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Thailand hot news, breaking stories, crime, politics, tourism, and business—stay updated with in-depth reports and exclusive interviews on the latest events across the country. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Thailand news source.

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    What do you need before moving from the US to Thailand?

    The Thaiger key takeaways The most common medical emergencies for expats in Thailand include motorcycle accidents, tropical diseases, and food or water-borne illnesses. Air pollution and heat-related conditions like heatstroke also pose serious seasonal health risks, especially in northern and...

  • Thai Baht on the slide over fears of spread of Coronavirus outside China | Thaiger

    Thai Baht on the slide over fears of spread of Coronavirus outside China

    What goes up must go down. The Thai baht has continued to weaken against leading international currencies, trading at 31.70 to the US$ in yesterday’s trade. The falls reflect regional concern over the coronavirus spreading beyond China. In the past few days both central South Korea and parts of northern Italy have reported outbreaks of the virus. Kasikorn Research Centre…

  • Thai stocks plummet nearly 4% in Monday SET trading | Thaiger

    Thai stocks plummet nearly 4% in Monday SET trading

    The Stock Exchange of Thailand finished yesterday at 1,435.56 points, a decrease of 59.5 points, or nearly 4% – that’s compared to Friday’s close on the SET. The daily trade volume for Monday was 76.431 billion baht, with an index high of 1,474.12 and a low of 1,435.56. Asian bourses were hammered as confidence was inhibited by rising cases of the…

  • At least 30 injured in head-on train collision | Thaiger

    At least 30 injured in head-on train collision

    A train collision yesterday at Pak Tho station in Ratcha Buri province, just west of Bangkok, has injured at least 30 people, including three railway staff. Traffic Police radio and local Jor Sor 100 radio reported the crash between a passenger express train and a freight train express train, which took place around 6:30pm. Thai media report that station staff…

  • Thailand News Today – First episode of a new daily TV program | Thaiger

    Thailand News Today – First episode of a new daily TV program

    Thai exports figures rise in January Whilst there’s been plenty of economic challenges around for Thailand, including the high Thai baht and a levelling out of tourist arrivals, exports for January 2020 unexpectedly rose according to ministry figures. It’s the first rise in six months, and an increase of 3.35% from the exports 12 months earlier. Reuters had earlier forecast…

  • Thai exports figures rise in January | Thaiger

    Thai exports figures rise in January

    Whilst there’s been plenty of economic challenges around for Thailand, including the high Thai baht and a levelling out of tourist arrivals, exports for January 2020 unexpectedly rose according to ministry figures. It’s the first rise in six months, and an increase of 3.35% from the exports 12 months earlier. The customs-cleared export numbers have been boosted by higher shipments…

  • Songkran around Thailand – where can you get wet in 2020? | Thaiger

    Songkran around Thailand – where can you get wet in 2020?

    PLEASE NOTE: Some of these scheduled activities may change or be altered due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. Songkran Festival is an event where an all-out water battle and ancient traditions somehow blend in annual celebration. It’s unlike anything else in the world. And it’s wet. Venturing out onto Thailand’s streets on April 13 is an open invitation to have a…

  • 2 dead, 18 injured in Nakhon Si Thammarat bus crash | Thaiger

    2 dead, 18 injured in Nakhon Si Thammarat bus crash

    Two people have been killed and 18 more inured in a bus crash today in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat. Police say the bus overturned after sliding backward while ascending a steep hill in Khanom district, killing two passengers and injuring 18. The incident occurred at about 11:30am while the bus was transporting tourists back to Songkhla province…

  • Top 10 dos and don’ts for the 2020 Songkran festival | Thaiger

    Top 10 dos and don’ts for the 2020 Songkran festival

    Heading to Thailand for the 2020 Songkran festival? Want to know the dates, where to go and the dos and don’ts for this amazing water festival in Thailand? Songkran is a single name given to a series of concurrent events – an astrological ‘new year’, a Buddhist festival, the ‘change’ from dry season to wet season and a humongous water…

  • Future Forward ruling sparks flash mob at Bangkok’s Thammasat U. | Thaiger

    Future Forward ruling sparks flash mob at Bangkok’s Thammasat U.

