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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12Go introduces Japan Rail Passes to enhance travel accessibility for international travellers
For those who have travelled throughout Thailand, 12Go is a well-known provider of various trips, though the platform itself has a much wider reach. Ranging from buses to planes, 12Go is undoubtedly a leading booking platform for travel throughout the...
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Cannabis fate discussed today by Narcotics Control Board
Today is the day the future of cannabis in Thailand will be decided. The Office of the Narcotics Control Board is meeting to discuss proposals calling for the plant to once again be classified as a Type 5 drug. But some powerful political figures insist that the board is powerless to stop the legalised proliferation of cannabis. Minister of Public…
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Good citizens return lost leopard cat to national park in northern Thailand
A baby leopard cat who strayed away from Nam Nao National Park in Phetchabun province, northern Thailand, has returned home with the help of some good citizens. Yesterday, the Office of Conservation Area 11 posted photos of an adorable, tiny, striped leopard kitten on Facebook with the caption… “We appreciate the good citizens who brought the #leopardcat (Prionailurus bengalensis), a…
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Man files police complaint after finding stranger’s houses on his land
A Thai man filed a complaint with the police after discovering that a stranger built two houses on his land in the western province of Kanchanaburi. The tale should be filed under “stories you’ll only find in Thailand.” The 45 year old land owner, Pairat (surname reserved), escorted reporters around his 442 square-metre estate in the Lad Ya sub-district of…
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Searches after Indonesian earthquake, death toll over 160
Searches continue for survivors of the massive earthquake in Indonesia. The death toll has now climbed to over 160 people. The quake struck in Cianjur, about 75 kilometres southeast of Jakarta, at a depth of 10 kilometres and lasted for about one minute. The earthquake measured 5.6 on the Richter scale with the epicentre in the mountains of West Java.…
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BTS Skytrain demands 40 billion baht debt is paid
The BTS Skytrain, under the BTS Group Holdings Public Company, launched a video yesterday to demand their money back! BTS says the government owes them 40 billion baht and they want the debt paid. The BTS revealed it intends to shame the government by airing the debt-collection message on every screen inside BTS trains and station platforms along Sukhumvit, or…
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Iran’s football team declines to sing its own anthem at World Cup
Iran’s football team declined to sing its national anthem at the FIFA World Cup in a move that appears to be a display of solidarity with their fellow countrymen, who are protesting against Iran’s theocratic dictatorship. Before yesterday’s match against England, the Iranian players stood silent as their national anthem was played before the game kicked off. This bold gesture…
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Foreigner repeatedly scams petrol stations in central Thailand
A fearless foreigner of unidentified nationality is touring the small province of Nakhon Nayok in central Thailand and scamming staff at petrol stations over and over again. Yesterday, staff at a PT Station in the Mueang district opposite a Toyota shop complained that a foreigner deceived them into giving him money. At around 9pm, an English-speaking man wearing a red shirt…
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Chinese man operates illegal hairdressers in plain sight in Pattaya, Thailand
Immigration Police arrested a Chinese man and four foreign employees for operating an illegal hairdresser’s shop in the middle of Pattaya city in Chon Buri province, eastern Thailand. The Chinese owner claims he didn’t know that hairdressing was a career strictly reserved for Thai people. Under the Foreign Business Act, certain occupations in Thailand are strictly prohibited for foreigners and…
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Fraudulant websites offer refunds on FTX collapse
With the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, crypto investors that lost it all are being warned to beware of misinformation and fake websites promising to help recoup their losses. Singapore police issued a warning over the weekend about a website that says it can help FTX investors to recover their lost crypto when the company declared bankruptcy. On November 11,…
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Earthquake kills at least 46 in Indonesia
A 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck West Java in Indonesia this afternoon, killing at least 46 people. Over 700 injuries have been reported so far. The death toll is likely to rise, according to the Indonesian Disaster Agency. The quake struck in Cianjur, about 100 kilometres southeast of Jakarta, at a depth of 10 kilometres and lasted for about one minute.…
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RTP contravened UN ruling using rubber bullets on protestors
A non-governmental organisation slammed the illegal use of rubber bullets by the Royal Thai Police (RTP) after skirmishes outside of the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre left a man blind in one eye and dozens of others injured. International Lawyers Assisting Workers Network (iLaw Network) made known that the RTP contravened a United Nations ruling by using rubber bullets to…
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More heavy rain and flash floods expected in Thailand
More heavy rain and flash floods are expected in Thailand this week, the Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) said today. The low pressure will cover the Gulf of Thailand while the monsoon will pass through the southern parts of Thailand from November 23-24. Those in the eastern and southern regions have been warned about the possibility of flash floods. The country’s…
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Meth addict kills and cooks pet dog that ‘ate his thoughts’ in northeast Thailand
A meth addict killed and cooked his pet dog which he said was “eating his thoughts” yesterday in Udon Thani province in northeast Thailand. In a Yaba (“crazy drug”)-induced psychotic episode, 24 year old Manat [surname withheld] beat his dog’s head with a shovel until it was dead, chopped up its body into pieces, and cooked it into a stew.…
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Rowdy monkeys moved on Phuket island
Two rowdy monkeys on an island off Phuket have been moved to the far side of the island after bothering residents. The two macaques had been disturbing locals and causing trouble, according to the head of Khao Phra Thaeo Nature and Wildlife Education Center Pongchart Chuahom. Officers from a rescue foundation of the Khao Phra Thaeo Non-hunting Area arrived on…
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Pattaya Flying Club claims another victim, a Russian
