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.

  • Central’s new volcano goes up in flames | Thaiger

    Central’s new volcano goes up in flames

    VIDEOS: Kristopher and Toribio One of Central Floresta’s new themed feature attractions has been totally guttered today in a dramatic fire that started just after opening time this morning. The ‘Tribhum’ attraction, a walk-thru theme park, scheduled to open before the end of the year, burnt fiercely as the outer skin of the ‘volcano’ caught fire and kept burning until…

  • Thai mothers caving to superstition or private hospital wishes when having babies | Thaiger

    Thai mothers caving to superstition or private hospital wishes when having babies

    by Kornwaree Panyasuppakun and Tim Newton “Many babies in Thailand are born to suit ‘auspicious days’ or the Obstetrician’s golf plans.” The expectant mother reported to the private hospital in Phuket where she and her husband had decided to have their first baby. When she walked in for her appointment with the Obstetrician the first question was when she wanted to…

  • Thaiger Radio News – Saturday | Thaiger

    Thaiger Radio News – Saturday

    Listen to the daily news from The Thaiger, anytime, anywhere…  

  • Large earthquake in Sulawesi. Palu struck by tsunami. | Thaiger

    Large earthquake in Sulawesi. Palu struck by tsunami.

    Another Indonesian earthquake, this time a shallow 7.5 magnitude tremor that was more powerful than the quakes that killed hundreds on Lombok island during July and August, has hit the central Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Rescuers are still scrambling to reach villages in central Indonesia to assess the damage after the earthquake hit, causing buildings to fall down and triggering…

  • Chinese woman’s death at a Hat Yai waterfall is now a murder investigation | Thaiger

    Chinese woman’s death at a Hat Yai waterfall is now a murder investigation

    An investigation into the mysterious death of a Chinese woman at a waterfall in near Hat Yai has now become an official murder investigation. A Chinese man has emerged as a prime suspect and Thai police also seeking evidence in China and working with Chinese police. Tourist Police Division’s deputy commander Pol Maj-General Surachate Hakparn says that he was soon…

  • Australian tourist shoots himself at a Sakoo shooting range | Thaiger

    Australian tourist shoots himself at a Sakoo shooting range

    A 25 year old Australian tourist has sustained serious injuries following a gunshot at a shooting range in Sakoo today. Sakoo is a Tambon near the Phuket International Airport. The Phuket Tourist Police report that they were notified from the Sakoo Police at 2pm that a male Australian tourist, later identified as Cook Jayden Antony, used an automatic handgun to…

  • Loei mothers file complaint about local abbot sexually abusing their sons | Thaiger

    Loei mothers file complaint about local abbot sexually abusing their sons

    Four Loei mothers have filed a complaint with police today accusing the local abbot of a monastic centre of sexually abusing their sons. They told Khok Ngam police that the abbot in Tambon Phone Sung, Dan Sai district, had molested their sons while they were novices there. One woman (name withheld by police) says her 17 year old son was…

  • Happy Birthday Sweet 17 | Thaiger

    Happy Birthday Sweet 17

    PHOTO: The Nation Happy birthday Lin Hui. Lin Hui is one of the stars of Thailand’s ‘panda frenzy’ a decade ago. Today she’s 17 years old and fans assembled at the Chiang Mai Zoo to sing “Happy Birthday” and maybe share some special birthday bamboo. Lin Hui’s mate Chuang Chuang got in on the fun as well, sharing her birthday…

  • Thaiger Radio News – Friday | Thaiger

    Thaiger Radio News – Friday

    Listen to the daily news from The Thaiger, anytime, anywhere…  

  • Suspect questioned in alleged waterfall murder in Hat Yai | Thaiger

    Suspect questioned in alleged waterfall murder in Hat Yai

    PHOTO: Sanook An investigation into the death of 28 year old Chinese tourist Lei Jiang at the Tone Nga Chang falls in Hat Yai in Thailand’s south has turned up some fresh evidence. A rock that may have been used as a murder weapon, as well as possible bloodstains, have been found in the area. While an accident or suicide has…

  • Pattaya gambling raid finds dice, money. And sex drugs. | Thaiger

    Pattaya gambling raid finds dice, money. And sex drugs.

