First coach praises Paralympic champ on new world record
First coach praises Paralympic champ on new world recordPongsakorn Paeyo celebrates after setting a new world record in the 400m T53 wheelchair racing event. (Photo: SPADT Facebook account)KHON KAEN: Paralympic champion Pongsakorn Paeyo's old school coach has praised him for the hard work and determination that earned him Thailand's first gold medal at the Tokyo Games while setting a new world record. Sakol said his protege's success in setting a new world time when winning a gold medal at Tokyo came as no surprise. He was later sent to train in Bangkok as a national wheelchair racer and became one of the most successful paralympians in the country. But the greatest (achievement) is to break the world record," the associations said.
Source:Bangkok Post
August 30, 2021 10:18 UTC
Cabinet approves B44 bn in Covid relief measures
(AFP)The cabinet on Monday approved a further 44.3 billion baht in relief measures, a government spokesman said, as the country struggles to tackle the worst Covid-19 outbreak to date. Mr Thanakorn said the money was supplemental to the earlier relief package worth 33.47 billion baht approved by the cabinet on Aug 10. The additional funds would aid more than 9 million workers in 29 maximum-risk (dark red) provinces who are registered under Sections 39 and 40 of the Social Security Act, he said. The eligible workers comprise 1.43 million registered under Section 39 and about 8 million under Section 40. insurers under Section 39 are those want to retain membership of the Social Security Fund after their Section 33 status ends with the company either by retirement or unemployment.
Source:Bangkok Post
August 30, 2021 09:11 UTC
Japan's Moderna vaccine contamination woes widen
A man receives the Moderna coronavirus vaccine at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building in Tokyo on June 25. (Photo by Rodrigo Reyes Marin/Pool via Reuters)TOKYO: Moderna Inc's Covid-19 vaccine contamination woes in Japan have widened with another million doses being temporarily suspended after foreign substances were found in more batches and two people died following shots from affected lots. The latest reports of vaccine contamination came from Gunma prefecture near Tokyo and the southern prefecture of Okinawa, prompting the suspension on Sunday of two more lots in addition to the 1.63 million doses already pulled last week. The contamination cases followed a government report on Saturday that two people died after receiving Moderna shots that were among lots later suspended. Japan earlier halted the use of 1.63 million Moderna doses, shipped to 863 vaccination centres nationwide after the domestic distributor, Takeda Pharmaceutical, received reports of contaminants in some vials.
Source:Bangkok Post
August 30, 2021 08:48 UTC
Worker shot dead over loud radio
Worker shot dead over loud radioPolice at the scene of the fatal shooting at the Silver Star golf course's cart repair shop in Phrom Phiram district, Phitsanulok, on Sunday night. (Photo: Chinnawat Singha)PHITSANULOK: A Myanmar man allegedly shot dead a Thai colleague who told him to turn down his radio at a golf cart repair shop in Phrom Phiram district on Sunday night. Witnesses told police that Pongthep Phloiprasong, 46, told another worker, Te Aw, 37, to turn down his radio, saying the loud noise was annoying. Te Aw, a migrant worker from Myanmar, allegedly took a short shotgun from under a lawn mower near him and fired one shot at Pongthep, inflicting a serious wound. Pongthep died later at Phrom Phiram Hospital.
Source:Bangkok Post
August 30, 2021 08:03 UTC
Records tumble from pool to track as Tokyo Paralympics hits day six
Records tumble from pool to track as Tokyo Paralympics hits day sixDubbed the 'Flying Fish,' 16-year-old swimmer Jiang Yuyan is China's youngest ParalympianTOKYO - China's youngest Paralympian broke her own world record in the pool in Tokyo on Monday, a day after Norwegian former refugee Salum Ageze Kashafali ran the fastest Paralympic Games 100 metres in history. Elsewhere on day six of competition, British sprint star Jonnie Peacock will go for a third consecutive Paralympic 100m gold when he runs in the T64 final. Records have been falling on a daily basis at the Tokyo Games, and Norway's Kashafali on Sunday became the fastest 100m runner in Paralympic history when he crossed the line in 10.46sec in the T12 final. Elsewhere Monday, play was delayed on all outdoor tennis courts till at least 5pm local time as Tokyo sweated through more summer heat. "Not in my wildest dreams did I think we'd be coming away with a Paralympic gold medal," admitted Britain's Stuart Robinson.
