PHOTO: prachatai.com

The Southern judge who made headlines for shooting himself in court over alleged ‘interferences’ in a case, has been transferred. Following his recovery, Judge Khanakorn Pianchana was transferred to the Research Justice Division in Chiang Mai, according to the Court of Justice. A probe has also been ordered to see if he broke any disciplinary codes.

The transfer comes after the Judicial Commission reviewed an investigation into Khanakorn’s actions on October 4 in Yala. The judge shot himself at the conclusion of the reading of a long verdict, citing “interference” in a mass shooting case in Yala last year. He had acquitted five defendants accused of the shooting.

At the time of the shooting Thai social media witnessed an outpouring of support for the southern judge.

The Judicial Commission announced a subcommittee to draw up “guidelines” for regional judges on how to approach cases involving serious offences.

A source at the Supreme Court told the Bangkok Post that the transfer is not a demotion, but a move to keep him from further stress, and will “give Judge Khanakorn a new opportunity,” and “the chance to learn “how checks and balances work”.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

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PHOTO: TakeMeTour

A strong high-pressure system is looming over southern China and will also affect the upper Northeast of Thailand by tonight and early tomorrow.

The Thailand Meteorological Department are forecasting another rather drop of 1.3 degrees C with mornings expected to be cool and foggy in the north and north-east. The high-pressure system affect the North and the Central regions by tomorrow (November 19). The TMD are warning transport in the area to watch out for potentially dangerous conditions on roads in mountainous areas with possible low cloud and fog.

The weak northeast monsoon across the Gulf of Thailand and southern Thailand will bring less rain to the South. The ‘wet season’ south west monsoon finished in October and the winds have already moved around to the north and north-east in southern areas for the past few weeks.

There will be little or no rain on most of the south now until next May, except for some local thunder showers.

The lack of rain in the south is causing an acute water storage shortage in Phuket, with the island’s catchment’s well below their storage levels as the island gets busier for the annual high season traffic.

The weather forecast for the next 24 hours is as follows…

Northern region: Cool weather and fog in the morning, temperature lows of 17-22 degrees and highs of 32-35 degrees C. Temperature likely to drop to 8-12 degrees on hilltops.

Northeastern region: Cool weather and fog in the morning, temperatures lows 19-22 degrees and highs of 33-34 degrees C. Temperature likely to drop to 9-12 degrees on hilltops.

Central region: Partly cloudy with mist in the morning; temperature lows of 21-23 degrees, highs 33-35 degrees C.

Eastern region: Partly cloudy with mist in the morning; lows 23-25 degrees, highs 32-35 degree C; wave height 1 metre.

Southern region (east coast): Partly cloudy with thunder showers in 20 per cent of the area; lows of 22-24 degrees, high 31-33 degrees C; wave height 1 metre, increasing to 1-2 metres during storms.

Southern region (west coast): Partly cloudy with thunder showers in 30 per cent of the area; lows 23-26 degrees, highs 33-34 degree C; wave height 1 metre, increasing to 1-2 metre during storms.

Bangkok and surrounding suburbs: Partly cloudy with mist in the morning; temperature lows of 24-25 degrees, highs 32-36 degrees C.

SOURCE: The Nation

PHOTO: The Nation

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PHOTO: Authorities find it almost impossible to patrol the thousands of kilometres of highland border in northern Thailand

Soldiers in Chiang Mai, acting on a tip off, have seized about 380,000 methamphetamine pills at a border village, local media report. The drug haul was not big, considering many of the recent seizures amount to millions of methamphetamine tablets in a single shipment.

Acting on information from a border patrol network, three teams of soldiers were sent to Ban Arunothai village yesterday morning (Sunday). At about 5am, one team spotted about 10 men in civilian clothes approaching the village. The soldiers signalled for a search, but the men fled, leaving behind three fertiliser sacks containing about 380,000 meth pills. The soldiers are hunting the suspects in the area.

The northern border with Myanmar is almost impossible to patrol with the region north of the border one of the world’s largest ‘meth labs’ that use the remote area and canopies of dense tropical forest, and corrupt officials, to protect the billion dollar industry.

The general business plan is to move vast amounts of ‘meth’ pills south across the Thai border, for shipment to countries beyond. The cartels figure they will lose 5-10% of their shipments to drug detection whilst the other 90% evades detection and is successfully delivered. There appears to be no shortage of drug ‘mules’ who are attracted to the money on offer for their delivery services

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

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