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5 hidden healthcare costs in Thailand and how to avoid them
Thailand's healthcare system is affordable and supported by the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) scheme, offering essential services to most citizens. However, hidden healthcare costs can surprise patients and lead to unexpected expenses. These include specialist fees, insurance gaps, emergency services,...
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“The fake university degree is irrelevant if Thammanat has a genuine BA degree” – Wissanu
PHOTO: Thai PBS World “Wissanu refused to give a direct answer to a reporter’s question about whether Thammanat would still be considered qualified if the higher-level degrees were proven to be fake.” Key leaders of the coalition continue to back the embattled deputy agriculture minister Thammanat Prompao despite a week were his drug past has been revealed in a Sydney…
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More than half of the tigers moved from the Tiger Temple have died
“The tigers became weak from stress from living in captivity and their conditions steadily deteriorated until they succumbed to their death.” 86 out of a total of 147 tigers kept at two wildlife breeding stations in Ratchaburi province, after they were confiscated from the infamous Tiger Temple in Thailand’s western province of Kanchanaburi about three years ago, have died from…
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World’s largest trading bloc to be concluded by the end of the year
The next negotiating round for the formation of RCEP will be held in Da Nang, Viet Nam on September 19-28 . RCEP is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and when negotiated and signed, will become the world’s largest and most powerful trading bloc. RCEP includes all ASEAN economies, plus Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. Economic ministers…
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Large Thai business feeling the effects of US-China trade war, rise of the baht
So what do Thailand’s big banks say? The ongoing US-China trade war and the appreciation of the Thai baht against other currencies is now starting to impact larger corporates in Thailand. Wasin Saiyawan, senior executive vice president and chief of wholesale banking at Siam Commercial Bank says, that although large businesses are resilient to any impact and their ability to…
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‘Tank Man’ photographer dies – defining photo of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests
PHOTO: Charlie Cole “Tank Man” has become one of the defining images of the 20th century, but the image remains largely unrecognised in China due to censorship of the image and the wider crackdown.” The photographer who photographed the defining image of China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown – a solitary man defiantly blocking the path of a column of tanks –…
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Pattaya Cricket Club match report – Indoor cricket league
September 12 was the inaugural round of the recently created Pattaya Indoor Cricket league. PCC was due to play Asian Stars B whilst Rugby School Thailand (RST) were due to play Asian Stars A. Unfortunately, both Asian Stars teams failed to materialise, so PCC played RST. This hotly contested match also saw the appearance of new members to PCC –…
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Why the Chinese are more important than Western tourists to Thailand
OPINION by Dan Cheeseman – Dan About Thailand We need to wake up and smell the roses, us Westerners are no longer an important group for the Thailand tourism industry – in fact, we are what you would call ‘niche’ – and with good reason. The Chinese are here in numbers and not only will this continue to grow but…
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Historic discovery of earliest sound films shot in Thailand
PHOTO: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation / University of South Carolina “Film historian Dome Sukhawong discovered the films in 2018, in the University of South Carolina archives.” Four films made nearly 100 years ago are believed to be the first sound films recorded in Thailand. The films were screened at the Thai Film Archive for the first time on Monday. Film…
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Ubon Ratchathani flooding worst in 17 years
PHOTO: The Pattaya News Flooding in Ubon Ratchathani, north-east Thailand, has been declared the worst in 17 years, with water levels in the Moon river beating the previous record set in 2002, and an additional 60 water pumps now installed. Thai PBS World reports that widespread flooding has seriously affected many areas, with communities in low-lying areas cut off and…
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Family of Thai woman seriously injured in Pattaya balcony fall blames French husband
The family of a 28 year old Thai woman who was seriously injured when she fell five floors from a condo balcony in Pattaya are blaming her French husband for the accident. Sunisa suffered life-changing spinal injuries and is no longer able to walk, with her sister Natchaya having given up her job to care for her. It’s understood Sunisa’s…
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Thai woman arrested after 13 year old Burmese girl forced into prostitution
by Tossapol Boonpat Police have arrested a local Mae Hong Son woman for allegedly procuring a 13 year old girl as a prostitute for sex with a string of local men. Mae Hong Son is west of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, on the Myanmar border. Mae Hong Son police say the woman, whose name had not been names at this…
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Phuket police to embrace technology in dealing with traffic violations
PHOTO: Trafficpolice.go.th From next Friday, traffic police in Phuket will no longer confiscate licences when drivers are stopped for traffic violations. Police will now record the details of a driving licence but return it to the driver as soon as they’ve done so. They will still issue fines on paper, with drivers unable to pay their road tax until any…
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Officials hand out face masks whilst southern Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore choke
The annual haze from intentionally lit forest fires in Indonesia is making life unpleasant in parts of Thailand’s South, with fine-dust readings (PM2.5 microns) in Songkhla and Satun at hazardous levels, over 50 microgrammes per cubic metre of air. The problem is also choking sections of Malaysia and Singapore. In Hat Yai, Songkhla, officials are handing out face masks to…
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‘Body farm’ scientists find corpses move
Rest in peace. Apparently the ‘rest’ isn’t quite as ‘peaceful’ as we first thought. Not quite as much as zombies, but anyway… An Australian scientist has proven human bodies move around significantly for more than a year after death, in findings that could have implications for detectives and pathologists around the world. After studying and photographing the movements of a corpse…
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Proposal: New law that will allow six cannabis plants per Thai household