    The Student Union of Thailand held a brief rally at the campus of Thammasat University yesterday, to protest the Constitutional Court’s decision to dissolve the Future Forward party, strip its MPs of their status and and ban its executive committee members from politics for ten years. Students and members of the public who support the now-defunct party attended, lighting candles…

  • US ships arrive for Cobra Gold 2020 | Thaiger

    US ships arrive for Cobra Gold 2020

    Ships from the US Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) have arrived in Thailand in preparation for Exercise Cobra Gold 2020. Cobra Gold is a multi-country war game conducted every year in Thailand. Cobra Gold 2020 will be held starting Tuesday and run to March 6. Rear Admiral Fred Kacher, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 7, had this to say: “Working with…

  • Pregnant woman injured, boy killed as fire-damaged tree collapses on their truck | Thaiger

    Pregnant woman injured, boy killed as fire-damaged tree collapses on their truck

    A boy is dead and a pregnant woman seriously injured after a roadside tree broke and fell on their pickup truck in the western province of Kanchanaburi yesterday. Police say the incident occurred at about 3:30pm while 24 year old Kanokkorn Sangkhachi was driving a Nissan Navara pickup along Highway 323. She was accompanied by her 12 year old brother,…

  • Suspected forest fire arsonist arrested in Lampang | Thaiger

    Suspected forest fire arsonist arrested in Lampang

    Despite prohibitions on agricultural burning, wildfires continue ravaging forests across Thailand’s North. Now, police have arrested an arsonist suspected of starting forest fires in the northern province of Lampang. Forest rangers suspect he started fires in the Mae Jang forest reserve. Udomsilp Thithamma was arrested at his shelter in the compound of a rock crushing plant. Bundles of mosquito repellent…

  • Phuket calls for immediate government help over coronavirus impact | Thaiger

    Phuket calls for immediate government help over coronavirus impact

    Phuket’s Chamber of Commerce has asked the Thai govenment for swift action to help cope with the economic impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus, particularly on tourism. According to Chamber president Thanusak Phungdet: “I explained to Tourism Committee President Surasak Phanchalernworakul about the situation and how coronavirus is affecting tourism and business in Phuket. I requested them to share this information with…

  • US embassy, Amnesty International oppose Future Forward dissolution decision | Thaiger

    US embassy, Amnesty International oppose Future Forward dissolution decision

    In a statement today, the US embassy in Bangkok said the Constitutional Court’s decision to dissolve the Future Forward party risks disenfranchising more than six million Thai voters who voted for the party in last March’s general election. “The United States strongly supports democratic governance around the world, and appreciates Thailand’s recent seating of a democratically elected government. While the…

  • American man arrested for theft at Phuket mall | Thaiger

    American man arrested for theft at Phuket mall

    An American man has been arrested for theft after allegedly stealing three designer wallets from a shop at Phuket’s Central Floresta shopping mall. Twenty-one year old Christopher Braman was arrested at the shopping centre in tambon Ratsada on charges of theft and overstaying his visa, police said yesterday. After the arrest, police took Braman him to his rented room in…

  • Disbanded Future Forward Party vows to fight on | Thaiger

    Disbanded Future Forward Party vows to fight on

    Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, leader of the Future Forward Party (FFP), disbanded yesterday by the Constitutional Court, has vowed to continue fighting and announced the formation of “the Group of Future Forward,” which he says will continue the campaign to get Thailand back on the road to democracy. He said leaders of the Future Forward Party have no intention of giving up…

  • Lop Buri gold shop gunman pleads guilty to all nine charges | Thaiger

    Lop Buri gold shop gunman pleads guilty to all nine charges

    The school principal, who gunned down three people, including a 2 year old boy, and injured four others during a robbery in Lop Buri province on January 9, has pleaded guilty to all charges. 38 year old Prasitthichai Khaokaew, stormed into the Robinsons shopping centre and strode up to the Aurora Gold Shop brandishing a pistol and silencer and calmly…

  • Thai MotoGP will go ahead after coronavirus check | Thaiger

    Thai MotoGP will go ahead after coronavirus check

    Race organisers yesterday announced that The Thailand MotoGP race in March will go ahead as planned, saying the government has decided theere is “no major risk” from the COVID-19 coronavirus. A statement from organisers of the race in Buri Ram on March 22 said: “With the outbreak of coronavirus affecting a number of locations and events worldwide, the decision required…

  • Police end investigation into brutal attack on activist “Ja New” | Thaiger

    Police end investigation into brutal attack on activist “Ja New”

    Bangkok police have abruptly suspended their investigation into the brutal attack on a political activist and pro-democracy leader in June of last year. Four men beat Sirawith “Ja New” with baseball bats on a main road in Bangkok’s Min Buri area on June 28. Despite having security camera footage of the attack, Bangkok police say they are unable to identify…

  • UPDATE: Future Future dissolved, MPs stripped of parliamentary status | Thaiger

    UPDATE: Future Future dissolved, MPs stripped of parliamentary status

    UPDATE: The Constitutional Court has dissolved Thailand’s Future Forward political Party after finding it guilty of breaking the laws pertaining to loans, specifically from its leader Thanathorn Jungroongruangkit. The court has also ordered MPs of the party’s executive stripped of their parliamentary status and banned from politics for 10 years. Party leader Thanathorn and party supporters gathered at the headquarters in…

