Hot News
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Sponsored Top 10 reasons for expats to get a comprehensive health insurance in Thailand
Moving to Thailand offers a prospect full of excitement and adventure, but in the same vein, if any injuries were to occur (and god forbid it does), the local healthcare system can be confusing at first glance for many expats...
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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,…
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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…
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Interior ministry bans “crane claw” game machines as gambling tools
Gambling, other than betting on horse races or the government-sponsored lottery, has been prohibited in Thailand since the Gambling Act 1935. Now the government has banned the familiar “claw crane” machines found at many shopping malls and supermarkets, calling them “gambling tools.” The order was signed by the acting permanent secretary of the interior on Wednesday. The order was issued…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Police chief denies officers killed suspect
“We didn’t kill him, he killed himself” The police chief in Nonthaburi, just northwest of Bangkok, denies claims that one of his men kicked a motorcyclist off his bike. The 28 year old man, identified only as “Pisanu,” died after he fell off his Honda Wave motorbike. He was fleeing a police checkpoint at the time. He suffered head injuries…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Drink-driving professor crashes, injures 2 police and elderly woman
A university professor has been arrested for drink driving in Samut Prakan, just south of Bangkok, after he crashed into a police motorcycle. Two police officers and an elderly woman were injured in the incident. Police and a rescue team were called to the scene and discovered a police motorbike lying on the road and 2 injured officers. The injured…
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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…
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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…
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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.”…
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Asset World says hotel bookings in Thailand starting to recover
The hotel development unit of billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, Thailand’s richest man, says bookings have begun to recover from the disruption caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. The epidemic has impacted some 60% of the hotel and retail properties in Asset World Corp’s portfolio, deterring tourism and causing events to be cancelled, according to CEO Wallapa Traisorat. “We’re starting to see…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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Students turn themselves in after brutally beating teacher
Five men including two minors surrendered to police after allegedly attacking a 67 year old computer teacher, identified as Weerapong Masusai, in northeastern Thailand. The five surrendered to police in Nakhon Phanom yesterday morning. Police identified the suspected attackers as 20 year old Chokchai Mapan, 22 year old Natthawut Taiboontiam, 23 year old Laisue Yolai, and two minors aged between…
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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…
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1 dead, 1 injured in Bangkok mall shooting, gunman escapes
One woman is dead and a bystander injured after a gunman opened fire at a shopping mall in downtown Bangkok on this afternoon. The incident occurred in front of a beauty clinic inside Century Movies Plaza, just steps away from a tourist shopping area. The victim killed was a 28 year old employee of the clinic, while the injured victim…
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Air purifiers to be added to the top of Bangkok buses. Really…
“It is like a single dead pixel on your phone, hardly noticeable” Air purifiers sitting on tops of buses. Apparently this is another solution for Bangkok’s air pollution problems. Sounds like the people selling the mobile bus-top air purifiers have a very convincing sales person! But Bangkok’s Mass Transit Authority director Surachai Eamvachirasakul says the department will go ahead with plans…
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National park staff scramble to prevent more wildfires as dry season approaches
Phu Kradueng National Park officials told the press today that although they had contained the bushfire that started on Sunday and damaged over 3,400 rai of park forests, they still need to build additional firebreaks to prevent a reoccurrence, which is more likely during the dry season. “Currently we have only one tractor truck to build the firebreaks. It has…
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Chiang Mai blanketed in smoke as fires burn around the province
It’s smoggy, smokey and generally unpleasant in northern Thailand today. But don’t take our word for it, look up to the skies around Chiang Mai or check the copious amounts of graphic evidence, freely available, about the seriousness of the fires, almost all deliberately lit, around the region. “It’s been bad all morning and there’s a noticeable smell of smoke…
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World travel suffers as coronavirus outbreak drags on
The Public Health Ministry is asking Thais planning trips to Japan and Singapore to reschedule their visits, saying that travellers need to be aware of the rising number of people infected by the coronavirus (Covid-19) in those two countries. Dr Sukhum Kanchanapima, the permanent secretary at the Thai Public Health Ministry, says the coronavirus outbreak had reached the third stage…
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Thai government ponders nine day Songkran holiday
With the impact of the coronavirus cutting deep into the Thai tourism industry, and tourism accounting for around 18% of the Thai GDP, the government are eyeing some additional public holidays to boost spending and activity. The Thai PM announced yesterday that the government is considering adding two public holidays to the annual Songkran festival. Songkran, the Thai new year…
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Chon Buri sugarcane vendor dragged behind motorbike after thief steals his phone
An elderly sugarcane vendor in Chon Buri province’s Sattahip district sufferered multiple injuries when a potential customer stole his phone and tried to speed off on his motorbike, leading the vendor to grab onto the bike in a desperate attempt to to get it phone back. 63 year old Chaiyapat Warawan says a young Thai man about 20 years old…
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Countdown to reopening – contracts awards for new Maya Bay infrastructure
by Sawat, Five Star Thailand Tours New plans are now being enacted which will lead to the re-opening of Maya Bay to tourism again. With a new development project in the works, it won’t be long until visitors will once again be able to visit ‘The Beach’, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. Maya Bay was shut down to…
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General Motors pulling out of Thailand
General Motors announced yesterday that it’s pulling out of “markets that don’t produce adequate returns on investments,” namely Thailand, New Zealand and Australia. The carmaker said in a statement that it will wind down sales, engineering and design operations for its historic Holden brand in Australia and New Zealand in 2021. It also plans to sell its Rayong factory in…
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Cooler weather in north, cloud and possible rain in south
The TMD (Thailand Meteorological Department) says that another high-pressure system originating in China is covering Thailand’s north-east and affecting weather in the South China Sea, while weak easterly winds continue to prevail across the Gulf of Thailand. The forecast is that cool to cold conditions will prevails in the mornings across the North and the Northeast. Temperatures in the North…
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