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.
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Norwegian survives eight-story plunge
PHUKET, PATONG: A young Norwegian tourist who fell from his eighth-story hotel room Tuesday morning miraculously survived with only minor injuries. At about 8 am, Kathu Police were informed that a foreign tourist had fallen from his room on the eighth floor of the Phuket Palace Hotel, at the south end of Patong on the road to Karon. Fearing the…
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British man dies in motorbike smash
PHUKET, KAMALA: A British tourist was killed in a head-on collision with a passenger van near the entrance to the Tavorn Beach Village and Spa yesterday morning. Peter Stephenson, 52, had been in Thailand for two months and was planning to marry his Thai girlfriend, according to Duty Officer Chansarawut Saengarun of Kamala Police. The owner and driver of the…
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Rassada first municipality to microchip pets
RASSADA, PHUKET: To keep the island rabies-free and reduce the number of stray dogs, Rassada Municipality on January 21 held a free clinic during which some 300 pets were either sterilized, vaccinated or implanted with microchips. The event, held at the Rassada Municipal Children’s Playground, was the first of its kind by any of Phuket’s 19 local administrative bodies. Organized…
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Thais vs Danes in King’s Cup final
PHUKET CITY: Thailand will take on a highly favored Denmark side in the finals of the King’s Cup soccer tournament, with kick-off at Surakul Stadium at 7 pm tomorrow. Thailand made it through to the final after beating Lebanon in a game marred by a series of ugly second-half brawls. The match, televised nationwide by Thai TV Channel 7, saw…
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World’s largest nam prik at food festival
PHUKET CITY (SAPHAN HIN): The four-day “Phuket Local Food Festival” started on Tuesday with the preparation of what the organizers have declared is the largest batch of nam prik (chili dipping sauce) the world has ever seen. The festival, organized by the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization (OrBorJor), aims to promote Thai food to holiday makers to demonstrate that Thai cuisine…
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Local Food Festival starts today
PHUKET CITY (SAPHAN HIN): A four-day ‘Phuket Local Food Festival’ starts today at Saphan Hin.The festival, organized by the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization (OrBorJor), aims to promote Thai food to holiday makers and other travelers to demonstrate that Thai cuisine is not only delicious, but that it is prepared with exemplary standards of hygiene.All vendors at the festival will prepare…
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Australian sentenced to 3 years in jail
Bangkok (The Nation): A Thai court sentenced an Australian author to three years imprisonment on a lêse majesté charge this afternoon. Lêse majesté, a French term, is the crime of violating majesty, or offending the dignity of a reigning sovereign. The court’s ruling came as Harry Nicolaides, 41, pleaded guilty to the charge. He wrote a novel in 2005 which…
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Argentine nabbed for motorbike theft
PHUKET CITY: While motorbike theft is a common crime in Phuket, the perpetrators are typically students of local vocational schools – not graphic artists from a country whose people are better known for their skills at soccer than thievery. A press conference at Phuket City Police Station late last week proved once again, however, that when it comes to crime…
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Hundreds attend Phuket Airpark Fly-In
PHUKET (PA KHLOK): Phuket’s first private airport got off to a flying start yesterday, the key day in a three-day Fly-In celebration to mark the opening of Phuket Airpark. Covering 116 rai about six kilometers east of the Heroine’s Monument, the 500-meter airstrip forms the central attraction to what its developers hope will be Phuket’s most unique real estate development…
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Farang Restaurant owner shot in Phuket
PHUKET: The owner of the Phuket-based Farang restaurant chain was shot dead while sitting with friends at one of his dining venues on Friday night. The victim, Chit Raknanga, a successful and popular Thai national known to his friends as ‘Tik’, was shot at close range by a man who had arrived at the restaurant on the back of a…
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Governor orders beach committees to get to work
PHUKET CITY: Expressing dissatisfaction with the current state of popular tourist beaches on the island, Phuket Governor Preecha Ruangjan has ordered working groups responsible for maintaining order and tidiness at the beaches to submit monthly progress reports. Speaking at Phuket Provincial Hall late last week, Gov Preecha said the four groups need to work harder at bringing better order to…
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Phuket not on Bird Flu risk list
BANGKOK / PHUKET (The Nation): The Public Health Ministry has listed 14 provinces as being at risk from a reappearance of the H5N1 bird flu virus. “The cool weather provides a good environment for it,” said Deputy Permanent Secretary Dr Paijit Warachit. He named Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Ayutthaya, Lop Buri, Chai Nat, Prachin Buri, Nakhon Nayok, Suphan Buri, Kanchanaburi,…
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Phuket Airpark ready for grand opening
PHUKET (PA KHLOK): Phuket’s first-ever Fly-in starts tomorrow with ten aircraft scheduled to take part in a weekend of celebrations, games, contests and aerial stunts to mark the grand opening of Phuket Airpark. About 50 pilots from at least a score of nations are expected to be on hand, among them world-renowned American bush pilot Tom Claytor who flew in…
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Pro-Thaksin TV channel available in Phuket
BANGKOK / PHUKET (The Nation): Politicians linked to ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will on Monday launch the DTV satellite television station, with the goal, they say, of advancing democracy and opposing coups. Banned Thai Rak Thai Party executive Adisorn Piangket said yesterday that the station would be managed by D Station, with himself as chairman. It is being co-founded…
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Phuket’s luxury villa market holding despite global conditions
PHUKET: The upscale luxury villa segment has outperformed the broader Phuket property market for Q4 2008 in spite of the worsening global financial downturn and recent political issues in Bangkok, according to the Phuket Luxury Villa Market Report recently released by the island’s widely respected consulting firm C9 Hotelworks. C9’s Managing Director Bill Barnett said that “while take-up rates are…
