News
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Sponsored 5 best wine bars in Bangkok offering rich and quality wine
It’s wine o’clock! Whether you’re all about fruity reds, sweet whites, or funky naturals, Bangkok has many great spots to sip your favourite varieties. But with an array of options to choose from, and the constant rise and fall of...
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Myanmar’s army controls vast business empire to fuel atrocities – UN report
PHOTO: Front of the Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited building UN investigators have slammed the Myanmar Government saying that tougher sanctions are needed against the country’s wealthy and powerful military officials as their web of economic interests has generated a fortune that helps fund atrocities. The report follows a US travel ban on Myanmar’s army chief last month, the strongest censure yet…
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Three Thai airports being renovated to double passenger volumes
PHOTO: Surat Thani Airport will be doubled in capacity Krabi, Buriram and Surat Thani provincial airports are getting a makeover to double their capacities in 2020, with a combined budget of 11.3 billion baht. Krabi airport will be renovated and expanded to handle double its capacity. The new terminal will be able to handle 8 million passengers a year. A…
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The Philippines declares national dengue epidemic
PHOTO: Philippine Star The Philippines has now declared a national dengue epidemic reporting that the mosquito-borne disease has now killed at least 622 people in the country in 2018. More than 146,000 dengue cases have now been reported in the first seven months of the year, a number almost double last year, according to the The Philippines’ health department. Officials…
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Koh Samui taxi driver killed, two tourists taken to hospital
PHOTO: Sanook.com Police have now filed a full report on an an incident back on July 19 when a taxi driver was killed and two tourists critically injured driving on the Khao Laem Yai Hill, Koh Samui. Sanook.com reports that a taxi, a yellow and brown Toyota Fortuner SUV, hit the footpath on the Khao Laem Yai hill in the northwest…
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Superyacht ablaze at the Ao Po Grand Marina in Phuket
PHOTO: Newshawk Phuket A yacht, the ‘Lady D’ caught fire this morning at the Ao Po Grand Marina in the north of Phuket. Marina staff were notified of the fire at 8.25am this morning and called the local fire department. Marina staff called the Marine Police for assistance as well. One fire truck arrived to fight the fire which has…
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Shortcuts on the way for motorists to bypass Lam Salee intersection in Bangkok
PHOTO: The Nation The BMA (Bangkok Metropolitan Administration) is looking for help from the Metropolitan Police Division 4 to find suitable shortcuts so motorists could avoid the notorious Lam Salee intersection. The Nation reports that BMA deputy governor Sakoltee Phattiyakul says the intersection has long been notorious for traffic snarls and the situation has just become worse with delays caused…
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Ministry probes rented electronic monitoring ankle bracelets from China
The Thai Justice Ministry is investigating the electronic monitoring ankle bracelets rented by the Department of Probation from a Chinese company. A Thai company has complained that the device can be removed by the offenders wearing them without the department being alerted. Thai PBS reports that the complaint was filed by Aekkaphol Kongphutorn, representative of Fort Corporation, one of the…
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Board of Trade want Bank of Thailand to urgently address the baht
PHOTOS & GRAPHIC: The Nation The Board of Trade are meeting with the Bank of Thailand tomorrow (August 8) to discuss the value of the Thai baht, its appreciation against the US dollar and Chinese yuan, and the impact on the country’s exports. Sanan Angubolkul, the Board of Trade’s vice chairman, speaking to The Nation, says the baht has appreciated around…
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17 year old killed after school bus careers off road in Chumpon, 18 injured
PHOTO: Facebook/Tongsiasiangtueng Rescue A bus crew has been killed after a tour bus travelling from Hat Yai to Bangkok for a mathematics competition ran off the road and hit a tree. The driver and 18 student were all injured. The bus ran off the main road in Chumpon, about half-way through the journey north. Police and foundation rescue workers headed…
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Power off in Kamala, Phuket this Friday. Check if you’re affected.
