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Sponsored Celebrity meet-and-greet events to look forward to in Thailand (2025)
Meet-and-greet with your idols? That’s exactly what 2025 has in store. This year, plenty of world-famous stars are coming to Thailand to meet their fans in more intimate settings. From dining with a sports legend to seeing your favourite K-drama...
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Dr Thim’s dream ends with sting in tail
RANONG: Noodle vendor Sajee “Thim” Klong-nguern, 31, had been suffering unusual aches and pains. That was until, one night, she says, an angel came to her in a dream. The angel told her that if she ate a pig’s tail that had been boiled in palm sugar for 15 minutes, all her aches and pains would vanish. The next day,…
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Dog’s death was the last straw
SURAT THANI: On December 2, Preecha Nachom, 47, was found dead on the bathroom floor of the home he shared with his wife. He had been shot in the head, an apparent suicide. His wife, Rungtitha, told police that Preecha, a temporary worker at the power plant, was a heavy drinker and had come home that evening complaining about his…
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A few days of stolen joy
KHON KAEN: Bualong Intarasena, 35, had a problem: after being widowed, she had a new husband, Amnart, and he wanted a child by her as soon as possible. What she didn’t dare tell him was that, after bearing her first husband two children, she had undergone sterilization. So Bualong told him she was pregnant, and as the months of her…
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Shark fin suspect faces 10 years’ jail
PHUKET TOWN: A Taiwanese fisherman arrested today in possession of 42 shark fins could face up to 10 years in jail as an example to others, according to the Marine Police. After a tip-off, Phuket Marine Police nabbed the man when he moored his boat, “Jufusun”, at Rassada Port at about 11:30 am. The man, subsequently named by police as…
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1 in 10 test positive for ya bah in raid
PHUKET TOWN: Police who raided the Hi-Tech Pub on Phang Nga Rd, found no underage patrons. But, of the 144 urine samples collected during the one-hour exercise, 14 tested positive for ya bah (methamphetamine). The raid, at around midnight on Friday night, was led by Phuket Town Police Station Superintendent Pol Col Paween Pongsirin. Accompanying the police were Weerawat Janpen,…
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Thalang Rd to be walking street?
PHUKET TOWN: Authorities are canvassing opinion on a proposal to convert one of Phuket Town’s oldest and best-known streets into a pedestrians-only zone at weekends. Phuket Town Mayor Phummisak Hongsyok revealed yesterday that the concept has already been put to residents of Thalang Rd, receiving a mixed reaction. Opinions are still being sought and no deadline has been set for…
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Drop in arrests for gambling, drugs
PHUKET: Arrests for gambling and drugs fell away in December, the latest police statistics show. While gambling remained the number one illegal pastime – with 245 people arrested in 143 raids between December 1 and 25 – comparison with the same period in November shows a decrease of 47 arrests. On the drugs front, 108 raids were made, with 120…
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Purachai closes three nightspots
PHUKET: Interior Minister Purachai Piemsomboon went walkabout in Patong and Phuket Town until early this morning, and ended up ordering the temporary closure of three nightspots. He also rattled the operators of the famed Shark discotheque. The minister also had three foreigners arrested for fighting in the street as he walked by. K. Purachai and his team – which included…
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Loch Palm murder still a mystery
TUNG TONG: Some 15 months after the mutilated body of a woman was found near the Loch Palm Golf Course, police are still trying to find out who she was – and who killed her. The victim died of blood loss from six stab wounds – two in her stomach, one in her throat, one in an armpit, one in…
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Bars should close at 11pm – Purachai
PHUKET: Interior Minister Purachai Piemsomboon shocked bar owners in Patong today when he commented he would like to see them close their doors at 11 pm each night. During a two-day inspection tour of entertainment venues in Patong and Karon, K. Purachai was stopped in Soi Bangla by three people claiming to represent owners of Patong entertainment venues. Handing him…
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Drug suspect makes a run for it
PHUKET: Torhed Cholahat, one of four suspects arrested on Monday (see https://thethaiger.com/news/index.asp?id=1833 ) for possession and sale of ya bah (metamphetamine), went on the run for seven hours yesterday after leaping out of a police pick-up truck. He was recaptured in a tin mine lagoon by a student who is on the Rajabhat Phuket Institute boxing team. An officer from…
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Copyright raid rumors spread panic
PHUKET: Widespread rumors of raids by police specializing in copyright infringement have led to panic among Phuket’s Internet cafées and shops selling software, games and music CDs, with many on the beach road in Patong closing temporarily, preferring to lose business rather than risk being caught. The word on the street is that the police arrived from Bangkok on January…
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New foot-and-mouth sweeping south
THAILAND: A recently discovered strain of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is sweeping through Southeast Asia, a top Australian expert has warned. Dr Laurence Gleeson, regional coordinator of the South East Asia FMD control program, said, “This pan-Asian strain seems to be very well adapted to pigs and cattle, and has the capability to spread. It’s now in every country in Southeast…
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Fowl play suspected
KALASIN: Porn Yeejuan knew she was a good cook and had spent the day busily preparing for her daughter’s engagement party, to which the whole village had been invited. Among the range of delicacies she had prepared for her guests was boiled chicken. Once she had finished preparing all the food, she left it in the kitchen at the back…
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An explosive relationship
CHIANG MAI: Sixty-year-old Katsuo Buno met and fell in love with 32-year-old Jitra Chuwong two years ago when Jitra went to work in Japan. Deciding that she was the love of his life, he quit his job, sold his belongings, cashed in his pension and moved to Chiang Mai so that he could be with his goddess. But Jitra, apparently…
