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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Is a fresh crackdown on alcohol-related sales and businesses on the way?
The Thai junta is warning that it intends to enforce harsh measures regulating the advertising and promotion of alcohol, in a move that will affect thousands of businesses throughout the country. Details of the law, which affected business claim is vague and open to interpretation, are provided below. There has been a number of raids on pubs, clubs and hotels…
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Chiang Mai: Judicial officers have “no plans to move out” – Doi Sutep housing controversy heats up
Despite a ban on use of the controversial housing project on the slopes of Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai, judicial officials are not only living there but refuse to move out. The campaigners against the ‘scar of Doi Suthep’ held a meeting today, to address the issue of officers living in the judicial housing, despite a government order that nobody…
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Bangkok: A car and 500 motorcycle seized in road racing crackdown
Police in Samut Prakan province, just south east of central Bangkok city, have seized a car and some 500 motorcycles in a crack down on road racing last night (Friday). Pol Maj-General Surachet Hakpal said police from 14 police stations in Samut Prakan set up road checkpoints to check for vehicles that were illegally modified for racing. They impounded a…
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Pattaya: Pump Up Dance Club raided
PHOTO: Pump Up Club/Facebook Police raided a dance club pub in Pattaya early this morning (Saturday) for remaining open past the legal closing time and arrested 19 people over alleged drug abuse. Police from Pattaya Police station and the Tourist Police division 2 raided the Pump UP Pattaya pub at 3am after receiving complaints from residents of the neighbourhood that…
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Up in smoke. 61 million meth pills and 486kg of crystal meth.
61 million meth pills and 486kg of crystal meth, 108kg of heroin, 122kg of opium, 10kg of ecstasy pills, 5kg of cocaine and 7.3 tonnes of marijuana and kratom leaves. Raids, stings and seizures around the country have netted an astonishing amount of drugs in recent months – almost one meth pill for every single Thai! So what happens to…
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Nakhon Pathom: Man shoots pregnant girlfriend dead, injures her father
A man fatally shot his pregnant girlfriend and severely injured her father and himself inside the Nakhon Pathom Hospital on Friday at around 1:30pm. Police did not identify the attacker and two victims. Witnesses told police that the young man turned up at the hospital and had a dispute with the woman and the older man who appeared to be…
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Pattaya: 19th SingSiam war games in the Gulf of Thailand
PHOTOS: trattoday.com Military exercises are taking place in the northern Gulf of Thailand between Sattahip and Koh Samui. Col. Anthony Lee, commander of Singapore’s 188th Squadron, and Rear Adm. Thawatchai Muangkham, commander of the Thai Frigate Squadron, were on site for the 19th war games at the Sattahip Naval Base. “The SingSiam games give Thai forces a chance to improve…
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Pattaya: Koh Larn survey shows tourism over-whelming facilities on island
Consultants have completed a long-awaited survey of Koh Larn’s tourist capacity. The survey says it’s the first step toward new zoning laws to protect the island’s ecosystem. Ampai Sakdanukuljit, assistant director of the Tourism and Sports Council, officially presented the Silapakorn University report his group commissioned to Pattaya Deputy Mayor Apichart Virapal, Tourism Authority of Thailand Pattaya office Director Suladda…
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Regional: AirAsia says MAVCOM’s ‘damaging tourism growth’
PHOTO: Sputnik International ‘Now everyone can fly,’ but not as many as AirAsia would like. They’re going into a head to head battle with the Malaysian aviation compliance body, MAVCOM. AirAsia is accusing Malaysia’s aviation body, MAVCOM, of holding back the country’s aviation and damaging tourism growth. The airline made the accusations in a rebuttal of an earlier statement released…
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National: 260,000 tonnes of electronic and plastic trash imported from China
Thai PBS is reporting that about 260,000 tonnes of trash have been imported into Thailand in the first five months of this year period this year. This compares to 116,000 tonnes imported for the whole of 2017, said This from the Customs Department spokesman Mr Chaiyuth Khamkhun. He added that, of the trash imported this year, it included 52,200 tonnes of…
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Hua Hin: 68 year old throws himself off fifth floor roof
Banmuang is reporting that a 68 year old Dutch man appears to have jumped from the fifth floor of a Hua Hin hotel. The man had been staying in the same hotel for the past month. It’s reported that many people from the next door Darun Suksa School saw the body as the school broke up for the day yesterday…
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Muslim students’ dress code ‘could be divisive’
“I am extremely worried and concerned that this move will widen rifts,” Wisoot Binlateh, the director of Sheikul Islam’s coordination centre in the South, said yesterday. Parents and academics are expressing concern over the Education Ministry’s move to leave it up to the schools and their monastic landlords to decide on the dress code for Muslim students. Thailand’s deep South,…
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60,000 counterfeit travel mugs seized in BKK raids
Most of us will have a branded 100 baht T-shirt somewhere in one of our drawers, maybe even a fake Louis Vuitton bag or wallet, or a Tag Heuer watch we haggled in a Patpong market for 1,500 baht. Fakes are everywhere in Thailand. But travel mugs? 60,000 travel mugs?! Some 60,000 plastic coffee cups, tumblers and mugs bearing brand…
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Chiang Mai: Doi Suthep homes “at risk from natural disasters”
A separate issue has arisen in the case of the controversial buildings on the slopes of Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai. Building engineers are pointing their fingers at the steep slopes around structures that were initially built to be the residences of court officials in Chiang Mai province, saying they’re a potential natural disaster waiting to happen. There are “significant…
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Illegal timbers seized in Phang Nga
A team of Border Patrol Police based in Phang Nga this week have seized 13 logs inside a palm plantation in Phang Nga. The discovery came after police received tip-offs about deforestation in Khura Buri, Phang Nga. More than 20 border patrol police investigated and found 13 logs size 2.50 – 2.80 metres in the forest. These logs are now…
