- Covid-19 News
Grounded Thai pilot now does motorbike food deliveries
“I have my motorbike, so I found my part time job. And now I am a food delivery man.” With many of the world’s international airlines grounded by the Covid-19 pandemic, many in the aviation industry, including even pilots, have been forced to find other ways to make a living. Here in Thailand, a ban on international arrivals remains in…
- Crime News
Bangkok woman allegedly kills, mutilates father
Bangkok police have arrested a woman who they suspect of murdering her father and cutting off his genitals before fleeing the scene yesterday. She was found wandering on a street around 2.30am this morning. They also recovered the knife that they believe was used in the murder. The woman was semiconscious and unable to speak, and officers say they’ll let…
- Events
Countdown! Thailand’s first satellite launch planned for Friday
Thailand’s air force will launch its first satellite this Friday, following months of delay. Dubbed Napa-1, it’s scheduled to be launched using an Ariane Vega rocket from a staging area in French Guyana in South America, according to a Royal Thai Air Force source. The launch was postponed 3 times, in September and December last year due to technical issues,…
- South Thailand News
PM, police issue warning to biker gangs, threaten renewed curfew
In a press briefing yesterday, the assistant national police chief issued a stern warning against “dek waen” (biker gangs), who have returned to the roads of Bangkok and some provinces after the national curfew was lifted Sunday. On Monday, PM Prayut Chan-o-cha issued a warning saying the government will reimpose the curfew if people fail to cooperate with Covid-19 control…
- Economy News
Phase 3 easing generated 200 billion baht into Thai economy
Phase 3 of Covid-19 restriction easing, which began June 1, has generated 200 billion baht of additional cash flow into the economy. With many other establishments returning to business as usual tomorrow, the Thai Chamber of Commerce has launched a forum for the brainstorming of ideas on the next business trends under the “new normal,” that must comply with health…
- Covid-19 News
Covid-19 update: 1 new imported case (June 14)
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration reported 1 new imported coronavirus case and no new deaths today taking the total number of infections in Thailand to 3,135 since the outbreak began in January. The death toll remains at 58. The CCSA says the new case is a 35 year old female Thai student who returned from the US last Monday.…
- Tourism News
Tourist attractions get ready for tomorrow’s Phase 4 easing
Thailand’s Interior Ministry has ordered all provincial governors to manage their tourist attractions in preparation for Phase 4 of Covid-19 lockdown relaxation, which begins tomorrow. The ministry’s permanent secretary said yesterday that after Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha ordered related authorities to manage beach attractions, the ministry instructed provincial governors nationwide to manage their tourist attractions as follows: Prepare tourist attractions,…
- Bangkok News
Bangkok removing trees to make way for underground walkways
As part of a new “landscape improvement project,” the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has begun removing trees along Na Phra Lan Road, to pave the way for an underground network of walkways. 34 trees on the road will be removed, and the “Silpakorn Nokrob” (around Silpakorn) Facebook page yesterday called the decision “heartbreaking” for locals and conservationists. In April the BMA…
- Environment News
Bangkok’s sky park bridging the Chao Phraya ready for opening
Bangkok now has an elevated garden overlooking the Chao Phraya River, after architects transformed a portion of an abandoned electric train project into a green pedestrian bridge. For 30 years, the unfinished Saphan Phut line stood as a reminder of the Lavalin Skytrain project, which was abandoned in 1992. The project began in 1984 under former PM Prem Tinsulanonda. Today…
- Economy News
Rubber roads will help Thai growers, increase safety
Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha chaired the signing ceremony of an agreement to use local Thai rubber in road construction, part of an effort to help the country’s financially strapped rubber farmers. Prayut praised the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives as well as Prince of Songkhla University, the Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research, the…
- Covid-19 News
Local Covid-19 spike shuts Beijing district
An area of Beijing is on a “wartime footing” and the city has banned tourism and travel after a cluster of Covid-19 infections centred around a major food market sparked fears of a new wave of infection. Concern is growing of a second wave of the virus, which has infected more than 7.835+ million people worldwide and killed more than…
- Covid-19 News
Crowned bats captured, studied as possible Covid-19 carriers
Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, and the Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases, are researching whether Thailand’s “crowned bats” could carry or transmit the Covid-19 coronavirus. The chief of the department’s wildlife health management section says they went to a cave in in the eastern province of Chanthaburi, home to millions of the bats, to capture more…
- World News
Justice minister targets drug money laundering
With the government struggling to find revenue streams for its economic stimulus plans to rebuild an economy battered by Covid-19, Thailand’s justice minister thinks he has an idea to help. He wants authorities to target businesses that launder drug money from the Golden Triangle and has set a target of 1.5 billion baht by August. The minister says anti-drug forces,…
- Road deaths
Thai road deaths surpass 6,000 for year to date
Thailand’s publicly announced goal of a maximum 664 road deaths per year from 2020 now seems fanciful, by a factor of 10 of more. The Daily News reports that as of yesterday, the death toll at the scene of traffic incidents in Thailand since the beginning of the year stood at 6,120. 43 died at the incident scenes on Wednesday…
- Covid-19 News
Covid-19 update: 5 new cases, all imported (June 13)
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration today announced that 5 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed in the previous 24 hours. All 5 were imported cases of Thai students returning from Saudi Arabia. No new deaths were reported. The total number of confirmed cases since the beginning of the outbreak in Thailand now stands at 3,134. The death toll remains at…
- Crime News
