News
Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond. The Thaiger delivers the latest national news that matters.
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Baby boy’s body found in back of Krabi trash truck
PHUKET: The body of a newborn boy was found wrapped in a plastic garbage bag in the back of a Krabi trash truck this morning. Police believe the baby was discarded by his mother shortly after birth, just hours before the body was found. “The baby seemed to have fully developed organs. It was found along with the placenta,” said…
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Phuket meeting on joint Andaman province tourism initiative promises to share the profits
PHUKET: Woravat Auapinyakul, Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office, has told the Phuket Gazette that he expects the “Andaman – The World Experience” tourism initiative to attract more than 20 million tourists to the region. At a meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall on Saturday to chart the progress of the tourism initiative, Mr Woravat said that intense competition within the…
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Futsal World Cup: Thailand faces an uphill group stage campaign
PHUKET: With the entire futsal world’s eyes now focusing on Thailand, pressure is mounting for the host country to put on a respectable performance in the World Cup, which kicks off in Bangkok this Thursday. Having failed to progress past the group stage in their three previous World Cup appearances, Thailand face the high probability of history repeating itself. Though…
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Krabi Police not to investigate British “sex attack’ claims – for now
PHUKET: The police officer investigating the vicious gang attack in Krabi last Monday night has confirmed to the Phuket Gazette that – at this stage – he is not investigating any allegations of an attempted rape . The news follows British tourist Jack Daniel Cole being reported as saying that “he feared the gang – mostly young men with perhaps…
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First female double World Champion to race at Laguna Phuket’s Ironman
PHUKET: Leanda Cave, the recently-crowned 2012 Ironman and Ironman 70.3 triathlon double World Champion, has confirmed that she will compete in the Ironman 70.3 Laguna Phuket on December 2. Ms Cave of Great Britain, is the first woman, and only the second triathlete, to win both World Championship titles in the same year. She sits atop a stellar line-up of…
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Smooth sailing in Phuket Dinghy Series second race
PHUKET: The second race of the 2012 Phuket Dinghy Series took place this weekend off Bang Tao Beach’s Bliss Beach Club. Organized by the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta, the event featured 16 Optimists and four Lasers competing for the Act II title, with the boats amassing points in the three-event series. Stunning blue skies and calm seas set the scene…
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Minister denies Phuket “robbed’ of ICEC 2.6bn baht
PHUKET: The Minister Attached to the Prime Minister’s Office has denied claims that the government has “stolen” the 2.6 billion baht sequestered from the now-shelved plan to build a Phuket International Convention and Exhibition Center (ICEC). In Phuket on Saturday to oversee the preparations for the upcoming three-day Andaman Culture Festival, to be opened by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in…
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Phuket FC prevails: 4-0 win over JW Rangsit ensures division survival
PHUKET: The Islanders ended their season in great form, sealing their Thai Division 1 status with a 4-0 win over JW Rangsit FC on Saturday night. Going into the final match of the season, 13th-placed Phuket were under pressure to win in order to avoid relegation. Meanwhile, their 16th-placed opponents — third from bottom of the 18-team table — had…
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‘Mentally unstable’ man found dead with knife in neck
PHUKET: A man was found with a knife in his neck after witnesses claimed to have seen him pouring petrol around his rented one-room house and attempting to light it on fire today.Thalang Police duty officer Somkit Kaosung received a report at about 10:30am of a “mentally unstable” man pouring petrol around the house, north of Phuket Town.Arriving at the…
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Power to the Phuket people
PHUKET: The official launch of the Koh Kaew transformer station on Friday marked a much needed power boost, said Phuket Vice Governor Somkiet Sungkaosuthirak at the opening ceremony.The station opened by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) is looking to almost double the megawatts the Phuket power system is currently handling, EGAT director Sutad Pattamasiriwat announced.“The main objective is…
