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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  • Increased fines, better training – changes to motorbike use in Thailand

    Increased fines, better training – changes to motorbike use in Thailand

    In efforts to temper the world’s number one road toll, a specially-formed Thai committee are poised to recommend a series of new measures to curb, specifically, motorcycle deaths by up to 50% per year. Some of these include raising fines for not having a license by as much as 1000%, introducing more bike lanes and targeting accident black spots. Daily…

  • Landslides close the Ranong-Chumpon road

    Landslides close the Ranong-Chumpon road

    If you’ve ever travelled north or south from Phuket to locations to the north, via Ranong, you’ll know about the ‘long and winding road’ from Ranong to Chumpon. A lot of effort is being put into improving the road to make the route a viable alternative route for buses, van and cars and a new tourist drive which can take…

  • Chinese tourists love going local and doing their own bookings – Hotels.com

    Chinese tourists love going local and doing their own bookings – Hotels.com

    PHOTO: Jing Daily How much have Chinese millennials (that’s the people born after 1990) increased their spending in the last year? 80%! Research by accommodation booking portal, Hotels.com, reveals that younger Chinese spenders are pushing the boundaries of international travel, increasing their expenditure over the past year by a staggering 80%. Part of the increased expenditure goes to fund social…

  • 77 reportedly shot in Asian Games crackdown – Amnesty International

    77 reportedly shot in Asian Games crackdown – Amnesty International

    From Jakarta Post, via Asia News Network The Asian Games have barely opened in Jakarta. The last thing they need is this explosive claim from Amnesty International. Dozens of people have been shot by the police as part of an escalating crackdown against petty crime in the months leading up to the Asian Games, a human rights organisation alleged on…

  • Indonesian President Jokowi declares Asian Games 2018 open

    Indonesian President Jokowi declares Asian Games 2018 open

    PHOTO: Thai PBS The Asian Games 2018 torch relay has finally completed its one-month-long journey covering a total distance of 18 thousand kilometers and touring 53 cities and districts in 18 provinces across Indonesia, Anatara News reported. Arriving in Jakarta on August 15, the torch was handed over to President Joko Widodo at Merdeka State Palace on August 17, coinciding…

  • Students to PM “Cancel the student conduct regulations”

    Students to PM “Cancel the student conduct regulations”

    PHOTO: Sa-nguan Khumrungroj/Facebook The Student Union of Thailand is calling on junta leader PM General Prayut Chan-o-cha to cancel the controversial regulations controlling student conduct. Read the report about the ‘moral’ crackdown HERE. Citing a serious infringement on privacy and their rights to political expression, the union, led by activist Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, submitted a letter asking the Education Ministry…

  • Nan, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai report damage from current floods

    Nan, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai report damage from current floods

    Weather warnings remain current for 38 Thai provinces affected by tropical storm Bebinka which is currently hovering over northern Vietnam, moving west. Meanwhile its affects are already being felt in the north. Moutain run-off has hit and washed away three sections of the main Chiang Rai-Chiang Mai road early today. The Doi Saket police station in Chiang Rai was alerted at…

  • Tourist numbers tumble as Chinese media expose entrenched safety problems

    Tourist numbers tumble as Chinese media expose entrenched safety problems

    The fallout from July’s tragic boat accident are just now starting to bite as tourists, who would have been about to make a booking around the time the accident happened, decided to book an alternate holiday destination instead. Despite the bravado and PR exercises, many Thai business people are secretly worried about the big drop-off in numbers. The drop in…

  • Thaiger Radio News – Saturday

    Thaiger Radio News – Saturday

    Listen to the daily news from The Thaiger, anytime, anywhere.

