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 boob job holiday? This round’s on me
PHUKET: A cosmetic surgery holiday company in Australia is now raffling off a trip to Phuket, complete with the option of breast augmentation surgery – all for the price of a round of drinks.The company, ID Rejuvenation, has paired up with the popular local nightclub Tryst, in Mackay on the Central Queensland coast, to offer the deal, reported the local…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: 5 dead in bridge collapse; NSC rebuts BRN demands; Scrap flood plan – academics
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community 5 dead in Ayutthaya bridge collapse The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: A suspension bridge over Pa Sak River in Ayutthaya collapsed yesterday evening, crushing five people to death underneath a pillar on one side, while wounding 15 others.The collapse also sent a large number of pedestrians and…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: 5 dead in Ayutthaya bridge collapse; NSC rebuts BRN demands; Academics call to scrap flood plan
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community 5 dead in Ayutthaya bridge collapse The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: A suspension bridge over Pa Sak River in Ayutthaya collapsed yesterday evening, crushing five people to death underneath a pillar on one side, while wounding 15 others.The collapse also sent a large number of pedestrians and…
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Phuket Gazette World News: 3 dead in France collapse; US-Syria fears rise; Germany to stay in Euro
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Fugitive owner arrested as Bangladesh building toll reaches 377 Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: The owner of a factory building that collapsed in Bangladesh killing hundreds of garment workers was arrested on Sunday trying to flee to India, as hopes of finding more survivors from the country’s worst…
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Phuket police catch up with Songkran bike burner
PHUKET: : A man who was drunkenly celebrating Songkran on April 13 was picked up by police yesterday after being tracked down through CCTV images that showed him setting a motorbike on fire with a cigarette butt. Panuphon Prutisarn, 36, confessed to Kathu Police yesterday that he torched the bike, but claims it was unintentional. “It was Songkran Day and…
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Monk impersonator run out of town
PHUKET: A shambolic fake monk recently attracted the suspicions of local people in Nakhon Ratchasima Province – and the attention of the police – by trying to collect alms in the afternoon. Villagers called officers at Phimai Police Station to investigate a man who claimed to be a monk, but was improperly dressed, collecting alms late and sometimes even asking…
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No reason for tuk-tuks to block sea taxi project: Phuket Marine Chief
PHUKET: The Phuket Marine office, in an attempt to keep the airport-to-Patong sea taxi project afloat (story here), declared that the project would not affect the livelihoods of current taxi and tuk-tuk drivers. “We do not want to steal customers from tuk-tuk and taxi drivers. We want to attract more tourists to the island by offering them a reasonably priced…
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Phuket Sports: New Monte Carlo master
PHUKET: The arrival of the clay court season always throws up some surprises. Many players have taken an extended break from the game, others are adjusting to the vagaries of the slower surface. No such problems for a renascent Rafael Nadal who defeated an in-form Juan del Potro in the Paribas Open final at Indian Wells. Apparently it did not…
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Phuket Sports: Revelations, rumors and rivalry – F1
PHUKET: Before Bahrain, I said that I believed that, barring accidents, three-time winner Alonso would triumph, followed by The Iceman. Well Alonso did not triumph, thwarted by a jammed DRS wing flap, hammered closed by Ferrari’s mechanics during an emergency pit stop. It jammed open again, Alonso was forced into yet another pit stop and that was the end of…
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Shots fired as Phuket yacht robbery thwarted
PHUKET: Witnesses reported at least two shots fired in the dark on Chalong Bay tonight as a gang of thieves gave chase to a Phuket boat captain who outfoxed the criminals until the police arrived in force. Capt Bruce Issell was warned by a silent alarm at about 11:30pm that intruders had boarded the well-known Davinci catamaran, renowned in local…
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ITF Tournament favorite Luksika Kumkhum reaches final
PHUKET: The final of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) women’s tournament between number one seed Luksika Kumkhum and Lisa Whybourn will be held at Thanyapura Sports and Leisure Club (TSLC) tomorrow, April 27, at 10am. Luksika Kumkhum from Thailand beat Melanie Klaffner 6:2, 6:7, 7:5 in a hard fought semifinal match today. In today’s other semifinal, Thailand’s Peangtarn Plipuech lost…
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Phuket MICE city promotion strategy revived
PHUKET: The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) has revived its efforts and moved its attention to once again help promote Phuket as a regional hub for corporate and organizational tourism. A new four-year strategy was presented to local, regional and national officials at a seminar on April 26 at the Metropole Hotel in Phuket Town. Entitled “Developing Phuket as…
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Killer gold robber still on the run on Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket Police received a tip-off today that the armed robber of a Phuket gold shop who gunned down a customer on April 8 was still on the island. “We are continuing to gather information from witnesses [story here]. I got another phone call this morning that confirmed our belief that the robber is still on the run in Phuket,”…
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Pressure from illegal Phuket taxis wins airport reprieve
PHUKET: After days of protests by taxi drivers operating under the Mook Andaman Cooperative, officials at Phuket International Airport will allow 25 of the drivers to serve passengers at the airport without further delay. Airport management, a division of the state enterprise Airports of Thailand (AOT), capitulated yesterday by allowing 25 of the drivers to operate under one of the…
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Phuket Opinion: Speak up for public transport
Jaturong Kaewkasi, a 41-year-old native of Pattani, has been the Chief Transport Technician of the Phuket Land Transport Office for one year. He has a master’s degree in Social Development from Yala Rajabhat University and before coming to Phuket worked as a transport technician in Bangkok. Here, he talks about how to convince people to use buses in order to…
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Phuket Opinion: Plenty to do, if you can get there
