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.
-
Sponsored How to reduce out-of-pocket medical expenses in Thailand?
Managing medical expenses in Thailand is important as healthcare costs continue to rise. The country’s healthcare system includes both public and private options, but even with the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS) for citizens, many still face high out-of-pocket medical expenses....
-
Shark fin suspect faces 10 years’ jail
PHUKET TOWN: A Taiwanese fisherman arrested today in possession of 42 shark fins could face up to 10 years in jail as an example to others, according to the Marine Police. After a tip-off, Phuket Marine Police nabbed the man when he moored his boat, “Jufusun”, at Rassada Port at about 11:30 am. The man, subsequently named by police as…
-
Police seize fake goods, arrest four
PATONG: Police from Bangkok’s Crime Suppression Division (CSD) arrested four people and seized almost 2,000 fake brand-name goods yesterday evening in raids on two warehouses and two market stalls. The warehouse raids took place in Soi Chalermsub off Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd, where officers arrested Somporn Keatnu, 30, of Phatthalung, and Kompetch Sae’eung, 23, of Phuket. Both claimed to be…
-
1 in 10 test positive for ya bah in raid
PHUKET TOWN: Police who raided the Hi-Tech Pub on Phang Nga Rd, found no underage patrons. But, of the 144 urine samples collected during the one-hour exercise, 14 tested positive for ya bah (methamphetamine). The raid, at around midnight on Friday night, was led by Phuket Town Police Station Superintendent Pol Col Paween Pongsirin. Accompanying the police were Weerawat Janpen,…
-
Thalang Rd to be walking street?
PHUKET TOWN: Authorities are canvassing opinion on a proposal to convert one of Phuket Town’s oldest and best-known streets into a pedestrians-only zone at weekends. Phuket Town Mayor Phummisak Hongsyok revealed yesterday that the concept has already been put to residents of Thalang Rd, receiving a mixed reaction. Opinions are still being sought and no deadline has been set for…
-
Purachai closes three nightspots
PHUKET: Interior Minister Purachai Piemsomboon went walkabout in Patong and Phuket Town until early this morning, and ended up ordering the temporary closure of three nightspots. He also rattled the operators of the famed Shark discotheque. The minister also had three foreigners arrested for fighting in the street as he walked by. K. Purachai and his team – which included…
-
Fire guts seven houses
PATONG: Fire swept through seven wooden houses in Patong yesterday morning, causing damage estimated at 300,000 baht. No one was hurt. Firemen took 40 minutes to extinguish the fire in Soi Rong Bambat Namser, 50 metres from Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd. Pol Lt Serm Kwannimit, in charge of investigating the fire, told the Gazette that it started in a house…
-
Loch Palm murder still a mystery
TUNG TONG: Some 15 months after the mutilated body of a woman was found near the Loch Palm Golf Course, police are still trying to find out who she was – and who killed her. The victim died of blood loss from six stab wounds – two in her stomach, one in her throat, one in an armpit, one in…
-
Bars should close at 11pm – Purachai
PHUKET: Interior Minister Purachai Piemsomboon shocked bar owners in Patong today when he commented he would like to see them close their doors at 11 pm each night. During a two-day inspection tour of entertainment venues in Patong and Karon, K. Purachai was stopped in Soi Bangla by three people claiming to represent owners of Patong entertainment venues. Handing him…
-
Copyright raid rumors spread panic
PHUKET: Widespread rumors of raids by police specializing in copyright infringement have led to panic among Phuket’s Internet cafées and shops selling software, games and music CDs, with many on the beach road in Patong closing temporarily, preferring to lose business rather than risk being caught. The word on the street is that the police arrived from Bangkok on January…
-
Tourist’s death puzzles police
PATONG: Mystery surrounds the final hours of an Italian tourist whose body was found in a shallow pool of water near Patong Beach yesterday evening. Alerted by a tip-off at about 6 pm yesterday, police went to the site, near the Phuket Palace Hotel on the main Patong-Karon road, and found Luca Tesei, 35, lying face-down in the shin-deep pool.…
-
New foot-and-mouth sweeping south
THAILAND: A recently discovered strain of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is sweeping through Southeast Asia, a top Australian expert has warned. Dr Laurence Gleeson, regional coordinator of the South East Asia FMD control program, said, “This pan-Asian strain seems to be very well adapted to pigs and cattle, and has the capability to spread. It’s now in every country in Southeast…
-
Fowl play suspected
KALASIN: Porn Yeejuan knew she was a good cook and had spent the day busily preparing for her daughter’s engagement party, to which the whole village had been invited. Among the range of delicacies she had prepared for her guests was boiled chicken. Once she had finished preparing all the food, she left it in the kitchen at the back…
-
Perils of porcine passion
TRANG: Jamroen Jandee of Huay Yod died an untimely and unseemly death, all because he dared to interrupt two pigs in the throes of passion. Jamroen had brought his male pig to his neighbor’s so that it could mate with a female pig there. After letting the porkers go at it for what he felt was sufficient time, Jamroen went…
-
Grave problems for market
RAYONG: Vichai Eaksuk reckoned he was in luck. He’d found a place to hold a small fair for the last two weeks in November. A man called Anek was willing to rent out the area in front of 14 bungalows he managed. What Anek didn’t mention was that villagers believed bungalow No 5 was haunted. So, Vichai set up his…
-
Murder victim has his revenge
SUKHOTAI: U-thai Saengkaew, 38, was haunted. The ghost of the person he had murdered, he was certain, had come back to claim his life. U-thai’s body was found on November 7. Forensics established that he had hanged himself from a beam in his house at least three hours earlier. Neighbors told the police that the previous night U-thai had been…
-
