Timeline Thailand: formerly Siam
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The capital is Bangkok. It is located on a bend of the Chao Phraya River.
Within its borders once flourished the kingdoms of Sukhothai, Ayuthaya and Lanna. The Thai language has 44 consonants and 32 vowels. The country covers 513,000 sq km. Six main tribes inhabit the region: Karen, Hmong, Lahu, Lisu, Mien, and Akha. The Thai new year, Songkran, is celebrated in mid-April.
(WSJ, 11/22/95, p.A-7) (Hem., Nov. '95, p.33)(Hem., 3/97, p.27-29)
12,000BC-10,000BC The site at Chiang Saen indicates long term occupation that dates back to the late Pleistocene.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
1000BC Ban Prasat pottery from the site at Prasat Hin Phanom Wan dates to this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.H)
1000-1BC A cemetery at the Noen U-Loke site has revealed jewelry, bronze and iron tools and pottery.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
500BC Black Phimai pottery and bracelets indicate that the site of Prasat Hin Phanom Wan was occupied at this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
300-200BC Ban Chaibadan on the Pasak River is one of several sites that has archaeological remains that show the development of a complex society.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
1-600AD The Non Muang Kao was a moated settlement of this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
654 The Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya (later part of northern Thailand) was founded by a holy man named Wasuthep. The town of Lamphun was originally the center of the Mon Kingdom known as Hariphunchai and believed to have been founded in the late 7th or early 8th century AD. Queen Chammathewi introduced Buddhism into the city of Hariphunchai (later known as Lamphun).
(http://tinyurl.com/ycc6pgw8)(Econ 5/20/17, p.33)
800-900 Sadokkokthom was a Khmer sanctuary on the Thai-Cambodian border in the Aranyaphrathet region.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.H)
900-1000 The site of Prasat Hin Phanom Wan was an important Khmer sanctuary in the Upper Mun River Valley of northeastern Thailand.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
1200-1300 The site at Prang Ku was probably one of 108 hospital sites built by the Khmer king Jayavarman VII.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
c1200-1500 In 2005 researchers using mitochondrial DNA estimated that 3-6 individuals founded the Mlabri hunter gatherers of Northern Thailand about this time.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.71)
1300-1400 A monarchy was established in Thailand.
(SFC, 6/10/96, C3)
1300-1700 Kilns at Intrakil date from the Lanna kingdom of this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
1351-1767 The Ayutthaya Kingdom, a Siamese kingdom, existed during this period. The port city of Ayutthaya (Thailand) was one of the capitals of the kingdom until the Burmese invaded, sacked the city and left it in ruins. The capital was then moved to Bangkok. Prior to this Phananchoeng was the capital.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayutthaya_Kingdom)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)(WSJ, 4/21/05, p.D7)
1431 Thai armies invaded and plundered the Khmer civilization at Angkor Thom in Cambodia. The court moved south of the great lake Tonle Sap and later to Phnom Penh.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T6)
1457 Pattani, later southern Thailand, was declared an Islamic kingdom.
(AP, 9/23/05)
1534 The King of Siam died of smallpox.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)
c1538 A colossal gilded statue of Buddha was erected at Ayutthaya (Siam). It survived the sacking of the city in 1767 and in 1854 was renamed Si Mongkhon Bophit by King Monghut.
(WSJ, 4/21/05, p.D7)
1548 In Thailand King Chakrapat was saved by his wife Suriyothai, who maneuvered her elephant in front of the invading Burmese King Tabinshweeti and took the sword thrust intended for her husband. The historical film “Suriyothai" was directed by Chatri Chalerm Yukol and premiered in August, 2001. It was about the 16th Queen Suriyothai who saved her husband King Thianracha during a war with invaders from Myanmar.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E6)(WSJ, 8/30/01, p.A11)(SFC, 7/3/03, p.E1)
1569 Burmese King Bayinnaung invaded Thailand and took as hostage Princess Suphankalaya. It was later believed that the princess gave up her freedom in exchange for her kingdom's independence from Burma. In 1999 The Thai government offered to help Burma restore a palace in exchange for information about the princess.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, p.A11)
1571 Siam’s Naresuan the Great (8) was taken hostage by Burmese invaders. It was the custom of the time for the victorious nation in a battle to take a royal child of the defeated monarch home as insurance against further aggression.
(www.muaythaionline.org/disciplines/naresuan1.html)
1590 Prince Naresuan (35) became King of Thailand upon the death of his father (the puppet monarch). Naresuan continued to drive the Burmese from the Kingdom of Ayutthaya (Siam-Thailand).
(www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/two-great-kings.html)
1593 Jan 8, War elephants of Ayutthaya King Naresuan engaged Burmese forces led by Mingyi Swa. One Siamese account held that there was a formal elephant duel between Naresuan and Swa. [O.S. 29 December 1592].
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naresuan)
1767 Burmese invaded the port city of Ayutthaya (Siam-Thailand), sacked the city and left it in ruins. The capital was then moved to Bangkok.
(WSJ, 4/21/05, p.D7)
1782 The Wat Phra Kaew Temple was built in Bangkok, Thailand. It houses the most sacred image of Thai Buddhism, the Emerald Buddha.
(Hem, 3/95, p.58)(SFCM, 9/23/07, p.22)
1782 The Grand Palace was built by King Rama I on the Chao Phraya River. The city of Bangkok grew up around it.
(SFEC, 7/16/00, p.T14)
1800-1900 King Chulalongkorn enacted reforms that espoused entrepreneurism, hard work, and self-reliance. King Mongkut accepted the fealty of his subjects, but also pledged his loyalty to them.
(Hem., Nov. '95, p.33)(SFC, 6/10/96, C3)
1809 Sep 7, Rama I (b.1737), King Phra Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, died. He founded the Chakri dynasty and established Bangkok as the capital of Siam, as Thailand was known, in 1782. He ruled for 27 years and is best known for repelling the last major Burmese attack on Siam, known as the Nine Armies' Wars, from 1785 to 1786.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama_I)(Reuters, 5/2/19)
1824 Jul 21, Rama II (b.1767), King Phra Buddha Loetla Nabhalai, died. King Phra Buddha Loetla Nabhalai succeeded his father in 1809 and ruled for almost 15 years. His reign was more peaceful. Art and literature flourished. The king was an avid composer of poetry, plays and songs. The most notable poet under the king's patronage was Sunthorn Phu, known as the "the Shakespeare of Thailand" for his role in literature.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama_II_of_Siam)(Reuters, 5/2/19)
1828 Siamese forces invaded Laos.
(SFEC, 8/28/98, p.T4)
1833 Mar 20, the United States and Siam (now Thailand) concluded a commercial treaty in Bangkok.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1834 Pres. Jackson had special 1804 silver dollars minted for the sultan of Muscat (later Oman) and the King of Siam (later Thailand) for trade treaties negotiated by Edmund Roberts.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.A6)
1851 Apr 2, Rama III (b.1788), King Phra Nangklao, died. King Phra Nangklao reformed the tax and treasury system and oversaw a boom in trade with China during his 27-year rule from 1824. Siam renewed official contacts with western powers for the first time since the late Ayutthaya period, and supported the British in their first Anglo-Burmese War in 1824. The king did not name a successor and the throne passed to his half-brother.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama_III)(Reuters, 5/2/19)
1851 Rama IV (d.1868) began his rule over Siam and played off European powers against each other.
(Econ, 1/10/04, p.76)
1854 King Monghut, a devout reformist, renamed the colossal gilded statue of Buddha at Ayutthaya (Siam) to Si Mongkhon Bophit.
(WSJ, 4/21/05, p.D7)
1861 Thailand's King Mongkut offered to send a pair of elephants to the United States as a gift of the friendship between the two countries. President Abraham Lincoln politely declined.
(AP, 3/24/18)
1868 Oct 1, Rama IV (b.1804) King Mongkut, died. He served as king of Siam (Thailand) from 1851-68. Probably the best-known king of Siam in the West, Mongkut was portrayed in the 1951 Broadway musical "The King and I" and later in a 1956 Hollywood film. Under growing Western pressure during his 17-year reign, Mongkut signed the Bowring Treaty with the British Empire that abolished a royal monopoly over foreign trade. Mongkut later died from malaria that he contracted while on an expedition to see a total eclipse of the sun. His son Chulalongkorn, Rama V (d.1910), took over and encouraged the beginnings of a modern state.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongkut)(Reuters, 5/2/19)(Econ, 1/10/04, p.76)
1873 Siam’s (Thailand) King Chulalongkorn abolished prostration.
(Econ 5/20/17, p.33)
1895 Anna Leonowens wrote her memoirs that included King Rama IV. These memoirs formed the basis for the 1946 film “Anna and the King of Siam," the Broadway musical “The King and I" and the 1956 film “The King and I." Leonowens was at the court of King Mongkut.
(Hem., Nov. '95, p.34)(SFC, 11/10/98, p.E4)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E6)
1902 Thailand annexed 3 southern provinces, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, that had been part of a Malay Muslim sultanate called the Kingdom of Pattani.
(SFC, 1/23/04, p.A7)(Econ, 6/4/05, p.40)
1904 The Siam Society, a bastion of Thai culture, was founded.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A16)
1909 Siam (later Thailand) annexed the sultanate of Pattani.
(Econ, 5/5/12, p.41)
1910 Oct 23, Rama V (b.1853) King Chulalongkorn (b.1853), died. The 42-year reign of King Chulalongkorn, the son of Mongkut, was known for a modernization drive and abolition of slavery. He also ceded territories to Western powers, including Laos and Cambodia to France, and the Malay sultanates of Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu and Perlis to Britain. Chulalongkorn was the first Siamese king to send royal princes to study King Vajiravudh succeeded his father as Rama VI and formed a private army, the Wild Tiger Corps, on his accession.in Europe. He visited twice and presented Siam as a modern nation to European rulers. He had introduced state corporations as a way to modernize Siam (Thailand). Rama V lived in the Vimanmek Mansion in Bangkok. It was made entirely of golden teak wood.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chulalongkorn)(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A12)(Econ, 3/20/10, p.27)(Econ, 5/24/14, p.36)(Reuters, 5/2/19)
1912 Jan 13, In Siam (Thailand) resentful army officers attempted a coup against King Vajiravudh (Rama VI).
(Econ, 5/24/14, p.36)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_Revolt_of_1912)
1914 King Rama VI of Thailand published a short book on the overseas Chinese in which he called them the “Jews of the Orient."
(Econ, 10/10/15, p.42)
1919 Chia Ek Chor moved from China to Bangkok and set up a small shop importing seeds from his home in China's Guangdong province. By 2020 the Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group was Thailand's pre-eminent conglomerate.
(Econ., 5/30/20, p.54)
1923 King Rama VI wrote the poetic drama “Madanabhada." The 5-act play was dedicated to one of his queen. In 2001 Somtow Sucharitkul premiered it in opera form.
(WSJ, 3/15/00, p.A16)
1923 The Bangkok Snake Farm was established to help Thais co-exist with native poisonous snakes. Venom was harvested to produce antivenin. It is the 2nd oldest such farm in the world. An older one was in Brazil.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T5)
1925 Nov 26, Rama VI, Thailand’s King Vajiravudh (b.1881), died. Vajiravudh succeeded his father as Rama VI and formed a private army, the Wild Tiger Corps, on his accession. Vajiravudh's reign was characterized by the creation and promotion of Siamese nationalism. He modernized the military and sent troops to join Allied forces in World War One. He quashed an attempted coup in 1912 by disgruntled military officers who accused the king of financial extravagances and sought to establish democratic rule.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajiravudh)(Reuters, 5/2/19)
1927 Dec 5, King Bhumibol Adulyadej was born.
(SFC, 12/6/99, p.A14)
1932 Jun 24, A coup ended the absolute monarchy in Thailand.
(http://countrystudies.us/thailand/19.htm)(SFC, 5/28/96, p.A17)
1932 Jun 27, In Thailand King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) signed a new provisional constitution. The absolute power of kings ended and a constitutional monarchy began. By 2008 Thailand had gone thru 17 permanent or temporary constitutions.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Thailand)(Econ, 5/24/08, p.27)
1932 Jun 29, Siam’s army seized Bangkok and announced an end to the absolute monarchy.
(HN, 6/29/98)
1932-2001 The country experienced 16 successful military coups, 17 constitutions and 23 prime ministers.
(SFC, 1/6/01, p.A8)
1933 Silpakorn, Thailand’s largest fine arts university, was founded by the Italian sculptor Corrado Feroci.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A16)
1934 Japan began exporting three-wheelers (tuk-tuks) to Thailand.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw)
1935 Mar 2, King Prajadhipok abdicated and left for England. He was replaced by Ananda Mahidol (1925-1946), who became Rama VIII.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ananda_Mahidol)
1939 Siam became Thailand. [see 1949]
(Hem., 3/97, p.27)
1941 May 30, Rama VII, Thailand’s King Prajadhipok (b.1893), died. Prajadhipok was Siam's last absolute monarch and its first constitutional monarch after the Siamese Revolution of 1932. Educated at Eton, he succeeded his brother in 1926. Six years later a group of military officers and civil servants initiated a near bloodless coup. Prajadhipok abdicated in 1935 and spent the rest of his life with his wife in England. The couple had no children.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prajadhipok)(Reuters, 5/2/19)
1941 Japanese forces land in Thailand. After negotiations Thailand allows Japanese to advance towards British-controlled Malay Peninsula, Singapore and Burma.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1243059.stm)
1942 Thailand declared war on Britain and US, but Thai ambassador in Washington refuses to deliver declaration to US government.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1243059.stm)
1943 Oct 25, Japanese forces held an official ceremony for the 415-km Thailand-Burma railroad. The rail was completed Oct 17 at Konkuita, Thailand. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the “Death Railway." An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 civilians also died in the course of the project, chiefly forced labor brought from Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, or conscripted in Siam (Thailand) and Burma (Myanmar). The movie “The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) was a part of this effort and is today a big tourist attraction in Thailand.
(www.bmw.ukf.net/3pagodas/TBRandON.htm)
1944 Jun 5, The first B-29 bombing raid struck the Japanese rail line in Bangkok, Thailand.
(HN, 6/5/98)
1944 The Bangkok Bank was founded. In 2004 it was Thailand’s biggest commercial lender and the Sophonpanich family, whose patriarch helped found the bank, still owned 10-20%.
(WSJ, 5/19/04, p.A16)
1945 At the end of World War II Thailand was compelled to return territory it had seized from Laos, Cambodia and Malaya. The exiled King Ananda returned.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1243059.stm)
1945-1949 A series of wars for independence during this period spread from India to Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. In 2007 Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper authored “Forgotten Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia."
(WSJ, 8/9/07, p.D7)
1946 Jun 9, Rama VIII, Thailand’s King Ananda Mahidol (b.1925), was found shot dead in his bedroom inside Bangkok's Grand Palace in mysterious circumstances, four days before his planned return to school in Switzerland. Ananda had ascended to the throne after his uncle abdicated in 1935. His father, Prince Mahidol, was a son of King Chulalongkorn. Ananda was nine years old and studying in Switzerland when he was chosen to succeed Prajadhipok. The government changed the country's name to Thailand in 1939. Ananda Bhumibol Adulyadej (b.1927) ascended the throne as a teenage King after his older brother’s death.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ananda_Mahidol)(SFC, 6/10/96, C3)(AP, 6/12/06) (Reuters, 5/2/19)
1946 The film “Anna and the King of Siam" starred Rex Harrison and Irene Dunne and was directed by John Cromwell.
(TVM, 1975, p.19)(SFC, 11/10/98, p.E4)
1946 Thailand’s Democratic Party (DC) was founded as a conservative, royalist party.
(Econ, 8/4/12, p.37)
1947 In Thailand Phibun Songkhram, a wartime pro-Japanese leader, led a Military coup. The military retain power until 1973.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1243059.stm)
1949 May 11, Siam changed its named to Thailand. [see 1939]
(AP, 5/11/97)
1949 Thailand’s Grand Palace Coup took place.
(Econ, 1/10/04, p.76)
1950 May 5, In Thailand King Bhumibol Adulyadej (22) was crowned. Bhumibol died in 2016 at age 88 after reigning for seven decades.
(AP, 5/3/19)
1950 May 21, French sources reported that Viet Minh guerrillas had infiltrated Cambodia and opened an arms-smuggling corridor to Thailand.
(www.geocities.com/khmerchronology/1950.htm)
1951 Thailand’s Manhattan Coup took place, named after a ship stormed by coup leaders.
(Econ, 1/10/04, p.76)
1954 Albert Pickerell (d.1999 at 86) served in Thailand as a Fulbright lecturer and helped establish a School of Journalism at Thammasatt Univ.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.A19)
1954 Sep 8, SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization), a sister organization to NATO, was created under the Manila Pact by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, to stop communist spread in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos). The United States, Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand signed the mutual defense treaty. SEATO dissolved in 1977.
(HNQ, 4/2/01)(http://tinyurl.com/hpawj)
1955 Feb 23, Eight nations (the United States, Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand) met in Bangkok for the first SEATO council.
(HN, 2/23/98)(HN, 9/8/98)
1955 Paul Grimes (1924-2002) worked as an editor for the Bangkok Post. He joined the NY Times in 1957 and helped establish Conde Nast Traveler in 1987.
(SFC, 5/2/02, p.A27)
1957 Sep 17, The Thai army seized power in Bangkok.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1957 Thieves looted a sacred chamber at Wat Ratchaburana at Ayuthaya, Thailand. Much, but not all, of the booty was recovered.
(SFC, 3/5/05, p.A2)
1960s-1973 Thanom Kittikachorn (d.2004) ran Thailand in the 1960s and early 1970s with his son, Col. Narong Kittikachorn, and Narong's father-in-law, Field Marshal Praphas Charusathien.
(AP, 6/17/04)
1962 Mar 6, US promised Thailand assistance against "communist" aggression.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1962 May 11, US sent troops to Thailand.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1962 The Int’l. Court of Justice awarded the Preah Vihear temple, located on the Cambodia-Thai border, to Cambodia, but did not specify where the border should be drawn.
(Econ, 7/26/08, p.47)
1962 In southern Thailand a tropical storm killed more than 900 people.
(AP, 1/3/19)
1967 Mar 26, Jim Thompson, American ex-serviceman, disappeared while on holiday in the Cameron Highlands of Northern Malaysia. He revived the Thai silk industry after WW II. He was one of the first to adopt a classic Thai house to the requirements of modern life, and his home is now a museum in Bangkok, Thailand.
(Hem, Mar. 95, p.63)(SFEC, 7/16/00, p.T14)
1967 Aug 8, The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN was established in Bangkok by the five original Member Countries, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam joined on 8 January 1984, Vietnam on 28 July 1995, Laos and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999.
(www.aseansec.org/64.htm)
1968 Mar 22, In southern Thailand Tuanku Biyo Kodoniyo set up the Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO). It called for an independent Islamic country.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/pulo.htm)
1968 Dec 10, Thomas Merton (b.1915), American Trappist monk and writer, died in Bangkok, Thailand from accidental electrocution. He had just finished his 7th journal "The Other side of the Mountain." Merton was influenced by the Hindu scholar Mahanambrata Brahmachari (d.1999). Merton's work also the spiritual autobiography "The Seven Story Mountain." In 1978 Monica Furlong (d.2003) authored a biography of Merton.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A22)(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.3)(SFC, 11/2/99, p.A26)(SFC, 2/3/03, p.B4)(WSJ, 3/26/03, p.D8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton)
1969 At their peak in 1969, 68,889 combat troops from Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and the Philippines were deployed in Vietnam.
(HNQ, 4/14/00)
1971 In Thailand The Nation newspaper was founded largely as a progressive conservative as pro-democracy activists were struggling against a military dictatorship. In 2019 The Nation announced it will stop its print edition, but continue with an online version.
(AP, 5/16/19)
1972 In Thailand military dictator Thanom Kittikachorn (1911-2004) introduced a dress code that included drew-cuts for boys and fringeless bobs for girls. Thanom oversaw a decade of military rule from 1963 to 1973, during which he staged a self-coup, until public protests which exploded into violence forced him to step down.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanom_Kittikachorn)(Econ., 8/8/20, p.31)
1973 Oct 14, In Thailand thousands demonstrated against the military dictatorship and some 77 people were killed.
(www.prachatai.com/english/news.php?id=531)
1973 Oct, Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej sheltered pro-democracy demonstrators from the military dictators they were seeking to overthrow. The generals who were in power saw it was time to exit. A student-led uprising ousted 3 military figures who had ruled Thailand for much of the 1960s and early 1970s. Thanom Kittikachorn (d.2004) was ousted in a popular uprising. The military ruler of Thailand had helped the US during the Vietnam War.
(AP, 12/19/05)(AP, 6/17/04)(WSJ, 9/20/06, p.A12)
1974 Jun 3, The last Air America aircraft crossed the border from Laos into Thailand. American forces left Laos and abandoned some 36,000 Laotians hired to battle North Vietnamese troops. The Hmong and Iu Mien were 2 hill tribes hired by the Americans to break codes and rescue downed pilots. Many of the soldiers fled to Thailand where they lived in refugee camps. Some 35,000 Iu Mien later moved to the US.
(SFC,12/27/97, p.A15)(SFEC, 1/24/99, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/3mzgcy)
1975 Jul 1, Thailand and China signed a formal agreement on diplomatic relations.
(www.thaiembdc.org/politics/foreign/diprelat.htm)
1975 Jul 31, The Bangkok Agreement was signed as an initiative of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). As Asia’s 1st preferential trade agreement between developing countries it aimed at promoting intra-regional trade through exchange of mutually agreed concessions by member countries. Five countries, Republic of Korea, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Lao People’s Democratic Republic, were the initial signatories. China joined in April, 2000. Thailand and the Philippines did not ratify the agreement due to their ASEAN commitments.
(www.unescap.org/tid/apta.asp)(www.siamindia.com/scripts/Bankong.aspx)
1975 Thailand issued a warrant for the arrest of Charles Sobhraj on charges of drugging and killing six women, all wearing bikinis, on a beach at Pattaya. Sobhraj is also accused of killing more than 20 young Western backpackers across Asia, usually by drugging their food or drink, in the 1970s and 1980s. Sobhraj, serving 20 years in India, escaped from prison in the mid-1980s, but was caught and returned to jail until 1997. In 2003 French national Sobhraj was arrested from a casino in Kathmandu on charges that he traveled to the Himalayan nation on a fake passport 32 years ago. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison for murdering an American backpacker in 1975.
(Reuters, 12/19/07)
1976 Jul 20, US Air Force Brigadier General Harry Aderholt lowered the American flag for the last time at Military Assistance Command Thailand headquarters on Bangkok’s Sathorn Road.
(www.nationmultimedia.com/sunday/20060709/)
1976 Aug 6, Thailand and Vietnam established diplomatic relations.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A16)(www.vietnamembassy.or.th/relations.html)
1976 Oct 6, In Thailand right-wing political power-brokers, including Kriangsak Chomanan and Samak Sundaravej, provoked mobs to lynch left-wing pro-democracy student protesters at Bangkok's Thammasat University. At least 46 protesters were killed and hundreds wounded by the police and army. A coup installed a new military-guided, right-wing government.
(AP, 12/23/03)(WSJ, 9/20/06, p.A12)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.14)
1976 Nov 23, The Thai government returned 26 refugees to Cambodia saying that they are a threat to the national security. The government said some 70,000 refugees in Thailand who escaped Communist rule in other Indochina states, including 10,000 Cambodians, would also not be permitted to stay.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1976 Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej showed sympathy to the forces of the establishment who believed that students and other liberal forces were leading the country into chaos. In response the military again took the reins of power.
(AP, 12/19/05)
1977 Oct 20, A bloodless military coup was staged in Thailand. Kriangsak Chomanan was appointed prime minister, Thailand's 15th since it became a constitutional monarchy in 1932.
(AP, 12/23/03)(WSJ, 9/20/06, p.A12)
1978 Sep 15, In Thailand PM Kriangsak Chomanan submitted an amnesty bill for the "Bangkok 18" left-wing students and labor activists jailed in connection with the 1976 crackdown. He also initiated an amnesty program for former members of the Communist Party, a reconciliation policy that eventually helped quash its insurgency.
(AP, 12/23/03)(http://tinyurl.com/2w4xdx)
1878 PM Kriangsak's government promulgated a constitution setting up a timetable for the restoration of parliamentary democracy, beginning with a 1979 election.
(AP, 12/23/03)
1979 Jan 7, The Vietnamese army captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government. The People’s Party, a Hanoi installed Khmer Rouge faction, took power with Hun Sen as prime minister. This finally ended the mass genocide depicted in the 1984 film "The Killing Fields." The Khmer Rouge retreated into sanctuaries along the Thai border, set up bases and picked up support from Thailand and China.
(NG, 5/85, p.574-5)(WSJ, 2/27/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)(WSJ, 5/3/96, p.A-10)(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A8)(AP, 1/7/98)
1980 Thailand’s PM Kriangsak resigned after losing the support of an influential faction of independent-minded middle-ranking army officers known as the Young Turks.
(AP, 12/23/03)
1980 In Thailand Prem Tinsulanonda (d.2019) became prime minister and continued to 1988. In 1998 the former army commander became adviser to the royal palace.
(AP, 5/26/19)
1981 Former PM Kriangsak staged a minor comeback, successfully running for a seat in parliament at the helm of his own National Democracy Party.
(AP, 12/23/03)
1982 Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz (b.1944), who had become aware of "tonic drinks" while traveling in Asia, got the idea for the Red Bull energy drink business while sitting at the bar in the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong. In the 1970s T.C. Pharmaceuticals of Thailand, founded by Chaleo Yoovidhya, had formulated an energy drink prototype called Krathing Daeng, or Red Bull in English. Mateschitz and Yoovidhya started selling the drink in Austria in 1987.
(AFP, 3/17/12)
1983 Thailand experienced severe flooding.
(Econ, 1/14/12, p.60)
1984 Karen refugees from Myanmar began settling in camps in Thailand. By 2011 some 140,000 refugees were living in 9 camps behind barbed wire near the border town of Mae Sot.
(Econ, 5/21/11, p.44)
1985 Sep 9, In Thailand there was a failed coup attempt. Former PM Kriangsak was caught with other retired military officers at the headquarters of the plotters.
(AP, 12/23/03)
1986 Karen refugees established the Huay Ko Lok refugee camp in Thailand. The camp was burned 3 times between 1996-1998 by the Burmese military. Residents were relocated in Aug, 1999, to Um Phien.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, Z1 p.4)
1987 Rebel leaders of a Thailand southern insurgency were offered general amnesty.
(SFC, 1/23/04, p.A7)
1988 Aug 28, The Yan Hee Polyclinic in Bangkok, Thailand, reported on a new slimming technique. Overweight Thais were suppressing their appetites by sticking lettuce seeds in their ears and pressing them in ten times before meals.
(HTnet, 8/28/99)
1988 In Thailand a general amnesty freed all those involved in the 1985 coup attempt.
(AP, 12/23/03)
1988 Thailand introduced its 10-baht coin. In 2002 the EU complained that it was being used in vending machines all over Europe due to its similarity to the 2-euro coin.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.C7)
1989 The government of Thailand granted investment incentives to the Sahaviriya group to build the first mills for making steel.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A10)
1989 In Thailand John Gray formed Sea Canoe, an ecotourism venture, to show tourists the southwestern coast limestone caves known as hongs.
(SFC, 11/23/99, p.A14)
1989 Saudi diplomat Abdullah al-Maliki was gunned down in Bangkok. Adbullah A al-Besri, Fahad AZ Albahli and Ahmed A Alsaif were assassinated in January 1990. All were linked to the so-called Blue Diamond theft committed by Thai laborer Kriangkrai Techamong, who was working at Prince Faisal's palace in Saudi Arabia in 1989. The legendary diamond was among several valuable stones and jewelry pieces stolen from the palace of a Saudi Prince when he was employed as a gardener in the Arab kingdom.
(www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/04/07/opinion/opinion_30070238.php)
1989 In Thailand Typhoon Gay left more than 400 dead.
(AP, 1/3/19)
1991 Feb 23, Tanks rolled in the streets of Bangkok and a coup was held to get rid of the corrupt government of Chatichai Choonhavan. After months of investigations a military-appointed committee seized the assets of 10 men from the ousted administration. Gen. Suchinda Kraprayoon toppled a civilian government in a bloodless takeover. He was ousted in 1992 following street demonstrations.
(WSJ, 12/11/96, p.A16)(AP, 9/20/06)
1991 May 26, An Austrian Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashed in Thailand, killing all 223 people aboard. Crash investigators blamed an engine thrust reverser that had inexplicably deployed shortly after takeoff. The plane was enroute to Vienna and crashed shortly after takeoff from the Bangkok airport.
(AP, 5/26/97)(WSJ, 11/13/01, p.A14)
1991 In Bangkok the Kaset Thai sugar mill was built for some $200 million by the Siriviriyakul family.
(WSJ, 4/2/99, p.A9)
1992 Mar 8, Ninety people were killed when a ferry carrying pilgrims to a Buddhist shrine collided with an oil tanker in the Gulf of Thailand.
(AP, 3/8/02)
1992 Mar, The military Junta formed a party with politicians it had investigated in 1991 to contest the elections.
(WSJ, 12/11/96, p.A16)
1992 Apr 7, Suchinda Kraprayoon, leader of a military coup, became PM of Thailand he served until 24 May 1992.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suchinda_Kraprayoon)(Econ, 6/17/06, p.49)
1992 May 17, Pro-democracy protests began in Thailand; in four days of clashes with troops, 44 people reportedly were killed, although activists charged that hundreds died.
(AP, 5/17/97)
1992 May 20, Thailand's much-revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, called for an end to violent clashes between troops and pro-democracy protesters.
(AP, 5/20/02)
1992 May 24, Thailand protests, supported by numerous political movements, climaxed with the resignation of PM Suchinda. Deputy PM Meechai Ruchuphan took office for a transitional period until the new government was assigned. He was succeeded by Anand Panyarachun.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suchinda_Kraprayoon)
1992 The Hmong began living at the Tham Krabok Buddhist monastery after monks traveled into the mountains to free 2,000 Hmong from opium addiction.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A10)
1992 The Asian Development Bank began building and improving transport and telecom links between China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
(Econ, 11/8/03, p.42)
1992 The Greater Mekong Subregion was created grouping 5 South-East Asian countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam) and 2 Chinese provinces.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Mekong_Subregion)
1992-1995 Chuan Leekpai served as Prime Minister until a land scandal split his coalition and the government collapsed.
(SFC,11/8/97, p.A12)
1993 Mar, The Supreme Court threw out the cases against the 10 politicians who were ousted in the 1991 coup.
(WSJ, 12/11/96, p.A16)
1993 May, A fire at Bangkok’s Kader doll factory killed 187 people and injured 600.
(SFC, 11/26/96, p.B1)
1993 Jul, In Nakhon Ratchasima a 6-story hotel collapsed and crushed 102 people.
(SFC, 11/26/96, p.B1)
1993 Southeast Asia accounted for 1.4% of the world’s agricultural land and 3.6% of global pesticide imports by value. The highest use was in Thailand.
(WSJ, 10/3/96, p.B11B)
1994 Feb, Hot-rolled coil steel production began.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A10)
1994 The lower Mekong River was spanned for the first time with a bridge between Nong Khai, Thailand and Vientiane, Laos.
(SFC, 5/14/97, p.A22)(Econ, 1/3/04, p.29)
1994 In Thailand The Pak Mun Dam along the Mun River, a major tributary of the Mekong, was completed with money from the World Bank. It is a 56 foot high, 984 foot long wall of concrete and severely impacted fish life on the river.
(WSJ, 3/12/96, p. A-15)(Econ, 1/3/04, p.30)
1994 The Australian foreign minister, Gareth Evans, accused “freelance military personnel and business spivs" (shady dealers) in Thailand of providing refuge for Khmer Rouge leaders and helping them get gems and timber out of Cambodia. The statement was made after 2 Australians were murdered by the Khmer Rouge.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A12)
1995 Apr 5, The Mekong Agreement created the Mekong River Commission with Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam as members.
(Econ, 1/7/12, p.34)(www.kellnielsen.dk/mekong/agreem.htm)
1995 Jul 13, In Thailand Banharn Silpa-archa (1932-2016), a provincial political powerbroker, began serving as prime minister.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banharn_Silpa-archa)(AP, 4/23/16)
1995 Aug 21, Prince Thitiphan Yugala (60), aka Luk Pla (Baby fish) was poisoned by his new wife Chalasai Yugala (23). He died after 8 days and Luk Pla ran off with Uthet Choopwa (19), a chestnut peddler. She had become his lover at 14 and wife at 23. In 2002 she was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A2)
1995 Thailand announced that it would close all of its refugee camps. This would force the 4,500 Hmong remaining in those camps to either go to the US or return to Laos.
(SFC, 5/26/96, p.C-8)
1995 PepsiCo Inc. bought out its Thai partner and took over a production plant and hired 1500 farmers to grow potatoes according to company spec.
(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A1)
1995 Thailand experienced severe flooding.
(Econ, 1/14/12, p.60)
1996 Mar 1, The first Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) opened in Bangkok, Thailand, with 25 countries and the EU Commission participating.
(Econ, 10/9/10, p.63)(http://tinyurl.com/25mhkw7)
1996 Mar, Thailand authorities arrested 3 N. Korean diplomats and Yoshimi Tanaka for supplying counterfeit US $100 bills. The bills were very high quality and called “Super K" notes. The arrest opened up the possibility for the first case of state-sponsored counterfeiting since WW II.
(SFC, 6/16/96, p.A10)
1996 May 16, GM is expected to pick Thailand over the Philippines for a $1 billion vehicle assembly plant.
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 16, A joint venture between Texas Instruments, Acer of Taiwan, and Alphatec of Thailand plan a $200 million chip facility. Operations are to start in 1997.
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-11)
1996 Jun 2, Bangkok voters elected Pichit Rattakul, an independent environ-mentalist, as mayor. The city is one of the most polluted in the world.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A11)
1996 Jun 13, Citicorp’s Citibank has captured 40% of Thailand’s credit-card market.
(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A1)
1996 Jul 7, The average cost of a Big Mac in Thailand was $1.90.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Parade, p.17)
1996 Jul, 29, A report from the economics faculty of Bangkok’s Thammasat Univ. warned that the economy was sick.
(WSJ, 7/29/96, p.A8)
1996 Sep 21, Thai Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa resigned after 14 months in offices under charges of corruption and ineptitude.
(SFC, 9/21/96, p.A10)
1996 Nov 18, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, former defense minister, led the New Aspiration Party to victory in elections and recruited 5 other parties to form a coalition government. He was later endorsed and called “fatso" by Buddhist monk Luang Phor Khoon Parisuttho. The government lasted into 1997.
(SFEC, 11/19/96, p.A15)(SFC, 11/26/96, p.B1)
1996 Thanong Siriprechapong, a former member of the Thai parliament, was arrested for smuggling 49 tons of hashish into the US. The case was later hampered due to a kickback made by a key informant to US Customs agent, Frank Gervacio, in Aug, 1992.
(SFC, 9/11/98, p.A18)
1996 In Thailand Salang Bunnag directed a hostage rescue operation that freed all the captives from a drug gang. Bunnag was later accused of ordering the summary execution of the 6 kidnappers while they were in custody.
(SFC, 8/27/01, p.A9)
1997 Jan 1, The Buddhist Era year is 2540.
(Hem., 3/97, p.27)
1997 Feb 26, Thai soldiers pushed Karen refugees back across the border into Burma as Burmese troops massed for an offensive.
(WSJ, 2/27/97, p.A1)
1997 May 31, The 7-member ASEAN alliance, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, met in Kuala Lumpur and agreed to allow Burma to become a member in July. Laos and Cambodia were also to be admitted. The members were Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.D3)
1997 Jun 5, The film "Sunset at Chaopraya" by Euthana Mukdasnit was an Int’l. film festival award winner and premiered in the Bay Area.
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.E3)
1997 Jun 18, It was reported that in this year 25,000 Hmong lived in Laos, 18,000 in Thailand and 140,000 in the US with some 48,500 in the San Joaquin Valley of Calif. A clan of 15,000 lived at the Tham Krabok Buddhist monastery north of Bangkok.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 21, It was reported that operators of illegal logging ventures in northern Thailand were feeding their elephants amphetamine-laced bananas to speed up work before the rainy season. The practice began a few years ago and 10 animals have died of overwork and exhaustion.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A11)
1997 Jul 1, Thailand let its currency, the baht, float and it devalued about 20%. This event marked the beginning of the Asian economic crises. In 1999 Thailand sought to extradite Rakesh Saxena, a currency trader, from Canada for his role in an alleged fraud that drained over $2 billion from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce, which led to the devaluation of the baht. Pin Chakkaphak was blamed for the collapse of the currency and fled Asia. He was ordered back from Britain in 2001 to face accounting and theft charges. In 2009 Saxena (57) arrived in Thailand after his extradition from Canada to face charges he embezzled $88 million from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce, which collapsed in 1995. Saxena was also implicated in backing the attempted 1997 coup in Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 7/3/97, p.D4)(WSJ, 7/21/97, p.A1)(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.D1)(WSJ, 5/7/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/9/01, p.A16)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.80)(AP, 10/30/09)(Econ, 11/7/09, p.42)
1997 Jul 9, It was reported that elephants were dying around pineapple orchards, possibly from chemical poisoning. Only some 500 elephants remained in Thailand.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A7)
1997 Jul 11, In Thailand a kitchen fire went out of control at the 450-room Royal Jomtien Hotel in Pattaya and killed 91 people with 64 injured.
(SFC, 7/12/97, p.A10)(WSJ, 7/11/97, p.A12)(AP, 7/11/07)
1997 Aug 11, Int’l. donors offered Thailand a $16-17 bil loan package.
(SFC, 8/12/97, p.A8)(SFC, 1/8/98, p.A7)
1997 Sep 15, From Thailand it was reported that layoffs, salary cuts and downsizing was spreading across the economy under an expensive foreign debt load and a 40% fall in the value of the baht.
(SFC, 9/15/97, p.A10)
1997 Sep 27, The parliament passed a “good governance" constitution intended to fight government corruption and rejected a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Chavilit. It called for the old-guard politicians to be replaced by a new, 200-member elected body. National Counter-Corruption Commission was formed.
(WSJ, 9/29/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/3/00, p.A20)(SFC, 3/30/00, p.A18)
1997 Sep 30, The cabinet officially scrapped the $3.2 billion rail and road system under construction by Hopewell Holdings. The Bangkok Elevated Rail and Transport System known as Berts was one fifth built and several years behind schedule.
(WSJ, 10/1/97, p.A18)
1997 Nov 3, Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh announced that he would step down later in the week. Stock and currency markets rallied on the news.
(SFC,11/4/97, p.A8)
1997 Nov 9, Former Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai formed a new government with a coalition of 8 parties.
(SFEC,11/10/97, p.A12)
1997 Dec 8, The government announced that it will liquidate 56 of 58 insolvent finance companies shut down by the Central Bank earlier in the year. The move was part of the conditions of the $17.2 billion IMF bailout.
(SFC,12/897, p.A15)
1997 The radio program “Ruam Duay Chuay Kan" (Let’s Get Together and Help Each Other) began broadcasting from Bangkok.
(SFC, 6/20/00, p.A12)
1997 The Thai constitution guaranteed citizens 12 years of free education. This effectively reduced the number of Thai girls sold into the sex industry.
(SFC, 2/6/02, p.A12)
1997 Thailand’s King Bhumibol developed his “sufficiency economy" theory during the Asian economic crises of this year. In 2007 it was described as a plan for sustainability, moderation and broad-based development.
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.38)
1997 In Rangoon, Burma, talks between the Karen National Union and Burmese officials broke down when the Karen refused to disarm. After the talks broke the Burmese army swept through Karen territory and forced thousands of refugees into Thailand.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, Z1 p.4)
c1997 Luangta Maha Bua, a revered monk from Wat Pa Ban Tad Temple, used his status and the threat of suicide to urge the Thai people to help replenish the state coffers with donations.
(SFC, 9/26/00, p.A11)
1997-2002 Thailand and Indonesia were hit the hardest in an Asian financial crises and suffered a slump in GDP during this period of around 35%.
(Econ, 6/30/07, p.79)
1998 Jan 28, Officials at Chulalongkorn Univ. posted posters forbidding the wearing of miniskirts.
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.A11)
1998 Mar 31, It was reported that in Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province, women of the Padaung tribe of Burma were attracting tourists with their necks elongated by wearing brass coils. They began fleeing Burma’s Kayah state over a decade ago
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.B4)
1998 Apr 17, A Thai military team collected evidence from the body of Pol Pot, former chief of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge guerrillas, to confirm that one of the century's worst tyrants was truly dead.
(AP, 4/17/99)
1998 Jun 26, Four Pakistanis were reported to have been arrested in Bangkok. They were suspected of planning to assassinate US Ambassador William Itoh and to launch a terrorist strike against the US embassy.
(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 8, Thailand was expected to withdraw a plan to deport foreign workers and planned to announce proposals to widen work opportunities for migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Bangladesh.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A10)
1998 Sep 23, The economy was expected to contract by 7-10%. Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai called for an investigation into the sale of medical supplies.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A12,16)
1998 Nov 2, In Thailand 6 Buddhist worshippers were killed and dozens injured when 3 giant ceremonial incense sticks collapsed at the Phra Pathom Pagoda.
(SFC, 11/2/98, p.A16)
1998 Dec 11, A Thai Airways Airbus A310-200 jet crashed near the airport at Surat Thani. 45 people survived and 101 died.
(SFC, 12/12/98, p.A15)(WSJ, 12/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Three prominent academics published the book “Guns, Girls, Gambling and Ganja."
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A16)
1998 Dr. Chris Baker and Pasuk Pongpaichit published “Thailand’s Boom and Bust."
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A16)
1998 The film “Fun, Bar, Karaoke" was directed Penek Ratanaruang. It satirized Bangkok’s juxtaposition of modern ways and ancient folk religion.
(SFC, 5/20/98, p.E3)
1998 Thaksin Shinawatra, former police officer and telecom entrepreneur, founded the Thais Love Thais (Thai Rak Thai) party.
(SFC, 1/6/01, p.A8)
1998 Hong Kong suffered a slump in GDP of over 6% as did Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand.
(Econ, 11/22/08, p.51)
1998 Burmese refugees in Thailand created the Backpack Health Worker Team to effectively sneak health into eastern Burma (Myanmar), where the military junta provides little health care.
(SSFC, 3/22/09, p.A8)
1998 Officials in 2001 reported that AIDS accounted for 16% of all deaths in 1998.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A10)
1999 Mar 10, Michael Wansley (58), an auditor for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, was shot to death on his way to the Kaset Thai sugar mill. The murder was traced to Pradit Siriviriyakul, one of the brothers running the family mill.
(WSJ, 4/2/99, p.A9)
1999 Oct 1, In Thailand the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors took 38 diplomats as hostages at the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok. Two Thai officials were exchanged for the hostages and 12 [5] students were reported to have flown to the Thai-Burma border by helicopter, where they were released. The students demanded the release of political prisoners, dialogue between the military and Aung San Suu Kyi and an elected parliament.
(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A12)(SFEC, 10/3/99, p.A25)
1999 Oct 2, Bo Mya, leader of the Karen National Union, said he would grant sanctuary to the Burmese students who were flown to the Thai-Burma following a 26 hour takeover of the Burmese Embassy.
(SFEC, 10/3/99, p.A25)
1999 Nov 27, It was reported that at least 26 people had died recently in Phrae province from leptospirosis, a disease transmitted by rat urine. Farmers not wearing boots and gloves in their fields were vulnerable.
(SFC, 11/27/99, p.A17)
1999 Dec 5, In Bangkok the 15-mile $1.4 billion light rail Sky Train began operating on the 72nd birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
(SFC, 12/21/99, p.A16)
1999 The Thai film "Nang Nak" was a stylish ghost story.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E6)
1999 The Thai historical film "Suriyothai" was directed by Chatri Chalerm Yukol. It was about the 16th century Queen Suriyothai who saved her husband King Thianracha during a war with invaders from Myanmar.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E6)
1999 Thailand’s Siam Winery launched its first label, Chatemp. In 2003 the "Monsoon Valley" range was introduced abroad by Chalerm Yoovidhya, whose father Chaleo gave the world the "Red Bull" energy drink.
(AFP, 1/24/07)
2000 Jan 24, Security forces stormed a hospital and ended a 22-hour standoff with Burmese guerrillas. 10 rebels of the "God's Army" were reported killed. The hostage-takers were executed after surrendering to security forces.
(SFC, 1/25/00, p.A10)(SFC, 1/27/00, p.A12)
2000 Jan, The Karen of Burma, displaced in Thailand, celebrated their new year 2739.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, Z1 p.4)
2000 Jan 26, In Thailand the legendary 24-year leader of the Karen National Union (KNU), was voted out of the chairmanship. Saw Ba Thin was elected as the new chairman of the Karen National Union (KNU).
(SFC, 1/28/00, p.A14)(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A8)
2000 Mar 29, Sanan Kachornprasart (64) resigned as interior minister after the National Counter-Corruption Commission charged that he had concealed his assets in a fabricated million-dollar loan.
(SFC, 3/30/00, p.A18)
2000 Apr 2, It was reported that some 100,000 Karen refugees from Burma lived in 8 refugee camps along the Thailand border.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, Z1 p.1)
2000 May 7, In Thailand thousands of protestors besieged the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank. The 13 nations agreed to rescue each other’s currencies to fend off economic crises.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A14)
2000 Sep 25, Flooding left 47 people dead.
(WSJ, 9/26/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 22, In Thailand 9 inmates escaped from Samut Sakorn prison with 7 prison officials. Thai commandos killed the inmates.
(SFC, 11/23/00, p.D8)
2000 Nov 24, It was reported that recent monsoon flooding killed 10 people in Malaysia and at least 5 people in Thailand. The death toll from flooding in Thailand reached over 30, mostly children. At least 49 died from mudslides in West Sumatra.
(SFC, 11/24/00, p.D8)(WSJ, 11/27/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 19, It was reported that swiftlet colonies in Thailand were threatened due to the excessive harvesting of their edible nests for Chinese restaurants.
(SFC, 12/19/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 26, An anti-corruption body ruled that Thaksin Shinawatra, the leading candidate for prime minister, engaged in financial wrongdoings that disqualified him from holding office.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A15)
2001 Jan 6, Thailand government elections pitted PM Chuan Leekpai’s Democratic Party against the Thais Love Thais (Thai Rak Thai) party of Thaksin Shinawatra (51). Elections for 500 seats in the lower parliament were scheduled with new laws to reduce vote-buying. Shinawatra, Thailand’s richest man, won with 248 seats and divested his assets to relatives.
(SFC, 1/6/01, p.A8)(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.D1)(WSJ, 2/2/01, p.A1)(Econ, 2/5/05, p.11,24)
2001 Jan 16, Luther and Johnny Htoo, twin adolescent leaders of an ethnic Karen rebel group, surrendered to Thai border police.
(WSJ, 1/17/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 17, Electoral officials annulled the victories of 14 candidates.
(WSJ, 1/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 18, A court agreed to hear a corruption case against Prime Minister-elect Thakson Shinawatra.
(SFC, 1/19/01, p.D4)
2001 Jan 18, In Bangkok 2 bombs exploded and at least 8 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/19/01, p.A17)
2001 Jan 23, Electoral authorities ordered re-votes in 62 of 400 districts.
(WSJ, 1/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 6, It was reported that Thailand planned to open a chain of over 3,000 Thai restaurants world-wide over the next 5 years with 1,000 slated for the US. The fast-food branches would be named Elephant Jump, Cool Basil for the mid-priced, and Golden Leaf for the upscale eateries.
(WSJ, 2/6/01, p.B1)
2001 Feb 11, Thai troops fought a gunbattle with some 200 Burmese soldiers who crossed the border chasing Shan rebels.
(SFC, 2/12/01, p.B2)
2001 Feb 12, It was reported that Thailand’s bad loans mounted to 20 billion and accounted for 20% of all bank lending. Thai Petrochemical Industries (TPI) was the largest debtor and owed banks over $3.5 billion.
(WSJ, 2/12/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 2, In Thailand a bomb blast gutted a Thai Airways Boeing 737-400 in Bangkok just before PM Shinawatra was to board. One crew member was killed. It was later reported that the empty center fuel tank of the plane had exploded.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 6/26/08, p.A12)
2001 Apr 15, The annual water festival of Songkran was reported to have turned from a gentle ritual of respect to a youthful melee that included water bombs, squirt guns, water rifles and vats of ice.
(SSFC, 4/15/01, p.D8)
2001 Aug 3, The Constitutional Court acquitted PM Thaksin Shinawatra of corruption charges.
(SFC, 8/4/01, p.A7)
2001 Aug 11, In northern Thailand heavy rains triggered flash floods that left at least 86 people dead and 70 missing.
(SSFC, 8/12/01, p.A18)(WSJ, 8/14/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 27, It was reported that AIDS victims in Thailand were packing stadiums to receive V-1 Immunitor, a locally produced drug advertised as a clinically tested oral AIDS vaccine. Salang Bunnag sponsored the giveaway directed at Thailand’s 755,000 AIDS patients.
(SFC, 8/27/01, p.A1)
2001 In Thailand Jaruvan Maintaka (54) was appointed to head the new auditor-general's office, an independent body created to track state financial transactions and spot signs of corruption. By 2005 with only half of her term gone she amassed a menagerie of adversaries, from vested interests to corrupt politicians, and in the process became a target for elimination. In 2004 a court ruled that she was illegally appointed. In 2005 the Senate endorsed a replacement, but the king did not approve. In 2006 she was reinstated.
(AP, 9/19/05)(WSJ, 2/9/06, p.A7)
2002 Apr 8, It was reported that a Thai version of the TV show “The Weakest Link" was “promoting fierce competition and selfishness among recipients," in contrast to general Thai generosity.
(SFC, 4/8/02, p.A2)
2002 Jun 3, In Thailand 3 gunmen attacked a school bus and killed 2 teenage students in the Ratchaburi province near Burma. 15 others were injured.
(SFC, 6/4/02, p.A12)
2002 Jul 8, In southern Thailand a bomb tore through a parked passenger railway coach injuring a policeman and a security guard.
(Reuters, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 29, On a mission to stamp out Islamic militancy in Southeast Asia, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell held talks with Thai leaders, who deny their country is facing a Muslim insurgency.
(Reuters, 7/29/02)
2002 Aug 29, A joint force of Thai police and soldiers killed six armed drug traffickers and seized a million methamphetamine pills after ambushing a drug convoy near the Golden Triangle.
(Reuters, 8/29/02)
2002 Aug 30, Floodwaters along the lower stretches of the Mekong have wreaked havoc in Laos, Cambodia (18), Thailand (12) and Vietnam (25), claiming at least 55 lives and leaving thousands homeless across the region.
(AP, 8/30/02)
2002 Sep 2, At least 14 people were killed and more than 20 were missing after their makeshift houses on the banks of an overflowing stream collapsed after heavy rain in northern Thailand.
(Reuters, 9/3/02)
2002 Dec 4, Thailand released thousands of prisoners, including many jailed for minor narcotics offences, to mark the 75th birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest reigning monarch.
(Reuters, 12/4/02)
2002 Dec 19, It was reported that AIDS in Thailand infected 1 in 60 people and that by 2006 some 50,000 annual deaths would result from AIDS-related causes.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.A18)
2003 Jan 29, In Cambodia protesters looted and set fire to the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh. The protest was against a Thai TV star who was quoted in the media as saying Cambodia had stolen the famous Angkor Wat temple from Thailand.
(AP, 1/29/03)
2003 Jan 30, Thailand sealed its border with Cambodia, recalled its ambassador and sent military planes to evacuate hundreds of terrified Thais after rioters looted and torched its embassy in the Cambodian capital.
(AP, 1/30/03)
2003 Feb 13, Thailand officials arrested SF financier Thomas Frank White at the request of the Mexican government for the rape of a teenage boy. In 2004 White was indicted in SF on 2 counts of sex tourism.
(SSFC, 9/11/05, p.A2)
2003 Feb 14, A Thai court ruled to extradite Florida millionaire James Vincent Sullivan (61), wanted in the US for the 1987 murder of his socialite wife. He was accused of paying another man $25,000 to kill Lita McClinton Sullivan to avoid losing property in a divorce. In 2006 he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 2/15/03)(AP, 3/14/06)
2003 Feb, Thailand’s PM Thaksin Shinawatra began a war on drugs aimed primarily at the methamphetamine market. Some 5% of the population were reported to be addicts. A 3-month shooting spree left more than 2,800 people dead.
(SFC, 5/29/03, p.A7)(Econ, 1/26/08, p.42)(Econ, 9/16/17, p.38)
2003 Mar 5, Cambodia sealed its border with Thailand, due to sluggish progress “to normalize relations in border areas" since January’s anti-Thai riots.
(AP, 3/5/03)
2003 Mar 25, In Thailand police said they shot and killed 42 people during a 7-week-old crackdown on drugs that has drawn protest from human rights groups. Nearly 400 drug makers and more than 12,000 dealers were arrested.
(AP, 3/26/03)
2003 Apr 11, Cambodia and Thailand agreed to resume full diplomatic relations, which were suspended after anti-Thai riots shook Cambodia's capital in January.
(AP, 4/11/03)
2003 May 2, Chuwit Kamolvisit, A sex club operator in Thailand, was arrested for unlawfully demolishing a downtown Bangkok block housing scores of bars and shops to make way for another massage parlor, the Taj Mahal. He soon claimed to have spent about $289,156 each month in payoffs to policemen.
(AP, 8/2/03)
2003 Jun 5, Thailand's Constitutional Court ruled that Thai women will no longer be required to take their husband's family name when they marry.
(AP, 6/5/03)
2003 Jun 13, In Thailand Narong Penaman (44) was arrested with as much as 66 pounds of radioactive cesium-137 for sale.
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A3)
2003 Aug 11, Hambali (39), an Indonesian whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, was captured in a raid in the ancient temple city of Ayutthaya, Thailand. Hambali, the operational head of Jemaah Islamiyah, was handed over to US authorities and flown out of the country. He was al Qaeda's top man in Southeast Asia and the suspected mastermind behind a string of deadly bombings including the Bali attacks.
(Reuters, 8/15/03)(SFC, 8/15/03, p.A3)(AP, 8/16/03)
2003 Oct 16, Laos and Thailand signed a pact aimed at stamping out border attacks by unknown militants.
(ST, 10/17/03, p.A13)
2003 Oct 19, President Bush met with Thailand's PM Thaksin Shinawatra and pressed him to help restore democracy in neighboring Myanmar. Some 1,000 protesters marched in downtown Bangkok on against a summit of 21 economic leaders.
(AP, 10/19/03)(SFC, 10/20/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 21, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders ended their two-day annual summit in Thailand with a statement seeking to boost trade and intensify the fight on terror.
(AP, 10/21/03)
2003 Oct, The Thai government planned to launch 2 "Vayupak" mutual funds for retail and institutional investors.
(Econ, 8/23/03, p.59)
2003 Nov 19, In Canada Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has ordered fugitive banker Rakesh Saxena to surrender to Thailand to face allegations that he looted a Bangkok bank.
(AP, 11/19/03)
2003 Dec 23, Kriangsak Chomanan (b.1917), an army general who became PM of Thailand in 1977 through a series of coups, died at age 87. He helped steer Thailand to democracy.
(AP, 12/23/03)(Econ, 1/10/04, p.76)
2003 Dec 27, In Iraq insurgents launched 3 coordinated attacks in the southern city of Karbala, killing 12 people, including six Iraqi police officers, 2 Thai soldiers and 5 Bulgarians.
(AP, 12/27/03)(AP, 12/28/03)(SSFC, 12/28/03, p.A3)(WSJ, 12/29/03, p.A1)
2003 PM Thaksin Shinawatra set a 2005 growth target for Thailand of 10%. The rate for 2003 was projected to be 6.4% and 7.5% for 2004. The economic boom raised some concerns.
(WSJ, 11/28/03, p.A6)
2003 In Thailand Chuvit Kamolvisit was accused of the unauthorized, overnight demolition of scores of unlicensed bars and shops from a downtown Bangkok block he owned. The move erupted into a major public scandal. When the police failed to protect him, Chuvit fought back by exposing the behemoth bribes he had to pay to keep his mighty empire of flesh running.
(AP, 6/28/11)
2003 Thailand produced some 470,000 pick-up trucks and ranked behind the US as the world’s 2nd largest producer. Production in 2004 was expected to approach 600,000.
(Econ, 9/11/04, p.60)
2004 Jan 4, In southern Thailand assailants set fire to 21 schools and stormed a military armory, killing four soldiers in nearly simultaneous raids. The attacks took place in Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces.
(AP, 1/4/04)(SFC, 1/24/04, p.A7)
2004 Jan 5, In Thailand 2 bombs exploded in the southern town of Pattani, killing 2 policemen and injuring several people, police said. Two other bombs were found before they could go off.
(AP, 1/5/04)(WPR, 3/04, p.32)
2004 Jan 8, It was reported that Thailand's PM Thaksin Shinawatra had ordered the Finance Ministry and stock exchange to set up a task force to examine the balance sheets of listed companies.
(WSJ, 1/8/04, p.A14)
2004 Jan 13, Thai and Malaysian military forces began joint land and air patrols along their jungle border for the first time since the 1970s.
(AP, 1/14/04)
2004 Jan 22, In southern Thailand a Buddhist monk was hacked to death. Muslim extremists were blamed.
(WSJ, 1/23/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 24, In Bangkok, Thailand, a world record for a mass jump was set by 672 skydivers from 42 countries who leaped from six aircraft.
(AP, 1/25/04)
2004 Jan 26, A 6-year-old Thai boy became Asia's seventh confirmed bird flu fatality.
(AP, 1/26/04)
2004 Feb 2, A 6-year-old Thai boy, who had been in contact with roosters used in cock fights, died in Bangkok of bird flu. Thailand breeders began hiding their valuable fighting roosters.
(WSJ, 2/10/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 16, Thailand officials said bird flu has been detected in a previously unaffected Thai province and has resurfaced in eight other provinces that were under observation.
(AP, 2/16/04)
2004 Mar 10, Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra replaced his finance, interior and defense ministers in a Cabinet reshuffle as the government faces a Muslim insurgency in the south, a volatile stock market and a public outcry over a privatization plan.
(AP, 3/10/04)
2004 Mar 12, Somchai Neelapaichit, Thailand human rights lawyer, was kidnapped in Bangkok and never heard from again. 2 days before he vanished he had formally accused the police of torturing 5 Muslim men in custody.
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.46)
2004 Mar 16, China declared victory in its fight against bird flu, saying it had "stamped out" all of its known cases, while a factory worker in Thailand became Asia's 23rd victim of the virus.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 28, The Thailand government said violence in the Muslim-dominated south was at a "crucial stage" and pledged tougher measures, after a bombing in the region injured 29 people, including 10 Malaysian tourists.
(AP, 3/28/04)
2004 Apr 23, In Thailand a massive fire raced through a slum in downtown Bangkok, snarling traffic and spewing plumes of black smoke over embassies and five-star hotels in the area. Armed assailants fatally shot an army officer, just hours after unidentified attackers set fire to about 50 public buildings in all 13 districts of Narathiwat in the worst day of arson attacks in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south.
(AP, 4/23/04)
2004 Apr 28, In Thailand police gunned down machete-wielding militants who stormed security outposts in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south, killing at least 112 people. The 16th century Krue-sae Mosque was damaged by soldiers who fired automatic weapons, tear gas and grenades at it and killed 32 suspected Islamic insurgents.
(AP, 4/28/04)
2004 Jun 10, In Thailand hooded assailants with assault rifles slashed the throat of a night guard outside a government school in the Muslim south and seized weapons from other security personnel who were inside.
(AP, 6/11/04)
2004 Jun 16, Thanom Kittikachorn (92), ex-military ruler of Thailand died at the age of 92. He helped the US during the Vietnam War before being ousted in a popular uprising in 1973. Thanom came to be known as one of Thailand's "Three Tyrants" when he ran the country in the 1960s and early 1970s with his son, Col. Narong Kittikachorn, and Narong's father-in-law, Field Marshal Praphas Charusathien.
(AP, 6/17/04)
2004 Jul 4, Australia and Thailand signed a free-trade agreement that officials believe will boost the economies of both countries by billions of dollars over the next two decades.
(AP, 7/5/04)
2004 Jul 11, The 15th Int’l. AIDS conference began in Bangkok, Thailand. UN chief Kofi Annan challenging world leaders to do more to combat the raging global epidemic.
(SFC, 7/13/04, p.A1)(AP, 7/11/05)
2004 Jul 15, The Gates Foundation announced a $44.7 million award at the AIDS Conference in Bangkok to a consortium of TB and AIDS researchers. The 2 diseases were often linked.
(WSJ, 7/15/04, p.B1)
2004 Jul 15, Thailand officials said avian flu had been detected in 10 of its 76 provinces.
(SFC, 7/16/04, p.A3)
2004 Jul 16, In Thailand the 15th Int’l. AIDS Conference ended in Bangkok.
(SFC, 7/17/04, p.A14)
2004 Aug 20, Thailand’s PM Thaksin said he would overturn the country’s current ban on commercial production and trade in genetically modified food (GMOs).
(WSJ, 10/29/04, p.A13)
2004 Sep 8, In Thailand a young man died from bird flu and increased fears of an avian influenza pandemic. Asian deaths from bird flu for the year totaled 28.
(WSJ, 9/10/04, p.A2)
2004 Sep 27, In Thailand officials announced that a case of avian-flu was possibly caused by human-to-human transmission.
(SFC, 9/28/04, p.A3)
2004 Oct 3, In central Thailand a huge explosion at a fireworks factory killed eight workers and injured three others.
(AP, 10/3/04)
2004 Oct 19, A Thailand tiger zoo housing hundreds of the big cats was shut down as bird flu tests confirmed 23 tigers had died of the virus since Oct 14, and another 30 had fallen ill. They caught the flu from feeding on chicken carcasses.
(AFP, 10/20/04)(Econ, 4/16/05, p.36)
2004 Oct 25, In southern Thailand 78 people were suffocated or crushed to death after being arrested and packed into police trucks following a riot over the detentions of Muslims suspected of giving weapons to Islamic separatists. Over 1,300 people were packed in 6-wheeled trucks and taken on a 5-hour journey to barracks in Pattani province.
(SFC, 10/27/04, p.A7)(AP, 10/25/05)(Econ, 10/28/06, p.52)
2004 Oct 28, In southern Thailand a bomb exploded outside a bar, killing two people and injuring 21.
(AP, 10/28/04)
2004 Nov 2, In Thailand Jaran Torae, a local Buddhist official, was beheaded by suspected Muslim insurgents as revenge for the deaths of 85 rioters last week.
(AP, 11/2/04)
2004 Nov 4, In southern Thailand 9 Buddhists were killed including 2 policemen.
(WSJ, 11/5/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 13, In Thailand's Muslim-majority south a 60-year-old Buddhist man was killed and at least 13 people injured in the 2 latest two bomb blasts. 5 bombs hit in the last 24-hours.
(AP, 11/13/04)
2004 Nov 25, The 3rd IUCN World Conservation Congress closed in Bangkok. Its final resolutions included a resolution urging governments to limit the use of loud noise sources in the world’s oceans.
(SFC, 12/13/04, p.C1)
2004 Nov, China signed a free trade deal with Thailand.
(WSJ, 10/3/05, p.A1)
2004 Dec 5, Thailand airdropped nearly 100 million Japanese-style origami cranes over the predominantly Muslim southern region in a psychological effort toward peace. A series of bomb attacks followed the next day.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 26, The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across southern and southeast Asia. The initial estimated death toll of 9,000 soon rose to some 230,000 people in 14 countries. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964. The epicenter was located 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on Sumatra, and six miles under the seabed of the Indian Ocean. In Indonesia at least 166,320 people were killed.
Bangladesh reported 2 killed; India: at least 9,691 deaths: thousands were missing and possibly dead in India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia: At least 101,318 people were killed on Sumatra island and small islands off its coast. Kenya reported 1 killed. Malaysia: At least 68 people, including an unknown number of foreign tourists, were dead. Myanmar: At least 90 people were killed. Sri Lanka: At least 30,680 were killed in government and rebel controlled areas. The Maldives, an archipelago of 1,190 low-lying coral islands and a tiny population of 280,000, at least 82 people were killed and missing. At least 42 islands were flattened in the low-lying atoll nation. Somalia: At least 298 were killed. Tanzania: At least 10 killed. Thailand: The confirmed death toll for Thailand reached 5,322, but many suspected Myanmar migrants were not counted. Some 230,000 people were killed in a dozen countries.
(SFC, 12/28/04, p.A1)(AP, 12/30/04)(SSFC, 1/2/05, p.A12)(AP, 1/7/05)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.41)(AP, 12/25/09)(AP, 11/12/13)
2004 Dec 26, The confirmed death toll for Thailand reached 5,322, but many suspected Myanmar migrants were not counted.
(Econ, 1/22/05, p.41)
2004 Dec 31, Thai authorities said more than 2,230 foreigners from 36 nations were confirmed dead from Thailand's southern resorts alone.
(AP, 12/31/04)(SFC, 1/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 1, Thailand was forecast for 5.3% annual GDP growth with a population at 65.1 million and GDP per head at $2,610.
(Econ, 1/1/05, p.92)
2005 Jan 2, Thailand's confirmed death toll from the Dec 26 tidal wave disaster approached 5,000, including more than 2,400 foreign holidaymakers.
(AP, 1/2/05)
2005 Jan 9, In Thailand a 6-story building caught fire and collapsed in Bangkok, trapping five firefighters inside the wreckage.
(AP, 1/9/05)
2005 Jan 17, In Thailand a collision on Bangkok’s new subway injured 200 and suspended service for a week. A crew error was blamed.
(WSJ, 1/18/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 24, In Thailand a tourist boat returning from Pa Ngan island capsized and at least 7 people were dead. Another 20 were missing.
(WSJ, 1/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 6, Thailand voters handed PM Thaksin Shinawatra a 2nd term with an expanded mandate. In his 1st term he broadly managed to keep 3 promises centering on cheap health care, debt forgiveness for farmers and micro-credits for villages. Under his tenure public debt fell from 54% of GDP to 39%.
(AP, 2/6/05)(Econ, 2/5/05, p.11,23)
2005 Feb 15, The Thailand Cabinet approved establishing a new infantry division of 12,000 troops to be based permanently in southern Thailand, where violence blamed on Muslim insurgents has claimed more than 650 lives in the past year.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 17, In southern Thailand a bomb exploded near a tourist hotel in the border town of Sungai Kolok, killing 5 people and wounding over 40.
(AP, 2/17/05)(SFC, 2/18/05, p.A3)
2005 Feb 19, Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton visited a Thai fishing village that had been devastated by the December 2005 tsunami.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2005 Feb 26, Thailand police reported 4 more people killed in surging violence in the Muslim south. PM Shinawatra defended his hard-line policies and accused his critics of sympathizing with separatists.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Apr 3, in southern Thailand 2 near-simultaneous bombs exploded, including one at the airport in Hat Yai city killing one person and wounding a dozen.
(AFP, 4/3/05)
2005 Apr 4, Chevron announced plans to purchase Unocal Corp. for $18.4 billion. Chevron’s eventual acquisition of Unocal included a stake in the Yadana project in Myanmar, in which Unocal invested in the 1990s along with France’s Total, Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise and the petroleum Authority of Thailand. Total with a 31% stake operated the project. The Yadana project brought in an estimated $969 million to the government undercutting international sanctions to isolate the regime.
(SFC, 4/5/05, p.A1)(SFC, 10/4/07, p.A10)(SFC, 4/29/08, p.D3)
2005 Apr 24, In southern Thailand suspected Islamic separatists detonated a bomb, killing two police officers and wounding three other people.
(AP, 4/24/05)
2005 May 1, Thai fishermen netted a 646-pound Mekong giant catfish believed to have been the world's largest freshwater fish ever caught in Thailand.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 May 13, In southern Thailand a roadside bomb exploded near a passing military truck, killing two Thai marines and seriously wounding eight others.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 26, In Tham Krabok, Thailand, the largest refugee camp for ethnic Hmong, who had fled communist Laos, was officially closed.
(AP, 5/27/05)
2005 May 30, Miss Canada, Natalie Glebova, was crowned Miss Universe in the 54th annual pageant held in the Thai capital of Bangkok.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 Jun 3, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra arrived in New Delhi, India, for talks on a free trade agreement and civil aviation liberalization.
(AFP, 6/3/05)
2005 Jun 18, The beheaded bodies of a Laotian couple were found in southern Thailand over the weekend and were believed to be the latest victims of Muslim separatist violence.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 20, In Thailand 3 Muslim men were shop dead in Pattani.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.40)
2005 Jun 22, A lawmaker from Thailand's ruling party fell to his death from his 10th floor apartment, followed a few hours later by a woman with whom he had been quarreling. Separately suspected Islamic separatists beheaded a man at a teashop and then left his head in a sack on the side of the road.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 24, Thailand police reported that attackers in Yala province had slashed the necks of a couple, almost severing their heads in the latest killings attributed to Islamic separatists.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun, India's tsunami-hit Andaman islands signed a tourist deal with Thailand’s resort town of Phuket. Environmentalists slammed the deal saying such a move would destroy the fragile ecology of the Andaman and Nicobar islands and encourage the sex trade.
(Reuters, 8/3/05)
2005 Jul 5, Thousands of poor ethnic Hmong refugees from Laos were living without shelter in northern Thailand, forced from their homes under a Thai campaign to pressure them to return to their native land. Landlords said the government had set a July 4 deadline for them to evict the some 6,500 refugees from their bamboo shelters.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jul 11, Thailand reported the discovery of 10 new cases of bird flu just as it was about to declare the country free of the disease.
(AP, 7/11/05)
2005 Jul 14, In southern Thailand at least 60 insurgents plunged Yala city into darkness by destroying electrical transformers, then roamed the streets with fire-bombs, explosives and guns, targeting an area near a hotel, convenience stores, a restaurant and the railway station. Suspected Islamic separatists set off 5 bombs and exchanged gunfire with security personnel in an attack, killing a police officer and wounding 19 other people.
(AP, 7/14/05)(AP, 7/17/05)
2005 Jul 15, Thailand's government, reeling from bold attacks by suspected separatists in the Muslim-dominated south, granted PM Thaksin Shinawatra sweeping powers to tap phones, directly command security forces and order curfews.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2005 Jul 17, In Thailand an emergency decree was signed into law that granted PM Shinawatra sweeping powers to tap phones, directly command security forces and order curfews. It also granted immunity to security forces in emergency zones.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.40)
2005 Sep 19, Lukman B. Lima, a veteran leader of Thailand's insurgency, issued a warning: militants from Indonesia and Arab nations might join the fight for a separate homeland if the Thai government continues a crackdown that's provoking a new generation of Muslim fighters.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep, In Thailand a weekly talk show on government run TV hosted by Sondhi Limthongkul, founder of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), was cancelled. Weekly rallies soon followed in which Mr. Sondhi unveiled fresh allegations of official corruption and misconduct.
(Econ, 12/17/05, p.42)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.47)
2005 Oct 5, In southern Thailand suspected Islamic insurgents shot and killed five soldiers as they ate dinner at a military outpost.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Oct 16, In southern Thailand about 20 suspected Muslim separatists stormed a monastery, hacked an elderly Buddhist monk to death and fatally shot two temple boys.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 18, Thailand's Cabinet announced it was extending a state of emergency in three southern provinces to cope with an escalating Muslim insurgency.
(AP, 10/18/05)
2005 Oct 20, Thailand PM Thaksin Shinawatra said new lab results confirmed the country's 13th death from bird flu.
(AP, 10/20/05)
2005 Oct 26, Suspected Muslim insurgents raided 60 targets in southern Thailand, stealing 90 weapons and causing at least seven deaths.
(AP, 10/27/05)
2005 Nov 2, In southern Thailand several bombs exploded in Narathiwat, killing one attacker and knocking out electricity.
(AP, 11/2/05)
2005 Nov 3, Thailand's government imposed martial law in two Muslim-dominated districts of its insurgency-wracked south, a day after Islamic separatists staged a new show of strength with bombings that blacked out a provincial capital.
(AP, 11/3/05)
2005 Nov 7, In Thailand at least three people were killed, two others injured and dozens of suspected Muslim insurgents arrested as militants attacked more than 20 government targets in the southern Yala province.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Nov 16, In Thailand suspected Muslim separatists stormed 2 houses in a southern village and opened fire on the families with assault rifles, killing 9 people and injuring 9 others.
(AP, 11/16/05)
2005 Dec 7, In Thailand a 5-year-old boy became the country’s 2nd bird flu fatality in two months.
(AP, 12/9/05)
2005 Dec 4, Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej publicly rebuked PM Thaksin for pursuing lawsuits against media outlets that oppose his policies.
(www.bangkokpost.net/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=69917)
2005 Dec 20, Troops in southern Thailand struggled through mountains of mud in an effort to reach thousands stranded by floods and landslides that have killed at least 35 people.
(AP, 12/20/05)
2005 Dec, In Thailand Steward Keith McLeod of Australia beat his Canadian wife, Barbara Lynn (61), to death with a hammer and dumped her battered body in bushes along a residential street in Bangkok. In 2006 McLeod (45) was sentenced to 34 years in prison.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2005 In southern Thailand the Buddhist vigilante group Ruam Thai, or Thais United, was established late this year by police officials led by Maj. Gen. Phitak Ladkaew, then chief of investigation in Yala, one of the 3 Muslim-majority provinces.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2006 Jan 9, Jaruvan Maintaka, locked out of her auditor-general office, launched a Web site with other activists to track graft in Thailand.
(WSJ, 2/9/06, p.A7)
2006 Jan 10, In Thailand protesters pushed through a police barricade outside a hotel where negotiators were trying to hammer out a US-Thai free trade pact, as demonstrations against the deal gained momentum but failed to disrupt the talks.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 18, In Thailand 2 fishermen were sentenced to death in the rape and murder of a British tourist, a crime that prompted the PM to demand the maximum penalty. Bualoi Posit (23) and Wichai Somkhaoyai (24) pleaded guilty to the New Year's Day slaying of Katherine Horton, a 21-year-old student from Wales.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 18, An American couple claiming to be of Lao royal descent were shot dead in northeastern Thailand. Anouwong Sethathirath IV (49) and Oulayvanh Sethathirath (38) were killed at a Buddhist monastery in Nong Khai. The next day Thai police said they might have been targeted by Laos' government on suspicions that they were working against the communist regime.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 23, The family of Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra sold their controlling stake in the telecom Shin Corp. for $1.87 billion to Singapore’s Temasek Holdings. Legal loopholes were used to avoid taxes on the sale.
(WSJ, 2/6/06, p.C10)(Econ, 3/4/06, p.39)
2006 Feb 4, Tens of thousands of people filled a plaza near the Thai parliament, chanting slogans demanding that PM Thaksin Shinawatra step down amid allegations of official corruption. Thaksin said he would step down if the king asked.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 8, In Thailand skydivers from 31 countries set a new world record of 400 people holding hands in a midair free-fall formation.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 11, Thailand's PM Shinawatra, facing growing calls for his resignation, agreed to hold a national referendum on amending the country's constitution.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 17, French President Jacques Chirac has arrived for his first visit to Thailand as head of state, with Paris hoping to secure lucrative contracts in one of the most dynamic countries in the region.
(AFP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 24, Thailand's embattled PM Shinawatra dissolved parliament, a move forcing national elections three years early and guaranteeing a showdown with his political opponents.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Thailand some 50 thousand people gathered in Bangkok for a new mass rally to demand the ousting of PM Thaksin Shinawatra as opposition parties said they were considering boycotting a snap election which he has called in response.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Mar 5, Tens of thousands of Thais marched to Government House, demanding the resignation of PM Thaksin Shinawatra in the fourth protest against him in as many weeks.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 14, Thailand's PM Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to declare an emergency if anti-government protests turned violent, as tens of thousands marched on his office to demand his resignation for alleged corruption.
(AP, 3/14/06)
2006 Mar 21, In Thailand demonstrators seeking the resignation of PM Thaksin Shinawatra brought their protests to Bangkok's commercial district.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 22, In Thailand a truck crashed through a railroad crossing barrier and slammed into a passenger train in Ratchaburi, causing a derailment and killing at least six people.
(AP, 3/22/06)
2006 Mar 25, Tens of thousands rallied in Bangkok, begging their king to intervene in a last-ditch effort to force PM Thaksin Shinawatra from office.
(AP, 3/25/06)
2006 Mar 29, In Thailand tens of thousands of protesters seeking the ouster of PM Thaksin Shinawatra descended on Bangkok's busiest shopping district, disrupting business and traffic in the heart of the capital.
(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Mar 29, In Thailand 7 decomposed bodies found in a jungle near the border with Myanmar. The remains of four Hmong Americans are believed to be among the dead. Eight men, including four Hmong with US citizenship, were reported missing March 16.
(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Apr 2, Thailand citizens voted in snap parliamentary elections. Thailand's PM urged citizens to ignore an opposition boycott, saying the vote was crucial to ending the country's deepening political stalemate amid demands for his resignation. Bombs exploded at three polling stations in restive southern Thailand, injuring four soldiers and a police officer.
(AP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 3, PM Thaksin claimed victory in Thailand's general election that followed weeks of anti-government protests, saying his party won more than half of the popular vote, the threshold he had set for staying in office.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 4, Thailand’s Embattled PM Thaksin Shinawatra abruptly announced he will step down from office, bowing to a mounting opposition campaign seeking his ouster over allegations of corruption and abuse of power.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 5, Thailand’s PM Thaksin Shinawatra handed over power to a longtime friend and fellow police officer, less than 24 hours after saying he would step down over allegations of corruption and abuse of power.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 18, Thailand's government said it will extend a state of emergency in southern Thailand as part of measures to combat a Muslim insurgency that has left over 1,000 people dead.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 23, Opponents of Thailand's outgoing prime minister wore black and tore up their ballots to protest parliamentary elections they said were unfair. Weekend elections failed to fill several seats in Parliament, deepening the country's political crisis.
(AP, 4/23/06)(AP, 4/24/06)
2006 Apr 27, Reports from Myanmar and Thailand said Myanmar troops were waging their biggest military offensive in almost a decade and have uprooted more than 11,000 ethnic minority civilians in a campaign punctuated by torture, killings and the burning of villages.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 May 7, A fire broke out at a club in the Thai resort town of Pattaya, killing at least seven people and injuring at least 49.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 8, Thailand's Constitutional Court invalidated last month's parliamentary elections and ordered fresh polls in a bid to end a political impasse that has left the country unable to form a new government.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 10, In southern Thailand a bomb exploded at a tea shop near a busy market, killing at least three people and injuring more than a dozen.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 23, In Thailand PM Thaksin Shinawatra resumed his duties as challenges to his hold on power mounted even after a self-imposed leave of absence for seven weeks.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, In northern Thailand flash floods left thousands of people stranded on rooftops and trapped inside trains. 9 people were reported killed.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 Jun 9, Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej (b.1927), the world's longest-reigning monarch, began celebrating his 60th anniversary on the throne. He became the 9th king of the Chakri dynasty, succeeding his older brother, Ananda, killed by an unexplained shooting on June 9, 1946.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 15, In Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents exploded more than 40 bombs in attacks on government offices across the restive south, killing at least two people.
(AP, 6/15/06)
2006 Jun 27, In Thailand prosecutors asked the Constitutional Court to disband both the governing Thai Rak Thai (TRT) and the main opposition Democrats for gross misconduct in the April elections. In southern Thailand 7 people were killed by suspected Islamic insurgents in attacks, including a bombing that left five security officers dead.
(Econ, 7/1/06, p.38)(AFP, 6/27/06)
2006 Jul 13, In Thailand a top court decided to accept a case that accuses PM Thaksin Shinawatra's ruling party and its main rival of electoral fraud.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 25, Thailand's three election commissioners, seen as close allies of embattled PM Thaksin Shinawatra, were convicted of allowing unqualified candidates to run in parliamentary elections and sentenced to four years in prison.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Aug 1, Assailants carried out at least 40 bomb and arson attacks in Thailand's three Muslim-dominated southernmost provinces. At least three people were reported hurt.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 2, In southern Thailand a bomb planted along a railroad exploded and killed three policemen.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 16, John Mark Karr (41), a former American school teacher, was arrested in Thailand for the December, 1996, murder JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colo. He said he tried to kidnap JonBenet for a $118,000 ransom but that his plan went awry and he strangled her. Karr's confession that he had killed JonBenet was later discredited.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2006 Aug 22, Thailand police arrested 175 North Koreans, mostly women and children, who illegally entered the country and were found hiding in an abandoned home in Bangkok.
(AFP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 31, In southern Thailand nearly two dozen bombs exploded almost simultaneously inside commercial banks, killing two people in a region bloodied by a Muslim insurgency.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Sep 7, A Thai court decided to extradite a Vietnamese dissident to face charges of violating airspace for a stunt that involved hijacking a plane and dropping 50,000 anti-communist leaflets over Ho Chi Minh City. Ly Tong, a South Vietnamese air force veteran who later became a US citizen, hijacked the twin-engine plane from Thailand in November 2000.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 16, In southern Thailand bomb blasts killed four people including a Canadian (29), who became the first Westerner to die in the two-year Muslim insurgency. At least five bombs exploded: two in department stories; two in front of a bar and a parking lot at the Odean Shopping Mall; and a fifth at a nearby massage parlor in Songkhla province's Hat Yai city.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 19, In Thailand a 6-man military junta launched a coup against PM Thaksin Shinawatra, circling his offices with tanks, seizing control of TV stations and declaring a provisional authority pledging loyalty to the king. This was the 18th coup since 1932. General Prem Tinsulanonda was widely seen as the mastermind of the coup.
(AP, 9/19/06)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.27)(Econ, 12/6/08, p.34)
2006 Sep 20, Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin, the army commander who seized Thailand's government in a quick, bloodless coup, pledged to hold elections by October 2007. He received a ringing endorsement from the country's revered king.
(AP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 21, Thailand's new military rulers said that four top members of deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra's administration had been detained. The regime also assumed the duties of parliament, which was dissolved when the government was ousted in a coup earlier this week, and banned meetings by all political parties.
(AP, 9/21/06)
2006 Sep 24, Thailand's military council issued new orders intended to stave off any possible opposition to their coup, banning political activities at the district and provincial levels.
(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 28, Thailand's auditor general, Jaruvan Maintaka, told reporters that Gen. Surayud Chulanont (62), a highly regarded retired officer, would lead the country until promised elections next year. The US suspended $24 million in military aid due to the coup.
(AP, 9/29/06)(WSJ, 9/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 28, Thailand’s new Suvarnabhumi Airport, built on an area known as "Cobra Swamp," officially opened its doors, more than four decades after the project originated.
(AP, 9/27/06)(AP, 9/28/06)
2006 Oct 1, In Thailand retired army commander Gen. Surayud Chulanont (b.1943) was sworn as interim prime minister following the announcement of a temporary constitution that reserved considerable powers for the military coup makers.
(AP, 10/1/06)(WSJ, 10/2/06, p.A7)
2006 Oct 2, Thailand's respected central bank chief said he has agreed to join the interim Cabinet, a move that appeared likely to reassure the business community.
(AP, 10/2/06)
2006 Oct 3, Thailand's deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra resigned from his once all-powerful party in a letter faxed from London.
(AP, 10/3/06)
2006 Oct 5, Thai coup leaders agreed to talk with southern rebels reversing Thaksin’s confrontational approach to the insurgency.
(WSJ, 10/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 5, The Latvian and Thai candidates dropped out of the race to become the next U.N. chief on Thursday, leaving South Korea's foreign minister as the lone remaining contender and near-certain successor to Kofi Annan.
(AP, 10/5/06)
2006 Oct 9, Thailand's king approved a post-coup Cabinet lineup, ushering in an interim government expected to rule the country for one year until the next elections are held.
(AP, 10/9/06)
2006 Oct 14, Thailand's military-installed premier Surayud Chulanont visited Vientiane on the first stop of a weekend tour aimed at reassuring neighbors Laos and Cambodia that Bangkok won't pull any more surprises.
(AFP, 10/14/06)
2006 Oct 18, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents attacked an army base, killing one soldier and leaving four others injured.
(AP, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 20, Thailand's military government said it had extended emergency rule in the Muslim-majority south where another 21 people were killed this week despite moves to resolve bloody unrest.
(AFP, 10/20/06)
2006 Oct 21, The death toll from severe flooding in Thailand and neighboring Myanmar has jumped to 143 after Thai authorities confirmed another 16 victims. The severe flooding began in late August in Thailand's central and northern provinces
(AFP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 26, Thailand's military-installed PM Surayud Chulanont visited Vietnam for the last of a series of trips aimed at reassuring Bangkok's neighbors after last month's coup.
(AFP, 10/26/06)
2006 Oct, In Thailand Queen Sirikit saw news reports that showed footage from a nearby motorcycle shop that had hired a group of Coyote Girls to promote its wares. The dancers were named after the 2000 American film "Coyote Ugly," about a group of sassy 20-somethings who dance seductively on a New York City bar top. The queen’s reaction prompted a crackdown that turned Coyote Girls into a subject of national debate and official disapproval.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 Nov 5, In Thailand a bomb blast killed two soldiers and injured three others in the restive south. 4 people were shot dead and six wounded in a string of shootings and simultaneous bomb attacks in the south. PM Surayud Chulanont apologized to Muslims for the government's failure to quell the long-running insurgency.
(AFP, 11/5/06)
2006 Nov 9, In southern Thailand 8 bombs exploded almost simultaneously at car and motorcycle showrooms, wounding nine people.
(AP, 11/9/06)
2006 Nov 15, In southern Thailand suspected Islamic militants over the last 2 days shot dead three people in separate drive-by shootings, while one soldier was hurt in a bomb attack.
(AP, 11/15/06)
2006 Nov 17, In southern Thailand 3 bomb blasts killed one person and wounded at least 30 others.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 22, In southern Thailand a woman was shot and her body burnt in Narathiwat, while a second victim, believed to be Buddhist man, was shot several times in the face. A separatist leader said the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) extremist network is helping groups of young fighters stage attacks in Thailand's Muslim-majority south.
(AP, 11/22/06)
2006 Nov 24, In Thailand attackers shot a school principal, and then set his body on fire. The principal became the 59th teacher or school official killed in three years of violence.
(AP, 11/25/06)
2006 Nov 25, In Thailand a regional representative for teachers said more than 300 schools in the south will close indefinitely Nov 27, after attacks by suspected Muslim insurgents left two teachers dead.
(AP, 11/25/06)
2006 Nov 28, Thailand's military-installed government agreed to lift martial law in Bangkok and in more than half of the country's provinces.
(AP, 11/28/06)
2006 Dec 9, In Thailand a police informant who survived two attacks by suspected Muslim insurgents was killed in a drive-by shooting in the restive south.
(AP, 12/9/06)
2006 Dec 13, Two Laotian-American men were shot to death at a bus station in northeastern Thailand after returning from a trip to Laos. Thai police said they suspect a political connection to the killings.
(AP, 12/14/06)
2006 Dec 19, Thailand’s stock market experienced a record decline as the government moved to clamp down on foreign investment. Thailand’s SET index lost 15% of its value. By the end of the day the government partially lifted its restrictions.
(WSJ, 12/20/06, p.C1)(SFC, 12/21/06, p.C3)(Econ, 1/6/07, p.59)
2006 Dec 24, Bo Mya (79), a longtime leader of the Karen National Union, died in Thailand. The KNU was Myanmar's largest guerrilla group.
(AP, 12/24/06)
2006 Dec 29, In southern Thailand 2 teachers were shot and burned to death and a government worker gunned down in attacks blamed on Muslim insurgents.
(AP, 12/29/06)
2006 Dec 31, In Thailand 6 bomb blasts rocked Bangkok on New Years Eve and 3 more just after midnight. 3 people were killed 38 wounded. The city cancelled its major New Year's Eve celebrations just as revelers had begun to gather ahead of the countdown.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2006 Paul M. Handley authored “The King Never Smiles: A Biography of Thailand’s Bhumidiol Adulyadej. The import of Handley's book into Thailand was banned by police order even before its publication.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.74)(AP, 1/10/08)
2006 Phantarak Rajadej (104), a former police chief in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand, died. He had begun making and selling Jatukam Ramathep amulets in the 1980s to raise money for a Buddhist shrine and was believed to have mastered the art of black magic to ward off his enemies. Production of the amulets surged following his death. In 2008 the market collapsed.
(WSJ, 4/7/08, p.A9)
2007 Jan 13, In southern Thailand a Buddhist man and his wife were working at a rubber plantation in Yala province when a group attacked them, shooting the man three times in the chest before beheading him and killing his wife. Another Buddhist was killed in a drive-by shooting in a separate attack in Yala. The Islamic insurgency, that flared in January 2004, has killed more than 1,900 people.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 14, Two passenger trains collided near a beach resort town south of Bangkok, killing three people and injuring more than 100 others.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 17, In Thailand suspected separatist rebels shot dead two Buddhist villagers in the Muslim-majority south. The insurgency there has killed more than 1,800 people in three years.
(AFP, 1/17/07)
2007 Jan 26, Suspected Muslim separatists ambushed police patrols and torched a school as PM Surayud Chulanont returned to southern Thailand for a third attempt at ending the bloody insurgency.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2007 Jan, In Thailand the film “The Legend of King Naresuan," directed by Chatrichalerm Yukol, set a new box office record taking in $3.4 million (120 million baht) in its 1st four days. The 2nd episode of the trilogy was scheduled to open February 15.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.44)
2007 Feb 12, Thailand, which has upset big drug companies by issuing patent-overriding licenses for generic versions of heart and HIV/AIDS pills, said it would issue more unless the firms cut prices.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 18, In Thailand 29 bombings and 20 other attacks rocked the country's four southernmost provinces. Most of the attacks took place in a span of 45 minutes.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 19, In Thailand violence continued as bombs exploded at four locations in the south, killing an army major and wounding two soldiers, three policemen and 13 civilians.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 21, Thailand police said suspected Islamic separatists had set ablaze Thailand's biggest rubber warehouse and shot dead four people in fresh attacks across the Muslim-majority southern provinces. A top economic aide to ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra resigned from his position in the current military-appointed government following sharp criticism from pro-democracy groups.
(AFP, 2/21/07)(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 27, Pridiyathorn Devakula, Thailand’s finance minister and deputy prime minister, quit.
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.49)
2007 Mar 2, In the jungles of southern Thailand soldiers killed five suspected Muslim insurgents during a raid on a weapons training camp.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 6, Thailand's military-installed government took over the country's only independent television station and said it would be temporarily pulled off the air after it failed to pay millions of dollars in unpaid license fees.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 9, Thailand's junta chief urged people living in restive Muslim-majority provinces to act as informants for security forces trying to quell three years of separatist unrest.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 14, Thai prosecutors said they would charge the wife of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra with tax evasion. In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents opened fire on nine Buddhists who were riding in a commuter van, killing all of them execution-style.
(AP, 3/14/07)(AFP, 3/14/07)
2007 Mar 17, In southern Thailand attackers hurled explosives and opened fire on an Islamic school, killing three students and sparking a riot by angry Muslim villagers. Shortly after the attack, three Buddhists were shot dead in the same district.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 19, In Thailand suspected Muslim separatists shot and killed three Buddhist women involved with a project for victims of the insurgency.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 22, Malaysia and Thailand agreed to map out a series of socio-economic measures to end rising sectarian tensions and violence in the kingdom's insurgency-wracked south.
(AFP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 29, A Swiss man was jailed for 10 years for insulting Thailand's revered king by vandalizing his portraits during a drunken spree.
(AP, 3/29/07)
2007 Apr 2, Thailand's premier hailed ties with Japan as he prepared to sign a free-trade agreement with his country's top investor, easing international isolation of the kingdom since last year's coup. Army-installed PM Surayud Chulanont will sign the deal April 3, which Thailand hopes will boost investment from Japan.
(AFP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 3, Japan and Thailand signed a free trade agreement that will cut tariffs on a wide range of traded goods, from seafood to automobiles.
(AP, 4/3/07)
2007 Apr 5, Attackers fired a grenade into a mosque in Thailand's restive south, wounding 16 Muslim worshippers in an act of defiance after authorities imposed a strict curfew to contain escalating violence.
(AP, 4/5/07)
2007 Apr 12, Thailand police said the king has pardoned a Swiss man who was given a 10-year sentence for spray-painting over images of the revered monarch, but the longtime Thailand resident has been ordered to leave the country.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 14, Flash floods swept over two waterfalls on a southern Thai mountain packed with picnickers and swimmers celebrating the country's New Year, killing at least 35 people and leaving dozens more missing.
(AP, 4/15/07)
2007 Apr 29, Suspected Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand killed two Buddhist villagers, beheading one of them, and left a note saying the attack was revenge for a deadly weekend bombing at a mosque.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 30, In southern Thailand suspected Islamic insurgents exploded a bomb at a busy night market and wounded 20 people.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 2, Thailand's military-installed PM Surayud Chulanont said he has tasked his southern army commander with developing a detailed amnesty proposal for Islamic militants.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 4, Delegates meeting in Thailand from 120 countries approved the first roadmap for stemming greenhouse gas emissions, laying out what they said was an affordable arsenal of anti-warming measures that must be rushed into place to avert a disastrous spike in global temperatures.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 8, Thailand and the United States launched their annual war games.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 11, In southern Thailand separatist militants killed two policemen in a raid on a security checkpost, attacking it with guns and grenades before setting it ablaze with the victims inside.