    PHOTOS: Sanook Police raiding yet another suspected gambling den. Expect to find gamblers and gambling paraphernalia. Right? Pattaya police were conducting a routine raid on a noisy gambling den when they found more than just gamblers and cards. Apart from the usual dice, note pads and money, police turned up 317 large packets of ‘sex drugs’ in both gel and…

  • Thai tiger farms investigated for links to black market | Thaiger

    Thai tiger farms investigated for links to black market

    Thailand’s tiger facilities have come under international scrutiny amid suggestions many there are many farms taking part in the illicit trading of the endangered species. The committee on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) now plans to appoint a non-governmental organisation to collect data on the population and conditions of captive-bred tigers…

  • Snap for Stray exhibition @ Limelight Avenue | Thaiger

    Snap for Stray exhibition @ Limelight Avenue

    The Soi Dog Foundation has mounted the ‘Snap for Stray’ Photo Exhibition which will run until September 29 at Limelight Avenue in Phuket Town. The exhibition gathers 40 beautiful photographs from contestants of the Snap for Stray Photo Contest held earlier last month. The exhibition aims to change peoples’ attitude about stray dogs, showing them that strays can be lovely,…

  • Chonburi road rager gets 10 years for killing a 17 year old | Thaiger

    Chonburi road rager gets 10 years for killing a 17 year old

    PHOTO: Suthep Poshsomboon reporting to police following last year’s road rage incident “Following several punches by the 17 year old boy, a gunshot was heard” The Chonburi Provincial Court has handed down a 10 year jail term to an engineer who shot dead a teenage schoolboy in a high-profile road rage incident last year. Suthep Poshsomboon was also fined 2,000 baht…

  • 388 suspected tuberculosis cases found at Phitsanulok prisons | Thaiger

    388 suspected tuberculosis cases found at Phitsanulok prisons

    Up to 388 inmates at two prisons in Phitsanulok have been found to have signs of tuberculosis. This revelation from public health officials after they performed lung x-rays on the inmates. Doctor Rattaphum Champhunot, assistant chief public health officer for Phitsanulok, says the latest x-ray examinations were performed earlier this month. At Phitsanulok Prison, 2,959 inmates received the x-ray and…

  • Australian living in Chiang Mai hangs himself from a roadside tree | Thaiger

    Australian living in Chiang Mai hangs himself from a roadside tree

    An Australian man is believed to have hanged himself from a tree on a roadside in Chiang Mai’s Hang Dong district this morning. The man has been identified as Nicholas James Watek. A passer-by called the Hang Dong police around 9.30am after he saw the man hanging from a tree on Soi Bon Kai Doi Tham in Ban Doi Tham village…

  • Foreigner sets fire to his house then tries to jump off cliff | Thaiger

    Foreigner sets fire to his house then tries to jump off cliff

    A foreign man, who set fire to a house he was living in with his Thai wife, tried to jump off a cliff in Rawai this morning. Firefighters were notified about the incident at a house in Rawai earlier today. When firefighters arrived at the scene, the house was already well ablaze. It took half an hour to put out…

  • Police hunting for Phuket coffee shop thief | Thaiger

    Police hunting for Phuket coffee shop thief

    Phuket police are hunting for a thief who has broken into a coffee shop in Thalang this week. Thalang Police were notified of the incident at the coffee shop inside PTT gas station on Thepkrasattri Road, northbound in Thalang. Panada Molee, a coffee shop staff member, told police that she had closed the coffee shop at 8pm on Tuesday night…

  • Thaiger Radio News – Thursday | Thaiger

    Thaiger Radio News – Thursday

    Listen to the daily news from The Thaiger, anytime, anywhere…  

  • How many twins in one Trang school? | Thaiger

    How many twins in one Trang school?

