- Thailand News
Survey shows that Thais feel “less safe”
A recent survey by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, the Suan Dusit Poll, shows that Thais are more concerned about their safety than ever before, citing the country’s economic woes as the reason. The poll was conducted from January 15-18 on 1,365 people throughout the Kingdom of varying education levels and occupations. The survey followed a spate of serious crimes in…
- Crime News
Two Israeli tourists pickpocketed by Pattaya ladyboys
Two Israeli men told Pattaya police that they were robbed by a pair of ladyboys, relieving them of around 2500 baht each. The incident was reported to police on Monday morning. At around 2am the tourists, both 21 year old Israelis, identified as Ahmad Mohammad and 33 year old Mojahad Samir called police to report a pickpocketing theft on Soi 2…
- Environment News
Thai PM mulls private car ban in pollution-stricken areas
“Bangkok’s governor has also signed an order yesterday to close 437 schools in in the city today due to a forecast of higher pollution levels.” The government is considering a ban on private car use in areas affected by hazardous levels of air pollution. The harsh proposal was unveiled Tuesday by PM Prayut Chan-o-cha after a cabinet meeting in Narathiwat. The…
- Crime News
Pattaya man in coma after being shot in argument with ex-girlfriend’s father
A man remains in a coma in Pattaya after sustaining serious injuries from a gunshot during an argument with his ex-girlfriend’s father on Saturday night. Police and emergency responders arrived at the scene in Banglamung district to find 29 year old Anucha Jansrithong with a gunshot wound. 20 year old Phonthip Ployboot told police that Anucha is her ex-boyfriend and alleged…
- Northern Thailand News
5 drown after passenger boat sinks in Uttradit’s Sirikit reservoir – UPDATE
(UPDATE: 7:07am, the Thai-language daily Khao Sod now reports the number of drowned at 5) One passenger has drowned and four others remain missing (presumed drowned) after their boat struck a submerged tree stump and capsized on Sirikit Dam in the northern province of Uttradit, near the border of Laos. Rescue workers recovered five passengers and the boat’s skipper from…
- Bangkok News
Citizens help arrest Burmese man breaking into Bangkok ATM
Breaking into an ATM in broad daylight might not be the best idea, as a Burmese man learned yesterday after his arrest Monday in Bangkok. Officers from the Klong Tan Police Station were called and went to the location to discover the man wearing a black tank top and jeans holding a crowbar, which he was using to tear apart…
- Hot News
Bangkok IT mall fire sparks evacuation
A fire broke out at a Bangkok mall on Sunday, leading to the evacuation of the Fortune Town IT Mall building on Ratchadaphisek Road. No deaths or injuries were reported. Fortune Town is a popular shopping destination for IT and electronics enthusiasts, opposite Central World Plaza and located directly above the Rama 9 MRT station. Traffic Radio reported the fire at…
- Hot News
Police question suspect in Lop Buri gold shop shootings
Police in the northeastern province of Nong Khai are confident they’ve identified a suspect in the January 9 gold shop robbery and shooting in the central Lop Buri province that killed three people, including a two-year boy, and injured four others. The man was summoned for questioning. National police chief Chakthip Chaijinda says that the man, whose identity is currently…
- Thailand News
Two tourists hurt as neck-high cable sweeps them off their motorcycle
Two tourists were injured yesterday when they ran into a low-hanging telecom cable hanging low across a road. The two women were tourists sightseeing on a rented motorbike in Kanchanaburi, 123 kilometres west of Bangkok. Police say the incident occurred on the Kanchanaburi-Dan Ma Kham Tia road in front of a petrol station. Christina Serma Gandia, from Spain, who was driving…
- Politics News
Future Forward prepare for probable disbandment by the Thai Constitutional Court
The Future Forward Party is bracing itself for, what they expect, will end up in the disbandment of their political party when the Constitution Court meets tomorrow. Over the weekend the party’s secretary-general Piyabutr Saengkanokkul denied accusations that his party is trying to overthrow the Thai regime, an allegation made by Dr. Natthaporn Toprayoon, a former advisor to the chief…
- Phuket News
82 year old Frenchman killed in motorbike crash with ATV in Phuket
