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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Corpse found in Phuket coconut grove
PHUKET: Police have yet to rule out foul play after a decomposed corpse was found in a Mai Khao coconut plantation yesterday evening. A local resident cutting grass at the site discovered the remains at about 6pm, said Lt Thanom Thongpan of the Tah Chat Chai Police. “When we arrived, there were quite a few locals at the scene trying…
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Human traffickers claim B300k payoffs to clear police checkpoints
PHUKET: Corrupt Thai officials allegedly accepted bribes of about 300,000 baht per truckload of trafficked people in order to allow smugglers past checkpoints, it has been revealed. The revelation comes after police on Tuesday arrested two of three men who attempted to smuggle more than 50 Rohingya through Takuapa, Phang Nga, north of Phuket, to Malaysia on Monday (story here).…
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Police take DNA samples in karaoke waitress rape, murder case
PHUKET: Police investigating the rape and murder of a karaoke waitress in Phang Nga, north of Phuket, are collecting DNA samples from suspects in the hope of identifying the woman’s killer or killers. The manhunt began on Sunday after the body of Ploipailin Ketkeaw, 26, was found in a palm plantation just 300 meters from the Tiew Phai karaoke, where…
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Fighters arrive for Pencak Silat World Championships in Phuket
PHUKET: Fighters from 38 countries arrived in Phuket on Tuesday to take part in the 16th Pencak Silat World Championship, which will get under way at Saphan Hin this weekend. “There will be about 1,000 people, including athletes and support staff, coming to Phuket for the competition,” Nakrob Thongdaeng, deputy secretary general Pencak Silat Association of Thailand (PSAT), announced on…
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Hotel compulsory buffets are hard to swallow
PHUKET: There are some things we take for granted in life as being inherently part of it. Death and taxes are two of the most obvious examples, but there are again certain givens foisted on us that have absolutely no right to be there, yet we blithely accept them as being part and parcel of existence. Tourists in foreign climes…
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Phuket’s monkey business flouting the law
Edwin Wiek is founder and director of the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT), an NGO protecting wildlife and nature in Thailand and Laos. He has been living in Thailand since 1989 and in 2001, founded WFFT. Here he talks about the mammoth problems facing wildlife protection forces, including systematic corruption at local level. PHUKET: While most people visit Phuket for…
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Actress ‘Pinky’ questioned by police, cleared in B1.5bn embezzlement case
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Actress ‘Pinky’ questioned by police, cleared in B1.5bn embezzlement case The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Actress Savika “Pinky” Chaiyadej yesterday told police that she didn’t know Kittisak Mattujad, who is believed to be a key person in the Bt1.5-billion embezzlement from the King Mongkut Institute…
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Police hunt three Frenchmen after 12 killed in Paris attack
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Police hunt three Frenchmen after 12 killed in Paris attack Reuters / Phuket Gazette PARIS: Police are hunting three French nationals, including two brothers from the Paris region, after suspected Islamist gunmen killed 12 people at a satirical magazine on Wednesday, a police official and government…
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Drought stalking many provinces, over 1,800 villages hit
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Drought stalking many provinces, over 1,800 villages hit The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Drought is now haunting many parts of the country sooner than expected, raising concern that water shortages will be worse this year than ever before. Praphan Upata, a former village head in…
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NMG executives brief NRC panel on takeover risk
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community NMG executives brief NRC panel on takeover risk The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Top executives of Nation Multimedia Group (NMG), which includes The Nation newspaper, met yesterday with the Media Reform Committee of the National Reform Council (NRC) to express concern over a possible hostile…
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Police seeking stolen Misiem Yipintsoi sculpture
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Police seeking stolen Misiem Yipintsoi sculpture The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Misiem Yipintsoi’s last unfinished sculpture – Coy Girl (1988) – has gone missing from the private Misiem’s Sculpture Museum in Nakhon Pathom province. “It was stolen on December 26. Displayed at the garden along…
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Police corruption scandal: DSI agent sacked, faces charges; 2 others face probes
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Police corruption scandal: DSI agent sacked, faces charges; 2 others face probes The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Two Department of Special Investigation agents face disciplinary probes after initial findings showed they were involved in the contraband petrol trade in the far South, associated with racketeering…
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US navy commander pleads guilty in Glenn Defense corruption scandal
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community US navy commander pleads guilty in Glenn Defense corruption scandal Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: A U.S. Navy commander pleaded guilty on Tuesday to bribery charges in connection with a wide-ranging corruption investigation of Singapore-based defense contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia. Jose Luis Sanchez, 42, was…
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Patong immigration officer removed amid corruption claims
PHUKET: An official at the immigration office in Patong has been removed after complaints were filed against him for charging foreigners for services that should be free, Phuket Governor Nisit Jansomwong confirmed today. The news comes more than two and half months after Governor Nisit gave the Patong Immigration chief 15 days to explain why his office was charging for…
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Phuket closes Seven Days of Danger with 2 dead, 45 injured
PHUKET: The nationwide Seven Days of Danger safety campaign for the New Year holidays drew to a close at midnight last night, with Phuket recording two deaths and 45 people admitted to hospital for injuries in 44 accidents. The last day of the seven-day campaign, which began at midnight on December 30, recorded five accidents in Phuket in which five…
