Category Archives: Thailand

‘You can’t hide from the invisible’: why Bangkok police make arrests in disguise

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Critics claim the operations are geared at social media, but police say they have enabled real arrests

Police officers from Bangkok’s metropolitan bureau had less than 24 hours to prepare for their latest undercover operation. They would be starring as performers of a lion dance at a temple fair held for the lunar new year. Their mission: track down and arrest a suspected thief who had a history of evading officers.

“The dance was spontaneous. We just did what we did,” said the police captain Lertvarit Lertvorapreecha, adding that nobody had time to practise. In his haste, he accidentally picked up his colleague’s male mask, which he wore with a red silk dress, trousers and tactical shoes.

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Thailand moves to cut sugar in popular drinks amid health drive

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Major chains agree to halve default sweetness, but street vendors and cafes remain outside sugar tax rules

A crowd of customers, holding phones aloft, watch intently as Auntie Nid mixes up her bestseller: an iced Thai tea.

Condensed milk is poured into a glass, followed by three heaped tablespoons of sugar, and then freshly strained tea. The end product – a deep orange, creamy treat – is poured into a plastic bag filled with ice.

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Officials race to contain virus outbreak after 72 captive tigers die in Thailand

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Dozens of the animals in Chiang Mai region first began to show signs of illness earlier this month

A highly contagious virus is believed to have caused the deaths of 72 captive tigers in northern Thailand this month, with officials racing to contain the outbreak.

Teams are urgently disinfecting enclosures and preparing to vaccinate surviving animals.

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Asos co-founder dies in fall from 18-storey building in Thailand

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Police say UK entrepreneur Quentin Griffiths fell from 17th floor of an 18-floor condominium on 9 February

Quentin Griffiths, the co-founder of the online fashion retailer Asos, has died after falling from an apartment building in the Thai seaside resort city of Pattaya.

Police told Reuters that the 58-year-old had fallen from the 17th floor of an 18-storey condominium on 9 February.

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Thai police go undercover as lion dancers to catch thief

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Officers devise unusual plan to arrest man suspected of stealing about $64,000 worth of Buddhist artefacts

Thai police donned a lion costume during this week’s lunar new year festivities to arrest a man accused of stealing about $64,000 worth of Buddhist artefacts.

Dressed as a red-and-yellow lion, officers made the arrest on Wednesday evening after responding to a report this month of a home burglary in the suburbs of Bangkok.

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Global heating and other human activity are making Asia’s floods more lethal

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Much improved response systems are struggling to cope with ever more powerful and destructive storms

Families stranded on their rooftops. Homes buried by fast-flowing mud. Jagged brown craters scarring lush green hillsides.

The scenes are the result of a series of cyclones and storms in a heavy monsoon season that have struck Asia with torrential rains, gutting essential infrastructure and reshaping landscapes. The violent weather has killed at least 1,200 people in the past week and forced a million to flee without knowing whether their homes will still be standing when they go back.

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Death toll passes 900 in Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka floods

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Officials in Indonesia say more than 442 people have died, while Sri Lanka suffers worst natural disaster since 2004 tsunami

Authorities in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand are racing to clear debris and find hundreds of missing people after more than 900 died in devastating floods and landslides across the south of Asia.

In the latest example of the impact of the climate crisis on storm patterns and extreme weather, heavy monsoon rains, exacerbated by a tropical storm, have overwhelmed parts of south-east Asia in recent days, leaving thousands of people stranded without shelter or critical supplies.

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Arrest warrants issued for Miss Universe co-owners in latest twist in pageant saga

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Raúl Rocha Cantú is under investigation for drug, gun and fuel trafficking while Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip is accused of fraud

This year’s edition of Miss Universe, with its onstage injuries, dramatic walkouts and allegations of vote rigging, was already one for the ages.

But it turns out the drama had barely begun: just days after Fátima Bosch was crowned Miss Universe in Thailand, the co-owners of the organisation are both facing arrest warrants.

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Thai woman found alive in coffin before temple cremation

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The 65-year-old woman shocked temple staff when they heard a faint knocking and she started moving in her coffin after being brought in for cremation

A woman in Thailand shocked temple staff when she started moving in her coffin after being brought in for cremation.

Wat Rat Prakhong Tham, a Buddhist temple in the province of Nonthaburi on the outskirts of Bangkok, posted a video on its Facebook page, showing a woman lying in a white coffin in the back of a pick-up truck, slightly moving her arms and head, leaving temple staff bewildered.

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Australian living in Thailand faces trial over alleged criminal defamation of Malaysian government

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Murray Hunter charged with offence which carries a potential penalty of two years in jail, or a 200,000 baht (AUD$9,500) fine

An Australian academic and journalist faces up to two years in prison after being charged – in Thailand – with defaming the Malaysian government.

Murray Hunter, a longtime resident of southern Thailand, will stand trial in Bangkok next month, charged with criminal defamation over articles critical of the Malaysian government’s internet regulator.

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Trump pressures Thailand to recommit to Cambodia ceasefire with ‘threat of tariffs’

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Bangkok had earlier said it was suspending ceasefire, accusing Cambodia of laying landmines along the border

The US has put pressure on Thailand to recommit to a ceasefire with Cambodia, warning trade talks could be halted as Washington seeks to keep a Donald Trump-brokered truce agreement from falling apart.