(AFP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 20, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed two Buddhist civilians and wounded a third, while a bomb wounded 11 people, including five policemen.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 23, In southern Thailand 7 people including two teenagers were killed, while 11 others were injured in a spate of bombings by suspected separatist rebels.
(AFP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 27, In southern Thailand 6 bombs ripped through a key commercial district, wounding 10 people.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 28, In southern Thailand a bomb in a market in Kolomudo killed four Buddhists, including two children.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 May 29, Senior Thai judges began deliberating on whether to dissolve the kingdom's two main political parties as thousands of troops were put on alert amid security fears ahead of the court verdict.
(AP, 5/29/07)
2007 May 30, Two senior officials with Thailand's Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party were found guilty of election fraud in a ruling that could doom the political powerhouse founded by ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra. A court disbanded the political party of Shinawatra, barring him and 110 party executives from politics for five years due to election law violations.
(AFP, 5/30/07)(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 May 31, In southern Thailand suspected insurgents sprayed gunfire into a mosque, killing 7 worshippers. Black-uniformed raiders roared into Kolomudo, a Muslim village, firing assault rifles and hurling grenades from a pickup truck at a group of teenagers relaxing near the mosque. When the attack was over, five of the youths lay dead. Buddhist vigilantes were suspected. A roadside bomb killed 11 paramilitary troops almost simultaneously in some of the worst recent violence. A 12th soldier died the next day.
(AP, 6/1/07)(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Jun 9, Thailand deported 163 ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers to Laos who authorities said had entered the country illegally in recent years trying to reach a large refugee camp.
(AP, 6/9/07)
2007 Jun 14, In insurgency-wracked southern Thailand a bomb exploded during a soccer match, wounding 14 police officers who were providing security.
(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jun 15, In southern Thailand a roadside bomb and shootings killed seven soldiers in one of the deadliest attacks on security forces this year.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 16, Thailand's military-installed government offered to negotiate with ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra over his recently frozen assets, as thousands of people protested in support of the former leader.
(AP, 6/16/07)
2007 Jun 19, Police charged ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife with concealing assets and ordered the exiled leader to return to Thailand.
(AP, 6/19/07)
2007 Jun 20, Thailand’s legislature approved an anti-rape law that widens the definition of the crime and makes it illegal for a husband to have sex with his wife without her consent.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2007 Jun 21, Thai prosecutors filed corruption charges against ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra in the Supreme Court, in the first formal charges lodged against the exiled former premier. Separatist militants in southern Thailand shot a Muslim man and then partially severed his head, while the nation's junta leader was visiting the region. A 54-year-old Buddhist was gunned down in a drive-by shooting.
(AP, 6/21/07)(AFP, 6/22/07)
2007 Jun 22, In southern Thailand 10 people, including five soldiers, were hurt in two separate bombings.
(AFP, 6/22/07)
2007 Jun 25, The Thai government said it will freeze an additional $147 million in assets believed to be controlled by ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jun 26, The Asian Development Bank in Thailand said Asian governments must promote clean energy such as wind and solar power to maintain their booming economies and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in coming decades.
(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jul 5, Thailand's military junta unveiled a new outline constitution with controversial proposals that could limit the role of any future elected prime minister.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 11, In southern Thailand suspected separatists over the last 24 hours shot dead 4 people including a government official, as the Thai premier began a two-day visit to the region.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 12, In southern Thailand suspected rebels killed five people.
(AFP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 17, In southern Thailand twin bomb attacks killed one policeman and wounded 18 other people, as the junta formally extended a state of emergency in the region.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 18, Thailand’s Computer Crime Act, intended to prevent cybercrimes, came into force. Most prosecutions that followed under the act were for online content that supposedly endangered national security.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.54)(www.prachatai.com/english/node/117)
2007 Aug 1, In southern Thailand a rebel ambush and bombs left 11 people dead.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 2, In Thailand a lawyer said the wife of Thailand's deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra will seek 1.4 billion dollars in compensation from military-backed authorities that have frozen her assets.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 6, PM Surayud Chulanont said Thailand will return some 8,000 ethnic Hmong refugees to Laos despite their claims that they face persecution in their homeland.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 14, A Thailand judge issued arrest warrants for ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife for failing to appear at their trial on corruption-related charges.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 19, A new constitution for Thailand, that is to usher in December general elections and end military rule, was approved by millions of voters in the country’s first ever nationwide referendum. This was the 18th constitution since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.
(AP, 8/19/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.38)
2007 Aug 31, The Thai government said it has lifted a four-month ban on YouTube after the popular video-sharing Web site's operator agreed not to allow videos that violate the country's laws or are deemed offensive to Thai people. 3 people including a state railway worker were shot dead in separate attacks in the restive Muslim-majority south.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Sep 3, A Thai court issued arrest warrants for former PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife over their alleged violations of stock-trading laws.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 15, In Thailand a roadside bomb planted by suspected separatist rebels killed one soldier and wounded five others in the insurgency-torn south. 2 men were killed in a drive-by shooting by suspected militants in Pattani province.
(AP, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 16, In Thailand a One-Two-Go Airlines passenger plane filled with foreign tourists crashed as it tried to land in pouring rain on the island of Phuket, splitting in two and bursting into flames. 89 people were killed.
(AP, 9/17/07)(AP, 9/16/08)
2007 Sep 30, Thailand's General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, who led last year's coup, stepped down as head of the nation's junta, paving the way for him to join the cabinet.
(AFP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 2, Thailand's coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin was officially named a deputy prime minister, but he denied that his appointment to the cabinet was an attempt to cling to power.
(AP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 13, In southern Thailand 6 European tourists and their two Thai guides died when a flash flood engulfed a cave they were exploring.
(AFP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 19, Christopher Paul Neil (32), a Canadian schoolteacher suspected of sexually abusing boys, was arrested in rural Thailand and charged after a 3-year international manhunt that relied on digitally unscrambled photos and tips from the public. Neil later pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy and was sentenced to three years and three months in jail; he faces other charges involving the victim's younger brother.
(AP, 10/19/07)(AP, 10/19/08)
2007 Oct 30, Thailand's military-installed government lifted martial law in more than half of the 400 districts where it remained after being imposed during a coup last year.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Nov 21, In southern Thailand unidentified gunmen killed four local government employees in the same district where a prominent political party leader was campaigning.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 28, In southern Thailand a Muslim military informant was shot and crucified, while two Buddhist men were beheaded by suspected Islamic separatists.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Dec 4, In southern Thailand a bomb killed six people and injured 20 in one of the deadliest attacks in recent months.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 6, The 24th Southeast Asian Games officially opened in Korat, Thailand.
(AFP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 12, Thailand smashed through the 100-gold barrier at the SEA Games as they continued their relentless pursuit of top spot on the medals table.
(AFP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 13, An official said Thai tax authorities have seized assets worth about $34.2 million from family members of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 18, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed four people before beheading one victim, days before the country's first election since last year's coup.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 20, Thailand's military-installed parliament approved a controversial internal security law. Critics warned it will allow the military to maintain a grip on power even after this weekend's general election.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 23, In Thailand allies of deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra appeared to emerge as victors in the post-coup election but failed to secure an absolute majority in parliament. Thaksinites won 233 seats, 8 short of a majority in the 480-seat lower house.
(AP, 12/23/07)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.33)
2007 Dec 24, The Thai political party allied with deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra said that it has recruited enough other parties to form a coalition government following its win in the country's first election since a 2006 coup.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 25, Deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra said he was planning to return home from exile and might advise the victorious party in last weekend's elections, sparking fears of another year of intense political conflict in Thailand.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 27, In Thailand officials said deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra would be arrested if he returns home from a self-imposed exile as planned, even if his victorious allies form a government following last weekend's general election.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 31, In Thailand a bomb attack wounded 27 people in Sungai Kolok, a tourist town where people had gathered to celebrate the New Year.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 In Thailand 751 people died in prison or under police custody this year.
(Econ, 4/19/08, p.55)
2008 Jan 8, The wife of ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra was handed an arrest warrant after she returned to Thailand to face corruption charges that could put her behind bars for 20 years.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Thailand six suspected militants escaped in a jailbreak.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 14, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents killed eight soldiers, leaving one beheaded, in a bomb and shooting attack.
(AP, 1/14/08)
2008 Jan 15, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents exploded a bomb that left at least 39 people injured in a market in Yala.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 24, In southern Thailand Muslim militants fatally shot a Buddhist teacher as he pulled out of his driveway to head to work.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 26, In western Thailand a bus packed with passengers heading to a funeral tumbled down a mountain, killing nine people and injuring 26 others.
(AP, 1/26/08)
2008 Jan 28, Thailand’s parliament chose Samak Sundaravej, representing ex-PM Shinawatra’s interests, as premier easily beating the Democratic party candidate 310-163.
(SFC, 1/29/08, p.A4)
2008 Jan, In southern Thailand killings rose sharply this month to 55. Some 2,800 deaths were counted since 2004.
(Econ, 3/1/08, p.45)
2008 Feb 1, The US announced it will resume military and other aid to Thailand as a result of the country's successful election and its formation of a democratically elected government.
(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 Feb 3, Thailand's new PM Sundaravej said he will also become the defense minister in a soon-to-be unveiled Cabinet to deter the military from staging a coup against his government.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 4, In southern Thailand a bomb exploded outside an Islamic boarding school, killing one person and wounding 12. A separate bombing wounded six people, in the latest violence attributed to an Islamic separatist rebellion that has entered its fifth year.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 6, Thailand made an uneasy return to democracy with the swearing-in of a Cabinet dominated by loyalists to the prime minister ousted nearly 17 months ago in a military coup. Suspected Muslim insurgents detonated a bomb near a Chinese shrine in southern Thailand, killing one soldier and wounding six other people.
(AP, 2/6/08)
2008 Feb 14, In Thailand General Secretary Mahn Sha (64), leader of the Karen National Union (KNU), was shot and killed at his home in Mae Sot by three men who arrived in a pickup truck. The KNU is one of the biggest ethnic groups fighting Myanmar's military government. Initial investigations showed that the assailants were also Karen.
(AP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 19, In Thailand Glenn Richard Allen (61), an American man was sentenced, to 16 years in prison for raping a 13-year-old girl and sexually abusing a second teenager in Pattaya, a Thai seaside resort town notorious for its sex industry.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 19, In Thailand Glenn Richard Allen (61), an American man was sentenced, to 16 years in prison for raping a 13-year-old girl and sexually abusing a second teenager in Pattaya, a Thai seaside resort town notorious for its sex industry.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 28, Former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to clear his name on corruption charges and called for national unity as he flew home to a jubilant welcome from thousands of supporters.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Mar 2, Thais went to the polls to vote in the country's first elections for the upper house of Parliament since a 2006 military coup ousted elected PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Mar 6, Viktor Bout, a suspected Russian arms dealer, was arrested at a five-star hotel in downtown Bangkok on allegations that he supplied Colombian rebels with arms and explosives. He had been accused of flouting UN embargoes and was wanted by Interpol.
(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 15, In southern Thailand a bomb exploded in the parking lot of an upscale hotel, killing two people and wounding 14 others.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Apr 1, Poor countries at a UN conference in Thailand said they won't sign a global warming pact unless industrialized nations guarantee them billions of dollars needed to adapt to the impact of climate change.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 2, Thailand's Health Ministry ordered hospitals and medical clinics to temporarily stop performing castrations for non-medical reasons, saying that the procedure performed on transsexuals needs stricter monitoring.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 4, In Thailand climate negotiators ended 5 days of talks. More than 160 nations agreed to consider how to reduce rapidly growing emissions from air and sea travel as they worked toward drafting an ambitious new treaty on global warming.
(AFP, 4/4/08)(WSJ, 4/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 7, It was reported that Thailand’s market bubble in religious talismans had popped leaving many small business people in debt. The market in Jatukam Ramathep amulets had swelled to $1.5 billion in 2007.
(WSJ, 4/7/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 9, Thai police dropped charges against Viktor Bout (41), a Russian man accused of being one of the world's most prolific black market arms dealers, saying they will proceed with hearings to extradite him to the United States.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 10, In Thailand 54 illegal migrant workers from Myanmar suffocated in the back of an unventilated truck, while the rest of the passengers being smuggled to Thailand pounded on the container and screamed in vain for the driver's help. 37 of the dead were women and 17 were men. A Thai court the next day convicted some 64 survivors of illegal entry and rule to send them back to Myanmar.
(AP, 4/10/08)(Reuters, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 18, Thailand's PM Samak Sundaravej said that Thais should be honored the Olympic torch is passing through their country and protesters have no reason to disrupt the relay. Up to 2,000 police will guard the April 19 relay, a 6.3-mile run.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 21, Thailand’s government said more than 10 million people in parts of its rice bowl region have been hit by drought causing further concerns as prices of the staple grain soared.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 May 20, Ian Shuttleworth (42), a former British police officer, was arrested in Bangkok in an international crackdown on a sex trafficking ring that saw nine Thais detained last month in London. He was arrested at his apartment in downtown Bangkok, where he had set up a security company providing bodyguards to Thailand's elite. He is accused of luring Thai women into prostitution by promising them well-paid restaurant jobs in London, and then selling them to a madam.
(AFP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 22, Thailand's PM Sundaravej pledged to sell rice to Manila at "negotiable" rates, as he began a visit to the Philippines, which is working to boost its stocks of the grain.
(AFP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 28, Thailand police said 3 soldiers and four suspected separatist rebels have been killed in a series of incidents across the far south, including a shootout at a wedding party.
(AFP, 5/28/08)
2008 Jun 11, In Thailand thousands of truckers went on a half-day strike demanding government help against rising fuel prices, the latest in a series of protests that have swept across Asia and Europe.
(Reuters, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 18, Thousands of demonstrators accused the Thai government of yielding a disputed border region with an ancient temple to Cambodia, the latest trouble for the embattled prime minister who has been facing daily protests calling for his resignation.
(AP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jun 20, In Thailand several thousand protesters pushed through a heavy police cordon around the seat of government, vowing to besiege the compound until PM Samak Sundaravej resigns. They accused Samak's government of interfering with corruption charges against former PM Thaksin and trying to change the constitution for its own self-interest. A Thai army helicopter crashed in southern Thailand, killing all 10 people on board.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 22, Thailand’s PM Samak Sundaravej agreed to resign if he lost a no-confidence vote in Parliament.
(AP, 6/22/08)
2008 Jun, In Thailand 3 legal advisers of ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra were jailed after giving court officials a bag holding $60,000.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.52)
2008 Jul 1, Thailand’s deputy prime minister said the Thai government has suspended its decision to support Cambodia's bid to have an 11th century temple near the Thai border declared a world landmark. In 1962, the International Court of Justice awarded the Preah Vihear temple and the land it occupies to Cambodia.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 5, In southern Thailand suspected insurgents shot up a bustling cafe, killing three customers and injuring four others.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 7, A UNESCO official said that an 11th century temple that sits on Cambodia's disputed border zone with Thailand has been designated as a world heritage site. Hindu-themed Preah Vihear reflects the beliefs of the kings who ruled what was then the Angkorean empire.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 11, Thai prosecutors filed new corruption charges against ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra for alleged abuse of authority to benefit his family business.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 16, Cambodia assembled its troops near the Thai border in the second day of alleged incursions by Thai soldiers amid tensions over disputed border land near a historic temple.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 17, An organization claiming to represent groups involved in southern Thailand's Muslim insurgency announced it will end all violence in the region as of July 14. Former army commander and Defense Minister Chetta Thanajaro said the organization that made the announcement represented 11 different underground groups operating in southern Thailand.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 18, Thailand sent more military reinforcements to a disputed part of the Cambodian border, after the tense four-day standoff nearly erupted into gunfire during the night.
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 21, Talks between Cambodia and Thailand to resolve a military stand-off on their joint border ended without a solution.
(AFP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 22, Cambodia asked the UN Security Council and its Southeast Asian neighbors to intervene in resolving a military standoff over disputed border territory around an ancient temple, stepping up its rhetoric against Thailand.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 31, In Thailand the wife of ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra was found guilty of evading millions of dollars in taxes and sentenced to three years in prison, dealing a staggering blow to a man who was once one of the richest and most powerful in Thailand.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Aug 3, Cambodia said that Thai soldiers are occupying a second temple site on their border in an escalation of an ongoing armed standoff that nearly led to clashes between the neighbors last month.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 6, President George W. Bush flew into Bangkok on the latest leg of a pre-Olympics Asian tour, although his focus in Thailand is mainly on the "outpost of tyranny" junta in neighboring Myanmar.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Thailand first lady Laura Bush, meeting with refugees who fled a brutal campaign by Myanmar's military junta, urged China and other countries to join the US in imposing sanctions against the country.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 11, Thailand's Supreme Court issued arrest warrants for ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife after they failed to appear at a hearing on corruption charges and fled to London, saying they could not get justice in their homeland.
(AP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 12, Somali pirates hijacked the Thor Star, a Thai cargo ship with 28 crew members onboard.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 16, A monthlong standoff between Cambodia and Thailand appeared to be ending as both sides pulled back their troops from disputed territory around a temple near their shared border.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 21, Forbes magazine reported that Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej (80) is the world's richest royal sovereign with a fortune estimated at 35 billion dollars, and oil-rich Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (60) of Abu Dhabi is far back at No. 2 with 23 billion.
(AFP, 8/21/08)
2008 Aug 26, In Thailand thousands of anti-government demonstrators pushed into the Thai prime minister's office compound and rallied outside several ministries. A violent masked mob from the same protest group forced a state-run TV station off the air.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 27, Thailand issued arrest warrants for protest leaders besieging the main government complex, as authorities scrambled to find a peaceful end to the administration's most serious challenge yet.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 30, Thai PM Samak Sundaravej vowed not to quit in the face of intensifying protests aimed at toppling his seven-month-old government.
(Reuters, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 31, Thailand's Parliament convened an emergency session at the request of the country's prime minister, who acknowledged that his administration cannot control spiraling anti-government protests.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Sep 2, Thailand's prime minister declared a state of emergency in the capital Bangkok after a week of political tension exploded into violent street clashes between supporters and opponents of the government that left one person dead.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 9, Thailand's PM Samak was forced to resign along with his Cabinet after a court ruled that he had violated the constitution by hosting TV cooking shows while in office. The Cabinet will remain in a caretaker position until a new administration is installed.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 12, Samak Sundaravej ended his bid to return to power as Thailand's prime minister, after a revolt within the ruling party torpedoed his re-election in parliament.
(AFP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 15, Thailand's ruling party chose the brother-in-law of ousted former leader Thaksin Shinawatra as its nominee to become the next prime minister, immediately drawing opposition from anti-government protesters and dozens of its own members.
(AP, 9/15/08)
2008 Sep 16, Thailand's ruling People's Power Party announced that it has reconciled with a renegade faction, clearing a hurdle toward the selection of Somchai Wongsawat as a consensus candidate for prime minister.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 17, Thai lawmakers turned to Somchai Wongsawat, the brother-in-law of deposed leader Thaksin Shinawatra, to be the new prime minister, setting up a showdown with protesters determined to tear down his political legacy.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 20, The Thai government said floods have killed 14 people and sickened more than 53,000 others, including many who contracted waterborne ailments. The 14 people were swept away by flash floods that hit 36 of Thailand's 76 provinces over the past nine days.
(AP, 9/20/08)
2008 Oct 3, Soldiers from both Cambodia and Thailand were wounded in a brief clash along their volatile border.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 5, Apirak Kosayodhin, the leader of Thailand's opposition Democrat Party, won re-election as governor of Bangkok, defeating the ruling party candidate as well as a one-time sex tycoon. Thai police arrested Chamlong Srimuang, a key protest leader and one-time Bangkok mayor, on charges of insurrection in a continuing crackdown against an anti-government movement that spearheaded the ouster of a prime minister last month.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 7, Thai riot police clashed with thousands of opposition PAD protesters who barricaded Parliament and vowed to block the government from exiting the building. 2 people were killed. Deputy PM Chavalit Yongchaiyudh resigned to take responsibility for the chaos.
(AP, 10/7/08)(SFC, 10/9/08, p.A16)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.55)
2008 Oct 9, The leaders of Thailand's anti-government protesters said they will surrender to police after a court dropped treason charges against them, but vowed to continue their occupation of the prime minister's office after posting bail.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 10, Leaders of Thai anti-government protests were granted bail after surrendering to police and immediately vowed new rallies, raising fears of mounting turmoil days after deadly street clashes. At least 22 people were killed and 24 others injured when a bus packed with passengers crashed in eastern Thailand.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 11, Thailand's embattled PM Somchai Wongsawat, indicated that he may resign in the wake of fierce anti-government protests earlier this week that left two people dead and hundreds injured. Thousands of supporters of the ruling coalition gathered on the outskirts of Bangkok in a show of strength, two days ahead of a planned major protest by a group hoping to topple the elected government.
(AFP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 13, Cambodian PM Hun Sen gave Thailand an ultimatum to withdraw troops from a disputed stretch of jungle-clad border within 24 hours or his forces would turn the area into a "death zone." Thai troops retreated the next day.
(Reuters, 10/13/08)(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 13, Swiss authorities said they have found high concentrations of melamine in biscuits from Thailand and Sri Lanka and have called on other European countries to withdraw the products.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 15, Cambodia and Thailand exchanged fire on the border in a clash over disputed land which left two soldiers dead and several wounded.
(AFP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 16, Cambodia and Thailand agreed to joint patrols of disputed border areas after deadly clashes, but made little progress toward resolving their long-standing territorial spat.
(AFP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 17, In southern Thailand a 25-year-old man was shot dead in a gunfight with security officials after the arrests of five other suspected militants.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 18, In southern Thailand 2 Muslim men were killed in separate drive-by shootings.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 18, Somali pirates released a Thai ship after receiving a ransom.
(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 20, In Thailand thousands of anti-government protesters marched through the streets of Bangkok, calling the prime minister a "murderer" and demanding he resign over the violent quashing of a previous rally.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 21, A Thai court found former PM Thaksin Shinawatra (59) guilty of corruption and sentenced him to two years in prison. His wife, Pojaman (51), was acquitted.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 30, In Thailand assailants threw a grenade into a crowd of anti-government protesters occupying a bridge, wounding 10 people ahead of a demonstration outside the British Embassy in Bangkok.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Nov 4, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents detonated two bombs at a tea stall and shopping area, killing one person and wounding at least 71.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 9, Kuo Te-tsai (42), a Taiwanese drug trafficker, was arrested at a Thai beach resort with 229 pounds of heroin worth millions of dollars in a joint operation by American, Taiwanese and Thai drug enforcement authorities.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 13, In Thailand assailants hurled explosives at vendors protesting a rent increase by new managers of a government-owned market in Bangkok, wounding 13 people.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 18, The Indian naval frigate Tabar sank a suspected pirate "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats into the night. Separate bands of pirates also seized a Thai ship with 16 crew members and an Iranian cargo vessel with a crew of 25 in the Gulf of Aden. The pirate "mother ship" was later reported to have been the Thai fishing trawler seized hours earlier by pirates. One crew member was killed, 14 were missing and one was rescued 4 days later. The Iranian vessel was released on Jan 9, 2009.
(AP, 11/19/08)(AP, 11/26/08)(SFC, 11/26/08, p.A3)(AP, 1/10/09)
2008 Nov 20, In Thailand a grenade attack on demonstrators occupying the Thai premier's offices killed one person and wounded 29, prompting protest leaders to call for a new march against the government.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 23, In Thailand protesters seeking the resignation of the prime minister massed in the capital for what they said would be their biggest rally yet and a final showdown with the government. Thousands of soldiers and police were ordered to use nonviolent means to keep the peace.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 24, In Thailand thousands of anti-government protesters fanned out across Bangkok, causing Parliament to shut down and forcing a group of riot police to retreat in what the activists called their final bid to oust a corrupt administration.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 25, In Thailand Bangkok's main international airport halted all flight operations after anti-government protesters stormed the departures area.
(AFP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 27, Thailand's government prepared to crack down on protesters occupying the capital's two airports, but called on the public not to panic as rumors of a coup swept through the city.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 30, In Thailand attackers set off explosions at anti-government protest sites, wounding 51 people and raising fears of widening confrontations in Thailand's worst political crisis in decades, which has strangled its economy and shut down its main airports. Thousands of government supporters wearing red shirts, headbands and bandanas joined a rally against the protest alliance. So far six people have been killed in bomb attacks, clashes with police and street battles between government opponents and supports.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Thailand a senior tourism official said an estimated 350,000 passengers have been unable to fly out since anti-government protesters shut down Bangkok's two airports last week.
(AFP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 2, Thailand's PM Somchai Wongsawat resigned after weeks of protests closed the capital's airports, stranding 300,000 travelers. Protesters promised to lift their siege, and international flights were expected to resume on Dec 5. Deputy PM Chaowarat Chandeerakul will become the caretaker prime minister. Parliament will have to pick a new prime minister within 30 days.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 3, In Thailand the first commercial flight in a week arrived in Bangkok as anti-government protesters ended their siege of the country's two main airports, declaring victory after PM Somchai Wongsawat was ousted by a court ruling.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 5, In southern Thailand 4 people were killed by a bomb at a drugstore suspected to have been planted by Muslim insurgents.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 7, Thailand's main opposition party called for an emergency parliament session to prove its majority in a bid to form the next government and end months of political chaos, as loyalists of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra struggled to stay in power.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 12, In Thailand a commercial fishing commission agreed to cut the catches of bigeye tuna in parts of the Pacific Ocean, a small step in an effort to save a threatened species that is a favorite among sushi lovers. Environmentalists lambasted the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission's decision to reduce catches by only 10 percent in each of the next three years. They wanted an immediate 30 percent reduction that scientists advising the body had recommended.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 15, In Thailand Abhisit Vejjajiva, a patrician 44-year-old with an Oxford education, was elected the prime minister in a parliamentary vote amid hopes that he can calm the political storms that have battered the country for the past three years. On Feb 24, 2011, Abhisit Vejjajiva publicly acknowledged his dual Thai-British nationality for the first time during a debate in Parliament.
(AP, 12/15/08)(AP, 2/24/11)
2008 Dec 28, In Thailand thousands of supporters of exiled former PM Thaksin Shinawatra began converging on Parliament, vowing to stage demonstrations until the new government holds elections.
(AP, 12/28/08)
2008 Dec 29, The Indian Coast Guard rescued two people off India's east coast during a search for more than 300 illegal immigrants missing for the past four days and feared dead. Survivors told Indian authorities that more than 300 people from Bangladesh and Myanmar, members of the ethnic Rohingya minority, had jumped from a rickety boat that had been drifting for 13 days in the Indian Ocean and tried to swim to shore near the Andaman Islands. On Jan 16 a refugees' advocacy group accused the Thai navy of tying up four illegal immigrants and throwing them into the ocean before abandoning hundreds of others on a barge in open water, where some 300 drowned. At least 100 were rescued in Indian waters. Survivors at the time told Indian authorities they had been detained by Thai authorities, who towed them into the open sea and left them.
(AP, 12/30/08)(AP, 1/16/09)(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.A5)
2008 Dec 30, In Thailand anti-government protesters abandoned their siege of the Foreign Ministry building, easing a standoff that threatened to re-ignite a long-running political crisis.
(AP, 12/30/08)
2008 Dec 31, In Bangkok, Thailand, a New Year's Eve fire erupted at the Santika nightclub. Before the revelry was over, 62 people were killed and more than 200 injured after they tried to flee what swiftly became a charred, gutted ruin in a glitzy Bangkok entertainment area.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 11, New Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva's government won the most seats in by-elections, strengthening his shaky coalition in its first test at the polls.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 19, In Thailand Harry Nicolaides (41), an Australian writer, was sentenced to three years in prison for insulting Thailand's royal family in his novel, a rare conviction of a foreigner amid a crackdown on people and Web sites deemed critical of the monarchy. Bangkok's Criminal Court sentenced Nicolaides to six years behind bars but reduced the term because he had entered a guilty plea. His 2005 book “Verisimilitude" had sold 7 copies. Nicolaides returned home on Feb 21, after he was granted a royal pardon.
(AP, 1/19/09)(SFC, 1/20/09, p.A3)(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Jan 26, The Economist magazine said this week's edition has not been distributed in Thailand because of local objections to an article about the royal family, the second disruption in two months.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, The Thai navy detained a boat filled with 78 illegal Rohingya migrants, many of whom had lacerations and burns they said were inflicted by Myanmar soldiers.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 28, A Thai court convicted 66 barefoot, disheveled migrants detained at sea of illegally entering the country, raising the prospect they could be sent back to Myanmar despite fears they would be persecuted there.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 31, In Thailand some 30,000 supporters of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra gathered in Bangkok, promising to fight on indefinitely unless the new Thai government leaves office within 15 days. In northeastern Thailand a grenade blast killed eight people and wounded 27 others during an outdoor celebration next to a Buddhist temple.
(AFP, 1/31/09)(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 2, Indonesia's navy picked up 198 starving, dehydrated boat people from Myanmar who said they drifted for three weeks after authorities in Thailand forced them to sea in a boat without an engine. Indonesian fishermen had discovered the 40-foot (12-meter) boat off Aceh's coast in northern Sumatra and towed it to shore.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 20, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents ambushed a military convoy and beheaded two soldiers in the second such attack this month.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 24, In Thailand thousands of protesters surrounded the prime minister's office demanding that parliament be dissolved and new elections held, the latest challenge to the two-month old coalition government.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 28, In Thailand prominent activists from military-ruled Myanmar and Cambodia were barred from a meeting with Southeast Asian leaders (ASEAN), upstaging the opening of the annual summit billed as a historic step toward greater human rights in the region.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Mar 1, In Thailand Southeast Asian leaders (ASEAN) vowed to push ahead with ambitious plans to become a European Union-style economic community by 2015 despite roadblocks posed by the global financial crisis and Myanmar's dismal human rights record.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 6, In Thailand Chiranuch Premchaiporn was arrested for violating the country’s Computer Crime Act. She faced 10 charges for not preventing comments on bulletin boards that might have offended the royal family.
(http://tinyurl.com/4j6w77d)(Econ, 2/5/11, p.54)
2009 Mar 8, Off southern Thailand a 60-foot (18-metre) diving boat, carrying 30 people including 19 foreigners, was reported missing in the Similan islands. Police and navy rescued 23 passengers and crew the next day but two Swiss nationals, two Austrians, a Japanese, a German and a Thai member of the crew remained missing. The body of one woman was found on March 10.
(AFP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 12, Thailand's opposition filed a censure motion against PM Abhisit Vejjajiva and five government ministers, accusing them of corruption.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 13, In Thailand suspected Muslim militants killed 3 soldiers in an ambush in southern Narathiwat province.
(SFC, 3/14/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 19, A Thailand army spokesman said a roadside bomb had killed four paramilitary rangers on an intelligence-gathering operation in southern Pattani province.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Thailand more than 20,000 protesters ringed the prime minister's office, demanding the government resign and deriding its distribution of checks to millions of low-income workers as a payoff.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 27, Thai PM Abhisit Vejjavija's rejected calls for his resignation by thousands of anti-government protesters who ringed his office for a second day in a boisterous rally.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 30, Thailand's prime minister avoided his office, as thousands of protesters calling for his resignation surrounded the seat of government for the fifth day and ignored police warnings to disperse.
(AP, 3/30/09)
2009 Apr 1, In Thailand thousands of demonstrators defied a court order to clear a road they have blocked to the prime minister's office, vowing to continue ringing the compound until the government resigns.
(AP, 4/1/09)
2009 Apr 3, Cambodian and Thai soldiers traded fire with machine guns and rocket launchers along a disputed border, killing as many as four people in an escalation of tensions in a long-standing feud over an 11th century temple.
(AP, 4/3/09)
2009 Apr 3, Thai citizen Suvicha Thakhor was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of insulting the king and his family by posting edited photos of the monarchy on the Internet. On June 28, 2010, Thakhor was pardoned by the king.
(AP, 4/3/09)(AFP, 6/30/10)
2009 Apr 7, In Thailand protesters surrounded the prime minister's car and smashed a window as he rode in it, escalating tensions a day before a massive anti-government rally that the leader said has sparked concerns of civil war.
(AP, 4/7/09)
2009 Apr 8, Thailand’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by .25% to 1.25% to help prop up the worsening economy. more than 100,000 anti-government protesters rallied in Bangkok in their biggest bid yet to topple premier Abhisit Vejjajiva, deepening the political crisis ahead of a key Asian summit.
(WSJ, 4/9/09, p.C2)(AFP, 4/8/09)
2009 Apr 11, In Thailand anti-government protesters stormed a convention center in Pattaya where leaders of Asian nations planned to meet, smashing doors and searching room by room for the prime minister. Thailand canceled the summit and airlifted the leaders out by helicopter.
(AP, 4/11/09)
2009 Apr 12, Thailand's ousted PM Shinawatra, called for a revolution after rioting erupted in the capital, with protesters commandeering public buses and swarming triumphantly over military vehicles in unchecked defiance after the government declared a state of emergency.
(AP, 4/12/09)
2009 Apr 13, Thai troops unleashed volleys of gunfire in street battles with anti-government protesters across Bangkok, forcing them back to their main rallying site in a final push to end days of turmoil.
(AFP, 4/13/09)
2009 Apr 14, Thailand issued an arrest warrant for fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra for inciting street battles between anti-government protesters and troops. Leaders of the demonstrations called off their protests after rioting killed two and injured more than 120. Police issued warrants for 14 people, including the ousted prime minister at the heart of three years of turmoil.
(AFP, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 16, Thailand’s former PM Thaksin was reported to have received a Nicaraguan passport.
(WSJ, 4/16/09, p.A1)
2009 Apr 17, In Thailand the founder of the “yellow shirt" protest movement that shut down Bangkok's airports last year was shot and wounded in a possible assassination attempt, just days after troops quelled rioting by a rival, anti-government group. Sondhi Limthongkul, a media tycoon and supporter of the current government, was in stable condition after surgery that removed "small pieces of bullet" from his skull.
(AP, 4/17/09)
2009 Apr 24, Malaysia's PM Najib Razak vowed to investigate a scathing report by US lawmakers saying thousands of Myanmar refugees were handed over to human traffickers and ended up working in Thai brothels.
(AP, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 25, In Thailand around 2,000 anti-government protesters gathered for a rally in Bangkok, a day after PM Abhisit Vejjajiva lifted a state of emergency imposed amid violent demonstrations earlier this month.
(AFP, 4/25/09)
2009 Apr 27, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim rebels killed 10 civilians in a flurry of attacks, just ahead of the fifth anniversary of a bloody assault by security forces against militants at the Krue Se mosque.
(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 May 3, In Thailand an American identified as Jill St. Onge (27) a bartender and artist from Seattle, died while staying at a popular destination for budget travelers. Norwegian Julie Michelle Bergheim (22) died the next day. Both died after suddenly falling ill within hours of each other at the Laleena guesthouse on Koh Phi Phi in southern Thailand.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 Jun 4, David Carradine (72), star of TV series "Kung Fu" (1972-1975), was found dead in Thailand. At first suicide was suspected but a forensics expert said circumstances suggested that he may have died from autoerotic asphyxiation. His career had roared back to life when he played the assassin-turned-victim in Quentin Tarentino's "Kill Bill" (2003).
(AP, 6/4/09)(SFC, 6/6/09, p.E3)
2009 Jun 5, In Myanmar refugees began streaming out of the Ler Per Her camp in eastern Karen state and into Thailand as Myanmar forces shelled near a camp where they were sheltering.
(AP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 7, In southern Thailand Islamic insurgents shot dead a villager and then detonated a car bomb as a crowd gathered, killing one and wounding 19 in the Yi-ngo district of Narathiwat.
(AP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 8, In Thailand gunmen opened fire on a mosque in Narathiwat province’s Hoh-I-Rong district killing at least 10 people and wounding 19 others.
(SFC, 6/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 13, In Thailand 2 suspected insurgents riding a motorcycle hurled a bomb at a bus, killing one passenger and wounding 13 others in downtown Yala city. In Yala province's Bannang Sata district, a husband and wife were shot dead in an ambush while riding their motorcycle. In Narathiwat province a village headman's wife was killed and another person wounded while riding a motorcycle to a market.
(AP, 6/13/09)
2009 Jun 14, Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva urged the country not to panic about swine flu, after the number of cases grew nine-fold in four days and a cluster emerged in a key tourist hub. Health authorities reported that confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus soared to 150, compared with just 16 on June 10, including a number of foreigners.
(AFP, 6/14/09)
2009 Jun 18, Thailand security forces killed four suspected Muslim militants in a gunbattle in southern Yala province.
(AP, 6/18/09)
2009 Jun 27, In Thailand more than 18,000 "Red Shirt" protesters loyal to fugitive premier Thaksin Shinawatra gathered in Bangkok for the biggest anti-government rally since bloody riots two months ago.
(AP, 6/27/09)
2009 Jul 1, In southern Thailand a rampaging elephant stomped three rubber tappers to death after it was left to wander freely by its handler.
(AP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 12, Thailand's swine flu death toll rose to 18 as the government confirmed three more fatalities and opened a vaccine plant to prevent tens of thousands of infections across the country.
(AFP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 19, In Thailand’s Yala province a 48-year-old rubber plantation owner was shot dead in a drive-by shooting as he returned home by motorcycle. In another attack a gold shopkeeper was killed after suspect insurgents fired assault rifles into his shop in Narathiwat province before fleeing on a motorcycle.
(AP, 7/20/09)
2009 Jul 20, In Thailand Southeast Asian foreign ministers (ASEAN) endorsed the region's first human rights watchdog, rejecting criticisms that the body would be powerless to tackle rogue members such as Myanmar. 2 assailants on a motorcycle shot and killed a Buddhist man who was traveling on a road in Pattani province.
(AFP, 7/20/09)(AP, 7/20/09)
2009 Aug 4, In Thailand a passenger plane skidded off the runway and crashed into a building after landing on the Thai resort island of Samui, killing the chief pilot and injuring at least seven people including foreign tourists.
(AP, 8/4/09)
2009 Aug 11, A Thai court rejected a US request to extradite Viktor Bout, an alleged Russian arms smuggler dubbed the "Merchant of Death," dealing a setback to American efforts to try him on charges of plotting to supply weapons to Colombian rebels. The court rejected the extradition request because Bout had not been accused of committing any crimes against Thailand, which has not listed FARC as a terrorist group.
(AP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 17, In Thailand thousands of supporters of deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra rallied in central Bangkok and then marched to the royal palace, seeking a pardon for the fugitive leader.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 21, A massive oil and gas leak forced the evacuation of an oil rig off Australia's northwest coast. PTTEP Australasia, a branch of Thai-owned PTT Exploration and Production Co. Ltd., said about 40 barrels of oil had been discharged in the initial incident, and it was still attempting to bring the leak under control at the rig, owned by Norway's Seadrill. After 2 days PTTEP said plugging the leak will take weeks. Government officials said there was little threat of environmental damage. By the end of October an estimated 400 barrels a day of oil continued leaking from the fissure off the Australian coast. PTTEP Australasia has failed repeatedly to stop the leak but said it is still trying.
(AFP, 8/22/09)(AP, 8/23/09)(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Aug 26, In Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents detonated a car bomb outside a crowded open-air restaurant during lunchtime, wounding 26 people.
(SFC, 8/26/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 28, In Thailand former journalist Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul was sentenced to 18 years in prison for insulting King Bhumibol Adulyadej during a speech in 2008.
(SFC, 8/29/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 2, In Thailand a number of drive-by shootings in the provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala left eight dead, including a Muslim teacher and his son (13). Security forces raided a rubber plantation in Yala and a house in Narathiwat, sparking separate gunbattles in which two suspected insurgents were killed.
(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 3, In Thailand a bomb hidden in a motorcycle parked outside a row of open-air shops and restaurants in Pattani city exploded, killing a Buddhist man and wounding 24 others.
(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 4, In southern Thailand bomb believed to have been planted by Islamic insurgents exploded outside a restaurant where security forces were eating breakfast, killing a policeman and wounding 12 other people.
(AP, 9/4/09)
2009 Sep 9, Thailand's national police chief resigned after being transferred to an inactive post in the wake of an official recommendation that he be prosecuted for his role in a deadly crackdown against anti-government protesters last year.
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Sep 9, A teacher (29) in Bangkok, Thailand, was captured on film beating a student (14) and bashing his head against a blackboard. The 50-second clip, filmed by a classmate using a mobile phone, was broadcast Sep 21 on a nationally televised morning news program, sparking national outrage and pledges from education officials to crack down on corporal punishment in classrooms.
(AP, 9/22/09)
2009 Sep 13, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed five paramilitary troops in Yala province.
(AP, 9/14/09)
2009 Sep 19, Thai nationalists clashed with police and villagers as they tried to march toward an ancient temple on the Cambodian border, while anti-government protesters in the capital marked the third anniversary of a coup that continues to create political turmoil.
(AP, 9/19/09)
2009 Sep 24, In Thailand an experimental combination of two previously unsuccessful vaccines cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31%, in the world's largest AIDS vaccine trial of more than 16,000 volunteers. This was the first time an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus.
(AP, 9/24/09)
2009 Sep 25, An environmental group said a gecko with leopard-like spots on its body and a fanged frog that eats birds are among 163 new species discovered last year in the Mekong River region of Southeast Asia, which included Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
(AP, 9/25/09)
2009 Sep 28, In Thailand climate talks kicked off in Bangkok with the UN urging nations to break the deadlock over a global warming deal that is supposed to be finalized in just 70 days time, and warning that failure to act would leave future generations fighting for survival.
(AP, 9/28/09)
2009 Oct 5, In Thailand a train derailed during heavy rains near the coastal city of Hua Hin, killing 7 people, including a 2-year-old girl, and injuring 88 others. A fact-finding panel later said the deadly crash was the fault of the driver who fell asleep after taking antihistamines and other cold medicine.
(AP, 10/5/09)(AP, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 11, In Thailand thousands of supporters of deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra, all in red shirts, rallied in Bangkok to demand the government step down and call fresh elections.
(AP, 10/11/09)
2009 Oct 17, In Thailand some 17,000 "Red Shirt" supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra rallied in Bangkok to pressure the Thai government over their petition seeking a royal pardon for the fugitive former prime minister.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 23, In Thailand the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations began inauspiciously when half the bloc's 10 leaders failed to show up at the opening of the 3-day conference due to a tropical storm, domestic politics, a VIP visit and a possible illness. ASEAN nations inaugurated their first regional human rights commission, a watchdog immediately derided as toothless by activists who walked out of a meeting to protest being snubbed by five of the governments involved.
(AP, 10/23/09)
2009 Oct 25, In Thailand Asian leaders heard competing plans from Australia and Japan for a massive EU-style community covering half the world's population as they wrapped up their annual East Asian summit. Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva said leaders of 16 Asian countries gave high priority to finding a new economic growth model to free half the world's population from merely serving as producers for the West.
(AFP, 10/25/09)
2009 Oct 28, In Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed two Buddhist civilians in separate drive-by attacks in the insurgency-plagued south.
(AP, 10/28/09)
2009 Nov 2, A Thai official said about half of Thailand's national lawmakers are taking advantage of a new government plan allowing them to purchase guns at a discount and receive a license to carry them anywhere.
(AP, 11/2/09)
2009 Nov 4, Cambodia said it has appointed former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as economic adviser to premier Hun Sen and his administration.
(AFP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 5, Cambodia and Thailand recalled their ambassadors from each others' countries, deepening a diplomatic row after Cambodia made fugitive former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra an economic adviser.
(Reuters, 11/5/09)
2009 Nov 6, Japan pledged $5.5 billion in aid over 3 years for Southeast Asia's 5 Mekong River nations (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam), seeking to deepen ties with the region amid growing influence from China.
(AFP, 11/6/09)
2009 Nov 10, Thailand's ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra, whose political battle against his successors has left his country bitterly divided, received a warm welcome in neighboring Cambodia, which shares his disdain for the current government in Bangkok.
(AP, 11/10/09)
2009 Nov 15, In Thailand thousands of demonstrators attended a protest by the royalist "Yellow Shirt" movement against a visit to Cambodia by their arch-foe, fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
(AP, 11/15/09)
2009 Nov 16, Thai police arrested Samart Chokechoyma (36) and Kanokwan Wongsaroj (38) on charges of smuggling African ivory into the country to supply shops that sell jewelry and trinkets, including to customers in the US. DNA tests showed that it was of African origin.
(AP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 24, In Thailand Samak Sundaravej (74), a firebrand right-wing politician and TV cooking show host who served a brief and tumultuous term last year as prime minister, died of cancer.
(AP, 11/24/09)(Econ, 12/5/09, p.96)
2009 Dec 8, In Cambodia Siwaraks Chothipong (31), a Thai employee of the Cambodia Air Traffic Service, was ordered to serve seven years in prison for spying on Thailand's former prime minister while he was in Cambodia as a guest of the government. Chothipong was accused of stealing Thaksin's flight schedule before his Nov. 10 arrival and sending it to the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh. The case threatened to worsen a diplomatic feud between the two neighbors. On Dec 11 Cambodia's king pardoned Chothipong.
(AP, 12/8/09)(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 10, In Thailand thousands of red-shirted supporters of former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra flooded back into the streets of Bangkok in an attempt to step up pressure on the embattled government.
(AFP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 12, In Thailand 4 Kazakhs and a Belarusian were detained and their New Zealand registered aircraft impounded after it landed in the Thai capital with tons of war weaponry on board that originated in North Korea. The Ilyushin 76 transport from Kazakhstan was allegedly traveling from North Korea to Sri Lanka when it asked to land in Bangkok to refuel. According to a flight plan seen by arms trafficking researchers, the aircraft was chartered by Hong Kong-based Union Top Management Ltd. to fly oil industry spare parts from Pyongyang to Tehran, Iran, with several other stops, including Bangkok, Colombo in Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Ukraine. A New Zealand shell company, SP Trading Ltd., had leased the airplane.
(AP, 12/12/09)(AP, 12/23/09)(AP, 1/22/10)
2009 Dec 27, Human rights groups warned that the Thai government's planned expulsion of 4,000 ethnic Hmong to Laos could turn violent.
(AP, 12/27/09)
2009 Dec 28, Thailand sent army troops with shields and batons to evict more than 4,000 ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers and send them back to Laos despite strong objections from the US and rights groups who fear they will face persecution.
(AP, 12/28/09)
2009 Thailand authorities arrested Maksym Shynkarenko of Ukraine for distributing child pornography. In 2012 he was extradited to the US and charged in a 32-count indictment.
(SFC, 6/12/12, p.A6)
2010 Jan 22, New Zealand’s commerce minister, Simon Power, said New Zealand is reviewing its liberal system of company registration after investigators found a shell company based here leased an airplane that smuggled arms from North Korea. A New Zealand shell company, SP Trading Ltd., leased an airplane seized last month in Thailand carrying an illegal arms shipment from North Korea.
(AP, 1/22/10)2012 Dec 24, In Mexico a group of armed men stormed the town of El Platanar de Los Ontiveros in Sinaloa state and shot 9 men to death. The town had become part of a dispute between the sinaloa cartel and remnants of the Zetas.
(SFC, 12/27/12, p.A2)
2010 Jan 24, Cambodian and Thai troops exchanged fire near a disputed border temple, the latest in a string of gun battles between the countries since last year.
(AFP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Thailand 13 tiger range states attended the first Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation. The aim of the 3-day meeting was to convince countries to pledge to spend more on tiger conservation and set targets for boosting their numbers. The meeting was being organized by Thailand and the Global Tiger Initiative, a coalition formed in 2008 by the World Bank, the Smithsonian Institute and nearly 40 conservation groups. It aimed to double tiger numbers by 2022. The 13 countries attending were Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 29, In Thailand a dozen Asian nations and Russia vowed to double the number of wild tigers by 2022, crack down on poaching that has devastated the big cats and prohibit the building of roads and bridges that could harm their habitats.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Feb 1, Thailand and the United States began their annual Cobra Gold military exercise, now in its 29th year, with South Korea taking part for the first time. Singapore, Japan and Indonesia will also participate in the three-week training exercise, describes as the largest of its type in the world.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 11, Thai prosecutors said they have dropped charges against the five-man crew of an aircraft accused of smuggling weapons from North Korea, saying the men, arrested on Dec 12, might be guilty but would be deported to preserve good relations with their home countries. The decision was made after the governments of Belarus and Kazakhstan contacted the Thai Foreign Ministry and requested the crew's release so they can be investigated at home.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 16, Thailand officials said tests conducted by the government have found that British-made bomb detectors it bought for a total of $21 million have an accuracy rate of only 20 percent, but they will continue to be used.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 24, Thailand officials seized two tons of elephant tusks from Africa hidden in pallets labeled as mobile phone parts in the country's largest ivory seizure.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 26, Thailand's highest court ruled to seize 46 billion baht ($1.4 billion) from ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra's $2.29 billion in frozen assets, saying he had abused his political power for personal gain.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 27, In Thailand 4 banks were targeted with small explosives, but no one was hurt.
(SFC, 3/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 3, In Laos senior officials from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam met in Luang Prabang to discuss the Mekong River. The Mekong River Commission in a draft report said severe drought has dropped the river to its lowest level in nearly 20 years, halting some cargo traffic and boat tours on the waterway, the lifeblood for 65 million people in six countries.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 7, In Thailand some 3,000 supporters of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra demonstrated a week ahead of a crucial mass anti-government protest.
(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 12, In Thailand tens of thousands of supporters of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra gathered near ministry buildings in Bangkok to rally against the government, sporting their signature red shirts. Two months of protests followed leaving 92 people dead.
(AFP, 3/13/10)(SSFC, 3/13/11, p.A4)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.47)
2010 Mar 14, In Thailand as many as 150,000 anti-government demonstrators vowed to march on military barracks housing Thailand's top leaders as their icon, deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra, urged them from exile not to give up.
(AFP, 3/14/10)(Econ, 4/10/10, p.45)
2010 Mar 15, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva, backed by a formidable military force, rejected an ultimatum to dissolve Parliament as tens of thousands of red-shirted protesters vowed to splatter the seat of government with their own blood if their demands weren't met.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 16, Thai protesters poured several jugs of their own blood at the front gate of the government headquarters and outside the ruling party's offices in a symbolic sacrifice to press their demands for new elections.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 19, Thai anti-government protesters announced plans to snarl up the capital with a travelling rally in a bid to win support after rejecting a conditional offer of talks by PM Abhisit Vejjajiva.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 21, Thailand was mired in political deadlock as demonstrators used their own blood to create a giant piece of protest art and rejected the government's offer of talks designed to end their rally.
(AFP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 25, China agreed to share water level data at 2 dams to ease pressure from nations downstream, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
(SFC, 4/6/10, p.A3)
2010 Mar 27, Thai troops retreated from security posts in the capital, bowing to demands from 80,000 jubilant red-shirted protesters who mounted a rally to demand fresh elections.
(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Apr 1, In Thailand 6 people were shot dead by suspected militants and 10 police officers were wounded by a roadside bomb in the latest attacks in Thailand's restive south.
(AFP, 4/1/10)
2010 Apr 3, In Thailand tens of thousands of protesters swarmed Bangkok's tourist heartland, defying a warning to leave or face arrest.
(AFP, 4/3/10)
2010 Apr 5, In Thailand thousands of defiant anti-government demonstrators fanned out to other parts of Thailand's capital and threatened businesses with ties to the government after ignoring police orders to leave Bangkok's paralyzed commercial district.
(AP, 4/5/10)
2010 Apr 6, In Thailand tens of thousands of red-shirted protesters took over sections of Bangkok, pelting police with eggs and dancing in the streets as they pushed through barricades to press the prime minister to call new elections.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 7, Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency in Bangkok, handing the army broad powers to restore order after anti-government protesters broke into Parliament, forcing some lawmakers to flee by helicopter.
(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Apr 8, Thailand's beleaguered government shut down a satellite television station and Web sites of anti-government demonstrators after declaring a state of emergency, while the activists vowed to retaliate by escalating their nearly monthlong protests.
(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 9, Thai anti-government protesters stormed into a telecom company compound where authorities had shut down their vital TV channel, as soldiers and riot police failed to hold them back with tear gas and water cannons.
(AP, 4/9/10)
2010 Apr 10, Thai soldiers and police fought pitched battles with anti-government demonstrators in streets enveloped in tear gas, but troops later retreated and asked protesters to do the same. At least 23 people were killed, including a Japanese journalist, and more than 500 wounded, according to hospital officials. Hiro Muramoto (43), a Japanese TV cameraman who worked for Reuters for more than 15 years, was among those killed in the bloody clash.
(AP, 4/10/10)(AP, 4/11/10)(Econ, 4/17/10, p.16)
2010 Apr 11, In Thailand anti-government protesters dug into their encampments around Bangkok and rejected talk of negotiations after a monthlong standoff escalated into clashes that have left 21 people dead in the country’s worst political violence in nearly two decades.
(AP, 4/11/10)
2010 Apr 12, Thailand's Election Commission ruled that the ruling party be dissolved for alleged misuse of poll donations, in a potential victory for anti-government protesters who paraded slain comrades through Bangkok to press the prime minister to resign.
(AP, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 14, Thailand's "Red Shirt" protesters poured into Bangkok's commercial heart, saying they were ready for the "final round" in their fight to overthrow the embattled government.
(AFP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 18, Thailand's military declared Bangkok's main shopping boulevard unsafe because of large crowds of anti-government protesters and sent soldiers to nearby high-rise buildings to watch for any violence. The elite-backed "Yellow Shirts" vowed to take action if the government fails to deal with red-clad protesters within a week, raising fears of clashes between the rival groups.
(AP, 4/18/10)(AFP, 4/18/10)
2010 Apr 22, In Thailand a series of blasts were detonated near a massive encampment of anti-government protesters in Bangkok, wounding as many as 28 people. At least one person was reported killed.
(AP, 4/22/10)
2010 Apr 24, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva rejected scaled-back demands that he dissolve Parliament in 30 days, prompting anti-government protesters to pull out of negotiations and dashing hopes for an imminent resolution to the country's political crisis.
(AP, 4/24/10)
2010 Apr 26, Thailand's elite-backed "Yellow Shirts" called for a state of martial law to end anti-government protests as the rival "Red Shirts" blocked police convoys heading to the strife-torn capital.
(AFP, 4/26/10)
2010 Apr 27, In Thailand anti-government protesters forced a rush hour shutdown of Bangkok's busy elevated train system and promised to expand protests that have plunged the Thai capital into chaos by sending teams of demonstrators throughout the city.
(AP, 4/27/10)
2010 Apr 28, Thai security forces fired into a crowd of anti-government protesters during a clash just outside Bangkok as they tried to keep the Red Shirts from expanding their demonstrations from a base in the capital. One soldier was killed, and at least 18 protesters were hurt.
(AP, 4/28/10)
2010 Apr 29, Thailand's "Red Shirt" protesters called on the European Union to send observers to prevent a crackdown by the army, but the government warned others not to meddle in its internal affairs. Theo-establishment activists demanded military action against anti-government protesters and an end to "anarchy" in the capital.
(AFP, 4/29/10)(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 May 3, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva promised to produce a political roadmap that would end a stand-off with "Red Shirt" protesters after the country's deadliest civil violence in almost two decades.
(AFP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 4, Thai anti-government protesters welcomed a proposed compromise to end the violent political crisis that has paralyzed central Bangkok for nearly two months, but asked for more details on the plan before wrapping up their demonstrations.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 6, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva said he would dissolve Parliament in September, paving the way for new elections demanded by anti-government protesters if they end their crippling occupation of Bangkok's commercial district.
(AP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 8, Thailand's government and "Red Shirt" protesters committed themselves to a faltering peace process despite twin attacks that left two police officers dead.
(AFP, 5/8/10)
2010 May 11, Thai anti-government demonstrators insisted that they would continue their two-month protest until the country's top leaders face criminal charges for a violent crackdown on their rallies, rejecting a government gesture of concession.
(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 May 13, In Thailand Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdiphol, a renegade army officer accused of marshaling a paramilitary force among the Red Shirt protesters, was shot in the head, apparently by a sniper, and taken to a hospital.
(AP, 5/13/10)
2010 May 13, The UN General Assembly approved all 14 candidates for the 14 seats on the 47-member Human Rights Council. Human rights groups criticized the poor human rights records 7 of the candidates: Angola, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Qatar, Thailand and Uganda.
(SFC, 5/14/10, p.A2)
2010 May 14, Thai troops fired bullets at anti-government protesters and explosions thundered in the heart of Bangkok. An army push to clear the streets and end a two-month political standoff sparked clashes that left 5 people dead and dozens wounded. Demonstrators the next day accused the government snipers of picking people off with head shots.
(AFP, 5/14/10)(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 15, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva defended the deadly army crackdown on the Red Shirt protesters besieging the capital, saying there was no turning back as clashes raged in the center of Bangkok. Violence Bangkok claimed 8 more lives as the embattled premier vowed no turning back and the army threatened a crackdown on thousands of protesters.
(AP, 5/15/10)(AFP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 16, Thailand's main emergency medical center said 30 people have been killed in four days of street fighting between Red Shirt protesters and troops in central Bangkok. The latest deaths raise to 59 the number of people killed in related violence since April 10. Most of the dead are civilians.
(AP, 5/16/10)
2010 May 17, The Thai government said it would accept a cease-fire offer from a Red Shirt protest leader if their fighters return to their camp in central Bangkok, as street battles that have killed 37 people raged for a fifth day.
(AP, 5/17/10)
2010 May 18, The Thai government rejected a proposal for peace talks with leaders of the Red Shirt protesters to end the deadly mayhem gripping Bangkok, saying negotiations cannot start until the demonstrators disperse.
(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 19, Downtown Bangkok, Thailand, became a battleground as an army assault forced anti-government protest leaders to surrender, enraging followers who shot grenades and set fire to landmark buildings, cloaking the skyline in black smoke. The Central World mall was in charred ruins. Italian freelance photographer Fabio Polenghi (48) was killed by gunfire in clashes between the military and demonstrators. A 2013 inquest said Polenghi was shot by a high-velocity bullet like those issued to soldiers.
(AP, 5/19/10)(Econ, 5/29/10, p.46)(AP, 2/28/11)(AP, 5/29/13)
2010 May 20, The Thai government declared it had mostly quelled 10 weeks of violent protests in the capital as buildings still smoldered, troops rooted out small pockets of resistance and residents attempted to return to normal life.
(AP, 5/20/10)
2010 May 22, Thailand's government displayed to foreign diplomats a huge cache of weapons it said had been confiscated from anti-government protesters, to quash criticism of a deadly crackdown. The recent clashes and blasts left 91 dead and 1,900 injured.
(AFP, 5/22/10)(Econ, 7/10/10, p.39)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.58)
2010 May 22, At the Cannes film festival “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives," a surreal tale of the afterlife with giant monkeys and an erotic catfish scored gold for Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
(AFP, 5/23/10)
2010 May 24, In Thailand opposition leaders moved to impeach PM Abhisit Vejjajiva for his handling of rioting and violence in Bangkok, and an army official said the capital would remain under curfew for another week as a precaution against further unrest.
(AP, 5/24/10)
2010 May 25, A Thai court issued an arrest warrant for ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra on terrorism charges, accusing the fugitive former leader of fomenting two months of unrest in Bangkok that left 88 people dead.
(AP, 5/25/10)
2010 May, In Thailand state troops ended the “red shirt" protests with the loss of 91 lives.
(Econ, 2/19/11, p.42)
2010 Jun 1, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva defended himself against a censure motion in Parliament and said there would be an independent investigation into whether the army used undue force to clear anti-government protesters from Bangkok's streets.
(AP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 2, Thailand's prime minister survived a no-confidence vote that was called after anti-government protests crippled the capital and 89 people were killed in street battles.
(AP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 8, In Thailand a drive-by bombing near a mosque wounded 23 people in the turbulent south. Police the next day called it an attack by Muslim insurgents.
(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Jun 21, The UN Human Rights Council unanimously elected Thailand's ambassador in Geneva as its president for the coming year. Sihasak Phuangketkeow succeeds Belgium's Alex Van Meeuwen after being nominated as the Asian region's sole candidate.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 29, In Thailand Karl Joseph Kraus (90), a Berlin-born Australian, was arrested at his home near the northern city of Chiang Mai, where police confiscated about 100 photographs of naked children. He was charged with raping four young sisters whom he allegedly lured to his home with imported chocolates and English lessons.
(AP, 6/30/10)
2010 Jul 18, Thai police arrested American Ronald John Fanelli (37) on charges of killing Wanpen Satienjai (33) and concealing the crime and cause of murder. Fanelli, who has lived on the southern resort island of Phuket for three years, told investigators he took the victim home from a bar on the morning of June 18 and stabbed her to death with a penknife.
(AP, 7/19/10)
2010 Jul 23, Thailand’s Culture Ministry said Facebook and Twitter are causing deteriorating language skills among Thai students and authorities want them to return to the bygone tradition of letter-writing.
(AP, 7/23/10)
2010 Jul 25, In Thailand a bomb at a bus stop in downtown Bangkok killed one person and wounded 11 shortly after polls closed in a parliamentary election that pitted a government candidate against a jailed leader of recent mass protests.
(AP, 7/25/10)(SFC, 7/26/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 1, In Thailand several hundred Red Shirt protesters defied a state of emergency in Bangkok to stage a symbolic protest, with hundreds of people sprawling on the ground and chanting, "People died here!"
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Aug 12, Leicester City, the English Championship soccer club, announced that a consortium led by Thai businessman Aiyawatt Raksriaksorn has bought the organization.
(AFP, 8/12/10)
2010 Aug 14, In Thailand formed US Marine Dashawn Longfellow was beaten and stabbed to death following a brawl at a Phuket bar. In 2012 British kickboxer Lee Aldhouse was indicted for the stabbing.
(SFC, 12/27/12, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/dynf6av)
2010 Aug 20, A Thai appeals court ordered the extradition of suspected Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout to the United States, angering Moscow but paving the way to put the man dubbed the "Merchant of Death" on trial.
(AP, 8/20/10)
2010 Sep 1, Thailand long running high school gang violence was highlighted when students opened fire on a public bus in Bangkok. 4 stray bullets killed a boy (9), shaking parents and educators.
(AP, 9/20/10)
2010 Sep 2, A US federal indictment charged 6 recruiters from Global Horizons manpower Inc. of luring 400 laborers from Thailand to the US with promises of lucrative jobs, then confiscated their passports and failed to honor their employment contracts.
(SFC, 9/3/10, p.A4)
2010 Sep 19, In Thailand thousands of anti-government "Red Shirt" protesters defied an ongoing state of emergency in Bangkok to stage their first major demonstration since their street protests were ended by a deadly military crackdown in May.
(AP, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 24, A Thai court ordered the ex-wife of deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra to return a valuable plot of land she bought from the government while her husband was the country's leader. The Civil Court ruled that the 2003 purchase by Potjaman na Pombejra was void because it violated an anti-corruption law.
(AP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 28, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents disguised as policemen killed five people in an attack on a warehouse in Pattani province.
(AP, 9/29/10)
2010 Oct 5, In Thailand a blast blew out the side of a residential building in a Bangkok suburb killing 4 people and injuring nine. Police found bomb-making materials in the apartment, including fertilizer contained in fire extinguishers, electrical circuit boards and high-voltage batteries. Samai Wongsuwan, a Red Shirt supporter, was believed to be one of the dead.
(AP, 10/5/10)(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 17, Thousands of Thailand's anti-government "Red Shirts" joined a mass rally in the latest large-scale demonstration by the movement in recent weeks.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 21, Thailand said floods in the northeast have left 17 people dead over the last 2 weeks with damages estimated at $650 million. 28 of the country’s 77 provinces were affected.
(SFC, 10/22/10, p.A9)
2010 Oct 22, Thai police raided a warehouse where wildlife smugglers were storing thousands of illegally collected reptiles for shipment overseas.
(AP, 10/22/10)
2010 Oct 27, Thailand authorities said heavy downpours that caused rivers to burst have killed 57 people in nearly two weeks of flooding.
(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Nov 2, Thailand battled to rescue thousands of people stranded in their homes after flash floods, several meters deep in places, swept through a southern city, cutting power and communications. The floodwaters swamped vast areas of southern Thailand and inundated its largest city killing 12 people. The death toll from across the country soon passed 120.
(AFP, 11/2/10)(AP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 8, In Myanmar fighting between ethnic rebels and government troops has sent at least 10,000 refugees fleeing into Thailand just after a widely criticized election expected to usher in a parliament sympathetic to the military regime. Thai officials said that fighting had died down, and government troops had regained control of Myawaddy.
(AP, 11/8/10)
2010 Nov 9, About 20,000 refugees from Myanmar headed home after fleeing to Thailand as fighting followed a general election that is certain to keep Myanmar's military and its allies in power.
(AP, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 16, Viktor Bout (43), a suspected Russian arms dealer dubbed the "Merchant of Death," was flown out of Thailand to face trial in the United States following a long legal battle and fierce opposition from Moscow.
(AFP, 11/16/10)
2010 Nov 19, Thai police found the remains of almost 1,700 illegally aborted fetuses hidden at a Buddhist temple in Bangkok as the full extent of the grisly discovery emerged. Thousands of anti-government demonstrators took to the streets of Bangkok, peacefully marking the six-month anniversary of the military's crackdown on their protest.
(AFP, 11/19/10)(AP, 11/19/10)
2010 Nov 21, A global tiger summit meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, approved a wide-ranging program with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in the wild by 2022 backed by governments of the 13 countries that still have tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia. Experts said wild tigers could become extinct in 12 years if countries where they still roam fail to take quick action to protect their habitats and step up the fight against poaching.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 24, Australia said that a Thai-owned oil firm's "widespread and systematic shortcomings" caused the worst offshore drilling accident in the country's history, which created a massive oil slick. Thousands of barrels of oil gushed into the sea from a damaged well after a blow out on the West Atlas rig on August 21, 2009, prompting the evacuation of workers.
(AFP, 11/24/10)
2010 Dec 1, Spain’s Interior Ministry said police over the last 24 hours have arrested seven people in Spain and three in Thailand in an international operation against a group suspected of forging passports for an al-Qaida-linked Islamic terrorist group.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 20, In Malaysia a double-decker bus carrying Thai tourists overturned on a highway, killing 28 people on their way back from a hill resort.
(AP, 12/20/10)
2010 Dec 22, Thailand's government withdrew armed soldiers from skytrain stops in Bangkok and other key sites as it lifted an eight-month-old state of emergency imposed when protesters overran the capital.
(AP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 24, Thailand film director Tanwarin Sukkhapisit said she plans to appeal a decision by the National Film Board that her film, "Insects in the Backyard," cannot not be shown in Thailand because it is immoral and pornographic. The movie was about a transgender father struggling to raise two children.
(AP, 12/24/10)
2010 Dec 28, In Thailand US and Thai officials arrested a group of 12 Chinese nationals accused of obtaining fake visas to try to gain entry to the United States. The visas bore the same numbers as authentic ones issued by the US Embassy in Warsaw to Polish citizens.
(AP, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 30, A Thai court ordered prison terms for 79 members of the right-wing, nationalist "Yellow Shirt" movement who stormed a state television station two years ago armed with guns, knives and clubs.
(AP, 12/30/10)
2010 Dec 30, Cambodia charged seven Thais, including a ruling party politician, with illegal entry and put them in jail awaiting possible trial, despite strong protests from Thailand. The detainees were inspecting contested territory from Thailand's eastern Sa Kaeo province when they were captured a day earlier by Cambodian soldiers.
(AFP, 12/30/10)
2010 Thailand’s population numbered about 67 million people.
(Econ, 9/18/10, p.58)
2011 Jan 1, In southern Thailand 2 bomb disposal policemen were killed and 9 other people wounded in a blast after warnings of New Year violence in the restive region.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 9, In Thailand thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched in Bangkok, saying they had learned lessons from chaotic violence last year and had a new strategy for the new year. A Red Shirt leader vowed to hold "frequent and symbolic gatherings" twice a month, a change from the large sit-in last year that lasted 10 weeks and prompted a violent crackdown.
(AP, 1/9/11)
2011 Jan 11, Thailand's government approved a package of social welfare measures slammed by critics as populist handouts designed to woo voters in a key election year.
(AP, 1/11/11)
2011 Jan 19, In southern Thailand four soldiers were killed in an attack on their post by at least 20 armed men. The attackers also set fire to two shelters in the base and took away an unknown number of M16 assault rifles in Narathiwat province.
(AP, 1/19/11)
2011 Jan 25, Thailand's government faced renewed street protests as the right-wing nationalist group that seized Bangkok's airports two years ago gathered in the capital to pressure the prime minister over a land dispute with Cambodia. In the south 9 people were killed by a roadside bomb, where an Islamic separatist insurgency has entered its eighth year.
(AP, 1/25/11)
2011 Feb 1, A Cambodian court sentenced two Thais to lengthy prison terms for illegally crossing the border and spying. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court found Veera Somkwamkid, who heads a political pressure group, the Thailand Patriot Network, and his assistant Ratree Pipatanapaiboon, guilty of espionage, illegal entry and trespassing in a military zone. Veera was sentenced to eight years in prison and Ratree to six years.
(AP, 2/1/11)
2011 Feb 3, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents opened fire on a grocery store, killing five Buddhist bystanders.
(AP, 2/3/11)
2011 Feb 3, In Thailand a 47-year-old Thai woman died at a hotel. A 23-year-old New Zealand woman died Feb. 6 at the same Downtown Inn in Chiang Mai. Her two female companions, who became sick, recovered. A British couple in their 70s were found in their hotel room at the same hotel on Feb. 19. A later investigation reported exposure to some toxic chemical, pesticides or gas.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Feb 4, Cambodian and Thai soldiers exchanged heavy fire on the two countries' shared border near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple killing one soldier and a civilian, as tensions between the neighbors boiled over.
(AFP, 2/4/11)(Econ, 2/12/11, p.50)
2011 Feb 5, Renewed fighting between Cambodian and Thai troops along the countries' disputed border killed a Thai soldier and sent thousands of people fleeing before military commanders agreed on the second cease-fire in two days.
(AP, 2/5/11)
2011 Feb 6, The Cambodian government said part of an 11th century temple was damaged by the Thai army as the two sides exchanged artillery and mortar fire across their disputed border, shattering a shaky cease-fire and escalating tensions.
(AP, 2/6/11)
2011 Feb 7, Cambodian and Thai troops clashed for a 4th straight day as the UN chief called for "maximum restraint" in a border dispute that has claimed 7 lives and displaced thousands. On April 6 the London-based Cluster Munition Coalition said Thailand's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva confirmed the army had fired 155mm cluster shells into Cambodia.
(AFP, 2/7/11)(AP, 4/6/11)
2011 Feb 10, A new Thai airline reported the hiring of transsexual ladyboys as flight attendants, aiming at a unique identity to set itself apart from competitors as it sets out for the skies. PC Air, a charter airline set to start operations on Asian routes in April, has thus far chosen 4 ladyboys, along with 19 female and 7 male flight attendants.
(Reuters, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 13, In Thailand thousands of anti-government protesters massed in Bangkok for the latest in a series of rallies by rival political factions ahead of elections expected this year. A car bomb exploded in the insurgency-plagued far south, injuring 18 people, including four soldiers.
(AFP, 2/13/11)
2011 Feb 14, In Thailand a couple in Pattaya locked lips for 46 hours, 24 minutes and 9 seconds to celebrate Valentine’s Day. A previous world record of 32 hours was set by a Germany couple in 2009.
(SFC, 2/15/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 19, In Thailand thousands of "Red Shirts" gathered in Bangkok to mark nine months since a bloody crackdown on their anti-government rally and to press for the release of detained leaders. In the south suspected Muslim insurgents detonated a car bomb and raked a karaoke restaurant with gunfire, wounding at least 17 people in back-to-back attacks in the volatile region.
(AFP, 2/19/11)(AP, 2/19/11)
2011 Feb 25, Thai authorities displayed a ton of illicitly smuggled African elephant ivory and rhino horns seized at Bangkok's airport, a haul described as a victory for better international intelligence sharing among wildlife officials.
(AP, 2/25/11)
2011 Mar 3, In Germany a former folk music star (65) was sentenced to 9 years in prison for abusing hundreds of underage girls in Thailand by having unprotected sex with them while being HIV-positive. The member of Godewind was accused of 403 cases of unprotected sex the occurred in Pataya between 2005-2009.
(SFC, 3/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 5, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim militants fatally shot a Buddhist monk in a drive-by motorcycle attack in the Kok Pho district of Pattani province. In nearby Kapo district insurgents detonated a roadside bomb as a military truck passed by, wounding three soldiers.
(AP, 3/5/11)
2011 Mar 6, In southern Thailand six gunmen opened fire in a busy area of Pattani province's Yarang district and killed a retired police officer. Two insurgents on a motorcycle also in Pattani shot at a mother and son riding a motorbike back from a market. The 23-year-old son died and the mother was wounded.
(AP, 3/6/11)
2011 Mar 9, Thailand police officers in Phitsanulok province, acting on information from a previous operation, interrupted the loading of drugs onto trucks overnight. Seven or eight suspects fled during the raid, leaving four bags with 986,000 methamphetamine pills and more than 100 pounds (48 kg) of crystallized methamphetamine.
(AP, 3/9/11)
2011 Mar 12, In Thailand tens of thousands of anti-government “Red Shirt" protesters rallied in Bangkok on the anniversary of the start of their 2-month protests last year that left 91 dead.
(SSFC, 3/13/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 15, A Thailand court sentenced Thanthawut Taweewarodomkul (38), the administrator of an anti-government website, to 13 years in prison on charges of defaming the monarchy and violating the computer crime act.
(SFC, 3/16/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 25, In Thailand a court ordered leaders of the self-styled People' Alliance for Democracy to pay millions of dollars to airport operators in compensation for occupying Bangkok's airports for a week in 2008.
(AP, 3/25/11)
2011 Mar 29, Thailand police raided secret ivory carving workshops in central in Nakorn Sawan province, seizing an allegedly illegal haul of elephant and walrus tusks.
(AP, 3/30/11)
2011 Mar 30, Thailand mobilized its only aircraft carrier to rescue thousands trapped on the storm-swept resort island of Koh Samui after severe flooding across the south killed 15.
(AP, 3/30/11)(SFC, 3/31/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 30, Thailand confiscated two tons of African elephant tusks worth millions of dollars being smuggled through a Bangkok port. This was the country's largest ivory seizure.
(AP, 4/1/11)
2011 Mar 31, Thailand's navy used helicopters and an aircraft carrier to rescue more than 800 tourists stranded by heavy rains on the country's picturesque southern islands.
(AP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 1, In southern Thailand heavy rains finally eased, where flooding and mudslides over the past week killed 25 people.
(AP, 4/1/11)
2011 Apr 7, Thailand authorities seized 1,800 Bengal monitor lizards being smuggled on pickup trucks to the capital. Their meat could sell for $7.50-$15 per pound ($16-$33 per kg) in China, making them worth more than $60,000.
(AP, 4/8/11)
2011 Apr 8, In Thailand rich and poor nations agreed on a roadmap for UN climate talks this year, but only after long-running feuds flared over a wide range of actions they must take to combat global warming. The talks in Bangkok will be followed by other rounds in Germany, before the annual summit in Durban, South Africa.
(AFP, 4/8/11)
2011 Apr 18, In southern Thailand Muslim insurgents set off a car bomb that killed one soldier and wounded 25 people.
(AP, 4/18/11)
2011 Apr 22, Cambodia and Thailand exchanged artillery and gunfire for several hours in a flare-up of a long-running border dispute that left six soldiers killed.
(AP, 4/22/11)
2011 Apr 23, A 2nd day of fighting between Cambodian and Thai troops killed at least four soldiers, bringing the two-day death toll to 11, the worst bloodshed since the United Nations called for a ceasefire in February.
(AP, 4/23/11)
2011 Apr 24, Cambodian and Thai troops exchanged artillery fire in a third day of fighting that has killed 10 soldiers and uprooted thousands of villagers from their homes.
(AP, 4/24/11)
2011 Apr 25, Cambodian and Thai troops clashed with guns and artillery after almost a full-day break in fighting that has killed at least 12 people in four days and sent nearly 50,000 into evacuation centers.
(Reuters, 4/25/11)
2011 Apr 26, Cambodian and Thai troops fought with short-range rockets and guns near 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple, opening a second front in a five-day confrontation that has killed 13 people.
(Reuters, 4/26/11)
2011 Apr 26, Thai authorities forced the closure of 13 anti-government radio stations in the biggest crackdown on dissident media since a state of emergency during street protests last year. Police said the stations broadcast illegal statements defaming the monarchy.
(AP, 4/26/11)
2011 Apr 27, Thailand pulled out of talks with Cambodia and deadly border clashes continued for a sixth day.
(AP, 4/27/11)
2011 Apr 28, Cambodia and Thailand called a ceasefire halting their bloodiest clashes in decades, after seven days of fighting left 15 dead and around 75,000 civilians displaced.
(AFP, 4/28/11)
2011 Apr 29, Cambodian and Thai troops broke a brief cease-fire and clashed for an eighth day, shattering hopes of a quick end to a long-running border conflict that has forced nearly 100,000 villagers to flee. The death toll rose to 16.
(AP, 4/29/11)
2011 Apr 30, Troops from Cambodia and Thailand exchanged fire at the countries' contested border, marking the ninth straight day of clashes that have left at least 16 people dead and displaced nearly 100,000.
(AP, 4/30/11)
2011 Apr 30, Two Thai troops died and nine were injured in bombings that struck the restive south.
(AFP, 4/30/11)
2011 May 1, A Cambodian soldier was killed in fighting with Thailand, bringing the total number of dead to 17 as the Southeast Asian nations' festering border conflict dragged on.
(AP, 5/1/11)
2011 May 3, In Thailand a cabinet meeting of Abhisit Vejjajiva’s administration approved 102 spending proposals totaling billions of dollars. Elections were soon expected.
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.44)
2011 May 7, In Thailand militants detonated a homemade bomb near a football field in Pattani province, killing four policemen and wounding a dozen others who had come to play a friendly match with villagers. In Yala province insurgents set off a roadside bomb and shot at an army patrol, killing three soldiers and wounding two. In Narathiwat province two men on a motorcycle fatally shot a former local official in his pickup truck.
(AP, 5/7/11)
2011 May 7, Cambodia accused Thailand of invading its territory on the opening day of a summit of Southeast Asian leaders that was supposed to focus on plans to create a regional economic zone.
(AFP, 5/7/11)
2011 May 9, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva announced that he is dissolving the lower house of Parliament to hold early elections July 3, setting off a political battle that could inflame tensions in the divided nation.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 13, In Thailand authorities at Bangkok's international airport arrested a first-class passenger whose suitcases were filled with baby leopards, panthers, a bear and monkeys. The animals had been drugged and were headed for Dubai.
(AP, 5/13/11)
2011 May 21, Thailand police arrested a man suspected of being a key player in one of Thailand's largest tiger trafficking rings.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 24, Thai authorities arrested American citizen on charges he insulted the country's monarchy, in part by posting a link on his blog four years ago to a banned book about the Southeast Asian nation's ailing king. Lerpong Wichaikhammat (aka Joe Gordon), a 54-year-old Thai-born man, had lived in the US state of Colorado for around 30 years before returning recently to Thailand for medical treatment. In August Gordon was charged with lese majeste for allegedly translating parts of an unauthorized biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and writing articles that defamed the royal family.
(AP, 5/27/11)(AP, 8/18/11)
2011 Jun 1, In Thailand customs authorities found 431 turtles and other rare reptiles stuffed into four suitcases and smuggled into the Bangkok airport.
(AP, 6/2/11)
2011 Jun 24, In southern Thailand 3 hidden roadside bombs killed two people and wounded 13 others. Police believed Islamist militants were responsible.
(AP, 6/24/11)
2011 Jun 25, Thailand announced its withdrawal from the UN's World Heritage Convention, at a meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Paris. Thailand said it was withdrawing because the committee's consideration of Cambodia's plan for managing the Preah Vihear temple site could threaten Thai sovereignty and territory.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 27, In Geneva more than 80 states began meeting for the first four-day intercessional meeting on the Convention on Cluster Munitions to advance their commitments to a world free of cluster bombs. During the meeting Thailand and Cambodia indicated their intention to join in the near future.
(AFP, 7/1/11)(www.stopclustermunitions.org/news/?id=3086)
2011 Jul 3, Thailand held elections. PM Abhisit Vejjajiva conceded his party lost national elections to the opposition led by Yingluck Shinawatra (44), the sister of ousted former leader Thaksin Shinawatra. Her Pheu Thai party won a majority of 265 seats in the 500-seat lower house of parliament outright. The Democrat party won 159 seats. The apparent election result paved the way for Yingluck to become Thailand's first female prime minister. An international monitoring group later said up to one million Thais were disenfranchised ahead of the kingdom's crucial recent election because of outdated lists of voters.
(AP, 7/3/11)(AP, 7/4/11)(AFP, 7/5/11)(Econ, 7/9/11, p.23)
2011 Jul 4, Thailand's military eased concerns of renewed turmoil by accepting the sweeping electoral win of toppled ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra's party, while his sister vowed to reconcile the deeply divided nation as its first female prime minister.
(AP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 12, In Germany a plane being used by Thailand's Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn was been impounded as part of a long-running battle over payments for a building project in Thailand. The Thai government allegedly owed the now-bankrupt German construction firm Walter Bau AG builder 30 million euros because of a contract agreed to more than 20 years ago to build and operate a toll highway to Bangkok's Don Muang airport. On July 20 a German court ordered the release of the impounded jet upon receipt of a hefty bank guarantee. On July 21 Thailand's foreign minister ruled out paying a multi-million dollar bank guarantee to secure the release of the prince's jet.
(AP, 7/13/11)(AFP, 7/20/11)(AFP, 7/21/11)
2011 Jul 17, In southern Thailand a girl (5) and a local government official were shot dead and 11 people were injured when gunmen burst into a Buddhist temple during an annual fair.
(AFP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 18, The UN's highest court ordered troops from both Thailand and Cambodia to immediately withdraw military forces from disputed areas around a World Heritage temple straddling their border.
(AP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 19, A Thailand Black Hawk helicopter crashed during bad weather in a forested area near Myanmar. 9 dead included an infantry division commander and a television cameraman. The craft had been sent to retrieve the bodies of five soldiers killed in the crash of another helicopter on July 16.
(AP, 7/22/11)
2011 Jul 25, Thailand's anti-corruption body filed complaints against three former Cabinet ministers and an ex-governor of Bangkok that allege wrongdoing in a 2004 contract to buy fire trucks and boats for the Thai capital.
(AP, 7/26/11)
2011 Aug 3, Thai police arrested a Swedish man wanted in Scandinavia for a $3 million banking scam committed 1998-2001. Carl-Gustav Alexander Tartagni (52) was detained in the seaside town of Hua Hin, where he had been living for a year.
(AP, 8/4/11)
2011 Sep 6, Thailand authorities arrested two men in the northeast for trying to smuggle more 120 dogs into Vietnam to be sold for human consumption. 31 of the dogs were dead.
(AP, 9/6/11)
2011 Sep 9, In northern Thailand 8 people were killed and two were missing after a mudslide engulfed several villages in the mountainous region of Uttaradit province.
(AFP, 9/9/11)
2011 Sep 12, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra, in her fist state visit to Indonesia, vowed to improve economic cooperation with Indonesia, particularly in the agriculture, energy and tourism sectors.
(AFP, 9/12/11)
2011 Sep 12, The Thai government announced a new campaign against illegal drugs but said it will not repeat the mistakes of an earlier push in 2003 when at least 2,300 accused dealers were killed.
(AP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 13, A Thailand court ordered the military to stop labeling transgender people as being mentally ill in a decision praised by activists.
(AP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 15, New Thai premier Yingluck Shinawatra held her first official talks with her Cambodian counterpart seeking to patch up relations after deadly border clashes.
(AFP, 9/15/11)
2011 Sep 16, In southern Thailand bombs concealed in a car and two motorcycles killed at least three people and wounded at least 30 in the border town of Sungai Kolok.
(AP, 9/16/11)
2011 Sep 17, Thailand incinerated about $80 million worth of drugs from over 130,000 seizures across the country as officials warned there were an increasing number of very young users. Thailand, along with other countries in the region, has seen a marked increase in seizures of methamphetamine.
(AFP, 9/17/11)
2011 Sep 25, Thailand authorities rescued nearly 100 endangered pangolins, scaly anteaters worth about $32,000, that they say were to be sold and eaten outside the country.
(AP, 9/26/11)
2011 Sep 27, In southern Thailand 16 militants in two pick up trucks and motorcycles opened fire on a military outpost in Narathiwat, killing a 21-year-old private and injuring two other troops. A 47-year-old Muslim man was gunned down in a drive-by attack.
(AFP, 9/28/11)
2011 Sep 28, In southern Thailand more than a dozen suspected Muslim insurgents attacked a school, killing four soldiers and seriously wounding one child.
(AFP, 9/28/11)
2011 Oct 2, The government in Thailand said heavy floods have also killed 206 people since August.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 5, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra met Myanmar's president during her first visit to the military-dominated country since she took office in August.
(AFP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, Suspected drug traffickers hijacked two Chinese cargo ships on the Mekong River in northern Thailand. The bodies of 13 crew members were found near Chiang Rai, Thailand on Oct 7,8 and 10. Burmese drug lord Naw Kham was arrested in Laos in May. In Nov, 2012, he and 3 of his associates were sentenced to death by a court in Kunming. Thai police continued to search for 9 Thai soldiers believed to have been accomplices.
(AP, 10/10/11)(Econ, 11/10/12, p.43)
2011 Oct 6, The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders says it is ending its operations in Thailand after 35 years because it could not reach agreement with the government on conditions under which it could provide medical care to illegal migrants.
(AP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 8, Thailand's PM Yingluck Shinawatra warned that rising floodwaters, which have wreaked havoc across the nation, are now threatening the capital, Bangkok, as the death toll from the worst monsoon rains in decades rose to 253.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 11, Thailand workers raced to complete three critical flood walls with only one or two days to go before the already swollen river that winds through the capital bursts its banks. Nationwide flooding has already killed nearly 270 people. A preliminary estimate by the central bank showed economic losses from flooding that began in late July range from baht 60 billion to baht 80 billion ($1.9 billion to $2.6 billion).
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 13, Thailand issued a flood warning for parts of Bangkok's northern outskirts after a dyke burst, in a setback to efforts to protect the city of 12 million people from the rising water. Unusually heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 283 people.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 15, Thailand PM Yingluck in a radio address called current flooding "the worst in Thai history." The government said the floods, which have killed 297 people, are the worst to hit the Southeast Asian kingdom in half a century.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 19, Thailand's new premier acknowledged that the country's flood crisis has overwhelmed her government, and she pleaded for mercy from the media and solidarity from the country in battling the relentless waters. The death toll in nationwide flooding reached 317, mostly from drowning, with nearly 9 million people affected and 27 of the country's 77 provinces still inundated. Bangkok's city government urged residents in seven northern districts of the city to move belongings to safe spots, but did not yet call for an evacuation.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 21, In Thailand millions of nervous Bangkok residents were warned to move their belongings to safety as the kingdom's worst floods in decades poured into the outskirts of the sprawling city.
(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 23, In southern Thailand at least seven people were killed in back-to-back shooting and bomb attacks in a town in Narathiwat province.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, Bangkok's second airport shut down as floodwaters advanced into the Thai capital, forcing authorities in "crisis mode" to declare a five-day public holiday in preparation for the deluge.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, In southern Thailand a series of explosives planted by suspected Muslim rebels ripped through Yala town, killing at least 3 people and wounding dozens more.
(AFP, 10/25/11)(SFC, 10/26/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 27, In Thailand thousands of Bangkok residents flocked to bus, rail and air terminals while heavy traffic snaked out of the sprawling Thai capital in an exodus from a mass of approaching floodwater. By month’s end the flooding left more than 381 people dead and millions of homes and livelihoods damaged.
(AFP, 10/27/11)(SFC, 10/31/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 31, China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand signed a regional security agreement pledging to share intelligence and to engage in joint patrols along a stretch of the Mekong between China and the Golden Triangle.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.45)
2011 Nov 2, The Thai government said the flood disaster has now killed 427 people, an increase of 42 from the figure reported a day earlier. While drowning was the most common cause of death, dozens have also been electrocuted. Suspected Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand killed six civilians in a bomb attack on their vehicle in the south.
(AFP, 11/2/11)(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 6, The death toll from Thailand's worst floods in half a century climbed past 500, as advancing pools of polluted black water threatened Bangkok's subway system and new evacuations were ordered in the sprawling capital.
(AP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 13, The death toll from Thailand's worst floods in half a century reached 536, and authorities told more residents of Bangkok to evacuate their neighborhoods.
(AP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 15, Lawmakers from Thailand's ruling political party submitted a parliamentary motion to begin discussions over possibly shifting the capital city to prevent future flooding chaos. Bangkok, which is built on swampland, is slowly sinking and the floods currently besieging the city of 12 million people could be merely a foretaste of a grim future.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 16, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced a $10 million aid package for flood-ravaged Thailand during a visit to express solidarity.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 19, Thailand's Premier Yingluck Shinawatra declared central Bangkok safe from the kingdom's devastating floods, as the death toll passed 600 and President Barack Obama vowed the US will give whatever help it can.
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 22, In Indonesia the Southeast Asian Games were formally closed by Indonesia Vice President Budiono. Indonesia earned a table-topping 182 golds among 476 medals, followed by Thailand with 109 among 329.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 23, A Thai criminal court sentenced Amphon Tangnoppakul (61) to 20 years in prison for sending text messages deemed offensive to the country's queen. On May 7, 2012, Tangnoppakul (62) died in prison of liver cancer.
(AP, 11/23/11)(AP, 5/9/12)
2011 Dec 7, In Thailand Arisman Pongruangrong, a militant leader of Thailand's "Red Shirt" protest movement, surrendered to authorities on terrorism charges over his role in opposition rallies last year, after almost 20 months on the run.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 8, In Thailand Joe Gordon, an American who translated a banned biography of Thailand's king and posted the content online while living in Colorado, was sentenced to two and a half years in a Thai prison for defaming the country's royal family. On July 10, 2012, Gordon (55) was granted a royal pardon.
(AP, 12/8/11)(AFP, 7/11/12)
2011 Dec 9, In Thailand some 100 supporters of a grandfather jailed for 20 years in Thailand for insulting the king held a rare public protest against the kingdom's strict lese majeste laws in the capital Bangkok. Amphon Tangnoppakul (61) was found guilty on Nov 23 of four counts of offending the royals in text messages last year. Article 112 of the criminal code contains the rules protecting the royals.
(AFP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 13, Three Thai soldiers were killed and one was critically wounded when an old landmine exploded as they were trying to defuse it on the country's border with Cambodia.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 15, A Thai activist was sentenced to 15 years in prison for insulting the king in the third case in a month involving the strict law against defaming the monarchy that is increasingly being criticized as an infringement on free speech. Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul, nicknamed "Da Torpedo" for her aggressive speaking style, has been detained since July 2008 after speaking at a rally using impolite language that was recorded by police.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2012 Jan 5, Thai wildlife officials said body parts from a dead wild elephant, found on Jan 2 without its tusks, tail and penis, were likely destined for restaurants in tourist areas. The creature, which was discovered in Kaeng Krachan National Park near the Myanmar border.
(AFP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 12, In Thailand gunmen shot dead journalist Wisut Tangwitthayaporn (40), a local newspaper owner and political activist in a targeted attack on the island of Phuket.
(AFP, 1/12/12)
2012 Jan 12, A Thai navy patrol caught a gang of dog smugglers on the shore of the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom province. At least 750 dogs were to be transported through Laos to Vietnam, where dog meat is a delicacy.
(AP, 1/12/12)
2012 Jan 16, In Thailand a foreign suspect, identified as Atris Hussein, with alleged links to Hezbollah militants led police to a warehouse filled with materials commonly used to make bombs. Hussein, a Lebanese man, was carrying a valid Swedish passport when he was arrested on Jan 12. On Sep 18, 2013, Hussein was convicted and sentenced to 2 years and 8 months for illegal possession of ammonium nitrate.
(AP, 1/16/12)(SFC, 9/19/13, p.A4)
2012 Jan 19, Thailand said that it has recognized a Palestinian state, in a move hailed by Palestinian leaders eager to boost their international standing amid a stalemate with Israel.
(AFP, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 21, Thailand police seized 3.8 million methamphetamine tablets in the country’s largest drug bust in years.
(AP, 1/21/12)
2012 Jan 24, In central Thailand fireworks set off during an official Chinese New Year celebration sparked a blaze that burned homes, killed three people and injured others.
(AP, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 26, A Thailand wildlife official said a worrisome new practice of Thais consuming elephant meat could threaten the national animal with extinction. Thailand's elephant population was under 3,000 wild elephants, plus some 4,000 domesticated.
(AP, 1/26/12)
2012 Jan 29, Thai paramilitaries shot dead four people including an elderly man and a teenager in the far south because they feared they were under attack. On March 21 the military admitted troops had shot dead four Muslim villagers on their way to a funeral due to a "misunderstanding."
(AFP, 1/30/12)(AFP, 3/21/12)
2012 Feb 14, In Thailand an Iranian man, Saeid Moradi, carrying grenades lost at least one leg in a grenade blast and wounded four civilians in Bangkok after an earlier blast shook his rented house. Mohammad Kharzei, a 2nd man was arrested in Bangkok as he tried to board a flight to Malaysia.
(AP, 2/14/12)(AP, 2/15/12)
2012 Feb 15, Malaysia police arrested Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, a third Iranian suspect sought after explosive blasts in Bangkok.