Electricity will be out around large chunks of Kamala this Friday (August 9). The power outage will be from 9am-5pm, according to the Phuket Electrical Authority. Most of the town’s main businesses, restaurants and bars will be without power, unless they’re at the northern end of the town. Phuket Fantasea will not be affected. Areas affected include from the Khao Loob…
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3 boat crew found alive after boat sinks near Koh Naka Noi, one still missing
PHOTOS: Manager Online Following the sinking of a crab fishing boat yesterday (August 5), south east of Koh Naka Noi, four persons were filed as missing. Later today (August 6), the Royal Thai Navy officials report that they had have found three survivors. The three survivors include a 27 year old Thai man, Boonrit Khaojui, a 23 year old Burmese…
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Two Burmese migrants killed in Lampang van crash, 7 others injured
PHOTOS: Lampang13.com Two Burmese migrants have been killed and seven others injured when a passenger van crashed on the road from Tak to Chiang Rai. The van transporting them from Tak to Chiang Rai hit a tree on a Lampang road early today (Tuesday) around 3.40am in Lampang province. The van fell into the ditch in the middle of the divided…
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New tourism minister says tourist numbers in Phuket “not as bad as media say”
PHOTO: Pipat Ratchakitprakarn, Thai Sports and Tourism minister, on his weekend fact-finding mission – Manager Online Thailand’s new Sports and Tourism minister says that the drop in tourism in Thailand has been greatly exaggerated in the media. Pipat Ratchakitprakarn, for whom it is very difficult to find any information online about his past posts or qualifications, told reporters in Phuket at…
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Monk builds Buddhist pagoda on Koh Pha Ngan out of beer bottles
PHOTO: kohphangannews.com When Buddhist monks have to figure out the gritty engineering problems to construct a pagoda for their spiritual enlightenment, they have to consider using bricks, timber, concrete, or maybe even beer bottles. When you’re building a pagoda on Koh Pha Ngan you have a ready supply of beer bottles from the monthly influx of tourists for the Full…
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Airbus starts manufacturing new A220 in Alabama, US
The new Airbus A220 aircraft was touring south east asian countries, including a visit to Bangkok on Friday, last week. Today the aircraft manufacturers officially began manufacturing the A220 in the US. The first team of A220 production workers began work at Airbus’ Mobile, Alabama-based production facility. Some Thai-based airlines, including Thai Airways, are reported to be interested in the…
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Police seeking arrest warrants for more suspects in Friday’s Bangkok explosions
PHOTO: New Straits Times Police will seek warrants for the arrest of two additional suspects believed to be involved in the planting and detonating of four explosive devices at the government complex and in front of the Thai Armed Forces headquarters in Chaeng Wattana on Friday. Investigating police say they’ve now gathered all available footage from CCTV systems in the…
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Where are the CCTV cameras? Hua Hin locals
A motorcycle-bombs scare on Sunday has put the spotlight back on the planned CCTV cameras that were promised after a series of bombings in Hua Hin back in 2016. Officials at the Hua Hin provincial hall Hua are now being pushed to speed up the planned installation of hundreds of public-area security cameras in the wake of the weekend’s bombs…
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Softening Chinese yuan no threat to Thai baht
The Chinese yuan dropped sharply to its weakest level against the US dollar in more than a decade, raising fears of further dangerous escalation in the US-China trade war. Yesterday, the Chinese yuan dropped below the 7 yuan to the US dollar threshold, marking the first time the renminbi has depreciated against the dollar since May 2008. The depreciation of…
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Potential for retirement properties in Thailand
by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com While a number of property offerings in Phuket, Hua Hin, Pattaya, Chiang Mai and more recently in Bangkok have promoted themselves as retirement-centric offerings, the jury is still out on the broad success of the sector. Despite retirement communities and assisted living being mainstays in Western countries like the US, UK and Australia, these are…
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‘Wipha’ whips up some storms and floods around Chiang Mai
PHOTOS: Entry to a local school turns into a river – The Nation Flooded roads are slowing down traffic and movement around the Chiang Mai area as a result of the fallout from tropical depression ‘Wipha’ which crossed the North Vietnam coast, heading westward towards Thailand, over the weekend. Om Koi district saw flooded road sections, while a large tree…
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Injured sea turtle rescued by tour boat operator in Phuket – VIDEO
PHOTO: Nikorn Marine An injured sea turtle has been rescued by a tour boat operator in Phuket today. The boat crew of Nikorn Marine found a sea turtle while sailing the ‘Nichakorn 2’ near Coral Island, off Chalong. The turtle was found injured, trapped in a fishing net, with its rear left flipper missing, though the wound seemed old and…
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800 media professionals laid off or contracts unfairly terminated
The National Union of Journalists Thailand says the media situation in Thailand is looking increasingly grim with around 800 media industry staff either being laid off or having had their contracts unlawfully terminated. A portion of the media professionals also say they were not sufficiently compensated, in violation of Thailand’s labour laws. Also, many said they had not been paid…
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Wat, who and why? Thai PM wants to bring monk Dhammajayo to justice.
