Chinese tourists safe after brakes fail on Phukets Patong Hill

Phuket Gazette - Friday 14th March, 2014

PHUKET: The driver of a Phuket tour bus avoided a serious accident on Patong Hill this morning by running the bus off the road before driving down the steep slope on the east side of the hill.Bus ...

Phuket Gazette - Friday 14th March, 2014

PHUKET: Customs officers at Phuket International Airport on Tuesday arrested a drug mule attempting to smuggle 7 million baht of ya ice (crystal methamphetamine) from China into Phuket.The ...

Phuket Gazette - Friday 14th March, 2014

PHUKET: Photos posted online of a foreigner killing a small shark at Kata Noi Beach prompted outrage, but the act was legal, a marine official said.The pictures, posted on the Go Eco Phuket Facebook ...

eTaiwan News - Friday 14th March, 2014

Thai land's insurgency-plagued south.Police Maj. Gen. Pote Suaysuwan said the English-language teacher was shot Friday in a drive-by shooting as she rode a motorcycle to her school in Pattani ...

The Standard - Friday 14th March, 2014

Read the original:
Thai e-passports free from forgery Foreign Ministry

Chinese tourists safe after brakes fail on Phukets Patong Hill

Phuket Gazette - Friday 14th March, 2014

PHUKET: The driver of a Phuket tour bus avoided a serious accident on Patong Hill this morning by running the bus off the road before driving down the steep slope on the east side of the hill.Bus ...

Phuket Gazette - Friday 14th March, 2014

PHUKET: Customs officers at Phuket International Airport on Tuesday arrested a drug mule attempting to smuggle 7 million baht of ya ice (crystal methamphetamine) from China into Phuket.The ...

Phuket Gazette - Friday 14th March, 2014

PHUKET: Photos posted online of a foreigner killing a small shark at Kata Noi Beach prompted outrage, but the act was legal, a marine official said.The pictures, posted on the Go Eco Phuket Facebook ...

eTaiwan News - Friday 14th March, 2014

Thai land's insurgency-plagued south.Police Maj. Gen. Pote Suaysuwan said the English-language teacher was shot Friday in a drive-by shooting as she rode a motorcycle to her school in Pattani ...

The Standard - Friday 14th March, 2014

See the original post here:
Thai anti-graft panel gives more time to Yingluck defence

BANGKOK: Southeast Asian stock markets mostly gained on Thursday, with Thai shares outperforming amid selective buying in dividend-yielding stocks, while Indonesia ended near an eight-month high as consumer shares rose ahead of an interest rate decision.

Thai SET index closed up 1.04% at 1,370.50, the highest since Dec 4. Shares of Bangkok Bank, PTT and Siam Cement were among the outperformers in the Top 30 high dividend stocks.

Indonesia's main index finished up 0.9% at 4,726.17, the highest close since July 23, led by consumer-related stocks, including Unilever Indonesia and Telkom Indonesia.

Bank Indonesia held its benchmark reference rate unchanged at 7.50%, as widely expected, because pressures over the inflation rate and the rupiah have eased. The decision came after market close on Thursday.

Vietnam was up 0.88%, the seventh gain in a row, boosted by investors' growing confidence in the macro-economy.

Malaysia pared earlier gain, ending nearly unchanged at 1,818.86 after the country's industrial production in January rose 3.7% from a year earlier, below expectations. Stocks in Singapore and the Philippines fell for a second session, amid selling in recent gainers such as shares of Keppel Corp and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.

SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS Change on day

Market Current Prev Close Pct Move

TR SE Asia Index* 403.79 401.02 +0.69

Singapore 3081.39 3097.43 -0.52

Read more:
Southeast Asia stocks: Indonesia Near 8-Month High, M'sia unchanged

AFP Vietnam spots possible wreckage from Malaysian plane

Bangkok (AFP) - Thai police said Sunday they were investigating a "passport ring" as details emerged of bookings made in Thailand with stolen European passports for the vanished Malaysia Airlines flight.

Two European names -- Christian Kozel, an Austrian, and Luigi Maraldi of Italy -- were listed on the passenger manifest of the flight MH370, but neither man boarded the plane, officials said.

Both had their passports stolen in Thailand over the past two years.

Airline rated one of world's safest | Explosions, systems failure caused crash |

Malaysia has launched a terror probe investigating the suspect passengers and the United States has sent in the FBI to assist.

Flight information seen by AFP shows that tickets were booked in Maraldi and Kozel's names on March 6, 2014, and issued in the Thai city of Pattaya, a popular beach resort south of the capital Bangkok.

