World News
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Sponsored Why long-term expats in Thailand say insurance is worth every baht
Thailand’s warm weather, low cost of living, and good healthcare attract many long-term expats, including retirees and remote workers. Life here feels easy and affordable, but medical costs can be high if something goes wrong. Private hospitals are popular because...
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AirAsia adds more Thailand-Vietnam flights
PHOTO: The Golden Bridge in the Ba Na Hills, near Da Nang Thai AirAsia says it’s adding new routes linking Thailand to destinations in Vietnam, as it seeks to increase its market share in the Mekong Region – Cambodia, Southern China provinces, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam The latest promotion supports the launch of a service from Chiang Mai in North…
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Langkawi ferry bursts into flames – passengers safe – VIDEO
by Bernama/The Star – Asia News Network A passenger ferry travelling from the Kuah Ferry Terminal to Kuala Perlis in Langkawi island in Malaysia had to be evacuated after the passenger cabin filled with choking smoke. All the passengers were rescued by a nearby tour boat and local fishing boats. “The ferry stopped in the middle of the sea and we saw smoke…
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Thai AirAsia looking to purchase stake in local rival Nok Air
Having a cashed-up and aggressive competitor looking to buy a stake in Nok Air will send more shudders down the corridors of the lumbering local behometh, Thai Airways. Asia Aviation, the majority shareholders of Thailand’s low-cost Air Asia franchise Thai AirAsia, says it was considering buying a stake in local rival Nok Airlines. The announcement has sent Nok’s share prices…
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Golden Triangle drug labs increase shipments 1000% – Speed and Ice pouring over the border
The number of seizures of high-purity crystal methamphetamine are surging into northern Thailand. The demand rises and the methods of detection and enforcement also improve. It’s a vicious circle. Authorities say the number of drug seizures have risen 1000% in just the past 2 years, a stark indication of the growth in industrial-scale production in neighboring Myanmar. Some 18.4 tonnes…
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Students are dropping out along Cambodia’s border with Thailand
by VOA A Cambodian official has reported that about 23% of children in three provinces along the border with Thailand have stopped attending school. The Cambodian Education Minister Hangchuon Naron was speaking about the student dropout rate. He said that the rate in Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Oddor Meanchey provinces was much higher than in other areas, where rates are…
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Better analysis needed to track down the source of new chemicals in illicit drugs
The Office of Narcotics Control Board has been training personnel in drug analysis to handle new illicit substances coming onto the streets. A Chinese analysis lab has recently discovered 230 new psychotropic substances which are making their way into recreational drugs and other foods. China has subsequently banned several beverages and sweets that contain these new illegal substances. Thailand’s Justice…
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Lion Air flight slips off Borneo runway, landing in poor conditions – VIDEO
Another PR disaster for Lion Air, luckily no fatalities in this latest incident. A Lion Air Boeing 737 with 189 people on board has skidded off a Borneo runway as the pilot tried to land during heavy rain. The Lion Air flight was coming in to land at the Supadio International Airport. The aircraft was carrying 182 passengers and seven crew…
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Now you can study the success of K-pop band BTS – University of California, Berkeley
PHOTO: BTS members posing with South Korean President Moon Jae In 400 million views, 500 million, 600 million. Just scroll through the group’s songbook on YouTube from the past five years and you will be watching music history in the making – a success built on a new pop genre, new ‘music business’ model and seven young South Koreans hell-bent…
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Air Asia booking system down for 24 hours this weekend
Air Asia will be upgrading it Navitaire New Skies reservation system over the weekend causing a 24 hour blackout for all booking systems across all channels. Flight booking for Air Asia will be unavailable on Saturday, February 16 from 2pm (GMT +8) until Sunday, February 17 at 3pm. This will include AirAsia.com, AirAsia sales counter, AirAsia mobile app, all offices…
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Thailand loses its ‘cheap living’ reputation – Numbeo
