- Phuket News
Thai mothers caving to superstition or private hospital wishes when having babies
by Kornwaree Panyasuppakun and Tim Newton “Many babies in Thailand are born to suit ‘auspicious days’ or the Obstetrician’s golf plans.” The expectant mother reported to the private hospital in Phuket where she and her husband had decided to have their first baby. When she walked in for her appointment with the Obstetrician the first question was when she wanted to…
- South Thailand News
Chinese woman’s death at a Hat Yai waterfall is now a murder investigation
An investigation into the mysterious death of a Chinese woman at a waterfall in near Hat Yai has now become an official murder investigation. A Chinese man has emerged as a prime suspect and Thai police also seeking evidence in China and working with Chinese police. Tourist Police Division’s deputy commander Pol Maj-General Surachate Hakparn says that he was soon…
- Northern Thailand News
Loei mothers file complaint about local abbot sexually abusing their sons
Four Loei mothers have filed a complaint with police today accusing the local abbot of a monastic centre of sexually abusing their sons. They told Khok Ngam police that the abbot in Tambon Phone Sung, Dan Sai district, had molested their sons while they were novices there. One woman (name withheld by police) says her 17 year old son was…
- Pattaya News
Chonburi road rager gets 10 years for killing a 17 year old
PHOTO: Suthep Poshsomboon reporting to police following last year’s road rage incident “Following several punches by the 17 year old boy, a gunshot was heard” The Chonburi Provincial Court has handed down a 10 year jail term to an engineer who shot dead a teenage schoolboy in a high-profile road rage incident last year. Suthep Poshsomboon was also fined 2,000 baht…
- World News
Former Mae Hong Son border police chief gets suspended jail term for pimping out underage girl
The former commander of a border patrol police company in Mae Hong Son, north-west Thailand, has been given a suspended jail term and a small fine for forcing a girl under 18 into prostitution, according to the victim’s mother. The girl’s mother, Namphet Koeyputsa, says the Mae Hong Son Court convicted Pol Lt Col Pongnarin Pongnam, former commander of the…
- Northern Thailand News
Four others rescued in Tham Luang before the Mu Pa 13
PHOTO: British cavers, Rick Stanton and John Volanthe Dramatic new stories out of a “Hidden Earth” cave-community event where it’s been revealed that the, now famous, Mu Pa 13 weren’t the only people trapped inside the caves in Chiang Rai. Two of the British divers who were part of the Tham Luang rescue effort, extracting the Mu Pa football team from…
- Northern Thailand News
12 million meth pills, half tonne of ‘ice’ seized in Chiang Rai
Been a busy day in northern Thailand as police grapple with the transporting of drugs across the borders. First, this morning there was a motorcyclist with a backpack full of meth pills. Now a much larger shipment has been intercepted. The Nation reports that Chiang Rai police have foiled an attempt to smuggle 12 million methamphetamine pills and 521 kilograms…
- Chiang Mai News
A backpack full of meth pills headed for Chiang Mai
A Chiang Mai man has been arrested las night after allegedly trying to smuggle 100,000 methamphetamine pills into the city from the Myanmar border, 100 kilometres away. Police at a checkpoint in Mae Ai district had signalled for a motorcyclist to stop but he sped off. With officers in pursuit, he lost control of his motorbike and came to grief…
- Chiang Mai News
Police find bodies of Briton, Thai wife buried behind their house in Phrae
The bodies of a Briton and his Thai wife were found buried over 2 metres deep in the garden of their property in Phrae Muang district today after they went missing on September 19. The Nation is reporting that the bodies of 64 year old Alan Scott Hogg and 61 year old Nott Sudaen were found buried beside a creek on…
- Bangkok News
Road racing motorbikes collide in Bangkok – one dead, one injured
A motorcyclist has been killed and another injured when their bikes, which a witness said were racing on a Bangkok road, grazed each other early this morning. The incident happened on Sukhaphibal 5 road in Bangkok’s Bang Khen district. Police said 26 year old Yospol Aksorn died of serious head injuries after he was thrown from his black Honda CBR…
