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.
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Phuket City Police crash helmet campaign gets high-level backing
PHUKET: Deputy Interior Minister Thavorn Senniam was so impressed with the effort of Phuket City Police Station to get all motorbike riders and passengers to don safety helmets that he has asked the Governor’s Office to extend the initiative across the entire province. Mr Thavorn, who arrived at Phuket International Airport this morning on a one-day inspection tour, was greeted…
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Phuket surf claims two, endangers 170
PHUKET: The rough surf that arrived with the monsoon season has claimed two lives and resulted in at least 117 swimmers being dragged to safety ashore between April 26 and June 25, according to statistics recently released by the Phuket Lifeguard Club. The club, which patrols Phuket’s main beaches, took on the work on April 26 after signing a contract…
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Phuket butterfly release on Saturday
PHUKET: The Phuket Butterfly Garden and Insect World will hold its annual butterfly release ceremony on Saturday morning at the Khao Phra Thaew Wildlife Conservation Area in Thalang. Phuket Butterfly Garden Managing Director Wasin Koysiripong said the event, now in its fourth year, came about from the Butterfly Garden’s ability to breed butterflies and the recognition that the number of…
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Phuket karaoke killing: teen arrested
PHUKET: Phuket City Police have charged a young man with murder and issued an arrest warrant for his father, after the pair allegedly stabbed to death a Phuket man at a karaoke bar in Wichit on Sunday night. A crowd of bar girls, patrons and other onlookers were standing outside the Chumporn Karaoke bar on the corner of Kwang and…
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Full-Moon frazzled farang in BB rampage
SURAT THANI: Koh Phang Ngan police came under a hail of BB gunfire when they tried to subdue a middle-aged Swiss tourist on a rampage in a weaponry shop, Khao Sod has reported. Boom BB Guns shop owner Manop Wongtawan on the morning of July 4 called police to his store, which sells BB guns as well as knives and…
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Phuket City Police helmet crackdown hits the big screen
PHUKET: It was ‘standing room only’ at Phuket City Police Station this morning as hundreds of people caught on motorbikes without helmets crammed into the fourth-floor meeting room to watch a movie showing graphic images taken from road accident scenes. The viewings are all part of the Phuket City Police effort to enforce a long-ignored traffic law requiring all people…
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Phuket murder suspect turns self in, claims innocence
PHUKET: Police on Saturday announced the arrest of the third suspect wanted in connection with the June 26 shooting murder of 17-year-old Witarn Chuaykuea at a Phuket Town gas station. Watcharin “James” Limmanee, 21, handed himself in to Phuket City Police Station last Thursday to proclaim his innocence. Narongchai “Tan” Boonprom of Nakhon Sri Thammarat, arrested earlier, confessed to shooting…
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Readers call for charity for family of Phuket murder victim
PHUKET: In response to recurring suggestions from readers that a donation channel be set up to raise funds to help the mother and two young children of murder victim Wanphen Pienjai, the Phuket Gazette is currently working with a major, worldwide charitable organization to receive and administer funds. We hope to be in a position to announce details of that…
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Phuket Gazette Readers’ Poll: Patong sign a waste of money
PHUKET: A wide majority of Phuket Gazette online readers think the project to build a welcome sign on Patong Hill is a waste of taxpayer money, the latest Readers’ Poll has revealed. Readers were asked on June 21 which of three statements most accurately matched their view of the 9.1-million-baht project, funded under the central government’s Thai Khem Khaeng (Strong…
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FAT Football: Phuket beat Trang, 2-0
PHUKET: FC Phuket strengthened their grip on the Football Association of Thailand’s Division Two (South section) title with a hard-fought 2-0 win over second-placed Trang at Surakul Stadium on Saturday. With a game in hand, FC Phuket were two points ahead of Trang going into their first home match since the mid-season break. FC Phuket dominated possession in the first…
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OPINION: IT could help to clean up Phuket
PHUKET: Most private firms in Phuket realize that keeping up with developments in information technology is a difficult and never-ending effort, but one vital to competitiveness. Talk of Phuket’s designation as an ‘IT hub’ has been a recurring theme in the news over the past decade. This IT optimism reached its zenith in during the first Thaksin administration, when we…
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Phuket chosen as Asian HQ
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. World Cup? Get instantaneous scores and news updates right here on the Gazette Online (fed directly from FIFA). PHUKET: Asia Travel Tips reports that Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Asia has officially established Phuket as its Regional Operating Headquarters (ROH).…
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Man murders friend with homemade gun in Phuket
PHUKET: A construction site foreman has been charged with murder after allegedly shooting one of his laborers with a homemade pen-gun, police said. The shooting happened about 9pm last night in the Phanson Villa (Bor-Rae) housing project in Wichit. Arriving at the scene shortly after the incident, Phuket City Police officers found a single .38mm bullet casing and were told…
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Thai politics not ‘all in the family’
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. World Cup? Get instantaneous scores and news updates right here on the Gazette Online (fed directly from FIFA). PHUKET: In stark contrast with the family of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who speak with one voice on seemingly all…
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Phuket ‘bypass-bypass’ construction stalled
PHUKET: Budget problems are holding up work to complete a road linking the bypass road to a section of Ekwahnit Road near the back entrance to Surakul Stadium. Work on the project, known jokingly as the bypass-bypass road, was stalled for months because the road was blocked by a home belonging to a family of squatters who settled the area…
