was the reason why a Bangkok police investigator committed suicide last week.

Sira Jenjakha, president of the civilian commission overseeing and following-up on police administration in Thung Song Hong precinct in Bangkok, revealed that Pol Captain Thawee Meunrak shot himself dead due to work-related stress. He had allegedly come under pressure from his superintendent.

The superintendent, Pol Colonel Termphao Siriphubal, has affirmed that he did everything by the law and was ready to explain himself to the civilian commission.

Meanwhile, deputy police spokesman Maj-General Songpol Wattanachai said a fact-finding committee, chaired by Metropolitan Police Area 2 chief, was set up to probe what caused Thawee’s suicide and whether it was linked to the seizure of 204 cars late last year found at a Lak Si mall parking lot. Songpol urged Sira to submit any information and evidence to this committee. It wants to complete the probe in two days.

Sira, in a press conference yesterday, claimed that a policeman had recorded an audio clip of the superintendent allegedly scolding four investigators, including Thawee, over the car seizure case. While Sira was talking to reporters, the police officer who reportedly has the clip phoned in and said he would not submit it because of fears for his safety. He would wait until the superintendent was transferred.

Accompanying Sira was a civilian friend of Thawee, who asked not to be named. The friend claimed that Thawee had complained about stress over the case in which the vehicles were seized – and the superintendent allegedly pressuring him to return the vehicles to a car finance operator. He said Thawee wanted to resign from work or he would commit suicide.

Sira called for Pol Col Termphao to be transferred for lack of transparency in his work, saying the commission had previously resolved to demand an explanation from the superintendent over alleged corruption in police administration but the date kept being postponed – and is now set for February 17. If the officer failed to show up to give an explanation, he would seek a meeting with the national police chief to file a complaint and call for Termphao to be transferred. Sira said there was already a petition campaign signed by 200 people – Thung Song Hong police and residents – calling for Termphao’s transfer.

Senior lawyer Suwet Jitmahawong, a former member of the Metropolitan Police Region 2’s civilian commission, said the 204 impounded cars were from two shops, one of which he had a few shares in. He said a court had ordered police to return cars that were deemed legal back to the owners for repair, and Thawee reportedly agreed, but the superintendent allegedly pressured him to return them to the car finance firm.

According to Termphao, both the owners and car finance businessperson were entitled to retrieve the cars, so if disputes erupted they would have to wait for court orders.

“Am I taking the car finance’s side? Why would I do that? The deceased investigator and I were being sued at the civil court too,” he said, affirming that he had done everything by the law and wished to continue working without fighting others.

Termphao said Thawee’s suicide was not spurred largely by the car case. He denied trying to speed up the matter or pressuring Thawee. He said Thawee was about to get another fraud case to probe and had gone over the details until 2am, but Thawee reportedly had a fight with his wife on the same day. He said he provided Bt20,000 from his own pocket to help with funeral costs. “How can you say I don’t love my subordinate?”

 

The six state-owned land units are comprised of two plots in Bangkok, one plot in Chiang Mai, one plot in Chiang Rai and two plots in Phetchaburi province.

Jakkrit admitted previous talks with related private sectors left several inconclusive points including selling prices and eligible persons’ income ceiling.

The Fiscal Policy Office had initially set the housing unit prices as up to Bt700,000 for a 70 square metre housing unit and up to Bt500,000 for a 22 square metre condominium unit while setting the income ceiling at up to Bt15,000 per month, he said.

However, the Government Housing Bank had a different definition of “low-income” earners as those making up to Bt24,000 per month while the National Housing Estate’s definition was Bt20,000, he said. The private sector said if it were implemented by the department’s ceiling, the number of those eligible to purchase the units would shrink in size, he added. After the project details were finalised, a bid over house plans would be carried out and the construction would take up to a year-and-a-half. The first batch of units should come out in Bangkok and Chiang Rai by 2017, according to Jakkrit.

Police rushed to a local safari park where they found the body of a 36-year-old Scottish man at the scene, while two injured persons had already been sent to the hospital.

A police investigation initially found that a Myanmar mahout leading the male elephant which had three tourists on its back. After walking for about 15 minutes, the elephant suddenly shook them off, stomped on them and fatally gored the male tourist while also wounding his 16-year-old daughter and the mahout.

This incident prompted provincial governor Wongsiri Phromchana to have officials get stricter on elephants registered for tourism on this famous resort island.

Wongsiri said there were five elephant camps on Samui but the Sarat Thani Livestock Office and the Koh Samui District Office had different figures for the total number of elephants. The former cited 63 while the latter cited 38, hence officials would investigate further on the differences. He also said that the related agencies would take care of the deceased and the injured tourists and also investigate how this happened as to prevent any re-occurrence.

 

The system uses an “Advanced Passenger Processing System” (APPS) to stop “undesirable” foreigners from coming to Thailand based on data gathered at their point of origin.

Police Lt-General Nathathorn Prousoontorn, chief of the Immigration Bureau, told The Nation that the APPS would screen incoming passengers before a decision was made whether to let them in to the country.

The APPS gathers passenger information from airlines flying to Thailand based on the data collected at the check-in airline service counters, including name, gender, nationality and country of residence. That data are sent to the APPS database along with the flight number and passenger seat number.

“Before the APPS system, information about passengers or any travellers coming to Thailand would be collected and sent to the Immigration Bureau by paper files, but now collecting it as electronic information and using the APPS system to handle the data, we can monitor incoming passengers in real time,” Nathathorn said.

He added that criminal data from Interpol would be linked to the APPS system this year so authorities could intercept criminals coming in to the country.

The system was set up this month at the newly opened Thai Immigration 24/7 Centre and at major airports. APPS is already in use in other countries such as Japan, Canada, China, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The system is being used alongside other security tools including the Personal Identification Blacklist Immigration Control System, the Case Management Intelligence System, CCTV surveillance and the CRIMES system. All of these systems are operated and monitored by the Immigration 24/7 Centre, which aims to be the hub of Thailand’s immigration procedures and help to improve national security.

The immigration centre at Suanplu’s Immigration Division One will have officers monitoring incoming data 24 hours a day.

Nathathorn added that the new APPS system could also help to address non-criminal issues such as the recent Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) case in which a 71-year-old man with the virus travelled to Thailand from Oman.

The new system could almost instantly provide information about other passengers who were sitting near the man and who might be at risk – a process that previously could have taken up to a day.

 

Padet told Nation TV that the person who cheated has enough personal assets to pay back the loan and is currently enjoying a good life in the US so he wondered why Mahidol had not pursued the case.

Padet said Mahidol’s legal department should have followed up on this case when the former lecturer had visited Thailand in February 2015 to attend her mother’s funeral after which she sold off all family assets in Thailand and went back to the US where she is married to an American.

“Lawyers should work with authorities and file a lawsuit against her for failing to pay back what is now a Bt10-million debt. As a dentist working [in the US], she earns enough to pay back the debt,” he said.

Deputy premier Wissanu Krau-ngam, who oversees the Civil Service Commission, said only family members of those who had got government-sponsored scholarships should be allowed to guarantee loans so that outsiders do not have to take responsibility in the event of cheating.

Prof Dr Banjong Mahai-viriya, deputy rector of Mahidol University, said the former lecturer at the university’s dentistry school had been given a government-sponsored scholarship back in 1993 to study for masters and doctoral degrees at Harvard University. However, she did not return to Thailand after completing her studies as required by the terms of the scholarship.

The former lecturer violated the scholarship loan agreement with Mahidol as per which she was required to pay back the Bt10 million expenses borne by the government plus a 200-per-cent penalty, amounting to a total of Bt30 million. However, the lecturer, who currently works at Harvard University, has not made any attempt to repay the loan and penalty. As a result, the university approached the four guarantors, including Padet, to cover the expenses incurred by the government on her.

Dr Banjong, Mahidol’s deputy rector, said that under the terms of the scholarship, the former lecturer was supposed to return to Thailand and work at the university to be eligible for the scholarship, failing which she had to return the money plus a penalty.

In 2004, the former lecturer told the university that she would not return to pay back the amount, according to Dr Banjong.

“There has been a small number of cheaters of government-sponsored scholarships in the past. However, social media is now prominent and widely used so this controversy has spread quickly as society does not agree with people who are unethical,” he said.

Meanwhile, there has been a Facebook campaign at Harvard University against the former Mahidol lecturer, even though the US university had earlier dismissed the issue as a personal matter. The Facebook post continues to attract critical comments from many Thais and foreigners. Dentist Padet, one of the four guarantors, wrote on his Facebook page about the unfair burden on him.

 

They include a total solar eclipse, Mars getting the closest to Earth in 11 years, Nasa’s Juno spacecraft arriving at its destination, Mercury passing across the sun, a Supermoon appearing on Loy Krathong Day, as well as other |interesting astronomical events such as planetary groupings and meteor sightings.

Boonraksa said there will be a total solar eclipse on March 9, but it will only be partly visible in Thailand and the sun will start orbiting in the Earth’s shadow from 6.30pm to 8.40pm.

On May 31, Mars will be orbiting closest to the Earth for the first time in 11 years at the range of 75.29 million kilometres and it should be visible to the naked eye all night from May 22-31. Nasa’s Juno spacecraft will land on Jupiter after five years of travelling, and a “Supermoon” will occur on Loy Krathong Day on November 14. Other interesting astronomical events like planetary groupings will occur on August 26-29 while Mercury will pass across the sun on May 9.

There will also be other interesting astronomical events such as meteor sightings in August, November and December.

Meanwhile, he said there were “10 other astronomical events that should not be missed in 2016”, including the discovery of planets outside the solar system and Nasa’s New Horizons exploration spacecraft now moving through the Kuiper Belt, which is expected to discover new asteroids and dwarf planets.