- Environment News
Can we defeat dengue? Mosquito trials raise hopes.
“We have seen a remarkable reduction of dengue cases after the release.” by Jenny Vaughan If you’ve ever experienced a bout of Dengue Fever, this will be welcome news. And if you live and work in the tropics in south east Asia, Dengue looms as a constant threat. Hundreds dead in the Philippines; a threefold increase of cases in Vietnam;…
- World News
Malaysia demands Indonesia acts on smog-belching fires
“An official in Sarawak state on Borneo is demanding Indonesia send face masks and medical supplies to Malaysia for those affected by the pollution.” Malaysia is stepping up pressure on neighbouring Indonesia to tackle huge blazes tearing through its rainforests and smothering Southeast Asia in smog, as fires typically started to clear land for crops send diplomatic tensions soaring. Burning…
- Politics News
MP formally breaks away from the coalition over Thammanat Prompao remarks
PHOTO: “Hello?! Did someone ask me something? Mr. Pichet Sathirachavan, leader of Prachatham Thai party, has formally announced they have decided to break away from the governing coalition to join the independent opposition camp with the New Civilized party. Yesterday PM Prayut Chan-o-cha covered one of his ears with his hand as he pretended not to hear one of many…
- Northern Thailand News
Thai police officer arrested with nearly 200,000 meth pills in his luggage
PHOTO: Thai PBS World A serving policeman has been arrested by police in Chiang Rai province after 198,000 methamphetamine pills were found in his luggage on a Bangkok-bound bus. Mae Sai district policemen at a checkpoint in Tambon Pong-Ngam, stopped a Nakhonchai Tour bus bound for Bangkok from Mae Sai, for a routine check. The officers found a locked suitcase on…
- Chiang Mai News
Dental assistant turns ‘pro’ selling fake retainers and braces
PHOTO: WorkPoint News The Chiang Mai Provincial Public Health Office has arrested an unqualified or registered dental retainer seller that used to work as a dentist assistant. She has been selling the fake retainers to customers online via Facebook. Nattawut Prasertsiripong, from the Department of Health Service Support was contacted to take legal action against the woman making fake retainers…
- Transport News
Phuket’s most expensive car number plate is ‘9999’ costing more than 700K
FILE PHOTO Following the auction for car license plates organised by the Phuket Land Trasport Office over the weekend, it’s been revealed that the number 9999 got the highest bid at 710,000 baht. This year’s auction was for the ‘ขก’ category, which represents ‘treasure, virtue and fortune’, and there were 301 numbers available. The Chief of Phuket Land Transport, Banyat…
- Pattaya News
Pattaya tourists comes off motorcycle at “badly lit” roadworks
PHOTOS: The Pattaya News Rescue services have had to rescue another foreign tourist who hit a sign at some pipe laying works, falling off his bike. The incident happened in Thepprasit Soi 7 at 2.20am this morning. The tourist suffered minor head injuries and road rash. His Yamaha motorcycle was laying on the ground nearby. The tourist was taken to Pattaya…
- Northern Thailand News
UPDATE: Parents report daughter located in Bangkok
UPDATE from earlier story… below • The missing girl has been located in Bangkok, according to her parents • They told police that she has lied to them before and that last night’s story had been fabricated by her • The girl’s boyfriend has returned to his work in Kalasin after hearing his ‘girlfriend’ had been located in Bangkok •…
- Northern Thailand News
Udonthani girl wakes up in a mystery forest after getting on interprovincial bus
PHOTOS: Sanook An Udonthani girl has gone missing since getting on a tour bus heading to neighbouring Kalasin Province. She called her mother and fiancé with “fear in her voice” claiming that she woke up in the middle of a forest with other passengers and had no idea where they were. No one has heard from her, or the other…
- World News
Mugabe’s body leaves Singapore, headed back to Zimbabwe
A hearse carrying the body of Zimbabwe’s ex-president Robert Mugabe left a funeral parlour in Singapore this morning bound for an airport. His body will be repatriated to Zimbabwe for burial. Mugabe, a guerrilla leader who swept to power after Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain and went on to rule for 37 years until he was ousted in 2017, died last Friday,…
- Technology News
iPhone 11 launch – Apple cuts prices, new services
