Thai King approves new Cabinet line-up

BANGKOK, August 31 (TNA) - His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej has approved Thailand's new Cabinet line-up of Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha in a Royal Command. The new 32-member Thai Cabinet of 34 positions was officially announced on Sunday evening after it had been published in the Royal Gazette. A dozen of the new Thai Cabinet line-up are senior active and retired military and police officers, including the interim prime minister himself, who is also Army and National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) Chief, as well as some other junta members. There are also two female ministers in the new Thai Cabinet line-up, including Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, who is a former executive president of Japan-based Toshiba Thailand Co., Ltd., and Deputy Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn, who is a former deputy permanent secretary for commerce and a former director-general of the ministry's Department of Foreign Trade. The new Thai prime minister and the junta chief will retire from the army chief post on September 30, 2014. (TNA)