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

    Black Friday starts now - Grab 10% off your health insurance plan

    If you’re an expat living in Thailand, you’ve likely experienced the complexity of navigating healthcare abroad. With Black Friday rolling in, it’s the perfect time to secure a health insurance plan that provides peace of mind and a safety net...

  • Phuket police auction seized motorbikes

    Phuket police auction seized motorbikes

    PHUKET: Chalong Police this week took the opportunity to clear out their car park with a public auction of motorbikes seized as evidence in drug-related cases. It was short work, with all 18 motorbikes sold in an hour on Wednesday. The proceeds, a total of 100,100 baht, will be handed over to the Ministry of Finance, said Snr Sgt Maj…

  • Phuket Governor donates sugar to fasting Muslims

    Phuket Governor donates sugar to fasting Muslims

    PHUKET: The Phuket Governor and his wife today presided over a ceremony to distribute sugar to local Muslims who are now fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. The ceremony, held at Phuket Provincial Hall at 3pm, saw Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop and his wife Thaisika distribute 51 large sacks of sugar, one for each of the 51 mosques on…

  • Thai League Cup: FC Phuket draw high-energy opponents | Thaiger

    Thai League Cup: FC Phuket draw high-energy opponents

    PHUKET: FC Phuket will face a real test of their prowess later this month when they take on Thai Premier League (TPL) team Osotspa Saraburi FC in the opening round of the 2010 Toyota League Cup, the Thai League’s version of England’s FA Cup. The pairing, set for August 29, was the result of a lucky draw among 64 qualifiers,…

  • Phuket Grocery warns of new scam

    Phuket Grocery warns of new scam

    PHUKET: A Phuket supermarket is warning local businesses to be on the lookout for a female con artist who recently relieved them of 45,500 baht in an audacious scam. Phuket Grocery general manager Thavich Boonprasert asked the media to inform the public about their experience as a warning to be on the lookout. On the morning of August 13 a…

  • Phuket hospitality; stocks, autos boom; ‘Death Merchant’ verdict today | Thaiger

    Phuket hospitality; stocks, autos boom; ‘Death Merchant’ verdict today

    Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news about Thailand from around the world, compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. Phuket ready for Asian Hospitality Show Phuket’s first Asian Hospitality and Travel Show is shaping up to be a winner, with strong buyer and seller interest in the run-up to the October 1-3 event. Events Thailand, the…

  • Phuket Lifesaving Carnival set for September 11

    Phuket Lifesaving Carnival set for September 11

    PHUKET: The Phuket Lifeguard Club’s third annual carnival, this year to be held at Loma Park in Patong on September 11, is targeting youngsters in order to boost surf lifesaving skills on the island. “We want to promote water safety and surf awareness in a fun environment to appeal to the local community to embrace lifesaving as a sport. We…

  • Update: Phuket Immigration nabs Taiwanese for drugs

    Update: Phuket Immigration nabs Taiwanese for drugs

    PHUKET: As reported in the Gazette’s Phuket NEWS Hound earlier today, Phuket Immigration Police yesterday announced the arrest of a man wanted for drug smuggling eight years ago in his native Taiwan.Phuket Immigration Superintendent Col Panuwat Ruamrak named the man as Wu Jung Mu, 51.He was arrested at the Mei Zhou Phuket Hotel on Luang Por Wat Chalong Rd on…

  • Phuket ready for ‘Hungry Ghost’ ceremony

    Phuket ready for ‘Hungry Ghost’ ceremony

    PHUKET: The island’s ethnic Chinese community is preparing for the annual Por Tor Festival, featuring special events organized by Phuket City Municipality from August 26. The Kusoldharm Foundation began its preparations by holding two days of ancestor worship at their headquarters on Phun Pol Rd Soi 9 last week. The event, including various merit-making activities, also saw 122 scholarships of…

  • Phuket smackdown: Five arrested on narcotics charges

    Phuket smackdown: Five arrested on narcotics charges

    PHUKET: Phuket City Police arrested five people and seized seven vehicles, firearms and a heady variety of narcotics during a drug raid on a home in Koh Kaew on Tuesday. Officers led by Phuket Provincial Police Deputy Commander Komol Watrakorn told a press conference at Phuket City Police Station yesterday that the first arrest was that of Koh Kaew resident…