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Perils of porcine passion
TRANG: Jamroen Jandee of Huay Yod died an untimely and unseemly death, all because he dared to interrupt two pigs in the throes of passion. Jamroen had brought his male pig to his neighbor’s so that it could mate with a female pig there. After letting the porkers go at it for what he felt was sufficient time, Jamroen went…
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Murder victim has his revenge
SUKHOTAI: U-thai Saengkaew, 38, was haunted. The ghost of the person he had murdered, he was certain, had come back to claim his life. U-thai’s body was found on November 7. Forensics established that he had hanged himself from a beam in his house at least three hours earlier. Neighbors told the police that the previous night U-thai had been…
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Policeman has the ripe stuff
NONGKHAI: Pol Col Chalong Parkpinyo, Superintendent of Phonphisai Police Station, found his way to the hearts of the people of Phonphisai – by going bananas. Wanting to make his police station a “place for the people”, Col Chalong started several projects to improve the station’s appearance and reputation. But the project that most impressed people was an unrelenting series of…
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Pinning his hopes on golden implants
Ratchaburi: Like many people, 67-year-old Preecha Iamkum puts faith in a supernatural power to protect him from harm. What makes Preecha different is the way he invokes this protection: by having three-centimeter-long gold pins fully inserted into his body. Preecha first places the custom-made pins, which are made of an 80% gold alloy, in a bowl of sesame oil and…
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Look before you leak
PHAYAO: Two days after Vichai Srisuriyathada’s body was found dumped with nine holes in his back, his friend Daoruang Ngaothakhu, 53, turned himself in to police, telling them that he could no longer stand the pangs of guilt. Daoruang told police that Vichai decided he needed to lose some of the booze from the pair’s drinking session, before going home.…
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Hungry horror lurking under the house
ANG THONG: Rattana Thithanukul, of Jarakae Rong village, has had rat problems before. But now, they’re getting out of hand. One of the local mongrels had recently given birth to eight pups under Rattana’s house, which sits on stumps about a foot off the ground. The pups’ mother came back to feed them only occasionally, so Rattana decided to keep…
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A tale of vegetables and aliens
CHANTHABURI: Police at a checkpoint on the Chanthaburi-Sra Kaew Rd stopped the approaching Isuzu pickup because the high-sided truck looked like it was massively overloaded. Checking the back of the pickup, officers confirmed the driver’s disclosed cargo of sweet potatoes under the tarpaulin. And under the sweet potatoes, jammed in shoulder-to-shoulder, they found 35 Cambodians, ranging in age from 14…
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Masseuse garotted by suspected hitman
PHUKET TOWN: Angkana Seawsuk, 28, a practitioner of traditional Thai massage, was murdered in the Rome Place Hotel yesterday evening by a young man posing as a customer. Pol Maj Songwut Khunjan, inspector of Phuket Town Police Station, told the Gazette that Narong Noppiboon, manager of the massage section, told investigators he was doing a routine check of massage rooms…
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Undercover ya bah sting nets four
THALANG: Police have arrested four people for possession and sale of a total of more than 900 ya bah (methamphetamine) pills. The arrests began on Monday afternoon when an officer in plain clothes posed as a customer to buy 10 pills from a couple who run a shuttle boat for tourists between Koh Yao and Ao Por pier in Pa…
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THAI silk turning to sandpaper?
BANGKOK (AFP): Thai Airways (a.k.a THAI) is re-launching the quest for a leader who can get the airline to shrug off its rapidly deteriorating image and revalidate its claims of running “smooth as silk”. THAI’s reputation used to be one of the best in Asia. But analysts and passengers are starting to see the airline fall apart. And Thailand’s prime…
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Phuket Town inches closer to public buses
PHUKET TOWN: Public bus services are set to start next month on two routes in Phuket Town as soon as the vehicles are ready, says a senior member of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor). The proposed transport breakthrough follows years of promises and postponements. The biggest hurdle now faced by the project is opposition from tuk-tuk drivers and motorcycle…
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Police traffic blitz set for January 16
PHUKET TOWN: January 16 will be D-day for traffic offenders in Phuket Town, Pol Lt Col Teeraphol Thipjaroen, Deputy Superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, warned today. On that day, he told the Gazette, police will arrest anyone caught breaking traffic laws in Phuket Town, with special attention being paid to motorcyclists not wearing helmets. The crackdown will coincide with…
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Minister warns civil servants about prostitution
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand’s interior minister, who has been hailed for a clampdown on the country’s flourishing illegal sex trade, today warned civil servants of severe action if caught using under-age prostitutes. Purachai Piumsomboon has ordered the dismissal of any government employee found to use child prostitutes or women forced into prostitution, following a series of recent scandals. One 12 year-old…
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Police seize fuel-smuggling mother ship
PHUKET: Marine Police boarded and seized two Thai tankers laden with a total of 1.1 million liters of gasoline, which was being smuggled into the country on New Year’s Day. Pol Col Peera Boonliang, Superintendent of the Phuket Marine Police, said this morning that investigations into a smuggling ring led to the raids in which eight Thai crewmen were arrested.…
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When an island is not an island
PHUKET TOWN: Is Phuket an island? This was the difficult question that Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi was asked to rule on this morning after more than 70 Thai tour guides came to his office to protest against the arrests of two of their colleagues by the Tourist Police. The two guides were arrested after it was found they possessed only…
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