News

Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond.

  • Sponsored

    Long-term life in Thailand? 5 reasons private health insurance pays off in the long run

    Thailand is a great place for expats and retirees, offering a warm climate, affordable living, and rich culture. However, healthcare can be tricky for foreigners since they aren’t eligible for public health coverage, and private care can be expensive. Private...

  • Missing woman found buried in southern Thailand forest

    Missing woman found buried in southern Thailand forest

    Nakhon Si Thammarat Provincial Police Office discovered the dead body of a woman who went missing last month buried in the forest behind Khao Lom Monastery in southern Thailand. Police believe her murder was motivated by a conflict within a drug gang. Officers from the Nakhon Si Thammarat Provincial Police Office discovered the corpse of an unidentified woman buried in…

  • Singapore 2 year old girl run over, possibly by her father

    Singapore 2 year old girl run over, possibly by her father

    Tragedy struck a family in Singapore on Monday when a two year old girl died in a freak accident. The young girl was run over by a van in a car park in the Woodlands area of the city-state, possibly by her father. Emergency services raced to the scene after the incident was reported on Woodlands Street at 2.40pm. The…

  • Patong Police bust 7 for allegedly illegally processing cannabis buds

    Patong Police bust 7 for allegedly illegally processing cannabis buds

    There’s been another bust in Patong over nightlife and substances. Patong Police on Monday night busted seven people for allegedly illegally processing cannabis buds. Police apprehended the seven individuals on Bangla Road, and Soi Sane Sabai. This was after the police, along with staffers from the Department of Traditional Thai medicine, inspected cannabis shops on the roads. The seven people…

  • SWAT team shoots frenzied Bangkok police officer 3 times as he jumps from window (video)

    SWAT team shoots frenzied Bangkok police officer 3 times as he jumps from window (video)

    UPDATE #3 The frenzied police officer who opened fire in Bangkok yesterday is seriously injured after being shot three times in the left arm, left thigh and left side of his chest by SWAT officers as he jumped out of the window holding a knife at 12.25pm. After Pol. Lt. Kitikarn Sangboon fired more than 30 continuous shots at 12:13pm,…

  • Teacher reverses over and kills 8 year old girl with pickup truck at school in northern Thailand

    Teacher reverses over and kills 8 year old girl with pickup truck at school in northern Thailand

    An eight year old girl was killed when a female teacher reversed over her head in her pickup truck at a school in Phetchabun province in lower northern Thailand yesterday. At 7am, eight year old “Nong Fangkhao” was on her way to school with her grandmother in Ban Wai subdistrict, Lom Sak district, when she was struck by a female…

  • Beach holiday goes wrong when Krabi dog viciously attacks tourist

    Beach holiday goes wrong when Krabi dog viciously attacks tourist

    A beach holiday went completely wrong for one tourist after a dog viciously attacked him in Krabi on Saturday. The tourist, 60 year old Thai national Daniel Sudjai Kutrakun, had been walking on Ao Nang Beach with his American wife to have a look at the area where his daughter plans to get married in three months. The two were…

  • BREAKING: Frenzied police officer finally detained 24 hours after opening fire in Bangkok

    BREAKING: Frenzied police officer finally detained 24 hours after opening fire in Bangkok

    UPDATE #2 At 12.25pm, SWAT police entered the frenzied police officer‘s house in the Sai Mai district in Bangkok and were able to detain him, more than 24 hours after he opened fire into the street. Officers entered the house upon hearing more than 30 continuous gunshots from inside the property at 12.13pm. Pol. Col. Kitikarn Sangboon was taken to…

  • Resort encroaching on Navy land ordered demolished

    Resort encroaching on Navy land ordered demolished

    The Royal Thai Navy (RTN) has ordered a luxury resort to cease its operations and to be demolished after an inspection found that it was illegally built on state land under the care of the RTN. The resort boasts six modified shipping containers made into pool villas and is located on a hilltop in the Samae San sub-district, Chon Buri.…

  • Singapore Airlines flight grounded after bomb threat

    Singapore Airlines flight grounded after bomb threat

    A bomb threat led to an emergency grounding of a Singapore Airlines flight in South Africa. Singapore Airlines flight SQ478 was grounded in Johannesburg yesterday following the threat. The aircraft landed at OR Tambo International Airport and all 58 passengers and 15 crew members successfully disembarked. The plane was flying from Singapore to Cape Town and was just doing a…

  • John Oliver calls out Ron DeSantis for Thai food mispronunciation (video)

    John Oliver calls out Ron DeSantis for Thai food mispronunciation (video)

