With photographs from Kyiv, Bangkok and Zurich — among other places.
country: Thailand
Stay updated with comprehensive news on Thailand from Worldcrunch. Discover insights on Thai politics, economic strategies, societal issues, and cultural landmarks with translations from top international sources. Highlights include Bangkok, Thai history, and events like the Songkran Festival.
Cyber slavery rings are growing across the region, trapping young jobseekers in brutal scam compounds — and fueling a global criminal enterprise.
With remarkable shots from Khan Younis, Barcelona, Kananaskis and Ascot, among other places.
With photographs from Gaza City, Madrid, Guwahati and Paris, among other places.
In another sign of changing power relations in the ‘post-Western’ world, the BRICS group of emerging economies could frustrate the United States’ bid to sink communism in Cuba by strangling its economy.
A Czech entrepreneur is ready to mass-produce insects and turn them into a marketable, protein-rich food staple. Now he just needs buyers.
BANGKOK — Luzviminda Siapo is telling me about the day her 19-year-old son was killed — that was just seven months ago. He was dragged from his home by 14 masked men and shot in the head twice. Witnesses say he was ordered to run for his life before being shot. “He just couldn’t run, he had club feet,” Luzviminda told me. I met Luzviminda along with The Philippines Human Rights Commissioner, Leah Tanodra-Armamento. The pair were visiting Thailand last month, sharing stories of Filipinos killed in the country’s so-called ‘war on drugs.” It’s been 16 months since Rodrigo Duterte […]
Refugees in the border town of Mae Sod are uniting across ethnic lines to defend their rights against unscrupulous employers and Thai authorities keen to send them back.
BANGKOK — Three years ago, on May 22, 2014, members of parliament gathered to find a solution to Thailand’s political crisis. But the politicians were swiftly captured by the army, and sent to military camps. The country’s democratically elected government was overthrown in a military coup, and the coup’s leader, General Prayut Chan-o-cha, declared that military rule was necessary to put a lid on escalating political turmoil before it boiled over. He said it would be brief, just enough to ensure stability and order. “We will return to you your happiness,” the general said, and citizens would be able to […]
The current deadly war on drugs in the Philippines echoes what happened in Thailand in the early 2000s — massive arrests and a wave of extrajudicial killings. Officials in Bangkok now admit the crackdown didn’t work, th
A campaign to see Buddhism become the country’s official religion has exposed an ugly rift that could have serious consequences for the Muslim minority.
Orphaned and forced to live on the streets at just 5, Amporn Wathanavong had a miserable childhood, and was lured to fight in the jungles along the Cambodian border. But he ultimately got an education and founded an organization to help poor orphans.
Most of the many thousands of sex workers in Thailand walk the streets looking for clients. But one group of women wanted a safe home base, so they opened a bar where they can entertain clients.
Bangkok and other urban areas in Thailand are home to some 8,000 refugees who have fled religious persecution in their home countries. But since the deadly shrine bombing in August, the government has been harassing and arresting illegal immigrants.
BANGKOK — Phayao Akahad and Sukanya Prueksakasemsuk have both paid a high price for the political turmoil that has befallen Thailand, which culminated, in a May 2014 military coup led by General Prayuth Chan-ocha. One lost a daughter during the 2010 crackdown on the “Red Shirts” protests that took place against former Prime Minister Thaksin […]
Martial law has brought calm but not peace to Thailand. A report released this week by the International Crisis Group warns that the military regime’s stifling of dissent could ultimately lead to greater turmoil. The military claims that the coup d’etat last May was staged to maintain order after six months of street unrest by anti-government protests. They took TV channels and radio stations off the air, and only heavily censored versions have been allowed to return. Several hundred academics and activists have been detained. Many others have fled to the west where they are applying for asylum. From his […]
Bangkok is no Hong Kong right now. Once considered an Asian model of democracy, Thailand is under strict military rule since the spring, with free speech squashed and fears deepening.
Reports of the Thai army taking control in a military coup come as a growing number of activists are openly challenging the country’s long-reigning King Bhumibol.
BANGKOK — The situation that has taken over Thailand’s capital this past week has been, among other things, surreal. The government has been paralyzed after demonstrators occupied several ministerial buildings, and even entered, on Dec. 3, the complex where Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s offices are located. But below the surface, the upheaval is a political […]
While U Slept THAI PM DISSOLVES PARLIAMENT, CALLS FOR NEW ELECTIONS Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra announced this morning the dissolution of the country’s parliament, a move that paves the way for new elections on Feb. 2, The Bangkok Post reports. Shinawatra will remain PM until a new cabinet is formed. Anti-government protests have resumed […]
Friday, October 31, 2014 RUSSIA/UKRAINE GAS DEAL Months-long talks between Moscow, Kiev and Brussels ended with a deal yesterday for Russia to resume supplying gas to Ukraine at least until March 2015, Reuters reports. The agreement is also good news for EU countries that rely on Russian gas because it ensures that gas supplies via […]
Categories
Thailand, A Foreign Investment Paradox
Thailand saw a record of capital infusion from abroad in 2012, but the country needs critical upgrades, as it remains totally dependent on technology from outside its borders.
Friday, August 29, 2014 UKRAINE PLANS NATO MEMBERSHIP NATO officials are holding an emergency meeting in Brussels this morning after it released satellite imagery showing “well over 1,000” Russian troops in Ukraine, warning that 20,000 more were “amassed at the border,” the Financial Times reports. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk, meanwhile, announced that Kiev would […]
Friday, July 25, 2014 NO ALGERIAN FLIGHT SURVIVORS French President François Hollande confirmed in televised comments today that French soldiers reached the wreckage of Algerian Airlines flight AH5017 in Mali, and retrieved one of the plane’s two black boxes. None of the 110 passengers and six crew members survived. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told […]
Wednesday, June 11, 2014 500,000 FLEE IRAQI CITY OF MOSUL As many as 500,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Mosul, in northern Iraq, after Islamist fighters from the organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took control of the city, the International Organization for Migration said in a statement. The […]
Friday, May 30, 2014 REBELS CLEARED FROM PARTS OF UKRAINE Ukraine’s Interim Defense Minister Mykhailo Koval said that Ukrainian armed forces would push ahead with military operations in eastern Ukraine until peace and order were restored. They said they had “completely cleared” separatists from the southern and western parts of the Donetsk region and the […]
Friday, May 23, 2014 MORE CLASHES IN DONETSK At least five people died in fresh fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian groups near Ukraine’s eastern city of Donetsk, with an AFP photographer saying that four of the dead appeared to be rebels and the fifth a member of a “volunteer force attached to the military.” […]
Wednesday, May 21, 2014 U.S. UPS RHETORIC AHEAD OF UKRAINE ELECTIONU.S. Vice President Joe Biden threatened Moscow with tougher sanctions if it undermines Sunday’s planned presidential election in Ukraine. “If Russia undermines these elections on Sunday we must remain resolute in imposing greater costs on Russia and we must be equally resolute to invest in […]
BANGKOK “SHUTDOWN”Anti-government demonstrators in Bangkok are blocking the main access points to Thailand’s capital as they try to shut down the city to increase pressure on the government and on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to resign. It comes just a few weeks ahead of a general election, The Bangkok Post reports. According to Reuters, 10,000 […]