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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Smooth travel to Belgium and the Netherlands: Visa tips & tricks!
Make Belgium and the Netherlands your next destination with the right visa in hand. Explore the iconic tulip fields, cruise through Amsterdam’s scenic canals, or stroll through the historic streets of Bruges. Don’t forget to enjoy some authentic Belgian chocolate...
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Tesco Lotus dismisses Phuket closure rumors
PHUKET: Tesco Lotus executives have dismissed rumors that the opening of its new hypermarket in Thalang will be followed by the closure of its flagship property near Phuket Town. “The one in Phuket Town will stay open as long as people continue to shop there,” said corporate affairs executive Martin Clutterbuck. The comments came following the opening ceremony of the…
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Phuket task force named to push Convention Center
PHUKET: The Phuket Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) is set to argue against its counterpart in Bangkok, which ruled against a plan to build an international convention and exhibition center (ICEC) on the island. The local MNRE office is one of four “proponents” chosen as part of a Phuket task force to counter the reasons given by the…
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Record entries for Phuket Beach Volleyball
PHUKET: The Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT will complete the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour, and once again the event has proved its increasing popularity by attracting the highest number of entries for a women’s tournament out of 29 stages on the World Tour calendar. This year’s tournament has attracted 82 entries from 32 countries, including 28…
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Jürgen Zack – training tips for the Phuket Triathlon
PHUKET: Jürgen Zack has won the European Ironman Championship five times, the Ironman Austria twice and has been Ironman Australia Champion. This supreme German athlete has also had three top ten finishes at the most gruelling distance event in the world – The Ford Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. With just eight weeks to go before the island’s Tri-Fest…
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Phuket News Hound: Steve Jobs is dead; Phuket tennis tourney shaping up; Listeria alarm in US
Phuket NEWS Hound – World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has died Phuket Gazette Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died last night in California. In a statement, Apple’s Board of Directors confirmed the passing of Jobs. “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of…
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Pathetic FA argument
PHUKET: “The introduction of goal line technology would hinder the game’s free flowing nature and undermine the referee’s authority.” Alex Horne, general secretary of the English Football Association, yesterday indicated that it may be possible to introduce video technology by 2013/2014, but interrupting the game’s tempo and reducing the referee’s control were arguments to be considered. Here’s an argument for…
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Tesco Lotus Thalang opens in Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket’s second Tesco Lotus shopping mall is now open for business in Thalang, with a grand opening ceremony featuring scholarship presentations to needy local students set for tomorrow. The new mall, located on Thepkrasattri Road southbound near Thalang Hospital, covers more than 17,000 square meters and has 99 shops. The department store itself employs 274 staff, all from Phuket,…
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Phuket landslide victim ‘doing well’
PHUKET: The local leader who was buried alive in a landslide in Phuket earlier this week is recovering well, relatives say. The victim, 38-year-old Witsanu Yidsua, was watching television in his bedroom on Monday morning when part of a neighboring home collapsed and slid downslope, crashing through a concrete wall and burying him up to his neck in chunks of…
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Phuket floods: roads closed, landslide hits Patong
PHUKET: Downpours this morning have caused havoc across Phuket, with road closures and major traffic delays reported across the island – and another landslide in Patong. The Department of Disaster Mitigation and Prevention office at Patong Municipality this morning told the Gazette they received a report of a landslide on Soi Kuan Yang, located off Patong Hill road between Wat…
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Last day of 2011 Phuket Vegetarian Festival
PHUKET: Today marks the final day of the 2011 Phuket Vegetarian Festival, with the final farewells to the Nine Warrior Gods scheduled to take place amid a deafening street procession along Phuket Road this evening. This year’s festival has been one of the rainiest ever, with over 173mm of rain recorded over the first eight days of the festival at…
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PATA: Phuket should brace for a “new breed of tourist’
PHUKET: The tourism industry in Phuket should take preemptive steps to prepare itself for a major shift in tourism dynamics, a high-powered meeting of industry players was told recently. A shift in global economics has prompted a trend for visitors to Phuket to be more likely to come from within the Asia-Pacific region, specifically India and China, said Bert van…
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Phuket News Hound: Helicopter crash kills one
Phuket NEWS Hound – world NEWS compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Helicopter crash in New York City kills British woman Phuket Gazette A helicopter carrying five people crashed in New York City this morning, killing a British woman, officials said. The accident occurred at around 3:20pm local time yesterday afternoon (3:20am today in Phuket) when a privately-owned helicopter…
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Phuket on high alert for landslides – again.
