Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Woman finds hungry elephant rummaging for late-night snack – and it’s not the first time he’s stopped by
Ratchadawan Puengprasoppon was awoken in the early hours of Saturday morning by crashing and banging. When she went to find out what had happened, she discovered an elephant’s head poking through her kitchen wall beside the drying rack.
The male elephant, named Boonchuay, appeared to be looking for something to eat. His trunk rummaged through the kitchen drawers, knocking pans and cooking paraphernalia to the floor. He chewed on a plastic bag as Ratchadawan, unsure what to do, filmed the episode on her phone.
In normal times, the convention centre at Phuket’s Angsana Laguna resort hosts extravagant weddings and luxury business summits. Since April, it has served as one of seven centres on the frontline of the island’s Covid vaccination campaign. Behind the room’s white satin curtains, medical staff in hair nets and blue aprons administer 1,800 doses each day.
The island is racing to vaccinate as many people as possible in the hope that, if 70% of the population are vaccinated before 1 July, Phuket will become the first Thai destination to reopen to foreign tourists.
It was around mid-May when workers at the Cal-Comp factory in Phetchaburi, central Thailand, heard a small group of their colleagues had tested positive for Covid-19. It soon became clear the virus had ripped through the production lines. A cluster associated with the electronics factory has since been linked to thousands of infections.
Hwan Htet Paing*, a worker from the factory, said he was not told the results of his Covid test, carried out on 19 May. Despite this, he was instructed to quarantine inside a vast hall at his workplace. The floor was covered with tarpaulin sheets and lined with rows of mosquito nets for each worker. Everyone was given a bucket and a cup, and bedsheets to lay across the floor. Fans were handed out to help ease the heat – until the vast numbers of people testing positive meant there were none left.
Thailand has started its Covid vaccination campaign amid concerns over the supply of doses, which are mainly being produced locally by a royal-owned company that has no prior experience of making vaccines.
Thailand aims to vaccinate 70% of the population before the end of the year, and is relying primarily on AstraZeneca doses produced by Siam Bioscience, a company owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn. The company is also due to supply vaccines to eight other countries in the region.
South-east Asian countries, including nations that managed to control the coronavirus last year, are struggling to contain recent outbreaks as new variants and vaccine shortages leave populations exposed.
Thailand’s cumulative caseload has more than quadrupled since 1 April, rising to almost 130,000, after infections spread in its cramped prisons, densely populated areas of the capital and construction sites.
Three months after the coup, four brothers tell how they joined protesters fighting the junta before fleeing for the border
The young men only had a moment to study the river before rushing into the waist-deep water. The brothers – ranging in age from 15 to 21 – were unfamiliar with the border area and afraid of being seen. On the run from Myanmar’s military, they pushed on into the Thaunggin River.
After just a few minutes of wading, they stumbled into no man’s land. Moments after crossing the river, three smugglers dressed in military fatigues met them. After handing over 6,000 Thai baht (US$200) and exchanging a few words, the smugglers led them deeper into the woods and then to safety in Thailand.
Western Australia’s international arrivals cap for the next month will be halved, officials said on today, as the state is battling a coronavirus outbreak that forced more than two million people into a three-day lockdown from Saturday, Reuters reports.
The lockdown was ordered after a traveller likely became infected while in quarantine in a hotel and unknowingly passed it on to two other people in the community.
Australia closed its borders more than a year ago and allows mostly only its citizens and permanent residents to return. All, except from New Zealand, must undergo two weeks of mandatory hotel quarantine at their own expense.
A Spanish man with Covid symptoms who coughed on work colleagues and told them “I’m going to give you all the coronavirus” has been charged with intentionally causing injury after allegedly infecting 22 people, AP reports:
Spanish police said their investigation began after a coronavirus outbreak at the company where the 40-year-old man worked on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.
Days before the outbreak, the man showed Covid symptoms but refused his colleagues’ suggestions to go home and self-isolate, police said in a statement.
After managing to control the coronavirus for much of 2020, Thailand is battling a fresh outbreak of Covid-19, with officials setting up thousands of beds in field hospitals and warning the public to stay at home.
A cluster of Covid cases emerged in Bangkok’s nightlife venues last month, just before the Songkran new year holiday, when many Thais travel across the country to celebrate with their families. Following record daily increases last week, tighter measures were introduced from Sunday, including the closure of schools for two weeks. Bars have been shut, restaurants banned from serving alcohol and the opening hours of shopping malls have been reduced in areas such as Bangkok.
