- Phuket News
Burmese man stabbed to death by ‘friend’ in Patong, Phuket
PHOTO: Phuket People’s Voice Patong Police have arrested 18 year old Robier Aaron, from Myanmar, after he stabbed another Burmese man, 23 year old ‘Johnny’, to death. The incident happened on Friday night (September 6) at around 9pm in front of a restaurant on Phangmuang Sai Gor Road. Police received a report about the attack and found Johnny’s body stabbed…
- Bangkok News
Thai monks receive alms then sell them back to traders… mmmm
PHOTOS: Sanook Just another day in Thailand with a social media post about monks seated along a city street appealing for alms at the Asoke market in the business hub of Bangkok. Sanook reports that there were many monks on the footpath as mostly Chinese tourists paid their respects and offered the monks food bought at the market. But an online…
- World News
Boeing suspends testing of new long-haul 777 jet
“A source close to the matter said a door of the plane blew out during the test.” by Luc Olinga Boeing is suspending testing on its new long-haul 777X aircraft, yet another setback as the US aviation giant tries to rebound from the 737 MAX crisis. The so-called “final load” tests are part of the aircraft certification process, overseen by…
- World News
Hurricane Dorian’s death toll in Bahamas 43. Expected to rise.
“You can smell the death in the air,” Bahamas resident. The death toll from Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas has risen to 43, according to US media outlets yesterday, and was expected to grow “significantly.” US network CNN and Bahamas newspaper The Tribune cited Health Minister Duane Sands as confirming the new toll, up from 30. “Forty-three is the official…
- World News
India’s moon mission control loses contact with spacecraft during landing
India’s moon mission control has lost contact with the unmanned spacecraft moments before it was due to land on the Moon early this morning (Thai time), in a blow to the country’s ambitious low-cost lunar program. India was hoping to become just the fourth country after the US, Russia and China to successfully land on the Moon. But as Indian…
- Tourism News
Thailand’s tourism industry ponders drop of Chinese tourists
Thailand’s tourism authorities are getting jittery as the Kingdom continues to bleed Chinese tourists in the wake of a surging baht. They fear Thailand is losing its reputation as one of the most affordable destinations in south east Asia for Chinese tourists. Thailand’s most popular resorts, Pattaya and Phuket, have been particularly suffering from the discernible drop in Chinese visitors. Chinese tourists have…
- South Thailand News
Songkhla businessman shot dead while taking daughter to school
PHOTO: Assawin Pakkawan A building contractor has been killed while taking his four year old to school in Hat Yai yesterday. 34 year old Thammarat Apilimsiriul was taking his young daughter to pre-school in tambon Khon Hong around 7.30am when he was shot in the back. Police say he is the owner of Sirikul Land&House, a major construction company in…
- World News
American woman charged with trafficking ‘baby in bag’ at Manila airport
“The baby, who is now in the custody child welfare services, was born to a Filipino mother in the nation’s south and then flown to Manila.” Philippine authorities have charged an American woman with trying to smuggle a six day old baby out of the country in a bag she wore around her waist as she tried to board a…
- World News
Indonesia’s forest fires causing air pollution in southern Thailand
Residents in Thailand’s southern provinces of Songkhla and Satun are being warned to protect their health by wearing face masks or staying indoors as the two provinces are blanketed with smoke from forest fires on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island. The 16th regional environment office reports that dust particles of less than 2.5 microns, were measured at 55 microns/cubic metre during the…
- Technology News
‘Deepfake challenge’. Who is really speaking in that video?
“…new tools are “urgently needed to detect these types of manipulated media.” Technology firms and academics are joining together to launch a “deepfake challenge” to improve tools to detect videos and other media manipulated by AI (Artifical Intelligence). The initiative includes US$10 million from Facebook and aims to curb what is seen as a major threat to the integrity of…
- Crime News
3 drug dealers arrested in Phanason condo, Phuket
Phuket police revealed that they have arrested 3 drug dealers at the Phanason Greenplace condominium complex in the Samkong area, on the road that connects Samkong to Surukul Stadium. One of the suspects already had an arrest warrant out for several crimes before this drug case. The three men include 20 year old Narasak ‘Film’ Sarika, who was arrested with…
- World News
Collecting Hurricane Dorian’s dead in the Bahamas: ‘It’s hell everywhere’
by Gilles Clarenne The blue, sun-kissed skies of the Bahamas, more usually associated with a tropical paradise, have returned, yet a glance across Marsh Harbour offers up nothing but horror – the grim aftermath of a cataclysm. 20 people have been identified as dead as a result of the passing hurricane Dorian. “There was a big two-story building over there,”…
- Economy News
Asian stock markets mostly rise on positive news
“China announced it would resume trade talks with the US in Washington next month.” Most Asian equities and currencies rallied today, building on the previous day’s advance as investors were cheered by a number of positive developments on trade, Hong Kong and Europe. Markets were already on an upward trajectory after the leader of Hong Kong withdrew a controversial extradition…
- Bangkok News
Grab rider ‘Pop’ explains what happened when the Bangkok mum stopped him on the motorway
PHOTO: Sanook.com The Grab Food motorcycle rider who stopped to help a mother take her sick son to hospital Bangkok’s heavy traffic on Tuesday has given some more details about his good deed. The child, Nong Pla Wan, is now being treated in hospital and expected to fully recover from the ordeal. Read yesterday’s story and watch the dramatic video HERE. Recalling the…
- Technology News
Samsung launches foldable smartphone tomorrow
Take two. Samsung says it will launch its hotly anticipated foldable smartphone tomorrow, months after faulty screens forced an embarrassing delay. It’s the first major ‘redesign’ of the smartphone form in over a decade. The world’s largest smartphone manufacturer spent nearly eight years developing the Galaxy Fold, a smartphone that folds in half.. Samsung had to delay the April launch…
