CHIANG MAI — A police commander and part-time lottery prophet in Chiang Mai province said he has ordered an investigation into the owner of a website who has impersonated him and offered lottery number predictions in his name.

Pol.Maj.Gen. Nitipat Pattanatabutr, commander of the Fifth Region Police, said the website falsely claims to be run by him and his father, and has been providing hints to "lucky" lottery numbers. According to Pol.Maj.Gen. Nithipat, many people have been duped by the website and bought tickets based on its predictions.

"I don't know the owner of this poser website," Pol.Maj.Gen. Nitipat said. "I don't know how this website got the numbers. I have already ordered the investigative team of the Fifth Region Police to look for clues about the website's owner. Once we find the owners, they will be prosecuted for fraud and posing as other individuals."

Pol.Maj.Gen. Nitipat is well known among devoted lottery buyers for his predictions. The police commander said he and his father, former minister and MP Preeda Pattanatabutr, "calculate" the numbers together using various divine signs and clues.

For instance, in March he predicted that the number six would feature prominently in the 1 April draw because former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yuan, who was born in 2466 B.E., had recently passed away. The first prize draw on 1 April led with the number six, which the police commander's devotees viewed as an affirmation of his prophetic skill.

Pol.Maj.Gen. Nitipat told reporters today that he will not offer predications for the next lottery round until police arrest the webmaster.

"Falsely using the name of my father has caused me great damages," Pol.Maj.Gen. Nitipat said. "I suspect that some of my subordinates are behind this. I have already reprimanded them. Anyway, on the morning of 16 July [the next round of the government lottery], I will let everyone know the lottery number that my father has calculated for me." 

BANGKOK — Thailand's military leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha has assured the public that a new law restricting political gatherings won't affect any "innocent" or peaceful protests.

"Many countries around the world have this law," Gen. Prayuth said at Government House today, referring to the Public Gathering Act of 2015, which was approved by his Cabinet last night. 

"Don't look at it and think that officials want to restrict any rights," he continued. "If the rallies are innocent rallies, peaceful, unarmed, and in accordance with democracy, they can go forward. Who would forbid that? The only exceptions are rallies that don't have innocent intentions or are ready to escalate violence. We have learned lessons about that in the past, haven't we?" 

The new law passed by the junta-appointed interim government prohibits public gatherings from blocking the entrances or disrupting the operations of state agencies, airports, ports, train stations, public transportation terminals, hospitals, educational institutes, religious buildings, embassies, headquarters of international organizations, and other venues that the authorities may declare as off-limit.

In addition, protests are not permitted within a 150-meter radius of any royal palace, or the residences of guests who have been formally invited by the Thai Royal Family.

The law also requires organizers to seek permission from authorities no less than 24 hours before the gathering is scheduled to start, and provide clear details of the rally’s purpose, date, time, and venue. 

Under the law, protesters can face legal action if they:

• inconvenience other people who are using the public space where the gathering is being held
• conceal their identities with the intention to avoid being identified, though wearing traditional attire is always permitted
• carry weapons, fireworks, firearms, or any objects that can be used as weapons in the rally site
• cause other people to fear for their safety, property, or freedom
• use violence or threaten to use violence against fellow protesters or other people
• obstruct operations of officials in charge of overseeing the protests 
• demonstrate or move their rally site between 6.00 pm and 6.00 am, unless they have permission from officials in charge of the gathering
• give speeches or organize any other activities that use loudspeakers between 12.00 am and 6.00 am
• fail to follow any condition or order laid down by officials in charge of the gatherings 

According to the legislation, the following gatherings are exempted from the regulations: state and royal ceremonies; religious, traditional, or cultural ceremonies; gatherings for entertainment, sports, tourism, and other commercial purposes; academic meetings; and gatherings that take place within educational institutions. 

Violating the law carries penalties that range from six months to three years in prison. The punishment can be raised to ten years in jail if protesters are found guilty of disrupting public transportation, waterworks, telecommunication, or electricity systems. 

Thailand has been rocked by a series of mass street protests for the past decade, staged alternatingly by the country's rival political factions, known as the Yellowshirts and the Redshirts. The protests have paralyzed major parts of Bangkok, including both of its international airports, and occassionally turned violent.