Homicide ruled out Ukrainian woman’s Koh Samui death
Police in the southern Surat Thani province now say the death of a Ukrainian woman on Koh Samui was either from natural causes or suicide, and have specifically ruled out homicide. Officers found 32 year old Olga Frolova’s phone in her knapsack and suggest that she died while resting in the forest from exhaustion and heat, or at her own…
- Thailand Weather Updates
Heavy rains and flash floods predicted until next Tuesday from ‘Nuri’
The Thai Meteorological Department is warning that tropical storm ‘Nuri’ could bring heavy rains and cause flash flooding in at-risk areas across Thailand. A low-pressure system that developed in the Philippine Sea, and was tracked over the central Philippines has moved into the South China Sea, has become a tropical depression. At 4am today the department officially announced tropical storm…
- Crime News
Government denies rumours of fines for online alcohol-related pics
Despite recent reports, the Office of the Alcohol Control Committee is dismissing a rumour about individuals being fined for posting images of alcoholic drinks on social media. The rumour went viral, with some saying individuals can be fined to up to 50,000 baht for posting images of alcoholic beverages online, or up to 10 times that amount if they’re manufacturers.…
- Northern Thailand News
Dengue fever outbreak sickens nearly 6,000 Thai kids
While the Covid-19 outbreak is easing in Thailand, there is growing alarm over a nationwide outbreak of dengue fever, which has sickened nearly 6,000 children already this year. On June 2, Thailand had recorded 15,385 cases of dengue fever, which killed 11 people, according to the director-general of the Department of Disease Control. More than a third of those cases,…
- Thai Life
Chulalongkorn University defends shrine demolition for new condos
Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University is defending its plan to demolish a historic Thai-Chinese shrine on its grounds to clear the land for high-rise buildings with condominiums and dormitories. A statement from the university’s estate office says the Chao Mae Tabtim Saphan Luang Shrine will be rebuilt at a new location close to the original site within 6 months, with a re-opening…
- Crime News
Surat Thani fishermen want government intervention in “cockle war”
Cockles – and Thailand’s “cockle wars” – are back in the news this week. Fishermen in the southern Surat Thani province are calling for clearer guidelines on cockle catches, as their conflict with shellfish farmers drags on despite intervention from provincial authorities. Last Wednesday, a man rode in on his jet ski, firing a gun as some 300 fisherman raided…
- Bangkok News
The one that didn’t get away… a fish tale with a happy ending
A man has been joyfully reunited with his prized, and very valuable, fish after leaving it in a pink Bangkok taxi. The fish’s owner hailed cab 6880 from Chatuchak market but got out of the vehicle in the Klong Toei area, leaving his “Channa Barca” snakehead fish inside in a plastic bag. The owner immediately contacted radio station JS 100,…
- Phuket News
6 fisherman rescued from Phuket waters after their longtail boats sink – VIDEO
2 longtail boats carrying 6 fishermen sank in high seas this morning near Koh Mai Thon aka. Wooden Island, off the coast of Phuket. All 6 fishermen have now been rescued. The 2 boats and their crews left Phuket port last night to fish off Koh Mai Thon, but the crews sent out a distress call about 8am. The boats…
- Covid-19 News
Curfew lifted from June 15, many activities resume, pubs and bars will remain closed
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration has officially approved lifting the national curfew effective Monday. The centre made the decision at its meeting today, which was presided over by Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha. The 11pm-3am curfew will be lifted from June 15 but the national state of emergency in the country will continue. The centre has also decided to strictly…
- Crime News
7 year old daughter helps police prevent father’s suicide
When police in the central plains province of Uthai Thani learned of a shooting incident they rushed to the scene to find a woman with a gunshot wound to her face and a man threatening to shoot himself in the head. Rescue workers rushed the woman to hospital while police tried to calm the man down and stop him from…
- Crime News
Anti-alcohol law has “bounty hunters” snitching for reward money
Educating people, or advertising, online about alcoholic beverages is a crime in Thailand – a lesson learned the hard way by the administrator of a Facebook page detailing thee differences in the many types of craft beers when he was fined 50,000 baht for “advertising” alcohol on social media. Police told him they received a “tip-off from someone”. Artid, the…
- Northern Thailand News
Massive elephant migration causes problems in the North
The Covid-19 crisis has shuttered elephant camps across Thailand’s North and Northeast, most of which relied primarily on tourist revenue. Now around 1,000 elephants, threatened by starvation, have journeyed through the hills of northern Thailand, making a slow migration to their homes. For many of the animals, home is the village of Huay Pakoot in Chiang Mai province, where generations…
- Thailand News
Anti-alternative tobacco report slammed by experts
A recent report titled “Today’s Teens, Tomorrow’s Customers” published by Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance is being slammed by the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates and global health experts, who have dismissed it as “naïve” and “harmful.” Nancy Loucas, CAPHRA’s executive director, described the report as a product of perception by a group that is funded by…
- Crime News
Rayong police raid huge illegal gambling den, arrest 118 – VIDEO
Authorities in the eastern province of Rayong raided a huge illegal casino and arrested 118 gamblers. 12 million baht was reportedly circulated through the gambling den daily. Officers from the Department of Provincial Administration and the Department of Special Investigation raided the den, named “RJ,” in Rayong’s main city district after an extensive investigation. Check the raid on video (below).…
- Covid-19 News
Transport Company resumes service, bans foreigners
The wheels on the bus go round and round. But not for foreigners living in Thailand. The Transport Company, the state operator of intercity bus services, announced today that foreigners are banned from its services due to the Emergency Decree. Although services have resumed on most of their routes across the country, foreign travellers are not allowed to board because…
