Thailand News
Thailand news, politics, business, crime, and lifestyle—get breaking updates from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond. Stay informed on Thai society, economy, tourism, and expat life with The Thaiger.
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Relocating to Thailand with your family brings exciting new opportunities, but it also comes with the challenge of managing healthcare costs in a new system. Thailand has both public and private healthcare options, each offering different prices and quality of...
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Businesses rail against blackout; Minister blames lightning; Academics say no excuse
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Businesses demand action as officials downplay power cut The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Tourism officials downplayed the impact of Tuesday night’s power outage in the South, but tourism operators and the country’s biggest private-sector association expressed fears for their business and demanded the government take steps to…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Regional blackout prompts call for more power stations
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community South needs more power plants: Egat The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: More power plants are needed in the South to prevent blackouts like the one that left all of Southern Thailand in the dark last night, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) chief said…
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Phuket Gazette Thai News: Chalerm to free Yingluck; Health groups plan protest at PM’s home; BKK will get electric racing
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Chalerm backs down on reconciliation bill The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung looks to have backed down from his plan to push through a controversial version of the reconciliation bill – although this may just be a tactical retreat.His move to tone down…
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Thai students awarded for innovation
PHUKET: Thai students have demonstrated their capacity for innovation at the MEF Educational Institutions’ 22nd International Research Projects Competition held in Turkey recently. The students from Somtawin Witeadsuksa Huaymongkhon School near Hua Hin received a special jury award for their ‘Boe-bot in voice command and GPS program’. Students from Slovenia and Italy also received a special jury prize. MEF Educational…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Rising costs new threat; PM mum on Cabinet; Teacher cheats to be sacked; Four arrested over Asia Hotel blast
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Rising costs greatest threat to govt The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: The increasing cost of living was cited as the major factor threatening to weaken public support for the Yingluck government in a poll by Assumption University.Higher cost of living was cited as the most likely cause…
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Phuket Gazette Queer News: Villagers hope to get lucky with “elepig’
PHUKET: Residents of a village in Nakhon Sri Thammarat are queuing up to visit a household where a pig has just given birth to an unusual piglet. The mother of the “elepig” gave birth to a litter of 15 piglets on March 27. Of the newborns, 14 were normal. But one, a white female, had some strange characteristics. It had…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Marriage could end conflict; True, CTH battle for TV top spot; Haircut changes raise eyebrows
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Will this marriage end conflicts? The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Chayapa Wongsawat and Lynal Nam, an official attached to the Office of the Cambodian Cabinet, will be tying the knot at Plaza Athenee in Bangkok tomorrow.Lynal is the son of Uan Wanlee and tycoon Seang Nam, who…
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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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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Poll parents oppose school closures; Rice pledging under microscope; Pheu Thai blames Constitutional Court for crisis
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community School mergers unpopular with parents: Poll The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: More than half the parents surveyed by a Dusit Poll opposed the Education Ministry’s plan to merge 17,000 small schools across the country in order to increase efficiency and save costs.Of the total, 60 per cent…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Programmer denies hacking; River basins protection; Bearly love
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Programmer denies any part The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: A man who turned himself in to police yesterday denied having anything to do with hacking into the PM’s Office website or posting rude remarks about Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Meanwhile, the “Unlimited Hack Team”, which was mentioned…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Mass closure of schools branded unconstitutional; PM website hacker surrenders; Army grip on nation still strong
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Closing small schools unconstitutional, say rural teachers The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: The Rural Teachers Society’s Northeastern branch yesterday condemned the Education Ministry’s move to close down small schools.“It’s a violation of the 2007 Constitution,” said society vice president Wittaya Panpeng.He was speaking at a teachers’ forum…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Red shirts call off protest, but the poor stay; Exam cheat teachers to be charged; Plan to close 14,000 schools
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Yellows stay as reds head to Parliament The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: After staging a sit-in demonstration for 17 days, the red shirts yesterday announced the end of their protest after a rally motorcade from the Constitutional Court to Parliament to call for the impeachment of five…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: B350bn water project hits corruption dam; Khon Kaen killer cop; Cheating teacher investigated
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Water projects may break corruption law The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: The government might run into another serious legal problem; barely escaping the Administrative Court’s injunction last week, the Bt350-billion water-management project could be found to violate the Counter Corruption Act BE2542 (1999).A source at the Comptroller…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Corruption hits new high; Brit mum campaigns for road safety; Abhisit to face more 2010 murder charges
