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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Police nab four highwaymen
PHUKET TOWN: Officers arrested four men from a gang of seven who have been terrorizing people on motorbikes on roads in Kathu and Phuket Town for the past two months, threatening their victims with long “Sparta” blades. Pol Col Paween Pongsirin, Superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, said today at a press conference that since July police had received no…
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Tambon elections go smoothly
PHUKET: Elections for 12 of Phuket’s 13 Tambon Administration Organizations OrBorTor ran smoothly on Saturday with a voter turnout of 62.67% and no evidence of vote-buying or cheating, according to Prapa Kayee, President of the Phuket Election Committee. Karon had the best turnout at 84.82% of voters, she told the Gazette, while Rassada had the lowest, with 47.42%. She said…
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Overseas calls, Internet costs to be slashed?
PHUKET TOWN: The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) wants to drastically reduce the cost of overseas calls and high-speed Internet connections in Phuket, ICT Minister Surapong Suebwonglee said yesterday. Acknowledging complaints by IT-related companies in Phuket that connection costs are too high, Dr Surapong said that he would talk with the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) and other…
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Watch out for strangers, says Wan Nor
PHUKET: Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha today urged local people to be on the lookout for strangers in their communities. Some of these people, he said, might be posing as relatives or friends of community members in order to avoid staying at hotels because of current increased security checks. “I have told Governor Pongpayome [Vasaputi] to tell local community…
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Phuket set to raise “tough on drugs’ flag
PHUKET TOWN: Police checks on former drug dealers and users are likely to be followed by Phuket being declared “a province strongly opposed to illegal drugs,” Phuket Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi said yesterday. All being well, the declaration will be made on November 1, the Governor said, a month ahead of the national government’s deadline of December 2 in the…
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UK killer gets suspended sentence
PHUKET: A Briton who confessed to murdering his Thai girlfriend in Phuket in January has been freed on a two-year suspended sentence, a British newspaper has reported. The Exeter Express reported that 48-year-old Mark Leighton Storey was back in England, a free man despite confessing to charges of killing his Thai girlfriend, 30-year-old Rattanaporn Pimkot, on January 16. A local…
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Scaled-down dog pound gets go-ahead
THALANG: The four-rai mega-pound for stray dogs at the Bang Kanoon forestry plantation in Thalang has been approved, Sunart Wongchawalit, Chief of the Phuket Provincial Livestock Office (PPLO), told the Gazette today. Construction will start soon and the pound, which will cost about 2 million baht to build, is expected to open in November, he said. “[The site] is far…
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Silver medal student feted in Phuket
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket student Nawanol Theera’ampornpan returned to Phuket from the International Science Olympiad in the United States today with a silver medal for computer sciences. Nawanol, 18, from Phuket Wittayalai School, was one of four students who represented Thailand in the competition, held in Wisconsin. A student band and about 50 friends greeted him with music, cheers and garlands…
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New bus station gets green light
PHUKET TOWN: A new terminus for long-haul buses will be built on 10 rai of land near the Tesco-Lotus supercenter, Samroeng Chaisorn, Vice-President of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor), told the Gazette today. “Phuket OrBorJor will provide the 38-million-baht budget,” K. Samroeng said, adding that construction is expected to start in October, when the funds come through, though a…
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Phuket to be anti-piracy pioneer
PHUKET: Phuket will become one of five pioneering provinces as Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra pursues a government campaign to obliterate the manufacture and sale of fake goods in Thailand. Imitation brand-name clothing, watches and CDs have become something of a traditional attraction for tourists to Thailand. But the PM plans to replace the cut-price fakes with something genuinely traditional: goods…
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Sharp rise in tourism predicted
SYDNEY: Asia will see strong performance in aviation, travel and tourism in the final quarter this year, according to an industry report just released. While Thailand is not singled out, the report says Asia has made an “unexpectedly rapid recovery” from the Sars virus scare and accelerated air traffic should ensure a “very positive” outlook. Pent-up demand should drive the…
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Diamond Cliff row “must be solved fast’
PHUKET TOWN: Conflicts between hotel workers and their employers should be resolved quickly in the interests of the Phuket tourism industry, a conference heard today. Union leaders and other interested parties met for the first time to discuss worker-boss relations in the island’s increasingly unionized hotel industry. A focus of their attention was a dispute at the Diamond Cliff Resort…
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Rock Hard dancer murdered
PATONG: Police are hunting the ex-boyfriend of a go-go girl from Rock Hard after she was found stabbed to death with a peeling knife. Pranee Asasri, 41, from Mukdaharn, was found dead at 2 am on August 23 by her niece, Pachanee Rattabhat, 22, who went to the victim’s rented room after she had failed to turn up for work…
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Pakistanis cleared of terrorist links
PHUKET TOWN: Two Pakistani men arrested on Saturday night for illegally entering the country have been cleared of links with terrorist groups. Police named the men as Abid Khan and Bashir Mehmood, both 23. Officers found that Khan had entered Thailand on an Israeli passport while Mehmood had entered the country on a Portuguese passport. The men were also found…
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Phuket Town green team wins award
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket Town Municipality has won top honors in a contest run by the Thai Environment and Community Development Association (Tecda) for having the most outstanding recycling project of 85 government offices and private businesses. Phuket Town Mayor Phummisak Hongsyok explained, “Phuket Municipality was chosen because of its well-organized project plans, which are administered by the project committees.” The…
