Four hundreds copies were sold out at the Culture Ministry booth.

The craze reflects the popularity of TV soap “Buppesannivas” (“The Love Destiny”) which features this textbook in its programme. The TV drama is set in the period of King Narai (1656 to 1688) -– the most famous Ayutthaya king – who ruled over three centuries ago.

Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn presides over the book fair in the morning and has donated her self-penned book to the huge book-shaped donation box carrying the title “Jindamanee”.

Organised by the Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand (PUBAT), the fair aims to encourage Thais to read more. Running through April 8, the event features over 400 publishing houses from 16 countries at nearly 1,000 booths. Fair highlights include plenty of book launches, hi-tech multimedia e-books presentations and graphic design exhibitions.

One of the fair’s crowd-pleasers is the launch of a new stamp collection portraying the portrait of His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn. Another draw is the “Read Again” exhibition featuring historical books in both Thai and English that reflect the development of a reading culture in Thailand and the world.

Hi-tech e-books and animations are given their due at the Taiwan Pavilion, which was selected as this year’s “Guest of Honour”. At the “CCC: Creative Comic Creation” exhibition, readers explore new 3D comics created by an AR (augmented reality) programme.

Pol Sgt-Major 3rd Class Lersak Nonkhuntod, who works at the Phaholyothin Police Station in Bangkok, lodged a complaint with both the Metropolitan Police Bureau and the Office of Public-Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC).

Due to the complaint, senior police officers launched an investigation into the air-conditioner episode.

The PACC has also promised to look into his complaint.

“I was not willing to give up my allowances for the air-conditioner. Throughout my career, I had never been required to pay for the maintenance of a government agency before,” Lersak said.

He said given that his salary was not high, the demand for him to contribute financially for the purchase of a new air-conditioner was demoralising.

“I stand by my complaint,” he said.

Realising that his complaint might have vitiated the atmosphere at his current police station, he said he was thinking of seeking a transfer or quitting police service.

Metropolitan Police Division 2 chief Pol Maj-General Ekachai Boonwisut said their investigation into Lersak’s complaint found that he was not alone in being asked to help pay for the air-conditioner that the two inspectors at Phaholyothin Police Station had installed at the station’s inquiry room.

“Some policemen are willing to contribute. So, there must have been some misunderstanding,” Ekachai said.

He added that Lersak would get back his money.

“I don’t think there is any need to take disciplinary action. It’s just a misunderstanding,” Ekachai said.

He said the case should not affect work at Phaholyothin Police Station, which is under his jurisdiction.

According to Ekachai, two inspectors asked 11 junior policemen under their supervision to give up their allowances to enable the purchase of an air-conditioner. Lersak was the only one to disagree.

“These two inspectors acted without consulting the station’s superintendent because they thought it was an internal affair of the interrogation division. The money was not used for their personal benefit,” Ekachai said.

Eleven junior policemen gave up allowances amounting to a total of Bt25,000, while the new air-conditioner cost Bt33,000.

“The two inspectors provided the balance Bt8,000,” Ekachai explained.

He said the superintendent of Phaholyothin Police Station, Pol Colonel Ittichet Wonghomhuan, would seek a budget for the air-conditioner and return their money.

“I will ensure that my subordinates talk more to each other to achieve mutual understanding,” Ittichet said.

Pol General Jarumporn Suramanee, a member of the PACC board, said the PACC Branch 5 was now assigned to look into Lersak’s complaint.

Thursday morning saw a climb to 172 micrograms per cubic metre in the quantity of inhalable particulates with a diameter of around 10 micrometres (PM10) – resulting in a delayed flight into May Hong Song airport.

The jump, the highest reading in the region for the day, has been largely attributed to forest fires deliberately set by locals following traditional harvesting practices.

Chiang Mai’s Muang district had the second-highest reading of the day at 123 micrograms, according to the Pollution Control Department.

A source in the long-necked Karen hill-tribal village of Ban Huai Sua Thao in Muang Mae Hong Son said the number of visitors to the attraction was down by 80 per cent due to the seasonal haze.

Nok Air delayed the arrival time of its flight DD 8214 for seven hours, shifting it from 9am to 4.45pm due to poor visibility of under two kilometres, said a source at the Mae Hong Son airport.