(AP, 2/15/12)
2012 Feb 28, A Thailand court sentenced media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul (64), one of the kingdom's most controversial political figures, to 20 years in prison for corporate fraud. Sondhi is the founder of the royalist "Yellow Shirt" protest movement.
(AP, 2/28/12)
2012 Mar 2, Thai police said they confiscated over 4 million methamphetamine tablets near the border with Myanmar, where much of it is produced.
(SFC, 3/3/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 8, In Thailand a fire at a high-rise hotel in Bangkok's main tourist district sent smoke billowing through the upper floors, killing at least one foreigner and injuring almost two dozen other people.
(AP, 3/9/12)
2012 Mar 17, Thailand billionaire Chaleo Yoovidhya (89), the co-founder of energy drink Red Bull and the second richest man in Thailand, died. Chaleo had founded T.C. Pharmaceuticals. In the 1970s, it formulated an energy drink prototype called Krathing Daeng, or Red Bull in English. He co-founded a company with Austrian marketing whiz Dietrich Mateschitz in 1984, who helped turn Red Bull into a global brand. Mateschitz had become aware of "tonic drinks" while traveling in Asia. They started selling the drink in Austria in 1987.
(AFP, 3/17/12)(AP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 23, PM Yingluck Shinawatra said Thailand will spend more than $70 billion on infrastructure over the next five years as she outlined the challenges facing the country after last year's floods.
(AFP, 3/24/12)
2012 Mar 15, CH. Karchang, a Thailand construction giant, officially began work on the $3.5 billion dam at Xayaburi in northern Laos. A December agreement by the Mekong River Commission had called for further study on the environmental impacts of the dam.
(Econ, 5/5/12, p.43)(Econ, 9/7/13, p.40)
2012 Mar 31, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents staged the most deadly attack in years, killing 14 people and wounding 340 with car bombs that targeted shoppers just before lunchtime in Yala city. Five people were killed and dozens injured in a fire at a hotel in Hat Yai, the largest city in southern Thailand.
(AFP, 3/31/12)(AP, 4/1/12)
2012 Apr 3, Thailand censors banned a Thai film based on William Shakespeare's "Macbeth", saying the tale could sow "disunity" in the politically divided kingdom.
(AFP, 4/4/12)
2012 May 5, In eastern Thailand a large blaze at a chemical factory killed 12 people, injured more than 100 and spewed toxic smoke into the air in Rayong province.
(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 May 17, Thailand police in Bangkok seized 6 human fetuses, which had been roasted and covered in gold leaf as part of a black magic ritual, from Chow Hok Kuen (28), a British citizen. The corpses had been packed into luggage and were set to be smuggled to Taiwan.
(AFP, 5/18/12)
2012 May 19, In Thailand Buddhist monks led prayers as tens of thousands gathered in Bangkok to mark the 2nd anniversary of deadly clashes between soldiers and "Red Shirt" protesters.
(AP, 5/19/12)
2012 May 30, Thai online editor Chiranuch Premchaiporn was handed a suspended jail term for failing to remove a comment critical of the revered monarchy on her website, prompting Google to issue a stark warning over Internet freedom.
(AFP, 5/30/12)
2012 May 31, In Thailand Aung San Suu Kyi used her first foreign trip in 24 years to fight for her Myanmar countrymen suffering abroad, millions of economic migrants unable to work at home but vulnerable to exploitation elsewhere.
(AP, 5/31/12)
2012 Jun 1, In Thailand Suu Kyi spoke to the World Economic Forum in Bangkok where she urged the international community to exercise "healthy skepticism" toward Myanmar's much-touted reform process.
(AP, 6/1/12)
2012 Jun 20, In Thailand Michelle Elizabeth Smith (60), an Australian tourist, was stabbed and killed as 2 men tried to steal her bag on the resort island of Phuket. Two Thai men were arrested and pleaded guilty on June 26, saying they meant only to slash her pocketbook strap and never meant to stab her.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 25, A Malaysian court ruled that Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, an Iranian man accused of plotting to attack Israeli targets in Bangkok on Feb 14, must be extradited to Thailand.
(AP, 6/25/12)
2012 Jul 4, In Thailand an explosion at an oil refinery in an industrial area of Bangkok sparked a massive fire. There were no reported injuries, but it prompted the government to close the 120,000 barrels-a-day refinery for at least 30 days.
(AFP, 7/4/12)
2012 Jul 10, Myanmar state media said dozens of Thai nationals will face charges after they were held for illegally crossing the border to run rubber plantations.
(AFP, 7/10/12)
2012 Jul 13, Thailand customs officials discovered a half ton of ivory hidden in crates aboard a flight from Kenya. One official estimated that the 158 pieces of ivory were from the tusks of around 50 elephants.
(AP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 16, In Thailand 8 suspected drug dealers were killed in a clash with Thai security forces who seized weapons and a large amount of illegal amphetamines.
(AFP, 7/16/12)
2012 Jul 18, Cambodia and Thailand pulled hundreds of soldiers out of a disputed strip of border land adjacent to the Preah Vihear temple, a year after a ruling by the UN's highest court, replacing them with police and security guards.
(AFP, 7/18/12)
2012 Jul 31, Australian police seized a record half a ton of methamphetamine and heroin worth up to A$500 million ($525 million) hidden in a shipment of terracotta pots from Thailand. Seven people, including four from Hong Kong, were arrested after a year-long investigation following a tip-off from US authorities.
(Reuters, 7/31/12)
2012 Aug 17, In Thailand a fire ripped through a nightclub popular on the resort island of Phuket early today, leaving at least 4 people dead and more than 20 others injured. The venue was said to be officially closed at the time of the fire but about 70-80 people were still inside sheltering from heavy rain.
(AFP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 24, In Thailand 300 inmates were pardoned including two imprisoned in 2010 for insulting the revered monarchy (lese majeste).
(AFP, 8/24/12)
2012 Aug 31, In Thailand militants in the Muslim-majority south carried out a wave of coordinated attacks, wounding several soldiers and hoisting the Malaysian flag across the restive region.
(AFP, 8/31/12)
2012 Sep 3, In Thailand Vorayuth Yoovidhya (27), a grandson of the creator of the Red Bull energy drink, was arrested for driving a Ferrari that struck a police officer and dragged his dead body down a Bangkok street in an early-morning hit-and-run.
(AFP, 9/3/12)
2012 Sep 21, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents detonated a car bomb that killed six people in Pattani province's Sai Buri district after businesses received warnings against opening on the Muslim holy day.
(AP, 9/21/12)
2012 Sep 29, In southern Thailand suspected Islamist insurgents fired 2 grenades at a fair in Narathiwat injuring some 30 people.
(SFC, 10/1/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 9, In southern Thailand 11 people were killed as the Muslim insurgency continued to simmer.
(Economist, 10/13/12, p.18)
2012 Oct 31, In southern Thailand a school teacher and his 11-year-old son were shot dead.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.44)
2012 Nov 18, President Barack Obama began his 3-day Asian tour in Thailand.
(AP, 11/18/12)
2012 Nov 22, In southern Thailand the headmistress of Bna Tha Kam Cham school was killed while driving home.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.44)
2012 Nov 24, In Thailand some 10,000 royalist protesters of the new Pitak Siam movement, calling for Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra to step down, rallied in the heart of Bangkok, clashing with police in the first major demonstration against the government since it came to power last year.
(AP, 11/24/12)(Econ, 12/8/12, p.42)
2012 Dec 6, Thai law enforcement authorities announced that they will file murder charges against former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva and his deputy in the first prosecutions of officials for their roles in a deadly 2010 crackdown on anti-government protests. On Aug 28, 2014, a Thai court dismissed the murder charges against Abhisit Vejjajiva and his ex-deputy.
(AP, 12/6/12)(AFP, 8/28/14)
2012 Dec 15, Thai social activist Sombath Somphone (60) disappeared in Vientiane, Laos. A colleague later said that police had taken Somphone into custody.
(SFC, 12/19/12, p.A3)
2012 Dec 20, A Thai court ordered the extradition of Vito Roberto Palazzolo (65), a fugitive Italian banker found guilty of laundering money for some of Italy's top mobsters through New York pizzerias from 1975-1984. Palazzolo has written about his legal woes and getting swept up in the Pizza Connection probe on his website, www.vrpalazzolo.com.
(AP, 12/20/12)
2012 Dec 27, In Thailand leaders of the People's Alliance for Democracy, also known as the Yellow Shirts, were indicted for storming the prime minister's office compound and sealing off Parliament during massive anti-government rallies in 2008 at the height of political turmoil, which left the country deeply divided to this day.
(AP, 12/27/12)
2012 Dec 11, In southern Thailand armed men with assault rifles burst into the canteen of Ban Ba Ngo school in Pattani province and shot dead two teachers. In Narathiwat's Rangae district gunmen on a pickup truck fired AK-47 and M16 assault rifles into a tea shop, killing three people instantly including a toddler, and wounding six others at the scene. One of the wounded died later in hospital.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.44)( http://tinyurl.com/b2v8zne)
2012 Thailand’s rice subsidy cost the government $12.5 billion in its first year of operation. This was expected to increase to $15 billion for 2013.
(Econ, 8/10/13, p.33)
2012 In Thailand Blake Dinkin (42), a Canadian, began producing coffee made from beans plucked out of elephant dung. The coffee sold for $1,100 per kg ($500 per pound), making it among the world's priciest.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2013 Jan 17, In Thailand Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra agreed to work together to solve bilateral and regional problems.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A8)
2013 Jan 23, In Thailand Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, a prominent activist and magazine editor, was sentenced to a decade in prison for defaming the country’s monarchy.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Feb 10, In southern Thailand suspected militants killed 5 soldiers and wounded 5 others in two roadside attacks.
(SFC, 2/11/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 12, Thailand marines fending off a militant assault on their base in Narathiwat province killed 16 insurgents in a shootout.
(AP, 2/13/13)(Econ, 2/16/13, p.44)
2013 Feb 13, British couple Peter Root (34) and Mary Thompson (34), who had been chronicling their round-the-world cycling odyssey in a blog, died when they were hit by a pickup truck in a province east of Bangkok.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 28, Thailand's government signed a breakthrough deal with Muslim insurgents for the first time ever, agreeing to hold talks to ease nearly a decade of violence in the country's southern provinces that has killed more than 5,000 people. The agreement was announced in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, between Thai authorities and the militant National Revolution Front.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Mar 3, Thailand's PM Yingluck Shinawatra vowed for the first time to work toward ending her country's trade in ivory, but gave no timeline for implementing a ban. Conservationists warned that the unprecedented slaughter of elephants in Africa would continue until she does.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 11, CITES conservationists in Bangkok voted to regulate the trade of shark species threatened because their fins are used for expensive delicacies in Asia.
(SFC, 3/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 14, In Thailand the Convention on Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) ended its meeting in Bangkok with final decisions to expand protection to for dozens of animal and plant species including 5 types of sharks.
(SFC, 3/15/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 28, A Thai court jailed a man for three years and four months on for selling video CDs showing sections of an Australian news series that contained content deemed offensive to Thailand's royal family. Akachai Hongkawan (37) was also fined 66,666 baht ($2,300).
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Apr 28, In Thailand a suspension bridge over the Pasak River collapsed killing at least 4 people near Ayutthaya.
(SFC, 4/29/13, p.A2)
2013 May 11, Marcin Skowronek, an investigator at Europol's European Cybercrime Center in The Hague, said "We are seeing an unprecedented number of cyberscams that include phishing for financial data, viruses, credit card fraud and others." Police Maj. Gen. Pisit Paoin, chief of Thailand's Technology Crime Suppression Division, said in a telephone interview that Thai police have arrested more than 20 suspects involved in the recent $45 million cyber heist including those from Bulgaria, Bangladesh and eastern Europe.
(AP, 5/11/13)
2013 Jun 10, Thai police said they found 14 albino lions imported from Africa and hundreds of other protected animals in a warehouse near Bangkok. Pet shop owner Montri Boonprom-on (41) was arrested and faced up to four years in jail and a fine of 40,000 baht ($1,300).
(AP, 6/10/13)
2013 Jun 29, In southern Thailand 7 soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Yala province.
(SSFC, 6/30/13, p.A6)
2013 Jun 30, Thailand's PM Yingluck Shinawatra sacked the commerce minister who had come under fire over a rice intervention scheme that resulted in huge losses to the budget and saw the country lose its place as the world's top rice exporter. Shinawatra added the post of defense minister to her duties.
(AP, 6/30/13)
2013 Jun, Thailand monk Wirapol Sukphol (33) was shown taking a private jet ride on a YouTube video. It soon emerged that he had accumulated assets of $32 million. In July authorities issued an arrest warrant after having him defrocked. He was believed to have fled to the US.
(SFC, 7/19/13, p.A3)
2013 Jul 15, The Cook Islands fined Luen Thai Fishing Venture $120,000 and revoked its fishing license for breaking a ban on shark finning.
(SSFC, 7/21/13, p.A4)
2013 Jul 23, In Thailand a double-decker passenger bus caught fire after colliding with a truck on the Mitraphab highway in Kaeng Khoi district, killing 19 people and injuring 23.
(AP, 7/23/13)
2013 Jul 27, In Thailand about 50,000 liters (13,200 gallons) of oil, about the amount contained in one and a half tanker trucks, spilled into Prao Bay on the west coast of Samet Island from a leak in a pipeline operated by PTT Global Chemical Plc., a subsidiary of state-owned oil and gas company PTT Plc.
(AP, 7/30/13)
2013 Aug 6, A Thailand inquest found that 6 unarmed people killed at a Buddhist temple during a 2010 military crackdown on anti-government protesters in Bangkok were slain by bullets fired by Thai soldiers.
(AP, 8/6/13)
2013 Aug 9, A Thai official said authorities have captured Ko Myo (42), the suspected leader of a human trafficking gang. Myo confessed to selling some migrants from Myanmar into slavery on Thai fishing boats and possibly murdering as many as seven.
(Reuters, 8/9/13)
2013 Aug 20, In southern Thailand 87 Muslim Rohingya asylum-seekers escaped from an immigration detention center, highlighting the growing desperation of a stateless minority fleeing sectarian violence in Myanmar.
(Reuters, 8/20/13)
2013 Aug 22, A Thai court sentenced Saeid Moradi (29), an Iranian man, to life in prison and his compatriot, Mohammad Kharzei (43), to 15 years in jail for their roles in a Feb, 2012, botched bomb plot that was exposed when an accidental explosion blew apart the Bangkok villa where they were staying.
(AP, 8/22/13)
2013 Sep 4, In Thailand tens of thousands of rubber farmers, protesting against a sharp drop in prices, escalated protests across southern Thailand, cutting off access to large swathes of the region by blocking roads leading to tourist and commercial hubs.
(Reuters, 9/4/13)
2013 Sep 5, In southern Thailand rubber farmers clashed with police and threatened to shut down city halls in 14 southern provinces after the government rejected their demands for price rises.
(Reuters, 9/5/13)
2013 Sep 6, Thailand's government said it had reached a deal with most rubber farmers in the country's south demanding greater state support for rubber prices, signaling a breakthrough in a two-week long protest.
(Reuters, 9/6/13)
2013 Sep 10, Thailand's government doubled its offer of subsidy to help rubber farmers but protesting growers insisted it should meet other demands before they consider cancelling demonstrations planned for the weekend.
(Reuters, 9/10/13)
2013 Sep 11, Thai rubber farmers called off demonstrations planned for the weekend after the government doubled its subsidy for production and offered help for people arrested in protests last week.
(Reuters, 9/11/13)
2013 Sep 17, In southern Thailand protesters blocked a highway for a second day in a bid to force the government to increase a subsidy for rubber farmers, even though a curfew was imposed in the area after clashes with riot police a day earlier.
(Reuters, 9/17/13)
2013 Sep 25, Thai officials said 9 people have died and more than 1 million have been affected by flooding. Authorities offered assurances that floodwaters would not reach central industrial areas.
(Reuters, 9/25/13)
2013 Oct 1, A Thai court sentenced Sondhi Limthongkul, the founder of a pro-royalist protest movement, to 2 years in jail for insulting the monarchy by repeating comments deemed offensive made by a political rival.
(Reuters, 10/1/13)
2013 Oct 1, Thailand authorities said flooding over the last two weeks has killed 23 people. 32 of the country’s 77 provinces were affected.
(SFC, 10/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Oct 19, In southern Thailand bombings and drive-by shootings killed 5 people and injured 13 others including 8 soldiers and 5 journalists.
(SSFC, 10/20/13, p.A6)
2013 Oct 24, Thailand’s top Buddhist leader, Supreme Patriarch Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara (100), died.
(AFP, 10/25/13)
2013 Oct 28, Thailand rubber farmers took to the streets again to demand that the government buy their produce at prices higher than the market, rejecting a subsidy offered last month and threatening violence if their demands are not met.
(Reuters, 10/28/13)
2013 Oct 31, Thai anti-government protesters returned to the streets of Bangkok as parliament debated a political amnesty which opponents fear will "whitewash" past abuses and allow ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra to return.
(AFP, 10/31/13)
2013 Oct, Thailand’s Supreme Court sentenced former Deputy Interior Minister Pracha Maleenont to 12 years imprisonment and a Bangkok fire department chief to 10 years in jail for malfeasance in public office and price fixing. The pair fled and are the subjects of arrest warrants.
(AP, 4/30/14)
2013 Nov 1, Thailand's Parliament moved a step closer to granting amnesty to people involved in a wrenching political conflict that has divided the country for almost a decade, prompting thousands to protest in the streets and renewing fears of violence. The bill was aimed to bring back Thaksin Shinawatra, the elder brother of PM Yingluck Thinawatra.
(AP, 11/1/13)(Econ, 11/9/13, p.44)
2013 Nov 3, In Thailand at least 6 passengers including three foreigners died after a tourist ferry sank off the Thai resort of Pattaya.
(AFP, 11/3/13)
2013 Nov 4, In Thailand thousands of people emptied onto the streets of Bangkok to protest an amnesty bill passed by the lower house of parliament in the dead of night three days earlier. The opposition People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) was led by Suthep Thaugsuban, a former deputy prime minister.
(Econ, 11/2/13, p.44)(Econ, 11/30/13, p.42)(Econ, 5/17/14, p.39)
2013 Nov 11, The International Court of Justice said a 1962 ruling by its judges gave Cambodia sovereignty over the Preah Vihear promontory and Thailand is now obligated to withdraw any military or police forces stationed there. Cambodia thus held sovereignty over a 1,000-year-old Khmer temple on the disputed promontory.
(AP, 11/11/13)
2013 Nov 12, Thai premier Yingluck Shinawatra appealed for anti-government groups to end ongoing street protests after the parliamentary defeat of an amnesty bill failed to defuse political tensions.
(AFP, 11/12/13)
2013 Nov 24, Thailand police estimated that about 90,000 opponents of PM Yingluck Shinawatra and her crisis-hit administration had gathered in three sites in Bangkok, calling for her government to be toppled.
(AFP, 11/24/13)
2013 Nov 25, Thailand PM Yingluck Shinawatra invoked an emergency security law in large parts of Bangkok and surrounding areas to cope with escalating protests against her government. Anti-government protesters forced their way inside the Finance Ministry and burst through the gates of the Foreign Ministry compound, in an escalating bid to overthrow PM Yingluck Shinawatra.
(AP, 11/25/13)(Reuters, 11/25/13)
2013 Nov 26, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra fought a two-front political war, fending off attacks during a parliamentary no-confidence debate while protesters besieged and occupied several ministries in their attempt to topple her from power.
(AP, 11/26/13)
2013 Nov 27, Thousands of demonstrators massed outside four Thai government ministries, a major state office complex and 24 provincial halls on Wednesday in a widening effort to cripple the administration and oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
(Reuters, 11/27/13)
2013 Nov 28, Thailand's embattled PM Yingluck Shinawatra Thailand's begged protesters to call off their sustained anti-government demonstrations and negotiate an end to the nation's latest crisis. Shinawatra easily won a no-confidence vote in parliament, but failed to pacify anti-government protesters who rejected calls for talks and massed by the thousands in the capital.
(AP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 28, A Thai court sentenced British kickboxer Lee Aldhouse to 25 years in prison for the 2010 murder of former US Marine Dashawn Longfellow (23) following a bar fight on the island of Phuket. The sentence was reduced from life imprisonment because Aldhouse pleaded guilty to the stabbing death.
(AFP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 29, In Thailand about 1,500 anti-government protesters forced their way into the compound of the army headquarters, the latest escalation in a city-wide demonstration seeking to topple PM Yingluck Shinawatra.
(Reuters, 11/29/13)
2013 Nov 30, In Thailand tensions escalated in Bangkik as opposition protesters tried to force their way into PM Yingluck Shinawatra's heavily guarded offices and attacked a bus carrying her supporters.
(AFP, 11/30/13)
2013 Dec 1, Thailand police fought off mobs of rock-throwing protesters armed with petrol bombs who tried to battle their way into the government's heavily-fortified headquarters in Bangkok. PM Shinawatra fled a police complex during the sharpest escalation yet of the country's latest crisis.
(AP, 12/1/13)
2013 Dec 2, Thailand's PM Shinawatra said she is willing to do anything it takes to end violent protests against her government and restore peace, but cannot accept the opposition's "unconstitutional" demand to hand power to an unelected council.
(AP, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 3, Thailand's government ordered police to stop confronting protesters demanding the resignation of the prime minister, raising hope that days of political violence may end, but the leader of the campaign said the fight would go on.
(Reuters, 12/3/13)
2013 Dec 6, The UN called for an urgent investigation into allegations in a Reuters report that Thai immigration officials moved Myanmar refugees into human trafficking rings.
(Reuters, 12/6/13)
2013 Dec 7, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra ruled out a political comeback for her influential self-exiled brother and said an unpopular amnesty bill that would have allowed him to return has been scrapped.
(Reuters, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 8, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra proposed a referendum on her future and promised to resign if that was what the people wanted, as anti-government protesters prepared for a final push to try to force her from power. Thailand's main opposition party resigned from Parliament.
(Reuters, 12/8/13)(AP, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 9, Thailand's PM Yingluck Shinawatra dissolved the lower house of Parliament and called for early elections.
(AP, 12/9/13)
2013 Dec 10, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra pleaded for anti-government protesters to clear the streets after she called a snap election, but protests leaders said she should step down within 24 hours. Elections were scheduled for Feb 2.
(Reuters, 12/10/13)
2013 Dec 12, In Thailand protesters cut off electricity to the prime minister's office compound and demanded that police abandon the premises, piling fresh pressure on Thailand's government in a political crisis that has dragged on for weeks.
(AP, 12/12/13)
2013 Dec 14, In Thailand leaders of the protest movement trying to overthrow the government outlined their aims at an armed forces seminar, but military leaders declined to take sides or say if a February election should take place.
(Reuters, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 15, Thailand's military offered to help the politically polarized country hold a "fair and clean" election next year, suggesting the armed forces may play a role in a vote aimed at ending protests seeking to topple the government.
(Reuters, 12/15/13)
2013 Dec 21, Thailand's main opposition party announced it would boycott an election in February, deepening uncertainty about the poll and fuelling a campaign to overthrow PM Yingluck Shinawatra's government.
(Reuters, 12/21/13)
2013 Dec 22, In Thailand tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators massed peacefully across Bangkok in their latest bid to topple PM Yingluck Shinawatra before a February election the main opposition party will boycott.
(Reuters, 12/22/13)
2013 Dec 23, In Thailand anti-government protesters determined to unseat PM Shinawatra surrounded a Bangkok sports stadium in an unsuccessful attempt to block political parties from registering for February elections.
(AP, 12/23/13)
2013 Dec 25, Thailand's PM Yingluck Shinawatra proposed a "national reform council" to seek a way out of the political crisis gripping the kingdom, following weeks of mass street protests against her government.
(AFP, 12/25/13)
2013 Dec 26, Thailand's government rejected a call from the Election Commission (EC) to postpone a February vote. Violence erupted when protesters tried to storm a venue where a draw for election ballot numbers was being held and police fired teargas and rubber bullets to keep the rock-throwing crowd back. A policeman was killed and three were wounded by gunshots from an unknown attacker.
(Reuters, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, In Thailand a bus carrying New Year travelers plunged off one of the country’s highest bridges around midnight in the kingdom's northeast, leaving at least 29 people dead.
(AFP, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 27, The Thai government appealed to the military to provide security for February elections after violent clashes between police and opposition protesters left two people dead and more than 150 wounded.
(AFP, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 28, In Thailand gunmen killed an anti-government activist and wounded two others in Bangkok, while protesters elsewhere blocked candidates from registering for upcoming elections.
(AP, 12/28/13)
2013 Dec 30, Thai police staged a protest to show their frustration after weeks of dealing with aggressive and often violent anti-government demonstrators, with officers saying that the order for them to show restraint has left them vulnerable and humiliated.
(AP, 12/30/13)
2014 Jan 5, In Thailand thousands of anti-government protesters marched through Bangkok, a prelude to a broader action next week when they say they will shut down the city in their bid to scuttle a February election and topple PM Yingluck Shinawatra.
(Reuters, 1/5/14)
2014 Jan 7, In Thailand protesters trying to topple PM Shinawatra marched in Bangkok to drum up support for their plans to bring the capital to a halt next week by blockading major roads and preventing the government from functioning.
(Reuters, 1/7/14)
2014 Jan 9, Thai protesters trying to topple PM Shinawatra marched in Bangkok again, testing support for a planned "shutdown" of the capital next week.
(Reuters, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 11, In Thailand seven people were wounded after gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on anti-government protesters in Bangkok.
(Reuters, 1/11/14)
2014 Jan 12, Thai protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban ruled out talks with the government in a published interview, but said he would stand down his movement if, as some fear, violence escalates and civil war looms.
(Reuters, 1/12/14)
2014 Jan 13, In Thailand tens of thousands of anti-government protesters came out in an effort to "shut down Bangkok" and try to force caretaker PM Yingluck Shinawatra to resign in favor of an unelected "people's council" that would initiate political reforms.
(AP, 1/13/14)
2014 Jan 13, In Thailand an American woman went missing in Kaeng Krachan National Park. Her body was found five days later, apparently trampled by elephants.
(SFC, 1/24/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 14, Thailand's PM Shinawatra insisted she wouldn't quit as protesters seeking her ouster blocked key roads in the heart of Bangkok for a second day, leaving the country's political crisis firmly deadlocked.
(AP, 1/14/14)
2014 Jan 17, In Thailand 35 people were wounded in Bangkok when a grenade blast ripped through a crowd of marching anti-government demonstrators. One person was killed.
(Reuters, 1/17/14)(Reuters, 1/18/14)
2014 Jan 18, In Thailand anti-government protesters marched defiantly through Bangkok, with one group entering a police compound, undeterred by a grenade explosion the day before. The military urged both sides to settle their differences.
(Reuters, 1/18/14)(Reuters, 1/19/14)
2014 Jan 19, In Thailand 28 people were wounded, seven seriously, in explosions at a camp of anti-government protesters in Bangkok.
(Reuters, 1/19/14)
2014 Jan 20, In Thailand anti-government protesters besieged government offices in a dozen southern provinces as part of their campaign to force PM Yingluck Shinawatra from power.
(AFP, 1/20/14)
2014 Jan 21, Thailand's government declared a 60-day state of emergency in Bangkok and surrounding areas to cope with protests that have stirred up violent attacks, adding to the country's monthslong sense of crisis.
(AP, 1/21/14)
2014 Jan 22, In northeast Thailand a leading pro-government activist was shot and wounded. A 60-day state of emergency began in Bangkok where protesters were trying to force PM Yingluck Shinawatra from power.
(Reuters, 1/22/14)
2014 Jan 24, Thailand's Constitutional Court opened the way to put off a general election the government has set for February 2, piling pressure on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra who looks increasingly cornered by legal challenges to her grip on power.
(Reuters, 1/24/14)
2014 Jan 26, In Thailand anti-government demonstrators swarmed dozens of polling stations to stop advance voting for next week's general elections. One protest leader was shot dead.
(AP, 1/26/14)(AFP, 1/26/14)
2014 Jan 26, Thailand police detained 531 men, women and children in a raid at a camp near the town of Sadao in the southern province of Songkhla, on a well-established route for human smugglers near the border with Malaysia. It was the first raid on illegal Rohingya smuggling camps since January 9, 2013.
(Reuters, 1/27/14)
2014 Jan 31, A Thai court ordered more than $1.4 million in assets seized from a former top civil servant whose wealth was revealed when burglars robbed his house. The Civil Court said former Transport Ministry Permanent Secretary Supoj Saplom could not prove his wealth was honestly earned.
(AP, 1/31/14)
2014 Feb 1, In Thailand gunfire rang out across an intersection in Bangkok for more than an hour as government supporters clashed with protesters trying to derail tense nationwide elections before the vote begins.
(AP, 2/1/14)
2014 Feb 2, Thailand held nationwide elections without bloodshed despite widespread fears of violence. Although balloting was largely peaceful, protesters forced thousands of polling booths to close in Bangkok and the south, disenfranchising millions of registered voters.
(AP, 2/2/14)
2014 Feb 3, In southern Thailand two army volunteers shot dead 3 boys and wounded their parents to seek revenge for one of their families. Both men later confessed to the killings.
(AP, 3/3/14)
2014 Feb 4, Pressure on Thailand's embattled government mounted, when a flagship rice-buying scheme vital to its support stumbled closer to collapse. The commerce minister said China had canceled an order for 1.2 million tons of rice due to a corruption probe, while state-run Krung Thai Bank (KTB) joined other lenders in saying it would not provide loans urgently needed to rescue it. The opposition filed legal challenges that could void a disrupted weekend election.
(Reuters, 2/4/14)
2014 Feb 10, Thai police made their first arrest of a senior leader of the antigovernment protests. Sonthiyarn Cheunruethainaitham was arrested for violating the country’s emergency law.
(SFC, 2/11/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 14, Thailand riot police cleared anti-government protesters from a major boulevard in Bangkok.
(SFC, 2/15/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 18, In Thailand gunbattles broke out as hundreds of riot police made their strongest attempt to clear anti-government protest sites around Bangkok. At least 4 people and one policeman were killed and 64 others injured.
(AP, 2/18/14)(Econ, 2/22/14, p.34)
2014 Feb 20, In Thailand protesters campaigning to oust PM Yingluck Shinawatra turned to Facebook and other social media to attack businesses linked to her family and rallied outside the offices of a property developer whose share price tumbled.
(Reuters, 2/20/14)
2014 Feb 22, In Thailand a 5-year-old girl was killed and about three dozen people wounded in an attack on an anti-government rally in the eastern province of Trat.
(AP, 2/23/14)
2014 Feb 23, In Thailand an apparent grenade attack against anti-government protesters occupying an upscale shopping area of Bangkok killed 3 people, including 2 children. On Sep 4, 2015, a court sentenced four men to life imprisonment over the deaths. The verdict was commuted from the death sentence because they had confessed to the charges.
(AP, 2/23/14)(AFP, 9/4/15)
2014 Feb 24, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra, the target of anti-government protests in Bangkok, has been staying outside the city and ruled out resigning despite a series of deadly attacks heaping pressure on her administration.
(Reuters, 2/24/14)
2014 Feb 25, Thailand announced a slump in trade figures with the biggest drop in imports in more than four years in January, as months of anti-government protests extended their economic toll.
(Reuters, 2/25/14)
2014 Feb 25, In Thailand an accident at a hospital construction site near Bangkok killed at least 11 people and injured 18 others.
(AP, 2/25/14)
2014 Feb 28, In eastern Thailand at least 15 people, including 13 children, were killed when a bus carrying students on a trip to the seaside collided with a lorry.
(AFP, 2/28/14)
2014 Mar 2, Thai police arrested Avelino de Jesus (33), a man with joint French-Portuguese citizenship wanted by authorities in France on suspicion of attempting to smuggle hundreds of kgs of cocaine.
(AP, 3/3/14)
2014 Mar 7, In Thailand 6 suspected drug dealers were shot dead during a firefight with Thai security forces who seized illegal amphetamines in the Mae Sai district of northernmost Chiang Rai province.
(AFP, 3/8/14)
2014 Mar 9, Two Indonesian naval personnel were killed during an inspection aboard a Thai fishing boat in Indonesian waters. Thailand police soon arrested three suspects. Four more were arrested in April.
(AP, 4/4/14)
2014 Mar 12, Thailand police rescued about 200 suspected Muslim Uighurs, believed to be from China's troubled far-western region of Xinjiang, from a human smuggling camp in southern Thailand.
(Reuters, 3/14/14)
2014 Mar 13, Malaysian police arrested 62 people who had illegally crossed the porous border between Thailand and Malaysia.
(Reuters, 3/14/14)
2014 Mar 14, In southern Thailand a Buddhist teacher was fatally shot on her way to school and then set ablaze, becoming the 170th teacher killed by suspected Muslim insurgents in the country's decade-long insurgency.
(AP, 3/14/14)
2014 Mar 21, Thailand’s Constitutional Court nullified the Feb 2 election because voting was not conducted nationwide on the same day.
(SFC, 3/22/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 25, Thai police seized 147 kg (323 pounds) of heroin they believe was from Myanmar and destined for Australia. The single haul exceeded some of Thailand's recent yearly seizure totals.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 29, In Thailand tens of thousands of anti-government protesters rallied across Bangkok in their latest bid to topple PM Yingluck Shinawatra.
(Reuters, 3/29/14)
2014 Mar 30, Thais voted for half of the country's 150-seat Senate in a key test for Yingluck Shinawatra's troubled government.
(AP, 3/30/14)
2014 Apr 1, In Thailand gunmen killed one person and wounded four others in an attack on anti-government protesters in central Bangkok.
(AP, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 2, In Thailand workers at a scrap shop in Bangkok accidentally detonated a large bomb believed to have been dropped during World War II, killing at least 7 people and injuring 19 others.
(AP, 4/2/14)
2014 Apr 5, Thousands of Thai pro-government "Red Shirts" massed in a show of support for PM Yingluck Shinawatra, warning that they would resist attempts to oust her through the courts.
(AFP, 4/5/14)
2014 Apr 6, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents launched a wave of attacks in Yala that killed one person and wounded 24 others.
(AP, 4/6/14)
2014 Apr 9, Thai police arrested Englishman Michael Alan France (53), whom French police accuse of masterminding a gang that sought to smuggle cocaine and heroin through France into England six years ago.
(AP, 4/9/14)
2014 Apr 11, Thai security forces shot dead 7 suspected drug smugglers and seized hundreds of thousands of methamphetamine pills after a firefight in the Golden Triangle border region.
(AFP, 4/12/14)
2014 Apr 17, Thai authorities charged two journalists with defaming Thailand's navy in an online news report about the trafficking of refugees from Myanmar, amid concerns about press freedom in the country.
(AP, 4/17/14)
2014 Apr 17, In southern Thailand suspected insurgent Muktar Ali-mama (31) and his 6-year-old son were shot dead. They were attacked at a rubber plantation in Bannang Sata district, Yala province.
(AP, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 23, In Thailand Kamol Duangphasuk, a pro-government activist who opposed a law punishing critics of the monarchy, was fatally shot by gunmen on a motorcycle in Bangkok.
(AP, 4/23/14)
2014 Apr 30, Thailand's Election Commission and PM Yingluck Shinawatra agreed to hold a general election in July, but anti-government protesters who disrupted a vote in February said they still wanted to see electoral reforms before a new poll.
(Reuters, 4/30/14)
2014 Apr 30, A Thai court ordered former Deputy Interior Minister Pracha Maleenont and the widow of former PM Samak Sundaravej to pay $36 million to the city of Bangkok after corruption inflated the price it paid for fire trucks and boats made abroad.
(AP, 4/30/14)
2014 Apr 30, In western Thailand a six-wheeled truck crashed into a passenger truck on a dangerous mountain road, killing 14 people.
(AP, 4/30/14)
2014 Apr, Ethnic Karen leader Por Cha Lee Rakcharoen, known as Billy, disappeared while working on a lawsuit accusing officials of destroying homes in Kaeng Krachan national park. In April 2019 divers found a burnt fragment of Billy's skull stuffed in an oil drum in a reservoir inside the park, giving relatives their first confirmation of his death. In Sept. 2019 the Department of Special Investigations, the Thai equivalent of the FBI, ruled the case a murder and vowed to arrest those responsible.
(AFP, 9/16/19)
2014 May 5, A magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit Myanmar and northern Thailand leaving at least one person dead.
(SFC, 5/6/14, p.A2)
2014 May 6, In southern Thailand two bombs exploded in Hat Yai city, popular to local and foreign tourists, leaving nine people injured.
(SFC, 5/7/14, p.A2)
2014 May 7, Thailand’s Constitutional Court ordered PM Yingluck Shinawatra to step down with nine members of her cabinet over her decision in 2011 to remove the country’s head of national security in favor of a relative. Minister of commerce and former CEO of broadcaster iTV, Niwatthamrong Boonsongphaisan (66), will hold the fort until elections tentatively slated for July 20.
(Reuters, 5/7/14)(Econ, 5/10/14, p.12)
2014 May 8, Thailand's anti-graft agency indicted former PM Yingluck Shinawatra for negligence, a ruling that came a day after a court threw her out of office and could kill off any hopes she has of staging an electoral comeback.
(Reuters, 5/8/14)
2014 May 9, Thai police fired tear gas and water cannons to push back hundreds of protesters trying to force their way into a government compound, the latest indication that ousting the premier will not solve the country's tense political crisis.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 10, Supporters of Thailand's beleaguered government gathered on the outskirts of Bangkok, saying they were determined to safeguard democracy as rival anti-government protesters pressed their campaign in the city.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 14, In Thailand 2 people were killed and 22 wounded after an attack on an opposition PDRC protest camp.
(Econ, 5/17/14, p.40)
2014 May 15, In northern Thailand hundreds of armed men descended on a village and overpowered residents blocking the road to a goldmine said by locals to have caused environmental damage so that trucks could take ore away in the Khao Luang district of Loei province. Residents of Khao Luang have for years contested the mining operations of Tungkum Ltd, a subsidiary of Tongkah Harbour Plc.
(SFC, 5/15/14, p.A2)(Reuters, 5/16/14)
2014 May 20, Thailand's powerful military chief intervened for the first time in the country's latest political crisis, declaring martial law and dispatching gun-mounted jeeps into the heart of the capital with a vow to resolve the deepening conflict as quickly as possible.
(AP, 5/20/14)
2014 May 21, Thailand's army chief assumed the role of mediator by summoning the country's key political rivals for face-to-face talks one day after imposing martial law.
(AP, 5/21/14)
2014 May 22, Thailand's army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha seized control of the government in a coup, two days after he declared martial law, saying the military had to restore order and push through reforms after six months of turmoil.
(Reuters, 5/22/14)
2014 May 23, In Thailand ousted members of the former government turned themselves in to the country's new military junta, as soldiers forcefully dispersed hundreds of anti-coup activists who defied a ban on large-scale gatherings to protest the army's seizure of power.
(AP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 24, Thailand's coup leaders said that they would keep former PM Yingluck Shinawatra, Cabinet members and anti-government protest leaders detained for up to a week to give them "time to think" and to keep the country calm. 9 bombs exploded in the restive south, killing 2 people and wounding dozens.
(AP, 5/24/14)
2014 May 26, In Thailand Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha secured the royal imprimatur for his coup four days earlier.
(Econ, 5/31/14, p.32)
2014 May 27, In Thailand armed troops detained Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang who defiantly emerged from hiding to condemn last week's military coup and urge a return to civilian rule.
(AP, 5/27/14)
2014 May 28, Thailand's junta appointed two retired generals with palace connections as advisers, putting powerful establishment figures hostile towards former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra firmly in the ascendant in the country's long-running power struggle. The junta also freed leaders of the "Red Shirt" movement allied to the civilian government ousted in a recent coup, after holding them without charge for nearly a week.
(Reuters, 5/28/14)
2014 May 29, More than 1,000 Thai troops and police sealed off one of Bangkok's busiest intersections to prevent a planned protest, as authorities said they would no longer allow any demonstrations against last week's military coup.
(AP, 5/29/14)
2014 May 31, Australia said that it has banned Thailand's coup leaders from visiting and downgraded their military ties.
(AP, 5/31/14)
2014 Jun 1, Thailand's ruling junta deployed thousands of security forces on the streets of Bangkok to thwart another round of small-scale protests denouncing last month's military coup. The military junta presented a list of emergency measures such as price caps on fuel and loan guarantees for small firms to kick-start an economy threatened by recession after months of political turmoil.
(AP, 6/1/14)(Reuters, 6/2/14)
2014 Jun 3, Thailand's military rulers said they are monitoring a new form of silent resistance to the coup, a three-fingered salute borrowed from "The Hunger Games," and will arrest those in large groups who ignore warnings to lower their arms. The junta lifted the military's curfew at three popular beach resorts — Phuket, Koh Samui and Pattaya — to ease the impact of the May 22 coup on tourists.
(AP, 6/3/14)
2014 Jun 6, Thai police warned online critics of the military junta that they will "come get you" for posting political views that could incite divisiveness.
(AP, 6/6/14)
2014 Jun 9, Miss Universe Thailand renounced her title over remarks she made on social media including one that "red shirt" activists, supporters of ousted prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, should all be executed.
(Reuters, 6/9/14)
2014 Jun 11, A delegation of Thai military commanders travelled to China for talks on regional security and joint training amid Western reproach of the army's seizure of power in a coup last month.
(Reuters, 6/11/14)
2014 Jun 13, Thailand's military government fully lifted a curfew it imposed nationwide after seizing power last month, saying there is no threat of violence.
(AP, 6/13/14)
2014 Jun 13, Thailand deported Moua Toua Ter, a former ethnic Hmong resistance leader, to Laos after being held in Bangkok since March last year. He had been sheltering in Thailand for eight years while seeking resettlement in a third country.
(AP, 7/2/14)
2014 Jun 14, A Cambodian official said Cambodian workers were leaving Thailand in growing numbers, with the total who have returned to their homeland this month topping 160,000. Rights groups say Thai authorities are coercing the Cambodians to go home and abusing them.
(SSFC, 6/15/14, p.A6)(AP, 6/16/14)
2014 Jun 20, A US State Department blacklist included Thailand and Malaysia for their failure to meet minimum standards in fighting human trafficking.
(AP, 6/20/14)
2014 Jun 22, Thailand police arrested eight people for demonstrating against the nation's increasingly repressive military junta, including a man who was dragged away by undercover officers for reading a copy of George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" outside one of Bangkok's most luxurious shopping malls.
(AP, 6/22/14)
2014 Jun 23, The European Union said it is suspending all official visits to and from Thailand and shelving important agreements, to protest last month's military coup. It is putting on hold the signing of an agreement to deepen political and business ties with Thailand "until a democratically elected government is in place."
(AP, 6/23/14)
2014 Jun 24, Thailand’s former Interior Minister Charupong Reuangsuwan, a member of the elected government ousted by last month's coup, formed an opposition group in exile, invoking historical symbols of resistance and revolution while rejecting as illegitimate the new military regime.
(AP, 6/24/14)
2014 Jun 26, Thai officials said military authorities are setting up a network of panels to closely monitor domestic and international media and crack down on criticism of what the junta sees as its efforts to right the country.
(Reuters, 6/26/14)
2014 Jun 26, Cambodia's PM Hun Sen said at least 250,000 of his countrymen who were migrant workers in Thailand returned home this month under circumstances that initially violated their human rights. Both countries are now seeking the migrants' return to Thailand, which has a shortage of low-wage workers.
(AP, 6/26/14)
2014 Jun 30, Thailand's military government said it had begun an overhaul of the electoral system following an announcement by junta leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha that polls could take place by late 2015.
(Reuters, 6/30/14)
2014 Jul 1, Cambodia agreed to free Thai nationalist Veera Somkwamkid. He was imprisoned for more than three years for illegally crossing its border to claim territory for Thailand.
(AP, 7/1/14)
2014 Jul 2, The wildlife group TRAFFIC said the number of ivory products on sale in Bangkok nearly trebled from 5,865 in January last year to 14,512 in May 2014.
(AFP, 7/2/14)
2014 Jul 5, In southern Thailand a raid at a palm plantation exposed a ring that trafficked Myanmar's minority Rohingya Muslims into the country.
(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 7, Thailand's navy inaugurated a state-of-the-art headquarters and training center for its submarine squadron, even though it has no subs to command.
(AP, 7/7/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Thailand the body of a raped girl (13) was discovered early today near the train tracks in Prachuap Khirikhan province's Pranburi district. She had disappeared the night of July 5 from a sleeping berth en route from the southern province of Surat Thai to the capital, Bangkok. Railway worker Wanchai Saengkhao was arrested and faced charges of rape, concealing a body and murder. On Sep 30 Saengkhao (22) was sentenced to death.
(AP, 7/8/14)(AP, 9/30/14)
2014 Jul 11, In Thailand the manager of the conservation center said poachers have killed and sawed the tusks off Klao, a 50-year-old elephant that performed in Thai royal processions and was featured in Oliver Stone's 2004 movie "Alexander."
(AP, 7/11/14)
2014 Jul 14, Nepal's former crown price Paras Shah, notorious for his flamboyant lifestyle, was released on bail for marijuana possession in Thailand. In 2012 he was arrested for marijuana possession on the resort island of Phuket in southern Thailand.
(AP, 7/16/14)
2014 Jul 21, Thai media organizations called on the military government to ease restrictions after the junta said it would shut down news outlets putting out what it considers critical coverage.
(Reuters, 7/21/14)
2014 Jul 22, Thailand's junta won approval from King Bhumibol Adulyadej (86) for an interim constitution mapping out year-long political reforms expected to curb the influence of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra. The new constitution allows the leader of the ruling junta to serve as interim prime minister. Section 44 gave the junta power to stop and suppress “any act which undermines public peace and order or national security, the monarchy, national economics or administration of state affairs."
(AFP, 7/22/14)(SFC, 7/24/14, p.A5)(Econ, 1/26/17, p.29)
2014 Jul 25, In southern Thailand a car bomb killed at least two people and injured 36 outside a hotel in Betong.
(Reuters, 7/25/14)
2014 Jul 27, In southern Thailand a roadside bomb was detonated as soldiers were patrolling near a mosque in Pattani. A girl was killed and five people were injured.
(Reuters, 7/28/14)
2014 Jul 28, In southern Thailand a soldier and 3 suspected Muslim separatists were killed in a clash in Narathiwat.
(Reuters, 7/28/14)
2014 Jul 30, Thailand officials said the military government has approved a massive budget to upgrade the country's railways including high-speed rail that would eventually link with China as part of an eight-year plan to improve infrastructure.
(AP, 7/30/14)
2014 Aug 7, Thai police said authorities are investigating the discovery of nine surrogate babies in a Bangkok condominium who are believed to share the same Japanese biological father. On Aug 22 Interpol said it has launched an investigation into the “Baby Factory" case in which Mitsutoki Shigeta (24), a Japanese businessman, fathered 16 surrogate babies.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)(SFC, 8/23/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 8, Thailand's new military-stacked National Legislative Assembly convened for the first time, electing a president in a key step towards crafting a new constitution likely to embed the army's political influence.
(AFP, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 21, Thailand's legislature voted overwhelmingly to name Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha as prime minister. Prayuth was the only candidate and the assembly was hand-picked by the military junta.
(AP, 8/21/14)
2014 Aug 22, In Thailand 26 people accused of plotting an attack were indicted by a military court on charges including weapon possession and conspiring to commit terrorism. Most of them were seized in an apartment a day after army chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha overthrew an elected government allied to Thaksin.
(AFP, 8/23/14)
2014 Aug 25, Thailand's junta leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, who seized power in a military coup three months ago, officially assumed his new post as prime minister following an endorsement from the country's monarch.
(AP, 8/25/14)
2014 Sep 2, Thailand's ruling junta ordered that a rights talk at a journalists' club in Bangkok be shut down, further stoking concerns over freedom of expression in the country since a military power grab in May.
(Reuters, 9/2/14)
2014 Sep 4, Thai PM Prayuth Chan-ocha set out broad criteria for the selection of a 250-member council to draw up sweeping political reforms and approve a new constitution.
(Reuters, 9/4/14)
2014 Sep 15, In Thailand British tourists Hannah Witheridge (23), and David Miller (24) were found battered to death on a beach on Koh Tao, a small island in the Gulf of Thailand. An autopsy indicated that Witheridge had been raped. On Oct 2 police said two workers from Myanmar have confessed to the murders. On Oct 21 Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin, both 21, sent a retraction letter to prosecutors handling their case claiming they were tortured and forced to confess under police custody. On Dec 24, 2015, Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin were sentenced to death.
(AP, 9/15/14)(AP, 10/2/14)(AP, 10/22/14)(AP, 12/24/15)
2014 Sep 25, Thailand's military-dominated legislature gave itself the power to impeach political office holders, edging a step closer to rooting out the influence of controversial former PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
(Reuters, 9/25/14)
2014 Oct 11, Thai authorities arrested 53 Rohingya migrants and two suspected Thai traffickers en route to neighboring Malaysia. Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya -- described by the UN as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world -- as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, and denies them citizenship.
(AFP, 10/11/14)
2014 Oct 13, Thai police found scores of sick and exhausted boat people hiding on a remote island. All but one of the 79 suspected human-trafficking victims were from Bangladesh. The discovery brought to more than 130 the number of people found since Oct 11 in Phang Nga province.
(Reuters, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 14, Thailand's Cabinet approved a ban on the import of hookah-style water pipes and electronic cigarettes, copying a similar move by neighboring Cambodia earlier this year.
(AP, 10/14/14)
2014 Oct 19, In Thailand a tourist speedboat collided with a fishing vessel near Phuket. The bodies of two tourists from South Korea were found two days later.
(SFC, 10/20/14, p.A2)(AP, 10/21/14)
2014 Oct 24, Prosecutors in Thailand charged two people with defaming the country's monarchy in a stage performance at a university last year. A male university student (23) and a woman (26) were charged with lese majeste, which mandates a prison term of up to 15 years for anyone insulting Thailand's monarchy.
(AP, 10/28/14)
2014 Nov 3, In Thailand Hans Fredrik Lennart Neij (36), one of the founders of popular file-sharing website The Pirate Bay, was arrested under an Interpol warrant as crossed into Thailand from Laos. Neij, along with other Pirate Bay co-founders, was convicted of aiding copyright infringement by a court in Sweden in 2009. He fled the country after being released on bail.
(AP, 11/4/14)
2014 Nov 4, A Thai court sentenced a university student to 2 1/2 years in prison for posting a message on Facebook that the court said insulted the country's king.
(AP, 11/4/14)
2014 Nov 10, Thailand police said 259 migrants will be put back on boats and sent back to Myanmar. The Rohingya migrants were found at sea on Nov 8 and were arrested for illegal entry.
(Reuters, 11/10/14)
2014 Nov 11, Thai police banned a British journalist's book about politics in Thailand for "defaming" the monarchy, in a country with one of the world's strictest lese majeste laws. The sale and distribution of "A Kingdom in Crisis" by freelance journalist and author Andrew MacGregor Marshall, formerly based in Bangkok, was banned in Thailand a month after it was published by London-based Zed Books.
(AFP, 11/13/14)
2014 Nov 17, A Thai military helicopter carrying 9 army personnel crashed in northern Thailand killing all on board in Phayao province.
(Reuters, 11/17/14)
2014 Nov 18, Thailand's military-installed Cabinet approved a bill curbing public gatherings after years of political demonstrations led to violence and often paralyzed the country's capital.
(AP, 11/18/14)
2014 Nov 18, Thai Web radio host Kathawut Boonpitak was sentenced to five years in prison, in the first verdict by a military court in cases involving alleged defamation of the country's monarchy.
(AP, 11/18/14)
2014 Nov 23, Thailand authorities arrested former Central Investigation Bureau chief Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan and six colleagues on serious charges ranging from bribery to insulting the monarchy. More suspects were being investigated in the high-profile scandal.
(AP, 11/25/14)
2014 Nov 24, In Thailand a military court sentenced a Web editor to 4 1/2 years in jail for publishing an article five years ago that it said defamed the nation's king. The sentence against Nut Rungwong was cut in half because he pleaded guilty to the charge.
(AP, 11/24/14)
2014 Nov 26, Thai police said land deeds, illegal ivory, golden amulets and other antiques have been found on properties owned by former Central Investigation Bureau chief Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan and one of his subordinates, Col. Kowit Muangnual. In March, 2015, authorities began auctioning off 27,000 objects seized from Chayapan.
(AP, 11/26/14)(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A5)
2014 Nov 26, In Thailand a diplomat from the Greek Embassy died after she fell under a moving train.
(AP, 11/26/14)
2014 Nov 27, Thailand's interim parliament gave initial approval to a bill banning commercial surrogacy, the practice of hiring a woman to carry a fetus to term.
(AP, 11/28/14)
2014 Dec 8, Thailand ordered US online taxi booking company Uber to cease operations, on the same day taxi apps were banned in the Indian capital New Delhi.
(Reuters, 12/9/14)
2014 Dec 13, The Thai palace published a statement in the Royal Gazette saying Princess Srirasmi had relinquished her royal status, a move that ends her 13-year marriage to Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn. This followed a string of arrests of the princess' relatives in a high-profile corruption scandal.
(AFP, 12/13/14)
2014 Dec 19, China said it would build an 867-km rail network in Thailand and buy two million tons of its rice. Premier Li Keqiang was attending a two-day summit of leaders of Mekong River region countries.
(Reuters, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 20, State media reported that China has offered more than $3 billion in loans and aid to neighbors Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos to improve infrastructure and production, and to fight poverty.
(Reuters, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 29, In Thailand two activists charged with insulting the monarchy because of a play they produced in 2013 pleaded guilty to the offense, which carries a punishment of three to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 12/29/14)
2014 Dec 30, Officials said Malaysia, parts of the Philippines, and southern Thailand have been battered by heavy rain and flash floods in recent days. At least 21 people were killed in Malaysia, 53 in the Philippines and 15 in Thailand.
(Reuters, 12/30/14)(AP, 12/30/14)(AP, 12/31/14)
2015 Jan 6, Thai police said that they have arrested Gurmeet Singh (37), a fugitive convicted in India for his involvement in a 1995 bomb attack that killed a chief minister of a northern Indian state and 15 other people.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 11, Thailand police said dozens of children were among 98 suspected Rohingya trafficking victims from Myanmar discovered in pickup trucks in in Hua Sai district in Nakhon Si Thammarat province.
(Reuters, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 19, In Thailand villagers living near the country’s largest gold mine asked the government to quickly prove the source of arsenic and manganese contamination that has led to a suspension in operations at the mine. Testing conducted in November by a government team on 700 villagers living near the mine found that more than 300 people, including children, tested positive for arsenic and manganese.
(Reuters, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Thailand embattled former PM Yingluck Shinawatra decried the "death of democracy" in Thailand after the junta-stacked parliament impeached her and prosecutors announced corruption charges that could see her jailed.
(AFP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 28, In Thailand Jatuporn Prompan, a top leader of the "Red Shirt" political movement, was sentenced to two years in jail for insulting a former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva in 2009.
(AP, 1/28/15)
2015 Feb 3, Thai police said they have arrested six people accused of being part of a conspiracy to slander the country's monarchy on the Internet.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 14, In Thailand dozens of anti-coup activists held a demonstration in central Bangkok, handing out roses and copies of George Orwell's "1984" -- a rare expression of public dissent in a nation still under strict martial law.
(AFP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 19, Former Thai premier Yingluck Shinawatra was formally indicted over a bungled rice subsidy scheme in the latest legal move against her polarizing family that could see her jailed for up to a decade.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Thailand passed a law banning foreign couples from using Thai women as surrogates after a series of high-profile scandals tainting the image of the hitherto unregulated industry.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 20, In southren Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents detonated a car bomb that wounded 13 people. A Thai air force F-16A fighter jet crashed during a drill in central Thailand, killing the pilot.
(AP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Thailand Juan Francisco Guillermo (47), a Chilean cyclist, was hit by a pickup truck and immediately killed on a highway in Nakhon Ratchasima province. Guillermo was attempting to set a Guinness World Record by cycling 250,000 km (155,350 miles) on five continents in five years. His journey started in November 2010 and was scheduled to end in November this year.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 23, Thailand sentenced two students, Patiwat Saraiyaem (23) and Porntip Mankong (2), to jail for 2-1/2 years for insulting the monarchy in a university play.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Mar 5, A Thai court sentenced 15 members of the "Red Shirt" political movement to four years in prison for inciting rioting that disrupted an important regional conference in 2009.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 18, Thai authorities said they had issued emergency measures across at least nine provinces as thick smoke caused by farmers burning vegetation to clear their fields chokes the north of the country.
(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 19, Thailand police today arrested Boon Ching Teo (51) of Malaysia, and Sirichai Sridanont (50) of Thailand, after seizing 51 pieces of African ivory Dec. 31 in the northeastern province of Surin.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 25, Thailand security forces killed 4 people when they raided a village in Pattani, one of three Muslim-dominated provinces bordering Malaysia, as part of an operation to arrest rebels. On April 8 an investigating team said the four Muslim men were not members of any extremist group and called for legal action against those responsible.
(Reuters, 4/7/15)
2015 Mar 25, The US government and major business leaders renewed their call on the Thai government to crack down on slavery in its fishing fleets, and to punish people who force migrant workers to catch seafood that can end up in the United States.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 27, In eastern Indonesia an estimated 4,000 foreign fishermen were reported stranded on a number of remote islands, including men reported to have been enslaved. Some migrant workers from Myanmar said they had been brought to Indonesia from Thailand and forced to work on trawlers with Thai captains.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 31, A Thai military court sentenced Bangkok businessman Thiensutham Suthijitseranee to 25 years in prison on charges of defaming the country's monarchy in what appears to be the longest sentence handed down in recent years for the crime of lese majeste.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Apr 1, Thailand's ruling junta, known as the National Council for Peace and Order, announced in a televised statement that it had lifted martial law, which had been in place nationwide since just before a coup 10 months ago. Coup leader Prayuth Chan-ocha said he will invoke a special security measure in the junta-imposed interim constitution called Article 44. Critics say it gives Prayuth unchecked authority over all three branches of government and absolves him of any legal responsibility for his actions.
(Reuters, 4/1/15)
2015 Apr 18, Thailand customs officials seized 4 tons of ivory hidden in bean sacks, tracked from Congo and bound for Laos, in what authorities said was the biggest bust in the country's history. 739 elephant tusks, were seized upon arrival in Bangkok.
(AP, 4/20/15)
2015 Apr 25, Thailand officials seized three tons of ivory hidden in tea leaf sacks from Kenya and destine for Laos.
(SFC, 4/28/15, p.A2)
2015 May 1, Thailand police found dozens of shallow graves, a corpse and an ailing survivor at an abandoned jungle camp in a southern area that is regularly used to smuggle Rohingya Muslims, Bangladeshis and other migrants to third countries. By the next day police dug up 26 bodies. Smugglers reportedly escaped days earlier with around 100 Rohingya Muslims, a long-persecuted religious minority in Myanmar.
(AP, 5/1/15)(AP, 5/2/15)(Reuters, 5/2/15)
2015 May 4, Thailand police arrested two Padang Besar deputy village chiefs and a member of the Padang Besar municipal council a day earlier. They faced a variety of charges related to human trafficking. Police said they also arrested a Myanmar citizen, Zaw Naing Anu (40), or Anwar, who had previously been arrested in Thailand for fraud and for kidnapping Rohingyas.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, A series of raids, codenamed "COBRA III" and organized by Thailand, began across Asia, Africa and Europe. By May 27 they resulted in more than 300 arrests and over 600 seizures of assorted wildlife contraband — from several tons of ivory and rhino horns to whale ribs and sea horses.
(AP, 6/18/15)
2015 May 5, Thailand police found two more camps believed to have held human trafficking victims — one recently abandoned and the other containing a buried skeleton.
(AP, 5/5/15)
2015 May 8, Thailand's police chief announced the arrest of a powerful provincial mayor and said 50 police officers are being investigated in a widening human trafficking scandal spanning four Asian countries. Police said 111 suspected Rohingya migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been found in southern Songkhla province.
(AP, 5/8/15)(Reuters, 5/8/15)
2015 May 14, In southern Thailand at least a dozen bombs exploded, wounding several people in and around Yala where ethnic Malay insurgents are active.
(Reuters, 5/14/15)
2015 May 14, Malaysia turned away two crammed migrant boats filled with Rohingya and Bangladeshis abandoned at sea by traffickers. Thailand kept at bay a large vessel with hundreds of hungry people.
(AP, 5/14/15)
2015 May 15, In Indonesia more than 1,000 weak, hungry people fleeing persecution in Myanmar and poverty in Bangladesh came ashore, describing murder, extortion and near starvation after surviving a harrowing journey at sea. Dozens were reported killed in violent clashes between the Bangladeshis and Rohingya on board. A group of 106 people were found on a Thai island.
(AP, 5/15/15)
2015 May 16, A boat crammed with migrants was towed out to sea by the Thai navy and then held up by Malaysian vessels, the latest round of "maritime ping-pong" by Asian states determined not to let asylum seekers come ashore.
(Reuters, 5/16/15)
2015 May 18, In Thailand Pajjuban Aungkachotephan (aka Ko Tong), a former regional official accused of being a major people trafficking kingpin, turned himself in, as the kingdom continues a belated blitz against the lucrative trade.
(AFP, 5/18/15)
2015 May 29, In Thailand southeast Asian nations agreed to intensify search and rescue efforts to help vulnerable "boat people" stranded in the region's seas. Myanmar said its navy had seized a vessel off its coast with more than 700 migrants aboard.
(Reuters, 5/29/15)
2015 May 30, In southern Thailand roadside bombs killed one police officer and wounded seven members of the security forces.
(Reuters, 5/31/15)
2015 Jun 1, Malaysian media reported that Muslim Rohingya women who were held at human-trafficking camps in Thailand and Malaysia were subjected to gang rapes by their captors, assaults that left at least two of them pregnant.
(AFP, 6/2/15)
2015 Jun 2, In Thailand three-star Lieutenant General Manus Kongpan, accused of involvement in human trafficking, turned himself in to authorities.
(Reuters, 6/2/15)
2015 Jun 3, In southern Thailand 4 soldiers were killed in an attack by suspected insurgents on a rural road in Raman district, Yala province.
(AP, 6/3/15)
2015 Jun 18, Thailand's army-dominated national assembly approved amendments to the country's draft constitution at a third reading, paving the way for a referendum on the newly drafted charter next year.
(Reuters, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 18, Thailand confirmed its first case of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus in a businessman from Oman.
(Reuters, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 26, Thailand's military government forced a human rights group to cancel the public launch of its report on the Vietnamese government's persecution of an ethnic minority, saying it could affect national security and bilateral relations. The report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch describes persecution of Montagnard Christians in Vietnam's Central Highlands.
(AP, 6/26/15)
2015 Jun 26, Thailand police arrested 14 students who had been protesting against the ruling junta, in defiance of a ban on public gatherings. On July 7 a military court released the 14 student activists from detention but said they still face sedition charges.
(Reuters, 6/26/15)(AP, 7/7/15)
2015 Jun 30, A total of 173 people, mostly women and children, from the minority Chinese Muslim community of Uighurs arrived in Turkey from Thailand, where they were being held after fleeing China. They were being resettled in the central city of Kayseri, which boasts a strong Uighur community.
(AP, 7/2/15)
2015 Jul 9, Thailand sent back to China more than 100 ethnic Uighur refugees, drawing harsh criticism from the UN refugee agency and human rights groups over concerns that they face persecution by the Chinese government.
(AP, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 9, In Turkey protesters stormed the Thai Consulate in Istanbul early today to denounce Thailand's decision to deport 109 ethnic Uighur migrants back to China.
(AP, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 10, In southern Thailand 3 women were killed by a motorcycle bomb that exploded late today near a karaoke bar in the border town of Padang Besar. Arson was blamed for the deaths of 3 people at a shop in Sungai Kolok, another border town, where eight other people were wounded, including three women from Laos, by an improvised bomb hidden in a planter in front of a hotel.
(AP, 7/11/15)
2015 Jul 11, Thailand sent eight more ethnic Muslim Uighur refugees to Turkey, days after the Thai government faced intense international criticism for deporting 109 refugees back to China despite fears they could face persecution there. 52 Uighurs remained in Thailand.
(AP, 7/11/15)
2015 Jul 14, A Thai military court sentenced 10 people to prison terms for distributing online content that it said insulted the country's monarchy. Eight of the 10 were ordered to serve 5-year jail terms and two others, found to have only abetted the others, were given three years each.
(AP, 7/14/15)
2015 Jul 16, In southern Thailand unidentified gunmen shot dead 2 soldiers in an ambush. Dozens of banners were found in the provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, home to a Muslim majority in predominantly Buddhist Thailand, calling for independence.
(AP, 7/16/15)
2015 Jul 24, Thailand said it would indict 72 people including a senior army officer over human trafficking after the plight of desperate Myanmar and Bangladesh migrants stranded at sea triggered an international outcry over the grim trade.
(AFP, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 25, In southern Thailand a Buddhist monk and a policeman were killed and six other people wounded in a bomb attack by suspected Muslim insurgents in Pattani province.
(AP, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 27, The US State Department took Malaysia and Cuba off its “tier 3" list of countries failing to combat modern-day slavery, leaving the US open to criticism that politics is swaying the often-contentious rankings in its annual human trafficking report. Burundi, Belize, Belarus, Comoros and South Sudan were downgraded to Tier 3, where Thailand remained for a second year.
(AP, 7/27/15)(Reuters, 7/27/15)
2015 Aug 4, Thailand police said they have arrested five people suspected of trafficking Thai women into sex slavery in China and believed to be part of a ring that has also trafficked women into Malaysia and Singapore.
(Reuters, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 7, Two Thailand military courts handed down the country’s harshest sentences in recent decades for insulting the monarchy. A man in Bangkok was sentenced to prison for 30 years for six Facebook postings, and a mother of two young girls in the province of Chiang Mai was sentenced to 28 years for seven postings.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, It was reported that Thailand’s new Inheritance Tax Act 2015 has gone into effect and that it will start collecting inheritance tax for the first time next February.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 11, In southern Thailand a pickup truck carrying a group of students careened onto a traffic island and hit some trees, killing 8 of the students and the driver. . A WHO survey has ranked Thailand the second worst traffic fatality rates in the world after Namibia.
(AP, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 12, Indonesian authorities seized the Thai-owned Silver Sea 2, a massive refrigerated cargo ship believed to be loaded with slave-caught fish. It was escorted about 80 miles (130 km) to a naval base in Sabang.
(AP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 13, Thailand's military-installed interim PM Prayuth Chan-ocha defended a new law that places tight restrictions on public gatherings and warned it will be strictly enforced as the Public Assembly Act took effect.
(AP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 14, Thailand's legislature voted against impeaching 248 members of the previous Parliament, sparing them a ban from politics for trying to amend the constitution.
(AP, 8/14/15)
2015 Aug 17, In Thailand a bomb exploded just outside a Hindu shrine in Bangkok, killing 20 people, including 14 foreigners, with 123 wounded. The government said the attack was a bid to destroy the economy. A man suspected of the bombing at the Erawan shrine was seen in grainy CCTV footage entering the compound with a backpack on, sitting down against a railing and then slipping out of the bag's straps. On Nov 24 two ethnic Uighurs from China’s Xinjiang region, alleged members of a people-smuggling gang, were indicted.
(Reuters, 8/17/15)(Reuters, 8/18/15)(Reuters, 8/20/15)(SFC, 11/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Aug 19, In Thailand prime minister and coup leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-Ocha attended the opening in Hua Hin of a new park containing the colossl statues of seven long-dead Thai kings built by the army at a cost of about $20 million.
(Econ, 8/22/15, p.34)
2015 Aug 26, Thailand destroyed over two tons of ivory, a victory for animal rights groups fighting against the trade in a country renowned for being a hub for illegal tusks.
(AFP, 8/26/15)
2015 Aug 29, Thai police arrested a foreigner (28) who matched the description of a man who left a bag at the site of a Bangkok blast that killed 20 people on August 17. The DNA of the suspect, later identified as Mieraili Yusufu or Yusufu Meerailee, did not match the bomber’s DNA but did match DNA at two apartments where bomb-making material was found.
(Reuters, 8/29/15)(SFC, 9/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Aug 31, Thai police issued arrest warrants for two more suspects, Thai woman Wanna Suansun (26) and a foreign man of unknown nationality, as part of a widening investigation in connection with the Aug 17 deadly bombing in Bangkok.
(AP, 8/31/15)
2015 Sep 1, Thailand police arrested a second foreign suspect in connection with the August 17 attack that killed 20 people.
(Reuters, 9/1/15)
2015 Sep 6, Thailand's military-backed legislature rejected an unpopular draft of a new constitution, delaying a return to democracy following a coup last year.
(AP, 9/6/15)
2015 Sep 12, Thai authorities issued an arrest warrant for a 12th suspect in connection with last month's bombing at a Bangkok landmark that killed 20 people, identifying him as a 27-year-old ethnic Uighur from China.
(AP, 9/12/15)
2015 Sep 16, Thailand police arrested former primary school teacher Decha Pradit, who they said admitted to having sexually abused 24 schoolgirls, after a tip-off from the US Department of Homeland Security. The abuse occurred over a decade ago while he had worked as a gym teacher at a school in northern Uttaradit province from 2002 to 2004.
(AP, 9/19/15)
2015 Sep 17, In southern Thailand nine bomb blasts targeting different areas of Narathiwat province killed 3 people and injured 14 others. Police blamed separatist insurgents for the explosions.
(AP, 9/18/15)
2015 Sep 19, In Thailand some 200 pro-democracy protesters in Bangkok defied a ban on protests and staged a rare rally against the country's ruling military government.
(AFP, 9/19/15)
2015 Sep 20, In southern Thailand a court in Songkhla province issued arrest warrants for four military officers in connection with the trafficking of ethnic Rohingya migrants.
(AP, 9/21/15)
2015 Sep 20, Thailand police arrested former Philippines Gov. Joel Reyes of western Palawan island province and his brother Mario Reyes, an ex-municipal mayor. They were among the country's most-wanted crime suspects for the 2011 murder of a radio anchor and prominent environmentalist.
(AP, 9/21/15)
2015 Sep 26, Thai authorities said they were now "convinced" their first arrest, a man named as Adem Karadag, planted the bomb on August 17 which killed 20 people after weeks of an often confusing and contradictory police investigation. The other man in custody has been identified as Yusufu Mieraili, who was seized with a Chinese passport marking Xinjiang as his birthplace.
(AFP, 9/26/15)
2015 Sep 26, Indonesia arrested the Thai captain of a seized cargo ship carrying an estimated $2 million worth of seafood on suspicion of illegal fishing.
(AP, 9/26/15)
2015 Sep 30, In Thailand three city policemen in Bangkok were fired after failing to appear for questioning about their alleged role in extorting 1 million baht ($27,500) from a Japanese businessman.
(AP, 9/30/15)
2015 Sep 30, In Thailand protesters began blocking access to several government websites over a plan to route all Internet traffic though a single gateway.
(AP, 10/1/15)
2015 Oct 11, In Thailand an angry crowd hurled homemade fire bombs and torched vehicles at a police station overnight on the resort island of Phuket to protest the deaths of two young men who died in a motorcycle crash while being chased by police.
(AP, 10/11/15)
2015 Oct 22, Southern Thailand was hit by the most severe haze ever from forest fires in Indonesia, forcing all schools in a province to close and disrupting flights in a popular tourist area.
(AP, 10/22/15)
2015 Oct 23, In Thailand police Major Prakrom Warunprapa, charged under a controversial royal defamation law, died in custody after "hanging" himself in his cell. He was accused of embezzling money by falsely claiming links to the monarchy.
(AFP, 10/24/15)(Econ, 11/14/15, p.42)
2015 Oct 25, In western Thailand 8 people were killed and over 20 injured when a bus carrying workers back from a holiday weekend crashed in Kanchanaburi province.
(AP, 10/2515)
2015 Nov 5, Thailand's junta launched a crackdown on organized crime, its latest effort to clean up the country and improve the image of the military government as it struggles to get a sluggish economy on track.
(Reuters, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 5, Thai authorities said police have cracked down on a sex ring that lured underage girls to work as prostitutes whose services were sold to high-ranking military officers, Buddhist monks and a variety of other officials.
(AP, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 7, In Thailand prominent fortuneteller Suriyan Sujaritpalawong, accused of insulting the monarchy, died of a blood infection at a military prison where he had been detained since mid-October. He became the second person in connection with the high-profile case to die behind bars.
(AP, 11/9/15)
2015 Nov 11, The Mekong-Lancang Cooperation forum (China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam) was created by China to promote sustainable development and boost the quality of life for the millions of people living in the Mekong subregion. The forum was seen as a rival to the Mekong River Commission, formed in 1995, but excludes China and Myanmar.
(http://tinyurl.com/y88vgs57)(AP, 1/10/18)
2015 Nov 17, The UN refugee agency criticized Thailand for deporting two refugees who were about to be resettled in a third country. The US branch of Amnesty International issued a statement on Nov 16 identifying them as Jiang Yefei and Dong Guangping, and said they were most likely sent to China on Nov 13.
(AP, 11/17/15)
2015 Nov 22, In Malaysia ASEAN nations (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) established a formal community that attempts to create freer movement of trade and capital in an area of 625 million people with a combined economic output of $2.6 trillion.
(Reuters, 11/22/15)
2015 Nov 30, Thai soldiers and police detained two top leaders of the anti-government Red Shirt movement as they prepared to visit a park celebrating past Thai kings that is at the center of a corruption scandal linked to the army.
(AP, 11/30/15)
2015 Nov 30, In Thailand Andre Cabau (39), a French drug trafficker, was arrested in Bangkok. He was part of a notorious international network that authorities say copied tactics from Hollywood's "Fast and Furious" films.
(AP, 11/30/15)
2015 Dec 4, The New York Times decried limits on media freedom in Thailand after its local printer refused to publish articles about the Southeast Asian country for a third time.
(AP, 12/4/15)
2015 Dec 7, Thailand's military government blocked an anti-corruption protest, detaining about three dozen students and other activists who were headed to a park honoring past kings that was allegedly built with money from shady dealings involving several senior officers.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 13, In Thailand Thanet Anantawong was arrested for sharing an infographic on Facebook detailing alleged graft in an army-built park. Plainclothes security officers took him by force from a hospital while he awaited an operation. Anantawong was granted bail on Dec 18.
(Reuters, 12/14/15)(Reuters, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 15, In Thailand Chayapa Shokpornbudsri (49) was found guilty of defaming the monarchy on Facebook at a hearing held without her lawyer's presence. She was handed a 19-year sentence which was cut to 9½ years after she pleaded guilty.
(AFP, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 20, In northern Thailand 12 Malaysian tourists and a Thai guide were killed after their bus crashed in the Doi Saket district, near the city of Chiang Mai.
(Reuters, 12/20/15)
2015 Dec 21, Thailand's government said it is not ignoring the slavery and forced labor in its lucrative shrimp industry.
(AP, 12/21/15)
2015 Dec 29, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents attacked police and a government office, killing one official as they seized hostages in Narathiwat province.
(Reuters, 12/29/15)
2015 A study guessed that the value of Thailand’s Crown Property Bureau, a firm that manages the royal family’s properties and investments, was worth about $44 billion.
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.30)
2016 Jan 13, International hacking movement Anonymous said it attacked hundreds of Thai government websites over death sentences handed down to two migrant workers for the murder of two British tourists.
(Reuters, 1/13/16)
2016 Jan 21, In Thailand four members of the New Democracy Movement were taken to military court to be charged with violating an order banning groups of five or more people from gathering publicly for political purposes. All were released pending a court appearance.
(AP, 1/21/16)
2016 Jan 25, Thailand’s health ministry said it has quarantined 32 people as it seeks to prevent the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) after a second case of the virus was detected on Jan 22.
(Reuters, 1/25/16)
2016 Feb 1, In Thailand Scottish tourist Gareth Crowe was gored to death by an elephant that he and his stepdaughter (16) were riding on the resort island of Samui.
(AP, 2/2/16)
2016 Feb 5, Thailand police released photos of Artur Segarra Princep (37), a Spanish man, suspected of involvement in the killing of fellow Spaniard David Bernat, whose dismembered body was recovered piece by piece from Bangkok's Chao Phraya River. Princep was arrested in Cambodia on Feb 7 and returned to Thailand.
(AP, 2/5/16)(AP, 2/8/16)
2016 Feb 11, Thailand's nomadic fishermen urged the government to help resolve a dispute over access to ancestral shrines on land taken over by developers, following violence in which dozens were injured last month.
(Reuters, 2/11/16)
2016 Feb 26, Thailand, the world's second-biggest rice exporter, announced measures worth around $285 million to help farmers in the country who have been hit hard by a severe drought and low prices for their crop.
(Reuters, 2/26/16)
2016 Feb 27, In southern Thailand a roadside police patrol camp was attacked by an improvised car bomb that left seven officers and two civilians injured in Pattani province.
(AP, 2/27/16)
2016 Feb 27, Thailand's state tobacco company said that it would launch a new, cheaper brand of cigarettes to keep smokers from rolling their own or buying illegally imported untaxed ones due to higher prices from a recently imposed tax hike.
(AP, 2/27/16)
2016 Feb 29, Thailand police said they will have to tighten security on Koh Kut island after four French tourists were brutally assaulted, including two women who were raped. The next day Cambodia said that five of its citizens were involved in the attack.
(AP, 2/29/16)(AP, 3/1/16)
2016 Mar 2, Thailand police seized 895,897 counterfeit brand-name sunglasses at a warehouse where they also arrested two Chinese nationals accused of importing them from China. the sunglasses were purported to be famous brands such as Ray-Ban, Oakley, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior.
(AP, 3/3/16)
2016 Mar 13, In Thailand 8 people died and seven were injured when they accidentally triggered a fire extinguisher system inside the vault of at the Bangkok headquarters of the Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) and released a suffocating cloud of chemicals.
(AFP, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 15, In Thailand Mercedes driver Janepob Verraporn (37), the son of a wealthy Thai businessman, crashed into a slower car while driving at an estimated 240 km (150 miles) per hour. Two graduate students in their 30s died at the scene of the accident. Verraporn survived with minor injuries and refused both alcohol and drug tests.
(AP, 3/23/16)
2016 Mar 29, Thailand's junta chief gave the military broad new police-like powers to arrest and detain criminal suspects.
(AP, 3/30/16)
2016 Mar 27, Thailand seized 87 ivory tusks, worth an estimated $800,000, found in a dozen barrels sent from Mozambique on a Kenya Airways flight. A routine X-ray at Suvarnabhumi International Airport detected the contraband.
(AP, 4/5/16)
2016 Apr 3, In central Thailand a train smashed into a double-decker bus carrying Thai tourists at an unguarded railway crossing in Nakhon Pathom province. Local media reported that three people were killed and more than two dozen injured.
(AP, 4/3/16)
2016 Apr 8, Thailand authorities said they were investigating 16 citizens with reported ties to offshore companies set up by a Panama-based law firm.
(AP, 4/8/16)
2016 Apr 12, In Indonesia three Thai fishing captains were detained when they were found operating trawlers under Malaysian flags that were fishing off Kalimantan, Indonesia's part of Borneo island. The captains escaped on May 7 after scaling the wall of their detention center in the middle of the night.
(AP, 5/17/16)
2016 Apr 13, In Thailand an elderly British couple (65 and 68) and their son (43) were savagely attacked and beaten unconscious during a family vacation in Hua, Hin. The attack was captured on video. On April 28 police said they have arrested the four suspected attackers. On May 23 the attackers were sentenced to two years in prison.
(AP, 4/28/16)(AP, 6/6/16)
2016 Apr 18, Authorities in Thailand said that 442 people died in traffic accidents during the just concluded traditional New Year holiday — a 21 percent rise over the same period last year despite stern efforts to curb drunken and unsafe driving.
(AP, 4/18/16)
2016 Apr 23, In Thailand Banharn Silpa-archa (83), a provincial political powerbroker who served a scandal-ridden 16 months as prime minister in 1995-96, died.
(AP, 4/23/16)
2016 Apr 26, In Thailand a same-sex American-Spanish couple won a high-profile custody battle against a surrogate mother who gave birth to their child but then decided she wanted to keep the baby when she found out they were gay.
(AP, 4/26/16)
2016 Apr 27, Thailand's military government turned up the pressure on its opponents, filing a legal complaint against critics of a proposed new constitution and detaining 10 people in connection with social media postings.
(AP, 4/27/16)
2016 May 9, Thailand media reported that a top Thai medical college has caught students using spy cameras linked to smartwatches to cheat during exams.
(AFP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 10, Thailand ordered the closure of its only active gold mine by the end of the year after more than 300 people tested positive for arsenic and manganese at Akara Resources' Chatree mine.
(Reuters, 5/10/16)
2016 May 19, Thailand’s Department of Land Transport put the brakes on motorbike-hailing services offered by Uber and Singapore-based GrabBike barely two months after they started.
(AP, 5/19/16)
2016 May 22, In northern Thailand a nighttime fire at a dormitory of a primary school killed 18 girls, many of whom had been roused by a dorm-mate but went back to sleep, thinking it was a prank.
(AP, 5/23/16)
2016 May 23, In Thailand twenty-one Rohingya men escaped from the Phang Nga Immigration Detention Center in the early hours today after sawing through an iron bar in their communal cell. One was shot dead and three caught.
(Reuters, 5/24/16)
2016 May 26, In southern Thailand 3 foreign tourists were killed and a British man left missing after a speedboat crashed and capsized in bad weather near the island of Samui.
(Reuters, 5/27/16)
2016 May 30, In Thailand wildlife officials began removing some of the 137 tigers held at a Buddhist temple following accusations that the monks were involved in illegal breeding and trafficking of the animals.
(AP, 5/30/16)
2016 Jun 1, Thai authorities found dozens of dead tiger cubs inside a freezer at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple in western Kanchanaburi province.
(AFP, 6/2/16)
2016 Jun 2, Thai authorities uncovered a trove of animal parts and intercepted a monk trying to leave the controversial “tiger temple" with tiger skins and fangs, the latest discovery to fuel accusations that the zoo is involved in the illegal wildlife trade.
(AFP, 6/2/16)
2016 Jun 7, In Thailand police raided a massage parlor and arrested 121 sex workers, including 15 who were under the age of 18. Five men running the brothel in Bangkok were soon charged with human trafficking.
(Reuters, 6/10/16)
2016 Jun 7, The European Union warned Thailand to take "swift and determined action" by next month to improve its fisheries and labor practices or face a serious economic threat of an EU ban on Thai seafood.
(AP, 6/7/16)
2016 Jun 8, In southern Thailand two speedboats packed with 62 tourists crashed off the coast, leaving at least two dead and more than 20 injured.
(AP, 6/8/16)
2016 Jun 16, Thai police raided the Wat Dhammakaya Buddhist temple complex to arrest a popular abbot accused of accepting $40 million in embezzled money but were thwarted by thousands of his followers who said he is too ill to be taken into custody. Phra Dhammachayo was accused of money laundering and links to embezzling 1.4 billion baht ($40 million) from a now-defunct credit union.
(AP, 6/16/16)
2016 Jun 17, Indian PM Narendra Modi and Thailand’s PM Prayuth Chan-ocha agreed in New Delhi to increase cooperation in tackling terrorism, threats to cybersecurity, narcotics, transnational economic offenses and human trafficking.
(AP, 6/17/16)
2016 Jun 25, The Thai air force lost contact with a helicopter and three crewmen during heavy rains while on a mission to resupply a radar station in Chanthaburi province. Searchers on June 28 found wreckage of the helicopter and the bodies of the crewmen.
(AP, 6/26/16)(AP, 6/28/16)
2016 Jun 30, The United States placed Myanmar on its list of worst human trafficking offenders for failing to do more to curb widespread abuses, and upgraded Thailand from the lowest grade for what was deemed to be an improved record.
(Reuters, 6/30/16)
2016 Jul 1, Military-ruled Thailand said it will buy three submarines worth around $1 billion from China a move that signals warming ties with the regional superpower as relations with the United States cool.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 10, A Thai journalist was detained by police in Ratchaburi province while reporting on the New Democracy Movement, a group opposed to the military government. Three activists of the group were also detained. Taweesak Kerdpoka was the first journalist to be arrested under a new law that makes it illegal to criticize the planned August 7 referendum on a new draft constitution.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 11, Thai journalist Taweesak Kerdpoka and four activists were charged under a draconian law banning criticism of the junta's new constitution which will be voted on in a referendum next month.
(AFP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Thai country singer and political activist Thanat Thanawatcharanon, known by his stage name Tom Dundee, was sentenced by a military court to more than three years in jail for insulting the monarchy, adding to a 7½-year sentence a criminal court imposed on him earlier for the same offense.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 24, In northern Thailand about 100 macaques tore up voter lists publicly posted ahead of the August 7 referendum on a proposed constitution.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 27, Thai police captured a Japanese lawyer who altered his appearance through plastic surgery to escape arrest for an alleged stock share manipulation scheme more than a decade ago. Yasuo Tsubaki (62) was sought by Japanese authorities for securities fraud amounting to more than 12 billion yen ($116 million) from 2001-2005.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Thailand attackers using firebombs and homemade explosives struck a series of popular resort cities and beach towns across the country over the last 24 hours. At least 4 people were killed and dozens wounded, including 11 foreigners.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 14, Thai police over the weekend found and defused five explosive devices that had failed to detonate when an as yet unidentified group carried out a series of deadly bomb attacks on popular tourist spots late last week.
(Reuters, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 23, A Thai military tribunal indicted eight people with sedition for running a Facebook page that mocked the kingdom's junta chief, making them the latest victims of the regime's crackdown on dissent.
(AFP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, A Thai military court rejected allegations by two Uighur defendants that they were tortured in custody to confess to bombing a popular Hindu shrine in Bangkok last year that left 20 people dead. The court then postponed the rest of the hearing to next month because no Uighur-language translator was available.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, In southern Thailand two bombs exploded near a hotel in Pattani, killing one employee and wounding 29 people.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 25, Thailand's military government suspended Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the country's most senior elected official, on allegations of corruption and misuse of city funds. The order to suspend Sukhumbhand came hours after he left Bangkok for South Korea's capital, where he was due to take part in celebrations cementing the friendship between the two cities.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Sep 4, Thai police seized 3,155 kg (6,940 pounds) of marijuana from a warehouse in Chonburi. Police arrested two men from Thailand and Taiwan suspected of smuggling the marijuana from Laos for shipment to Australia.
(AP, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 28, Thailand’s coup leader and prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha promised to turn Thailand into a developed country by 2036.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.37)
2016 Sep 29, Thailand’s government said it has decided to suspend seahorse trade because of concern about threats to its wild population. The decision was announced at a meeting in South Africa of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
(AP, 9/29/16)
2016 Oct 5, Thailand stopped Hong Kong teen pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong from entering the country to give a talk and sent him home, raising questions about whether it acted at China's behest.
(AP, 10/5/16)
2016 Oct 13, Rama IX, Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej (b.1927), died. He was revered as a demigod, a humble father figure and an anchor of stability through decades of upheaval at home and abroad. Bhumibol had succeeded his brother in 1946 and reigned for 70 years, the world's longest reigning monarch when he died. He was succeeded by Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn (64).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhumibol_Adulyadej)(AP, 10/13/16) (Reuters, 5/2/19)
2016 Nov 18, Thailand's military government announced a $1.5 billion effort to help struggling rice farmers in part by guaranteeing prices well above market rates. Global prices for the grain have plummeted to their lowest in nearly a decade, severely weakening an industry crucial to Thailand's economic well-being.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 22, Thailand's military government approved a one-time payout for low-income people in an effort to stimulate the country's weak economy. People who make less than 30,000 baht ($846) a year will receive 3,000 baht ($86), while people who make 30,000 to 100,000 baht ($846 to $2,821) a year will receive 1,500 baht ($42).
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 25, In southern Thailand two men suspected of involvement with violent unrest were killed in a shootout with police and soldiers who had been tracking them.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 29, Thailand's parliament named Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn as the new king, completing a formal step for the heir to take the throne following the death of his father last month.
(AP, 11/29/16)
2016 Dec 1, In Thailand Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn (64) became the new king after he accepted an invitation from parliament to succeed his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in October.
(Reuters, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 3, Thai police arrested anti-junta activist Jatupat Boonpattararaksa for defaming the monarchy in what rights groups said was the first case of lese-majeste brought under Thailand's new king.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 6, Thailand’s interior ministry said severe flooding due to heavy rain in southern Thailand has killed 14 people, including five students. Six days of floods have affected 582,345 people in 11 of the country’s 76 provinces.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 7, Thailand’s military said Muslim separatist militants have shot dead six civilians over the last 24 hours in the southern provinces of Narathiwat and Pattani.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 7, In northern Thailand six drug smugglers were fatally shot late today in a gunbattle when they were confronted by soldiers. 554,000 methamphetamine tablets, 30 kg (66 pounds) of heroin, 1 kg (2.2 pounds) of opium, an AK-47 assault rifle and a short-barreled rifle were seized.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 16, Thailand prosecutors indicted 19 senior members of the anti-coup Red Shirt movement for violating a ban on political activities when they sought to open an office to monitor last August's referendum on a new constitution.
(AP, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, Thailand's military-appointed legislature approved a bill tightening the country's already harsh Computer Crime Act, defying critics who said it infringes on the right to free expression.
(AP, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 19, Thailand’s Defense Ministry website went temporarily offline as hackers protested the Dec 16 passage of a bill restricting internet freedom. They have been attacking Thai government computer servers, temporarily disabling public access and reportedly copying restricted documents.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 22, In Thailand pro-democracy activist Jatupat 'Pai' Boonpattararaksa was re-arrested after his bail was revoked in a case accusing him of sharing online a Thai-language BBC story about the country's new king.
(AP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 26, Thailand said police have detained nine people suspected of hacking government websites to protest against amendments to a cyber security law that critics say strengthens the authorities' oversight of the internet.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 27, Thai police put more pressure on the wealthy, politically influential Buddhist Dhammakaya temple where the leader is wanted for alleged money laundering and related crimes involving millions of dollars of embezzled funds.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 29, Thailand's military government granted the king power to appoint the Buddhist country's top monk, a move aimed at resolving a bitter power struggle over the venerated post.
(AFP, 12/29/16
2017 Jan 2, In eastern Thailand a van and a pickup collided and caught fire on a highway, killing 25 people in Chonburi province.
(AP, 1/2/17)
2017 Jan 5, Thailand’s Interior Ministry said flooding in the south has killed at least five people, disrupted transportation and spoiled tourists' holidays at one of the country's most popular resort islands.
(AP, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 6, Thai authorities warned of flash floods across the south as torrential rains lashed the region leaving at least eight people dead, delaying flights and disrupting holidays during peak tourist season.
(AFP, 1/6/17)
2017 Jan 14, A Thai air force pilot died when his fighter jet crashed at an air show during the country's Children's Day.
(AP, 1/14/17)
2017 Jan 17, Thailand's Eastern Special Development Zone (ESDZ), a special economic zone, was setup for three provinces in eastern Thailand. Collectively, these provinces occupy an area of 13,266 square km (5,122 sq mi).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Economic_Corridor)
2007 Jan 17, In Thailand suspected separatist rebels shot dead two Buddhist villagers in the Muslim-majority south. The insurgency there has killed more than 1,800 people in three years.
(AFP, 1/17/07)
2017 Jan 24, In Thailand Briton Tony Kenway was the victim of a gangland-style slaying in the resort town of Pattaya.
(AP, 9/28/17)
2017 Jan 27, Thai police said they have arrested a gang of wedding crashers led by a Buddhist monk who scammed couples by pretending to be officials with royal links and demanding money for their prestigious presence at nuptials.
(AP, 1/27/17)
2017 Jan 27, A Thai military court halved the sentence for Burin Intin from an original 22 years, 8 months for two offenses because he pleaded guilty to the lese majeste charge as well as to violating the Computer Crime Act by posting illegal content.
(AP, 1/27/17)
2017 Feb 2, Thai media organizations protested a bill that would require journalists to be licensed and would establish a council that can penalize news outlets for violating professional standards. The bill was submitted today to a military-appointed body tasked with reforming the Thai government.
(AP, 2/2/17)
2017 Feb 2, Wildlife anti-trafficking organization Freeland said that almost three tons of scales from endangered African pangolins, hidden in sacks, were seized last December at Bangkok's main airport. The haul was worth more than $1 million dollars on the illegal market, and represented as many as 6,000 dead animals. The scales were sent from Kinshasa in Congo, via Turkey with a final destination listed as Vientiane, Laos.
(AP, 2/2/17)
2017 Feb 7, Thailand’s PM Prayuth Chan-ocha said that Somdej Phra Maha Muniwong (89) has been appointed by King Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun as the 20th supreme patriarch of the Buddhist order. His predecessor died in 2013 at age 100.
(AP, 2/7/17)
2017 Feb 7, Thailand's cabinet approved measures worth $1 billion to help farmers in its flood-hit south.
(Reuters, 2/7/17)
2017 Feb 7, A Thai court sentenced Australian Antonio Bagnato (28) to death for the murder of a countryman who was an alleged confederate in a drug smuggling gang. He was found guilty of killing former Hells Angels member Wayne Schneider in November 2015 after he and accomplices beat and kidnapped the victim from his luxury villa in the Pattaya resort area.
(AP, 2/7/17)
2017 Feb 10, In southern Thailand Sama-ae Doloh, a sub-district chief in Pattani province, was fatally shot by heavily armed men who stopped him on his way to work. In neighboring Narathiwat province, two people were fatally shot by five masked men at a rubber trading store.
(AP, 2/10/17)
2017 Feb 17, Thailand’s PM Prayuth Chan-ocha announced that a government committee has approved construction of an 800-megawatt coal power plant near pristine beaches on the Andaman Sea.