    Sanook is reporting that a primary school in Trang has an unusual problem. It’s a confusing time for teachers and students with 20 sets of twins in classes from kindergarten up to primary 6. In the past the school has had as many as 28 twins in some years over the past decade. That is more than any other school…

  • Typhoon Trami predicted to regain strength and hit Japan this weekend | Thaiger

    Typhoon Trami predicted to regain strength and hit Japan this weekend

    Tropical Typhoon Trami has weakened and it is no longer considered a “super typhoon” but is still packing winds up to 195 kilometres per hour (121 mph). The islands in the storm’s projected path are bracing for its arrival. If the current projected path of the typhoon holds, Trami will hit the southern Japan Ryukyu islands, including Okinawa, some time…

  • Duterte talks down a coup plot to remove him from office | Thaiger

    Duterte talks down a coup plot to remove him from office

    The Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is calling on his police force not to join any “stupid” coup attempts against his Presidential administration. His warning follows reports of a plot to oust the outspoken President. The plot has been nicknamed “Red October.” Quoted in inquirer.net, President Duterte said yesterday, “Do not go into such stupid thing as coup d’ etat. You’re…

  • Four others rescued in Tham Luang before the Mu Pa 13 | Thaiger

    Four others rescued in Tham Luang before the Mu Pa 13

    PHOTO: British cavers, Rick Stanton and John Volanthe Dramatic new stories out of a “Hidden Earth” cave-community event where it’s been revealed that the, now famous, Mu Pa 13 weren’t the only people trapped inside the caves in Chiang Rai. Two of the British divers who were part of the Tham Luang rescue effort, extracting the Mu Pa football team from…

  • Airbnb partners with Thailand Boutique Accommodation Trade Association | Thaiger

    Airbnb partners with Thailand Boutique Accommodation Trade Association

    PHOTO: Mike Orgill, Airbnb Country Manager for Southeast Asia (left) and Suparerk Soorangura, President of TBAA and Advisor to the Thai Travel Agents Association (right) signing the MoU. Airbnb, the world’s leading community-driven hospitality company has announced its industry-first partnership with the Thailand Boutique Accommodation Trade Association (TBAA) to promote creative, people-powered Thai hospitality. Through the partnership, Airbnb and the TBAA…

  • 12 million meth pills, half tonne of ‘ice’ seized in Chiang Rai | Thaiger

    12 million meth pills, half tonne of ‘ice’ seized in Chiang Rai

    Been a busy day in northern Thailand as police grapple with the transporting of drugs across the borders. First, this morning there was a motorcyclist with a backpack full of meth pills. Now a much larger shipment has been intercepted. The Nation reports that Chiang Rai police have foiled an attempt to smuggle 12 million methamphetamine pills and 521 kilograms…

  • Greed unravelled the trio’s grisly plot – Phrae double murder | Thaiger

    Greed unravelled the trio’s grisly plot – Phrae double murder

    PHOTO: Alan and Nod receive the keys to their new pick-up truck. The bodies of 64 year old Alan Hogg and his 61 year old wife, Nod Suddaen, wee unearthed yesterday morning following a short investigation where greed brought the plot unstuck for the killers. After a few hours of interrogation three men admitted to collusion in the plot to…

  • A backpack full of meth pills headed for Chiang Mai | Thaiger

    A backpack full of meth pills headed for Chiang Mai

    A Chiang Mai man has been arrested las night after allegedly trying to smuggle 100,000 methamphetamine pills into the city from the Myanmar border, 100 kilometres away. Police at a checkpoint in Mae Ai district had signalled for a motorcyclist to stop but he sped off. With officers in pursuit, he lost control of his motorbike and came to grief…

  • Two injured in By Pass road roll-over | Thaiger

    Two injured in By Pass road roll-over

    PHOTOS: Jao Blue Car 2299 / Newshawk Phuket Two people have been injured after an SUV careered off the side of Chalermprakiat Ror 9 Road (Bypass Road) last night. Rescue workers were notified of the accident on the By Pass Road, southbound, around 11pm. They arrived at the scene to find an SUV rolled over on the roadside verge. Inside the…

  • Thaiger Radio News – Wednesday | Thaiger

    Thaiger Radio News – Wednesday

    Listen to the daily news from The Thaiger, anytime, anywhere…  

  • TAT plan to boost tourism to secondary locations, and Thai Airways’ bottomline | Thaiger

    TAT plan to boost tourism to secondary locations, and Thai Airways’ bottomline

    The TAT – Tourism Authority of Thailand – is coming to the rescue of the beleaguered national carrier, Thai Airways. They are going to promote 20 flight routes in 10 provinces for the rest of this year. This is in response to instructions from the Thai government for state-owned enterprises to work together to boost income for the airline which…