MILESTONES

APPOINTED: By the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol as goodwill ambassador for the rule of law. The princess’s writ is for Thailand and Southeast Asia. She is well known for her legal training and interest in prison issues, particularly women in jail. Princess Bajrakitiyabha has previously served as ambassador to the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

APPOINTED: By His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun as Supreme Patriarch, Somdet Phra Maha Muniwong, abbot of Wat Ratchabophit. He will be formally appointed at 5pm today. The selection of the nation’s 20th Supreme Patriarch negatively impacts the Sangha Council, which had nominated a different monk for the role.

DECREED: By His Majesty, that Dec 5 will remain the prime holiday. While there was speculation of changes in holiday dates, Dec 5 will be marked as always as King Bhumibol’s birthday and Father’s Day. It also will become this year the country’s official National Day. In addition, Aug 13 will remain Mother’s Day.

CHARGED: With negligence causing the death of his girlfriend in a jet ski collision off Phuket, Thomas Keating, 22. His craft hit one driven by Emily Jayne Collie, who had stopped breathing before rescuers brought her to shore. Mr Keating, who faces up to 10 years in prison, posted on Facebook: “I’m so broken.”

CONDEMNED: To death by lethal injection by the Pattaya Provincial Court, Australian Antonio “Tony Bang” Bagnato. He was convicted of murder in the 2015 abduction and killing of Hells Angel Wayne “Wayne81” Schneider in Pattaya. While the sentence is a rare case of courts applying capital punishment to foreigners, it is not as rare as its actual use — none since the summary execution of a Lao drug dealer in 1977.