The flight is reported to be carrying Thai Smile Airways executives and delegates travelling to the northern province to find ways to promote the route, the source said.

The haze in Mae Hong Son has been bad this week with PM10 readings beyond the 120-microgram safe limit starting last Saturday. Forest fires are seen as the cause. According to a report by the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), Mae Hong Son on Tuesday had 108 fire incidents.

In Phayao’s Dok Kham Tai district, a brush fire on Thursday morning damaged two rai (.32 hectares) of grass meadows within the Dok Kham Tai Technical College and threatened to ignite the college teachers’ residence compound.

Firefighters spent two hours extinguishing the blaze, which was suspected to have begun when a villager lit a fire while foraging in the woodland for food and other necessities.

ARL reported on its Facebook page that trains were arriving every 12 minutes during rush hour because four trains were undergoing major maintenance.

The congestion was reported to be easing by around 10am.

The reduced service had led to overcrowded platforms at a series of stations, and access to the platforms at Lat Krabang, Ban Thap Chang and Hua Mak stations had to be restricted.

Passenger queues spilled over into the ticketing areas.

Complaints filled the social media, some people saying they waited much longer than 12 minutes, in some instances more than an hour, because carriages were too crowded to board.

User comments on the ARL Facebook page included suggestions that it buy more trains to increase capacity.

ARL apologised but said there were no plans to buy additional trains soon. It said replacement parts were on order for the trains currently out of service.

The pumpuang vendors are independent retailers using modified pickup trucks or motorcycles with sidecars making the rounds of crowded urban communities, housing estates and construction sites selling their wares.

The name pumpuang is of unknown origin but seems fitting, since both pum and puang translate as “bunch”, and the vehicles carry bunches of goods in small and more affordable quantities. Some vendors also sell cooked food in single-serving packets, which is convenient for budget-conscious consumers.

However, pumpuang trucks plying Bangkok streets have nothing to do with the late folk singer Pumpuang Duangjan.

Farmers often load up pumpuang truck to earn income between harvests.

Social media has recently been very critical of the new Mini Big C trucks, prompting Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha on Tuesday to ask the Commerce Ministry to check its legality and compatibility with the government policy to promote retailers.

On Wednesday, Big C Supercentre issued a statement saying it had only one Mini Big C truck operating in Bangkok and the vicinity. The retail chain said it was a pilot project and market feasibility, cost and impacts were being assessed.

The company also thanked the public for all input and promised consider concerns and suggestions.

The brutal killings occurred at the victims’ home in Krabi province last July. Three people survived the execution-style attack.

National police commissioner Pol General Chakthip Chaijinda came to the courtroom to listen to the verdict in the high-profile case.

The public was shocked last year to learn that Worayuth Sunglung, a village headman in Ao Luek district, had been shot in the head along with relatives after being held hostage for hours.

Shortly after the killings, police arrested eight suspects including Surifath Bannopwongsakul, also known as “Bang Fath”. All of the suspects were prosecuteded.

Surifath reportedly had a dispute with Worayuth after he failed to return land-title deeds to the latter. Worayuth had initially submitted the deeds as collateral for a loan, but after Worayuth repaid his debts, Surifath did not return the documents.

Both men had threatened each other over the issue several times before the massacre occurred.

Krabi Provincial Court yesterday convicted Surifath and five other defendants of the massacre, with all of them sentenced to death. Two other defendants, one of them a woman, received jail terms for more minor roles in the crime.

Tawatchai Boonkong was convicted just of intrusion into a private property and stealing valuables of the deceased. He received a 19-month jail term.

Chalita Sangkhachart, the only female defendant in the case, was sentenced to 12 months in jail for hiding the valuables stolen from Vorayuth’s wife, who died in the massacre.

Six defendants convicted of the killings were also ordered to pay Bt60,000 in compensation each year, for a certain period of time, to eight plaintiffs.

Anchalee Prikdam, who survived the massacre, said she was satisfied with the verdict.

Worayuth’s father-in-law, Jaree Butrterb, said he would consult with relatives before deciding whether to appeal or to file civil lawsuits against the convicts for financial compensation.

