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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Another week of rain, says weatherman
PHUKET: The current bad weather in Phuket is likely to continue for another week as a tropical depression passes over the island, Amorn Chantanavivate, director of the Southwestern Regional Meteorological Center, said today. The rain and wind are being caused by a moderate southwest monsoon over the Andaman Sea and the southwestern coast of Thailand, he explained.
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Japanese women fight off rapists
PHUKET TOWN: Two Japanese women were nearly raped by two illegal Thai guides in the early hours of Wednesday. Usuki Sato, 27, and Soko Yakanimoto, 26, came to Phuket on Tuesday and were staying at the Panwaburi Hotel on Cape Panwa. The following day, they went out with the two Thai guides, who usually hang around the front of the…
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Swingin’ monk gets the sack
BANGKOK (AFP): An abbot at a Thai temple was forced to leave the monkhood in disgrace today after being caught carousing with a group of women in a karaoke bar. Phra Pativetviset, from the Bangkok temple Wat Sriboonruang, was banished after being captured on film during a police raid on the karaoke joint last weekend. Despite wearing a disguise of…
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Blast and fire damage yacht
AO MAKHAM: A fire broke out this morning on a 4-million-baht sailing yacht berthed at Ao Yon, causing damage estimated at 1 million baht. The fire started at 7 am aboard the ketch “Red Moon”. Pol Lt Col Teerapol Thipjaroen, acting superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, told the Gazette that villagers heard an explosion before the yacht began to…
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Tambons angry over slow progress in investigation
PA KHLOK: The chairman of the Phuket OrBorTor Association (POA), an umbrella organization for the island’s Tambon councils, says the POA is ready to complain to the Ministry of Interior about the slow progress made by police investigating the attempted assassination of Pa Khlok OrBorTor member and journalist Siripoj Cheechang. K. Siripoj was working to stop a local “investor” from…
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Airport limo operators slam “black’ taxis
PHUKET AIRPORT: Legitimate limousine operators fed up with illegal “black taxis” taking business from them at the airport protested today to the Phuket office of the Airports Authority of Thailand (AAT). Representatives of the Phuket Limousine and Business Service Cooperative Ltd (PBC), led by Vitoon Sae’iw, the organization’s secretary, presented the AAT with a video that they said shows the…
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Hotels reiterate refusal to pay new tax
PHUKET: The committees of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), Southern Chapter, and the Phuket Tourist Association (PTA) today announced that they will not collect hotel tax from tourists on behalf of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) until the organization is able to clarify a number of issues. The refusal to collect the tax came in response to the latest…
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Slow progress in murder and rape cases
PHUKET: The police have admitted that investigations of two recent headline-grabbing cases have not being going as well as they had hoped. In the case of the mutilated corpse of an unidentified woman found in Kathu on October 7, Pol Maj Withoon Kongsoodchai, Inspector of Tung Tong Police Station, said, “There has been almost no evidence that points us towards…
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Contractor takes drastic measures to get payment
PHUKET: A building contractor was so irritated by a dispute over payment with a customer that he did some extra work around her house this morning. He nailed planks across all her doors and windows, making her a prisoner in her home with her two small children. House owner Paetai “Noi” Kaeser, 35, living at 78/392 Soi 3, Phuket Villa…
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Elephant owner sought after death crash
LAMPANG (AFP): Police in this northern Thai province were today looking for the owner of a female elephant which was in a collision with a truck, resulting in the deaths of two people. Police tracked down the elephant yesterday, a day after it collided with a fuel tanker truck while crossing a main road leading to Chiang Mai. The truck…
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Police arrest motorbike hit-man
PHUKET: A finance company employee was shot dead while on his way home at 8:20 this morning. His killer was arrested just three hours later. Pol Maj Sanya Thongsawas of Phuket Town Police Station said that the victim, Aroon Yutitham, 28, was riding his motorbike from Phuket Town to his home at 8/4 Moo 1, Tambon Wichit, and had stopped…
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Red-tape nightmare for parks entry
PHUKET: It’s official: the postponement of the fee hike for foreigners visiting national parks in Thailand has been canceled. Thais will be allowed into the parks at the old price, ranging from as little as 5 baht to 20 baht, whereas foreigners (including foreigners resident in Thailand) will have to pay 200 baht for adults and 100 baht for children.…
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Loch Palm killer “may be psychopath’
KATHU: A leading psychiatrist says he believes that the unidentified woman found dead near the Loch Palm Golf Club on Saturday may have been murdered by a psychopath. “The damage to the victim’s body shows that the murderer may be a psychopath, and probably sadistic as well,” said Dr Chanuan Sampatanrak of Wachira Phuket Hospital. “This is a very unusual…
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Chaos reigns over park fees
PHUKET: Conflicting announcements from the Royal Forestry Department (RFD) have left tour operators and dive companies wondering just what the policy on national park entry fees is, how it will be applied, and when. On August 15, the RFD announced an increase in entry fees – for foreigners only – to 200 baht for adults and 100 baht for children.…
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Bad weather will last 3 more days
PHUKET: The island will experience strong winds and heavy rain over the next few days as a tropical depression passes over the province, Amorn Chantanavivate, the director of the Southwestern Regional Meteorological Center, said today. The current bad weather is being caused by a moderate southwest monsoon over the Andaman Sea and the southwestern coast of Thailand, he explained. Storms…
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Phuket chosen for crime prevention experiment