- Business News
Tourism stakeholders commit to plastic-free future at PHIST
PHIST – Phuket Hotels for Island Sustaining Tourism Forum 2018 Leading hotels and tourism groups have signed the “Phuket Pledge” at Phuket Hotels for Islands Sustaining Tourism Forum 2018 (PHIST) establishing a model for the future development of islands throughout Asia that embraces sustainability as a core and sets urgent goals for long-term change. The Phuket Pledge is a commitment…
- South Thailand News
Fishing worker reported hanged on returning boat
FILE PHOTO The skipper of a fishing boat has reported to police that one of his workers allegedly hanged himself on the boat as it returned to Songkhla fishing pier last night (Monday). But the wife of the dead man, 37 year old Anucha Kahapanna, doubts whether her husband committed suicide and is asking police to investigate whether it was…
- Thailand News
Thai PM at the crossroads
PHOTO: The Nation With the election looming (5 months away) the Thai PM is being forced to declare his cards and his intentions to run as a political party member, or not. According to The Nation, Prayut Chan-o-cha appears to have made up his mind to take a risky political journey after publicly admitting for the first time yesterday that…
- Chiang Mai News
Ambulance slams into tree in Lampang killing three
An ambulance returning to Phayao, after delivering a patient to Phitsanulok, has hit a tree in Lampang this morning, killing two nurses and the driver. Police say the accident happened at 7am on the Ngao-Phayao road in Ban Huay Oon village of Lampang’s Ngao district. The two nurses were identified as 42 year old Angsumalin Rakchat and 21 year old…
- Thailand News
Prayut remains top choice for next PM – Pheu Thai preferred party
The Thai PM has come out on top in another opinion poll as next year’s election starts to become cemented onto the February 24 date. General Prayut Chan-o-cha iss the most popular choice to be PM after the next election – but there’s doubt the political party linked to him will be a winner – according to a new poll.…
- Thailand News
Safer Thai roads will provide an economic boost
Thailand could gain significant long-term economic benefit by making the roads safer and saving its mainly young and capable population from premature death in accidents, according to a World Bank report. The report entitled “The High Toll of Traffic Injuries: Unacceptable and Preventable”, concludes that, if road traffic injuries could be reduced in Thailand by 50 per cent and satisfactory…
- Bangkok News
A man who really likes his coffee – Amazon thief surrenders to police
A former construction contractor has surrendered to police today to face charges of burglary after he allegedly broke into 30 Amazon coffee shops in petrol stations since April. 37 year old Kiartkarisorn Srikrailod from Buri Ram surrendered at Taling Chan police station at 10am this morning after police summoned him to face theft charges. Taling Chan is just west of…
- South Thailand News
Eating your way around Songkhla
by Pattarawadee Saengmanee – The Nation Weekend As we come in for landing at Hat Yai International Airport, I see clear sky reflected in the azure waters of the Gulf of Thailand. Despite the weather App warnings, the sun was out. Sightseeing is first on the agenda though and after a pleasant 40-minute drive from the airport to Songkhla Old…
- Bangkok News
‘Golden-tongued Keng’ arrested along with four other call centre scammers
Police have arrested the alleged leader of a notorious call-centre gang, known as “Golden-tongued Keng”, and four members of the gang that operated in several countries. Again, the deputy tourist police chief Pol Maj Gen Surachete Hakparn was behind the major arrest. Surachete says police tracked down and arrested 41 year old Natthawat Simbida, alias ‘Keng the Golden Tongue’, in…
- Bangkok News
Thailand’s air quality measurement standards raise concerns
by Chularat Saengpassa From next month, the Pollution Control Department (PCD) will set PM2.5 particles as an indicator of Thailand’s air quality, but the move does not ease the concerns of people in the know. “I must tell you that the PCD intend to use the ‘24-hour mean’ as the indicator and that may be misleading,” said Tara Buakamsri, the…