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Phuket Opinion: Forgetting children in island development
PHUKET: This week’s news story of the healthy newborn girl being abandoned by her mother at Thalang Hospital raised again the bleak specter of what the future holds for such children. One comment in the Phuket Gazette online forum rightly pointed out that with most adults on the island focusing on boosting tourism numbers and generating income through any and…
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Fireworks row ignites corruption scandal
PHUKET: Winai Chidchiew, the chief of Karon Subdistrict (Kamnan), has found himself amid another corruption scandal, this time over allegedly threatening municipal officers into allowing firework displays to be held late at night, while facing allegations of paying bribes to the Chalong Police.Kamnan Winai found himself in the center of corruption allegations involving the Chalong Police last year, when he…
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Patong gambling den raid fails to come up trumps
PHUKET: Patong Police and about 50 Kathu Territorial Defense volunteers stormed a venue thought to be a “huge” casino in Phuket’s main tourist town only to “go bust” and be forced to leave the premises without a single chip.Acting on information received though the Prime Minister’s Office’s Complaint Center from anonymous local residents, police and Territorial Defense Volunteers descended on…
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Phuket Sports: Futsal World Cup
PHUKET: The War Elephants charge into the Futsal World Cup hoping to restore some pride after the embarrassment of Thailand’s failure to adequately prepare for the event. The sport’s most prestigious tournament starts November 1 with the host nation’s first game against Costa Rica, but it won’t be at the new indoor futsal arena. The center piece 12,000-seat stadium in…
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Phuket Soccer Schools U10s own Patong soccer match
PHUKET: Phuket Soccer School’s (PSS) Academy U10s destroyed Patong Wassaone school 10-1 in a match on Tuesday. A pre-game warm-up and pep-talk fired up the PSS squad, who went on the attack straight from the whistle. Daniel C scored in one of PSS’s first attacks and his goal was followed by a great half-volley from Fard, which left the Wassaone…
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Phuket Sports: Olympic medalist comes to Phuket
PHUKET: Two-time Olympic medalist David Davies spoke to the Phuket Gazette about his upcoming trip to Thanyapura Sports and Leisure Club to teach a Swimming Stroke Clinic tomorrow.Phuket Gazette: What brings you to Phuket and will this be your first time in Thailand?David Davies: It will be my first time in Thailand. Following my third consecutive Olympics, I thought I’d…
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Phuket FC Season finale: all or nothing
PHUKET: The Islander’s Head Coach Anurak Srikerd has vowed to fans that he will run nine circles around the main ordination hall of Wat Chalong on Sunday morning if Phuket FC prevail in their final match of the season this evening.He did not say, however, what he would do if the Islanders don’t prevail in the match, a home-fixture to…
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Sydictive “super new year Phuket beach bash’ still to jump bureaucratic hoops
PHUKET: Ma-ann Samran, president of the Cherng Talay Administration Organization (OrBorTor), today expressed uncertainty as to whether the new year’s extravaganza would take place as promoted. The event received much publicity by the arrival of Paris Hilton in Bangkok this week to promote the high-profile ‘beach bash’ to take place at Surin Beach from December 30 to January 1. Mr…
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Yingluck’s Cabinet called on to answer Phuket ICEC debacle
PHUKET: Phuket MP Anchalee Vanich Thepabutra yesterday stood in Parliament and called for the government to answer why the 2.6-billion-baht project to build a Phuket International Convention and Exhibition Center (ICEC) was cancelled. The news of the cancellation was never announced by the government, prompting Ms Anchalee to break the news through her Facebook page last week. Despite being lobbied…
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Krabi teens claim stabbing of British tourist was a “misunderstanding’
PHUKET: Two teenagers who confessed to attacking a British tourist in Krabi on Monday have claimed that they “misunderstood” the foreigner’s actions and thought he was insulting them.The victim, Daniel Cole, 21, has already undergone surgery for the cut wounds to his temple, chest, right shoulder and right arm and is recovering at Bangkok Hospital Phuket.Anusorn Kullak, 18, and his…
