<p>The military court in Chiang Rai held the first hearing of a lèse majesté trial despite an obvious lack of intention on the part of the defendant who allegedly was out of his mind when committing the crime.</p> <p>The military court of the northern province of Chiang Rai on Monday held the first witness hearing in the case against Samak P., a 48 year-old farmer accused of tearing up a picture of the King and the Queen and carrying a weapon (a knife) in public.</p>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-6093bf42-e25f-1067-199b-9b9e5cd001ae">A Thai shopping mall operator embraced the imposition of the martial law after the May 2014 coup d’état, saying that there is no need to worry about political rallies to obstruct the business.</span></p>

<p>Thai Ministry of Culture aims to promote the junta’s controversial 12 nationalistic Thai values by publishing books of fables.</p>

<div>The Transport Ministry has urged low cost airlines not to cut air fares too low after tour bus operators complained that they have lost a significant number of customers.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The move came after tour bus operators complained in December 2014 that they were losing customers to low cost airlines and urged the Ministry to do something.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Transport Minister Air Chief Marshall Prajin Juntong told reporters on Friday that the Ministry will ask low-cost airline operators not to reduce airfares so much that it affects other transportation busi </div>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-42ce5bcc-de06-e49f-b022-001845e234cd">Thai Army TV banned a student activist from a talk programme after she raised questions about the legitimacy of the May 2014 coup d’état with a member of the junta’s appointed National Reform Council.</span></p>

<div>After the media reported that the UNHCR had granted a high-profile lèse majesté suspect refugee status, Thai royalists fiercely attacked the UNHCR on its Thai Facebook page, saying they would stop funding the organization and threatening to harass its funding officers.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Thai royalists threatened to withdraw monthly donations to the UN refugee agency in Thailand over the agency’s role in giving refugee status to a redshirt political activist Ekapop L., (aka. </div>

<p>Police arrested two people giving the three-fingered salute in front of Parliament in support of former PM Yingluck Shinawatra.</p> <p>The police at around 13:30 pm on Friday arrested a man and a woman who allegedly gave the three-fingered salute, a symbol of defiance against the junta derived from the ‘Hunger Games’ movie, in front of the Parliament compound in central Bangkok. &nbsp;</p> <p>The two came to support the former PM ousted by the coup d’état in May 2014, who was facing impeachment before the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) at Parliament on Wednesday.</p>

<p>Thai military reportedly killed two suspected insurgents and arrested three suspects during a raid at a school in Thailand’s restive Deep South. However, there are reports that another woman was also killed at the scene.</p> <p>Nearly a hundred military officers surrounded an Islamic school in Mayo District in Pattani Province at around 3 am on Friday in an attempt to arrest suspects believed to be hiding in the school, according&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/wartanimap/posts/589562511145491">Wartani</a>, a local media outlet based in the southern border province of Pattani.</p>

<p dir="ltr">About 40 people gathered in central Bangkok to mourn the deadly attack on a French satirical magazine head office and showing support for those exercising freedom of expression.</p> <p>Thais and foreigners gathering in front of the Bangkok Art &amp; Culture Center (BACC) in central Bangkok on Thursday night to express support for Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine based in Paris, France, attacked by suspected Muslim extremists led to at least 12 people killed, including, its editor, Stephane Charbonnier, two police officers, and four cartoonists.</p>

<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/115087035" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe></div> <div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</div> <p>The NCPO claims to be reclaiming forest land from investors, but the poor continue to suffer. Junta policy introduced under martial law destroys livelihoods of thousands of forest inhabitants.</p>

<p>Two student activists and a lecturer from Thammasat University testified to police over a lèse majesté accusation against the renowned royalist and lèse majesté law critic Sulak Sivaraksa in relation to Sulak’s speech on an ancient king during the seminar. The student activists, who were the organizers of the seminar, told the police that the seminar was intended for educational purposes only. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p>The Thai junta has approved a proposed bill which will allow the authorities to conduct mass surveillance on every means of communication in the name of “national security”.</p>