Bangkok News
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Sponsored Planning to extend your Thai visa? Why health insurance is more important than ever
If you plan to stay longer in Thailand, having health insurance is now more important than ever. Thai immigration often asks for proof of medical coverage when you apply to extend your visa. This applies to many types of visas,...
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Immigration staff on alert after Thai jeweller bludgeoned to death in Bangkok
PHOTO: Thai Rath Thai border staff have been alerted after a female Thai jeweller was found bludgeoned to death in a Lat Phrao hotel room yesterday, in the northern Bangkok suburbs. CCTV indicates that a likely suspect is a South African man seen going into the woman’s room. Thai Rath reports that 35 year old Susama Reunrit from Kanchanaburi was found…
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UPDATE: Election results – what it all means
The Election Commission says the official results of the Thai general election will be announced today. By the close of counting last night around 92% of the votes had been counted. The bleary-eyed commission decided to delay the announcement until this afternoon. The EC chairman says the announcement of winners in each constituency had to be deferred because expat’ votes…
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Counting continues today. Phalang Pracharat and Pheu Thai lead the way.
Pheu Thai and Phalang Pracharat were running neck-and-neck last night as ballots were counted around the country. The major parties swapped poll position as the night went on. As of 10.30pm, with 92 per cent of the votes counted, the pro-junta Phalang Pracharat appeared to have beaten Pheu Thai with a total of 147 seats – 92 constituency MPs and…
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UN election monitors spread across Bangkok and beyond
PHOTOS: The Nation Foreign observers representing the United Nations have fanned out across the capital and its outskirts today to monitor the long-delayed election. Today’s national election, the first since 2011, is also the first since the military-backed NCPO seized power in May 2014. Four four-member teams wearing pale-blue vests were assigned to polling stations in Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Pathum…
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94 motorcycles seized, 88 arrested – BKK road racing clampdown
Police have arrested 88 motorcyclists and seized 94 motorcycles last night for illegally modifying their bikes for road racing. Pol Maj Gen Nithithorn Jintakanon, traffic police chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, called a late night media pack at the Metropolitan Police Division 3 at 11.30pm to announce the arrests. Police set up road checkpoints in Metropolitan Division 3 last…
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“X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner” arrest numbers hit 8,400
by Kittipong Maneerit More foreigners detained and likely to be deported. Seems to be a never-ending supply of illegal foreigners hiding in Thailand. X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner has been an almost weekly campaign to round up and deport overstaying and illegal foreigners over the past two years. Another 490 foreigners were caught this week in the latest Immigration Police dragnet involving…
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Earth Hour next week, everyone invited to join Bangkok by switching off lights
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration is inviting Bangkokians to join in “60+ Earth Hour 2019”, by turning off electrical appliances and lights for one hour from 8.30-9.30pm on Saturday, March 30. The rest of Thailand is also invited to join in the annual environmental initiative. The BMA has participated in Earth Hour since 2008 by encouraging Thais to switch off lights to…
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Summer storm cell hits Bangkok
PHOTO: @fm91trafficpro A sudden and brief summer storm swiftly passed through Bangkok’s Lak Si and Don Mueang areas yesterday afternoon. The storm left some damage in its trail, including toppled small trees on Soi Vibhavadi 60, clogged drains and an under-construction Vibhavadi-Rangsit pedestrian bridge’s metal scaffold falling onto a car at Lak Si Intersection. The stormy weather took place around…
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Grab rider attacked by local motorcycle taxi driver – police admit the law is not clear
MONTAGE: Facebook/Patiharn Sarikapun Police near Khao San Road admit the law regarding the use of Grab Bike and similar ‘disrupting’ public transport services, is still unclear. They are calling on motorcycle taxis drivers, Grab riders, taxi drivers and Uber to keep calm and contact police if there are any disputes rather than taking matters into their own hands. Daily News…
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75 year old mauled to death by pitbulls in Nonthaburi
PHOTO: Sanook A family have returned home to find the 75 year old Grandmother had been attacked and mauled by the family’s six pit bull terriers. The woman, named Iat, was lying in a pool of blood outside the house in Bang Bua Thong, Nonthaburi, on the west side of the Chao Phraya, Bangkok. Sanook reports that she had been…