The e-ticket numbers for their flights are consecutive and both were paid for in Thai baht.

Each ticket cost THB 20,215 (US$625).

Luigi Maraldi, an Italian man whose stolen passport was used by a passenger who boarded the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. Photo: AP.

Continued here:
Missing Malaysia Airlines plane: Stolen passports booked onto second flight

AFP Vietnam spots possible wreckage from Malaysian plane

Bangkok (AFP) - Thai police said Sunday they were investigating a "passport ring" as details emerged of bookings made in Thailand with stolen European passports for the vanished Malaysia Airlines flight.

Two European names -- Christian Kozel, an Austrian, and Luigi Maraldi of Italy -- were listed on the passenger manifest of the flight MH370, but neither man boarded the plane, officials said.

Both had their passports stolen in Thailand over the past two years.

Airline rated one of world's safest | Explosions, systems failure caused crash |

Malaysia has launched a terror probe investigating the suspect passengers and the United States has sent in the FBI to assist.

Flight information seen by AFP shows that tickets were booked in Maraldi and Kozel's names on March 6, 2014, and issued in the Thai city of Pattaya, a popular beach resort south of the capital Bangkok.

The e-ticket numbers for their flights are consecutive and both were paid for in Thai baht.

Each ticket cost THB 20,215 (US$625).

Luigi Maraldi, an Italian man whose stolen passport was used by a passenger who boarded the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. Photo: AP.

View original post here:
Stolen passports booked onto second flight

For many of us, a fall may very well be in our future.

Dorothy Baker from the Department of Geriatrics at Yale School of Medicine says, Between 30 and 40 percent of ordinary adults over 65 years old in Connecticut are going to fall this year. Were not talking about patients at nursing homes and hospitals, just ordinary adults in the state.

In fact falling is one of the leading reasons for older adults in Connecticut to call 911 and trips to the ER.

So, Baker has teamed up with students and professors from Quinnipiacs physical therapy program to study the effects of Thai Chi on balance and risk of falling.

Katie Petersen is a third year graduate student and one of four Quinnipiac physical therapy students part of the research team, Tai chi is fantastic for the elderly. It requires them to be slow to move outside their base of support and center of mass and really challenges their balance and works all those muscles that we know keep people upright.

Donald Kowalsky, associate professor of physical therapy, believes integrating Tai Chi into patients in home rehab regimen will scale back repeated falls, re-hospitalization, and ultimately add up to a major cost savings for the healthcare system.

I think that if we can keep people on their feet and prevent falls its going to benefit not only the state financially but the well being of patients and thats the ultimate goal.

Original post:
Quinnipiac University Physical Therapy Students Research Fall Prevention And Tai Chi

The value of Vietnam's footwear exports to Thailand has increased sharply in the past four years, jumping from US$6.6 million in 2010 to $25.87 million (Bt835 million) in 2013.

According to the general department of Vietnam customs, this January Vietnam shipped $2.01 million worth of footwear to Thailand, and since 2012, the country's monthly footwear export value to Thailand has been above $1 million on average.

Thailand has become one of Vietnam's four largest footwear importers in Asean, the department said.

Nguyen Van Khanh, chairman of the Leather and Footwear Association in District 4, Ho Chi Minh City, said Vietnam would have opportunities to ink more contracts with Thailand in the labour-intensive sector, as the partner country would stop producing its own footwear some time in the future, reports VnEconomy.

Apart from a shortage of labour, Thailand is facing challenges posed by the unstable baht, the high labour cost and fierce competition from other producers, Khanh said.

He added that many small and medium-sized footwear producers in Thailand had to suspend operations and export materials to foreign countries, including Vietnam. Currently, several Thai businesses are seeking to bring their production lines to other markets with cheaper labour costs, experts have said, noting that this could be an opportunity for the Vietnamese footwear industry.

Several months ago, a delegation of 30 Thai businesses operating in the sector visited Vietnam to seek long-term investment opportunities.

Kanchit Juntanapornchai, chairman of the Association of Thai Footwear Industrial Promotion, said a number of Thai businesses wished to import Vietnamese footwear to service their domestic and export demands.

He suggested that Vietnam should take advantage of the uncertainty in the sector in other countries by improving the quality of its own services and products.

Diep Thanh Kiet, vice chairman of the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association, said Thailand boasted a strong footwear industry as the country not only sells products of well-known brands and importers worldwide, but also establishes distribution networks in foreign countries.

Continued here:
VN's footwear sector expands footprint in Thai market