- Technology News
Copycat – Chinese company announces first cloned kitten
Cats usually have nine lives. This one had ten. ‘Garlic’ the British short-hair died late last year. Garlic’s friend Huang Yu was devastated. So he ordered a new Garlic, a clone, an exact copy of his beloved dead cat. Born on July 21, the new fluffy and purring Garlic was created by Chinese firm Sinogene, China’s first successfully copied cat.…
- Politics News
Constitutional court turns down request to lift Thanathorn’s suspension
Future Forward’s Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit has hit another hurdle with the Constitutional Court rejecting his requests to rescind an earlier court order suspending him from performing his duties as an MP. According to yesterday’s Constitutional Court’s bulletin, the court had not found “any change in behaviour on the part of Mr. Thanathorn that would justify the court lifting the suspension”. The…
- Thai Life
Thai school girls – longer skirts, bigger blouses
The Thai Education Ministry is telling teenage female students to dress “appropriately” and stop wearing dresses that are too skimpy. The Ministry has made amendments to the Child Protection Act to codify the length of dresses and the tightness of blouses, rather than leaving it up to school boards to come up with their own guidelines (you can imagine those…
- World News
American woman tries to smuggle 6 day old baby in carry on luggage – Philippines
A female US citizen remains in custody in the Philippines after allegedly trying to leave the country with a baby inside her hand luggage. She was flying out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila. The baby was alive and now in the care of Philippine officials. The 43 year old American woman was caught with the child in…
- Expats
Thai public hospitals now have two-tiered pricing for their services
Foreigners who receive medical treatment or services at public hospitals in Thailand are set to pay more than locals or residents of neighbouring countries for the same services. The new multi-tiered pricing sets guidelines for services by the Thai public Health department. New government guidelines were announced in the Government Gazette at the end of August and include a new…
- Northern Thailand News
Release dates announced for Tom Waller’s ‘The Cave’
The first of a few productions about last year’s massive cave rescue at the Tham Luang caves in Chiang Rai is going to be released on November 28. It is a feature film called “The Cave” (Nang Non) and will be released in Thai theatres as well. The film focuses on the rescue itself as the director said working with…
- Northern Thailand News
Thai freight train derails near the Laos border
PHOTO: Prasit Tangprasert Trains running between Bangkok and Nong Khai (the north east province on the Laos border near Vientiane), had to be detoured this morning just after 6am after a freight train became derailed near Bua Yai junction station. According to the Bangkok Post, the train was carrying gravel for use on the construction and maintenance of rail tracks,…
- Expats
Foreigners crying foul over the new dual pricing policy at Thai public hospitals
Thailand’s expat community is reeling after the news of Thai public hospitals given the greenlight to charge foreigners higher rates for foreigners than the locals – a classic dual-pricing policy. The new split rates kick in from September 29. But the health ministry say the new rates actually provide more set prices for services and procedures and, in some cases,…
- Bangkok News
Sick child rushed to Bangkok hospital by a passing Grab Food motorcycle rider
A Grab Food motorcycle came to the rescue and helped a frantic mother rush her sick child to hospital yesterday. Her car’s dash cam video (below) captures the mother’s desperate please as her son, Pla Wan, was foaming at the mouth and losing control of his movements. Daily News reports the the mother’s car was stuck in traffic and unable to…
- World News
Thailand’s high-speed railway will carry first passengers in 2023
The first section of the 873 kilometre high-speed railway running between Thailand and China should be operating by 2023. Thailand will now pay for the total cost of the 179 billion baht first section of the high speed rail line, but China is providing the design and will provide the train and carriages. The first 252 kilometre leg, from Bangkok to…
- World News
Thailand industrial property a winner as US-China trade war drags on
Amongst all the bad economic news, Thailand’s industrial property sector is profiting from the protracted US-China trade war, as mainland Chinese manufacturers shift production to ASEAN countries in an attempt to avoid escalating tariffs. Chinese foreign direct investment into the south east Asia sector rose last year by 31.7% to USD 233 million, after declining by 15.7% in 2016-17, according…
- World News
AirAsia X orders 42 new long-haul Airbus jets
PHOTO: AirAsia’s new generation A330neo will be based at Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport – Bernama AirAsia X, the long-haul part of the AirAsia Group, has now finalised a major order with Airbus for 12 more A330-900 and 30 A321XLR aircraft. The contract was signed today by Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, chairman of AirAsia X, along with Guillaume Faury, CEO…
- Crime News
Three Russians arrested over alleged property fraud in Pattaya
PHOTO: PattayaupdateNews Chonburi police have arrested three Russians in the car park of the Ocean Portofino Condo, next to Ocean Marina, in Na Jomtien, south of Pattaya yesterday. A 53 year old man and two women, 52 and 28 years of age. All were named in separate arrest warrants, each for fraud. They were taken to Pattaya police station after…
- Crime News
Large heroin bust announced in Bangkok
PHOTO: Naew Na The deputy national police has announced the arrest of two suspects in two large drug seizures. Heroin weighing 100 kilograms, plus one and a half kilograms of cocaine were seized. Deputy chief Pol Gen Chalermkiat Srivorakhan made the presentation to the media at the Crime Suppression Division headquarters in Bangkok. The media conference went through the long list of…
- Business News
Soaring baht continues to court investors and speculators
The Thai baht continues to be the best performing currency in Asia. On a year-on-year basis it has soared more than 8% against the USD and this year reached a six-year high. But the strong currency threatens the country’s exports and tourism, two major drivers of Thailand’s economy. Thailand continues to have solid economic fundamentals, a high current account surplus and…