Government opposition MPs are questioning the motives of the Thai PM to take over the reigns of the Department of Special Investigations. Some say it’s retribution for failing to being to justice the fugitive monk, and spiritual leader of the Wat (Temple) Phra Dhammakaya, Luang Por Dhammajayo. At least one advocate of the fugitive monk Dhammakaya is a government MP,…
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Thai man sets fire to his Mercedes Benz because Daddy won’t pay bar tab
PHOTOS: Thai Rath What do you do if you run up a 5,000 baht bar tab and Daddy won’t pick up the cost? Incinerate the Mercedes Benz that Daddy had gone guarantor. That’s precisely what Kittisak Kritklao, the son of a property developer in Udon Thani, did after running up a bill of 5,000 baht at the Tawan Daeng Pub. He told…
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Baby in a rush in Chon Buri, born with 12 fingers and 12 toes
PHOTOS: sanook.com A mother has given birth to a healthy baby girl on the side of the road in Chon Buri. It does happen, sometimes the baby can’t wait until mum arrives at hospital. But this special bundle of joy has 12 fingers and 12 toes. But this was no surprise to the mother and grandmother who also have six…
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Minister books meeting to discuss 120 kph speed limits on Thai motorways
PHOTO: Thai Residents The new Thai Transport Minister Saksiam Chidchob will be chairing a meeting in the middle of August to discuss the proposal to raise the speed limit of private cars on Thailand’s four-lane highways to 120 kilometres per hour. Part of the proposal says that cars travelling in the far-right lane of a four-lane highway must also keep…
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New Parliament House opens for sittings of MPs next week
PHOTO: Artists impression of a completed Parliament House not he banks f the Chao Phraya. Only the parliamentary meeting halls are complete for use at this stage The Thai Parliament speaker Chuan Leekpai is ordering tight security at the new Parliament House in Bangkok’s Kiak Kai area for an inaugural meeting today. He declined to answer when asked by reporters…
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Weekend RCEP meeting move closer to the world’s biggest trading bloc
PHOTO: Asia Nikkei Whilst the UK looks to walk away from the EU trade bloc and the US continues to ramp up the trade war with China, the formation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which would be the largest trade bloc in the world, continues to gather pace. The RCEP, initiated by ASEAN in 2012, is a proposed…
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Police look for for three men, two women following Friday morning’s Pratunam fires
Whilst small explosions were going off around Bangkok last Friday during the peak hour between 7-9am, there was also a fire reported in the Pratunam area, famous for its clothes markets and popular with locals and tourists. At this stage police believe the fires may be part of the wider blast incidents on Friday morning. Read some of The Thaiger…
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US vlogger cops a ‘vlogging’ from disgruntled Pattaya locals
SCREENSHOT: “Chuck Wow” in full narrative, just before being attacked A North American amateur ‘vlogger’ filming in Walking Street, Pattaya, has ended up annoying the locals and being attacked with his camera rolling. The video begins with “Chuck Wow” commenting on the body size of a prostitute standing outside a 7-Eleven in a stream-of-thought narration. “That girl is all kinds of…
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