Kriangsak Saraphi, a lawyer for the defendants, said his clients were upset.

“We will definitely file an appeal,” he said.

While capital sentences are not infrequent in Thailand, the last execution was more than 10 years ago.

After the procurement, the bomb-detecting devices manufactured by a UK firm failed to detect explosives as advertised.

But the supplier was not held responsible – based on a lack of evidence that the firm’s executives knew the products and information in the catalogues were faulty.

The Security Centre under the Royal Thai Armed Forces filed the case against the company, which has an office in Bang Na district, after the equipment was tested by the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) and found to be faulty.

The NSTDA reported that the GT200s were composed of two pieces of plastic, and wholly lacking in electronic circuits to receive signals, as advertised in a catalogue distributed to potential customers.

The supposed sensors were made of four pieces of black paper, without any circuitry, the report concluded.

In the catalogue, the device is shown to have a swivel antenna that does not require a battery or other power source, because it is purportedly powered by the human user’s static electricity.

The advertisement also claimed the GT200 detector could detect ammunition, explosives, drugs, gold, ivory, currency and tobacco, even if the items were buried.

The Security Centre filed fraud charges against the firm, which is managed by a Taiwanese national, for alleged false advertising concerning the specifications of the devices.

The plaintiff told the court that the Taiwanese executive had demonstrated how to use the devices and distributed catalogues to the military officials before the Security Centre purchased the eight detectors for Bt1.3 million each.

The firm won a bidding process to provide the bomb detectors to the Security Centre by demonstrating the equipment to a six-member procurement committee, the court heard.

However, the ruling dismissed charges on the grounds that the evidence did not show that Jackson Electronics had been aware of the false information in the catalogues, as the company was a middleman for the UK company Compact that provided the equipment and catalogues.

The defendant’s distribution of the catalogues during the demonstration did not prove the executive knew the information was false, the ruling stated.

According to Komsan Srivanich, Jackson Electronics’ lawyer, who was present at the court, a similar trial in the UK against Compact, a UK firm supplying the bomb detectors, was also dismissed on similar grounds.

The court ruled that the plaintiff could file a separate case in civil court.

Researchers from three northern institutes – Chiang Mai University, Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna, and Mae Fah Luang University – have joined forces with the Chiang Mai Chamber of Commerce to develop a Line bot called “Dustbot” to help warn Chiang Mai province smartphone users about dust levels that are beyond safe limits. It will be officially launched today and become Thailand’s first public-sector air pollution warning system.

The “self-warning” chat bot will be linked to six pollution-sensor stations in this pilot phase before expanding to 20 such stations by the year’s end. It will interact with users with set response messages and allow users to set an AQI, which will alert them when the dust level rises beyond a certain point.

Eleven sensor stations will be set up at hospitals in Chiang Mai for wider coverage in detecting PM10 and PM2.5 particles – respectively those with average diameter of 10 micrometers and 2.5 micrometers.

The head of Chiang Mai University’s Climate Change Data Centre (CCDC), Sate Sampattagul, said that data from pollution sensors would be calculated into an AQI under the method used by the Pollution Control Department (PCD), and then it would be updated on a real-time basis on the centre’s website and the Dustboy bot.

Sate hopes pollution sensor stations will eventually be set up throughout the North in an “open data” manner so all stakeholders get to interact with them. He also aims to raise public awareness about the issue and help people better prevent negative impacts from haze with the development of this user-friendly air pollution monitoring program.

Meanwhile, the CCDC revealed that in Chiang Mai, as of 8am yesterday, the level of PM2.5 was as high as 83.13 micrograms per cubic metre of air, while the AQI level was at 133, which was considered harmful to health.

According to records of daily averages this week from the PCD, the PM2.5 level in Chiang Mai reached the highest level yesterday of 80.06 micrograms.

The severe haze problem in the province coincided with a rapid increase in hotspots within the province. The Thailand Fire Monitoring System of Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency detected 17 hotspots on Tuesday.

Chiang Mai province Governor Pawin Chamniprasart has already ordered local authorities in the areas that were hotspots to find a solution to the problem.

In related news, the Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation Department director-general Surasee Kittimonthon said that the department had found the new method to relieve the smog problem in the North. This involved adapting the rainmaking method to change weather conditions that cause the accumulation of dust particles in the air.

