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 crash uproots tree, two slightly injured
PHUKET: Two people were injured in Phuket this afternoon when the driver of a pickup truck lost control on the bypass road, hit a tree on the median strip and collided with a sedan heading in the opposite direction. The accident occurred at about 2pm on the stretch of the bypass road in front of the Premium Outlet Mall in…
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Phuket Gazette: ‘War Room’ intensifies fight against Thai floods
PHUKET: Representatives of numerous government agencies started work this morning at the newly established ‘Flood-Relief Operations Command’ in a concerted effort to help Thailand through one of the worst flooding crises in its recent history. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra announced the establishment of the command in a televised address last night. “This is now a national effort,” she said. “We…
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Hajj 2011: Phuket Airport prepped for pilgrims
PHUKET: Phuket International Airport is making special preparations to help Thai Muslims from the South as they prepare to embark on this year’s Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Airport Director Duangchai Condee says the Thai pilgrims will leave Phuket for Saudi Arabia aboard four Thai Airways flights, two each on Monday and Tuesday. This year, pilgrims from Haad Yai…
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Phuket News Hound: Thai flood deaths continue climb; 36 more dead in Mexican drug bloodbaths; Italians love wiretaps
Phuket NEWS Hound – world NEWS compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community U.S. Immigrant Population reaches 40 million Phuket Gazette The population of immigrants in the United States has grown to more than 40 million people, according to a study released yesterday by the nation’s New Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). The center’s analysis of Census Bureau data…
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Phuket PAD remembers protest victims
PHUKET: Phuket members of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) yesterday took part in an alms-giving ceremony to remember the victims of the October 7, 2008 clashes between PAD protesters and government troops who forcibly removed them after a 193-day blockade at Government House in Bangkok. The merit-makers offered donations of food and other necessary items to monks at Wat…
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OPINION: Phuket’s Battle for the Beaches – a poster child in distress
PHUKET: Much of Phuket’s allure as a leading resort destination in Asia is its number of beaches. Put shopping in the bag, along with Bangkok, and Thailand’s second most vital generator of tourism demand is the motion of the ocean. Views and proximity to the water are catalysts for real-estate values, accelerated sales and capital appreciation. Premium residential and hotel-managed…
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Calling all Phuket’s statisticians
PHUKET: When the game of cricket is mentioned to people who have never been involved with this multi-faceted sport, invariably a statement is made to the effect, “I don’t understand the rules and how it’s scored”. Well, here is your chance to learn the intricacies of cricket scoring from one of the region’s most highly respected and experienced scoring technicians.…
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Weird World News: Recipes for disaster when entertaining guests
PHUKET: If you’ve ever had a friend or date come over for a meal only to wince in disgust, spit out a half-chewed mouthful of goop, make a few nonsensical excuses and promptly leave, then it’s safe to say you’re a dud in the kitchen. If you don’t know a courgette from a zucchini or a spatula from a spade,…
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Phuket divers sought for coral cleaning day
PHUKET: Fifty divers are needed to take part in the clean-up of a popular dive site off the coast of Phuket later this month. The clean-up, to take place at Koh Hei (Coral Island) on October 29, is part of three days of activities organized by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office in Phuket Town, the Thailand Diving Association…
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Frenchman arrested for fraud in Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket Tourist Police on Wednesday arrested a Frenchman for ATM card fraud in Patong, but his alleged accomplice managed to flee on foot. The suspect, 31-year-old Rodi Yagir, was presented to the media by Tourist Police at their office in Phuket Town. Also displayed were a variety of electronic devices including a laptop computer, a credit card “skimmer”, two…
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Landslide threat prompts Phuket evacuation
PHUKET: Residents in a landslide risk zone in Phuket have been ordered to evacuate following fears of a major slide that could bury businesses and block the bypass road. The order followed a landslide on Wednesday morning behind the Adisak Equipment store on the bypass road northbound in Rassada. Store owner Adisak Lertchuwongsa said, “The soil slid down suddenly at…
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Phuket panel pushes for minimum wage hike
PHUKET: The Phuket provincial subcommittee for minimum wage rate review has applied to the Central Wage Committee in Bangkok to increase the minimum daily wage in Phuket to 300 baht, effective from January 1. A 300-baht-per-day minimum wage for all government employees was passed by Cabinet on Tuesday and made retroactive to October 1 of this year. Sutthipong Saisakares, chief…
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Tesco Lotus dismisses Phuket closure rumors
PHUKET: Tesco Lotus executives have dismissed rumors that the opening of its new hypermarket in Thalang will be followed by the closure of its flagship property near Phuket Town. “The one in Phuket Town will stay open as long as people continue to shop there,” said corporate affairs executive Martin Clutterbuck. The comments came following the opening ceremony of the…
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Phuket task force named to push Convention Center
PHUKET: The Phuket Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) is set to argue against its counterpart in Bangkok, which ruled against a plan to build an international convention and exhibition center (ICEC) on the island. The local MNRE office is one of four “proponents” chosen as part of a Phuket task force to counter the reasons given by the…
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Record entries for Phuket Beach Volleyball
PHUKET: The Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT will complete the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour, and once again the event has proved its increasing popularity by attracting the highest number of entries for a women’s tournament out of 29 stages on the World Tour calendar. This year’s tournament has attracted 82 entries from 32 countries, including 28…
