Peerapong Manakij, the deputy spokesman for the Defence Ministry, said it is against the law for civilians to pose as soldiers. The punishment under the Military Uniforms Act of 1934 is a jail term of between three months and five years. However, children are exempt.

Military fatigues have inspired local and international clothes designers whose collections are widely available and are now common street wear. Maj-Gen Peerapong said wearing clothes which resemble a full or partial military uniform is nonetheless illegal. Police will be asked to cooperate.

The spokesman said Prime Minister and Defence Minister Samak Sundaravej agreed with the move. For those who own military fatigues, the council suggests they ''take the clothes out of the closet and dye them''.

''Don't they have anything more important to think about, like the country's security?'' said Wuthichai Phuttaraksa, the owner of Tongchat shop, which sells camouflage clothing and camping equipment at Chatuchak weekend market.

As local media reported:

Tax breaks for property buyers will become effective today with the official publication in the Royal Gazette.

Three laws would become effective, with the first reducing specific business taxes for property operators to 0.1% from 3% for transactions occurring over the next year.
The second law will increase waivers for individual taxpayers to the first 150,000 baht in income from 100,000 baht now, effective for the 2008 tax year. The increase will effectively reduce withholding taxes for individuals immediately.
The third law affects tax calculations for small companies with paid-up capital of less than five million baht, with the first 150,000 baht in income waived from corporate taxes. Profits after the first 150,000 will be charged under the normal ladder scale at rates from 15% to 30%.

As local news reported, Kathu Police Superintendent Col Grissak Songmoonnak said that the fire started around 14:00 and it took firefighters around half an hour to get control over the fire.

"We believe that a spark from workers carrying out construction might have ignited insulation and started the fire. We have no more information at this time and we are still investigating the cause of the fire. It is too early to put a value on the extent of the damage," Col Grissak was quoted by local media.

The hotel was formerly known as the Grand Tropicana Phuket and the building was taken over by the Marriott group after the Phuket Grand Tropicana hotel was in the news in February last year: several guests from a group of Finnish tourists contracted legionnaires' disease due to hygienic problems in the cooling system of the hotel and the hotel was closed by Phuket health authorities.

Links of Interest:

• Source from the Phuket Post

Links of Interest:

• Similan islands dive sites
• Diving at the Similan Islands image gallery
• Diving in the Similans in June

The following funny picture comes from Syamsulariff and is a good example of such an occurence: