News
Stay up-to-date with the latest news from across Thailand and beyond with The Thaiger. Our dedicated team brings you breaking news, in-depth analysis, and exclusive stories from this stunning part of the world, covering a diverse range of topics, including local politics, business, culture, and tourism. Keep yourself informed about the Kingdom’s rich history, stunning landscapes, and thriving expat communities, as well as updates on events, attractions, and transportation.
The Thaiger is your essential resource for staying connected with Thailand’s captivating blend of tradition and modernity. To remain in the loop with the country’s most trusted news source, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media.
-
Sponsored Promoting sustainable tourism at Blue Tree Phuket: Initiatives and impact
Blue Tree Phuket has been offering experiences that are both fun and environmentally conscious for many years. The comprehensive entertainment hub and waterpark has implemented numerous programs to enhance the sustainability of its practices, with its most recent endeavour being...
-
Monk disrobed after telephone sex
BANGKOK (AFP): A senior monk left the Buddhist clergy today after he was caught engaging in phone sex, officials within the monkhood say. Phra Si Visuthyarn, deputy abbot of Bangkok’s Tritosthep temple, delivered his resignation this morning, an official told AFP. The monk quit after religious officials in the Sangha Supreme Council received a tape recording of him having phone…
-
Leaking policeman gets into hot water
PHUKET TOWN: Stopping to pass water can be a dangerous business, as an Immigration Police officer found out on Monday. Pol Snr Sgt Maj Wichien Petphang-nga told the Gazette that he was driving, in plain clothes, toward the center of Phuket Town when he heard the call of nature. He decided to stop at the Sanamchai football field, opposite the…
-
Kathu police boss moving to new post
PHUKET: Pol Col Kokiat Wongvorachart, superintendent of Kathu Police Station – which is also responsible for Patong – is to move on Friday to a new post as a deputy provincial commander of Nakhon Sri Thammarat Provincial Police. He will be replaced by Pol Lt Col Paween Pongsirin, currently the litigation deputy superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station. Pol Col…
-
Hotel tax row: Governor steps in
PHUKET: The island’s new Governor, Pongpayome Vasaputi, has stepped into the furious row between Phuket’s hotels and the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) over the OrBorJor’s new tax on hotel room revenue. After a five-hour closed meeting last Wednesday with representatives of both sides, the Governor ruled that the hotels must pay the tax, but that the OrBorJor must revise…
-
Abbot accused of rape in latest monk scandal
BANGKOK (AFP): Thai police were today investigating allegations that a Buddhist abbot repeatedly raped an 11-year-old girl who lived with her mother inside his temple compound. The case is the third this week in which a senior member of the nation’s clergy has been accused of a serious criminal offence. On Thursday, an abbot and his girlfriend were charged with…
-
New driving test area to be built
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Provincial Transportation Office (PTO) is to set up a new area for conducting driving tests. The project, which has received the go-ahead from the Department of Land Transport, is expected to be completed within the coming 12 months. Driving tests currently take place on an area next to the PTO office which, the PTO says, is…
-
Air passenger figures rise by 13 pc
PHUKET: Passenger throughput at Phuket International Airport in September was up by 13% compared with the same month last year, according to figures just released by airport officials. The number of people arriving or departing on domestic flights rose by about 7% to 140,470, while 98,008 people used the airport for international flights, representing a 24% increase. Cargo shipments, however,…
-
Two more parties name parliamentary candidates
PHUKET: Two more political parties have named candidates to run in the national elections which, Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai announced today, will take place on January 6. The New Aspiration Party, which is led by Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh and Pol Capt Chalerm Yoobamrung, has named Prasert Tantibutsapan to run for District 1. The Chart Thai Party, led by former Prime…
