Category: Thailand

Dhammachayo’s supervisors asked to consider his disrobing

The Sangha Supreme Council has no power to disrobe controversial former abbot Phra Dhammachayo as that authority belongs to his direct monastic supervisors, it was concluded at the council’s meeting on Friday. That was in response to a complaint filed by the National Office of Buddhism against the monk, who is now honorary abbot of the Dhammakaya Temple in Pathum Thani and wanted by authorities for money laundering and accepting stolen assets.

Thai boy with cancerous growth on head WON’T have surgery

Boy, 2, WON’T have surgery to remove huge cancerous tumour because his parents hope alternative medicine will offer a cure instead The 23-month-old was reportedly diagnosed with the disease nine months ago following a biopsy at Srinakarin Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. Khondej has since undergone a series of chemotherapy treatments and now surgeons want to operate to remove part of his brain, cheekbone and jaw.

Haze problem worsens in North as many provinces hit by wildfires

MANY PROVINCES were affected by wildfires yesterday, causing the acute haze problem to intensify, while the Disease Control Department warned vulnerable groups such as the elderly and the infirm to stay indoors and wear face masks. The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department said that due to worsening smog caused by wildfires, Lampang province had suffered from harmful air pollution levels for three days in a row.

Check out the hotel packages and special Airline promotions

The Okura Prestige Bangkok plays host to a Wedding Showcase 2017 on April 1 and 2 joining with experienced wedding planners in offering packages and services. Couples booking their wedding at the event and making a down payment of Bt600,000 will receive a range of benefits including 100 Okura cupcakes, champagne tower, herbal drink and a food station with 100 portions.

Shooting in Thailand’s south kills four despite safety zone deal-police

Insurgents in one of Thailand’s mostly Muslim southern provinces shot and killed four people, including a child, and wounded another two children on Thursday, police said, days after a deal was reached with the Thai government to establish a safety zone. A decades-old separatist insurgency in the Muslim-majority southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat has claimed more than 6,500 lives since it escalated in 2004, according to independent monitoring group Deep South Watch.

Best places to experience multicultural Australia: The parts of…

It’s amazing that some places that are iconically Australian can sometimes feel like it doesn’t belong here at all. As you sit at a pavement cafe on Jonson Street on a humid, sweltering evening, listening to the foreign accents, checking out the artsy hippie shops next door, watching barefooted tourists wandering past, there’s a distinct feeling that you’ve suddenly been transported to Thailand.

Best places to experience multicultural Australia: The parts of…

It’s amazing that some places that are iconically Australian can sometimes feel like it doesn’t belong here at all. As you sit at a pavement cafe on Jonson Street on a humid, sweltering evening, listening to the foreign accents, checking out the artsy hippie shops next door, watching barefooted tourists wandering past, there’s a distinct feeling that you’ve suddenly been transported to Thailand.

Canadian attacked with machete in Thailand in stable condition

Police in Thailand have arrested two men accused of slashing a Canadian man with a machete while trying to steal a gold necklace from his female companion last week. The Bangkok Post reported in its online edition that Canadian Philip Sullivan, 68, and King Kulkaew of Bangkok had left a restaurant on foot last Wednesday in the southern city of Chumphon when they were followed by a pickup truck.

The unhealthy season

People pushed the panic button when they heard Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha warned two weeks ago that the spread of the influenza virus this year would be greater than the last. The virus forced two Bangkok schools, Chulalongkorn University Demonstration Elementary School and St Joseph Convent School, to close some parts of the premises for inspection and cleaning after students were found to have been infected.

Ministry seeks to court more Japanese women

The Tourism and Sports Ministry aims to attract more female Japanese tourists to Thailand because they spend more than men. The ministry will promote activities to make Thailand more attractive to Japanese women, such as muay Thai, meditation, shopping, cookery, textile weaving and organic gardening, Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said at a luncheon talk entitled, “Empowering Women Leadership in Business and Society”, held by Assumption University.

Plan B for South power

Protesters of a coal-fired power plant for Krabi sit outside Government House. They dispersed on Sunday after the government agreed to delay the project again and do a new environmental and health assessment study.

