News
Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond.
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UPDATE: Today’s Chiang Rai cave search timetable – 12 missing
A rescue team, which now includes a Navy SEAL unit, are continuing search for the missing 12 young footballers and their coach. The 13 have been trapped inside a cave in Tham Luang Khunnam Nang Non Forest Park in Mae Sai district since Saturday. A flash flood that hit the area prevented the missing group from leaving the cave after…
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Pattaya: Thai woman falls to death from apartment building
A Thai woman has died after falling from a room on the fifth floor of a Pattaya apartment early on today (Monday). Police are holding her Australian boyfriend for questioning following the incident at 2.30am at Min Mansion in Tambon Nong Plue, Bang Lamung district. Police say 28 year old Wilawal Poolsukserm fell from her room and died on the way…
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Krabi student killed outside school
VIDEO. A student in Krabi has died after driving on a motorbike and colliding with a parked SUV in front of a school in Krabi. The accident happened in front of Khlong Thom Ratrangsan School in Krabi at 4pm on Friday (June 22). The driver was 17 year old Pichai Phusit Songguea, a student of a college in Krabi. Pichai…
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Bangkok: Abhisit urges NCPO to lift ban on political gatherings
PHOTO: The Nation Democrat party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva is urging the NCPO to lift their ban on political activities and gatherings. He notes that the junta shouldn’t be worried that national security could be compromised as a result of the lifting of the ban as it has all the powers to deal effectively with anything deemed a security threat. Abhisit points out…
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Update: Rescue in Chiang Mai – 11 teenagers and their coach missing in cave.
The 11 missing teenagers and their football coach are still believed to be still alive but remain trapped inside the innermost sections of the cave where they’re believed to be safe but separated by flooding waters. Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn headed to the Thamluang-Khunnam Nang non park in Mae Sai district to supervise the continuation of the search and…
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Update: Man ‘dismembered ex-girlfriend’ – Bangkok
By Kornkamol Aksorndech After a head and mutilated body parts were found in Bangkok’s north-eastern suburbs on Saturday morning police went to work to find the perpetrator of the crime. It took them less than 24 hours. Original story HERE. UPDATE: The former boyfriend of a woman whose mutilated body was found on a remote road in Bangkok’s Klong Samwa…
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Krabi: Erosion threatens fossils on Andaman coast
By Sitthichai Sikhawat Known as ‘The 75 million-year-old shell cemetery’, the mollusk fossil-filled beach at the Andaman coastal province of Krabi is now facing erosion after being damaged by strong currents over the past two years, a senior official at the Hat Noppharat Thara–Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park said on Sunday. Conserving the 40 centimetre thick fossil layer on…
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Search continues for 12 teenagers and their football coach
A post-football training visit to a Chiang Rai cave by a group of 12 teenagers and their football coach has turned into a nightmare with all of them still missing. As the search operation continued into Sunday for the 12 youths and their 25-year-old football coach, who are missing after visiting a cave in the Tham Luang-Khunnam Nang Non Forest…
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Man found dead in Thalang bathroom
A Thai man has been found dead inside the bathroom of his house in Thalang yesterday (June 24). The Thalang Police were notified of the incident at a house at the Prompan Housing estate in Paklok yesterday afternoon. Police and rescue workers arrived at the scene to find the body of a 27 year old man lying on the floor.…
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Indonesia: Selamat Datang. Work here? Then learn the language.
Living as an expat in south east asia has enough challenges, with paperwork, immigration demands, visas, visa runs, cultural differences. For businesspeople it can be increasingly demanding with requirements for ‘owning’ and running a business. Imagine, in Thailand, if having to learn the Thai language was an actual requirement. Many of us living here enjoy learning the local tongue, but…
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Bangkok: Invitation accepted – 30 political parties will meet for talks Monday
Thirty Thai political parties have accepted the invitation to meet Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan at tomorrow’s (Monday) meeting hosted by the government. The government promised this ‘getting to know you session’ as part of the roadmap towards the next election, scheduled for February. Gen Prawit says the meeting scheduled for June 25 will be attended by representatives of at least…
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Chiang Rai: Rescue operation looking for 11 footballers and a coach trapped in a flooded cave
11 teenage footballers, along with their coach, have been stuck in a flooded Chiang Rai cave since last night (Saturday). Rescuers have been trying to get to the team who are trapped in a flooded cave in the region’s Mae Sai district. The cave is located in the Tham Luang-Khunnam Nang Non national park. The footballers are all from the Tambon…
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Bangkok: Crackdown on Grand Palace scammers
Another crackdown. This time, on one the oldest tourist scams on the books. Bangkok Post reported that 87 people were rounded up in an operation around the Grand Palace in Bangkok following complaints of foreign visitors being pressured into purchasing unwanted services. “A total of 87 people were arrested in the operation of which 68 were booked for violating traffic regulations…
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Pattaya: Russian on overstay, and his wife, arrested for stealing motorbike
Pattaya Police have arrested a Russian man after stealing a motorbike from a Hungarian in the seaside party town earlier this month. 26 year old Vladimir Zhulabrev allegedly stole a motorbike belonging to retired Hungarian doctor 71 year old Gabor Tamas Pethoe while it was parked outside a condo in the Nong Prue area on June 10. Police arrested Zhulabrev…
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Thai PM confirms February election during visit to UK
by Vipaporn Pooritanasarn Thai PM General Prayut Chan-ocha has confirmed the the country will hold a general election early next year along with readiness to strengthen trade ties with England. He’s made the statement during his visit to the UK this week. General Prayut had talks with Speaker of the House of Lords, Lord Fowler about promoting trading opportunities between the…
