The protesters held a message reading “Let animals show their true colours”, with Thai words when translated saying “Boycott Pata”.

The 35-year-old zoo is located on the rooftop of the store. It was ordered to close in 2015 over a lack of appropriate paperwork, but reopened later after paying a fine. The famous-yet-sad star of the zoo is female gorilla Bua Noi, who arrived there at the age of three in 1993. She was caged alone and came to be recognised for her sad face, pulling her hair out and depressed posture.

PETA wants the owner to understand that caged animals for entertainment is cruel.

According to Yahoo News senior vice president Jason Baker, Bua Noi was forced to live in terrifying and harmful conditions.

PETA offered to help put her in rehab but the owner rejected the offer, saying the zoo obtained proper ownership of Bua Noi and claiming that the depressed posture of the gorilla is her natural trait.

The investigation is headed by Pakorn Sanusan, sub-inspector (inquiry) of Sutthisan police station, supported by forensic experts from Ramathibodi Hospital, and Forensic Science Police.

The victim, Fang Yang Zen (54), was found dead sitting face down at his blood-drenched table in the office. Police found over ten cuts on his face and neck as well as a pocket knife in the sink of the bathroom.

Witnesses said a man with a backpack ran out of Fang’s office at around 8pm on Saturday night.

After studying security camera footage and receiving forensic reports, police arrested Kan Zhe (32), a friend of Fang on Sunday (November 24).

Kan was admitted to Rama 9 hospital with a deep cut on his right hand. “He went through surgery and would be kept under watch at the hospital for a few days, said Pakorn.

According to the inspector, Kan Zhe has not said anything about the incident, claiming that his wound was caused by an accident in the kitchen.

The suspect also claimed that anesthesia administered for the surgery had an impact on his memory,” Pakorn said, adding that Kan would soon be transferred from Rama 9 Hospital to Police General Hospital.

After initial enquiries, Police are assuming that the victim and the suspect were involved in a heated argument, prompting the latter to stab the victim several times with a pocket knife.

“It caused death and injuries” Pakorn added.

Farmers and cooperative members who want the machines can appeal for 90 per cent of subsidy from the government and 10 per cent from cooperatives to buy the machines and equipment.

Some 101,400 members of 169 agricultural cooperatives dealing with corn, sugarcane, cassava, fruits, oil palm and rubber production have shown interest in the campaign.

Provincial cooperative offices will on November 29 confirm the number of farmers who need the subsidy and also specify regulations on machine use.

Furthermore, the Cooperative Promotion Department will help educate farmers about weed control by using the machines and how to maintain those machines as well.

The Royal Thai Navy’s Region 3 Operational Centre was notified of the incident at 1.45am and dispatched officers to provided assistance.

After arriving at the scene, the officers found the bilge of the La Belle Des Ocean was damaged by rocks and sea water was seeping into the vessel. It was carrying 77 passengers and a crew of 80. All passengers are French tourists – 33 males and 44 females – while 60 of the crew are Filipino and 20 Croatian.

The ship had departed from a port in Singapore and was heading to tourist attractions in the Andaman Sea.

With the vessel unable to move, the Navy officers contacted the Sriracha battle ship to tow the cruiser to shore.

The towing was done with ease as the water started rising above the rocks in the morning. Both ships reached the Region 3 Operational Centre’s deepwater port in Phuket safely at around 10am.

His statement came after he met with Zhang Jiwen, Deputy Minister of the General Administration of Customs, China (GACC).

“Rice exported from Thailand has gained huge popularity in China,” Chalermchai said. “We had previously submitted the first batch of rice manufacturers’ names for the GACC’s consideration based on product quality and their safety standard, and 49 exporters were given approval, comprising both large manufacturers and SMEs.”

Chalermchai said China’s willingness to consider a second batch is a positive sign, which could pave the way for additional exports of 1 million tonnes of rice to China estimated at Bt27 billion.

The agriculture minister also said he and Zhang discussed opportunities to export more agricultural products from Thailand to China, including processed tapioca and fruits, frozen pork, live cattle, and bird nests.

“We also discussed the possibility to export fruits via the newly opened Dongxing border checkpoint, which Thai exporters can use to conveniently transport their products by land. The checkpoint is located only 150 metres away from the Mong Cai agricultural market,” said Chalermchai.

“GACC officials have acknowledged our offers and promised to work out agreements that favour both countries as soon as possible,” he added.

“Parents and educational institutions need to monitor first-year students for stress and depression, especially those who are living in the dormitories and are in unfamiliar environments,” he said. “Many find it very hard to adjust to a new environment and could face loneliness, anxiety, lack of familiarity with the Thai SOTUS system, and financial problems. In addition Thai students are far more dependent than students in other countries, so adjusting to independence is harder,” he continued, adding that even those who attended elite schools in the provinces might feel inferior when surrounded by more sophisticated Bangkok students.