Source:Bangkok Post
August 30, 2021 08:03 UTC
Sinopec plans to spend $4.6 bn on hydrogen energy by 2025
Sinopec plans to spend $4.6 bn on hydrogen energy by 2025FILE PHOTO: A view shows one of the worlds's first plants for the production of green hydrogen on the site of the "Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rheinland" of Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell in Wesseling, western Germany on July 2, 2021. (AFP)BEIJING/SINGAPORE: China's Sinopec Corp plans to spend 30 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) on hydrogen energy by 2025 as the state oil and gas major pivots to producing natural gas and hydrogen as part of becoming a carbon-neutral energy provider by 2050. "Sinopec will expand forcefully into making hydrogen from renewable energy, and zero in on hydrogen for transportation fuel and using green hydrogen for refining," acting Chairman Ma Yongsheng said. The company produces about 3 million tonnes per year of hydrogen from non-renewable energy sources that is mainly used in oil refinery and petrochemical processes. Refinery throughput in the second half of the year is forecast to be flat to the first-half and year-earlier periods, remaining at about 126 million tonnes.
Source:Bangkok Post
August 30, 2021 06:22 UTC
Electronics exporter closes plant in flooded Bangpoo
Electronics exporter closes plant in flooded BangpooFactory workers are evacuated from flooded Bangpoo Industrial Estate in Samut Prkan's Muang district on Monday. (Photo from @Ruamduay Twitter account: Sutthiwit Chaiyutworakan)Major flooding at Bangpoo Industrial Estate in Samut Prakan province has led to Delta Electronics Plc announcing the temporary closure of its operations there. Delta, a leading exporter of electronics, informed the Stock Exchange of Thailand of its decision on Monday. The industrial estate was heavily flooded, with water more than one metre deep, after a downpour pounded the province in the small hours of Sunday. The water level was down on Monday, but small vehicles were advised to avoid the Bangpoo area.
Source:Bangkok Post
August 30, 2021 05:26 UTC
China bans exams for 6-year-olds as Beijing retools education system
China bans exams for 6-year-olds as Beijing retools education systemChina's exam-oriented system culminates in the feared university entrance exam at age 18 known as the gaokao. BEIJING: Beijing on Monday banned written exams for six- and seven-year-olds, as part of sweeping education reforms aimed at relieving pressure on pupils and parents in China's hyper-competitive school system. "Too frequent exams ... which cause students to be overburdened and under huge exam pressure," have been axed by the Ministry of Education, according to new guidelines released Monday. The regulations also limit exams in other years of compulsory education to once a term, with mid-term and mock examinations allowed in junior high school. However, many Chinese parents still regard education as a path to social mobility.
Source:Bangkok Post
August 30, 2021 05:26 UTC
Paralympic disability categories under fire over fairness
Paralympic disability categories under fire over fairnessWithin each Paralympic impairment category there are a vast range of abilitiesTOKYO - They're supposed to be about making parasports fair, but the category system central to disabled sports and the Paralympics, which classifies athletes according to their impairment, is increasingly under fire. He made his Paralympic debut in Rio, aged 16, and just missed out on a spot on the podium. "I decided to put aside Paralympic swimming so long as these problems with classification continue," he told AFP. The International Paralympic Committee defends the system, asserting that "sporting excellence determines which athlete or team is ultimately victorious". That, he said, penalises him unfairly, "because I know how to properly work with my disability".
Source:Bangkok Post
August 30, 2021 05:03 UTC
July manufacturing output rises 5.1% y
July manufacturing output rises 5.1% y/y, below forecastFILE PHOTO: Workers sort out raw rubber sheets at a factory in Rayong province on Oct 17, 2018. (AFP)Thailand's manufacturing production index (MPI) in July rose 5.12% from a year earlier, lifted by higher production of autos, electronics and rubber, the Industry Ministry said on Monday, missing analyst forecasts. The reading compared with a forecast for an increase of 11.0% in a Reuters poll and June's revised 18.27% rise.
