News
Stay up-to-date with the latest news from across Thailand and beyond with The Thaiger. Our dedicated team brings you breaking news, in-depth analysis, and exclusive stories from this stunning part of the world, covering a diverse range of topics, including local politics, business, culture, and tourism. Keep yourself informed about the Kingdom’s rich history, stunning landscapes, and thriving expat communities, as well as updates on events, attractions, and transportation.
The Thaiger is your essential resource for staying connected with Thailand’s captivating blend of tradition and modernity. To remain in the loop with the country’s most trusted news source, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media.
-
Sponsored 5 best wine bars in Bangkok offering rich and quality wine
It’s wine o’clock! Whether you’re all about fruity reds, sweet whites, or funky naturals, Bangkok has many great spots to sip your favourite varieties. But with an array of options to choose from, and the constant rise and fall of...
-
Mother and daughter busted for selling meth pills in Thailand’s north east
A mother and daughter are currently in custody after their arrest for selling ‘yaba’, or methamphetamine pills in Kalasin, north east Thailand. The 54 year old woman, named only as Sang, and her 25 year old daughter Tarnthip, were arrested at their home in the northeastern city of Kalasin with 13 yaba pills and the 280 baht cash used in…
-
Bangkok man charged with girlfriend’s brutal murder
Bangkok police say they finally have enough evidence to charge a man in a murder case dating back to last year. Police arrested a Mr. Apichai, also known as “Ice,” at his home in Bangkok’s Phetkasem district. He’s charged with killing his girlfriend, allegedly hitting her in the head and stuffing her body in a chest. Police found the body of…
-
Two motorbike thieves nabbed in Phuket
Two men have been arrested in Phuket last night. They’ve been charged with stealing motorcycles and then reselling them. One of the arrested men is an unemployed 36 year old tour bus driver. According to police, he was able to convince a 21 year old accomplice, who was his neighbour, to help him steal the motorcycles,. The stolen motorbikes were…
-
Thousands gather for this morning’s protest running event in Bangkok
This morning’s fun run/rally/political event/marathon/jog/protest at Suan Rot Fai park in Chatuchak, a northern Bangkok suburb, attracted thousands of runners. The run was organised as a protest against Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and his government. The “Run Against Dictatorship” was organised by opposition political parties and activists calling for greater political freedom. The event was held less than 10…
-
4 out of 19 missing Rohingya captured after Wednesday’s detention centre escape
4 Rohingya migrants who escaped with 15 others from a Songkhla detention centre earlier this week have now been captured. The superintendent of Songkhla Province’s Immigration Bureau reported yesterday that four more of the detained Rohingya had been captured. Rohingya migrants entering Thailand, often as boat passengers or smuggled on their way to Malaysia, are treated as illegal immigrants and…
-
5 dead, 8 injured as tourist passenger van slams into rear of broken down truck in central Thailand
Five tourists have died and another eight injured after their passenger van slammed into the rear of a parked ten wheel truck that had broken down. The incident happened outside the Ban Noi PTT petrol station in Nong Phai district on the Saraburi to Lomsak Road. The van was on its way from the south to Khao Khor in Petchabun,…
-
Iran military admits ‘unintentionally’ shooting down the Ukrainian passenger jet
Iranian officials have announced that its military “unintentionally” shot down the Ukrainian Boeing 737 jet that crashed earlier this week, killing all 176 aboard. Earlier the Iranian government had repeatedly denied accusations that it was responsible. The plane was “accidentally”shot shot out of the sky on Wednesday, just hours after Iran had launched a retaliatory missile attack on two US…