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Phuket tour van flips in rush hour
PHUKET: A Phuket tour van flipped onto its side in rush hour traffic this evening while swerving to avoid a cement truck that cut across its lane.Luckily, the van was empty of passengers and the driver escaped injury.“The van driver said he was driving northbound along Thepkrasattri Road, heading toward the airport, when a cement truck cut into his lane,”…
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Chinese Consul-General raises tourist safety concerns with Phuket Governor
PHUKET: Chinese Consul-General Xu Mingliang yesterday raised the issue of tourist safety with Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut while personally welcoming the recently installed governor to office. Xu Mingliang, a regular visitor to Phuket, heads the Chinese Consulate in Songkhla, which is also responsible for Chinese nationals in Phuket and the other Andaman provinces. “Thailand and China have a long history…
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Phuket illegal taxi blitz nets 194 drivers on first day
PHUKET: A total of 194 drivers were charged and fined yesterday for illegally operating a taxi or for not displaying the now-mandatory stickers that publicly identify the drivers on the sides of their vehicles. The haul in arrests came on the first day of an island-wide crackdown on illegal taxi drivers in Phuket as officers from the Phuket Land Transportation…
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Similan Islands to undergo ‘spring cleaning’ before re-opening
PHUKET: National Park officers, private business operators and locals are set to join forces for a two day beach and reef cleanup at the Similan Islands before the national park re-opens for the tourism high season on November 1.“We want people to realize the importance of preserving the marine ecosystem and feel that it is truly their responsibility to protect…
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Phuket Business: Food and energy inflation soaring
PHUKET: Once again, raw data from the Commerce Ministry has affirmed that the South, and particularly Phuket, continues to be “hotter” – in terms of the cost of living – than elsewhere in the Kingdom. The Phuket Commerce Office, in conjunction with the Commerce Ministry’s Bureau of Trade and Economic Indices, recently published the Provincial Consumer Price Index (CPI-P) for…
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Phuket’s largest readership base brought to bear on expat forum
PHUKET: Phuket’s largest online community just got bigger this morning with its merger into the newly launched Phuket Forum Dot Net. Powered by the Gazette Online, Google’s top-ranked website for Phuket (Source: Google Analytics), the new forum draws from a current daily readership base greater than all other local news outlets combined. All stories appearing in the Gazette Online appear…
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Hermaphrodite blocked from Thai monkhood
PHUKET: A young man in Lampang province wants to ordain as a monk at his local temple, just like nearly all Thai Buddhist men do at some point during their lifetimes. But Krittapak Duangchai, 30, has a problem: his local temple will not ordain him as he is a hermaphrodite. The budding monk possesses a vagina as well as a…
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Local input “critical’ to public awareness campaigns: Online Poll
PHUKET: Having local residents and local Thai officials involved in public-awareness campaigns, such as the Go Eco Phuket’s “Dive Against Debris” underwater cleanup last month, is critical to their success, according to a recent online poll by the Phuket Gazette. Following the “Dive Against Debris” reef cleanup, which set a record as the largest single simultaneous dive “cleanup” event in…
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Three dead as family car returning from Vegetarian Festival slams into tree
PHUKET: Three people are dead and a mother and her two children are in hospital after the car they were traveling home in from the Phuket Vegetarian Festival slammed into a tree late yesterday afternoon.Duty officer Eakkaphob Phoothong of the Takua Thung Police in Phang Nga received a report of the accident at about 4pm.At the scene, about 500 meters…
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Phuket mother returns to nurse abandoned newborn
PHUKET: The mother who abandoned her newborn girl, delivered into the world at Thalang Hospital last Friday, has returned to the hospital to nurse her child. However, she has yet to decide whether she will keep the baby. “The mother’s still sick – very tired,’ said Phuket Provincial Health Office Deputy Director Wiwat Seetamonotch this afternoon. “She has had no…
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