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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Thailand may triple visa fees
BANGKOK (AFP): Despite an alarming slump in the country’s critical tourism sector, Thailand is considering a plan to triple visa fees for tourists. Non-immigrant visas, including those for business people, whether resident or visiting, would also rise sharply, a report said today. Thailand’s finance ministry is expected to seek cabinet approval this week for the move, claiming that it would…
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New park fees spark fury among dive firms
PHUKET: The good news is that the discriminatory fee system for entry into the Similan and Surin National Parks has been abolished. Thais and foreigners will pay the same fee. The bad news is that, from November 15, the entry fee for all divers will be 200 baht. And on top of that they must also pay a user fee…
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More trouble in Paradise
PATONG: A bus driver employed by Seatran Travel was arrested Thursday for attacking a Paradise Complex business owner with an iron bar over a parking dispute. Rick Hooper, the new director of Simple Computers, told the Gazette that he and his pregnant wife, Chatchada, went to their car parked outside the office, and found that it was blocked by two…
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CSD arrests Phuket policeman for murder
PHUKET: Officers from the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) in Bangkok yesterday arrested a fellow officer working in the Phuket Forensic Science Department on charges of murder and robbery. Pol Lt Col Chatkanok Keawsongsang, Deputy Commissioner of the CSD, explained that it was alleged that Pol Sgt Maj Soonthorn Krodtem stopped an airport limousine driven by 26-year-old Sampakorn Temtup of Krabi…
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Tangled trouble in Paradise
PHUKET TOWN: Thirty owners of businesses in the market area of Patong’s Paradise Complex descended on the Consumer Protection Office at the Provincial Hall on Monday morning to protest construction by the Royal Paradise Hotel, which they say has blocked access to their shops with thigh-high walls made of concrete blocks. The protest is the latest turn in a tale…
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Drowned foreigner identified
PATONG: The foreigner who drowned off Patong on August 29 has finally been identified after relatives saw his photograph in the news section of the Gazette Online. For six weeks local police had hoped that someone would come forward to claim the unidentified man’s body. They issued descriptions of the man and finally passed a photograph to the Gazette. After…
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Tax cut in bid to salvage boating industry
PHUKET: In a move likely to prove ‘too little too late’, Thailand’s cabinet has approved reduction in the country’s levies on imported pleasure boats from 209% to 47%. Sources contacted by the Gazette in Phuket and Bangkok were not prepared to speculate on a firm date for final approval or implementation of the measure, but there was a consensus that…
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New chief bans police from golf courses
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand’s newly appointed police commissioner, General Sant Sarutanond, has banned senior officers from playing golf, saying they were shirking their duties by spending hours on the fairways. “Many police commanders are ignoring their responsibilities by going to play golf and passing all their duties to subordinate officers, which is not proper behavior,” he said in a directive released…
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Last chance to register foreign labor
PHUKET: In its drive to register all Burmese, Laotians and Cambodians working in Phuket, the Provincial Employment Service Office (ESO) yesterday extended its deadline to register foreign laborers working in fishing-related industries to October 25. The ESO issued the new deadline after four employers told the office that they had, in total, 183 foreign laborers who could not be registered…
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Police appeal to identify drowned foreigner
KARON: Police have released a photograph of a foreigner who drowned off Karon Beach on Saturday afternoon, in the hope that someone may identify him. The victim is the second to have drowned at Karon Beach on Saturday, the first having been reported in yesterday’s Gazette Online. Pol Capt Chana Sutimard, of Chalong Police Station, told the Gazette that his…
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Suspect nabbed for thefts of 1.55 million baht
PHUKET TOWN: Police have caught a man suspected of stealing 200,000 baht from the Phuket Town Post Office in a break-in last month. Thavorn “Ord” Klomthong, 38, was arrested at his apartment yesterday. In the apartment, police found screwdrivers, pliers, a saw, a flashlight and other tools, as well as jewelry and cash. During questioning, Ord confessed to breaking into…
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Another tourist drowns
KARON: Philip Sams, a 40-year-old British tourist, drowned off Karon Beach in front of the South Sea Resort on Saturday afternoon. Pol Maj Jetsada Sangsuri told the Gazette that Mr Sams was swimming with his girlfriend, Wendy Murrin, around 3 pm. Ms Murrin returned to the beach, but Mr Sams chose to stay in the surf. Soon thereafter, he was…
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Festival ceremony to be televised live
PHUKET TOWN: This year will be the first time that a highlight of the island’s annual Vegetarian Festival will be televised live across Thailand. Channel 7 will broadcast the “go teng” pole raising ceremony, led by Somsak Thepsutin, Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office, at the Jui Tui Shrine on Soi Phuton, from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm, on October…
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Airport passenger traffic falls
PHUKET: The number of people who arrived in Phuket via the International Airport has dropped by more than 20% in the past month, according to the latest statistics released by airport officials. The figures show that 118,382 passengers arrived in September, compared with 150,680 in August. The number of departures during the same period also dropped, by 25%, with 115,866…
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Deadline for company reports extended
PHUKET: The Department of Commercial Registrations (DCR) in Bangkok has extended until December 28 the grace period during which companies that are late in submitting their annual balance sheet reports will face only light fines. The announcement came in a release yesterday from Veerachai Tantiwathanavallop, Director of Phuket’s Commercial Registration Office (CRO). Companies that ended their fiscal year on December…
