Thai shares sank on the first morning of trade after the deadly New Year’s Eve bombings in Bangkok, raising fears that the attacks could drag down the faltering economy. The blasts that killed three and wounded 38 raised new fears about Thailand’s security and added to doubts about the post-coup government.
After a series of doomed relationships with American women, Marc Sullivan came to Bangkok in a bid to meet Miss Right at last. Sullivan, an emergency nurse from Florida, is one of a growing number of foreign men seeking young and beautiful Thai brides via the internet.
Deadly bombings cut short New Year celebrations in Bangkok and an ETA bombing prompted Madrid to cancel its festivities, while bad weather hampered revellers from New Zealand to Scotland. But the capitals of Bulgaria and Romania saw their biggest parties since the fall of Communism 17 years ago as tens of thousands sang, danced and drank their way into 2007 and the European Union.
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/ 31 December 2006
At least six small bombs exploded in Bangkok on Sunday, killing two people, wounding more than 20 and shocking the Thai capital into cancelling New Year countdown celebrations. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombs, which went off within about an hour and included one put under a seat at a bus stop outside a shopping mall which killed one person and wounded 16.
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/ 7 December 2006
Hopes that the world will finally be able to immunise people against malaria received a shot in the arm this week as leading health experts unveiled the blueprint for a preventive vaccine in the Thai capital, Bangkok. Yet, the architects of this new global strategy — titled the <i>Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap</i> and launched on Wednesday at the end of a three-day conference — warn against too much optimism.
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/ 15 November 2006
Sitting cross-legged on his hospital bed at Yanhee Hospital in Bangkok, South African Neil van der Merwe unwraps a layer of bandages to reveal a six-inch tube inserted into the inner part of his forearm. The contraption is being used to grow a penis, the final step in his transformation from woman to man. ”I wanted to do this a long time ago,” says the 35-year-old, who sports a thin goatee and has lived as a man for five years.
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/ 14 November 2006
A Thai zoo will show its star residents, a pair of young giant pandas, "porn" videos to teach the famously sexually inactive animals how to mate, an official said on Tuesday. "We have to encourage them to mate, and the videos will show mating positions of male pandas and female pandas," said a veterinarian at the zoo.
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/ 31 October 2006
Buranee Clausen headed straight past the designer bags and swish clothes in one of Bangkok’s toniest malls to dive into a section of the store dedicated to Thailand’s hottest new import: Halloween. In a city that loves to celebrate any holiday, Halloween is catching on, not just as a kid’s party at international schools, but as a big night out on the town — and a marketing opportunity to draw more shoppers into stores.
Deposed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has resigned as head of his Thai Rak Thai party, triggering the dissolution of its entire executive in the wake of last month’s military coup. The billionaire telecoms tycoon remains in exile in London while an army-appointed anti-corruption panel investigates his assets and business dealings.
Thailand’s military rulers announced a stop-gap prime minister and constitution on Sunday, fulfilling a promise to step back in favour of civilians within two weeks of their coup against Thaksin Shinawatra. In other signs of the situation stabilising, the tanks that have stood outside Government House since the September 19 putsch rolled back to the barracks.
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/ 25 September 2006
Thailand’s coup leaders will yield power to a civilian prime minister once an interim Constitution is in place later this week, General Winai Phattiyakul said on Monday. ”We are not the prime minister’s boss and the prime minister is not our boss,” said Winai, a senior member of the military council that ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last Tuesday.
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/ 25 September 2006
Thai stocks on Monday recovered for the first time since the coup against premier Thaksin Shinawatra, but analysts warned the bloodless takeover could dent economic growth already hit by months of political uncertainty. The Stock Exchange of Thailand composite index rose 1,41 points or 0,21% to close the morning session at 683,12 after falling to a two-month low on Friday.
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/ 21 September 2006
Thailand was back to work as normal on Thursday, just 36 hours after a military coup that was condemned abroad but legitimised by the royal palace and greeted by many Thais with relief. A day after the military shut down the city, in the interests of maintaining calm, they said, Bangkok traffic was back to the familiar near-gridlock.
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/ 20 September 2006
Thailand’s army chief vowed on Wednesday to wipe the political slate clean and return ”power to the people” as soon as possible after a bloodless coup against billionaire Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Commander-in-chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin took power late on Tuesday as head of an interim ”Political Reform Council” run by the military.
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/ 19 September 2006
The Thai army seized power on Tuesday without firing a shot, dismissed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s government, revoked the Constitution and promised a swift return to democracy after political reforms. Armoured vehicles and soldiers took up position on many street corners, but life in most of Bangkok continued much as usual.
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/ 19 September 2006
The Thai army took control of Bangkok on Tuesday and announced it would set up a commission to reform the Constitution despite Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra declaring a state of emergency from New York. After tanks surrounded Government House, all television channels relayed a written statement saying the armed forces and police were in control of Bangkok.
