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FRIDAY, JULY 4, 2014
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NEWS
Meet Phuket’s new German Hon Consul
Police, troops tell Kata encroachers to move
LIFE
HAPPY ENDING? In a bizarre contrast, men in camouflage uniforms arrive at an illegal sala on Kata Beach to tell the masseuses they have until tomorrow to pull it down.
SPORT
Tanyaluk Sakoot reporter2@classactmedia.co.th
T
ourists on Kata Beach were bemused on Wednesday (July 2) – some were a little alarmed – to see police and Navy Marines in flak jackets carrying combat rifles trudging along the iconic white sands. With them was Karon Mayor Thawee Thongcham who, police politely suggested, should speak
with people who have set up illegal makeshift buildings on the beach. Thawee is currently under a black cloud, being investigated for backing mafia taxi activities in Kata-Karon, and money laundering. He has also been accused of dereliction of duty for not clearing illegal structures off Kata and Karon beaches Pol Maj Gen Paween Pongsirin, head of the investigation into mafia taxi activities, which is also looking
into the mayor’s finances, told him, “Don’t worry. If you have any problem getting encroachers to move, the Army and the Navy will support you.” As topless tourists lay, half-dreaming, in a massage sala – constructed illegally on the beach – they found themselves suddenly surrounded by men in camouflage uniforms who talked to the masseuses about the need to get their sala off the sand. “You have until Saturday (July 5),
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to move” the masseuses were told. It was just one more episode in a torrid time for the mayor. On Tuesday he was put in a barredwindow police bus (see page 3) to be taken to meet the Chief Provincial Prosecutor and the following morning he was ordered back from the airport, where he was about to board a plane for Bangkok, when police raided his office in Karon Municipality looking for evidence.
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LIFE PAGE 8
Italian cuisine gets real on the island
PAGE 30
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