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Forensic tests “will nail Krabi murder suspect’
KRABI: Police are waiting for the results of an autopsy and other forensic tests which, they believe, will cement their case against boatman Kasem “Maew” Dumdee, accused of the murder of German tourist Cao Ghu on October 1. These results should be delivered to Krabi from Bangkok in two or three days, said Pol Lt Col Somdej Sukkarn, the case…
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Tour operators win park fees battle
PHUKET: In a major victory for local tour operators, the Royal Forestry Department (RFD) has backed down on enforcement of the 200-baht entry fee for foreigners in tour groups visiting the Phang Nga Bay National Park. Individual foreigners going into the park will still be required to pay 200 baht a head, (100 baht for children) compared with 20 baht…
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Industry standards to be set for sea walking
PHUKET: The local Tourist Business and Guide Registration Office (GRO) is to set up a committee to regulate the sea walking industry, based on the recommendations of an environmental impact study on coral reefs. The announcement was made on Monday, after GRO officials met with officers of provincial government departments involved in overseeing the industry, including Phuket’s Fisheries Office, Harbor…
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Politician Hiran dies of cancer
PHUKET: Hiran Thepsiri-amnuoy, who stood for election as a Thai Rak Thai (TRT) candidate in the parliamentary elections at the beginning of this year, died on Friday of intestinal cancer. K. Hiran, 50, was the owner of the Mook Kohkaew souvenir shop and was chairman of Vichit Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor) for four years before stepping down in order to…
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Gov calls closed meeting on tourism
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi yesterday called a closed meeting of high-ranking officials to discuss potential problems for Phuket arising out of the conflict in Afghanistan. At the meeting were district chiefs and senior officers from the Phuket Immigration Office, the Royal Thai Navy Third Fleet, the Tourist Police, the local branch of the Tourism Authority of Thailand,…
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Entertainment zones to be fixed this month
PHUKET: Details of entertainment zones across the country should be finalized by the end of this month, Deputy Prime Minister Pongpol Adireksan said yesterday. He added that some zones may be allowed to open as late as 4 am. In an interview broadcast on Phuket’s 95FM radio station last night, K. Pongpol also stressed that it is government policy to…
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Policeman dies in explosion in Yala
YALA: An officer with the Border Police died early this morning in an explosion near the Ton Maphrao market in this southern city. Police said the blast, at 1:25 am, was unlikely to have been the work of Muslim militants. It was more probable, they said, that the officer killed himself accidentally with one of his own hand-grenades. Pol Sgt…
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Protestors demand park fee review
PHUKET: Two hundred protestors descended on a high-level government tourism workshop this morning to demand a review of the entrance fees for Phang Nga Bay National Park. The protesters included members of the Phuket Eco-Tourism Association (PETA) and Phang Nga residents whose livelihood depends on tourists visiting the park. The protestors’ demand was aimed at Plodprasop Suraswadi, the Director-General of…
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Chef Ronnie does it again
BANGKOK: Chef Ronnie Macuja of the Phuket Cabana’s Sala Bua restaurant has scored a second huge victory in the New Asia Cuisine competition, once again beating top chefs from Bangkok in the contest, one of the highlights of the Asian Food & Catering Fair at the Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Center. Chef Ronnie was the surprise winner in last…
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Boatman arrested for killing tourist in Krabi
KRABI: Police arrested a suspect this morning in connection with the murder of the 21-year-old German student, Cao Ghu, who disappeared Monday morning and was found floating face-down in the sea near Koh Gai two days later. Cao Ghu, who was Vietnamese by descent, was an Asian Culture major at Bonn University. She was visiting Thailand for the fourth time…
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Newlyweds in hostage drama
PATONG: Police from Kathu Police Station were called to the Jaranya Guesthouse on Rat-U-Thit Rd on Tuesday to find a honeymooning Briton standing in his wrecked hotel room, holding a broken beer bottle to his bride’s throat. Pol Capt Ampolwat Sangruang told the Gazette that his officers rushed the man, Mark Francis O’Reilly, 36, and managed to free his 18-year-old…
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German fugitive arrested
PATTAYA (AFP): A German fugitive wanted on sex procurement charges in his home country faces deportation from Thailand after his arrest at a seaside resort today. Oliver Jürgen Hesse, 33, was arrested at his condominium in Pattaya after Thai police acted on an international warrant issued in Berlin, police said. Pol Lt Gen Chat Kuldilok said Hesse and his Thai…
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Phuket ranks 2nd in Thai HIV stats
PHUKET: Phuket now has the second-highest rate of HIV infection in Thailand, Dr Jessada Chaikhunnarath, Deputy Chief of the Phuket Provincial Health Office, has told the Gazette. Only Chiang Rai has a higher rate. The infection rate in Phuket over the past 12 years was approximately six times the national average. In 1989, the last time national HIV statistics were…
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Star Aid raises B1.55m for charity
CHERNG TALAY: The StarAid gala dinner at the Sheraton Grande Laguna Phuket on Saturday evening raised just under 1.55 million baht for charity, an increase of more than 400,000 baht on last year’s event. All 510 seats for the dinner were sold out as Phuket’s socialites shelled out 1,250 baht a head for tickets and more for raffle tickets and…
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Burglars raid Post Office
PHUKET TOWN: Thieves broke into the main Post Office in Phuket Town on Sunday night and stole 200,000 baht in cash. Pol Lt Parichat Jaturonpun of Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette the burglars came in through a ventilation window on the first floor of the building while the security guard was on the third floor. They took 200,000…
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