Hot News
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South Korean President to visit Thailand next week
The South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Madame Kim Jung-sook have accepted an invitation to visit Thailand for three days from September 1. During the visit, President Moon will deliver a keynote speech at the Thailand-Korean Business Forum. The president will meet PM Prayut Chan-o-cha in general discussions to strengthen the strategic partnership between the Republic of Korea and Thailand.…
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Autopsy on dead 15 year old Hawksbill sea turtle held today
PHOTO: Thai PBS World Veterinarians from the sea turtle hospital at Sattahip naval base in Chon Buri, south of Pattaya on the Gulf of Thailand, are doing an autopsy on a dead endangered Hawksbill sea turtle. The one metre long and 40 kilogram dead sea turtle, believed to be about 15 years old, was found floating near Koh Juang in…
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Tributes paid to Amitpal Singh Bajaj, killed at Centara Grand hotel in Phuket
PHOTO: Southall Sikh Temple Tributes are being paid to the British father, Amitpal Singh Bajaj, who was reportedly attacked and killed trying to protect his family at a beach hotel in Phuket. The incident followed a next door guest reacting badly to a noise complaint and allegedly barging into the family room and attacking Amitpal. Amitpal, from Southall in west…
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Leonardo’s Instagram post draws attention to Thailand’s dugongs
Hollywood star, environmentalist and Instagrammer, Leonardo DiCaprio, has posted the story of Marium the baby dugong in Thailand who died after ingesting plastic. “A beloved baby marine mammal in Thailand has died after consuming plastic and experiencing shock,” he wrote in his instagram post, referring to Thai officials’ announcement on Saturday of the death of the dugong. “The young dugong,…
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Is it a motorcycle? Is it a delivery? Is it a taxi? No, it’s Line Man
Line Man, part of the Line message App universe of services, is cutting into other well-known brands in the Thai market by providing a variety of services, including food delivery, taxi-hailing, parcel and convenience goods. But Line is able to expand its businesses based on its already huge subscriber base in Thailand. Lin is the most popular messaging App used in…
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Phuket’s water bosses claim there will be enough water
PHOTO: Bang Neow Dam in Thalang, just a few muddy ponds Well into the second half of the Phuket wet season and the three main dams are well below capacity, Bang Wad Dam just over 13% capacity and the Bang Neow Dam in Thalang district around 5%, mostly unusable muddy ponds. The newer Khlong Katha in Chalong is at a…
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Airports of Thailand block entrance to new Central Village at Suvarnabhumi
PHOTO: The Nation Please be seated and fasten your seat belts due to severe turbulence at the front of the almost-open Central Village “luxury outlet” shopping area next to Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok. A dispute between Airports of Thailand and Central Pattana, the owners of Central Village, has hit some mid-air turbulence after AOT officials set up tents blocking the entrance…
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Department of Land Transport vows to get tough on public transportation in Thailand
PHOTO: Wikipedia A major crackdown is planned on the country’s public transport, following orders from Thailand’s new transport minister, Saysayam Chidchob. It’s understood this will even include asking passengers in public transport vehicles if they feel they’re being driven safely. If they don’t, the driver can be prohibited from going any further. In addition, drivers who are found to be…
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British man stuck in Thailand, facing jail for defending himself
A British man, beaten up by a gang of Thai “thugs”, is facing jail after throwing punches in self-defence. 38 year old Luke Thornton was kicked and punched in the face and repeatedly knocked out in the assault. He was visiting his wife Sayforn Phetkajang in the village of Pai, north west of Chiang Mai. At the time reports in Thai media…
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Hua Hin to sterilise 600 monkeys in effort to control numbers
PHOTO: Wikipedia Thai PBS World reports that Hua Hin is launching a mass sterilisation of monkeys in an effort to manage the population. The programme is being run by Thailand’s National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation department, and will see 600 long-tailed macaque monkeys sterilised. The monkeys are in the Khao Takiab and Khan Hin Lek Fai hill of Hua…
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Norwegian out on bail following death of British man at Centara Grand Resort in Phuket
SCREENSHOT: bbc.com The bbc.com are reporting that a British man died at the Centara Grand Hotel in Phuket in a fight after telling another guest to “keep the noise down” as his wife and son tried to sleep, according to the man’s family. The details in the BBC report conflict with earlier local reports out of Phuket. The BBC report…
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Huawei technology working with the ‘smart city’ project in Phuket
Huawei Technologies impressed participants at this week’s ASEAN Smart Cities Network Conference & Exhibition in Bangkok with its white paper on smart city development in Phuket. The paper aims to drive Thailand 4.0 initiatives to pave the way for major digital and infrastructure development in Phuket, one of Thailand’s pilot smart cities, and to provide insights and guidance on an…
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Thai DJ rounds up stray cats then films killing them for payment
PHOTOS: khaosod.co.th A female DJ has been charged over the killing of 27 stray cats at her home in Thon Buri, according to Khao Sod, a Thai online news portal. According to the police investigation, Miss Wararat Krasae, better known as ‘DJ Sun’, picked up stray cats found on the streets into her home before killing them. The arrest followed…
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Thai’s go west during rainy season – study
Thailand’s rainy season might be bad for the country’s beach hot spots but is typically associated with travel to the western regions of the country, where nature becomes its most beautiful during the period. New data from Hotels.com reveals a 26% jump in searches among Thai travellers for accommodation in the Western region over the past 12 months. The data…
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Thai finance minister confident GDP will pick up next quarter
Deputy PM Somkid Jatusripitak says he is confident Thailand’s gross domestic product will pick up in the fourth quarter as a result of the launch of 316 billion baht economic stimulus package from the Thai government. He claims the new rice price guarantee scheme will also assist the agricultural sector. The Cabinet approved the new packages at its Tuesday meeting.…
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Two people and 1,000 chickens die in Pathum Thani collision