  • Death penalty sought for Lop Buri gold shop shooter | Thaiger

    Death penalty sought for Lop Buri gold shop shooter

    Thai Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a school director who killed three people, including a two year old boy, in a gold shop robbery in Lop Buri last month. Prasittichai Khaokaew will face execution for his “horrific actions,” prosecutors say. The Thai Criminal Court was asked yesterday to try the 38 year old for premeditated murder over the…

  • UPDATE: Thai immigration scraps TM28 reporting requirements | Thaiger

    UPDATE: Thai immigration scraps TM28 reporting requirements

    Well, for most foreigners anyway (full list of exemptions below)… Thai immigration have scrapped the TM28 form’s change-of-address reporting requirements for all but a few foreigners. The changes came into effect, with little fanfare, on January 28. The TM28 is still listed on the Immigration website but there’s now a long list of exceptions added which means that almost no…

  • Baht remains strong despite virus, economic slowdown | Thaiger

    Baht remains strong despite virus, economic slowdown

    The minutes of today’s meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Thailand predict the Thai economy will expand at a much lower rate in 2020 than previously forecast, and far below its full potential. The discrepancy is mainly attributed to the combined impact of the coronavirus outbreak, delay to enactment of the Annual Budget Expenditure Act, and…

  • Abbot who embezzled 69.7 million baht gets fines, suspended sentence | Thaiger

    Abbot who embezzled 69.7 million baht gets fines, suspended sentence

    An ex-abbot of Wat Sa Ket (Golden Mount Temple), found guilty of embezzling 69.7 million baht in temple funds, has been fined 27,000 baht and given a jail term of 36 months, suspended. The sentence was handed down at the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases yesterday. The court found 64 year old Thongchai Sukkho guilty of “malfeasance.”…

  • Dutchman’s killer, sentenced to death in absentia, arrested after 13 years on the run | Thaiger

    Dutchman’s killer, sentenced to death in absentia, arrested after 13 years on the run

    A former municipal councillor in the southern Chumphon province, sentenced to death in absentia for the murder of a wealthy Dutchman, was arrested yesterday after 13 years on the run. 54 year old Anupong Suthani was arrested in the northern province of Phrae. He was wanted on an murder arrest warrant issued by the Pattaya provincial court in December 2007.…

  • Korean tourist allegedly attacked in Pattaya after refusing to give money to a Thai woman | Thaiger

    Korean tourist allegedly attacked in Pattaya after refusing to give money to a Thai woman

    UPDATE: The Pattaya News now reports that the suspects in the case have apologised and the matter has been settled amicably. Read the full story HERE. ORIGINAL STORY: A Korean man was allegedly attacked by a group of Thais after refusing to give money to a woman he met at a beer bar in Pattaya. 57 year old Sung Ho…

  • Rescue worker struck and killed at accident scene | Thaiger

    Rescue worker struck and killed at accident scene

    A member of a rescue unit is dead after he was hit by a speeding pickup truck while helping victims at an accident scene in the western province of Prachuap Khiri Khan yesterday. Police identified the victim as Atthawut Nubanko of the Sawang Phae Paisan Thammasathan rescue unit. Another rescuer from the same team, Likit Inklam, told police that he…

  • Bangkok gunman arrested this morning in Phetchaburi | Thaiger

    Bangkok gunman arrested this morning in Phetchaburi

    A lone, jealous gunman, who killed his ex-wife in her place of employment in a shopping centre near Victory Monument yesterday afternoon, has been arrested. The 34 year old gunman was arrested in a home in Phetchaburi, south west of Bangkok, at 4.30am today. He has been charged with pre-meditated murder, illegal possession of a weapon and carrying a gun…

  • PM says no to 9 day holiday | Thaiger

    PM says no to 9 day holiday

    Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has dismissed the idea of extending the Songkran Festival holiday to nine days. The PM says the idea was not brought up at a government cabinet meeting yesterday and will not be discussed any further. Prayut said he personally does not agree with a longer Songkran holiday and doesn’t believe it would have a great effect…

  • Gunman allegedly shoots and kills ex-wife at mall in Bangkok, another injured | Thaiger

    Gunman allegedly shoots and kills ex-wife at mall in Bangkok, another injured

    Bangkok police report that a woman was shot and killed and a bystander wounded after a man opened fire in a shopping centre this afternoon. The gunman fled the scene straight after the shooting. He’s still at large. The incident took place in front of a beauty clinic inside Century Movie Plaza, near the Victory Monument. The clinic is identified…