Another stress factor is the perceived need to achieve high academic scores. “Even a small mistake possibly can make them feel inadequate, especially those who are on the receiving end of family pressure. The run-up to exams is the most stressful time and is when we see higher numbers of suicide attempts.”

A recent survey showed that about one third of students suffered high stress around the two mid-term exams and two final exams. “Parents should understand and monitor their children closely, and not pile on the pressure,” Adhichati said.

Thammasat University recently set up the Viva City clinic in the dormitories zone of its Rangsit campus to offer psychological advice to students. It’s open daily from 8.30am to 10pm.

Right now, the service only provides advice and focuses on helping students to cool down and calm down. “For severe cases, we will transfer patients to Thammasat hospital for proper treatment,” Adhichati said.

However, despite the decrease in exports for both sectors, the FTI estimates that they could well bounce back at the end of 2019 as the international trade dispute is pushing several companies and investors to move their production facilities to Southeast Asia. According to FTI, the top destinations include Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.

FIT also attributed the likely upswing in the electrical and electronics trend to the government’s policy to extend investment promotion measures in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) and SMEs promotion campaigns toward next year, which should attract more investors to Thailand instead of neighboring countries.

The TPSO’s director-general Pimchanok Vonkorpon said the project will start as soon as the Office receives the operating budget for fiscal 2020 and TPSO will also accelerate discussions with blockchain experts, related authorities, and financial institutions to speed up the development of blockchain system.

“We already talked with farmers and some 5,000 growers from Surin province will participate in this project,” she said. “We expect that the project will start in the middle of the next year, and if successful, we will extend it to other agricultural products.”

The blockchain system will be able to trace the process from cultivation, which involves a camera being installed in the rice fields to check where it was grown and whether it is really organic rice, while the production or packaging process can verify where it was produced.

The certification process checks the department that serves as the inspector and issues the certificate, while the financial institutions who act as the payment intermediary after the rice is sold provide the information on the buyer and the country of export.

“This system will help instill confidence in Thai organic rice, reducing problems of buyer’s rejection, product adulteration, and licence subrogation in order to increase the bargaining power and add more value to the product, as well as creating opportunities for expanding export markets,” said Pimchanok.

“The buyers can check the source of organic rice. If they have a problem such as finding that it is not organic rice, they will be able to reject it.”

The seminar, which was organized by the Embassy of Finland, the Thai-Finnish Chamber of Commerce and Renesans Consulting, was very helpful in moving forward in biotechnology and big data collection, the director of the National Innovation Agency (NIA) director, Phanart Chairat said.

It also served as a case study on electronics and telecommunication innovations that can play a key role in developing the country, reducing inequality and improving the environment.

Alf Rehn, Finnish professor, author and speaker, told participants that Finland has invested 3 billion Euros in the innovation field and that innovators must be creative and not come up with shallow creations that have no benefit for society or indeed the company itself.

Innovations in the Nordic countries comes from a combination of hard and soft skills including trust, transparency and togetherness to help build up a culture that is conducive for creativity leading to innovation, Rehn added.

For now, though, energy-from-waste trade is an ad-hoc policy. The country’s power development plan from 2018 to 2037 (PDP 2018) foresees the expansion of electricity generating capacity by 400 megawatts from 500 megawatts – a 900-megawatt increase in 19 years. Energy from waste could meet the 400-megawatt quata.

“The energy-from-waste trade plan in EEC area was acknowledged by the minister and he might pass it to the Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency, which drew up the Alternative Energy Development Plan from 2018 to 2037 to add further details in the draft,” the source said, adding that the energy-from-waste trade policy would first have to be approved by the Ministry of Interior.

The next announcement on the energy-from-waste might be published after the second quarter next year when all five energy plans – PDP 2018 edited edition, AEDP, Energy Efficiency Plan, oil plan, and gas plan – are completed, which is expected to be in the first quarter of 2020.

Another source said that Energy Minister, Sontirat Sontijirawong has instructed his department to seek a protocol using the cost of national electricity as the main factor.

Worawit Lertbussarakam, Deputy Managing Director at TPI Polene plc (TPIPP), says an energy-from-waste community plant would help manage waste in the new town. According to a study, ECC has the potential to produce 50 megawatts from waste. However, much would depend on whether the government chose to use a specific company like Global Power Synergy (GPSC), a subsidiary of PTT that already has a prototype of waste power plants in EEC, or opted to put out a call for bids to allow other private sector concerns to compete. If the latter, his company would join the competition.

“Both methods have different advantages. If the government chooses GPSC, the plan will be completed quickly while the bidding process will create competition and this will bring the cost of construction down. The construction of a waste power plant needs an investment of around $3-4 million per megawatt or more than Bt100 million per megawatt,” Worawit said.

However, energy-from-waste power plant promotion and support in EEC would first require the collection of data, such as the exact amount of waste needed feed each powerplant and the setting of a power purchase rate.

The prototype full-cycle energy-from-waste power plants would cover 3 provinces in EEC with 6 plants constructed in the entire area.