south

  • World News

    Indonesia’s forest fires causing air pollution in southern Thailand

    Residents in Thailand’s southern provinces of Songkhla and Satun are being warned to protect their health by wearing face masks or staying indoors as the two provinces are blanketed with smoke from forest fires on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island. The 16th regional environment office reports that dust particles of less than 2.5 microns, were measured at 55 microns/cubic metre during the…

  • World News

    Southern insurgency suspect dies after 35 days in coma

    PHOTO: Adbulloh Benjakat Abdulloh Esor Musor, left in a coma after being interrogated at a notorious southern Thai detention centre in Pattani, died yesterday, as pressure mounts on the Thai army to release further findings of a probe into the case. The man, a suspected insurgent allegedly tortured during his brief military custody being questioned after his arrest on July 20,…

  • Crime News

    August 2 bombing suspects moved back to Bangkok as investigation continues

    Two men suspected of involvement in the August 2 multiple Bangkok bombings have now been moved back to the capital after they were detained by police in the South. Police flew the pair back to Bangkok yesterday, where they remain in custody at Pathum Wan police station in central Bangkok. The two are suspects in the series of small blasts…

  • Bangkok News

    Police seeking arrest warrants for more suspects in Friday’s Bangkok explosions

    PHOTO: New Straits Times Police will seek warrants for the arrest of two additional suspects believed to be involved in the planting and detonating of four explosive devices at the government complex and in front of the Thai Armed Forces headquarters in Chaeng Wattana on Friday. Investigating police say they’ve now gathered all available footage from CCTV systems in the…

  • Crime News

    Thai police suspect southern insurgents in co-ordinated ATM explosions in Pattani

    PHOTO: Charoon Thongnual Suspected insurgents have blown up three ATMs in two districts in the Southern Thai province of Pattani, near the Malaysian border. The assailants escaped with banknotes from one of the ATMs. At this stage local police and security officials suspect insurgents were responsible for the bombings, but are still considering if the incidents could have been related…

  • South Thailand News

    Media reports Bangkok bomb suspects already detained – Thai PM says reports are false

    Two men already detained by Bangkok metropolitan police confessed yesterday that they came from the south of the country to plant bombs in Bangkok, the Thai-language Khaosod reported. Photos of the two men appear the same as the two men detained early on Friday morning following the placement of a ‘fake’ bomb at the front of the Royal Thai Police…

  • World News

    Southern insurgents likely behind the Bangkok bombings – Deputy PM Prawit

    A meeting of Thai security and intelligence officials last night, chaired by Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan, has determined southern insurgents were likely behind the spate of ‘warning’ bombs that went off around the capital yesterday morning. At the same time they haven’t completely ruled out political motivations despite an attempt by Thailand’s army chief Gen. Apirat Kongsompong to politicise the…

  • Crime News

    Fake bomb left outside Police headquarters in Bangkok – two suspects arrested

    FILE PHOTO: Front gate of the Royal Thai Police HQ in Bangkok Two men have been taken off a bus at a checkpoint and arrested early today on suspicion of placing two fake homemade bombs in front of the Royal Thai Police HQ in Bangkok. The Nation reports that they were heading south at the time and already in Chumphon province,…

  • Phuket News

    Stormy weather approaching the Andaman provinces

    The Thai Meteorological Department has announced that a regional tropical depression will affect provinces in the Andaman region including Phuket, Phang Nga, Krabi, Trang, Ranong and Satun until August 6. The local ‘Met’ office says that people living in the affected areas should beware of dangers from heavy rain. There will be increasingly large waves in the Andaman sea, expected…

  • World News

    Southern rebel remains unresponsive in hospital following alleged torture

    Thai security officials have confirmed that four more people were killed in a late-night attack on July 24 by Muslim insurgents on a military outpost in the southern province of Pattani. Militants struck the remote base throwing grenades and laying down nearly an hour of automatic fire. The attack is considered “payback’ for the alleged torture of Abdulloh Esormusor. Human Rights…

