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Blazing opportunity: Four Twenty Thailand offers franchise programme
Did you know that Four Twenty, Thailand’s premier cannabis brand, has a franchise programme? That’s right, you can now join their efforts to bring high-quality cannabis products and a vibrant community experience to more locations across Thailand. Four Twenty has...
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German tourist in Phuket cleared of COVID-19 infection
A German tourist who arrived from Singapore last Thursday with a fever and a runny nose and put into isolation late last, has now been discharged from hospital after testing negative for the COVID-19 coronavirus. Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO) Chief Thanit Sermkaew made the announcement today in response to state news agency MCOT’s report on Sunday night that a…
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Saudi man flees Pattaya hospital after alleged attackers show evidence of his debt
A Saudi Arabian man, who was beaten by assailants in Pattaya claiming to be police, has now fled the hospital where he was being treated for his injuries. A Pattaya police spokesman has denied that any officers were involved in the brawl and says police are seeking the man, thought to be in hiding in Pattaya. The Saudi man was…
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Man arrested with 44 kilograms of marijuana in Phuket
A 60 year old man is in custody after he was found collecting 44 kilograms of dried marijuana, valued at about 400,000 baht, from a parcel delivery company in Phuket. Police told a press conference yesterday that officers got a tip that a large shipment of marijuana would arrive in Phuket via a parcel company on February 29. On the…
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PM announces urgent measures to handle coronavirus
State agencies will seek the cooperation of private companies to avoid or postpone activities that will see a mass gathering of people, which might expose them to the risk of virus infection. Even as the government announces new travel restrictions and struggles to create a plan to deal with thousands of Thai workers returning from South Korea, Prime Minister Prayut…
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Is the “footshake” the new handshake?
People around the world are changing the way they greet each other due to fears of spreading the COVID-19 coronavirus. In Beijing, the capital of the country where the outbreak began, red banners tell people not to shake hands but rather to join their own hands as a sign of greeting. Loudspeakers tell people to make the traditional “gong shou”…
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Urgent meeting on thousands of “little ghosts” returning from South Korea
PM Prayut Chan-o-cha has called an urgent meeting today to discuss how to handle thousands – estimates put the number between five and then thousand – of Thai workers preparing to return home from South Korea to escape the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The announcement comes after the Ministry of Public Health expressed serious concerns about how to handle…
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Pattaya City officials confirm rumours of Covid-19 in Soi 6 bar staff were fake news
Staff at a bar  in Pattaya have confirmed that they just had a normal seasonal flu and not coronavirus (Covid-19) as had been reported in numerous rumours on social media over the past few days. Hospital results indicated that a staff member from the Pattaya Soi 6 bar did not have the Covid-19 coronavirus. They have now recovered their bout…
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Thailand News Today, March 3, 2020 – Daily TV News
Thai Airways announces losses over 12 billion baht for 2019 Thai Airways International and its affiliates incurred a net loss of over 12 billion baht last year, that’s 448 million baht more than the year before. The airline has been accumulating losses year on year for over a decade. Speaking about the losses at the announcement yesterday, the vice president…
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Buri Ram MotoGP “postponed indefinitely” over virus fears
In a shocking reversal, the Thai MotoGP 2020, scheduled for March 20-22 in Buri Ram province, has been “postponed indefinitely” due to the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul made the announcement yesterday. Despite earlier reassurances the race would go on, Anutin said the decision to suspend the event was made at…
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Thai social media frenzy as 5000 set to return from South Korea
Thai social media is abuzz with fears that some of the roughly 5000 Thai nationals preparing to return from South Korea may carry the COVID-19 coronavirus, which has now killed 17 people there and 2979 worldwide. Most of the 5,000 are thought to be Thai prostitutes and agricultural workers among the thousands of Thais who work illegally in the country…
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Mt Merapi erupts, closes Adi Sumarmo International Airport in Indonesia
Adi Sumarmo International Airport in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia has been closed because of an active volcano erupting, spewing smoke and ash into the sky. There have been no reports of casualties or damage, according to National Disaster Mitigation Agency. The airport on Indonesia’s Java Island was forced to close temporarily this morning after the volcano, Mt Merapi, erupted spewing…
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Bangkok motorbike taxi drivers attack Grab driver in broad daylight – VIDEO
Three motorbike taxi drivers (‘win’ drivers) have been fined after attacking a Grab bike driver carrying a passenger in Bangkok’s Khlong Tan district. The Grab driver reported to police that at 8:30am yesterday, he was picking up a customer at a condominium in Phra Khanong. He says a local taxi motorbike driver in front of the condo allegedly stopped him…
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Gunman in Manila mall standoff surrenders, releases hostages
Further to a story earlier reported by The Thaiger, a former security guard has released some 30 people and walked out of a Manila shopping mall after hours of gruelling negotiations, ending a day-long hostage crisis in an upscale commercial district. The gunman, identified by police as Archie Paray, a former guard at the complex, left the V-Mall in suburban…
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Central Thai junk shop raided for recycling tens of thousands of face masks
An enterprising junk shop in the Wiharn Daeng district in Saraburi, central Thailand, is being investigated after a raid found tens of thousands of recycled face masks being prepared for packing and re-selling. According to Somsak Kaewsena, the Wiharn Daeng district chief officer, thousands of used face masks were found in washing machines, thousands more were piled up behind the…
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Mask, hand sanitiser shortages anger people across Thailand
Across the kingdom people are rattled by shortages of face masks and hand sanitiser amid the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. Public demand has skyrocketed since the announcement of Thailand’s virus-related death. The Private Hospital Association says its medical personnel are being seriously affected by the mask shortage. A new infection was reported yesterday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in…