- Thailand News
Most rape cases ‘settled’ by police, says foundation
by Kornrawee Panyasuppakun – The Nation We are all familiar with Thai police ‘settling’ small misdeamours, mostly road, on the spot – acting as judge and jury and keeping many minor potential court cases away from lawyers and the Thai court system. But the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation claims that most rape case, including child rape cases, are…
- South Thailand News
Pattani Big C bombers sentenced to death
FILE PHOTO: The Nation The Pattani Provincial Court yesterday sentenced Su-ai-mee Sama-ae and Sama-ae Mamah to death for their role in the 2017 Big C department store bomb attack that injured 61 people, including children, and caused millions of baht worth of property damage. Here’s the original story of the bomb blast HERE. The attack on May 9, 2017, took…
- World News
Plastic straws to be banned in some Malaysian territories from January 1
Plastic straws are to be banned in all the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan in Malaysia from January 1 next year. Businesses which are still found to be using plastic straws in 2019 risk having their business licences terminated. Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Adnan Mohd Ikhsan says, “The ban on plastic straws is in addition to the…
- Bangkok News
Man arrested for alleged attempted rape of nine year old girl
by Kornkamon Aksorndech and Supachai Phetchthewee Police have arrested a motorcycle taxi driver for allegedly luring a nine year old girl into a Bangkok temple toilet yesterday in an attempt to rape her. The alleged incident took place at 5pm at the Wat Yoo Dee Bumrungtham (Wat Or Ngern) toilet in the Saimai district. The alleged assault was stopped when the…
- South Thailand News
Policeman killed and four injured in insurgent ambush in Yala
FILE PHOTO – The Nation A policeman has been killed and four villagers injured in an apparent ambush by insurgents in Yala’s Raman district yesterday (Wednesday). Tha Thong police in Raman were alerted just after 5pm about the attack on a pickup truck at the boundary between Raman and Pattani’s Thung Yang Daeng district. When police and an Army unit…
- South Thailand News
Train hits car in Hat Yai
A driver has been injured after his car was hit by a train in Songkhla’s Hat Yai district yesterday morning (Wednesday). The Bangkok-Padang Bezar train hit the car at a rail crossing in Ban Lop Moom in Tambon Patong. The car driver, Aeb Meekaew, was critically injured and taken to the Hat Yai Hospital. The 58 year old train driver,…
- Thailand News
MP numbers being shuffled around in lead up to Thai election
Some of Thailand’s key political parties are set to see a significant reduction in MPs after new regulations were issued reducing the number of constituency candidates. For instance, Pheu Thai Party’s strongholds – the North and the Northeast – will lose 13 seats in Parliament, while the Democrat Party could lose six MPs, as the number of seats in the…
- Pattaya News
20 Chinese arrested over betting and investment web-scams
Twenty Chinese citizens have been arrested in separate raids in Pattaya and charged with operating websites designed to deceive fellow Chinese. The Chon Buri police chief Maj Gen Nanthachart Supamongkol and Pattaya’s Pol Col Chitdecha Songhong announced the results of the raids yesterday (Tuesday). In the first raid, six Chinese men were arrested at a house on Soi Khao Talo…
- Health
Blood tests shows contamination with toxic farm chemicals
“Several farmers have visited Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital since late last month, seeking treatment for exposure to farm chemicals.” Traces of toxic chemicals have been detected in the blood of 1 in every 20 farmers in Nakhon Ratchasima. This is the result of tests across 132 villages in the Bua Yai district. The Bua Yai district’s public-health office arranged blood…
- Thailand News
Electric cars in Thailand move into the fast lane
by Jintana Panyaarvudh The Thai Government has a goal of getting 1.2 million electric vehicles on the road by 2036. The rising number of registered EVs, the development of a locally made EVs, as well as research and development of some EV parts are indications that it could have a major role in Thai society, said Amonrat Kaewpradap, a committee…