An elderly French man has died after an American woman lost control of her all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and crashed into his motorcycle in Chalong, southern Phuket. The woman was seriously injured. Police say the incident occurred on Soi Klum Yang in Chalong around 4pm on Thursday. The crash involved a red ATV, and a black motorcycle ridden by the 82 year…
- World News
Dutchman jailed for 100 years in Thailand for money laundering is released
A Dutch citizen who was jailed for 100 years in Thailand, is now on his way home after years of campaigning for his release. His sentence was reduced to 75 years on appeal and later to 50 years by the Supreme court. Johan van Laarhoven, who ran several cannabis “coffee shops” in Holland, was jailed in Thailand for money laundering, along…
- Environment News
Nine garbage trucks caught illegally using Bangkok’s public incinerator
Go find your own garbage incinerator! Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang is leading the charge to stop garbage trucks from outside the city using the municipal incinerator, joining city officials in seizing nine garbage trucks from the central province of Samut Sakhon province found illegally dumping trash. “Today we seized nine trucks that carried garbage from Suan Luang and Thamai subdistricts…
- Environment News
50% of Thai trucks checked in Don Mueang belching black smoke
Last April Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha announced that those driving polluting vehicles would face arrest and fines, warning owners of transport businesses they’ll be held responsible for toxic emissions. Now the Department of Land Transport announced it was stepping up measures to bring emission levels from trucks and public transport vehicles within safe limits. The measures are designed to alleviate pollution…
- Business News
Bangkok’s vacant land owners growing fruit and vegetables to evade vacant-land tax
A loophole in land tax around Bangkok (actually everywhere in Thailand) is having an unexpected side effect, mostly good. Many vacant property owners in Bangkok are growing fruit and vegetables to escape the newly launched tax on their undeveloped land. For example, Banana trees are now growing on an expensive piece of land near Naradhiwat-Rajanagarindra Road. To avoid the new…
- Crime News
2 more alleged call centre scam suspects arrested in Japan
Two men arrested in Japan yesterday stand accused of operating a large-scale call centre scam based in Thailand, bringing the total number of arrests in the case to 28. Japanese police believe 36 year old Kengo Yasutake and 34 year old Shimpei Hirata operated a luxury home in Pattaya, where a team of Japanese men would call people across Japan…
- Health
First ‘China coronavirus’ case confirmed in Japan
As Thailand’s airports continue screening passengers arriving from China, Japan has confirmed its first case of the new China coronavirus that has killed one and attracted a travel alert from the US State Department. The patient, a man from Kanagawa prefecture near Tokyo, had recently visited the Chinese city of Wuhan, where an outbreak of a pneumonia strain is believed to…
- Food
Street food returns to the streets of Bangkok in four districts
Street vendors are not to be more rigorously controlled in relation to their location and conduct. Bangkok authorities are now set to apply its new registrations to hundreds of street side food vendors in four districts of the capital. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has agreed to the setup of 191 stalls. The registration process will be complete by February and before…
- Crime News
British and Thai man arrested for flogging fake watches online
A British and a Thai man are in custody after a sting operation in Pattaya caught them selling counterfeit brand name watches online to foreign buyers at a huge markup. Police identified them as 43 year old Mark Peter Dorey and 45 year old Virut Bua-raem. After a tipoff, an officer pretended to be a buyer and contacted Dorey. He…
- World News
Top YouTube makeup artist reveals she’s transgender, says she was blackmailed
One of the most influential makeup artists on social media (yes, it’s a big thing) rocked her fans Monday night with a video revealing she’s a transgender woman. 25 year old Nikkie de Jager, better known as NikkieTutorials, told her 12 million-plus subscribers she revealed her gender identity because she was blackmailed by people who wanted to take her story…
