Latest News in Thailand

Tourists Turn Away From Thailand
International tourist arrivals to Thailand will diminish by 38% to 1.5 million this year due to the doggedness of global economic troubles and local political volatility. This is according to The Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA).
Surapol Sritrakul, the association’s president, said advance reservations for the high season had been greatly [...]

Rail Service Resumes After Recent Work Stoppage
The Hat Yai railway staff as well as its union members has decided to end their two-week long strike. South-bound trains have resumed full services as of Friday afternoon.
Ten express trains and 16 local trains in service to and from southern Thailand left the stations on schedule.
All regularly scheduled [...]

New Drug Task Force to Take Fight to Northern Provinces
The Thai government is creating a new drug control force linking civilians and law enforcement to boost the fight against drug smuggling near the border.
The new force would operate in perimeter provinces such as Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai, which are main routes for drugs smuggled [...]

Pomegranates Conceal Contraband
Thai Police have confiscated 142,000 methamphetamine tablets, known as yaba, four kilogrammes of heroin and another two kilograms of crystal meth in the northernThai province of Phrae on Thursday.
Police released a statement that a 10-wheel truck loaded with pomegranates from Chiang Rai overturned in Phrae’s Song district. The truck driver, Montri Chandhom, called [...]

Man Burned Alive in Southern Thailand by Islamic Insurgents
A motorcycle mechanic in southern Thailand has been shot and burned to death in his repair shop by men suspected of being Islamic insurgents.
He was then set on fire. Burning people alive is a common Islamic practice in Pakistan, but is new in Thailand. The victim is [...]

Thai Train Topcat Talks Tough to Striking Strikers
The director of Thailand’s state railway system has fire unceremoniously six staff at Hat Yai station as well as two outspoken officials of the railway union.
All eight were removed because of the obstruction of train services in the lower South.
The State railway is preparing to fire more workers [...]

Hopeful Signs in Thai Economy
According to Thailand’s Finance Ministry’s forecast issued on Tuesday, The Thai economy will definitely get better and the gross domestic product could turn upward into positive territory in the final quarter of 2009.
Government Finance Ministry spokesperson Akeniti Nititanprapas told reporters that the GDP in the third quarter was expected to contract [...]

Cambodian P.M. Gets Earful About Thaksin’s Trespasses
Thailand’s deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban told reporters on Tuesday that he had enlightened Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to the issues surrounding the legal problems of military-coup-ousted former popularly elected Premier Thaksin Shinawatra and Mr Hun Sen had promised him that he would not interfere in Thai politics.
Mr [...]

Rail Strike Goes On and On
Thailand’s rail strike is continuing to cause havoc. Staff who have walked off their jobs in the South will be facing legal steps from the government to make certain that normal working standards are preserved, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told reporters on Monday.
He acknowledged the workers right to complain [...]