Surasee said that the rainmaking plane would sprinkle dry ice over the troposphere to cool the temperature and break down the warm inversion layer, which traps the dust particles within the lower layer of the atmosphere.

ARMY chief General Chalermchai Sittisart has given the green light to resume construction of court buildings and official residences at the foot of Chiang Mai’s Doi Suthep, near Doi Suthep-Pui National Park.

On March 20, he had ordered the suspension of construction work after residents raised concerns about the appropriateness of the buildings and warned about possible adverse environmental impacts.

“As our investigation found construction had proceeded in line with the law and it was already 95 per cent complete, I have allowed the construction work to resume,” Chalermchai said.

The plot in question is considered Ratchaphatsadu land belonging to the state. However, when the project started two decades ago, the plot was under the authority of the Army.

“The Office of the Chief Justice, Region V, first asked for permission to use the land in 1997. The Army didn’t give its approval that year. But after the office finally submitted the request again in 2003, the Army gave its nod,” Chalermchai said. However, he said the approval just meant the land plot had been transferred to another state agency.

“It’s not that we approved the construction,” he said.

Construction began in 2013 and, in four phases, cost about Bt1 billion.

The construction work has taken place within an authorised 147-rai (23.5-hectare) zone, the project’s proponents have said, adding that none of the buildings encroached on the nearby national park.

The buildings are intended for the Appeals Court Region 5 and residences for court officials.

Chalermchai said all parties involved should hold talks to ease residents’ concerns about the buildings. “Talks are necessary to address people’s concerns and boost the public’s acceptance,” he said.

He added that the construction project had “gone too far to stop”.

“Construction uses the state budget. We should let them go ahead with minimum impact and solid consideration for local residents’ feelings,” he said. The Army chief spoke one day after Court of Justice (COJ) secretary-general Sarawut Benjakul defended the construction of the buildings, saying they were legal and his office placed a strong emphasis on environmental conservation.

“We are giving importance to environmental conservation and we are not just talking. On the COJ’s founding day, April 21, we will plant trees and do related activities. We understand the public’s concerns,” said Sarawut, citing the Bangkok-based Ratchadapisek Criminal Court’s solar-cell installation project as an example of the COJ’s environmental awareness.

Sirinya “Cindy” Bishop, who is also an actress, has used social media to counter recent messages propagated by authorities that sexual harassment can be stopped by urging women not to dress in a revealing way.

She said what women wore was not a justification for sexual harassment. Instead, men should respect women and not behave inappropriately, she added.

The campaign started last week when she read a news report about a suggestion from the Department of Local Administration telling women to wear modest clothes during the Songkran Festival to prevent sexual harassment.

Sirinya countered by posting a video clip on her Instagram account, “cindysirinya”, highlighting that women had the right to wear whatever they wanted to and men did not have a right to use apparel as an excuse for their behaviour.

Sirinya said she had been a victim of sexual harassment during Songkran even though she was not wearing skimpy clothes, adding the mindset to tell women to dress politely showed protection of women rights in Thailand was very backward.

“Women have the right to dress however we choose, as long as it’s not illegal. Sexual assault and harassment is never the woman’s fault! Tell men to keep their hands to themselves!” she wrote in the caption to the video clip.

She added in a subsequent Instagram post that dressing in a revealing way did increase the risk for women being victims of sexual harassment. However, she said society focused only on how women dressed without pushing for other solutions, such as teaching men social values and to respect women’s rights.

Sirinya urged netizens to participate in the campaign by posting pictures or describing their experiences of sexual harassment, adding the hashtags #donttellmehowtodress and #tellmentorespect.

Her campaign has received positive feedback, with more than 700 people posting with these hashtags on Instagram as of yesterday afternoon.

A Facebook user named “Ellelie Tosuk” supported Sirinya’s post by saying: “Nowadays women’s rights are lessening each day. They should solve the problem from the root, not the result.”

However, a review of opinions from university students found that not everyone agreed with Sirinya.

Some people commented that wearing modest clothes could reduce the risk of sexual harassment, while male students wrote that wearing revealing clothes could send the wrong signal to some men that women were willing to be touched.