Source:Bangkok Post
August 30, 2021 04:30 UTC
Nigeria's troubled exit path for repentant jihadists
Over more than a decade, Boko Haram jihadists, along with combatants from dissident offshoot the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have killed at least 40,000 people. Both say they were in Boko Haram for about six years but began to doubt its practices in 2016. When the Boko Haram recruits heard the government was offering vocational training if they surrendered, they decided to make a break for it. In his cell of 300 people, he said, "not up to 20 were real Boko Haram". - Stripping away radicalisation -Aliyu, Muhammad, Abubakar and Mallam eventually arrived at their destination -- the rehabilitation centre in Gombe state.
Source:Bangkok Post
August 30, 2021 03:56 UTC
Blood shortage in Khon Kaen, call for donors
Blood shortage in Khon Kaen, call for donorsA staff member of the Thai Red Cross Society in Khon Kaen monitors a blood donation at the centre in Muang distrct. Virasinee Chaimanee, chief of the Khon Kaen blood service centre, said there has been a shortage for several months now. Many blood donation units, especially at education centres, had suspended operations because of the Covid-19 pandemic. If the blood shortage continues, patients in need of blood will be severely affected," she said. On Saturday and Sunday, a mobile blood donation centre operates at Central Plaza, Khon Kaen.
Source:Bangkok Post
August 30, 2021 03:45 UTC
Palestinian president, Israeli defence minister hold rare talks
Palestinian president, Israeli defence minister hold rare talksGantz's trip to Ramallah marked the first publicly disclosed face-to-face diplomacy with the 86-year-old Palestinian leader since a new Israeli government was installed in June. RAMALLAH (PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES) - Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank on Sunday for the first official Israeli-Palestinian talks since Prime Minister Naftali Bennett took office in June. Gantz travelled to the West Bank city of Ramallah for security and economic discussions with the 85-year-old Palestinian leader, officials said on Monday. "Defence Minister Benny Gantz met with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmud Abbas (Sunday) evening to discuss security policy, civilian and economic issues," Israel's defence ministry said in a statement. Gantz's office said the defence minister and Abbas held "a one-on-one meeting" after the larger talks.
Source:Bangkok Post
August 30, 2021 03:22 UTC
Rockets fly in Kabul as US evacuations wind down
Rockets fly in Kabul as US evacuations wind downTaliban fighters in KabulKABUL: Rockets flew across the Afghan capital on Monday as the United States raced to complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan, with the evacuation of civilians all but over and terror attack fears high. Those flights, which took more than 114,000 people out of Kabul airport, will officially end on Tuesday when the last of the thousands of American troops pull out. Biden had warned more attacks were highly likely, and the United States said it carried out an air strike on Sunday night in Kabul on an explosives-laden vehicle. That was followed on Monday morning by the sound of rockets flying across Kabul, according to AFP journalists in the city. He has been living there from the very beginning," said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
Source:Bangkok Post
August 30, 2021 03:00 UTC
256 Covid fatalities, 15,972 new cases
256 Covid fatalities, 15,972 new casesA monk wearing a protective outfit sits on a vehicle sent by Wat Siripong Thammaninit in Bang Khen district, Bangkok, to give free food to people affected by Covid-19. (Photo: Arnun Chonmahatrakool)There were 256 more Covid-19 fatalities and 15,972 new cases over the past 24 hours, the Public Health Ministry reported on Monday morning. Since April 1, around when the third wave of Covid-19 began, there have been 1,161,200 Covid-19 patients, 974,418 of whom have recovered. Since the pandemic started early last year, there have been 1,190,063 Covid-19 cases, 1,002,746 of whom recovered. The daily high of Covid-19 cases was 23,418 reported on Aug 13 and the highest number of daily fatalities was 312 reported on Aug 18.
Source:Bangkok Post
August 30, 2021 02:26 UTC