  • South Thailand News

    Young Thai caught between a rock and a hard place in Satun

    A 20 year old Thai has been rescued from getting stuck in a rock crevice for nine hours. Sanook reported that the man was out looking for wild orchids with a friend on Saturday. He fell down into a rock crevice before being found and rescued by local foundation rescue volunteers. The incident happened at the Phu Pa Phet Cave…

  • South Thailand News

    Durian drives southern economy with new Chinese 700 million baht factory

    A Chinese company has invested 700 million baht to establish a durian processing factory in Songkhla’s Thepha district. The establishment of the Kunming-based company in southern Thailand is an indication of the growing love for durian in China and a growing export potential for the ‘love-it-or-hate-it’ fruit. Manguwang Food Company will employ up to 1,200 workers at its 700 million…

  • South Thailand News

    Thai military under fire over alleged torture of a man in Pattani

    PHOTO: Pattani United Liberation Organisation president Mr. Kasturi Mahkota An apparently healthy man, taken to a military camp in the Thai southern province of Pattani for interrogation on Sunday night, has ended up in the provincial hospital’s intensive care unit with brain swelling. The Pattani United Liberation Organisation is condemning the Thai military over the incident. Kasturi Mahkota, PULO president,…

  • World News

    Former BRN negotiator slams Thailand as being insincere at peace talks

    PHOTO: thailandchatter.com A similar number of people have been killed in the Southern Insurgency in Thailand as in the conflicts at the Gaza Strip and West Bank in Palestine over the past 15 years. But the religious and realestate conflict at the southern Thai border with Malaysia has had a lot less international media coverage. One of the Malay negotiators,…

  • Phuket News

    Weather warning for Thailand’s southern provinces

    Thailand’s wet-season is forecast to be ‘wet’ in the south for the next few days. The Thai Meteorological Department has issued its 3rd consecutive weather warning in the past 24 hours to alert residents of heavy rain in the Southern provinces, strong winds and high seas. In the latest warning issued this morning at 6am, the TMD reported that, until June…

  • South Thailand News

    Villagers taken in under martial law for questioning over Yala shoot-out, Southern Thailand

    PHOTO: Charoon Thongnual Security officials have interrogated 18 people living near the site of this week’s clash between soldiers and suspected insurgents in Yala’s Yaha district. “They were brought in for questioning under martial law as authorities intend to go after the unidentified gunmen in Monday’s clash,” a source said yesterday. The Nation reports that the gunfight lasted several hours…

  • Tourism News

    Four southern islands to be closed to tourists during monsoon

    PHOTO: Koh Kradan Four islands in the Haad Chao Mai National Park in Trang, southern Thailand, will be closed to tourists for four months starting June 1. The chief of the Haad Chao Mai national park, Narong Kong-iad, says that access to the park will be denied to tourist from June 1 to September 30 for “the nature to rehabilitate…

  • Hot News

    Co-ordinated pipe bomb attacks in Yala injure five

    FILE PHOTO Five Army troops and rangers have been injured after southern insurgents threw pipe bombs. Security officials say the incidents happened at three locations in Yala in what appears to be a co-ordinated incident. The commander of Muang Yala police station, Pol Col Narawee Binwaearong, says two insurgents on a motorcycle rode to a security checkpoint on the Siroros…

  • South Thailand News

    “Don’t you know who I am”? Southern judge ridiculed.

    PHOTO: Judge Krairat Veerapattanasuwan refuses to show his driving license The police chief of Nakhon Si Thammarat says he has set up a panel to investigate an incident where a man, identified as a local judge, refused to show his driving licence to a policeman when asked, saying he was a friend of the policeman’s boss. The traffic policeman was…

  • Phuket News

    Upper Southern provinces being warned about dengue spread

    “The number of patients is expected to rise as rain has begun falling in some southern provinces.” Residents of provinces in Thailand’s upper South are being warned that dengue could spread now that the annual monsoon rains have arrived. Doctor Sirilak Thaicharoen, director of Nakhon Si Thammarat’s 11th Disease Control Office, said 1,165 people in seven upper Southern provinces had…

