World News
World news, global politics, business, technology, and culture—stay updated with breaking stories, international trends, and major events. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted source for global news.
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Sponsored Thinking of retiring in Thailand long-term? Here’s your health checklist before the move
Thinking of retiring in Thailand long-term? Thailand is a popular choice for retirees because of its beautiful landscapes, warm climate, and affordable living. Cities like Chiang Mai and coastal areas offer a relaxed lifestyle with friendly communities. The country also...
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Slow-moving tropical storm Nakri heads towards Vietnam coast
PHOTO: NOAA Tropical storm Nakri (you know it’s serious when they give it a name), packing wind speeds up to 95 kph, is marching slowly towards Vietnam’s eastern coast. Currently it’s heading westwards between The Philippines and Vietnam. The storm is forecast to make landfall along the central Vietnamese coast this weekend. The storm is not likely to affect weather…
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Leave something behind? Man forgets finger in Chinese taxi after dash to hospital
A man in China has been reunited with the severed finger he left in the back of a taxi after a mad dash to hospital in Wuhan. Thai Residents reports that the man, named only as Xu, is a construction worker who lost his finger in an accident at the site where he was working. After a local doctor told…
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Thai security officials search for attackers after 15 killed on Tuesday in Yala
The 4th Army continues to hunt down suspects responsible for Tuesday’s brutal gun attack on a security checkpoint in Yala’s Muang district. The attack left 15 village defence volunteers dead and five others injured. The attack is believed to be a retaliation for extrajudicial killings of two insurgent suspects in Pattani’s Sai Buri district last week, according to a source.…
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Absurdities of modern flying, and do we really need to be shown how to fasten a seat belt?
PHOTO: Groovy air-hostesses from the late 1960s when flying was more glamourous. “Now everyone can fly” and that’s brought us to where we are now. There used to be a time when flying was a pleasure, an expensive pleasure. The passengers were part of the ‘jet-set’, and they could smoke cigarettes and sit in wide, comfortable seats. They would dress…
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Malaysian PM confirms Anwar will be successor
PHOTO: Malaysian PM, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad inspecting some Malaysian silks on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Bangkok – Twitter The Malaysian PM, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has confirmed publicly that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, president of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People’s Justice Party) will be his successor. The 94 year old PM was speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald in…
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US accuses ASEAN nations of trying to “embarrass” Trump with meeting snub
PHOTO: All smiles for the official pics, but backroom tensions emerged between the US and other ASEAN delegations – Reuters An American diplomat, speaking anonymously, says the US is concerned by the ASEAN nations’ partial boycott of the ASEAN-US summit held in Bangkok yesterday. It was certainly an intentional rebuff to the US after sending a sub-par delegation to the…
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8 Vietnamese arrested – investigation into 39 container deaths in the UK
PHOTO: BBC.com Eight people are now in custody in Vietnam in connection with an ongoing investigation into the deaths of 39 migrants in the back of a refrigerated container truck in the UK on October 23. The New York Times reports that the arrests have been covered by Vietnamese state media, with senior police vowing to fight the people smugglers responsible…
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15 countries poised to sign onto the world’s largest trade bloc
Whilst the US is consumed with polarised internal politics and building walls, and the UK economy withers under nearly four years of paralysing Brexit farrago, leaders from 15 Asia Pacific countries, including South Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, are poised to sign onto the world most powerful trade bloc – RCEP. Yesterday, despite some concerns from the Indian…
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Thai PM opens ASEAN Summit in Bangkok amid world economic tensions
PHOTOS: The Nation The 35th Summit of ASEAN leaders opened yesterday against a backdrop of global economic tensions and prolonged trade negotiations between China and the US. Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha welcomed the international delegation of the ASEAN Summit at Impact Muang Thong Thani in Nonthaburi, north-west Bangkok. During part of the opening, Prayut recited the lines of the song “The…
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“Build ASEAN brands” says AirAsia CEO
The CEO of AirAsia, Tony Fernandes, has told ASEAN governments to help create and strengthen “ASEAN brands” to drive the regional economy. Addressing the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit 2019, Mr. Fernandes says, although ASEAN is the world’s fourth largest economy, there are few ASEAN brands with impact beyond their national or regional boundaries. He blamed “both visible and invisible…
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American convicted by Cambodian court for sex abuse of underage girls
PHOTO: khmer440.comA Cambodian court has sentenced an US citizen to 2 years 6 months jail on charges of sexual abuse of three underage girls. Ying Srang, a spokesman for the Siem Reap Provincial Court, says Rugh James Cline was convicted on Thursday over ‘indecent acts against minors under 15 years of age’. The court proceedings state he paid three underage girls…
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Sit down, shut up and hang on – The Asian century is here
GRAPHIC: paragkhanna.com In the nineteenth century, the world was ‘Europeanised’. In the twentieth century, it was ‘Americanised’. This century it is all about being ‘Asianised’. With more than half of the world’s population, Asia has gone swiftly from low to middle-income status in a single generation. Today, its global share of trade grows quickly, along with capital, people, knowledge, transport,…
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Traffickers exploit vulnerable Vietnamese
“Many young Vietnamese head for the cities or gamble on their chances in Europe, out of devotion to their families, to escape a life of manual labour.” For a lot of Vietnamese, a job in Western Europe is seen as a path to prosperity and worth breaking the law for. And risking their lives. The risks are high and the consequences…
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Thai PM will negotiate the GSP issue with US officials during ASEAN Summit
Thailand will hold talks with US officials, about the GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) suspension for Thai exports to the US market, on the sidelines of the weekend’s ASEAN Summit, being held in Bangkok. Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha says there are still six months in which to resolve the issues before the suspension of trade benefits for up to 500…
