Latest Thailand government News

A monarchy reform activist in Thailand dies in detention after a monthslong hunger strike

May. 15, 2024 01:32 AM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — A young activist in Thailand who went on a hunger strike after being jailed for advocating reform of the country’s monarchy system died Tuesday in a prison hospital, officials said. The death sparked fresh calls for reviewing the judicial process that allows political offenders...

Reports of army killing of villagers in Myanmar supported by photos and harrowing tale of a survivor

May. 13, 2024 14:01 PM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — Reports that soldiers of Myanmar’s military government last week carried out a massacre of more than 30 civilians in a village in central Myanmar were supported Monday in interviews with a local administrator and a man who says he survived the killings. The...

Civilian casualties rise in Myanmar's civil war as resistance forces tighten noose around military

May. 09, 2024 03:58 AM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — Six months into an offensive against Myanmar ’s military government, opposition forces have made massive gains, but civilian casualties are rising sharply as regime troops increasingly turn toward scorched-earth tactics in the Southeast Asian country's bitter civil war. ...

Powerful ethnic armed group in western Myanmar claims to capture base and hundreds of soldiers

May. 06, 2024 12:57 PM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — A powerful ethnic minority armed group battling Myanmar's army in the country's west claimed Monday to have taken hundreds of government soldiers prisoner when it captured a major command post. The Arakan Army, the well-trained and well-armed military wing of the...

Philippine students are told to stay home as Southeast Asia swelters in prolonged heat wave

Apr. 29, 2024 20:59 PM EDT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Southeast Asia was coping with a weekslong heat wave on Monday as record-high temperatures led to school closings in several countries and urgent health warnings throughout the region. Millions of students in all public schools across the Philippines were...

Ethnic Karen guerrillas in Myanmar leave a town that army lost 2 weeks ago as rival group holds sway

Apr. 24, 2024 12:02 PM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — Guerrilla fighters from the main ethnic Karen fighting force battling Myanmar’s military government have withdrawn from the eastern border town of Myawaddy two weeks after forcing the army to give up its defense, residents and members of the group said Wednesday. ...

Myanmar’s figurehead vice president, a rare holdover from Suu Kyi's civilian government, steps down

Apr. 22, 2024 14:54 PM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s Vice President Henry Van Thio, who served in the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and then continued in the position after the military ousted her to seize power in 2021, is stepping down for unspecified health reasons, state media said Monday. ...

About 1,300 people from Myanmar flee into Thailand after clashes broke out in a key border town

Apr. 20, 2024 05:11 AM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — About 1,300 people have fled from eastern Myanmar into Thailand, officials said Saturday, as fresh fighting erupted at a border town that has recently been captured by ethnic guerillas. Fighters from the Karen ethnic minority last week captured the last of the...

AP Week in Pictures: Asia

Apr. 19, 2024 01:35 AM EDT

April 12-18, 2024 Shoppers are terrified after a lone assailant started stabbing people at a shopping mall in Sydney; people appreciate spring flowers like cherry and azalea blossoms in Tokyo; a King Sejong statue receives a spring cleaning in Seoul, South Korea. People prepare for...

Prominent Baptist pastor in military-ruled Myanmar detained again hours after release from prison

Apr. 18, 2024 20:45 PM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — A prominent Christian church leader and human rights advocate from Myanmar’s Kachin ethnic minority was detained by the authorities just hours after he was released from prison under an amnesty by the military government, a relative, a colleague and local media said Thursday. ...