-
Phuket bus service a step closer to reality
PHUKET: Phuket Town is one step closer to having the bus service that has been promised for so long. The Provincial Administration Organization – which earlier announced its intention to take over the bus project from a private company, after the plan stumbled in the wake of soaring fuel prices – has received the official go-ahead from the Phuket Provincial…
-
Abbot charged with murdering woman
PETCHABUN (AFP): The abbot of a wat in this Isan province has been charged with murdering a woman who was found strangled and dumped in a septic tank, local police said today. Adhikarn Arn Wattanadhamo, the abbot of Wat Nonsawangarom, in Amphur Lomsak, Petchabun, has been charged with robbery and premeditated murder and will be prosecuted, the police said. Last…
-
English resident killed in bike crash
PATONG: An English resident of Phuket died in a motorcycle accident at the intersection of Thaweewong Rd and Phrabaramee Rd early on Saturday morning. Pol Maj Pisit Cheanpeth of Kathu Police Station told the Gazette that at around 2.30 am, the man, whom he named as 27-year-old Robert William Mark McCartney, ran into a light pole on the road from…
-
Golf match raises 400,000 baht for charity
PHUKET: The golf tournament organized by the British Business Association of Phuket (BBAP) on October 14 raised a grand total of 400,665 baht for charity, the BBAP has announced. Despite occasional heavy showers, the contest, at the Blue Canyon Country Club, drew 121 players. Of the total raised, 300,000 baht will go to the Phuket Old People’s Home for construction…
-
Most prisoners serving time for drugs
PHUKET: Violation of narcotics laws is the number one conviction for prisoners serving time in the Phuket Provincial Prison. “Drugs are by far the biggest reason most Thais and foreigners are in here,” Pairoj Pankaew, chief of the prison, told the Gazette today. “Sixty percent of the total number of inmates were convicted on drug charges. Most of them were…
-
Money-laundering regulations start tomorrow
PHUKET: From tomorrow, anyone wanting to withdraw more than 2 million baht in cash from a bank account – or deposit more than that amount in cash – will have to fill in certain forms in order to comply with the Money Laundering Control Act of 1999. “This applies to cash transactions of more than 2 million baht. The purpose…
-
Two drown in three days
PATONG: A 22-year-old Malaysian tourist who was a national-level swimmer for his country drowned Tuesday afternoon at Patong Beach. Chan Oy Lye, 21, identified the victim as her boyfriend, Chew Hoo Hao. The couple had arrived in Phuket with two other friends just a few hours before the accident took place. The four friends had checked into the Panorama Hotel…
-
Monk caught cavorting in guise of Army officer
BANGKOK (AFP): A Buddhist abbot caught masquerading as a well-heeled military officer was being investigated by police today after his secret life of luxury cars, bars and girls was exposed. Abbot Thammathorn Wanchai was defrocked and arrested when his illicit activities were broadcast nationwide by a television crew who had followed him for days. Their report showed him leaving his…
-
Hostage-taker hacked to death
CHANTABURI (AFP): A man who took a child hostage at knifepoint was hacked to death yesterday with his own weapon by the boy’s enraged relatives, police said today. The unidentified man, believed to be in his 20s, was dressed only in underwear when he burst into the boy’s home, grabbed him and demanded to be driven out of the village…
-
Police announce softer traffic policy
PHUKET TOWN: Although they will continue stopping those who break traffic laws, Phuket’s police say they will be more systematic about it, and will issue fewer tickets for traffic offenses than before. The new policy follows riots in the streets of Nakhon Sri Thammarat recently when motorcycle owners went on the rampage in protest against what they saw as excessively…
-
Parks coupon scheme sees few takers
BANGKOK: Only 150 tour and dive operators in the whole of Thailand have submitted applications to join a concessionary coupon scheme recently announced by the Marine National Parks Department (MNPD) of the Royal Forestry Department (RFD). The coupon scheme allows operators to take foreigners into parks at the old rate of 20 baht or 40 baht, rather than the new…
-
Rape victim goes home