However, all political gatherings and protests have been banned since Gen. Prayuth came to power in a coup d’etat in May 2014. He stepped in as army chief after six months of protests had destabilized the elected government led by former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

Speaking to reporters today, Gen. Prayuth touted what he sees as the laws many benefits.

"The burdens of officials will decrease. Rallies will be safe. Rallies won't be prolonged. I've seen in other countries, they don't have this many protests." He described how the last country he visisted, which was Japan, has "clear boundaries" for public gatherings and "orderly" protests.

"But our protests only focused on getting large number of people," Gen. Prayuth said. "It was chaotic."  

SAMUT SAKHON (DPA) — The fishing port sits idle, bereft of the commotion that normally characterizes Thailand's busiest fishing harbour.

Trawlers large and small rest placidly underneath the noontime sun, the crews on strike against what they say are unfair government measures to stop illegal fishing.

The situation at Samut Sakhon and other ports around Thailand was provoked by an European Union ultimatum against illegal fishing, which has thrown the world's third-largest supplier of seafood into disarray and shut down parts of a 6-billion-dollar industry.

In April, the EU yellow-carded the Thai fishing industry giving the country six months to fix its illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) or face an expensive ban on seafood exports into the EU.

The ultimatum came even though most of the fish caught by Thai fishermen is not destined for the EU, which issued the threat as part of its larger attempt to crack down on all IUU incidents worldwide.

But the ban would unfairly affect an industry that profits little or not at all from illegal fishing.

Most Thai exports to the EU are farmed prawns or processed fish, which have little to do with the fishing boat industry, according to Waraporn Prompoj, deputy director of the Agriculture Ministry's department of fisheries.

Thon Thamrongnawasawat, deputy dean of the fisheries department at Kasetsart University and a member of the government's National Reform Council, agrees.

"The main seafood exports from Thailand are frozen shrimps, canned tuna and crab stick, which are farmed or imported for processing," he said.

"Fresh fish caught in Thai waters are mostly consumed in the country, so the impact will be more on domestic consumption rather than export."

For Thailand's military government, it was the latest in a series of headaches concerning the country's troubled fishing industry, already accused of using of migrants as slave labour.

The country faces the loss of 1 billion dollars in seafood exports to the EU, industry officials said. The government is also under increasing pressure from groups like the Frozen Foods Association and the Shrimp Association, to crack down on the illegal fishing because their industries would suffer from a ban.

"The government has given a deadline of July 18 to the fishing industry to register their ships and comply by regulations or face substantial fines should they be caught fishing," Navy spokesman Captain Benjamaporn Wongnakornsawang said.

Benjamaporn is part of a special government task force set up in response to the ultimatum.

It is charged with performing inspections and ordering arrests and fines for violators of the IUU fishing regulations.

Those in the fishing industry argue that the government has not given them enough time to comply. They need to register boats with local authorities, install vessel monitoring systems on ships larger than 30 tons, and completely end the practice of bottom trawling and push nets.

"Most of the 30,000 fishing trawlers around the country are capable of making these changes," said Supaporn Anuchiracheeva, of the non-governmental Earth Net Foundation.

"Many of them haven't because they did not believe the government would go through with enforcing the new rules, like all previous governments."

But according to Supaporn, the current government is unwilling to risk the EU ban and its actions so far have shown unprecedented willingness to tackle the IUU issue.

In response to the potential crackdown by the government, 4,000 ships outfitted with trawling and illegal push net equipment have organized wider strikes that have crippled ports like Samut Sakhon.

If the strike were to continue for a year, about 300,000 tons of catch would disappear or about 10 per cent of the total market, according to a report in the Bangkok Post.

Already, local markets have seen price hikes on certain fish products as a result of the strikes.

"I think the government would be wise to wait out the strikes," said Supaporn. "The fishermen can't strike forever and the solidarity between the larger fleet and the 4,000 illegal ships will fray over time." 

But the ongoing saga bodes poorly for people like Wuthichai Boonmee, a wholesaler who buys fish from Mahachai fish market in Samut Sakhon and sells to restaurants in Bangkok.

"Prices are up and there are less fish. I don't care about the EU or the fishermen, I care that my livelihood is affected." 

(Reporting by Cod Satrusayang and Siraphob Thanthong-Knight)