    Funnyman John Oliver become embroiled in a bizarre spat with Ron DeSantis when the comedian called out the Florida governor for his pronunciation of Thai food. De Santis is said to be furious with Oliver after he revealed on a late-night talk show that as a young man, the politician would purposely mispronounce Thai food as “thigh food” in order…

  • Authorities scramble to find radioactive cylinder stolen from power plant in Thailand

    Authorities scramble to find radioactive cylinder stolen from power plant in Thailand

    Thai authorities are scrambling to find a steel tube containing the radioactive isotope Caesium-137 believed to have gone missing from a power plant at an industrial estate in Prachin Buri province in central Thailand on February 23. Staff noticed the cylinder was missing on Friday and filed a record at Sri Maha Phot Police Station that day. The company said…

  • Phuket villager stumbles upon mother sea turtle laying 107 eggs

    Phuket villager stumbles upon mother sea turtle laying 107 eggs

    A Phuket villager stumbled upon a mother sea turtle as she was laying 107 eggs. Sirinat National Park said in a Facebook post that the villager, Kriangkrai Dejom, found the mother turtle laying eggs on a beach near Sai Khu Bay at around 5am on Monday. The beach is located in the Sakhu sub-district of Thalang district. Kriangkrai patiently waited…

  • Frenzied police officer firing shots in Bangkok shows no signs of surrender after 22 hours

    Frenzied police officer firing shots in Bangkok shows no signs of surrender after 22 hours

    UPDATE After 22 hours of failed negotiations, the frenzied police officer who opened fire in the Sai Mai area of Bangkok at 11am yesterday has not surrendered to the police and is still inside his house on Soi Jiramakorn. At 6.50pm, SWAT officers fired tear gas into 51 year old Pol. Lt. Kitikarn Sangboon’s house. However, deputy national police chief…

  • Leave Durians in Police Care project launched to stop durian thefts

    Leave Durians in Police Care project launched to stop durian thefts

    The Ao Cho Police Station in the eastern province of Trat launched a project called Leave Durians in Police Care after farmers in the province lost millions of baht worth of durian fruit and their trees to thieves in the past year. The Chief Inspector of Ao Cho Police Station, Ariyachai Thima, met with durian farmers on Monday, March 13…

  • TAT plans to discuss more Hua Hin flights

    TAT plans to discuss more Hua Hin flights

    The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)’s Prachuap Khiri Khan office plans to discuss more flights to and from Hua Hin Airport, as part of an effort to bolster tourism in the region. Currently, the airport only serves Air Asia flights between Hua Hin and Chiang Mai, but the TAT hopes to expand the airport’s reach by adding more destinations. TAT plans…

  • 5 Chon Buri police officers accused of extorting money from drug suspects

    5 Chon Buri police officers accused of extorting money from drug suspects

    Five officers from the Nong Prue Police Station in Chon Buri have been transferred after two drug suspects accused them of extorting 150,000 baht in exchange for their freedom. A 60 year old woman named Raewadee Sirapanich and 18 year old woman named Anna filed a complaint against five police officers for kidnap and ransom at Nong Prue Police Station…

  • House thief caught by getting wedged in the door for 5 hours

    House thief caught by getting wedged in the door for 5 hours

    When robbing a place, is there anything worse than getting caught in the act? One Indonesian house thief found out the hard way that there is one thing worse – getting caught in the door. A man in North Sumatra found himself in a tight spot when he got stuck in a heavy door mid-burglary. The 30 year old criminal…

  • Frenzied police officer opens fire in Bangkok

    Frenzied police officer opens fire in Bangkok

    A Royal Thai Police officer started firing gunshots randomly at Soi Jiramakorn in the Sai Mai district of Bangkok at 11am this morning and still has not been arrested as of 5pm. No one is reported to be injured. Police identified the gunman as 51 year old Pol. Lt. Kitikarn Sangboon, an inspector with the Special Branch of the RTP.…

  • Why thousands of Thais are flocking to a Morlam singer’s shrine 30 years after her death

    Why thousands of Thais are flocking to a Morlam singer’s shrine 30 years after her death

    Yesterday, more than 2,000 people gathered at the shrine of famous Morlam singer Honey Sri-isan in Kalasin province, northeast Thailand, for a lottery number selection event hosted by a 16 year old singer who is believed by fans to carry the reborn spirit of Honey Sri-Isan, who died in a car accident in 1992. Newcomer to the Morlam scene, 16…

  • BTS Skytrain workers demand 50 billion baht debt is settled

    BTS Skytrain workers demand 50 billion baht debt is settled

    Over 300 Bangkok BTS Skytrain workers staged a protest outside the Government House today, demanding that the Thai government settles its debt of over 50 billion baht. The workers are threatening to strike if the debt is not repaid or a measure is launched to solve the issue. The government and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) owe over 50 billion baht to…