(SFC, 2/18/17, p.A2)
2017 Feb 25, Thailand's military junta removed the chief of the department responsible for overseeing Buddhist affairs and replaced him with a police officer, amid a stand-off between officials and monks at the country's largest temple.
(Reuters, 2/25/17)
2017 Mar 3, In Thailand former Air Vice Marshal Chitpong Thongkum, a former palace medical adviser, was jailed for five and a half years for insulting the monarchy and other charges, a day after another disgraced aide to the new king was charged in a separate case.
(Reuters, 3/3/17)
2017 Mar 6, In Thailand a statement from the Royal Palace said King Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun has approved stripping the honorary title from Phra Dhammajayo (72), head of the Dhammakaya sect, because of the criminal charges against him.
(AP, 3/6/17)
2017 Mar 8, Britain's BBC announced it is ending its shortwave transmissions from Thailand after 20 years of operation because it failed to reach agreement with Thailand's military government on a renewal of its operating permit.
(AP, 3/8/17)
2017 Mar 9, Thai transport officials said that services using private vehicles to transport passengers, such as Uber or Southeast Asia's GrabCar, are illegal because the vehicles aren't registered for public transport. The government said it plans to introduce its own cellphone app, TAXI OK, for passengers to call government-endorsed taxis featuring GPS tracking systems and closed-circuit cameras
(AP, 3/9/17)
2017 Mar 10, A court in Thailand sentenced Jumpol Manmai, a former high-ranking police officer and aide to the country's king, to three years in prison for dereliction of duty and land encroachment.
(AP, 3/10/17)
2017 Mar 18, Thai police uncovered a plot to assassinate the country's prime minister after seizing a weapons cache at a house belonging to red shirt leader Wuthipong Kochathamakun, who has been on the run since the military coup.
(Reuters, 3/19/17)
2017 Mar 27, Thailand's broadcast regulator ordered television channel Voice TV to suspend its over-the-air broadcasting for a week for what it called biased reports affecting national security. The station is controlled by the family of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a 2006 army coup and is in exile to avoid a prison term for corruption.
(AP, 3/27/17)
2017 Mar 28, Thailand authorities escalated their effort to collect taxes they say are due from ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra, posting a bill for 17.6 billion baht ($503 million) at the house where he lived before fleeing into exile in 2008 to avoid a prison term for conflict of interest. A lawyer for Thaksin contended that under the law in existence at the time of the 2006 sale, the shares were exempt from tax.
(AP, 3/28/17)
2017 Mar 29, In southern Thailand a gunbattle at a police checkpoint resulted in the deaths of two gunmen in Narathiwat province.
(AP, 3/30/17)
2017 Mar 30, In southern Thailand an army ranger was found shot dead. Five gunmen opened fire at a police station in Narathiwat province, killing a policeman and wounding three others in the latest killings in a region troubled by violent Muslim separatism.
(AP, 3/30/17)
2017 Mar, In Thailand Vivat Yodprasit, dubbed the "Popcorn Gunman," received a 37-year, 4-month sentence for murder, attempted murder and illegal possession of weapons, halved from the original term because of his confession to police for opening fire with an assault rifle concealed in a sack during a political confrontation in February 2014. However, he recanted his confession in court, claiming he had been tortured. On June 27 a court ruled that there was not enough evidence to convict Yodprasit in the shootings.
(AP, 6/27/17)
2017 Apr 3, In southern Thailand gunmen with grenade launchers and other heavy weapons attacked a police checkpoint, injuring six officers, in what appeared to be the latest violence by Muslim separatists who have been fighting for more than a decade.
(AP, 4/3/17)
2017 Apr 6, Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn signed a military-backed constitution into law, an essential step toward an election the junta has promised will restore democracy after the 12th successful coup in little over 80 years.
(Reuters, 4/6/17)
2017 Apr 7, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents set off dozens of bombs, bringing down power lines and setting tires on fire to block roads.
(AP, 4/7/17)
2017 Apr 14, In Thailand hordes of revellers armed with plastic water guns poured onto streets for a 2nd day of watery warfare to ring in Songkran, its traditional new year.
(AFP, 4/14/17)
2017 Apr 14, In Thailand a 1936 plaque marking the country's 1932 transition to democracy was discovered missing and replaced in Royal Plaza. It was replaced by one celebrating the monarchy. Srisuwan Janya, a veteran social activist, was detained by soldiers when he tried to submit a letter to PM Prayuth Chan-ocha asking that the act of vandalism be investigated.
(AP, 4/18/17)
2017 Apr 20, It was reported that authorities in Bangkok are banishing its world-famous street-food vendors as part of a clean-up drive by Thailand’s military government, outraging foodies and threatening the livelihoods of the road-side cooks.
(Reuters, 4/20/17)
2017 Apr 25, Thailand's top defense official said the government has approved the purchase of its first submarine in more than half a century, calling the $393 million deal with China necessary and a bargain. Thailand decommissioned its last one in 1951.
(AP, 4/25/17)
2017 Apr 25, In Thailand a Brazilian woman (22) arrived at Don Muang airport from Malaysia and had asked to be driven to central Bangkok. Instead she was driven to an area outside Bangkok, where the driver is accused of beating and raping her before leaving her by the side of the road. Police the next day arrested the driver on charges of rape, illegal detention, and theft with violence.
(AP, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 27, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents killed four paramilitary army rangers in an ambush in Narathiwat province.
(AP, 4/27/17)
2017 Apr 28, In Thailand a Bangkok court approved an arrest warrant for an heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune accused of a deadly hit-and-run accident, moving the case forward after almost five years without charges being pressed. Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya is accused of fleeing the scene of a 2012 crash in his Ferrari after allegedly fatally hitting a police officer on motorcycle patrol.
(AP, 4/28/17)
2017 Apr 29, Thai authorities arrested Prawet Prapanukul (57), an activist lawyer, and five other people. On May 3 they were charged with defaming the monarchy, pushing the tally of people charged with lese majeste to more than 100 since the military seized power in 2014.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 1, In Thailand the Protection of Media Rights and Freedom, Ethics and Professional Standards Act was passed by the National Reform Steering Assembly, a 200-member body appointed by the military after it took power in a 2014 coup.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 3, Thai media organizations called on the military government to withdraw a bill that would set up an appointed council to regulate print and online media and require journalists to be licensed or risk jail.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 4, Thai police said Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya (32), a fugitive heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune, had left Singapore after abandoning his private jet and disappeared.
(AP, 5/4/17)(AP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 5, Thai authorities revoked the passport of Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya (32), a fugitive heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune, who is wanted on deadly hit-and-run charges. Thailand began the process of having Interpol issue a Blue Notice advising officials in 190 countries that Vorayuth is wanted.
(AP, 5/4/17)(AP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 5, Thai police found 35 migrants from Myanmar abandoned and wandering in a southern forest, raising fears that smuggling and trafficking routes are flourishing despite a crackdown by authorities.
(Reuters, 5/5/17)
2017 May 9, In southern Thailand Muslim militants fighting for a separate state were suspected of carrying out a car-bomb attack outside a supermarket in the city of Pattani that wounded 60 people.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 16, Thailand backed off a threat to block Facebook, instead providing the social media site with court orders to remove content that the government deems illegal.
(AP, 5/16/17)
2017 May 22, In Thailand a bomb exploded at the army-run Phramongkutklao Hospital in Bangkok, the third anniversary of a military coup. More than 20 people were reported wounded. On June 15 police arrested Wattana Pumret (61), a retired electrical engineer, who reportedly confessed to the bombing. Pumret later said he carried out the bombing as a "symbol of defiance" against the military government.
(AP, 5/22/17)(AP, 6/15/17)(AP, 6/20/17)
2017 May 23, In southern Thailand attackers detonated a bomb and then shot two army rangers as they patrolled a community village on motorcycles.
(SFC, 5/24/17, p.A2)
2017 May 25, Thailand's telecoms regulator said anyone wanting to use or buy a pre-paid SIM card for a mobile phone in the deep south will have to have their fingerprints verified and face scanned to stop insurgents from using them to trigger bombs.
(Reuters, 5/25/17)
2017 Jun 8, Thailand arrested a fugitive (38) on an international arrest warrant He was suspected of rapes that took place in several locations in Sweden on May 17-19.
(AP, 6/8/17)
2017 Jun 9, A military court in Thailand sentenced a salesman, identified as Wichai, to 35 years in prison for social media posts deemed defamatory to the monarchy, a punishment believed to be the longest ever handed down for the offense of lese majeste. The sentence was halved from 70 years because he had pleaded guilty.
(AP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 11, Thai police arrested three Chinese men for operating a "click farm," using hundreds of cellphones and several hundred thousand SIM cards to run up "likes" and views on WeChat, a Chinese social media mobile application.
(AP, 6/13/17)
2017 Jun 12, Thai police displayed more than 1 million methamphetamine tablets seized this month, as trade in the illicit drug shows little sign of abating.
(AP, 6/12/17)
2017 Jun 15, Thailand’s PM Prayuth Chan-ocha, head of the military government, used his special powers to cut through regulations and launch work on a much-delayed 179 billion baht ($5.27 billion) joint Thai-Chinese project for a new railway from Bangkok to the northeast.
(AP, 6/16/17)
2017 Jun 19, In southern Thailand a bomb planted in a dirt road killed six soldiers.
(AP, 6/19/17)
2017 Jun 22, Thailand's military-installed parliament passed a bill that allows the ruling junta to continue to impose its policies after it holds elections and officially relinquishes power.
(AP, 6/22/17)
2017 Jun 30, Thai customs officials they have seized 15 of 42 luxury cars that British authorities said were stolen and sent to Thailand.
(AP, 6/30/17)
2017 Jul 3, Thailand immigration officials said tens of thousands of migrant workers, most of them from Myanmar, have fled from Thailand in fear after new labor regulations adopted by the military government. About 60,000 workers left between June 23 and June 28, and the number has risen since.
(Reuters, 7/3/17)
2017 Jul 4, Thailand's junta delayed parts of a new labor law aimed at regulating the foreign workforce after the decree sparked panic and prompted more than 60,000 foreign workers to flee from the country.
(Reuters, 7/4/17)
2017 Jul 10, In southern Thailand a group of gunmen barged into the home of Worayuth Sanglhung, a village headman in Krabi province, and killed eight members of his family, including three children, by shooting them in the head. On July 16 police said local businessman Surikfad Bannopwongsakul, who had a dispute with Sanglhung, has been arrested along with seven others.
(AP, 7/11/17)(AP, 7/17/17)
2017 Jul 12, In Thailand Alexandre Cazes (25), the Canadian founder of dark web marketplace AlphaBay, died in a Bangkok jail.
(SFC, 7/21/17, p.C1)(Reuters, 7/24/17)
2017 Jul 17, In Thailand a law became effective that placed the Crown Property Bureau, essentially a holding company for the royal palace's assets, under King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun's direct control. This was the world's richest royal fortune, estimated to be worth more than $30 billion.
(AP, 7/17/17)(Econ., 10/17/20, p.19)
2017 Jul 18, Thai police said Wirapol Sukphol (aka Luang Pu Nenkham), a former Buddhist monk wanted on child sex charges, will be sent home from the United States to face trial.
(Reuters, 7/18/17)
2017 Jul 19, Thai army Lt. Gen. Manas Kongpaen was one of dozens of people found guilty in a major human trafficking trial that included 103 defendants accused of involvement in a modern-day slavery trade. Kongpan (61) was condemned to 27 years in prison for profiting from human trafficking, an extraordinarily rare conviction of a senior member of an army that dominates the kingdom.
(AP, 7/19/17)(AFP, 7/22/17)
2017 Jul 20, European and US authorities said they had shut down AlphaBay and Hansa Market and arrested their operators. AlphaBay, the largest so-called darknet market, was taken down in early July at the same time that authorities arrested Alexandre Cazes (25), a Canadian man living in Bangkok. Dutch police said they had taken control of Hansa market in June. Two men accused of operating Hansa were arrested in Germany.
(SFC, 7/21/17, p.C1)
2017 Jul 24, Thailand's military government began freeze the assets of former PM Yingluck Shinawatra in relation to a $1-billion fine it imposed in 2016 over her government's 2012-2013 rice buying scheme.
(Reuters, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 24, Thai police said they have arrested a gang of 44 people from China and Taiwan for running an elaborate phone scam that conned $3 million from scores of victims mainly in China.
(AFP, 7/24/17)
2017 Jul 24, Thai police said they have seized nearly $21 million worth of assets, from cars to cryptocurrency, belonging to Alexandre Cazes (5), the late founder of dark web marketplace AlphaBay, who died in a Bangkok jail on July 12.
(Reuters, 7/24/17)
2017 Aug 1, It was reported that the number of North Koreans slipping illegally into Thailand has surged in recent months. An immigration official said an average of 20 to 30 North Koreans arrive each week now in northern Thailand alone.
(Reuters, 8/1/17)
2017 Aug 3, Thailand’s interior ministry said floods have killed at least 23 people in the northeastern farming region.
(Reuters, 8/3/17)
2017 Aug 8, In Thailand journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk was charged with sedition and violation of the country’s computer law for online postings concerning politics.
(SFC, 8/9/17, p.A2)
2017 Aug 8, Germany’s wind power group Siemens Gamesa said it has installed Asia's tallest wind turbines, with a total height of 210 meters (230 yards), in Thailand.
(Reuters, 8/8/17)
2017 Aug 9, A Thai military court sentenced a man named Tara to 20 years in prison in the country's latest conviction on charges of insulting the monarchy.
(AP, 8/9/17)
2017 Aug 9, In Thailand reporter Nattaporn Weeranont of the Isra News Agency, who was looking into the assets of a brother of one of the top members of the country's military government, was arrested for trespassing.
(AP, 8/11/17)
2017 Aug 11, In Nepal seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal) agreed to conclude early a free trade accord, implement the Paris agreement on climate change and step up cooperation among their security agencies to combat terrorism.
(AP, 8/11/17)
2017 Aug 15, Thai student activist Jatupat Boonpattaraksa, also known as Pai, was jailed for two and a half years for posting on Facebook a BBC article deemed offensive to Thailand's king.
(Reuters, 8/15/17)
2017 Aug 16, In Thailand at least eight people, first arrested in May, were re-arrested and charged with insulting the monarchy for allegedly burning portraits of members of the royal family.
(AP, 8/17/17)
2017 Aug 17, Thai law enforcement officials arrested Kim South Korean Hyoung-joon, suspected of involvement in trafficking of Thai women into South Korea's sex industry.
(AP, 8/18/17)
2017 Aug 25, Thailand authorities searched for Yingluck Shinawatra, the prime minister whose government he ousted in a coup three years ago, after she failed to appear for a verdict in a criminal case that could send her to prison for 10 years. Thailand’s Supreme Court imposed a 42-year sentence on Yingluck’s former commerce minister for offences related to those that she was alleged to have committed.
(AP, 8/25/17)(Econ, 9/2/17, p.33)
2017 Aug 29, In Thailand the political party of former PM Yingluck Shinawatra, who fled into exile last week, said it would overcome the obstacles it faces and was committed to democracy and working for the good of the people.
(Reuters, 8/29/17)
2017 Sep 1, Thailand's government announced $2.2 billion in loans and handouts to help stabilize prices for rice farmers, a politically influential group whose heartland is in regions where opposition to the military junta is strongest.
(Reuters, 9/1/17)
2017 Sep 1, It was reported that Thailand's prestigious Chulalongkorn University has removed the head of its student council, a vocal critic of military rule, after he was accused of disrupting a royalist initiation ceremony. But Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal (20) and the student council said they refused to accept the university order against him and four other members, and would appeal against the decision.
(Reuters, 9/1/17)
2017 Sep 11, In Thailand a group of villagers won a 10-year lawsuit against a mining company for polluting their land and water. Lead Concentrates Co. was ordered to pay 36 million baht ($1.1 million) in compensation by the Supreme Court, but its representatives did not even show up for the court's verdict.
(AP, 9/12/17)
2017 Sep 14, In southern Thailand a soldier and a policeman were killed and 26 other people wounded by two bombs believed to have been set off by Muslim separatists in Yala province.
(AP, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 20, Thai authorities detained Buddhist monk Apichart Punnajanto for posting online videos that harshly denounce Islam.
(AP, 9/20/17)
2017 Sep 21, In Thailand thirteen activists of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) were ordered to pay a total of $16 million in compensation for shutting down Bangkok's two main international airports during protests in 2008.
(Reuters, 9/21/17)
2017 Sep 27, A Thai court sentenced former PM Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government was ousted in a 2014 military coup, in absentia to five years in prison for alleged negligence in a money-losing rice subsidy program.
(AP, 9/27/17)
2017 Sep 28, A Cambodian court sentenced British man Toby James Nelhams, suspected of involvement in the Jan 24 gangland-style slaying of Briton Tony Kenway in the Thai resort town of Pattaya, to eight months in prison for fraud. The whereabouts of two other suspects were unknown.
(AP, 9/28/17)
2017 Oct 2, Shares worth over $500 million in Thailand's Siam Commercial Bank were transferred on behalf of King Maha Vajiralongkorn from the Crown Property Bureau, which manages palace assets. The ultimate beneficiary of the shares was not identified.
(Reuters, 10/6/17)
2017 Oct 10, Thai authorities arrested two Chinese citizens suspected of smuggling rhinoceros horns worth about $300,000 through Bangkok's main airport.
(AP, 10/11/17)
2017 Oct 25, Thailand marked the start of a lavish, five-day funeral for King Bhumibol Adulyadej with a Buddhist religious ceremony attended by senior members of its royal family.
(Reuters, 10/25/17)
2017 Nov 10, In Thailand Distorn Vajarodaya, a senior official in the Royal Household Bureau, was sacked for "evil acts" including having an extramarital affair and forcing his alleged mistress to get an abortion.
(AFP, 11/11/17)
2017 Nov 29, In Thailand Surin Pitsuwan (68), former Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretary-General (2008-2012), died in Bangkok of a heart attack.
(AP, 11/30/17)
2017 Dec 7, A Thai court issued arrest warrants against five people over the discovery of a cache of weapons, including figures with links to the "Red Shirt" followers of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Police believed the weapons were hidden during the instability that led up to a coup in 2014.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 11, The European Union said it will resume political contact "at all levels" with Thailand, after putting relations on hold following a 2014 coup by the Thai military.
(Reuters, 12/11/17)
2018 Jan 10, Cambodian PM Hun Sen and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang were joined by leaders from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar over development in the Mekong subregion. The leaders agreed in a joint statement to enhance connectivity between their countries to accelerate industrialization, urbanization, trade and financial integration. They also called for greater cooperation in managing and utilizing water resources.
(AP, 1/10/18)
2018 Jan 10, Thailand police arrested Shigeharu Shirai (74) in a province north of Bangkok where he has been hiding for over 10 years to evade murder charges in Japan in connection with the death of a rival gang member. The fugitive was recognized when photos of his full-body tattoos were circulated online.
(AP, 1/11/18)
2018 Jan 19, Thailand police arrested Boonchai Bach, a 40-year-old Thai of Vietnamese descent, in the northeastern border province of Nakhon Phanom in connection with the with smuggling of 14 rhino horns worth over $1 million from Africa into Thailand last month. He had allegedly fueled much of Asia's illegal trade for over a decade.
(AP, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 20, In Thailand hundreds of police blocked protestors planning to march from Bangkok to Khon Kaen in the northeast of the country in a rare display of public discontent in the junta-ruled country.
(Reuters, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 21, In Myanmar thousands of Buddhist monks gathered in Mandalay for an event partly organized by a scandal-hit Thai temple whose abbot is wanted for questioning on money-laundering allegations. Mandalay is home to the monk Wirathu, the self-styled "Buddhist bin Laden" famous for his anti-Islamic sermons, but there was no sign that he attended the mass alms-giving.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 28, In Thailand student activist Chanoknan Ruamsap became the latest political dissident to flee Thailand, explaining on her Facebook page that she made a snap decision to leave after learning she had been charged with insulting the monarchy because she shared a BBC article about the country's new king.
(AP, 1/29/18)
2018 Jan 30, It was reported that Thailand's ruling military junta has filed charges against seven democracy activists for calling for elections and an end to military rule.
(AP, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan, In Thailand street artist Headache Stencil, whose nickname alludes to the pain he hopes to inflict on the mighty, catapulted to fame with a piece skewering junta number two Prawit Wongsuwan, who was struggling to explain his collection of undeclared luxury watches.
(AFP, 9/24/18)
2018 Feb 2, Thailand police arrested Russian national Sergey Medvedev in Bangkok. On Feb. 7 a US indictment accused him of running an online cybercrime marketplace where everything from stolen credit card information to hardware for compromising ATM machines could be purchased. The Infraud Organization's main servers were seized in Paris on February 6.
(AP, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 4, Thai police arrested construction tycoon Premchai Karnasuta and three others for poaching in a protected wildlife sanctuary. Photos of hunting equipment and animal carcasses including a black leopard soon circulated on social media.
(AFP, 2/6/18)
2018 Feb 5, Thailand’s former national police Commissioner Somyot Pumpanmuang acknowledged he borrowed $9.5 million from brothel owner Kampol Wirathepsuporn, who is wanted on human trafficking charges.
(AP, 2/6/18)
2018 Feb 8, Thailand’s Pollution Control Department said that concentrations in Bangkok of tiny particles known as PM 2.5, a benchmark measure of air quality, were almost double the levels considered safe.
(AP, 2/8/18)
2018 Feb 8, Nearly three dozen Thai democracy activists turned themselves in to police after being summoned in connection with a protest calling for the ruling military government to step down and relinquish power through elections. All were released the same day.
(AP, 2/8/18)
2018 Feb 9, A Thai court issued arrest warrants for four pro-democracy activists for staging a public protest amid growing pressure on the junta to hold elections as promised.
(Reuters, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 9, Cambodia arrested a woman, Sam Sokha, after she was repatriated from Thailand, where the UN refugee agency reportedly had formally recognized her as a refugee. She had thrown a shoe at a billboard depicting PM Hun Sen.
(AP, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 10, In Thailand around four hundred people gathered at a monument to democracy in Bangkok to urge the military government not to delay a national election planned later this year, in one of the biggest anti-junta demonstrations since the military took power in 2014.
(AP, 2/10/18)
2018 Feb 13, In Thailand garbage collectors found four fetuses in the trash in Hua Hin, a popular resort town.
(AP, 2/14/18)
2018 Feb 16, Thailand awarded Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar's army chief, a royal decoration amid allegations of crimes by Myanmar security forces against Rohingya Muslims that have prompted international condemnation.
(Reuters, 2/16/18)
2018 Feb 20, A Thai court granted sole custody of 13 surrogate children to Mitsutoki Shigeta (28) of Japan. He is the son of the founder of Japanese telecom and insurance company Hikari Tsushin and, as a major shareholder, earns millions of dollars a year in dividends.
(AP, 2/21/18)
2018 Feb 24, In Los Angeles Thai dynamo Srisaket Sor Rungvisai retained his World Boxing Council title by beating challenger Juan Estrada, holding on in the later rounds to come out with a close majority decision.
(AFP, 2/24/18)
2018 Feb 26, Thai police arrested a group of 10 Russians who were running a sex training class for their compatriots in the seaside town of Pattaya, and have charged them with working in Thailand without permission.
(Reuters, 2/26/18)
2018 Feb 28, In Thailand Anastasia Vashukevich, a Belarusian woman jailed for offering sex lessons without a work permit, said she has a story to tell involving the Kremlin, Russian billionaires and even the president of the United States.
(AP, 3/1/18)
2018 Mar 8, It was reported that a new law, published last week, makes criticism of Thailand’s Constitutional Court punishable by imprisonment, giving extra protection to a body that in recent years has made controversial rulings altering the shape of governments.
(AP, 3/8/18)
2018 Mar 10, In Thailand some 500 hundred pro-democracy supporters rallied in Bangkok to skewer the ruling junta with T-shirts, signs and speeches, as activists grow bolder in their defiance of a ban on protests.
(AFP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 13, Thailand's cabinet agreed to draft a law to oversee cryptocurrency trading, seeking to tax the largely unregulated market. The Ministry of Finance also proposed the new regulations to help prevent use of digital currencies in money laundering and fraud.
(AP, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 20, A Thai court handed a life sentence to Laotian drug kingpin Xaysana Keopimpha, who was notorious for a high-flying lifestyle and alleged social connections to celebrities and other VIPs.
(AP, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 21, In northeastern Thailand a chartered tour bus lost control on a downhill curve and slid off the side of the road, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens more.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 28, Thailand authorities ordered the temporary closing of the beach made famous by the Leonardo DiCaprio movie "The Beach" to halt environmental damage caused by too many tourists. Maya Bay, on Phi Phi Leh island in the Andaman Sea, will be closed to all visitors for four months annually starting this June to allow for the recovery of the island's battered coral reefs and sea life.
(AP, 3/28/18)
2018 Mar 30, In western Thailand a fire on a double-decker bus carrying migrant workers from Myanmar killed 20 people early today in Tak province.
(AP, 3/30/18)(SFC, 3/31/18, p.A4)
2018 Mar 31, In Vietnam the leaders of six countries along the Mekong River adopted an ambitious investment plan worth $66 billion over the next five years. The summit included the prime ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as a vice president of Myanmar and the Chinese foreign minister.
(AP, 3/31/18)
2018 Apr 2, Police in Thailand confiscated an estimated $54 million worth of methamphetamine in one of their biggest-ever drug seizures and arrested 11 people in recent days as illegal drug cases surge in the country.
(AP, 4/3/18)
2018 Apr 2, A rights group said farmers from Cambodia have filed a lawsuit in a Thai civil court against Mitr Phol, Asia's largest sugar producer, accusing it of rights abuses after it allegedly kicked farmers off their land.
(Reuters, 4/2/18)
2018 Apr 10, Thailand police shot and killed two suspected Muslim insurgents who ambushed a police unit in the southern province of Pattani, a day after bombs in a neighboring province injured 12 people.
(AP, 4/10/18)
2018 Apr 11, Police in Thailand confirmed that new charges have been filed against a self-described Russian sex guru and a woman who claims to have evidence of Russian ties to President Donald Trump's election campaign. Anastasia Vashukevich, also known as Nastya Rybka, has attracted widespread attention for claiming to have recordings of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a crony of President Vladimir Putin, discussing interference in the US election.
(AP, 4/11/18)
2018 Apr 17, In Thailand a Russian sex guru and his followers, one of whom claims to have evidence of Moscow's interference in the 2016 US presidential election, were acquitted by a court on charges of violating labor laws. They still faced more serious charges that could land them in prison for more than 10 years.
(AP, 4/17/18)
2018 Apr 19, In Thailand Jack Ma, the founder of China-based Alibaba, met with PM Prayuth Chan-ocha, and later signed several agreements, including one to help set up a "smart digital hub" in a showcase project called the Eastern Economic Corridor, to facilitate trade between Thailand, China, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.
(AP, 4/19/18)
2018 Apr 27, Thailand deported Sam Serey, the leader of a Cambodian anti-government group. He was at risk of being extradited to his homeland for imprisonment but said he is safely back in Denmark, where he has had political asylum for seven years.
(AP, 4/27/18)
2018 Apr 29, In Thailand over a thousand people gathered in the northern city of Chiang Mai to protest against the building of a government luxury housing project on forested land, in one of the largest demonstrations under military rule.
(Reuters, 4/29/18)
2018 Apr 30, In Thailand Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, a labor activist and editor of a political magazine, was released from prison and said he will join public demonstrations to call for elections and an end to military rule. He was detained in 2011 and convicted of insulting Thailand's monarchy.
(AP, 4/30/18)
2018 Apr 30, A court in southern Thailand sentenced six men to death for several bombings in 2016 that killed two people and wounded more than 20.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 5, In Thailand pro-democracy activists protesting in Bangkok said that they will march on the country's seat of power later this month to demand that an election be held this year.
(AP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 6, Thailand environmental activists in the northern city of Chiang Mai claimed victory after the country's military government agreed in talks not to use forested land to develop luxury property.
(Reuters, 5/6/18)
2018 May 11, It was reported that a court in Thailand has sentenced Boonchai Bach (41), believed to be a kingpin in the illicit wildlife trade, to 2 ½ years in prison for smuggling rhinoceros horns.
(AP, 5/11/18)
2018 May 13 Thailand's anti-government People's Movement for a Just Society (P-Move), vowed to resume its protests unless the ruling junta keeps the promises it made in return for the group agreeing to end more than a week of demonstrations ahead of a coup anniversary later this month.
(Reuters, 5/13/18)
2018 May 20, In Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents set off small bombs at about two dozen locations in the country's deep south, wounding two women.
(AP, 5/21/18)
2018 May 22, Thailand police in Bangkok blocked a march by pro-democracy activists protesting four years of military rule and demanding early elections. Eight pro-democracy protest leaders surrendered to police after police blocked the march on the anniversary of the 2014 coup.
(AP, 5/22/18)(Reuters, 5/22/18)
2018 May 24, Thai police raided four Buddhist temples, arresting several prominent monks and worshippers in the year's biggest such operation amid a crackdown on illegal financial dealings by temples.
(Reuters, 5/24/18)
2018 May 31, A Thai appeals court vindicated British labor rights activist Andy Hall. He has been entangled in a years-long legal confrontation with a fruit-packing company after he publicized alleged human rights violations at its factory in 2013.
(AP, 5/31/18)
2018 Jun 1, A small pilot whale died in southern Thailand after an attempted rescue failed to nurse the mammal back to health. An autopsy revealed 80 plastic bags weighing up to eight kg (18 pounds) in the creature's stomach. It was reported that least 300 marine animals including pilot whales, sea turtles and dolphins perish each year in Thai waters after ingesting plastic.
(AFP, 6/2/18)
2018 Jun 15, Roger Thomas Clark (56), a Canadian man who federal authorities say earned hundreds of thousands of dollars working for the notorious "Silk Road" drug-dealing website, arrived in New York after being extradited from Thailand. He faced an indictment charging him with playing a key role in the website by advising its founder, Ross Ulbricht.
(AP, 6/15/18)
2018 Jun 16, It was reported that the official agency that had managed the vast wealth of Thailand's royal family has announced that its assets have formally been turned over to King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, who assumed the throne after the death of his father in 2016.
(AP, 6/16/18)
2018 Jun 23, In Thailand 12 boys, aged 11-15, and their coach, entered the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai province late today and were apparently trapped when a heavy rainstorm flooded a stream at the cave's entrance.
(AP, 6/24/18)
2018 Jun 27, A Thai court sentenced human rights lawyer Prawet Prapanukul to 16 months in prison, finding him guilty of sedition for material he posted online but dropping charges of royal defamation.
(AP, 6/27/18)
2018 Jun 28, In Thailand two British divers discovered four rescuers from the Thai Well Water Association trapped for three days by rising waters. They had spent two days draining water from the cave in an attempt to help the rescue of the trapped soccer team.
(AP, 9/26/18)
2018 Jul 2, Thai navy SEALS and two British volunteer divers helped find the "wild Boar" soccer team on an elevated rock after struggling for hours through narrow passages and murky waters. 12 boys and their 25-year-old coach went missing on June 23, after they set out to explore the caves in a forest park following a training session.
(Reuters, 7/3/18)(AFP, 7/3/18)
2018 Jul 5, In southern Thailand two boats carrying more than 130 tourists overturned in rough seas off the island of Phuket. 93 of the passengers Chinese tourists. The sinking of the double-decker tour boat Phoenix left 45 Chinese tourists dead and two missing.in Thailand's biggest tourist-related disaster in years. Everyone from the smaller second boat, the Serenata, was rescued. The last body from the Phoenix was recovered on July 15 putting the final death toll at 47.
(AP, 7/5/18)(AP, 7/6/18)(AP, 7/8/18)(AP, 7/10/18)(AFP, 7/16/18)
2018 Jul 6, In Thailand Petty Officer 1st Class Saman Gunan, a former member of the Thai navy's elite SEAL unit, became the first casualty of the massive rescue effort during an underwater swim in a partly flooded cave. He had volunteered to help his old comrades in their risky mission to evacuate a dozen boys and their soccer coach.
(AP, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 8, In Thailand rescue operations began for the 12 Thai schoolboys and their coach from a flooded cave as divers launched a daring and dangerous mission to free the children and their soccer coach who have been trapped underground for more than two weeks.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 9, In Thailand four more boys were brought out of a flooded cave by divers bringing to eight the number extracted in the ongoing high-stakes rescue operation. Four boys and their coach remained inside the labyrinth cave.
(AP, 7/9/18)
2018 Jul 9, In Thailand new information showed there were 89 tourists, 87 of them Chinese, on the boat that sank off island of Phuket on July 5, instead of the previous figure of 93. Five people reported to have been missing were reported alive.
(AP, 7/9/18)
2018 Jul 10, In Thailand rescuers freed the last four of 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach from the flooded Tham Luang Nang Non cave, ending a mission that gripped the world for 18 days.
(Reuters, 7/10/18)(AP, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 28, In northern Thailand landslides, triggered by days of heavy downpours, killed seven people and left one missing.
(Reuters, 7/28/18)
2018 Jul 31, Thailand's PM Prayuth Chan-ocha said Britain has been asked to extradite former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, overthrown in a coup in 2014 and sentenced in absentia to jail for negligence.
(Reuters, 7/31/18)
2018 Aug 8, Thailand granted citizenship to three young soccer players who were trapped with other team members for almost three weeks in a cave in northern Thailand along with their 25-year-old coach. All four had been stateless, and their lack of citizenship deprived them of some basic benefits and rights, including the ability to travel outside of Chiang Rai, the northern province where they live.
(AP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 9, In Thailand former Buddhist monk Wirapol Sukphol, infamous for a jet-set lifestyle, was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison in connection with funds he fraudulently raised from followers.
(AP, 8/9/18)
2018 Aug 16, A Thailand environment ministry official said imports of 432 types of scrap electronics will be banned within six months. Southeast Asia nations fear they are the new dumping ground for the world's trash after China banned the entry of several types of waste as part of a campaign against "foreign garbage".
(Reuters, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 28, Thailand's military junta announced it will ease some restrictions on political parties to let them conduct basic functions and prepare for elections set for early next year, but campaigning will still be forbidden.
(AP, 8/28/18)
2018 Aug 28, In Thailand more than 160 asylum seekers from hill tribe ethnic minorities in Vietnam and Cambodia were rounded up in a northern suburb of Bangkok and charged with immigration law violations.
(AP, 8/30/18)
2018 Aug 30, In Nepal a two-day summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation began in Kathmandu. Leaders of seven South and Southeast Asian nations (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand) met to discuss regional trade, economic cooperation, security and peace.
(AP, 8/30/18)
2018 Sep 6, It was reported that police in Thailand have arrested 12 people who shared a Facebook post about a British tourist's allegation that police had refused to accept her rape complaint on the island of Koh Tao in June.
(AP, 9/6/18)
2018 Sep 7, Speaking in Thailand on the sidelines of a six-day climate conference Amjad Abdulla, the head negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), warned that island nations like Fiji and the Maldives are almost at the "point of no return" because of rising sea levels.
(AFP, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 9, In Thailand a six-day international meeting in Bangkok fell short of its aim of completing fruitful preparations to help an agreement be reached in December on guidelines for implementing the 2015 Paris climate change agreement. A top UN official said good progress was made on drafting a 'rule book' for the implementation of the 2015 Paris accord before a summit in Poland this December.
(AP, 9/9/18)(Reuters, 9/9/18)
2018 Sep 10, Police in Thailand shut down a forum organized by foreign journalists to discuss whether senior military officers in Myanmar should face justice for alleged human rights abuses committed by their forces against Rohingya Muslims and other ethnic minorities.
(AP, 9/10/18)
2018 Sep 10, A wildlife monitoring group says research it has conducted since 2016 has found a sharp increase in the number of people belonging to Facebook groups in Thailand where endangered animals are bought and sold.
(AP, 9/10/18)
2018 Sep 11, The legal aid group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said Thailand's military government has arrested alleged sympathizers of a tiny political movement advocating the abolishment of the constitutional monarchy, seizing as evidence T-shirts bearing the group's logo of a red and white flag. At least five people have been detained in the past week and four charged with sedition.
(AP, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 12, Thailand enacted laws that set in motion a countdown leading to new elections by next May.
(AP, 9/13/18)
2018 Sep 13, Thailand police seized 917 kg (2,020 pounds) of marijuana and arrested six people.
(AP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 14, In Thailand a special order issued by the prime minister became law following its publication in the Royal Gazette. It allows political parties to gather funds to operate and, with the ruling junta's permission, recruit party members and choose new leaders.
(AP, 9/14/18)
2018 Sep 14, The US government imposed sanctions on a Thailand-based company it says provides services to an Iranian airline that Washington accuses of supporting terrorist activities directed by Iran's government.
(AP, 9/14/18)
2018 Sep 15, In Thailand police arrested three people and charged them with possession of 2,060 grams (73 ounces) of crystal methamphetamine bought from a gang of Africans in Thailand.
(AP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 16, In northern Thailand a landslide at a refugee camp left one person dead and seven missing at the Mae La Oon refugee camp, which houses about 9,000 people, mostly members of the Karen ethnic minority from Myanmar.
(AP, 9/17/18)
2018 Sep 16, Thai police discovered 10 million methamphetamine pills and 37 kg (81 pounds) of heroin hidden under sacks of chicken manure.
(AP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 19, In southern Thailand suspected insurgents killed one person and wounded four others in a roadside ambush in Yala province. Police suspected the assault was carried out by Muslim separatists.
(AP, 9/20/18)
2018 Sep 25, Police in northern Thailand said they have discovered the buried bodies of a missing British expatriate and his Thai wife, and have arrested the woman's brother for allegedly ordering their murder. The dead couple, who had been together for 30 years, had been dead for about a week.
(AP, 9/25/18)
2018 Sep 25, Thai police handed over around 100 kg (220 pounds) of seized marijuana for medical research, as officials seek to produce pot-based medication.
(AP, 9/25/18)
2018 Sep 25, A Thai court convicted nine young Muslim men from southern Thailand of planning to set off a car bomb in the capital, in a case in which many of the defendants said they were tortured into making false confessions.
(AP, 9/25/18)
2018 Sep 26, A court in Thailand gave a second life sentence to Xaysana Keophimpha, a drug kingpin from Laos, whose social connections to various celebrities were exposed by his arrest.
(AP, 9/26/18)
2018 Sep 27, A court in Thailand convicted a local businessman of fraud for selling fake bomb detectors to the Thai government, five years after a court in the United Kingdom sentenced the British head of the company that supplied them to seven years in prison in a scandal that was worldwide in scale.
(AP, 9/27/18)
2018 Sep 28, In Thailand General Apirat Kongsompong (58) took command as the new chief of the army. The royalist general will oversee a return to barracks to make way for a civilian government after nearly five years of military rule.
(Reuters, 9/28/18)
2018 Sep 29, In Thailand 4 ministers from the military government launched a new political party, amid speculation they will back PM Prayuth Chan-ocha to remain in power beyond a general election promised by May. The Palang Pracharat party will be led by Industry Minister Uttama Savanayana, who vowed to help Thailand overcome its political divide.
(Reuters, 9/29/18)
2018 Oct 7, In Thailand suspected teenage gang members were involved in a shooting that killed a nearby Indian tourist and injured four others, two critically, outside a Bangkok shopping arcade.
(AP, 10/8/18)
2018 Oct 10, In Thailand Panthongtae Shinawatra, the son of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, was indicted on charges of laundering 10 million baht ($303,500) linked to a 2015 corruption case involving Krungthai Bank.
(AP, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 11, Thai authorities convicted 70 Pakistani asylum seekers of staying illegally in Thailand despite their protestations that they face persecution if they are sent home, as police intensified a crackdown on illegal immigration.
(AP, 10/11/18)
2018 Oct 22, Thai rappers uploaded the song "Prathet Ku Mee" (Which is My Country), to YouTube. It soon racked up more than 6.4 million views and tens of thousands of comments since it went live on the platform, prompting authorities to take notice. The video features rappers from the Rap Against Dictatorship collective dishing out barbs about the military and blasting corruption, censorship and the lack of elections.
(AFP, 10/27/18)
2018 Oct 24, In Thailand Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad met with PM Prayuth Chan-ocha and discussed peace talks in Thailand's southern border provinces.
(AP, 10/24/18)
2018 Oct 27, In central England Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, a Thai tycoon and owner of the Leicester City soccer club, was among five people on board a helicopter that crashed and then exploded after a Premier League match. Vichai was the fifth-richest person in Thailand with an estimated net worth of $4.9 billion.
(Reuters, 10/28/18)
2018 Nov 7, Thailand's Supreme Court restored a 37-year prison term given to Vivat Yodprasert, convicted of shooting four people during 2014 political violence. He was dubbed the "Popcorn Gunman" because he opened fire with an assault rifle concealed in a sack with the word "POPCORN" emblazoned on it.
(AP, 11/7/18)
2018 Nov 7, Police in Thailand arrested Sgt. Maj. Jakkrit Khomsing (43), an HIV-infected soldier, who allegedly blackmailed and raped more than 70 teenage boys.
(AP, 11/8/18)
2018 Nov 10, In Thailand a 13-year-old boy was knocked out during a kickboxing match and died two days later from a brain hemorrhage. This was his 174th match in a career that began at age 8. His death sparked debate over whether to ban matches involving children. The death of Anucha Tasako came after a Muay Thai boxing match in the Bangkok suburb of Samut Prakarn.
(AP, 11/13/18)(AP, 11/19/18)
2018 Nov 17, Officials recovered a boat that sank in rough weather off Thailand's southern resort island of Phuket in July, killing 47 Chinese tourists. Two tour boats sank off Phuket on July 5.
(AP, 11/17/18)
2018 Nov 20, Thai police arrested British brothers Joseph Michael Mulhare and Gregory Michael Mulhare wanted on drug trafficking charges in their homeland.
(AP, 11/23/18)
2018 Nov 27, Thailand detained soccer player Hakeem al-Araibi, who held refugee status in Australia, upon his entry at Bangkok's airport on a holiday with his wife. He was held legally following a request from Bahrain's government. He had fled Bahrain four years ago.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Nov 28, In northeastern Thailand a man was killed by a wild elephant after his speeding car hit the animal near Khao Yai National Park.
(AP, 11/29/18)
2018 Dec 4, In Thailand Islam's guiding council introduced new regulations requiring that marriages of children under age 17 be approved by a religious committee.
(AP, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 7, Rath Rott Mony (47), a Cambodian labor activist, was arrested in Bangkok as he attempted to travel to the Netherlands with his family after helping produce a sex-trafficking documentary for the Russia Today channel in October. Cambodia has dismissed the documentary as fake.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 9, The Australian government called for Hakeem al-Araibi, an Australian-based refugee soccer player, to be immediately released from detention in Thailand.
(AP, 12/9/18)
2018 Dec 11, Thailand's military government lifted a ban on political activities it imposed when it seized power in a coup more than four years ago, an action taken in preparation for elections promised for early next year.
(AP, 12/11/18)
2018 Dec 11, A Thai court ruled that soccer player Hakeem al-Araibi, who holds refugee status in Australia, can be held for 60 days pending the completion of an extradition request by Bahrain. In 2014 Bahrain sentenced him in absentia to 10 years in prison for vandalizing a police station, a charge he denies.
(AP, 12/11/18)
2018 Dec 12, In Thailand a local policeman was arrested for allegedly shooting and killing Malik Djamel, a French man, at a shopping plaza in Bangkok. Police said Senior Sgt.-Maj. Kantapong Huadsri had confessed to killing the man over an argument involving a woman, but that the dispute was not a love triangle.
(AP, 12/12/18)
2018 Dec 17, In Thailand Catriona Gray (24) of the Philippines was named Miss Universe 2018 in the 67th competition held in Bangkok, besting contestants from 93 other countries
(AP, 12/17/18)
2018 Dec 17, In Thailand Sului Piew (2), a son of migrant workers from Myanmar, went missing when he went out to play near the sugarcane plantation where his parents work. A 3-year-old friend told her parents that she saw Sului being abducted. Piew's body was found on Dec. 25 in a sugarcane plantation a few miles from where he disappeared.
(AP, 12/24/18)(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 22, Human rights groups along with current and former soccer players on called on FIFA and the Australian government to intervene to stop the extradition of Hakeem al-Araibi, a Melbourne-based refugee and semi-professional soccer player, from Thailand to Bahrain.
(AP, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 25, Thailand's legislature agreed to amend the country's drug law to allow the licensed medical use of marijuana, as well as kratom, a locally grown plant traditionally used as a stimulant and painkiller. The changes become law when published in the Royal Gazette.
(AP, 12/25/18)
2018 Dec 25, In northern Thailand two South Korean tourists died after the golf cart they were riding fell into the Nan river.
(AP, 12/27/18)
2018 Dec 27, It was reported that Thailand investigators have found Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan, the deputy prime minister, innocent of failing to declare assets a year after he was discovered to have several luxury watches that would have been out of reach of his government salary.
(AP, 12/27/18)
2018 Dec 28, In southern Thailand four people in Narathiwat were wounded by one of several bombs suspected of being planted by the Muslim insurgents. There was a shootout between security forces and suspected insurgents who attacked a defense outpost at a small rural village.
(AP, 12/29/18)
2018 Dec 29, In southern Thailand violence presumed to have been carried out by Muslim separatists continued for the fourth day in a row, with three paramilitary soldiers wounded and a female civilian shot dead in Pattani province.
(AP, 12/29/18)
2019 Jan 1, Thailand police said Sucheep Sornsung (41) shot and killed six family members, including his two young children, before killing himself after a New Year's party in southern Chumphon province.
(Reuters, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 2, In Thailand tens of thousands of tourists fled popular islands and resort areas as Tropical Storm Pabuk closed in and threatened to batter the southern part of the kingdom with heavy rains, winds and seven-meter (22-foot) waves.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 4, In southern Thailand one person was reported dead and another missing as rain, wind and surging seawater as Tropical Storm Pabuk buffeted coastal villages and world-famous tourist resorts, knocking down trees and utility poles and flooding roads.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 6, In Thailand Rahaf Mohammed M Alqunun, a Saudi woman held at Bangkok airport, said she would be killed if she was repatriated by Thai immigration officials, who confirmed the 18-year-old was denied entry to the country.
(AFP, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 7, The head of Thailand's immigration police said that Saudi woman Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun (18), who was stopped in Bangkok as she was trying to travel to Australia for asylum to escape alleged abuse by her family, will not be sent anywhere against her wishes.
(AP, 1/7/19)
2019 Jan 8, In Thailand about 200 protesters staged a rare demonstration, demanding that there be no further delays in holding elections, which were expected next month but have been put in doubt.
(AP, 1/8/19)
2019 Jan 10, In southern Thailand four paramilitary volunteers were killed while guarding a school in Pattani province.
(AP, 1/10/19)
2019 Jan 11, Thailand's immigration police chief said Saudi woman Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, who fled alleged abuse by her family, will leave Bangkok for Canada.
(AP, 1/11/19)
2019 Jan 15, In Thailand Anastasia Vashukevich, a model from Belarus who claimed last year that she had evidence of Russian involvement in helping elect Donald Trump president, pleaded guilty in a court in Pattaya in a case related to holding a sex training seminar and will be deported. She and seven co-defendants were given suspended 18-month prison terms and fines.
(AP, 1/15/19)
2019 Jan 18, In southern Thailand gunmen presumed to be Muslim insurgents stormed a Buddhist temple in Narathiwat province, killing two monks and wounding two others.
(AP, 1/19/19)
2019 Jan 22, Thailand police said DNA tests show that two bodies found washed up on the shore of the Mekong River in the northeast are the corpses of anti-government activists. The two, known by the pseudonyms Puchana and Kasalong, were among three exiled activists who disappeared in December from homes in Laos, where they took shelter after fleeing Thailand.
(AP, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 30, In Thailand more than 400 schools in Bangkok were shut for the rest of the week due to increasing concern over dangerously unhealthy air pollution.
(AP, 1/30/19)
2019 Jan 31, In Thailand a fleet of drones, trucks and small planes sprayed water to try to reduce air pollution around Bangkok while the city's governor invited critics to brainstorm better ideas to improve the air quality in the capital.
(AP, 1/31/19)
2019 Feb 6, Thailand's government insisted it cannot free detained soccer player Hakeem al-Araibi, who has refugee status in Australia, until hearings on Bahrain's request for his extradition are completed.
(AP, 2/6/19)
2019 Feb 8, Thailand Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi (67) shocked the nation when she announced she would be the sole prime ministerial candidate for the party, which is loyal to ousted ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra. King Maha Vajiralongkorn called her announcement inappropriate" and unconstitutional. She lost her special royal titles more than four decades ago when she married a commoner, an American, but is still called and widely regarded as a princess.
(Reuters, 2/8/19)(AP, 2/8/19)
2019 Feb 9, The Thai Raksa Chart Party swore loyalty to the king a day after its stunning decision to nominate the monarch's sister as its candidate for prime minister backfired when the king called the move inappropriate and unconstitutional.
(AP, 2/9/19)
2019 Feb 11, A Thai court ordered the release of refugee soccer player Hakeem al-Araibi after prosecutors said they were no longer seeking his extradition to Bahrain in a case that had drawn worldwide attention.
(AP, 2/11/19)
2019 Feb 12, Thailand's telecoms regulator suspended the operating license of a television channel linked to ousted former PM Thaksin Shinawatra weeks ahead of a general election, citing national security concerns.
(Reuters, 2/12/19)
2019 Feb 13, Thailand's Election Commission said it recommended the Thai Raksa Chart Party be dissolved because its prime minister candidate was "in conflict with the system of rule of democracy with king as head of state".
(AP, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 15, In Thailand the Pheu Thai, the flagship party of the political machine of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, held its first rally in Bangkok, as campaigning heats up for the first election since a 2014 military coup.
(AP, 2/15/19)
2019 Feb 20, A Thai court ruled that Dmitry Ukrainsky, a Russian man who allegedly was part of a gang that stole millions of dollars online from bank accounts, can be extradited to the United States to stand trial. However, Ukrainsky's extradition to Russia was previously approved last year by a Thai court after he agreed to return there after he finishes serving a 10-year, 8-month prison term in Thailand for fraud, money laundering and conducting business illegally as a foreigner.
(AP, 2/20/19)
2019 Feb 26, In southern Thailand two police officers were abducted and later found dead in a ditch in Narathiwat province, with the pickup truck of one of the officers stolen and set on fire.
(AP, 2/27/19)
2019 Feb 28, Thailand's legislature passed a cybersecurity bill that would allow authorities access to people's personal information without a court order.
(AP, 2/28/19)
2019 Mar 7, A court in Thailand ordered the dissolution of the Thai Raksa Chart Party ahead of this month's general election because it nominated a member of the royal family to be its candidate for prime minister.
(AP, 3/7/19)
2019 Mar 24, Thailand held its first election since a 2014 military coup. Preliminary results indicated that Thailand's military-backed party won the most votes in the country's first election since a 2014 coup.
(AP, 3/24/19)(AP, 3/25/19)
2019 Mar 27, In Thailand the leader of the Pheu Thai party, which headed the last elected government, and the leaders of five other parties held a news conference to say they believed they had won more than 250 seats in the 500-seat lower house.
(AP, 3/27/19)
2019 Mar 29, Thailand's Election Commission, facing widespread criticism for inconsistent and delayed vote totals from the March 24 general election, said computer software was partly to blame.
(AP, 3/29/19)
2019 Mar 30, Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn revoked royal decorations that had been awarded to ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a document published in the royal gazette. The royal command was for Thaksin's 2008 corruption conviction and for fleeing the country to escape a two-year prison sentence.
(AP, 3/30/19)
2019 Mar 31, Thai demonstrators protested against alleged cheating in the junta-ruled kingdom's first election since a 2014 coup, a week after the controversial poll sowed confusion over the ballot results.
(AFP, 3/31/19)
2019 Apr 2, The air hanging over Thailand's far north has become so polluted, PM Prayuth Chan-ocha went to see in person what is being called a severe health crisis.
(AP, 4/2/19)
2019 Apr 3, Thailand's ruling military junta filed a complaint accusing Thanathorn Juangroongruangki, the leader of the new Future Forward political party, of sedition and aiding criminals. He described the move as politically motivated.
(AP, 4/3/19)
2019 Apr 5, Thailand election officials said that 66 winning candidates in last month's elections face possible disqualification because of complaints filed against them.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 5, In southern Thailand two Border Patrol Police officers were killed while praying in a mosque in the latest violence believed linked to a Muslim separatist insurgency.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 6, In Thailand Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the leader of a popular new political party that ran a strong third in last month's general election, was formally charged with sedition and expressed concern that he is to be tried in a military court. 13 foreign diplomats were present at a Bangkok police station where Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, leader of a popular new political party, acknowledged charges of sedition and other crimes. Thanathorn says the charges are politically motivated.
(AP, 4/6/19)(AP, 4/10/19)
2019 Apr 10, In Thailand a fire broke out at one of Bangkok's biggest mall complexes, killing at least two people and injuring more than a dozen.
(AP, 4/10/19)
2019 Apr 18, Thai authorities raided a floating home in the Andaman Sea belonging to an American man and his Thai partner who sought to be pioneers in the "seasteading" movement, which promotes living in international waters to be free of any nation's laws. Thailand's navy said Chad Elwartowski and Supranee Thepdet endangered national sovereignty.
(AP, 4/18/19)
2019 Apr 19, In Thailand a three-day festival began in Buriram town, the latest showcase for the use of cannabis for pain relief. Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize marijuana for medical purposes last year.
(AP, 4/20/19)
2019 Apr 20, The Thai navy boarded the floating cabin of a fugitive US citizen and his Thai girlfriend, both prominent members of the "seasteading" movement who possibly face the death sentence for setting up their offshore home. Thai authorities said the structure is in its 200-mile exclusive economic zone and therefore a violation of its sovereignty.
(Reuters, 4/20/19)
2019 Apr 22, The leaders of Cambodia and Thailand met at the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet to mark the ceremonial reopening of a rail link that will restore train service between the two countries after more than four decades.
(AP, 4/22/19)
2019 May 1, In Thailand an announcement in the Royal Gazette said Suthida Vajiralongkorn Na Ayudhya (40) is legally married to King Maha Vajiralongkorn (66), and is now Queen Suthida.
(AP, 5/1/19)
2019 May 4, Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn (66) completed Buddhist and Brahmin rituals to symbolically transform him into a living god as the Southeast Asian nation crowned its first monarch in nearly seven decades.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 7, Thailand's Election Commission officially endorsed the results from the country's March 24 general election, declaring that the Pheu Thai Party associated with fugitive former PM Thaksin Shinawatra topped the field by winning 136 constituencies. The commission said the rival military-backed Palang Pracharath Party trailed it with 97 seats.
(AP, 5/07/19)
2019 May 8, Thailand's Election Commission allocated the 150 party list seats in the 500-member House of Representatives under a formula related to the proportion of each party's nationwide popular vote total. Twenty-six parties were granted seats, 14 of them one apiece.
(AP, 5/08/19)
2019 May 10, In Thailand student activist Jatupat Boonpattararaksa, also known as Pai Dao Din, who was arrested in Dec. 2016 for sharing a BBC article about Thailand's king on Facebook, was released under a royal pardon. He had been due to complete his sentence on June 19.
(AP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 10, Human Rights Watch said three Thai activists facing charges of insulting the monarchy have disappeared after reportedly being arrested in Vietnam. Chucheep Chiwasut, who broadcasts political commentary to Thailand from exile, and fellow activists Siam Theerawut and Kritsana Thapthai were reportedly turned over to Thai authorities by Vietnam on May 8.
(Reuters, 5/10/19)
2019 May 16, Thailand's Election Commission recommended that Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the leader of major political party opposed to military rule, be barred from taking his seat in the soon-to-be-convened parliament because he is accused of violating electoral rules.
(AP, 5/16/19)
2019 May 22, An appeals court in Thailand upheld a 10 million baht ($313,000) judgment against British activist Andy Hall, who was sued by a fruit canning company whose workers complained of alleged labor abuses. The case was one of several stemming from a 2013 report Hall researched for Finnish consumer organization Finnwatch that included allegations by migrant workers from Myanmar at Natural Fruit's canning operation that the company abused them and broke labor regulations.
(AP, 5/22/19)
2019 May 23, A Thai court blocked the leader of a new anti-junta political party from taking his seat in Parliament while it determines whether he violated election rules. Future Forward Party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, was accused of breaking electoral law by holding shares in a media company.
(AP, 5/23/19)
2019 May 23, International police group Interpol said that nine people had been arrested in Thailand, Australia and the US and 50 children had been rescued after investigators took down an online pedophilia ring.
(AFP, 5/23/19)
2019 May 26, Former Thailand PM Prem Tinsulanonda (98) died in Bangkok. He as an army commander, prime minister (1980-1988) and adviser (1998-2019) to the royal palace and was one of Thailand's most influential political figures over four decades.
(AP, 5/26/19)
2019 May 31, In Thailand three Thai men were found guilty of murdering British expat Alan Hogg and his wife Nhot Suddaen last September, and were sentenced to death.
(AP, 5/31/19)
2019 Jun 5, Thailand's Parliament convened for a vote that is expected to keep Prayuth Chan-ocha as prime minister five years after he seized power in a military coup.
(AP, 6/5/19)
2019 Jun 6, A Thai court sentenced former PM Thaksin Shinawatra in absentia to two years in prison over his handling of a state lottery program he initiated while in office more than a decade ago.
(AP, 6/6/19)
2019 Jun 11, Thailand's junta leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha was officially proclaimed prime minister after the king endorsed Parliament's vote for him to serve another term.
(AP, 6/11/19)
2019 Jun 11, Thai construction tycoon Premchai Karnasuta was sentenced to an additional one year in prison for bribing a park ranger in relation to a high-profile case of poaching endangered animals in a wildlife sanctuary last year.
(AP, 6/11/19)
2019 Jun 11, Thai officials discovered 65 ethnic Rohingya Muslim refugees who were shipwrecked and stranded in southern Thailand.
(AP, 6/11/19)
2019 Jun 15, In Thailand Francesco Galdelli (58) and Vanja Goffi (45) were arrested at a house on the outskirts Pattaya after an operation between Thai and Italian authorities. Francesco confessed to claiming to be George Clooney and opening a clothes business to trick people into sending money. The couple is also wanted in Italy for multiple scams including selling fake Rolex watches online.
(AP, 6/16/19)
2019 Jun 23, Southeast Asian leaders meeting in Thailand pressed their call for self-restraint in the disputed South China Sea and renewed their alarm over the US-China trade war. ASEAN leaders agreed to work together on the region's economy and security to strengthen their position to face growing US-China tensions, as they wrapped up their summit in Bangkok.
(AP, 6/23/19)(Reuters, 6/23/19)
2019 Jun 26, A Thai court said it will allow 32 pro-military lawmakers to keep their seats while it decides whether they violated election rules by holding shares in media companies.
(AP, 6/26/19)
2019 Jun 27, The Serbian government decided to grant citizenship to Thailand's former PM Yingluck Shinawatra, citing a legal provision that "a foreign citizen can also be granted Serbian citizenship if that is in line with the country's interests".
(Reuters, 8/8/19)
2019 Jun 28, Thai activist Sirawith Seritiwat, who opposes the military's role in politics, was assaulted and left unconscious in the second attack on him this month.
(AP, 6/28/19)
2019 Jul 26, In Thailand new legislation published in the Royal Gazette exempted King Maha Vajiralongkorn from tax on some of his land property. The Thai king has been listed as the world's richest monarch. Business Insider estimated his personal wealth at more than $30 billion in 2018.
(Reuters, 7/28/19)
2019 Aug 2, Asia-Pacific foreign ministers meeting in Thailand called for the peaceful resolution to regional disputes at the close of an annual security meeting, which was eclipsed by the US-China rivalry and a deepening trade spat between Japan and South Korea.
(AP, 8/2/19)
2019 Aug 2, In Thailand six small bombs and six incendiary devices went off as the foreign ministers of Southeast Asian nations met in Bangkok, an event also attended by diplomats from China, the United States and other world powers.
(Reuters, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 7, Thailand delivered 4,500 bottles of cannabis oil to treat hospital patients, its first official use of marijuana for medical purposes since a measure legalizing such use took effect this year.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 14, Thai authorities issued arrest warrants for four more suspects believed to be responsible for a series of bomb attacks as the capital hosted an Aug. 2 diplomatic meeting.
(Reuters, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 17, In Thailand an orphaned baby dugong rescued earlier this year died due to pieces of plastic clogging her digestive system.
(Reuters, 8/17/19)
2019 Aug 21, Thai chemicals company Indorama Ventures said it has committed $1.5 billion of investment in recycling as consumers become more aware of the environmental impact of single-use plastic and regulators push for more recycling.
(AP, 8/21/19)
2019 Sep 17, Thailand's PM Prayuth Chan-ocha defended police for requesting information about minority Muslim students from universities around the country, after criticism of the move as discriminatory and illegal.
(Reuters, 9/17/19)
2019 Oct 4, In southern Thailand Judge Khanakorn Pianchana shot himself in court and was hospitalized after delivering a not guilty verdict in the case of five Muslim suspects charged with murder in the predominantly Buddhist country's restive south.
(Reuters, 10/5/19)
2019 Oct 9, A Thailand minister said foreigners in the "risky" over-50 age group will have to present proof of health insurance when applying for Thai long-term non-immigrant visas, so the government doesn't have to pick up their medical bills.
(Reuters, 10/9/19)
2019 Oct 11, Thailand army chief General Apirat Kongsompong strongly criticized opposition politicians and academics. He accused them of colluding to brainwash and mobilize young people and of having "communist" ideas to overthrow the monarchy.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 21, Thailand's King Maja Vajiralongkorn (67) stripped his royal consort, Sineenatra Wongvajirabhakdi (34), of her titles and military ranks for disloyalty. This came just three months after he granted her the consort title.
(SFC, 10/23/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 25, The United States suspended duty-free treatment for $1.3 billion worth of Thai imports, including seafood products, under its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, saying Thailand did not "afford workers in Thailand internationally recognized worker rights." The tariffs that would take effect in six months would be 4-5% instead of zero.
(Reuters, 10/27/19)
2019 Nov 3, In Thailand Southeast Asian leaders, worried by the US-China trade war, pushed for a deal on what could be the world's largest trade bloc as officials worked behind the scenes to try to salvage progress following new demands from India.
(Reuters, 11/3/19)
2019 Nov 3, Speaking in Thailand at a meeting of ASEAN leaders UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern over the plight of the 730,000 Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar's Rakhine state, calling on Myanmar's government to take responsibility by dealing with the "root causes" of their flight to Bangladesh and working toward their safe repatriation.
(AP, 11/3/19)
2019 Nov 4, China joined 14 ASEAN countries meeting in Thailand in agreeing terms for what could be the world's biggest trade pact. India pulled out at the last minute on the grounds that the deal would hurt its farmers, businesses, workers and consumers.
(Reuters, 11/4/19)
2019 Nov 4, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe had an 11-minute conversation on the sidelines of an international conference in Bangkok, the first time they had met in more than a year. They reaffirmed the principle of resolving pending bilateral issues through dialogue.
(Reuters, 11/6/19)(SFC, 11/15/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 6, In southern Thailand gunmen killed 15 village defense volunteers and wounded five security personnel.
(SFC, 11/7/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 20, Pope Francis arrived in Thailand as part of a two-country tour to boost the morale of Thailand's and Japan's minority Catholic communities.
(SFC, 11/21/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 21, Pope Francis urged more efforts to combat the “humiliation" of women and children forced into prostitution as he began a busy visit to Thailand, where human trafficking and poverty help fuel the sex tourism industry.
(AP, 11/21/19)
2019 Nov 25, In northern Thailand a wild deer was found dead in a national park with seven kg of plastic waste and other trash in its stomach. Officials estimated that the 10-year-old deer had died at least two days earlier.
(AP, 11/27/19)
2019 Dec 5, The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Border Force (ABF) issued a joint statement saying three people have been charged with importing 1,633 kg (3,600 lbs.) of methamphetamine and heroin into Australia by hiding them inside of stereo speakers originating from Bangkok, Thailand.
(Insider, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 12, The body-folding, sharp-elbowed techniques of Thai massage was added to UNESCO's prestigious heritage list.
(AFP, 12/12/19)
2019 Dec 24, A court in Thailand sentenced reporter Suchainee Cloitre to two years in prison for criminal libel for a comment she tweeted about a labor abuse grievance at a poultry farm. The case was one of twenty launched by the Thammakaset Co. against 25 workers, activists and journalists.
(SFC, 12/25/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec, Japanese carmaker Mazda shifted production of its SUVs from Thailand to Japan.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.29)
2019 In Southeast Asia the Mekong River fell to its lowest level since records began more than 60 years ago. A study in 2020 claimed that 11 dams built on the Chinese portion of the river had exacerbated the water shortage affecting Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Brian Eyler authored "The Last Days of the Mighty Mekong."
(https://tinyurl.com/y767b5m6)(Econ., 5/16/20, p.30)
2020 Jan 6, Thailand opened its first full-time clinic specializing in traditional and alternative cannabis-based medicine, as part of a move by the government towards developing a medicinal cannabis industry.
(Reuters, 1/6/20)
2020 Jan 9, In Thailand a masked assailant killed three people, including a boy (2) in a shooting spree late today at a shopping mall in Lopburi province.
(SFC, 1/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Jan 12, In Thailand thousands of anti-government demonstrators took part in "Run Against Dictatorship" in Bangkok in the country's biggest political rally in years.
(SFC, 1/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jan 13, The WHO said that Thai officials have reported that a traveler from the Chinese city of Wuhan has been hospitalized in Thailand with a recently identified new type of coronavirus. The report galvanized leaders in Beijing into recognizing the possible pandemic before them.
(AP, 1/13/20)(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Jan 26, The health minister in Thailand, the country with the most confirmed cases outside China of the new coronavirus, called an emergency meeting with the transport and tourism ministries amid rising public discontent over the government's handling of the illness.
(Reuters, 1/26/20)
2020 Feb 8, In northeastern Thailand a soldier shot multiple people and was holed up in a shopping mall in Nakhon Ratchasima. The suspect was identified as Sgt. Jakrapanth Thomma. It took Thai police sharpshooters 16 hours to Thomma and end the crisis that left 29 dead.
(https://tinyurl.com/yacu34x5)(AP, 2/8/20)(AP, 2/9/20)(Econ., 5/9/20, p.29)
2020 Feb 14, In Thailand villagers along the Mekong River asked a court in Bangkok to slow down Thai purchases of electricity from a hydropower dam in Laos, which they say has harmed their livelihoods since it began operation last year. The start of its full commercial operation last year coincided with parts of the Mekong River drying to a trickle.
(Reuters, 2/14/20)
2020 Feb 17, Thailand's army agreed to transfer management control of 160,000 hectares of commercial land to the finance ministry in a drive to reform its business practices after a soldier went on a shooting spree over a property deal gone sour.
(Reuters, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 20, China said it was helping its downstream neighbors cope with a prolonged drought by releasing more water from its dams on the Mekong River, adding it would consider sharing information on hydrology to provide further assistance in the future. The drought over the past year has severely hurt farming and fishing in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
(Reuters, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 21, A Thai court dissolved a high-profile opposition political party, the Future Forward Party, ruling that it illegally took a 191.2 million baht ($6.04 million) loan from its billionaire leader. The court also banned party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, heir to an auto parts fortune, and 15 other party executive board members from politics for 10 years.
(Reuters, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 26, Thailand reported three new cases of coronavirus, taking its total tally to 40.
(AP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb, General Motors pulled its car production out of Thailand.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.29)
2020 Mar 5, Thailand reported four new cases of coronavirus, bringing its total to 47 since January.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 8, Dozens of Thai lawmakers from a prominent opposition party that was dissolved last month said they will join a new party together to keep their parliamentary seats. 55 members of parliament of the disbanded party will be officially joining an existing party called Move Forward Party together next week.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 13, Thailand reported five new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 75.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 15, Thailand reported 32 new cases of the coronavirus in the largest daily jump in infections since the outbreak began, bringing its total tally to 114.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 17, In southern Thailand bombers attacked a major government office as hundreds of local officials and Muslim clerics met to discuss fighting COVID-19. At least 20 people were reported hurt.
(SFC, 3/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 20, The Bank of Thailand held a special meeting and cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 0.75%.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.29)
2020 Mar 21, Thailand’s capital imposed a partial shutdown from March 22 after novel coronavirus cases surged past 400 with a rising number of people in critical condition.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 22, Thailand reported 188 more coronavirus cases, the highest daily increase so far, bringing the total to 599.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 23, Amnesty Int'l. said new conscripts in Thailand military are physically, sexually and mentally abused with some cases amounting to torture.
(SFC, 3/24/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 23, Ford Motor Co it has decided to temporarily halt vehicle and engine production at its factories in India, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam in response to the growing impact of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 24, Thailand PM Prayuth Chan-ocha announced that his cabinet has agreed to declare a state of emergency to implement stricter measures to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. The one-month state of emergency takes effect March 26. There were just under 900 diagnosed cases of the virus in the country.
(Good Morning America, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 26, Thailand has reported a total of 1,045 cases of coronavirus and four deaths since the outbreak started in January. Honda's Thai business said it would suspend operations at two factories after Thailand declared a state of emergency to curb the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 28, Thailand reported 109 new coronavirus cases and one death, bringing the total to 1,245 infections and six deaths.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 29, In northeastern Thailand prisoners set fire to the canteen of Buriram Prison and several inmates escaped during a riot that was sparked by rumors of a coronavirus outbreak. The total number of coronavirus cases reached 1,388, with 143 new cases reported today. One new coronavirus death was reported, bringing the total in Thailand to seven.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 2, It was reported that one-third of Thailand’s population has registered for government cash handouts designed to soften the blow of the novel coronavirus outbreak, far exceeding the funds available for the policy.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 4, In Thailand cases of coronavirus rose to 2,067 after 89 new reports. The Southeast Asian nation also reported one new death, bringing total to 20. A security official was removed after he allowed more than 100 returning citizens to proceed home. The errant travelers were ordered to report to authorities.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)(SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 11, Thailand reported 45 new coronavirus infections and two more deaths.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 17, Thai PM Prayuth Chan-ocha called on the country's 20 richest people to help in addressing the damaging economic fall-out from the coronavirus epidemic. Thailand has reported 2,700 COVID-19 infections and 47 deaths, and the economic blow from losses of trade and tourism and restrictions on movement has been heavy.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 21, Thailand stepped up efforts to tackle sexual harassment, pledging to protect victims who come forward and to investigate complaints of abuse experienced by one in five Thais.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 25, Thailand reported 53 new coronavirus cases and the death of a 48-year-old Thai man who was infected with the virus along with four other family members. Thailand has reported a total of 2,907 cases and 51 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 26, Thailand reported 15 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing the total number of cases since its outbreak in January to 2,922 cases and 51 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 May 2, Thailand reported six new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 2,966. Since Thailand first detected the coronavirus in January, a total of 54 patients have died.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 3, Thailand reported three new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, as the country started lifting restrictions on some businesses and aspects of life. Thailand has seen a total of 2,969 coronavirus cases and 54 deaths since the outbreak began in January. Residents of Bangkok enjoyed their first day of eased coronavirus restrictions.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A4)
2020 May 9, Thailand reported four new coronavirus cases and one more death, bringing the total to 3,004 cases and 56 deaths since the outbreak started in January.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 10, Thailand reported five new coronavirus cases but no deaths, bringing the total to 3,009 cases and 56 deaths since the outbreak started in the country in January. These numbers did not include four more infected people from the resort island of Phuket.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 13, In Thailand professional chefs started cooking up around 40,000 lunches in Bangkok for communities affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Thailand reported no new daily cases for the first time in two months.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 16, Thailand reported no new coronavirus cases or deaths as the country begins to reopen businesses and ease restrictions. Thailand extended a ban on international passenger flights until the end of June. A previous order was set to run until the end of May. Thailand has reported a total of 3,025 cases of the coronavirus and 56 fatalities.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 17, Thailand reported three additional cases of the new coronavirus, bringing its total cases to 3,028 as the country relaxes local restrictions and re-opens malls and department stores.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 23, Thailand began trials of an experimental coronavirus vaccine using monkeys, one of at least 100 potential vaccines in the works around the world.
(Reuters, 5/25/20)
2020 Jun 4, In Cambodia armed men snatched Thai dissident Wanchalearm Satsaksit (37) in front of his apartment in Phnom Penh. Wanchalearm was among 29 exiled Thai activists accused of violating Thailand’s lese majeste law, officially Section 112 of the Criminal Code. He fled Thailand after the coup in 2014, but had been summoned by the military before he fled.
(https://tinyurl.com/yav37vwe)(SFC, 6/6/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 2, Thailand said it would prohibit online sales of alcohol in a clampdown on underage drinking after a rise in sales during the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 16, It was reported that Tiwakorn Vithiton (45) has been admitted against his will to a psychiatric hospital after posting a photo online showing himself wearing a shirt with the motto "I have lost all faith in the institution of monarchy." The country's lese majeste law carries a punishment of 3-15 years in prison.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 24, Thailand officials said prosecutors have dropped all charges against Vorayuth Yoovidhya, a Thai heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune, who was accused of killing a Bangkok police officer in a Sept. 3, 2012, car crash. Prosecutors cited the fact the family members (of the police officer) have been compensated" by Vorayuth's family.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 29, Thailand's PM Prayuth Chan-ocha ordered a public probe into the dropping of criminal charges against Vorayuth Yoovidhya, a Thai heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 16, In Thailand thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in Bangkok for a rally that suggested their movement's strength may have extended beyond the college campuses where it has blossomed.
(AP, 8/16/20)(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 20, Thailand police arrested nine pro-democracy activists, including two rappers, in a crackdown on growing protests calling for PM Prayuth Chan-ocha and his administration to resign.
(SFC, 8/21/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 25, A Thai court issued a new arrest warrant for Vorayuth Yoovidhya, an heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune, for the 2012 death of a motorcycle policeman killed after being stuck by Yoovidhya's Ferrari. The heir's current location was not known.
(SFC, 8/26/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 30, In Thailand about 1,000 people, calling themselves "Thai Pakdee" (Loyal Thai), gathered in a Bangkok sports stadium to defend the country's monarchy. Anti-government demonstrations across the country have gathered momentum posing a challenge to the rule of PM Prayuth Chan-ocha.
(SFC, 8/31/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 1, In Thailand a panel appointed by PM Prayuth Chan-ocha said that a there was a conspiracy involving government officials, lawyers and a prosecutor to impeded the 2012 fatal hit-and-run case against Vorayuth Yoovidhya, an heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune.
(SFC, 9/2/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 3, Thailand reported its first domestic coronavirus transmission in more than 100 days, after a man recently jailed and with no overseas travel history tested positive in a Bangkok prison during a routine check for new inmates.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 11, Thai health authorities confirmed another coronavirus infection had been detected in the country, in an Uzbek professional soccer player, eight days after the virus resurfaced following a more than three-month absence.
(Reuters, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 19, In Thailand thousands of demonstrators defied police warnings and occupied a historic field in Bangkok to support the demands of a student-led protest movement for new elections and reform of the monarchy. This was the first of a 2-day protest.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, Sex workers in Thailand launched a petition calling for prostitution to be decriminalized and urging authorities to remove all penalties for selling sex. A current law made prostitution illegal in 1960.
(The Telegraph, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 20, In Thailand anti-government demonstrators occupying a historic field in Bangkok installed a plaque symbolizing the country's transition to democracy to replace the original one that was mysteriously ripped out and stolen three years ago, as they vowed to press on with calls for new elections and reform of the monarchy. The plaque was removed within 24 hours.
(AP, 9/20/20)(SFC, 9/22/20, p.A3)
2020 Sep 25, It was reported that Thailand is prosecuting Facebook, Google, and Twitter over a failure to remove what it says are illegal posts.
(BBC, 9/25/20)
2020 Oct 1, Lee Chung Chak (65), a Hong Kong citizen and senior leader of the Sam Gor group, was arrested by Thai narcotics police based on an arrest warrant issued by a Thai court, which followed an extradition request by the Australian authorities. In Jan. 2021, Tse Chi Lop, a China-born Canadian national suspected as the top leader of the syndicate, also called "The Company," was arrested in the Netherlands.
(Reuters, 2/5/21)
2020 Oct 3, The head of Thailand's state zoological agency was shot dead amid an investigation into the disappearance of rare animals from a zoo in Khao Rup Chang. The suspect, one of four officials being investigated, fled the scene and later killed himself.
(SSFC, 10/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Oct 8, Twitter said it has closed an Iran-based network of accounts fanning the flames around racial justice protests in the US sparked by the death of George Floyd. Twitter also said it had closed more than 900 accounts linked to the Thai army for attacking prominent opposition figures and diffusing pro-government and military propaganda.
(AFP, 10/9/20)
2020 Oct 9, It was reported that Angela Merkel’s government has warned Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn not to try to rule his country remotely from Germany.
(The Telegraph, 10/9/20)
2020 Oct 11, In central Thailand a bus-train collision killed 17 people in Chacheongsao.
(https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54497497)
2020 Oct 15, Thailand's government declared a strict new state of emergency for Bangkok, a day after a student-led protest against the country’s traditional establishment saw an extraordinary moment in which demonstrators heckled a royal motorcade. Several top leaders of the protest movement were taken into custody.
(AP, 10/15/20)
2020 Oct 16, Riot police in Thailand cracked down on thousands of student-led protesters who rallied in Bangkok in defiance of a strict state of emergency, while PM Prayuth Chan-ocha rejected calls for his resignation.
(AP, 10/16/20)
2020 Oct 17, Pro-democracy activists in Thailand staged a fourth straight day of high-profile protests in Bangkok, thwarting efforts by the authorities to stop them, including a shutdown of the city's mass transit systems.
(AP, 10/17/20)
2020 Oct 18, Thailand reported three additional locally transmitted cases of the coronavirus, a day after reporting its first local infections in more than a month.
(Reuters, 10/18/20)
2020 Oct 19, Thai authorities worked to stem a growing tide of protests calling for PM Prayuth Chan-ocha to resign by threatening to censor news coverage, raiding a publishing house and attempting to block the Telegram messaging app used by demonstrators.
(AP, 10/19/20)
2020 Oct 22, Thailand’s government canceled a state of emergency it had declared last week for Bangkok in a gesture offered by the embattled prime minister to cool student-led protests seeking democracy reforms.
(AP, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 25, In Thailand thousands of pro-democracy protesters gathered in Bangkok again, seeking to keep up pressure on the government a day before a special session of Parliament that was called to try to ease political tensions.
(AP, 10/25/20)
2020 Oct 26, Thailand's Parliament began a special two-day session to address political tensions resulting from the near-daily pro-democracy protests demanding the prime minister’s resignation, constitutional changes and reforms to the monarchy. Pro-democracy demonstrators in Thailand expanded their protests internationally, marching to the German Embassy to appeal to Angela Merkel’s government to investigate whether Thailand’s king has exercised political power during his extended stays in Bavaria.
(AP, 10/26/20)
2020 Nov 8, In Thailand pro-democracy protesters were confronted by riot police and sprayed by water cannons as they tried to approach Bangkok's Grand Palace to deliver letters about their political grievances addressed to the country's king.
(AP, 11/8/20)
2020 Nov 14, In Thailand numerous groups of pro-democracy protesters rallied in a "Mob Fest" calling for PM Prayuth Chan-ocha to step down.
(SSFC, 11/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Nov 26, Thailand said it has transferred three Iranians involved in a botched 2012 bomb plot back to Tehran, as Iran released an Australian academic who was imprisoned for more than two years on spying charges.
(AP, 11/26/20)
2020 Nov 29, In Thailand pro-democracy activists took to Bangkok's streets again, this time to protest the army as they push forward with their campaign for sweeping reforms, including to the nation's monarchy. The protesters believe that the army undermines democracy in Thailand, and that King Maha Vajiralongkorn wields too much power and influence in what is supposed to be a democratic constitutional monarchy.
(AP, 11/29/20)
2020 Dec 2, Thailand’s highest court acquitted Prayuth Chan-ocha of breaching ethics clauses in the country’s constitution, allowing him to stay in his job.
(AP, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 5, In Thailand thousands of monarchy loyalists greeted King Maha Vajiralongkorn as he led a birthday commemoration for his revered late father. In recent days at least 12 protest leaders have been charged with royal defamation under lese-majeste laws.
(SSFC, 12/6/20, p.A6)
2020 Dec 10, In Thailand pro-democracy demonstrators in Bangkok marked UN Human Rights Day with rallies calling for the abolition of Thailand’s strict royal defamation law, which was recently revived to prosecute more than 20 of the protest movement’s leaders.
(AP, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 18, Thailand said it has four new local coronavirus infections, just as the country has started reopening for tourists after months of keeping the virus at bay.
(Reuters, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 19, Thailand reported 548 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily tally in a country that had largely brought the pandemic under control. Most of the cases were connected to a shrimp market in Samut Sakhon province, near Bangkok.
(AP, 12/19/20)
2020 Dec 20, Thailand’s Disease Control Department said that they found 141 more cases linked to a shrimp market outbreak in Samut Sakhon province. Thousands of people lined up for coronavirus tests in the province.
(AP, 12/20/20)
2020 Dec 21, Thailand's PM Prayuth Chan-ocha called for calm and said there were no immediate plans for a wider lockdown after 382 new coronavirus infections were confirmed, the majority linked to the country's worst outbreak yet.
(AP, 12/21/20)
2020 Dec 23, Thailand confirmed 46 new coronavirus infections, of which 39 were locally transmitted cases found in several different province.
(Reuters, 12/23/20)
2020 Dec 24, Thailand confirmed 67 new coronavirus infections, of which nine were imported from overseas.
(AP, 12/24/20)
2020 Dec 25, Thailand confirmed 81 new coronavirus infections, of which nine were imported from abroad.
(Reuters, 12/25/20)
2020 Dec 26, Thai protesters demonstrated to demand more action to help seafood sellers hit by a COVID-19 outbreak as the government urged people to eat more shellfish.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 27, Thailand confirmed 121 new infections of the novel coronavirus, up from the 103 cases reported earlier in the day. the new cases included 94 domestic transmissions and 18 in migrant workers connected to an outbreak at a seafood market in Samut Sakhon, a province southwest of Bangkok. Infections connected to this cluster have spread to 38 provinces. Thailand has reported a total of 6,141 cases and 60 deaths.
(AP, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 28, Thailand announced its first coronavirus death in nearly two months and tightened restrictions on entertainment businesses in Bangkok, in a bid to contain an outbreak that has reached more than half of the country's provinces. Authorities confirmed 144 new infections as new clusters emerged stemming from its biggest outbreak yet.
(AP, 12/28/20)
2020 Dec 30, Thailand's tourist city of Pattaya and the surrounding district were placed under lockdown as the country continues to grapple with an intensifying outbreak of the coronavirus. Thailand imposed a ban on large gatherings and events across the country in an effort to contain its worst coronavirus epidemic yet during New Year.
(AP, 12/30/20)(Reuters, 12/30/20)
Thailand (B): xxxx
2021 Jan 1, The Thai capital of Bangkok said it will close all schools for two weeks after the New Year holiday as it tightens measures to control a new wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 4, Thailand registered 745 new coronavirus cases, with a new death reported in Bangkok, where a semi-lockdown went into effect. The new infections bring the total number since last January to 8,439, while the death toll has climbed to 65.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 5, Thailand confirmed 527 new coronavirus cases, most of them migrant workers who already were isolated, and the government said it was tightening movements of people around the country.
(AP, 1/5/21)
2021 Jan 13, Thailand's Red Cross Society appealed for people to give blood as donations hit a record low, with volumes collected halved amid public concern about getting infected with the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 1/13/20)
2021 Jan 15, Scores of Thai protesters briefly scuffled with police, saying they feared another student activist would be charged with insulting Thailand's king. Police and the lawyer for activist Chaiyapon Danothai said he did not face lese majeste charges.
(Reuters, 1/15/21)
2021 Jan 19, Thailand’s government defended its coronavirus vaccine strategy against opposition criticism that it is too reliant on Siam Bioscience, a company owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
(Reuters, 1/19/21)
2021 Jan 19, A court in Thailand sentenced former civil servant Anchan Preelert to 43 years and six months in prison for insulting the country’s royal family on Facebook and YouTube.
(AP, 1/19/21)
2021 Jan 21, It was reported that Thailand's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency use approval for the COVID-19 vaccine of AstraZeneca Plc.
(Reuters, 1/21/21)
2021 Jan 25, Thailand's Parliament voted to legalize abortion in the first trimester, though women who end a pregnancy after 12 weeks could still face prison or fines.
(NY Times, 1/28/21)
2021 Jan 26, Thailand police raided a party at the Three Sixty Bar on Koh Phangan and arrested 89 foreigners for violating coronavirus regulations.
(AP, 1/27/21)
2021 Feb 4, Thailand said it will import the first doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine from Asia after Europe enforced export controls.
(AP, 2/4/21)
2021 Feb 9, Prosecutors in Thailand charged four prominent pro-democracy activists with sedition and defaming the monarchy for their protest activities.
(SFC, 2/10/21, p.A4)
2021 Feb 10, Hundreds of Thai protesters gathered in Bangkok to demand the release of four activists remanded in custody pending trial on charges of insulting Thailand's king, a crime punishable by 15 years in prison.
(Reuters, 2/10/21)
2021 Feb 11, Thailand announced plans to inoculate 1 million of its most vulnerable people against COVID-19 by May and start mass vaccinations in June, with the aim of administering 10 doses a month.
(Reuters, 2/11/21)
2021 Feb 14, The Thai government defended its decision not to join the WHO-sponsored coronavirus vaccine program, saying that to do so would risk the country paying more for the shots and facing uncertainty about delivery times. Thailand reported 166 new coronavirus cases, taking its total of infections to 24,571, with a death toll of 80.
(Reuters, 2/14/21)
2021 Feb 17, Thailand’s government warned users of the recently introduced Clubhouse voice chat app that they must be careful not to misuse it or face possible legal consequences.
(AP, 2/17/21)
2021 Feb 24, In Thailand Three Cabinet ministers were forced to leave their posts after a court found them guilty of sedition for talking part in sometimes-violent protests in 2013-2014. About two dozen other defendants in the case were also found guilty in the case launched in 2018.
(SFC, 2/24/21, p.A2)
2021 Feb 26, In Thailand more than 200,000 Buddhist devotees gathered via Zoom video link to attend an annual prayer and lantern ritual held to mark Makha Bucha Day, one of the religion's holiest holidays.
(Reuters, 2/26/21)
2021 Mar 3, Facebook announced that it had deleted 77 accounts, 72 pages, 18 groups and 18 instagram accounts allegedly engaged in an information influencing operation in Thailand run by the military.
(SFC, 3/5/21, p.B2)
2021 Mar 12, Thailand joined a handful of European countries in suspending use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, following scattered reports of blood clots in people who had received it.
(Reuters, 3/12/21)
2021 Mar 13, Thailand celebrated Elephant Day and held a fruit banquet for dozens of elephants in the ancient capital of Ayutthaya.
(Reuters, 3/13/21)
2021 Mar 15, In Thailand six pedigree cats valued at thousands of dollars were confiscated in a Thai drug network raid on suspicion they were being used to launder money.
(Reuters, 3/16/21)
2021 Mar 18, It was reported that Thai authorities are bracing for a surge of refugees from Myanmar and have set aside areas to shelter more than 43,000 people in Mae Sot district. Myanmar's security forces have killed at least 217 people in their crackdown against opposition to last month's coup.
(Reuters, 3/18/21)
2021 Mar 20, In Thailand police in Bangkok used water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets late today to break up a rally by pro-democracy protesters calling for the release of detained activists, constitutional changes and reform of the nation's monarchy.
(SSFC, 3/21/21, p.A8)
2021 Mar 29, Thai soldiers began sending home people from Myanmar who had crossed the border fleeing air strikes by the Myanmar military. Thousands of people had fled to northern Thailand following the air strikes.
(SFC, 3/30/21, p.A2)
2021 Mar 30, In eastern Myanmar air raids left six civilians dead and 11 wounded. The Karen National Union said government troops are advancing into its territory on all fronts. Thailand denied that its security forces had forced villagers back to Myanmar.
(SFC, 3/31/21, p.A2)
2021 Apr 3, In Thailand at least three people were killed when a 3-story house collapsed in Bangkok following a fire. An unknown number of people were still trapped under the rubble.
(SSFC, 4/4/21, p.A8)
2021 Apr 9, Thailand reported 559 new coronavirus infections, following increases of 405 and 334 new cases the previous two days.
(SFC, 4/10/21, p.A7)
2021 Apr 10, Thailand said it plans to install 10,000 field-hospital beds in Bangkok, as the country strains to cope with a third wave of COVID-19 infections.
(Reuters, 4/10/21)
2021 Apr 11, Thailand reported 967 new COVID-19 cases, its biggest daily jump, but no new deaths as the country deals with a third wave of infections and a highly contagious variant.
(Reuters, 4/11/21)
2021 Apr 13, Thailand recorded a 3rd day in a row with more than 900 coronavirus cases. Total infections reached 34,575 with 97 deaths.
(SFC, 4/14/21, p.A4)
2021 Apr 14, Thailand confirmed 1,335 new cases of the coronavirus, taking the total to 35,910, with 97 deaths.
(AP, 4/14/21)
2021 Apr 17, Thailand reported 1,547 new coronavirus cases and two additional deaths, amid a third wave of infections in the Southeast Asian country. New restrictions were announced for the next two weeks.
(The Telegraph, 4/17/21)(SFC, 4/17/21, p.A9)
2021 Apr 24, Thailand's capital Bangkok ordered the closure of public venues and sports premises after the country reported a record daily rise in coronavirus cases and deaths amid a third wave of infections. The closures, effective from April 26 until May 9, apply to venues including public parks, gyms, swimming pools, meeting halls, internet shops, daycares centers, sports fields, museums and libraries.
(Reuters, 4/24/21)
2021 Apr 25, Thai authorities stepped up travel restrictions and other measures to combat a rapidly spreading third wave of COVID-19 infections as the country logged 11 deaths, a daily record. A new outbreak driven by the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant has resulted in over 24,000 cases and 46 deaths in just 25 days.
(Reuters, 4/25/21)
2021 Apr 26, Thailand's government slapped restrictions on travel from India and closed more venues in Bangkok, even as it came under fire for not doing enough to contain a spike in infections.
(Reuters, 4/26/21)
2021 May 2, Thailand's Health Ministry reported 1,940 new coronavirus cases, while deaths hit 21 for a second day, the highest daily number of fatalities since the pandemic began.
(Reuters, 5/2/21)
2021 May 3, Thailand reported a new daily record of 31 coronavirus deaths, the health ministry said, as the Southeast Asian country grapples with a third wave of infections.
(Reuters, 5/3/21)
2021 May 3, In northern Thailand Jason Matthew Balzer reportedly fled his home in the Nan province after his wife, Pitchaporn Kidchob (32), disappeared. Police soon began hunting the American fugitive after the disappearance of his wife, who was four months pregnant, after finding his mattress stained with blood.
(AP, 5/6/21)
2021 May 4, Thailand launched a campaign to vaccinate 50,000 people living in a crowded river-side district of the capital Bangkok, as the country tries to contain a third wave of coronavirus infections. Thailand reported 1,763 new coronavirus cases and 27 deaths, bringing the total to 72,788 cases and 303 fatalities since the pandemic began.
(Reuters, 5/4/21)
2021 May 10, Thailand started deploying a canine virus-detecting squad in hopes of quickly identifying people with COVID-19 as the country faces a surge in cases, with clusters at construction sites, crowded slum communities and large markets.
(AP, 5/21/21)
2021 May 13, Thailand announced a daily record in new cases after nearly 3,000 inmates in two jails were infected, among them a leader of anti-government protests held while awaiting trial for insulting the king.
(Reuters, 5/13/21)
2021 May 14, Thai PM Prayuth Chan-ocha promised a UN special envoy that he will not force back people fleeing violence in neighboring Myanmar, where the military ousted a democratically elected government in February.
(AP, 5/14/21)
2021 May 20, It was reported that a district of northern Thailand has launched a raffle campaign for inoculated residents to win a live cow per week for the rest of the year, in a bid to boost the local COVID-19 vaccination drive.
(Reuters, 5/20/21)
2021 May 23, A government official said Thailand has ordered strict controls on the movement of cattle and buffaloes after an outbreak of a virus that causes lumps to form on the animals' skin and can reduce milk production.
(Reuters, 5/23/21)
2021 May 24, Thailand said it will extend the gap between the first and second doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to 16 weeks, in an effort to inoculate more people faster.
(Reuters, 5/24/21)
2021 May 27, Thailand said it is ramping up efforts to curb trade in wildlife to help reduce the risk of future pandemics, though it was unclear whether that would mean an end to all sales of exotic species in the wildlife trafficking hub.
(AP, 5/27/21)
2021 Jun 2, Siam Bioscience and AstraZeneca said they would soon provide Thailand with 1.8 million doses of locally manufactured COVID-19 vaccine, the first of multiple batches this month, just days away from the launch of the country's vaccination drive.
(Reuters, 6/2/21)
2021 Jun 21, Thailand's health minister said Japan's government would donate some AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, as the Southeast Asian country seeks to shore-up supplies after some early delays in its vaccinations.
(Reuters, 6/21/21)
2021 Jun 24, In Thailand pro-democracy protesters took to the streets of Bangkok, marking the anniversary of the the overthrow of the country's absolute monarchy by renewing their demands that the government step down.
