Chinese New Year a holiday in South
The Cabinet yesterday agreed to mark Chinese New Year Day on January 23 as a public holiday for Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Satun, deputy government spokesman Anusorn Eiamsa-ard said.
It is the first move ever to recognise Chinese New Year as an official holiday in the region, giving the ethnic Chinese in the four southernmost provinces the equity and respect for their cultural uniqueness, he said.
Meanwhile, two men in their 20s, suspected of being insurgent sympathisers wanted for burning down a house in Songkhla’s Saba Yoi district last month, surrendered to Songkhla Governor Krissada Boonraj yesterday in fear for their safety. The duo allegedly confessed to being involved in the attack, saying that they had collected a box for another man and deposited it at the house. They said they had been talked into joining the insurgent movement in 2010.
In related news, Yala security officials were dispatched yesterday to hunt down a 200-kilogram tiger that reportedly killed a rubber-tapping farmer and severely injured another in Betong district.