The Pattaya Flying Club claimed another victim yesterday after a Russian man fell to his death from the 8th floor of his hotel in the notorious holiday resort hot spot. The insensitively named Pattaya Flying Club is the term given to troubled foreigners who commit suicide by throwing themselves off a balcony of a Pattaya hotel and ultimately to their…
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2 entertainment venues raided in Pattaya amid crackdown
In their continued effort to crack down on nefarious activities, and hamper tourism according to many, the Pattaya Police raided two more nightclubs last night. The raids came after a pledge by police forces to do nightly sweeps of the area to make sure that all entertainment venues are following all the laws. At the press conference on Friday, Major…
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Pattaya man assaults intoxicated man, reportedly for catcalling at his girlfriend
Another late-night violent incident took place in Pattaya at around midnight on Saturday. A man physically assaulted an intoxicated man in front of Soi Ko Phai on 1/1, before fleeing the scene. An unnamed witness said the attacker assaulted the victim after the victim catcalled at, whistled at, or made a sexually suggestive comment to the attacker’s girlfriend. The injured…
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Asian international tourism slower than other regions
While tourism in Thailand is picking up, Southeast Asia has seen a much slower rate of return for international travellers than other parts of the world. Many popular holiday areas in Europe have seen a full recovery, and even record-breaking numbers in some. But Asia lags, flummoxed by the slow lifting of Covid-19 restrictions. Thailand began reopening efforts over a…
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Nike defends sweatshops accusation in Thailand
Sportswear giant Nike defended itself over accusations it is running sweatshops in Thailand, paying its factory workers 42 baht an hour to make England 2022 World Cup replica jerseys while they make fortunes of profit. Controversy surrounding the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar just won’t go away. On Friday, The Thaiger broke a story of an alleged match-fixing scandal…
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Body of teen jet skier found in Kanchanaburi reservoir
The body of a teenager who tragically perished in a jet ski accident has been found in a Kanchanaburi reservoir on Saturday. The young man, 18 year old Mawin Netdecha from Bangkok, had been jet skiing with a friend at the Srinakarin Dam reservoir on October 24. He then fell out of his jet ski and went missing. Rescuers searched…
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British man to have leg amputated after being stung by scorpion
A British man launched a Just Giving page to raise funds for his father stuck in a Thai hospital after being stung by a scorpion. The father faces losing his leg. Alan Stephenson, from Bilton in Warwickshire, was stung by what he suspects was a scorpion while he was exploring Thailand earlier this month. He felt a sharp pain but…
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BMW driver kills homeless man in hit-and-run in Bangkok
Thai police are searching for the driver of a BMW who killed a homeless man in a hit-and-run in Bangkok, Thailand, yesterday. At 11pm, officers from Bang Khun Thian Police Station received a report of a fatal car crash on the outbound Ekachai Road Soi 76 in Bangkok’s Bang Bon district. Police found the body of 52 year old Boonsri…
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Pattaya International Fireworks Festival to be backdrop of new film
The beloved Pattaya International Fireworks Festival coming up on Friday, November 25 will be the backdrop of a new film. The big-budget film’s working title is “All Men are Brothers.” Pattaya Mayor Poramet Ngampichet met last week with the film’s producer, Peter-Luis Myocchi. The film is a Thai-Chinese joint venture, and scenes will be shot on Walking Street and around…
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Son finds mother’s corpse stuffed into a freezer in northern Thailand
Mystery surrounds the suspected murder of a Thai woman whose body was found stuffed into a freezer behind her own home in Phitsanulok province in northern Thailand on Saturday. Officers from Wat Bot Police Station rushed to a home in Wat Pak Sak village after they were informed that a woman’s decaying body was found in a freezer by her…
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Police inspect venue on closed Mountain B Pub site
In a morbid example of “if at first, you don’t succeed…” a new nightlife venue has opened on the site of the notorious Mountain B Pub that caught fire and claimed the lives of 26 people. Last night, Chon Buri police inspected Never Land, the new club in Sattahip, which opened just three months after the August fire that tore…
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Thai police form centre to suppress World Cup gambling
Thai police have set up a gambling suppression centre amid the FIFA World Cup football tournament. The centre will operate until December 18, Thai media reported yesterday. Almost all forms of gambling are illegal under Thai law, and police are concerned that football fans will gamble on World Cup results. Thai police will also take the following steps: Both uniformed…
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PM Prayut predicts tourism boom from hosting APEC
When trying to decide where to take our holiday vacation, sure we probably all think the same thing: what would APEC do? Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha believes that the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit that just wrapped up in Bangkok will give a big boost to international tourism for Thailand. A spokesperson for the government said today that the prime…
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Two Thai women died hiking the Himalayas
High up in the Himalayas, two Thai women met their demise while hiking in the extreme cold. The two women, aged 49 and 37, were part of a group hiking the famous Annapurna trail in Nepal when they fell ill and died. They were reported dead after descending to a base camp to the northwest of the Nepalese capital city…
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Road 3 in Nan: a picturesque new tourist spot
We’ve all taken long road trips to get to a cool tourist attraction. But what if the road is the attraction? In the Nan province, a scenic patch of roadway called Road 3 is becoming a popular and very photogenic tourist destination. Highway 1081 cut through the beautiful hillsides of the northern province connecting the Bo Kluea district to the…
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Thai scientists develop flood-resistant rice
Thailand is one of the world’s largest rice exporters, but unpredictable weather conditions such as severe drought and heavy floods have driven Thai scientists to develop flood-resistant rice. Researchers are working on a new strain of rice that can survive floods and resist pests, and perhaps someday even taste better than Cambodian rice. The team of Thai scientists developing flood-resistant…
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