The Thai PM has chaired the first Defence Assembly session in his role of Minister of Defence, urging the armed forces to support the government’s work in realising policies such as cybersecurity enhancement, drought mitigation, and tourist safety.

In the first Defence Assembly session, PM Prayut Chan-o-cha urged leaders of the armed forces and related departments to work in unison to support the government’s policies, especially on cooperation with the Ministry of a Digital Economy and Society, the National Security Council, and other agencies, on the enactment of cybersecurity related bills. He called on them to come up with suitable responses to cybersecurity threats in the future.

The PM directed the armed forces to respond to natural disasters, particularly drought, and set up drought mitigation centers in affected provinces to work with related agencies.

Prayut then urged the defence agencies to implement measures to ensure tourists’ safety in compliance with the government’s policy promoting tourism as a means of distributing income to people in local provinces. He urged the Internal Security Operations Command, working with local government agencies and private firms, to create safety measures suitable for each area, especially in popular tourist provinces.

SOURCE: National News Bureau of Thailand

PHOTOS: The Nation

Eleven people have been killed and four others seriously injured after a chartered van carrying Lao workers collided with an 18 wheel truck in Sa Kaew province, east of Bangkok on the Cambodian border, early today (map below).

The Nation reports that they were travelling to the Chanthaburi immigration checkpoint to renew their visas.

Police suspect the Thai van driver, Sansern Sathongkhan, might have dozed off behind the wheel, and driven the passenger van into the opposite lane where it crashed head-on with the oncoming 18 wheel truck.

Police and rescue workers rushed to the scene at 4.15am on the Sakaew-Chanthaburi Road section of the highway near the entrance to the Wang Somboon District Office.

They found the dead bodies of the van driver and Lao passengers, many of whom were crushed in the wrecked van while others were flung out of the van with the force of the impact. Rescue workers were able to remove four seriously wounded people from the wreckage, including three Lao passengers and the truck driver, Subin Pengmoo, to rush them to the district hospital.

SOURCE: The Nation