This & Thai

● The man who thew bags of human waste and fermented fish over the wall into the home of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva earlier this month was sentenced to jail for five days. Mr. Wiwitwin said he did it because he was frustrated with the police and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration officials who ignored his complaints about group of people who who always smoke cigarettes near his house. He said the smoke affected his daughter’s health.

● Thai police have arrested three Turkish nationals for alleged credit card forgery at a Bangkok department store. After three-month trace on the scam, the authorities found that the three Turkish suspects were a passport and credit card forgery gang, using Thailand as a base to commit crime.Their spending using the forged electronic cards during their two-week stay in Thailand accumulated some 20 million baht (over US$600,000) in damages.

● Four Thais and one Cambodian soldier were arrested recently with illicit drugs in Cambodian border town of Poi Pet near a border casino. Heroin, marijuana, an AK-47 assault rifle, 12 bottles of Ketamine and drug paraphernalia were found. Generally the Burapha Task Force’s Ranger company sets up a checkpoint at the entrance of Rong Klua Market near  Ban Klong Luek in Sa Kaeo’s Aranyaprathet district.

● Budget constraints now faced by state hospitals operating near the Thai-Myanmar border have forced their management to seek financial assistance from Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanawisit.Dr Worawit Tantiwattanasap, director of Umphang Hospital in Tak,said that hospitals operating along the Thai-Myanmar border now face severe debt incurred by providing free medical services, both to Thai nationals who do not have identification cards and to persons having no nationality with 33 percent of hospital bed occupancy taken by patients having no registered nationality.

● Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva  revealed that the government will attempt to gradually reduce economic stimulus measures to prevent possible repercussions following the marked economic recovery as witnessed by the higher-than-expected revenue collections.

● Thailand’s number of jobless has declined from an estimated one million to 400,000500,000 or one percent of the country’s population while the number of foreign tourists resumed growth after shrinking by 20-30 percent the year before.

● Simmering political chaos appears to be increasingly shaking foreign investor confidence as the former German economic minister voiced concerns for the interests of investors and the safety of tourists, according to Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwannakhiri. Speaking after meeting former German minister of economics and technology Michael Glos during a courtesy call, Mr. Trairong said the minister expressed concern regarding German investment interests and the well-being of holiday visitors to Thailand following rumours in Europe that the political situation here will turn violent with Red Shirt protesters protesting.