(SFC, 6/25/21, p.A2)
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Thailand Travel
Country Reports: http://www.countryreports.org/country/Thailand.htm
Travel Docs: http://www.traveldocs.com/th/index.htm
The capital is Bangkok. It is located on a bend of the Chao Phraya River.
Within its borders once flourished the kingdoms of Sukhothai, Ayuthaya and Lanna. The Thai language has 44 consonants and 32 vowels. The country covers 513,000 sq km. Six main tribes inhabit the region: Karen, Hmong, Lahu, Lisu, Mien, and Akha. The Thai new year, Songkran, is celebrated in mid-April.
(WSJ, 11/22/95, p.A-7) (Hem., Nov. '95, p.33)(Hem., 3/97, p.27-29)
12,000BC-10,000BC The site at Chiang Saen indicates long term occupation that dates back to the late Pleistocene.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
1000BC Ban Prasat pottery from the site at Prasat Hin Phanom Wan dates to this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.H)
1000-1BC A cemetery at the Noen U-Loke site has revealed jewelry, bronze and iron tools and pottery.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
500BC Black Phimai pottery and bracelets indicate that the site of Prasat Hin Phanom Wan was occupied at this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
300-200BC Ban Chaibadan on the Pasak River is one of several sites that has archaeological remains that show the development of a complex society.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
1-600AD The Non Muang Kao was a moated settlement of this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
654 The Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya (later part of northern Thailand) was founded by a holy man named Wasuthep. The town of Lamphun was originally the center of the Mon Kingdom known as Hariphunchai and believed to have been founded in the late 7th or early 8th century AD. Queen Chammathewi introduced Buddhism into the city of Hariphunchai (later known as Lamphun).
(http://tinyurl.com/ycc6pgw8)(Econ 5/20/17, p.33)
800-900 Sadokkokthom was a Khmer sanctuary on the Thai-Cambodian border in the Aranyaphrathet region.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.H)
900-1000 The site of Prasat Hin Phanom Wan was an important Khmer sanctuary in the Upper Mun River Valley of northeastern Thailand.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
1200-1300 The site at Prang Ku was probably one of 108 hospital sites built by the Khmer king Jayavarman VII.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
c1200-1500 In 2005 researchers using mitochondrial DNA estimated that 3-6 individuals founded the Mlabri hunter gatherers of Northern Thailand about this time.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.71)
1300-1400 A monarchy was established in Thailand.
(SFC, 6/10/96, C3)
1300-1700 Kilns at Intrakil date from the Lanna kingdom of this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
1351-1767 The Ayutthaya Kingdom, a Siamese kingdom, existed during this period. The port city of Ayutthaya (Thailand) was one of the capitals of the kingdom until the Burmese invaded, sacked the city and left it in ruins. The capital was then moved to Bangkok. Prior to this Phananchoeng was the capital.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayutthaya_Kingdom)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)(WSJ, 4/21/05, p.D7)
1431 Thai armies invaded and plundered the Khmer civilization at Angkor Thom in Cambodia. The court moved south of the great lake Tonle Sap and later to Phnom Penh.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T6)
1457 Pattani, later southern Thailand, was declared an Islamic kingdom.
(AP, 9/23/05)
1534 The King of Siam died of smallpox.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)
c1538 A colossal gilded statue of Buddha was erected at Ayutthaya (Siam). It survived the sacking of the city in 1767 and in 1854 was renamed Si Mongkhon Bophit by King Monghut.
(WSJ, 4/21/05, p.D7)
1548 In Thailand King Chakrapat was saved by his wife Suriyothai, who maneuvered her elephant in front of the invading Burmese King Tabinshweeti and took the sword thrust intended for her husband. The historical film “Suriyothai" was directed by Chatri Chalerm Yukol and premiered in August, 2001. It was about the 16th Queen Suriyothai who saved her husband King Thianracha during a war with invaders from Myanmar.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E6)(WSJ, 8/30/01, p.A11)(SFC, 7/3/03, p.E1)
1569 Burmese King Bayinnaung invaded Thailand and took as hostage Princess Suphankalaya. It was later believed that the princess gave up her freedom in exchange for her kingdom's independence from Burma. In 1999 The Thai government offered to help Burma restore a palace in exchange for information about the princess.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, p.A11)
1571 Siam’s Naresuan the Great (8) was taken hostage by Burmese invaders. It was the custom of the time for the victorious nation in a battle to take a royal child of the defeated monarch home as insurance against further aggression.
(www.muaythaionline.org/disciplines/naresuan1.html)
1590 Prince Naresuan (35) became King of Thailand upon the death of his father (the puppet monarch). Naresuan continued to drive the Burmese from the Kingdom of Ayutthaya (Siam-Thailand).
(www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/two-great-kings.html)
1593 Jan 8, War elephants of Ayutthaya King Naresuan engaged Burmese forces led by Mingyi Swa. One Siamese account held that there was a formal elephant duel between Naresuan and Swa. [O.S. 29 December 1592].
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naresuan)
1767 Burmese invaded the port city of Ayutthaya (Siam-Thailand), sacked the city and left it in ruins. The capital was then moved to Bangkok.
(WSJ, 4/21/05, p.D7)
1782 The Wat Phra Kaew Temple was built in Bangkok, Thailand. It houses the most sacred image of Thai Buddhism, the Emerald Buddha.
(Hem, 3/95, p.58)(SFCM, 9/23/07, p.22)
1782 The Grand Palace was built by King Rama I on the Chao Phraya River. The city of Bangkok grew up around it.
(SFEC, 7/16/00, p.T14)
1800-1900 King Chulalongkorn enacted reforms that espoused entrepreneurism, hard work, and self-reliance. King Mongkut accepted the fealty of his subjects, but also pledged his loyalty to them.
(Hem., Nov. '95, p.33)(SFC, 6/10/96, C3)
1809 Sep 7, Rama I (b.1737), King Phra Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, died. He founded the Chakri dynasty and established Bangkok as the capital of Siam, as Thailand was known, in 1782. He ruled for 27 years and is best known for repelling the last major Burmese attack on Siam, known as the Nine Armies' Wars, from 1785 to 1786.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama_I)(Reuters, 5/2/19)
1824 Jul 21, Rama II (b.1767), King Phra Buddha Loetla Nabhalai, died. King Phra Buddha Loetla Nabhalai succeeded his father in 1809 and ruled for almost 15 years. His reign was more peaceful. Art and literature flourished. The king was an avid composer of poetry, plays and songs. The most notable poet under the king's patronage was Sunthorn Phu, known as the "the Shakespeare of Thailand" for his role in literature.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama_II_of_Siam)(Reuters, 5/2/19)
1828 Siamese forces invaded Laos.
(SFEC, 8/28/98, p.T4)
1833 Mar 20, the United States and Siam (now Thailand) concluded a commercial treaty in Bangkok.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1834 Pres. Jackson had special 1804 silver dollars minted for the sultan of Muscat (later Oman) and the King of Siam (later Thailand) for trade treaties negotiated by Edmund Roberts.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.A6)
1851 Apr 2, Rama III (b.1788), King Phra Nangklao, died. King Phra Nangklao reformed the tax and treasury system and oversaw a boom in trade with China during his 27-year rule from 1824. Siam renewed official contacts with western powers for the first time since the late Ayutthaya period, and supported the British in their first Anglo-Burmese War in 1824. The king did not name a successor and the throne passed to his half-brother.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama_III)(Reuters, 5/2/19)
1851 Rama IV (d.1868) began his rule over Siam and played off European powers against each other.
(Econ, 1/10/04, p.76)
1854 King Monghut, a devout reformist, renamed the colossal gilded statue of Buddha at Ayutthaya (Siam) to Si Mongkhon Bophit.
(WSJ, 4/21/05, p.D7)
1861 Thailand's King Mongkut offered to send a pair of elephants to the United States as a gift of the friendship between the two countries. President Abraham Lincoln politely declined.
(AP, 3/24/18)
1868 Oct 1, Rama IV (b.1804) King Mongkut, died. He served as king of Siam (Thailand) from 1851-68. Probably the best-known king of Siam in the West, Mongkut was portrayed in the 1951 Broadway musical "The King and I" and later in a 1956 Hollywood film. Under growing Western pressure during his 17-year reign, Mongkut signed the Bowring Treaty with the British Empire that abolished a royal monopoly over foreign trade. Mongkut later died from malaria that he contracted while on an expedition to see a total eclipse of the sun. His son Chulalongkorn, Rama V (d.1910), took over and encouraged the beginnings of a modern state.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongkut)(Reuters, 5/2/19)(Econ, 1/10/04, p.76)
1873 Siam’s (Thailand) King Chulalongkorn abolished prostration.
(Econ 5/20/17, p.33)
1895 Anna Leonowens wrote her memoirs that included King Rama IV. These memoirs formed the basis for the 1946 film “Anna and the King of Siam," the Broadway musical “The King and I" and the 1956 film “The King and I." Leonowens was at the court of King Mongkut.
(Hem., Nov. '95, p.34)(SFC, 11/10/98, p.E4)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E6)
1902 Thailand annexed 3 southern provinces, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, that had been part of a Malay Muslim sultanate called the Kingdom of Pattani.
(SFC, 1/23/04, p.A7)(Econ, 6/4/05, p.40)
1904 The Siam Society, a bastion of Thai culture, was founded.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A16)
1909 Siam (later Thailand) annexed the sultanate of Pattani.
(Econ, 5/5/12, p.41)
1910 Oct 23, Rama V (b.1853) King Chulalongkorn (b.1853), died. The 42-year reign of King Chulalongkorn, the son of Mongkut, was known for a modernization drive and abolition of slavery. He also ceded territories to Western powers, including Laos and Cambodia to France, and the Malay sultanates of Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu and Perlis to Britain. Chulalongkorn was the first Siamese king to send royal princes to study King Vajiravudh succeeded his father as Rama VI and formed a private army, the Wild Tiger Corps, on his accession.in Europe. He visited twice and presented Siam as a modern nation to European rulers. He had introduced state corporations as a way to modernize Siam (Thailand). Rama V lived in the Vimanmek Mansion in Bangkok. It was made entirely of golden teak wood.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chulalongkorn)(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A12)(Econ, 3/20/10, p.27)(Econ, 5/24/14, p.36)(Reuters, 5/2/19)
1912 Jan 13, In Siam (Thailand) resentful army officers attempted a coup against King Vajiravudh (Rama VI).
(Econ, 5/24/14, p.36)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_Revolt_of_1912)
1914 King Rama VI of Thailand published a short book on the overseas Chinese in which he called them the “Jews of the Orient."
(Econ, 10/10/15, p.42)
1919 Chia Ek Chor moved from China to Bangkok and set up a small shop importing seeds from his home in China's Guangdong province. By 2020 the Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group was Thailand's pre-eminent conglomerate.
(Econ., 5/30/20, p.54)
1923 King Rama VI wrote the poetic drama “Madanabhada." The 5-act play was dedicated to one of his queen. In 2001 Somtow Sucharitkul premiered it in opera form.
(WSJ, 3/15/00, p.A16)
1923 The Bangkok Snake Farm was established to help Thais co-exist with native poisonous snakes. Venom was harvested to produce antivenin. It is the 2nd oldest such farm in the world. An older one was in Brazil.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T5)
1925 Nov 26, Rama VI, Thailand’s King Vajiravudh (b.1881), died. Vajiravudh succeeded his father as Rama VI and formed a private army, the Wild Tiger Corps, on his accession. Vajiravudh's reign was characterized by the creation and promotion of Siamese nationalism. He modernized the military and sent troops to join Allied forces in World War One. He quashed an attempted coup in 1912 by disgruntled military officers who accused the king of financial extravagances and sought to establish democratic rule.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajiravudh)(Reuters, 5/2/19)
1927 Dec 5, King Bhumibol Adulyadej was born.
(SFC, 12/6/99, p.A14)
1932 Jun 24, A coup ended the absolute monarchy in Thailand.
(http://countrystudies.us/thailand/19.htm)(SFC, 5/28/96, p.A17)
1932 Jun 27, In Thailand King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) signed a new provisional constitution. The absolute power of kings ended and a constitutional monarchy began. By 2008 Thailand had gone thru 17 permanent or temporary constitutions.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Thailand)(Econ, 5/24/08, p.27)
1932 Jun 29, Siam’s army seized Bangkok and announced an end to the absolute monarchy.
(HN, 6/29/98)
1932-2001 The country experienced 16 successful military coups, 17 constitutions and 23 prime ministers.
(SFC, 1/6/01, p.A8)
1933 Silpakorn, Thailand’s largest fine arts university, was founded by the Italian sculptor Corrado Feroci.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A16)
1934 Japan began exporting three-wheelers (tuk-tuks) to Thailand.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw)
1935 Mar 2, King Prajadhipok abdicated and left for England. He was replaced by Ananda Mahidol (1925-1946), who became Rama VIII.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ananda_Mahidol)
1939 Siam became Thailand. [see 1949]
(Hem., 3/97, p.27)
1941 May 30, Rama VII, Thailand’s King Prajadhipok (b.1893), died. Prajadhipok was Siam's last absolute monarch and its first constitutional monarch after the Siamese Revolution of 1932. Educated at Eton, he succeeded his brother in 1926. Six years later a group of military officers and civil servants initiated a near bloodless coup. Prajadhipok abdicated in 1935 and spent the rest of his life with his wife in England. The couple had no children.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prajadhipok)(Reuters, 5/2/19)
1941 Japanese forces land in Thailand. After negotiations Thailand allows Japanese to advance towards British-controlled Malay Peninsula, Singapore and Burma.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1243059.stm)
1942 Thailand declared war on Britain and US, but Thai ambassador in Washington refuses to deliver declaration to US government.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1243059.stm)
1943 Oct 25, Japanese forces held an official ceremony for the 415-km Thailand-Burma railroad. The rail was completed Oct 17 at Konkuita, Thailand. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the “Death Railway." An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 civilians also died in the course of the project, chiefly forced labor brought from Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, or conscripted in Siam (Thailand) and Burma (Myanmar). The movie “The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) was a part of this effort and is today a big tourist attraction in Thailand.
(www.bmw.ukf.net/3pagodas/TBRandON.htm)
1944 Jun 5, The first B-29 bombing raid struck the Japanese rail line in Bangkok, Thailand.
(HN, 6/5/98)
1944 The Bangkok Bank was founded. In 2004 it was Thailand’s biggest commercial lender and the Sophonpanich family, whose patriarch helped found the bank, still owned 10-20%.
(WSJ, 5/19/04, p.A16)
1945 At the end of World War II Thailand was compelled to return territory it had seized from Laos, Cambodia and Malaya. The exiled King Ananda returned.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1243059.stm)
1945-1949 A series of wars for independence during this period spread from India to Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. In 2007 Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper authored “Forgotten Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia."
(WSJ, 8/9/07, p.D7)
1946 Jun 9, Rama VIII, Thailand’s King Ananda Mahidol (b.1925), was found shot dead in his bedroom inside Bangkok's Grand Palace in mysterious circumstances, four days before his planned return to school in Switzerland. Ananda had ascended to the throne after his uncle abdicated in 1935. His father, Prince Mahidol, was a son of King Chulalongkorn. Ananda was nine years old and studying in Switzerland when he was chosen to succeed Prajadhipok. The government changed the country's name to Thailand in 1939. Ananda Bhumibol Adulyadej (b.1927) ascended the throne as a teenage King after his older brother’s death.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ananda_Mahidol)(SFC, 6/10/96, C3)(AP, 6/12/06) (Reuters, 5/2/19)
1946 The film “Anna and the King of Siam" starred Rex Harrison and Irene Dunne and was directed by John Cromwell.
(TVM, 1975, p.19)(SFC, 11/10/98, p.E4)
1946 Thailand’s Democratic Party (DC) was founded as a conservative, royalist party.
(Econ, 8/4/12, p.37)
1947 In Thailand Phibun Songkhram, a wartime pro-Japanese leader, led a Military coup. The military retain power until 1973.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1243059.stm)
1949 May 11, Siam changed its named to Thailand. [see 1939]
(AP, 5/11/97)
1949 Thailand’s Grand Palace Coup took place.
(Econ, 1/10/04, p.76)
1950 May 5, In Thailand King Bhumibol Adulyadej (22) was crowned. Bhumibol died in 2016 at age 88 after reigning for seven decades.
(AP, 5/3/19)
1950 May 21, French sources reported that Viet Minh guerrillas had infiltrated Cambodia and opened an arms-smuggling corridor to Thailand.
(www.geocities.com/khmerchronology/1950.htm)
1951 Thailand’s Manhattan Coup took place, named after a ship stormed by coup leaders.
(Econ, 1/10/04, p.76)
1954 Albert Pickerell (d.1999 at 86) served in Thailand as a Fulbright lecturer and helped establish a School of Journalism at Thammasatt Univ.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.A19)
1954 Sep 8, SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization), a sister organization to NATO, was created under the Manila Pact by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, to stop communist spread in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos). The United States, Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand signed the mutual defense treaty. SEATO dissolved in 1977.
(HNQ, 4/2/01)(http://tinyurl.com/hpawj)
1955 Feb 23, Eight nations (the United States, Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand) met in Bangkok for the first SEATO council.
(HN, 2/23/98)(HN, 9/8/98)
1955 Paul Grimes (1924-2002) worked as an editor for the Bangkok Post. He joined the NY Times in 1957 and helped establish Conde Nast Traveler in 1987.
(SFC, 5/2/02, p.A27)
1957 Sep 17, The Thai army seized power in Bangkok.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1957 Thieves looted a sacred chamber at Wat Ratchaburana at Ayuthaya, Thailand. Much, but not all, of the booty was recovered.
(SFC, 3/5/05, p.A2)
1960s-1973 Thanom Kittikachorn (d.2004) ran Thailand in the 1960s and early 1970s with his son, Col. Narong Kittikachorn, and Narong's father-in-law, Field Marshal Praphas Charusathien.
(AP, 6/17/04)
1962 Mar 6, US promised Thailand assistance against "communist" aggression.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1962 May 11, US sent troops to Thailand.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1962 The Int’l. Court of Justice awarded the Preah Vihear temple, located on the Cambodia-Thai border, to Cambodia, but did not specify where the border should be drawn.
(Econ, 7/26/08, p.47)
1962 In southern Thailand a tropical storm killed more than 900 people.
(AP, 1/3/19)
1967 Mar 26, Jim Thompson, American ex-serviceman, disappeared while on holiday in the Cameron Highlands of Northern Malaysia. He revived the Thai silk industry after WW II. He was one of the first to adopt a classic Thai house to the requirements of modern life, and his home is now a museum in Bangkok, Thailand.
(Hem, Mar. 95, p.63)(SFEC, 7/16/00, p.T14)
1967 Aug 8, The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN was established in Bangkok by the five original Member Countries, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam joined on 8 January 1984, Vietnam on 28 July 1995, Laos and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999.
(www.aseansec.org/64.htm)
1968 Mar 22, In southern Thailand Tuanku Biyo Kodoniyo set up the Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO). It called for an independent Islamic country.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/pulo.htm)
1968 Dec 10, Thomas Merton (b.1915), American Trappist monk and writer, died in Bangkok, Thailand from accidental electrocution. He had just finished his 7th journal "The Other side of the Mountain." Merton was influenced by the Hindu scholar Mahanambrata Brahmachari (d.1999). Merton's work also the spiritual autobiography "The Seven Story Mountain." In 1978 Monica Furlong (d.2003) authored a biography of Merton.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A22)(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.3)(SFC, 11/2/99, p.A26)(SFC, 2/3/03, p.B4)(WSJ, 3/26/03, p.D8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton)
1969 At their peak in 1969, 68,889 combat troops from Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and the Philippines were deployed in Vietnam.
(HNQ, 4/14/00)
1971 In Thailand The Nation newspaper was founded largely as a progressive conservative as pro-democracy activists were struggling against a military dictatorship. In 2019 The Nation announced it will stop its print edition, but continue with an online version.
(AP, 5/16/19)
1972 In Thailand military dictator Thanom Kittikachorn (1911-2004) introduced a dress code that included drew-cuts for boys and fringeless bobs for girls. Thanom oversaw a decade of military rule from 1963 to 1973, during which he staged a self-coup, until public protests which exploded into violence forced him to step down.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanom_Kittikachorn)(Econ., 8/8/20, p.31)
1973 Oct 14, In Thailand thousands demonstrated against the military dictatorship and some 77 people were killed.
(www.prachatai.com/english/news.php?id=531)
1973 Oct, Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej sheltered pro-democracy demonstrators from the military dictators they were seeking to overthrow. The generals who were in power saw it was time to exit. A student-led uprising ousted 3 military figures who had ruled Thailand for much of the 1960s and early 1970s. Thanom Kittikachorn (d.2004) was ousted in a popular uprising. The military ruler of Thailand had helped the US during the Vietnam War.
(AP, 12/19/05)(AP, 6/17/04)(WSJ, 9/20/06, p.A12)
1974 Jun 3, The last Air America aircraft crossed the border from Laos into Thailand. American forces left Laos and abandoned some 36,000 Laotians hired to battle North Vietnamese troops. The Hmong and Iu Mien were 2 hill tribes hired by the Americans to break codes and rescue downed pilots. Many of the soldiers fled to Thailand where they lived in refugee camps. Some 35,000 Iu Mien later moved to the US.
(SFC,12/27/97, p.A15)(SFEC, 1/24/99, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/3mzgcy)
1975 Jul 1, Thailand and China signed a formal agreement on diplomatic relations.
(www.thaiembdc.org/politics/foreign/diprelat.htm)
1975 Jul 31, The Bangkok Agreement was signed as an initiative of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). As Asia’s 1st preferential trade agreement between developing countries it aimed at promoting intra-regional trade through exchange of mutually agreed concessions by member countries. Five countries, Republic of Korea, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Lao People’s Democratic Republic, were the initial signatories. China joined in April, 2000. Thailand and the Philippines did not ratify the agreement due to their ASEAN commitments.
(www.unescap.org/tid/apta.asp)(www.siamindia.com/scripts/Bankong.aspx)
1975 Thailand issued a warrant for the arrest of Charles Sobhraj on charges of drugging and killing six women, all wearing bikinis, on a beach at Pattaya. Sobhraj is also accused of killing more than 20 young Western backpackers across Asia, usually by drugging their food or drink, in the 1970s and 1980s. Sobhraj, serving 20 years in India, escaped from prison in the mid-1980s, but was caught and returned to jail until 1997. In 2003 French national Sobhraj was arrested from a casino in Kathmandu on charges that he traveled to the Himalayan nation on a fake passport 32 years ago. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison for murdering an American backpacker in 1975.
(Reuters, 12/19/07)
1976 Jul 20, US Air Force Brigadier General Harry Aderholt lowered the American flag for the last time at Military Assistance Command Thailand headquarters on Bangkok’s Sathorn Road.
(www.nationmultimedia.com/sunday/20060709/)
1976 Aug 6, Thailand and Vietnam established diplomatic relations.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A16)(www.vietnamembassy.or.th/relations.html)
1976 Oct 6, In Thailand right-wing political power-brokers, including Kriangsak Chomanan and Samak Sundaravej, provoked mobs to lynch left-wing pro-democracy student protesters at Bangkok's Thammasat University. At least 46 protesters were killed and hundreds wounded by the police and army. A coup installed a new military-guided, right-wing government.
(AP, 12/23/03)(WSJ, 9/20/06, p.A12)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.14)
1976 Nov 23, The Thai government returned 26 refugees to Cambodia saying that they are a threat to the national security. The government said some 70,000 refugees in Thailand who escaped Communist rule in other Indochina states, including 10,000 Cambodians, would also not be permitted to stay.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1976 Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej showed sympathy to the forces of the establishment who believed that students and other liberal forces were leading the country into chaos. In response the military again took the reins of power.
(AP, 12/19/05)
1977 Oct 20, A bloodless military coup was staged in Thailand. Kriangsak Chomanan was appointed prime minister, Thailand's 15th since it became a constitutional monarchy in 1932.
(AP, 12/23/03)(WSJ, 9/20/06, p.A12)
1978 Sep 15, In Thailand PM Kriangsak Chomanan submitted an amnesty bill for the "Bangkok 18" left-wing students and labor activists jailed in connection with the 1976 crackdown. He also initiated an amnesty program for former members of the Communist Party, a reconciliation policy that eventually helped quash its insurgency.
(AP, 12/23/03)(http://tinyurl.com/2w4xdx)
1878 PM Kriangsak's government promulgated a constitution setting up a timetable for the restoration of parliamentary democracy, beginning with a 1979 election.
(AP, 12/23/03)
1979 Jan 7, The Vietnamese army captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government. The People’s Party, a Hanoi installed Khmer Rouge faction, took power with Hun Sen as prime minister. This finally ended the mass genocide depicted in the 1984 film "The Killing Fields." The Khmer Rouge retreated into sanctuaries along the Thai border, set up bases and picked up support from Thailand and China.
(NG, 5/85, p.574-5)(WSJ, 2/27/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)(WSJ, 5/3/96, p.A-10)(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A8)(AP, 1/7/98)
1980 Thailand’s PM Kriangsak resigned after losing the support of an influential faction of independent-minded middle-ranking army officers known as the Young Turks.
(AP, 12/23/03)
1980 In Thailand Prem Tinsulanonda (d.2019) became prime minister and continued to 1988. In 1998 the former army commander became adviser to the royal palace.
(AP, 5/26/19)
1981 Former PM Kriangsak staged a minor comeback, successfully running for a seat in parliament at the helm of his own National Democracy Party.
(AP, 12/23/03)
1982 Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz (b.1944), who had become aware of "tonic drinks" while traveling in Asia, got the idea for the Red Bull energy drink business while sitting at the bar in the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong. In the 1970s T.C. Pharmaceuticals of Thailand, founded by Chaleo Yoovidhya, had formulated an energy drink prototype called Krathing Daeng, or Red Bull in English. Mateschitz and Yoovidhya started selling the drink in Austria in 1987.
(AFP, 3/17/12)
1983 Thailand experienced severe flooding.
(Econ, 1/14/12, p.60)
1984 Karen refugees from Myanmar began settling in camps in Thailand. By 2011 some 140,000 refugees were living in 9 camps behind barbed wire near the border town of Mae Sot.
(Econ, 5/21/11, p.44)
1985 Sep 9, In Thailand there was a failed coup attempt. Former PM Kriangsak was caught with other retired military officers at the headquarters of the plotters.
(AP, 12/23/03)
1986 Karen refugees established the Huay Ko Lok refugee camp in Thailand. The camp was burned 3 times between 1996-1998 by the Burmese military. Residents were relocated in Aug, 1999, to Um Phien.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, Z1 p.4)
1987 Rebel leaders of a Thailand southern insurgency were offered general amnesty.
(SFC, 1/23/04, p.A7)
1988 Aug 28, The Yan Hee Polyclinic in Bangkok, Thailand, reported on a new slimming technique. Overweight Thais were suppressing their appetites by sticking lettuce seeds in their ears and pressing them in ten times before meals.
(HTnet, 8/28/99)
1988 In Thailand a general amnesty freed all those involved in the 1985 coup attempt.
(AP, 12/23/03)
1988 Thailand introduced its 10-baht coin. In 2002 the EU complained that it was being used in vending machines all over Europe due to its similarity to the 2-euro coin.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.C7)
1989 The government of Thailand granted investment incentives to the Sahaviriya group to build the first mills for making steel.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A10)
1989 In Thailand John Gray formed Sea Canoe, an ecotourism venture, to show tourists the southwestern coast limestone caves known as hongs.
(SFC, 11/23/99, p.A14)
1989 Saudi diplomat Abdullah al-Maliki was gunned down in Bangkok. Adbullah A al-Besri, Fahad AZ Albahli and Ahmed A Alsaif were assassinated in January 1990. All were linked to the so-called Blue Diamond theft committed by Thai laborer Kriangkrai Techamong, who was working at Prince Faisal's palace in Saudi Arabia in 1989. The legendary diamond was among several valuable stones and jewelry pieces stolen from the palace of a Saudi Prince when he was employed as a gardener in the Arab kingdom.
(www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/04/07/opinion/opinion_30070238.php)
1989 In Thailand Typhoon Gay left more than 400 dead.
(AP, 1/3/19)
1991 Feb 23, Tanks rolled in the streets of Bangkok and a coup was held to get rid of the corrupt government of Chatichai Choonhavan. After months of investigations a military-appointed committee seized the assets of 10 men from the ousted administration. Gen. Suchinda Kraprayoon toppled a civilian government in a bloodless takeover. He was ousted in 1992 following street demonstrations.
(WSJ, 12/11/96, p.A16)(AP, 9/20/06)
1991 May 26, An Austrian Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashed in Thailand, killing all 223 people aboard. Crash investigators blamed an engine thrust reverser that had inexplicably deployed shortly after takeoff. The plane was enroute to Vienna and crashed shortly after takeoff from the Bangkok airport.
(AP, 5/26/97)(WSJ, 11/13/01, p.A14)
1991 In Bangkok the Kaset Thai sugar mill was built for some $200 million by the Siriviriyakul family.
(WSJ, 4/2/99, p.A9)
1992 Mar 8, Ninety people were killed when a ferry carrying pilgrims to a Buddhist shrine collided with an oil tanker in the Gulf of Thailand.
(AP, 3/8/02)
1992 Mar, The military Junta formed a party with politicians it had investigated in 1991 to contest the elections.
(WSJ, 12/11/96, p.A16)
1992 Apr 7, Suchinda Kraprayoon, leader of a military coup, became PM of Thailand he served until 24 May 1992.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suchinda_Kraprayoon)(Econ, 6/17/06, p.49)
1992 May 17, Pro-democracy protests began in Thailand; in four days of clashes with troops, 44 people reportedly were killed, although activists charged that hundreds died.
(AP, 5/17/97)
1992 May 20, Thailand's much-revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, called for an end to violent clashes between troops and pro-democracy protesters.
(AP, 5/20/02)
1992 May 24, Thailand protests, supported by numerous political movements, climaxed with the resignation of PM Suchinda. Deputy PM Meechai Ruchuphan took office for a transitional period until the new government was assigned. He was succeeded by Anand Panyarachun.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suchinda_Kraprayoon)
1992 The Hmong began living at the Tham Krabok Buddhist monastery after monks traveled into the mountains to free 2,000 Hmong from opium addiction.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A10)
1992 The Asian Development Bank began building and improving transport and telecom links between China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
(Econ, 11/8/03, p.42)
1992 The Greater Mekong Subregion was created grouping 5 South-East Asian countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam) and 2 Chinese provinces.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Mekong_Subregion)
1992-1995 Chuan Leekpai served as Prime Minister until a land scandal split his coalition and the government collapsed.
(SFC,11/8/97, p.A12)
1993 Mar, The Supreme Court threw out the cases against the 10 politicians who were ousted in the 1991 coup.
(WSJ, 12/11/96, p.A16)
1993 May, A fire at Bangkok’s Kader doll factory killed 187 people and injured 600.
(SFC, 11/26/96, p.B1)
1993 Jul, In Nakhon Ratchasima a 6-story hotel collapsed and crushed 102 people.
(SFC, 11/26/96, p.B1)
1993 Southeast Asia accounted for 1.4% of the world’s agricultural land and 3.6% of global pesticide imports by value. The highest use was in Thailand.
(WSJ, 10/3/96, p.B11B)
1994 Feb, Hot-rolled coil steel production began.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A10)
1994 The lower Mekong River was spanned for the first time with a bridge between Nong Khai, Thailand and Vientiane, Laos.
(SFC, 5/14/97, p.A22)(Econ, 1/3/04, p.29)
1994 In Thailand The Pak Mun Dam along the Mun River, a major tributary of the Mekong, was completed with money from the World Bank. It is a 56 foot high, 984 foot long wall of concrete and severely impacted fish life on the river.
(WSJ, 3/12/96, p. A-15)(Econ, 1/3/04, p.30)
1994 The Australian foreign minister, Gareth Evans, accused “freelance military personnel and business spivs" (shady dealers) in Thailand of providing refuge for Khmer Rouge leaders and helping them get gems and timber out of Cambodia. The statement was made after 2 Australians were murdered by the Khmer Rouge.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A12)
1995 Apr 5, The Mekong Agreement created the Mekong River Commission with Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam as members.
(Econ, 1/7/12, p.34)(www.kellnielsen.dk/mekong/agreem.htm)
1995 Jul 13, In Thailand Banharn Silpa-archa (1932-2016), a provincial political powerbroker, began serving as prime minister.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banharn_Silpa-archa)(AP, 4/23/16)
1995 Aug 21, Prince Thitiphan Yugala (60), aka Luk Pla (Baby fish) was poisoned by his new wife Chalasai Yugala (23). He died after 8 days and Luk Pla ran off with Uthet Choopwa (19), a chestnut peddler. She had become his lover at 14 and wife at 23. In 2002 she was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A2)
1995 Thailand announced that it would close all of its refugee camps. This would force the 4,500 Hmong remaining in those camps to either go to the US or return to Laos.
(SFC, 5/26/96, p.C-8)
1995 PepsiCo Inc. bought out its Thai partner and took over a production plant and hired 1500 farmers to grow potatoes according to company spec.
(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A1)
1995 Thailand experienced severe flooding.
(Econ, 1/14/12, p.60)
1996 Mar 1, The first Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) opened in Bangkok, Thailand, with 25 countries and the EU Commission participating.
(Econ, 10/9/10, p.63)(http://tinyurl.com/25mhkw7)
1996 Mar, Thailand authorities arrested 3 N. Korean diplomats and Yoshimi Tanaka for supplying counterfeit US $100 bills. The bills were very high quality and called “Super K" notes. The arrest opened up the possibility for the first case of state-sponsored counterfeiting since WW II.
(SFC, 6/16/96, p.A10)
1996 May 16, GM is expected to pick Thailand over the Philippines for a $1 billion vehicle assembly plant.
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 16, A joint venture between Texas Instruments, Acer of Taiwan, and Alphatec of Thailand plan a $200 million chip facility. Operations are to start in 1997.
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-11)
1996 Jun 2, Bangkok voters elected Pichit Rattakul, an independent environ-mentalist, as mayor. The city is one of the most polluted in the world.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A11)
1996 Jun 13, Citicorp’s Citibank has captured 40% of Thailand’s credit-card market.
(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A1)
1996 Jul 7, The average cost of a Big Mac in Thailand was $1.90.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Parade, p.17)
1996 Jul, 29, A report from the economics faculty of Bangkok’s Thammasat Univ. warned that the economy was sick.
(WSJ, 7/29/96, p.A8)
1996 Sep 21, Thai Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa resigned after 14 months in offices under charges of corruption and ineptitude.
(SFC, 9/21/96, p.A10)
1996 Nov 18, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, former defense minister, led the New Aspiration Party to victory in elections and recruited 5 other parties to form a coalition government. He was later endorsed and called “fatso" by Buddhist monk Luang Phor Khoon Parisuttho. The government lasted into 1997.
(SFEC, 11/19/96, p.A15)(SFC, 11/26/96, p.B1)
1996 Thanong Siriprechapong, a former member of the Thai parliament, was arrested for smuggling 49 tons of hashish into the US. The case was later hampered due to a kickback made by a key informant to US Customs agent, Frank Gervacio, in Aug, 1992.
(SFC, 9/11/98, p.A18)
1996 In Thailand Salang Bunnag directed a hostage rescue operation that freed all the captives from a drug gang. Bunnag was later accused of ordering the summary execution of the 6 kidnappers while they were in custody.
(SFC, 8/27/01, p.A9)
1997 Jan 1, The Buddhist Era year is 2540.
(Hem., 3/97, p.27)
1997 Feb 26, Thai soldiers pushed Karen refugees back across the border into Burma as Burmese troops massed for an offensive.
(WSJ, 2/27/97, p.A1)
1997 May 31, The 7-member ASEAN alliance, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, met in Kuala Lumpur and agreed to allow Burma to become a member in July. Laos and Cambodia were also to be admitted. The members were Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.D3)
1997 Jun 5, The film "Sunset at Chaopraya" by Euthana Mukdasnit was an Int’l. film festival award winner and premiered in the Bay Area.
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.E3)
1997 Jun 18, It was reported that in this year 25,000 Hmong lived in Laos, 18,000 in Thailand and 140,000 in the US with some 48,500 in the San Joaquin Valley of Calif. A clan of 15,000 lived at the Tham Krabok Buddhist monastery north of Bangkok.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 21, It was reported that operators of illegal logging ventures in northern Thailand were feeding their elephants amphetamine-laced bananas to speed up work before the rainy season. The practice began a few years ago and 10 animals have died of overwork and exhaustion.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A11)
1997 Jul 1, Thailand let its currency, the baht, float and it devalued about 20%. This event marked the beginning of the Asian economic crises. In 1999 Thailand sought to extradite Rakesh Saxena, a currency trader, from Canada for his role in an alleged fraud that drained over $2 billion from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce, which led to the devaluation of the baht. Pin Chakkaphak was blamed for the collapse of the currency and fled Asia. He was ordered back from Britain in 2001 to face accounting and theft charges. In 2009 Saxena (57) arrived in Thailand after his extradition from Canada to face charges he embezzled $88 million from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce, which collapsed in 1995. Saxena was also implicated in backing the attempted 1997 coup in Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 7/3/97, p.D4)(WSJ, 7/21/97, p.A1)(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.D1)(WSJ, 5/7/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/9/01, p.A16)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.80)(AP, 10/30/09)(Econ, 11/7/09, p.42)
1997 Jul 9, It was reported that elephants were dying around pineapple orchards, possibly from chemical poisoning. Only some 500 elephants remained in Thailand.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A7)
1997 Jul 11, In Thailand a kitchen fire went out of control at the 450-room Royal Jomtien Hotel in Pattaya and killed 91 people with 64 injured.
(SFC, 7/12/97, p.A10)(WSJ, 7/11/97, p.A12)(AP, 7/11/07)
1997 Aug 11, Int’l. donors offered Thailand a $16-17 bil loan package.
(SFC, 8/12/97, p.A8)(SFC, 1/8/98, p.A7)
1997 Sep 15, From Thailand it was reported that layoffs, salary cuts and downsizing was spreading across the economy under an expensive foreign debt load and a 40% fall in the value of the baht.
(SFC, 9/15/97, p.A10)
1997 Sep 27, The parliament passed a “good governance" constitution intended to fight government corruption and rejected a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Chavilit. It called for the old-guard politicians to be replaced by a new, 200-member elected body. National Counter-Corruption Commission was formed.
(WSJ, 9/29/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/3/00, p.A20)(SFC, 3/30/00, p.A18)
1997 Sep 30, The cabinet officially scrapped the $3.2 billion rail and road system under construction by Hopewell Holdings. The Bangkok Elevated Rail and Transport System known as Berts was one fifth built and several years behind schedule.
(WSJ, 10/1/97, p.A18)
1997 Nov 3, Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh announced that he would step down later in the week. Stock and currency markets rallied on the news.
(SFC,11/4/97, p.A8)
1997 Nov 9, Former Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai formed a new government with a coalition of 8 parties.
(SFEC,11/10/97, p.A12)
1997 Dec 8, The government announced that it will liquidate 56 of 58 insolvent finance companies shut down by the Central Bank earlier in the year. The move was part of the conditions of the $17.2 billion IMF bailout.
(SFC,12/897, p.A15)
1997 The radio program “Ruam Duay Chuay Kan" (Let’s Get Together and Help Each Other) began broadcasting from Bangkok.
(SFC, 6/20/00, p.A12)
1997 The Thai constitution guaranteed citizens 12 years of free education. This effectively reduced the number of Thai girls sold into the sex industry.
(SFC, 2/6/02, p.A12)
1997 Thailand’s King Bhumibol developed his “sufficiency economy" theory during the Asian economic crises of this year. In 2007 it was described as a plan for sustainability, moderation and broad-based development.
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.38)
1997 In Rangoon, Burma, talks between the Karen National Union and Burmese officials broke down when the Karen refused to disarm. After the talks broke the Burmese army swept through Karen territory and forced thousands of refugees into Thailand.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, Z1 p.4)
c1997 Luangta Maha Bua, a revered monk from Wat Pa Ban Tad Temple, used his status and the threat of suicide to urge the Thai people to help replenish the state coffers with donations.
(SFC, 9/26/00, p.A11)
1997-2002 Thailand and Indonesia were hit the hardest in an Asian financial crises and suffered a slump in GDP during this period of around 35%.
(Econ, 6/30/07, p.79)
1998 Jan 28, Officials at Chulalongkorn Univ. posted posters forbidding the wearing of miniskirts.
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.A11)
1998 Mar 31, It was reported that in Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province, women of the Padaung tribe of Burma were attracting tourists with their necks elongated by wearing brass coils. They began fleeing Burma’s Kayah state over a decade ago
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.B4)
1998 Apr 17, A Thai military team collected evidence from the body of Pol Pot, former chief of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge guerrillas, to confirm that one of the century's worst tyrants was truly dead.
(AP, 4/17/99)
1998 Jun 26, Four Pakistanis were reported to have been arrested in Bangkok. They were suspected of planning to assassinate US Ambassador William Itoh and to launch a terrorist strike against the US embassy.
(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 8, Thailand was expected to withdraw a plan to deport foreign workers and planned to announce proposals to widen work opportunities for migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Bangladesh.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A10)
1998 Sep 23, The economy was expected to contract by 7-10%. Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai called for an investigation into the sale of medical supplies.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A12,16)
1998 Nov 2, In Thailand 6 Buddhist worshippers were killed and dozens injured when 3 giant ceremonial incense sticks collapsed at the Phra Pathom Pagoda.
(SFC, 11/2/98, p.A16)
1998 Dec 11, A Thai Airways Airbus A310-200 jet crashed near the airport at Surat Thani. 45 people survived and 101 died.
(SFC, 12/12/98, p.A15)(WSJ, 12/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Three prominent academics published the book “Guns, Girls, Gambling and Ganja."
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A16)
1998 Dr. Chris Baker and Pasuk Pongpaichit published “Thailand’s Boom and Bust."
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A16)
1998 The film “Fun, Bar, Karaoke" was directed Penek Ratanaruang. It satirized Bangkok’s juxtaposition of modern ways and ancient folk religion.
(SFC, 5/20/98, p.E3)
1998 Thaksin Shinawatra, former police officer and telecom entrepreneur, founded the Thais Love Thais (Thai Rak Thai) party.
(SFC, 1/6/01, p.A8)
1998 Hong Kong suffered a slump in GDP of over 6% as did Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand.
(Econ, 11/22/08, p.51)
1998 Burmese refugees in Thailand created the Backpack Health Worker Team to effectively sneak health into eastern Burma (Myanmar), where the military junta provides little health care.
(SSFC, 3/22/09, p.A8)
1998 Officials in 2001 reported that AIDS accounted for 16% of all deaths in 1998.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A10)
1999 Mar 10, Michael Wansley (58), an auditor for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, was shot to death on his way to the Kaset Thai sugar mill. The murder was traced to Pradit Siriviriyakul, one of the brothers running the family mill.
(WSJ, 4/2/99, p.A9)
1999 Oct 1, In Thailand the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors took 38 diplomats as hostages at the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok. Two Thai officials were exchanged for the hostages and 12 [5] students were reported to have flown to the Thai-Burma border by helicopter, where they were released. The students demanded the release of political prisoners, dialogue between the military and Aung San Suu Kyi and an elected parliament.
(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A12)(SFEC, 10/3/99, p.A25)
1999 Oct 2, Bo Mya, leader of the Karen National Union, said he would grant sanctuary to the Burmese students who were flown to the Thai-Burma following a 26 hour takeover of the Burmese Embassy.
(SFEC, 10/3/99, p.A25)
1999 Nov 27, It was reported that at least 26 people had died recently in Phrae province from leptospirosis, a disease transmitted by rat urine. Farmers not wearing boots and gloves in their fields were vulnerable.
(SFC, 11/27/99, p.A17)
1999 Dec 5, In Bangkok the 15-mile $1.4 billion light rail Sky Train began operating on the 72nd birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
(SFC, 12/21/99, p.A16)
1999 The Thai film "Nang Nak" was a stylish ghost story.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E6)
1999 The Thai historical film "Suriyothai" was directed by Chatri Chalerm Yukol. It was about the 16th century Queen Suriyothai who saved her husband King Thianracha during a war with invaders from Myanmar.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E6)
1999 Thailand’s Siam Winery launched its first label, Chatemp. In 2003 the "Monsoon Valley" range was introduced abroad by Chalerm Yoovidhya, whose father Chaleo gave the world the "Red Bull" energy drink.
(AFP, 1/24/07)
2000 Jan 24, Security forces stormed a hospital and ended a 22-hour standoff with Burmese guerrillas. 10 rebels of the "God's Army" were reported killed. The hostage-takers were executed after surrendering to security forces.
(SFC, 1/25/00, p.A10)(SFC, 1/27/00, p.A12)
2000 Jan, The Karen of Burma, displaced in Thailand, celebrated their new year 2739.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, Z1 p.4)
2000 Jan 26, In Thailand the legendary 24-year leader of the Karen National Union (KNU), was voted out of the chairmanship. Saw Ba Thin was elected as the new chairman of the Karen National Union (KNU).
(SFC, 1/28/00, p.A14)(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A8)
2000 Mar 29, Sanan Kachornprasart (64) resigned as interior minister after the National Counter-Corruption Commission charged that he had concealed his assets in a fabricated million-dollar loan.
(SFC, 3/30/00, p.A18)
2000 Apr 2, It was reported that some 100,000 Karen refugees from Burma lived in 8 refugee camps along the Thailand border.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, Z1 p.1)
2000 May 7, In Thailand thousands of protestors besieged the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank. The 13 nations agreed to rescue each other’s currencies to fend off economic crises.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A14)
2000 Sep 25, Flooding left 47 people dead.
(WSJ, 9/26/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 22, In Thailand 9 inmates escaped from Samut Sakorn prison with 7 prison officials. Thai commandos killed the inmates.
(SFC, 11/23/00, p.D8)
2000 Nov 24, It was reported that recent monsoon flooding killed 10 people in Malaysia and at least 5 people in Thailand. The death toll from flooding in Thailand reached over 30, mostly children. At least 49 died from mudslides in West Sumatra.
(SFC, 11/24/00, p.D8)(WSJ, 11/27/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 19, It was reported that swiftlet colonies in Thailand were threatened due to the excessive harvesting of their edible nests for Chinese restaurants.
(SFC, 12/19/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 26, An anti-corruption body ruled that Thaksin Shinawatra, the leading candidate for prime minister, engaged in financial wrongdoings that disqualified him from holding office.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A15)
2001 Jan 6, Thailand government elections pitted PM Chuan Leekpai’s Democratic Party against the Thais Love Thais (Thai Rak Thai) party of Thaksin Shinawatra (51). Elections for 500 seats in the lower parliament were scheduled with new laws to reduce vote-buying. Shinawatra, Thailand’s richest man, won with 248 seats and divested his assets to relatives.
(SFC, 1/6/01, p.A8)(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.D1)(WSJ, 2/2/01, p.A1)(Econ, 2/5/05, p.11,24)
2001 Jan 16, Luther and Johnny Htoo, twin adolescent leaders of an ethnic Karen rebel group, surrendered to Thai border police.
(WSJ, 1/17/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 17, Electoral officials annulled the victories of 14 candidates.
(WSJ, 1/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 18, A court agreed to hear a corruption case against Prime Minister-elect Thakson Shinawatra.
(SFC, 1/19/01, p.D4)
2001 Jan 18, In Bangkok 2 bombs exploded and at least 8 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/19/01, p.A17)
2001 Jan 23, Electoral authorities ordered re-votes in 62 of 400 districts.
(WSJ, 1/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 6, It was reported that Thailand planned to open a chain of over 3,000 Thai restaurants world-wide over the next 5 years with 1,000 slated for the US. The fast-food branches would be named Elephant Jump, Cool Basil for the mid-priced, and Golden Leaf for the upscale eateries.
(WSJ, 2/6/01, p.B1)
2001 Feb 11, Thai troops fought a gunbattle with some 200 Burmese soldiers who crossed the border chasing Shan rebels.
(SFC, 2/12/01, p.B2)
2001 Feb 12, It was reported that Thailand’s bad loans mounted to 20 billion and accounted for 20% of all bank lending. Thai Petrochemical Industries (TPI) was the largest debtor and owed banks over $3.5 billion.
(WSJ, 2/12/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 2, In Thailand a bomb blast gutted a Thai Airways Boeing 737-400 in Bangkok just before PM Shinawatra was to board. One crew member was killed. It was later reported that the empty center fuel tank of the plane had exploded.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 6/26/08, p.A12)
2001 Apr 15, The annual water festival of Songkran was reported to have turned from a gentle ritual of respect to a youthful melee that included water bombs, squirt guns, water rifles and vats of ice.
(SSFC, 4/15/01, p.D8)
2001 Aug 3, The Constitutional Court acquitted PM Thaksin Shinawatra of corruption charges.
(SFC, 8/4/01, p.A7)
2001 Aug 11, In northern Thailand heavy rains triggered flash floods that left at least 86 people dead and 70 missing.
(SSFC, 8/12/01, p.A18)(WSJ, 8/14/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 27, It was reported that AIDS victims in Thailand were packing stadiums to receive V-1 Immunitor, a locally produced drug advertised as a clinically tested oral AIDS vaccine. Salang Bunnag sponsored the giveaway directed at Thailand’s 755,000 AIDS patients.
(SFC, 8/27/01, p.A1)
2001 In Thailand Jaruvan Maintaka (54) was appointed to head the new auditor-general's office, an independent body created to track state financial transactions and spot signs of corruption. By 2005 with only half of her term gone she amassed a menagerie of adversaries, from vested interests to corrupt politicians, and in the process became a target for elimination. In 2004 a court ruled that she was illegally appointed. In 2005 the Senate endorsed a replacement, but the king did not approve. In 2006 she was reinstated.
(AP, 9/19/05)(WSJ, 2/9/06, p.A7)
2002 Apr 8, It was reported that a Thai version of the TV show “The Weakest Link" was “promoting fierce competition and selfishness among recipients," in contrast to general Thai generosity.
(SFC, 4/8/02, p.A2)
2002 Jun 3, In Thailand 3 gunmen attacked a school bus and killed 2 teenage students in the Ratchaburi province near Burma. 15 others were injured.
(SFC, 6/4/02, p.A12)
2002 Jul 8, In southern Thailand a bomb tore through a parked passenger railway coach injuring a policeman and a security guard.
(Reuters, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 29, On a mission to stamp out Islamic militancy in Southeast Asia, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell held talks with Thai leaders, who deny their country is facing a Muslim insurgency.
(Reuters, 7/29/02)
2002 Aug 29, A joint force of Thai police and soldiers killed six armed drug traffickers and seized a million methamphetamine pills after ambushing a drug convoy near the Golden Triangle.
(Reuters, 8/29/02)
2002 Aug 30, Floodwaters along the lower stretches of the Mekong have wreaked havoc in Laos, Cambodia (18), Thailand (12) and Vietnam (25), claiming at least 55 lives and leaving thousands homeless across the region.
(AP, 8/30/02)
2002 Sep 2, At least 14 people were killed and more than 20 were missing after their makeshift houses on the banks of an overflowing stream collapsed after heavy rain in northern Thailand.
(Reuters, 9/3/02)
2002 Dec 4, Thailand released thousands of prisoners, including many jailed for minor narcotics offences, to mark the 75th birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest reigning monarch.
(Reuters, 12/4/02)
2002 Dec 19, It was reported that AIDS in Thailand infected 1 in 60 people and that by 2006 some 50,000 annual deaths would result from AIDS-related causes.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.A18)
2003 Jan 29, In Cambodia protesters looted and set fire to the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh. The protest was against a Thai TV star who was quoted in the media as saying Cambodia had stolen the famous Angkor Wat temple from Thailand.
(AP, 1/29/03)
2003 Jan 30, Thailand sealed its border with Cambodia, recalled its ambassador and sent military planes to evacuate hundreds of terrified Thais after rioters looted and torched its embassy in the Cambodian capital.
(AP, 1/30/03)
2003 Feb 13, Thailand officials arrested SF financier Thomas Frank White at the request of the Mexican government for the rape of a teenage boy. In 2004 White was indicted in SF on 2 counts of sex tourism.
(SSFC, 9/11/05, p.A2)
2003 Feb 14, A Thai court ruled to extradite Florida millionaire James Vincent Sullivan (61), wanted in the US for the 1987 murder of his socialite wife. He was accused of paying another man $25,000 to kill Lita McClinton Sullivan to avoid losing property in a divorce. In 2006 he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 2/15/03)(AP, 3/14/06)
2003 Feb, Thailand’s PM Thaksin Shinawatra began a war on drugs aimed primarily at the methamphetamine market. Some 5% of the population were reported to be addicts. A 3-month shooting spree left more than 2,800 people dead.
(SFC, 5/29/03, p.A7)(Econ, 1/26/08, p.42)(Econ, 9/16/17, p.38)
2003 Mar 5, Cambodia sealed its border with Thailand, due to sluggish progress “to normalize relations in border areas" since January’s anti-Thai riots.
(AP, 3/5/03)
2003 Mar 25, In Thailand police said they shot and killed 42 people during a 7-week-old crackdown on drugs that has drawn protest from human rights groups. Nearly 400 drug makers and more than 12,000 dealers were arrested.
(AP, 3/26/03)
2003 Apr 11, Cambodia and Thailand agreed to resume full diplomatic relations, which were suspended after anti-Thai riots shook Cambodia's capital in January.
(AP, 4/11/03)
2003 May 2, Chuwit Kamolvisit, A sex club operator in Thailand, was arrested for unlawfully demolishing a downtown Bangkok block housing scores of bars and shops to make way for another massage parlor, the Taj Mahal. He soon claimed to have spent about $289,156 each month in payoffs to policemen.
(AP, 8/2/03)
2003 Jun 5, Thailand's Constitutional Court ruled that Thai women will no longer be required to take their husband's family name when they marry.
(AP, 6/5/03)
2003 Jun 13, In Thailand Narong Penaman (44) was arrested with as much as 66 pounds of radioactive cesium-137 for sale.
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A3)
2003 Aug 11, Hambali (39), an Indonesian whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, was captured in a raid in the ancient temple city of Ayutthaya, Thailand. Hambali, the operational head of Jemaah Islamiyah, was handed over to US authorities and flown out of the country. He was al Qaeda's top man in Southeast Asia and the suspected mastermind behind a string of deadly bombings including the Bali attacks.
(Reuters, 8/15/03)(SFC, 8/15/03, p.A3)(AP, 8/16/03)
2003 Oct 16, Laos and Thailand signed a pact aimed at stamping out border attacks by unknown militants.
(ST, 10/17/03, p.A13)
2003 Oct 19, President Bush met with Thailand's PM Thaksin Shinawatra and pressed him to help restore democracy in neighboring Myanmar. Some 1,000 protesters marched in downtown Bangkok on against a summit of 21 economic leaders.
(AP, 10/19/03)(SFC, 10/20/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 21, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders ended their two-day annual summit in Thailand with a statement seeking to boost trade and intensify the fight on terror.
(AP, 10/21/03)
2003 Oct, The Thai government planned to launch 2 "Vayupak" mutual funds for retail and institutional investors.
(Econ, 8/23/03, p.59)
2003 Nov 19, In Canada Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has ordered fugitive banker Rakesh Saxena to surrender to Thailand to face allegations that he looted a Bangkok bank.
(AP, 11/19/03)
2003 Dec 23, Kriangsak Chomanan (b.1917), an army general who became PM of Thailand in 1977 through a series of coups, died at age 87. He helped steer Thailand to democracy.
(AP, 12/23/03)(Econ, 1/10/04, p.76)
2003 Dec 27, In Iraq insurgents launched 3 coordinated attacks in the southern city of Karbala, killing 12 people, including six Iraqi police officers, 2 Thai soldiers and 5 Bulgarians.
(AP, 12/27/03)(AP, 12/28/03)(SSFC, 12/28/03, p.A3)(WSJ, 12/29/03, p.A1)
2003 PM Thaksin Shinawatra set a 2005 growth target for Thailand of 10%. The rate for 2003 was projected to be 6.4% and 7.5% for 2004. The economic boom raised some concerns.
(WSJ, 11/28/03, p.A6)
2003 In Thailand Chuvit Kamolvisit was accused of the unauthorized, overnight demolition of scores of unlicensed bars and shops from a downtown Bangkok block he owned. The move erupted into a major public scandal. When the police failed to protect him, Chuvit fought back by exposing the behemoth bribes he had to pay to keep his mighty empire of flesh running.
(AP, 6/28/11)
2003 Thailand produced some 470,000 pick-up trucks and ranked behind the US as the world’s 2nd largest producer. Production in 2004 was expected to approach 600,000.
(Econ, 9/11/04, p.60)
2004 Jan 4, In southern Thailand assailants set fire to 21 schools and stormed a military armory, killing four soldiers in nearly simultaneous raids. The attacks took place in Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces.
(AP, 1/4/04)(SFC, 1/24/04, p.A7)
2004 Jan 5, In Thailand 2 bombs exploded in the southern town of Pattani, killing 2 policemen and injuring several people, police said. Two other bombs were found before they could go off.
(AP, 1/5/04)(WPR, 3/04, p.32)
2004 Jan 8, It was reported that Thailand's PM Thaksin Shinawatra had ordered the Finance Ministry and stock exchange to set up a task force to examine the balance sheets of listed companies.
(WSJ, 1/8/04, p.A14)
2004 Jan 13, Thai and Malaysian military forces began joint land and air patrols along their jungle border for the first time since the 1970s.
(AP, 1/14/04)
2004 Jan 22, In southern Thailand a Buddhist monk was hacked to death. Muslim extremists were blamed.
(WSJ, 1/23/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 24, In Bangkok, Thailand, a world record for a mass jump was set by 672 skydivers from 42 countries who leaped from six aircraft.
(AP, 1/25/04)
2004 Jan 26, A 6-year-old Thai boy became Asia's seventh confirmed bird flu fatality.
(AP, 1/26/04)
2004 Feb 2, A 6-year-old Thai boy, who had been in contact with roosters used in cock fights, died in Bangkok of bird flu. Thailand breeders began hiding their valuable fighting roosters.
(WSJ, 2/10/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 16, Thailand officials said bird flu has been detected in a previously unaffected Thai province and has resurfaced in eight other provinces that were under observation.
(AP, 2/16/04)
2004 Mar 10, Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra replaced his finance, interior and defense ministers in a Cabinet reshuffle as the government faces a Muslim insurgency in the south, a volatile stock market and a public outcry over a privatization plan.
(AP, 3/10/04)
2004 Mar 12, Somchai Neelapaichit, Thailand human rights lawyer, was kidnapped in Bangkok and never heard from again. 2 days before he vanished he had formally accused the police of torturing 5 Muslim men in custody.
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.46)
2004 Mar 16, China declared victory in its fight against bird flu, saying it had "stamped out" all of its known cases, while a factory worker in Thailand became Asia's 23rd victim of the virus.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 28, The Thailand government said violence in the Muslim-dominated south was at a "crucial stage" and pledged tougher measures, after a bombing in the region injured 29 people, including 10 Malaysian tourists.
(AP, 3/28/04)
2004 Apr 23, In Thailand a massive fire raced through a slum in downtown Bangkok, snarling traffic and spewing plumes of black smoke over embassies and five-star hotels in the area. Armed assailants fatally shot an army officer, just hours after unidentified attackers set fire to about 50 public buildings in all 13 districts of Narathiwat in the worst day of arson attacks in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south.
(AP, 4/23/04)
2004 Apr 28, In Thailand police gunned down machete-wielding militants who stormed security outposts in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south, killing at least 112 people. The 16th century Krue-sae Mosque was damaged by soldiers who fired automatic weapons, tear gas and grenades at it and killed 32 suspected Islamic insurgents.
(AP, 4/28/04)
2004 Jun 10, In Thailand hooded assailants with assault rifles slashed the throat of a night guard outside a government school in the Muslim south and seized weapons from other security personnel who were inside.
(AP, 6/11/04)
2004 Jun 16, Thanom Kittikachorn (92), ex-military ruler of Thailand died at the age of 92. He helped the US during the Vietnam War before being ousted in a popular uprising in 1973. Thanom came to be known as one of Thailand's "Three Tyrants" when he ran the country in the 1960s and early 1970s with his son, Col. Narong Kittikachorn, and Narong's father-in-law, Field Marshal Praphas Charusathien.
(AP, 6/17/04)
2004 Jul 4, Australia and Thailand signed a free-trade agreement that officials believe will boost the economies of both countries by billions of dollars over the next two decades.
(AP, 7/5/04)
2004 Jul 11, The 15th Int’l. AIDS conference began in Bangkok, Thailand. UN chief Kofi Annan challenging world leaders to do more to combat the raging global epidemic.
(SFC, 7/13/04, p.A1)(AP, 7/11/05)
2004 Jul 15, The Gates Foundation announced a $44.7 million award at the AIDS Conference in Bangkok to a consortium of TB and AIDS researchers. The 2 diseases were often linked.
(WSJ, 7/15/04, p.B1)
2004 Jul 15, Thailand officials said avian flu had been detected in 10 of its 76 provinces.
(SFC, 7/16/04, p.A3)
2004 Jul 16, In Thailand the 15th Int’l. AIDS Conference ended in Bangkok.
(SFC, 7/17/04, p.A14)
2004 Aug 20, Thailand’s PM Thaksin said he would overturn the country’s current ban on commercial production and trade in genetically modified food (GMOs).
(WSJ, 10/29/04, p.A13)
2004 Sep 8, In Thailand a young man died from bird flu and increased fears of an avian influenza pandemic. Asian deaths from bird flu for the year totaled 28.
(WSJ, 9/10/04, p.A2)
2004 Sep 27, In Thailand officials announced that a case of avian-flu was possibly caused by human-to-human transmission.
(SFC, 9/28/04, p.A3)
2004 Oct 3, In central Thailand a huge explosion at a fireworks factory killed eight workers and injured three others.
(AP, 10/3/04)
2004 Oct 19, A Thailand tiger zoo housing hundreds of the big cats was shut down as bird flu tests confirmed 23 tigers had died of the virus since Oct 14, and another 30 had fallen ill. They caught the flu from feeding on chicken carcasses.
(AFP, 10/20/04)(Econ, 4/16/05, p.36)
2004 Oct 25, In southern Thailand 78 people were suffocated or crushed to death after being arrested and packed into police trucks following a riot over the detentions of Muslims suspected of giving weapons to Islamic separatists. Over 1,300 people were packed in 6-wheeled trucks and taken on a 5-hour journey to barracks in Pattani province.
(SFC, 10/27/04, p.A7)(AP, 10/25/05)(Econ, 10/28/06, p.52)
2004 Oct 28, In southern Thailand a bomb exploded outside a bar, killing two people and injuring 21.
(AP, 10/28/04)
2004 Nov 2, In Thailand Jaran Torae, a local Buddhist official, was beheaded by suspected Muslim insurgents as revenge for the deaths of 85 rioters last week.
(AP, 11/2/04)
2004 Nov 4, In southern Thailand 9 Buddhists were killed including 2 policemen.
(WSJ, 11/5/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 13, In Thailand's Muslim-majority south a 60-year-old Buddhist man was killed and at least 13 people injured in the 2 latest two bomb blasts. 5 bombs hit in the last 24-hours.
(AP, 11/13/04)
2004 Nov 25, The 3rd IUCN World Conservation Congress closed in Bangkok. Its final resolutions included a resolution urging governments to limit the use of loud noise sources in the world’s oceans.
(SFC, 12/13/04, p.C1)
2004 Nov, China signed a free trade deal with Thailand.
(WSJ, 10/3/05, p.A1)
2004 Dec 5, Thailand airdropped nearly 100 million Japanese-style origami cranes over the predominantly Muslim southern region in a psychological effort toward peace. A series of bomb attacks followed the next day.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 26, The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across southern and southeast Asia. The initial estimated death toll of 9,000 soon rose to some 230,000 people in 14 countries. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964. The epicenter was located 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on Sumatra, and six miles under the seabed of the Indian Ocean. In Indonesia at least 166,320 people were killed.
Bangladesh reported 2 killed; India: at least 9,691 deaths: thousands were missing and possibly dead in India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia: At least 101,318 people were killed on Sumatra island and small islands off its coast. Kenya reported 1 killed. Malaysia: At least 68 people, including an unknown number of foreign tourists, were dead. Myanmar: At least 90 people were killed. Sri Lanka: At least 30,680 were killed in government and rebel controlled areas. The Maldives, an archipelago of 1,190 low-lying coral islands and a tiny population of 280,000, at least 82 people were killed and missing. At least 42 islands were flattened in the low-lying atoll nation. Somalia: At least 298 were killed. Tanzania: At least 10 killed. Thailand: The confirmed death toll for Thailand reached 5,322, but many suspected Myanmar migrants were not counted. Some 230,000 people were killed in a dozen countries.
(SFC, 12/28/04, p.A1)(AP, 12/30/04)(SSFC, 1/2/05, p.A12)(AP, 1/7/05)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.41)(AP, 12/25/09)(AP, 11/12/13)
2004 Dec 26, The confirmed death toll for Thailand reached 5,322, but many suspected Myanmar migrants were not counted.
(Econ, 1/22/05, p.41)
2004 Dec 31, Thai authorities said more than 2,230 foreigners from 36 nations were confirmed dead from Thailand's southern resorts alone.
(AP, 12/31/04)(SFC, 1/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 1, Thailand was forecast for 5.3% annual GDP growth with a population at 65.1 million and GDP per head at $2,610.
(Econ, 1/1/05, p.92)
2005 Jan 2, Thailand's confirmed death toll from the Dec 26 tidal wave disaster approached 5,000, including more than 2,400 foreign holidaymakers.
(AP, 1/2/05)
2005 Jan 9, In Thailand a 6-story building caught fire and collapsed in Bangkok, trapping five firefighters inside the wreckage.
(AP, 1/9/05)
2005 Jan 17, In Thailand a collision on Bangkok’s new subway injured 200 and suspended service for a week. A crew error was blamed.
(WSJ, 1/18/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 24, In Thailand a tourist boat returning from Pa Ngan island capsized and at least 7 people were dead. Another 20 were missing.
(WSJ, 1/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 6, Thailand voters handed PM Thaksin Shinawatra a 2nd term with an expanded mandate. In his 1st term he broadly managed to keep 3 promises centering on cheap health care, debt forgiveness for farmers and micro-credits for villages. Under his tenure public debt fell from 54% of GDP to 39%.
(AP, 2/6/05)(Econ, 2/5/05, p.11,23)
2005 Feb 15, The Thailand Cabinet approved establishing a new infantry division of 12,000 troops to be based permanently in southern Thailand, where violence blamed on Muslim insurgents has claimed more than 650 lives in the past year.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 17, In southern Thailand a bomb exploded near a tourist hotel in the border town of Sungai Kolok, killing 5 people and wounding over 40.
(AP, 2/17/05)(SFC, 2/18/05, p.A3)
2005 Feb 19, Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton visited a Thai fishing village that had been devastated by the December 2005 tsunami.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2005 Feb 26, Thailand police reported 4 more people killed in surging violence in the Muslim south. PM Shinawatra defended his hard-line policies and accused his critics of sympathizing with separatists.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Apr 3, in southern Thailand 2 near-simultaneous bombs exploded, including one at the airport in Hat Yai city killing one person and wounding a dozen.
(AFP, 4/3/05)
2005 Apr 4, Chevron announced plans to purchase Unocal Corp. for $18.4 billion. Chevron’s eventual acquisition of Unocal included a stake in the Yadana project in Myanmar, in which Unocal invested in the 1990s along with France’s Total, Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise and the petroleum Authority of Thailand. Total with a 31% stake operated the project. The Yadana project brought in an estimated $969 million to the government undercutting international sanctions to isolate the regime.
(SFC, 4/5/05, p.A1)(SFC, 10/4/07, p.A10)(SFC, 4/29/08, p.D3)
2005 Apr 24, In southern Thailand suspected Islamic separatists detonated a bomb, killing two police officers and wounding three other people.
(AP, 4/24/05)
2005 May 1, Thai fishermen netted a 646-pound Mekong giant catfish believed to have been the world's largest freshwater fish ever caught in Thailand.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 May 13, In southern Thailand a roadside bomb exploded near a passing military truck, killing two Thai marines and seriously wounding eight others.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 26, In Tham Krabok, Thailand, the largest refugee camp for ethnic Hmong, who had fled communist Laos, was officially closed.
(AP, 5/27/05)
2005 May 30, Miss Canada, Natalie Glebova, was crowned Miss Universe in the 54th annual pageant held in the Thai capital of Bangkok.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 Jun 3, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra arrived in New Delhi, India, for talks on a free trade agreement and civil aviation liberalization.
(AFP, 6/3/05)
2005 Jun 18, The beheaded bodies of a Laotian couple were found in southern Thailand over the weekend and were believed to be the latest victims of Muslim separatist violence.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 20, In Thailand 3 Muslim men were shop dead in Pattani.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.40)
2005 Jun 22, A lawmaker from Thailand's ruling party fell to his death from his 10th floor apartment, followed a few hours later by a woman with whom he had been quarreling. Separately suspected Islamic separatists beheaded a man at a teashop and then left his head in a sack on the side of the road.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 24, Thailand police reported that attackers in Yala province had slashed the necks of a couple, almost severing their heads in the latest killings attributed to Islamic separatists.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun, India's tsunami-hit Andaman islands signed a tourist deal with Thailand’s resort town of Phuket. Environmentalists slammed the deal saying such a move would destroy the fragile ecology of the Andaman and Nicobar islands and encourage the sex trade.
(Reuters, 8/3/05)
2005 Jul 5, Thousands of poor ethnic Hmong refugees from Laos were living without shelter in northern Thailand, forced from their homes under a Thai campaign to pressure them to return to their native land. Landlords said the government had set a July 4 deadline for them to evict the some 6,500 refugees from their bamboo shelters.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jul 11, Thailand reported the discovery of 10 new cases of bird flu just as it was about to declare the country free of the disease.
(AP, 7/11/05)
2005 Jul 14, In southern Thailand at least 60 insurgents plunged Yala city into darkness by destroying electrical transformers, then roamed the streets with fire-bombs, explosives and guns, targeting an area near a hotel, convenience stores, a restaurant and the railway station. Suspected Islamic separatists set off 5 bombs and exchanged gunfire with security personnel in an attack, killing a police officer and wounding 19 other people.
(AP, 7/14/05)(AP, 7/17/05)
2005 Jul 15, Thailand's government, reeling from bold attacks by suspected separatists in the Muslim-dominated south, granted PM Thaksin Shinawatra sweeping powers to tap phones, directly command security forces and order curfews.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2005 Jul 17, In Thailand an emergency decree was signed into law that granted PM Shinawatra sweeping powers to tap phones, directly command security forces and order curfews. It also granted immunity to security forces in emergency zones.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.40)
2005 Sep 19, Lukman B. Lima, a veteran leader of Thailand's insurgency, issued a warning: militants from Indonesia and Arab nations might join the fight for a separate homeland if the Thai government continues a crackdown that's provoking a new generation of Muslim fighters.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep, In Thailand a weekly talk show on government run TV hosted by Sondhi Limthongkul, founder of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), was cancelled. Weekly rallies soon followed in which Mr. Sondhi unveiled fresh allegations of official corruption and misconduct.
(Econ, 12/17/05, p.42)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.47)
2005 Oct 5, In southern Thailand suspected Islamic insurgents shot and killed five soldiers as they ate dinner at a military outpost.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Oct 16, In southern Thailand about 20 suspected Muslim separatists stormed a monastery, hacked an elderly Buddhist monk to death and fatally shot two temple boys.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 18, Thailand's Cabinet announced it was extending a state of emergency in three southern provinces to cope with an escalating Muslim insurgency.
(AP, 10/18/05)
2005 Oct 20, Thailand PM Thaksin Shinawatra said new lab results confirmed the country's 13th death from bird flu.
(AP, 10/20/05)
2005 Oct 26, Suspected Muslim insurgents raided 60 targets in southern Thailand, stealing 90 weapons and causing at least seven deaths.
(AP, 10/27/05)
2005 Nov 2, In southern Thailand several bombs exploded in Narathiwat, killing one attacker and knocking out electricity.
(AP, 11/2/05)
2005 Nov 3, Thailand's government imposed martial law in two Muslim-dominated districts of its insurgency-wracked south, a day after Islamic separatists staged a new show of strength with bombings that blacked out a provincial capital.
(AP, 11/3/05)
2005 Nov 7, In Thailand at least three people were killed, two others injured and dozens of suspected Muslim insurgents arrested as militants attacked more than 20 government targets in the southern Yala province.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Nov 16, In Thailand suspected Muslim separatists stormed 2 houses in a southern village and opened fire on the families with assault rifles, killing 9 people and injuring 9 others.
(AP, 11/16/05)
2005 Dec 7, In Thailand a 5-year-old boy became the country’s 2nd bird flu fatality in two months.
(AP, 12/9/05)
2005 Dec 4, Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej publicly rebuked PM Thaksin for pursuing lawsuits against media outlets that oppose his policies.
(www.bangkokpost.net/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=69917)
2005 Dec 20, Troops in southern Thailand struggled through mountains of mud in an effort to reach thousands stranded by floods and landslides that have killed at least 35 people.
(AP, 12/20/05)
2005 Dec, In Thailand Steward Keith McLeod of Australia beat his Canadian wife, Barbara Lynn (61), to death with a hammer and dumped her battered body in bushes along a residential street in Bangkok. In 2006 McLeod (45) was sentenced to 34 years in prison.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2005 In southern Thailand the Buddhist vigilante group Ruam Thai, or Thais United, was established late this year by police officials led by Maj. Gen. Phitak Ladkaew, then chief of investigation in Yala, one of the 3 Muslim-majority provinces.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2006 Jan 9, Jaruvan Maintaka, locked out of her auditor-general office, launched a Web site with other activists to track graft in Thailand.
(WSJ, 2/9/06, p.A7)
2006 Jan 10, In Thailand protesters pushed through a police barricade outside a hotel where negotiators were trying to hammer out a US-Thai free trade pact, as demonstrations against the deal gained momentum but failed to disrupt the talks.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 18, In Thailand 2 fishermen were sentenced to death in the rape and murder of a British tourist, a crime that prompted the PM to demand the maximum penalty. Bualoi Posit (23) and Wichai Somkhaoyai (24) pleaded guilty to the New Year's Day slaying of Katherine Horton, a 21-year-old student from Wales.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 18, An American couple claiming to be of Lao royal descent were shot dead in northeastern Thailand. Anouwong Sethathirath IV (49) and Oulayvanh Sethathirath (38) were killed at a Buddhist monastery in Nong Khai. The next day Thai police said they might have been targeted by Laos' government on suspicions that they were working against the communist regime.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 23, The family of Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra sold their controlling stake in the telecom Shin Corp. for $1.87 billion to Singapore’s Temasek Holdings. Legal loopholes were used to avoid taxes on the sale.
(WSJ, 2/6/06, p.C10)(Econ, 3/4/06, p.39)
2006 Feb 4, Tens of thousands of people filled a plaza near the Thai parliament, chanting slogans demanding that PM Thaksin Shinawatra step down amid allegations of official corruption. Thaksin said he would step down if the king asked.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 8, In Thailand skydivers from 31 countries set a new world record of 400 people holding hands in a midair free-fall formation.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 11, Thailand's PM Shinawatra, facing growing calls for his resignation, agreed to hold a national referendum on amending the country's constitution.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 17, French President Jacques Chirac has arrived for his first visit to Thailand as head of state, with Paris hoping to secure lucrative contracts in one of the most dynamic countries in the region.
(AFP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 24, Thailand's embattled PM Shinawatra dissolved parliament, a move forcing national elections three years early and guaranteeing a showdown with his political opponents.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Thailand some 50 thousand people gathered in Bangkok for a new mass rally to demand the ousting of PM Thaksin Shinawatra as opposition parties said they were considering boycotting a snap election which he has called in response.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Mar 5, Tens of thousands of Thais marched to Government House, demanding the resignation of PM Thaksin Shinawatra in the fourth protest against him in as many weeks.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 14, Thailand's PM Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to declare an emergency if anti-government protests turned violent, as tens of thousands marched on his office to demand his resignation for alleged corruption.
(AP, 3/14/06)
2006 Mar 21, In Thailand demonstrators seeking the resignation of PM Thaksin Shinawatra brought their protests to Bangkok's commercial district.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 22, In Thailand a truck crashed through a railroad crossing barrier and slammed into a passenger train in Ratchaburi, causing a derailment and killing at least six people.
(AP, 3/22/06)
2006 Mar 25, Tens of thousands rallied in Bangkok, begging their king to intervene in a last-ditch effort to force PM Thaksin Shinawatra from office.
(AP, 3/25/06)
2006 Mar 29, In Thailand tens of thousands of protesters seeking the ouster of PM Thaksin Shinawatra descended on Bangkok's busiest shopping district, disrupting business and traffic in the heart of the capital.
(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Mar 29, In Thailand 7 decomposed bodies found in a jungle near the border with Myanmar. The remains of four Hmong Americans are believed to be among the dead. Eight men, including four Hmong with US citizenship, were reported missing March 16.
(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Apr 2, Thailand citizens voted in snap parliamentary elections. Thailand's PM urged citizens to ignore an opposition boycott, saying the vote was crucial to ending the country's deepening political stalemate amid demands for his resignation. Bombs exploded at three polling stations in restive southern Thailand, injuring four soldiers and a police officer.
(AP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 3, PM Thaksin claimed victory in Thailand's general election that followed weeks of anti-government protests, saying his party won more than half of the popular vote, the threshold he had set for staying in office.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 4, Thailand’s Embattled PM Thaksin Shinawatra abruptly announced he will step down from office, bowing to a mounting opposition campaign seeking his ouster over allegations of corruption and abuse of power.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 5, Thailand’s PM Thaksin Shinawatra handed over power to a longtime friend and fellow police officer, less than 24 hours after saying he would step down over allegations of corruption and abuse of power.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 18, Thailand's government said it will extend a state of emergency in southern Thailand as part of measures to combat a Muslim insurgency that has left over 1,000 people dead.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 23, Opponents of Thailand's outgoing prime minister wore black and tore up their ballots to protest parliamentary elections they said were unfair. Weekend elections failed to fill several seats in Parliament, deepening the country's political crisis.
(AP, 4/23/06)(AP, 4/24/06)
2006 Apr 27, Reports from Myanmar and Thailand said Myanmar troops were waging their biggest military offensive in almost a decade and have uprooted more than 11,000 ethnic minority civilians in a campaign punctuated by torture, killings and the burning of villages.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 May 7, A fire broke out at a club in the Thai resort town of Pattaya, killing at least seven people and injuring at least 49.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 8, Thailand's Constitutional Court invalidated last month's parliamentary elections and ordered fresh polls in a bid to end a political impasse that has left the country unable to form a new government.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 10, In southern Thailand a bomb exploded at a tea shop near a busy market, killing at least three people and injuring more than a dozen.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 23, In Thailand PM Thaksin Shinawatra resumed his duties as challenges to his hold on power mounted even after a self-imposed leave of absence for seven weeks.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, In northern Thailand flash floods left thousands of people stranded on rooftops and trapped inside trains. 9 people were reported killed.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 Jun 9, Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej (b.1927), the world's longest-reigning monarch, began celebrating his 60th anniversary on the throne. He became the 9th king of the Chakri dynasty, succeeding his older brother, Ananda, killed by an unexplained shooting on June 9, 1946.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 15, In Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents exploded more than 40 bombs in attacks on government offices across the restive south, killing at least two people.
(AP, 6/15/06)
2006 Jun 27, In Thailand prosecutors asked the Constitutional Court to disband both the governing Thai Rak Thai (TRT) and the main opposition Democrats for gross misconduct in the April elections. In southern Thailand 7 people were killed by suspected Islamic insurgents in attacks, including a bombing that left five security officers dead.
(Econ, 7/1/06, p.38)(AFP, 6/27/06)
2006 Jul 13, In Thailand a top court decided to accept a case that accuses PM Thaksin Shinawatra's ruling party and its main rival of electoral fraud.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 25, Thailand's three election commissioners, seen as close allies of embattled PM Thaksin Shinawatra, were convicted of allowing unqualified candidates to run in parliamentary elections and sentenced to four years in prison.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Aug 1, Assailants carried out at least 40 bomb and arson attacks in Thailand's three Muslim-dominated southernmost provinces. At least three people were reported hurt.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 2, In southern Thailand a bomb planted along a railroad exploded and killed three policemen.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 16, John Mark Karr (41), a former American school teacher, was arrested in Thailand for the December, 1996, murder JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colo. He said he tried to kidnap JonBenet for a $118,000 ransom but that his plan went awry and he strangled her. Karr's confession that he had killed JonBenet was later discredited.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2006 Aug 22, Thailand police arrested 175 North Koreans, mostly women and children, who illegally entered the country and were found hiding in an abandoned home in Bangkok.
(AFP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 31, In southern Thailand nearly two dozen bombs exploded almost simultaneously inside commercial banks, killing two people in a region bloodied by a Muslim insurgency.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Sep 7, A Thai court decided to extradite a Vietnamese dissident to face charges of violating airspace for a stunt that involved hijacking a plane and dropping 50,000 anti-communist leaflets over Ho Chi Minh City. Ly Tong, a South Vietnamese air force veteran who later became a US citizen, hijacked the twin-engine plane from Thailand in November 2000.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 16, In southern Thailand bomb blasts killed four people including a Canadian (29), who became the first Westerner to die in the two-year Muslim insurgency. At least five bombs exploded: two in department stories; two in front of a bar and a parking lot at the Odean Shopping Mall; and a fifth at a nearby massage parlor in Songkhla province's Hat Yai city.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 19, In Thailand a 6-man military junta launched a coup against PM Thaksin Shinawatra, circling his offices with tanks, seizing control of TV stations and declaring a provisional authority pledging loyalty to the king. This was the 18th coup since 1932. General Prem Tinsulanonda was widely seen as the mastermind of the coup.
(AP, 9/19/06)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.27)(Econ, 12/6/08, p.34)
2006 Sep 20, Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin, the army commander who seized Thailand's government in a quick, bloodless coup, pledged to hold elections by October 2007. He received a ringing endorsement from the country's revered king.
(AP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 21, Thailand's new military rulers said that four top members of deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra's administration had been detained. The regime also assumed the duties of parliament, which was dissolved when the government was ousted in a coup earlier this week, and banned meetings by all political parties.
(AP, 9/21/06)
2006 Sep 24, Thailand's military council issued new orders intended to stave off any possible opposition to their coup, banning political activities at the district and provincial levels.
(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 28, Thailand's auditor general, Jaruvan Maintaka, told reporters that Gen. Surayud Chulanont (62), a highly regarded retired officer, would lead the country until promised elections next year. The US suspended $24 million in military aid due to the coup.
(AP, 9/29/06)(WSJ, 9/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 28, Thailand’s new Suvarnabhumi Airport, built on an area known as "Cobra Swamp," officially opened its doors, more than four decades after the project originated.
(AP, 9/27/06)(AP, 9/28/06)
2006 Oct 1, In Thailand retired army commander Gen. Surayud Chulanont (b.1943) was sworn as interim prime minister following the announcement of a temporary constitution that reserved considerable powers for the military coup makers.
(AP, 10/1/06)(WSJ, 10/2/06, p.A7)
2006 Oct 2, Thailand's respected central bank chief said he has agreed to join the interim Cabinet, a move that appeared likely to reassure the business community.
(AP, 10/2/06)
2006 Oct 3, Thailand's deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra resigned from his once all-powerful party in a letter faxed from London.
(AP, 10/3/06)
2006 Oct 5, Thai coup leaders agreed to talk with southern rebels reversing Thaksin’s confrontational approach to the insurgency.
(WSJ, 10/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 5, The Latvian and Thai candidates dropped out of the race to become the next U.N. chief on Thursday, leaving South Korea's foreign minister as the lone remaining contender and near-certain successor to Kofi Annan.
(AP, 10/5/06)
2006 Oct 9, Thailand's king approved a post-coup Cabinet lineup, ushering in an interim government expected to rule the country for one year until the next elections are held.
(AP, 10/9/06)
2006 Oct 14, Thailand's military-installed premier Surayud Chulanont visited Vientiane on the first stop of a weekend tour aimed at reassuring neighbors Laos and Cambodia that Bangkok won't pull any more surprises.
(AFP, 10/14/06)
2006 Oct 18, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents attacked an army base, killing one soldier and leaving four others injured.
(AP, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 20, Thailand's military government said it had extended emergency rule in the Muslim-majority south where another 21 people were killed this week despite moves to resolve bloody unrest.
(AFP, 10/20/06)
2006 Oct 21, The death toll from severe flooding in Thailand and neighboring Myanmar has jumped to 143 after Thai authorities confirmed another 16 victims. The severe flooding began in late August in Thailand's central and northern provinces
(AFP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 26, Thailand's military-installed PM Surayud Chulanont visited Vietnam for the last of a series of trips aimed at reassuring Bangkok's neighbors after last month's coup.
(AFP, 10/26/06)
2006 Oct, In Thailand Queen Sirikit saw news reports that showed footage from a nearby motorcycle shop that had hired a group of Coyote Girls to promote its wares. The dancers were named after the 2000 American film "Coyote Ugly," about a group of sassy 20-somethings who dance seductively on a New York City bar top. The queen’s reaction prompted a crackdown that turned Coyote Girls into a subject of national debate and official disapproval.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 Nov 5, In Thailand a bomb blast killed two soldiers and injured three others in the restive south. 4 people were shot dead and six wounded in a string of shootings and simultaneous bomb attacks in the south. PM Surayud Chulanont apologized to Muslims for the government's failure to quell the long-running insurgency.
(AFP, 11/5/06)
2006 Nov 9, In southern Thailand 8 bombs exploded almost simultaneously at car and motorcycle showrooms, wounding nine people.
(AP, 11/9/06)
2006 Nov 15, In southern Thailand suspected Islamic militants over the last 2 days shot dead three people in separate drive-by shootings, while one soldier was hurt in a bomb attack.
(AP, 11/15/06)
2006 Nov 17, In southern Thailand 3 bomb blasts killed one person and wounded at least 30 others.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 22, In southern Thailand a woman was shot and her body burnt in Narathiwat, while a second victim, believed to be Buddhist man, was shot several times in the face. A separatist leader said the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) extremist network is helping groups of young fighters stage attacks in Thailand's Muslim-majority south.
(AP, 11/22/06)
2006 Nov 24, In Thailand attackers shot a school principal, and then set his body on fire. The principal became the 59th teacher or school official killed in three years of violence.
(AP, 11/25/06)
2006 Nov 25, In Thailand a regional representative for teachers said more than 300 schools in the south will close indefinitely Nov 27, after attacks by suspected Muslim insurgents left two teachers dead.
(AP, 11/25/06)
2006 Nov 28, Thailand's military-installed government agreed to lift martial law in Bangkok and in more than half of the country's provinces.
(AP, 11/28/06)
2006 Dec 9, In Thailand a police informant who survived two attacks by suspected Muslim insurgents was killed in a drive-by shooting in the restive south.
(AP, 12/9/06)
2006 Dec 13, Two Laotian-American men were shot to death at a bus station in northeastern Thailand after returning from a trip to Laos. Thai police said they suspect a political connection to the killings.
(AP, 12/14/06)
2006 Dec 19, Thailand’s stock market experienced a record decline as the government moved to clamp down on foreign investment. Thailand’s SET index lost 15% of its value. By the end of the day the government partially lifted its restrictions.
(WSJ, 12/20/06, p.C1)(SFC, 12/21/06, p.C3)(Econ, 1/6/07, p.59)
2006 Dec 24, Bo Mya (79), a longtime leader of the Karen National Union, died in Thailand. The KNU was Myanmar's largest guerrilla group.
(AP, 12/24/06)
2006 Dec 29, In southern Thailand 2 teachers were shot and burned to death and a government worker gunned down in attacks blamed on Muslim insurgents.
(AP, 12/29/06)
2006 Dec 31, In Thailand 6 bomb blasts rocked Bangkok on New Years Eve and 3 more just after midnight. 3 people were killed 38 wounded. The city cancelled its major New Year's Eve celebrations just as revelers had begun to gather ahead of the countdown.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2006 Paul M. Handley authored “The King Never Smiles: A Biography of Thailand’s Bhumidiol Adulyadej. The import of Handley's book into Thailand was banned by police order even before its publication.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.74)(AP, 1/10/08)
2006 Phantarak Rajadej (104), a former police chief in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand, died. He had begun making and selling Jatukam Ramathep amulets in the 1980s to raise money for a Buddhist shrine and was believed to have mastered the art of black magic to ward off his enemies. Production of the amulets surged following his death. In 2008 the market collapsed.
(WSJ, 4/7/08, p.A9)
2007 Jan 13, In southern Thailand a Buddhist man and his wife were working at a rubber plantation in Yala province when a group attacked them, shooting the man three times in the chest before beheading him and killing his wife. Another Buddhist was killed in a drive-by shooting in a separate attack in Yala. The Islamic insurgency, that flared in January 2004, has killed more than 1,900 people.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 14, Two passenger trains collided near a beach resort town south of Bangkok, killing three people and injuring more than 100 others.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 17, In Thailand suspected separatist rebels shot dead two Buddhist villagers in the Muslim-majority south. The insurgency there has killed more than 1,800 people in three years.
(AFP, 1/17/07)
2007 Jan 26, Suspected Muslim separatists ambushed police patrols and torched a school as PM Surayud Chulanont returned to southern Thailand for a third attempt at ending the bloody insurgency.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2007 Jan, In Thailand the film “The Legend of King Naresuan," directed by Chatrichalerm Yukol, set a new box office record taking in $3.4 million (120 million baht) in its 1st four days. The 2nd episode of the trilogy was scheduled to open February 15.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.44)
2007 Feb 12, Thailand, which has upset big drug companies by issuing patent-overriding licenses for generic versions of heart and HIV/AIDS pills, said it would issue more unless the firms cut prices.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 18, In Thailand 29 bombings and 20 other attacks rocked the country's four southernmost provinces. Most of the attacks took place in a span of 45 minutes.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 19, In Thailand violence continued as bombs exploded at four locations in the south, killing an army major and wounding two soldiers, three policemen and 13 civilians.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 21, Thailand police said suspected Islamic separatists had set ablaze Thailand's biggest rubber warehouse and shot dead four people in fresh attacks across the Muslim-majority southern provinces. A top economic aide to ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra resigned from his position in the current military-appointed government following sharp criticism from pro-democracy groups.
(AFP, 2/21/07)(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 27, Pridiyathorn Devakula, Thailand’s finance minister and deputy prime minister, quit.
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.49)
2007 Mar 2, In the jungles of southern Thailand soldiers killed five suspected Muslim insurgents during a raid on a weapons training camp.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 6, Thailand's military-installed government took over the country's only independent television station and said it would be temporarily pulled off the air after it failed to pay millions of dollars in unpaid license fees.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 9, Thailand's junta chief urged people living in restive Muslim-majority provinces to act as informants for security forces trying to quell three years of separatist unrest.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 14, Thai prosecutors said they would charge the wife of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra with tax evasion. In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents opened fire on nine Buddhists who were riding in a commuter van, killing all of them execution-style.
(AP, 3/14/07)(AFP, 3/14/07)
2007 Mar 17, In southern Thailand attackers hurled explosives and opened fire on an Islamic school, killing three students and sparking a riot by angry Muslim villagers. Shortly after the attack, three Buddhists were shot dead in the same district.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 19, In Thailand suspected Muslim separatists shot and killed three Buddhist women involved with a project for victims of the insurgency.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 22, Malaysia and Thailand agreed to map out a series of socio-economic measures to end rising sectarian tensions and violence in the kingdom's insurgency-wracked south.
(AFP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 29, A Swiss man was jailed for 10 years for insulting Thailand's revered king by vandalizing his portraits during a drunken spree.
(AP, 3/29/07)
2007 Apr 2, Thailand's premier hailed ties with Japan as he prepared to sign a free-trade agreement with his country's top investor, easing international isolation of the kingdom since last year's coup. Army-installed PM Surayud Chulanont will sign the deal April 3, which Thailand hopes will boost investment from Japan.
(AFP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 3, Japan and Thailand signed a free trade agreement that will cut tariffs on a wide range of traded goods, from seafood to automobiles.
(AP, 4/3/07)
2007 Apr 5, Attackers fired a grenade into a mosque in Thailand's restive south, wounding 16 Muslim worshippers in an act of defiance after authorities imposed a strict curfew to contain escalating violence.
(AP, 4/5/07)
2007 Apr 12, Thailand police said the king has pardoned a Swiss man who was given a 10-year sentence for spray-painting over images of the revered monarch, but the longtime Thailand resident has been ordered to leave the country.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 14, Flash floods swept over two waterfalls on a southern Thai mountain packed with picnickers and swimmers celebrating the country's New Year, killing at least 35 people and leaving dozens more missing.
(AP, 4/15/07)
2007 Apr 29, Suspected Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand killed two Buddhist villagers, beheading one of them, and left a note saying the attack was revenge for a deadly weekend bombing at a mosque.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 30, In southern Thailand suspected Islamic insurgents exploded a bomb at a busy night market and wounded 20 people.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 2, Thailand's military-installed PM Surayud Chulanont said he has tasked his southern army commander with developing a detailed amnesty proposal for Islamic militants.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 4, Delegates meeting in Thailand from 120 countries approved the first roadmap for stemming greenhouse gas emissions, laying out what they said was an affordable arsenal of anti-warming measures that must be rushed into place to avert a disastrous spike in global temperatures.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 8, Thailand and the United States launched their annual war games.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 11, In southern Thailand separatist militants killed two policemen in a raid on a security checkpost, attacking it with guns and grenades before setting it ablaze with the victims inside.
