Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn is accused of swindling thousands from victims before killing them
A Thai woman alleged to be among the worst serial killers in the kingdom’s history has been convicted and sentenced to death for poisoning a friend with cyanide, in the first of 14 murder trials.
Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn, 36, described as an online gambling addict, is accused of swindling thousands of dollars from her victims before killing them with the chemical.
Continue reading...Parents ‘want to ensure no other family’ feels same anguish as Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles remain in Thai hospitals
The family of one of two teenagers fighting for life in hospital after a suspected methanol poisoning incident in Laos hope authorities work out exactly what happened “as soon as possible”.
Melbourne friends Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both aged 19, had been staying at a hostel in Vang Vieng, north of the Laos capital Vientiane, when they fell critically ill last week.
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Continue reading...Teenagers Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles in hospitals in neighbouring Thailand after incident last week
Two Australian teenagers are fighting for their lives in Thailand after a suspected methanol poisoning in neighbouring Laos, with the family of one them saying they were struggling to comprehend what had happened.
Friends Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles from Melbourne had been staying at a hostel in Vang Vieng, north of the Laos capital, Vientiane, when they fell critically ill last week, 3AW reported.
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Continue reading...Detectives say cars including £220,000 Lamborghini were fraudulently bought on finance, shipped abroad and sold on
A fleet of 30 luxury cars worth £6.5m whisked out of the UK to Thailand after being fraudulently bought on finance have been recovered and returned, police have said.
The haul of vehicles included a £220,000 Lamborghini Huracán Spyder – a car described by the maker as “the pinnacle of Italian taste and hand craftsmanship” – along with Porsches, Mercedes and a Ford Mustang.
Continue reading...Northern Thailand has been hit by severe floods over recent weeks, with Typhoon Yagi worsening the seasonal monsoon rains
Two elephants have drowned, while power was cut and hotels were forced to evacuate guests after the Thai tourist hotspot Chiang Mai was hit by its worst flooding in decades over the weekend.
Across Thailand, 20 provinces are flooded, including nine in the northern region, where 8,625 households are affected according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation.
Continue reading...Double-decker coach carrying 38 children and teachers reportedly caught fire after crashing with burst tyre
More than 20 people, including young children, are feared dead after their school coach caught fire during a field trip on the outskirts of the Thai capital, Bangkok.
The double-decker coach, which was carrying 38 students and six teachers, is reported to have caught fire after a burst tyre caused the vehicle to scrape along a metal crash barrier, creating sparks that ignited the petrol tank.
Continue reading...Arom Arunroj, 64, said she was doing the washing-up at about 8.30pm when the 20kg snake attacked her
A Thai woman has described being trapped in the coils of a 20kg (44lb) python for about two hours in her home before rescuers were able to free her.
Arom Arunroj, 64, was bitten several times by the snake, which had entered her home in Samut Prakan, a province south of Bangkok. She said she had been doing the washing-up at about 8.30pm when she suddenly felt something biting her leg. “I looked at it, and it was a snake,” she said in an interview broadcast on Thai media.
Continue reading...Ekkapol Chantawong, who spent nearly three weeks underground in 2018, forced to spend night on roof of home
The coach of the young Thai footballers who captured the world’s attention when they spent nearly three weeks trapped in a cave has found himself in another watery predicament – stuck on his roof by flash floods.
Ekkapol Chantawong said he was drawing on his 2018 experience with the Wild Boars team to get through the situation at his home in the northern Thai district of Mae Sai.
Continue reading...Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, from a prominent Spanish acting family, sentenced to life in prison after admitting dismembering the victim’s body and disposing of it
A court in Thailand has found Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a member of a famous Spanish acting family and a YouTube chef, guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced him to life in prison, in a lurid case that has gripped Spain.
The 30-year-old was convicted of the murder of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, a 44-year-old plastic surgeon from Colombia, when both were vacationing on the Thai holiday island of Koh Pha-ngan in August 2023.
Continue reading...The department of disease control said tests on a traveller had confirmed he was infected with the Clade 1b strain of mpox
Thailand has confirmed Asia’s first known case of a new, deadlier strain of mpox in a patient who had travelled to the country from Africa.
The department of disease control said laboratory tests on the 66-year-old had confirmed he was infected with the mpox Clade 1b variant.
Continue reading...Thai parliament to investigate Prawit Wongsuwon after he repeatedly hit a journalist as she tried to ask him questions
Thailand’s parliament has said it will investigate a senior politician and former army chief after he was filmed slapping a reporter as she tried to ask him questions.
Prawit Wongsuwon lashed out at a journalist from the public broadcaster ThaiPBS on Friday as she asked him about the appointment of Paetongtarn Shinawatra as the kingdom’s new prime minister.
