Thailand

January 22, 2025 2:53 PM

China families appeal to free relatives held by scam gangs in Myanmar

The abduction and cross-border rescue had all the makings of the kind of action script struggling Chinese actor Wang Xing had hoped to land – only not as a reality star. Wang, 22, flew to Bangkok earlier this month after getting an unsolicited offer to join a film that was shooting in Thailand. There was no movie. Instead, like hundreds of other Chinese men, Wang had been duped by a job offer that he later acknowledged appeared too good to be true, as part of a trap set by a criminal syndic...

January 13, 2025 12:06 PM

Thailand’s cabinet approves draft law to legalise casinos and gambling

Thailand's cabinet has approved a draft law that would legalise gambling and casinos, a move aimed at boosting tourism, jobs and investment, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Monday. Under the government's plan, the law, which will be sent to parliament for deliberation, would see gambling take place in large-scale entertainment complexes. Casinos and most forms of gambling are illegal in Thailand but soccer betting and underground gaming activities and lotteries are rife, with vas...

October 9, 2024 2:30 PM

ASEAN holds summit in Laos as Thailand floats new plan for Myanmar crisis

Southeast Asian leaders met in Laos on Wednesday for a summit expected to find ways of tackling a worsening civil war in Myanmar, with Thailand set to propose a new path for a political solution after a regional peace effort made scant progress. Chaos has prevailed in Myanmar since a 2021 military coup sparked a nationwide rebellion and a civil war that has ravaged the nation of 55 million. Thailand offered this week to host an "informal consultation" of the 10 members of the Association of So...

September 12, 2024 4:24 PM

Flooding in Thailand maroons thousands in northern province

Thailand deployed military special forces in the northern province of Chiang Rai on Thursday after flooding marooned thousands that authorities are trying to reach with boats and helicopters. At least 33 people have died across Thailand since mid-August from a spate of rain-related incidents including landslides, with nine fatalities this week in two northern provinces hit by adverse weather brought by Typhoon Yagi, according to the government. Yagi, the strongest storm to hit Asia this year, ...

August 14, 2024 6:18 PM

Thai PM Srettha Thavisin ousted for unethical cabinet appointment

Thailand's Constitutional Court on Wednesday (August 14) dismissed 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. Real estate tycoon Srettha becomes the fourth Thai premier in 16 years to be removed by verdicts by the same court, after it ruled he violated the constitution by appointing a minister who did not meet ethical standards. Srettha's removal after ...

August 9, 2024 4:45 PM

Why Thailand’s judges are front and centre in its tumultuous politics

Thailand's Constitutional Court will on Aug. 14 rule on the fate of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, just days after it dissolved 2023 election winner Move Forward, underlining the judiciary's central role in the country's long-running battle for power. The two cases have heightened political uncertainty and raised concerns about potential upheaval in Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy, which has seen two decades of intermittent turmoil, with multiple parties disbanded and governments topp...

August 7, 2024 10:38 AM

Thai court to decide fates of PM and opposition party

Thailand's Constitutional Court will rule on two politically charged cases in the next week that will decide the fate of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and the popular opposition party, amid heightened uncertainty over potential upheaval. Both cases underline intractable rifts in Thai politics, defined by a two-decade struggle between its powerful conservative-royalist establishment, backed by the military, and parties with mass appeal such as Move Forward and Srettha's ruling Pheu Thai. WHAT...

September 16, 2024 6:05 PM

Buddha relics exhibited in Thailand, Indian envoy terms it as biggest public diplomacy exercise ever

Indian Ambassador to Thailand, Nagesh Singh, lauded the exposition of Lord Buddha's relics in Thailand, terming it the "biggest diplomacy exercise" ever seen by him, and said that it has left a tremendous goodwill among people there. The relics of Lord Buddha and his two disciples were displayed across four cities in Thailand from February 22 to March 18. The Indian envoy said, "We worked very hard on it, for almost a year before the Buddha relics arrived...last time these relics came here was ...

June 18, 2024 11:21 AM

Formal Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra granted bail in royal insult case

Influential former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a powerful backer of the ruling government, was granted bail by a court on Tuesday, avoiding pre-trial detention for allegedly insulting the monarchy in a 2015 interview. The billionaire sought bail from the Criminal Court of Thailand soon after the Attorney-General had formally charged him under Thailand's lese-majeste law, which carries a maximum jail sentence of up to 15 years for each perceived royal insult. Thaksin denies the c...

June 12, 2024 4:47 PM

Myanmar poverty deepens, economic growth stagnant, World Bank says

Poverty in Myanmar is more widespread than at any time in the last six years and growth in the conflict-torn nation is likely to remain at a measly 1% in the current fiscal year with little respite in sight, the World Bank said on Wednesday. Escalating violence, labour shortages and a depreciating currency have made it harder to do business, the bank said in a report on the Southeast Asian nation that has been in political and economic turmoil since a 2021 military coup ended a decade of tentat...