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 Infinito helps hotels in Thailand with revenue management
Maximising revenue and profit–isn’t that the ultimate goal for every business in the hospitality industry? If you run a hotel, you might have heard that revenue management is an effective way to boost your top-line revenue. It involves using data...
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Phuket coral restoration begins as seawalking continues
PHUKET: Marine officers and volunteer divers who headed to Khai Nai island on Tuesday to help restore damaged coral – allegedly wrecked by a seawalking tour company (story here) – found the company back on site leading a tour when they arrived. “We saw a ship named Sea Lion in the area with a speedboat alongside. People were on the…
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Phuket high-speed pursuit ends in fight, heroin bust
PHUKET: Two policemen on motorbikes chased two men believed to be carrying drugs through the early morning streets of Thalang today, fought with the pair and eventually arrested one of them – a vegetable seller – with almost 50 grams of heroin.Alerted by a tip-off that Wig Nillawan, 52, and another man would be picking up drugs delivered on the…
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Phuket ice factory blazes hot
PHUKET: A storage facility at the Thung Thong Ice Factory on Phuket’s busy Chao Fa West Road burst into flames this afternoon. The one-storey wooden building, north of the Software Park Phuket (map here), housed two ice storage freezers and one orange ice tank. Thung Thong Ice Factory Distribution Director Punnatorn Suphonthawee estimated the fire caused about 30,000 baht in…
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Aspiring marathoner opens new chapter for Laguna Phuket fundraising
PHUKET: Athletes booking their slots in Laguna Phuket’s 2013 marathon and triathlon series are being asked to raise funds through donations and sponsorships for the resort’s long established Laguna Phuket Foundation. The foundation aims to collecting one million baht per year to operate its various charitable programs. A partnership with Ban Yaan Sabaa School in Phang Nga province, the latest…
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Krabi farmers threaten airport blockade
PHUKET: Krabi palm oil and rubber plantation workers have threatened to blockade Krabi Airport if the government does not increase the legal minimum prices for their produce by next Thursday.More than 500 plantation workers gathered in front of Krabi Provincial Hall on Tuesday morning to file a complaint to be handed to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.The complaint calls for the…
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Bangkok officers in Phuket to stamp out public butts
PHUKET: Flagrant disregard for non-smoking laws in Phuket has prompted officers from the Bureau of Tobacco Control in Bangkok to plaster Phuket International Airport, Phuket Bus Terminal 2 and a variety of private businesses across the island with no-smoking stickers.“Most public areas are smoke-free areas by law, yet we still have found many tourists and local business operators disobeying the…
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Phuket Gazette World News: Cyclone Mahasen crosses Bangladesh coast, two dead; one million evacuated
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Cyclone Mahasen crosses Bangladesh coast, two dead; one million evacuated Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Cyclone Mahasen started crossing Bangladesh’s low-lying coast earlier today, bearing down on the ports of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar, as tens of thousands of people huddled in shelters from a storm which the…
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Phuket Gazette Sports: Chelsea take European victory with late goal
Late Ivanovic goal wins Europa League for Chelsea Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Branislav Ivanovic made up for the heartbreak of missing last year’s Champions League triumph by heading a dramatic stoppage-time goal to lead Chelsea to a 2-1 win over Benfica in the Europa League final last night.The Serbian defender, sidelined for the final against Bayern Munich 12 months ago…
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Phuket teens deny attacking Burmese man, motorbike arson
PHUKET: Three Phuket teenagers arrested last night have denied police charges of beating a Burmese man and setting his motorbike on fire.A fourth member of the gang is still being sought by police.The suspects, Vechayun Boonsit, 19, as well as a 16-year-old minor and a 18-year-old, whose names police asked to be withheld, allegedly attacked a Burmese man and threatened…
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Phuket Gazette World News: Syria savagery as soldier rips out, bites heart; Rohingya drown in Cyclone Mahasen; Saudi SARS; Japanese sex slave outrage
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Rohingya Muslims drown off Myanmar trying to flee storm Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: A boat carrying about 100 Rohingya Muslims capsized off western Myanmar and many were feared drowned at the beginning of a mass evacuation from low-lying regions ahead of a powerful storm, a United Nations…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Local Govt protests budgets; Asia-Pacific experts to join Bangkok Water Summit; Small schools now to ‘merge’
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Local bodies demand Bt57 bn in total funding The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Leaders of the three key local administrative bodies have threatened to step up protests if their demands for the government to review the 2014 fiscal budget and provide them with 30 per cent of…
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Phuket taxi meter cheats under fire
PHUKET: The Phuket Land Transportation Office (PLTO) will seek help from the Highway Police to tackle metered taxi drivers who refuse to use their meters. “I am aware that many tourists are unhappy with taxi drivers. We are going to talk about how to stop metered taxi drivers from cheating,” PLTO Chief Terayout Prasertphol told the Phuket Gazette. The PLTO…
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After Phuket, Capt Tan makes record-breaking landing in Malaysia
PHUKET: Captain James Anthony Tan of Malaysia has completed the world’s youngest solo flight circumnavigation after departing Phuket at 11am today to land safely in Kuala Lumpur at 4:51pm local time. Capt Tan arrived in Phuket yesterday and attended a party in his honor at the Dewa Phuket Beach Resort in Nai Yang last night, hosted by Tourism Malaysia, which…
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Phuket real estate used as bait in gambling ring
PHUKET: Five people have been arrested for operating a real estate scam in which they lured potential customers into illegally gambling on a game of “fan tan”. The scammers used the same ploy as that used by a group arrested in Phuket in February (story here). Massage shop owner Uraiporn Sae-Tung wanted to sell her massage shop in Rawai and…
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Major u-turn for Phuket’s roads; life delivered, not taken