A giant monitor lizard climbs up a fully-stacked wall unit at a supermarket on the outskirts of Bangkok, unperturbed by the falling cartons and packages it dislodges as it searches for footholds, then appears to rest on the top shelf, watched by staff and customers. According to reports the 6ft-long reptile emerged from a nearby canal and ran into the 7-Eleven store. Police arrived with reptile handlers to snare the creature, which is believed to have struggled to find food outside, following months of dry weather, which has led to canals and lakes drying up
A Buddhist monk who was trapped while meditating inside a flooded cave for four days has been freed. Phra Ajarn Manas, 46, was on a pilgrimage from another province and had gone into the Phra Sai Ngam cave in Phitsanulok, Thailand, on Saturday to meditate.
Seventeen divers helped rescue him after an unseasonal rainstorm struck on Sunday and continued through to Tuesday, flooding parts of the cave while he was inside
Tensions rise on borders as thousands seek safe haven from military crackdown
Myanmar’s escalating crisis is spilling across its borders, as thousands of refugees seek safe haven in India and Thailand in the wake of the military coup and bloody crackdowns on anti-coup protesters.
Authorities in both countries have tried to block new arrivals, fearing that a steady flow may become a flood, if unrest spreading through Myanmar worsens. A top UN official warned last week that the country is “on the verge of spiralling into a failed state” if action is not taken soon to stem the bloodshed.
Accusations of violence, denied by all five people, could result in 16-20 years’ jail under laws that protect royal family
Prosecutors in Thailand have indicted five pro-democracy activists on charges of attempting to harm the queen during a street demonstration in October last year, in which some protesters shouted slogans critical of the monarchy.
Queen Suthida, the wife of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, was not in any evident danger in the incident, which occurred when a limousine carrying the queen and the king’s son, Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, passed through a small crowd of protesters mixed with supporters of the royal family.
Refugees fleeing Myanmar are attempting to reach Thailand by boat following airstrikes by Myanmar’s military on parts of the country predominantly populated by ethnic Karen people.
Thailand's prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, said ‘we don't want to have an exodus and evacuations into our territory but we will observe human rights too'
About 3,000 estimated to have crossed over after junta attacks areas mostly populated by Karen people
A series of airstrikes by Myanmar’s military has driven thousands of people across the country’s border with Thailand, adding a new dimension to an already volatile and deadly crisis.
The strikes in areas populated predominantly by ethnic Karen people began on Saturday. Since then an estimated 3,000 villagers have fled across the Salween River into Thailand and an unknown number have become internally displaced in the jungles on the Myanmar side of the river.
Watrer cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets used on protesters who gathered outside Bangkok’s grand palace
Scores of people have been injured and arrested in the Thai capital after police used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a rally by pro-democracy protesters calling for the release of detained activists, constitutional changes and reform of the nation’s monarchy.
The rally outside Bangkok’s grand palace was a continuation of student-led protests that began last year and have rattled Thailand’s traditional establishment, which is fiercely opposed to change, especially with regard to the monarchy.
Plans to reopen to vaccinated tourists include short quarantine in popular holiday spots like Phuket and Koh Samui
Thailand’s Phuket island used to vibrate with life. Before the pandemic, March was part of peak season and the resort’s long white beaches were packed with tourists from Europe, Australia, North America and China. At night, backpackers would flock to beach-front bars and on the hills stretching inland wealthy tourists would eat at five-star restaurants.
Today, Phuket is a ghost town. The shockwaves of Covid-19 have reduced daily visitor numbers from up to 50,000 down to just hundreds. But there is hope that plans to bring tourists back could change the fortunes of the beach town, and the country.
Deaths would bring the total to 220 since 1 February coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi
Myanmar security forces opened fire on demonstrators against a military coup in the central town of Aungban on Friday, killing eight people, according to a local news outlet.
Seven people were killed in the town and one wounded person died after being taken to hospital in the nearby town of Kalaw, the Myanmar Now news portal said, citing Aungban’s funerary service.
Thailand's prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, finished his weekly news conference by spraying alcohol disinfectant on the front row of journalists. He walked away from lectern after evading a question about a possible cabinet reshuffle
Paint thrown and bangs heard after Bangkok’s Democracy Monument draped in red cloth
Youth activists protesting against laws forbidding insult to Thailand’s powerful king briefly clashed with police on Saturday after draping Bangkok’s Democracy Monument in red cloth.
Protesters threw paint at police and several small bangs were heard during a standoff near a city shrine after the demonstration had moved from Democracy Monument and the main leaders had called for it to disperse.