World News
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Sponsored The 5 best luxury villa rentals in Koh Samui by The Luxury Signature
Koh Samui has long been known as one of the world’s finest luxury travel destinations. Its pristine beaches, lush landscapes, and crystal-clear waters create an idyllic setting that attracts travellers seeking an escape from the everyday grind. And opting to...
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Thailand is the fourth most searched-for destination for your next holiday
Since early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has stopped us from taking our holidays, or doing much travelling at all. But as travel restrictions ease, which destinations are coming out on top for our post-lockdown holidays? Official-esta.com has dusted off the calculator and checked the Google Search Volume data for the search terms “Flights to X” and “Holidays in X” to…
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Trials of Oxford Covid-19 vaccine paused after participant falls ill
Late-stage trials of a promising-sounding Covid-19 vaccine have been put on hold while researchers check out the exact cause of illness in one participant. The vaccine, being developed by Oxford University in the UK, in partnership with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, was in phase 3 trials, involving 30,000 participants. Volunteers were drawn primarily from countries with high numbers of virus cases,…
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A Land Bridge or the Kra Canal for Thailand?
OPINION by guest writer Tony P Restall Why the land bridge idea will never work Much has been written about the long-proposed Thai or Kra Canal and the on and off decision to proceed, or not. Over the recent years several high-level committees have examined the economic benefits to establish a water connection by means of a canal linking the East…
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Myanmar Covid-19 outbreak could reach Thai border in 2 weeks, health offical says
A health official predicts the coronavirus will reach the Thai-Myanmar border in the next 2 weeks. Border security has already tightened up after Myanmar reported a surge of Covid-19 cases. While the Thai government is making sure the virus isn’t coming in from other countries, the Ministry of Public Health is also investigating potential local transmissions. The coronavirus situation in the…
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Chinese official rules out return of China-Thailand tourism anytime soon
China is not yet ready to welcome international tourists, says a senior embassy official in Bangkok. Speaking to Nation Thailand, Yang Xin from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China to Thailand, says that, while domestic tourism has resumed in China, the country is not yet ready to open its borders to foreign tourists, nor is it encouraging its…
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London to New York in under 4 hours – Will there ever be another Concorde?
We’d flown in propeller-powered planes, then jets. Supersonic was the next evolutionary step in flying people around the world as the 1960s came to a close. Now, 50 years after Concorde’s early flights, supersonic flight is again just another aviation pipe dream as we pack into our cheap ‘flying buses’ which are not much different from the first successful commercial jets…
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3 returnees to Thailand reported as “re-infected” with Covid-19
There has been 6 new cases of Covid-19 announced in Thailand today. But 3 of the men, all Thais, were previously infected but had been certified “virus-free” before their flights from Singapore on Friday. The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration today announced that the men, aged 43, 53 and 56, tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving in Thailand just 2 days…
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100s of protesters defy orders, arrests at Melbourne demonstrations
UPDATE: The city’s lockdown provisions have been extended another 2 weeks. Australian police have arrested protesters in Melbourne as 100s of people joined protests against the various state Covid-19 restrictions. The protests have been particularly large and vocal in the souther city of Melbourne which has been under draconian lockdown provisions for 5 weeks. Some anti-Covid-19 restriction groups also shifted…
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BTS looks to a Grammy nomination after scoring their first Billboard #1 single
After scoring South Korea’s first-ever #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, K-pop supergroup BTS now says it’s set its sights on a standalone performance at next year’s Grammy Awards, perhaps even a nomination or an award. BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan) are RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook, and have fought over their 7 years together to…
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‘The Batman’ star, Robert Pattinson, tests positive for Covid-19 in the UK
Robert Pattinson, filming in the UK for the upcoming Batman film, has reportedly tested positive for Covid-19, just days after shooting for the much-anticipated movie had resumed. Warner Bros. said in a statement to AFP… “Filming is temporarily paused. A member of ‘The Batman’ production has tested positive for Covid-19, and is isolating in accordance with established protocols.” There was no…
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50 tonnes of dodgy durian seized and destroyed in China
In a move that will attract thanks from 1000s of westerners, China has destroyed nearly 50 tonnes of illegally imported durian, valued around 5.5 million baht. The durians had been smuggled into China. Shiokou, a border town in Cao Bang Province in Vietnam, was where the dodgy durian was intercepted. The land port has been operating since 1792 and plays…
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Chinese nationals caught crossing the border
Border patrol officers arrested 6 Chinese nationals who allegedly crossed the Thai-Myanmar border this morning. The arrests follow a series of busts driven by Thailand’s heightened border patrol, a measure aimed at preventing the return of the coronavirus after Myanmar reported a spike in cases. The migrants had waded through the Moei River, which separates Thailand and Myanmar, and were…
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Another school closed after Covid-19 scare
Another school near the Burmese border, along western Thailand provinces, temporarily closed down after students came in close contact with those who crossed the border and reported a “fever,” although no traces of the coronavirus have been detected or confirmed at this stage. The Ban Kui School in Kanchanaburi closed after some of their students came in contact with people…
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Australia falls into a recession, global economies at a loss
“Our record run of 28 consecutive years of economic growth has now officially come to an end. The cause: a once-in-a-century pandemic.” Just about everyone hit from the coronavirus pandemic. Businesses closed. Many lost their jobs. Paychecks were cut. Economies across the globe slipped into recession and Australia is now added to that list. The country reported it has sunk…
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Philippine president says “kill the drug traffickers”