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Thais becoming inured to corruption, TDRI says The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: With bribes hitting 30-50 per cent of project prices, and the public showing signs of becoming inured to the practice, corruption has reached a critical point, the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) says.…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: NSC rejects BRN demands at Deep South peace talks; Yingluck slams agencies for abusing power
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community NSC rejects BRN demands at peace talks Phuket GazettePHUKET: The Thai authorities on Monday rejected demands by the southern Muslim separatists in their second round of talks, but both sides agreed to hold another meeting on June 13.National Security Council secretary general Lt-General Paradorn Pattanatabut, who headed…
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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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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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Thailand News: ASEAN begins to row back on AEC deadline – quietly
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Southeast Asia’s 2015 unity dream collides with reality Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Southeast Asian nations have quietly begun to row back on a deadline of forming an “economic community” by 2015, confirming what many economists and diplomats have suspected for years as the diverse group…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Army explosives expert says IEDs best defused ‘on-site’
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Bombs ‘best defused on site’ Phuket Gazette / The Nation PHUKET: Insurgent bombs should be defused or dismantled at the site instead of being done at military ordnance labs, a senior Army explosives expert said yesterday.He was referring to an explosion on Monday, which killed three…
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Fake “yogi’ nabbed by cops
PHUKET: A 35-year-old Indian Sikh is in police custody after allegedly tricking villagers in Surin Province into believing he was a yogi with magic powers. Balvinder Singh extracted thousands of baht from at least five believers to “cleanse” them of their bad karma, police say. Mr Singh was arrested while he performed a “magical” ceremony for “Mr Ek”, a 31-year-old…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Gold sales soar as price falls; Teachers charged for toddler’s death; Police corruption probe continues
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Gold sales soar as price dips below Bt20,000 per baht weight The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Local gold has been sold below Bt20,000 per baht weight for the first time since 2011, following a sharp fall in global prices over the past few days.Bullion for immediate delivery…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Airports on bomb alert; AEC opportunity for organized crime; Blast kills one in Pattani
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Airports on alert after US bombings The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Security at Thailand’s major airports will be stepped up following the Boston Marathon bombings, according to a senior executive of Airports of Thailand. Pongsak Semsant, caretaker president of AOT, said yesterday the latest violent…
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Ladyboy nabbed for topless Songkran show
PHUKET: A deeply-invested transsexual was nabbed by Pattaya Police for dancing topless during Songkran celebrations this past week. Narinmek Phaophan, 21, told cops he/she had spent half a million baht on surgery to be transformed into a woman – and she wanted people to see the results of her investment. On April 13, police were tipped off by local people…
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Phuket Gazette Queer News: Woman delivers egg-straordinary baby
PHUKET: A woman in Nakhon Sri Thammarat province claims to have given birth to an egg. Sopharat Phantharak, 36, from Village 5 in Mokhlan Subdistrict, has placed the miraculous object on a pedestal lined with white cloth and is inviting local villagers to come and pay their respects to it. Mrs Sopharat, who is already a mother of four, claims…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Korea evacuation plan at the ready; Soldier abducted in South; Charter debate rages on
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community North Korea on Friday issued a new threat to attack the US, reacting to a show of force by two US B-2 stealth bombers that dropped inert munitions on to a South Korean training ground not far from the North’s border. Pyongyang said its targets were…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Leaning tower condemned; Thaksin tweets; Natural Fruit human rights under fire
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Tilting building near Bangkok urged demolished The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: A seven-storey apartment building under construction at the back of Zeer department store north of Bangkok has been declared off limits, after it tilted and was inspected by local administrators.Public works officials with Khu Khot Municipality…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Govt readies to evacuate Thais from South Korea; Democrat Kingkarn to challenge Chiang Mai; Charter showdown looms
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Govt readies evacuation plan for Thais in South Korea The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Labour Minister Phadermchai Sasomsap yesterday instructed the Thai ambassador in Seoul to prepare a plan for the speedy evacuation of all Thais after North Korea on Saturday declared it was at a “state…
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Phuket Gazette Queer News: The live lizard eater of Kamphaeng Phet
PHUKET: A 74-year-old man in Kamphaeng Phet Province has revealed his secret to staying healthy: eating live lizards.Dokrak Umsaeng, originally from Ang Thong, says he has been eating small geckos, which are commonly found on walls in Thailand, for 12 years – and has no plans to stop it.Lert Thetjaem, the former village chief of Khlong Si Nuan in the…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Little optimism for breakthrough in Thailand’s forgotten jihad
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community SPECIAL REPORT: Little optimism for breakthrough in Thailand’s forgotten jihad Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Rusnee Maeloh slept through the 30-minute gunfight that killed her husband, but her neighbours in the notoriously violent Bacho district of southern Thailand heard distant explosions and feared the worst.Mahrosu Jantarawadee, 31, was…
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Phuket Gazette Queer News: Penis erected against “widow ghost’
PHUKET: Visitors to Nong Yai in Rayong, on Thailand’s Eastern Seaboard, might wonder why residents have set up a shrine featuring a large wooden penis in the middle of their village. The answer? A so-called “widow ghost”, which the women of Nong Yai believe has been mysteriously killing married men in their village for 20 years. The spirit has killed…
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