News

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The young woman from Myanmar and her family now live amid the tall grasses of a riverbank on the Thai border, trapped in limbo between a country that does not want them and a country whose military could kill them.

BANGKOK — Thailand has raised its COVID-19 alert level in response to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, a senior health official said Thursday.

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand on Tuesday decided to immediately reimpose a mandatory quarantine for visitors and suspend a “test-and-go” scheme for fully vaccinated arrivals as concerns grow over the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, the government said.

The new omicron variant took only a few weeks to live up to dire predictions about how hugely contagious it is but scientists don’t yet know if it causes more severe disease even as the world faces exploding cases just before Christmas.

BANGKOK — Public Health Ministry confirms on Monday the first case of locally transmitted infection from omicron variant.

KRABI — National park officials have agreed to the return of tourists to the scenic Maya Bay after more than three years of closure for the sake of ecological rehabilitation, media reports say.

BANGKOK — Construction tycoon Premchai Karnasuta was sentenced by the Supreme Court to more than three years in jail on Wednesday for illegally poaching wild animals inside a protected forest, among other charges.

BEIJING (AP) — Laos, a nation of 7 million people wedged between China, Vietnam and Thailand, is opening a $5.9 billion Chinese-built railway that links China’s poor southwest to foreign markets but piles on potentially risky debt.

LONDON (AP) — The new potentially more contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus popped up in more European countries on Saturday, just days after being identified in South Africa, leaving governments around the world scrambling to stop the spread.

BANGKOK — The government’s pandemic response center said the country is at the risk of another coronavirus outbreak because some foreign visitors are failing to follow disease control measures, like wearing facemasks in public.