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Mother of Phuket murder victim tells of her pain
PHUKET: The mother of Wanphen Pienjai, the bar hostess whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase in Phuket last week, has spoken of her anguish over the murder of her daughter. Sa-ard Maliwan, 59, told the Gazette she is praying every day for police to catch the killer. “He deserves to be punished hard for what he did to…
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Phuket police offer 50,000 baht to catch killer
PHUKET CITY: Phuket City Police are offering a reward of 50,000 baht for information leading to the arrest of the killer of 33-year-old bar hostess Wanphen Pienjai, whose naked body was discovered stuffed into a suitcase in Phuket last week. The offer follows the release of a sketch of the prime suspect in the investigation, a bearded Caucasian man who…
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Couple get lucky with stolen ATM card, then get arrested
PHUKET: A Thai couple relieved an Irish expat of more than 750,000 baht after stealing his ATM card in Phuket and guessing his PIN number from his birth date, police said. Chai Bunrit, 26, and Pacharin Rathanaphansunthara, 24, then went on a spree, buying a car and staying in luxury hotels across the South before their arrest in a luxury…
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Red-shirt protests hit Phuket leukemia patient
PHUKET: Jenarong Tapklaeng, a 16-year-old leukemia patient from Phuket, spent almost a month in Bangkok for medical consultations that should have taken just a few days after his hospital was shut down because of the red-shirt protests. Doctors at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital were set to examine the possibility of performing a bone marrow transplant on Jenarong, who is currently…
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Tourism: Phuket better than most
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. World Cup? Get instantaneous scores and news updates right here on the Gazette Online (fed directly from FIFA). PHUKET: Tourism in Thailand suffered heavily in May, but Phuket continued to do better than most. The Bangkok Post reports that…
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Phuket City Police helmet crackdown starts tomorrow
PHUKET: After more than two months of public awareness campaigning, Phuket City Police will tomorrow begin the enforcement of a long-ignored traffic law requiring all motorbike riders – including passengers – to wear crash helmets. Thai traffic law states that both drivers and passengers without helmets can be fined up to 500 baht. A driver transporting a passenger not wearing…
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Pheu Thai opens office in Phuket
PHUKET: The opposition Pheu Thai Party has launched a bid to win seats in southern provinces in upcoming elections by setting up operations centers in key Andaman Coast provinces, including Phuket. Party spokesman Prompong Nopparit said at the Phuket center’s opening ceremony on June 24, “We are ready to fight for representation in the next elections. Phuket is the first…
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Phuket arrest: Father remains jailed
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. World Cup? Get instantaneous scores and news updates right here on the Gazette Online (fed directly from FIFA). PHUKET: A father volunteered to remain in jail in the United States on Monday while awaiting trial on charges that he…
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Thailand warning on dengue fever
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. World Cup? Get instantaneous scores and news updates right here on the Gazette Online (fed directly from FIFA). PHUKET: Thailand is facing a major outbreak of dengue fever and cholera, which have killed 30 people over the past six…
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FC Phuket take on Trang FC Sunday
PHUKET: FC Phuket will take a giant step towards winning the Football Association of Thailand’s Division Two (Southern Section) if they can defeat Trang at home on Sunday. FC Phuket are currently two points clear of Trang, with a game in hand. The last time the two sides met, back in April, Trang handed the Southern Sea Kirin their first…
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Two teens arrested for Phuket shooting murder
PHUKET: A 17-year-old was left dead after one man’s jealousy turned fatal in Phuket Town on Saturday night. Phuket City Police today announced the arrests 19-year-old Narongchai ‘Tan’ Boonprom of Nakhon Sri Thammarat and 27-year-old Phuket native Kajorn ‘Ee’ Chansri for their involvement in the murder of Phuket youth Witarn Chuaykuea, 17. An accomplice identified only as ‘James’ remains at…
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Kathu culture fair a weekend hit
PHUKET: While many island residents partied the weekend away at the Phuket Music Festival in Karon, Kathu came to life with streetlights, red lanterns and numerous cultural activities as part of the second annual Kathu Culture Road street fair that took place on Kathu Soi 4. Funded at about 1 million baht, the three-night fair was an attempt by Kathu…
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Blackout in Phuket tomorrow
PHUKET: There will be a blackout in parts of Chalong tomorrow to allow workers to carry out maintenance on high voltage power lines, the Provincial Electricity Authority has announced. The power cut will last from approximately 9am to 4pm. The affected areas will be along the west side of Chao Fah West Road, from Soi Baan Krang to the Ananda…
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Ax murder ends World Cup dispute
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: A man hacked his boss to death with an ax following an argument over play in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, now into the knockout stages in South Africa. In the early hours of June 22, friends of Suwit Thongkhaha rushed the 42-year-old to hospital, but he was dead on arrival, the Thai-language newspaper Khao Sod (‘Fresh…
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Software Park Phuket ‘Tech Talk’ series for July
PHUKET: Software Park Phuket has announced its schedule of weekly ‘Tech Talk’ discussions for July: July 1: ‘Worry-free, legal-licensed, free open source business software‘, by LisAndi (English presentation with Thai translation). July 8: ‘Get to know Google Docs’ by Phuket Innovation Incubation Center, Software Park Phuket (Thai presentation with English slides, no translation). July 15: ‘CAT CDMA 3G: Wireless technology…
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