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Thai Airways announces losses over 12 billion baht for 2019
Thai Airways International and its affiliates incurred a net loss of 12.017 billion baht last year, that’s 448 million baht more than the year before. The airline has been accumulating losses year on year for over a decade. Speaking about the losses at the announcement yesterday, the vice president of finance and accounting Nattaphong Smit-Ampaisal says that the airline was…
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Sacked security guard takes around 30 hostages at shopping mall in Philippines
A man has been shot and around 30 people have been taken hostage by a gunman at a mall in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Armed police and negotiators are trying to end the standoff peacefully. The situation is ongoing. The shot man is already in hospital in a stable condition. The gunman, reported to be a former security…
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Samui’s Banyan Tree Hotel acts to protect sea turtle nest
Khun Veeraphat, a waiter at Sands beachfront restaurant on Koh Samui, made a startling discovery on February 13 when he spotted what appeared to be tracks coming from the sea. CCTV footage at Banyan Tree Samui clearly showed a giant sea turtle laying eggs on the beach the night before, then returning to the water. The luxury hotel, located on the…
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Thai Moto GP in Buriram postponed over outbreak fears
Another casualty of the current coronavirus precautions, one of the biggest sporting events in Thailand – the MotoGP 2020 in Buriram. The event was scheduled for March 20-22 in Buri Ram province, north east Thailand, where it has started to gather a huge local and international following. The Deputy PM and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul made the announcement this morning.…
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A new case reported in Thailand, total reaches 43 cases and one death
Thailand’s reported coronavirus cases has now reached 43,  since first appearing in January. The permanent secretary of the health ministry reports that the new case is a 22 year old Thai woman who had been working as a driver for foreign tourists with another Thai patient. According to the director-general of the Disease Control Department, health officials had located the woman for…
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1 dead after monk rear-ends pickup in Nakhon Ratchasima
A woman is dead after a monk rear-ended the pickup truck in which she was riding in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima. Police say the incident occurred about 1:15 pm yesterday on a road along an irrigation canal in tambon Krachon. A spokesman said 24 year old Likit Chuamo was driving the pickup, taking nine people to a nearby…
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South Korea wages “all-out response” – cases exceed 4,000
“The government is now waging all-out responses after raising the crisis alert to the highest level.” South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in has announced that is government will wage “all-out responses” in response to the outbreak of coronavirus which has added 476 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total of infections to 4,212. The death toll in South…
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Panic, precautions and contradictions over Thailand’s first coronavirus death
Mild panic, and a new raft of precautions pervades the Coronavirus narrative in Thailand as we head into another week. Over the weekend the Health Ministry announced a new range of precautionary measures whilst most of Thailand’s tourist spots remain quiet – a lot quieter than usual. There was also the announcement of the first coronavirus-related death in Thailand over…
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Precautionary warnings for weather in the north and north east
Some warmer, pre-summer weather is heading to the north of Thailand for the rest of this week. (Forecasts for Khon Kaen and Bangkok below). The warnings are mostly precautionary as the general forecast still remains reasonably stable. On the plus side, a bit of extra wind may blow away some of the offending smoke and haze that has beset the…
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Pattaya ladyboy attacks American tourist with sodium hydroxide
Pattaya police announced the arrest of a transgender suspect who allegedly attacked an American tourist with sodium hydroxide over the weekend. Sodium hydroxide, also called lye or caustic soda, is a highly corrosive chemical that decomposes proteins at ordinary ambient temperatures and can cause cause severe chemical burns. It’s used in making wood pulp for paper and is a primary…
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Chiang Mai to see passenger numbers fall by 40% in wake of virus fears
The numbers at Chiang Mai’s international airport will fall 40% to 3.5 million in the first six months of this year if the outbreak of Covid-19 coronavirus drags on until the middle of the year. Chiang Mai airport deputy director Thananrat Prasertsri said late last week that flights to the airport during the period January 1 to February 25 dropped…
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France bans large gatherings, discourages “air kisses”
The number of coronavirus cases in France has nearly doubled and currently stands at 100, of whom 86 are hospitalised, two have died and 12 have recovered, according Jerome Salomon, the head of France’s national health service. To fight the spread of the virus, France is banning all indoor public gatherings of more than 5,000, and discouraging the public from…
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Biker killed, 5 injured in bike/van crash south of Bangkok
One man is dead and another 5 passengers injured after a big bike the man was driving slammed into a van making a U-turn along Old Sukhumvit road in the main business district. The incident occurred at about 8pm in tambon Bang Pu Mai, on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, south of Bangkok. 32 year old Paveena Ratpipop, a…
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Man arrested for gunshots at Nontha Buri mall “to intimidate his wife”
In a further development to a story the Thaiger reported earlier, a Thai man has been arrested for firing a gun on Friday at the Central Plaza shopping mall in Nontha Buri, just outside of Bangkok. Police responded swiftly to the shooting and no casualties were reported. “The suspect is 41 years old and he reportedly fired six shots while…
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Students say they’ll increase protests until PM stands down
About 700 students joined a rally last night in front of the auditorium at Bangkok’s Kasetsart University, vowing to escalate their protests until the government of Prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha steps down. University and secondary students have been rallying on or near their campuses since Monday to demand a rewrite of Thailand’s 2017 Constitution and transparent elections. Pro-democracy activist Parit…
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