In the first 19 days of the World Cup, Thailand spent an extra Bt304.4 million on power compared to average use during the year, Egat said.

It said it noticed a similar spike during the last World Cup tournament in 2002 when the Kingdom consumed an extra Bt171.6 million of electricity through round two of the tournament, which ends on Sunday week.

The company said the most-watched match was the second-round clash between Germany and Sweden, when electricity use reached the highest level of the month -Agence France-Presse.

senate election

Some winners may be disqualified: Prinya

Some of the 37 Senate election winners who have not yet been endorsed by the Election Commission are likely to be disqualified, election commissioner Prinya Nakchudtree said yesterday.

He said the agency's investigation committees had found there were grounds to refuse endorsement to the winners - or to disqualify them and prevent them from standing in future by-elections.

Prinya refused to give further details, saying that more investigation was needed. - The Nation.