News
A wake-up call to Asia, tackle your own 'Asian hate'
For expatriates like me, an unexpected upside to life in Bangkok during the COVID-19 outbreak is that it has become significantly easier to hail a taxi. Before the pandemic, drivers would often ignore me or try to rip me off, thinking I was among the millions of ...
YUKAKO ONO
350kg of compressed marijuana seized off Mekong River
Navy officers in the Laos-bordering province of Nakhon Phanom seized a compressed marijuana shipment of about 350 kilogrammes as it was being offloaded from the Mekong River. 2 men were arrested while 3 more fled and have not been apprehended yet in the bust that ...
Neill Fronde
Virus bumps up the digital uptake rate
The proportion of so-called digital adopters and digital leaders in Thai businesses is expected to rise in the coming years as more than half of all businesses are gradually embracing digital transformation, according to a virtual business seminar held by the country’s largest mobile operator ...
KOMSAN TORTERMVASANA
UK and Thailand to Cooperate in New Era of Smart City Development
The UK and Thailand have jointly launched the “UK Thailand Tech Export Academy”. The purpose of the collaboration is to promote the development of “smart cities” to be constructed across Thailand. So far, the initiative has involved the matching of over 200 businesses from the ...
Bob Savic
Herd of rare banteng spotted in Huai Kha Khaeng
Rangers and a professional photographer exploring the Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary were in for a treat on May 11 when they spotted and quickly photographed more than 60 banteng cows and bulls, which are listed as endangered species. “Rangers and Athit Nima, a professional photographer, ...
THE NATION
Thailand reports daily record of COVID-19 cases, including jail clusters
Thailand’s COVID-19 task force also recorded 25 new deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 614 since the pandemic started last year. Excluding the jail clusters, Monday’s new cases of 2,782 are close to a record high of 2,839 recorded late last month. Thailand has administered ...
Reuters/dv
UN Envoy Meets Thai PM, Asks for Help in Ending Myanmar Crisis
The U.N.’s special envoy on Myanmar met behind closed doors with Thailand’s leader Friday, trying to find solutions to the Burmese crisis, as ASEAN dithered on naming its emissary to the coup-ridden country, which has already blocked the proposed visit. Christine Schraner Burgener, the United Nations ...
BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
COVID-19 Hits Prisons in Thailand, as Nearly 3,000 Cases Detected
Yesterday, Thailand’s Department of Corrections announced that nearly 3,000 inmates at two prisons in Thailand’s capital had tested positive for COVID-19, amid the country’s ongoing outbreak of the virus. In a statement, the department said that 1,785 of the 3,274 inmates tested positive at Bangkok Remand Prison, which ...
Sebastian Strangio
Arrest of journalists a litmus test for how Thailand treats those fleeing persecution in Myanmar
Three senior reporters who fled Myanmar for Thailand after the brutal military coup “face certain arrest and persecution” if they are deported following their arrest in Chiang Mai on Sunday, journalist groups say. The three are prominent journalists with the independent Burmese news agency Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and were detained in ...
Helen Regan and Kocha Olarn,
Thailand’s proposed NGO law will devastate civil society
In 2015, two years before the state-driven collapse of Cambodia’s political opposition, the national government dominated by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) approved the Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organisations (LANGO). When the law was first put forward in 2011, it was met with significant opposition, ...
MARK S. COGAN