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Sattahip: Grisly find on rocks near Navy School
A teacher’s assistant made a grisly find yesterday around rocks near the Chumpon Navy School, south of Pattaya. Sattahip police went to investigate. The remains are believed to have been washed up from the sea and are at least one to two months old. They were found in the Bang Saray area. They consisted of the hips and legs of…
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Southern Insurgency: Emergency decree extended another three months
The government has extended the state of emergency in the three southernmost provinces for a further three months. The extension was announced in the Royal Gazette yesterday (Wednesday). The emergency decree covers Narathiwat except Sungai Kolok district, Yala except Betong district and Pattani except Mae Lan district. The announcement of the emergency decree in Royal Gazette states that the extension is…
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Authorities inspect under-construction hotels in Koh Phi Phi
The Army, police and administrative officials have inspected several under-construction hotels on Koh Phi Phi in the Krabi province amid allegations that they lacked land rights documents, permission to build, or were encroaching on a national park. They first searched an under-construction hotel on a hill with a view of the sea where 30 buildings and a large pond were…
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Chiang Mai: Thai man arrested for attempted rape of female tourist
A man who robbed and allegedly attempted to rape a female Chinese tourist has been apprehended at his house while he was having his head shaved before entering the monkhood. Sanook is reporting that Mae Rim cops in Chiang Mai announce the arrest of 26 year old Wuthisak yesterday and took him on a reenactment to the entrance to the…
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National: A hidden world of male sex slavery
by Rina Chandran @rinachandran. Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths A special report from Reuters outlining the hidden side of mass tourism that Thai authorities don’t like to talk about – a situation the boy’s customers would never discuss and the human casualties of the (hush, hush) male sex trade. The male sex workers often fall through the cracks of society and…
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Thailand Post. We deliver.
You can’t have e-commerce growing so quickly unless you keep your postal system up with the increase in deliveries. Who else is going to deliver your Amazon or Alibaba.com purchases? An army of postmen on Wednesday pose for the camera during a press conference to unveil the 100 Thailand Post motorcycles used in post package delivery that have been upgraded.…
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Thailand’s 10th rabies victim dies in Rayong
A 10th person has died from Rabies in Rayong according to the Disease Control Department director-general Suwanchai Watanayingcharoenchai today (Wednesday). Suwanchai said the 59 year old man died on Tuesday after being bitten by his own dog back in March. The disease control chief said most of the rabies victims had ignored calls to receive Rabies vaccination after they were…
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Satun: 59 year old man killed cleaning grenade
PHOTO: The Advertiser A man in Satun province has been killed after a grenade he was cleaning exploded. Police say the man had been keeping the grenade in his house for a year. 59 year old Prasert Chuayjit was killed in his house in Ban Tha Chin village in Tambon Klong Khud, Muang district, at around 7am this morning. The blast…
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Bangkok: Thai passenger ends up with eye-liner pencil stuck in her eye after taxi accident
A woman in Bangkok has had an unusual accident today, mostly bad timing, after getting her eye-liner pencil jammed in her eye after the taxi she was travelling in came to a sudden stop. She was rushed to hospital. Sanook is reporting that the unnamed woman had been applying makeup in the back of the taxi when it collided with…
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Pattaya: Potty mouth grandpa apologises to cop!
It all started last Sunday when Pattaya granddad, 77 year old Joseph from Canada, threw a wobbly on his motorcycle. He had just made an illegal turn at the intersection of South Pattaya road and Sai 3 thinking that he was in the right. Traffic cop Pol Lt Woraphan Kaewmorakot – himself near retirement age – issued a ticket for the…
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Chiang Mai: 100 times around the mountain – Doi Inthanon Cycle Ride
Lersak Inchai, a 72 year old named as the first person ever to ride around Doi Inthanon 100 times. A 72 year old man has participated in, and completed, his 100th Doi Inthanon cycle ride. Lersak Inchai, a 72 year old man and a former cyclist for Thailand’s national cycling team, has been marked as the first person ever to…
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Bangkok: Short-staffed business are asking the government to relax the labour laws
There are many occupations in Thailand that foreigners can’t do, with or without a work permit. But many Thai business owners say they’re battling to find Thai staff to work many jobs. They want the law changed. Business owners say they are unable to find Thai employees to staff service jobs and are urging the government to relax its restrictions…
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Cabinet meeting in Nakhon Sawan – Prayut rejects demands from groups
Amid claims that regional visits were an attempt to boost his popularity before the election, he said: “In the past four years, we have always had this kind of excursion. So, don’t think that we do this on purpose.” The PM, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, yesterday said ‘no’ to financial demands made by groups from the lower northern provinces during a…
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Student falls out of the back of School songtaew in Nonthaburi
Who was at fault? The student or the songtaew driver? A female student has fallen out the back of a moving songtaew on her way to school, captured on a dash cam. Daily News is reporting that the footage shows the girl with her satchel fall as the vehicle made off in front of the Chao Phraya market in Nonthaburi. The…
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Who’s living there? Chiang Mai locals question lights on at controversial judicial housing
If you thought the controversy between local protesters and the Thai Government was over, regarding the extravagant homes for Thai judges on the slopes of Doi Suthep, you’d be wrong. CityLife is reporting that photos of lights coming from the banned judicial residences on Doi Suthep has gone viral, angering Chiang Mai locals. A picture was posted on June 9…
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