PHOTO: คนช่วยคน จ.ปทุมธานี สายด่วน 1669 Two trailer trucks have collided in Pathum Thani, to the north of Bangkok, killing two people and around 1,000 chickens. The driver and a female passenger were heard screaming for help as their vehicle burst into flames. The chicken were being transported in the back of the truck. Police were alerted at 3.10am about the…
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Biologist calls on Thailand to list all sharks as endangered
PHOTO: Wikipedia Marine biologist Thon Thamrongnawasawat, insists Thailand must place all shark species on its list of endangered animals. His warning is accompanied by Facebook photos showing chopped up blacktip reef sharks being sold on Koh Lanta, in Krabi province. As black tip reef sharks are not listed as endangered, no law is currently being broken. And while the waters…
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Dead deer found in Thai national park with 3 kilos of plastic bags in its stomach
PHOTO: Coconuts Bangkok Plastic bags continue to take their toll, and not just on marine life. A dead deer has been found in Khao Yai National Park, central Thailand, with 3 kilos of plastic bags inside it. The deer died after eating plastic bags and plastic cutlery left behind by visitors to the national park. The heart-breaking photos were posted…
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British tourist killed at Phuket resort, Norwegian charged
PHOTO: Tourist Assistance Centre A late night fight that broke out at a Karon resort has ended in a Norwegian man killing a British tourist. The fight started at 4.00am, when British national Amitpal Singh Bajaj, who was on holiday with his Singaporean wife and two young children, confronted Roger Bullman over the amount of noise coming from his room.…
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The second baby dugong ‘Yamil’ dies in Phuket
The second young dugong, being cared for by vets at the Phuket Marine Biological Centre, has died. Yamil, the baby dugong stranded on a Krabi beach on July 1, died of “shock and cardiac arrest” last night (Thursday) after suffering indigestion and gastroparesis. The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources report that Yamil was sent from the Phuket Marine Biological…
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Thai government to consider bringing forward plastics ban
That’s a ban on of single-use plastic bags, styrofoam (polystyrene) boxes, plastic straws and single-use plastic cups In a surprise announcement, the Thai Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment says they’re considering bringing forward, by 1-2 years, a complete ban on the use of the key plastic polluters. Varawut Silpa-archa, the Natural Resources and Environment Minister, says the department’s proposal,…
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More than four million guests stayed in an Airbnb on August 10, 2019
“Airbnb has created an opportunity to meet people from all around the world.” – Pim, an Airbnb Host in Thailand Exactly 11 years since Airbnb was founded, the home-sharing hospitality company and ‘accommodation disrupters’ celebrated its biggest night ever, with more than 4 million people spending the night in an Airbnb listing on August 10, 2019. To date, there has…
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Koh Phangan get a fully licensed International School opening next month
Si Ri Panya International School announced this week they have received their license from the Thai Ministry of Education and will open as the first official international school on Koh Phangan on September 4. In an important first for the Gulf island, a ferry ride from Koh Samui or the mainland, the school is now licensed to teach a full…
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Arrival projections for Thai tourism downgraded for 2019
Thailand’s Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn has downgraded the forecast for foreign arrivals this year to a range of 39-39.8 million. This is down from the upbeat projections at the start of the year that 40.2 million tourists would arrive in the Land of Smiles. Thai tourism for the first half of 2019 grew only 1.4%, less than expected, prompting…
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What did this Bangkok homeowner find on their couch?
PHOTOS: Kapook The owner of a Bangkok house has returned home to find this on their couch… a) a piece of left-over pizza? b) a thousand baht note behind one of the pillows” c) a 2 metre monitor lizard sleeping peacefully? The correct answer is ‘c’. The home-owner of a house in Suksawat 26 walked inside, turned on the light,…
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Motorbike riders on Bangkok sidewalk told where to go
Internet users in Thailand are cheering a Japanese student, currently studying at Kasetsart University in Sakon Nakhon province, north-east Thailand, who stood up to two motorbikes trying to make her move out of the way so they could continue driving on a sidewalk whilst she was in Bangkok. On Wednesday, a Facebook video went viral showing the student waiting on…
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Thai coalition government may not last more than two years, experts caution
PHOTO: The Nation Economic concerns and doubts over the government’s legitimacy may mean it only maintains a grip on power for two years, according to academics. The situation is not helped by Deputy PM General Prawit Wongsuwan being made chief strategist of the Phalang Pracharat party. According to Titipol Phakdeewanich, Dean of Ubon Ratchathani University’s Political Science faculty, this only…
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Some Mac Book Pros banned on Thai Airways flights to the EU
Thai Airways is telling passengers travelling on their fleet that some Apple MacBook Pro notebooks, distributed between 2015 to 2017, won’t be allowed on flights to and from EU countries. According to the Bangkok Post, the vice president of Thai Airways’ aviation safety department, Flt Lt Prathana Pattanasiri, claims the flag carrier is banning MacBook Pro 15-inch notebooks purchased between September…
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Central opens first luxury outlet at Suvarnabhumi on August 31
Central Village, “Thailand’s first international luxury outlet”, located near Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, will officially open on August 31. The Nation reports that the design of the 5 billion baht facility, owned by the Central Pattana group, will “highlight Thai architecture and cultural identities” and shoppers will find at least 130 well known international luxury and lifestyle brands. “More than half…
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Thailand Prime Minister rejects calls to ban plastic bags
PHOTO: Chiang Rai Times In what some may see as a baffling contradiction, Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha promised to protect marine life, while simultaneously rejecting an increasing number of calls for a ban on single-use plastic bags. Following the death of Marium, a young dugong who had ingested plastic waste, the PM says he has ordered the agencies concerned to…
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