  • Coconut trees provide evidence for land ownership case

    Coconut trees provide evidence for land ownership case

    Coconut trees have saved a 71 rai (11 hectare) patch of park forestland on beautiful Poda Island (8km from Ao Nang) from falling into the hands of the private sector. Evidence was solid enough for the Appeal Court to overturn a ruling that awarded the land ownership to a man. If the plot became privately owned it could possibly fetch…

  • Hilton Phuket helping with English lessons for Kamala students

    Hilton Phuket helping with English lessons for Kamala students

    Markus Kosch, general manager of Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort & Spa, together with hotel management teams, recently visited a local school in Kamala to assist with English lessons for the day whilst providing sponsorship for the school valued at 100,000 baht. The donation was made to the Phuket Has Been Good To Us Foundation in May 2018 in order to…

  • Institute closed for seven days as police break up student gang brawls in BKK

    Institute closed for seven days as police break up student gang brawls in BKK

    By Khanathit Srihirundaj Bangkok police have held a meeting between representatives of Pathumwan and Uthenthawai colleges today. Yesterday students from their colleges fought on the skywalk near the National Stadium BTS station. Education Ministry officials attended the meeting to help find solutions to the issue of student brawls. The meeting at Pathumwan Police Station was brokered by the deputy chief of…

  • Smoking ban enforced on Pattaya beaches

    Smoking ban enforced on Pattaya beaches

    The crackdown on smoking on some of Thailand’s main beaches continues. In Patong Beach, Phuket, for example, there are stations every 100 metres along the beach set up especially for smokers. In Pattaya officials have again begun warning tourists they can only light up in designated areas on Pattaya and Dongtan beaches. Pattaya Mail reports that the municipal enforcement chief,…

  • Malaysian tourist caught lying to Chiang Mai police

    Malaysian tourist caught lying to Chiang Mai police

    PHOTO: Chiangmai News A Malaysian tourist is in hot water after telling Chiang Mai police that he’d been robbed by a foreigner in the city centre this morning. He’s now been charged with filing a false police complaint. 20 year old Pravin Krishnan was charged early this morning (Friday) less than two hours after lodging the complaint. Police say that he…

  • Signs posted warning land encroachers in Rassada

    Signs posted warning land encroachers in Rassada

    Officers have set up official warning signs in front of a 50 rai plot of land on national reserve forest at Klong Bang Chela – Klong Tajeen in Rassada . The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives had given approval for the Phuket Provincial government to use 50 rai plot of land in the area of the national reserve forest as a…

  • DSI crackdown on foreigners using Thai nominees: Law firm raided in Bangkok, Phuket and Samui

    DSI crackdown on foreigners using Thai nominees: Law firm raided in Bangkok, Phuket and Samui

    Four offices of the same investment advisory firm have been raided in Bangkok, Phuket and Samui. Coordinated raids on the offices of what appears to be a single advisory firm were conducted by the DSI (Department of Special Investigations), police and Board of Investment representatives. Pictures showed that the company is DFDL Thailand Legal and Tax. This company offers “investment advisory…

  • Wet, wet, wet – warnings out for 36 provinces

    Wet, wet, wet – warnings out for 36 provinces

    As tropical storm Bebinca makes landfall in Vietnam today, 36 provinces in the North, North-east, East and South are bring warned to brace for intensive rain and isolated torrential downpours until Sunday – this from the Meteorological Department’s latest weather forecast this morning. “At 4 am this morning, tropical storm Bebinca was 400 kilometres northeast of Hanoi, Vietnam, with a …

  • Chiang Mai’s Doi Suthep houses to be immediately vacated

    Chiang Mai’s Doi Suthep houses to be immediately vacated

    PHOTO: The Nation It’s time to go. The Chiang Mai OrBorJor and protest groups opposing the Doi Suthep housing project for judges and officials have agreed that the 45  housing units for judges must be immediately vacated. As those who still stay at a nine-unit condominium building, the meeting agreed that they must be moved too, to a smaller condo building within…

  • Thaiger Radio News – Friday

    Thaiger Radio News – Friday

    Listen to the daily news from The Thaiger, anytime, anywhere.