  • South Thailand News

    Ranger killed in Pattani roadside bomb ambush

    One ranger has been killed after southern insurgents detonated a roadside homemade bomb to ambush his patrol unit in Pattani’s Panare district this morning. Police say the attack happened at 10.20am on the main road in Ban Rawor village in Tambon Krawa. 34 year old Ranger Damrong Thong-u was killed by the blast. Police say the explosion occurred when Damrong…

  • South Thailand News

    Commerce Ministry talks up benefits of palm oil for generating power

    While the Thai government is promoting the use of palm oil to produce power, the latest price of the oil remains lower than the cost of producing it because the volume of output was 30% more than the expected quantity. The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives will survey the real quantity of palm oil to be released onto the market…

  • South Thailand News

    Police officer and wanted insurgent shot in Songkhla clash

    One policeman has been injured along with an alleged insurgent when troops and southern insurgents clashed in Songkhla’s Sabayoi district today. The exchange of gunfire happened at 10:30am this morning when troops and police reportedly searched for suspects in Ban Long Khuan village in Tambon Khuha. The team received a tipoff that December 26’s Khuan Niang district bombing suspects might…

  • South Thailand News

    HM the King expresses concern for people affected by unrest in the Deep South

    (Quoted directly from the Government’s Public Relations Department) His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun has been deeply concerned about the people and officials affected by unrest in the southern border provinces. His Majesty on January 21, 2019 assigned Privy Councilor General Paiboon Koomchaya to present baskets of various items given by His Majesty to relatives of the monks killed in…

  • South Thailand News

    Thai PM condemns southern violence. Urges media to be ‘careful’ covering the story.

    PHOTOS: The Nation Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha has responded to escalating violence in the strife-torn South today by saying that the people behind the deadly attack at a temple in Narathiwat province on Friday night were seeking to ramp up attention given to the violence in the South to the international level and lure officials into conducting “forceful suppression”. “Those…

  • South Thailand News

    Southern insurgents gun down four Pattani defence volunteers

    In a worrying upsurge in southern violence, insurgents disguised as army troops have gunned down and killed four tambon defence volunteers in Pattani’s Yarang district. The incident happened around noon and insurgents stole their rifles following the attack. Police say the four defence volunteers from Tambon Prachan were guarding Ban Bukoh School in the tambon when the insurgents arrived in…

  • World News

    Malaysians citizens being warned about travelling to Thailand’s south

    The Malaysian Foreign Ministry is advising Malaysians residing in Thailand or travelling to the Kingdom to “remain vigilant and exercise caution at all times”, in the wake of bomb explosions and shooting incidents in the country’s southern provinces. Officials say bomb explosions and shootings had been reported in different parts of Narathiwat and Songkhla. No Malaysians were affected by the…

  • World News

    Thai, Malaysian PMs pledge push for southern peace

    PHOTO: Benar News Malaysia and Thailand have agreed to expand the scope of bilateral cooperation to contain an insurgency along their shared border after changing peace negotiators. The two premiers have promised to help solve the conflict. Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha has assured his visiting Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohamad that the peace dialogue in the deep South will continue and…

  • Health

    Ninth measles victim in Yala, 3 remain critically ill

    PHOTO: A mother holds her child as nurses at the Tambon Yala Health Promotion Hospital in Yala’s Muang district vaccinate him against measles yesterday. – Nakharin Chinnawornkomol Another child has died as a result of complications from measles in Yala province yesterday morning. This latest preventable fatality brings the number of deaths from the disease in the southernmost province to nine…

  • South Thailand News

    Police suspect insurgents involved in double shooting in Songkhla

    by Santiparp Ramasut An elderly couple have been shot dead at their furniture shop in Songkhla’s Thepa district this afternoon (Sunday) and police suspect it might be linked to the insurgency in the southern provinces. Police say the shop was among 10 locations of arson or bomb attacks targeted by insurgents back in 2013. An unknown attacker, or attackers, stormed…