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Philippines lifts restriction on rice imports from Thailand
PHOTO: VietnamPlus The Philippines has suspended a trial measure put in place to control imports of Thai rice following objections from Bangkok. The measure was initially put in place after the Philippine Department of Agriculture deemed existing regulations too lax. Rice imports had been under the control of the country’s National Food Authority until the government took over and attempted to…
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Red shirts get four years for 2009 Pattaya protests
PHOTO: A decade ago when Red Shirts stormed the ASEAN Summit in Pattaya – Reuters Passionate remnants of the former red-shirt (pro-Thaksin Shinawatra) movement are considering their situation after this weeks’ handing down of a long sentence for some members’ involvement in protests at an ASEAN Summit a decade ago. Three former members of the United Front for Democracy Against…
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‘Matmo’ will bring floods to upper and central Thailand
Thundershowers will bring rain to northern, lower-central and eastern Thailand, including the capital and its suburbs over the next few days, according to the Meteorological Department. The south will also see isolated heavy rains. The department is warning that a category 2 depression over the South China Sea has become a tropical storm, named Matmo (below). At 4am on October…
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US downgrades delegation to ASEAN summits
The US is downgrading its participation in two Asia-Pacific summits in Bangkok next week, a move sure to disappoint Asian partners worried by China’s expanding influence. US President Donald Trump is expected to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Chile in November, but the most senior official from his administration, when Thailand hosts the annual East Asian Summit…
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The world scrambles to attract Chinese travellers
PHOTO: pri.org Spending US$277 billion worldwide last year, Chinese travellers are the world’s top tourism spenders, by a long margin. Now the global travel industry is scrambling to capture its slice of the lucrative ‘bamboo dollar’, and falling out of Chinese travellers’ favour can have a dramatic impact on tourism figures. For example, Phuket has suffered as a result of…
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Recession hits Hong Kong as no end in sight for anti-government protests
More than five months in to the anti-government protests that have shaken Hong Kong, Paul Chan, the city’s Financial Secretary says Hong Kong is in recession and the economy is unlikely to grow this year. Thai PBS World reports that Mr Chan says the protests have had a devastating effect on the economy and that achieving the government’s forecast of…
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‘Flextension’ granted to Britain over the Brexit – new date January 31
PHOTO: Strained relations continue between the British PM and the French President – Daily Mail European leaders say they have agreed to the request for a three-month Brexit extension for the UK to consolidate its position for exiting the EU. The EU Council President Donald Tusk tweeted the new moments ago. The announcement ‘kicks the can down the road’ for…
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Thai exports will suffer from Trump labour rights decision
The Thai export sector will suffer another blow after the US President Donald Trump announced on Friday the suspension of 1.3 billion dollars worth of duty-free trade for certain Thai goods, claiming Thailand has not taken steps to protect the labor rights. In a letter to US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, Trump said…
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Asia’s burgeoning urban population growth
PHOTO: Mother Jones Asia’s urban population continues to grow rapidly, according to a report by the Asian Development Bank. According to the ADB report, looking at the average growth rates of urban population from 1970 to 2017, developing Asia’s urban population grew 3.4%, compared to 2.6% for other developing economies and only 1% for developed economies. The average growth of urban…
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123 kilograms of marijuana seized at border
Police found big bags containing 123 kilograms of compressed marijuana at a resort hotel in the Tha Uthen district of the northeastern province of Nakhon Phanom. The guests believed to have brought the contraband have fled. Tha Uthen’s district chief said on Saturday that local residents alerted authorities after seeing a few men check into at the hotel on Friday…
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Report into Lion Air crash blames variety of factors
Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee has released its report into the Lion Air crash of October 29 last year. Thai PBS World says the report blames a combination of aircraft design flaws, inadequate training and maintenance problems for the accident that killed 189 passengers and crew. The report states that Lion Air flight 610, which had taken off from Jakarta…
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Bangkok to Hong Kong the world’s second most popular flight, what’s the most popular?
The world’s top five flying routes are all in the Asia Pacific region, according to an International Air Transport Association (IATA) report. Aviation writers say the growth can be attributed to the addition of flights operated by low-cost carriers in the region. Passenger traffic between Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi) and Hong Kong airport is Number Two on the list of the airports…
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Indonesia safety committee to meet families of Lion Air crash victims
The Asean Post reports that the families of the passengers who died when a Lion Air flight from Jakarta crashed into the Java Sea, will meet Indonesian safety investigators next week. The Boeing 737 Max aircraft crashed shortly after take-off last October, killing all 189 passengers and crew. Now the families of those who died will receive a briefing on…
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Thai Airways denies cancelling flights to 4 Asean destinations
Thai Airways has dismissed reports that it will stop flying to four Asean destinations, namely Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar. In a statement issued Tuesday October 22, Thai’s president insisted there is no truth to reports that the airline will stop flights to the four destinations. He said that the company is preparing its corporate strategy, and a thorough analysis…
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Gardens by the bay – Singapore’s horticultural showcase
You don’t have to be a green-thumb to be amazed by this architectural and horticultural wonder. Gardens by the Bay is an independent organisation responsible for developing and managing one of Asia’s most stunning garden destinations. The destination is a must-see visit on a quick stop over or as part of your extended time in the Lion City. Make sure…
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Human hair trade exploits ASEAN women
Hair extensions have become an essential part of the multi-billion-dollar hair industry, with estimated annual sales of 250 million to over 1 billion USD. Based on a 2018 Research and Markets report, the global hair, wigs and extension market is expected to surpass 10 billion USD by 2023. Raw human hair has significant commercial value: it’s a coveted commodity to…
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