MILESTONES

HONOURED: By the US State Department as one of its 2016 International Women of Courage, Rodjaraeg Wattanapanit. The 50-year-old owner of activist store Book Re:Public was presented for “commitment to democratic rights and freedoms”. She has been invited for a meal and adjustments to her attitude twice in the past two years. US Secretary of State John Kerry called Book Re:Public “an indispensable public space” in Chiang Mai.

AGREED: By Janepob Veeraporn, 37, to give blood to test, just 15 days after his Mercedes-Benz was in a high-speed crash that killed two Ayutthaya graduate students. Mr Janepob had declined to be tested after the March 13 crash for reasons he knows.

SENTENCED: To 30 months in prison for corruption, Chaiwan Charo en choke ta wee, a former rector of the Vajira Hospital faculty of medicine and former member of the Medical Council. In January 2011, he borrowed and returned intact the faculty’s chairs and video equipment for his daughter’s wedding. But he failed to do the paperwork. The Criminal Court suspended the prison term for two years but fined him 10,000 baht.

DENIED: By the Cambodian foreign ministry, a claim by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon that Phnom Penh was studying a plan to allow tourist access to Preah Vihear temple from the Thai side. Gen Prawit made the claim after talks with Defence Minister Tea Banh 10 days ago. Thailand has tried to secure joint tourism access to the Cambodian temple for many years.

RETURNED: To Cambodia by the US Denver Art Museum of Colorado, a well-known 10th century sandstone sculpture of Rama. It was looted from the Angkor Wat area’s Koh Ker temple in the 1970s, when it was already missing its head, arms and feet. The statue was welcomed “home” at a Phnom Penh ceremony when an appeal was repeated for the return of all Khmer artefacts.