The People Power party (PPP) is preparing to set up a new political entity if ex-deputy leader Yongyuth Tiyapairat is disqualified by the Supreme Court today in the conclusion to the vote-buying case from last year's general election.
CORRUPTION
Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin has ordered an inquiry into reports of officials allegedly taking bribes from a Japanese firm in return for being awarded a tunnel project in 2003.
PREAH VIHEAR RUINS
The World Heritage Committee (WTC) meeting in Quebec, Canada, late last night approved Cambodia's application to list the 11th century Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site.
A site in Kiakkai is now being considered for the proposed new parliament building as the lease on their preferred site, in Klong Toey, could be too expensive.
Army leader Gen Anupong Paojinda yesterday strongly criticised the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which recently attacked him for siding with the government.
POLITICS
Supreme Administrative Court president Ackaratorn Chularat insists the Central Administrative Court has the authority to rule against the cabinet's resolution on the Preah Vihear temple issue.
Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsab was found guilty of contempt of court and fined 25,000 baht by the Administrative Court yesterday.
Supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) last night retreated to their former rally site at the Makkhawan Rangsan bridge after the Civil Court ordered they must stop blocking traffic on Rama V and Phitsanulok roads.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
SAMUT PRAKAN : A transvestite has won a village head election after decades of service to the community.
A man was arrested yesterday for kidnapping his three-year-old daughter and demanding a ransom of 100,000 baht from his former wife.
INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION
Biologists have detected unusual genetic changes in animals living near the Map Ta Phut industrial estate in Rayong province, and believe they could be caused by long-term exposure to chemical substances.
MAE HONG SON : The provincial governor is setting up an inquiry into the disappearance of 11 long-neck Karen people, who were allegedly abducted from their villages last week.
ANDAMAN COAST NATURAL DISASTER DRILL
A tsunami evacuation drill by the National Disaster Warning Centre (NDWC) yesterday was not the success officials had hoped for, with some of the alarms on warning towers along the Andaman coastline only making a faint sound, although the problem had been reported two years ago.
SOUTHERN UNREST
YALA : Most schools in Raman district reopened yesterday after a two-day closure last week following the fatal shooting of a school principal on Wednesday.
The National Justice Administration Development Committee has approved a proposal to build special facilities to accommodate inmates who are mentally ill or pregnant, and inmates' children born in prison.
EDITORIAL
In a dramatic coincidence, a series of simmering political cases are about to come to a head in the next three weeks. The high-profile verdicts start today. The election cases division of the Supreme Court has scheduled the announcement of a verdict in the electoral fraud case of former House speaker Yongyuth Tiyapairat. A half dozen more important cases will be in the spotlight. Then, on the last day of the month, Khunying Potjaman Shinawatra will hear the ruling in the first case to reach a verdict from the days of the Thaksin government.
No longer content with the old slogan of "Thaksin Tid Khook, Samak Awk Pai" (Thaksin in gaol, Samak get out), Sondhi Limthongkul, the core leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), has called for "New Politics".
PostBag
I fear that free discourse on Preah Vihear may be stifled by the snobbish notion expressed in Postbag ("Temple has north-south orientation," July 6) that the temple issue is too complex for the average citizen to comprehend; that opinions of the public are, therefore, misleading and dangerous, and that further discussion on this topic should be left to the elite few who know it all.
InMedia
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej may not like to be criticised, but the press has to do its job in informing the public and commenting on important issues that affect the country.
SPOTLIGHT
More and more Thai people have been gathering near the Cambodian border, trying to exert pressure over the proposed listing of the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site.