  • Norwegian falls for ATM scam in Phuket

    Norwegian falls for ATM scam in Phuket

    PHUKET: Police are warning tourists to be vigilant while using ATM machines following the alleged theft of 200,000 baht from a Norwegian tourist in Kata last week. Kjell Olar Farseth, 52, filed a complaint with Chalong Police yesterday morning stating that a man who offered to help him operate the Kasikorn Bank ATM machine near the Karon Municipality offices in…

  • Phuket Update; foreigner nabbed; Phuket airline happy; Wiki wasted | Thaiger

    Phuket Update; foreigner nabbed; Phuket airline happy; Wiki wasted

    Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news about Thailand from around the world, compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. Phuket airport arrivals soar Passenger traffic through Phuket International Airport during the first half of this year surged 28 per cent compared to a year earlier – marking a dramatic recovery for Phuket as the island resort…

  • Phuket police: Violent crime, drug cases soaring

    Phuket police: Violent crime, drug cases soaring

    PHUKET: Forty murders in Phuket since the beginning of the current fiscal year have led a 95% year-on-year increase in the number of violent crime cases on the island, according to official police statistics. Figures released by Phuket Provincial Police for this year show eight cases of premeditated murder in July alone, with arrests in five cases. Figures for the…

  • Phuket Property: Vikings wary; Phuket Fitness Fiesta; Cops slammed, loved; Phuket villas | Thaiger

    Phuket Property: Vikings wary; Phuket Fitness Fiesta; Cops slammed, loved; Phuket villas

    Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news about Thailand from around the world, compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. Phuket property: Scandinavians scared Scandinavians are planning to sell their properties in Phuket ‘en masse’ after the political riots in Thailand badly shook their confidence, says Thanan Tanpaiboon, president of the Phuket Real Estate Association. “In the…

  • Revered Phuket monk to turn 114

    Revered Phuket monk to turn 114

    PHUKET: Hundreds of well-wishers are expected to help revered Phuket monk Luang Pu Supha celebrate his 114th birthday next month. The secret to the aged monk’s longevity is to “eat less, speak less and always speak the truth”. Last year the Gazette broke the story about Luang Pu Supha’s reputed age on September 4. For previous reports click here. Having…

  • Goose torched near Phuket pizza joint

    Goose torched near Phuket pizza joint

    PHUKET: Diners at the popular P Pizza House restaurant in the Samkong area of Phuket Town got a fright recently when a man in an adjacent lot fired up a blowtorch and began searing the flesh of what appeared to be a strange new creature with enormous front claws. Closer inspection revealed that the animal was in fact a goose…

  • Phuket Thailand Open volleyball dates confirmed

    Phuket Thailand Open volleyball dates confirmed

    PHUKET: It has been confirmed that the Swatch FIVB Beach Volley World Tour will once again have a stop in Phuket, with this year’s Phuket Thailand Open to take place on the sands of Karon Beach from November 2 to 7.More teams competed in last year’s event than in any other tournament on the Beach Volley World Tour. This year,…

  • Lucky numbers take root | Thaiger

    Lucky numbers take root

    An obscenely shaped tree at a police station in the northern province of Phayao has reportedly predicted the winning lottery numbers. The talented tamarind tree is in the yard of Phayao Muang Police Station. The tree has an approximately two-foot-long gash in its trunk with a fist-sized sparkling lump at one end. Villagers say the combination makes the tree look…

  • Phuket musician in charity drive for son

    Phuket musician in charity drive for son

    PHUKET: Rino Mangon Vogt, 10, is a boy who knows he could die before the end of this year. Rino is suffering from a rare and congenital heart condition known as Ebstein’s Anomaly. Usually present at birth, this life threatening anomaly can show itself at any time, even into adulthood. The cause lies within one of Rino’s heart valves, which…

  • Radio Thailand Phuket announces contest winner

    Radio Thailand Phuket announces contest winner

    PHUKET: Radio Thailand Phuket has announced a photograph by Sakorn Jarasbusarakam as winner of its Mothers’ Day Photo Contest. The contest, under the theme “The bond between mother and child”, was held in celebration of national Mothers’ Day on August 12, also the 78th birthday of HM Queen Sirikit. The winning entry shows a young mother blowing on a spoonful…

  • Blackout in Chalong, Phuket tomorrow

    Blackout in Chalong, Phuket tomorrow

    PHUKET: The Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA), Phuket branch, has announced scheduled blackouts to carry out maintenance on high voltage power lines in Chalong from 9am to 4pm from tomorrow and on Thursday. Affected areas include: August 18: West side of Chao Fah West Road from the Wat Chalong area to and along Soi Ban Klang, and Soi Gloom Yang. August…