by Glenn Chapman “The new iPhones are jam-packed with new capabilities and an incredible new design.” – Tim Cook Apple unveiled its iPhone 11 models last night (Thai time) with a price cut for the most basic models while also laying out plans for streaming and gaming services as it bids to weather the slump in the global smartphone market.…
- World News
Smoke haze affecting neighbouring countries to Sumatra and Borneo islands
PHOTO: Malaysia’s Kuching on Borneo this week “Hundreds of schools shut as forest-fire haze blankets SE Asia.” Huge fires are raging across vast swathes of Indonesia’s rainforests – some of the world’s biggest – with toxic smog shutting hundreds of schools. Massive jungle areas in Sumatra and Borneo island are ablaze as thousands of personnel battle to quell the fires, frequently…
- World News
Pound lifted by British PM’s latest defeat, Asian equities struggle
The British pound bounced today after UK PM Boris Johnson again failed to get MPs to back a snap election, while Asian equities drifted as investors await a key European Central Bank meeting and developments in the China-US trade talks. Just before Westminster lawmakers broke up for five weeks they inflicted yet another defeat on the new PM, who has…
- Opinion
Thai government introduces new TM30T, to keep track of Thais
PHOTO: One of the new test shopping centre locations for the new Waer Areuw program The Thai government is introducing a new method of cracking down on home-made criminals. In a reversal of its former policy “Good guys in, bad guys in”, the government’s criminal enhancement department is phasing in the new laws that will require Thai to report their…
- World News
Myanmar adopts NASA’s malaria-predicting tech
“Several drug-resistant strains of Malaria are taking hold across south east Asia and it is feared these could migrate to Africa where more than 90% of cases globally occur.” NASA is developing a new technique to forecast malaria outbreaks in Myanmar from space, as the emergence of new drug-resistant strains in Southeast Asia threatens efforts to wipe out the deadly…
- Phuket News
“Don’t extend opening hours to 4am” – Tourist zones
“Think again about extending pub opening hours to 4am in tourist areas”. That’s the advice from Dr Mohamed Fahmy Tale, an advocate for alcohol control, directed to Thailand’s tourism minister, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn. Manager Online says that he wants the government to focus more on safety rather than encouraging more drinking. The Tourism and Sports Minister, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, had proposed an extension…
- Politics News
Opposition says Thammanat should not have been appointed minister
PHOTO: Bangkok Post “It is old stuff from the opposing political group. I know all of them. Don’t pay any attention to them. I do not give them any importance.” A government opposition spokesman, Adisorn Piangkate, says he would not have appointed Captain Thammanat Prompow as deputy agriculture minister if he were the PM due to the minister’s “tainted record”. He…
- Expats
Thai Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce call for overhaul of TM30 laws
PHOTO: Stanley Kang, chairman of the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce in Thailand, spoke to the Bangkok Post about their concerns over the TM30 debacle Speaking to the Bangkok Post, chairman of the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce Stanley Kang, says the government needs to review the enforcement of the draconian TM30 (and TM28) immigration reporting regulations The TM30, and…
- Thai Life
Australian newspaper reports on Thai minister’s criminal drug past
The Deputy Agriculture Minister Thammanat Prompow has had his accounts about his role in a 3.2 kilogram heroin-smuggling ring challenged by an Australian newspaper. The events back in 1993 landed Thammanat in a Sydney jail for four years. Thammanat Prompow is the Palang Pracharath MP for Phayao province in Thialand’s north. The article by the respected Sydney Morning Herald, “From…
- World News
China’s exports fell last month in lead up to next month’s trade talks
China’s exports fell 1% on-year last month amid the bruising trade war with the US that is disrupting markets in the world’s top two economies. The drop comes after a surprise 3.3% rebound in July despite the year-long battle with the US and weakening global demand. But economists cited by Bloomberg had forecast a 2.2% rise ahead of the release of…
- Thailand Weather Updates
