Demonstrators issue rare rebuke in country where defaming royals is punishable by up to 15 years in jail
Speakers at a Thai anti-government protest have demanded changes to the monarchy and called for its powers to be curbed in unusually frank public comments.
Defaming the royal family is punishable by up to 15 years in prison under Thailand’s lese majeste laws. Police did not stop the six speakers but said any suspected offences would be investigated.
Continue reading...Demonstrators call for new constitution, new elections and end to repressive laws
Several thousand anti-government protesters rallied in Thailand’s capital on Saturday to call for a new constitution, new elections and an end to repressive laws.
Chanting and waving placards, the demonstrators, comprising mainly young Thais, converged on Bangkok’s iconic Democracy Monument in the old part of the city.
Continue reading...The city’s bars, clubs and even massage parlours are beginning to buzz again but the absence of tourists is taking its toll
A mix of K-pop, sweet Thai love ballads and 90s music reverberates along the corridor of one of Bangkok’s popular karaoke spots. In private rooms, parties of friends strike poses and bellow into microphones.
After three months of silence, Thailand’s nightlife was allowed to reopen on 1 July – provided venues follow government rules to prevent the spread of coronavirus. “You can dance, as long as you keep a distance from your friends,” explains Planisara Suksit, branch manager of Yes!! R&B Karaoke in Thonglor, her voice muffled by a face mask and plastic shield.
Continue reading...The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including a perky grasshopper and a sleepy turtle
Continue reading...Officials in Lopburi plan to sterilise the animals that have turned nasty after tourists’ bananas were replaced with junk food
Residents in Lopburi, Thailand, are hiding behind barricaded indoors as rival monkey gang fights create no-go zones for humans. The ancient Thai city has been overrun by a growing population of monkeys super-charged on junk food – as locals try to placate the macaques with snacks. The monkeys usually enjoy a steady supply of bananas from tourists, who have dwindled amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Pointing to the overhead netting covering her terrace, Kuljira Taechawattanawanna said: “We live in a cage but the monkeys live outside.”
Continue reading...A group of divers in Thailand tried to save a whale shark whose tail was tied by rope. Video filmed on Saturday shows the whale shark swimming with a nylon rope tied around its tail.
But the knife was too small and could not cut through the rope. Injured and with a rope still tied to its tail, the whale shark eventually swam away
As countries around the world adjust to life with Covid-19, people are finding new ways to enjoy themselves responsibly. From the restaurant using plush pandas to help with social distancing, to a drive-in rave in Germany, these are the week’s most cheering clips
Continue reading...Amnesty International makes plea over hundreds of people stuck on as many as five boats
Hundreds more Rohingya refugees remain stranded at sea, rights groups have warned, just one day after it emerged that dozens of people died onboard a boat that was refused entry to Malaysia and left adrift for two months.
On Friday, Malaysia’s air force confirmed it had denied entry to a second boat carrying about 200 Rohingya people, claiming it had done so to prevent further spread of the coronavirus within the country, which remains under lockdown.
Continue reading...Shortages in funds, medicines and masks threaten charity work around the world
Last Thursday morning Louisa Baillie drove down the five-kilometre dirt track that connects her jungle home in the Amazon rainforest to the main road. At the junction, she parked, hiking the rest of the way into Mera, a town of about 8,000 people.
After filling her backpack with fruit and vegetables from local sellers, she grabbed some leaves and set about plucking termites off trees along the roadside, stuffing them into a bucket containing small fragments of the insects’ nests. Baillie works as a veterinarian at Merazonia, a wildlife rescue centre in Ecuador. The termites were dinner for Andy the anteater, a baby recently confiscated at a police checkpoint.
Continue reading...Fewer visitors mean less food for troops of wild monkeys at Prang Sam Yod
The coronavirus outbreak has left Thailand’s hotels empty, its tour guides without work and its markets unusually quiet. The country’s wildlife may also now be noticing the lack of visitors.
A video filmed this week in Lopburi, north-east of Bangkok, showed large crowds of monkeys brawling in the streets, apparently fighting over a yoghurt pot. Residents in the city, which is famed for its monkey population, say the fall in tourist numbers means there are far fewer people offering food.
Continue reading...Thailand has become the fifth country to deny the MS Westerdam permission to dock over fears that some of its more than 2,000 passengers and crew may be infected with the new coronavirus. A passenger describes life onboard, with no cases of the virus yet found
Continue reading...Smugglers responsible for mass atrocities in Thailand may be linked to capsized boat carrying refugees from Bangladesh to Malaysia
Activists fear a dangerous transnational trafficking network is being revived after at least 16 Rohingya refugees drowned in the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday morning.
Bangladeshi officials said a wooden fishing boat carrying about 138 people capsized near Bangladesh’s St Martin’s island in the early hours.
Continue reading...A soldier shot dead 26 people and injured at least 52 before he was killed by police at a Thai shopping mall. Eight people were held hostage by the gunman in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima, according to sources quoted by Reuters. Dozens more were trapped for hours on Saturday night as police attempted to regain control of the seven-floor building
• Rogue soldier shot dead after Thai shopping mall massacre
Rogue soldier stole weapons from base and opened fire at mall, leaving at least 29 dead
Thailand’s prime minister has denied suggestions that arms were not properly secured at a military base where a rogue soldier stole multiple weapons before killing at least 29 people in a mass shooting.
Prayuth Chan-ocha described the attack as unprecedented and responded abruptly when he was asked about details of the operation to stop the attack and about the theft of the weapons.
Continue reading...Video shared on social media appears to capture sounds of gunshots heard from a car travelling in Nakhon Ratchasima in north-eastern Thailand. Police have said at least 20 people were killed when a soldier opened fire in different locations in the city
Continue reading...Police say at least 10 shot dead and several wounded in north-east of country
A soldier has killed at least 10 people in a shooting rampage in Nakhon Ratchasima in the nort-east of Thailand and remains at large, police have said.
The soldier opened fire at different locations in the city, which is more than 155 miles (250km) from Bangkok, the police spokesman Kissana Phathanacharoen said in a message to reporters.
Continue reading...Suspected infection of taxi driver by traveller raises fears virus could reach tourist areas
Thailand has recorded its first human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus after a taxi driver was apparently infected by a traveller, heightening concern over the virus’s potential to spread across the globe.
The taxi driver was among five new patients confirmed on Friday in the worst-hit country outside China, bringing the total number of cases in Thailand to 19.
Continue reading...WHO is working with Thai officials after woman who travelled from China is hospitalised with new strain of coronavirus
Health authorities have confirmed that a woman travelling from China to Thailand has been infected with a new strain of the coronavirus linked to a worrying outbreak in Wuhan.
The World Health Organisation said on Monday it was working with Thai officials after the case was identified and the woman hospitalised on 8 January, marking the first case the mystery illness has been detected outside China.
Continue reading...About 60% of those rescued last year were women, often trafficked for seafood industry or sex trade
Thailand rescued a record 1,807 victims of human trafficking last year, according to data that campaigners on Monday said raised concerns about the nation’s ability to support survivors.
The number of victims soared from 622 in 2018, while the previous high was 982 in 2015, the government data showed.
Continue reading...Beiret Bureerak was having treatment for illness contracted while taking part in mission to free 12 boys and their football coach
A Thai navy Seal has died from a blood infection he caught while rescuing 12 boys and their football coach from a flooded cave in northern Thailand.
Petty Officer Beiret Bureerak died while receiving treatment for the illness, the Royal Thai Navy said. Another rescuer, navy diver Lieutenant Commander Saman Kuman, died during the mission.
Continue reading...