Thailand Top News Stories

Religious rite part of wider efforts to avert bloodshed as tensions rise   full story...

Their Majesties the King and Queen graciously granted a wreath to yesterday's funeral of Bannang Sata district police chief Colonel Sompien Eksomya, who died from his injuries after being ambushed by insurgents in Yala on Friday.  full story...

Fifty officers from the Provincial Police Region 1 yesterday morning raided a factory in Ayutthaya's Wang Noi district and arrested the owner and 40 workers for making triggering mechanisms for M79 grenade launchers.  full story...

The Confederation of Thai Journalists, the Thai Journalists Association and the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association yesterday issued a joint statement, expressing concern about the ongoing political conflict and calling for all sides to adhere to peace. They also made the following appeals:   full story...

The Mental Health Department yesterday called on people to send SMSs or post the message "don't use violence against each other" on social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to echo public consensus that government and red-shirt protesters should maintain peace.   full story...

Yala- A senior policeman, known for his honesty and expertise in anti-insurgency warfare, died from wounds sustained in a bomb attack and ensuing gunfire yesterday that also wounded three other officers.   full story...

A red-shirt protester yesterday attacked a motorist driving past a rally site in Pathum Thani.   full story...

Thousands of red shirts are heading for Bangkok from several provinces to take part in tomorrow's mass rally.   full story...

Individual Thais are invited to call the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) at 02-565-7007, to get updates on traffic conditions related to the demonstrations.   full story...

The Public Health Ministry has built up a store of blood and oxygen for emergency medical treatment in the event of violence during the upcoming redshirt mass rally in Bangkok, Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanawisit said yesterday.   full story...

Out of concern about the huge redshirt rally, all state secondary schools in eight provinces will postpone the application period that was initially scheduled to run from tomorrow to next Wednesday.   full story...

Bangkok Deputy Governor Taya Teepsuwan was in the blue Volkswagen van that tried to cut into Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's motorcade on Wednesday evening.   full story...

Nang Lerng and Din Daeng residents still shudder at recalling the street violence of the last mass red-shirt rally and plead for no violence this weekend.   full story...

Southern insurgents yesterday shot three telephone-company employees to death on the Pattani-Yala Highway in Pattani's Yarang district and burned their bodies.   full story...

As part of contingency plans and emergency measures taken to cope with the pro-Thaksin Shinawatra group's mass rallies from Friday, text messages will be sent to tell members of the Secretariat of the Cabinet on early Sunday as to whether they would be excused from work on Monday.   full story...

Her Majesty the Queen was concerned over Thailand's drought problem and has urged the Agriculture Ministry to do what it can to relieve the impact, Agriculture Minister Theera Wongsamut said yesterday.   full story...

In a sting operation yesterday, four members of the Lahu hilltribe were arrested with 6.65 kilograms of heroin in their possession, Chiang Rai Governor Suthep Saengnimnuan said yesterday.  full story...

A House committee yesterday urged the Foreign Affairs Ministry to blacklist controversial overseas language schools.  full story...

An independent academic who monitors social issues yesterday filed a lawsuit in the Central Administration Court against the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation and top health officials for failing to have human trials to test the type-A (H1N1) influenza virus vaccine following reports that six people had died after receiving the vaccine.  full story...

The Public Health Ministry found that nearly 100,000 people had fallen ill from the smog shrouding eight provinces in the North and warned that more would be affected if the situation persists.   full story...

Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra would not be able to see his two daughters in Germany as he has been banned from the country since last year, German Ambassador to Thailand Hanns Schumacher said Sunday.   full story...

There was no phone-in on Friday night from their beloved hero, but rural red-shirted people seemed to hear an SOS from Thaksin Shinawatra, wherever he was. Yesterday was a big response compared to the lukewarm showing of their Bangkok counterparts the day before, and with red masses from upcountry pouring into the city, the game is now on.   full story...

Thaksin Shinawatra last night told his red-shirt followers that he was currently in Europe, not Cambodia as speculated earlier.  full story...

The government will likely enforce a state-of-emergency decree today to cope with the escalating security problem in Bangkok after tens of thousands of provincial protesters arrived in the city yesterday.  full story...

Religious rite part of wider efforts to avert bloodshed as tensions rise   full story...

Red-shirt protesters, at least 100,000 strong, occupied Rajdamnoen Avenue Saturday and more kept flowing into the capital from all over the Kingdom Saturday night.   full story...

A red-shirt protester yesterday attacked a motorist driving past a rally site in Pathum Thani.   full story...

Thousands of red shirts are heading for Bangkok from several provinces to take part in tomorrow's mass rally.   full story...

Government officials and their opponents yesterday released contradictory information on former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's whereabouts, with the former saying he had left Dubai for Cambodia and the latter claiming he was still in the emirate.   full story...

More than ever now, Thaksin Shinawatra needs the rural poor to bail him out.   full story...

The Nation online collects photos of the red shirts across the country who kicked off their gatherings on Friday.   full story...

Fugitive ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra left Dubai and arrived in Cambodia on Friday as red shirts started gathering to join the mass rallies on Sunday.   full story...

The United Arab Emirates will likely ask ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra to find a new home on the ground that he has abused his exile to attack on Thailand, Vice Foreign Minister Panich Vikitsreth said on Friday.  full story...

The red shirts will Friday niight start to erect their main stage at Phan Fah Bridge and rally speeches will commence at noon Saturday coinciding with the arrivals of protesters, rally organiser Natthawut Saikua said on Friday.  full story...

The line of communications between the government and the red shirts has been activated, Korbsak Sabhavasu, secretary general to the prime minister, said on Friday.  full story...

The US Embassy in Bangkok has issued a statement, calling for the red shirts protesters and their leaders who are scheduled to conduct a mass rally this weekend not to use violence and to exercise their right to assemble and protest peacefully.   full story...

The red shirts from Ayutthaya will travel by more than 100 boats prying the Chao Phya to join the mass rally on Sunday, Pheu Thai MP Surachet Chaikosol said on Thursday.  full story...

Friday at midday, the red shirt will commence marching from across the country and plan to overcome every checkpoint in order to reach Bangkok, rally organiser Jatuporn Promphan said on Thursday.  full story...

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Thursday pledged to overcome the political volatility, to rein in the situation through security measures and not to allow a coup under any circumstances.  full story...

Since midnight of the first day of enforcing the internal security law, security checkpoints have been activated today at the designated rally site on Rajdamnoen Avenue and around the capital.  full story...