Thai authorities seek to ease air pollution in capital by offering free public transport

BANGKOK (AP) — Thai authorities have made travel by public transport in Bangkok free for a week starting Saturday, the latest tactic to try to tackle soaring levels of air pollution that have already seen hundreds of schools closed and employees working from home. The travel...

Thais send smuggled tortoises home to Tanzania as evidence against suspected wildlife traffickers

BANGKOK (AP) — More than a hundred baby tortoises, most of them dead, have been returned to Tanzania from Thailand as evidence in a case against a wildlife smuggling network, the international police organization Interpol said Friday. The 116 tortoises were discovered hidden in the...

Thai LGBTQ+ couples register marriages as law gives them equal status

BANGKOK (AP) — Hundreds of LGBTQ+ couples in Thailand made Thursday a life-changing occasion, registering their marriages legally on the first day a law took effect granting them the same rights as heterosexual couples. The enactment of the Marriage Equality Act makes Thailand the...

AP PHOTOS: Same-sex couples in Thailand share their joy over new marriage equality law

BANGKOK (AP) — It's a big day for LGBTQ+ couples in Thailand. On Thursday, they gained the legal right to register their marriages, making it the first country in Southeast Asia and the third place in Asia to recognize same-sex unions, after Taiwan and Nepal. In central Bangkok, a...

Same-sex marriages will soon become legal in Thailand after historic law

BANGKOK (AP) — They have been in a committed relationship for more than 13 years, and even had a wedding in 2019. Since then, Danaya Phonphayung and Sunma Piamboon, both women, have considered themselves a married couple, even if same-sex marriages were not legally recognized. The...

Tropical Thailand takes a break from the heat as it experiences a run of cool weather

BANGKOK (AP) — Tropical Thailand is experiencing an unusually cool stretch of weather that forecasters say could last until mid-February, leading many residents to dig out their sweaters and cardigans. Thursday morning’s forecast showed areas all over Thailand were feeling the...

An army airstrike on a village in western Myanmar has killed at least 40 people, reports say

Cambodian police detain a Thai man suspected of gunning down Cambodian ex-lawmaker in Bangkok

BANGKOK (AP) — Cambodian police said Wednesday they apprehended a Thai man suspected of gunning down a former opposition politician from Cambodia in a popular Bangkok tourist area. Lim Kimya, an ex-lawmaker from the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party, was shot dead near a...

Hotel fire in popular Bangkok tourist area kills 3 foreigners

BANGKOK (AP) — A fire broke out at a hotel near Bangkok's Khao San Road, a popular tourist destination, killing three foreigners and injuring several other people, Thai police said Monday. The three who died in the fire on Sunday night were all foreign tourists, Police Colonel...

Jetliner skids off runway and bursts into flames while landing in South Korea, killing 179

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A jetliner skidded off a runway, slammed into a concrete fence and burst into flames Sunday in South Korea after its landing gear apparently failed to deploy. All but two of the 181 people aboard were killed in one of the country’s worst aviation disasters, officials...