-
Thailand is the leading ASEAN nation in annual suicide rates
“Thailand, which ranks in 32nd place with 14.4 of suicides per 100.000 population – or nearly 10,000 suicide deaths last year.” Every 40 seconds, someone loses their life to suicide and nearly 800,000 people die due to suicide every year, according to the World Health Organisation. In Thailand, suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-29 year olds, after…
-
Gunman wasn’t after gold – investigators speculate about killer’s motives
Investigators have become suspicious of the motives of the lone gunman who shot and killed three people, injuring another four, at the Aurora Gold Shop in the Robinsons Mall in Lopburi on Thursday. They are seeking more information on the victims as the gold stolen was such a small amount – the suspicion is that the target wasn’t the gold…
-
New survey shows Thai kids are subject to excessive levels of bullying
Thai students are suffering from high levels of bullying – physical, verbal and online. Two years ago a Department of Mental Health survey indicated that Thailand had the second highest rate of bullying in the world. The most recent survey shows things have not improved and remain alarming. 92% of Thai school kids have been exposed to physical or psychological abuse…
-
100s of pages of damaging documents about the 737 Max released by Boeing
Boeing has released more than 100 pages of internal company documents to the House and Senate committee, and media, further casting doubt about the company’s goodwill around the troubled 737 Max jet. The latest incarnation of the Boeing 737 was grounded last year after two fatal crashes which exposed weaknesses in the design development process and software systems. 400 of…
-
Call centre raid in Bangkok – French citizens arrested
Ten French citizens have been arrested on charges of working illegally at an international call centre in Bangkok. Immigration officials were acting on a tip off and had already obtained a court-authorised search warrant to enter the building on Soi Thong Lor 25 in Wattana, central Bangkok. The building was a four-storey house modified for office work. Speaking to the media…
-
Crunching the numbers on Phuket’s hotels – 2020
PHOTO: Travel 141 Bill Barnett from c9Hotelworks, crunches the numbers and reports on some challenges for Thailand’s largest island and most popular tourist destination, outside of Bangkok. Robust passenger arrivals in the second half of 2019 highlighted by growth in Indian tourists helped rebalance the island’s tourism sector, according to the C9 Hotelworks newly released Phuket Hotel Market Update (link…
-
Thai woman’s car trashed in Sattahip by stray dogs chasing a cat
A woman’s Honda has been trashed by a pack of soi dogs who were trying to get at a local cat that had taken refuge in the engine bay of the car. The 29 year old Thai woman ‘Nichapha’ from Sattahip, south of Pattaya, was called by neighbours who called attention to the state of her car. On first inspection…
-
US Treasury mulls putting Thailand on its ‘watchlist’ as a currency manipulator
Thailand’s trade surplus with the US has now exceeded US$20 billion. Bloomberg reports that this could trigger the Thai currency to be added to the US Treasury’s watchlist of “currency manipulators”. According to US Census Bureau data, the surplus reached US$20.05 billion in the 12 months up to the end of November 2019. That exceeds a $20 billion upper limit…
-
Three killed, others injured in Lopburi gold shop robbery – VIDEO
Three people are now dead and another four injured after a lone gunman entered a Lopburi gold shop, shooting customers and then robbing the store (video below). Lopburi is about 150 kilometres north of Bangkok. The armed robbery took place at a gold shop in Robinson Department Store in the main city district of Lopburi province Speaking to the media…
-
Chinese scientists identify the ‘Wuhan Virus’. Screening continues on Thai-bound flights.