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Bangkok: 13 billion baht of drugs – up in smoke
The Thai Food and Drug Administration is about to incinerate 6,322 kilograms of confiscated drugs. It will be a bonfire valued at around worth 13 billion baht ($395 million) to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26. The big fire will be fuelled by 5,514 kilogram of methamphetamine pills, 486kg of crystal meth, 108kg…
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Phuket Surf Series 2018
The Tourism Authority of Thailand, Phuket office, in collaboration with Surfing Thailand and the Phuket Surfing Club, is hosting the Phuket Surf Series 2018 from June to October this year. A media briefing was held yesterday at SurfHouse Phuket in Patong in spectacular sunshine. Just across the road, at Patong Beach, the monsoon surf was surging into the west coast…
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Phuket: Andaman Hotelier and Tourism Fair 2018
The event is being held on June 22-24 from 10am to 9pm at the Central Festival Home Work’s side under the concept Green and Innovation. The event was officially opened on June 22 by Phuket Vice Governor Thawornwat Kongkaew and Deputy Director of the Phuket Office of Tourism Authority of Thailand Montri Manator. They say the Fair aims to support and…
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Chiang Mai: New Zealander accused of masterminding murder of his Korean mother Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai police have arrested a New Zealander for allegedly masterminding the murder of his Korean mother by setting it up as quarrel between his wife and his elderly mother. 50 year old Brian Lee was arrested and charged with masterminding the murder of 76 year old An Jung Ja at a house in the Mountain View village in Tambon…
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Bangkok: Female’s head and body parts found in bags north-east of city
PHOTOS: Thai Rath The mutilated body of a female has been found in the Soi Klong Samwa, in the north-eastern outer suburbs of Bangkok. Minburi police, forensic experts and members of the Por Teck Tung Foundation headed to the location where the body was found. In a shoulder bag, wrapped in a black rubbish bin liner, was the head of…
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How much would you pay for a plastic amulet?
The shenanigans at the Kathu Temple, where Chinese tour buses are arriving daily in their droves to purchase ‘lucky’ and ‘magic’ amulets, continues. This time two Dutch tourists, interested to visit a temple and check out the alleged lucky amulets, were horrified by what they discovered. The two, who have asked us not to publish their names, visited the temple…
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Narathiwat: 40 pipe bombs seized at a checkpoint on busy highway
Police in Narathiwat have uncovered 40 pipe bombs together with other potential bomb-making paraphernalia from a pickup truck at a checkpoint. The pick-up was travelling on the Sungai Kolok-Takbai highway in the southern province of Narathiwat. Thai PBS are reporting that highway police set up a checkpoint on the main north-south highway. Around midday, a gold-coloured Isuzu pick-up approached the…
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WhatsApp stopping support on millions of smartphones – are you affected?
Tech.ThaiVisa are reporting that WhatsApp has quietly announced that it will stop working on a number of iPhones and Android devices. The Facebook-owned messaging platform, which boasts 1.5 billion users worldwide, will cut off millions of users from its service within the next two years. WhatsApp announced the death knell for older smartphones in a blog post titled “support for…
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Thai PM features on front of Time magazine’s Asia edition
Thailand’s PM Prayut Chan-o-cha is being featured on the cover of Time magazine’s Asia edition for the start of July, available on July 2. The cover carries the headline: “Democrat. Dictator. Which path will Thailand’s Prayuth Chan-o-cha choose?” General Prayuth Chan-ocha appears at ease among the lavish trappings of politics. Thailand’s Prime Minister is never far from doting courtiers in Bangkok’s…
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Songkhla: Pet dog leads family to missing boy
A faithful dog has led a family of a missing five year ld boy to a Songkhla reservoir. Sadly, it turned out that the youngster had already drowned. The body of Panattha Thammaro resurfaced at about 8am this morning (Friday). The family said the boy disappeared from home at 3pm Thursday and couldn’t be found. Then at 8pm the dog, named…
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Chiang Mai: Virtual Stadium coming to Central Festival
A Virtual Stadium is coming to Chiang Mai for World Cup fans. The Central Pattana Group, together with Kasikorn Bank and Chang, are bringing what is described as the Virtual Stadium to Central Festival in Chiang Mai for just two days according to a press release. To satisfy the thirst of Thai football fans, the three organisations are transforming the…
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Soi Dog – Going, going green!
To celebrate the World Environment Day on June 5, 2018, the Soi Dog Foundation implemented a series of actions to reduce its carbon footprint as well as improve its Corporate Social Responsibility and ‘best practice.’ While the core mission of the Foundation remains the same, Soi Dog now goes one step further by measuring the impact of its work within…
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National: How many days over-stay?!
PHOTOS: Thai Tourist Police Bureau A 70 year old British pensioner has been named as the foreigner with the longest over-stay in the 15th round of “X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner”. the weekly national immigration crackdown. In cooperation with other agencies, Tourist Police announced the arrest of 110 foreign undesirables in 83 raids. People were busted for running romance scams, skimming operations, drug…
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Two motorbike taxi drivers arrested in public transport drug crackdown
A team of officials led by the Provincial Police Region 8 Police have conducted drug and alcohol tests in a campaign at the new Phuket Bus terminal in Rassada yesterday (June 21). The campaign ran from 3-5pm. Sarawut Pakdee, a law enforcement officer of the Provincial Police Region 8 says, “Phuket’s Governor Norraphat Plodthong is very concerned about public transport safety…
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Nine arrested in Phuket drunk-driving campaign
Nine people have been arrested during random checks last night (June 21)around Phuket Town. A team from the Phuket City Police set up a checkpoint from 8.30pm to 11.30pm on Pa Lean Road in Phuket Town to enforce traffic rules and conduct random alcohol breath tests. 88 drivers had alcohol breath tests. Nine of them were found over the alcohol…
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