- Crime News
Police track down “the great Bangkok pantie snatcher”
One man’s been busy moving around Bangkok condos and apartments in the northern suburbs and ‘sampling’ a range of women’s underwear and lingerie. But police have curtailed his part-time activities and arrested a 55 year old and charged him with stealing more than 1400 pieces of women’s underwear. He was arrested at a condominium in Bangkok’s Don Muang District, according…
- Crime News
Pattaya police investigate a man’s shooting death, the day after his birthday
A man in Pattaya has died after being shot. The 32 year old Thai man was found with a gunshot wound to the head. Police were notified of the incident yesterday at about 6:30am and are investigating to determine whether it was suicide or homicide. Police and emergency responders arrived at the scene on a rural road to find 32…
- Environment News
Fishermen catch albino dolphins on video playing in the Gulf of Thailand
A group of albino dolphins have delighted guests and fishermen in a fishing vessel off Songkhla’s Sathing Phra district in the Gulf of Thailand. “SOS”, a LINE group, has posted a video clip of the dolphins. The LINE group’s administrator related the story that three fishermen had seen the dolphins in the boundary area between Kradang Nga and Ja Ting…
- Northern Thailand News
6 million baht lottery winner goes on drug-fuelled rampage, tries to burn down house
A man who won a six million baht lottery prize in June is now in police custody in Sisaket, northeastern Thailand. His mother reported to police that “he’s become a berserk drug addict”. Police told Thai media that 56 year old Kom Poka called police to arrest her 32 year old son Chainarong in Sisaket after he went on a…
- Crime News
Singaporean threatened with execution if he didn’t pay up a million dollar ‘debt’ in Thailand
A Singaporean man stands accused of masterminding a plot to abduct a fellow Singaporean from Suvarnabhumi Airport last Thursday. Police report that the suspect, identified only as ‘Kim’, will be charged with conspiring to commit robbery, illegal possession of firearms, illegal detention and the physical assault of 32 year old compatriot Mark Cheng Jin Quan. Mark owns a software and application…
- Northern Thailand News
Buri Ram gold and jewellery thief arrested whilst trying to flee the province
A man was arrested in his car yesterday in the northeastern province of Buri Ram after allegedly stealing gold valued around two million baht from a shop at a local department store over two weeks ago, on the night of December 28. 22 year old Prawit Chaikheenee was arrested whilst sitting in his on the Buri Ram-Nang Rong Road while…
- Phuket News
Russian tourist in coma after Patong hotel balcony fall
A Russian tourist remains unconscious in hospital after falling four floors from the balcony of his Patong hotel. Police say the man, Daniil Solovev, is in “a serious but stable condition”. Police were called to the accommodation on Nanai Road hotel at 11am on Sunday morning. By the time they arrived, Solovev had already been rushed to hospital. Emergency responders say…
- Bangkok News
Eight British tourists injured in Thai passenger van crash – VIDEO
Eight British tourists are in hospital, three seriously injured, after their passenger van crashed into the median railing on the Bangkok-Chon Buri motorway. The incident occurred about 10:30am on the Pattaya-bound side of the road. The driver, 53 year old Thanakorn To-iam, said he picked up the passengers at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok and was taking them to Pattaya when…
- Health
Cannabis oil gaining traction in Thai medical circles
Last week’s opening of Thailand’s first two full-time clinics dispensing cannabis oil (cannabidiol, or CBD) for medical treatment has brought international attention, not only to the kingdom’s burgeoning cannabis industry, but to the oil’s many reputed benefits. Around 25 CBD clinics have been operating part-time since the government agreed in 2018 to amend drug laws to allow the use and…
- South Thailand News
Base jumper rescued after dangling from sheer cliff face in Phattalung
An Austrian base jumper is safe after a harrowing rescue Monday afternoon, when winds blew him onto a cliff face and left him dangling about 175 metres off the ground from his snagged parachute in the southern province of Phattalung. The jumper, 28 year old Johannes Klauser, went with his wife to the top of 250 metre high Khao Ok Thalu…
