Thailand News

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  • 8 dead, 69 injured in Yala bomb blasts

    8 dead, 69 injured in Yala bomb blasts

    PHUKET: At least eight people are dead and 69 injured after three bombs exploded in a busy shopping district in Yala Town at 11:50am today. Yala Governor Decharat Simsiri confirmed to the press that two explosions detonated near the Park View Hotel on the Ruammitr Road in Tambon Sateng of Muang district. While firefighters were trying to contain the blaze,…

  • Weird World News: When love is just not enough

    Weird World News: When love is just not enough

    PHUKET: Three sad tales of love gone horribly wrong blot this week’s Weird World news line-up, from a husband who shot his wife and dogs over a poop row, to a man who divorced his wife because she’s “annoying”, to a jealous boyfriend who killed his lover over her cyber affair. Husband shoots wife over dog poop row A TEXAS…

  • Phuket Gazette: Thailand news round-up

    Phuket Gazette: Thailand news round-up

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community ‘Powerful figure’ implicated in scandal over stolen cold pills Phuket Gazette / The Nation PHUKET: At least one very powerful figure has been implicated in the embezzlement of pills containing pseudoephedrine from state hospitals, the public health minister’s adviser, Pasit Sakdanarong, said yesterday. An investigation has…

  • Phuket Gazette: 22 busted in scam; 4 Thais to be released; BT6,500 each to party

    Phuket Gazette: 22 busted in scam; 4 Thais to be released; BT6,500 each to party

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community 22 held in scam Phuket Gazette / The Nation PHUKET: A gang that operated a fake call center and lured foreigners into transferring money into its bank accounts was busted yesterday. The gang was based in Thailand’s Nonthaburi province. All 22 suspects arrested were either Chinese…

  • Phuket Gazette: PM touts Thailand in Korea; 3G saga continues; Thais getting oiled

    Phuket Gazette: PM touts Thailand in Korea; 3G saga continues; Thais getting oiled

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Thailand ripe for investment, says PM in Seoul Phuket Gazette / The NationPHUKET: Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has assured South Korean businessmen of Thailand’s bright economic prospects, citing the government’s business-friendly policies, flood-management measures and the cut in corporate tax. In a speech in Seoul yesterday…

  • Big-headed driver gets away with it

    Big-headed driver gets away with it

    A MAN in Ang Thong province recently got a pass from the police when he was stopped on his motorcycle for not wearing a helmet – and there were no bribes involved. Sombat Chiangkham, 37, told amused officers his head was too big to fit into a helmet. After taking the top-heavy gentlemen to their station and making him try…

  • Weird World News: Woman pee addict spills story, North Korea loves triplets and vasectomy doctor serves slices

    Weird World News: Woman pee addict spills story, North Korea loves triplets and vasectomy doctor serves slices

    PHUKET: This week’s Weird World News round-up takes aim at people ingesting and breeding in the name of addiction, state approval and for the promise of pizza. Woman addicted to drinking own pee A 53-year-old Colorado woman has been addicted to drinking her own urine for the past four years, it emerged this past week. Photos of the woman –…

  • Phuket Gazette: Ceremony rehearsal

    Phuket Gazette: Ceremony rehearsal

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Ceremony rehearsal PHUKET (The Nation): Soliders marched during the second major rehearsal yesterday of the cremation of HRH Princess Bejaratana Rajasuda at Sanam Luang on April 9. The Maha Pichai Ratcharot chariot will carry the royal urn. Princess Bejaratana, the only child of King Rama VI,…

  • Phuket Gazette: Price rises beginning to bite in Thailand

    Phuket Gazette: Price rises beginning to bite in Thailand

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Survey shows Thais in the grips of widespread price increases Phuket Gazette / The Nation PHUKET: Most respondents, 61 per cent, in a poll on the current cost of living in Thailand said they were not confident in the government’s measures to handle the country’s rapidly…

  • Phuket Gazette: Early execution of drug convicts

    Phuket Gazette: Early execution of drug convicts

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Chalerm pushes for early execution of drug convicts PHUKET (The Nation): Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm today vowed to push for law amendments to have drug convicts executed 15 days after the Appeal Court’s verdict upholds the death sentence. He said he would propose an amendment to…

