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.
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Sponsored Pullman Phuket Panwa Beach Resort puts sustainability at its heart
The term sustainability is often thrown around as a buzzword in the hospitality industry, but at Pullman Phuket Panwa Beach Resort, it’s genuinely part of their mission. Located in Makham Bay, just south of Phuket Town, the beautiful resort puts...
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Police to confirm Phuket caddy in fatal motorbike crash
PHUKET: Police are appealing for witnesses to come forward who may be able to confirm what occurred in a fatal motorbike accident this afternoon involving a pick-up truck driven by a 22-year-old man. Sakon Banchongkaeo, 34, was killed in the accident on the Koh Kaew – Nakok road, which is often used as a shortcut from Thepkrasattri Road in Koh…
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Phuket’s Club Med to cough up public land, but will stay
PHUKET: Negotiations between Club Med management and the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization (PPAO), which owns the land the resort sits on, concluded late this afternoon with the news that the resort will stay. “Club Med has agreed to make three rai available as public land to be used as the local residents see fit, and with that we will renew…
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Landslide fears prompt stop-work order high in the Phuket hills
PHUKET: Work was ordered to stop at a construction site high on the hills overlooking Patong yesterday after it was found to be above the legal limit for building – and amid fears of a landslide smothering the residents below. Phuket Vice Governor Somkiet Sangkaosuttirak led an inspection of the site – eight rai of land with unobstructed views of…
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United ready for Van Gaal lift off but dangers lurk
PHUKET: On paper it appears a match made in heaven. Serial winner Louis van Gaal at the helm of 20-times English champions Manchester United with a mission to steer the chastened giants back to the Premier League summit. When United kick off the new season next Saturday lunchtime at home to Swansea City, however, reputations will count for precious little…
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Djokovic falls while Federer pulls great escape
PHUKET: Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga handed world number one Novak Djokovic a 6-2 6-2 third round defeat on Thursday as the Rogers Cup was rocked by upsets. A day of high-drama began under a bright morning sun with South African Kevin Anderson startling third seeded Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka 7-6 (8) 7-5 and ended in the late evening chill with…
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Phuket prison raid turns up box cutters, inmate tests drug positive
PHUKET: Despite an early morning search of Phuket Provincial Prison turning up a slew of contraband items and one inmate testing positive for drugs, the facility’s “White Prison” certification remains intact. “We have come out of many searches like this empty-handed. This is just one during which we found contraband items and only one inmate tested positive for drugs,” said…
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CAS start appeal into Suarez biting ban
PHUKET: The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) began its hearing on Friday into Uruguay forward Luis Suarez’s appeal against his ban for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini in a World Cup match. Suarez, wearing a checked shirt, brushed aside photographers and refused to make any comment as he arrived by taxi at the CAS headquarters in a Lausanne suburb.…
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Phuket “mega meth mule’ shipped millions, say police
PHUKET: A mother arrested at a school car park in Phuket Town yesterday led to the “accidental” arrest of man who has since confessed to shipping millions of ya bah (methamphetamine) pills and kilograms of ya ice (crystal methamphatime) throughout Thailand, say police. The string of arrests began on Monday, when officers took into custody Uten Wanthong for possession of…
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Ruler of the rubber world
PHUKET: It started way back in the 16th century when an explorer saw tribal people in Mexico playing games with balls made out of a soft, bouncy material. It took another couple hundred years before anyone actually sat down and took a long, scientifically inquisitive look at what that material was. And its first practical use came in the form…
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How will markets react to end of stimulus?
PHUKET: The Fed has finally announced a specific month to mark the end of their stimulus program which has been running since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008. In the minutes of their most recent meeting, they have announced their intention to continue scaling back monthly bond purchases, which had run at US$85 billion per month, and to…
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Nepal ends search for landslide survivors, declares 156 dead
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Nepal ends search for landslide survivors, declares 156 dead Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Nepal on Wednesday called off a search for survivors and declared 156 people dead after a landslide at the weekend, making it the deadliest to hit the Himalayan nation in three decades.…
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Obama orders targeted air strikes in Iraq
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Obama orders targeted air strikes, humanitarian aid drops in Iraq Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: President Barack Obama said on Thursday he had authorized “targeted” U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in northern Iraq and military airdrops of humanitarian supplies to besieged religious minorities there to…
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NCPO eyes lifting martial law
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community NCPO eyes lifting martial law The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) chief has a plan to lift the martial law soon, Lt-General Kampanart Ruddit, director of the Reconciliation for Reform Centre said yesterday. He added that the NCPO…
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Unauthorised surrogacy practised for years: medical source
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Unauthorised surrogacy practised for years: medical source The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Unauthorised surrogacy procedures have been performed for years at several clinics and hospitals and even medical schools by qualified practitioners, a medical source said yesterday. Through proper channels, the foreign adoptive parents inform…
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Sondhi loses appeal, gets 20 years in prison
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Sondhi loses appeal, gets 20 years in prison The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: The Appeals Court yesterday upheld the primary court’s jail verdict against media tycoon and former yellow-shirt leader Sondhi Limthongkul, sentencing him to 20 years in jail for violating the Securities and Exchange…