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OrBorJor, Nation Group organize free cram sessions
PHUKET: In implicit recognition that the mainstream education system is not sufficiently preparing students for entry into higher education, the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) has joined with the Phuket Educational Service Office and the Nation Multimedia Group, (of which the Phuket Gazette is a part), to hold the 1st Educational Skills Improvement Seminar at Phuket Rajabhat University. The project,…
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Bat-tling the cold, Isarn style
KALASIN: While temperatures of 10 degrees Celsius may not seem so cold to expats from more northerly climes, for poor Thais living in unheated shacks without warm bedding the cold season is still a real trial.Every year charity appeals are launched to find warm clothing for poor families in the North and Northeast.Villagers in the Isarn have developed alternative methods…
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Drug disco monk defrocked
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: In an interesting story that until now has not been reported in the English language press, a monk was arrested on November 17 after police discovered he had converted his cell at the temple into a mini disco and was having drug parties. After receiving a tip off that a monk at Wat Mukhathara, in Tambon Pak…
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Help sought for tourism sector
BANGKOK (The Nation): The Tourism and Sports Ministry has submitted 13 tourism recovery measures for government approval that include waiving visa fees, cutting air fares and reducing airport charges. Minister Chumpol Silapa-Archa said the measures, compiled from private-sector proposals, were handed to the government’s economic team yesterday. The tourism industry is suffering from the global economic crisis and the after-effects…
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Giant Clam population in danger
CAPE PANWA, PHUKET: With the colorful shell of the giant clam highly prized by aquarium owners, the lucrative but illegal trade in the species is causing the population of this marine mollusk to decrease dramatically and experts fear it may become extinct in its natural habitat. Out of the eight known species of giant clam in the world, five species…
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Light-fingered Aussie couple nabbed in Patong
PATONG, PHUKET: An Australian man and his wife were arrested yesterday afternoon for shoplifting gold and diamond jewelry from shops in Patong and other parts of the island. Pol Lt Col Sakhon Bandisak of the Kathu Police identified the couple as 32-year-old Kimberley Clintjames and his wife Tran Anhchi Thi, age 34. The pair were arrested at 4 pm as…
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Phuket man confesses to Koh Pha Ngan tourist murder
PHUKET: A Phuket man has confessed to the strangling murder of a female German tourist on Koh Phangan on the night of the island’s famous Full Moon Party, local police said. Tattoo artist Tiwat “Ood” Kasemchoke, 29, yesterday confessed that he strangled Astrid Al-Assaad Schachmer on Koh Phangan and disposed of her body in the water at Baan Naiwok Beach,…
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Angry residents block traffic after fatal accident
KATA, PHUKET: A mob of angry Kata residents last night used their vehicles to block the main road through Kata.The protest followed an accident two days earlier, when a cement truck allegedly speeding through the Kata Yai and Kata Noi intersection collided with a parked van and motorcycle. Two men were injured and one might have to have an arm…
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Tourist found dead after island rave party
KOH SAMUI / KOH PHA-NGAN (The Nation): Police are hunting for the person believed responsible for the death of a German woman at the full-moon party on Ko Pha-ngan, a satellite island off Samui Island, at the weekend. “An investigation suggests she might have been raped and killed,” Maj Pissanu Bia-kaew, a Tourist Police inspector, said. The tourist, in her…
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The Times: realistic or romantic about Phuket?
PHUKET: In a world-beating feature in the travel section of the New York Times this weekend, Phuket makes the grade as one of the world’s 44 “most compelling” destinations to visit in 2009. See the rankings here. Interesting and encouraging indeed. But local residents may find an agent provocateur lurking just below the surface in an editorial sub-ranking where it’s…
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Phuket’s kids enjoy Children’s Day
PHUKET: Youngsters are today enjoying free games, activities, stage performances and food and drink around the island for Thailand’s annual Children’s Day. Events dedicated to giving kids a good time are taking place at shopping malls, military installations, government offices, schools, hospitals and public areas all over the island.
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Second incineration plant to be built at Saphan Hin
PHUKET CITY: A solution to Phuket’s waste disposal crisis appears at hand now that a Malaysian firm has agreed to build a second power-producing incineration plant at Saphan Hin. Ratcharin Khawsuwan, an officer in the municipality’s finance division, said the announcement came at a press conference by Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansupana, Phuket Vice Governor Worapoj Ratthasima and Dato Tan…
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Children’s day activities round-up
PHUKET CITY: This year’s Children’s Day falls on January 10 – tomorrow – with activities for the whole family all around the island. The Phuket City municipality has arranged a host of events to take place at the Municipal Youth Health Center at Saphan Hin. Local schools and parents’ associations will have their own tents, where presents, sweets, ice cream…
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Golf: Two holes-in-one, one man, one game in Phuket
PHUKET: Long-term Phuket resident John Connelly, 58, smashed all records Saturday morning when he carded two holes-in-one in a single round of golf at Phuket’s Blue Canyon Country Club. According to an estimate published in Golf Digest magazine, the odds of such an occurrence are about one in 67 million! Connelly, with a handicap of 13, achieved the feat while…
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Sports Complex design complete, but still no building budget
MAI KHAO, PHUKET: Design work on a long-awaited sports complex on 240 rai of state land in Mai Khao is now complete, but the project remains without funding. Promchote Traivate, head of the Phuket Office of Sports and Recreation Development, said the latest design consists of a 4,000-seat multi-purpose hall, a 15,000-seat football stadium with retractable roof, an “extreme sports”…
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