World News
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Sponsored See the best of Northern Thailand this winter on a budget
The Thaiger key takeaways Peak season brings higher prices, but smart planning and local know-how can help you experience Northern Thailand affordably. Chiang Mai, Pai, and Chiang Rai offer plenty of free or low-cost attractions, from temples and canyons to...
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TSUNAMI: “There were two waves” – Norwegian volcano photographer
PHOTO: The Jakarta Post The toll remains at 20 dead and 165 injured as the morning provides light for searches after last night’s tsunami that hit the coastline around the Sunda Strait in Indonesia. The Strait separates the islands of Java and Sumatra. Authorities say the tsunami was caused by an undersea landslide after the remnants of the Krakatoa volcano…
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Tsunami in Indonesia kills 20, many more injured
• 20 people died in Indonesia • another 165 people had been injured in the incident At least 20 people have been reported to have died in Indonesia on Java and Sumatra islands after a tsunami struck areas around the Sunda Strait late late yesterday (Saturday). The tsunami was triggered by a sub-sea landslide caused by a volcano, according to the…
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19 Year old Thai girl dies from assault in Tokyo hotel
Photo: MX News Following several news reports by Japanese media outlets The Foreign Affairs Ministry has now confirmed the death of a 19 year old Thai woman in Tokyo, Japan. Initial reports say police were called by hotel staff when they heard loud screams from a woman after she had been heard arguing with a man in their room. Police…
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Floating plastic waste removal machine in the Pacific Ocean – Fail, so far
The ‘plastic removal system’ that set sail from San Francisco in September to clean up the huge floating plastic patches in the Pacific Ocean, hasn’t been working as planned. The Ocean Cleanup System 001, a U-shaped floating barrier created by the organisation The Ocean Cleanup, arrived in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in October. But the system has failed to…
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Miss Philippines wins Miss Universe 2018 – Thailand in Top 10
PHOTO: philstar.com Just in case you needed to know… Miss Universe 2018, the 67th Miss Universe pageant, was held today at Impact, Muang Thong Thani in Nonthaburi Province. Miss Thailand made it into the event’s Top 10. Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters of South Africa crowned her successor, the pageant winner, Catriona Gray of the Philippines. The 24 year old Filipina-Australian was crowned…
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No tickets. No travel agents. Back in 2001 the new Air Asia was a gamble.
Stepping onto an Air Asia plane these days, or one of its regional affiliates, it’s hard to imagine that back in 2001, ex-music business executive had to mortgage his house and raise venture capital to buy a failed airline. That new airline would revolutionize the aviation business. Re-lanching it as Air Asia, the airline has re-shaped the Asian aviation industry…
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Vietnam’s sixth airline takes off on December 29
The local airline business in Vietnam is hotting up with Bamboo Airlines poised to take to the skies. The new airline says it intends to fly its first domestic service on December 29. The first flight will depart Hanoi for the resort town of Quy Nhon where the airline’s parent company operates a hotel. ttrweekly.com is reporting that Vietnam’s fifth…
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Foreign Ministry assisting wife of Thai slain in France
Thai Foreign Ministry officials are working with French authorities to assist the wife of a Thai tourist who was among three people killed by a gunman last night at a famous Strasbourg Christmas market in France. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Busadee Santipitaksat says the Thai embassy in Paris had reported the death of 45 year old Anupong Suebsamarn, and contacted…
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Australian officials urge Thai authorities to release Hakeem AlAraibi
“FIFA, world soccer’s ruling body, is also calling on the Thai authorities to allow for the return of AlAraibi to Australia at “the earliest possible moment”. Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne is urging Thai authorities to release a footballer who holds a refugee status in Australia and who has been detained in Bangkok for nearly two weeks. Hakeem AlAraibi, a…
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New Thai 1,000 baht note wins international award
The first new Thai 1,000 baht banknotes, featuring the image of His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn, has won The Best New Banknote Award at the High Security Printing Asia 2018 international conference held in Hanoi, Vietnam. The banknote was awarded for its unique printing technology using the optically variable magnetic ink (OVMI), the first of its kind for Thai banknotes…
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Asia’s struggle with democracy – Thailand ranks #107 in the world
by By DataLEADS In the wake of the confirmation from the Thai Government about a firm date for the next election, a survey has been released which measures the Asian democracies. Thais go to the polls to elect a new government on February 2019, the first time since they elected Yingluck Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai party in 2011. The report says that…
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Want that perfect picture? Just wait your turn.