(AFP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 20, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed two Buddhist civilians and wounded a third, while a bomb wounded 11 people, including five policemen.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 23, In southern Thailand 7 people including two teenagers were killed, while 11 others were injured in a spate of bombings by suspected separatist rebels.
(AFP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 27, In southern Thailand 6 bombs ripped through a key commercial district, wounding 10 people.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 28, In southern Thailand a bomb in a market in Kolomudo killed four Buddhists, including two children.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 May 29, Senior Thai judges began deliberating on whether to dissolve the kingdom's two main political parties as thousands of troops were put on alert amid security fears ahead of the court verdict.
(AP, 5/29/07)
2007 May 30, Two senior officials with Thailand's Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party were found guilty of election fraud in a ruling that could doom the political powerhouse founded by ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra. A court disbanded the political party of Shinawatra, barring him and 110 party executives from politics for five years due to election law violations.
(AFP, 5/30/07)(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 May 31, In southern Thailand suspected insurgents sprayed gunfire into a mosque, killing 7 worshippers. Black-uniformed raiders roared into Kolomudo, a Muslim village, firing assault rifles and hurling grenades from a pickup truck at a group of teenagers relaxing near the mosque. When the attack was over, five of the youths lay dead. Buddhist vigilantes were suspected. A roadside bomb killed 11 paramilitary troops almost simultaneously in some of the worst recent violence. A 12th soldier died the next day.
(AP, 6/1/07)(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Jun 9, Thailand deported 163 ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers to Laos who authorities said had entered the country illegally in recent years trying to reach a large refugee camp.
(AP, 6/9/07)
2007 Jun 14, In insurgency-wracked southern Thailand a bomb exploded during a soccer match, wounding 14 police officers who were providing security.
(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jun 15, In southern Thailand a roadside bomb and shootings killed seven soldiers in one of the deadliest attacks on security forces this year.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 16, Thailand's military-installed government offered to negotiate with ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra over his recently frozen assets, as thousands of people protested in support of the former leader.
(AP, 6/16/07)
2007 Jun 19, Police charged ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife with concealing assets and ordered the exiled leader to return to Thailand.
(AP, 6/19/07)
2007 Jun 20, Thailand’s legislature approved an anti-rape law that widens the definition of the crime and makes it illegal for a husband to have sex with his wife without her consent.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2007 Jun 21, Thai prosecutors filed corruption charges against ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra in the Supreme Court, in the first formal charges lodged against the exiled former premier. Separatist militants in southern Thailand shot a Muslim man and then partially severed his head, while the nation's junta leader was visiting the region. A 54-year-old Buddhist was gunned down in a drive-by shooting.
(AP, 6/21/07)(AFP, 6/22/07)
2007 Jun 22, In southern Thailand 10 people, including five soldiers, were hurt in two separate bombings.
(AFP, 6/22/07)
2007 Jun 25, The Thai government said it will freeze an additional $147 million in assets believed to be controlled by ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jun 26, The Asian Development Bank in Thailand said Asian governments must promote clean energy such as wind and solar power to maintain their booming economies and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in coming decades.
(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jul 5, Thailand's military junta unveiled a new outline constitution with controversial proposals that could limit the role of any future elected prime minister.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 11, In southern Thailand suspected separatists over the last 24 hours shot dead 4 people including a government official, as the Thai premier began a two-day visit to the region.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 12, In southern Thailand suspected rebels killed five people.
(AFP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 17, In southern Thailand twin bomb attacks killed one policeman and wounded 18 other people, as the junta formally extended a state of emergency in the region.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 18, Thailand’s Computer Crime Act, intended to prevent cybercrimes, came into force. Most prosecutions that followed under the act were for online content that supposedly endangered national security.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.54)(www.prachatai.com/english/node/117)
2007 Aug 1, In southern Thailand a rebel ambush and bombs left 11 people dead.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 2, In Thailand a lawyer said the wife of Thailand's deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra will seek 1.4 billion dollars in compensation from military-backed authorities that have frozen her assets.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 6, PM Surayud Chulanont said Thailand will return some 8,000 ethnic Hmong refugees to Laos despite their claims that they face persecution in their homeland.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 14, A Thailand judge issued arrest warrants for ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife for failing to appear at their trial on corruption-related charges.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 19, A new constitution for Thailand, that is to usher in December general elections and end military rule, was approved by millions of voters in the country’s first ever nationwide referendum. This was the 18th constitution since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.
(AP, 8/19/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.38)
2007 Aug 31, The Thai government said it has lifted a four-month ban on YouTube after the popular video-sharing Web site's operator agreed not to allow videos that violate the country's laws or are deemed offensive to Thai people. 3 people including a state railway worker were shot dead in separate attacks in the restive Muslim-majority south.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Sep 3, A Thai court issued arrest warrants for former PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife over their alleged violations of stock-trading laws.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 15, In Thailand a roadside bomb planted by suspected separatist rebels killed one soldier and wounded five others in the insurgency-torn south. 2 men were killed in a drive-by shooting by suspected militants in Pattani province.
(AP, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 16, In Thailand a One-Two-Go Airlines passenger plane filled with foreign tourists crashed as it tried to land in pouring rain on the island of Phuket, splitting in two and bursting into flames. 89 people were killed.
(AP, 9/17/07)(AP, 9/16/08)
2007 Sep 30, Thailand's General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, who led last year's coup, stepped down as head of the nation's junta, paving the way for him to join the cabinet.
(AFP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 2, Thailand's coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin was officially named a deputy prime minister, but he denied that his appointment to the cabinet was an attempt to cling to power.
(AP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 13, In southern Thailand 6 European tourists and their two Thai guides died when a flash flood engulfed a cave they were exploring.
(AFP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 19, Christopher Paul Neil (32), a Canadian schoolteacher suspected of sexually abusing boys, was arrested in rural Thailand and charged after a 3-year international manhunt that relied on digitally unscrambled photos and tips from the public. Neil later pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy and was sentenced to three years and three months in jail; he faces other charges involving the victim's younger brother.
(AP, 10/19/07)(AP, 10/19/08)
2007 Oct 30, Thailand's military-installed government lifted martial law in more than half of the 400 districts where it remained after being imposed during a coup last year.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Nov 21, In southern Thailand unidentified gunmen killed four local government employees in the same district where a prominent political party leader was campaigning.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 28, In southern Thailand a Muslim military informant was shot and crucified, while two Buddhist men were beheaded by suspected Islamic separatists.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Dec 4, In southern Thailand a bomb killed six people and injured 20 in one of the deadliest attacks in recent months.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 6, The 24th Southeast Asian Games officially opened in Korat, Thailand.
(AFP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 12, Thailand smashed through the 100-gold barrier at the SEA Games as they continued their relentless pursuit of top spot on the medals table.
(AFP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 13, An official said Thai tax authorities have seized assets worth about $34.2 million from family members of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 18, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed four people before beheading one victim, days before the country's first election since last year's coup.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 20, Thailand's military-installed parliament approved a controversial internal security law. Critics warned it will allow the military to maintain a grip on power even after this weekend's general election.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 23, In Thailand allies of deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra appeared to emerge as victors in the post-coup election but failed to secure an absolute majority in parliament. Thaksinites won 233 seats, 8 short of a majority in the 480-seat lower house.
(AP, 12/23/07)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.33)
2007 Dec 24, The Thai political party allied with deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra said that it has recruited enough other parties to form a coalition government following its win in the country's first election since a 2006 coup.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 25, Deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra said he was planning to return home from exile and might advise the victorious party in last weekend's elections, sparking fears of another year of intense political conflict in Thailand.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 27, In Thailand officials said deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra would be arrested if he returns home from a self-imposed exile as planned, even if his victorious allies form a government following last weekend's general election.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 31, In Thailand a bomb attack wounded 27 people in Sungai Kolok, a tourist town where people had gathered to celebrate the New Year.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 In Thailand 751 people died in prison or under police custody this year.
(Econ, 4/19/08, p.55)
2008 Jan 8, The wife of ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra was handed an arrest warrant after she returned to Thailand to face corruption charges that could put her behind bars for 20 years.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Thailand six suspected militants escaped in a jailbreak.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 14, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents killed eight soldiers, leaving one beheaded, in a bomb and shooting attack.
(AP, 1/14/08)
2008 Jan 15, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents exploded a bomb that left at least 39 people injured in a market in Yala.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 24, In southern Thailand Muslim militants fatally shot a Buddhist teacher as he pulled out of his driveway to head to work.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 26, In western Thailand a bus packed with passengers heading to a funeral tumbled down a mountain, killing nine people and injuring 26 others.
(AP, 1/26/08)
2008 Jan 28, Thailand’s parliament chose Samak Sundaravej, representing ex-PM Shinawatra’s interests, as premier easily beating the Democratic party candidate 310-163.
(SFC, 1/29/08, p.A4)
2008 Jan, In southern Thailand killings rose sharply this month to 55. Some 2,800 deaths were counted since 2004.
(Econ, 3/1/08, p.45)
2008 Feb 1, The US announced it will resume military and other aid to Thailand as a result of the country's successful election and its formation of a democratically elected government.
(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 Feb 3, Thailand's new PM Sundaravej said he will also become the defense minister in a soon-to-be unveiled Cabinet to deter the military from staging a coup against his government.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 4, In southern Thailand a bomb exploded outside an Islamic boarding school, killing one person and wounding 12. A separate bombing wounded six people, in the latest violence attributed to an Islamic separatist rebellion that has entered its fifth year.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 6, Thailand made an uneasy return to democracy with the swearing-in of a Cabinet dominated by loyalists to the prime minister ousted nearly 17 months ago in a military coup. Suspected Muslim insurgents detonated a bomb near a Chinese shrine in southern Thailand, killing one soldier and wounding six other people.
(AP, 2/6/08)
2008 Feb 14, In Thailand General Secretary Mahn Sha (64), leader of the Karen National Union (KNU), was shot and killed at his home in Mae Sot by three men who arrived in a pickup truck. The KNU is one of the biggest ethnic groups fighting Myanmar's military government. Initial investigations showed that the assailants were also Karen.
(AP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 19, In Thailand Glenn Richard Allen (61), an American man was sentenced, to 16 years in prison for raping a 13-year-old girl and sexually abusing a second teenager in Pattaya, a Thai seaside resort town notorious for its sex industry.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 19, In Thailand Glenn Richard Allen (61), an American man was sentenced, to 16 years in prison for raping a 13-year-old girl and sexually abusing a second teenager in Pattaya, a Thai seaside resort town notorious for its sex industry.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 28, Former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to clear his name on corruption charges and called for national unity as he flew home to a jubilant welcome from thousands of supporters.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Mar 2, Thais went to the polls to vote in the country's first elections for the upper house of Parliament since a 2006 military coup ousted elected PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Mar 6, Viktor Bout, a suspected Russian arms dealer, was arrested at a five-star hotel in downtown Bangkok on allegations that he supplied Colombian rebels with arms and explosives. He had been accused of flouting UN embargoes and was wanted by Interpol.
(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 15, In southern Thailand a bomb exploded in the parking lot of an upscale hotel, killing two people and wounding 14 others.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Apr 1, Poor countries at a UN conference in Thailand said they won't sign a global warming pact unless industrialized nations guarantee them billions of dollars needed to adapt to the impact of climate change.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 2, Thailand's Health Ministry ordered hospitals and medical clinics to temporarily stop performing castrations for non-medical reasons, saying that the procedure performed on transsexuals needs stricter monitoring.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 4, In Thailand climate negotiators ended 5 days of talks. More than 160 nations agreed to consider how to reduce rapidly growing emissions from air and sea travel as they worked toward drafting an ambitious new treaty on global warming.
(AFP, 4/4/08)(WSJ, 4/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 7, It was reported that Thailand’s market bubble in religious talismans had popped leaving many small business people in debt. The market in Jatukam Ramathep amulets had swelled to $1.5 billion in 2007.
(WSJ, 4/7/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 9, Thai police dropped charges against Viktor Bout (41), a Russian man accused of being one of the world's most prolific black market arms dealers, saying they will proceed with hearings to extradite him to the United States.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 10, In Thailand 54 illegal migrant workers from Myanmar suffocated in the back of an unventilated truck, while the rest of the passengers being smuggled to Thailand pounded on the container and screamed in vain for the driver's help. 37 of the dead were women and 17 were men. A Thai court the next day convicted some 64 survivors of illegal entry and rule to send them back to Myanmar.
(AP, 4/10/08)(Reuters, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 18, Thailand's PM Samak Sundaravej said that Thais should be honored the Olympic torch is passing through their country and protesters have no reason to disrupt the relay. Up to 2,000 police will guard the April 19 relay, a 6.3-mile run.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 21, Thailand’s government said more than 10 million people in parts of its rice bowl region have been hit by drought causing further concerns as prices of the staple grain soared.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 May 20, Ian Shuttleworth (42), a former British police officer, was arrested in Bangkok in an international crackdown on a sex trafficking ring that saw nine Thais detained last month in London. He was arrested at his apartment in downtown Bangkok, where he had set up a security company providing bodyguards to Thailand's elite. He is accused of luring Thai women into prostitution by promising them well-paid restaurant jobs in London, and then selling them to a madam.
(AFP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 22, Thailand's PM Sundaravej pledged to sell rice to Manila at "negotiable" rates, as he began a visit to the Philippines, which is working to boost its stocks of the grain.
(AFP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 28, Thailand police said 3 soldiers and four suspected separatist rebels have been killed in a series of incidents across the far south, including a shootout at a wedding party.
(AFP, 5/28/08)
2008 Jun 11, In Thailand thousands of truckers went on a half-day strike demanding government help against rising fuel prices, the latest in a series of protests that have swept across Asia and Europe.
(Reuters, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 18, Thousands of demonstrators accused the Thai government of yielding a disputed border region with an ancient temple to Cambodia, the latest trouble for the embattled prime minister who has been facing daily protests calling for his resignation.
(AP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jun 20, In Thailand several thousand protesters pushed through a heavy police cordon around the seat of government, vowing to besiege the compound until PM Samak Sundaravej resigns. They accused Samak's government of interfering with corruption charges against former PM Thaksin and trying to change the constitution for its own self-interest. A Thai army helicopter crashed in southern Thailand, killing all 10 people on board.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 22, Thailand’s PM Samak Sundaravej agreed to resign if he lost a no-confidence vote in Parliament.
(AP, 6/22/08)
2008 Jun, In Thailand 3 legal advisers of ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra were jailed after giving court officials a bag holding $60,000.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.52)
2008 Jul 1, Thailand’s deputy prime minister said the Thai government has suspended its decision to support Cambodia's bid to have an 11th century temple near the Thai border declared a world landmark. In 1962, the International Court of Justice awarded the Preah Vihear temple and the land it occupies to Cambodia.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 5, In southern Thailand suspected insurgents shot up a bustling cafe, killing three customers and injuring four others.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 7, A UNESCO official said that an 11th century temple that sits on Cambodia's disputed border zone with Thailand has been designated as a world heritage site. Hindu-themed Preah Vihear reflects the beliefs of the kings who ruled what was then the Angkorean empire.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 11, Thai prosecutors filed new corruption charges against ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra for alleged abuse of authority to benefit his family business.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 16, Cambodia assembled its troops near the Thai border in the second day of alleged incursions by Thai soldiers amid tensions over disputed border land near a historic temple.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 17, An organization claiming to represent groups involved in southern Thailand's Muslim insurgency announced it will end all violence in the region as of July 14. Former army commander and Defense Minister Chetta Thanajaro said the organization that made the announcement represented 11 different underground groups operating in southern Thailand.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 18, Thailand sent more military reinforcements to a disputed part of the Cambodian border, after the tense four-day standoff nearly erupted into gunfire during the night.
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 21, Talks between Cambodia and Thailand to resolve a military stand-off on their joint border ended without a solution.
(AFP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 22, Cambodia asked the UN Security Council and its Southeast Asian neighbors to intervene in resolving a military standoff over disputed border territory around an ancient temple, stepping up its rhetoric against Thailand.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 31, In Thailand the wife of ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra was found guilty of evading millions of dollars in taxes and sentenced to three years in prison, dealing a staggering blow to a man who was once one of the richest and most powerful in Thailand.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Aug 3, Cambodia said that Thai soldiers are occupying a second temple site on their border in an escalation of an ongoing armed standoff that nearly led to clashes between the neighbors last month.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 6, President George W. Bush flew into Bangkok on the latest leg of a pre-Olympics Asian tour, although his focus in Thailand is mainly on the "outpost of tyranny" junta in neighboring Myanmar.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Thailand first lady Laura Bush, meeting with refugees who fled a brutal campaign by Myanmar's military junta, urged China and other countries to join the US in imposing sanctions against the country.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 11, Thailand's Supreme Court issued arrest warrants for ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife after they failed to appear at a hearing on corruption charges and fled to London, saying they could not get justice in their homeland.
(AP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 12, Somali pirates hijacked the Thor Star, a Thai cargo ship with 28 crew members onboard.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 16, A monthlong standoff between Cambodia and Thailand appeared to be ending as both sides pulled back their troops from disputed territory around a temple near their shared border.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 21, Forbes magazine reported that Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej (80) is the world's richest royal sovereign with a fortune estimated at 35 billion dollars, and oil-rich Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (60) of Abu Dhabi is far back at No. 2 with 23 billion.
(AFP, 8/21/08)
2008 Aug 26, In Thailand thousands of anti-government demonstrators pushed into the Thai prime minister's office compound and rallied outside several ministries. A violent masked mob from the same protest group forced a state-run TV station off the air.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 27, Thailand issued arrest warrants for protest leaders besieging the main government complex, as authorities scrambled to find a peaceful end to the administration's most serious challenge yet.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 30, Thai PM Samak Sundaravej vowed not to quit in the face of intensifying protests aimed at toppling his seven-month-old government.
(Reuters, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 31, Thailand's Parliament convened an emergency session at the request of the country's prime minister, who acknowledged that his administration cannot control spiraling anti-government protests.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Sep 2, Thailand's prime minister declared a state of emergency in the capital Bangkok after a week of political tension exploded into violent street clashes between supporters and opponents of the government that left one person dead.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 9, Thailand's PM Samak was forced to resign along with his Cabinet after a court ruled that he had violated the constitution by hosting TV cooking shows while in office. The Cabinet will remain in a caretaker position until a new administration is installed.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 12, Samak Sundaravej ended his bid to return to power as Thailand's prime minister, after a revolt within the ruling party torpedoed his re-election in parliament.
(AFP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 15, Thailand's ruling party chose the brother-in-law of ousted former leader Thaksin Shinawatra as its nominee to become the next prime minister, immediately drawing opposition from anti-government protesters and dozens of its own members.
(AP, 9/15/08)
2008 Sep 16, Thailand's ruling People's Power Party announced that it has reconciled with a renegade faction, clearing a hurdle toward the selection of Somchai Wongsawat as a consensus candidate for prime minister.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 17, Thai lawmakers turned to Somchai Wongsawat, the brother-in-law of deposed leader Thaksin Shinawatra, to be the new prime minister, setting up a showdown with protesters determined to tear down his political legacy.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 20, The Thai government said floods have killed 14 people and sickened more than 53,000 others, including many who contracted waterborne ailments. The 14 people were swept away by flash floods that hit 36 of Thailand's 76 provinces over the past nine days.
(AP, 9/20/08)
2008 Oct 3, Soldiers from both Cambodia and Thailand were wounded in a brief clash along their volatile border.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 5, Apirak Kosayodhin, the leader of Thailand's opposition Democrat Party, won re-election as governor of Bangkok, defeating the ruling party candidate as well as a one-time sex tycoon. Thai police arrested Chamlong Srimuang, a key protest leader and one-time Bangkok mayor, on charges of insurrection in a continuing crackdown against an anti-government movement that spearheaded the ouster of a prime minister last month.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 7, Thai riot police clashed with thousands of opposition PAD protesters who barricaded Parliament and vowed to block the government from exiting the building. 2 people were killed. Deputy PM Chavalit Yongchaiyudh resigned to take responsibility for the chaos.
(AP, 10/7/08)(SFC, 10/9/08, p.A16)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.55)
2008 Oct 9, The leaders of Thailand's anti-government protesters said they will surrender to police after a court dropped treason charges against them, but vowed to continue their occupation of the prime minister's office after posting bail.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 10, Leaders of Thai anti-government protests were granted bail after surrendering to police and immediately vowed new rallies, raising fears of mounting turmoil days after deadly street clashes. At least 22 people were killed and 24 others injured when a bus packed with passengers crashed in eastern Thailand.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 11, Thailand's embattled PM Somchai Wongsawat, indicated that he may resign in the wake of fierce anti-government protests earlier this week that left two people dead and hundreds injured. Thousands of supporters of the ruling coalition gathered on the outskirts of Bangkok in a show of strength, two days ahead of a planned major protest by a group hoping to topple the elected government.
(AFP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 13, Cambodian PM Hun Sen gave Thailand an ultimatum to withdraw troops from a disputed stretch of jungle-clad border within 24 hours or his forces would turn the area into a "death zone." Thai troops retreated the next day.
(Reuters, 10/13/08)(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 13, Swiss authorities said they have found high concentrations of melamine in biscuits from Thailand and Sri Lanka and have called on other European countries to withdraw the products.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 15, Cambodia and Thailand exchanged fire on the border in a clash over disputed land which left two soldiers dead and several wounded.
(AFP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 16, Cambodia and Thailand agreed to joint patrols of disputed border areas after deadly clashes, but made little progress toward resolving their long-standing territorial spat.
(AFP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 17, In southern Thailand a 25-year-old man was shot dead in a gunfight with security officials after the arrests of five other suspected militants.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 18, In southern Thailand 2 Muslim men were killed in separate drive-by shootings.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 18, Somali pirates released a Thai ship after receiving a ransom.
(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 20, In Thailand thousands of anti-government protesters marched through the streets of Bangkok, calling the prime minister a "murderer" and demanding he resign over the violent quashing of a previous rally.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 21, A Thai court found former PM Thaksin Shinawatra (59) guilty of corruption and sentenced him to two years in prison. His wife, Pojaman (51), was acquitted.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 30, In Thailand assailants threw a grenade into a crowd of anti-government protesters occupying a bridge, wounding 10 people ahead of a demonstration outside the British Embassy in Bangkok.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Nov 4, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents detonated two bombs at a tea stall and shopping area, killing one person and wounding at least 71.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 9, Kuo Te-tsai (42), a Taiwanese drug trafficker, was arrested at a Thai beach resort with 229 pounds of heroin worth millions of dollars in a joint operation by American, Taiwanese and Thai drug enforcement authorities.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 13, In Thailand assailants hurled explosives at vendors protesting a rent increase by new managers of a government-owned market in Bangkok, wounding 13 people.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 18, The Indian naval frigate Tabar sank a suspected pirate "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats into the night. Separate bands of pirates also seized a Thai ship with 16 crew members and an Iranian cargo vessel with a crew of 25 in the Gulf of Aden. The pirate "mother ship" was later reported to have been the Thai fishing trawler seized hours earlier by pirates. One crew member was killed, 14 were missing and one was rescued 4 days later. The Iranian vessel was released on Jan 9, 2009.
(AP, 11/19/08)(AP, 11/26/08)(SFC, 11/26/08, p.A3)(AP, 1/10/09)
2008 Nov 20, In Thailand a grenade attack on demonstrators occupying the Thai premier's offices killed one person and wounded 29, prompting protest leaders to call for a new march against the government.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 23, In Thailand protesters seeking the resignation of the prime minister massed in the capital for what they said would be their biggest rally yet and a final showdown with the government. Thousands of soldiers and police were ordered to use nonviolent means to keep the peace.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 24, In Thailand thousands of anti-government protesters fanned out across Bangkok, causing Parliament to shut down and forcing a group of riot police to retreat in what the activists called their final bid to oust a corrupt administration.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 25, In Thailand Bangkok's main international airport halted all flight operations after anti-government protesters stormed the departures area.
(AFP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 27, Thailand's government prepared to crack down on protesters occupying the capital's two airports, but called on the public not to panic as rumors of a coup swept through the city.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 30, In Thailand attackers set off explosions at anti-government protest sites, wounding 51 people and raising fears of widening confrontations in Thailand's worst political crisis in decades, which has strangled its economy and shut down its main airports. Thousands of government supporters wearing red shirts, headbands and bandanas joined a rally against the protest alliance. So far six people have been killed in bomb attacks, clashes with police and street battles between government opponents and supports.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Thailand a senior tourism official said an estimated 350,000 passengers have been unable to fly out since anti-government protesters shut down Bangkok's two airports last week.
(AFP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 2, Thailand's PM Somchai Wongsawat resigned after weeks of protests closed the capital's airports, stranding 300,000 travelers. Protesters promised to lift their siege, and international flights were expected to resume on Dec 5. Deputy PM Chaowarat Chandeerakul will become the caretaker prime minister. Parliament will have to pick a new prime minister within 30 days.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 3, In Thailand the first commercial flight in a week arrived in Bangkok as anti-government protesters ended their siege of the country's two main airports, declaring victory after PM Somchai Wongsawat was ousted by a court ruling.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 5, In southern Thailand 4 people were killed by a bomb at a drugstore suspected to have been planted by Muslim insurgents.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 7, Thailand's main opposition party called for an emergency parliament session to prove its majority in a bid to form the next government and end months of political chaos, as loyalists of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra struggled to stay in power.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 12, In Thailand a commercial fishing commission agreed to cut the catches of bigeye tuna in parts of the Pacific Ocean, a small step in an effort to save a threatened species that is a favorite among sushi lovers. Environmentalists lambasted the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission's decision to reduce catches by only 10 percent in each of the next three years. They wanted an immediate 30 percent reduction that scientists advising the body had recommended.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 15, In Thailand Abhisit Vejjajiva, a patrician 44-year-old with an Oxford education, was elected the prime minister in a parliamentary vote amid hopes that he can calm the political storms that have battered the country for the past three years. On Feb 24, 2011, Abhisit Vejjajiva publicly acknowledged his dual Thai-British nationality for the first time during a debate in Parliament.
(AP, 12/15/08)(AP, 2/24/11)
2008 Dec 28, In Thailand thousands of supporters of exiled former PM Thaksin Shinawatra began converging on Parliament, vowing to stage demonstrations until the new government holds elections.
(AP, 12/28/08)
2008 Dec 29, The Indian Coast Guard rescued two people off India's east coast during a search for more than 300 illegal immigrants missing for the past four days and feared dead. Survivors told Indian authorities that more than 300 people from Bangladesh and Myanmar, members of the ethnic Rohingya minority, had jumped from a rickety boat that had been drifting for 13 days in the Indian Ocean and tried to swim to shore near the Andaman Islands. On Jan 16 a refugees' advocacy group accused the Thai navy of tying up four illegal immigrants and throwing them into the ocean before abandoning hundreds of others on a barge in open water, where some 300 drowned. At least 100 were rescued in Indian waters. Survivors at the time told Indian authorities they had been detained by Thai authorities, who towed them into the open sea and left them.
(AP, 12/30/08)(AP, 1/16/09)(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.A5)
2008 Dec 30, In Thailand anti-government protesters abandoned their siege of the Foreign Ministry building, easing a standoff that threatened to re-ignite a long-running political crisis.
(AP, 12/30/08)
2008 Dec 31, In Bangkok, Thailand, a New Year's Eve fire erupted at the Santika nightclub. Before the revelry was over, 62 people were killed and more than 200 injured after they tried to flee what swiftly became a charred, gutted ruin in a glitzy Bangkok entertainment area.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 11, New Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva's government won the most seats in by-elections, strengthening his shaky coalition in its first test at the polls.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 19, In Thailand Harry Nicolaides (41), an Australian writer, was sentenced to three years in prison for insulting Thailand's royal family in his novel, a rare conviction of a foreigner amid a crackdown on people and Web sites deemed critical of the monarchy. Bangkok's Criminal Court sentenced Nicolaides to six years behind bars but reduced the term because he had entered a guilty plea. His 2005 book “Verisimilitude" had sold 7 copies. Nicolaides returned home on Feb 21, after he was granted a royal pardon.
(AP, 1/19/09)(SFC, 1/20/09, p.A3)(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Jan 26, The Economist magazine said this week's edition has not been distributed in Thailand because of local objections to an article about the royal family, the second disruption in two months.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, The Thai navy detained a boat filled with 78 illegal Rohingya migrants, many of whom had lacerations and burns they said were inflicted by Myanmar soldiers.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 28, A Thai court convicted 66 barefoot, disheveled migrants detained at sea of illegally entering the country, raising the prospect they could be sent back to Myanmar despite fears they would be persecuted there.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 31, In Thailand some 30,000 supporters of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra gathered in Bangkok, promising to fight on indefinitely unless the new Thai government leaves office within 15 days. In northeastern Thailand a grenade blast killed eight people and wounded 27 others during an outdoor celebration next to a Buddhist temple.
(AFP, 1/31/09)(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 2, Indonesia's navy picked up 198 starving, dehydrated boat people from Myanmar who said they drifted for three weeks after authorities in Thailand forced them to sea in a boat without an engine. Indonesian fishermen had discovered the 40-foot (12-meter) boat off Aceh's coast in northern Sumatra and towed it to shore.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 20, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents ambushed a military convoy and beheaded two soldiers in the second such attack this month.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 24, In Thailand thousands of protesters surrounded the prime minister's office demanding that parliament be dissolved and new elections held, the latest challenge to the two-month old coalition government.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 28, In Thailand prominent activists from military-ruled Myanmar and Cambodia were barred from a meeting with Southeast Asian leaders (ASEAN), upstaging the opening of the annual summit billed as a historic step toward greater human rights in the region.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Mar 1, In Thailand Southeast Asian leaders (ASEAN) vowed to push ahead with ambitious plans to become a European Union-style economic community by 2015 despite roadblocks posed by the global financial crisis and Myanmar's dismal human rights record.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 6, In Thailand Chiranuch Premchaiporn was arrested for violating the country’s Computer Crime Act. She faced 10 charges for not preventing comments on bulletin boards that might have offended the royal family.
(http://tinyurl.com/4j6w77d)(Econ, 2/5/11, p.54)
2009 Mar 8, Off southern Thailand a 60-foot (18-metre) diving boat, carrying 30 people including 19 foreigners, was reported missing in the Similan islands. Police and navy rescued 23 passengers and crew the next day but two Swiss nationals, two Austrians, a Japanese, a German and a Thai member of the crew remained missing. The body of one woman was found on March 10.
(AFP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 12, Thailand's opposition filed a censure motion against PM Abhisit Vejjajiva and five government ministers, accusing them of corruption.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 13, In Thailand suspected Muslim militants killed 3 soldiers in an ambush in southern Narathiwat province.
(SFC, 3/14/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 19, A Thailand army spokesman said a roadside bomb had killed four paramilitary rangers on an intelligence-gathering operation in southern Pattani province.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Thailand more than 20,000 protesters ringed the prime minister's office, demanding the government resign and deriding its distribution of checks to millions of low-income workers as a payoff.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 27, Thai PM Abhisit Vejjavija's rejected calls for his resignation by thousands of anti-government protesters who ringed his office for a second day in a boisterous rally.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 30, Thailand's prime minister avoided his office, as thousands of protesters calling for his resignation surrounded the seat of government for the fifth day and ignored police warnings to disperse.
(AP, 3/30/09)
2009 Apr 1, In Thailand thousands of demonstrators defied a court order to clear a road they have blocked to the prime minister's office, vowing to continue ringing the compound until the government resigns.
(AP, 4/1/09)
2009 Apr 3, Cambodian and Thai soldiers traded fire with machine guns and rocket launchers along a disputed border, killing as many as four people in an escalation of tensions in a long-standing feud over an 11th century temple.
(AP, 4/3/09)
2009 Apr 3, Thai citizen Suvicha Thakhor was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of insulting the king and his family by posting edited photos of the monarchy on the Internet. On June 28, 2010, Thakhor was pardoned by the king.
(AP, 4/3/09)(AFP, 6/30/10)
2009 Apr 7, In Thailand protesters surrounded the prime minister's car and smashed a window as he rode in it, escalating tensions a day before a massive anti-government rally that the leader said has sparked concerns of civil war.
(AP, 4/7/09)
2009 Apr 8, Thailand’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by .25% to 1.25% to help prop up the worsening economy. more than 100,000 anti-government protesters rallied in Bangkok in their biggest bid yet to topple premier Abhisit Vejjajiva, deepening the political crisis ahead of a key Asian summit.
(WSJ, 4/9/09, p.C2)(AFP, 4/8/09)
2009 Apr 11, In Thailand anti-government protesters stormed a convention center in Pattaya where leaders of Asian nations planned to meet, smashing doors and searching room by room for the prime minister. Thailand canceled the summit and airlifted the leaders out by helicopter.
(AP, 4/11/09)
2009 Apr 12, Thailand's ousted PM Shinawatra, called for a revolution after rioting erupted in the capital, with protesters commandeering public buses and swarming triumphantly over military vehicles in unchecked defiance after the government declared a state of emergency.
(AP, 4/12/09)
2009 Apr 13, Thai troops unleashed volleys of gunfire in street battles with anti-government protesters across Bangkok, forcing them back to their main rallying site in a final push to end days of turmoil.
(AFP, 4/13/09)
2009 Apr 14, Thailand issued an arrest warrant for fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra for inciting street battles between anti-government protesters and troops. Leaders of the demonstrations called off their protests after rioting killed two and injured more than 120. Police issued warrants for 14 people, including the ousted prime minister at the heart of three years of turmoil.
(AFP, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 16, Thailand’s former PM Thaksin was reported to have received a Nicaraguan passport.
(WSJ, 4/16/09, p.A1)
2009 Apr 17, In Thailand the founder of the “yellow shirt" protest movement that shut down Bangkok's airports last year was shot and wounded in a possible assassination attempt, just days after troops quelled rioting by a rival, anti-government group. Sondhi Limthongkul, a media tycoon and supporter of the current government, was in stable condition after surgery that removed "small pieces of bullet" from his skull.
(AP, 4/17/09)
2009 Apr 24, Malaysia's PM Najib Razak vowed to investigate a scathing report by US lawmakers saying thousands of Myanmar refugees were handed over to human traffickers and ended up working in Thai brothels.
(AP, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 25, In Thailand around 2,000 anti-government protesters gathered for a rally in Bangkok, a day after PM Abhisit Vejjajiva lifted a state of emergency imposed amid violent demonstrations earlier this month.
(AFP, 4/25/09)
2009 Apr 27, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim rebels killed 10 civilians in a flurry of attacks, just ahead of the fifth anniversary of a bloody assault by security forces against militants at the Krue Se mosque.
(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 May 3, In Thailand an American identified as Jill St. Onge (27) a bartender and artist from Seattle, died while staying at a popular destination for budget travelers. Norwegian Julie Michelle Bergheim (22) died the next day. Both died after suddenly falling ill within hours of each other at the Laleena guesthouse on Koh Phi Phi in southern Thailand.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 Jun 4, David Carradine (72), star of TV series "Kung Fu" (1972-1975), was found dead in Thailand. At first suicide was suspected but a forensics expert said circumstances suggested that he may have died from autoerotic asphyxiation. His career had roared back to life when he played the assassin-turned-victim in Quentin Tarentino's "Kill Bill" (2003).
(AP, 6/4/09)(SFC, 6/6/09, p.E3)
2009 Jun 5, In Myanmar refugees began streaming out of the Ler Per Her camp in eastern Karen state and into Thailand as Myanmar forces shelled near a camp where they were sheltering.
(AP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 7, In southern Thailand Islamic insurgents shot dead a villager and then detonated a car bomb as a crowd gathered, killing one and wounding 19 in the Yi-ngo district of Narathiwat.
(AP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 8, In Thailand gunmen opened fire on a mosque in Narathiwat province’s Hoh-I-Rong district killing at least 10 people and wounding 19 others.
(SFC, 6/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 13, In Thailand 2 suspected insurgents riding a motorcycle hurled a bomb at a bus, killing one passenger and wounding 13 others in downtown Yala city. In Yala province's Bannang Sata district, a husband and wife were shot dead in an ambush while riding their motorcycle. In Narathiwat province a village headman's wife was killed and another person wounded while riding a motorcycle to a market.
(AP, 6/13/09)
2009 Jun 14, Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva urged the country not to panic about swine flu, after the number of cases grew nine-fold in four days and a cluster emerged in a key tourist hub. Health authorities reported that confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus soared to 150, compared with just 16 on June 10, including a number of foreigners.
(AFP, 6/14/09)
2009 Jun 18, Thailand security forces killed four suspected Muslim militants in a gunbattle in southern Yala province.
(AP, 6/18/09)
2009 Jun 27, In Thailand more than 18,000 "Red Shirt" protesters loyal to fugitive premier Thaksin Shinawatra gathered in Bangkok for the biggest anti-government rally since bloody riots two months ago.
(AP, 6/27/09)
2009 Jul 1, In southern Thailand a rampaging elephant stomped three rubber tappers to death after it was left to wander freely by its handler.
(AP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 12, Thailand's swine flu death toll rose to 18 as the government confirmed three more fatalities and opened a vaccine plant to prevent tens of thousands of infections across the country.
(AFP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 19, In Thailand’s Yala province a 48-year-old rubber plantation owner was shot dead in a drive-by shooting as he returned home by motorcycle. In another attack a gold shopkeeper was killed after suspect insurgents fired assault rifles into his shop in Narathiwat province before fleeing on a motorcycle.
(AP, 7/20/09)
2009 Jul 20, In Thailand Southeast Asian foreign ministers (ASEAN) endorsed the region's first human rights watchdog, rejecting criticisms that the body would be powerless to tackle rogue members such as Myanmar. 2 assailants on a motorcycle shot and killed a Buddhist man who was traveling on a road in Pattani province.
(AFP, 7/20/09)(AP, 7/20/09)
2009 Aug 4, In Thailand a passenger plane skidded off the runway and crashed into a building after landing on the Thai resort island of Samui, killing the chief pilot and injuring at least seven people including foreign tourists.
(AP, 8/4/09)
2009 Aug 11, A Thai court rejected a US request to extradite Viktor Bout, an alleged Russian arms smuggler dubbed the "Merchant of Death," dealing a setback to American efforts to try him on charges of plotting to supply weapons to Colombian rebels. The court rejected the extradition request because Bout had not been accused of committing any crimes against Thailand, which has not listed FARC as a terrorist group.
(AP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 17, In Thailand thousands of supporters of deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra rallied in central Bangkok and then marched to the royal palace, seeking a pardon for the fugitive leader.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 21, A massive oil and gas leak forced the evacuation of an oil rig off Australia's northwest coast. PTTEP Australasia, a branch of Thai-owned PTT Exploration and Production Co. Ltd., said about 40 barrels of oil had been discharged in the initial incident, and it was still attempting to bring the leak under control at the rig, owned by Norway's Seadrill. After 2 days PTTEP said plugging the leak will take weeks. Government officials said there was little threat of environmental damage. By the end of October an estimated 400 barrels a day of oil continued leaking from the fissure off the Australian coast. PTTEP Australasia has failed repeatedly to stop the leak but said it is still trying.
(AFP, 8/22/09)(AP, 8/23/09)(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Aug 26, In Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents detonated a car bomb outside a crowded open-air restaurant during lunchtime, wounding 26 people.
(SFC, 8/26/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 28, In Thailand former journalist Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul was sentenced to 18 years in prison for insulting King Bhumibol Adulyadej during a speech in 2008.
(SFC, 8/29/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 2, In Thailand a number of drive-by shootings in the provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala left eight dead, including a Muslim teacher and his son (13). Security forces raided a rubber plantation in Yala and a house in Narathiwat, sparking separate gunbattles in which two suspected insurgents were killed.
(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 3, In Thailand a bomb hidden in a motorcycle parked outside a row of open-air shops and restaurants in Pattani city exploded, killing a Buddhist man and wounding 24 others.
(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 4, In southern Thailand bomb believed to have been planted by Islamic insurgents exploded outside a restaurant where security forces were eating breakfast, killing a policeman and wounding 12 other people.
(AP, 9/4/09)
2009 Sep 9, Thailand's national police chief resigned after being transferred to an inactive post in the wake of an official recommendation that he be prosecuted for his role in a deadly crackdown against anti-government protesters last year.
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Sep 9, A teacher (29) in Bangkok, Thailand, was captured on film beating a student (14) and bashing his head against a blackboard. The 50-second clip, filmed by a classmate using a mobile phone, was broadcast Sep 21 on a nationally televised morning news program, sparking national outrage and pledges from education officials to crack down on corporal punishment in classrooms.
(AP, 9/22/09)
2009 Sep 13, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed five paramilitary troops in Yala province.
(AP, 9/14/09)
2009 Sep 19, Thai nationalists clashed with police and villagers as they tried to march toward an ancient temple on the Cambodian border, while anti-government protesters in the capital marked the third anniversary of a coup that continues to create political turmoil.
(AP, 9/19/09)
2009 Sep 24, In Thailand an experimental combination of two previously unsuccessful vaccines cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31%, in the world's largest AIDS vaccine trial of more than 16,000 volunteers. This was the first time an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus.
(AP, 9/24/09)
2009 Sep 25, An environmental group said a gecko with leopard-like spots on its body and a fanged frog that eats birds are among 163 new species discovered last year in the Mekong River region of Southeast Asia, which included Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
(AP, 9/25/09)
2009 Sep 28, In Thailand climate talks kicked off in Bangkok with the UN urging nations to break the deadlock over a global warming deal that is supposed to be finalized in just 70 days time, and warning that failure to act would leave future generations fighting for survival.
(AP, 9/28/09)
2009 Oct 5, In Thailand a train derailed during heavy rains near the coastal city of Hua Hin, killing 7 people, including a 2-year-old girl, and injuring 88 others. A fact-finding panel later said the deadly crash was the fault of the driver who fell asleep after taking antihistamines and other cold medicine.
(AP, 10/5/09)(AP, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 11, In Thailand thousands of supporters of deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra, all in red shirts, rallied in Bangkok to demand the government step down and call fresh elections.
(AP, 10/11/09)
2009 Oct 17, In Thailand some 17,000 "Red Shirt" supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra rallied in Bangkok to pressure the Thai government over their petition seeking a royal pardon for the fugitive former prime minister.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 23, In Thailand the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations began inauspiciously when half the bloc's 10 leaders failed to show up at the opening of the 3-day conference due to a tropical storm, domestic politics, a VIP visit and a possible illness. ASEAN nations inaugurated their first regional human rights commission, a watchdog immediately derided as toothless by activists who walked out of a meeting to protest being snubbed by five of the governments involved.
(AP, 10/23/09)
2009 Oct 25, In Thailand Asian leaders heard competing plans from Australia and Japan for a massive EU-style community covering half the world's population as they wrapped up their annual East Asian summit. Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva said leaders of 16 Asian countries gave high priority to finding a new economic growth model to free half the world's population from merely serving as producers for the West.
(AFP, 10/25/09)
2009 Oct 28, In Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed two Buddhist civilians in separate drive-by attacks in the insurgency-plagued south.
(AP, 10/28/09)
2009 Nov 2, A Thai official said about half of Thailand's national lawmakers are taking advantage of a new government plan allowing them to purchase guns at a discount and receive a license to carry them anywhere.
(AP, 11/2/09)
2009 Nov 4, Cambodia said it has appointed former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as economic adviser to premier Hun Sen and his administration.
(AFP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 5, Cambodia and Thailand recalled their ambassadors from each others' countries, deepening a diplomatic row after Cambodia made fugitive former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra an economic adviser.
(Reuters, 11/5/09)
2009 Nov 6, Japan pledged $5.5 billion in aid over 3 years for Southeast Asia's 5 Mekong River nations (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam), seeking to deepen ties with the region amid growing influence from China.
(AFP, 11/6/09)
2009 Nov 10, Thailand's ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra, whose political battle against his successors has left his country bitterly divided, received a warm welcome in neighboring Cambodia, which shares his disdain for the current government in Bangkok.
(AP, 11/10/09)
2009 Nov 15, In Thailand thousands of demonstrators attended a protest by the royalist "Yellow Shirt" movement against a visit to Cambodia by their arch-foe, fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
(AP, 11/15/09)
2009 Nov 16, Thai police arrested Samart Chokechoyma (36) and Kanokwan Wongsaroj (38) on charges of smuggling African ivory into the country to supply shops that sell jewelry and trinkets, including to customers in the US. DNA tests showed that it was of African origin.
(AP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 24, In Thailand Samak Sundaravej (74), a firebrand right-wing politician and TV cooking show host who served a brief and tumultuous term last year as prime minister, died of cancer.
(AP, 11/24/09)(Econ, 12/5/09, p.96)
2009 Dec 8, In Cambodia Siwaraks Chothipong (31), a Thai employee of the Cambodia Air Traffic Service, was ordered to serve seven years in prison for spying on Thailand's former prime minister while he was in Cambodia as a guest of the government. Chothipong was accused of stealing Thaksin's flight schedule before his Nov. 10 arrival and sending it to the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh. The case threatened to worsen a diplomatic feud between the two neighbors. On Dec 11 Cambodia's king pardoned Chothipong.
(AP, 12/8/09)(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 10, In Thailand thousands of red-shirted supporters of former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra flooded back into the streets of Bangkok in an attempt to step up pressure on the embattled government.
(AFP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 12, In Thailand 4 Kazakhs and a Belarusian were detained and their New Zealand registered aircraft impounded after it landed in the Thai capital with tons of war weaponry on board that originated in North Korea. The Ilyushin 76 transport from Kazakhstan was allegedly traveling from North Korea to Sri Lanka when it asked to land in Bangkok to refuel. According to a flight plan seen by arms trafficking researchers, the aircraft was chartered by Hong Kong-based Union Top Management Ltd. to fly oil industry spare parts from Pyongyang to Tehran, Iran, with several other stops, including Bangkok, Colombo in Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Ukraine. A New Zealand shell company, SP Trading Ltd., had leased the airplane.
(AP, 12/12/09)(AP, 12/23/09)(AP, 1/22/10)
2009 Dec 27, Human rights groups warned that the Thai government's planned expulsion of 4,000 ethnic Hmong to Laos could turn violent.
(AP, 12/27/09)
2009 Dec 28, Thailand sent army troops with shields and batons to evict more than 4,000 ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers and send them back to Laos despite strong objections from the US and rights groups who fear they will face persecution.
(AP, 12/28/09)
2009 Thailand authorities arrested Maksym Shynkarenko of Ukraine for distributing child pornography. In 2012 he was extradited to the US and charged in a 32-count indictment.
(SFC, 6/12/12, p.A6)
2010 Jan 22, New Zealand’s commerce minister, Simon Power, said New Zealand is reviewing its liberal system of company registration after investigators found a shell company based here leased an airplane that smuggled arms from North Korea. A New Zealand shell company, SP Trading Ltd., leased an airplane seized last month in Thailand carrying an illegal arms shipment from North Korea.
(AP, 1/22/10)2012 Dec 24, In Mexico a group of armed men stormed the town of El Platanar de Los Ontiveros in Sinaloa state and shot 9 men to death. The town had become part of a dispute between the sinaloa cartel and remnants of the Zetas.
(SFC, 12/27/12, p.A2)
2010 Jan 24, Cambodian and Thai troops exchanged fire near a disputed border temple, the latest in a string of gun battles between the countries since last year.
(AFP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Thailand 13 tiger range states attended the first Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation. The aim of the 3-day meeting was to convince countries to pledge to spend more on tiger conservation and set targets for boosting their numbers. The meeting was being organized by Thailand and the Global Tiger Initiative, a coalition formed in 2008 by the World Bank, the Smithsonian Institute and nearly 40 conservation groups. It aimed to double tiger numbers by 2022. The 13 countries attending were Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 29, In Thailand a dozen Asian nations and Russia vowed to double the number of wild tigers by 2022, crack down on poaching that has devastated the big cats and prohibit the building of roads and bridges that could harm their habitats.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Feb 1, Thailand and the United States began their annual Cobra Gold military exercise, now in its 29th year, with South Korea taking part for the first time. Singapore, Japan and Indonesia will also participate in the three-week training exercise, describes as the largest of its type in the world.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 11, Thai prosecutors said they have dropped charges against the five-man crew of an aircraft accused of smuggling weapons from North Korea, saying the men, arrested on Dec 12, might be guilty but would be deported to preserve good relations with their home countries. The decision was made after the governments of Belarus and Kazakhstan contacted the Thai Foreign Ministry and requested the crew's release so they can be investigated at home.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 16, Thailand officials said tests conducted by the government have found that British-made bomb detectors it bought for a total of $21 million have an accuracy rate of only 20 percent, but they will continue to be used.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 24, Thailand officials seized two tons of elephant tusks from Africa hidden in pallets labeled as mobile phone parts in the country's largest ivory seizure.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 26, Thailand's highest court ruled to seize 46 billion baht ($1.4 billion) from ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra's $2.29 billion in frozen assets, saying he had abused his political power for personal gain.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 27, In Thailand 4 banks were targeted with small explosives, but no one was hurt.
(SFC, 3/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 3, In Laos senior officials from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam met in Luang Prabang to discuss the Mekong River. The Mekong River Commission in a draft report said severe drought has dropped the river to its lowest level in nearly 20 years, halting some cargo traffic and boat tours on the waterway, the lifeblood for 65 million people in six countries.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 7, In Thailand some 3,000 supporters of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra demonstrated a week ahead of a crucial mass anti-government protest.
(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 12, In Thailand tens of thousands of supporters of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra gathered near ministry buildings in Bangkok to rally against the government, sporting their signature red shirts. Two months of protests followed leaving 92 people dead.
(AFP, 3/13/10)(SSFC, 3/13/11, p.A4)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.47)
2010 Mar 14, In Thailand as many as 150,000 anti-government demonstrators vowed to march on military barracks housing Thailand's top leaders as their icon, deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra, urged them from exile not to give up.
(AFP, 3/14/10)(Econ, 4/10/10, p.45)
2010 Mar 15, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva, backed by a formidable military force, rejected an ultimatum to dissolve Parliament as tens of thousands of red-shirted protesters vowed to splatter the seat of government with their own blood if their demands weren't met.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 16, Thai protesters poured several jugs of their own blood at the front gate of the government headquarters and outside the ruling party's offices in a symbolic sacrifice to press their demands for new elections.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 19, Thai anti-government protesters announced plans to snarl up the capital with a travelling rally in a bid to win support after rejecting a conditional offer of talks by PM Abhisit Vejjajiva.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 21, Thailand was mired in political deadlock as demonstrators used their own blood to create a giant piece of protest art and rejected the government's offer of talks designed to end their rally.
(AFP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 25, China agreed to share water level data at 2 dams to ease pressure from nations downstream, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
(SFC, 4/6/10, p.A3)
2010 Mar 27, Thai troops retreated from security posts in the capital, bowing to demands from 80,000 jubilant red-shirted protesters who mounted a rally to demand fresh elections.
(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Apr 1, In Thailand 6 people were shot dead by suspected militants and 10 police officers were wounded by a roadside bomb in the latest attacks in Thailand's restive south.
(AFP, 4/1/10)
2010 Apr 3, In Thailand tens of thousands of protesters swarmed Bangkok's tourist heartland, defying a warning to leave or face arrest.
(AFP, 4/3/10)
2010 Apr 5, In Thailand thousands of defiant anti-government demonstrators fanned out to other parts of Thailand's capital and threatened businesses with ties to the government after ignoring police orders to leave Bangkok's paralyzed commercial district.
(AP, 4/5/10)
2010 Apr 6, In Thailand tens of thousands of red-shirted protesters took over sections of Bangkok, pelting police with eggs and dancing in the streets as they pushed through barricades to press the prime minister to call new elections.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 7, Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency in Bangkok, handing the army broad powers to restore order after anti-government protesters broke into Parliament, forcing some lawmakers to flee by helicopter.
(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Apr 8, Thailand's beleaguered government shut down a satellite television station and Web sites of anti-government demonstrators after declaring a state of emergency, while the activists vowed to retaliate by escalating their nearly monthlong protests.
(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 9, Thai anti-government protesters stormed into a telecom company compound where authorities had shut down their vital TV channel, as soldiers and riot police failed to hold them back with tear gas and water cannons.
(AP, 4/9/10)
2010 Apr 10, Thai soldiers and police fought pitched battles with anti-government demonstrators in streets enveloped in tear gas, but troops later retreated and asked protesters to do the same. At least 23 people were killed, including a Japanese journalist, and more than 500 wounded, according to hospital officials. Hiro Muramoto (43), a Japanese TV cameraman who worked for Reuters for more than 15 years, was among those killed in the bloody clash.
(AP, 4/10/10)(AP, 4/11/10)(Econ, 4/17/10, p.16)
2010 Apr 11, In Thailand anti-government protesters dug into their encampments around Bangkok and rejected talk of negotiations after a monthlong standoff escalated into clashes that have left 21 people dead in the country’s worst political violence in nearly two decades.
(AP, 4/11/10)
2010 Apr 12, Thailand's Election Commission ruled that the ruling party be dissolved for alleged misuse of poll donations, in a potential victory for anti-government protesters who paraded slain comrades through Bangkok to press the prime minister to resign.
(AP, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 14, Thailand's "Red Shirt" protesters poured into Bangkok's commercial heart, saying they were ready for the "final round" in their fight to overthrow the embattled government.
(AFP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 18, Thailand's military declared Bangkok's main shopping boulevard unsafe because of large crowds of anti-government protesters and sent soldiers to nearby high-rise buildings to watch for any violence. The elite-backed "Yellow Shirts" vowed to take action if the government fails to deal with red-clad protesters within a week, raising fears of clashes between the rival groups.
(AP, 4/18/10)(AFP, 4/18/10)
2010 Apr 22, In Thailand a series of blasts were detonated near a massive encampment of anti-government protesters in Bangkok, wounding as many as 28 people. At least one person was reported killed.
(AP, 4/22/10)
2010 Apr 24, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva rejected scaled-back demands that he dissolve Parliament in 30 days, prompting anti-government protesters to pull out of negotiations and dashing hopes for an imminent resolution to the country's political crisis.
(AP, 4/24/10)
2010 Apr 26, Thailand's elite-backed "Yellow Shirts" called for a state of martial law to end anti-government protests as the rival "Red Shirts" blocked police convoys heading to the strife-torn capital.
(AFP, 4/26/10)
2010 Apr 27, In Thailand anti-government protesters forced a rush hour shutdown of Bangkok's busy elevated train system and promised to expand protests that have plunged the Thai capital into chaos by sending teams of demonstrators throughout the city.
(AP, 4/27/10)
2010 Apr 28, Thai security forces fired into a crowd of anti-government protesters during a clash just outside Bangkok as they tried to keep the Red Shirts from expanding their demonstrations from a base in the capital. One soldier was killed, and at least 18 protesters were hurt.
(AP, 4/28/10)
2010 Apr 29, Thailand's "Red Shirt" protesters called on the European Union to send observers to prevent a crackdown by the army, but the government warned others not to meddle in its internal affairs. Theo-establishment activists demanded military action against anti-government protesters and an end to "anarchy" in the capital.
(AFP, 4/29/10)(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 May 3, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva promised to produce a political roadmap that would end a stand-off with "Red Shirt" protesters after the country's deadliest civil violence in almost two decades.
(AFP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 4, Thai anti-government protesters welcomed a proposed compromise to end the violent political crisis that has paralyzed central Bangkok for nearly two months, but asked for more details on the plan before wrapping up their demonstrations.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 6, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva said he would dissolve Parliament in September, paving the way for new elections demanded by anti-government protesters if they end their crippling occupation of Bangkok's commercial district.
(AP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 8, Thailand's government and "Red Shirt" protesters committed themselves to a faltering peace process despite twin attacks that left two police officers dead.
(AFP, 5/8/10)
2010 May 11, Thai anti-government demonstrators insisted that they would continue their two-month protest until the country's top leaders face criminal charges for a violent crackdown on their rallies, rejecting a government gesture of concession.
(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 May 13, In Thailand Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdiphol, a renegade army officer accused of marshaling a paramilitary force among the Red Shirt protesters, was shot in the head, apparently by a sniper, and taken to a hospital.
(AP, 5/13/10)
2010 May 13, The UN General Assembly approved all 14 candidates for the 14 seats on the 47-member Human Rights Council. Human rights groups criticized the poor human rights records 7 of the candidates: Angola, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Qatar, Thailand and Uganda.
(SFC, 5/14/10, p.A2)
2010 May 14, Thai troops fired bullets at anti-government protesters and explosions thundered in the heart of Bangkok. An army push to clear the streets and end a two-month political standoff sparked clashes that left 5 people dead and dozens wounded. Demonstrators the next day accused the government snipers of picking people off with head shots.
(AFP, 5/14/10)(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 15, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva defended the deadly army crackdown on the Red Shirt protesters besieging the capital, saying there was no turning back as clashes raged in the center of Bangkok. Violence Bangkok claimed 8 more lives as the embattled premier vowed no turning back and the army threatened a crackdown on thousands of protesters.
(AP, 5/15/10)(AFP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 16, Thailand's main emergency medical center said 30 people have been killed in four days of street fighting between Red Shirt protesters and troops in central Bangkok. The latest deaths raise to 59 the number of people killed in related violence since April 10. Most of the dead are civilians.
(AP, 5/16/10)
2010 May 17, The Thai government said it would accept a cease-fire offer from a Red Shirt protest leader if their fighters return to their camp in central Bangkok, as street battles that have killed 37 people raged for a fifth day.
(AP, 5/17/10)
2010 May 18, The Thai government rejected a proposal for peace talks with leaders of the Red Shirt protesters to end the deadly mayhem gripping Bangkok, saying negotiations cannot start until the demonstrators disperse.
(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 19, Downtown Bangkok, Thailand, became a battleground as an army assault forced anti-government protest leaders to surrender, enraging followers who shot grenades and set fire to landmark buildings, cloaking the skyline in black smoke. The Central World mall was in charred ruins. Italian freelance photographer Fabio Polenghi (48) was killed by gunfire in clashes between the military and demonstrators. A 2013 inquest said Polenghi was shot by a high-velocity bullet like those issued to soldiers.
(AP, 5/19/10)(Econ, 5/29/10, p.46)(AP, 2/28/11)(AP, 5/29/13)
2010 May 20, The Thai government declared it had mostly quelled 10 weeks of violent protests in the capital as buildings still smoldered, troops rooted out small pockets of resistance and residents attempted to return to normal life.
(AP, 5/20/10)
2010 May 22, Thailand's government displayed to foreign diplomats a huge cache of weapons it said had been confiscated from anti-government protesters, to quash criticism of a deadly crackdown. The recent clashes and blasts left 91 dead and 1,900 injured.
(AFP, 5/22/10)(Econ, 7/10/10, p.39)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.58)
2010 May 22, At the Cannes film festival “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives," a surreal tale of the afterlife with giant monkeys and an erotic catfish scored gold for Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
(AFP, 5/23/10)
2010 May 24, In Thailand opposition leaders moved to impeach PM Abhisit Vejjajiva for his handling of rioting and violence in Bangkok, and an army official said the capital would remain under curfew for another week as a precaution against further unrest.
(AP, 5/24/10)
2010 May 25, A Thai court issued an arrest warrant for ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra on terrorism charges, accusing the fugitive former leader of fomenting two months of unrest in Bangkok that left 88 people dead.
(AP, 5/25/10)
2010 May, In Thailand state troops ended the “red shirt" protests with the loss of 91 lives.
(Econ, 2/19/11, p.42)
2010 Jun 1, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva defended himself against a censure motion in Parliament and said there would be an independent investigation into whether the army used undue force to clear anti-government protesters from Bangkok's streets.
(AP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 2, Thailand's prime minister survived a no-confidence vote that was called after anti-government protests crippled the capital and 89 people were killed in street battles.
(AP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 8, In Thailand a drive-by bombing near a mosque wounded 23 people in the turbulent south. Police the next day called it an attack by Muslim insurgents.
(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Jun 21, The UN Human Rights Council unanimously elected Thailand's ambassador in Geneva as its president for the coming year. Sihasak Phuangketkeow succeeds Belgium's Alex Van Meeuwen after being nominated as the Asian region's sole candidate.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 29, In Thailand Karl Joseph Kraus (90), a Berlin-born Australian, was arrested at his home near the northern city of Chiang Mai, where police confiscated about 100 photographs of naked children. He was charged with raping four young sisters whom he allegedly lured to his home with imported chocolates and English lessons.
(AP, 6/30/10)
2010 Jul 18, Thai police arrested American Ronald John Fanelli (37) on charges of killing Wanpen Satienjai (33) and concealing the crime and cause of murder. Fanelli, who has lived on the southern resort island of Phuket for three years, told investigators he took the victim home from a bar on the morning of June 18 and stabbed her to death with a penknife.
(AP, 7/19/10)
2010 Jul 23, Thailand’s Culture Ministry said Facebook and Twitter are causing deteriorating language skills among Thai students and authorities want them to return to the bygone tradition of letter-writing.
(AP, 7/23/10)
2010 Jul 25, In Thailand a bomb at a bus stop in downtown Bangkok killed one person and wounded 11 shortly after polls closed in a parliamentary election that pitted a government candidate against a jailed leader of recent mass protests.
(AP, 7/25/10)(SFC, 7/26/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 1, In Thailand several hundred Red Shirt protesters defied a state of emergency in Bangkok to stage a symbolic protest, with hundreds of people sprawling on the ground and chanting, "People died here!"
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Aug 12, Leicester City, the English Championship soccer club, announced that a consortium led by Thai businessman Aiyawatt Raksriaksorn has bought the organization.
(AFP, 8/12/10)
2010 Aug 14, In Thailand formed US Marine Dashawn Longfellow was beaten and stabbed to death following a brawl at a Phuket bar. In 2012 British kickboxer Lee Aldhouse was indicted for the stabbing.
(SFC, 12/27/12, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/dynf6av)
2010 Aug 20, A Thai appeals court ordered the extradition of suspected Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout to the United States, angering Moscow but paving the way to put the man dubbed the "Merchant of Death" on trial.
(AP, 8/20/10)
2010 Sep 1, Thailand long running high school gang violence was highlighted when students opened fire on a public bus in Bangkok. 4 stray bullets killed a boy (9), shaking parents and educators.
(AP, 9/20/10)
2010 Sep 2, A US federal indictment charged 6 recruiters from Global Horizons manpower Inc. of luring 400 laborers from Thailand to the US with promises of lucrative jobs, then confiscated their passports and failed to honor their employment contracts.
(SFC, 9/3/10, p.A4)
2010 Sep 19, In Thailand thousands of anti-government "Red Shirt" protesters defied an ongoing state of emergency in Bangkok to stage their first major demonstration since their street protests were ended by a deadly military crackdown in May.
(AP, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 24, A Thai court ordered the ex-wife of deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra to return a valuable plot of land she bought from the government while her husband was the country's leader. The Civil Court ruled that the 2003 purchase by Potjaman na Pombejra was void because it violated an anti-corruption law.
(AP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 28, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents disguised as policemen killed five people in an attack on a warehouse in Pattani province.
(AP, 9/29/10)
2010 Oct 5, In Thailand a blast blew out the side of a residential building in a Bangkok suburb killing 4 people and injuring nine. Police found bomb-making materials in the apartment, including fertilizer contained in fire extinguishers, electrical circuit boards and high-voltage batteries. Samai Wongsuwan, a Red Shirt supporter, was believed to be one of the dead.
(AP, 10/5/10)(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 17, Thousands of Thailand's anti-government "Red Shirts" joined a mass rally in the latest large-scale demonstration by the movement in recent weeks.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 21, Thailand said floods in the northeast have left 17 people dead over the last 2 weeks with damages estimated at $650 million. 28 of the country’s 77 provinces were affected.
(SFC, 10/22/10, p.A9)
2010 Oct 22, Thai police raided a warehouse where wildlife smugglers were storing thousands of illegally collected reptiles for shipment overseas.
(AP, 10/22/10)
2010 Oct 27, Thailand authorities said heavy downpours that caused rivers to burst have killed 57 people in nearly two weeks of flooding.
(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Nov 2, Thailand battled to rescue thousands of people stranded in their homes after flash floods, several meters deep in places, swept through a southern city, cutting power and communications. The floodwaters swamped vast areas of southern Thailand and inundated its largest city killing 12 people. The death toll from across the country soon passed 120.
(AFP, 11/2/10)(AP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 8, In Myanmar fighting between ethnic rebels and government troops has sent at least 10,000 refugees fleeing into Thailand just after a widely criticized election expected to usher in a parliament sympathetic to the military regime. Thai officials said that fighting had died down, and government troops had regained control of Myawaddy.
(AP, 11/8/10)
2010 Nov 9, About 20,000 refugees from Myanmar headed home after fleeing to Thailand as fighting followed a general election that is certain to keep Myanmar's military and its allies in power.
(AP, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 16, Viktor Bout (43), a suspected Russian arms dealer dubbed the "Merchant of Death," was flown out of Thailand to face trial in the United States following a long legal battle and fierce opposition from Moscow.
(AFP, 11/16/10)
2010 Nov 19, Thai police found the remains of almost 1,700 illegally aborted fetuses hidden at a Buddhist temple in Bangkok as the full extent of the grisly discovery emerged. Thousands of anti-government demonstrators took to the streets of Bangkok, peacefully marking the six-month anniversary of the military's crackdown on their protest.
(AFP, 11/19/10)(AP, 11/19/10)
2010 Nov 21, A global tiger summit meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, approved a wide-ranging program with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in the wild by 2022 backed by governments of the 13 countries that still have tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia. Experts said wild tigers could become extinct in 12 years if countries where they still roam fail to take quick action to protect their habitats and step up the fight against poaching.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 24, Australia said that a Thai-owned oil firm's "widespread and systematic shortcomings" caused the worst offshore drilling accident in the country's history, which created a massive oil slick. Thousands of barrels of oil gushed into the sea from a damaged well after a blow out on the West Atlas rig on August 21, 2009, prompting the evacuation of workers.
(AFP, 11/24/10)
2010 Dec 1, Spain’s Interior Ministry said police over the last 24 hours have arrested seven people in Spain and three in Thailand in an international operation against a group suspected of forging passports for an al-Qaida-linked Islamic terrorist group.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 20, In Malaysia a double-decker bus carrying Thai tourists overturned on a highway, killing 28 people on their way back from a hill resort.
(AP, 12/20/10)
2010 Dec 22, Thailand's government withdrew armed soldiers from skytrain stops in Bangkok and other key sites as it lifted an eight-month-old state of emergency imposed when protesters overran the capital.
(AP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 24, Thailand film director Tanwarin Sukkhapisit said she plans to appeal a decision by the National Film Board that her film, "Insects in the Backyard," cannot not be shown in Thailand because it is immoral and pornographic. The movie was about a transgender father struggling to raise two children.
(AP, 12/24/10)
2010 Dec 28, In Thailand US and Thai officials arrested a group of 12 Chinese nationals accused of obtaining fake visas to try to gain entry to the United States. The visas bore the same numbers as authentic ones issued by the US Embassy in Warsaw to Polish citizens.
(AP, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 30, A Thai court ordered prison terms for 79 members of the right-wing, nationalist "Yellow Shirt" movement who stormed a state television station two years ago armed with guns, knives and clubs.
(AP, 12/30/10)
2010 Dec 30, Cambodia charged seven Thais, including a ruling party politician, with illegal entry and put them in jail awaiting possible trial, despite strong protests from Thailand. The detainees were inspecting contested territory from Thailand's eastern Sa Kaeo province when they were captured a day earlier by Cambodian soldiers.
(AFP, 12/30/10)
2010 Thailand’s population numbered about 67 million people.
(Econ, 9/18/10, p.58)
2011 Jan 1, In southern Thailand 2 bomb disposal policemen were killed and 9 other people wounded in a blast after warnings of New Year violence in the restive region.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 9, In Thailand thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched in Bangkok, saying they had learned lessons from chaotic violence last year and had a new strategy for the new year. A Red Shirt leader vowed to hold "frequent and symbolic gatherings" twice a month, a change from the large sit-in last year that lasted 10 weeks and prompted a violent crackdown.
(AP, 1/9/11)
2011 Jan 11, Thailand's government approved a package of social welfare measures slammed by critics as populist handouts designed to woo voters in a key election year.
(AP, 1/11/11)
2011 Jan 19, In southern Thailand four soldiers were killed in an attack on their post by at least 20 armed men. The attackers also set fire to two shelters in the base and took away an unknown number of M16 assault rifles in Narathiwat province.
(AP, 1/19/11)
2011 Jan 25, Thailand's government faced renewed street protests as the right-wing nationalist group that seized Bangkok's airports two years ago gathered in the capital to pressure the prime minister over a land dispute with Cambodia. In the south 9 people were killed by a roadside bomb, where an Islamic separatist insurgency has entered its eighth year.
(AP, 1/25/11)
2011 Feb 1, A Cambodian court sentenced two Thais to lengthy prison terms for illegally crossing the border and spying. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court found Veera Somkwamkid, who heads a political pressure group, the Thailand Patriot Network, and his assistant Ratree Pipatanapaiboon, guilty of espionage, illegal entry and trespassing in a military zone. Veera was sentenced to eight years in prison and Ratree to six years.
(AP, 2/1/11)
2011 Feb 3, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents opened fire on a grocery store, killing five Buddhist bystanders.
(AP, 2/3/11)
2011 Feb 3, In Thailand a 47-year-old Thai woman died at a hotel. A 23-year-old New Zealand woman died Feb. 6 at the same Downtown Inn in Chiang Mai. Her two female companions, who became sick, recovered. A British couple in their 70s were found in their hotel room at the same hotel on Feb. 19. A later investigation reported exposure to some toxic chemical, pesticides or gas.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Feb 4, Cambodian and Thai soldiers exchanged heavy fire on the two countries' shared border near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple killing one soldier and a civilian, as tensions between the neighbors boiled over.
(AFP, 2/4/11)(Econ, 2/12/11, p.50)
2011 Feb 5, Renewed fighting between Cambodian and Thai troops along the countries' disputed border killed a Thai soldier and sent thousands of people fleeing before military commanders agreed on the second cease-fire in two days.
(AP, 2/5/11)
2011 Feb 6, The Cambodian government said part of an 11th century temple was damaged by the Thai army as the two sides exchanged artillery and mortar fire across their disputed border, shattering a shaky cease-fire and escalating tensions.
(AP, 2/6/11)
2011 Feb 7, Cambodian and Thai troops clashed for a 4th straight day as the UN chief called for "maximum restraint" in a border dispute that has claimed 7 lives and displaced thousands. On April 6 the London-based Cluster Munition Coalition said Thailand's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva confirmed the army had fired 155mm cluster shells into Cambodia.
(AFP, 2/7/11)(AP, 4/6/11)
2011 Feb 10, A new Thai airline reported the hiring of transsexual ladyboys as flight attendants, aiming at a unique identity to set itself apart from competitors as it sets out for the skies. PC Air, a charter airline set to start operations on Asian routes in April, has thus far chosen 4 ladyboys, along with 19 female and 7 male flight attendants.
(Reuters, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 13, In Thailand thousands of anti-government protesters massed in Bangkok for the latest in a series of rallies by rival political factions ahead of elections expected this year. A car bomb exploded in the insurgency-plagued far south, injuring 18 people, including four soldiers.
(AFP, 2/13/11)
2011 Feb 14, In Thailand a couple in Pattaya locked lips for 46 hours, 24 minutes and 9 seconds to celebrate Valentine’s Day. A previous world record of 32 hours was set by a Germany couple in 2009.
(SFC, 2/15/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 19, In Thailand thousands of "Red Shirts" gathered in Bangkok to mark nine months since a bloody crackdown on their anti-government rally and to press for the release of detained leaders. In the south suspected Muslim insurgents detonated a car bomb and raked a karaoke restaurant with gunfire, wounding at least 17 people in back-to-back attacks in the volatile region.
(AFP, 2/19/11)(AP, 2/19/11)
2011 Feb 25, Thai authorities displayed a ton of illicitly smuggled African elephant ivory and rhino horns seized at Bangkok's airport, a haul described as a victory for better international intelligence sharing among wildlife officials.
(AP, 2/25/11)
2011 Mar 3, In Germany a former folk music star (65) was sentenced to 9 years in prison for abusing hundreds of underage girls in Thailand by having unprotected sex with them while being HIV-positive. The member of Godewind was accused of 403 cases of unprotected sex the occurred in Pataya between 2005-2009.
(SFC, 3/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 5, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim militants fatally shot a Buddhist monk in a drive-by motorcycle attack in the Kok Pho district of Pattani province. In nearby Kapo district insurgents detonated a roadside bomb as a military truck passed by, wounding three soldiers.
(AP, 3/5/11)
2011 Mar 6, In southern Thailand six gunmen opened fire in a busy area of Pattani province's Yarang district and killed a retired police officer. Two insurgents on a motorcycle also in Pattani shot at a mother and son riding a motorbike back from a market. The 23-year-old son died and the mother was wounded.
(AP, 3/6/11)
2011 Mar 9, Thailand police officers in Phitsanulok province, acting on information from a previous operation, interrupted the loading of drugs onto trucks overnight. Seven or eight suspects fled during the raid, leaving four bags with 986,000 methamphetamine pills and more than 100 pounds (48 kg) of crystallized methamphetamine.
(AP, 3/9/11)
2011 Mar 12, In Thailand tens of thousands of anti-government “Red Shirt" protesters rallied in Bangkok on the anniversary of the start of their 2-month protests last year that left 91 dead.
(SSFC, 3/13/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 15, A Thailand court sentenced Thanthawut Taweewarodomkul (38), the administrator of an anti-government website, to 13 years in prison on charges of defaming the monarchy and violating the computer crime act.
(SFC, 3/16/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 25, In Thailand a court ordered leaders of the self-styled People' Alliance for Democracy to pay millions of dollars to airport operators in compensation for occupying Bangkok's airports for a week in 2008.
(AP, 3/25/11)
2011 Mar 29, Thailand police raided secret ivory carving workshops in central in Nakorn Sawan province, seizing an allegedly illegal haul of elephant and walrus tusks.
(AP, 3/30/11)
2011 Mar 30, Thailand mobilized its only aircraft carrier to rescue thousands trapped on the storm-swept resort island of Koh Samui after severe flooding across the south killed 15.
(AP, 3/30/11)(SFC, 3/31/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 30, Thailand confiscated two tons of African elephant tusks worth millions of dollars being smuggled through a Bangkok port. This was the country's largest ivory seizure.
(AP, 4/1/11)
2011 Mar 31, Thailand's navy used helicopters and an aircraft carrier to rescue more than 800 tourists stranded by heavy rains on the country's picturesque southern islands.
(AP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 1, In southern Thailand heavy rains finally eased, where flooding and mudslides over the past week killed 25 people.
(AP, 4/1/11)
2011 Apr 7, Thailand authorities seized 1,800 Bengal monitor lizards being smuggled on pickup trucks to the capital. Their meat could sell for $7.50-$15 per pound ($16-$33 per kg) in China, making them worth more than $60,000.
(AP, 4/8/11)
2011 Apr 8, In Thailand rich and poor nations agreed on a roadmap for UN climate talks this year, but only after long-running feuds flared over a wide range of actions they must take to combat global warming. The talks in Bangkok will be followed by other rounds in Germany, before the annual summit in Durban, South Africa.
(AFP, 4/8/11)
2011 Apr 18, In southern Thailand Muslim insurgents set off a car bomb that killed one soldier and wounded 25 people.
(AP, 4/18/11)
2011 Apr 22, Cambodia and Thailand exchanged artillery and gunfire for several hours in a flare-up of a long-running border dispute that left six soldiers killed.
(AP, 4/22/11)
2011 Apr 23, A 2nd day of fighting between Cambodian and Thai troops killed at least four soldiers, bringing the two-day death toll to 11, the worst bloodshed since the United Nations called for a ceasefire in February.
(AP, 4/23/11)
2011 Apr 24, Cambodian and Thai troops exchanged artillery fire in a third day of fighting that has killed 10 soldiers and uprooted thousands of villagers from their homes.
(AP, 4/24/11)
2011 Apr 25, Cambodian and Thai troops clashed with guns and artillery after almost a full-day break in fighting that has killed at least 12 people in four days and sent nearly 50,000 into evacuation centers.
(Reuters, 4/25/11)
2011 Apr 26, Cambodian and Thai troops fought with short-range rockets and guns near 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple, opening a second front in a five-day confrontation that has killed 13 people.
(Reuters, 4/26/11)
2011 Apr 26, Thai authorities forced the closure of 13 anti-government radio stations in the biggest crackdown on dissident media since a state of emergency during street protests last year. Police said the stations broadcast illegal statements defaming the monarchy.
(AP, 4/26/11)
2011 Apr 27, Thailand pulled out of talks with Cambodia and deadly border clashes continued for a sixth day.
(AP, 4/27/11)
2011 Apr 28, Cambodia and Thailand called a ceasefire halting their bloodiest clashes in decades, after seven days of fighting left 15 dead and around 75,000 civilians displaced.
(AFP, 4/28/11)
2011 Apr 29, Cambodian and Thai troops broke a brief cease-fire and clashed for an eighth day, shattering hopes of a quick end to a long-running border conflict that has forced nearly 100,000 villagers to flee. The death toll rose to 16.
(AP, 4/29/11)
2011 Apr 30, Troops from Cambodia and Thailand exchanged fire at the countries' contested border, marking the ninth straight day of clashes that have left at least 16 people dead and displaced nearly 100,000.
(AP, 4/30/11)
2011 Apr 30, Two Thai troops died and nine were injured in bombings that struck the restive south.
(AFP, 4/30/11)
2011 May 1, A Cambodian soldier was killed in fighting with Thailand, bringing the total number of dead to 17 as the Southeast Asian nations' festering border conflict dragged on.
(AP, 5/1/11)
2011 May 3, In Thailand a cabinet meeting of Abhisit Vejjajiva’s administration approved 102 spending proposals totaling billions of dollars. Elections were soon expected.
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.44)
2011 May 7, In Thailand militants detonated a homemade bomb near a football field in Pattani province, killing four policemen and wounding a dozen others who had come to play a friendly match with villagers. In Yala province insurgents set off a roadside bomb and shot at an army patrol, killing three soldiers and wounding two. In Narathiwat province two men on a motorcycle fatally shot a former local official in his pickup truck.
(AP, 5/7/11)
2011 May 7, Cambodia accused Thailand of invading its territory on the opening day of a summit of Southeast Asian leaders that was supposed to focus on plans to create a regional economic zone.
(AFP, 5/7/11)
2011 May 9, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva announced that he is dissolving the lower house of Parliament to hold early elections July 3, setting off a political battle that could inflame tensions in the divided nation.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 13, In Thailand authorities at Bangkok's international airport arrested a first-class passenger whose suitcases were filled with baby leopards, panthers, a bear and monkeys. The animals had been drugged and were headed for Dubai.
(AP, 5/13/11)
2011 May 21, Thailand police arrested a man suspected of being a key player in one of Thailand's largest tiger trafficking rings.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 24, Thai authorities arrested American citizen on charges he insulted the country's monarchy, in part by posting a link on his blog four years ago to a banned book about the Southeast Asian nation's ailing king. Lerpong Wichaikhammat (aka Joe Gordon), a 54-year-old Thai-born man, had lived in the US state of Colorado for around 30 years before returning recently to Thailand for medical treatment. In August Gordon was charged with lese majeste for allegedly translating parts of an unauthorized biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and writing articles that defamed the royal family.
(AP, 5/27/11)(AP, 8/18/11)
2011 Jun 1, In Thailand customs authorities found 431 turtles and other rare reptiles stuffed into four suitcases and smuggled into the Bangkok airport.
(AP, 6/2/11)
2011 Jun 24, In southern Thailand 3 hidden roadside bombs killed two people and wounded 13 others. Police believed Islamist militants were responsible.
(AP, 6/24/11)
2011 Jun 25, Thailand announced its withdrawal from the UN's World Heritage Convention, at a meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Paris. Thailand said it was withdrawing because the committee's consideration of Cambodia's plan for managing the Preah Vihear temple site could threaten Thai sovereignty and territory.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 27, In Geneva more than 80 states began meeting for the first four-day intercessional meeting on the Convention on Cluster Munitions to advance their commitments to a world free of cluster bombs. During the meeting Thailand and Cambodia indicated their intention to join in the near future.
(AFP, 7/1/11)(www.stopclustermunitions.org/news/?id=3086)
2011 Jul 3, Thailand held elections. PM Abhisit Vejjajiva conceded his party lost national elections to the opposition led by Yingluck Shinawatra (44), the sister of ousted former leader Thaksin Shinawatra. Her Pheu Thai party won a majority of 265 seats in the 500-seat lower house of parliament outright. The Democrat party won 159 seats. The apparent election result paved the way for Yingluck to become Thailand's first female prime minister. An international monitoring group later said up to one million Thais were disenfranchised ahead of the kingdom's crucial recent election because of outdated lists of voters.
(AP, 7/3/11)(AP, 7/4/11)(AFP, 7/5/11)(Econ, 7/9/11, p.23)
2011 Jul 4, Thailand's military eased concerns of renewed turmoil by accepting the sweeping electoral win of toppled ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra's party, while his sister vowed to reconcile the deeply divided nation as its first female prime minister.
(AP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 12, In Germany a plane being used by Thailand's Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn was been impounded as part of a long-running battle over payments for a building project in Thailand. The Thai government allegedly owed the now-bankrupt German construction firm Walter Bau AG builder 30 million euros because of a contract agreed to more than 20 years ago to build and operate a toll highway to Bangkok's Don Muang airport. On July 20 a German court ordered the release of the impounded jet upon receipt of a hefty bank guarantee. On July 21 Thailand's foreign minister ruled out paying a multi-million dollar bank guarantee to secure the release of the prince's jet.
(AP, 7/13/11)(AFP, 7/20/11)(AFP, 7/21/11)
2011 Jul 17, In southern Thailand a girl (5) and a local government official were shot dead and 11 people were injured when gunmen burst into a Buddhist temple during an annual fair.
(AFP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 18, The UN's highest court ordered troops from both Thailand and Cambodia to immediately withdraw military forces from disputed areas around a World Heritage temple straddling their border.
(AP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 19, A Thailand Black Hawk helicopter crashed during bad weather in a forested area near Myanmar. 9 dead included an infantry division commander and a television cameraman. The craft had been sent to retrieve the bodies of five soldiers killed in the crash of another helicopter on July 16.
(AP, 7/22/11)
2011 Jul 25, Thailand's anti-corruption body filed complaints against three former Cabinet ministers and an ex-governor of Bangkok that allege wrongdoing in a 2004 contract to buy fire trucks and boats for the Thai capital.
(AP, 7/26/11)
2011 Aug 3, Thai police arrested a Swedish man wanted in Scandinavia for a $3 million banking scam committed 1998-2001. Carl-Gustav Alexander Tartagni (52) was detained in the seaside town of Hua Hin, where he had been living for a year.
(AP, 8/4/11)
2011 Sep 6, Thailand authorities arrested two men in the northeast for trying to smuggle more 120 dogs into Vietnam to be sold for human consumption. 31 of the dogs were dead.
(AP, 9/6/11)
2011 Sep 9, In northern Thailand 8 people were killed and two were missing after a mudslide engulfed several villages in the mountainous region of Uttaradit province.
(AFP, 9/9/11)
2011 Sep 12, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra, in her fist state visit to Indonesia, vowed to improve economic cooperation with Indonesia, particularly in the agriculture, energy and tourism sectors.
(AFP, 9/12/11)
2011 Sep 12, The Thai government announced a new campaign against illegal drugs but said it will not repeat the mistakes of an earlier push in 2003 when at least 2,300 accused dealers were killed.
(AP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 13, A Thailand court ordered the military to stop labeling transgender people as being mentally ill in a decision praised by activists.
(AP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 15, New Thai premier Yingluck Shinawatra held her first official talks with her Cambodian counterpart seeking to patch up relations after deadly border clashes.
(AFP, 9/15/11)
2011 Sep 16, In southern Thailand bombs concealed in a car and two motorcycles killed at least three people and wounded at least 30 in the border town of Sungai Kolok.
(AP, 9/16/11)
2011 Sep 17, Thailand incinerated about $80 million worth of drugs from over 130,000 seizures across the country as officials warned there were an increasing number of very young users. Thailand, along with other countries in the region, has seen a marked increase in seizures of methamphetamine.
(AFP, 9/17/11)
2011 Sep 25, Thailand authorities rescued nearly 100 endangered pangolins, scaly anteaters worth about $32,000, that they say were to be sold and eaten outside the country.
(AP, 9/26/11)
2011 Sep 27, In southern Thailand 16 militants in two pick up trucks and motorcycles opened fire on a military outpost in Narathiwat, killing a 21-year-old private and injuring two other troops. A 47-year-old Muslim man was gunned down in a drive-by attack.
(AFP, 9/28/11)
2011 Sep 28, In southern Thailand more than a dozen suspected Muslim insurgents attacked a school, killing four soldiers and seriously wounding one child.
(AFP, 9/28/11)
2011 Oct 2, The government in Thailand said heavy floods have also killed 206 people since August.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 5, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra met Myanmar's president during her first visit to the military-dominated country since she took office in August.
(AFP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, Suspected drug traffickers hijacked two Chinese cargo ships on the Mekong River in northern Thailand. The bodies of 13 crew members were found near Chiang Rai, Thailand on Oct 7,8 and 10. Burmese drug lord Naw Kham was arrested in Laos in May. In Nov, 2012, he and 3 of his associates were sentenced to death by a court in Kunming. Thai police continued to search for 9 Thai soldiers believed to have been accomplices.
(AP, 10/10/11)(Econ, 11/10/12, p.43)
2011 Oct 6, The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders says it is ending its operations in Thailand after 35 years because it could not reach agreement with the government on conditions under which it could provide medical care to illegal migrants.
(AP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 8, Thailand's PM Yingluck Shinawatra warned that rising floodwaters, which have wreaked havoc across the nation, are now threatening the capital, Bangkok, as the death toll from the worst monsoon rains in decades rose to 253.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 11, Thailand workers raced to complete three critical flood walls with only one or two days to go before the already swollen river that winds through the capital bursts its banks. Nationwide flooding has already killed nearly 270 people. A preliminary estimate by the central bank showed economic losses from flooding that began in late July range from baht 60 billion to baht 80 billion ($1.9 billion to $2.6 billion).
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 13, Thailand issued a flood warning for parts of Bangkok's northern outskirts after a dyke burst, in a setback to efforts to protect the city of 12 million people from the rising water. Unusually heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 283 people.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 15, Thailand PM Yingluck in a radio address called current flooding "the worst in Thai history." The government said the floods, which have killed 297 people, are the worst to hit the Southeast Asian kingdom in half a century.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 19, Thailand's new premier acknowledged that the country's flood crisis has overwhelmed her government, and she pleaded for mercy from the media and solidarity from the country in battling the relentless waters. The death toll in nationwide flooding reached 317, mostly from drowning, with nearly 9 million people affected and 27 of the country's 77 provinces still inundated. Bangkok's city government urged residents in seven northern districts of the city to move belongings to safe spots, but did not yet call for an evacuation.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 21, In Thailand millions of nervous Bangkok residents were warned to move their belongings to safety as the kingdom's worst floods in decades poured into the outskirts of the sprawling city.
(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 23, In southern Thailand at least seven people were killed in back-to-back shooting and bomb attacks in a town in Narathiwat province.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, Bangkok's second airport shut down as floodwaters advanced into the Thai capital, forcing authorities in "crisis mode" to declare a five-day public holiday in preparation for the deluge.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, In southern Thailand a series of explosives planted by suspected Muslim rebels ripped through Yala town, killing at least 3 people and wounding dozens more.
(AFP, 10/25/11)(SFC, 10/26/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 27, In Thailand thousands of Bangkok residents flocked to bus, rail and air terminals while heavy traffic snaked out of the sprawling Thai capital in an exodus from a mass of approaching floodwater. By month’s end the flooding left more than 381 people dead and millions of homes and livelihoods damaged.
(AFP, 10/27/11)(SFC, 10/31/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 31, China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand signed a regional security agreement pledging to share intelligence and to engage in joint patrols along a stretch of the Mekong between China and the Golden Triangle.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.45)
2011 Nov 2, The Thai government said the flood disaster has now killed 427 people, an increase of 42 from the figure reported a day earlier. While drowning was the most common cause of death, dozens have also been electrocuted. Suspected Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand killed six civilians in a bomb attack on their vehicle in the south.
(AFP, 11/2/11)(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 6, The death toll from Thailand's worst floods in half a century climbed past 500, as advancing pools of polluted black water threatened Bangkok's subway system and new evacuations were ordered in the sprawling capital.
(AP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 13, The death toll from Thailand's worst floods in half a century reached 536, and authorities told more residents of Bangkok to evacuate their neighborhoods.
(AP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 15, Lawmakers from Thailand's ruling political party submitted a parliamentary motion to begin discussions over possibly shifting the capital city to prevent future flooding chaos. Bangkok, which is built on swampland, is slowly sinking and the floods currently besieging the city of 12 million people could be merely a foretaste of a grim future.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 16, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced a $10 million aid package for flood-ravaged Thailand during a visit to express solidarity.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 19, Thailand's Premier Yingluck Shinawatra declared central Bangkok safe from the kingdom's devastating floods, as the death toll passed 600 and President Barack Obama vowed the US will give whatever help it can.
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 22, In Indonesia the Southeast Asian Games were formally closed by Indonesia Vice President Budiono. Indonesia earned a table-topping 182 golds among 476 medals, followed by Thailand with 109 among 329.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 23, A Thai criminal court sentenced Amphon Tangnoppakul (61) to 20 years in prison for sending text messages deemed offensive to the country's queen. On May 7, 2012, Tangnoppakul (62) died in prison of liver cancer.
(AP, 11/23/11)(AP, 5/9/12)
2011 Dec 7, In Thailand Arisman Pongruangrong, a militant leader of Thailand's "Red Shirt" protest movement, surrendered to authorities on terrorism charges over his role in opposition rallies last year, after almost 20 months on the run.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 8, In Thailand Joe Gordon, an American who translated a banned biography of Thailand's king and posted the content online while living in Colorado, was sentenced to two and a half years in a Thai prison for defaming the country's royal family. On July 10, 2012, Gordon (55) was granted a royal pardon.
(AP, 12/8/11)(AFP, 7/11/12)
2011 Dec 9, In Thailand some 100 supporters of a grandfather jailed for 20 years in Thailand for insulting the king held a rare public protest against the kingdom's strict lese majeste laws in the capital Bangkok. Amphon Tangnoppakul (61) was found guilty on Nov 23 of four counts of offending the royals in text messages last year. Article 112 of the criminal code contains the rules protecting the royals.
(AFP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 13, Three Thai soldiers were killed and one was critically wounded when an old landmine exploded as they were trying to defuse it on the country's border with Cambodia.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 15, A Thai activist was sentenced to 15 years in prison for insulting the king in the third case in a month involving the strict law against defaming the monarchy that is increasingly being criticized as an infringement on free speech. Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul, nicknamed "Da Torpedo" for her aggressive speaking style, has been detained since July 2008 after speaking at a rally using impolite language that was recorded by police.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2012 Jan 5, Thai wildlife officials said body parts from a dead wild elephant, found on Jan 2 without its tusks, tail and penis, were likely destined for restaurants in tourist areas. The creature, which was discovered in Kaeng Krachan National Park near the Myanmar border.
(AFP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 12, In Thailand gunmen shot dead journalist Wisut Tangwitthayaporn (40), a local newspaper owner and political activist in a targeted attack on the island of Phuket.
(AFP, 1/12/12)
2012 Jan 12, A Thai navy patrol caught a gang of dog smugglers on the shore of the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom province. At least 750 dogs were to be transported through Laos to Vietnam, where dog meat is a delicacy.
(AP, 1/12/12)
2012 Jan 16, In Thailand a foreign suspect, identified as Atris Hussein, with alleged links to Hezbollah militants led police to a warehouse filled with materials commonly used to make bombs. Hussein, a Lebanese man, was carrying a valid Swedish passport when he was arrested on Jan 12. On Sep 18, 2013, Hussein was convicted and sentenced to 2 years and 8 months for illegal possession of ammonium nitrate.
(AP, 1/16/12)(SFC, 9/19/13, p.A4)
2012 Jan 19, Thailand said that it has recognized a Palestinian state, in a move hailed by Palestinian leaders eager to boost their international standing amid a stalemate with Israel.
(AFP, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 21, Thailand police seized 3.8 million methamphetamine tablets in the country’s largest drug bust in years.
(AP, 1/21/12)
2012 Jan 24, In central Thailand fireworks set off during an official Chinese New Year celebration sparked a blaze that burned homes, killed three people and injured others.
(AP, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 26, A Thailand wildlife official said a worrisome new practice of Thais consuming elephant meat could threaten the national animal with extinction. Thailand's elephant population was under 3,000 wild elephants, plus some 4,000 domesticated.
(AP, 1/26/12)
2012 Jan 29, Thai paramilitaries shot dead four people including an elderly man and a teenager in the far south because they feared they were under attack. On March 21 the military admitted troops had shot dead four Muslim villagers on their way to a funeral due to a "misunderstanding."
(AFP, 1/30/12)(AFP, 3/21/12)
2012 Feb 14, In Thailand an Iranian man, Saeid Moradi, carrying grenades lost at least one leg in a grenade blast and wounded four civilians in Bangkok after an earlier blast shook his rented house. Mohammad Kharzei, a 2nd man was arrested in Bangkok as he tried to board a flight to Malaysia.
(AP, 2/14/12)(AP, 2/15/12)
2012 Feb 15, Malaysia police arrested Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, a third Iranian suspect sought after explosive blasts in Bangkok.