Urairat Soimee never thought she would leave her small village in northern Thailand, not even to visit Bangkok. So, she jumped at the chance when a neighbour offered to set her up with a waitressing job in Japan. Urairat, then 29 years old, arrived in Tokyo in 2000 before she was sent to the port city of Yokkaichi, only to discover that she hadn’t been hired to wait tables, but essentially as a sex slave in a brothel.
To the millions of holidaymakers who flock there every year, Thailand is the ”Land of Smiles”, a picture-postcard paradise of white-sand beaches, tropical sun and exotic eastern charm. But behind the relentlessly promoted tourist image lies a darker reality in which legendary hospitality also extends to less savoury visitors.
Partners wanting to tie the knot on the Thai paradise island of Phuket will have to wait a while or find another venue after the main city ran out of marriage certificates, officials said on Tuesday. An official from Muang Phuket registration department said it used its last certificate two weeks ago.
Thailand on Wednesday declared bird flu a national threat and vowed united efforts to tackle the deadly virus, which has claimed 16 lives since its first outbreak here in 2004. ”Bird flu is a national threat. If we fail to contain the outbreak of bird flu, it could spell disaster for our country,” Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasathidya told a meeting of about 260 local officials.
New outbreaks of bird flu in Thailand and Laos are fanning fears the disease is flaring up again in Asia, although concerns the virus was mutating in Indonesia have subsided. In Vietnam, which has not reported any outbreak of the H5N1 virus in poultry in the last seven months, a 35-year-old man was hospitalised in the southern province of Kien Giang.
More than 100 volunteers have come to the aid of a stricken wild elephant who has been stuck in mud for a week in eastern Thailand, local officials said on Thursday. The elderly pachyderm, called Plai Khun Song, was unable to stand up after he took a rest in a mud hole in a sanctuary in Chanthaburi province, 245km east of Bangkok, district chief Viwat Chantanurak said.
Activists familiar with street protests outside the venues of annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are in for a different treat at this year’s gathering. Singapore, the host country of the mid-September event, is sparing little to ensure that its penchant for thought control will be evident.
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Thai police were on Thursday hunting for a gunman who shot dead two noisy World Cup fans at point-blank range after they ignored his request to be quiet, a police official said. The gunman was sitting next to 10 Thai football fans who watched Monday’s Italy-Ghana match on TV at a restaurant in the popular seaside resort of Pattaya, 70km south-east of Bangkok.
A massive crater in Antarctica may have been caused by a meteor that wiped out more than 90% of the species on Earth 250-million years ago, an American geologist said on Wednesday. The 480km-wide crater lies hidden more than 1,5km beneath a sheet of ice and was discovered by scientists using satellite data.
More than 100 people were feared dead on Wednesday as searchers recovered corpses from a sea of mud spawned by flash floods in northern Thailand, local officials said. Among the heaviest-hit areas was Lablae district of Uttaradit province, where dozens of houses were engulfed in mud.
Inspired by a United States radio show for pets, a Thai dog lover has launched a round-the-clock online music radio programme for canines, a report said on Thursday. <i>DogRadioThailand.com</i>, which made its debut on Wednesday, offers both vocal and instrumental music for dogs, the English-daily <i>Bangkok Post</i> said.
Thailand’s top private hospital, the Bumrungrad International Hospital, and a leading Asian travel agency said on Friday they had forged a tie-up to boost medical tourism in the kingdom. Bumrungrad, one of the most popular medical tourism destinations in Asia, attracts more than 400Â 000 foreign patients each year.
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/ 25 February 2006
Thailand’s embattled prime minister warned on Saturday that ongoing political unrest may hurt the economy, as leaders of a pro-democracy movement seeking to oust him urged voters to boycott upcoming national elections. The prime minister decided on Friday to dissolve Parliament and call snap elections.
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/ 22 February 2006
Flag carrier Thai Airways International said on Wednesday it would launch direct flights from Bangkok to Johannesburg in October due to rising demand. ”Johannesburg is the hub of air travelling in Africa. It is a good connection and we can get passengers from North and East Africa,” said Wallop Bhukkanasut, Vice-President of the airline’s sales and distribution department.
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/ 22 February 2006
With their huge budgets and slick marketing machines, Hollywood movies have long cast a shadow over Asia, but filmmakers in the region believe creativity rather than protectionism is the key to boosting local fortunes. ”If you leave a lion and a mouse in the same place, what will be the result?” said Yang Gi-Hwan, spokesperson of the Screen Quota Action Alliance.
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/ 10 February 2006
A stressed-out security guard opened fire on a woman who jumped the queue at a branch of Thailand’s largest bank, police said on Friday. The 33-year-old guard was charged with attempted murder for shooting a university student on Thursday after a quarrel that erupted when a queue-ticketing machine broke down.