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Mass worker brawl delays Phuket airport expansion
PHUKET: Work on the Phuket International Airport expansion project was delayed yesterday due to a gang brawl between construction workers from Cambodia and another group from Myanmar on January 1. The fight took place in the workers’ camp, about 300 meters from the PTT aviation fuel warehouse, which is located about two kilometers from the airport. The melee left more…
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AirAsia crash: Search teams may have found black boxes
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community AirAsia crash: Search teams may have found black boxes Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET:An Indonesian naval patrol vessel has found what could be the tail of a crashed AirAsia passenger jet, the section where the crucial black box voice and flight data recorders are located, officials…
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Man rescued after falling off cliff in Prachuap
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Man rescued after falling off cliff in Prachuap The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: A Thai tourist was rescued yesterday after plunging off a cliff in a national park in Prachuap Khiri Khan province and being stuck there for 18 hours. Khao Ta Mong Lai Forestry…
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![Frenchman escapes flaming car on Phuket hill [video] | Thaiger](https://thethaiger.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1_2015151813615_pzJyOiztGzzMLNMZAfKGoArEEoUnSpYsqEsFOfzo_jpeg.jpeg)
Frenchman escapes flaming car on Phuket hill [video]
PHUKET: A French tourist narrowly escaped injuries after his Thai girlfriend’s car erupted into flames on Patong Hill this afternoon. Bernard Louis Joseph Hazebrouco fled the Toyota Vios after a fire broke out in the engine and then quickly spread, Maj Teerasak Boonsang of the Patong Police told the Phuket Gazette today. “It took firefighters about 20 minutes to put…
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Phuket tourists stranded by Abu Dhabi sandstorm start heading home
PHUKET: About 100 of the 400-odd tourists stranded in Phuket are about to fly out today, after sandstorms and poor visibility in the United Arab Emirates forced Eithad Airways to cancel its flights to Abu Dhabi on Saturday. The airline transferred the affected passengers by shuttle bus to the Dara Hotel, the Chino Hotel and the Millennium Resort, while alternative…
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Three more teens surrender for New Year’s Eve gang slaying
PHUKET: Three more teenagers have surrendered to police for the gang slaying of a rival in Phuket Town on New Year’s Eve. Suppachai Atwicha, 19; Adisorn Laemka, 18; and a 17-year-old named by police with the pseudonym “Mr Bank” surrendered to officers at Phuket City Police Station at about 4pm yesterday. The three were among the six suspects wanted for…
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Phuket Red Cross Fair winner yet to claim Toyota Altis top prize
PHUKET: The winner of the grand prize in the annual Phuket Red Cross Fair lucky draw has yet to claim the brand-new Toyota Altis after the winning ticket was drawn last night. Phuket Governor Nisit Jansomwong led the lucky draw on the center stage at Saphan Hin at about 10:30pm. Joining Governor Nisit for the lucky draw was his wife,…
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Three human traffickers evade arrest, 50 Rohingya netted
PHUKET: Police are hunting three human traffickers who evaded arrest as they attempted to smuggle more than 50 Rohingya, including six children, through Thailand to Malaysia early this morning. The drivers loaded the refugees into three pick-up trucks in a rubber-tree plantation in Takuapa, north of Phuket, before attempting to evade police checkpoints on the main road. “We received a…
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Tourism, martial law: Looking back at Phuket in 2014
With 2014 behind us, it is time to reflect on 12 months – that is 365 days, or 8,765 hours – of news that transformed Phuket and deeply affected how the island is perceived by the outside world. Here, the Phuket Gazette‘s Somchai Huasaikul looks through our archives at the game-changing moments of 2014. PHUKET: The year that was 2014…
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Police deem Frenchman hanged on Koh Tao a suicide
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Police deem Frenchman hanged on Koh Tao a suicide The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Police are treating the death of a 29-year old Frenchman found hanged with his hands tied behind his back on Koh Tao, in Surat Thani, on Thursday as suicide. The incident…
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Weather frustrates divers as more AirAsia wreckage found
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Weather frustrates divers as more AirAsia wreckage found Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Bad weather forced divers trying to identify sunken wreckage from a crashed AirAsia passenger jet to abort their mission on Sunday and Indonesian officials said they had not yet picked up any signals…
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UK’s Prince Andrew steps up denial of underage sex
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community UK’s Prince Andrew steps up denial of underage sex Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Buckingham Palace stepped up its denial that Prince Andrew had sex with an underage girl introduced to him by a disgraced U.S. financier, and named the alleged victim whose anonymity was preserved…
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Phuket Teens surrender for gang slaying of rival on New Year’s Eve
PHUKET: Two of the six suspects of a drive-by shooting near the Governor’s House in Phuket Town on New Year’s Eve surrendered to police last night, escorted by their parents. Police are still hunting the remaining four suspects. The six are wanted for the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Sakorn Nitipoj on Wednesday night. The attack began in front of the…
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Phuket tyre blowout throws driver, flips truck and dumps load
PHUKET: A dirt delivery truck overturned on Sri Soonthorn Road, about 500 meters from the Heroines Monument, this morning after one of the vehicle’s right rear tyres exploded. The truck careened onto its side, spilling its load onto the road and smashing the windshield at about 11:30am. The driver, Ma-een Famangkorn, 49, suffered minor head injuries in the crash. “Mr…
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Traffic policeman added to Phuket’s New Year casualty list
PHUKET: A traffic policeman has been added to Phuket’s New Year casualty list during the nationwide Seven Days of Sanger safety campaign, which began at midnight on Tuesday. Cpl Thanan Paisornarong, 27, was run down while attempting to stop a motorcycle at a checkpoint in Phuket Town at 2:50pm yesterday. He was taken to the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization Hospital…
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