(AP, 2/15/12)
2012 Feb 28, A Thailand court sentenced media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul (64), one of the kingdom's most controversial political figures, to 20 years in prison for corporate fraud. Sondhi is the founder of the royalist "Yellow Shirt" protest movement.
(AP, 2/28/12)
2012 Mar 2, Thai police said they confiscated over 4 million methamphetamine tablets near the border with Myanmar, where much of it is produced.
(SFC, 3/3/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 8, In Thailand a fire at a high-rise hotel in Bangkok's main tourist district sent smoke billowing through the upper floors, killing at least one foreigner and injuring almost two dozen other people.
(AP, 3/9/12)
2012 Mar 17, Thailand billionaire Chaleo Yoovidhya (89), the co-founder of energy drink Red Bull and the second richest man in Thailand, died. Chaleo had founded T.C. Pharmaceuticals. In the 1970s, it formulated an energy drink prototype called Krathing Daeng, or Red Bull in English. He co-founded a company with Austrian marketing whiz Dietrich Mateschitz in 1984, who helped turn Red Bull into a global brand. Mateschitz had become aware of "tonic drinks" while traveling in Asia. They started selling the drink in Austria in 1987.
(AFP, 3/17/12)(AP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 23, PM Yingluck Shinawatra said Thailand will spend more than $70 billion on infrastructure over the next five years as she outlined the challenges facing the country after last year's floods.
(AFP, 3/24/12)
2012 Mar 15, CH. Karchang, a Thailand construction giant, officially began work on the $3.5 billion dam at Xayaburi in northern Laos. A December agreement by the Mekong River Commission had called for further study on the environmental impacts of the dam.
(Econ, 5/5/12, p.43)(Econ, 9/7/13, p.40)
2012 Mar 31, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents staged the most deadly attack in years, killing 14 people and wounding 340 with car bombs that targeted shoppers just before lunchtime in Yala city. Five people were killed and dozens injured in a fire at a hotel in Hat Yai, the largest city in southern Thailand.
(AFP, 3/31/12)(AP, 4/1/12)
2012 Apr 3, Thailand censors banned a Thai film based on William Shakespeare's "Macbeth", saying the tale could sow "disunity" in the politically divided kingdom.
(AFP, 4/4/12)
2012 May 5, In eastern Thailand a large blaze at a chemical factory killed 12 people, injured more than 100 and spewed toxic smoke into the air in Rayong province.
(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 May 17, Thailand police in Bangkok seized 6 human fetuses, which had been roasted and covered in gold leaf as part of a black magic ritual, from Chow Hok Kuen (28), a British citizen. The corpses had been packed into luggage and were set to be smuggled to Taiwan.
(AFP, 5/18/12)
2012 May 19, In Thailand Buddhist monks led prayers as tens of thousands gathered in Bangkok to mark the 2nd anniversary of deadly clashes between soldiers and "Red Shirt" protesters.
(AP, 5/19/12)
2012 May 30, Thai online editor Chiranuch Premchaiporn was handed a suspended jail term for failing to remove a comment critical of the revered monarchy on her website, prompting Google to issue a stark warning over Internet freedom.
(AFP, 5/30/12)
2012 May 31, In Thailand Aung San Suu Kyi used her first foreign trip in 24 years to fight for her Myanmar countrymen suffering abroad, millions of economic migrants unable to work at home but vulnerable to exploitation elsewhere.
(AP, 5/31/12)
2012 Jun 1, In Thailand Suu Kyi spoke to the World Economic Forum in Bangkok where she urged the international community to exercise "healthy skepticism" toward Myanmar's much-touted reform process.
(AP, 6/1/12)
2012 Jun 20, In Thailand Michelle Elizabeth Smith (60), an Australian tourist, was stabbed and killed as 2 men tried to steal her bag on the resort island of Phuket. Two Thai men were arrested and pleaded guilty on June 26, saying they meant only to slash her pocketbook strap and never meant to stab her.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 25, A Malaysian court ruled that Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, an Iranian man accused of plotting to attack Israeli targets in Bangkok on Feb 14, must be extradited to Thailand.
(AP, 6/25/12)
2012 Jul 4, In Thailand an explosion at an oil refinery in an industrial area of Bangkok sparked a massive fire. There were no reported injuries, but it prompted the government to close the 120,000 barrels-a-day refinery for at least 30 days.
(AFP, 7/4/12)
2012 Jul 10, Myanmar state media said dozens of Thai nationals will face charges after they were held for illegally crossing the border to run rubber plantations.
(AFP, 7/10/12)
2012 Jul 13, Thailand customs officials discovered a half ton of ivory hidden in crates aboard a flight from Kenya. One official estimated that the 158 pieces of ivory were from the tusks of around 50 elephants.
(AP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 16, In Thailand 8 suspected drug dealers were killed in a clash with Thai security forces who seized weapons and a large amount of illegal amphetamines.
(AFP, 7/16/12)
2012 Jul 18, Cambodia and Thailand pulled hundreds of soldiers out of a disputed strip of border land adjacent to the Preah Vihear temple, a year after a ruling by the UN's highest court, replacing them with police and security guards.
(AFP, 7/18/12)
2012 Jul 31, Australian police seized a record half a ton of methamphetamine and heroin worth up to A$500 million ($525 million) hidden in a shipment of terracotta pots from Thailand. Seven people, including four from Hong Kong, were arrested after a year-long investigation following a tip-off from US authorities.
(Reuters, 7/31/12)
2012 Aug 17, In Thailand a fire ripped through a nightclub popular on the resort island of Phuket early today, leaving at least 4 people dead and more than 20 others injured. The venue was said to be officially closed at the time of the fire but about 70-80 people were still inside sheltering from heavy rain.
(AFP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 24, In Thailand 300 inmates were pardoned including two imprisoned in 2010 for insulting the revered monarchy (lese majeste).
(AFP, 8/24/12)
2012 Aug 31, In Thailand militants in the Muslim-majority south carried out a wave of coordinated attacks, wounding several soldiers and hoisting the Malaysian flag across the restive region.
(AFP, 8/31/12)
2012 Sep 3, In Thailand Vorayuth Yoovidhya (27), a grandson of the creator of the Red Bull energy drink, was arrested for driving a Ferrari that struck a police officer and dragged his dead body down a Bangkok street in an early-morning hit-and-run.
(AFP, 9/3/12)
2012 Sep 21, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents detonated a car bomb that killed six people in Pattani province's Sai Buri district after businesses received warnings against opening on the Muslim holy day.
(AP, 9/21/12)
2012 Sep 29, In southern Thailand suspected Islamist insurgents fired 2 grenades at a fair in Narathiwat injuring some 30 people.
(SFC, 10/1/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 9, In southern Thailand 11 people were killed as the Muslim insurgency continued to simmer.
(Economist, 10/13/12, p.18)
2012 Oct 31, In southern Thailand a school teacher and his 11-year-old son were shot dead.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.44)
2012 Nov 18, President Barack Obama began his 3-day Asian tour in Thailand.
(AP, 11/18/12)
2012 Nov 22, In southern Thailand the headmistress of Bna Tha Kam Cham school was killed while driving home.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.44)
2012 Nov 24, In Thailand some 10,000 royalist protesters of the new Pitak Siam movement, calling for Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra to step down, rallied in the heart of Bangkok, clashing with police in the first major demonstration against the government since it came to power last year.
(AP, 11/24/12)(Econ, 12/8/12, p.42)
2012 Dec 6, Thai law enforcement authorities announced that they will file murder charges against former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva and his deputy in the first prosecutions of officials for their roles in a deadly 2010 crackdown on anti-government protests. On Aug 28, 2014, a Thai court dismissed the murder charges against Abhisit Vejjajiva and his ex-deputy.
(AP, 12/6/12)(AFP, 8/28/14)
2012 Dec 15, Thai social activist Sombath Somphone (60) disappeared in Vientiane, Laos. A colleague later said that police had taken Somphone into custody.
(SFC, 12/19/12, p.A3)
2012 Dec 20, A Thai court ordered the extradition of Vito Roberto Palazzolo (65), a fugitive Italian banker found guilty of laundering money for some of Italy's top mobsters through New York pizzerias from 1975-1984. Palazzolo has written about his legal woes and getting swept up in the Pizza Connection probe on his website, www.vrpalazzolo.com.
(AP, 12/20/12)
2012 Dec 27, In Thailand leaders of the People's Alliance for Democracy, also known as the Yellow Shirts, were indicted for storming the prime minister's office compound and sealing off Parliament during massive anti-government rallies in 2008 at the height of political turmoil, which left the country deeply divided to this day.
(AP, 12/27/12)
2012 Dec 11, In southern Thailand armed men with assault rifles burst into the canteen of Ban Ba Ngo school in Pattani province and shot dead two teachers. In Narathiwat's Rangae district gunmen on a pickup truck fired AK-47 and M16 assault rifles into a tea shop, killing three people instantly including a toddler, and wounding six others at the scene. One of the wounded died later in hospital.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.44)( http://tinyurl.com/b2v8zne)
2012 Thailand’s rice subsidy cost the government $12.5 billion in its first year of operation. This was expected to increase to $15 billion for 2013.
(Econ, 8/10/13, p.33)
2012 In Thailand Blake Dinkin (42), a Canadian, began producing coffee made from beans plucked out of elephant dung. The coffee sold for $1,100 per kg ($500 per pound), making it among the world's priciest.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2013 Jan 17, In Thailand Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra agreed to work together to solve bilateral and regional problems.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A8)
2013 Jan 23, In Thailand Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, a prominent activist and magazine editor, was sentenced to a decade in prison for defaming the country’s monarchy.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Feb 10, In southern Thailand suspected militants killed 5 soldiers and wounded 5 others in two roadside attacks.
(SFC, 2/11/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 12, Thailand marines fending off a militant assault on their base in Narathiwat province killed 16 insurgents in a shootout.
(AP, 2/13/13)(Econ, 2/16/13, p.44)
2013 Feb 13, British couple Peter Root (34) and Mary Thompson (34), who had been chronicling their round-the-world cycling odyssey in a blog, died when they were hit by a pickup truck in a province east of Bangkok.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 28, Thailand's government signed a breakthrough deal with Muslim insurgents for the first time ever, agreeing to hold talks to ease nearly a decade of violence in the country's southern provinces that has killed more than 5,000 people. The agreement was announced in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, between Thai authorities and the militant National Revolution Front.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Mar 3, Thailand's PM Yingluck Shinawatra vowed for the first time to work toward ending her country's trade in ivory, but gave no timeline for implementing a ban. Conservationists warned that the unprecedented slaughter of elephants in Africa would continue until she does.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 11, CITES conservationists in Bangkok voted to regulate the trade of shark species threatened because their fins are used for expensive delicacies in Asia.
(SFC, 3/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 14, In Thailand the Convention on Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) ended its meeting in Bangkok with final decisions to expand protection to for dozens of animal and plant species including 5 types of sharks.
(SFC, 3/15/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 28, A Thai court jailed a man for three years and four months on for selling video CDs showing sections of an Australian news series that contained content deemed offensive to Thailand's royal family. Akachai Hongkawan (37) was also fined 66,666 baht ($2,300).
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Apr 28, In Thailand a suspension bridge over the Pasak River collapsed killing at least 4 people near Ayutthaya.
(SFC, 4/29/13, p.A2)
2013 May 11, Marcin Skowronek, an investigator at Europol's European Cybercrime Center in The Hague, said "We are seeing an unprecedented number of cyberscams that include phishing for financial data, viruses, credit card fraud and others." Police Maj. Gen. Pisit Paoin, chief of Thailand's Technology Crime Suppression Division, said in a telephone interview that Thai police have arrested more than 20 suspects involved in the recent $45 million cyber heist including those from Bulgaria, Bangladesh and eastern Europe.
(AP, 5/11/13)
2013 Jun 10, Thai police said they found 14 albino lions imported from Africa and hundreds of other protected animals in a warehouse near Bangkok. Pet shop owner Montri Boonprom-on (41) was arrested and faced up to four years in jail and a fine of 40,000 baht ($1,300).
(AP, 6/10/13)
2013 Jun 29, In southern Thailand 7 soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Yala province.
(SSFC, 6/30/13, p.A6)
2013 Jun 30, Thailand's PM Yingluck Shinawatra sacked the commerce minister who had come under fire over a rice intervention scheme that resulted in huge losses to the budget and saw the country lose its place as the world's top rice exporter. Shinawatra added the post of defense minister to her duties.
(AP, 6/30/13)
2013 Jun, Thailand monk Wirapol Sukphol (33) was shown taking a private jet ride on a YouTube video. It soon emerged that he had accumulated assets of $32 million. In July authorities issued an arrest warrant after having him defrocked. He was believed to have fled to the US.
(SFC, 7/19/13, p.A3)
2013 Jul 15, The Cook Islands fined Luen Thai Fishing Venture $120,000 and revoked its fishing license for breaking a ban on shark finning.
(SSFC, 7/21/13, p.A4)
2013 Jul 23, In Thailand a double-decker passenger bus caught fire after colliding with a truck on the Mitraphab highway in Kaeng Khoi district, killing 19 people and injuring 23.
(AP, 7/23/13)
2013 Jul 27, In Thailand about 50,000 liters (13,200 gallons) of oil, about the amount contained in one and a half tanker trucks, spilled into Prao Bay on the west coast of Samet Island from a leak in a pipeline operated by PTT Global Chemical Plc., a subsidiary of state-owned oil and gas company PTT Plc.
(AP, 7/30/13)
2013 Aug 6, A Thailand inquest found that 6 unarmed people killed at a Buddhist temple during a 2010 military crackdown on anti-government protesters in Bangkok were slain by bullets fired by Thai soldiers.
(AP, 8/6/13)
2013 Aug 9, A Thai official said authorities have captured Ko Myo (42), the suspected leader of a human trafficking gang. Myo confessed to selling some migrants from Myanmar into slavery on Thai fishing boats and possibly murdering as many as seven.
(Reuters, 8/9/13)
2013 Aug 20, In southern Thailand 87 Muslim Rohingya asylum-seekers escaped from an immigration detention center, highlighting the growing desperation of a stateless minority fleeing sectarian violence in Myanmar.
(Reuters, 8/20/13)
2013 Aug 22, A Thai court sentenced Saeid Moradi (29), an Iranian man, to life in prison and his compatriot, Mohammad Kharzei (43), to 15 years in jail for their roles in a Feb, 2012, botched bomb plot that was exposed when an accidental explosion blew apart the Bangkok villa where they were staying.
(AP, 8/22/13)
2013 Sep 4, In Thailand tens of thousands of rubber farmers, protesting against a sharp drop in prices, escalated protests across southern Thailand, cutting off access to large swathes of the region by blocking roads leading to tourist and commercial hubs.
(Reuters, 9/4/13)
2013 Sep 5, In southern Thailand rubber farmers clashed with police and threatened to shut down city halls in 14 southern provinces after the government rejected their demands for price rises.
(Reuters, 9/5/13)
2013 Sep 6, Thailand's government said it had reached a deal with most rubber farmers in the country's south demanding greater state support for rubber prices, signaling a breakthrough in a two-week long protest.
(Reuters, 9/6/13)
2013 Sep 10, Thailand's government doubled its offer of subsidy to help rubber farmers but protesting growers insisted it should meet other demands before they consider cancelling demonstrations planned for the weekend.
(Reuters, 9/10/13)
2013 Sep 11, Thai rubber farmers called off demonstrations planned for the weekend after the government doubled its subsidy for production and offered help for people arrested in protests last week.
(Reuters, 9/11/13)
2013 Sep 17, In southern Thailand protesters blocked a highway for a second day in a bid to force the government to increase a subsidy for rubber farmers, even though a curfew was imposed in the area after clashes with riot police a day earlier.
(Reuters, 9/17/13)
2013 Sep 25, Thai officials said 9 people have died and more than 1 million have been affected by flooding. Authorities offered assurances that floodwaters would not reach central industrial areas.
(Reuters, 9/25/13)
2013 Oct 1, A Thai court sentenced Sondhi Limthongkul, the founder of a pro-royalist protest movement, to 2 years in jail for insulting the monarchy by repeating comments deemed offensive made by a political rival.
(Reuters, 10/1/13)
2013 Oct 1, Thailand authorities said flooding over the last two weeks has killed 23 people. 32 of the country’s 77 provinces were affected.
(SFC, 10/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Oct 19, In southern Thailand bombings and drive-by shootings killed 5 people and injured 13 others including 8 soldiers and 5 journalists.
(SSFC, 10/20/13, p.A6)
2013 Oct 24, Thailand’s top Buddhist leader, Supreme Patriarch Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara (100), died.
(AFP, 10/25/13)
2013 Oct 28, Thailand rubber farmers took to the streets again to demand that the government buy their produce at prices higher than the market, rejecting a subsidy offered last month and threatening violence if their demands are not met.
(Reuters, 10/28/13)
2013 Oct 31, Thai anti-government protesters returned to the streets of Bangkok as parliament debated a political amnesty which opponents fear will "whitewash" past abuses and allow ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra to return.
(AFP, 10/31/13)
2013 Oct, Thailand’s Supreme Court sentenced former Deputy Interior Minister Pracha Maleenont to 12 years imprisonment and a Bangkok fire department chief to 10 years in jail for malfeasance in public office and price fixing. The pair fled and are the subjects of arrest warrants.
(AP, 4/30/14)
2013 Nov 1, Thailand's Parliament moved a step closer to granting amnesty to people involved in a wrenching political conflict that has divided the country for almost a decade, prompting thousands to protest in the streets and renewing fears of violence. The bill was aimed to bring back Thaksin Shinawatra, the elder brother of PM Yingluck Thinawatra.
(AP, 11/1/13)(Econ, 11/9/13, p.44)
2013 Nov 3, In Thailand at least 6 passengers including three foreigners died after a tourist ferry sank off the Thai resort of Pattaya.
(AFP, 11/3/13)
2013 Nov 4, In Thailand thousands of people emptied onto the streets of Bangkok to protest an amnesty bill passed by the lower house of parliament in the dead of night three days earlier. The opposition People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) was led by Suthep Thaugsuban, a former deputy prime minister.
(Econ, 11/2/13, p.44)(Econ, 11/30/13, p.42)(Econ, 5/17/14, p.39)
2013 Nov 11, The International Court of Justice said a 1962 ruling by its judges gave Cambodia sovereignty over the Preah Vihear promontory and Thailand is now obligated to withdraw any military or police forces stationed there. Cambodia thus held sovereignty over a 1,000-year-old Khmer temple on the disputed promontory.
(AP, 11/11/13)
2013 Nov 12, Thai premier Yingluck Shinawatra appealed for anti-government groups to end ongoing street protests after the parliamentary defeat of an amnesty bill failed to defuse political tensions.
(AFP, 11/12/13)
2013 Nov 24, Thailand police estimated that about 90,000 opponents of PM Yingluck Shinawatra and her crisis-hit administration had gathered in three sites in Bangkok, calling for her government to be toppled.
(AFP, 11/24/13)
2013 Nov 25, Thailand PM Yingluck Shinawatra invoked an emergency security law in large parts of Bangkok and surrounding areas to cope with escalating protests against her government. Anti-government protesters forced their way inside the Finance Ministry and burst through the gates of the Foreign Ministry compound, in an escalating bid to overthrow PM Yingluck Shinawatra.
(AP, 11/25/13)(Reuters, 11/25/13)
2013 Nov 26, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra fought a two-front political war, fending off attacks during a parliamentary no-confidence debate while protesters besieged and occupied several ministries in their attempt to topple her from power.
(AP, 11/26/13)
2013 Nov 27, Thousands of demonstrators massed outside four Thai government ministries, a major state office complex and 24 provincial halls on Wednesday in a widening effort to cripple the administration and oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
(Reuters, 11/27/13)
2013 Nov 28, Thailand's embattled PM Yingluck Shinawatra Thailand's begged protesters to call off their sustained anti-government demonstrations and negotiate an end to the nation's latest crisis. Shinawatra easily won a no-confidence vote in parliament, but failed to pacify anti-government protesters who rejected calls for talks and massed by the thousands in the capital.
(AP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 28, A Thai court sentenced British kickboxer Lee Aldhouse to 25 years in prison for the 2010 murder of former US Marine Dashawn Longfellow (23) following a bar fight on the island of Phuket. The sentence was reduced from life imprisonment because Aldhouse pleaded guilty to the stabbing death.
(AFP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 29, In Thailand about 1,500 anti-government protesters forced their way into the compound of the army headquarters, the latest escalation in a city-wide demonstration seeking to topple PM Yingluck Shinawatra.
(Reuters, 11/29/13)
2013 Nov 30, In Thailand tensions escalated in Bangkik as opposition protesters tried to force their way into PM Yingluck Shinawatra's heavily guarded offices and attacked a bus carrying her supporters.
(AFP, 11/30/13)
2013 Dec 1, Thailand police fought off mobs of rock-throwing protesters armed with petrol bombs who tried to battle their way into the government's heavily-fortified headquarters in Bangkok. PM Shinawatra fled a police complex during the sharpest escalation yet of the country's latest crisis.
(AP, 12/1/13)
2013 Dec 2, Thailand's PM Shinawatra said she is willing to do anything it takes to end violent protests against her government and restore peace, but cannot accept the opposition's "unconstitutional" demand to hand power to an unelected council.
(AP, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 3, Thailand's government ordered police to stop confronting protesters demanding the resignation of the prime minister, raising hope that days of political violence may end, but the leader of the campaign said the fight would go on.
(Reuters, 12/3/13)
2013 Dec 6, The UN called for an urgent investigation into allegations in a Reuters report that Thai immigration officials moved Myanmar refugees into human trafficking rings.
(Reuters, 12/6/13)
2013 Dec 7, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra ruled out a political comeback for her influential self-exiled brother and said an unpopular amnesty bill that would have allowed him to return has been scrapped.
(Reuters, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 8, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra proposed a referendum on her future and promised to resign if that was what the people wanted, as anti-government protesters prepared for a final push to try to force her from power. Thailand's main opposition party resigned from Parliament.
(Reuters, 12/8/13)(AP, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 9, Thailand's PM Yingluck Shinawatra dissolved the lower house of Parliament and called for early elections.
(AP, 12/9/13)
2013 Dec 10, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra pleaded for anti-government protesters to clear the streets after she called a snap election, but protests leaders said she should step down within 24 hours. Elections were scheduled for Feb 2.
(Reuters, 12/10/13)
2013 Dec 12, In Thailand protesters cut off electricity to the prime minister's office compound and demanded that police abandon the premises, piling fresh pressure on Thailand's government in a political crisis that has dragged on for weeks.
(AP, 12/12/13)
2013 Dec 14, In Thailand leaders of the protest movement trying to overthrow the government outlined their aims at an armed forces seminar, but military leaders declined to take sides or say if a February election should take place.
(Reuters, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 15, Thailand's military offered to help the politically polarized country hold a "fair and clean" election next year, suggesting the armed forces may play a role in a vote aimed at ending protests seeking to topple the government.
(Reuters, 12/15/13)
2013 Dec 21, Thailand's main opposition party announced it would boycott an election in February, deepening uncertainty about the poll and fuelling a campaign to overthrow PM Yingluck Shinawatra's government.
(Reuters, 12/21/13)
2013 Dec 22, In Thailand tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators massed peacefully across Bangkok in their latest bid to topple PM Yingluck Shinawatra before a February election the main opposition party will boycott.
(Reuters, 12/22/13)
2013 Dec 23, In Thailand anti-government protesters determined to unseat PM Shinawatra surrounded a Bangkok sports stadium in an unsuccessful attempt to block political parties from registering for February elections.
(AP, 12/23/13)
2013 Dec 25, Thailand's PM Yingluck Shinawatra proposed a "national reform council" to seek a way out of the political crisis gripping the kingdom, following weeks of mass street protests against her government.
(AFP, 12/25/13)
2013 Dec 26, Thailand's government rejected a call from the Election Commission (EC) to postpone a February vote. Violence erupted when protesters tried to storm a venue where a draw for election ballot numbers was being held and police fired teargas and rubber bullets to keep the rock-throwing crowd back. A policeman was killed and three were wounded by gunshots from an unknown attacker.
(Reuters, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, In Thailand a bus carrying New Year travelers plunged off one of the country’s highest bridges around midnight in the kingdom's northeast, leaving at least 29 people dead.
(AFP, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 27, The Thai government appealed to the military to provide security for February elections after violent clashes between police and opposition protesters left two people dead and more than 150 wounded.
(AFP, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 28, In Thailand gunmen killed an anti-government activist and wounded two others in Bangkok, while protesters elsewhere blocked candidates from registering for upcoming elections.
(AP, 12/28/13)
2013 Dec 30, Thai police staged a protest to show their frustration after weeks of dealing with aggressive and often violent anti-government demonstrators, with officers saying that the order for them to show restraint has left them vulnerable and humiliated.
(AP, 12/30/13)
2014 Jan 5, In Thailand thousands of anti-government protesters marched through Bangkok, a prelude to a broader action next week when they say they will shut down the city in their bid to scuttle a February election and topple PM Yingluck Shinawatra.
(Reuters, 1/5/14)
2014 Jan 7, In Thailand protesters trying to topple PM Shinawatra marched in Bangkok to drum up support for their plans to bring the capital to a halt next week by blockading major roads and preventing the government from functioning.
(Reuters, 1/7/14)
2014 Jan 9, Thai protesters trying to topple PM Shinawatra marched in Bangkok again, testing support for a planned "shutdown" of the capital next week.
(Reuters, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 11, In Thailand seven people were wounded after gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on anti-government protesters in Bangkok.
(Reuters, 1/11/14)
2014 Jan 12, Thai protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban ruled out talks with the government in a published interview, but said he would stand down his movement if, as some fear, violence escalates and civil war looms.
(Reuters, 1/12/14)
2014 Jan 13, In Thailand tens of thousands of anti-government protesters came out in an effort to "shut down Bangkok" and try to force caretaker PM Yingluck Shinawatra to resign in favor of an unelected "people's council" that would initiate political reforms.
(AP, 1/13/14)
2014 Jan 13, In Thailand an American woman went missing in Kaeng Krachan National Park. Her body was found five days later, apparently trampled by elephants.
(SFC, 1/24/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 14, Thailand's PM Shinawatra insisted she wouldn't quit as protesters seeking her ouster blocked key roads in the heart of Bangkok for a second day, leaving the country's political crisis firmly deadlocked.
(AP, 1/14/14)
2014 Jan 17, In Thailand 35 people were wounded in Bangkok when a grenade blast ripped through a crowd of marching anti-government demonstrators. One person was killed.
(Reuters, 1/17/14)(Reuters, 1/18/14)
2014 Jan 18, In Thailand anti-government protesters marched defiantly through Bangkok, with one group entering a police compound, undeterred by a grenade explosion the day before. The military urged both sides to settle their differences.
(Reuters, 1/18/14)(Reuters, 1/19/14)
2014 Jan 19, In Thailand 28 people were wounded, seven seriously, in explosions at a camp of anti-government protesters in Bangkok.
(Reuters, 1/19/14)
2014 Jan 20, In Thailand anti-government protesters besieged government offices in a dozen southern provinces as part of their campaign to force PM Yingluck Shinawatra from power.
(AFP, 1/20/14)
2014 Jan 21, Thailand's government declared a 60-day state of emergency in Bangkok and surrounding areas to cope with protests that have stirred up violent attacks, adding to the country's monthslong sense of crisis.
(AP, 1/21/14)
2014 Jan 22, In northeast Thailand a leading pro-government activist was shot and wounded. A 60-day state of emergency began in Bangkok where protesters were trying to force PM Yingluck Shinawatra from power.
(Reuters, 1/22/14)
2014 Jan 24, Thailand's Constitutional Court opened the way to put off a general election the government has set for February 2, piling pressure on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra who looks increasingly cornered by legal challenges to her grip on power.
(Reuters, 1/24/14)
2014 Jan 26, In Thailand anti-government demonstrators swarmed dozens of polling stations to stop advance voting for next week's general elections. One protest leader was shot dead.
(AP, 1/26/14)(AFP, 1/26/14)
2014 Jan 26, Thailand police detained 531 men, women and children in a raid at a camp near the town of Sadao in the southern province of Songkhla, on a well-established route for human smugglers near the border with Malaysia. It was the first raid on illegal Rohingya smuggling camps since January 9, 2013.
(Reuters, 1/27/14)
2014 Jan 31, A Thai court ordered more than $1.4 million in assets seized from a former top civil servant whose wealth was revealed when burglars robbed his house. The Civil Court said former Transport Ministry Permanent Secretary Supoj Saplom could not prove his wealth was honestly earned.
(AP, 1/31/14)
2014 Feb 1, In Thailand gunfire rang out across an intersection in Bangkok for more than an hour as government supporters clashed with protesters trying to derail tense nationwide elections before the vote begins.
(AP, 2/1/14)
2014 Feb 2, Thailand held nationwide elections without bloodshed despite widespread fears of violence. Although balloting was largely peaceful, protesters forced thousands of polling booths to close in Bangkok and the south, disenfranchising millions of registered voters.
(AP, 2/2/14)
2014 Feb 3, In southern Thailand two army volunteers shot dead 3 boys and wounded their parents to seek revenge for one of their families. Both men later confessed to the killings.
(AP, 3/3/14)
2014 Feb 4, Pressure on Thailand's embattled government mounted, when a flagship rice-buying scheme vital to its support stumbled closer to collapse. The commerce minister said China had canceled an order for 1.2 million tons of rice due to a corruption probe, while state-run Krung Thai Bank (KTB) joined other lenders in saying it would not provide loans urgently needed to rescue it. The opposition filed legal challenges that could void a disrupted weekend election.
(Reuters, 2/4/14)
2014 Feb 10, Thai police made their first arrest of a senior leader of the antigovernment protests. Sonthiyarn Cheunruethainaitham was arrested for violating the country’s emergency law.
(SFC, 2/11/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 14, Thailand riot police cleared anti-government protesters from a major boulevard in Bangkok.
(SFC, 2/15/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 18, In Thailand gunbattles broke out as hundreds of riot police made their strongest attempt to clear anti-government protest sites around Bangkok. At least 4 people and one policeman were killed and 64 others injured.
(AP, 2/18/14)(Econ, 2/22/14, p.34)
2014 Feb 20, In Thailand protesters campaigning to oust PM Yingluck Shinawatra turned to Facebook and other social media to attack businesses linked to her family and rallied outside the offices of a property developer whose share price tumbled.
(Reuters, 2/20/14)
2014 Feb 22, In Thailand a 5-year-old girl was killed and about three dozen people wounded in an attack on an anti-government rally in the eastern province of Trat.
(AP, 2/23/14)
2014 Feb 23, In Thailand an apparent grenade attack against anti-government protesters occupying an upscale shopping area of Bangkok killed 3 people, including 2 children. On Sep 4, 2015, a court sentenced four men to life imprisonment over the deaths. The verdict was commuted from the death sentence because they had confessed to the charges.
(AP, 2/23/14)(AFP, 9/4/15)
2014 Feb 24, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra, the target of anti-government protests in Bangkok, has been staying outside the city and ruled out resigning despite a series of deadly attacks heaping pressure on her administration.
(Reuters, 2/24/14)
2014 Feb 25, Thailand announced a slump in trade figures with the biggest drop in imports in more than four years in January, as months of anti-government protests extended their economic toll.
(Reuters, 2/25/14)
2014 Feb 25, In Thailand an accident at a hospital construction site near Bangkok killed at least 11 people and injured 18 others.
(AP, 2/25/14)
2014 Feb 28, In eastern Thailand at least 15 people, including 13 children, were killed when a bus carrying students on a trip to the seaside collided with a lorry.
(AFP, 2/28/14)
2014 Mar 2, Thai police arrested Avelino de Jesus (33), a man with joint French-Portuguese citizenship wanted by authorities in France on suspicion of attempting to smuggle hundreds of kgs of cocaine.
(AP, 3/3/14)
2014 Mar 7, In Thailand 6 suspected drug dealers were shot dead during a firefight with Thai security forces who seized illegal amphetamines in the Mae Sai district of northernmost Chiang Rai province.
(AFP, 3/8/14)
2014 Mar 9, Two Indonesian naval personnel were killed during an inspection aboard a Thai fishing boat in Indonesian waters. Thailand police soon arrested three suspects. Four more were arrested in April.
(AP, 4/4/14)
2014 Mar 12, Thailand police rescued about 200 suspected Muslim Uighurs, believed to be from China's troubled far-western region of Xinjiang, from a human smuggling camp in southern Thailand.
(Reuters, 3/14/14)
2014 Mar 13, Malaysian police arrested 62 people who had illegally crossed the porous border between Thailand and Malaysia.
(Reuters, 3/14/14)
2014 Mar 14, In southern Thailand a Buddhist teacher was fatally shot on her way to school and then set ablaze, becoming the 170th teacher killed by suspected Muslim insurgents in the country's decade-long insurgency.
(AP, 3/14/14)
2014 Mar 21, Thailand’s Constitutional Court nullified the Feb 2 election because voting was not conducted nationwide on the same day.
(SFC, 3/22/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 25, Thai police seized 147 kg (323 pounds) of heroin they believe was from Myanmar and destined for Australia. The single haul exceeded some of Thailand's recent yearly seizure totals.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 29, In Thailand tens of thousands of anti-government protesters rallied across Bangkok in their latest bid to topple PM Yingluck Shinawatra.
(Reuters, 3/29/14)
2014 Mar 30, Thais voted for half of the country's 150-seat Senate in a key test for Yingluck Shinawatra's troubled government.
(AP, 3/30/14)
2014 Apr 1, In Thailand gunmen killed one person and wounded four others in an attack on anti-government protesters in central Bangkok.
(AP, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 2, In Thailand workers at a scrap shop in Bangkok accidentally detonated a large bomb believed to have been dropped during World War II, killing at least 7 people and injuring 19 others.
(AP, 4/2/14)
2014 Apr 5, Thousands of Thai pro-government "Red Shirts" massed in a show of support for PM Yingluck Shinawatra, warning that they would resist attempts to oust her through the courts.
(AFP, 4/5/14)
2014 Apr 6, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents launched a wave of attacks in Yala that killed one person and wounded 24 others.
(AP, 4/6/14)
2014 Apr 9, Thai police arrested Englishman Michael Alan France (53), whom French police accuse of masterminding a gang that sought to smuggle cocaine and heroin through France into England six years ago.
(AP, 4/9/14)
2014 Apr 11, Thai security forces shot dead 7 suspected drug smugglers and seized hundreds of thousands of methamphetamine pills after a firefight in the Golden Triangle border region.
(AFP, 4/12/14)
2014 Apr 17, Thai authorities charged two journalists with defaming Thailand's navy in an online news report about the trafficking of refugees from Myanmar, amid concerns about press freedom in the country.
(AP, 4/17/14)
2014 Apr 17, In southern Thailand suspected insurgent Muktar Ali-mama (31) and his 6-year-old son were shot dead. They were attacked at a rubber plantation in Bannang Sata district, Yala province.
(AP, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 23, In Thailand Kamol Duangphasuk, a pro-government activist who opposed a law punishing critics of the monarchy, was fatally shot by gunmen on a motorcycle in Bangkok.
(AP, 4/23/14)
2014 Apr 30, Thailand's Election Commission and PM Yingluck Shinawatra agreed to hold a general election in July, but anti-government protesters who disrupted a vote in February said they still wanted to see electoral reforms before a new poll.
(Reuters, 4/30/14)
2014 Apr 30, A Thai court ordered former Deputy Interior Minister Pracha Maleenont and the widow of former PM Samak Sundaravej to pay $36 million to the city of Bangkok after corruption inflated the price it paid for fire trucks and boats made abroad.
(AP, 4/30/14)
2014 Apr 30, In western Thailand a six-wheeled truck crashed into a passenger truck on a dangerous mountain road, killing 14 people.
(AP, 4/30/14)
2014 Apr, Ethnic Karen leader Por Cha Lee Rakcharoen, known as Billy, disappeared while working on a lawsuit accusing officials of destroying homes in Kaeng Krachan national park. In April 2019 divers found a burnt fragment of Billy's skull stuffed in an oil drum in a reservoir inside the park, giving relatives their first confirmation of his death. In Sept. 2019 the Department of Special Investigations, the Thai equivalent of the FBI, ruled the case a murder and vowed to arrest those responsible.
(AFP, 9/16/19)
2014 May 5, A magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit Myanmar and northern Thailand leaving at least one person dead.
(SFC, 5/6/14, p.A2)
2014 May 6, In southern Thailand two bombs exploded in Hat Yai city, popular to local and foreign tourists, leaving nine people injured.
(SFC, 5/7/14, p.A2)
2014 May 7, Thailand’s Constitutional Court ordered PM Yingluck Shinawatra to step down with nine members of her cabinet over her decision in 2011 to remove the country’s head of national security in favor of a relative. Minister of commerce and former CEO of broadcaster iTV, Niwatthamrong Boonsongphaisan (66), will hold the fort until elections tentatively slated for July 20.
(Reuters, 5/7/14)(Econ, 5/10/14, p.12)
2014 May 8, Thailand's anti-graft agency indicted former PM Yingluck Shinawatra for negligence, a ruling that came a day after a court threw her out of office and could kill off any hopes she has of staging an electoral comeback.
(Reuters, 5/8/14)
2014 May 9, Thai police fired tear gas and water cannons to push back hundreds of protesters trying to force their way into a government compound, the latest indication that ousting the premier will not solve the country's tense political crisis.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 10, Supporters of Thailand's beleaguered government gathered on the outskirts of Bangkok, saying they were determined to safeguard democracy as rival anti-government protesters pressed their campaign in the city.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 14, In Thailand 2 people were killed and 22 wounded after an attack on an opposition PDRC protest camp.
(Econ, 5/17/14, p.40)
2014 May 15, In northern Thailand hundreds of armed men descended on a village and overpowered residents blocking the road to a goldmine said by locals to have caused environmental damage so that trucks could take ore away in the Khao Luang district of Loei province. Residents of Khao Luang have for years contested the mining operations of Tungkum Ltd, a subsidiary of Tongkah Harbour Plc.
(SFC, 5/15/14, p.A2)(Reuters, 5/16/14)
2014 May 20, Thailand's powerful military chief intervened for the first time in the country's latest political crisis, declaring martial law and dispatching gun-mounted jeeps into the heart of the capital with a vow to resolve the deepening conflict as quickly as possible.
(AP, 5/20/14)
2014 May 21, Thailand's army chief assumed the role of mediator by summoning the country's key political rivals for face-to-face talks one day after imposing martial law.
(AP, 5/21/14)
2014 May 22, Thailand's army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha seized control of the government in a coup, two days after he declared martial law, saying the military had to restore order and push through reforms after six months of turmoil.
(Reuters, 5/22/14)
2014 May 23, In Thailand ousted members of the former government turned themselves in to the country's new military junta, as soldiers forcefully dispersed hundreds of anti-coup activists who defied a ban on large-scale gatherings to protest the army's seizure of power.
(AP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 24, Thailand's coup leaders said that they would keep former PM Yingluck Shinawatra, Cabinet members and anti-government protest leaders detained for up to a week to give them "time to think" and to keep the country calm. 9 bombs exploded in the restive south, killing 2 people and wounding dozens.
(AP, 5/24/14)
2014 May 26, In Thailand Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha secured the royal imprimatur for his coup four days earlier.
(Econ, 5/31/14, p.32)
2014 May 27, In Thailand armed troops detained Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang who defiantly emerged from hiding to condemn last week's military coup and urge a return to civilian rule.
(AP, 5/27/14)
2014 May 28, Thailand's junta appointed two retired generals with palace connections as advisers, putting powerful establishment figures hostile towards former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra firmly in the ascendant in the country's long-running power struggle. The junta also freed leaders of the "Red Shirt" movement allied to the civilian government ousted in a recent coup, after holding them without charge for nearly a week.
(Reuters, 5/28/14)
2014 May 29, More than 1,000 Thai troops and police sealed off one of Bangkok's busiest intersections to prevent a planned protest, as authorities said they would no longer allow any demonstrations against last week's military coup.
(AP, 5/29/14)
2014 May 31, Australia said that it has banned Thailand's coup leaders from visiting and downgraded their military ties.
(AP, 5/31/14)
2014 Jun 1, Thailand's ruling junta deployed thousands of security forces on the streets of Bangkok to thwart another round of small-scale protests denouncing last month's military coup. The military junta presented a list of emergency measures such as price caps on fuel and loan guarantees for small firms to kick-start an economy threatened by recession after months of political turmoil.
(AP, 6/1/14)(Reuters, 6/2/14)
2014 Jun 3, Thailand's military rulers said they are monitoring a new form of silent resistance to the coup, a three-fingered salute borrowed from "The Hunger Games," and will arrest those in large groups who ignore warnings to lower their arms. The junta lifted the military's curfew at three popular beach resorts — Phuket, Koh Samui and Pattaya — to ease the impact of the May 22 coup on tourists.
(AP, 6/3/14)
2014 Jun 6, Thai police warned online critics of the military junta that they will "come get you" for posting political views that could incite divisiveness.
(AP, 6/6/14)
2014 Jun 9, Miss Universe Thailand renounced her title over remarks she made on social media including one that "red shirt" activists, supporters of ousted prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, should all be executed.
(Reuters, 6/9/14)
2014 Jun 11, A delegation of Thai military commanders travelled to China for talks on regional security and joint training amid Western reproach of the army's seizure of power in a coup last month.
(Reuters, 6/11/14)
2014 Jun 13, Thailand's military government fully lifted a curfew it imposed nationwide after seizing power last month, saying there is no threat of violence.
(AP, 6/13/14)
2014 Jun 13, Thailand deported Moua Toua Ter, a former ethnic Hmong resistance leader, to Laos after being held in Bangkok since March last year. He had been sheltering in Thailand for eight years while seeking resettlement in a third country.
(AP, 7/2/14)
2014 Jun 14, A Cambodian official said Cambodian workers were leaving Thailand in growing numbers, with the total who have returned to their homeland this month topping 160,000. Rights groups say Thai authorities are coercing the Cambodians to go home and abusing them.
(SSFC, 6/15/14, p.A6)(AP, 6/16/14)
2014 Jun 20, A US State Department blacklist included Thailand and Malaysia for their failure to meet minimum standards in fighting human trafficking.
(AP, 6/20/14)
2014 Jun 22, Thailand police arrested eight people for demonstrating against the nation's increasingly repressive military junta, including a man who was dragged away by undercover officers for reading a copy of George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" outside one of Bangkok's most luxurious shopping malls.
(AP, 6/22/14)
2014 Jun 23, The European Union said it is suspending all official visits to and from Thailand and shelving important agreements, to protest last month's military coup. It is putting on hold the signing of an agreement to deepen political and business ties with Thailand "until a democratically elected government is in place."
(AP, 6/23/14)
2014 Jun 24, Thailand’s former Interior Minister Charupong Reuangsuwan, a member of the elected government ousted by last month's coup, formed an opposition group in exile, invoking historical symbols of resistance and revolution while rejecting as illegitimate the new military regime.
(AP, 6/24/14)
2014 Jun 26, Thai officials said military authorities are setting up a network of panels to closely monitor domestic and international media and crack down on criticism of what the junta sees as its efforts to right the country.
(Reuters, 6/26/14)
2014 Jun 26, Cambodia's PM Hun Sen said at least 250,000 of his countrymen who were migrant workers in Thailand returned home this month under circumstances that initially violated their human rights. Both countries are now seeking the migrants' return to Thailand, which has a shortage of low-wage workers.
(AP, 6/26/14)
2014 Jun 30, Thailand's military government said it had begun an overhaul of the electoral system following an announcement by junta leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha that polls could take place by late 2015.
(Reuters, 6/30/14)
2014 Jul 1, Cambodia agreed to free Thai nationalist Veera Somkwamkid. He was imprisoned for more than three years for illegally crossing its border to claim territory for Thailand.
(AP, 7/1/14)
2014 Jul 2, The wildlife group TRAFFIC said the number of ivory products on sale in Bangkok nearly trebled from 5,865 in January last year to 14,512 in May 2014.
(AFP, 7/2/14)
2014 Jul 5, In southern Thailand a raid at a palm plantation exposed a ring that trafficked Myanmar's minority Rohingya Muslims into the country.
(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 7, Thailand's navy inaugurated a state-of-the-art headquarters and training center for its submarine squadron, even though it has no subs to command.
(AP, 7/7/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Thailand the body of a raped girl (13) was discovered early today near the train tracks in Prachuap Khirikhan province's Pranburi district. She had disappeared the night of July 5 from a sleeping berth en route from the southern province of Surat Thai to the capital, Bangkok. Railway worker Wanchai Saengkhao was arrested and faced charges of rape, concealing a body and murder. On Sep 30 Saengkhao (22) was sentenced to death.
(AP, 7/8/14)(AP, 9/30/14)
2014 Jul 11, In Thailand the manager of the conservation center said poachers have killed and sawed the tusks off Klao, a 50-year-old elephant that performed in Thai royal processions and was featured in Oliver Stone's 2004 movie "Alexander."
(AP, 7/11/14)
2014 Jul 14, Nepal's former crown price Paras Shah, notorious for his flamboyant lifestyle, was released on bail for marijuana possession in Thailand. In 2012 he was arrested for marijuana possession on the resort island of Phuket in southern Thailand.
(AP, 7/16/14)
2014 Jul 21, Thai media organizations called on the military government to ease restrictions after the junta said it would shut down news outlets putting out what it considers critical coverage.
(Reuters, 7/21/14)
2014 Jul 22, Thailand's junta won approval from King Bhumibol Adulyadej (86) for an interim constitution mapping out year-long political reforms expected to curb the influence of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra. The new constitution allows the leader of the ruling junta to serve as interim prime minister. Section 44 gave the junta power to stop and suppress “any act which undermines public peace and order or national security, the monarchy, national economics or administration of state affairs."
(AFP, 7/22/14)(SFC, 7/24/14, p.A5)(Econ, 1/26/17, p.29)
2014 Jul 25, In southern Thailand a car bomb killed at least two people and injured 36 outside a hotel in Betong.
(Reuters, 7/25/14)
2014 Jul 27, In southern Thailand a roadside bomb was detonated as soldiers were patrolling near a mosque in Pattani. A girl was killed and five people were injured.
(Reuters, 7/28/14)
2014 Jul 28, In southern Thailand a soldier and 3 suspected Muslim separatists were killed in a clash in Narathiwat.
(Reuters, 7/28/14)
2014 Jul 30, Thailand officials said the military government has approved a massive budget to upgrade the country's railways including high-speed rail that would eventually link with China as part of an eight-year plan to improve infrastructure.
(AP, 7/30/14)
2014 Aug 7, Thai police said authorities are investigating the discovery of nine surrogate babies in a Bangkok condominium who are believed to share the same Japanese biological father. On Aug 22 Interpol said it has launched an investigation into the “Baby Factory" case in which Mitsutoki Shigeta (24), a Japanese businessman, fathered 16 surrogate babies.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)(SFC, 8/23/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 8, Thailand's new military-stacked National Legislative Assembly convened for the first time, electing a president in a key step towards crafting a new constitution likely to embed the army's political influence.
(AFP, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 21, Thailand's legislature voted overwhelmingly to name Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha as prime minister. Prayuth was the only candidate and the assembly was hand-picked by the military junta.
(AP, 8/21/14)
2014 Aug 22, In Thailand 26 people accused of plotting an attack were indicted by a military court on charges including weapon possession and conspiring to commit terrorism. Most of them were seized in an apartment a day after army chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha overthrew an elected government allied to Thaksin.
(AFP, 8/23/14)
2014 Aug 25, Thailand's junta leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, who seized power in a military coup three months ago, officially assumed his new post as prime minister following an endorsement from the country's monarch.
(AP, 8/25/14)
2014 Sep 2, Thailand's ruling junta ordered that a rights talk at a journalists' club in Bangkok be shut down, further stoking concerns over freedom of expression in the country since a military power grab in May.
(Reuters, 9/2/14)
2014 Sep 4, Thai PM Prayuth Chan-ocha set out broad criteria for the selection of a 250-member council to draw up sweeping political reforms and approve a new constitution.
(Reuters, 9/4/14)
2014 Sep 15, In Thailand British tourists Hannah Witheridge (23), and David Miller (24) were found battered to death on a beach on Koh Tao, a small island in the Gulf of Thailand. An autopsy indicated that Witheridge had been raped. On Oct 2 police said two workers from Myanmar have confessed to the murders. On Oct 21 Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin, both 21, sent a retraction letter to prosecutors handling their case claiming they were tortured and forced to confess under police custody. On Dec 24, 2015, Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin were sentenced to death.
(AP, 9/15/14)(AP, 10/2/14)(AP, 10/22/14)(AP, 12/24/15)
2014 Sep 25, Thailand's military-dominated legislature gave itself the power to impeach political office holders, edging a step closer to rooting out the influence of controversial former PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
(Reuters, 9/25/14)
2014 Oct 11, Thai authorities arrested 53 Rohingya migrants and two suspected Thai traffickers en route to neighboring Malaysia. Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya -- described by the UN as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world -- as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, and denies them citizenship.
(AFP, 10/11/14)
2014 Oct 13, Thai police found scores of sick and exhausted boat people hiding on a remote island. All but one of the 79 suspected human-trafficking victims were from Bangladesh. The discovery brought to more than 130 the number of people found since Oct 11 in Phang Nga province.
(Reuters, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 14, Thailand's Cabinet approved a ban on the import of hookah-style water pipes and electronic cigarettes, copying a similar move by neighboring Cambodia earlier this year.
(AP, 10/14/14)
2014 Oct 19, In Thailand a tourist speedboat collided with a fishing vessel near Phuket. The bodies of two tourists from South Korea were found two days later.
(SFC, 10/20/14, p.A2)(AP, 10/21/14)
2014 Oct 24, Prosecutors in Thailand charged two people with defaming the country's monarchy in a stage performance at a university last year. A male university student (23) and a woman (26) were charged with lese majeste, which mandates a prison term of up to 15 years for anyone insulting Thailand's monarchy.
(AP, 10/28/14)
2014 Nov 3, In Thailand Hans Fredrik Lennart Neij (36), one of the founders of popular file-sharing website The Pirate Bay, was arrested under an Interpol warrant as crossed into Thailand from Laos. Neij, along with other Pirate Bay co-founders, was convicted of aiding copyright infringement by a court in Sweden in 2009. He fled the country after being released on bail.
(AP, 11/4/14)
2014 Nov 4, A Thai court sentenced a university student to 2 1/2 years in prison for posting a message on Facebook that the court said insulted the country's king.
(AP, 11/4/14)
2014 Nov 10, Thailand police said 259 migrants will be put back on boats and sent back to Myanmar. The Rohingya migrants were found at sea on Nov 8 and were arrested for illegal entry.
(Reuters, 11/10/14)
2014 Nov 11, Thai police banned a British journalist's book about politics in Thailand for "defaming" the monarchy, in a country with one of the world's strictest lese majeste laws. The sale and distribution of "A Kingdom in Crisis" by freelance journalist and author Andrew MacGregor Marshall, formerly based in Bangkok, was banned in Thailand a month after it was published by London-based Zed Books.
(AFP, 11/13/14)
2014 Nov 17, A Thai military helicopter carrying 9 army personnel crashed in northern Thailand killing all on board in Phayao province.
(Reuters, 11/17/14)
2014 Nov 18, Thailand's military-installed Cabinet approved a bill curbing public gatherings after years of political demonstrations led to violence and often paralyzed the country's capital.
(AP, 11/18/14)
2014 Nov 18, Thai Web radio host Kathawut Boonpitak was sentenced to five years in prison, in the first verdict by a military court in cases involving alleged defamation of the country's monarchy.
(AP, 11/18/14)
2014 Nov 23, Thailand authorities arrested former Central Investigation Bureau chief Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan and six colleagues on serious charges ranging from bribery to insulting the monarchy. More suspects were being investigated in the high-profile scandal.
(AP, 11/25/14)
2014 Nov 24, In Thailand a military court sentenced a Web editor to 4 1/2 years in jail for publishing an article five years ago that it said defamed the nation's king. The sentence against Nut Rungwong was cut in half because he pleaded guilty to the charge.
(AP, 11/24/14)
2014 Nov 26, Thai police said land deeds, illegal ivory, golden amulets and other antiques have been found on properties owned by former Central Investigation Bureau chief Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan and one of his subordinates, Col. Kowit Muangnual. In March, 2015, authorities began auctioning off 27,000 objects seized from Chayapan.
(AP, 11/26/14)(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A5)
2014 Nov 26, In Thailand a diplomat from the Greek Embassy died after she fell under a moving train.
(AP, 11/26/14)
2014 Nov 27, Thailand's interim parliament gave initial approval to a bill banning commercial surrogacy, the practice of hiring a woman to carry a fetus to term.
(AP, 11/28/14)
2014 Dec 8, Thailand ordered US online taxi booking company Uber to cease operations, on the same day taxi apps were banned in the Indian capital New Delhi.
(Reuters, 12/9/14)
2014 Dec 13, The Thai palace published a statement in the Royal Gazette saying Princess Srirasmi had relinquished her royal status, a move that ends her 13-year marriage to Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn. This followed a string of arrests of the princess' relatives in a high-profile corruption scandal.
(AFP, 12/13/14)
2014 Dec 19, China said it would build an 867-km rail network in Thailand and buy two million tons of its rice. Premier Li Keqiang was attending a two-day summit of leaders of Mekong River region countries.
(Reuters, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 20, State media reported that China has offered more than $3 billion in loans and aid to neighbors Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos to improve infrastructure and production, and to fight poverty.
(Reuters, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 29, In Thailand two activists charged with insulting the monarchy because of a play they produced in 2013 pleaded guilty to the offense, which carries a punishment of three to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 12/29/14)
2014 Dec 30, Officials said Malaysia, parts of the Philippines, and southern Thailand have been battered by heavy rain and flash floods in recent days. At least 21 people were killed in Malaysia, 53 in the Philippines and 15 in Thailand.
(Reuters, 12/30/14)(AP, 12/30/14)(AP, 12/31/14)
2015 Jan 6, Thai police said that they have arrested Gurmeet Singh (37), a fugitive convicted in India for his involvement in a 1995 bomb attack that killed a chief minister of a northern Indian state and 15 other people.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 11, Thailand police said dozens of children were among 98 suspected Rohingya trafficking victims from Myanmar discovered in pickup trucks in in Hua Sai district in Nakhon Si Thammarat province.
(Reuters, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 19, In Thailand villagers living near the country’s largest gold mine asked the government to quickly prove the source of arsenic and manganese contamination that has led to a suspension in operations at the mine. Testing conducted in November by a government team on 700 villagers living near the mine found that more than 300 people, including children, tested positive for arsenic and manganese.
(Reuters, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Thailand embattled former PM Yingluck Shinawatra decried the "death of democracy" in Thailand after the junta-stacked parliament impeached her and prosecutors announced corruption charges that could see her jailed.
(AFP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 28, In Thailand Jatuporn Prompan, a top leader of the "Red Shirt" political movement, was sentenced to two years in jail for insulting a former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva in 2009.
(AP, 1/28/15)
2015 Feb 3, Thai police said they have arrested six people accused of being part of a conspiracy to slander the country's monarchy on the Internet.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 14, In Thailand dozens of anti-coup activists held a demonstration in central Bangkok, handing out roses and copies of George Orwell's "1984" -- a rare expression of public dissent in a nation still under strict martial law.
(AFP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 19, Former Thai premier Yingluck Shinawatra was formally indicted over a bungled rice subsidy scheme in the latest legal move against her polarizing family that could see her jailed for up to a decade.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Thailand passed a law banning foreign couples from using Thai women as surrogates after a series of high-profile scandals tainting the image of the hitherto unregulated industry.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 20, In southren Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents detonated a car bomb that wounded 13 people. A Thai air force F-16A fighter jet crashed during a drill in central Thailand, killing the pilot.
(AP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Thailand Juan Francisco Guillermo (47), a Chilean cyclist, was hit by a pickup truck and immediately killed on a highway in Nakhon Ratchasima province. Guillermo was attempting to set a Guinness World Record by cycling 250,000 km (155,350 miles) on five continents in five years. His journey started in November 2010 and was scheduled to end in November this year.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 23, Thailand sentenced two students, Patiwat Saraiyaem (23) and Porntip Mankong (2), to jail for 2-1/2 years for insulting the monarchy in a university play.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Mar 5, A Thai court sentenced 15 members of the "Red Shirt" political movement to four years in prison for inciting rioting that disrupted an important regional conference in 2009.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 18, Thai authorities said they had issued emergency measures across at least nine provinces as thick smoke caused by farmers burning vegetation to clear their fields chokes the north of the country.
(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 19, Thailand police today arrested Boon Ching Teo (51) of Malaysia, and Sirichai Sridanont (50) of Thailand, after seizing 51 pieces of African ivory Dec. 31 in the northeastern province of Surin.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 25, Thailand security forces killed 4 people when they raided a village in Pattani, one of three Muslim-dominated provinces bordering Malaysia, as part of an operation to arrest rebels. On April 8 an investigating team said the four Muslim men were not members of any extremist group and called for legal action against those responsible.
(Reuters, 4/7/15)
2015 Mar 25, The US government and major business leaders renewed their call on the Thai government to crack down on slavery in its fishing fleets, and to punish people who force migrant workers to catch seafood that can end up in the United States.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 27, In eastern Indonesia an estimated 4,000 foreign fishermen were reported stranded on a number of remote islands, including men reported to have been enslaved. Some migrant workers from Myanmar said they had been brought to Indonesia from Thailand and forced to work on trawlers with Thai captains.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 31, A Thai military court sentenced Bangkok businessman Thiensutham Suthijitseranee to 25 years in prison on charges of defaming the country's monarchy in what appears to be the longest sentence handed down in recent years for the crime of lese majeste.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Apr 1, Thailand's ruling junta, known as the National Council for Peace and Order, announced in a televised statement that it had lifted martial law, which had been in place nationwide since just before a coup 10 months ago. Coup leader Prayuth Chan-ocha said he will invoke a special security measure in the junta-imposed interim constitution called Article 44. Critics say it gives Prayuth unchecked authority over all three branches of government and absolves him of any legal responsibility for his actions.
(Reuters, 4/1/15)
2015 Apr 18, Thailand customs officials seized 4 tons of ivory hidden in bean sacks, tracked from Congo and bound for Laos, in what authorities said was the biggest bust in the country's history. 739 elephant tusks, were seized upon arrival in Bangkok.
(AP, 4/20/15)
2015 Apr 25, Thailand officials seized three tons of ivory hidden in tea leaf sacks from Kenya and destine for Laos.
(SFC, 4/28/15, p.A2)
2015 May 1, Thailand police found dozens of shallow graves, a corpse and an ailing survivor at an abandoned jungle camp in a southern area that is regularly used to smuggle Rohingya Muslims, Bangladeshis and other migrants to third countries. By the next day police dug up 26 bodies. Smugglers reportedly escaped days earlier with around 100 Rohingya Muslims, a long-persecuted religious minority in Myanmar.
(AP, 5/1/15)(AP, 5/2/15)(Reuters, 5/2/15)
2015 May 4, Thailand police arrested two Padang Besar deputy village chiefs and a member of the Padang Besar municipal council a day earlier. They faced a variety of charges related to human trafficking. Police said they also arrested a Myanmar citizen, Zaw Naing Anu (40), or Anwar, who had previously been arrested in Thailand for fraud and for kidnapping Rohingyas.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, A series of raids, codenamed "COBRA III" and organized by Thailand, began across Asia, Africa and Europe. By May 27 they resulted in more than 300 arrests and over 600 seizures of assorted wildlife contraband — from several tons of ivory and rhino horns to whale ribs and sea horses.
(AP, 6/18/15)
2015 May 5, Thailand police found two more camps believed to have held human trafficking victims — one recently abandoned and the other containing a buried skeleton.
(AP, 5/5/15)
2015 May 8, Thailand's police chief announced the arrest of a powerful provincial mayor and said 50 police officers are being investigated in a widening human trafficking scandal spanning four Asian countries. Police said 111 suspected Rohingya migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been found in southern Songkhla province.
(AP, 5/8/15)(Reuters, 5/8/15)
2015 May 14, In southern Thailand at least a dozen bombs exploded, wounding several people in and around Yala where ethnic Malay insurgents are active.
(Reuters, 5/14/15)
2015 May 14, Malaysia turned away two crammed migrant boats filled with Rohingya and Bangladeshis abandoned at sea by traffickers. Thailand kept at bay a large vessel with hundreds of hungry people.
(AP, 5/14/15)
2015 May 15, In Indonesia more than 1,000 weak, hungry people fleeing persecution in Myanmar and poverty in Bangladesh came ashore, describing murder, extortion and near starvation after surviving a harrowing journey at sea. Dozens were reported killed in violent clashes between the Bangladeshis and Rohingya on board. A group of 106 people were found on a Thai island.
(AP, 5/15/15)
2015 May 16, A boat crammed with migrants was towed out to sea by the Thai navy and then held up by Malaysian vessels, the latest round of "maritime ping-pong" by Asian states determined not to let asylum seekers come ashore.
(Reuters, 5/16/15)
2015 May 18, In Thailand Pajjuban Aungkachotephan (aka Ko Tong), a former regional official accused of being a major people trafficking kingpin, turned himself in, as the kingdom continues a belated blitz against the lucrative trade.
(AFP, 5/18/15)
2015 May 29, In Thailand southeast Asian nations agreed to intensify search and rescue efforts to help vulnerable "boat people" stranded in the region's seas. Myanmar said its navy had seized a vessel off its coast with more than 700 migrants aboard.
(Reuters, 5/29/15)
2015 May 30, In southern Thailand roadside bombs killed one police officer and wounded seven members of the security forces.
(Reuters, 5/31/15)
2015 Jun 1, Malaysian media reported that Muslim Rohingya women who were held at human-trafficking camps in Thailand and Malaysia were subjected to gang rapes by their captors, assaults that left at least two of them pregnant.
(AFP, 6/2/15)
2015 Jun 2, In Thailand three-star Lieutenant General Manus Kongpan, accused of involvement in human trafficking, turned himself in to authorities.
(Reuters, 6/2/15)
2015 Jun 3, In southern Thailand 4 soldiers were killed in an attack by suspected insurgents on a rural road in Raman district, Yala province.
(AP, 6/3/15)
2015 Jun 18, Thailand's army-dominated national assembly approved amendments to the country's draft constitution at a third reading, paving the way for a referendum on the newly drafted charter next year.
(Reuters, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 18, Thailand confirmed its first case of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus in a businessman from Oman.
(Reuters, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 26, Thailand's military government forced a human rights group to cancel the public launch of its report on the Vietnamese government's persecution of an ethnic minority, saying it could affect national security and bilateral relations. The report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch describes persecution of Montagnard Christians in Vietnam's Central Highlands.
(AP, 6/26/15)
2015 Jun 26, Thailand police arrested 14 students who had been protesting against the ruling junta, in defiance of a ban on public gatherings. On July 7 a military court released the 14 student activists from detention but said they still face sedition charges.
(Reuters, 6/26/15)(AP, 7/7/15)
2015 Jun 30, A total of 173 people, mostly women and children, from the minority Chinese Muslim community of Uighurs arrived in Turkey from Thailand, where they were being held after fleeing China. They were being resettled in the central city of Kayseri, which boasts a strong Uighur community.
(AP, 7/2/15)
2015 Jul 9, Thailand sent back to China more than 100 ethnic Uighur refugees, drawing harsh criticism from the UN refugee agency and human rights groups over concerns that they face persecution by the Chinese government.
(AP, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 9, In Turkey protesters stormed the Thai Consulate in Istanbul early today to denounce Thailand's decision to deport 109 ethnic Uighur migrants back to China.
(AP, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 10, In southern Thailand 3 women were killed by a motorcycle bomb that exploded late today near a karaoke bar in the border town of Padang Besar. Arson was blamed for the deaths of 3 people at a shop in Sungai Kolok, another border town, where eight other people were wounded, including three women from Laos, by an improvised bomb hidden in a planter in front of a hotel.
(AP, 7/11/15)
2015 Jul 11, Thailand sent eight more ethnic Muslim Uighur refugees to Turkey, days after the Thai government faced intense international criticism for deporting 109 refugees back to China despite fears they could face persecution there. 52 Uighurs remained in Thailand.
(AP, 7/11/15)
2015 Jul 14, A Thai military court sentenced 10 people to prison terms for distributing online content that it said insulted the country's monarchy. Eight of the 10 were ordered to serve 5-year jail terms and two others, found to have only abetted the others, were given three years each.
(AP, 7/14/15)
2015 Jul 16, In southern Thailand unidentified gunmen shot dead 2 soldiers in an ambush. Dozens of banners were found in the provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, home to a Muslim majority in predominantly Buddhist Thailand, calling for independence.
(AP, 7/16/15)
2015 Jul 24, Thailand said it would indict 72 people including a senior army officer over human trafficking after the plight of desperate Myanmar and Bangladesh migrants stranded at sea triggered an international outcry over the grim trade.
(AFP, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 25, In southern Thailand a Buddhist monk and a policeman were killed and six other people wounded in a bomb attack by suspected Muslim insurgents in Pattani province.
(AP, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 27, The US State Department took Malaysia and Cuba off its “tier 3" list of countries failing to combat modern-day slavery, leaving the US open to criticism that politics is swaying the often-contentious rankings in its annual human trafficking report. Burundi, Belize, Belarus, Comoros and South Sudan were downgraded to Tier 3, where Thailand remained for a second year.
(AP, 7/27/15)(Reuters, 7/27/15)
2015 Aug 4, Thailand police said they have arrested five people suspected of trafficking Thai women into sex slavery in China and believed to be part of a ring that has also trafficked women into Malaysia and Singapore.
(Reuters, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 7, Two Thailand military courts handed down the country’s harshest sentences in recent decades for insulting the monarchy. A man in Bangkok was sentenced to prison for 30 years for six Facebook postings, and a mother of two young girls in the province of Chiang Mai was sentenced to 28 years for seven postings.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, It was reported that Thailand’s new Inheritance Tax Act 2015 has gone into effect and that it will start collecting inheritance tax for the first time next February.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 11, In southern Thailand a pickup truck carrying a group of students careened onto a traffic island and hit some trees, killing 8 of the students and the driver. . A WHO survey has ranked Thailand the second worst traffic fatality rates in the world after Namibia.
(AP, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 12, Indonesian authorities seized the Thai-owned Silver Sea 2, a massive refrigerated cargo ship believed to be loaded with slave-caught fish. It was escorted about 80 miles (130 km) to a naval base in Sabang.
(AP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 13, Thailand's military-installed interim PM Prayuth Chan-ocha defended a new law that places tight restrictions on public gatherings and warned it will be strictly enforced as the Public Assembly Act took effect.
(AP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 14, Thailand's legislature voted against impeaching 248 members of the previous Parliament, sparing them a ban from politics for trying to amend the constitution.
(AP, 8/14/15)
2015 Aug 17, In Thailand a bomb exploded just outside a Hindu shrine in Bangkok, killing 20 people, including 14 foreigners, with 123 wounded. The government said the attack was a bid to destroy the economy. A man suspected of the bombing at the Erawan shrine was seen in grainy CCTV footage entering the compound with a backpack on, sitting down against a railing and then slipping out of the bag's straps. On Nov 24 two ethnic Uighurs from China’s Xinjiang region, alleged members of a people-smuggling gang, were indicted.
(Reuters, 8/17/15)(Reuters, 8/18/15)(Reuters, 8/20/15)(SFC, 11/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Aug 19, In Thailand prime minister and coup leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-Ocha attended the opening in Hua Hin of a new park containing the colossl statues of seven long-dead Thai kings built by the army at a cost of about $20 million.
(Econ, 8/22/15, p.34)
2015 Aug 26, Thailand destroyed over two tons of ivory, a victory for animal rights groups fighting against the trade in a country renowned for being a hub for illegal tusks.
(AFP, 8/26/15)
2015 Aug 29, Thai police arrested a foreigner (28) who matched the description of a man who left a bag at the site of a Bangkok blast that killed 20 people on August 17. The DNA of the suspect, later identified as Mieraili Yusufu or Yusufu Meerailee, did not match the bomber’s DNA but did match DNA at two apartments where bomb-making material was found.
(Reuters, 8/29/15)(SFC, 9/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Aug 31, Thai police issued arrest warrants for two more suspects, Thai woman Wanna Suansun (26) and a foreign man of unknown nationality, as part of a widening investigation in connection with the Aug 17 deadly bombing in Bangkok.
(AP, 8/31/15)
2015 Sep 1, Thailand police arrested a second foreign suspect in connection with the August 17 attack that killed 20 people.
(Reuters, 9/1/15)
2015 Sep 6, Thailand's military-backed legislature rejected an unpopular draft of a new constitution, delaying a return to democracy following a coup last year.
(AP, 9/6/15)
2015 Sep 12, Thai authorities issued an arrest warrant for a 12th suspect in connection with last month's bombing at a Bangkok landmark that killed 20 people, identifying him as a 27-year-old ethnic Uighur from China.
(AP, 9/12/15)
2015 Sep 16, Thailand police arrested former primary school teacher Decha Pradit, who they said admitted to having sexually abused 24 schoolgirls, after a tip-off from the US Department of Homeland Security. The abuse occurred over a decade ago while he had worked as a gym teacher at a school in northern Uttaradit province from 2002 to 2004.
(AP, 9/19/15)
2015 Sep 17, In southern Thailand nine bomb blasts targeting different areas of Narathiwat province killed 3 people and injured 14 others. Police blamed separatist insurgents for the explosions.
(AP, 9/18/15)
2015 Sep 19, In Thailand some 200 pro-democracy protesters in Bangkok defied a ban on protests and staged a rare rally against the country's ruling military government.
(AFP, 9/19/15)
2015 Sep 20, In southern Thailand a court in Songkhla province issued arrest warrants for four military officers in connection with the trafficking of ethnic Rohingya migrants.
(AP, 9/21/15)
2015 Sep 20, Thailand police arrested former Philippines Gov. Joel Reyes of western Palawan island province and his brother Mario Reyes, an ex-municipal mayor. They were among the country's most-wanted crime suspects for the 2011 murder of a radio anchor and prominent environmentalist.
(AP, 9/21/15)
2015 Sep 26, Thai authorities said they were now "convinced" their first arrest, a man named as Adem Karadag, planted the bomb on August 17 which killed 20 people after weeks of an often confusing and contradictory police investigation. The other man in custody has been identified as Yusufu Mieraili, who was seized with a Chinese passport marking Xinjiang as his birthplace.
(AFP, 9/26/15)
2015 Sep 26, Indonesia arrested the Thai captain of a seized cargo ship carrying an estimated $2 million worth of seafood on suspicion of illegal fishing.
(AP, 9/26/15)
2015 Sep 30, In Thailand three city policemen in Bangkok were fired after failing to appear for questioning about their alleged role in extorting 1 million baht ($27,500) from a Japanese businessman.
(AP, 9/30/15)
2015 Sep 30, In Thailand protesters began blocking access to several government websites over a plan to route all Internet traffic though a single gateway.
(AP, 10/1/15)
2015 Oct 11, In Thailand an angry crowd hurled homemade fire bombs and torched vehicles at a police station overnight on the resort island of Phuket to protest the deaths of two young men who died in a motorcycle crash while being chased by police.
(AP, 10/11/15)
2015 Oct 22, Southern Thailand was hit by the most severe haze ever from forest fires in Indonesia, forcing all schools in a province to close and disrupting flights in a popular tourist area.
(AP, 10/22/15)
2015 Oct 23, In Thailand police Major Prakrom Warunprapa, charged under a controversial royal defamation law, died in custody after "hanging" himself in his cell. He was accused of embezzling money by falsely claiming links to the monarchy.
(AFP, 10/24/15)(Econ, 11/14/15, p.42)
2015 Oct 25, In western Thailand 8 people were killed and over 20 injured when a bus carrying workers back from a holiday weekend crashed in Kanchanaburi province.
(AP, 10/2515)
2015 Nov 5, Thailand's junta launched a crackdown on organized crime, its latest effort to clean up the country and improve the image of the military government as it struggles to get a sluggish economy on track.
(Reuters, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 5, Thai authorities said police have cracked down on a sex ring that lured underage girls to work as prostitutes whose services were sold to high-ranking military officers, Buddhist monks and a variety of other officials.
(AP, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 7, In Thailand prominent fortuneteller Suriyan Sujaritpalawong, accused of insulting the monarchy, died of a blood infection at a military prison where he had been detained since mid-October. He became the second person in connection with the high-profile case to die behind bars.
(AP, 11/9/15)
2015 Nov 11, The Mekong-Lancang Cooperation forum (China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam) was created by China to promote sustainable development and boost the quality of life for the millions of people living in the Mekong subregion. The forum was seen as a rival to the Mekong River Commission, formed in 1995, but excludes China and Myanmar.
(http://tinyurl.com/y88vgs57)(AP, 1/10/18)
2015 Nov 17, The UN refugee agency criticized Thailand for deporting two refugees who were about to be resettled in a third country. The US branch of Amnesty International issued a statement on Nov 16 identifying them as Jiang Yefei and Dong Guangping, and said they were most likely sent to China on Nov 13.
(AP, 11/17/15)
2015 Nov 22, In Malaysia ASEAN nations (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) established a formal community that attempts to create freer movement of trade and capital in an area of 625 million people with a combined economic output of $2.6 trillion.
(Reuters, 11/22/15)
2015 Nov 30, Thai soldiers and police detained two top leaders of the anti-government Red Shirt movement as they prepared to visit a park celebrating past Thai kings that is at the center of a corruption scandal linked to the army.
(AP, 11/30/15)
2015 Nov 30, In Thailand Andre Cabau (39), a French drug trafficker, was arrested in Bangkok. He was part of a notorious international network that authorities say copied tactics from Hollywood's "Fast and Furious" films.
(AP, 11/30/15)
2015 Dec 4, The New York Times decried limits on media freedom in Thailand after its local printer refused to publish articles about the Southeast Asian country for a third time.
(AP, 12/4/15)
2015 Dec 7, Thailand's military government blocked an anti-corruption protest, detaining about three dozen students and other activists who were headed to a park honoring past kings that was allegedly built with money from shady dealings involving several senior officers.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 13, In Thailand Thanet Anantawong was arrested for sharing an infographic on Facebook detailing alleged graft in an army-built park. Plainclothes security officers took him by force from a hospital while he awaited an operation. Anantawong was granted bail on Dec 18.
(Reuters, 12/14/15)(Reuters, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 15, In Thailand Chayapa Shokpornbudsri (49) was found guilty of defaming the monarchy on Facebook at a hearing held without her lawyer's presence. She was handed a 19-year sentence which was cut to 9½ years after she pleaded guilty.
(AFP, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 20, In northern Thailand 12 Malaysian tourists and a Thai guide were killed after their bus crashed in the Doi Saket district, near the city of Chiang Mai.
(Reuters, 12/20/15)
2015 Dec 21, Thailand's government said it is not ignoring the slavery and forced labor in its lucrative shrimp industry.
(AP, 12/21/15)
2015 Dec 29, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents attacked police and a government office, killing one official as they seized hostages in Narathiwat province.
(Reuters, 12/29/15)
2015 A study guessed that the value of Thailand’s Crown Property Bureau, a firm that manages the royal family’s properties and investments, was worth about $44 billion.
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.30)
2016 Jan 13, International hacking movement Anonymous said it attacked hundreds of Thai government websites over death sentences handed down to two migrant workers for the murder of two British tourists.
(Reuters, 1/13/16)
2016 Jan 21, In Thailand four members of the New Democracy Movement were taken to military court to be charged with violating an order banning groups of five or more people from gathering publicly for political purposes. All were released pending a court appearance.
(AP, 1/21/16)
2016 Jan 25, Thailand’s health ministry said it has quarantined 32 people as it seeks to prevent the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) after a second case of the virus was detected on Jan 22.
(Reuters, 1/25/16)
2016 Feb 1, In Thailand Scottish tourist Gareth Crowe was gored to death by an elephant that he and his stepdaughter (16) were riding on the resort island of Samui.
(AP, 2/2/16)
2016 Feb 5, Thailand police released photos of Artur Segarra Princep (37), a Spanish man, suspected of involvement in the killing of fellow Spaniard David Bernat, whose dismembered body was recovered piece by piece from Bangkok's Chao Phraya River. Princep was arrested in Cambodia on Feb 7 and returned to Thailand.
(AP, 2/5/16)(AP, 2/8/16)
2016 Feb 11, Thailand's nomadic fishermen urged the government to help resolve a dispute over access to ancestral shrines on land taken over by developers, following violence in which dozens were injured last month.
(Reuters, 2/11/16)
2016 Feb 26, Thailand, the world's second-biggest rice exporter, announced measures worth around $285 million to help farmers in the country who have been hit hard by a severe drought and low prices for their crop.
(Reuters, 2/26/16)
2016 Feb 27, In southern Thailand a roadside police patrol camp was attacked by an improvised car bomb that left seven officers and two civilians injured in Pattani province.
(AP, 2/27/16)
2016 Feb 27, Thailand's state tobacco company said that it would launch a new, cheaper brand of cigarettes to keep smokers from rolling their own or buying illegally imported untaxed ones due to higher prices from a recently imposed tax hike.
(AP, 2/27/16)
2016 Feb 29, Thailand police said they will have to tighten security on Koh Kut island after four French tourists were brutally assaulted, including two women who were raped. The next day Cambodia said that five of its citizens were involved in the attack.
(AP, 2/29/16)(AP, 3/1/16)
2016 Mar 2, Thailand police seized 895,897 counterfeit brand-name sunglasses at a warehouse where they also arrested two Chinese nationals accused of importing them from China. the sunglasses were purported to be famous brands such as Ray-Ban, Oakley, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior.
(AP, 3/3/16)
2016 Mar 13, In Thailand 8 people died and seven were injured when they accidentally triggered a fire extinguisher system inside the vault of at the Bangkok headquarters of the Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) and released a suffocating cloud of chemicals.
(AFP, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 15, In Thailand Mercedes driver Janepob Verraporn (37), the son of a wealthy Thai businessman, crashed into a slower car while driving at an estimated 240 km (150 miles) per hour. Two graduate students in their 30s died at the scene of the accident. Verraporn survived with minor injuries and refused both alcohol and drug tests.
(AP, 3/23/16)
2016 Mar 29, Thailand's junta chief gave the military broad new police-like powers to arrest and detain criminal suspects.
(AP, 3/30/16)
2016 Mar 27, Thailand seized 87 ivory tusks, worth an estimated $800,000, found in a dozen barrels sent from Mozambique on a Kenya Airways flight. A routine X-ray at Suvarnabhumi International Airport detected the contraband.
(AP, 4/5/16)
2016 Apr 3, In central Thailand a train smashed into a double-decker bus carrying Thai tourists at an unguarded railway crossing in Nakhon Pathom province. Local media reported that three people were killed and more than two dozen injured.
(AP, 4/3/16)
2016 Apr 8, Thailand authorities said they were investigating 16 citizens with reported ties to offshore companies set up by a Panama-based law firm.
(AP, 4/8/16)
2016 Apr 12, In Indonesia three Thai fishing captains were detained when they were found operating trawlers under Malaysian flags that were fishing off Kalimantan, Indonesia's part of Borneo island. The captains escaped on May 7 after scaling the wall of their detention center in the middle of the night.
(AP, 5/17/16)
2016 Apr 13, In Thailand an elderly British couple (65 and 68) and their son (43) were savagely attacked and beaten unconscious during a family vacation in Hua, Hin. The attack was captured on video. On April 28 police said they have arrested the four suspected attackers. On May 23 the attackers were sentenced to two years in prison.
(AP, 4/28/16)(AP, 6/6/16)
2016 Apr 18, Authorities in Thailand said that 442 people died in traffic accidents during the just concluded traditional New Year holiday — a 21 percent rise over the same period last year despite stern efforts to curb drunken and unsafe driving.
(AP, 4/18/16)
2016 Apr 23, In Thailand Banharn Silpa-archa (83), a provincial political powerbroker who served a scandal-ridden 16 months as prime minister in 1995-96, died.
(AP, 4/23/16)
2016 Apr 26, In Thailand a same-sex American-Spanish couple won a high-profile custody battle against a surrogate mother who gave birth to their child but then decided she wanted to keep the baby when she found out they were gay.
(AP, 4/26/16)
2016 Apr 27, Thailand's military government turned up the pressure on its opponents, filing a legal complaint against critics of a proposed new constitution and detaining 10 people in connection with social media postings.
(AP, 4/27/16)
2016 May 9, Thailand media reported that a top Thai medical college has caught students using spy cameras linked to smartwatches to cheat during exams.
(AFP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 10, Thailand ordered the closure of its only active gold mine by the end of the year after more than 300 people tested positive for arsenic and manganese at Akara Resources' Chatree mine.
(Reuters, 5/10/16)
2016 May 19, Thailand’s Department of Land Transport put the brakes on motorbike-hailing services offered by Uber and Singapore-based GrabBike barely two months after they started.
(AP, 5/19/16)
2016 May 22, In northern Thailand a nighttime fire at a dormitory of a primary school killed 18 girls, many of whom had been roused by a dorm-mate but went back to sleep, thinking it was a prank.
(AP, 5/23/16)
2016 May 23, In Thailand twenty-one Rohingya men escaped from the Phang Nga Immigration Detention Center in the early hours today after sawing through an iron bar in their communal cell. One was shot dead and three caught.
(Reuters, 5/24/16)
2016 May 26, In southern Thailand 3 foreign tourists were killed and a British man left missing after a speedboat crashed and capsized in bad weather near the island of Samui.
(Reuters, 5/27/16)
2016 May 30, In Thailand wildlife officials began removing some of the 137 tigers held at a Buddhist temple following accusations that the monks were involved in illegal breeding and trafficking of the animals.
(AP, 5/30/16)
2016 Jun 1, Thai authorities found dozens of dead tiger cubs inside a freezer at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple in western Kanchanaburi province.
(AFP, 6/2/16)
2016 Jun 2, Thai authorities uncovered a trove of animal parts and intercepted a monk trying to leave the controversial “tiger temple" with tiger skins and fangs, the latest discovery to fuel accusations that the zoo is involved in the illegal wildlife trade.
(AFP, 6/2/16)
2016 Jun 7, In Thailand police raided a massage parlor and arrested 121 sex workers, including 15 who were under the age of 18. Five men running the brothel in Bangkok were soon charged with human trafficking.
(Reuters, 6/10/16)
2016 Jun 7, The European Union warned Thailand to take "swift and determined action" by next month to improve its fisheries and labor practices or face a serious economic threat of an EU ban on Thai seafood.
(AP, 6/7/16)
2016 Jun 8, In southern Thailand two speedboats packed with 62 tourists crashed off the coast, leaving at least two dead and more than 20 injured.
(AP, 6/8/16)
2016 Jun 16, Thai police raided the Wat Dhammakaya Buddhist temple complex to arrest a popular abbot accused of accepting $40 million in embezzled money but were thwarted by thousands of his followers who said he is too ill to be taken into custody. Phra Dhammachayo was accused of money laundering and links to embezzling 1.4 billion baht ($40 million) from a now-defunct credit union.
(AP, 6/16/16)
2016 Jun 17, Indian PM Narendra Modi and Thailand’s PM Prayuth Chan-ocha agreed in New Delhi to increase cooperation in tackling terrorism, threats to cybersecurity, narcotics, transnational economic offenses and human trafficking.
(AP, 6/17/16)
2016 Jun 25, The Thai air force lost contact with a helicopter and three crewmen during heavy rains while on a mission to resupply a radar station in Chanthaburi province. Searchers on June 28 found wreckage of the helicopter and the bodies of the crewmen.
(AP, 6/26/16)(AP, 6/28/16)
2016 Jun 30, The United States placed Myanmar on its list of worst human trafficking offenders for failing to do more to curb widespread abuses, and upgraded Thailand from the lowest grade for what was deemed to be an improved record.
(Reuters, 6/30/16)
2016 Jul 1, Military-ruled Thailand said it will buy three submarines worth around $1 billion from China a move that signals warming ties with the regional superpower as relations with the United States cool.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 10, A Thai journalist was detained by police in Ratchaburi province while reporting on the New Democracy Movement, a group opposed to the military government. Three activists of the group were also detained. Taweesak Kerdpoka was the first journalist to be arrested under a new law that makes it illegal to criticize the planned August 7 referendum on a new draft constitution.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 11, Thai journalist Taweesak Kerdpoka and four activists were charged under a draconian law banning criticism of the junta's new constitution which will be voted on in a referendum next month.
(AFP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Thai country singer and political activist Thanat Thanawatcharanon, known by his stage name Tom Dundee, was sentenced by a military court to more than three years in jail for insulting the monarchy, adding to a 7½-year sentence a criminal court imposed on him earlier for the same offense.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 24, In northern Thailand about 100 macaques tore up voter lists publicly posted ahead of the August 7 referendum on a proposed constitution.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 27, Thai police captured a Japanese lawyer who altered his appearance through plastic surgery to escape arrest for an alleged stock share manipulation scheme more than a decade ago. Yasuo Tsubaki (62) was sought by Japanese authorities for securities fraud amounting to more than 12 billion yen ($116 million) from 2001-2005.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Thailand attackers using firebombs and homemade explosives struck a series of popular resort cities and beach towns across the country over the last 24 hours. At least 4 people were killed and dozens wounded, including 11 foreigners.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 14, Thai police over the weekend found and defused five explosive devices that had failed to detonate when an as yet unidentified group carried out a series of deadly bomb attacks on popular tourist spots late last week.
(Reuters, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 23, A Thai military tribunal indicted eight people with sedition for running a Facebook page that mocked the kingdom's junta chief, making them the latest victims of the regime's crackdown on dissent.
(AFP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, A Thai military court rejected allegations by two Uighur defendants that they were tortured in custody to confess to bombing a popular Hindu shrine in Bangkok last year that left 20 people dead. The court then postponed the rest of the hearing to next month because no Uighur-language translator was available.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, In southern Thailand two bombs exploded near a hotel in Pattani, killing one employee and wounding 29 people.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 25, Thailand's military government suspended Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the country's most senior elected official, on allegations of corruption and misuse of city funds. The order to suspend Sukhumbhand came hours after he left Bangkok for South Korea's capital, where he was due to take part in celebrations cementing the friendship between the two cities.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Sep 4, Thai police seized 3,155 kg (6,940 pounds) of marijuana from a warehouse in Chonburi. Police arrested two men from Thailand and Taiwan suspected of smuggling the marijuana from Laos for shipment to Australia.
(AP, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 28, Thailand’s coup leader and prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha promised to turn Thailand into a developed country by 2036.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.37)
2016 Sep 29, Thailand’s government said it has decided to suspend seahorse trade because of concern about threats to its wild population. The decision was announced at a meeting in South Africa of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
(AP, 9/29/16)
2016 Oct 5, Thailand stopped Hong Kong teen pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong from entering the country to give a talk and sent him home, raising questions about whether it acted at China's behest.
(AP, 10/5/16)
2016 Oct 13, Rama IX, Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej (b.1927), died. He was revered as a demigod, a humble father figure and an anchor of stability through decades of upheaval at home and abroad. Bhumibol had succeeded his brother in 1946 and reigned for 70 years, the world's longest reigning monarch when he died. He was succeeded by Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn (64).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhumibol_Adulyadej)(AP, 10/13/16) (Reuters, 5/2/19)
2016 Nov 18, Thailand's military government announced a $1.5 billion effort to help struggling rice farmers in part by guaranteeing prices well above market rates. Global prices for the grain have plummeted to their lowest in nearly a decade, severely weakening an industry crucial to Thailand's economic well-being.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 22, Thailand's military government approved a one-time payout for low-income people in an effort to stimulate the country's weak economy. People who make less than 30,000 baht ($846) a year will receive 3,000 baht ($86), while people who make 30,000 to 100,000 baht ($846 to $2,821) a year will receive 1,500 baht ($42).
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 25, In southern Thailand two men suspected of involvement with violent unrest were killed in a shootout with police and soldiers who had been tracking them.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 29, Thailand's parliament named Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn as the new king, completing a formal step for the heir to take the throne following the death of his father last month.
(AP, 11/29/16)
2016 Dec 1, In Thailand Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn (64) became the new king after he accepted an invitation from parliament to succeed his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in October.
(Reuters, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 3, Thai police arrested anti-junta activist Jatupat Boonpattararaksa for defaming the monarchy in what rights groups said was the first case of lese-majeste brought under Thailand's new king.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 6, Thailand’s interior ministry said severe flooding due to heavy rain in southern Thailand has killed 14 people, including five students. Six days of floods have affected 582,345 people in 11 of the country’s 76 provinces.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 7, Thailand’s military said Muslim separatist militants have shot dead six civilians over the last 24 hours in the southern provinces of Narathiwat and Pattani.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 7, In northern Thailand six drug smugglers were fatally shot late today in a gunbattle when they were confronted by soldiers. 554,000 methamphetamine tablets, 30 kg (66 pounds) of heroin, 1 kg (2.2 pounds) of opium, an AK-47 assault rifle and a short-barreled rifle were seized.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 16, Thailand prosecutors indicted 19 senior members of the anti-coup Red Shirt movement for violating a ban on political activities when they sought to open an office to monitor last August's referendum on a new constitution.
(AP, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, Thailand's military-appointed legislature approved a bill tightening the country's already harsh Computer Crime Act, defying critics who said it infringes on the right to free expression.
(AP, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 19, Thailand’s Defense Ministry website went temporarily offline as hackers protested the Dec 16 passage of a bill restricting internet freedom. They have been attacking Thai government computer servers, temporarily disabling public access and reportedly copying restricted documents.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 22, In Thailand pro-democracy activist Jatupat 'Pai' Boonpattararaksa was re-arrested after his bail was revoked in a case accusing him of sharing online a Thai-language BBC story about the country's new king.
(AP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 26, Thailand said police have detained nine people suspected of hacking government websites to protest against amendments to a cyber security law that critics say strengthens the authorities' oversight of the internet.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 27, Thai police put more pressure on the wealthy, politically influential Buddhist Dhammakaya temple where the leader is wanted for alleged money laundering and related crimes involving millions of dollars of embezzled funds.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 29, Thailand's military government granted the king power to appoint the Buddhist country's top monk, a move aimed at resolving a bitter power struggle over the venerated post.
(AFP, 12/29/16
2017 Jan 2, In eastern Thailand a van and a pickup collided and caught fire on a highway, killing 25 people in Chonburi province.
(AP, 1/2/17)
2017 Jan 5, Thailand’s Interior Ministry said flooding in the south has killed at least five people, disrupted transportation and spoiled tourists' holidays at one of the country's most popular resort islands.
(AP, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 6, Thai authorities warned of flash floods across the south as torrential rains lashed the region leaving at least eight people dead, delaying flights and disrupting holidays during peak tourist season.
(AFP, 1/6/17)
2017 Jan 14, A Thai air force pilot died when his fighter jet crashed at an air show during the country's Children's Day.
(AP, 1/14/17)
2017 Jan 17, Thailand's Eastern Special Development Zone (ESDZ), a special economic zone, was setup for three provinces in eastern Thailand. Collectively, these provinces occupy an area of 13,266 square km (5,122 sq mi).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Economic_Corridor)
2007 Jan 17, In Thailand suspected separatist rebels shot dead two Buddhist villagers in the Muslim-majority south. The insurgency there has killed more than 1,800 people in three years.
(AFP, 1/17/07)
2017 Jan 24, In Thailand Briton Tony Kenway was the victim of a gangland-style slaying in the resort town of Pattaya.
(AP, 9/28/17)
2017 Jan 27, Thai police said they have arrested a gang of wedding crashers led by a Buddhist monk who scammed couples by pretending to be officials with royal links and demanding money for their prestigious presence at nuptials.
(AP, 1/27/17)
2017 Jan 27, A Thai military court halved the sentence for Burin Intin from an original 22 years, 8 months for two offenses because he pleaded guilty to the lese majeste charge as well as to violating the Computer Crime Act by posting illegal content.
(AP, 1/27/17)
2017 Feb 2, Thai media organizations protested a bill that would require journalists to be licensed and would establish a council that can penalize news outlets for violating professional standards. The bill was submitted today to a military-appointed body tasked with reforming the Thai government.
(AP, 2/2/17)
2017 Feb 2, Wildlife anti-trafficking organization Freeland said that almost three tons of scales from endangered African pangolins, hidden in sacks, were seized last December at Bangkok's main airport. The haul was worth more than $1 million dollars on the illegal market, and represented as many as 6,000 dead animals. The scales were sent from Kinshasa in Congo, via Turkey with a final destination listed as Vientiane, Laos.
(AP, 2/2/17)
2017 Feb 7, Thailand’s PM Prayuth Chan-ocha said that Somdej Phra Maha Muniwong (89) has been appointed by King Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun as the 20th supreme patriarch of the Buddhist order. His predecessor died in 2013 at age 100.
(AP, 2/7/17)
2017 Feb 7, Thailand's cabinet approved measures worth $1 billion to help farmers in its flood-hit south.
(Reuters, 2/7/17)
2017 Feb 7, A Thai court sentenced Australian Antonio Bagnato (28) to death for the murder of a countryman who was an alleged confederate in a drug smuggling gang. He was found guilty of killing former Hells Angels member Wayne Schneider in November 2015 after he and accomplices beat and kidnapped the victim from his luxury villa in the Pattaya resort area.
(AP, 2/7/17)
2017 Feb 10, In southern Thailand Sama-ae Doloh, a sub-district chief in Pattani province, was fatally shot by heavily armed men who stopped him on his way to work. In neighboring Narathiwat province, two people were fatally shot by five masked men at a rubber trading store.