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Williams shines at Rogers Cup
PHUKET: World number one Serena Williams cruised into the quarter-finals of the Rogers Cup with a 7-5 6-4 win over Lucie Safarova on Thursday but the Montreal tournament lost two of her potential title rivals when Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova were knocked out. Second seed Kvitova, playing her first event since winning her second Wimbledon title, could not find…
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Deadly Phuket inferno inspires rethink of firefighting abilities
PHUKET: The deadly fire that claimed four lives, including a family of three, last Saturday has prompted the Phuket City mayor to re-evaluate the city’s firefighting capabilities and find a way to win back city residents’ confidence. Flames engulfed the Chokchai Furniture shop in Phuket Town at about 2am, trapping and killing the Rueanchai family of three and one woman…
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Australia authorities track down Thai surrogate paedophile
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Australia authorities track down Thai surrogate paedophile The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Australian authorities said Thursday they had finally contacted a man exposed as a convicted paedophile at the centre of a Thai surrogate baby scandal, as his son defended him as a changed man.…
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Illegal Phuket taxi drivers beg military to call off metered-taxi project
PHUKET: About 30 illegal Phuket taxi drivers from Kata-Karon yesterday appealed to the military to call off the launch of a fleet of metered taxis to serve the island’s tourists and residents. The drivers gathered at the Royal Thai Navy Third Area Command at Cape Panwa, on Phuket’s east coast, late yesterday afternoon to “seek assistance” from the military in…
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New Phuket underpass at Chalong Circle to cost up to B800mn
PHUKET: The final public hearing for the Chalong underpass was held yesterday as the pre-construction study drew to a close, revealing that an estimated budget of 750-800 million baht would be required for the project. Paisarn Suwannarak, specialist engineer from the Department of Highways, announced during the hearing at the Phuket Merlin Hotel that the project plans would be completed…
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Skimming: The new frontier for ATM fraud
SPECIAL REPORT BANKS are spending millions of baht upgrading ATMs throughout the country and hope to replace all ATM cards with more secure microchipped versions by the end of next year. The project aims to stem the rising tide of the world’s fastest-growing computer crime: skimming. But what are the best ways to protect yourself – and your money –…
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Honeymoon over as Djokovic works for win
PHUKET: Gale Monfils let Novak Djokovic know his honeymoon was over and it was time to get back to work by forcing the world number one to battle for a 6-2 6-7 (4) 7-6 (2) second round win at the Rogers Cup on Wednesday. Playing his first match as a married man, Djokovic, a three-time winner in Canada, needed two…
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Fear of surrogacy being misused for stem cells
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Fear of surrogacy being misused for stem cells The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Following the much-publicised case of the unauthorised surrogacy involving a Thai mother and an Australian couple, a raid by police and soldiers at a Bangkok condominium found nine babies thought to have…
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Hawaii braces for Hurricane Iselle, with Julio right behind
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Hawaii braces for Hurricane Iselle, with Julio right behind Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Hurricane Iselle barrelled west across the Pacific Ocean towards the Hawaiian Islands on Wednesday, where officials warned residents and tourists of possible flooding and mudslides and ordered schools closed. The storm was…
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How to survive a plane crash
PHUKET: “I’m flying high over Tupelo, Mississippi, with America’s hottest band, and we’re all about to die”, is one of those great movie lines, in this case from the film Almost Famous. In the end, they didn’t soar straight into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as Lynyrd Skynyrd did, but the scene tapped into the darkest nightmare of…
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Father and daughter escape injury in Phuket after tree crashes onto pick-up truck
PHUKET: A father and daughter narrowly escaped injury today as part of a banyan tree – believed by Phuket locals to be 50 years old – fell on the bed of the pick-up truck they were driving in. Phuket native Soonthorn Makphol, 40, was turning into the grounds of Wat Wichit Sangkaram on Narisorn Road in Phuket Town near his…
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Thai Police target source of human trafficking from Myanmar, but exclude Rohingya
PHUKET: The Royal Thai Police have asked their Myanmar counterparts to launch a public-awareness campaign to make Myanmar nationals aware of the dangers of slavery by accepting to work illegally in Thailand. Royal Thai Police Assistant Commissioner-General ML Pansak Kasemsant announced the news yesterday at the Thailand-Myanmar Bilateral Meeting on Strengthening Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Co-operation in Combating Trafficking…
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Phuket student faces charges for running down officer
PHUKET: A speeding student who ran down a Phuket police officer yesterday in an attempt to avoid a helmet check is facing two, possibly three, separate charges for his actions. The 17-year-old, whose name is being withheld, knocked Sen Sgt Maj Chakkapong Korsawat of the Phuket City Police unconscious on Nakhon Road, behind Phuket Wittayalai School, at about 7:35am (story…
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Phuket taxi drivers wait for military bigwigs to file complaints
PHUKET: Outraged taxi drivers from Phuket’s tourist-popular Kata-Karon area who vowed to file a complaint with military leaders yesterday about the tearing down of taxi stands on private land have pushed back their mission until Friday. “We spoke with officers at the Navy base at Cape Panwa yesterday to find out who we should file the complaint with. They told…
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Phelps and Lochte set for duel at US nationals
PHUKET: Olympic swim king Michael Phelps and reigning Swimmer of the Year Ryan Lochte will wage a series of duels at this week’s star-studded U.S. national championships in Irvine, California. Phelps, who has competed in four meets since coming out of retirement in April, will face the toughest test of his comeback as he is entered in the 100-metre freestyle,…
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