  • Phuket Gazette: Drug-crime busters accused of possessing drugs

    Phuket Gazette: Drug-crime busters accused of possessing drugs

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Drug-crime busters accused of possessing drugs PHUKET (The Nation): Four drug-crime busters were arrested by fellow police after they allegedly made an arrest and seized drugs, but failed to report them to a supervisor, let the suspect go and kept the drugs, city police chief Pol…

  • Phuket Gazette: Thailand welcomes Burma’s decision to have international observers

    Phuket Gazette: Thailand welcomes Burma’s decision to have international observers

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Thailand welcomes Burma’s decision to have international observersPHUKET (The Nation): Thailand has welcomed the Burmese government’s invitations for international representatives as observers for the parliamentary by-election on April 1. Thai Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said that the move demonstrates Burma’s efforts to promote credibility of the upcoming…

  • Phuket Gazette: Thailand business news

    Phuket Gazette: Thailand business news

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Honda’s April restart means no plans for relocation PHUKET (The Nation): Honda Automobile (Thailand) will not relocate to Indonesia, as confirmed by its plan to resume operation at the Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya province on April 1, said Industry Minister Pongsvas Svasti. It was reported…

  • Phuket Gazette: Probe into Rangers’ ops; Sonthi faces tough question; Reconciliation

    Phuket Gazette: Probe into Rangers’ ops; Sonthi faces tough question; Reconciliation

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Rangers’ operations lawful: probe PHUKET (The Nation): The investigation into the shooting of a pickup in Pattani in January by Army paramilitary rangers, which left four villagers dead, has found the operation was lawful under the rules of combat engagement and called for compensation to all…

  • Phuket Gazette: Canadian Prime Minister to visit Thailand

    Phuket Gazette: Canadian Prime Minister to visit Thailand

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Canadian PM to arrive in Thailand tomorrow PHUKET (The Nation): Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will pay an official three-day visit to Thailand, starting tomorrow, at the invitation of his Thai counterpart to strengthen bilateral relations. The visit will mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment…

  • Phuket Gazette: John Barnes to wing his way to Thailand

    Phuket Gazette: John Barnes to wing his way to Thailand

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Liverpool’s John Barnes set to light up Thailand sixes PHUKET (The Nation): Miss the trademark dribbling of former England international John Barnes? You could witness it at close quarters when the ex-Liverpool winger showcases some of his old tricks at the Standard Chartered EPL Masters Football…

  • Thailand sporting round-up

    Thailand sporting round-up

    – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Ratchanok and doubles players in semis PHUKET (The Nation): Teen sensation Ratchanok Inthanon overpowered the in-form Sung Ji-hyun in a thrilling hard-fought encounter on Friday. The 17-year-old, who has won the world junior meet three times in succession and is ranked No 11 in the world, was the lone…

  • Possessed former security guard has fatal fall

    Possessed former security guard has fatal fall

    PHUKET: A former security guard fell 10 floors to his death from his home and former workplace after claiming he was being haunted and possessed by ghosts. Khathayut Sukkhlum, 36, was fired from his job at the Sinsetthee Resident Town 1 building in the Hua Mark area of Bangkok about three months prior to his death. His broken body was…

  • Weird World News: Young Guns set fire to castle, plunge down trash chute and take walk of shame

    Weird World News: Young Guns set fire to castle, plunge down trash chute and take walk of shame

    PHUKET: We were all young, free and stupid once. Let’s not forget that when we cast judgment on this trio of troublesome Young Guns who made the cut in this week’s Weird World News.Smoking is bad for castlesTWO Slovak boys are suspected of setting flame to a 14th century Gothic castle in Bratislava this week. Police believe the pair were…

  • PM Yingluck orders budget airlines to move to “Bangkok LCC’

    PM Yingluck orders budget airlines to move to “Bangkok LCC’