SIPA giving SMEs, OTOPsdigital lift

THE SOFTWARE INDUSTRY Promotion Agency plans to promote 4,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and OTOP entrepreneurs to utilise digital technology to support their businesses. Chainarong Chatrattanawaree, business promotion measures manager at SIPA, said that the agency had develop Entrepreneur Total Digital Services to allow SMEs and OTOP entrepreneurs to utilise digital technology in terms of digital commerce, enterprise resource planning software for SMEs, training and consultants to support their businesses.

Mr X’s gang unravels

Sayobphairee Operation 60/1, the biggest trafficking takedown since the army chased Khun Sa back to Myanmar, began with the largest drug bust outside a nightclub urine test-centre. On March 23 last year, police got a tip and searched the Bangkok-to-Butterworth train as it chugged south.

Keeping Chinese relations on the rails

Having been posted in Bangkok for three-and-a-half years, Chinese Ambassador Ning Fukui discusses collaboration between China and Thailand in a Facebook Live interview with Suthichai Yoon, a digital journalist of Nation Multimedia Group. The joint committee of the two governments has had 16 meetings and there has been some progress.

Security tightened at Thai-Malaysia border

SECURITY on the Thailand-Malaysia border has been tightened to deter drug smuggling, after Malaysian authorities captured a suspected member of alleged Lao drug lord Xaysana Keopimpha’s network. The ramped-up security is taking place at the border crossing in Yala’s Betong district, following the arrest of Kamarudin bin Awang and the seizure of money allegedly made from drug-dealing.

Jomsap gets her first day in court seeking retrial

A three-day court hearing began Wednesday for former teacher Jomsap Saenmuangkhot, who is seeking justice and reversal of her conviction in a fatal 2005 hit-and-run highway accident. The three-day hearing to determine whether to hold a retrial of the hit-and-run killing case involving a former Sakon Nakhon female teacher opened Wednesday.

Council defers Green Line move

The Bangkok city council meeting yesterday asked City Hall to review the elevated rail section of the Green Line extension project after declining to say whether it will grant a budget to have the rail section transferred to City Hall’s supervision. Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang said that City Hall executives agreed to look into the section and figure out a source of funding for it.

Australian dies in jet ski crash on Thai holiday

A 21-year-old Australian woman was killed in a jet ski crash after she collided with her boyfriend off the coast of Thailand’s Phuket island, police said Monday. The woman, identified as Emily Collie, was brought to the shore of Kata beach after the accident on Sunday but was pronounced dead soon after, said Patiwat Yodkwan, a senior police officer on the island.

Australian woman dies in jet ski crash on Phuket holiday

A 20-year-old Australian woman was killed in a jet ski crash after she collided with her partner off the coast of Thailand’s Phuket island, police said Monday. The woman, identified as Emily Collie, was brought to the shore of Kata beach after the accident on Sunday but was pronounced dead soon after.

Food news: What to eat this Waitangi long weekend

From Allyson Gofton’s recipe for the perfect steak dish to Nicky Watson’s latest foodie revelation, here are our top picks in delicious food news and events to indulge in this Waitangi weekend. Despite our plans to keep fit and healthy in 2017, there are times when you’ll want a break from the clean eating and workouts.

Online nostalgia for country’s first amusement park

Fireworks explode above Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Dan Neramitr amusement park, Thailand’s first amusement park, on its last day of operation in mid-2000 as loyal customers look on. Thai netizens in their 30s up to retirement age on Sunday recalled the good old days of visiting Dan Neramit , Thailand’s first stand-alone amusement park, which opened 41 years ago today.

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Burma is expected to see economic growth of 6.9 percent in 2017, down 1.5 points from a previous estimate, according to the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report released earlier this month. The report said that real-term growth in 2016 was estimated to be 6.5 percent, down 1.3 percentage points from an earlier estimate in June last year, the Nikkei Asia Review reported.

Wanted Thai Muslim leader suspected of inspiring militant attacks

More than a decade ago, Sapae-ing Basor was one of Thailand’s most wanted, his face plastered on posters around the south offering 10 million baht, more than US$250,000, for his capture. But when the spiritual leader of many Muslims in insurgency-torn southern Thailand died at 81 in self-imposed exile in Malaysia January 10, it wasn’t just thousands of his followers mourning in mos… More than a decade ago, Sapae-ing Basor was one of Thailand’s most wanted, his face plastered on posters around the south offering 10 million baht, more than US$250,000, for his capture.

