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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Economic recovery facing severe challenges
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand’s nascent economic emergence from the depths of the crisis is in jeopardy. Recently released indicators provide stark evidence that falling exports are crippling the recovery. The slump has been spurred by a decline in demand in the United States as the economy there slows, but it also reflects a failure to stimulate fresh investment, analysts say. “Foreign…
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One dead, four injured in plane fire
BANGKOK (AFP): At least one person was killed and four others were injured when a Thai Airways Boeing 737-400 burst into flames this afternoon on the tarmac at Bangkok’s domestic airport, police and airport officials said. Police Major General Amnuay Ditkavee, Bangkok’s deputy police commissioner, told reporters at the airport that the dead body of a Thai Airways crew member…
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Governor vs Burmese in ping-pong
PHUKET TOWN: The Governor of Phuket admitted yesterday that he feels like a ping-pong player when dealing with illegal Burmese workers, who are expelled one day only to return the next. Speaking at the mass expulsion of 305 illegal Burmese workers caught in Immigration Police raids between February 27 and March 1, Gov Pongpayome Vasaputi said, “It makes me feel…
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Work permits: Governor gets tough
PHUKET: With effect from yesterday, a new multi-department committee will vet all work permit applications in Phuket, Provincial Governor Pongpayome Vasaputi announced today. The committee will also check extensions and renewals, and all information will be added to a central database accessible to all the departments whose chiefs are members of the committee. These departments are the Commercial Registration Office…
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Swiss man stabbed to death
PATONG: Dokkaew Niyonrum, 38, from Buri Ram, has been charged with the murder of a 40-year-old Swiss national named by police as Christoph Albert Hartmann. Dokkaew is alleged to have stabbed Mr Hartmann in the chest during a fight in their home on Sai Nam Yen Rd in the early hours of Sunday morning. Pol Maj Komdech Poathong of Patong…
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Bookmaker gunned down
PHUKET TOWN: A restaurant owner, who was also a bookmaker specializing in gambling on soccer matches, was murdered on Tuesday morning outside his restaurant on Phuket Rd. The victim, Supachart “James” Panumassakul, 36, from Phuket, owned the Khrua New James restaurant, opposite the Imperial hotel on Phuket Rd. A witness told police that she was waiting for a friend on…
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9-year-old raped during burglary
NAI HARN: Nervous residents of Nai Harn Villas are awaiting the conclusion of a police investigation into three burglaries, during one of which a nine-year-old European girl was raped, and are hoping that an arrest will be made soon. The rape took place in the early hours of Saturday after the burglar got into the bedroom where the girl was…
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Slow start to Governor’s email hotline
PHUKET: Governor Pongpayome Vasaputi’s entry into cyberspace at the beginning of the month has so far received a lackluster response. “We receive only one or two emails a day,” the Governor’s secretary, Boonchai Somjai, told the Gazette. Every morning, K. Boonchai checks the email and then prints copies of relevant messages for the Governor’s in-tray. About 70% of the email…
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New ‘geezer visa’ rules come into effect
PHUKET: The Immigration Department has recently started applying changes in the regulations covering retired foreigners residing in Thailand. In particular, the department is strictly applying the rules on how much a retiree must have in his or her Thai bank account. The changes were brought into law in October 1998 but it has taken more than two years for them…
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Employment Services Office moves
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Provincial Employment Service Office (ESO) – which, among other activities, issues work permits – yesterday moved from Phuket Villa 1 to purpose-built premises on a one-rai site on Soi Sakdidet 1. Kopit Temsongsai, the ESO chief, said the move had been made because the old offices were too small and the department wanted to have its…
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Urgent call for O negative blood
PHUKET TOWN: The Bangkok Phuket Hospital has appealed for urgent donations of type O negative blood for a patient in its intensive care unit. The patient, Hans Lorenzet, 42, of Germany, has a liver complaint which has caused internal hemorrhaging, and is in urgent need of blood. Potential donors are asked to report to the reception desk at the hospital.
