Thailand

A major Thai coffee brand has vowed to pay about 200 farmers who were forced to take out loans while waiting nearly three years for payments due them, leaving them with spiralling debts. Doi Chaang Coffee, which has more than 50 franchises in Southeast Asia, said it would pay about 7 million baht after the Thomson Reuters Foundation revealed the …

The new case, a 60-year-old Chinese woman whose family members earlier contracted the virus, takes the total number of cases in Thailand to 35 since January, Sukhum Kanchanapimai, the health ministry’s permanent secretary told a news conference. The health ministry said on Monday that Thailand had recorded one new case of the coronavirus and was increasing screening of visitors from …

General Motors (GM) announced it will stop selling Chevrolet vehicles in Thailand and sell its Rayong plant by the end of this year. “Low plant utilisation [and low] forecast domestic and export volumes impacted the business case significantly,” Andy Dunstan, GM president for strategic markets, alliances and distributors, said on Monday. GM will continue to support existing Chevrolet customers for ongoing …

Armed robbers who stole hundreds of toilet rolls were being hunted by Hong Kong police on Monday, in a city wracked by shortages caused by coronavirus panic-buying. Toilet rolls have become hot property in the densely packed business hub, despite government assurances that supplies remain unaffected by the virus outbreak. Supermarkets have found themselves unable to restock quickly enough, leading …

The US flew home its citizens from a coronavirus-infected cruise ship in Japan Monday, with other nations preparing to follow suit as global concerns grow over the spread of the disease and the death toll at its Chinese epicentre topped 1,700. More than 70,500 have been infected across China by the COVID-19 virus as the world battles to contain the …

Foreign Trade Department, announced 3.17 million tonnes of the total will be white rice, shipped primarily to the Philippines, Angola, Benin, Cameroon and China, with parboiled rice making up 2.23 million tonnes and Thai hom mali rice 1.1 million tonnes. The remainder is glutinous rice and other types of grains. Thailand is expected to ship 7.5 million tonnes of rice …

Mr Chuan said on Tuesday there is no law barring the opposition from re-debating the bill, “But people watching will know what its intentions are,” he said. The opposition is free to debate the budget bill again following a Constitutional Court ruling on the status of the legislation although its plan to do so could be called into question, parliament …

Giving public speech at Royal Thai Army headquarters on Tuesday, Gen Apirat apologised for Jakrapanth Thomma’s rampage in a Korat shopping mall on Saturday, and said the gunman lost his military status as soon as he first pulled the trigger. Army chief Apirat Kongsompong has vowed to terminate unsound internal army projects, after shady transactions were raised as a possible …

The world’s top women’s professional golf tour, which includes a number of stars from Thailand, also cancelled the HSBC Women’s World Championship scheduled to take place from Feb 27 to March 1 in Singapore. The Tour has now lost all three of its lucrative early-season events in Asia, after cancelling the 2020 Blue Bay LPGA, which was scheduled to take …

At least 40,000 people in China have now been infected by the virus, believed to have emerged late last year in Hubei province’s capital Wuhan. And although the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said there are tentative signs the epidemic is establishing in China, the agency’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned that the number of cases recorded overseas could …