Weekend flooding threatens provinces in the Chao Phraya basin
PHOTO: tna.mcot.net The Royal Irrigation Department has issued an urgent flood alert for seven provinces as more water is released from the reservoirs feeding the Chao Phraya dam at Chai Nat province in central Thailand (map below). Residents in the seven provinces are being advised to monitor water levels closely as the water is released. Uthai Thani, Chai Nat, Sing…
- Thailand Weather Updates
Morning peak chaos in Tokyo after typhoon Faxai passes through
by Kyoko Hasegawa, PHOTOS: AFP “Authorities said more than 2,000 people had taken refuge in shelters opened to accommodate those complying with the evacuation advisories.” A powerful typhoon that battered Tokyo overnight with ferocious winds and driving rain caused is causing commuter this morning, with trains halted and more than 100 flights cancelled. Typhoon Faxai, packing winds of up to…
- Northern Thailand News
Flood waters reach Roi Et in Thailand’s north-east
PHOTOS: Thai Rath Run-off from last week’s heavy rains around Khon Kaen and parts of the north-east, have now made their way to the province of Roi-Et, south east of Khon Kaen. A large number of households and farming areas are now flooded after concrete barriers in Nong Hin Village of Panomprai District were breached by strong currents, according to…
- World News
Suicide bomber explodes bomb at Philippine army base, Jolo Island
PHOTO: AFP/Ted Aljibe “No group has yet claimed the attack, which came a day after an IS-claimed bombing wounded eight at a market on the island of Mindanao.” A suicide bomber, dressed in a traditional Muslim woman’s abaya gown, has died after detonating a bomb outside a military camp in the southern Philippines. No other casualties were reported, authorities said.…
- World News
“If you want to shoot me, get on with it,” British grandmother
A British woman facing the firing squad in Indonesia told British reporters from her Bali prison “if you want to shoot me get on with it”. She faces execution for drug smuggling. The 62 year old drug mule grandmother has abandoned any further legal battles to avoid a date with the firing squad. Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced to death for attempting…
- World News
Non! French say no to a Brexit extension beyond October 31
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says the French government has rejected any further delays to Britain’s exit from the EU, now scheduled for October 31. He acknowledged that the issue is now clouded by the political turmoil in London. The past week of turmoil in the British parliament has forced MPs to cross the floor and bring about three…
- World News
450 vaping-related cases now reported in the US, 3 deaths, possible links to THC
…and US health officials are trying to isolate the possible causes and if they can link the cases to any particular chemical or product vapers use. Vaping is currently illegal in Thailand with tourists prevented bringing in vaping-related products and refills, and crackdowns on local sellers frequent. Meanwhile, US health officials say they’re now aware of at least 450 possible…
- Phuket News
Phuket’s Katathani Beach Resort land under investigation
The Katathani Phuket Beach Resort, sprawled along Kata Noi’s small beach on Phuket, is the latest subject of investigation by the Phuket Provincial Land Office. The investigation team has been given 30 days to complete its review by the Phuket Governor. The latest investigations are the latest in a tit-for-tat battle between the owners of the Katathani Phuket Beach Resort…
- Crime News
Suvarnabhumi baggage handler arrested over 20,000 baht theft
PHOTO: sanook.com A South Korean tourist was savvy enough to photograph all her holiday money before travelling to Thialand. Her precaution has led to the arrest of a baggage handler at Suvarnabhumi. The South Korean woman took the precaution of photographing all her Thai baht before putting it in a wallet in checked luggage on her flight. When Lee Soyeong travelled…
- Technology News
iPhone shares the spotlight with new services at Apple’s annual showcase
by Glenn Chapman The iPhone will be front and center at Apple’s upcoming media presentation even as the California tech giant steps up its efforts in content and services for its devices. In its trademark, tight-lipped style, Apple disclosed little about its plans for Tuesday’s event at its headquarters in the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino. For years now, Apple…