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Tiger attack: one dead, two critical
PHRAE: Given the madness and mayhem that afflict Thai roads, it’s only natural that people want to spend as much time as possible in the safety of their homes. But a recent tragedy in Phrae province shows that even being at home in front of the TV is no guarantee of safety from drunk drivers. At about midnight on August…
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Samson takes a fall “for mom’
BANGKOK: Popular Thai kickboxer Samson Lookjaopormahesak has been arrested for allegedly throwing a fight, becoming Thailand’s first boxer to face legal action for suspected match fixing. Samson is one of the country’s most famous boxers, and his fight on the evening of August 5 was highly anticipated. Samson dominated the early rounds, but the referee stopped the fight in the…
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“Intelligent’ traffic lights switched on
PHUKET TOWN: The island’s capital stepped up to a new level of technology yesterday with the switching-on of an “intelligent” traffic light system at the intersection of Thepkrasattri Rd and Komarapaj Rd. Phuket Town Mayor Phummisak Hongsyok explained that the Komarapaj Rd intersection is the location of the town’s longest traffic delays, which was why it was chosen for trials…
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Korean store busted for dodgy drugs
PHUKET TOWN: A Taiwanese man was arrested this morning for illegally selling traditional Thai and Korean medicines. The arrest came when officers, led by the national Commander of the Tourist Police, Pol Maj Gen Panya Maman, raided a store on the bypass road after complaints from tourists. Gen Panya said that officers moved to raid the store after the South…
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Apec in talks on high-tech counter-terrorism
KARON: The use of high-tech scanners and integrated databases listing details of passengers and flight crews were among the latest methods of identifying terrorists discussed yesterday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting at the Phuket Arcadia Beach Resort. The timely meeting – coming in the wake of the Marriott bomb in Jakarta and the capture of top terrorist Hambali…
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Pirate goods blitz continues
KATA-KARON: Some 1,400 fake items with a street value of 1.4 million baht were seized in raids on eight vendors in Kata and Karon yesterday evening, Tharadol Thongruang, Deputy Director of Phuket Commercial Affairs, said today. At 6 pm, police officers simultaneously raided two shops and two stalls opposite Mom Tri’s Boathouse & Villa Royale in Kata. Officials then moved…
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Airport to get B200m makeover
PHUKET: In a move to improve Phuket International Airport, 200 million baht will be spent upgrading the docking aprons, improving the terminal facilities to cope with more travelers and doubling the cargo area, the airport’s director told the Gazette today. Lt Cdr Boonchart Prompoon, Director of the Airports Authority of Thailand, Phuket, explained that the upgrade will be implemented in…
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Fishermen survive 5 days adrift
KALIM: Three Indonesian fishermen who spent at least five days adrift without food after their boat was caught in not one but two storms, washed ashore at Kalim Beach this morning and are now recovering at Patong Hospital. Pol Maj Narong Laoprathumviroj, an Inpector at Kathu Police Station, told the Gazette today, “Three men and their fishing boat washed ashore…
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Patong praised for fake goods blitz
PATONG: Deputy Director of Phuket Commercial Affairs, Tharadol Thongruang, has announced that the blitz on fake goods has resulted in 90% of offenders in Patong either closing down or turning to selling authentic, legitimate goods. “Now there’s only less than 5% of fake goods left [in Patong], mostly fake brand-name sports shirts. “Fake watches, glasses, bags, CDs and shoes are…
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Two gangsters die in shootout with police
PHUKET TOWN: Two gangsters were shot and killed during an ambush by plain-clothes police that turned into a motorcycle chase after bullets ripped the twilight at Saphan Hin last night. The drama came as police moved in on four men believed to be members of a gang at the top of the Most Wanted list, suspected of murder, bag-snatchings, rape…
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Subsidized computers scheme launched
PHUKET: A nationwide scheme to allow Thais to get laptop computers more cheaply has been launched as a way to boost computer literacy and skills. Applications to buy the state-subsidized “Notebook ICT” computers are being accepted at Thai post offices across the country until the end of this month. Seven different models are available, including machines by Jade Quantum, SVOA,…
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Four arrested for reporter’s murder
PATONG: Police yesterday arrested four more people they believe were involved in the execution-style murder of newspaper and TV reporter Surapong “Od Patong” Rittee in Patong six months ago. One of those arrested is a police officer who was formerly stationed at Kathu Police Station. K. Surapong, 43, was gunned down by two .38 rounds fired close to his left…
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Lobster fest underway
PHUKET: The month-long Phuket Lobster Festival got underway on Friday with a promotional event organized jointly by the local Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office and the Phuket Tourist Association (PTA). The festival, which coincides with the August 14-23 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meetings in Phuket, is intended to boost tourist spending on the island for the period to 500…
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Italian tourist dies under bus
PATONG: Italian tourist Michael D’Aries, 31, was run over by a tour bus and died in front of the C&N Resort in Patong at about 3:15 am yesterday. Pol Lt Col Pisit Chunpet of Kathu Police Station told the Gazette that Mr D’Aries was driving a rented JDR scooter along Sirirat Rd with a Thai woman riding pillion. They were…
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Yacht import duty close to being scrapped
KARON: The Customs and Excise Departments have recommended that the government scrap import duty on foreign-made yachts, the Director General of the Customs Department, Chavalit Sethameteekul, said today. K. Chavalit made the announcement before joining the meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Sub-Committee on Customs Procedures this morning at the Phuket Arcadia Beach Resort. “Phuket will be a haven…
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