PHUKET: Residents in hillside areas of Phuket are asked to remain on high alert for the possibility of more landslides, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM-Phuket) warned today. Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) Phuket chief San Jantharawong told the Phuket Gazette that his agency had this morning received a second warning message about the possibility of…
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Northern floods prompt Phuket call for blood
PHUKET: The head of the Phuket Regional Blood Center, run by the Red Cross, has called for blood donations to bolster dwindling stocks in the northern, central and northeastern provinces which have been severely affected by floods. “We have enough blood in stock for the six provinces along the Andaman Coast, but I am calling for blood donations because the…
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Phuket gears up flood relief efforts
PHUKET: The Phuket Reporter’s Club is accepting donations on behalf of the Phuket Provincial Office to help victims of the severe flooding across northern, central and northeastern Thailand. The floods have so far claimed the lives of more than 200 people and forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes. The Reporter’s Club, located at Phuket Provincial Hall,…
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Police believe Fake DSI agent is on the run in Phuket
PHUKET: A career conman who claimed to be a high-ranking Department of Special Investigations (DSI) officer is on the run again after two decades of crime, arrests, womanizing and escaping justice. Witchayut Pansampao, the alleged conman who masqueraded as a DSI officer to defraud people throughout the South, was arrested last month in Haad Yai but has gone missing after…
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Weird World News: Young people doing stupid things
PHUKET: Most adults dread old age because it means you can’t do the things you could when you were young. But if the following stories are anything to go by, those getting on in years should feel blessed with the wisdom that comes with age. The weird, dangerous and idiotic things young people are getting up to around the globe…
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‘Lanky Gecko’ and his house of lizards
CHIANG MAI: An animal-crazy man in Chiang Mai has shacked up in an apartment with 23 large geckos and chameleons, living with the lizards as if they were pet cats and dogs. When a reporter from Khao Sod went to visit Suiti Saelim’s apartment in Fa Ham subdistrict, there were lizards everywhere: under the bed, on the mattress, on the…
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Phuket News Hound: Thai floods; PM to visit Burma; Thailand’s Boxer going for gold
PHUKET NEWS HOUND – news about Thailand compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket readers Thai flood death toll reaches 212 Phuket Gazette The death toll as a result of widespread flooding across Thailand in recent months has risen to at least 212, according to the latest reports released on yesterday. Permanent Interior Secretary Phranai Suwannarat confirmed the number of deaths,…
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Buried alive: Phuket activist survives landslide terror
PHUKET: A Phuket community leader was badly injured this morning when a landslide caused part of a neighboring home to come crashing through his bedroom wall as he lay watching television. At about 9:30am today, 38-year-old Witsanu Yidsua was in his bedroom at the back of his home on Phisit Gorani Road when the tragedy occurred. Mr Witsanu, president of…
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Thai volleyball will challenge the world
PHUKET: Last stop on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour is the Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT, from November 1 to 6, and this popular event is now being used as a springboard for the Thai teams to make a challenge on the 2012 World Tour. Thai teams have rarely made an appearance on the international circuit…
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Phuket downpours prompt weather warning
PHUKET: Following heavy rains across Phuket this morning, the Thai Meteorological Department has issued a weather advisory. Issued at 11am by the Southern Meteorological Center at Phuket Airport, the advisory reads: “Rather strong southwest monsoon over the Andaman Sea and the Southern Thailand West Coast. Abundant rain and heavy to very heavy rain in many areas over much of the…
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BREAKING NEWS: FC Phuket 1 – 1 Chiang Mai FC
PHUKET: FC Phuket ended their four game winning streak with a 1-1 draw against Chiang Mai FC this evening. Phuket’s Niran Phantong gave Phuket an early lead with a goal in the opening minutes of the first half, but Chiang Mai FC equalized at the start of the second. The star of the match was the Chiang Mai FC keeper,…
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Three injured in Patong truck crash
PHUKET: Three people were injured when a six-wheeled truck hauling sand ran out of control, crushing vehicles and smashing into shops on Phuket’s west coast this morning. Truck driver Rungaroon Ji-nga, 31, was descending the steep hill into Patong from Phuket Town at about 10 am when he failed to negotiate the curve in front of Wat Suwan Khiriwong (Wat…
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Phuket Opinion: Making news a social obligation, and a two-way street
PHUKET: The Phuket Gazette would like to thank its readers for their support in our continued growth, not only with the newspaper, which is now on board 10 of the world’s leading airlines, but also on the Web; in the whole new world of handheld ‘devices’; and in broadcasting, where next PGTV goes on UBC/True Visions with two prime time…
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Drunken Dane fails Phuket bar test
PHUKET: A group of young foreigners out celebrating their graduation from the European Bartender School in Patong received a lesson in Phuket bar etiquette this week when one man was chased down and “vigorously apprehended” by tuk-tuk and motorcycle taxi drivers. The objection among the drivers was the rough treatment given to a Thai barmaid following a disagreement late Thursday…
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South African family said to suffer Phuket holiday nightmare
PHUKET: A South African family’s holiday in Phuket turned into a nightmare on their last day here when the father was arrested and detained for almost a month for allegedly being in possession of fake U.S. dollars. According to News 24, Gabriel Sequeira, 43, from Johannesburg, was released only after his family paid out several large amounts of money, totaling…
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FC Phuket fly north for the “winner’
PHUKET: FC Phuket should be well rested for tomorrow night’s away match against Chiangmai FC, having flown up to the northern capital yesterday afternoon on a flight operated by team sponsors AirAsia. Despite prolonged flooding that has swept across Thailand’s central and northern regions, which in only the past week saw Chiang Mai added to the list of “disaster area”…
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Phuket taxi thugs apologize, pay damages for attack on tour driver
PHUKET: The three taxi drivers who assaulted another driver working for a Phuket elephant camp have apologized for the attack and paid 40,000 baht in damages. Kamala Police Duty Officer Anek Mongkol confirmed today that the three taxi drivers – Wasan Sanae, 35, Sitthikorn Boonsri, 28, and Thanawut Poksakul, 25 – were each fined 1,000 baht for the attack. The…
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Phuket construction worker dies of high blood pressure
PHUKET: Police believe that a Cambodian construction worker found dead this morning died from high blood pressure. Thalang Police Duty Officer Praman Yapphayak said he was notified of the death at about 7:30am. Arriving at the scene, at a workers’ camp in Srisoonthorn, Thalang, police found Wanna Mon, 48, dead in his room. He was lying facing up with blood…
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