Smoke over Doi Suthep and the elephant who lost its leg

If you go to the EarthObservatory site here, you can see a picture taken by NASA's Acqua satellite, as it passed over Thailand, Burma and Laos last week.

All the red dots are fires around the jungles and forests of the 3 countries. As you can see, most of the fires that are blowing smoke into Thailand, and here in Chiang Mai, come from Burma and Laos. And most of the thick smoke is over the North of Thailand, not Burma, which is why we are having trouble with sore throats and blocked noses. So, it's not just the farmers in Thailand.

Here's a touching story from the BBC news site about an elephant, who lost its leg in a land mine explosion. The elephant is being looked after by Friends of the Asian Elephant in Lampang. They have made a new leg for the young elephant. At first it wouldn't eat, and the other elephants rejected it, but now it's eating and making friends. Such a heart warming story.