PHOTO: Campaign posters before the last election for the Bhumjaithai Party who continue to push further legalisation of cannabis The Bhumjaithai Party, a party in Thailand’s coalition government, is now proposing a law that would allow Thais to grow a limited amount of cannabis at home. This takes laws, passed less than a year ago that legalised the drug for…
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Pope Francis confirms his ‘pilgrim of peace’ visit to Thailand in November
PHOTO: Father Joseph Anucha Chaiyadej, director of the Catholic Social Communications of Thailand, along with deputy secretary-general Monsignor Dr Vissanu Thanya-anan and Dr Chainarong Monthienvichienchai, counsellor for the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, speak to the media yesterday – The Nation It’s official, the Pope is coming to Thailand. Rumoured earlier but now officially announced. His Excellency Paul Tschang In-Nam,…
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FAIL! One in seven public transport vehicles didn’t pass safety tests
One in seven public transport vehicles failed safety checks in the first week of a new program Vehicles failed the tests mostly because of a low-quality brake systems and excessive black smoke emissions In better news, only three of 10,236 drivers failed the exam About one in seven public Thai transport vehicles have failed safety checks in the first week…
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Immigration police in the Philippines arrest 270 Chinese in fraud raid
“A total of 277 people were taken into custody in the operation that Philippine officials carried out in conjunction with Chinese authorities.” Police in the Philippines have arrested more than 270 Chinese nationals following a raid on a gang wanted over a vast investment fraud that has cost victims in China millions of dollars. Agents swooped on an office building…
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New Zealand announces tougher gun laws after mosque massacre
PHOTO: New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern – TVNZ “Under the new legislation, a registry will be set up that is designed to track ownership of every legally owned firearm in the country.” New Zealand legislators have unveiled new laws aimed at ensuring only “fit and proper” people can own guns in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks that killed…
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Wan Yubamrung’s subordinate arrested for attempted murder in Patong
PHOTO: Manager Online Last night (September 12), 32 year old Thanpawat Supchotiwanich, a subordinate of Thai Pheu Thai party politician Wan Yubamrung, was arrested in front of his house in Soi Ekkachai 135, in Patong, acting on a warrant issued back in 2010 after he shot a business peer over an undisclosed conflict. Thanpawat is also known as ‘Tong Deksuegaeng’…
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Phone shop worker busted for credit card fraud
A man working in a Bangkok phone shop is under arrest after stealing customers’ credit card information and going on a shopping spree that amounted to almost 10 million baht. Incredibly, it turns out he’s been doing this for over 3 years and in that time, has accumulated a house, a condominium, and 3 cars. 29 year old Satit Junchok…
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Terracotta Warriors coming to Bangkok
PHOTO: Coconuts.co China’s renowned Terracotta Warriors will wow Bangkok in an exhibition at the city’s National Museum running from Sunday until December 15. The 2,700 year old works of art are being put on display in Siwamokkhaphiman Hall, in an exhibit entitled, “Qin Shi Huang: The First Emperor Of China And Terracotta Warriors”. The Bangkok Post reports that more than…
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Manila traffic jams block ambulances, patients die on way to hospital
by Cecil Morella / Joshua Melvin Gridlock in Manila is costing lives as ambulances stuck in traffic face severe delays in the race against the clock to reach the city’s hospitals, medics warn. Special lanes for emergency vehicles are not enforced, the infrastructure is outdated, and local drivers are often unwilling or unable to make way – a situation experts…
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Pattaya shooting suspect arrested
PHOTO: Ruksiam News Police in Pattaya have arrested a man accused of an early morning shooting at a nightclub that has left one man dead and another critically injured. Pol Col Atinan Nutchanat says that Warut Sae-jia (known as “Art”) is now in custody, having been found hiding out at his mother’s house in the Prasat district of Surin province…
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Five killed in Sa Kaew passenger van crash
PHOTOS: Thai Rath A Thai van driver has been killed along with four Cambodian passengers after a car veered across a traffic median and crashed head-on into them. The accident occurred at 10.30am yesterday on the Aranyaprathet-bound Suwansorn road in Wattana Nakhon district of Sa Kaew, on the Cambodian border, east of Bangkok. Police report that a Cambodian girl and…
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Bangladeshi police force gang-rape victim to marry suspect
FILE PHOTO “Police officials on Thursday said the marriage appeared to be part of an effort to prevent the suspects from being prosecuted.” Two Bangladeshi policemen are being disciplined after a rape victim’s family claim she was forced to marry one of the accused rapists in a police station in the northern district of Pabna. The mother-of-three had accused five men…
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Seri Ruam leader says he told Sydney Morning Herald to investigate Thammanat Prompao
PHOTO: Seri Ruam Thai party leader Gen Seripisut Temiyavet “The Seri Ruam Thai party leader said that he was not afraid that he might be sued for providing information to the Australian media.” Seri Ruam Thai party leader Gen Seripisut Temiyavet claims that he was the source who tipped off the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper in Australia to investigate the…
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Indonesian forest fires surge, intense smoke floats over neighbours Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia
by Dessy Sagita “The number of “hotspots” has jumped sharply in Indonesia on Wednesday, according to the Singapore-based ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre.” Intense forest fires continue to rage across the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan in recent weeks. More than 930,000 hectares of land have been burned, hundreds of residents evacuated, and more than 9,000 personnel have been deployed…
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Government loses another MP as member heads to prison
Another blow to the ruling Palang Pracharath party and coalition after the MP for Kamphaeng Phet province, Pol Lt-Col Waipote Arpornrat, lost his Member of Parliament status after the Supreme Court upheld the 4 year prison sentence handed down by the Appeals Court for his involvement in the disruption of the ASEAN Summit in Pattaya back in 2009. As the…
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Crackdown on bar closing times following Pattaya shooting
Police in Pattaya have launched a crackdown on bar closing times following a nightclub shooting that has left one man dead and another seriously injured. The suspect in the shooting, which took place around 6.00am yesterday, is still on the run, although police say he will be arrested shortly. Bars and entertainment venues now face a crackdown on their opening…
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