Policeman has the ripe stuff
NONGKHAI: Pol Col Chalong Parkpinyo, Superintendent of Phonphisai Police Station, found his way to the hearts of the people of Phonphisai – by going bananas. Wanting to make his police station a “place for the people”, Col Chalong started several projects to improve the station’s appearance and reputation. But the project that most impressed people was an unrelenting series of…
-
Look before you leak
PHAYAO: Two days after Vichai Srisuriyathada’s body was found dumped with nine holes in his back, his friend Daoruang Ngaothakhu, 53, turned himself in to police, telling them that he could no longer stand the pangs of guilt. Daoruang told police that Vichai decided he needed to lose some of the booze from the pair’s drinking session, before going home.…
-
Gambling habit ends with an unlucky draw
CHANTHABURI: Prajum Noikul, 39, liked gambling. Her husband, Saichol, was getting tired of it. It infuriated him to see her wasting her time and his money. On October 10, his fury boiled over. In a bid to make his wife understand that he really didn’t like her gambling, Saichol, 39, took out his 9-mm handgun. He pointed the gun at…
-
Hungry horror lurking under the house
ANG THONG: Rattana Thithanukul, of Jarakae Rong village, has had rat problems before. But now, they’re getting out of hand. One of the local mongrels had recently given birth to eight pups under Rattana’s house, which sits on stumps about a foot off the ground. The pups’ mother came back to feed them only occasionally, so Rattana decided to keep…
-
A tale of vegetables and aliens
CHANTHABURI: Police at a checkpoint on the Chanthaburi-Sra Kaew Rd stopped the approaching Isuzu pickup because the high-sided truck looked like it was massively overloaded. Checking the back of the pickup, officers confirmed the driver’s disclosed cargo of sweet potatoes under the tarpaulin. And under the sweet potatoes, jammed in shoulder-to-shoulder, they found 35 Cambodians, ranging in age from 14…
-
Undercover ya bah sting nets four
THALANG: Police have arrested four people for possession and sale of a total of more than 900 ya bah (methamphetamine) pills. The arrests began on Monday afternoon when an officer in plain clothes posed as a customer to buy 10 pills from a couple who run a shuttle boat for tourists between Koh Yao and Ao Por pier in Pa…
-
PM’s sister launches women’s club in Phuket
PHUKET TOWN: Yaowares Shinawatra, sister of Prime Minister Thaksin, today chaired a meeting to launch the Phuket chapter of the Business and Professional Women’s Association of Thailand (BPWAT) at the Phuket Pearl Hotel. K. Yaowares, who is the Vice-Chairperson of the Business and Professional Women’s Association for the Asia-Pacific region, said, “I came here today to invite Phuket’s professional women…
-
THAI silk turning to sandpaper?
BANGKOK (AFP): Thai Airways (a.k.a THAI) is re-launching the quest for a leader who can get the airline to shrug off its rapidly deteriorating image and revalidate its claims of running “smooth as silk”. THAI’s reputation used to be one of the best in Asia. But analysts and passengers are starting to see the airline fall apart. And Thailand’s prime…
-
Phuket Town inches closer to public buses
PHUKET TOWN: Public bus services are set to start next month on two routes in Phuket Town as soon as the vehicles are ready, says a senior member of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor). The proposed transport breakthrough follows years of promises and postponements. The biggest hurdle now faced by the project is opposition from tuk-tuk drivers and motorcycle…
-
Minister warns civil servants about prostitution
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand’s interior minister, who has been hailed for a clampdown on the country’s flourishing illegal sex trade, today warned civil servants of severe action if caught using under-age prostitutes. Purachai Piumsomboon has ordered the dismissal of any government employee found to use child prostitutes or women forced into prostitution, following a series of recent scandals. One 12 year-old…
-
TAT chief suspended over graft allegations
BANGKOK (AFP): The Thai government has suspended the head of its tourism office, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), amid graft allegations over a railway construction contract, officials said today. Prime Minister’s office minister Somsak Thepsuthin said TAT governor Pradech Phayakvichien had been suspended and would be investigated over his links to a company that won the contract a decade…
-
Police seize fuel-smuggling mother ship
PHUKET: Marine Police boarded and seized two Thai tankers laden with a total of 1.1 million liters of gasoline, which was being smuggled into the country on New Year’s Day. Pol Col Peera Boonliang, Superintendent of the Phuket Marine Police, said this morning that investigations into a smuggling ring led to the raids in which eight Thai crewmen were arrested.…
-
When an island is not an island
PHUKET TOWN: Is Phuket an island? This was the difficult question that Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi was asked to rule on this morning after more than 70 Thai tour guides came to his office to protest against the arrests of two of their colleagues by the Tourist Police. The two guides were arrested after it was found they possessed only…
-
Phuket holiday road deaths down, but injuries up
PHUKET: In sharp contrast to the high road death toll around the country, only two fatalities were reported in Phuket between December 27 and January 1. Four people died in the province during the same period last year. Where Phuket did record scores more in line with the national statistics was in the number of people injured on the roads…
-
Holiday road toll: four deaths per hour
BANGKOK (AFP): More than 500 people were killed across Thailand, mostly in road accidents, during six days of revelry marking the New Year holiday, the health ministry said this morning. The holiday death toll was 18 percent higher than expected, with 541 deaths between last Thursday and late yesterday, it said in a statement. Some 391 of them were the…
Don't forget to check out some other things to do in Thailand - get help starting a business or finding a job in Thailand, buy Thailand property, rent a yacht or book a medical procedure worldwide.