October 2013

Reporters Without Borders has asked the Ministry of Communications and Internet Technology to change its approach to updating the Computer Crime Act of 2007. The law already authorizes the government to arrest journalists and bloggers for political reasons. If a newly proposed amendment were adopted, the government would have even more latitude to muzzle the […]

ANATOMY OF A STITCH UP – A LETTER FROM BRAZIL.- Some 22 months after being deported to Brazil Ivan Pedro Schiffer, a reporter with the now defunct ‘Pattaya Times’ newspaper, is back in South East Asia, and seeking justice. Schiffer was an assistant to Drew Noyes, a controversial American, who has sued and lost cases […]

Fears were last night growing for a Thai mother who has been missing for over eight days in the Scottish capital Edinburgh. Police Scotland have not given any reason why they are concerned about the whereabouts of Oranuch Tawongngern Waugh, 38, from the Thai province of Chaiyaphum, who was last seen in the Albion Road […]

(Pic: Chalor at the time of his arrest) IN PRISON HE WAS TREATED LIKE ROYALTY The Thai General who was released from prison yesterday after serving nineteen years of a life sentence for murder actually lived the ‘Life of Reilly‘ in prison in Thailand – despite originally being sentenced to death, according to a fellow […]

Thai police are searching for a businessman to whom a money changing company sent Bt120 million which was intercepted by pirates, according to today’s Bangkok Post. Police have so far recovered over over 50 million baht. The capture of the six pirates came after Tangthai Banmahing, a representative of the money changing firm Sahasup International, […]

FLYING SPORRAN’S WEEKEND DIARY- (Picture: Home Sweet Home) I am sure someone is going to come back with a perfectly sensible answer but I am wondering why banks in Thailand give better mortgage rates for people buying news houses rather than people buying older ones. I had someone check the banks recently for mortgages and […]

 THAI DELEGATE BEATEN TO DEATH AFTER HESITATING WITH HER SECURITY PASS A 35-year-old security guard at Scotland’s Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow has admitted beating a Thai woman delegate to death with a fire extinguisher after she was hesitant about producing her pass. Clive Carter told the High Court in Glasgow:  “When I was […]

INVESTORS CASH GOES UP IN SMOKE- A company run by an Australian born Sri Lankan and employing foreign salesmen looks like it may have taken Thai citizens for a stunning 1,600 million baht (£31.65 million) by selling them trees, er, in Thailand. At a meeting of the Touchwood Investors Group last night investors from the […]

A former Pattaya Brit, Ray Teret,  a chauffeur to disgraced British celebrity Jimmy Savile, has been taken into custody by British police in Manchester. A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police said: “A 71 year-old-man was re-arrested in connection with historic sexual offences against children when he answered his bail on Wednesday October 23.” “He was […]

‘ONE STOP SERVICES’  COULD NOT EVEN GET CLIENT’S NAME RIGHT IN FAMILY COURT.- A British pensioner who coughed up over 340,000 baht to the Pattaya company ‘One Stop Service Center’ for a divorce has found that the company’s incompetence has rendered a court matrimonial settlement totally illegal. Kenneth Blundell, 65, a retired heating engineer from […]