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BKK taxi driver returns 400,000 baht to Danish tourist
Usually maligned, it’s great to post a good-news story about Bangkok’s taxi drivers. A capital city cabbie is being praised after returning a bag containing 400,000 baht to a Danish tourist. T News reports that Somsri Ralat picked up the Danish tourist and his Thai wife at BKK airport and was taking them to their Hotel in Bang Yai yesterday…
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Siam Songkran Festival lights up this year’s Songkran in Bangkok
Sick of running around Bangkok with your 200 baht Tesco water pistol? Combine the annual water festival with a world class music festival instead. Welcome to Siam Songkran, Thailand’s newest four-day Songkran festival set to be held April 12 – 15 at Bangkok’s largest city centre entertainment zone, SHOW DC Arena. A time of tradition, Songkran is also a time…
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Porsche driver charged with reckless driving after death of two women
Bangkok Police have charged a Porsche driver who crashed into a motorcycle, killing two women, one of them also losing her unborn baby and being rushed to hospital, only to die soon after. The accident also damaged a roadside motorcycle-repair shop. The original report from The Thaiger HERE. Police announced that Somkiat Pakdeenok had been charged with reckless driving causing…
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Reduce Bangkok’s motorcycle death toll by 82% – add dedicated lanes
PHOTOS: Daily News Dedicated motorcycle lanes might be the answer to lowering the death toll around Bangkok’s congested streets. A leading engineer has suggested that Bangkok should introduce motorcycle lanes. The Engineering Institute of Thailand’s Dr Thanet Wirasiri says that Thailand has some of the most dangerous driving conditions in South East Asia – and things were getting worse all…
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Bangkok now in the Top 10 list for most expensive Asian locations for expats
Bangkok has, for the first time, made it into the list of Asia’s top 10 most expensive locations for expats. A rise in average rental prices this year caused by an influx of expats from China and an increase in tourism traffic have hit expats and put the city in 10th place on the annual list, with an average US$3,880…
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Chemical fire in a pick-up on on Sukhumvit Road
PHOTOS: Sanook A Toyota pick-up van with a cargo of 3 tonnes of 50% Hydrogen Peroxide has burst into flames in the street in North Samrong, south of the capital. 24 year old driver Janepop says he had picked up the consignment for delivery to a customer in Chanthaburi, south east near the Cambodian border. He told police he noticed…
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Ten-wheeler blacks out Bangkok neighbourhood
by Kornkamon Aksorndech Businesses and homes in Bangkok’s Lat Krabang area, east of the city centre, have been without electricity this morning after a 10-wheel truck got tangled in power lines on Ramkhamhaeng Soi 129 shortly after 9am. The Metropolitan Electricity Authority officials had the downed lines reconnected within three or four hours and replaced a utility pole that was…
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Man attacks waitress in BKK bar after complaining about loud music
A western man has attacked a female receptionist in a Bangkok bar. The incident occurred last Monday in a bar located on Sukhumvit Soi 1. Thaivisa reports that the man, allegedly living in a condo nearby, strolled into the bar to complain about the loud music. When staff informed him that no music had been playing as the bar was empty…
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Thai arrested for allegedly scamming 3 women out of 212,000 baht 9 years ago
PHOTO: Pol Lt-General Surachate Hakparn, in his capacity as head of Thailand Action Taskforce for Information Technology Crime Suppression, at the press conference announcing the arrest A 60 year old Thai man is now in custody in Bangkok’s Khlong Sam Wa district after allegedly duping three women out of 212,000 baht with a false promise of jobs abroad nearly a decade…
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Historical Rattanakosin Island “not an appropriate place for prostitution”
PHOTO: Daily News Thai officials say they are determined to stamp out ‘street walkers’ in the heart of Bangkok’s historical Rattanakosin Island district. Officials say that it is inappropriate to have prostitution in such an area and it is damaging for the image of Thailand. Bangkok Metropolitan Authority officials and other ‘experts’ in the field inspected the area known as…
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Bangkok Police announce two major drug busts
by Khanathit Srihirundaj The police keep seizing the drugs but the manufacturers keep pushing even more out the back doors of their factories hidden in the jungles of the Golden Triangle and north eastern Myanmar. But police in Bangkok today reported that a large haul of narcotics has been seized, including more than 200 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, or “ice”,…
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He’s an Aussie now. Hakeem al-Araibi becomes Australian citizen.