Continue reading...Daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra approved as PM after frantic negotiations triggered by ousting of Srettha Thavisin
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of the billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has become Thailand’s youngest prime minister, taking office just days after her predecessor was ousted by a shock court ruling.
Paetongtarn was approved as the new head of government in a parliamentary vote that came after 24 hours of frantic negotiations triggered by a court judgment ordering Srettha Thavisin to step down as prime minister.
Continue reading...Srettha becomes fourth Thai PM dismissed by court in 16 years, after appointing former lawyer who served jail time
Thailand’s constitutional court on Wednesday dismissed the prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, for appointing to his cabinet a former lawyer who served jail time, raising the spectre of more political upheaval and a reset of the governing alliance.
Srettha, a real-estate tycoon, becomes the fourth Thai prime minister in 16 years to be removed by verdicts of the same court, after it ruled he had violated the constitution by appointing a minister who did not meet ethical standards.
Continue reading...Leaders of progressive group Move Forward, which won most votes in last year’s election, also barred from politics for 10 years
Thailand’s constitutional court has ordered the dissolution of the country’s most popular party, and banned its leaders from politics for 10 years, over its election promise to reform the country’s strict lese-majesty law.
Move Forward, a youthful pro-reform party, won the most votes in the 2023 election after pledging major changes to the country’s political system, including a promise to amend a law that punishes criticism of the monarchy with up to 15 years in prison for a single charge. However, the party and its leader were blocked from taking power by military royalist opponents, and have since faced legal cases.
Continue reading...Victims at Grand Hyatt Erawan drank poison-laced beverage in murder-suicide plot, Thai police believe
Police investigating the deaths by poisoning of six people found in the room of a luxury hotel in central Bangkok believe one member of the group took their own life and murdered the rest by lacing cups of tea with cyanide.
Tests detected the deadly chemical that interferes with the body’s ability to use oxygen in a tea flask and six cups, with the signs of its poisoning revealed in autopsies of the six bodies . Based on interviews with a relative, police believe the deaths could be related to a business dispute.
Continue reading...Bodies of three men and three women, two of whom were US citizens, discovered in locked suite at Grand Hyatt Erawan
Six people have been found dead at a luxury hotel in central Bangkok, in what authorities say could be a case of poisoning.
The bodies of three women and three men were found inside a hotel suite on the fifth floor of the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel by a hotel worker late on Tuesday afternoon.
Continue reading...Country on track to become third in Asia – after Taiwan and Nepal – to legalise same-sex marriage
Thailand’s senate has passed the final reading of a historic marriage equality bill, paving the way for the country to become the first in south-east Asia to recognise same-sex marriage.
The bill gained the support of nearly all upper-house lawmakers and will be sent to the palace for the pro-forma endorsement by King Maha Vajiralongkorn. The law will come into force 120 days after it is published in the royal gazette.
Continue reading...Thaksin appears in court accused of lese-majeste relating to 2015 interview with South Korean media
The former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a powerful backer of the ruling government, has been formally indicted for allegedly insulting the monarchy almost two decades ago.
One of Thailand’s most influential political figures, Thaksin, 74, appeared at Bangkok’s Ratchada criminal court accused of lese-majeste. The case relates to an interview he gave to South Korean media in 2015. He was granted bail on Tuesday.
Thaksin was ousted by a military coup in 2006 and spent 15 years in self-imposed exile to avoid charges he said were politically motivated. He returned to Thailand last year, arriving back in the country on the same day his party Pheu Thai formed an unlikely coalition with his former enemies from the conservative military establishment – a deal that was in both sides’ interest because it kept a popular, youthful pro-reform party out of power.
Continue reading...Animal welfare groups have called for better regulation of the sale of wildlife after a fire swept through the pet zone of one of Bangkok’s biggest markets
Animal welfare experts have called for a crackdown on the sale of wildlife in Thailand, after a fire swept through the pet zone of Bangkok’s most famous outdoor market, killing more than 1,000 animals.
Puppies, cats, fish, snakes, swans, cockatoos and rabbits kept inside cages were all reportedly killed in the blaze, which began early on Tuesday morning and burned through about 1,300 square metres of the Chatuchak Weekend Market.
Continue reading...Kerry Davis was flung to ceiling when flight SQ321 hit turbulence before falling motionless to floor of plane
An Australian woman suffered a spinal injury and has no sensation from her waist down after her flight to Singapore hit extreme turbulence earlier this week, as others onboard are treated for skull and brain injuries.
The Boeing 777-300ER hit what an airline official described as “sudden extreme turbulence” over Myanmar, sending passengers and crew flying and slamming some into the ceiling. The flight, SQ321 from London to Singapore on Tuesday, made an emergency diversion to Bangkok.
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