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Canadian pedestrian killed
PATONG: A Canadian pedestrian died after being hit by a motorbike on Thursday evening while crossing the beach road in Patong. Pol Lt Serm Khannimit of Kathu Police Station told the Gazette, “Michel Luc Ladouceur, 44, was crossing the road in front of the Patong Valentine’s Day Fair at about 10 pm when Teera Muangkalee, 24, from Sukhothai, crashed into…
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Motorbike injury toll hits five figures
PHUKET: The number of people injured in motorcycle accidents went into five figures for the first time last year, with 10,359 needing treatment, according to statistics supplied by the Wachira, Thalang and Patong government hospitals. The number of people injured represented an increase of 4.6% on the previous year’s 9,903. In 1998 the toll was 9,681 and in 1997 it…
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Love beats disenchantment, 254 to 1
PHUKET: Love was in the air yesterday, as 254 couples formalised their marriages at the island’s registry offices on the year’s most romantic day. With 167 couples, Muang District saw the highest number of registrations for Valentine’s Day, while 57 couples were married in Thalang District and 30 in Kathu. “Our district gave flowers made from fish scales to the…
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Tintin goes boom-boom
BRUSSELS (AFP): The Belgian prosecutor’s office says it has seized hundreds of forged comic books depicting Belgium’s fabled boy reporter Tintin and his trusty dog Snowy on a sex spree in Bangkok. Some 650 copies of a comic book entitled “Tintin in Thailand” were scooped up by undercover police over the weekend. They depict Tintin, always a model of propriety…
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Forged 500-baht notes found
KATHU: The manager of a gas station found two forged 500-baht notes on Monday morning while counting the cash taken overnight. Sopit Chaijit, manager of a Caltex station on Wichitsongkram Rd, reported to the police that the two 500-baht notes were lighter in color than normal. Her counting machine also rejected the notes, she said. The notes were received sometime…
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French resident dies in head-on smash
PATONG: A French resident, 27-year-old Laurent Robert Beauvais, was killed when his motorcycle smashed head-on into a jeep on the bypass road in the early hours of yesterday morning. The investigating officer, Pol Maj Songwut Khunjan of Phuket Town Police Station, told the Gazette that the accident happened opposite the Daihatsu showroom at about 3.20 am. The jeep’s driver, 30-year-old…
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Gambling cases top crime stats again
PHUKET: Gambling cases once again topped the crime lists in Phuket for the period between January 1 and 15, according to statistics released yesterday by the Phuket Provincial Police. A total of 163 people were arrested for gambling in the course of 96 police raids. Following close behind were illegal immigrants; 94 were caught in the same period. Drugs also…
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Thaksin voted in as PM
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand’s House of Representatives today elected Thai Rak Thai party leader Thaksin Shinawatra as the nation’s 23rd prime minister, by a majority of 340 votes to 127. Another 30 MPs abstained and three MPs were absent. Thai Rak Thai and its coalition partners, Chart Thai and New Aspiration, were bolstered in the vote by the support of 15…
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Scheduled blackouts announced
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Electricity Authority (PPEA) has announced the following scheduled blackouts for the month of February: The PPEA will be clearing tree branches and installing orange insulating covers on power lines in these areas. The blackouts will last from 9 am to 4 pm. February 13: Chao Fa Nai Rd from the Kwang Rd intersection to the Tah…
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Malaysia to build free trade zone at Thai border
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – A free-trade industrial zone costing three billion ringgit (789 million dollars) is to be developed near the Malaysian/Thai border over the next decade, a senior official said today. The “ASEAN Industrial Metropolis”, covering 2,400 hectares (5,928 acres), will be built at Bukit Kayu Hitam in the northwestern Malaysian state of Kedah, the state’s chief minister, Syed…
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Activist’s alleged killer arrested
THALANG: Bancha Noppawong, 34, from Songkhla, was arrested yesterday evening on a charge of murdering environmental activist Jurin Rachapol in Pa Khlok on January 30. K. Jurin died after being shot three times while searching for cashew leaves in a forest near to the Wachara Prawn Farm in Pa Khlok. Contrary to earlier assertions by an official that Bancha had…
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Another fishing port murder
PHUKET TOWN: A man was found murdered in the fishing port in Mu 7, Tambon Rassada, early yesterday morning. Pol Maj Thanet Phuangmanee of Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette, “A crewman from a fishing boat told me that as he was moving fish from the boat to the dock he saw the body floating in the water. He…
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Unpaid fornication hits “sex workers’
BANGKOK (AFP): The advent of casual sex is bad news for Thailand’s prostitutes who are going idle as their customers increasingly engage in pre-marital sexual relationships, according to a government report. The Ministry of Public Health said a study of 10,000 sex workers revealed each woman had on average only one customer a night, compared to an average of 1.5…
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Prawn farm boss out on bail
PHUKET TOWN: The owner of the Wachara Prawn Farm in Pa Khlok, Somsak Wongsawanond, was today released on bail of 500,000 baht. Somsak was initially denied bail when arrested two days ago on charges of illegal possession of a weapon and discharging a weapon in a public area. He denied both charges. Meanwhile, the Thalang District Chief, Kanthee Silapa, told…
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Prawn farm owner arrested
PHUKET TOWN: The owner of the Wachara Prawn Farm in Pa Khlok, Somsak Wongsawanond, 36, from Songkhla, reported to police in Phuket Town Police Station last night after a warrant was issued for his arrest on one charge of illegal possession of a weapon and another of discharging a weapon in a public area. The warrant was issued last week…
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Frightened villagers meet Minister
PHUKET AIRPORT: Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Banyat Banthadtan was today scheduled to meet with villagers from Pa Khlok to listen to their views about the recent assassination of environmental activist Jurin Rachapol. The meeting was arranged to allow the villagers to make an official request to K. Banyat – whose ministry is in charge of Thailand’s police –…
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Governor goes into cyberspace
PHUKET: The Governor of Phuket, Pongpayome Vasaputi, now has his own email address for people who wish to make suggestions to him. He has also launched the provincial government’s new website at https://www.phuket.go.th, in line with a Ministry of Interior policy to have every province set up a presence on the Internet. The website, which is currently in Thai only…
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Gunman kills motorbike taxi driver
TUNG TONG: Somyot Saekoey, 36, a motorbike taxi driver based in Patong, was shot dead late on Tuesday after visiting a friend. Pol Capt Kittipong Klaykaew of Tungtong Police Station said that K. Somyot went to visit his friend, Jamroen Soonthon, near the entrance to the Bang Wat Dam near Kathu, at around 10.30 pm. They chatted about their work…
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Pattaya firm takes over Phuket radio station
PHUKET: The end of a four-year contract has seen Pattaya-based Sunshine Radio win the rights to run the local government radio station, 101.5 FM Phuket. Sunshine Radio won the contract direct from the Phuket branch of the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand (MCOT) in Bangkok. The amount of the winning bid was not announced. “Previously, the contracts were won on…
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