Many of Thailand’s most popular tourist and retiree destinations are becoming the most expensive places in Southeast Asia to settle down, being beaten by Malaysian and Indonesia counterparts. The cost of living survey was conducted by comparison site Numbeo. Comparing the region’s top 18 destinations, Numbeo lists Bangkok as the second most expensive city after Singapore. But Pattaya, Phuket and…
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Yangon International Airport gears up for new flights, new destinations
PHOTO: MYANMORE Yangon International Airport is poised to welcome more airlines and passenger this year as travel demand grows following Myanmar’s relaxation of entry visa requirements at the end of 2018. The Yangon Aerodrome Company Limited, the company that manages Yangon’s international airport, says it’s increasing airport facilities and stepping up marketing to open new direct routes into the Burmese…
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Vietnamese blogger has vanishes in Thailand – Radio Free Asia
PHOTO: Một Góc Nhìn Khác A Vietnamese blogger,Truong Duy Nhat, working for Radio Free Asia, has vanished after fleeing to Thailand. The news organisation has voiced its concerns today as rights activists share their fear that he had been abducted. AFP reports that Truong Duy Nhat, a weekly blogger for the Vietnamese service of Radio Free Asia, which aims to…
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Leopard cub smuggled on a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok to India
A one month old leopard has been found in a passenger’s hand luggage after landing in Chennai, India after a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok. The young leopard was weak and dehydrated when it was discovered. The leopard kitten was hidden in a grocery basket hidden put inside his carry on luggage. At this stage officials haven’t reported the nationality…
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Thailand’s Central Group planning to invest $200 million in Grab
Central Group, Thailand’s biggest shopping Centre and department store operator, is planning to invest US$200 million (6.3 billion Thai baht) in ride-hailing giant ‘Grab’, according to sources ‘familiar with the matter’ today. The deal seals a strategic partnership where the Thai retail giant will help Grab expand its business in Thailand. Central Group would invest in Grab’s Thai business unit.…
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Burmese migrants, heading for Malaysia, stopped in Chumphon
Police and soldiers in Chumphon have arrested 37 Burmese people who were heading to Malaysia. Security forces, including troops from the 44th Army Circle, checked a wooded location where residents had seen a group of strangers in a makeshift camp. The 33 men and four women had no travel documents and appeared exhausted in their rough camp behind a deserted…
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Singapore people with HIV shocked by data leak
from The Straits Times 14,200 people living with HIV in Singapore, who had their personal details leaked, are stunned. The Singapore Ministry of Health has revealed that some 1,900 names in the leaked data were of people who had already died. An HIV-positive US citizen, who had been deported from Singapore after serving a jail term, has leaked online the personal…
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Deputy PM says Malaysia can learn from Thailand on caring for neglected children
PHOTO: Thai PBS Malaysia’s Deputy PM Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has been visiting Thailand and says that her government can learn something from the methods implemented in Thailand to tackle the issue of neglected children and babies and those without citizenships. Bernama news agency quotes Wan Azizah, who is also Women, Family and Community Development Minister, as saying…
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Cardiff striker Emiliano Sala said he was ‘concerned about plane’
PHOTO: Facebook/Emiliano Sala “I’m on a plane that looks like it’s going to fall apart, and I’m leaving for Cardiff,” Emiliano Sala said in a WhatsApp message. Cardiff City’s new signing Sala said he was concerned about his plane shortly before the light aircraft disappeared over the English Channel. The message was sent to friends and relatives. The Argentine striker,…
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Scoot passengers jump in to help restrain man, pilot diverts flight
A Scoot Airlines flight from Australia’s Gold Coast to Singapore had to be diverted to Sydney Airport after an incident with an unruly passenger. Flight TR7 was scheduled to reach Singapore at 3.15pm yesterday but was diverted just 1h 20 min into the eight-hour flight. Scoot has issued a statement saying that an Australian man on board punched another passenger.…
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Top 10 countries in Asia – DataLeads report
PHOTO: Travelience “Japan is ranked the best country in Asia and fifth globally. Thailand ranks 27th globally” DataLeads reports that a survey conducted in 80 countries shows that Japan and Australia are the only Asia-Pacific countries that features in the top 10 best countries of the world. The ranking of countries is measured through factors like entrepreneurship, openness to business,…
