This follows the December 7 discovery of 6,360 processed wood planks and 37 wood blocks worth Bt1 billion at the 242-rai Chinese Buddhist temple in Muang district.

A multi-agency team led by Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s Phaya Sua Task Force chief Chaiwat Limlikit-aksorn told the temple abbot to provide evidence to prove the legality of the planks within 30 days, or face legal action. The impounded wood planks and blocks were divided into six piles pending further inquiries.

Chaiwat said on Tuesday that the temple had produced some documents to explain the origins of the impounded wood, meaning they could clear some piles. However, the documents were insufficient and incomplete, and they were unable to clear the first and fourth batches of planks.

Temple representative Sompon Sathienrujikanon, authorised by the abbot, submitted a letter on Monday asking for postponement of the document-submission deadline for another 15 days. The authorities approved the request, saying it was fair given the amount of wood involved.

Chaiwat also said that the team had assigned a forestry official, Sikhapong Krajaejan, to present the wood checking and impounding records and other related documents to the Muang Kanchanaburi Police Station later this week.

The outcome of this case might affect the monastery’s application to join the department’s “Buddha Uthayan”, or Buddhist parks, project in protected forests.

Chaiwat said he would propose for its removal from the project, which aims to show that monasteries can coexist with nature, on the grounds that it had broken the conditions.

Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin, Teachers Council of Thailand Secretariat executives, teachers and students met the premier prior to Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, along with singers Patcha Anek-ayuwat and Kiatkamol “Tui” Lata.

The visitors gave him an orchid symbolising National Teachers Day on January 16 and CDs of songs about teachers’ merits.

Prayut noted that the motto of Teachers Day this year was “Good students are successful because teachers have faith”.

Prayut will preside at the main event that day at the secretariat in Bangkok, while regional events take place on January 16-17 at provincial education offices.

The theme translates as “Celebrating the King’s reign and promoting Thai teachers’ development”, honouring His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn and recognising the merits of professional educators.

A Line sticker has also been produced for Teachers Day, with downloads raising money for a foundation that helps elderly retired teachers.

Reece Vella was arrested after the naked body 26-year-old woman, Wannipa Chanhuatone, of Sakhon Nakhon, was found at the Cozy Beach Condominium in Chon Buri’s Bang Lamung district.

Investigations showed that she fell from a room on the fifth floor of the building. Police then began a search for a foreign man last seen with her.

Vella was arrested at a beer bar in the same district under a court arrest warrant issued on Sunday for allegedly being reckless and causing another person’s death, overstaying his visa and theft.

Pol Colonel Apichai Krobphet, a Pattaya commander, said Wannipa’s mobile phone was found with the suspect.

According to Apichai, Vella confessed that he had sex with Wannipa in the room on the fifth floor and he wanted a “change of scene” so they moved to the balcony. It was during the act that Wannipa fell from to the ground.

After the accident, he grabbed his and Wannipa’s mobile phones before leaving and moving to a rented room.

Apichai said the suspect denied the charges, saying he had no intention of causing Wannipa’s death.

This is an increase of about Bt16.55 billion or 9.3 per cent on the budget approved for the scheme in the ongoing fiscal year. The 2019 fiscal year will start on October 1.

Public Health Minister Dr Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn, who chairs the NHSO board, revealed the figures yesterday.

Piyasakol said the estimated budget has increased because of rising costs – including inflation, soaring medicine prices, higher pay for medical personnel and greater benefits for people covered.

The scheme covers about 48.57 million Thais offering most types of medical services for free.

The NHSO offers its services through participating medical facilities, mostly state hospitals.

The total budget is divided into two main parts: one used as flat-rate per-head subsidy and the other for top-ups for specific health conditions or primary healthcare services.

“Of the estimated budget for the 2019 fiscal year, Bt176.56 billion will be for the per-head subsidy. On average, Bt3,634.82 will be given to participating hospitals per person covered through the universal healthcare scheme – up by 13.7 per cent from the current rate,” Piyasakol said.

Provincial Police Region 9 chief Pol Lt-General Ronnasil Phusara yesterday reported significant progress in the investigation by Army, police and administrative officials of the insurgent attack on the double-decker bus in Bannang Sata district.

Armed militants commandeered the bus, ordered all 16 passengers and the driver off, and set it on fire. No one was physically harmed. Ronnasil said suspects had helped convince authorities there could be another attack between January 6 and 10, which had prompted heightened security measures in seven economically strategic towns in the South.

A source at a national security agency said five suspects were detained within days of the attack and interrogated. Their information led to 20 more suspects being rounded up in Bannang Sata on January 4 under the Emergency Decree, which allows for the detention without charge of citizens in the southern border provinces for up to 37 days. The source said three suspects confessed to launching the attack on the orders of Abdulloh Tapohtoh and Ahama Leubaesa.

Meanwhile, two M16 rifles, 19 rounds of ammunition and equipment that could be used in making bombs, such as a modified cooking-gas cylinder, were discovered at a Narathiwat rubber plantation on Sunday afternoon, it was announced during a press conference yesterday at the 49th Rangers Regiment command in Sri Sakhon district. Security officials believe the same site in Tambon Sakor of Sri Sakhon was where insurgents met to plan an armed attack on December 26 in which one ranger was killed and three other rangers and two civilians injured.