PHUKET: Participants in popular online forums indicate that long-time expatriate residents of Phuket tend to decry the changes that have transformed the island over the past two decades, yet fail to appreciate many of the positive developments that have taken place over the same period. In this space since 1994, we have chronicled, criticized and editorialized – often in futility…
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Thai FA Cup: Phuket FC shoot down Air Force United
PHUKET: The Islanders kept their Thai FA Cup prospects alive, last Wednesday defeating Yamaha League 1 (YL1) rivals Air Force United 1-0 in the second round. The match was played at Thupatemee Stadium, on the northern side of Bangkok, where the islanders are set to play the Air Force “Blue Eagles” again, tomorrow, April 27, in a YL1 week 8…
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Laguna Phuket’s “Run Paradise” marathon rocks with new theme song
PHUKET: This year’s Laguna Phuket International Marathon is rocking its thousands of runners and fans around the world with a specially-commissioned “Run Paradise” theme song. The upbeat rock anthem was composed by Phuket-based musicians Gary Crause and Rob Cooke at Gary’s Legend Music Studios. The anthem celebrates the event’s unique blend of enthusiasm for running and community fund-raising on the…
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Phuket Gazette World News: NGOs hit West over Bangladesh tragedy; US eyes Syrian chemical weapons; No charges over Mossad spy death
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community U.S. suspects Syria used chemical weapons, wants proof Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: The White House said on Thursday that the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad has probably used chemical weapons on a small scale in the country’s civil war, but insisted that President Barack Obama needed…
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DSI turns to Facebook to catch illegal foreigners in Phuket
PHUKET: The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) is considering launching a Facebook page so that people can report foreigners working illegally in Thailand by uploading photos directly onto the Internet.The news came after DSI Deputy Director-general Yanapol Yungyuen heard a slew of complaints from Phuket business owners at a meeting in Cherng Talay yesterday.“I will open an official email address…
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Phuket Police nab serial snatch thief after hot pursuit
PHUKET: Thalang and Phuket City Police have arrested a bag snatcher who reportedly committed 20 snatch thefts within two weeks, and three yesterday in the hours before his arrest. “We arrested Boonserm Chaluaysri, 22, yesterday after we received a report from Phuket City Police of a bag snatch in Rassada in the morning,” Thalang Police case investigator Chatree Chuwichian told…
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B1bn Patong Tunnel payout “not enough’, say residents
PHUKET: Residents of the Baan Mon community yesterday continued their opposition to the proposed 6-billion-baht Patong Tunnel project, urging officials to choose a route that would not go right through their neighborhood. The opposition comes in the face of the announcement that the government would be looking to pay a total of about 1 billion baht to some 20 households…
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ITF Phuket Results: Day 3
PHUKET: Wildcard entry Kamonwan Buayam from Thailand caused the biggest shock of the third day’s action at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) on April 17, defeating number two seed, Australian Olivia Rogowska. Olivia won the first set 6:2 but Kamonwan fought back to claim the second set 7:6, winning the tie breaker 7:2. The unknown Kamonwan then won the third…
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Phuket Gazette World News: EU looks to immigration barriers; Peace talks in Sudan; Train bomb suspect set for court
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Swiss bring back quotas to control EU immigration Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Switzerland said it will reintroduce quotas for European Union workers, bowing to growing unease about immigration from poorer neighbours, in a decision Brussels says violates an accord. Prosperous, landlocked Switzerland has seen the…
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Phuket hotels, businesses targeted in dirty beach canal probe
PHUKET: Hotels and businesses located along the canal that empties onto Bang Tao Beach will be inspected and forced to conform to wastewater-treatment standards, Government Spokesman Prompong Nopparit has announced. The news follows the public exposure of dirty water in the canal that has caused a rash of health problems for tourists and local boatmen in the area, some of…
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Thai innovation may resolve Phuket’s dirty water woes
PHUKET: Officers at the Phuket Office of Natural Resource and Environment (NRE) are promoting a new mini wastewater treatment machine developed in Thailand as a possible savior for Phuket’s ongoing water-pollution woes. The machine was developed by Kanok Nakaew, the Research and Development chief at the Energy and Environmental Engineering Center (EEEC) of Kasetsart University in Bangkok. “This new wastewater-treatment…
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Rusty ex-con nabbed with modern technology in Phuket
PHUKET: A Songkhla man fresh out of jail for bag-snatching was apparently out of practice and failed in his first attempt to grab a woman’s purse yesterday afternoon. He succeeded on his second try, but landed in the hands of the police shortly thereafter, thanks to the “Find My iPhone” application.Just two days out of prison in Songkhla, Suphada Tuansuwan,…
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Former illegal taxi drivers pressure AOT chief over Phuket Airport counter
PHUKET: About 50 taxi drivers who previously operated illegal “black plate” taxis arrived at Phuket International Airport on Monday to request permission to open a counter inside the terminal. The drivers, all members of the newly-formed Mook Andaman Business & Travel Co-operative Ltd, asked to open a counter inside the main terminal while Airports of Thailand (AOT) chiefs decide on…
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Phuket Gazette World News: Myanmar releases political prisoners; FBI grilled on Boston bombers; Ricin letter man freed; France same-sex marriage approved
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Myanmar frees 56 political prisoners one day after sanctions dropped Reuters/ Phuket GazettePHUKET: Myanmar’s president announced an amnesty on Tuesday for about 100 prisoners, a senior official said, 56 of whom were confirmed as political detainees by a group monitoring activists held in the country’s jails.The release…
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Phuket motorbike arson continues to spread
PHUKET: Two more motorbikes and the front of a small restaurant went up in flames in Phuket yesterday, bringing the total number of motorbikes scorched by arson since the beginning of March to nearly 30, say police. At 2pm yesterday, Kamala Police received three reports of fires: two were of motorbikes ablaze and the third was of flames at the…
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