  • FC Phuket clinch Division 2 South title

    FC Phuket clinch Division 2 South title

    PHUKET: FC Phuket clinched the AIS Regional League Division 2 South title with a 2-1 win at Ranong FC on Saturday. Ranong FC went into the match with 34 points, fighting to keep their second place standing and a chance for the promotional playoff spot that goes with it, but like many second-place teams before them, they were no match…

  • New building code affects Phuket hillside projects

    New building code affects Phuket hillside projects

    PHUKET: Phuket Natural Resources and Environmental officer Natthaporn Jarunkiatkhajorn has confirmed that tighter controls on building on hillside land in Phuket came into force on July 31, some two months earlier than expected. “After we receive an official letter from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Policy and Planning Division in Bangkok, we will immediately send letters informing related…

  • TAT announces Thai Travel Mart 2010 | Thaiger

    TAT announces Thai Travel Mart 2010

    PHUKET: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has confirmed that the Thailand Travel Mart Plus Amazing Gateway to the Greater Mekong Sub-region will be held from September 8 to 10 at the IMPACT Convention Center in Muang Thong Thani. The Thailand Travel Mart Plus (TTM+) is the country’s premier annual trade event designed to promote travel and tourism to Thailand…

  • Phuket Opinion: ‘Terminal’ traffic ills can still be solved | Thaiger

    Phuket Opinion: ‘Terminal’ traffic ills can still be solved

    PHUKET: Residents of Rassada Village 2 have good reason to complain about the lack of a public hearing before the construction of Phuket Bus Terminal 2 in their community. But now that the station has sat idle for seven months, it’s time for all stakeholders to sit down together and work out a solution acceptable to all sides. As long-term…

  • Where’s Juthamas?; Cambodia’s complaint; floods; hot info | Thaiger

    Where’s Juthamas?; Cambodia’s complaint; floods; hot info

    Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news about Thailand from around the world, compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. Juthamas back in lions’ den PHUKET: The Nation reports this morning that the national anti-graft agency is likely to seek legal indictment of former Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) governor Juthamas Siriwan in connection with a bribery…

  • Phuket ‘Killer Brit’ suspect named

    Phuket ‘Killer Brit’ suspect named

    PHUKET: Chalong police have confirmed the identity of the prime suspect in the brutal stabbing death of American Muay Thai trainee Dashawn Longfellow in the early hours this morning. Case Officer Anukul Nookate confirmed to the Gazette that British Muay Thai fighter Lee Aldhouse, 28, is being sought for arrest in the murder of Mr Longfellow at his room at…

  • Now you see him: Famed magician to open venue in Phuket

    Now you see him: Famed magician to open venue in Phuket

    PHUKET: Joe Conrad, one of Asia’s best-known magicians, will be staging a regular magic show at his own venue in Patong come December. Billed as Asia’s Premier Magic Spectacular, the 90-minute show is being choreographed as family entertainment with initial prices set at 900 baht for adults and 600 baht for children. The show’s grand finale will feature a “disappearing”…

  • American murdered in Phuket; Police hunt “killer Brit’ | Thaiger

    American murdered in Phuket; Police hunt “killer Brit’

    RAWAI: An American man was found stabbed to death in his hotel room near Ya Nui Beach and a search has been launched for the prime suspect, a British Muay Thai boxing student named, so far, only as “Mr Lee”. Chalong police received a report at 6am today that an American “tourist” had been murdered in his room at an…

  • Phuket Rotary Club organizes relief for Pakistani flood victims

    Phuket Rotary Club organizes relief for Pakistani flood victims

    PHUKET: The Rotary Club of Patong Beach has launched a disaster relief drive to provide aid to some of the 14 million people in Pakistan displaced by devastating floods and in desperate need of water, food, shelter and sanitation. “As was the case with the Haiti earthquake relief, we’re working with the Canadian shelter box group, newly renamed ‘Disaster Aid…

  • Phuket motorists warned over ‘red plate’ driving

    Phuket motorists warned over ‘red plate’ driving

    PHUKET: Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO) Chief Kanok Siripanichkorn has told the Gazette that people driving cars with red license plates have just one month to get regular “white plates” on their cars – or face the consequences. The warning for Phuket drivers follows Land Transport Department Director-General Chairat Sanguansue’s announcement of a “crackdown” on people illegally driving cars with…