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by Sippachai KUNNUWONG / Joe Freeman Polls opened Sunday for the first Thai election since a 2014 coup, with a high turnout expected among a public who received a cryptic last-minute warning from the Thai king to support “good” leaders to prevent “chaos.” All television stations repeated the rare statement by King Maha Vajiralongkorn moments before polls opened across the politically turbulent country. Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and the palace is ostensibly above the […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Thailand is poised to start its first tests of cannabis oil on patients, a health official said Friday, as excitement swirls around a new industry that could create money-making avenues for entrepreneurs while offering relief for suffering patients. Marijuana has been used as a traditional herb for centuries in Thailand but was banned decades ago. The junta’s rubber-stamp parliament voted in December to legalise it for medical purposes. Thailand is […]
by Aidan Jones Parties aligned with Thailand’s powerful Shinawatra clan staged major rallies Saturday ahead of a court ruling that could deal a gut punch to their prospects in national elections later this month. Public gatherings were taking place across the country — including in the Chiang Mai hometown of divisive billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Shinawatra-linked Pheu Thai party members addressed throngs of supporters in a stadium in Chiang Mai as the sun went down, […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Two Thai policemen were executed after being abducted from a tea shop in the kingdom’s violent southern borderlands, police said Wednesday, as bloodshed again spikes in a 15-year insurgency. Clashes between ethnic Malay-Muslim rebels and the forces from the Buddhist-majority Thai state which annexed the region a century ago have killed nearly 7,000 people since 2004, mostly civilians. The death toll dropped to a record low last year as Thailand’s junta […]
Thai Princess Ubolratana was on Monday formally disqualified for running for prime minister, ending her brief and ill-fated political union with a party allied to the powerful Shinawatra clan, just days after a stern royal command rebuking her candidacy was issued by her brother, the king. Uncertainty and conjecture have coursed through Thailand since Friday when the Thai Raksa Chart party made the explosive announcement of Princess Ubolratana, King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s elder sister, as their […]
Refugee footballer Hakeem al-Araibi made a triumphant return to Australia Tuesday, ending a two month ordeal that saw him jailed in Thailand and threatened with forced return to his native Bahrain. A throng of well wishers decked in #SAVEHAKEEM T-shirts cheered and sang the football anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone” as they greeted the 25-year-old defender at Melbourne Airport, after an overnight flight to freedom aboard Thai Airways flight 465. “I want to thank Australia” […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — A new Thai political party vowed Saturday to obey a command from the king blocking the candidacy of a princess for prime minister in a dramatic reversal that appeared to boost the junta’s chances ahead of March elections. The announcement effectively blocks Princess Ubolratana’s unprecedented bid for the premiership and comes after an extraordinary rebuke of the candidacy by her younger brother, King Maha Vajiralongkorn. The Thai Raksa Chart party, […]
by Aidan JONES / Sippachai KUNNUWONG Agence France Presse BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — A Thai princess will run for prime minister in March elections in an unprecedented entry by a royal into frontline politics, pitting her against the chief of the ruling junta and redrawing the nation’s political landscape. Princess Ubolratana, 67, the older sister of Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn, was announced as a candidate for the Thai Raksa Chart party steered by […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — A refugee footballer fighting an extradition request pleaded for his freedom Monday, saying “please don’t send me to Bahrain” as he arrived in shackles at a Bangkok court, which extended his detention by another two months. Hakeem al-Araibi, a Bahraini refugee and Australian resident, fears torture and even death if he is returned to his homeland. Araibi, who has been held in Thai custody since November following Bahrain’s extradition request, arrived […]
(Eagle News) – Members of Iglesia Ni Cristo in Thailand held a tribute to Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in the area. (Eagle News Thailand Bureau Christel Mapa)
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Thailand is set to deploy rainmaking planes to seed clouds in an effort to tackle the pall of pollution that has shrouded the capital in recent weeks. The weather modification technique involves dispersing chemicals into the air to aid cloud condensation, which should in theory result in rain. “The Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation… expects the rainmaking to be done tomorrow (Tuesday) but it depends on wind and humidity […]
THAILAND, Bangkok (AFP) — Thailand is set to deploy rainmaking planes to seed clouds in an effort to tackle the pall of pollution that has shrouded the capital in recent weeks. The weather modification technique involves dispersing chemicals into the air to aid cloud condensation, which should in theory result in rain. “The Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation… expects the rainmaking to be done tomorrow (Tuesday) but it depends on wind and humidity […]