Japanese body’s ID confirmed

The parents and girlfriend arrive at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok on Monday to confirm the identity of the body of Sonam Tsuboi, found in the Chao Phraya River on Dec 30. Relatives have confirmed the body found in the Chao Phraya River in late December was the missing Japanese tourist Sonam Tsuboi, 22, and said he would be cremated in Thailand. The parents, aged 57 and 47, as well as the 24-year-old girlfriend of the Japanese man, arrived at the riverside Siriraj hospital in Bangkok to identify the body found at the nearby Wang Lang pier on Dec 30. Accompanying them was Pisit Maiprasert, a consular assistant at the Japanese embassy, who said they were confident that the body was of Tsuboi.

Chao Phraya body ‘likely’ is Japanese suicide

The body of a man found in the Chao Phraya River is believed to be that of a Japanese tourist who went missing in Thailand late last year and is thought to have committed suicide, according to an initial police inspection. His loss of contact with his family since Dec 27 last year, described by his relatives as “unprecedented behaviour”, worried them for weeks until police investigators identified the man’s body Sunday following a preliminary autopsy as that of Sonam Tsuboi, aged 22. The discovery followed checks by investigators with police stations located near Khao San Road, where the man was last seen.

M Thai Group plans B5bn plot

Mr Veraphong says the firm has been studying the feasibility of developing the area adjacent to Suvarnabhumi airport since 2012. After keeping a low profile for more than two decades, M Thai Group, a private Thai property developer, plans to invest 5 billion baht in residential projects on a 220-rai plot near Suvarnabhumi airport.

Acting DEA Administrator Meets With Drug Control Officials in China

At the invitation of the China Ministry of Public Security , Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg visited China this week to discuss issues of mutual concern and to build on the DEA’s existing relationship with Chinese counternarcotics law enforcement authorities. Rosenberg emphasized the increased cooperation between the DEA and the MPS and recognized China’s actions toward combating global synthetic drug trafficking and illicit money laundering.

No train services south of Prachuap Khiri Khan

With a section of the rail track between Bang Saphan Yai and Cha Muang railway stations in Prachuap Khiri Khan province flooded and impassable, the State Railway of Thailand has suspended most southern rail services. The announcement was made by the SRT’s public relations office on Facebook on Tuesday.

Thailand: Flash floods cause 200-km gridlock as death toll rises to 25

FLASH floods in southern Thailand washed out a bridge on the country’s main north-south highway on Tuesday, backing up traffic for 200 km as the death toll from days of unseasonable rain rose to 25, media reported. More than 360,000 households, or about a million people, have been affected by the floods that have damaged homes and schools and affected rubber and palm oil production, the Department of Disaster Prevention and industry officials said.

12 dead after heavy rains in southern Thailand

Heavy rains continued to hammer Thailand’s flood-ravaged south on Saturday, bringing the death toll up to 12 and leaving thousands of villages partially submerged, authorities said. The flooding, which was roof-high in some areas, has affected more than 700,000 people since it started a week ago, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Airport closure extended

The airport at Nakhon Si Thammarat province will remain closed until tomorrow for safety reasons, as floodwater on its runway was still high, the Department of Civil Aviation announced yesterday.

Nearly 1 million swamped by relentless southern deluge

FLOODING in lower Thailand has now expanded to leave 10 of the 15 southern provinces inundated, affecting nearly a million people and claiming 11 lives, according to the Interior Ministry’s Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department. And eight provinces Phetchaburi, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Chumphon, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phatthalung, Ranong and Phang Nga face more heavy rain until today.

Supreme Court upholds bail revocation of student activist

THE SUPREME Court yesterday ruled in favour of Khon Kaen provincial court and the Appeal Court’s rulings to revoke the bail of a student activist charged under the lese majeste law and the Computer Crime Act for sharing a BBC Thai article about the monarchy. Meanwhile, the provincial court granted Khon Kaen police permission for a fourth round of detention for activist Jatupat “Pai Daodin” Boonpattararaksa.

Other factors to consider in reducing road carnage

Your report on the horrific double-vehicle accident in Chon Buri with 25 deaths should prompt a national day of mourning, since Thailand continues to have one of the highest per-capita vehicle accident rates in the world! The report implies that an increase in accidents and deaths is an inevitable result of more vehicles on the roads and more people travelling. It points to the possible negligence of the van driver, but says nothing about the irresponsibility of the van company for requiring its driver to work excessive hours, nor the likelihood that many of the pickup passengers must have been outside the protection of the cab.