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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Phuket FC need to tame the Wild Horses
PHUKET: The Islanders will face newly promoted Rayong FC at Surakul Stadium tomorrow and will look to return to winning ways. Phuket’s push for promotion has stalled recently due to the club failing to win any of their last three games, which included two draws and a loss. Phuket currently sit sixth in the league, five points behind top of…
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Police urge Phuket tourists to use Tourist Buddy app
PHUKET: The Phuket Tourist Police are urging visitors to the island to download and register the agency’s Tourist Buddy application, which is now available on Google Play for devices running the Android platform (click here). The Tourist Police launched its Tourist Buddy app on Apple’s iTunes store last month, making it instantly available for iPhone and iPad users (click here).…
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Monsoon weather brings trash to Phuket shore
PHUKET: Broken glass, plastic and wood with protruding nails washing ashore on Patong Beach have alarmed Phuket tourists, but local authorities say they our powerless to prevent the dangerous flotsam.Though officers from Patong Municipality’s Public Health Office collect trash strewn along the beach every morning, they are finding it difficult to keep the sand clear of debris.“It’s the same problem…
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Marine officials urge Phuket boat owners to be vigilant
PHUKET: In the wake of recent break-ins and thefts on yachts anchored around Phuket, the marine authorities are urging boat owners to ensure their boats are secure. “In order to protect yacht property from being stolen, I suggest yacht owners have round-the-clock security on their boats. They should protect their boats as they protect their houses,” said Lt Col Chatchai…
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Phuket Gazette World News: Texas tornado kills six; Nepal passenger plane crash – all survive; Mayan pyramid bulldozed
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Monster Texas tornado kills six, seven people missing Reuters/ Phuket GazettePHUKET: Six people were dead and seven missing after a powerful tornado ripped through a neighbourhood that included housing for the poor in the north Texas town of Granbury, marking the deadliest severe storm outbreak in the…
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Phuket coral restoration begins as seawalking continues
PHUKET: Marine officers and volunteer divers who headed to Khai Nai island on Tuesday to help restore damaged coral – allegedly wrecked by a seawalking tour company (story here) – found the company back on site leading a tour when they arrived. “We saw a ship named Sea Lion in the area with a speedboat alongside. People were on the…
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Phuket high-speed pursuit ends in fight, heroin bust
PHUKET: Two policemen on motorbikes chased two men believed to be carrying drugs through the early morning streets of Thalang today, fought with the pair and eventually arrested one of them – a vegetable seller – with almost 50 grams of heroin.Alerted by a tip-off that Wig Nillawan, 52, and another man would be picking up drugs delivered on the…
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Phuket ice factory blazes hot
PHUKET: A storage facility at the Thung Thong Ice Factory on Phuket’s busy Chao Fa West Road burst into flames this afternoon. The one-storey wooden building, north of the Software Park Phuket (map here), housed two ice storage freezers and one orange ice tank. Thung Thong Ice Factory Distribution Director Punnatorn Suphonthawee estimated the fire caused about 30,000 baht in…
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Resorts north of Phuket lose beachfront to raging sea
PHUKET: Waves two meters high have caused damage along 13 kilometers of beachfront at Bang Niang Beach in Phang Nga.The coastal erosion has forced at least one hotel owner to set up sandbags to protect against the sea and prompted the local mayor to call for help from the Phang Nga Governor.“Hotels in the area were damaged and a wall…
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Krabi farmers threaten airport blockade
PHUKET: Krabi palm oil and rubber plantation workers have threatened to blockade Krabi Airport if the government does not increase the legal minimum prices for their produce by next Thursday.More than 500 plantation workers gathered in front of Krabi Provincial Hall on Tuesday morning to file a complaint to be handed to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.The complaint calls for the…
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Bangkok officers in Phuket to stamp out public butts
PHUKET: Flagrant disregard for non-smoking laws in Phuket has prompted officers from the Bureau of Tobacco Control in Bangkok to plaster Phuket International Airport, Phuket Bus Terminal 2 and a variety of private businesses across the island with no-smoking stickers.“Most public areas are smoke-free areas by law, yet we still have found many tourists and local business operators disobeying the…
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Phuket Gazette World News: Cyclone Mahasen crosses Bangladesh coast, two dead; one million evacuated
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Cyclone Mahasen crosses Bangladesh coast, two dead; one million evacuated Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Cyclone Mahasen started crossing Bangladesh’s low-lying coast earlier today, bearing down on the ports of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar, as tens of thousands of people huddled in shelters from a storm which the…
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New school year means busy Phuket pawnshops
PHUKET: As the new school year started in Phuket yesterday, parents turned to the Phuket City Municipality Pawnshop to cash in items to pay for their children’s school supplies. Trade was brisk at the government pawnshop, up 20 per cent on last year, said staff. The occasion brought Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut and local officials to the pawnshop on Komarapat…
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Phuket teens deny attacking Burmese man, motorbike arson
PHUKET: Three Phuket teenagers arrested last night have denied police charges of beating a Burmese man and setting his motorbike on fire.A fourth member of the gang is still being sought by police.The suspects, Vechayun Boonsit, 19, as well as a 16-year-old minor and a 18-year-old, whose names police asked to be withheld, allegedly attacked a Burmese man and threatened…
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Phuket Gazette World News: Syria savagery as soldier rips out, bites heart; Rohingya drown in Cyclone Mahasen; Saudi SARS; Japanese sex slave outrage
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Rohingya Muslims drown off Myanmar trying to flee storm Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: A boat carrying about 100 Rohingya Muslims capsized off western Myanmar and many were feared drowned at the beginning of a mass evacuation from low-lying regions ahead of a powerful storm, a United Nations…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Local Govt protests budgets; Asia-Pacific experts to join Bangkok Water Summit; Small schools now to ‘merge’
