Thailand News
Discover the most recent and relevant news from across Thailand on The Thaiger’s National News page. Covering a wide range of topics, including politics, business, crime, and lifestyle, our dedicated team brings you breaking news, in-depth analysis, and exclusive stories from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond.
Stay informed about the latest developments in Thai society, economy, and culture, as well as updates on travel, tourism, and expat life. With The Thaiger, you’ll never miss out on the essential news that matters to you.
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Sacred tree opts for dual gender
SURAT THANI: A 400-year-old tree with branches that resemble male and female genitals has brough villagers flocking to look. Charoen Sriyong, 60, of Tambon Pak Praek in Don Sak, took reporters to see a 20-meter Lagerstroemia tree and pointed out the two limbs, each about 50 cms long. One pointing upwards resembled a penis, while another pointing downwards resembled the…
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Bank protestor shows he has balls
BANGKOK: Chuay Kotchasit had led a group of 50 people from Kanchanaburi to the Ministry of Finance in Bangkok to hand in a petition to Deputy Finance Minister Varathep Ratanakorn against the Savings Bank. Chuay had led protestors against the Savings Bank in Kanchanaburi before, when the bank refused to return the money the people had put into a fund.…
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Bad neighbor caught brown-handed
NAKHORN SRI THAMMARAT: Neighbors Anan and Prasert had got along fine until the day they argued. That’s the day Prasert found out just how vindictive Anan could be. First, kitchen utensils started to disappear from Prasert’s kitchen. Then the situation grew worse: Prasert found excrement splashed on washing he’d hung out to dry. So Prasert installed a video camera and…
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That ole Oedipus complex
NONG KHAI: Somchai Saenkaew, 40, attacked his younger brother Kamsai, 33, with a sickle when he found Kamsai attempting to commit what anyone in their right mind would consider to be a foul crime. Kamsai suffered wounds to his back, neck, and right arm and was left to bleed to death in the dirt in front of the family home…
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Where did he stash the cash?
PATONG: Katoey Rassamee Lomviset, 27, nearly got away with one of his best “lifts” recently when he stole money out of a policemen’s wallet while being questioned at a police station. Pol Sgt Maj Kasaem Vichianboonyaporn had brought Rassamee in to the Tourist Police office on Thaweewong Rd for questioning after he and fellow officers caught the katoey soliciting sex…
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Ghastly ghosts a fatal attraction
BANGKOK: Police believe a curve called “Krok Yai Cha” on Sukhumvit Rd in Bangkok’s Rayong Town is haunted because it has been the scene of about 50 deaths since a police traffic kiosk opened there in 1995. Bodies of victims are usually placed outside the kiosk. It’s an unpopular posting and officers who spend time there talk of hair-raising experiences…
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Villagers bet on hobbling goblin
NAN: Villagers of Thung Chang flocked to the home of Thong Chanthawong in search of lucky lottery numbers after some mysterious footprints, believed to have been left behind by a supernatural being, were found on the stairs leading up to his house. On each step was one left-foot print, bewildering Thong and his wife, Phan, because they didn’t know of…
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Game over for molesting monk
NONG BUA LAMPU: Police arrested a monk who promptly confessed to molesting two boys, aged 12 and 14, after promising the boys’ parents that he would reveal to them the last three numbers in the national lottery. The monk, Phra Sa-ngiam, had stayed in one of the temples in the village and was acquainted with the boys’ parents. Having heard…
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Students “use toilets as ya bah factories’
BANGKOK: Thai students have been turning school toilets into makeshift drug factories, churning out cut-price ya bah (methamphetamine) pills that are then sold to other youngsters. One of the trademark stamps on their pills depicts a wizard riding a broomstick, intended to attract fans of the fictional schoolboy wizard Harry Potter, said a Buddhist monk involved in a drugs eradication…
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Something smuggled, something new”¦
BANGKOK: Customs agents were scratching their heads today over what should be done with a contraband cargo seized from a Taiwanese smuggler. The illegal shipment, worth about 10 million baht, was intercepted at Bangkok Port yesterday and the Taiwanese man was arrested, the Customs Department said. The haul, smuggled in from Singapore, included nine Mercedes-Benz cars and 300 white wedding…
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Late lamented delivers a bit of a shock
MUKDAHAN: Seventy-two-year-old Wan Sukhampa had been ill with lung problems for five years. On December 8, she felt particularly unwell, so her family took her to the hospital. The following morning her condition deteriorated and she was moved to the intensive care unit. The doctors were unable to help her, however, and within hours she was declared dead. Later that…
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Dr Thim’s dream ends with sting in tail
RANONG: Noodle vendor Sajee “Thim” Klong-nguern, 31, had been suffering unusual aches and pains. That was until, one night, she says, an angel came to her in a dream. The angel told her that if she ate a pig’s tail that had been boiled in palm sugar for 15 minutes, all her aches and pains would vanish. The next day,…
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A few days of stolen joy
KHON KAEN: Bualong Intarasena, 35, had a problem: after being widowed, she had a new husband, Amnart, and he wanted a child by her as soon as possible. What she didn’t dare tell him was that, after bearing her first husband two children, she had undergone sterilization. So Bualong told him she was pregnant, and as the months of her…
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Fowl play suspected
