By Napat Wesshasartar and Panarat Thepgumpanat BANGKOK (Reuters) -At least 23 people died in Thailand when a school bus carrying more than 40 students and teachers on a field trip caught fire in the outskirts of the capital Bangkok, police said on Tuesday. Twenty three bodies have been identified, Trairong Phiwpan, forensic science commissioner told reporters, with an investigation on the causes underway. Sixteen students and three teachers were sent to a hospital for treatment, […]
Tag: Thailand
Thailand’s king swears in new government after turmoil
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn swore in Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and 35 cabinet ministers in Bangkok on Friday, ushering in a new government in Southeast Asia’s second largest economy after a period of political turmoil. Paetongtarn, 38, leader of the ruling Pheu Thai party, was elected by parliament last month to become Thailand’s youngest prime minister after her predecessor Srettha Thavisin was dismissed by a court order over an ethics violation. The […]
Mudslide in Thailand’s Phuket kills 13, including 2 Russians, official says
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thirteen people including a Russian couple died in a mudslide on the Thai resort island of Phuket, the authorities said Sunday, after calling off a search for missing persons. Heavy rains last week set off the mudslides near the Big Buddha, a popular tourist destination in the south of the country, said Phuket Governor Sophon Suwannarat. Besides the Russians, nine of the dead were migrant workers from Myanmar and the other two […]
Thailand says mpox case recorded in traveller from Africa
BANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand has detected an mpox case in a European man who arrived from Africa last week and is awaiting test results to determine the strain, a disease control official said on Wednesday. Thai authorities were treating the case as if it were the Clade 1 form of mpox, as the person, a 66-year-old European man with residency in Thailand had arrived on Aug. 14 from an African country where it was spreading, Thongchai […]
Thailand ex-PM Thaksin gets royal pardon, lawyer says
BANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand’s billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra received a royal pardon shortening his parole by two weeks, his lawyer said on Saturday, a day after his daughter was elected premier by parliament. Thaksin has been at the heart of a two-decade power struggle between the Shinawatra family and its allies on the one hand, and, on the other, a nexus of royalists, generals and old-money families that have long wielded influence over Thai […]
Thai king endorses Paetongtarn Shinawatra as prime minister
BANGKOK (Reuters) -Paetongtarn Shinawatra was endorsed as prime minister by Thailand’s king on Sunday, two days after parliament elected her, paving the way for her to form a cabinet in the coming weeks. Paetongtarn, 37, becomes Thailand’s youngest prime minister just days after ally Srettha Thavisin was dismissed as premier by the Constitutional Court, a judiciary central to Thailand’s two decades of intermittent political turmoil. Daughter of divisive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Paetongtarn […]
Explainer: Why Thailand’s judges are front and centre in its tumultuous politics
BANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand’s Constitutional Court will on Wednesday rule on the fate of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, a week 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 toppled by court rulings […]
Judgment day for Thai PM Srettha as court rules on dismissal case
By Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s Constitutional Court will on Wednesday decide the fate of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, in a ruling that could see him dismissed after less than a year in office and plunge the country into deeper political uncertainty. Srettha, a real estate tycoon with no background in politics, is the subject of a complaint from ex-senators appointed by the former military government, who say he violated the […]
DEVELOPING STORY: Six found dead in Bangkok hotel room: senior police officer
BANGKOK, July 16, 2024 (AFP) – Six people believed to be Vietnamese and Vietnamese-Americans were found dead in a hotel room in central Bangkok on Tuesday, a senior police officer said “Hotel staff found their bodies in a room around 5:00 pm (1000 GMT) today,” the officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He denied initial reports that the six had been killed in a shooting, saying the investigation was currently focused on a “link […]
Former Thai PM Thaksin charged with royal insult
BANGKOK, June 18, 2024 (AFP) – Thai prosecutors on Tuesday formally indicted influential former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra under the kingdom’s strict royal insult laws over comments he made nearly a decade ago. The case against the 74-year-old billionaire, twice elected premier and ousted in a 2006 military coup, is one of four before the courts that could unleash fresh political instability in the coup-prone kingdom. Thaksin, the patriarch of the Pheu Thai party that […]
Indonesia deports ‘most wanted’ Thai fugitive
JAKARTA, June 4, 2024 (AFP) – Indonesia deported one of Thailand’s “most wanted” fugitives on Tuesday to face murder and drugs charges in his home country, a police official said, after he escaped custody last year. Chaowalit Thongduang, a 37-year-old also known by the moniker “Pang Na Node”, was arrested by police on the Indonesian resort island of Bali last week. He was escorted to the capital Jakarta’s international airport under guard by ten police […]
Ex-Thai PM Thaksin to face trial for royal insult
BANGKOK, May 29, 2024 (AFP) – Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be prosecuted for insulting the monarchy, the attorney general’s office said Wednesday, over comments he made almost a decade ago. Prayuth Pecharakun, spokesman for the attorney general, said Thaksin would be summoned to court on June 18 to answer charges under the kingdom’s strict lese-majeste laws. The decision comes as a blow to Thaksin, a two-time premier ousted in a 2006 coup […]