PHOTO: Hakeem al-Araibi says “I’m an Aussie now” and is happy to be safe Hakeem al-Araibi, the former Bahraini football player and refugee caught up in a diplomatic tug-of-war in Thailand between Australian and Bahraini officials for two and a half months, has become an Australian citizen. He became an Australian citizen along with 200 other people at a ceremony…
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Police wrestler avoids jail but gets a hefty fine
PHOTO: Daily News Bangkok’s Dusit Court has fined a Honda City sedan driver 8,500 baht for four offences related to an incident caught on video last week. The video showed Pol Lance Corporal Thanakit Wiboonphan trying to clamp a car parked illegally in a no standing zone. Not happy about the situation, the driver argued and wrestled with the traffic policeman.…
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Wealthy Thai woman arrested over dodgy weight-loss pills in raids across the country
PHOTO: Daily News An extensive police operation has led to the arrest of wealthy operator of a business selling alleged weight-loss products. The woman has also been charged with possession of controlled substances. Of the 13 targeted locations in Bangkok, one was the luxurious home of Wirairat Udthong on Soi Pattanakan 42 in the Suan Luang district. Wirairat was charged…
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Bangkok woman gives birth in the back of a taxi!
PHOTO MONTAGE: Thai Rath So you’re on your way to hospital with a passenger in the back of your taxi who says she’s going to have a baby – soon. Ahead there’s a lot traffic. Taxi driver Pratheep Manop said he picked up a woman aged about 25 – 30 from Pahonyothin Soi 48. She wanted to be taken to Wipharam…
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Chachoengsao man killed by grenade explosion on Facebook Live
PHOTO: M79 grenades and launcher A man was killed by a grenade explosion at a border patrol police base in Chachoengsao whilst trying to catch wild chickens. Chachoengsao is directly east of Bangkok. The 28 year old, Apisit Kerdlarpphol, was killed after entering the prohibited army training zone and broadcasting his exploits live on his Facebook page. Police say they discovered…
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88 arrested and being sent to ‘attitude adjustment’ on March 11
88 motorcyclists have been arrested along with 92 bikes, illegally modified, seized. The arrests relate to road racing in the, now, weekly Bangkok roadside crackdowns. This week police set up checkpoints on roads under the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Police Division 2. A media conference was held this morning, just after midnight, to announce the results of the operation. Police say…
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Is Thailand falling behind in the startup race? Techsauce Global Summit Bangkok
PHOTO: Oranuch Lerdsuwankij, CEO and co-founder of summit organiser Techsauce Media by Asina Pornwasin Oranuch Lerdsuwankij, CEO and co-founder of summit organiser Techsauce Media, underlined the forthcoming conference’s importance as a platform for tech enthusiasts across different industries to discuss digital knowledge, ideas and experiences. She says the summit is bringing tangible changes to the tech ecosystem across Thailand and…
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Bangkok rolls out new ‘user-friendly’ bus stop signs
The Bangkok Governor says the installation of 30 new “user-friendly” bus stop signs around the city will help save people from getting lost. Aswin Kwanmuang says the idea was presented during Bangkok Design Week last year by a civic group called May Day. Both sides of the signs show the numbers of the buses on the route, emergency phone numbers and…
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Shooting yourself in the foot, literally – Suvarnabhumi police station
A gun cleaner has shot himself in the leg outside Bangkok’s main airport police station. The 40 year old gun cleaner, Damrongkiat, a trader who sells uniforms and insignia to police and cleans their weapons, had already worked on three guns at the time without any problems. Next it was a Glock 9mm. Damrongkiat says he forgot to remove the…
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