A former Thai general has been sentenced to 27 years in jail for human trafficking at a landmark trial. Manas Kongpan is among more than 60 people convicted in Bangkok of trafficking Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims, a minority fleeing Myanmar. Another top former official was sentenced to 75 years in prison. More than 100 defendants … Read more
A Thai general is among more than 100 defendants facing a verdict Wednesday in a sprawling 2015 human trafficking case which saw thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants abandoned at sea and in jungle death camps. Thailand’s junta launched a crackdown in May that year on a multi-million-dollar network running migrants through southern Thailand and … Read more
A Thai general is among more than 100 defendants facing a verdict Wednesday in a sprawling 2015 human trafficking case which saw thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants abandoned at sea and in jungle death camps. Thailand’s junta launched a crackdown in May that year on a multi-million-dollar network running migrants through southern Thailand and … Read more
Eight people, including three children, were killed by gunmen in Thailand’s Krabi province, police said Tuesday, a mass slaying investigators believe was sparked by a personal conflict. Police say a gang of six or seven men, dressed in camouflage outfits, stormed a house in the southern province around 4:00 pm (0900 GMT) on Monday. They … Read more
With a swift breath the teenage boy dives into the turquoise waters of southern Myanmar, a spear clutched in his hand, but below him lies nothing but a graveyard of broken, grey coral. He is one of the Moken, a nomadic seafaring tribe who have perfected this freedive fishing technique over hundreds of years among … Read more
Malaysian customs officers have seized almost 300 kilograms of pangolin scales being smuggled through the main airport, officials said on Tuesday. The 288-kilogram (635 pound) haul was found at Kuala Lumpur International Airport last Friday in 12 boxes labelled as oyster shells on the waybill. The scales worth around 3.69 million ringgit ($870,000) arrived from … Read more
More than 50 people including children were injured on Tuesday when a car bomb exploded outside a supermarket in Thailand’s insurgency-plagued south, police said, the largest attack for months on a civilian target there. The Muslim-majority border region has seethed with violence for over a decade as ethnic Malay insurgents battle the Buddhist-majority state for … Read more
At least 40 people were wounded Tuesday when a car bomb exploded outside a supermarket in Thailand’s insurgency-plagued south, police said, the largest attack for months on a civilian target in the troubled zone. The Muslim-majority border region has seethed with violence for over a decade as ethnic Malay insurgents battle the Buddhist-majority state for … Read more
Dozens of people have been injured in a double bombing, believed to have been set off by Muslim separatists, in front of a supermarket in Thailand. The blasts happened in the southern city of Pattani in the latest attack in the predominantly Buddhist country. The latest attack happened at around 2pm local time, with two … Read more
Malaysian customs officers have seized more than 700 kilograms of pangolin scales, the country’s largest haul of the scales considered by some to have medicinal properties, officials said Monday. The 712kg (1,570 pound) haul worth 9,184,800 ringgit ($2.12 million) was made last week in two separate seizures. On May 2, eight gunny sacks of the … Read more
Tearful relatives gathered outside a Thai temple on Saturday to bury an 11-month-old girl killed by her father in a harrowing murder he broadcast live on Facebook before committing suicide. The Buddhist ceremony on the southern island of Phuket concluded a week of funeral rites for baby Natalie, who was hanged from the side of … Read more
Two militants were killed in Thailand’s violence-plagued deep south after a bomb they were transporting prematurely exploded, the military said Thursday. Their deaths came during a night of violence across a region plagued by unrest for over a decade as ethnic Malay rebels battle Thai troops for more autonomy from the Buddhist-majority state. Colonel Yutanam … Read more
The most prominent insurgent group in Thailand’s south rejected the military’s peace plan in a rare statement on Monday, underscoring Bangkok’s inability to open negotiations with the actual fighters in the conflict. The country’s southernmost border provinces, which were annexed by Thailand more than a century ago, have been plagued with violence for over a … Read more
A Swiss man will go on trial this month on allegations he sexually abused more than 80 boys — some as young as nine — in Thailand, Swiss authorities said Friday. The unnamed man is accused of taking thousands of pornographic pictures of the boys, molesting some of them and pushing some into prostitution, prosecutors … Read more
Three Thai soldiers were gunned down in front of terrified shoppers at busy evening market in Thailand’s conflict-riddled ‘Deep South’, police said Friday, in a day of of bloodshed undermining progress in peace talks. An under-reported 13-year rebellion in the southernmost provinces by Malay Muslim insurgents against the Buddhist-majority Thai state has killed more than … Read more
Thai army and Muslim rebel peace negotiators agreed Tuesday to create a “safety zone” in Thailand’s insurgency-hit south, a small but significant step in talks to end a bloody 13-year conflict. More than 6,800 people have died in a rebellion waged by ethnic Malay militants in Buddhist-majority Thailand’s three southernmost provinces, a region known as … Read more
Floods in Thailand have killed 14 people and badly affected southern holiday islands as the country heads into the December-January high season for tourism, authorities said on Tuesday. A low pressure system has brought heavy rain to parts of the south including the islands of Samui and Pha Ngan in the Gulf of Thailand, and … Read more