Latest Thailand government News

Myanmar quietly announces plans to study controversial Chinese dam project suspended 13 years ago

May. 23, 2024 10:34 AM EDT

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Myanmar’s military government appears to be considering reviving a massive China-backed hydroelectric dam project, work on which was suspended more than a decade ago after protests over its possible impact on the environment. A notice from the Information...

The Constitutional Court of Thailand agrees to hear a case that could imperil the prime minister

May. 23, 2024 06:01 AM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Constitutional Court accepted a petition Thursday from members of the country’s outgoing Senate to begin an ethics probe against the prime minister over his appointment of a Cabinet member. If eventually found guilty, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin...

Thailand welcomes home trafficked 1,000-year-old statues returned by New York's Metropolitan Museum

May. 21, 2024 20:57 PM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's National Museum hosted a welcome-home ceremony Tuesday for two ancient statues that were illegally trafficked from Thailand by a British collector of antiquities and were returned from the collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The objects...

Candidates begin registering in complicated process to select Thailand's new Senate

May. 20, 2024 05:25 AM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand on Monday officially began the selection of new senators, a process that has become part of an ongoing war between progressive forces hoping for democratic political reforms and conservatives seeking to keep the status quo. Hopeful candidates headed to...

As ethnic armed group claims to have captured a town in western Myanmar, Muslim Rohingyas flee again

May. 18, 2024 16:41 PM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — A powerful ethnic armed group fighting Myanmar’s military government in the country’s western state of Rakhine claimed Saturday to have seized a town near the border with Bangladesh, marking the latest in a series of victories for foes of the country’s military government. ...

FIFA to seek legal advice on Palestinian proposal to suspend Israel from international soccer

May. 17, 2024 05:45 AM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — Facing a Palestinian proposal to suspend Israel from international soccer because of the conflict with Hamas, FIFA bought time Friday by agreeing to seek legal advice before holding an extraordinary council meeting within two months. FIFA president Gianni Infantino...

Rights group urges Thailand to stop forcing dissidents to return to countries they fled for safety

May. 17, 2024 00:02 AM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — Human Rights Watch urged the Thai government to stop forcing political dissidents who fled to Thailand for safety to return to their home countries, where they may face torture, persecution or death. The international rights group analyzed 25 cases that took place...

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. ...