Some 60 paramilitary rangers, police and forensics officers on Sunday searched the property based on testimony by Mahama (last name withheld), who is in custody in relation to that fatal attack. Ban Nam Won (Moo 2) village headman Abdullayi Jehkhor and his assistant, Waesa-ari Wae-asae, observed the search operation.

Officers discovered the disassembled M16 rifles and ammunition in a sack buried under a tree. The weapons reportedly had been buried there since December 22. Then some 200 metres away, they found a 15-kilogram cooking-gas cylinder – already drilled with a hole in the bottom in readiness to make an explosive device – and other bomb-making components hidden in brush. The rifles are being tested to determine whether they were used in the December 26 attack, officials said.

The authorities also used the opportunity to encourage people who hold different views to those of the state and those who have been misled into creating unrest to join the “Bringing People Back Home” project. This allows them to surrender, undergo a legal process to clear their cases and then return home to lead a normal life.

The formal coronation ceremony to mark the monarch’s ascension to the throne is due to be performed after he was crowned King in December 2016.

Wissanu said the palace has yet to inform the government to prepare for the royal ceremony.

The preparations from the government side will be less than that involved in the Royal Funeral of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, when the government was responsible for construction of the Royal Crematorium, Wissanu said.

The coronation ceremony will be performed mainly by Brahmans at the palace, he said.

The use of lessons about great merits by Thai kings – from the Sukhothai era until recent monarchs particularly HM the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej and HM King Maha Vajiralongkorn – and other events in Thai history would help boost the students’ understanding of, and pride in, the Thai nation, he said.

These students could then help pass on accurate information to other people in the multicultural deep South, where some misunderstandings and different views to those of the state existed, he added.

Suraporn’s comments came at a press conference at a Sungai Kolok hotel to announce the teaching of this special subject at 62 Islamic boarding schools (pondok) in 13 districts of Narathiwat under the King’s royal initiation. This will start in the second semester of the academic year.

File photo

It will be a compulsory subject in the Office of Non-Formal and Informal Education (NFE)’s study programmes for its students nationwide. The first 50 NFE teachers who underwent training in the new subject were also at the press conference.

The founder of Saeng Arunsat Pondok Institute in Waeng district, Monchai Sari, said he was impressed with the new subject’s content. Monchai said it taught children how our ancestors had sacrificed themselves for the wellbeing of younger generations, and it would help students realise the importance of civic duty and unity with others in the nation.

Yongyuth Kanjananurak, of Thalang branch, said he inspected the site, the land rights documents and the boundary markers of Lepang-Bangtao beaches before acknowledging ownership of the area by Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket Hotel.

“We found that the land title deeds of about 17 rais of land of the hotel are legitimate and the hotel’s lands cover the beaches in question,” he said.

According to the Phuket Gazette, Facebook user Aziz Yotharak recently posted a video that appeared to show a tourist with two children sitting on a mat on the beach in front of the hotel being told to leave the area as it is private property.

The tourist was heard replying that the beach “cannot possibly belong to a hotel”. The video went viral, with many FB users wondering how the beach could be private.

The Gazette quoted Ma-Ann Samran, president of the Cherngtalay OrBorTor, as saying that he had discussed the matter with hotel management.

“The staff said that the general manager only ordered staff at the scene to inform the tourist that if he wanted to use the resort’s facilities, such as the swimming pool, he had to buy a day-pass voucher,” said Ma-Ann.

Staff denied that the general manager had ordered that the tourist be moved from the beach. The resort insists “the staff didn’t force the tourist away, as that would create a bad tourism image for Phuket”, said Ma-Ann.

Yongyuth said the area in front of the hotel appeared to be a beach because of coastal erosion.

The Land Department has agreed to the hotel owners’ request for it to officially demarcate the hotel’s areas to prevent a similar incident from happening.

The Princess released nine species – silver barb, red-tail tinfoil barb, red-cheek barb, Siamese mud carp, climbing perch, seven-stripped carp, featherback fish, sultan fish and giant catfish – all of which were provided by the Fisheries Department.

Earlier in the day, she released a pair of cattle and some red-whiskered bulbuls.

This is the second consecutive year the college has won the prize, and the ninth consecutive year that a team from Thailand has won.

The Ubon Ratchathani Vocational College team – which won both the contest’s top prize and the best sculptural technique award – comprised third-year fine arts students Krissana Khobsahai, Thanasak Pipat, Thanakorn Saksing and Abhisit Sornchai, along with their teachers Pisit U-sirikulpanich and Surachat Palasak, and co-ordinator, college deputy director Suwanit Suriyapantri.

“My friends and I are very proud and happy to win the awards. We had great expectations for this competition, as this is our last year to attend the contest before graduation. Next year, our junior students will take up this task,” said Abhisit.

Teacher Pisit said he was very proud of the team’s success, as they had overcome many obstacles and worked hard to prepare for the contest.

“It feels like a great weight has been lifted from our chests, and we are very happy to dedicate these awards as a gift to the whole Thai nation,” he said.

They were among the three teams that represented the Kingdom in this year’s competition, which featured 52 other teams from 11 countries. The other Thai teams were from Surat Thani Vocational College and Samut Prakan Technical College.

These colleges jointly won the first runner-up award for their statues – one about traditional Thai game of cockfighting and the other about auspicious creatures, featuring dragons and turtles.

The Thai students will return to Suvarnabhumi International Airport on Tuesday afternoon.