Thailand News
Thailand news, politics, business, crime, and lifestyle—get breaking updates from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond. Stay informed on Thai society, economy, tourism, and expat life with The Thaiger.
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Cell phone fears grip the North
CHIANG MAI: People in Northern Thailand have been afraid to answer their cellphones in recent weeks, following claims that calls from certain numbers cause instant brain haemorrhages. People are warning each other to watch out for numbers containing the sequence 3333. If the gossip is to be believed, when calls from the numbers are answered the phones send out a…
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Pad Thai feast turns fatal
PHETCHABURI: A pensioner died on stage after choking on a clump of noodles while participating in a pad thai eating contest. Until his collapse, sixty-six-year-old Hing Laichan was leading the competition on his second plate of the famous fried noodle dish, nationalistically named by prime minister Field Marshal Plaek Pibulsonggram during the World War II era. Onlookers took Mr Hing…
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Naked intruder gets painful lesson
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: A would-be rapist got his comeuppance on January 7, when he climbed naked through the wrong window and met his intended victim’s mother – meat cleaver in hand. Twenty-eight-year-old villager Phongphetch Bunyadisak climbed through the window of a home in his village in Muang District, allegedly after the prize-winning teenage schoolgirl who lived there. When he crawled…
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Friendly frogs draw tourists to temple
AYUDHAYA: Tourists have been flocking to a temple in the old capital district to get close to a group of tame frogs that have taken up residence in a lotus pond. The frogs sit happily on lotus leaves, allowing tourists to stroke and play with them. They even allow photos to be taken, free-of-charge. Phrakhrupradit Kijjarak, 46, the abbot of…
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Domestic dispute turns explosive
TRAT: A quarry worker and his wife were blown up after the man apparently detonated a quantity of C-4 plastic explosive during a domestic dispute on November 19. The blast, heard for up to 50km away, had villagers fearfing an invasion by the Cambodian army. Police and rescue workers found the house of Phen Buntham, 42, and his wife Saijai…
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Fear of girlfriend leads to death plunge
BANGKOK: A man fell to his death November 15 as he tried to lower himself onto the balcony of his fifth floor flat – rather than go in through the front door and meet his angry girlfriend. The body of 29-year-old Surasak Kasan was found lying on the ground under the balcony of his apartment in Din Daeng. He had…
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Canine caper leaves cleric in coma
PITSANULOKE: An errant monk was caught in a compromising position on November 5 after he suffered a stroke while having sex with a temple dog behind Sam Toei Temple in Wat Thong District. Villagers were drawn to the scene by the howls of protest from the dog, which the monk had lashed to a tree. After seeing the monk in…
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Beeswax boost for beef bayonet
LAMPANG: Youths in the North have found a dangerous new way to impress the ladies: a home-made penis enlargement therapy using beeswax. The new trend came to light when a 21-year-old unnamed man checked into hospital at the end of October with a badly infected member. The man sheepishly told doctors that he had injected his penis with warm beeswax…
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Headless baby draws crowds
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: A family in Ron Phibun District have set up a shrine to house the body of a stillborn headless baby. The baby was the second of a pair of twin girls born to 30-year-old Saijai Sriraksa on October 14. After the first healthy twin was born, doctors noticed Mrs Saijai still had a lump in her abdomen.…
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Loan shark shaken by suicide cell
BANGKOK: A loan shark found the police were the least of his worries after being detained in a haunted cell. On September 1, Crime Suppression Division (CSD) officers arrested Sombun Thong-kham, 39, for extortion and unauthorized money lending, and placed him in custody at CSD headquarters on Phahonyothin Rd. Around 3am the following morning, the duty sergeant heard Mr Sombun…
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Drunk driver chows on cops
UDON THANI: A drunk driver bit two police officers who asked him to take a breathalyser test. Police said salesman Chatsak Ploicharoen, 36, was weaving all over the road as he drove his pickup truck towards a police checkpoint in Udon Thani. Police signaled for him to stop, but he drove straight through the checkpoint. Two officers chased after him…
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Afghan judo coach loses to ladyboy
BANGKOK: The coach of the Afghan judo squad attending the Asian Martial Arts Games in the Thai capital was robbed of hundreds of thousands of baht after falling for a ladyboy he met in the notorious Nana Plaza adult entertainment complex. Assaladee Sakala, 43, told police he and his team checked into the Grand Ayudhaya Hotel Bangkok in the Ratchada area and…
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Lottery players punt on one-eyed pussy
AYUDHAYA: Gamblers have been rushing to get lucky omens from the corpse of a one-eyed kitten which refuses to rot. The cat’s owner, 60-year-old Wichian Sangchai, said the kitten was the last of a litter of three born early in July in Ayudhaya, but died within minutes of being born. Mr Wichian said the kitten had only one eye and…
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Haunted heister makes amends
CHONBURI: A man claiming to be haunted by a ghost after stealing a 30,000 baht gold bracelet from a shop five years ago turned himself to police today. Jirasak Phahurat, 33, told police that a ghost came to him every day for five years, telling him to return a bracelet with the same value to the shop owner. So, Mr…
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Abbot claims black magic nailed him
UTTARADIT: A temple abbot was admitted to hospital after doctors found nails in his stomach for the second time in two months. Phra Athikananuwat Wisutho, 32, abbot of Wat Hat Song Khwai in Tha Pla District, was admitted to Uttaradit Hospital on July 7 after an X-ray found five 3- to 4-inch nails in his stomach. The director of Utaradit…
