Thailand

Smokers who violate the smoking ban on 20 of Thailand's most popular tourist beaches will be fined USD 3,000 or will be imprisoned for up to one year, reports bgnes. 

The ban, which comes into force in November, follows the cleaning of nearly 140,000 cigarette buds from an area of 2.5 kilometers from the famous Patong Beach on Phuket Island.

Ed Sheeran has been knocked down by a car in London, according to reports.
The 26-year-old crooner was riding his bike when he was struck down, say pals.
Australian DJ Smallzy has been told that Ed he has broken his arm – putting his upcoming tour plans in jeopardy.
It appears that the incident happened this morning when Ed was cycling down a London street.

U.S. President Donald Trump will host Thai junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha at the White House next week, in a personal triumph for a Thai autocrat who was shunned by Barack Obama's administration for his regime's dismal rights record.

People will do some pretty crazy things to get in the record books.
Though some world-record holders are physical anomalies — like the world’s tallest person, or the shortest — the Guinness Book of World Records is filled with some incredibly strange attempts.
In honor of these odd achievements, here are the 27 weirdest records broken by people around the world.

Greece is the second most popular holiday destination in the world in terms of the volume of internet searches from travelers from around the world. According to a survey by “teflSearch” website, which is dedicated to providing assistance to English-language teachers in finding jobs abroad.

"Sin Tax" enters into force in Thailand for cigarettes and alcohol. At the same time, there is a shortage of these goods after the government has issued warnings of stockpiling, said DPA, quoted by BTA.

Due to the increase in taxation, cigarettes are expected to rise by as much as 40 percent and alcoholic beverages by up to 20 percent.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is to sign a free-trade agreement with Hong Kong in November, a Philippine government official said on Sept. 9, following three years of talks.

The Chinese special administrative region began free-trade negotiations with ASEAN in 2014, four years after the 10-nation economic bloc signed a similar trade deal with China in 2010.

It comes as little surprise that China is North Korea’s biggest trading partner, but whom else does the country trade with? According to The Observatory of Economic Complexity, a leading data visualization sitefor international trade data, India ($97.8 m), Pakistan ($43.1 m) and Burkina Faso ($32.8 m) are the top export destinations of North Korea after China ($2.34 b).

Turkey continued to push for rapid international action regarding the suffering of the Rohingya Muslims, an ethnic minority community in Myanmar, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan having a phone conversation with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the issue on Aug. 30.

Turkey condemned operations by Myanmar security officials in Rakhine state which killed hundreds of people.