  • Thailand looks to go Dutch with tourists from the Netherlands

    Thailand looks to go Dutch with tourists from the Netherlands

    The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) roadshow continues to gather a head of steam with the Netherlands the latest European country on its hit list. Last week, the TAT was in Germany at the ITB Berlin 2023 event to officially launch the ‘Visit Thailand Year 2023: Amazing New Chapters’ campaign, which aims to promote sustainable and responsible tourism in Thailand,…

  • 8,000kg of dead fish wash up on Chon Buri beach

    8,000kg of dead fish wash up on Chon Buri beach

    Nothing ruins a lovely day at the beach like thousands of kilogrammes of dead fish washing ashore. But the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources has at least confirmed the source of the vast quantities of chacunda fish gizzard shad that washed up on Bang Saen beach in Chon Buri province. It turns out the disgusting display of dead fish…

  • China eases visa restrictions coming out of Covid

    China eases visa restrictions coming out of Covid

    China is relaxing some of its pandemic travel restrictions again. On Wednesday, the mainland will begin issuing a range of visas to foreign nationals, according to the country’s foreign ministry. The move inches China closer to full reopening, marking a departure from the zero-Covid strategy they had held tightly to up until a few months ago. A social media account…

  • Broken railway crossing barrier in Thailand costs local mayor his life

    Broken railway crossing barrier in Thailand costs local mayor his life

    The Mayor of Nasan was killed by an oncoming train as he drove his car over a railway crossing yesterday in Surat Thani province in southern Thailand. One of four barriers was broken. Kosol Sutthangkun, the 63 year old Mayor of Nasan Municipality, was driving home from a funeral when he was fatally struck by Bangkok – Trang Express Train…

  • Thai net idol attacks car park staff at Suvarnabhumi Airport

    Thai net idol attacks car park staff at Suvarnabhumi Airport

    Viral CCTV footage of a woman attacking a staff member at a Suvarnabhumi Airport car park turned out to be a Thai net idol. The violent woman, who reportedly has a mental health illness, surrendered herself to the police today and compensated the victim 20,000 baht. The CCTV footage of the incident went viral on Thai social media yesterday. The female…

  • Accor continues expansion in the Philippines with the signing of the country’s first MGallery Resort

    Accor continues expansion in the Philippines with the signing of the country’s first MGallery Resort

    Press Release BOHOL, PHILIPPINES – Accor, the region’s largest international hotel operator, has continued its rapid expansion in the Philippines with the signing of South Palms Resort Panglao Bohol – MGallery, a locally-inspired five-star resort on the idyllic island of Panglao that will introduce this emerging destination’s unique heritage and community values to visitors from all around the world. The…

  • Thailand is ‘smiles’ better than most in Cheapest Countries to Visit poll

    Thailand is ‘smiles’ better than most in Cheapest Countries to Visit poll

    Thailand once again proved it is “smiles” better than most when it comes to polls, ranking fourth in a 10 Cheapest Countries to Visit survey. The survey was produced by US-based Kiplinger magazine, which is an American publisher of business forecasts and personal finance advice. According to the survey, the average daily expenses during a visit to Thailand is around…

  • Bali requests no visas-on-arrival for Russians, Ukrainians

    Bali requests no visas-on-arrival for Russians, Ukrainians

    Bali has requested that the central immigration agency cancels visa-on-arrival for Russian and Ukrainian nationals. The move comes after at least four Russian citizens were deported this month for visa violations, and following repeated warnings from immigration authorities about working on tourist visas. Governor I Wayan Koster requested the Ministry of Law and Human Rights to cancel the visa-on-arrival facility…

  • Woman charged after insulting PM Prayut in Ratchaburi

    Woman charged after insulting PM Prayut in Ratchaburi

    Three police officers charged a middle aged woman for causing chaos in public. The woman, about 50 years old, reportedly insulted Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and blocked the road in front of a community hall in the central province of Ratchaburi 10 minutes before the PM arrived at the scene. PM Prayut visited a community hall in the Baan Pong…

  • Record numbers of Russian tourists affect economy

    Record numbers of Russian tourists affect economy

    Thailand has seen a sharp rise in the number of Russian tourists in the country. So far this year over 370,000 Russian visitors have arrived in Thailand. That’s 67% of last year’s entire total of 435,000. Pol Maj Gen Phanthana Nutchanart, the deputy commander of the Immigration Bureau assures though that the influx has not increased Russian criminal activity. The…