<div>Gen Prayuth Chan-o-cha on Tuesday afternoon expressed condolences for the losses from Tuesday’s evening bomb at a popular shrine in Bangkok’s shopping district, while stressing the junta’s control over the security situation in Bangkok. Meanwhile, another bomb went off at a busy pier in Bangkok with no casualties.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>“Whenever the people are hurt, I am hurt even more,” the prime minister and leader of National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) said on Tuesday 18 August 2015. </div>

<div> <div> <div>The Thai state has barely learned the lessons on the conflict of Thailand’s restive Deep South, voiced experts and locals during an event to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the enforced disappearance of Haji Sulong Tohmeena, a local political icon who campaigned for the rights of Muslim Malays.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>“The Thai state wants to crush and erase Haji Sulong. They don’t want people to speak about Haji Sulong. The Thai state has acted like this all along. </div></div></div>

<p>The latest research conducted by a think tank based in Thailand’s restive Deep South shows that most people in the region are in favour of peace talks. However, they urged the Thai government to be more open and the insurgent groups to abstain from violence.</p>

<p>People in the western provinces of Thailand are urging the authorities to halt a project to build a motorway connecting the outskirts of Bangkok to the western coast, because of environmental concerns about the Mae Klong River Basin.</p>

<p dir="ltr">At about 7 pm on Monday, 17 August 2015, a huge explosion occurred at Ratchaprasong Intersection in Siam Area of central Bangkok.</p> <p>The explosion occurred during the rush hour at one of Bangkok’s busiest shopping districts adjacent to&nbsp;<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.2;">adjacent to a </span>famous Hindu Shrine of God Brahma.</p> <p>According to <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33963280">BBC</a>, at least 12 people have died and dozens are reportedly injured.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The wife of Ah Kong, the elderly lèse majesté convict who died of cancer while in custody in 2012, continues to pursue a case against the Department of Corrections of Thailand at the Civil Court over her husband's death.</p>

<p>A labour union in northern Thailand has urged the authorities to take legal action to force a textile company to compensate workers for suspending operations. &nbsp;</p> <p>On 13 August 2015, representatives of the Textile Labour Union in the northern province of Chiang Mai came to the provincial Damrong Tham Centre, set up under the Interior Ministry to receive complaints, to talk to the Governor of Chiang Mai.</p>

<p dir="ltr"><em><strong>[Update]</strong>: At 12am on Sunday, 16 August 2015, the police officers at Pathumwan Police Station released, Songtham Kaewpanpruk, aka. Dave, one of the members of the 14 anti-junta activists, without conditions after he was held under custody from 2am-12am. &nbsp;&nbsp;</em></p> <p dir="ltr">The Thai police arrested one of the well known 14 anti-junta activists after returning from overseas.</p>

<div>The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a programer not guilty of lese majeste related to Facebook posts.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The Supreme Court ruled to affirm the decisions of the Court of First Instance and the Appeal Court, to acquit Surapak P. </div>

<p>A military court in northern Thailand has sentenced a hotel employee with two children to 28 years behind bars for posting Facebook messages alleged to defame the Thai monarchy.</p>

<p>Military and police officers in northeastern Thailand recorded and monitored a seminar on environmental issues facing the Mekong River Basin and asked to have private talks with the event organisers.</p> <p>About 10 military and police officers in uniform and plainclothes on Thursday afternoon came to the Thai-Laos Riverside Hotel in the Isan province of Nong Khai to record and monitor a public forum about Thai government projects in the Mekong River Basin.</p>

<p>A Thai military court has sentenced a man accused of defaming the Thai monarchy on a social network to 30 years in jail in a trial held in camera. The ruling is the heaviest jail term ever recorded for a lèse majesté case.</p> <p>On Friday morning, 7 August 2015, the Bangkok Military Court sentenced Pongsak S. to 60 years imprisonment for offences under Article 112 or the lèse majesté law and Article 14 of the Computer Crime Act (importing illegal content into a computer system).</p>