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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World dive record broken off Patong
ANDAMAN SEA: Briton Mark Ellyatt has set a new world record of 313 meters for the deepest solo scuba dive, beating the previous record by five meters. Describing his historic dive on Thursday, in waters four hours off Patong, Mr Ellyatt said, “It’s a lonely trip, like a trip to the Moon.” The descent into the depths took a mere…
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Old theater burns
PHUKET TOWN: The once-popular Nimit Theater on Chana Jaroen Rd caught fire at 2 am today. Firefighters took 15 minutes to extinguish the fire, and managed to contain the blaze to the ground floor of the two-story building, which has 10 rental rooms. Pol Maj Chokchai Sutthimet, of Phuket Town Police Station, told the Gazette that only three of the…
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Illegal arms crackdown underway
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket’s top law enforcement official says that road checkpoints and surprise home searches are now being used in an all-out effort to rid the island of its remaining illegal firearms, now that the December 15 deadline for the amnesty on handing unregistered weapons to the government has passed. Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Veerayuth Sittimalic told the…
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Bid to regenerate coral at Maithon
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) and the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization are to launch a 1.5-million-baht project to regenerate coral around Koh Maithon, five kilometers south-east of Phuket. Although the technique has been employed on Australia’s Great barrier Reef, this is the first time this kind of project has been attempted in Thailand. Nalinee Thongtham, a coral…
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Jobless benefit lifts social security cost
PHUKET TOWN: Compulsory salary deductions for social security insurance will increase from 4% to 5% from January 1 for workers and for employers. Yaowalak Yangyuen, Chief of Phuket Social Security Office, said, “The Cabinet has approved the increase because we have added unemployment benefits to social security.” Thus, if an employee earns 10,000 baht a month, he or she will…
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Changes made to Paradorn matches
CHERNG TALAY: Laguna Phuket has announced that the sixth player in the Paradorn Super Tour matches to be played at the Laguna Beach Resort tomorrow and Sunday (December 20 and 21) will be 18-year-old Chuang Chia-Jung of Taiwan. Changes to the order of play have also been announced. Saturday will see Taylor Dent play Marcelo Rios at 4 pm, followed…
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Chalong plaza plan cancelled
PHUKET: A 150-million-baht project to develop 40 rai in Chalong into a 700-shop complex has been abandoned. Five thousand customers a day and 120 million baht in annual profits were anticipated for the Phuket Legend Plaza Center but the developer, Eat & Art Management, shelved plans before any work started. All shop reservation fees for the project – which was…
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TOT promises fast Internet, more phones
PHUKET: TOT Phuket plans a huge expansion of high-speed Internet links, telephone exchanges and listed numbers, the Gazette has learned. The Director of Marketing and Customer Services Center at the TOT Phuket office, Suporn Chuenpimolchankij, said that the 12 existing telephone exchanges would be boosted to 37 and 19,530 telephone numbers would be added to the existing 40,676 numbers. The…
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Illegal firearms amnesty ends
PHUKET TOWN: The amnesty for handing in unregistered guns and ammunition expired at the end of yesterday. The final tally of weapons handed in or found during the amnesty period was 18 firearms, four explosive devices and more than 7,000 rounds of ammunition. By district, the numbers were: Phuket Town: 10 firearms, 1,300 rounds of ammunition, four explosive devices. Kathu:…
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Police pounce on illegal lottery agent
PHUKET TOWN: Police raided two houses yesterday and seized illegal lottery equipment and a ledger recording 400,000 baht in sales of lottery numbers. They arrested one woman, 47-year-old Saitong Arronrat, who allegedly confessed to involvement in illegal lotteries. Also found in the two houses in Soi Lohrong, off Pattana Rd, were about 50,000 baht in cash, a fax machine and…
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Property auction raises B64 million
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket’s first teleconference auction of bad-debt properties has been declared a success, with prices tripling expectations and huge interest being shown in the process. While there were no bids from Bangkok via the telescreen, about 300 interested parties and bidders turned up at the Royal Phuket City Hotel on Sunday, Saeksan Suksang, Chief of Phuket Legal Execution Office…
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Reminder on re-entry permits
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Provincial Immigration Office (PPIO) has issued a reminder to foreigners with one-year permits to stay that they must get a re-entry stamp in their passports before taking a trip out of the country – or go right back to square one. Pol Capt Krissarat Nuesen of the PPIO told the Gazette “When they have a one-year…
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AirAsia takes to the skies
PATONG: AirAsia, a new budget airline based in Malaysia, launched its first service, between Phuket and Kuala Lumpur, at the weekend. The exceptionally low rates of 810 baht one way for the daily flights apply until January 31. Seats must be booked 14 days in advance to qualify for the low price. Company CEO Tony Fernandes said that AirAsia will…
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Regional leaders to meet in Phuket
PHUKET TOWN: The Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit will be held in Phuket from February 5 to 9 next year, a spokesperson from the Phuket Governor’s Office told the Gazette today. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his counterparts from the other four countries – along with those of Nepal and Bhutan, which are not formal…
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Murder suspects arrested in Bangkok
PHUKET: Three people have been arrested for the murder of Klinsukon Prangchaipoom, 25, whose body was found in a canal beside the Phuket Country Club Golf Course in Kathu on December 7, stabbed to death. Initial speculation was that the death of K. Klinsukon, who worked in the Millenium Bar in Patong, was a “straightforward” rape and murder. But further…