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Cabbages and condoms, literally
SONGKHLA: In Bangkok there is a popular restaurant chain known as Cabbages and Condoms, brainchild of well-known activist Mechai Viravaidya (aka “Mr Condom”), who has been internationally lauded for his efforts to promote condom use as a way of stopping HIV/Aids. At the restaurant, condoms, rather than mints, are served after meals. The efforts to bring together vegetables and prophylactics…
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Beggar thinks prison is the breast way out
KHON KAEN: Having failed to get anywhere with begging, an unemployed man was arrested on June 6 after squeezing the breasts of a number of women. Like Little Tramp in Modern Times, the man claimed the act had nothing to do with sexual appetite, but was done so to get arrested and sent to prison – where he would be…
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Elite guard in alleged sodomy of senior, 71
TRANG: Police have arrested a People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) guard for the alleged rape of a 71-year-old man. The shocking announcement was made on June 11 by Thian Banthip, deputy superintendent of the Muang District Police in nearby Trang province. Lt Col Thian identified the alleged rapist as 44-year-old Phuan Thajeen, a member of the PAD’s elite “Srivichai Warriors”…
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Local youngster goes for granny
NAKHON PHANOM: While the sight of an old man marrying a young woman is not too unusual in Isarn, when it’s the other way round, it manages to raise eyebrows. Therefore, when word spread that 73-year-old Thongsuk Phutthawan was set to marry 26-year-old Somphon Chanthawong, 47 years her junior, it quickly drew the interest of the local press. The pair…
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Eggciting find for Phang Nga villagers
PHANG NGA: A wave of excitement has swept through a village in Phang Nga province over the discovery there of a giant egg of unknown origin. Maitree Yaifai, of Village 2, Tambon Kheuk Khak in Takua Pa District, said he found the egg in a dry patch of grass not far from his house when he was out fishing. The…
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Thief lifts trousers
BANGKOK: A shopper at Carrefour supermarket had an embarrassing journey home after a thief stole his trousers while he was on the toilet on May 8. Kasin Siriwichit, 24, reported the incident to Thong Lor Police. Mr Kasin said that around midday he went to use the toilet at the Rama 4 Rd branch of Carrefour. In the cubicle, he…
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One night, two missing members
RAYONG: Staff at Rayong Hospital had a busy night on April 27, when two men with severed penises were brought in for emergency treatment. The first patient, a 31-year-old from Pluak Daeng District, arrived at around 1am. He was bleeding profusely from a wound near what had not long before been the base of his penis. Surgeons were able to…
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Belgian member survives toothy attack
CHONBURI: A Belgian man in Pattaya early this morning suffered what might be every man’s greatest secret fear, when his Thai girlfriend bit his penis and almost severed it, police said. The 56-year-old tourist, whose name was reported in the Thai media, was rushed to the Pattaya Memorial Hospital, where doctors managed to save the organ. The hospital reported the…
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Charity box bandit nabbed by The Magnet
PHUKET CITY: For a combination of stupidity and lack of ethics, few crimes in Phuket in recent years match that of a man who tried to steal a charity donation box placed on the main counter of the Phuket City Police Station on April 21.At 12:30pm that day, a police officer noticed that the charity donation box for the Foundation…
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Feisty fish, painful problem
PHUKET: Doctors in Pichit Hospital were presented with a medical conundrum on March 25, when an eight-year-old boy was brought in with a climbing perch stuck up his bottom. The boy, whose name was given in media reports but is omitted here, was carried into the hospital by his 60-year-old grandmother. The boy told doctors that on the way home…
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Penis prank provokes revenge rape
UDON THANI: A man arrested on March 21 confessed that he raped his friend’s wife in revenge for falling victim to a prank while drunk last year. The suspect said that he had been planning revenge for months after the victim’s husband tied his penis to his big toe when he passed out during a drinking session. Police arrested 30-year-old…
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Monkey kills owner with coconut
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: A coconut collector in Nop Phitam District was killed after his favorite monkey dropped a coconut onto his head on February 25.Leurit Chanchum, 48, from Village 4 Tambon Krung Ching, was hired by a neighbor to collect coconuts using his trained macaque. When the monkey was up the tree, it threw down some coconuts to its owner.…
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Thai Obama sings to a different tune
SARABURI: While your average Southeast Asian would struggle to make his way in the world as a Gerorge W Bush lookalike, America’s dashing new president is providing some exciting new career prospects for some men across the region. One Indonesian has already found fame in the Philippines owing to his uncanny resemblance to President Barack Obama. He was well compensated…
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Enraged Aussie pounds Bangkok police
BANGKOK: Life in Thailand can sometimes get a bit frustrating for expats when things don’t quite work out as they would in their home countries. This, coupled with the booze-heavy lifestyle enjoyed by a fair percentage of Westerners living in the Kingdom, occasionally leads to “Angry Farang Syndrome”.A prime example occurred one afternoon last month outside Thong Lor Police Station. Station…
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Bat-tling the cold, Isarn style
KALASIN: While temperatures of 10 degrees Celsius may not seem so cold to expats from more northerly climes, for poor Thais living in unheated shacks without warm bedding the cold season is still a real trial.Every year charity appeals are launched to find warm clothing for poor families in the North and Northeast.Villagers in the Isarn have developed alternative methods…
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