The mysterious pneumonia-like disease striking dozens of people in Wuhan, China, has now been identified as from the same family of viruses as the deadly SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). This news from Chinese scientists today. Earlier today The Thaiger reported that three Thais and a Chinese citizen had been detected arriving from Wuhan in the Hubei province with suspected viral…
-
Thailand Yacht Show 2020 opens in Phuket
The fifth Thailand Yacht Show is now open at the Royal Phuket Marina in Koh Kaew. The annual on-water yacht-fest features an array of over 50 luxury yachts and boats, including several world and Asian premieres, from the region’s leading brokers. The show runs until January 12 and is open from 11am – 7pm nightly. The overall intention of the…
-
Former immigration supremo says gunshots linked to airport biometrics project
“There’s only one motive” – Surachat Hakparn The former Thai immigration police chief Surachat Hakparn, aka.”Big Joke”, denies that the incident, where gunshots were fired into his car on Monday, was a staged stunt. But he has addressed a media scrum speculating the incident is linked to the Immigration Bureau’s controversial procurement procedures for its biometrics and smart car projects.…
-
Cabinet threatens to open up fishing labour to migrant workers
Fisherman from 22 of Thailand’s 76 provinces are demanding the government solve the labour problem in the fisheries’ industry. The government, in turn, is threatening to invoke Article 83 of the Royal Ordinance on Fisheries, which would essentially allow immigrant labour in the sector. The relevant committee in the House proposes opening two registration periods for migrant workers, the first from…
-
“Dr. Ganja” is helping promote medical marijuana in Thailand
The Thai health ministry has come up with a plush toy character to encourage children to better understand Thailand’s current stance on marijuana and cannabis, now championed by the Health Minister as a new agricultural industry in Thailand. Yes, that’s a photo of the Thai PM holding a toy Dr Ganja doll which will be used to promote marijuana and…
-
“Chinese pneumonia” detected at Chiang Mai airport
Three Thai passengers are in hospital after being routinely screened at Chiang Mai International Airport with suspected cases of the suspected “viral pneumonia” that is affected the Chinese city of Wuhan. A fourth person, this time a Chinese national, has been found to be infected with influenza A (H3N2), and repatriated to China for treatment. The virus, which many initially…
-
Young men busted selling drugs online in Phuket, Phang Nga from their Twitter account
Two young Thai men are being held by police after their arrests on Monday for selling drugs online in the southern provinces of Phuket and Phang Nga, according to the Thai news blog Khaosod. The online drug trade is becoming an enormous business operating using common, everyday social media and delivery platforms. The suspects, 16 and 20 years old, opened…
-
Surachat claims shots at his car were related to a 2 billion baht Immigration purchase
Thailand’s former immigration supremo, Surachat Hakparn, spoke to the media yesterday about the bullets fired into his car on Monday night. He was not in the car at the time. He speculated confidently that the shots fired at the white Lexus SUV, parked near a massage establishment in Patpong, Bangkok, were connected to a two billion baht purchase of a…
-
Police and sniffer dogs search for 18 Rohingya who escaped from southern detention centre
Police and soldiers are searching forest areas around the border areas of Sadao district, south of Hat Yai in Songkhla, as they look for 18 illegal Royingha migrants. Originally 19 fled from the camp, about five kilometres from the border but one broke his leg during the escape and was soon found while hiding in a nearby village. 18 are…
-
“Run Against Dictatorship” events blocked in two Thai provinces
This Sunday’s planned “Run Against Dictatorship” anti-government protest event in Bangkok has spawned copycat campaigns across Thailand, which have now been prohibited in at least two provinces. Organisers of the Bangkok event have tried to clarify that they are not involved with the planning for any runs planned elsewhere in the country. The campaign’s Thai name, “Wing Lai Lung” (วิ่งไล่ลุง) literally…
-
71 year old ‘Robin Hood’ pensioner arrested over three year overstay
An American retiree has been arrested for overstaying his visa by nearly three years, according to the anti-farang Thai publication Naew Na. Immigration police in Bangkok arrested the 71 year old man, who they identified only as ‘Mark L’, in Sukhumvit’s Soi Mee Suwan 3 on Monday. The US pensioner had overstayed his visa by nearly 3 years. The enthusiastically smug…
-
Locals protest for closure of Ayutthaya smelting plant
Residents in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya are protesting to demand the closure of a smelting plant which they claim is threatening the environment and their health. More than 200 people took to the streets this week to protest the failure of the CP Industry Company, which operates the scrap metal processing plant, and to honour promises to address the…
-
Bangkok taxi driver dies after flipping his car on toll road
A taxi driver has died after passing out on Bangkok’s Din Daeng tollway, crashing his taxi into concrete barriers and flipping the car over. Police and rescue workers arrived to find the driver, 59 year old Manas Mapradit, already deceased in the car, with his female passenger trapped inside. They managed to rescue the woman and take her to hospital. The…
-
Hanoi the cheapest overall, Bangkok the cheapest food – Backpacking in Asia
Overall, Hanoi in Vietnam is the cheapest backpacker destination in Asia, whereas Bangkok offers the cheapest meals whilst on your journey. Alpha Travel Insurance has revealed the Asian cities offering the most affordable experience for backpacking based on the costs per day, of a hostel, transportation, meals, drinks and attractions. You can view the full graph HERE. The article looks…
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.