  • Government goes retro with new ‘moral code’ for students

    Government goes retro with new ‘moral code’ for students

    “…kissing the cheeks of a member of the opposite sex or embracing them is “inappropriate.” The Cabinet has approved the Education Ministry’s new regulations banning students from holding public gatherings, “inappropriate” displays of affection and causing public nuisance. The attempt to control students’ moral and social behaviour is a major step for the Junta, away from building roads and taming…

  • Weather and dam authorities say they’re ready for the impact of Bebinca

    Weather and dam authorities say they’re ready for the impact of Bebinca

    Authorities say they’re well prepared for tropical storm Bebinca, with emergency response teams in full readiness and, importantly, with water levels being lowered in every dam in the storm’s path, leaving room for greater water inflows. The Meteorological Department issued warnings yesterday saying the storm will bring heavy downpours throughout the upper regions of Thailand and may trigger flash floods in…

  • Three year old suffocates in Pattani school van

    Three year old suffocates in Pattani school van

    WARNING: This story may be distressing to some readers Pattani police have charged a school van driver after a three year old girl was forgotten and locked in a vehicle at a school and subsequently died of suffocation. 23 year old Ahama Saro-Eng was summoned by police on this morning (Thursday) to face a charge of negligence causing death after…

  • Phuket 13 beaches get ‘star’ treatment from environment office

    Phuket 13 beaches get ‘star’ treatment from environment office

    13 Phuket beaches have received certificates after passing environmental tests and qualification.  34 business operators in the Andaman provinces also received wastewater management certification. Phuket Vice Governor Thawornwat Kongkaew yesterday (August 15) presented the certificates at Pearl Hotel in Phuket Town to local administrative organisations for ‘star’ beaches and business operators for good wastewater management. “There are 13 famous Phuket…

  • New Ferrari slams into tree in Korat

    New Ferrari slams into tree in Korat

    Been a bad week if you’re a supercar owner in Thailand. Photos from Daily News show a red plate Ferrari that collided with the back of an 18 wheel truck on the Friendship Highway (Mitraphap) in the Si Khiw area of Nakhon Ratchasima. The accident also involved a Chevrolet car that ended up under the truck in the roadside ditch.…

  • Australian police detain five Thai nationals involved in human trafficking

    Australian police detain five Thai nationals involved in human trafficking

    Human trafficking from Thailand to Australia’s capital city, Canberra, is under investigation after raids on Fyshwick brothels (massage parlours) this week. An Thai-Australian woman has been charged and five Thai nationals detained over immigration offences as a result of simultaneous raids on ‘escort agencies’ in Fyshwick, Canberra, this week. The Canberra Times has reported that a Canberra court has heard one…

  • HM The King thanks Lao people for their assistance in the Tham Luang rescue

    HM The King thanks Lao people for their assistance in the Tham Luang rescue

    FILE PHOTO His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun has sent a letter to the Lao President, Bounnhang Vorachit, to thank the Lao people for their participation in the rescue to retrieve 13 young footballers from the Tham Luang caves in Mae Sai district. In the letter, His Majesty referred to the incident, in which the boys and their coach from…

  • Fire destroys bedding warehouse in Rassada

    Fire destroys bedding warehouse in Rassada

    A fire has destroyed a bedding warehouse in Rassada this morning (August 16). Two dogs were reported to have died in the blaze. The Phuket City Police were notified of the incident at 4am this morning in the in Soi Pruyai, 500 metres from the main SuperCheap store in Rassada. Firefighters arrived with five fire engines to find the fire…

  • 28 year old Norwegian found dead in car on Koh Samui

    28 year old Norwegian found dead in car on Koh Samui

    Police are investigating a Norwegian tourist found dead inside his car on Samui last Monday. 28 year old Aspen Anray Solian was found dead in the driver’s seat on Thaweerat Phakdee Road in Tambon Maret. A doctor says he had died about one or two hours before he was found. Police say the body showed no signs of violence. A…

  • Body found floating off Kata Beach identified as Surat Thani man

    Body found floating off Kata Beach identified as Surat Thani man

    The body of a man who is believed to be from Surat Thani was found floating just off Kata beach yesterday (August 15). Back on Monday evening, Karon Police were alerted about a tourist who was missing. A search was launched and kept going until midnight. Read more HERE. Karon Police were then notified yesterday from locals that a body…

  • Thaiger Radio News – Thursday

    Thaiger Radio News – Thursday

    Listen to the daily news from The Thaiger, anytime, anywhere.