Chiang Rai

Chiang Rai: Weather reclaims the Tham Luang cave area

Published

2 months ago

July 12, 2018

The Thaiger

One day out and the weather has reclaimed the Tham Luang caves in northern Thailand. The Nang Non mountains have been shrouded in thick cloud and mist today after heavy rain started again last night.

The media is still stationed in a muddy area at the Phongpha Sub-district Administration Offices in Mae Sai district. Although the soccer team and the doctor and Seals who stayed with them are safe, the equipment still has to be removed and the cave returned to normal.

Reporters have been told that just an hour after the last person left the cave on Tuesday night the waters rose very quickly by a metre drowning some of the equipment, and right now rescuers are not able to go in and bring them out.

The timing, it seems, was perfect.

Chiang Rai

Unsworth sues Musk over ‘pedo’ slur

Published

2 days ago

September 18, 2018

The Thaiger

The British cave expert who was part of the international rescue team helping to bring the 13 Mu Pa footballers out of the Tham Luang caves in July, has sued Tesla founder Elon Musk for calling him a "pedo guy" and a "child rapist", amongst other insults in a series of Tweets."

The defamation suit has been filed in LA by Vernon Unsworth after the very public spat between the two. It followed Musk travelling to Thailand and offering to assist in rescue efforts. He brought along a 'mini submarine' and showed it to the local rescuers who dismissed it as inappropriate for the rescue at hand.

Unsworth described Musk's effort as a "PR stunt". Musk fired back on Twitter by calling Unsworth a "pedo guy," a slur referring to Unsworth as being a pedophile. The assertions were without any basis in fact.

Musk, the tech guru behind Tesla and private space firm SpaceX, apologised days later. Investors in his business ventures called him ou...

Business

Chiang Rai Governor Prajon hosts seminar to develop SEZs in northern Thailand

Published

1 week ago

September 13, 2018

The Thaiger

PHOTO: Chiang Rai Times

Chiang Rai Governor Prajon Prachsakul presided over the opening of the Special Economic Zone Policy Committee seminar held at the Teak Garden Resort. The seminar was designed to mobilise the development of special economic zones and promote public participation in the northern province project.

According to the Chiang Rai Times, Governor Prajon told attendees that the Committeee wants special economic zones to be established in Mae Sai, Chiang Saen and Chiang Khong districts - right on the border of Thailand’s neighboring countries with potential to become gateways to the Chinese market.

Governor Prajon claims farmers’ unwillingness to give up their farmlands and their demand for expensive compensation in exchange for land reclamation was making it impossible to set up the special economic zones (SEZs) over the past three years. Provincial officials had already been in discussions with Ministry of the Inte...

Chiang Rai

Police in Phayao chase an ambulance loaded with illicit drugs

Published

1 week ago

September 10, 2018

The Thaiger & The Nation

A dramatic chase in Phayao’s Dok Khamtai district last night (Sunday) has resulted in police seizing half a million methamphetamine pills, a large amount of crystal methamphetamine and ketamine... from an ambulance.

The twist is that the ambulance was being used by the drug-trafficking gang as a cover-up for their operation.

The Nation reports that Phayao police were alerted at 8.30pm by the Provincial Police Region 5’s narcotics suppression team, which had tailed two suspicious vehicles – a van followed by an ambulance – from Chiang Rai into Phayao.

They were asked to provide back-up as the suspects, realising they were being followed, had tried to flee their pursuers.

Local police quickly set up along the expected escape route, spotted the two target vehicles in Soi Sri Samran, and tried to flag them down for questioning. The two vehicles, far from slowing down, sped up instead.

The then tried ...