PHUKET TOWN: The Scottish rape victim, 22-year-old tourist Dawn Farmer, left Phuket yesterday for home, but police say they will stay in touch with her, and her departure will not stop them from hunting her rapist. However, Pol Lt Col Paween Pongsirin, deputy superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, admitted that his officers are finding it hard to identify the…
-
Japanese women fight off rapists
PHUKET TOWN: Two Japanese women were nearly raped by two illegal Thai guides in the early hours of Wednesday. Usuki Sato, 27, and Soko Yakanimoto, 26, came to Phuket on Tuesday and were staying at the Panwaburi Hotel on Cape Panwa. The following day, they went out with the two Thai guides, who usually hang around the front of the…
-
Swingin’ monk gets the sack
BANGKOK (AFP): An abbot at a Thai temple was forced to leave the monkhood in disgrace today after being caught carousing with a group of women in a karaoke bar. Phra Pativetviset, from the Bangkok temple Wat Sriboonruang, was banished after being captured on film during a police raid on the karaoke joint last weekend. Despite wearing a disguise of…
-
Blast and fire damage yacht
AO MAKHAM: A fire broke out this morning on a 4-million-baht sailing yacht berthed at Ao Yon, causing damage estimated at 1 million baht. The fire started at 7 am aboard the ketch “Red Moon”. Pol Lt Col Teerapol Thipjaroen, acting superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, told the Gazette that villagers heard an explosion before the yacht began to…
-
Decade of inaction on twin city slammed
PHUKET TOWN: The man behind a twin-city agreement between Phuket and the French Riviera city of Nice slammed the provincial government today for ignoring the agreement for more than 10 years, causing Phuket to miss some big opportunities to learn from Nice and to attract more French visitors. Jessada Kraipusspong, former deputy managing director of Asia Voyage and Pansea Group…
-
Airport limo operators slam “black’ taxis
PHUKET AIRPORT: Legitimate limousine operators fed up with illegal “black taxis” taking business from them at the airport protested today to the Phuket office of the Airports Authority of Thailand (AAT). Representatives of the Phuket Limousine and Business Service Cooperative Ltd (PBC), led by Vitoon Sae’iw, the organization’s secretary, presented the AAT with a video that they said shows the…
-
Hotels reiterate refusal to pay new tax
PHUKET: The committees of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), Southern Chapter, and the Phuket Tourist Association (PTA) today announced that they will not collect hotel tax from tourists on behalf of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) until the organization is able to clarify a number of issues. The refusal to collect the tax came in response to the latest…
-
Slow progress in murder and rape cases
PHUKET: The police have admitted that investigations of two recent headline-grabbing cases have not being going as well as they had hoped. In the case of the mutilated corpse of an unidentified woman found in Kathu on October 7, Pol Maj Withoon Kongsoodchai, Inspector of Tung Tong Police Station, said, “There has been almost no evidence that points us towards…
-
Lions Club raffle results
PHUKET TOWN: The Lions Club of Phuket Pearl has announced the winners of its “Smile for the Future” raffle and food fair, drawn on Saturday at Saphan Hin during the club’s annual fund-raising event. The winner of the first prize, a Nissan pick-up truck, was K. Chalermpong (ticket number 19195). Sompong Aunmettajit (ticket number 27367) won the Yamaha motorcycle, Maneerat…
-
Elephant owner sought after death crash
LAMPANG (AFP): Police in this northern Thai province were today looking for the owner of a female elephant which was in a collision with a truck, resulting in the deaths of two people. Police tracked down the elephant yesterday, a day after it collided with a fuel tanker truck while crossing a main road leading to Chiang Mai. The truck…
-
Police arrest motorbike hit-man
PHUKET: A finance company employee was shot dead while on his way home at 8:20 this morning. His killer was arrested just three hours later. Pol Maj Sanya Thongsawas of Phuket Town Police Station said that the victim, Aroon Yutitham, 28, was riding his motorbike from Phuket Town to his home at 8/4 Moo 1, Tambon Wichit, and had stopped…
Don't forget to check out some other things to do in Thailand - get help starting a business or finding a job in Thailand, buy Thailand property, rent a yacht or book a medical procedure worldwide.