“If it’s drugs, you shoot and kill. That’s the arrangement.” Philippine police have been ordered to kill those caught trafficking drugs. Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte said publicly during a Cabinet meeting that he wanted a revised crackdown on the country’s drug trafficking. The country’s leader is known for his strong anti-drug and hard-ball stance on drug dealing and trafficking, backed…
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Malaysia bans citizens from high risk countries
While all international tourists are banned from entering Malaysia for the rest of the year, the country is also restricting citizens from India, Indonesia and the Philippines. Those countries have reported a high number of coronavirus cases and the numbers continue to go up. Foreign tourists have been banned since March and will be until the end of the year.…
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Vietnam ready to take off, international flights start this month
Vietnam is gearing up for international flights and some trips are planned to start as early as this month. The country’s Civil Aviation Authority says they’re set to start international flights on September 15 after being put on pause for the past 5 months. The authority’s director says travellers will need to quarantine for 14 days upon entering Vietnam. Japan…
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Air Asia announce new fees if you want to check-in at the airport counter
The AirAsia Group has announced it will begin charging travellers a fee to check in at airport counters – you know, that bit in the terminal where it says “Check In’. Even better, their excuse for the new charge… in part to encourage customers to “minimise physical contact with staff during the coronavirus pandemic”. Malaysia’s AirAsia last month reported the biggest…
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Hua Hin schools close after students get fever, families crossed Myanmar border
Class is cancelled for a week at 2 schools after some students reported a high fever. School officials discovered many Burmese students and parents have been crossing the Thai-Myanmar border. The Thai government recently told immigration police to patrol the country’s natural borders such as along jungles and rivers after Myanmar reported a spike in coronavirus cases. The 2 Prachuap…
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Malaysia closed to tourists for the rest of the year
Planning a trip to Malaysia? You’ll probably have to wait until 2021, at this stage anyway. The country just announced travel restrictions will be in place until New Years Eve 2020 and tourists won’t be allowed to visit until then. The country’s Recovery Movement Control Order is in place until December 31. Foreigners on a social visit pass, or tourist…
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Facebook responds to proposed media laws in Australia with a threat to ban sharing of news posts
The media wars are heating up in Australia as a battle between Facebook and other tech platforms line up against traditional media providers and the Australian Government. Facebook is now threatening to block both the users and media organisations in Australia sharing news stories, if the Australian government’s plan to demand Facebook, Instagram, Google, etc to pay for content goes ahead.…
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Thailand planning land and rail passageway, bypassing congested Strait of Malacca
Thailand hopes to shorten shipping time by bypassing the busy Strait of Malacca with a 100 kilometre highway and railway passageway. Discussions are underway to construct 2 deep seaports on both sides of the country’s southern coast, which would be linked via rail and highway. The latest proposal replaces the Kra Canal plan, which was talked about for decades. That…
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Burmese workers caught crossing the border, 2 had a fever
About a dozen Burmese workers were caught illegally entering Thailand and 2 of the them had a fever, border officers say. The bust comes after the Interior Ministry tightened security measures along the Myanmar border to stop illegal border crossings in an effort to prevent a coronavirus outbreak. The neighboring country had a spike in new cases with hundreds of…
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Thai critics abroad get threatening packages
Threatening packages have been sent to 3 Thai critics of the monarchy that live overseas including well-known Thai journalist Jom Petchapradad and Red Shirt activist Phontip Weeden who both live in Los Angeles in the US. Another who received a package was Andrew MacGregor Marshall, a Scottish journalist and writer of the 2014 book “A Kingdom in Crisis,” which is…
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Global Covid-19 infections soar past 25 million
Covid-19 infections around the world surpassed 25 million today, with India setting a grim new record for the highest single-day rise in cases, 78,761. Roughly a million new cases have been detected globally every 4 days since mid-July, according to an AFP tally. The surge in India, a country of 1.3 billion people, comes as the government further eased lockdown…
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Chinese Coast Guard nabs fleeing Hong Kong activists
Chinese authorities have captured and arrested around a dozen Hong Kong activists from Hong Kong who were attempting to leave the former British colony by speedboat. The incident shows the intensification of Beijing’s campaign to seek out protest leaders and those resisting the Communist Party’s tightening grip there. The arrests, made last. Sunday, are the first confirmed case of such…
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UN decries “enforced disappearance”, calls for an end
The United Nations is calling on all countries in Southeast Asia to criminalise state abductions and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The organisation’s Human Rights Office says it’s “profoundly concerned” over continuing reports of enforced disappearances, after Wanchalearm Satsaksit, an activist living in exile, was abducted in Phnom Penh on June 4,…
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AirAsia revenue nosedives 98%
As Asia’s budget airlines struggle for survival, AirAsia Group Wednesday reported its revenue plummeted 98% year-on-year. The unaudited consolidated second quarter results of AirAsia Group, identified as the Consolidated Group (Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia) 1 reported revenue of 119 million ringgit, (around 888 million baht) down 96% from 2.9 billion ringgit (21.6 billion baht) in the second quarter of 2019.…
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Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe to step down over health
Japan’s media today reported that PM Shinzo Abe will resign over health issues, in a shock development that will end a record-setting tenure with no clear successor decided. There was no immediate confirmation, and the reports came just hours before Abe was to hold a press conference about his health. The news sent Tokyo stocks tumbling more than 2%, the…
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Border securty tightened as Myanmar virus cases surge
A significant surge in Covid-19 infections in neighbouring Myanmar has prompted authorities in the northern border province of Tak to tighten border security. More than 200 new cases have been confirmed since early last week, compelling Myanmar to shutter schools nationwide. Authorities say all border passes in the Mae Sot district and roads to the central city districts will be…
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