Jerry Harmer

A Thai town, run ragged by its ever-growing population of marauding wild monkeys, has launched an offensive against the simian raiders, using trickery and ripe tropical fruit. Several high-profile cases of monkey-human conflict recently convinced authorities in Lopburi in central Thailand that they had to reduce the animals’ numbers. The authorities baited cages with the animals’ favorite food, then waited for hunger to get the better of their natural caution. More than 30 fell for the ruse on F…

Thailand’s National Museum has welcomed back two ancient statues illegally trafficked from Thailand by a British collector of antiquities that were returned from the collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The objects — a tall bronze figure called the Standing Shiva or Golden Boy and a smaller sculpture called Kneeling Female — are thought to be around 1,000 years old. The Metropolitan Museum had announced last year that it would return more than a dozen artifacts to Thailand and Ca…

A court in Thailand has convicted and sentenced a newly elected lawmaker to six years in prison for defaming the monarchy under a controversial law.

Seventeen Thai workers released from captivity by the militant Hamas group have been greeted by family and friends, officials and journalists in an emotional homecoming at Bangkok’s international airport. The 17 arrived home on Thursday. They are among 23 Thais freed by Hamas so far. Six are still in Israel either because doctors have assessed they are still not fit to travel. Thai officials says another nine are still being held captive in Gaza. There were about 30,000 Thai workers in Israel pr…

Police say a teenage boy who allegedly shot two people dead and wounded five others inside a major shopping mall in Thailand’s capital used a blank-firing handgun that had been modified to fire real bullets. Video broadcast on television showed a long-haired teenage boy in the custody of police. Officials say a Chinese citizen and Myanmar citizen were killed in Tuesday’s attack. Five others were hospitalized: one from China, one from Laos and three Thais. Several are in critical condition. Gun v…

Thailand’s new government takes office as Cabinet members take oath in front of king

A court in Thailand is to deliver a verdict Wednesday in the case of five people accused of impeding the queen’s motorcade during a pro-democracy march in 2020. Hundreds of criminal cases have arisen from the student-led protests, but the five defendants are the only ones charged with violating part of a law that prohibits acts to cause harm to the liberty of the queen and heir apparent. It’s unclear if this law has been used previously. It carries a possible death penalty for conduct that is ju…

Opinion polls show Paetongtarn Shinawatra to be the heavy favorite to take the prime minister’s post after Thailand’s May 14 general election. But there are fears that victory for Paetongtarn, the youngest daughter of ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, could plunge Thailand back into a familiar cycle of protest and military intervention. Thaksin, deposed by a military coup in 2014, is a polarizing political figure with powerful enemies in the Thai establishment who regarded his pop…

A video camera dropped by a Japanese journalist who was shot to death while filming a street protest in Myanmar has reemerged 15 years later. The images he filmed were still in the camera and were shown Wednesday at a ceremony in Bangkok. Kenji Nagai was recording a demonstration that was part of the peaceful anti-military uprising known as the Saffron Revolution when he was shot. He was one of about 10 people killed that day. His images showed protesters and monks in the street close to Yangon’s ancient Sule Pagoda, singing and chanting, with police blocking their way. Trucks full of soldiers then arrived. Nagai’s sister said she hoped an analysis of the tape would disprove the authorities' claim that he wasn't deliberately targeted.

The prospects for peace in Myanmar, much less a return to democracy, seem dimmer than ever two years after the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.