Ms. Buppha Sirikaew, 68, who was among 4 other people who were injured by the students,
said that her group was travelling from Victory Monument after the protest with the People’s Radio
for Democracy ended.

While waiting at the traffic light near Lumpini Park, a group of
50-70 vocational students emerged from the park and pelted rocks, bottles, and other objects at the
Redshirts convoy.

According to the police, a CCTV investigation is being conducted and
those who engaged in the incident will be charged for injuring and harming the lives and the properties of
other people.

The students who launched the attack were among several thousand polytechnic students who
swelled the ranks of the the People’s Army against Thaksin’s Regime protest at Lumpini Park. The
group used yellow scarves and yellow headbands to identify themselves.

The students, whose
institution is not yet known, also called for support from other vocational education institutions
to join the protest.

Regarding the incident, Mr. Anusorn Eiamsa-ard, deputy spokesmen of Phue
Thai party, urged the vocational education institution to carefully advise their student about the
protest, and take responsibility in guiding their students to express political preferences in the
appropriate way.

He raised concern that the behaviour of the students who joined the
protest are worrying, and suggests the protest leaders to
ot only think of numbers, but also the
quality of the protestors, too.

Meanwhile, Mr. Pradit Rasitanont, deputy secretary of
Committee of Vocational Education, stated that his organisation accepts the students′ right to join
the protest, as long as the protest remains peaceful and not violating the
Constitution.

The deputy secretary added that the students must join the protests on their volition and do not claim to represent their colleges. However, he also urged each institution’s director to
communicate with their students, and make sure that the students do not spend their class times to
join the protest.

Vocational students regularly make headlines in Bangkok, due to the rivalry
among different colleges which sometimes turn violent. The rival students have engaged in
fistfights, gunfights, and even bomb attacks in broad daylight. Bystanders have been injured and
killed by such incidents.

Mr. Songsak Charoenchai, 46, was still heavily intoxicated
when the rescue workers arrived at the telephone booth in Bangkok Yai District where he had been
screaming for help. The workers used screwdrivers to free him from the 15-centimetre high gap
between the ground and the booth′s wall.

After he had been freed, Mr. Songsak told our
correspondent he was from upcountry and had been looking for work in Bangkok for 7 days. Last night,
he said, he was drinking to the point of intoxication when he noticed that it was going to
rain.

Mr. Songsak was afraid his head would be wet from the rain and he would catch a cold,
he explained, so he lay down and tried to insert his head into the telephone booth. He fell asleep
soon afterwards and woke up to find that he could not get his head out.

The
soap drama was adapted from a novel with the same name, which in turn was set in a fictional Arabic
nation. A Muslim advocacy group, Muslim Group For Peace, has protested the show, claiming that the
drama gave an inaccurate and offensive representation of the Muslim society.

The group called
for the lasphemous show to be axed entirely, causing many fans to fear that the drama would not
survive the controversy.

However, the Shaykh al-Islam, Mr. Asik Bhitakkhumpol, the
state-sanctioned representative of the Sunni Muslim community in Thailand, announced that his
office, the Sheikhul Islam Office, would act as an advisor to the production crew.

The
announcement confirmed that ?When the Sky Meets the Sand? would continue to air on Channel 7 – but
with one minor change.

Mr. Siam Sangwoributr, the director of the series, said the crew
decided, after holding discussions with the Sheikhul Islam Office, to add a wedding scene between the
2 main characters to avoid any further criticism.

Mr. Wirapol Sukpol, previously known as Luang Pu Nen Kham, is believed to be residing
in Laos, where he reportedly dressed himself up as a monk again.

Police
officers said the gas is also sold to foreign tourists in other tourist attractions such as Patpong,
Pattaya, Samui Island, and Pa-Ngan Island.

According to Dr. Boonchai Somboonsuk, Secretary of
Food and Drug Administration, the gas may carry fatal side effects, as it reduces oxygen in one’s
blood system. The inhaler may faint or death after breathing in too much Nitrusoxide, he
said.

The gas, which had been widely used in dental operation before it was banned by the
Ministry of Public Health, is catagorised as illegal drug, and requires certification for those who
wish to sell it.

Police officers added they are currently searching for 2 main agents who
supplied the gas and the balloons to vendors in many tourist areas.  

By region, 75 percent in the
central region people are using smartphones, 68 percent in the northern part, 67 percent in the
southern part and lastly, the northeast part, is the least smartphone-covered region – account for
64 percent.

Previously, the commander of the technology crime suppression division of the
Thai police told the press the force would like an access to chatlogs of potential lawbreakers in
order to monitor their activities, raising protests from civil rights activists and much of the
general public.

Where the Sky Meets the Sand (Fah Jarod Sai), set in a
fictional Arabic country, depicts Muslims inaccurately, according to Muslim Group For Peace, which
demands the show to be axed.

Mr. Palagorn Somsuwan, an executive director of Channel 7,
insisted that the drama is based on a novel that simply uses elements from Arabic culture, and the
show did not portray a Muslim society in any way.

Nevertheless, he said, he and other
executives have instructed the drama producers to re-examine what contents might be inaccurate and
offensive to the Muslim audiences. The producers will also meet with a representative of the Muslim
community in Thailand to discuss the matter, Mr. Palagorn said.

Mr. Siam Sangwaributr, one of
the producers of Where the Sky Meets the Sand, expressed his surprise that the drama would attract
accusation of insulting the Islamic faith, because he had submitted an English translation of the
entire script to the Egyptian Embassy and the Egpytian cultural agency before the team started
filming in Egypt.

The Egyptian authorities did not raise any objection to the script, Mr.
Siam said, but he offered his apology to the Muslims who were offended by the TV
drama.

Asked if she thinks the scene in which her character, Kachfiya, was beaten by her father led
to perception that Islamic culture tolerate domestic abuse, Ms. Morakot replied that physical abuses
occur in many societies, regardless of religion.

Contacted by Khaosod, Mr. Sayan Sukchan, a legal adviser
to the Muslim Group For Peace, stressed that Where the Sky Meets the Sand portrays an Islamic
country even though it did not explicitly state so. He pointed to clothes worn by the characters
that resemble Muslim way of dress as an example.

Mr. Sayan listed the scenes that, he said,
contradicts the teaching of Islam: when the king seized a woman to be his concubine by force, when
the unmarried protagonists touched and kissed each other, and when a character gave an amulet to
another character.

He was also offended by the scenes showing a character prostrating on the
ground to salute the king and the dancer girls danced sexily in the palace.

He admitted that
he had not read the novel, which lends contents to the TV drama, but he said it did not matter
because he producers cannot claim they want to stick to the novel. The Koran has been written over
1,000 years ago. Won?t they consider that as the more important book?