PHOTO: Tomas Alfoldi In this modern day of social media it seems so many are out to get that ‘perfect shot’, and will go to great lengths to get it. Seeing a picture of someone perched on some isolated cliff overlooking some natural wonder and thinking to yourself ‘I’ve got to get that picture!’. We’re often confronted with the challenge…
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Russian model becomes Queen of Malaysia after marrying Muslim king
Oksana Voevodina, is now the ‘first lady’ of Malaysia following the wedding to Malaysia’s monarch Muhammad V of Kelantan. She married the king in a royal wedding ceremony in Moscow after reportedly converting to Islam earlier this year. The beauty queen rose to fame when she was crowned Miss Moscow back in 2015 at the age of 22. Oksana – who has…
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Centara strikes deal for three new hotels in Laos
Thailand’s leading hotel operator Centara Hotels, announced it has signed management agreements for three new properties with a combined total of 216 keys, with Asia Investment, Development & Construction Sole Co., Ltd (AIDC), a well-established enterprise in Laos. In the UNESCO World Heritage site of Luang Prabang, Centara plans to open an upper upscale Centara Grand Luang Prabang and a…
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Annissa Flynn – Pro women’s World Flowboarding Champion
The Thaiger is very proud of local girl Anni Flynn on her defending of the World Flowboarding Championship, held recently in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. We caught up with her at SurfHouse Phuket…
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Gene-edited babies ‘immune to HIV’
PHOTO: He Jiankui is reflected in a glass panel as he works at a computer at a laboratory in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong province – China Daily by China Daily A Chinese scientist’s attempt to produce babies immune to HIV is sparking heated debate among the public and academics. He Jiankui, a biological researcher, has announced on social media, that…
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Thailand lowest in Asia for female political representation
By DataLEADS – Asia News Network “With only 5 % Thailand has the lowest political representation of women in Asia.” The World Bank data shows that over the last decade the socio-political changes have offered women opportunities to participate in the political structure and as a result the number of women parliamentarians has seen a significant increase. Philippines and Nepal has…
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‘Remove dual-language road signs’ – Malaysian sultan
by The Star – Asia News Network The Sultan of Selangor in Malaysia has decreed that all dual language road signage in Shah Alam (to the west of KL) must be removed and replaced with the national language (Malay) only. Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah’s private secretary Datuk Mohamad Munir Bani highlighted the matter in a letter dated Nov 19 to the…
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Flying in the dark – Lion Air crash investigation update
PHOTO: Komite Nasional Keselamatan Transportasi As an investigation into the ill-fated JT610 Lion Air flight continues, questions are now being asked if the pilots actually knew how to fly the plane – that they may not have had full knowledge of the latest model, the Boeing 737 Max 8 jet. A lawsuit against Boeing was filed last Thursday. The parents…
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Two Khmer Rouge leaders sentenced to life in prison
PHOTO: Pnomh Penh Post A UN-backed court has found two leaders of Cambodia’s murderous Khmer Rouge regime guilty of genocide. The judgement comes four decades after the regime which oversaw what became known as the Killing Fields, was overthrown. Most of the victims of the 1975-79 regime died of starvation, torture, exhaustion or disease in labour camps. Others were simply…
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Boeing sued by Lion Air victim’s family
PHOTO: Boeing 737 Max 8 – Boeing Dr. Rio Nanda Putrama, one of the passengers on the ill-fated Lion Air flight from Jakarta to a nearby island on October 29, had a family that, to date, know only that he was on the plane. No identified remains have been recovered. 188 others died on the same flight. Rio’s family is…
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Thailand takes over the ASEAN chair for 2019
Thailand has taken over the ‘chair’ of ASEAN from Singapore, who has hosted the regional bloc for the past 12 months. The short ceremony took place yesterday following the two day ASEAN summit. The chairmanship is shared equally around the 10 member states of the south east asian trade and geo-political bloc. Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha received the symbolic gavel…
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Thailand pushes for bigger ASEAN role in Rohingya crisis
by Supalak Ganjanakhundee, Singapore South East Asia’s leaders have been meeting in Singapore this week in the lead up to the next ASEAN Summit. The Rohingya crisis has been the main talking point. Thailand says it wants to take on a greater ASEAN role in resolving the Rakhine crisis, as the group grapples with the plight of 700,000 Rohingya Muslims…
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‘BTS’ K-pop group denounced by Jewish human rights organisation
by The Japan News – Asia News Network The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a Jewish human rights organisation based in the US, issued a statement denouncing South Korean boy band BTS for wearing hats with a logo similar to a Nazi symbol and flying Nazi-like flags at a concert in the past. “The result is that young generations in Korea and around…
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Boeing withheld info on the 737 model involved in Indonesia crash – WSJ
There’s mounting pressure on Seattle-based plane maker Boeing today over the Lion Air crash in Indonesian two weeks ago. Pilots are claiming that the aircraft maker didn’t tell them about changes to the emergency system on its new 737 Max 8 jet, the model in the Lion Air 610 disaster that killed 189 people. According to a report in the…
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PM Prayut pushes for greater ASEAN connectivity
Sounding very Prime Ministerial, Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha today pledged to push for greater connectivity to strengthen business and investments in ASEAN when Thailand assumes the chairmanship of the regional trade block next year. Speaking at the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Singapore, Gen Prayut said as chairman of ASEAN, Thailand will work to make the regional grouping an…
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A perfect storm hits Flight JT 610
If you get into a car that has had, and officially logged, malfunctions over the past four outings – all critical malfunctions to the correct operation of the car – would you start the key and head out into the traffic? Probably not. That appears to be what Captain Suneja, and his co-pilot on Flight JT610, did as the sun…
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Aung San Suu Kyi stripped of prestigious peace award
Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi has been stripped of Amnesty International’s most prestigious human rights prize, the Ambassador of Conscience Award, which she was awarded whilst still in detention in 2009. Amnesty is calling out the defacto Burmese leader and accusing her of perpetuating human rights abuses by not speaking out about violence against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. Once hailed…
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KL driver gets an unexpected car wash in flooding tunnel
An alert driver quickly had to climb out of his car’s window to safety when water suddenly gushed into a road tunnel near Jalan Tun Razak in central KL during heavy rain last night (November 11). The flood waters consumed his car within minutes. According to Bernama, the man identified as 26 year old Teh, says he was really scared…
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Indonesian rescue teams call off search for passengers of Lion Air flight
Indonesian authorities say they’re calling off the search for passengers of the Lion Air flight JT610, almost two weeks after the jetliner plunged into the Java Sea killing the 189 passengers and crew on board. Read The Thaiger editorial about the investigation HERE. Some 196 bags containing body parts have been recovered from under the water with 79 victims identified…
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