KALASIN: Porn Yeejuan knew she was a good cook and had spent the day busily preparing for her daughter’s engagement party, to which the whole village had been invited. Among the range of delicacies she had prepared for her guests was boiled chicken. Once she had finished preparing all the food, she left it in the kitchen at the back…
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An explosive relationship
CHIANG MAI: Sixty-year-old Katsuo Buno met and fell in love with 32-year-old Jitra Chuwong two years ago when Jitra went to work in Japan. Deciding that she was the love of his life, he quit his job, sold his belongings, cashed in his pension and moved to Chiang Mai so that he could be with his goddess. But Jitra, apparently…
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Perils of porcine passion
TRANG: Jamroen Jandee of Huay Yod died an untimely and unseemly death, all because he dared to interrupt two pigs in the throes of passion. Jamroen had brought his male pig to his neighbor’s so that it could mate with a female pig there. After letting the porkers go at it for what he felt was sufficient time, Jamroen went…
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Murder victim has his revenge
SUKHOTAI: U-thai Saengkaew, 38, was haunted. The ghost of the person he had murdered, he was certain, had come back to claim his life. U-thai’s body was found on November 7. Forensics established that he had hanged himself from a beam in his house at least three hours earlier. Neighbors told the police that the previous night U-thai had been…
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Policeman has the ripe stuff
NONGKHAI: Pol Col Chalong Parkpinyo, Superintendent of Phonphisai Police Station, found his way to the hearts of the people of Phonphisai – by going bananas. Wanting to make his police station a “place for the people”, Col Chalong started several projects to improve the station’s appearance and reputation. But the project that most impressed people was an unrelenting series of…
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Pinning his hopes on golden implants
Ratchaburi: Like many people, 67-year-old Preecha Iamkum puts faith in a supernatural power to protect him from harm. What makes Preecha different is the way he invokes this protection: by having three-centimeter-long gold pins fully inserted into his body. Preecha first places the custom-made pins, which are made of an 80% gold alloy, in a bowl of sesame oil and…
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Look before you leak
PHAYAO: Two days after Vichai Srisuriyathada’s body was found dumped with nine holes in his back, his friend Daoruang Ngaothakhu, 53, turned himself in to police, telling them that he could no longer stand the pangs of guilt. Daoruang told police that Vichai decided he needed to lose some of the booze from the pair’s drinking session, before going home.…
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Hungry horror lurking under the house
ANG THONG: Rattana Thithanukul, of Jarakae Rong village, has had rat problems before. But now, they’re getting out of hand. One of the local mongrels had recently given birth to eight pups under Rattana’s house, which sits on stumps about a foot off the ground. The pups’ mother came back to feed them only occasionally, so Rattana decided to keep…
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A tale of vegetables and aliens
CHANTHABURI: Police at a checkpoint on the Chanthaburi-Sra Kaew Rd stopped the approaching Isuzu pickup because the high-sided truck looked like it was massively overloaded. Checking the back of the pickup, officers confirmed the driver’s disclosed cargo of sweet potatoes under the tarpaulin. And under the sweet potatoes, jammed in shoulder-to-shoulder, they found 35 Cambodians, ranging in age from 14…
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A job for Crocodile Dundee
BANGKOK: Thai authorities yesterday stepped up their hunt for about 10 fully-grown saltwater crocodiles that have been on the lam since escaping from a farm in flash floods last week. Four of the reptiles, measuring three to four meters in length, have already been captured near the Million Years Crocodile Farm, about 175 kilometers east of Bangkok. Another two reptiles…
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Phuket’s dog problem could be worse
LONDON: A drunk who claimed he had been raped by a dog was yesterday [4 Sept 01] jailed for 12 months. Martin Hoyle, 45, was arrested by police after a passing motorist and his girlfriend found a Staffordshire bull terrier, called Badger, shagging him at the side of a road in Highgate, North London. Prosecutor Ben Crosland said the couple…
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Naughty cameras target women in Bangkok
BANGKOK (AFP): Police said today that they are investigating reports that hidden cameras have been placed in department store changing rooms to spy on women as they try on clothing and underwear. The Metropolitan Police have sent undercover women officers into the city’s stores to check for any suspicious equipment in the fitting rooms, said Pol Lt Gen Pongsapat Pongcharoen.…
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Man with world’s longest hair dies
CHIANG MAI: A Thai hilltribesman who held the record for having the world’s longest hair has died of a stroke, leaving his elder brother to claim the title, police and local reports said Wednesday. Hmong tribesman Hoo Sateow, 77, whose lengthy locks were measured by Guinness World Records in 1997 at 5.15 meters, died in his village outside Chiang Mai…
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Minitry in pubic gaffe
BANGKOK: The Ministry of Public Health issued impressive banners to be hung in hospitals around the country earlier this month. Their purpose was to promote the new 30-baht medical scheme. A few days after the banners were flying, the ministry recalled them – urgently. To make spelling mistakes in government is embarrassing enough, but this particular gaffe caused a serious…
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Teamwork key when they took the bus
NAKHON NAYOK: On the evening of July 15, a local florist called the police to report that her bus had been stolen. She told them that she was just about to get into bed when she heard the engine start up. By the time she got outside, the bus was already moving away. She ran after it for some time,…
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