Earlier this week, Thailand said that it was suspending the ceasefire deal, accusing Cambodia of laying fresh landmines along the border, including one it said wounded a Thai soldier on patrol, who lost a foot in the explosion.

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Fatal clash on Thai-Cambodia border after Trump-brokered peace deal breaks down

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The truce broke down this week after a Thai soldier lost a leg to a landmine blast, prompting Thailand’s PM to say the peace deal was ‘now over’

One person has been killed by gunfire along the Thai-Cambodia border as conflict heats up between the two nations days after a Trump-backed ceasefire agreement has broken down.

Fighting erupted between Thai and Cambodian troops over five days in July, with 43 people killed and 300,000 displaced in the worst fighting along the border in a decade. Donald Trump oversaw the signing of a ceasefire agreement between the two nations in Malaysia this October, after the US president previously threatened to withhold trade privileges from the two countries unless they stopped fighting.

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Alleged gambling kingpin linked to scam centres extradited from Thailand to China

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She Zhijiang’s empire includes gambling complex Shwe Kokko that US has tied to regional scam and trafficking networks

She Zhijiang, an alleged transnational crime kingpin accused by Beijing of having run more than 200 illegal online gambling operations, is being extradited to China from Bangkok on Wednesday, Thai police have said.

The Chinese national is perhaps the most prominent figure among Asia’s alleged cybercrime operators to be arrested, and has been linked to regional scam networks by the US.

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Trump oversees Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire signing as Asia tour gets under way

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Trump has begun a five-day trip to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, his first visit to the region since taking office in January

Donald Trump has overseen the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia on the first day of an Asia tour where he will seal new trade agreements and hold a crucial meeting with Xi Jinping.

The US president arrived in Malaysia on Sunday before the Asean summit in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. At a ceasefire ceremony in front of a sign that read “Delivering Peace”, the Thai prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, and his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Manet, signed an expanded ceasefire deal related to a deadly five-day conflict in July.

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Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit dies at 93 after more than a decade out of the public eye

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Prime minister Charnvirakul cancels trip to Asean summit in Malaysia after news of the Queen Mother’s death

Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit, who brought glamour to a postwar revival in the country’s monarchy and who, in later years, would occasionally wade into politics, has died aged 93, the Thai Royal Household bureau has announced.

The palace said she had been hospitalised since 2019 due to several illnesses and developed a bloodstream infection on 17bOctober before passing away late on Friday.

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Thailand to let Myanmar refugees work to counter aid cuts and labour shortages

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The move, welcomed by UN, will allow thousands of people living in camps to support themselves and their families

Thailand is setting a global precedent this month by giving refugees permission to work in the country in an effort to tackle aid cuts and its own labour shortages.

More than 87,000 refugees living in nine refugee camps along Thailand’s border with Myanmar have been totally reliant on handouts of food and foreign aid.

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‘Wailing ghosts through loudspeakers’: Cambodia accuses Thailand of psychological warfare along border

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Cambodia’s rights commission said ‘intense, high-pitched noises’ broadcast by Thai soldiers along the disputed border threatened to escalate tensions

Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen has complained about Thailand broadcasting ghost-like sounds across a disputed border, while the country’s human rights commission has accused its neighbour of engaging in psychological warfare, despite both countries agreeing to a ceasefire in July.

Posting on Facebook, Hun Sen, 73, who now serves as Cambodia’s powerful senate president, said Cambodia’s human rights commission had complained to the United Nations about the “intense, high-pitched noises”.

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Typhoon Bualoi death toll rises to at least 30 across Vietnam, Thailand and Philippines

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Vietnamese authorities say typhoon was the most devastating storm to hit the country this year

The death toll from Typhoon Bualoi in south-east Asia has risen to more than 30 as heavy rains continued to lash the region.

In Vietnam, authorities said 19 people had been killed and 21 were missing, making it the most devastating storm to hit the country this year. Heavy rain on Tuesday raised the risk of more flooding and landslides in northern regions.

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Thaksin Shinawatra jailed by Thailand supreme court for one year in major blow to former prime minister

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Case centred on claims that he had not properly served a sentence for corruption and abuse of power, which was handed down in 2023

Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra must serve one year in jail, the country’s supreme court has ruled, in a major blow to one of the country’s most prominent and polarising politicians.

The court ruled that Thaksin had not properly served an eight-year sentence for corruption and abuse of power, which was handed down when he returned to the country from self-imposed exile in 2023. After arriving back in the country, Thaksin spent less than 24 hours in jail, but was moved to the VIP wing of a hospital on health grounds, where he stayed for six months before he was released on parole.

In its judgment, the supreme court found that the arrangement allowing Thaksin to stay at hospital was unlawful. “The defendant knows his sickness was not an urgent matter, and staying in hospital cannot count as a prison term,” said the ruling read out by a judge.

“The court will issue a jail warrant and an official from Bangkok Remand Prison will take him,” the judge said.

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Tycoon who led push to decriminalise cannabis becomes Thai PM

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Anutin Charnvirakul voted in by parliament after promising election in four months, as Thaksin Shinawatra jets out

Anutin Charnvirakul, a staunch royalist, has been appointed by lawmakers as Thailand’s next prime minister after days of heated negotiations and political drama.

The 58-year-old tycoon turned politician is considered a conservative, though he made a name for himself for leading a campaign to decriminalise cannabis. He was voted in after a chaotic scramble by parties to gain enough support to replace the ousted PM, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was removed from office by a court ruling.

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