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Questions as waystop cost grows to B87m
PHUKET: The plan to build a two-million-baht police firearms depository at Tah Chat Chai on the main route into Phuket has ballooned into an 87-million-baht project to develop a major waystop, including a service station, a restaurant, and parking for 200 cars. But doubts are now being raised about the usefulness of such a facility. The plan has grown at…
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Corpse baffles investigators
THALANG: Police have been unable to identify the body of a man found in shallow water off Ao Por on the morning of December 9. Officers believe, however, that the man was beaten to death and his corpse weighted before being dumped into the sea. Pol Maj Anan Jingjit of Thalang Police Station told the Gazette that the badly decomposed…
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New Year opening for new hospital wing
PATONG: Patong Hospital will open its new outpatient and emergency wing on New Year’s Day – just after what everyone hopes will be a quiet holiday season, at least for hospitals. Construction of the 66-million-baht, four-story building began in 2001 and the grand opening will take place on December 21. The new building houses emergency and treatment rooms, an operating…
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Democracy is not my goal – Thaksin
BANGKOK (The Nation): Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday revealed for the first time the value he places on democracy, saying it was not the foremost thing Thailand needed. In a candid statement made ominous by its release on Constitution Day, Thaksin said that as long as the country could progress and people were happy, he was not concerned about the…
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Hefty penalties for New Year drunks
PHUKET: Drivers indulging too liberally in festive spirit or otherwise driving dangerously face severe penalties this holiday season with the harshest punishments reserved for crimes committed over the critical December 28 – January 4 period. Drunk drivers could receive fines of up to 10,000 baht, three months in jail, or both, and all road users involved in collisions will also…
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Galaxy of stars for New Year in Patong
PATONG: New Year festivities in Patong will include concerts featuring a galaxy of Thai stars. Every night from December 23 to January 1, local bands and students from local schools will provide live entertainment at Loma Park. There will also be a beer garden as well as market stalls selling food, souvenirs and trinkets. On New Year’s Eve, artists including…
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Klong to gain new lease on life
PHUKET TOWN: A plan to clean up and beautify eight kilometers of the Klong Bangyai waterway was launched today at a meeting between local authorities and six American representatives from Portland, Oregon. Over the next two years, a plan will be prepared that could see the klong turned into a boating attraction for tourists as well as ensuring that its…
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British couple arrested in Patong
PHUKET TOWN: A British couple arrested for working illegally in Thailand were released yesterday after posting bail of 200,000 baht each with Phuket Provincial Court. Pol Lt Col Panudej Sookwong, Superintendent of the Phuket Tourist Police, identified the couple as 38-year-old Timothy Jones and Frances Christodolou, 40. Their arrests followed an allegation by a tourist that the pair swindled her…
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Probe launched into 17 tin mines
PHUKET: Vice-Governor Pongpow Ketthong has been appointed by Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura to preside over a committee investigating the titles for 17 plots of land in various parts of Phuket. The plots, covering a total of 1,000 rai, were formerly tin mine concessions. “The investigating committee will check whether the land titles were issued legally,” V/Gov Pongpow told the Gazette today.…
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Trash sorting facility opens
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket Town Municipality held a ceremony this morning to officially open its new trash separation facility, next to the incinerator at Saphan Hin. The new facility will cut down on the amount of waste that needs to be burned at the incinerator, which is currently operating at more than its design capacity. The outgoing Mayor of Phuket Town,…
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B5m blaze grills tuna boat
PHUKET TOWN: A tuna boat loaded with diesel fuel and bottled gas for a month-long trip burned to the waterline in a five-million-baht fire at Rassada on Saturday. The blaze was spotted about 11 am on Saturday but seven hours of efforts by seamen and firefighters failed to douse the flames and the boat was burned to a blackened hulk.…
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Officials check visa service firm
PHUKET: The investigation into fake entry permits for foreigners took a halting step forward recently when Immigration officers visited a “visa service” company and seized 20 passports found on the premises. “We checked the company where, foreigners informed us, they had obtained stamps, and now we are waiting for further instructions,” Pol Capt Krissarat Nusen of the Phuket Provincial Immigration…
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Plis Play wins King’s Cup
PHUKET: There were shouts of Olé across the water today as the newest addition to Spain’s fleet of sailing boats won overall honours in the Racing class in the annual Phuket King’s Cup Regatta. Plis Play, which was launched in Malacca just over a week ago, finished the Regatta with 12 points after a third-place finish today to beat Clariden-Karakoa,…
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Patong vendors’ leader arrested
PHUKET TOWN: The President of the Patong Vendors’ Association was arrested on Tuesday night by Phuket Town Police for carrying an unlicensed firearm into a popular downtown restaurant. Somwang “Lae” Wonghan, 39, was taken into custody by police at about 11:20 pm as he sat in the new Chilli Phuket pub on Dilok Uthit Rd 1. Fellow diners contacted police…
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Concern over missing divemaster
KAMALA: Police and workmates say they are concerned for the safety of a divemaster who vanished after a party at a bar in Kamala last Saturday (November 29). Phikun “Nori” Srisaksungnoen, 25, from Kamala, had been celebrating with colleagues after returning from diving off Phi Phi. She was last seen at 10 pm, leaving behind her car and her two…
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