(AP, 2/10/17)
2017 Feb 17, Thailand’s PM Prayuth Chan-ocha announced that a government committee has approved construction of an 800-megawatt coal power plant near pristine beaches on the Andaman Sea.
(SFC, 2/18/17, p.A2)
2017 Feb 25, Thailand's military junta removed the chief of the department responsible for overseeing Buddhist affairs and replaced him with a police officer, amid a stand-off between officials and monks at the country's largest temple.
(Reuters, 2/25/17)
2017 Mar 3, In Thailand former Air Vice Marshal Chitpong Thongkum, a former palace medical adviser, was jailed for five and a half years for insulting the monarchy and other charges, a day after another disgraced aide to the new king was charged in a separate case.
(Reuters, 3/3/17)
2017 Mar 6, In Thailand a statement from the Royal Palace said King Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun has approved stripping the honorary title from Phra Dhammajayo (72), head of the Dhammakaya sect, because of the criminal charges against him.
(AP, 3/6/17)
2017 Mar 8, Britain's BBC announced it is ending its shortwave transmissions from Thailand after 20 years of operation because it failed to reach agreement with Thailand's military government on a renewal of its operating permit.
(AP, 3/8/17)
2017 Mar 9, Thai transport officials said that services using private vehicles to transport passengers, such as Uber or Southeast Asia's GrabCar, are illegal because the vehicles aren't registered for public transport. The government said it plans to introduce its own cellphone app, TAXI OK, for passengers to call government-endorsed taxis featuring GPS tracking systems and closed-circuit cameras
(AP, 3/9/17)
2017 Mar 10, A court in Thailand sentenced Jumpol Manmai, a former high-ranking police officer and aide to the country's king, to three years in prison for dereliction of duty and land encroachment.
(AP, 3/10/17)
2017 Mar 18, Thai police uncovered a plot to assassinate the country's prime minister after seizing a weapons cache at a house belonging to red shirt leader Wuthipong Kochathamakun, who has been on the run since the military coup.
(Reuters, 3/19/17)
2017 Mar 27, Thailand's broadcast regulator ordered television channel Voice TV to suspend its over-the-air broadcasting for a week for what it called biased reports affecting national security. The station is controlled by the family of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a 2006 army coup and is in exile to avoid a prison term for corruption.
(AP, 3/27/17)
2017 Mar 28, Thailand authorities escalated their effort to collect taxes they say are due from ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra, posting a bill for 17.6 billion baht ($503 million) at the house where he lived before fleeing into exile in 2008 to avoid a prison term for conflict of interest. A lawyer for Thaksin contended that under the law in existence at the time of the 2006 sale, the shares were exempt from tax.
(AP, 3/28/17)
2017 Mar 29, In southern Thailand a gunbattle at a police checkpoint resulted in the deaths of two gunmen in Narathiwat province.
(AP, 3/30/17)
2017 Mar 30, In southern Thailand an army ranger was found shot dead. Five gunmen opened fire at a police station in Narathiwat province, killing a policeman and wounding three others in the latest killings in a region troubled by violent Muslim separatism.
(AP, 3/30/17)
2017 Mar, In Thailand Vivat Yodprasit, dubbed the "Popcorn Gunman," received a 37-year, 4-month sentence for murder, attempted murder and illegal possession of weapons, halved from the original term because of his confession to police for opening fire with an assault rifle concealed in a sack during a political confrontation in February 2014. However, he recanted his confession in court, claiming he had been tortured. On June 27 a court ruled that there was not enough evidence to convict Yodprasit in the shootings.
(AP, 6/27/17)
2017 Apr 3, In southern Thailand gunmen with grenade launchers and other heavy weapons attacked a police checkpoint, injuring six officers, in what appeared to be the latest violence by Muslim separatists who have been fighting for more than a decade.
(AP, 4/3/17)
2017 Apr 6, Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn signed a military-backed constitution into law, an essential step toward an election the junta has promised will restore democracy after the 12th successful coup in little over 80 years.
(Reuters, 4/6/17)
2017 Apr 7, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents set off dozens of bombs, bringing down power lines and setting tires on fire to block roads.
(AP, 4/7/17)
2017 Apr 14, In Thailand hordes of revellers armed with plastic water guns poured onto streets for a 2nd day of watery warfare to ring in Songkran, its traditional new year.
(AFP, 4/14/17)
2017 Apr 14, In Thailand a 1936 plaque marking the country's 1932 transition to democracy was discovered missing and replaced in Royal Plaza. It was replaced by one celebrating the monarchy. Srisuwan Janya, a veteran social activist, was detained by soldiers when he tried to submit a letter to PM Prayuth Chan-ocha asking that the act of vandalism be investigated.
(AP, 4/18/17)
2017 Apr 20, It was reported that authorities in Bangkok are banishing its world-famous street-food vendors as part of a clean-up drive by Thailand’s military government, outraging foodies and threatening the livelihoods of the road-side cooks.
(Reuters, 4/20/17)
2017 Apr 25, Thailand's top defense official said the government has approved the purchase of its first submarine in more than half a century, calling the $393 million deal with China necessary and a bargain. Thailand decommissioned its last one in 1951.
(AP, 4/25/17)
2017 Apr 25, In Thailand a Brazilian woman (22) arrived at Don Muang airport from Malaysia and had asked to be driven to central Bangkok. Instead she was driven to an area outside Bangkok, where the driver is accused of beating and raping her before leaving her by the side of the road. Police the next day arrested the driver on charges of rape, illegal detention, and theft with violence.
(AP, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 27, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents killed four paramilitary army rangers in an ambush in Narathiwat province.
(AP, 4/27/17)
2017 Apr 28, In Thailand a Bangkok court approved an arrest warrant for an heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune accused of a deadly hit-and-run accident, moving the case forward after almost five years without charges being pressed. Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya is accused of fleeing the scene of a 2012 crash in his Ferrari after allegedly fatally hitting a police officer on motorcycle patrol.
(AP, 4/28/17)
2017 Apr 29, Thai authorities arrested Prawet Prapanukul (57), an activist lawyer, and five other people. On May 3 they were charged with defaming the monarchy, pushing the tally of people charged with lese majeste to more than 100 since the military seized power in 2014.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 1, In Thailand the Protection of Media Rights and Freedom, Ethics and Professional Standards Act was passed by the National Reform Steering Assembly, a 200-member body appointed by the military after it took power in a 2014 coup.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 3, Thai media organizations called on the military government to withdraw a bill that would set up an appointed council to regulate print and online media and require journalists to be licensed or risk jail.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 4, Thai police said Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya (32), a fugitive heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune, had left Singapore after abandoning his private jet and disappeared.
(AP, 5/4/17)(AP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 5, Thai authorities revoked the passport of Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya (32), a fugitive heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune, who is wanted on deadly hit-and-run charges. Thailand began the process of having Interpol issue a Blue Notice advising officials in 190 countries that Vorayuth is wanted.
(AP, 5/4/17)(AP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 5, Thai police found 35 migrants from Myanmar abandoned and wandering in a southern forest, raising fears that smuggling and trafficking routes are flourishing despite a crackdown by authorities.
(Reuters, 5/5/17)
2017 May 9, In southern Thailand Muslim militants fighting for a separate state were suspected of carrying out a car-bomb attack outside a supermarket in the city of Pattani that wounded 60 people.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 16, Thailand backed off a threat to block Facebook, instead providing the social media site with court orders to remove content that the government deems illegal.
(AP, 5/16/17)
2017 May 22, In Thailand a bomb exploded at the army-run Phramongkutklao Hospital in Bangkok, the third anniversary of a military coup. More than 20 people were reported wounded. On June 15 police arrested Wattana Pumret (61), a retired electrical engineer, who reportedly confessed to the bombing. Pumret later said he carried out the bombing as a "symbol of defiance" against the military government.
(AP, 5/22/17)(AP, 6/15/17)(AP, 6/20/17)
2017 May 23, In southern Thailand attackers detonated a bomb and then shot two army rangers as they patrolled a community village on motorcycles.
(SFC, 5/24/17, p.A2)
2017 May 25, Thailand's telecoms regulator said anyone wanting to use or buy a pre-paid SIM card for a mobile phone in the deep south will have to have their fingerprints verified and face scanned to stop insurgents from using them to trigger bombs.
(Reuters, 5/25/17)
2017 Jun 8, Thailand arrested a fugitive (38) on an international arrest warrant He was suspected of rapes that took place in several locations in Sweden on May 17-19.
(AP, 6/8/17)
2017 Jun 9, A military court in Thailand sentenced a salesman, identified as Wichai, to 35 years in prison for social media posts deemed defamatory to the monarchy, a punishment believed to be the longest ever handed down for the offense of lese majeste. The sentence was halved from 70 years because he had pleaded guilty.
(AP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 11, Thai police arrested three Chinese men for operating a "click farm," using hundreds of cellphones and several hundred thousand SIM cards to run up "likes" and views on WeChat, a Chinese social media mobile application.
(AP, 6/13/17)
2017 Jun 12, Thai police displayed more than 1 million methamphetamine tablets seized this month, as trade in the illicit drug shows little sign of abating.
(AP, 6/12/17)
2017 Jun 15, Thailand’s PM Prayuth Chan-ocha, head of the military government, used his special powers to cut through regulations and launch work on a much-delayed 179 billion baht ($5.27 billion) joint Thai-Chinese project for a new railway from Bangkok to the northeast.
(AP, 6/16/17)
2017 Jun 19, In southern Thailand a bomb planted in a dirt road killed six soldiers.
(AP, 6/19/17)
2017 Jun 22, Thailand's military-installed parliament passed a bill that allows the ruling junta to continue to impose its policies after it holds elections and officially relinquishes power.
(AP, 6/22/17)
2017 Jun 30, Thai customs officials they have seized 15 of 42 luxury cars that British authorities said were stolen and sent to Thailand.
(AP, 6/30/17)
2017 Jul 3, Thailand immigration officials said tens of thousands of migrant workers, most of them from Myanmar, have fled from Thailand in fear after new labor regulations adopted by the military government. About 60,000 workers left between June 23 and June 28, and the number has risen since.
(Reuters, 7/3/17)
2017 Jul 4, Thailand's junta delayed parts of a new labor law aimed at regulating the foreign workforce after the decree sparked panic and prompted more than 60,000 foreign workers to flee from the country.
(Reuters, 7/4/17)
2017 Jul 10, In southern Thailand a group of gunmen barged into the home of Worayuth Sanglhung, a village headman in Krabi province, and killed eight members of his family, including three children, by shooting them in the head. On July 16 police said local businessman Surikfad Bannopwongsakul, who had a dispute with Sanglhung, has been arrested along with seven others.
(AP, 7/11/17)(AP, 7/17/17)
2017 Jul 12, In Thailand Alexandre Cazes (25), the Canadian founder of dark web marketplace AlphaBay, died in a Bangkok jail.
(SFC, 7/21/17, p.C1)(Reuters, 7/24/17)
2017 Jul 17, In Thailand a law became effective that placed the Crown Property Bureau, essentially a holding company for the royal palace's assets, under King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun's direct control. This was the world's richest royal fortune, estimated to be worth more than $30 billion.
(AP, 7/17/17)(Econ., 10/17/20, p.19)
2017 Jul 18, Thai police said Wirapol Sukphol (aka Luang Pu Nenkham), a former Buddhist monk wanted on child sex charges, will be sent home from the United States to face trial.
(Reuters, 7/18/17)
2017 Jul 19, Thai army Lt. Gen. Manas Kongpaen was one of dozens of people found guilty in a major human trafficking trial that included 103 defendants accused of involvement in a modern-day slavery trade. Kongpan (61) was condemned to 27 years in prison for profiting from human trafficking, an extraordinarily rare conviction of a senior member of an army that dominates the kingdom.
(AP, 7/19/17)(AFP, 7/22/17)
2017 Jul 20, European and US authorities said they had shut down AlphaBay and Hansa Market and arrested their operators. AlphaBay, the largest so-called darknet market, was taken down in early July at the same time that authorities arrested Alexandre Cazes (25), a Canadian man living in Bangkok. Dutch police said they had taken control of Hansa market in June. Two men accused of operating Hansa were arrested in Germany.
(SFC, 7/21/17, p.C1)
2017 Jul 24, Thailand's military government began freeze the assets of former PM Yingluck Shinawatra in relation to a $1-billion fine it imposed in 2016 over her government's 2012-2013 rice buying scheme.
(Reuters, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 24, Thai police said they have arrested a gang of 44 people from China and Taiwan for running an elaborate phone scam that conned $3 million from scores of victims mainly in China.
(AFP, 7/24/17)
2017 Jul 24, Thai police said they have seized nearly $21 million worth of assets, from cars to cryptocurrency, belonging to Alexandre Cazes (5), the late founder of dark web marketplace AlphaBay, who died in a Bangkok jail on July 12.
(Reuters, 7/24/17)
2017 Aug 1, It was reported that the number of North Koreans slipping illegally into Thailand has surged in recent months. An immigration official said an average of 20 to 30 North Koreans arrive each week now in northern Thailand alone.
(Reuters, 8/1/17)
2017 Aug 3, Thailand’s interior ministry said floods have killed at least 23 people in the northeastern farming region.
(Reuters, 8/3/17)
2017 Aug 8, In Thailand journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk was charged with sedition and violation of the country’s computer law for online postings concerning politics.
(SFC, 8/9/17, p.A2)
2017 Aug 8, Germany’s wind power group Siemens Gamesa said it has installed Asia's tallest wind turbines, with a total height of 210 meters (230 yards), in Thailand.
(Reuters, 8/8/17)
2017 Aug 9, A Thai military court sentenced a man named Tara to 20 years in prison in the country's latest conviction on charges of insulting the monarchy.
(AP, 8/9/17)
2017 Aug 9, In Thailand reporter Nattaporn Weeranont of the Isra News Agency, who was looking into the assets of a brother of one of the top members of the country's military government, was arrested for trespassing.
(AP, 8/11/17)
2017 Aug 11, In Nepal seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal) agreed to conclude early a free trade accord, implement the Paris agreement on climate change and step up cooperation among their security agencies to combat terrorism.
(AP, 8/11/17)
2017 Aug 15, Thai student activist Jatupat Boonpattaraksa, also known as Pai, was jailed for two and a half years for posting on Facebook a BBC article deemed offensive to Thailand's king.
(Reuters, 8/15/17)
2017 Aug 16, In Thailand at least eight people, first arrested in May, were re-arrested and charged with insulting the monarchy for allegedly burning portraits of members of the royal family.
(AP, 8/17/17)
2017 Aug 17, Thai law enforcement officials arrested Kim South Korean Hyoung-joon, suspected of involvement in trafficking of Thai women into South Korea's sex industry.
(AP, 8/18/17)
2017 Aug 25, Thailand authorities searched for Yingluck Shinawatra, the prime minister whose government he ousted in a coup three years ago, after she failed to appear for a verdict in a criminal case that could send her to prison for 10 years. Thailand’s Supreme Court imposed a 42-year sentence on Yingluck’s former commerce minister for offences related to those that she was alleged to have committed.
(AP, 8/25/17)(Econ, 9/2/17, p.33)
2017 Aug 29, In Thailand the political party of former PM Yingluck Shinawatra, who fled into exile last week, said it would overcome the obstacles it faces and was committed to democracy and working for the good of the people.
(Reuters, 8/29/17)
2017 Sep 1, Thailand's government announced $2.2 billion in loans and handouts to help stabilize prices for rice farmers, a politically influential group whose heartland is in regions where opposition to the military junta is strongest.
(Reuters, 9/1/17)
2017 Sep 1, It was reported that Thailand's prestigious Chulalongkorn University has removed the head of its student council, a vocal critic of military rule, after he was accused of disrupting a royalist initiation ceremony. But Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal (20) and the student council said they refused to accept the university order against him and four other members, and would appeal against the decision.
(Reuters, 9/1/17)
2017 Sep 11, In Thailand a group of villagers won a 10-year lawsuit against a mining company for polluting their land and water. Lead Concentrates Co. was ordered to pay 36 million baht ($1.1 million) in compensation by the Supreme Court, but its representatives did not even show up for the court's verdict.
(AP, 9/12/17)
2017 Sep 14, In southern Thailand a soldier and a policeman were killed and 26 other people wounded by two bombs believed to have been set off by Muslim separatists in Yala province.
(AP, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 20, Thai authorities detained Buddhist monk Apichart Punnajanto for posting online videos that harshly denounce Islam.
(AP, 9/20/17)
2017 Sep 21, In Thailand thirteen activists of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) were ordered to pay a total of $16 million in compensation for shutting down Bangkok's two main international airports during protests in 2008.
(Reuters, 9/21/17)
2017 Sep 27, A Thai court sentenced former PM Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government was ousted in a 2014 military coup, in absentia to five years in prison for alleged negligence in a money-losing rice subsidy program.
(AP, 9/27/17)
2017 Sep 28, A Cambodian court sentenced British man Toby James Nelhams, suspected of involvement in the Jan 24 gangland-style slaying of Briton Tony Kenway in the Thai resort town of Pattaya, to eight months in prison for fraud. The whereabouts of two other suspects were unknown.
(AP, 9/28/17)
2017 Oct 2, Shares worth over $500 million in Thailand's Siam Commercial Bank were transferred on behalf of King Maha Vajiralongkorn from the Crown Property Bureau, which manages palace assets. The ultimate beneficiary of the shares was not identified.
(Reuters, 10/6/17)
2017 Oct 10, Thai authorities arrested two Chinese citizens suspected of smuggling rhinoceros horns worth about $300,000 through Bangkok's main airport.
(AP, 10/11/17)
2017 Oct 25, Thailand marked the start of a lavish, five-day funeral for King Bhumibol Adulyadej with a Buddhist religious ceremony attended by senior members of its royal family.
(Reuters, 10/25/17)
2017 Nov 10, In Thailand Distorn Vajarodaya, a senior official in the Royal Household Bureau, was sacked for "evil acts" including having an extramarital affair and forcing his alleged mistress to get an abortion.
(AFP, 11/11/17)
2017 Nov 29, In Thailand Surin Pitsuwan (68), former Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretary-General (2008-2012), died in Bangkok of a heart attack.
(AP, 11/30/17)
2017 Dec 7, A Thai court issued arrest warrants against five people over the discovery of a cache of weapons, including figures with links to the "Red Shirt" followers of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Police believed the weapons were hidden during the instability that led up to a coup in 2014.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 11, The European Union said it will resume political contact "at all levels" with Thailand, after putting relations on hold following a 2014 coup by the Thai military.
(Reuters, 12/11/17)
2018 Jan 10, Cambodian PM Hun Sen and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang were joined by leaders from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar over development in the Mekong subregion. The leaders agreed in a joint statement to enhance connectivity between their countries to accelerate industrialization, urbanization, trade and financial integration. They also called for greater cooperation in managing and utilizing water resources.
(AP, 1/10/18)
2018 Jan 10, Thailand police arrested Shigeharu Shirai (74) in a province north of Bangkok where he has been hiding for over 10 years to evade murder charges in Japan in connection with the death of a rival gang member. The fugitive was recognized when photos of his full-body tattoos were circulated online.
(AP, 1/11/18)
2018 Jan 19, Thailand police arrested Boonchai Bach, a 40-year-old Thai of Vietnamese descent, in the northeastern border province of Nakhon Phanom in connection with the with smuggling of 14 rhino horns worth over $1 million from Africa into Thailand last month. He had allegedly fueled much of Asia's illegal trade for over a decade.
(AP, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 20, In Thailand hundreds of police blocked protestors planning to march from Bangkok to Khon Kaen in the northeast of the country in a rare display of public discontent in the junta-ruled country.
(Reuters, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 21, In Myanmar thousands of Buddhist monks gathered in Mandalay for an event partly organized by a scandal-hit Thai temple whose abbot is wanted for questioning on money-laundering allegations. Mandalay is home to the monk Wirathu, the self-styled "Buddhist bin Laden" famous for his anti-Islamic sermons, but there was no sign that he attended the mass alms-giving.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 28, In Thailand student activist Chanoknan Ruamsap became the latest political dissident to flee Thailand, explaining on her Facebook page that she made a snap decision to leave after learning she had been charged with insulting the monarchy because she shared a BBC article about the country's new king.
(AP, 1/29/18)
2018 Jan 30, It was reported that Thailand's ruling military junta has filed charges against seven democracy activists for calling for elections and an end to military rule.
(AP, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan, In Thailand street artist Headache Stencil, whose nickname alludes to the pain he hopes to inflict on the mighty, catapulted to fame with a piece skewering junta number two Prawit Wongsuwan, who was struggling to explain his collection of undeclared luxury watches.
(AFP, 9/24/18)
2018 Feb 2, Thailand police arrested Russian national Sergey Medvedev in Bangkok. On Feb. 7 a US indictment accused him of running an online cybercrime marketplace where everything from stolen credit card information to hardware for compromising ATM machines could be purchased. The Infraud Organization's main servers were seized in Paris on February 6.
(AP, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 4, Thai police arrested construction tycoon Premchai Karnasuta and three others for poaching in a protected wildlife sanctuary. Photos of hunting equipment and animal carcasses including a black leopard soon circulated on social media.
(AFP, 2/6/18)
2018 Feb 5, Thailand’s former national police Commissioner Somyot Pumpanmuang acknowledged he borrowed $9.5 million from brothel owner Kampol Wirathepsuporn, who is wanted on human trafficking charges.
(AP, 2/6/18)
2018 Feb 8, Thailand’s Pollution Control Department said that concentrations in Bangkok of tiny particles known as PM 2.5, a benchmark measure of air quality, were almost double the levels considered safe.
(AP, 2/8/18)
2018 Feb 8, Nearly three dozen Thai democracy activists turned themselves in to police after being summoned in connection with a protest calling for the ruling military government to step down and relinquish power through elections. All were released the same day.
(AP, 2/8/18)
2018 Feb 9, A Thai court issued arrest warrants for four pro-democracy activists for staging a public protest amid growing pressure on the junta to hold elections as promised.
(Reuters, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 9, Cambodia arrested a woman, Sam Sokha, after she was repatriated from Thailand, where the UN refugee agency reportedly had formally recognized her as a refugee. She had thrown a shoe at a billboard depicting PM Hun Sen.
(AP, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 10, In Thailand around four hundred people gathered at a monument to democracy in Bangkok to urge the military government not to delay a national election planned later this year, in one of the biggest anti-junta demonstrations since the military took power in 2014.
(AP, 2/10/18)
2018 Feb 13, In Thailand garbage collectors found four fetuses in the trash in Hua Hin, a popular resort town.
(AP, 2/14/18)
2018 Feb 16, Thailand awarded Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar's army chief, a royal decoration amid allegations of crimes by Myanmar security forces against Rohingya Muslims that have prompted international condemnation.
(Reuters, 2/16/18)
2018 Feb 20, A Thai court granted sole custody of 13 surrogate children to Mitsutoki Shigeta (28) of Japan. He is the son of the founder of Japanese telecom and insurance company Hikari Tsushin and, as a major shareholder, earns millions of dollars a year in dividends.
(AP, 2/21/18)
2018 Feb 24, In Los Angeles Thai dynamo Srisaket Sor Rungvisai retained his World Boxing Council title by beating challenger Juan Estrada, holding on in the later rounds to come out with a close majority decision.
(AFP, 2/24/18)
2018 Feb 26, Thai police arrested a group of 10 Russians who were running a sex training class for their compatriots in the seaside town of Pattaya, and have charged them with working in Thailand without permission.
(Reuters, 2/26/18)
2018 Feb 28, In Thailand Anastasia Vashukevich, a Belarusian woman jailed for offering sex lessons without a work permit, said she has a story to tell involving the Kremlin, Russian billionaires and even the president of the United States.
(AP, 3/1/18)
2018 Mar 8, It was reported that a new law, published last week, makes criticism of Thailand’s Constitutional Court punishable by imprisonment, giving extra protection to a body that in recent years has made controversial rulings altering the shape of governments.
(AP, 3/8/18)
2018 Mar 10, In Thailand some 500 hundred pro-democracy supporters rallied in Bangkok to skewer the ruling junta with T-shirts, signs and speeches, as activists grow bolder in their defiance of a ban on protests.
(AFP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 13, Thailand's cabinet agreed to draft a law to oversee cryptocurrency trading, seeking to tax the largely unregulated market. The Ministry of Finance also proposed the new regulations to help prevent use of digital currencies in money laundering and fraud.
(AP, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 20, A Thai court handed a life sentence to Laotian drug kingpin Xaysana Keopimpha, who was notorious for a high-flying lifestyle and alleged social connections to celebrities and other VIPs.
(AP, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 21, In northeastern Thailand a chartered tour bus lost control on a downhill curve and slid off the side of the road, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens more.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 28, Thailand authorities ordered the temporary closing of the beach made famous by the Leonardo DiCaprio movie "The Beach" to halt environmental damage caused by too many tourists. Maya Bay, on Phi Phi Leh island in the Andaman Sea, will be closed to all visitors for four months annually starting this June to allow for the recovery of the island's battered coral reefs and sea life.
(AP, 3/28/18)
2018 Mar 30, In western Thailand a fire on a double-decker bus carrying migrant workers from Myanmar killed 20 people early today in Tak province.
(AP, 3/30/18)(SFC, 3/31/18, p.A4)
2018 Mar 31, In Vietnam the leaders of six countries along the Mekong River adopted an ambitious investment plan worth $66 billion over the next five years. The summit included the prime ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as a vice president of Myanmar and the Chinese foreign minister.
(AP, 3/31/18)
2018 Apr 2, Police in Thailand confiscated an estimated $54 million worth of methamphetamine in one of their biggest-ever drug seizures and arrested 11 people in recent days as illegal drug cases surge in the country.
(AP, 4/3/18)
2018 Apr 2, A rights group said farmers from Cambodia have filed a lawsuit in a Thai civil court against Mitr Phol, Asia's largest sugar producer, accusing it of rights abuses after it allegedly kicked farmers off their land.
(Reuters, 4/2/18)
2018 Apr 10, Thailand police shot and killed two suspected Muslim insurgents who ambushed a police unit in the southern province of Pattani, a day after bombs in a neighboring province injured 12 people.
(AP, 4/10/18)
2018 Apr 11, Police in Thailand confirmed that new charges have been filed against a self-described Russian sex guru and a woman who claims to have evidence of Russian ties to President Donald Trump's election campaign. Anastasia Vashukevich, also known as Nastya Rybka, has attracted widespread attention for claiming to have recordings of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a crony of President Vladimir Putin, discussing interference in the US election.
(AP, 4/11/18)
2018 Apr 17, In Thailand a Russian sex guru and his followers, one of whom claims to have evidence of Moscow's interference in the 2016 US presidential election, were acquitted by a court on charges of violating labor laws. They still faced more serious charges that could land them in prison for more than 10 years.
(AP, 4/17/18)
2018 Apr 19, In Thailand Jack Ma, the founder of China-based Alibaba, met with PM Prayuth Chan-ocha, and later signed several agreements, including one to help set up a "smart digital hub" in a showcase project called the Eastern Economic Corridor, to facilitate trade between Thailand, China, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.
(AP, 4/19/18)
2018 Apr 27, Thailand deported Sam Serey, the leader of a Cambodian anti-government group. He was at risk of being extradited to his homeland for imprisonment but said he is safely back in Denmark, where he has had political asylum for seven years.
(AP, 4/27/18)
2018 Apr 29, In Thailand over a thousand people gathered in the northern city of Chiang Mai to protest against the building of a government luxury housing project on forested land, in one of the largest demonstrations under military rule.
(Reuters, 4/29/18)
2018 Apr 30, In Thailand Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, a labor activist and editor of a political magazine, was released from prison and said he will join public demonstrations to call for elections and an end to military rule. He was detained in 2011 and convicted of insulting Thailand's monarchy.
(AP, 4/30/18)
2018 Apr 30, A court in southern Thailand sentenced six men to death for several bombings in 2016 that killed two people and wounded more than 20.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 5, In Thailand pro-democracy activists protesting in Bangkok said that they will march on the country's seat of power later this month to demand that an election be held this year.
(AP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 6, Thailand environmental activists in the northern city of Chiang Mai claimed victory after the country's military government agreed in talks not to use forested land to develop luxury property.
(Reuters, 5/6/18)
2018 May 11, It was reported that a court in Thailand has sentenced Boonchai Bach (41), believed to be a kingpin in the illicit wildlife trade, to 2 ½ years in prison for smuggling rhinoceros horns.
(AP, 5/11/18)
2018 May 13 Thailand's anti-government People's Movement for a Just Society (P-Move), vowed to resume its protests unless the ruling junta keeps the promises it made in return for the group agreeing to end more than a week of demonstrations ahead of a coup anniversary later this month.
(Reuters, 5/13/18)
2018 May 20, In Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents set off small bombs at about two dozen locations in the country's deep south, wounding two women.
(AP, 5/21/18)
2018 May 22, Thailand police in Bangkok blocked a march by pro-democracy activists protesting four years of military rule and demanding early elections. Eight pro-democracy protest leaders surrendered to police after police blocked the march on the anniversary of the 2014 coup.
(AP, 5/22/18)(Reuters, 5/22/18)
2018 May 24, Thai police raided four Buddhist temples, arresting several prominent monks and worshippers in the year's biggest such operation amid a crackdown on illegal financial dealings by temples.
(Reuters, 5/24/18)
2018 May 31, A Thai appeals court vindicated British labor rights activist Andy Hall. He has been entangled in a years-long legal confrontation with a fruit-packing company after he publicized alleged human rights violations at its factory in 2013.
(AP, 5/31/18)
2018 Jun 1, A small pilot whale died in southern Thailand after an attempted rescue failed to nurse the mammal back to health. An autopsy revealed 80 plastic bags weighing up to eight kg (18 pounds) in the creature's stomach. It was reported that least 300 marine animals including pilot whales, sea turtles and dolphins perish each year in Thai waters after ingesting plastic.
(AFP, 6/2/18)
2018 Jun 15, Roger Thomas Clark (56), a Canadian man who federal authorities say earned hundreds of thousands of dollars working for the notorious "Silk Road" drug-dealing website, arrived in New York after being extradited from Thailand. He faced an indictment charging him with playing a key role in the website by advising its founder, Ross Ulbricht.
(AP, 6/15/18)
2018 Jun 16, It was reported that the official agency that had managed the vast wealth of Thailand's royal family has announced that its assets have formally been turned over to King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, who assumed the throne after the death of his father in 2016.
(AP, 6/16/18)
2018 Jun 23, In Thailand 12 boys, aged 11-15, and their coach, entered the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai province late today and were apparently trapped when a heavy rainstorm flooded a stream at the cave's entrance.
(AP, 6/24/18)
2018 Jun 27, A Thai court sentenced human rights lawyer Prawet Prapanukul to 16 months in prison, finding him guilty of sedition for material he posted online but dropping charges of royal defamation.
(AP, 6/27/18)
2018 Jun 28, In Thailand two British divers discovered four rescuers from the Thai Well Water Association trapped for three days by rising waters. They had spent two days draining water from the cave in an attempt to help the rescue of the trapped soccer team.
(AP, 9/26/18)
2018 Jul 2, Thai navy SEALS and two British volunteer divers helped find the "wild Boar" soccer team on an elevated rock after struggling for hours through narrow passages and murky waters. 12 boys and their 25-year-old coach went missing on June 23, after they set out to explore the caves in a forest park following a training session.
(Reuters, 7/3/18)(AFP, 7/3/18)
2018 Jul 5, In southern Thailand two boats carrying more than 130 tourists overturned in rough seas off the island of Phuket. 93 of the passengers Chinese tourists. The sinking of the double-decker tour boat Phoenix left 45 Chinese tourists dead and two missing.in Thailand's biggest tourist-related disaster in years. Everyone from the smaller second boat, the Serenata, was rescued. The last body from the Phoenix was recovered on July 15 putting the final death toll at 47.
(AP, 7/5/18)(AP, 7/6/18)(AP, 7/8/18)(AP, 7/10/18)(AFP, 7/16/18)
2018 Jul 6, In Thailand Petty Officer 1st Class Saman Gunan, a former member of the Thai navy's elite SEAL unit, became the first casualty of the massive rescue effort during an underwater swim in a partly flooded cave. He had volunteered to help his old comrades in their risky mission to evacuate a dozen boys and their soccer coach.
(AP, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 8, In Thailand rescue operations began for the 12 Thai schoolboys and their coach from a flooded cave as divers launched a daring and dangerous mission to free the children and their soccer coach who have been trapped underground for more than two weeks.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 9, In Thailand four more boys were brought out of a flooded cave by divers bringing to eight the number extracted in the ongoing high-stakes rescue operation. Four boys and their coach remained inside the labyrinth cave.
(AP, 7/9/18)
2018 Jul 9, In Thailand new information showed there were 89 tourists, 87 of them Chinese, on the boat that sank off island of Phuket on July 5, instead of the previous figure of 93. Five people reported to have been missing were reported alive.
(AP, 7/9/18)
2018 Jul 10, In Thailand rescuers freed the last four of 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach from the flooded Tham Luang Nang Non cave, ending a mission that gripped the world for 18 days.
(Reuters, 7/10/18)(AP, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 28, In northern Thailand landslides, triggered by days of heavy downpours, killed seven people and left one missing.
(Reuters, 7/28/18)
2018 Jul 31, Thailand's PM Prayuth Chan-ocha said Britain has been asked to extradite former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, overthrown in a coup in 2014 and sentenced in absentia to jail for negligence.
(Reuters, 7/31/18)
2018 Aug 8, Thailand granted citizenship to three young soccer players who were trapped with other team members for almost three weeks in a cave in northern Thailand along with their 25-year-old coach. All four had been stateless, and their lack of citizenship deprived them of some basic benefits and rights, including the ability to travel outside of Chiang Rai, the northern province where they live.
(AP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 9, In Thailand former Buddhist monk Wirapol Sukphol, infamous for a jet-set lifestyle, was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison in connection with funds he fraudulently raised from followers.
(AP, 8/9/18)
2018 Aug 16, A Thailand environment ministry official said imports of 432 types of scrap electronics will be banned within six months. Southeast Asia nations fear they are the new dumping ground for the world's trash after China banned the entry of several types of waste as part of a campaign against "foreign garbage".
(Reuters, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 28, Thailand's military junta announced it will ease some restrictions on political parties to let them conduct basic functions and prepare for elections set for early next year, but campaigning will still be forbidden.
(AP, 8/28/18)
2018 Aug 28, In Thailand more than 160 asylum seekers from hill tribe ethnic minorities in Vietnam and Cambodia were rounded up in a northern suburb of Bangkok and charged with immigration law violations.
(AP, 8/30/18)
2018 Aug 30, In Nepal a two-day summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation began in Kathmandu. Leaders of seven South and Southeast Asian nations (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand) met to discuss regional trade, economic cooperation, security and peace.
(AP, 8/30/18)
2018 Sep 6, It was reported that police in Thailand have arrested 12 people who shared a Facebook post about a British tourist's allegation that police had refused to accept her rape complaint on the island of Koh Tao in June.
(AP, 9/6/18)
2018 Sep 7, Speaking in Thailand on the sidelines of a six-day climate conference Amjad Abdulla, the head negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), warned that island nations like Fiji and the Maldives are almost at the "point of no return" because of rising sea levels.
(AFP, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 9, In Thailand a six-day international meeting in Bangkok fell short of its aim of completing fruitful preparations to help an agreement be reached in December on guidelines for implementing the 2015 Paris climate change agreement. A top UN official said good progress was made on drafting a 'rule book' for the implementation of the 2015 Paris accord before a summit in Poland this December.
(AP, 9/9/18)(Reuters, 9/9/18)
2018 Sep 10, Police in Thailand shut down a forum organized by foreign journalists to discuss whether senior military officers in Myanmar should face justice for alleged human rights abuses committed by their forces against Rohingya Muslims and other ethnic minorities.
(AP, 9/10/18)
2018 Sep 10, A wildlife monitoring group says research it has conducted since 2016 has found a sharp increase in the number of people belonging to Facebook groups in Thailand where endangered animals are bought and sold.
(AP, 9/10/18)
2018 Sep 11, The legal aid group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said Thailand's military government has arrested alleged sympathizers of a tiny political movement advocating the abolishment of the constitutional monarchy, seizing as evidence T-shirts bearing the group's logo of a red and white flag. At least five people have been detained in the past week and four charged with sedition.
(AP, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 12, Thailand enacted laws that set in motion a countdown leading to new elections by next May.
(AP, 9/13/18)
2018 Sep 13, Thailand police seized 917 kg (2,020 pounds) of marijuana and arrested six people.
(AP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 14, In Thailand a special order issued by the prime minister became law following its publication in the Royal Gazette. It allows political parties to gather funds to operate and, with the ruling junta's permission, recruit party members and choose new leaders.
(AP, 9/14/18)
2018 Sep 14, The US government imposed sanctions on a Thailand-based company it says provides services to an Iranian airline that Washington accuses of supporting terrorist activities directed by Iran's government.
(AP, 9/14/18)
2018 Sep 15, In Thailand police arrested three people and charged them with possession of 2,060 grams (73 ounces) of crystal methamphetamine bought from a gang of Africans in Thailand.
(AP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 16, In northern Thailand a landslide at a refugee camp left one person dead and seven missing at the Mae La Oon refugee camp, which houses about 9,000 people, mostly members of the Karen ethnic minority from Myanmar.
(AP, 9/17/18)
2018 Sep 16, Thai police discovered 10 million methamphetamine pills and 37 kg (81 pounds) of heroin hidden under sacks of chicken manure.
(AP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 19, In southern Thailand suspected insurgents killed one person and wounded four others in a roadside ambush in Yala province. Police suspected the assault was carried out by Muslim separatists.
(AP, 9/20/18)
2018 Sep 25, Police in northern Thailand said they have discovered the buried bodies of a missing British expatriate and his Thai wife, and have arrested the woman's brother for allegedly ordering their murder. The dead couple, who had been together for 30 years, had been dead for about a week.
(AP, 9/25/18)
2018 Sep 25, Thai police handed over around 100 kg (220 pounds) of seized marijuana for medical research, as officials seek to produce pot-based medication.
(AP, 9/25/18)
2018 Sep 25, A Thai court convicted nine young Muslim men from southern Thailand of planning to set off a car bomb in the capital, in a case in which many of the defendants said they were tortured into making false confessions.
(AP, 9/25/18)
2018 Sep 26, A court in Thailand gave a second life sentence to Xaysana Keophimpha, a drug kingpin from Laos, whose social connections to various celebrities were exposed by his arrest.
(AP, 9/26/18)
2018 Sep 27, A court in Thailand convicted a local businessman of fraud for selling fake bomb detectors to the Thai government, five years after a court in the United Kingdom sentenced the British head of the company that supplied them to seven years in prison in a scandal that was worldwide in scale.
(AP, 9/27/18)
2018 Sep 28, In Thailand General Apirat Kongsompong (58) took command as the new chief of the army. The royalist general will oversee a return to barracks to make way for a civilian government after nearly five years of military rule.
(Reuters, 9/28/18)
2018 Sep 29, In Thailand 4 ministers from the military government launched a new political party, amid speculation they will back PM Prayuth Chan-ocha to remain in power beyond a general election promised by May. The Palang Pracharat party will be led by Industry Minister Uttama Savanayana, who vowed to help Thailand overcome its political divide.
(Reuters, 9/29/18)
2018 Oct 7, In Thailand suspected teenage gang members were involved in a shooting that killed a nearby Indian tourist and injured four others, two critically, outside a Bangkok shopping arcade.
(AP, 10/8/18)
2018 Oct 10, In Thailand Panthongtae Shinawatra, the son of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, was indicted on charges of laundering 10 million baht ($303,500) linked to a 2015 corruption case involving Krungthai Bank.
(AP, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 11, Thai authorities convicted 70 Pakistani asylum seekers of staying illegally in Thailand despite their protestations that they face persecution if they are sent home, as police intensified a crackdown on illegal immigration.
(AP, 10/11/18)
2018 Oct 22, Thai rappers uploaded the song "Prathet Ku Mee" (Which is My Country), to YouTube. It soon racked up more than 6.4 million views and tens of thousands of comments since it went live on the platform, prompting authorities to take notice. The video features rappers from the Rap Against Dictatorship collective dishing out barbs about the military and blasting corruption, censorship and the lack of elections.
(AFP, 10/27/18)
2018 Oct 24, In Thailand Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad met with PM Prayuth Chan-ocha and discussed peace talks in Thailand's southern border provinces.
(AP, 10/24/18)
2018 Oct 27, In central England Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, a Thai tycoon and owner of the Leicester City soccer club, was among five people on board a helicopter that crashed and then exploded after a Premier League match. Vichai was the fifth-richest person in Thailand with an estimated net worth of $4.9 billion.
(Reuters, 10/28/18)
2018 Nov 7, Thailand's Supreme Court restored a 37-year prison term given to Vivat Yodprasert, convicted of shooting four people during 2014 political violence. He was dubbed the "Popcorn Gunman" because he opened fire with an assault rifle concealed in a sack with the word "POPCORN" emblazoned on it.
(AP, 11/7/18)
2018 Nov 7, Police in Thailand arrested Sgt. Maj. Jakkrit Khomsing (43), an HIV-infected soldier, who allegedly blackmailed and raped more than 70 teenage boys.
(AP, 11/8/18)
2018 Nov 10, In Thailand a 13-year-old boy was knocked out during a kickboxing match and died two days later from a brain hemorrhage. This was his 174th match in a career that began at age 8. His death sparked debate over whether to ban matches involving children. The death of Anucha Tasako came after a Muay Thai boxing match in the Bangkok suburb of Samut Prakarn.
(AP, 11/13/18)(AP, 11/19/18)
2018 Nov 17, Officials recovered a boat that sank in rough weather off Thailand's southern resort island of Phuket in July, killing 47 Chinese tourists. Two tour boats sank off Phuket on July 5.
(AP, 11/17/18)
2018 Nov 20, Thai police arrested British brothers Joseph Michael Mulhare and Gregory Michael Mulhare wanted on drug trafficking charges in their homeland.
(AP, 11/23/18)
2018 Nov 27, Thailand detained soccer player Hakeem al-Araibi, who held refugee status in Australia, upon his entry at Bangkok's airport on a holiday with his wife. He was held legally following a request from Bahrain's government. He had fled Bahrain four years ago.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Nov 28, In northeastern Thailand a man was killed by a wild elephant after his speeding car hit the animal near Khao Yai National Park.
(AP, 11/29/18)
2018 Dec 4, In Thailand Islam's guiding council introduced new regulations requiring that marriages of children under age 17 be approved by a religious committee.
(AP, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 7, Rath Rott Mony (47), a Cambodian labor activist, was arrested in Bangkok as he attempted to travel to the Netherlands with his family after helping produce a sex-trafficking documentary for the Russia Today channel in October. Cambodia has dismissed the documentary as fake.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 9, The Australian government called for Hakeem al-Araibi, an Australian-based refugee soccer player, to be immediately released from detention in Thailand.
(AP, 12/9/18)
2018 Dec 11, Thailand's military government lifted a ban on political activities it imposed when it seized power in a coup more than four years ago, an action taken in preparation for elections promised for early next year.
(AP, 12/11/18)
2018 Dec 11, A Thai court ruled that soccer player Hakeem al-Araibi, who holds refugee status in Australia, can be held for 60 days pending the completion of an extradition request by Bahrain. In 2014 Bahrain sentenced him in absentia to 10 years in prison for vandalizing a police station, a charge he denies.
(AP, 12/11/18)
2018 Dec 12, In Thailand a local policeman was arrested for allegedly shooting and killing Malik Djamel, a French man, at a shopping plaza in Bangkok. Police said Senior Sgt.-Maj. Kantapong Huadsri had confessed to killing the man over an argument involving a woman, but that the dispute was not a love triangle.
(AP, 12/12/18)
2018 Dec 17, In Thailand Catriona Gray (24) of the Philippines was named Miss Universe 2018 in the 67th competition held in Bangkok, besting contestants from 93 other countries
(AP, 12/17/18)
2018 Dec 17, In Thailand Sului Piew (2), a son of migrant workers from Myanmar, went missing when he went out to play near the sugarcane plantation where his parents work. A 3-year-old friend told her parents that she saw Sului being abducted. Piew's body was found on Dec. 25 in a sugarcane plantation a few miles from where he disappeared.
(AP, 12/24/18)(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 22, Human rights groups along with current and former soccer players on called on FIFA and the Australian government to intervene to stop the extradition of Hakeem al-Araibi, a Melbourne-based refugee and semi-professional soccer player, from Thailand to Bahrain.
(AP, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 25, Thailand's legislature agreed to amend the country's drug law to allow the licensed medical use of marijuana, as well as kratom, a locally grown plant traditionally used as a stimulant and painkiller. The changes become law when published in the Royal Gazette.
(AP, 12/25/18)
2018 Dec 25, In northern Thailand two South Korean tourists died after the golf cart they were riding fell into the Nan river.
(AP, 12/27/18)
2018 Dec 27, It was reported that Thailand investigators have found Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan, the deputy prime minister, innocent of failing to declare assets a year after he was discovered to have several luxury watches that would have been out of reach of his government salary.
(AP, 12/27/18)
2018 Dec 28, In southern Thailand four people in Narathiwat were wounded by one of several bombs suspected of being planted by the Muslim insurgents. There was a shootout between security forces and suspected insurgents who attacked a defense outpost at a small rural village.
(AP, 12/29/18)
2018 Dec 29, In southern Thailand violence presumed to have been carried out by Muslim separatists continued for the fourth day in a row, with three paramilitary soldiers wounded and a female civilian shot dead in Pattani province.
(AP, 12/29/18)
2019 Jan 1, Thailand police said Sucheep Sornsung (41) shot and killed six family members, including his two young children, before killing himself after a New Year's party in southern Chumphon province.
(Reuters, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 2, In Thailand tens of thousands of tourists fled popular islands and resort areas as Tropical Storm Pabuk closed in and threatened to batter the southern part of the kingdom with heavy rains, winds and seven-meter (22-foot) waves.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 4, In southern Thailand one person was reported dead and another missing as rain, wind and surging seawater as Tropical Storm Pabuk buffeted coastal villages and world-famous tourist resorts, knocking down trees and utility poles and flooding roads.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 6, In Thailand Rahaf Mohammed M Alqunun, a Saudi woman held at Bangkok airport, said she would be killed if she was repatriated by Thai immigration officials, who confirmed the 18-year-old was denied entry to the country.
(AFP, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 7, The head of Thailand's immigration police said that Saudi woman Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun (18), who was stopped in Bangkok as she was trying to travel to Australia for asylum to escape alleged abuse by her family, will not be sent anywhere against her wishes.
(AP, 1/7/19)
2019 Jan 8, In Thailand about 200 protesters staged a rare demonstration, demanding that there be no further delays in holding elections, which were expected next month but have been put in doubt.
(AP, 1/8/19)
2019 Jan 10, In southern Thailand four paramilitary volunteers were killed while guarding a school in Pattani province.
(AP, 1/10/19)
2019 Jan 11, Thailand's immigration police chief said Saudi woman Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, who fled alleged abuse by her family, will leave Bangkok for Canada.
(AP, 1/11/19)
2019 Jan 15, In Thailand Anastasia Vashukevich, a model from Belarus who claimed last year that she had evidence of Russian involvement in helping elect Donald Trump president, pleaded guilty in a court in Pattaya in a case related to holding a sex training seminar and will be deported. She and seven co-defendants were given suspended 18-month prison terms and fines.
(AP, 1/15/19)
2019 Jan 18, In southern Thailand gunmen presumed to be Muslim insurgents stormed a Buddhist temple in Narathiwat province, killing two monks and wounding two others.
(AP, 1/19/19)
2019 Jan 22, Thailand police said DNA tests show that two bodies found washed up on the shore of the Mekong River in the northeast are the corpses of anti-government activists. The two, known by the pseudonyms Puchana and Kasalong, were among three exiled activists who disappeared in December from homes in Laos, where they took shelter after fleeing Thailand.
(AP, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 30, In Thailand more than 400 schools in Bangkok were shut for the rest of the week due to increasing concern over dangerously unhealthy air pollution.
(AP, 1/30/19)
2019 Jan 31, In Thailand a fleet of drones, trucks and small planes sprayed water to try to reduce air pollution around Bangkok while the city's governor invited critics to brainstorm better ideas to improve the air quality in the capital.
(AP, 1/31/19)
2019 Feb 6, Thailand's government insisted it cannot free detained soccer player Hakeem al-Araibi, who has refugee status in Australia, until hearings on Bahrain's request for his extradition are completed.
(AP, 2/6/19)
2019 Feb 8, Thailand Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi (67) shocked the nation when she announced she would be the sole prime ministerial candidate for the party, which is loyal to ousted ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra. King Maha Vajiralongkorn called her announcement inappropriate" and unconstitutional. She lost her special royal titles more than four decades ago when she married a commoner, an American, but is still called and widely regarded as a princess.
(Reuters, 2/8/19)(AP, 2/8/19)
2019 Feb 9, The Thai Raksa Chart Party swore loyalty to the king a day after its stunning decision to nominate the monarch's sister as its candidate for prime minister backfired when the king called the move inappropriate and unconstitutional.
(AP, 2/9/19)
2019 Feb 11, A Thai court ordered the release of refugee soccer player Hakeem al-Araibi after prosecutors said they were no longer seeking his extradition to Bahrain in a case that had drawn worldwide attention.
(AP, 2/11/19)
2019 Feb 12, Thailand's telecoms regulator suspended the operating license of a television channel linked to ousted former PM Thaksin Shinawatra weeks ahead of a general election, citing national security concerns.
(Reuters, 2/12/19)
2019 Feb 13, Thailand's Election Commission said it recommended the Thai Raksa Chart Party be dissolved because its prime minister candidate was "in conflict with the system of rule of democracy with king as head of state".
(AP, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 15, In Thailand the Pheu Thai, the flagship party of the political machine of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, held its first rally in Bangkok, as campaigning heats up for the first election since a 2014 military coup.
(AP, 2/15/19)
2019 Feb 20, A Thai court ruled that Dmitry Ukrainsky, a Russian man who allegedly was part of a gang that stole millions of dollars online from bank accounts, can be extradited to the United States to stand trial. However, Ukrainsky's extradition to Russia was previously approved last year by a Thai court after he agreed to return there after he finishes serving a 10-year, 8-month prison term in Thailand for fraud, money laundering and conducting business illegally as a foreigner.
(AP, 2/20/19)
2019 Feb 26, In southern Thailand two police officers were abducted and later found dead in a ditch in Narathiwat province, with the pickup truck of one of the officers stolen and set on fire.
(AP, 2/27/19)
2019 Feb 28, Thailand's legislature passed a cybersecurity bill that would allow authorities access to people's personal information without a court order.
(AP, 2/28/19)
2019 Mar 7, A court in Thailand ordered the dissolution of the Thai Raksa Chart Party ahead of this month's general election because it nominated a member of the royal family to be its candidate for prime minister.
(AP, 3/7/19)
2019 Mar 24, Thailand held its first election since a 2014 military coup. Preliminary results indicated that Thailand's military-backed party won the most votes in the country's first election since a 2014 coup.
(AP, 3/24/19)(AP, 3/25/19)
2019 Mar 27, In Thailand the leader of the Pheu Thai party, which headed the last elected government, and the leaders of five other parties held a news conference to say they believed they had won more than 250 seats in the 500-seat lower house.
(AP, 3/27/19)
2019 Mar 29, Thailand's Election Commission, facing widespread criticism for inconsistent and delayed vote totals from the March 24 general election, said computer software was partly to blame.
(AP, 3/29/19)
2019 Mar 30, Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn revoked royal decorations that had been awarded to ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a document published in the royal gazette. The royal command was for Thaksin's 2008 corruption conviction and for fleeing the country to escape a two-year prison sentence.
(AP, 3/30/19)
2019 Mar 31, Thai demonstrators protested against alleged cheating in the junta-ruled kingdom's first election since a 2014 coup, a week after the controversial poll sowed confusion over the ballot results.
(AFP, 3/31/19)
2019 Apr 2, The air hanging over Thailand's far north has become so polluted, PM Prayuth Chan-ocha went to see in person what is being called a severe health crisis.
(AP, 4/2/19)
2019 Apr 3, Thailand's ruling military junta filed a complaint accusing Thanathorn Juangroongruangki, the leader of the new Future Forward political party, of sedition and aiding criminals. He described the move as politically motivated.
(AP, 4/3/19)
2019 Apr 5, Thailand election officials said that 66 winning candidates in last month's elections face possible disqualification because of complaints filed against them.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 5, In southern Thailand two Border Patrol Police officers were killed while praying in a mosque in the latest violence believed linked to a Muslim separatist insurgency.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 6, In Thailand Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the leader of a popular new political party that ran a strong third in last month's general election, was formally charged with sedition and expressed concern that he is to be tried in a military court. 13 foreign diplomats were present at a Bangkok police station where Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, leader of a popular new political party, acknowledged charges of sedition and other crimes. Thanathorn says the charges are politically motivated.
(AP, 4/6/19)(AP, 4/10/19)
2019 Apr 10, In Thailand a fire broke out at one of Bangkok's biggest mall complexes, killing at least two people and injuring more than a dozen.
(AP, 4/10/19)
2019 Apr 18, Thai authorities raided a floating home in the Andaman Sea belonging to an American man and his Thai partner who sought to be pioneers in the "seasteading" movement, which promotes living in international waters to be free of any nation's laws. Thailand's navy said Chad Elwartowski and Supranee Thepdet endangered national sovereignty.
(AP, 4/18/19)
2019 Apr 19, In Thailand a three-day festival began in Buriram town, the latest showcase for the use of cannabis for pain relief. Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize marijuana for medical purposes last year.
(AP, 4/20/19)
2019 Apr 20, The Thai navy boarded the floating cabin of a fugitive US citizen and his Thai girlfriend, both prominent members of the "seasteading" movement who possibly face the death sentence for setting up their offshore home. Thai authorities said the structure is in its 200-mile exclusive economic zone and therefore a violation of its sovereignty.
(Reuters, 4/20/19)
2019 Apr 22, The leaders of Cambodia and Thailand met at the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet to mark the ceremonial reopening of a rail link that will restore train service between the two countries after more than four decades.
(AP, 4/22/19)
2019 May 1, In Thailand an announcement in the Royal Gazette said Suthida Vajiralongkorn Na Ayudhya (40) is legally married to King Maha Vajiralongkorn (66), and is now Queen Suthida.
(AP, 5/1/19)
2019 May 4, Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn (66) completed Buddhist and Brahmin rituals to symbolically transform him into a living god as the Southeast Asian nation crowned its first monarch in nearly seven decades.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 7, Thailand's Election Commission officially endorsed the results from the country's March 24 general election, declaring that the Pheu Thai Party associated with fugitive former PM Thaksin Shinawatra topped the field by winning 136 constituencies. The commission said the rival military-backed Palang Pracharath Party trailed it with 97 seats.
(AP, 5/07/19)
2019 May 8, Thailand's Election Commission allocated the 150 party list seats in the 500-member House of Representatives under a formula related to the proportion of each party's nationwide popular vote total. Twenty-six parties were granted seats, 14 of them one apiece.
(AP, 5/08/19)
2019 May 10, In Thailand student activist Jatupat Boonpattararaksa, also known as Pai Dao Din, who was arrested in Dec. 2016 for sharing a BBC article about Thailand's king on Facebook, was released under a royal pardon. He had been due to complete his sentence on June 19.
(AP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 10, Human Rights Watch said three Thai activists facing charges of insulting the monarchy have disappeared after reportedly being arrested in Vietnam. Chucheep Chiwasut, who broadcasts political commentary to Thailand from exile, and fellow activists Siam Theerawut and Kritsana Thapthai were reportedly turned over to Thai authorities by Vietnam on May 8.
(Reuters, 5/10/19)
2019 May 16, Thailand's Election Commission recommended that Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the leader of major political party opposed to military rule, be barred from taking his seat in the soon-to-be-convened parliament because he is accused of violating electoral rules.
(AP, 5/16/19)
2019 May 22, An appeals court in Thailand upheld a 10 million baht ($313,000) judgment against British activist Andy Hall, who was sued by a fruit canning company whose workers complained of alleged labor abuses. The case was one of several stemming from a 2013 report Hall researched for Finnish consumer organization Finnwatch that included allegations by migrant workers from Myanmar at Natural Fruit's canning operation that the company abused them and broke labor regulations.
(AP, 5/22/19)
2019 May 23, A Thai court blocked the leader of a new anti-junta political party from taking his seat in Parliament while it determines whether he violated election rules. Future Forward Party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, was accused of breaking electoral law by holding shares in a media company.
(AP, 5/23/19)
2019 May 23, International police group Interpol said that nine people had been arrested in Thailand, Australia and the US and 50 children had been rescued after investigators took down an online pedophilia ring.
(AFP, 5/23/19)
2019 May 26, Former Thailand PM Prem Tinsulanonda (98) died in Bangkok. He as an army commander, prime minister (1980-1988) and adviser (1998-2019) to the royal palace and was one of Thailand's most influential political figures over four decades.
(AP, 5/26/19)
2019 May 31, In Thailand three Thai men were found guilty of murdering British expat Alan Hogg and his wife Nhot Suddaen last September, and were sentenced to death.
(AP, 5/31/19)
2019 Jun 5, Thailand's Parliament convened for a vote that is expected to keep Prayuth Chan-ocha as prime minister five years after he seized power in a military coup.
(AP, 6/5/19)
2019 Jun 6, A Thai court sentenced former PM Thaksin Shinawatra in absentia to two years in prison over his handling of a state lottery program he initiated while in office more than a decade ago.
(AP, 6/6/19)
2019 Jun 11, Thailand's junta leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha was officially proclaimed prime minister after the king endorsed Parliament's vote for him to serve another term.
(AP, 6/11/19)
2019 Jun 11, Thai construction tycoon Premchai Karnasuta was sentenced to an additional one year in prison for bribing a park ranger in relation to a high-profile case of poaching endangered animals in a wildlife sanctuary last year.
(AP, 6/11/19)
2019 Jun 11, Thai officials discovered 65 ethnic Rohingya Muslim refugees who were shipwrecked and stranded in southern Thailand.
(AP, 6/11/19)
2019 Jun 15, In Thailand Francesco Galdelli (58) and Vanja Goffi (45) were arrested at a house on the outskirts Pattaya after an operation between Thai and Italian authorities. Francesco confessed to claiming to be George Clooney and opening a clothes business to trick people into sending money. The couple is also wanted in Italy for multiple scams including selling fake Rolex watches online.
(AP, 6/16/19)
2019 Jun 23, Southeast Asian leaders meeting in Thailand pressed their call for self-restraint in the disputed South China Sea and renewed their alarm over the US-China trade war. ASEAN leaders agreed to work together on the region's economy and security to strengthen their position to face growing US-China tensions, as they wrapped up their summit in Bangkok.
(AP, 6/23/19)(Reuters, 6/23/19)
2019 Jun 26, A Thai court said it will allow 32 pro-military lawmakers to keep their seats while it decides whether they violated election rules by holding shares in media companies.
(AP, 6/26/19)
2019 Jun 27, The Serbian government decided to grant citizenship to Thailand's former PM Yingluck Shinawatra, citing a legal provision that "a foreign citizen can also be granted Serbian citizenship if that is in line with the country's interests".
(Reuters, 8/8/19)
2019 Jun 28, Thai activist Sirawith Seritiwat, who opposes the military's role in politics, was assaulted and left unconscious in the second attack on him this month.
(AP, 6/28/19)
2019 Jul 26, In Thailand new legislation published in the Royal Gazette exempted King Maha Vajiralongkorn from tax on some of his land property. The Thai king has been listed as the world's richest monarch. Business Insider estimated his personal wealth at more than $30 billion in 2018.
(Reuters, 7/28/19)
2019 Aug 2, Asia-Pacific foreign ministers meeting in Thailand called for the peaceful resolution to regional disputes at the close of an annual security meeting, which was eclipsed by the US-China rivalry and a deepening trade spat between Japan and South Korea.
(AP, 8/2/19)
2019 Aug 2, In Thailand six small bombs and six incendiary devices went off as the foreign ministers of Southeast Asian nations met in Bangkok, an event also attended by diplomats from China, the United States and other world powers.
(Reuters, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 7, Thailand delivered 4,500 bottles of cannabis oil to treat hospital patients, its first official use of marijuana for medical purposes since a measure legalizing such use took effect this year.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 14, Thai authorities issued arrest warrants for four more suspects believed to be responsible for a series of bomb attacks as the capital hosted an Aug. 2 diplomatic meeting.
(Reuters, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 17, In Thailand an orphaned baby dugong rescued earlier this year died due to pieces of plastic clogging her digestive system.
(Reuters, 8/17/19)
2019 Aug 21, Thai chemicals company Indorama Ventures said it has committed $1.5 billion of investment in recycling as consumers become more aware of the environmental impact of single-use plastic and regulators push for more recycling.
(AP, 8/21/19)
2019 Sep 17, Thailand's PM Prayuth Chan-ocha defended police for requesting information about minority Muslim students from universities around the country, after criticism of the move as discriminatory and illegal.
(Reuters, 9/17/19)
2019 Oct 4, In southern Thailand Judge Khanakorn Pianchana shot himself in court and was hospitalized after delivering a not guilty verdict in the case of five Muslim suspects charged with murder in the predominantly Buddhist country's restive south.
(Reuters, 10/5/19)
2019 Oct 9, A Thailand minister said foreigners in the "risky" over-50 age group will have to present proof of health insurance when applying for Thai long-term non-immigrant visas, so the government doesn't have to pick up their medical bills.
(Reuters, 10/9/19)
2019 Oct 11, Thailand army chief General Apirat Kongsompong strongly criticized opposition politicians and academics. He accused them of colluding to brainwash and mobilize young people and of having "communist" ideas to overthrow the monarchy.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 21, Thailand's King Maja Vajiralongkorn (67) stripped his royal consort, Sineenatra Wongvajirabhakdi (34), of her titles and military ranks for disloyalty. This came just three months after he granted her the consort title.
(SFC, 10/23/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 25, The United States suspended duty-free treatment for $1.3 billion worth of Thai imports, including seafood products, under its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, saying Thailand did not "afford workers in Thailand internationally recognized worker rights." The tariffs that would take effect in six months would be 4-5% instead of zero.
(Reuters, 10/27/19)
2019 Nov 3, In Thailand Southeast Asian leaders, worried by the US-China trade war, pushed for a deal on what could be the world's largest trade bloc as officials worked behind the scenes to try to salvage progress following new demands from India.
(Reuters, 11/3/19)
2019 Nov 3, Speaking in Thailand at a meeting of ASEAN leaders UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern over the plight of the 730,000 Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar's Rakhine state, calling on Myanmar's government to take responsibility by dealing with the "root causes" of their flight to Bangladesh and working toward their safe repatriation.
(AP, 11/3/19)
2019 Nov 4, China joined 14 ASEAN countries meeting in Thailand in agreeing terms for what could be the world's biggest trade pact. India pulled out at the last minute on the grounds that the deal would hurt its farmers, businesses, workers and consumers.
(Reuters, 11/4/19)
2019 Nov 4, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe had an 11-minute conversation on the sidelines of an international conference in Bangkok, the first time they had met in more than a year. They reaffirmed the principle of resolving pending bilateral issues through dialogue.
(Reuters, 11/6/19)(SFC, 11/15/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 6, In southern Thailand gunmen killed 15 village defense volunteers and wounded five security personnel.
(SFC, 11/7/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 20, Pope Francis arrived in Thailand as part of a two-country tour to boost the morale of Thailand's and Japan's minority Catholic communities.
(SFC, 11/21/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 21, Pope Francis urged more efforts to combat the “humiliation" of women and children forced into prostitution as he began a busy visit to Thailand, where human trafficking and poverty help fuel the sex tourism industry.
(AP, 11/21/19)
2019 Nov 25, In northern Thailand a wild deer was found dead in a national park with seven kg of plastic waste and other trash in its stomach. Officials estimated that the 10-year-old deer had died at least two days earlier.
(AP, 11/27/19)
2019 Dec 5, The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Border Force (ABF) issued a joint statement saying three people have been charged with importing 1,633 kg (3,600 lbs.) of methamphetamine and heroin into Australia by hiding them inside of stereo speakers originating from Bangkok, Thailand.
(Insider, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 12, The body-folding, sharp-elbowed techniques of Thai massage was added to UNESCO's prestigious heritage list.
(AFP, 12/12/19)
2019 Dec 24, A court in Thailand sentenced reporter Suchainee Cloitre to two years in prison for criminal libel for a comment she tweeted about a labor abuse grievance at a poultry farm. The case was one of twenty launched by the Thammakaset Co. against 25 workers, activists and journalists.
(SFC, 12/25/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec, Japanese carmaker Mazda shifted production of its SUVs from Thailand to Japan.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.29)
2019 In Southeast Asia the Mekong River fell to its lowest level since records began more than 60 years ago. A study in 2020 claimed that 11 dams built on the Chinese portion of the river had exacerbated the water shortage affecting Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Brian Eyler authored "The Last Days of the Mighty Mekong."
(https://tinyurl.com/y767b5m6)(Econ., 5/16/20, p.30)
2020 Jan 6, Thailand opened its first full-time clinic specializing in traditional and alternative cannabis-based medicine, as part of a move by the government towards developing a medicinal cannabis industry.
(Reuters, 1/6/20)
2020 Jan 9, In Thailand a masked assailant killed three people, including a boy (2) in a shooting spree late today at a shopping mall in Lopburi province.
(SFC, 1/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Jan 12, In Thailand thousands of anti-government demonstrators took part in "Run Against Dictatorship" in Bangkok in the country's biggest political rally in years.
(SFC, 1/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jan 13, The WHO said that Thai officials have reported that a traveler from the Chinese city of Wuhan has been hospitalized in Thailand with a recently identified new type of coronavirus. The report galvanized leaders in Beijing into recognizing the possible pandemic before them.
(AP, 1/13/20)(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Jan 26, The health minister in Thailand, the country with the most confirmed cases outside China of the new coronavirus, called an emergency meeting with the transport and tourism ministries amid rising public discontent over the government's handling of the illness.
(Reuters, 1/26/20)
2020 Feb 8, In northeastern Thailand a soldier shot multiple people and was holed up in a shopping mall in Nakhon Ratchasima. The suspect was identified as Sgt. Jakrapanth Thomma. It took Thai police sharpshooters 16 hours to Thomma and end the crisis that left 29 dead.
(https://tinyurl.com/yacu34x5)(AP, 2/8/20)(AP, 2/9/20)(Econ., 5/9/20, p.29)
2020 Feb 14, In Thailand villagers along the Mekong River asked a court in Bangkok to slow down Thai purchases of electricity from a hydropower dam in Laos, which they say has harmed their livelihoods since it began operation last year. The start of its full commercial operation last year coincided with parts of the Mekong River drying to a trickle.
(Reuters, 2/14/20)
2020 Feb 17, Thailand's army agreed to transfer management control of 160,000 hectares of commercial land to the finance ministry in a drive to reform its business practices after a soldier went on a shooting spree over a property deal gone sour.
(Reuters, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 20, China said it was helping its downstream neighbors cope with a prolonged drought by releasing more water from its dams on the Mekong River, adding it would consider sharing information on hydrology to provide further assistance in the future. The drought over the past year has severely hurt farming and fishing in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
(Reuters, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 21, A Thai court dissolved a high-profile opposition political party, the Future Forward Party, ruling that it illegally took a 191.2 million baht ($6.04 million) loan from its billionaire leader. The court also banned party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, heir to an auto parts fortune, and 15 other party executive board members from politics for 10 years.
(Reuters, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 26, Thailand reported three new cases of coronavirus, taking its total tally to 40.
(AP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb, General Motors pulled its car production out of Thailand.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.29)
2020 Mar 5, Thailand reported four new cases of coronavirus, bringing its total to 47 since January.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 8, Dozens of Thai lawmakers from a prominent opposition party that was dissolved last month said they will join a new party together to keep their parliamentary seats. 55 members of parliament of the disbanded party will be officially joining an existing party called Move Forward Party together next week.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 13, Thailand reported five new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 75.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 15, Thailand reported 32 new cases of the coronavirus in the largest daily jump in infections since the outbreak began, bringing its total tally to 114.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 17, In southern Thailand bombers attacked a major government office as hundreds of local officials and Muslim clerics met to discuss fighting COVID-19. At least 20 people were reported hurt.
(SFC, 3/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 20, The Bank of Thailand held a special meeting and cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 0.75%.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.29)
2020 Mar 21, Thailand’s capital imposed a partial shutdown from March 22 after novel coronavirus cases surged past 400 with a rising number of people in critical condition.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 22, Thailand reported 188 more coronavirus cases, the highest daily increase so far, bringing the total to 599.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 23, Amnesty Int'l. said new conscripts in Thailand military are physically, sexually and mentally abused with some cases amounting to torture.
(SFC, 3/24/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 23, Ford Motor Co it has decided to temporarily halt vehicle and engine production at its factories in India, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam in response to the growing impact of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 24, Thailand PM Prayuth Chan-ocha announced that his cabinet has agreed to declare a state of emergency to implement stricter measures to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. The one-month state of emergency takes effect March 26. There were just under 900 diagnosed cases of the virus in the country.
(Good Morning America, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 26, Thailand has reported a total of 1,045 cases of coronavirus and four deaths since the outbreak started in January. Honda's Thai business said it would suspend operations at two factories after Thailand declared a state of emergency to curb the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 28, Thailand reported 109 new coronavirus cases and one death, bringing the total to 1,245 infections and six deaths.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 29, In northeastern Thailand prisoners set fire to the canteen of Buriram Prison and several inmates escaped during a riot that was sparked by rumors of a coronavirus outbreak. The total number of coronavirus cases reached 1,388, with 143 new cases reported today. One new coronavirus death was reported, bringing the total in Thailand to seven.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 2, It was reported that one-third of Thailand’s population has registered for government cash handouts designed to soften the blow of the novel coronavirus outbreak, far exceeding the funds available for the policy.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 4, In Thailand cases of coronavirus rose to 2,067 after 89 new reports. The Southeast Asian nation also reported one new death, bringing total to 20. A security official was removed after he allowed more than 100 returning citizens to proceed home. The errant travelers were ordered to report to authorities.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)(SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 11, Thailand reported 45 new coronavirus infections and two more deaths.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 17, Thai PM Prayuth Chan-ocha called on the country's 20 richest people to help in addressing the damaging economic fall-out from the coronavirus epidemic. Thailand has reported 2,700 COVID-19 infections and 47 deaths, and the economic blow from losses of trade and tourism and restrictions on movement has been heavy.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 21, Thailand stepped up efforts to tackle sexual harassment, pledging to protect victims who come forward and to investigate complaints of abuse experienced by one in five Thais.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 25, Thailand reported 53 new coronavirus cases and the death of a 48-year-old Thai man who was infected with the virus along with four other family members. Thailand has reported a total of 2,907 cases and 51 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 26, Thailand reported 15 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing the total number of cases since its outbreak in January to 2,922 cases and 51 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 May 2, Thailand reported six new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 2,966. Since Thailand first detected the coronavirus in January, a total of 54 patients have died.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 3, Thailand reported three new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, as the country started lifting restrictions on some businesses and aspects of life. Thailand has seen a total of 2,969 coronavirus cases and 54 deaths since the outbreak began in January. Residents of Bangkok enjoyed their first day of eased coronavirus restrictions.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A4)
2020 May 9, Thailand reported four new coronavirus cases and one more death, bringing the total to 3,004 cases and 56 deaths since the outbreak started in January.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 10, Thailand reported five new coronavirus cases but no deaths, bringing the total to 3,009 cases and 56 deaths since the outbreak started in the country in January. These numbers did not include four more infected people from the resort island of Phuket.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 13, In Thailand professional chefs started cooking up around 40,000 lunches in Bangkok for communities affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Thailand reported no new daily cases for the first time in two months.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 16, Thailand reported no new coronavirus cases or deaths as the country begins to reopen businesses and ease restrictions. Thailand extended a ban on international passenger flights until the end of June. A previous order was set to run until the end of May. Thailand has reported a total of 3,025 cases of the coronavirus and 56 fatalities.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 17, Thailand reported three additional cases of the new coronavirus, bringing its total cases to 3,028 as the country relaxes local restrictions and re-opens malls and department stores.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 23, Thailand began trials of an experimental coronavirus vaccine using monkeys, one of at least 100 potential vaccines in the works around the world.
(Reuters, 5/25/20)
2020 Jun 4, In Cambodia armed men snatched Thai dissident Wanchalearm Satsaksit (37) in front of his apartment in Phnom Penh. Wanchalearm was among 29 exiled Thai activists accused of violating Thailand’s lese majeste law, officially Section 112 of the Criminal Code. He fled Thailand after the coup in 2014, but had been summoned by the military before he fled.
(https://tinyurl.com/yav37vwe)(SFC, 6/6/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 2, Thailand said it would prohibit online sales of alcohol in a clampdown on underage drinking after a rise in sales during the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 16, It was reported that Tiwakorn Vithiton (45) has been admitted against his will to a psychiatric hospital after posting a photo online showing himself wearing a shirt with the motto "I have lost all faith in the institution of monarchy." The country's lese majeste law carries a punishment of 3-15 years in prison.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 24, Thailand officials said prosecutors have dropped all charges against Vorayuth Yoovidhya, a Thai heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune, who was accused of killing a Bangkok police officer in a Sept. 3, 2012, car crash. Prosecutors cited the fact the family members (of the police officer) have been compensated" by Vorayuth's family.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 29, Thailand's PM Prayuth Chan-ocha ordered a public probe into the dropping of criminal charges against Vorayuth Yoovidhya, a Thai heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 16, In Thailand thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in Bangkok for a rally that suggested their movement's strength may have extended beyond the college campuses where it has blossomed.
(AP, 8/16/20)(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 20, Thailand police arrested nine pro-democracy activists, including two rappers, in a crackdown on growing protests calling for PM Prayuth Chan-ocha and his administration to resign.
(SFC, 8/21/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 25, A Thai court issued a new arrest warrant for Vorayuth Yoovidhya, an heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune, for the 2012 death of a motorcycle policeman killed after being stuck by Yoovidhya's Ferrari. The heir's current location was not known.
(SFC, 8/26/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 30, In Thailand about 1,000 people, calling themselves "Thai Pakdee" (Loyal Thai), gathered in a Bangkok sports stadium to defend the country's monarchy. Anti-government demonstrations across the country have gathered momentum posing a challenge to the rule of PM Prayuth Chan-ocha.
(SFC, 8/31/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 1, In Thailand a panel appointed by PM Prayuth Chan-ocha said that a there was a conspiracy involving government officials, lawyers and a prosecutor to impeded the 2012 fatal hit-and-run case against Vorayuth Yoovidhya, an heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune.
(SFC, 9/2/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 3, Thailand reported its first domestic coronavirus transmission in more than 100 days, after a man recently jailed and with no overseas travel history tested positive in a Bangkok prison during a routine check for new inmates.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 11, Thai health authorities confirmed another coronavirus infection had been detected in the country, in an Uzbek professional soccer player, eight days after the virus resurfaced following a more than three-month absence.
(Reuters, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 19, In Thailand thousands of demonstrators defied police warnings and occupied a historic field in Bangkok to support the demands of a student-led protest movement for new elections and reform of the monarchy. This was the first of a 2-day protest.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, Sex workers in Thailand launched a petition calling for prostitution to be decriminalized and urging authorities to remove all penalties for selling sex. A current law made prostitution illegal in 1960.
(The Telegraph, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 20, In Thailand anti-government demonstrators occupying a historic field in Bangkok installed a plaque symbolizing the country's transition to democracy to replace the original one that was mysteriously ripped out and stolen three years ago, as they vowed to press on with calls for new elections and reform of the monarchy. The plaque was removed within 24 hours.
(AP, 9/20/20)(SFC, 9/22/20, p.A3)
2020 Sep 25, It was reported that Thailand is prosecuting Facebook, Google, and Twitter over a failure to remove what it says are illegal posts.
(BBC, 9/25/20)
2020 Oct 1, Lee Chung Chak (65), a Hong Kong citizen and senior leader of the Sam Gor group, was arrested by Thai narcotics police based on an arrest warrant issued by a Thai court, which followed an extradition request by the Australian authorities. In Jan. 2021, Tse Chi Lop, a China-born Canadian national suspected as the top leader of the syndicate, also called "The Company," was arrested in the Netherlands.
(Reuters, 2/5/21)
2020 Oct 3, The head of Thailand's state zoological agency was shot dead amid an investigation into the disappearance of rare animals from a zoo in Khao Rup Chang. The suspect, one of four officials being investigated, fled the scene and later killed himself.
(SSFC, 10/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Oct 8, Twitter said it has closed an Iran-based network of accounts fanning the flames around racial justice protests in the US sparked by the death of George Floyd. Twitter also said it had closed more than 900 accounts linked to the Thai army for attacking prominent opposition figures and diffusing pro-government and military propaganda.
(AFP, 10/9/20)
2020 Oct 9, It was reported that Angela Merkel’s government has warned Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn not to try to rule his country remotely from Germany.
(The Telegraph, 10/9/20)
2020 Oct 11, In central Thailand a bus-train collision killed 17 people in Chacheongsao.
(https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54497497)
2020 Oct 15, Thailand's government declared a strict new state of emergency for Bangkok, a day after a student-led protest against the country’s traditional establishment saw an extraordinary moment in which demonstrators heckled a royal motorcade. Several top leaders of the protest movement were taken into custody.
(AP, 10/15/20)
2020 Oct 16, Riot police in Thailand cracked down on thousands of student-led protesters who rallied in Bangkok in defiance of a strict state of emergency, while PM Prayuth Chan-ocha rejected calls for his resignation.
(AP, 10/16/20)
2020 Oct 17, Pro-democracy activists in Thailand staged a fourth straight day of high-profile protests in Bangkok, thwarting efforts by the authorities to stop them, including a shutdown of the city's mass transit systems.
(AP, 10/17/20)
2020 Oct 18, Thailand reported three additional locally transmitted cases of the coronavirus, a day after reporting its first local infections in more than a month.
(Reuters, 10/18/20)
2020 Oct 19, Thai authorities worked to stem a growing tide of protests calling for PM Prayuth Chan-ocha to resign by threatening to censor news coverage, raiding a publishing house and attempting to block the Telegram messaging app used by demonstrators.
(AP, 10/19/20)
2020 Oct 22, Thailand’s government canceled a state of emergency it had declared last week for Bangkok in a gesture offered by the embattled prime minister to cool student-led protests seeking democracy reforms.
(AP, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 25, In Thailand thousands of pro-democracy protesters gathered in Bangkok again, seeking to keep up pressure on the government a day before a special session of Parliament that was called to try to ease political tensions.
(AP, 10/25/20)
2020 Oct 26, Thailand's Parliament began a special two-day session to address political tensions resulting from the near-daily pro-democracy protests demanding the prime minister’s resignation, constitutional changes and reforms to the monarchy. Pro-democracy demonstrators in Thailand expanded their protests internationally, marching to the German Embassy to appeal to Angela Merkel’s government to investigate whether Thailand’s king has exercised political power during his extended stays in Bavaria.
(AP, 10/26/20)
2020 Nov 8, In Thailand pro-democracy protesters were confronted by riot police and sprayed by water cannons as they tried to approach Bangkok's Grand Palace to deliver letters about their political grievances addressed to the country's king.
(AP, 11/8/20)
2020 Nov 14, In Thailand numerous groups of pro-democracy protesters rallied in a "Mob Fest" calling for PM Prayuth Chan-ocha to step down.
(SSFC, 11/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Nov 26, Thailand said it has transferred three Iranians involved in a botched 2012 bomb plot back to Tehran, as Iran released an Australian academic who was imprisoned for more than two years on spying charges.
(AP, 11/26/20)
2020 Nov 29, In Thailand pro-democracy activists took to Bangkok's streets again, this time to protest the army as they push forward with their campaign for sweeping reforms, including to the nation's monarchy. The protesters believe that the army undermines democracy in Thailand, and that King Maha Vajiralongkorn wields too much power and influence in what is supposed to be a democratic constitutional monarchy.
(AP, 11/29/20)
2020 Dec 2, Thailand’s highest court acquitted Prayuth Chan-ocha of breaching ethics clauses in the country’s constitution, allowing him to stay in his job.
(AP, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 5, In Thailand thousands of monarchy loyalists greeted King Maha Vajiralongkorn as he led a birthday commemoration for his revered late father. In recent days at least 12 protest leaders have been charged with royal defamation under lese-majeste laws.
(SSFC, 12/6/20, p.A6)
2020 Dec 10, In Thailand pro-democracy demonstrators in Bangkok marked UN Human Rights Day with rallies calling for the abolition of Thailand’s strict royal defamation law, which was recently revived to prosecute more than 20 of the protest movement’s leaders.
(AP, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 18, Thailand said it has four new local coronavirus infections, just as the country has started reopening for tourists after months of keeping the virus at bay.
(Reuters, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 19, Thailand reported 548 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily tally in a country that had largely brought the pandemic under control. Most of the cases were connected to a shrimp market in Samut Sakhon province, near Bangkok.
(AP, 12/19/20)
2020 Dec 20, Thailand’s Disease Control Department said that they found 141 more cases linked to a shrimp market outbreak in Samut Sakhon province. Thousands of people lined up for coronavirus tests in the province.
(AP, 12/20/20)
2020 Dec 21, Thailand's PM Prayuth Chan-ocha called for calm and said there were no immediate plans for a wider lockdown after 382 new coronavirus infections were confirmed, the majority linked to the country's worst outbreak yet.
(AP, 12/21/20)
2020 Dec 23, Thailand confirmed 46 new coronavirus infections, of which 39 were locally transmitted cases found in several different province.
(Reuters, 12/23/20)
2020 Dec 24, Thailand confirmed 67 new coronavirus infections, of which nine were imported from overseas.
(AP, 12/24/20)
2020 Dec 25, Thailand confirmed 81 new coronavirus infections, of which nine were imported from abroad.
(Reuters, 12/25/20)
2020 Dec 26, Thai protesters demonstrated to demand more action to help seafood sellers hit by a COVID-19 outbreak as the government urged people to eat more shellfish.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 27, Thailand confirmed 121 new infections of the novel coronavirus, up from the 103 cases reported earlier in the day. the new cases included 94 domestic transmissions and 18 in migrant workers connected to an outbreak at a seafood market in Samut Sakhon, a province southwest of Bangkok. Infections connected to this cluster have spread to 38 provinces. Thailand has reported a total of 6,141 cases and 60 deaths.
(AP, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 28, Thailand announced its first coronavirus death in nearly two months and tightened restrictions on entertainment businesses in Bangkok, in a bid to contain an outbreak that has reached more than half of the country's provinces. Authorities confirmed 144 new infections as new clusters emerged stemming from its biggest outbreak yet.
(AP, 12/28/20)
2020 Dec 30, Thailand's tourist city of Pattaya and the surrounding district were placed under lockdown as the country continues to grapple with an intensifying outbreak of the coronavirus. Thailand imposed a ban on large gatherings and events across the country in an effort to contain its worst coronavirus epidemic yet during New Year.
(AP, 12/30/20)(Reuters, 12/30/20)
Thailand (B): xxxx
2021 Jan 1, The Thai capital of Bangkok said it will close all schools for two weeks after the New Year holiday as it tightens measures to control a new wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 4, Thailand registered 745 new coronavirus cases, with a new death reported in Bangkok, where a semi-lockdown went into effect. The new infections bring the total number since last January to 8,439, while the death toll has climbed to 65.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 5, Thailand confirmed 527 new coronavirus cases, most of them migrant workers who already were isolated, and the government said it was tightening movements of people around the country.
(AP, 1/5/21)
2021 Jan 13, Thailand's Red Cross Society appealed for people to give blood as donations hit a record low, with volumes collected halved amid public concern about getting infected with the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 1/13/20)
2021 Jan 15, Scores of Thai protesters briefly scuffled with police, saying they feared another student activist would be charged with insulting Thailand's king. Police and the lawyer for activist Chaiyapon Danothai said he did not face lese majeste charges.
(Reuters, 1/15/21)
2021 Jan 19, Thailand’s government defended its coronavirus vaccine strategy against opposition criticism that it is too reliant on Siam Bioscience, a company owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
(Reuters, 1/19/21)
2021 Jan 19, A court in Thailand sentenced former civil servant Anchan Preelert to 43 years and six months in prison for insulting the country’s royal family on Facebook and YouTube.
(AP, 1/19/21)
2021 Jan 21, It was reported that Thailand's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency use approval for the COVID-19 vaccine of AstraZeneca Plc.
(Reuters, 1/21/21)
2021 Jan 25, Thailand's Parliament voted to legalize abortion in the first trimester, though women who end a pregnancy after 12 weeks could still face prison or fines.
(NY Times, 1/28/21)
2021 Jan 26, Thailand police raided a party at the Three Sixty Bar on Koh Phangan and arrested 89 foreigners for violating coronavirus regulations.
(AP, 1/27/21)
2021 Feb 4, Thailand said it will import the first doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine from Asia after Europe enforced export controls.
(AP, 2/4/21)
2021 Feb 9, Prosecutors in Thailand charged four prominent pro-democracy activists with sedition and defaming the monarchy for their protest activities.
(SFC, 2/10/21, p.A4)
2021 Feb 10, Hundreds of Thai protesters gathered in Bangkok to demand the release of four activists remanded in custody pending trial on charges of insulting Thailand's king, a crime punishable by 15 years in prison.
(Reuters, 2/10/21)
2021 Feb 11, Thailand announced plans to inoculate 1 million of its most vulnerable people against COVID-19 by May and start mass vaccinations in June, with the aim of administering 10 doses a month.
(Reuters, 2/11/21)
2021 Feb 14, The Thai government defended its decision not to join the WHO-sponsored coronavirus vaccine program, saying that to do so would risk the country paying more for the shots and facing uncertainty about delivery times. Thailand reported 166 new coronavirus cases, taking its total of infections to 24,571, with a death toll of 80.
(Reuters, 2/14/21)
2021 Feb 17, Thailand’s government warned users of the recently introduced Clubhouse voice chat app that they must be careful not to misuse it or face possible legal consequences.
(AP, 2/17/21)
2021 Feb 24, In Thailand Three Cabinet ministers were forced to leave their posts after a court found them guilty of sedition for talking part in sometimes-violent protests in 2013-2014. About two dozen other defendants in the case were also found guilty in the case launched in 2018.
(SFC, 2/24/21, p.A2)
2021 Feb 26, In Thailand more than 200,000 Buddhist devotees gathered via Zoom video link to attend an annual prayer and lantern ritual held to mark Makha Bucha Day, one of the religion's holiest holidays.
(Reuters, 2/26/21)
2021 Mar 3, Facebook announced that it had deleted 77 accounts, 72 pages, 18 groups and 18 instagram accounts allegedly engaged in an information influencing operation in Thailand run by the military.
(SFC, 3/5/21, p.B2)
2021 Mar 12, Thailand joined a handful of European countries in suspending use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, following scattered reports of blood clots in people who had received it.
(Reuters, 3/12/21)
2021 Mar 13, Thailand celebrated Elephant Day and held a fruit banquet for dozens of elephants in the ancient capital of Ayutthaya.
(Reuters, 3/13/21)
2021 Mar 15, In Thailand six pedigree cats valued at thousands of dollars were confiscated in a Thai drug network raid on suspicion they were being used to launder money.
(Reuters, 3/16/21)
2021 Mar 18, It was reported that Thai authorities are bracing for a surge of refugees from Myanmar and have set aside areas to shelter more than 43,000 people in Mae Sot district. Myanmar's security forces have killed at least 217 people in their crackdown against opposition to last month's coup.
(Reuters, 3/18/21)
2021 Mar 20, In Thailand police in Bangkok used water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets late today to break up a rally by pro-democracy protesters calling for the release of detained activists, constitutional changes and reform of the nation's monarchy.
(SSFC, 3/21/21, p.A8)
2021 Mar 29, Thai soldiers began sending home people from Myanmar who had crossed the border fleeing air strikes by the Myanmar military. Thousands of people had fled to northern Thailand following the air strikes.
(SFC, 3/30/21, p.A2)
2021 Mar 30, In eastern Myanmar air raids left six civilians dead and 11 wounded. The Karen National Union said government troops are advancing into its territory on all fronts. Thailand denied that its security forces had forced villagers back to Myanmar.
(SFC, 3/31/21, p.A2)
2021 Apr 3, In Thailand at least three people were killed when a 3-story house collapsed in Bangkok following a fire. An unknown number of people were still trapped under the rubble.
(SSFC, 4/4/21, p.A8)
2021 Apr 9, Thailand reported 559 new coronavirus infections, following increases of 405 and 334 new cases the previous two days.
(SFC, 4/10/21, p.A7)
2021 Apr 10, Thailand said it plans to install 10,000 field-hospital beds in Bangkok, as the country strains to cope with a third wave of COVID-19 infections.
(Reuters, 4/10/21)
2021 Apr 11, Thailand reported 967 new COVID-19 cases, its biggest daily jump, but no new deaths as the country deals with a third wave of infections and a highly contagious variant.
(Reuters, 4/11/21)
2021 Apr 13, Thailand recorded a 3rd day in a row with more than 900 coronavirus cases. Total infections reached 34,575 with 97 deaths.
(SFC, 4/14/21, p.A4)
2021 Apr 14, Thailand confirmed 1,335 new cases of the coronavirus, taking the total to 35,910, with 97 deaths.
(AP, 4/14/21)
2021 Apr 17, Thailand reported 1,547 new coronavirus cases and two additional deaths, amid a third wave of infections in the Southeast Asian country. New restrictions were announced for the next two weeks.
(The Telegraph, 4/17/21)(SFC, 4/17/21, p.A9)
2021 Apr 24, Thailand's capital Bangkok ordered the closure of public venues and sports premises after the country reported a record daily rise in coronavirus cases and deaths amid a third wave of infections. The closures, effective from April 26 until May 9, apply to venues including public parks, gyms, swimming pools, meeting halls, internet shops, daycares centers, sports fields, museums and libraries.
(Reuters, 4/24/21)
2021 Apr 25, Thai authorities stepped up travel restrictions and other measures to combat a rapidly spreading third wave of COVID-19 infections as the country logged 11 deaths, a daily record. A new outbreak driven by the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant has resulted in over 24,000 cases and 46 deaths in just 25 days.
(Reuters, 4/25/21)
2021 Apr 26, Thailand's government slapped restrictions on travel from India and closed more venues in Bangkok, even as it came under fire for not doing enough to contain a spike in infections.
(Reuters, 4/26/21)
2021 May 2, Thailand's Health Ministry reported 1,940 new coronavirus cases, while deaths hit 21 for a second day, the highest daily number of fatalities since the pandemic began.
(Reuters, 5/2/21)
2021 May 3, Thailand reported a new daily record of 31 coronavirus deaths, the health ministry said, as the Southeast Asian country grapples with a third wave of infections.
(Reuters, 5/3/21)
2021 May 3, In northern Thailand Jason Matthew Balzer reportedly fled his home in the Nan province after his wife, Pitchaporn Kidchob (32), disappeared. Police soon began hunting the American fugitive after the disappearance of his wife, who was four months pregnant, after finding his mattress stained with blood.
(AP, 5/6/21)
2021 May 4, Thailand launched a campaign to vaccinate 50,000 people living in a crowded river-side district of the capital Bangkok, as the country tries to contain a third wave of coronavirus infections. Thailand reported 1,763 new coronavirus cases and 27 deaths, bringing the total to 72,788 cases and 303 fatalities since the pandemic began.
(Reuters, 5/4/21)
2021 May 10, Thailand started deploying a canine virus-detecting squad in hopes of quickly identifying people with COVID-19 as the country faces a surge in cases, with clusters at construction sites, crowded slum communities and large markets.
(AP, 5/21/21)
2021 May 13, Thailand announced a daily record in new cases after nearly 3,000 inmates in two jails were infected, among them a leader of anti-government protests held while awaiting trial for insulting the king.
(Reuters, 5/13/21)
2021 May 14, Thai PM Prayuth Chan-ocha promised a UN special envoy that he will not force back people fleeing violence in neighboring Myanmar, where the military ousted a democratically elected government in February.
(AP, 5/14/21)
2021 May 20, It was reported that a district of northern Thailand has launched a raffle campaign for inoculated residents to win a live cow per week for the rest of the year, in a bid to boost the local COVID-19 vaccination drive.
(Reuters, 5/20/21)
2021 May 23, A government official said Thailand has ordered strict controls on the movement of cattle and buffaloes after an outbreak of a virus that causes lumps to form on the animals' skin and can reduce milk production.
(Reuters, 5/23/21)
2021 May 24, Thailand said it will extend the gap between the first and second doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to 16 weeks, in an effort to inoculate more people faster.
(Reuters, 5/24/21)
2021 May 27, Thailand said it is ramping up efforts to curb trade in wildlife to help reduce the risk of future pandemics, though it was unclear whether that would mean an end to all sales of exotic species in the wildlife trafficking hub.
(AP, 5/27/21)
2021 Jun 2, Siam Bioscience and AstraZeneca said they would soon provide Thailand with 1.8 million doses of locally manufactured COVID-19 vaccine, the first of multiple batches this month, just days away from the launch of the country's vaccination drive.
(Reuters, 6/2/21)
2021 Jun 21, Thailand's health minister said Japan's government would donate some AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, as the Southeast Asian country seeks to shore-up supplies after some early delays in its vaccinations.
(Reuters, 6/21/21)
2021 Jun 24, In Thailand pro-democracy protesters took to the streets of Bangkok, marking the anniversary of the the overthrow of the country's absolute monarchy by renewing their demands that the government step down.
(SFC, 6/25/21, p.A2)
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Subject = Thailand
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