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Australian police arrest flight crew over drug smuggling
PHOTO: Part of the drug haul seized by the AFP – Australia’s ABC News Malaysia’s Malindo Air have been caught up un an international drug smuggling case as some of their air crew are now accused of helping to smuggle heroin and methamphetamine worth millions of dollars from Asia to Australian cities. Australian Federal Police (AFP) have now arrested two flight…
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Thai-owned Dusit D2 Hotel under fire in Nairobi
PHOTO: Google Maps Two explosions and gunfire have been heard amid an apparent attack at an upscale hotel and office complex in Kenyan capital Nairobi. News just in from independent.co.uk “We are under attack,” another person in an office inside a complex in the DusitD2 hotel told Reuters, then hung up. Local television showed smoke rising from the area. “I…
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FOUND: Cockpit Voice Recorder from crashed Lion Air flight
PHOTO: A Boeing 737 MAX, identical to the crashed jet “It’s broken into two pieces so hopefully it’s still useful.” Just as hopes of finding the second black box of the crashed Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX began to fade, investigators say they finally found the voice cockpit recorder (CVR) of the doomed flight. Data retrieved from the device could…
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Cambodian diplomatic passports issued to foreigners to be annulled
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Cambodia is moving to annul diplomatic passports issued to people not born in Cambodia. This from the The Phnom Penh Post today. The report says that analysts believe the move may be in response to Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra using a Cambodian passport to register as a company director in Hong Kong.…
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Burmese journalists lose appeal, and the article that put them there
PHOTO: Washington Post A Myanmar court has rejected the appeal of two Reuters reporters sentenced to seven years in jail on charges of breaking the Official Secrets Act, saying the defence had not provided sufficient evidence to show they were innocent. 32 year old Wa Lone and 28 year old Kyaw Soe Oo were convicted by a lower court in…
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Paralyzed from rare disease, Caroline returns home from Thailand
Original report by Karina Bolster and David Hylton. PHOTOS: Facebook/Jim Brader A 22 year old woman from Virginia, US, who was paralyzed after her diagnosis of a rare auto-immune disease while teaching in Thailand, has arrived back home in the US. Caroline Bradner was hospitalised in Thailand ever since. A travel insurance company had agreed earlier this month to help…
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Chinese foreign policy – On track
by Nikkei Asia Review “When Japanese trading house Itochu and train maker Hitachi withdrew from a soon-to-be-decided $7 billion tender for a high-speed rail project near Bangkok, it appeared to be another victory for China and its grand plans to connect Southeast Asia with railways. Thailand has for decades been the centerpiece of Tokyo’s strategy for Southeast Asia, and long-discussed plans…
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Rahaf al-Qunun arrives in Canada – no mention in Saudi media
The 18 year old Saudi runaway who says she feared her family and possible death if she was deported back to Saudi Arabia, has arrived in Canada. Canadian officials offered her asylum in a case that became global news after the plucky woman mounted a Twitter storm, barricaded in her airport hotel room last weekend. The Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia…
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Thai cabinet extends visa-fee-waiver until after Songkran
Tourists from over 21 countries will continue to benefit from an extension to the visa fee waiver introduced in November last year. In a move to boost tourism, the cabinet has extended the 2,000 baht visa-on-arrival fee waiver, according to Tourism and Sport Minister, Veerasak Kowsurat this morning (Tuesday). The waiver was set to end on Sunday, January 6, 2019,…
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Myanmar Court rejects appeal of imprisoned Reuters journalists
A court in Myanmar yesterday decided to uphold the convictions of two Reuters journalists who were sentenced to seven-year prison sentences. The case that has drawn international criticism. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were found guilty last year of violating the Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act. They were investigating the massacre of Rohingya men amid a military crackdown on the country’s…
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