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Local bodies demand Bt57 bn in total funding The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Leaders of the three key local administrative bodies have threatened to step up protests if their demands for the government to review the 2014 fiscal budget and provide them with 30 per cent of…
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Australians consider opening consulate on Phuket
PHUKET: A decision on whether or not to open an Australian consulate in Phuket is expected to be made within a month, Australian Honorary Consul Larry Cunningham told the Phuket Gazette this morning. “We have more deaths in Phuket than we have in Bali. We certainly need extra staffing,” he said. Mr Cunningham discussed the issue with Australian Ambassador James…
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After Phuket, Capt Tan makes record-breaking landing in Malaysia
PHUKET: Captain James Anthony Tan of Malaysia has completed the world’s youngest solo flight circumnavigation after departing Phuket at 11am today to land safely in Kuala Lumpur at 4:51pm local time. Capt Tan arrived in Phuket yesterday and attended a party in his honor at the Dewa Phuket Beach Resort in Nai Yang last night, hosted by Tourism Malaysia, which…
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Phuket real estate used as bait in gambling ring
PHUKET: Five people have been arrested for operating a real estate scam in which they lured potential customers into illegally gambling on a game of “fan tan”. The scammers used the same ploy as that used by a group arrested in Phuket in February (story here). Massage shop owner Uraiporn Sae-Tung wanted to sell her massage shop in Rawai and…
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Major u-turn for Phuket’s roads; life delivered, not taken
PHUKET: Phuket rescue workers, regular crusaders rendering assistance to all those involved in accidents on the island’s notorious roads, were called to a very different emergency before dawn this morning: the delivery of a baby girl.Staff at the rescue operations center in Mai Khao received a call at 5:15am, asking for assistance to transport Jintara Butrarit, 24, from her home…
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Phuket teen motorbike rider survives slam into juggernaut
PHUKET: A Phuket teenager is in hospital this morning after the motorbike he was riding slammed into the back of a cement truck near the Heroines Monument in Thalang (map here) late last night. Lt Col Apidet Chuaykue said Thalang Police were notified of the accident at one minute past midnight. Police arrived quickly at the scene, along with an…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: School closures bite; Forecast for abundance; Seh Daeng revival; Sudarat says no
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community School closings pressure parents The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Enrolling students every other year at primary school level could be one solution to the government’s controversial policy of closing small schools, a leading educator told a Bangkok seminar yesterday. Other proposals included teaching three two-year…
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Phuket Gazette World News: Turkish bombs spark Syrian fear; EU in doubt; OJ Simpson returns; SARS-like virus to spread
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Syrian refugees fear backlash in Turkey after bombings Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Syrian refugees in Turkey say they fear a backlash after car bombings that killed 50 people and wounded many others over the weekend in a border town.Turkey is home to some 400,000 refugees from the…
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Phuket Opinion: Learning to drive
PHUKET: Every motorist I have ever met remembers the day he or she was issued a driver’s license and got behind the wheel… legally. My wife enjoyed that day only this week. The joyous occasion came after months of trying to teach her to drive on the streets of Phuket, where we were slowly denied the opportunity of practicing away…
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British national’s extended holiday goes to pot at Phuket “dope hotel’
PHUKET: Phuket Immigration officers today arrested a British man for drug possession and for overstaying his visa by more than two* years. The arrest was made at the same resort, off Taina Road in Karon, where a Swedish man was arrested on drug charges last Thursday (story here). “At 11:30am, we received a report from our undercover officers to investigate…
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Phuket Poll: What would you spend B2.6bn on?
PHUKET: There has been nothing but eerie silence since Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra ignored questions about what happened to the 2.6 billion baht that was once “already dedicated” to building Phuket’s decades-in-waiting International Convention and Exhibition Center (story here). In recognition of that silence – and the fact that the money “already dedicated” was provided by a loan from the…
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Druggy catches Phuket cop on the can, steals firearm, heads to McDonald’s
PHUKET: A Patong Deputy Superintendent was caught with his pants down in Kathu Police Station during the graveyard shift after a meth-fiend robbed his office as he was taking a 20 minute break in the washroom. “When I returned from the toilet, I found my property had been stolen,” said Patong Police Deputy Superintendent Paisarn Sangthep. Among the missing items…
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DNA tests for two more Phuket baby elephants
PHUKET: Officers raided two locations last week suspected of housing baby elephants illegally snatched from the wild and conducted DNA tests on the two animals to determine their parentage. Officers suspect that the two elephants are the offspring of a wild elephant in Kaeng Krachan National Park. Both elephants had microchips in their ears and the necessary registration and transfer…
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Phuket firm to co-develop superyacht facility in Bangkok
PHUKET: Island based, Yacht Solutions (YS) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Bangkok’s Italthai Marine (ITM), agreeing to create Thailand’s first dedicated superyacht facility just south of Bangkok. This joint venture brings together Thailand’s largest and most established shipbuilding company, ITM, with one of Thailand’s most reputable and experienced superyacht refit companies, YS. Dubbed ‘Yacht Solutions at Italthai Marine’,…
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Phuket FC survive execution by Ayutthaya’s Ancient Warriors
PHUKET: The Islanders failed to beat Ayutthaya FC in their Yamaha League One (YL1) away game on Saturday. The 1-1 draw dropped Phuket FC down to 6th in the table, five points behind top of the table Air Force United. Ayutthaya are third from bottom after 10 games. The home team took the lead in the 36th minute after Phuket’s…
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