    PHUKET (The Nation): In a move that will affect all tourists flying from Bangkok to Phuket on low-cost airlines, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has ordered all low-cost carriers (LCCs) to move operations to Don Mueang Airport. The move is aimed at improving air and runway traffic at Suvarnabhumi Airport, but the plan is unlikely to ease the current turmoil frustrating…

  • Phuket Gazette: Foreigners own 100 million rai

    Phuket Gazette: Foreigners own 100 million rai

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Foreigners own 100 million rai PHUKET (The Nation): Some 100 million rai of Thailand is owned by foreigners, mostly through their Thai spouses or nominees, Auditor-General Sriracha Charoenpanit revealed yesterday. He said if this situation was “unresolved”, it could lead to later generations of Thais having…

  • Weird World News: Fox mugs man, kitesurfer stabs shark and nerds design robo-Cheetah

    Weird World News: Fox mugs man, kitesurfer stabs shark and nerds design robo-Cheetah

    PHUKET: This has been a week of man taking on wild. From the cobbled and cold streets of England to the warm waters of the Red Sea and at a state-of-the art Massachusetts robotics lab, snarling and snapping animals coming face-to-face with man made headlines this week. Man ‘mugged’ by fox A BRITSH man claims he was mugged by a…

  • Praying lizard crashes Buddhist ceremony

    Praying lizard crashes Buddhist ceremony

    PHUKET: A NINE-INCH gecko is talk of the town in a village in the Northern province of Phayao this week – not for its size, which isn’t exactly unusual, but for its piety. On February 27, one of the village families invited a monk to their home to hold a Buddhist ceremony of renewal. The ceremony was interrupted halfway through…

  • Drug-dealing, sex-buying monk defrocked | Thaiger

    Drug-dealing, sex-buying monk defrocked

    PHUKET: A SEX-CRAZED monk in the Northern province of Lamphun has been defrocked and charged by police for allegedly selling ya bah (methamphetamine) to local teenagers. Phra Phichat In-wan of Wat Rongkutai in the province’s Maeraeng Subdistrict spent much of his drug profits on prostitutes that he had sex with on temple grounds, according to police. The disgraced clergyman kept…

  • Phuket Gazette: Four Troops killed in Thai bomb attack; Quick probe into criminal cases crucial

    Phuket Gazette: Four Troops killed in Thai bomb attack; Quick probe into criminal cases crucial

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Four troops killed, another injured in Narathiwat bomb attack PHUKET (The Nation): The unit was returning home after providing security to Buddhist devotees and monks at a temple in the evening of Maka Puja Day when the explosion occurred at 10:40pm yesterday. The explosion occurred on…

  • Phuket Gazette: Thai women courted; Hopewell back in public eye; PM in Japan;

    Phuket Gazette: Thai women courted; Hopewell back in public eye; PM in Japan;

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Pheu Thai, Democrats take different paths in wooing women voters PHUKET (The Nation): Both parties cite the importance of women, their roles in taking care of families and their forming a key part of the workforce. As the world celebrates International Women’s Day today, the two…

  • Phuket Gazette: Don Mueang; Yala bombing; Sex ‘trade’ not ‘traffic’

    Phuket Gazette: Don Mueang; Yala bombing; Sex ‘trade’ not ‘traffic’

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Passengers give top marks to Don Mueang restart PHUKET (The Nation): According to a survey conducted by The Nation, only budget airline Nok Air was in operation at the airport. Passengers said they found the service convenient. Security guards said there had been no disruption since…

  • Phuket Gazette: Don Mueang Airport ready to resume operations

    Phuket Gazette: Don Mueang Airport ready to resume operations

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Don Mueang Airport ready to resume operations PHUKET (The Nation): Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra today presided over a re-opening ceremony. The government allocated 392 million baht to the Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AoT), with the AoT spending 1.2 billion of its own budget to…

  • Cuckhold takes revenge | Thaiger

    Cuckhold takes revenge

    PHUKET: A MAN in Chiang Mai recently confessed to taking brutal revenge on a 60-year-old man who slept with his wife. Cuckhold Kaew Intha, 47, shot Tue Jaima in the head – before hacking his penis off with a knife and placing the guilty member on the dead victim’s chest. Police from Maeka Police Station in the Northern province were…