PHUKET TOWN: The commander of the Royal Thai Police today chaired a meeting at Phuket Town Police Station to discuss a project to make Phuket a model for crime prevention and suppression. If the project, due to start next year, is a success, the lessons learned will be applied to Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Hua Hin, and then to other…
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Woman found brutally murdered
TUNG TONG: The mutilated body of a woman, believed to be Thai, was found near the Loch Palm Golf Club on Saturday afternoon. Pol Capt Teerarat Choychanchaikul of the Tung Tong Police Station said the victim died of blood loss from six stab wounds – two in her stomach, one in her throat, one in an armpit, one in her…
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Four injured in early-morning crash
PHUKET TOWN: Two Korean men and two Thai men were injured in a two-car accident early yesterday morning. Pol Capt Kitipong Klaikaew of Thung Thong Sub-District Police Station said that a pick-up truck and a jeep collided on Wichitsongkram Rd, west of the Thainaan Restaurant, at 2 am. At the scene – a part of the road that locals call…
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Massive manhunt for rapist
PHUKET TOWN: The Provincial Police Office today launched a city-wide hunt for a man who raped a British tourist, Dawn Farmer, 22, on Tuesday night. They also issued a sketch of the man, drawn from a description given by the victim. Saying that the crime is “a blot on Thailand’s reputation in the tourism industry”, the head of all Thailand’s…
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Park fee hike postponed
PHUKET: The Royal Forestry Department (RFD) has announced that the increase in entrance fees to Thailand’s national parks will be postponed until October 1, 2001. Announcing the postponement, the RFD said it had decided to delay charging the higher fees in order to “encourage tourism” and to give tour operators and travel agents time to adjust their rates. The fee…
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Activist injured, Governor slams “gangsterism”
PA KHLOK: The new Governor of Phuket has warned that he will confront gangsterism in the province after an environmental activist was critically injured in what appears to have been an assassination attempt. The activist, Siripoj Cheechang, 35, was run over by a pick-up truck that knocked him off his motorcycle, and then turned around and ran over him. Visiting…
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Scottish tourist raped during festival
PHUKET TOWN: Instead of enjoying her holiday during the island’s Vegetarian Festival, a tourist from Scotland ended up being raped on Tuesday night. The victim, 22-year-old Dawn Farmer, told police that she was raped by a man wearing the traditional white clothing popular with celebrants during the chaotic festival. The white clothing is associated with the festival’s undertone of purity,…
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Deadly child disease “not seen in Phuket’
PHUKET: A doctor at the Phuket International Hospital has allayed fears that a virulent form of Coxsackie virus, more commonly known as hand, foot and mouth disease, has spread from Singapore to Phuket. Primary schools in Singapore have been closed in an effort to limit the spread of the Coxsackie B virus, which can result in death, particularly in infants.…
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15-year-old “mama san’ arrested
PHUKET: “Nid”, a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Udon Thani wanted on charges of pimping, was arrested on Saturday at her uncle’s home on a construction site in Soi Parlai, Chalong. “Nid” disappeared after police arrested two men for having paid sex with a 14-year-old schoolmate, “Noi”. The 14-year-old alleged that “Nid” had persuaded her to become a prostitute, had arranged clients,…
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Councilors arrested for corruption
PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN: Thirty heavily armed officers from the Bangkok-based Crime Suppression Division (CSD) yesterday swooped on the Prachuap Khiri Khan Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) and arrested the president and 15 other members. Those arrested were charged with soliciting bribes in return for approving an 18-million-baht road construction project. Some were also charged with illegal possession of weapons. Pol Maj…
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Start of hotel tax postponed
PHUKET TOWN: Members of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) today voted to postpone the introduction of the controversial tax on hotel room revenue for one month. At the meeting, the members decided that collection of the tax should be postponed until November 1, and that the rate should be 0.5%. This rate will hold until September 30, 2001, after…
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Airport throughput up in August
PHUKET: This year’s low season numbers continue to be impressive, according to the latest monthly figures issued by Phuket International Airport. These show an 8.23% rise in passengers using the airport in August, compared with August 1999. The statistics show that 294,733 passengers went through the airport in August, compared with 272,326 in the same month last year. The number…
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Hotels continue to batter OrBorJor
PHUKET: With just three days to go before the new provincial hotel tax comes into force, hoteliers have continued to assail the Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) with criticism and threats of lawsuits and even industrial action. During a meeting at the Patong Resort yesterday, with mostly middle-level employees from 140 Patong hotels, the hotels argued that the way the Phuket…
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Bus drivers win dispute
PHANG NGA: More than 70 sorng taeow (local buses) blocked Tai Muang Beach Rd in Phang Nga on Monday in a successful protest against an increase in fees demanded by the province’s transport concession holder. The contract between the sorng taeow drivers and the concession holder, Phuket Sa Ha Yan Yont Khon Sog Co Ltd, required the drivers to pay…
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Hotel tax: OrBorJor faces more hostility
PHUKET: Leaders of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) today went out to explain the proposed new hotel tax to the island’s hotels. They found themselves facing hostile and querulous audiences of mostly middle-level hotel employees – hotel owners and senior managers mostly stayed away. Neither the Phuket Tourism Association (PTA) nor the Thai Hotels Association (THA) was represented. In…
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