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Jürgen Zack – training tips for the Phuket Triathlon
PHUKET: Jürgen Zack has won the European Ironman Championship five times, the Ironman Austria twice and has been Ironman Australia Champion. This supreme German athlete has also had three top ten finishes at the most gruelling distance event in the world – The Ford Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. With just eight weeks to go before the island’s Tri-Fest…
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Phuket News Hound: Steve Jobs is dead; Phuket tennis tourney shaping up; Listeria alarm in US
Phuket NEWS Hound – World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has died Phuket Gazette Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died last night in California. In a statement, Apple’s Board of Directors confirmed the passing of Jobs. “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of…
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Pathetic FA argument
PHUKET: “The introduction of goal line technology would hinder the game’s free flowing nature and undermine the referee’s authority.” Alex Horne, general secretary of the English Football Association, yesterday indicated that it may be possible to introduce video technology by 2013/2014, but interrupting the game’s tempo and reducing the referee’s control were arguments to be considered. Here’s an argument for…
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Tesco Lotus Thalang opens in Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket’s second Tesco Lotus shopping mall is now open for business in Thalang, with a grand opening ceremony featuring scholarship presentations to needy local students set for tomorrow. The new mall, located on Thepkrasattri Road southbound near Thalang Hospital, covers more than 17,000 square meters and has 99 shops. The department store itself employs 274 staff, all from Phuket,…
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Phuket landslide victim ‘doing well’
PHUKET: The local leader who was buried alive in a landslide in Phuket earlier this week is recovering well, relatives say. The victim, 38-year-old Witsanu Yidsua, was watching television in his bedroom on Monday morning when part of a neighboring home collapsed and slid downslope, crashing through a concrete wall and burying him up to his neck in chunks of…
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Phuket floods: roads closed, landslide hits Patong
PHUKET: Downpours this morning have caused havoc across Phuket, with road closures and major traffic delays reported across the island – and another landslide in Patong. The Department of Disaster Mitigation and Prevention office at Patong Municipality this morning told the Gazette they received a report of a landslide on Soi Kuan Yang, located off Patong Hill road between Wat…
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Last day of 2011 Phuket Vegetarian Festival
PHUKET: Today marks the final day of the 2011 Phuket Vegetarian Festival, with the final farewells to the Nine Warrior Gods scheduled to take place amid a deafening street procession along Phuket Road this evening. This year’s festival has been one of the rainiest ever, with over 173mm of rain recorded over the first eight days of the festival at…
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PATA: Phuket should brace for a “new breed of tourist’
PHUKET: The tourism industry in Phuket should take preemptive steps to prepare itself for a major shift in tourism dynamics, a high-powered meeting of industry players was told recently. A shift in global economics has prompted a trend for visitors to Phuket to be more likely to come from within the Asia-Pacific region, specifically India and China, said Bert van…
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Phuket News Hound: Helicopter crash kills one
Phuket NEWS Hound – world NEWS compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Helicopter crash in New York City kills British woman Phuket Gazette A helicopter carrying five people crashed in New York City this morning, killing a British woman, officials said. The accident occurred at around 3:20pm local time yesterday afternoon (3:20am today in Phuket) when a privately-owned helicopter…
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Phuket on high alert for landslides – again.
PHUKET: Residents in hillside areas of Phuket are asked to remain on high alert for the possibility of more landslides, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM-Phuket) warned today. Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) Phuket chief San Jantharawong told the Phuket Gazette that his agency had this morning received a second warning message about the possibility of…
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Northern floods prompt Phuket call for blood
PHUKET: The head of the Phuket Regional Blood Center, run by the Red Cross, has called for blood donations to bolster dwindling stocks in the northern, central and northeastern provinces which have been severely affected by floods. “We have enough blood in stock for the six provinces along the Andaman Coast, but I am calling for blood donations because the…
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Phuket gears up flood relief efforts
PHUKET: The Phuket Reporter’s Club is accepting donations on behalf of the Phuket Provincial Office to help victims of the severe flooding across northern, central and northeastern Thailand. The floods have so far claimed the lives of more than 200 people and forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes. The Reporter’s Club, located at Phuket Provincial Hall,…
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Police believe Fake DSI agent is on the run in Phuket
PHUKET: A career conman who claimed to be a high-ranking Department of Special Investigations (DSI) officer is on the run again after two decades of crime, arrests, womanizing and escaping justice. Witchayut Pansampao, the alleged conman who masqueraded as a DSI officer to defraud people throughout the South, was arrested last month in Haad Yai but has gone missing after…
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Weird World News: Young people doing stupid things
PHUKET: Most adults dread old age because it means you can’t do the things you could when you were young. But if the following stories are anything to go by, those getting on in years should feel blessed with the wisdom that comes with age. The weird, dangerous and idiotic things young people are getting up to around the globe…
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‘Lanky Gecko’ and his house of lizards
CHIANG MAI: An animal-crazy man in Chiang Mai has shacked up in an apartment with 23 large geckos and chameleons, living with the lizards as if they were pet cats and dogs. When a reporter from Khao Sod went to visit Suiti Saelim’s apartment in Fa Ham subdistrict, there were lizards everywhere: under the bed, on the mattress, on the…
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