PHUKET: Phuket rescue workers, regular crusaders rendering assistance to all those involved in accidents on the island’s notorious roads, were called to a very different emergency before dawn this morning: the delivery of a baby girl.Staff at the rescue operations center in Mai Khao received a call at 5:15am, asking for assistance to transport Jintara Butrarit, 24, from her home…
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Phuket Finance: Gold plunges to 33 year low
PHUKET: The past month has not been kind to anyone who has bought gold recently. With a nearly 9% loss since its January peak, and nearly 14% from last September’s, the precious metal has been anything but. Last week it had its largest one-day percentage decline since February 28, 1983. For the past 20 months, the price of gold has…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: School closures bite; Forecast for abundance; Seh Daeng revival; Sudarat says no
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community School closings pressure parents The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Enrolling students every other year at primary school level could be one solution to the government’s controversial policy of closing small schools, a leading educator told a Bangkok seminar yesterday. Other proposals included teaching three two-year…
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Phuket Gazette World News: Turkish bombs spark Syrian fear; EU in doubt; OJ Simpson returns; SARS-like virus to spread
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Syrian refugees fear backlash in Turkey after bombings Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Syrian refugees in Turkey say they fear a backlash after car bombings that killed 50 people and wounded many others over the weekend in a border town.Turkey is home to some 400,000 refugees from the…
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Phuket Opinion: Learning to drive
PHUKET: Every motorist I have ever met remembers the day he or she was issued a driver’s license and got behind the wheel… legally. My wife enjoyed that day only this week. The joyous occasion came after months of trying to teach her to drive on the streets of Phuket, where we were slowly denied the opportunity of practicing away…
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Middle-aged Phuket meth dealer goes quietly
PHUKET: Acting on a tip off about frequent drug transactions at the entrance to a soi in Thalang, police arrested a drug dealer in possession of ya bah (methamphetamine), and ya ice (crystal methamphetamine) yesterday. Police questioning led to the confession of Nirun Yokcharern, 58, at the entrance to Soi Lak Muang 2 off of Thepkrasattri Road, said Thalang District…
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Phuket Poll: What would you spend B2.6bn on?
PHUKET: There has been nothing but eerie silence since Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra ignored questions about what happened to the 2.6 billion baht that was once “already dedicated” to building Phuket’s decades-in-waiting International Convention and Exhibition Center (story here). In recognition of that silence – and the fact that the money “already dedicated” was provided by a loan from the…
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Druggy catches Phuket cop on the can, steals firearm, heads to McDonald’s
PHUKET: A Patong Deputy Superintendent was caught with his pants down in Kathu Police Station during the graveyard shift after a meth-fiend robbed his office as he was taking a 20 minute break in the washroom. “When I returned from the toilet, I found my property had been stolen,” said Patong Police Deputy Superintendent Paisarn Sangthep. Among the missing items…
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DNA tests for two more Phuket baby elephants
PHUKET: Officers raided two locations last week suspected of housing baby elephants illegally snatched from the wild and conducted DNA tests on the two animals to determine their parentage. Officers suspect that the two elephants are the offspring of a wild elephant in Kaeng Krachan National Park. Both elephants had microchips in their ears and the necessary registration and transfer…
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A perfect place for shore leave
PHUKET: Sailing smoothly through its second year of operations, the Krabi River Marina (KRM) recently added a second restaurant to its portfolio – a small yet significant indicator of the continuous growth in Phang Nga Bay’s marine leisure industry. One of the main selling points of the newly opened Terrace pub and restaurant, KRM’s second eatery after the Marina Villa,…
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Phuket FC survive execution by Ayutthaya’s Ancient Warriors
PHUKET: The Islanders failed to beat Ayutthaya FC in their Yamaha League One (YL1) away game on Saturday. The 1-1 draw dropped Phuket FC down to 6th in the table, five points behind top of the table Air Force United. Ayutthaya are third from bottom after 10 games. The home team took the lead in the 36th minute after Phuket’s…
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Not open yet, but Phuket’s Chalong Marina already needs repairs
PHUKET: The chief of the Phuket Marine Office has appealed to all boat operators to exercise caution while using the still incomplete Chalong Bay Marina to allow passengers – mostly tourists – to board and disembark vessels. The news comes after a Phuket Gazette reader sent in photos of tourists cautiously avoiding a gaping hole in the gangway that joins…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Poll parents oppose school closures; Rice pledging under microscope; Pheu Thai blames Constitutional Court for crisis
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community School mergers unpopular with parents: Poll The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: More than half the parents surveyed by a Dusit Poll opposed the Education Ministry’s plan to merge 17,000 small schools across the country in order to increase efficiency and save costs.Of the total, 60 per cent…
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Phuket Gazette World News: 19 hurt in Mother’s Day shooting; SARS in France; Syria deaths hit 82,000; Mexico volcano alert
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Nineteen shot in New Orleans Mother’s Day parade Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Nineteen people including two young children were shot on Sunday when gunfire erupted at a Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans, police said.Shots rang out at 1:45 p.m. local time as the second line of…
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Phuket’s Tourist Court given “absolute support’
PHUKET: The move to establish a new series of Tourist Courts in Phuket and at other key holiday destinations in Thailand – including Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Phang Nga and Krabi – has received much support on the island. Chanchai Duangjit, director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Phuket office, gave his “absolute support” for the idea. “This is…
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Phuket serial resort thief confesses
PHUKET: A serial resort thief down on a “holiday crime spree” in Phuket from Bangkok has only confessed to two thefts of high-end resorts on the island, but police believe more confessions will be forthcoming. Ritthimeth Singhaumpai, 33, and his girlfriend Sasithorn Seekam, 22, were arrested on May 1 for robbing guest rooms in five high-end Phuket resorts. “We have…
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