Month: August 2003
- Phuket News
Island gears up for OrBorTor elections
PHUKET: Moves to publicize the August 30 elections for Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor) members are underway, with the Phuket Election Commission Bureau (PECB) and the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) lending a hand. At a meeting at the PECB offices yesterday, OrBorJor President Dr Prasit Koeysiripong pledged four sound trucks to promote the elections for 10 days, while the PECB…
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Patong sea wall: residents open fire
PHUKET TOWN: Patong residents petitioned Governor CEO Vasaputi Pongpayome today, alleging corruption over a 40-million-baht project to build a retaining wall along Patong Beach. They also say the seashore wall, which will vary in height from two meters to 3.5 meters along a distance of about 1.5 kilometers, will be an environmental disaster. Construction of the wall has already begun.…
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MP calls for commission into farmers’ rights
PATONG: Local Democrat MP Chalermlak Kebsup today called for a commission to be set up to determine local farmers’ rights to own land that they claim to have occupied before it was declared Forest Preserve or Zone C land – declarations that led to it being issued with SorPorKor 4-01 land occupation papers. K. Chalermlak said that people in Phuket…
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Ganja and magic mushrooms seized
PATONG: Four men were arrested on Monday in two separate drug raids along the Patong-Karon road that netted quantities of marijuana and “magic” psilocybin mushrooms allegedly packaged for re-sale. In the first raid, Pol Capt Sophon Borirak led Kathu Police officers to the Rasta Bar just south of Patong and arrested three Thais and a German at about 8:30 pm.…
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Fake goods raids set vendors running
PATONG: Police seized about 500 items of fake goods with a street value of 500,000 baht in raids on two Patong stalls last night as the crackdown on imitation products continued. The people selling the goods ran off. Led by Deputy Director of Phuket Commercial Affairs, Tharadol Thongruang, officers moved in on one stall near the Holiday Inn at 9…
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Korean drowns at Karon
KARON BEACH: A middle-aged Korean woman drowned in heavy surf in front of the Phuket Arcadia Beach Resort just after midnight yesterday. Pol Maj Sanae Panmee, of the Chalong Police Station, told the Gazette that the victim, identified as 41-year-old En Seck Sea, entered the dangerous surf with a friend after drinking together at a local bar. The pair were…
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Bus passengers win shelter from sun and rain
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) is to build bus shelters for the comfort of passengers using its public mini-buses, the Vice-President of the OrBorJor, Samroeng Chaisorn, said today. “There are 132 places where our buses stop for passengers,” K. Samroeng said. “The OrBorJor can build 32 shelters but many of the other stops are in front of…
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Marine Dept regional HQ to move to Phuket
PHUKET TOWN: Wanchai Sarathulthat, Director-General of the Marine Department, yesterday announced that the Marine Department’s Region 5 headquarters, which includes Phuket, will move from Trang to Phuket, with regional office chief Capt Arnut Sombathiwee at the helm. K. Wanchai made the announcement at a meeting of nearly 100 government officials and members of Phuket’s marine leisure industry at the Royal…
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Water aplenty, says Governor
PHUKET: Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi has confirmed that Phuket should have no water shortages until at least the end of this year and perhaps beyond. Gov Pongpayome told the Gazette that heavy rain had alleviated the problem, which at one stage saw Patong and Karon with water rationing and the prospect of restrictions also looming for Phuket Town. The completion…
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TAT tips increase in African visitors
PHUKET: Officials believe a tourism road-show to South Africa last month will lift the number of visitors to Phuket and the region by more than 20,000 based on the levels of interest. Anupharp Thirarath, Director of the local Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office, visited South Africa from July 13-20 with representatives from 40 tour companies based in Phuket, Phang…
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Not wanted, dead or alive
NO MAN’S LAND: A Thai man working at a casino in the Cambodian border town of Poipet died there after Cambodian officials refused to let his wife, Khun Wanna, take him back to Thailand to seek emergency medical treatment. The victim, 23-year-old Samruay Sukpanao, started working at the Princess Casino as a decorator 15 days before his untimely demise on…
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Wanted: a spy for the AMLO
PHUKET: Always wanted to work for the government but never been keen on a desk job? The Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) has the role for you – they are looking for spies. But wait, it gets better: no experience is necessary and no qualifications are required. All you have to do is apply by filling in the appropriate form at…
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Raffles to open a resort in Phuket
PHUKET TOWN: Singapore-based Raffles International Limited and its subsidiary Raffles International Hotels & Resorts (Thailand) Co, Ltd, have announced the signing of an agreement with Andaman Peninsula Company Ltd to develop a five-star luxury resort in Phuket. The Raffles Resort Phuket, to be built on the headland south of Kata Noi Beach, will include 79 luxury hotel rooms, 30 residential…
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2,000 fake CDs seized in Bangla
PATONG: Police this afternoon raided two stores on Soi Bangla and seized more than 2,000 copy CDs and many other imitation brand-name goods with an estimated total street value of at least 2 million baht. Led by Pol Col Chalit Thintanee, Superintendent of Kathu Police Station, officers at 2:30 pm raided the stores and arrested storeowners Kampan Sakornnitikul, 25, and…
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Officers inspect Bunchoo land
PHUKET: Crime Suppression Division Deputy Superintendent Pol Lt Col Korawath Panprapa this morning inspected seven properties either owned by or involving former Chief of the Kathu District Land Office, Bunchoo Limraksasin. Accompanied by land officials and officers, Lt Col Korawath inspected two shophouses on Soi Baan Hua Kuan, in Kamala, one of which houses a Thai massage business. The shophouses…
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Gov boosts security after Jakarta blast
PHUKET: In response to yesterday’s bomb blast in Jakarta, where at least 14 have been killed and 149 injured, Phuket Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi has ordered police to boost security at all hotels across the island. Governor Pongpayome today told the Gazette that he ordered a general alert last night, and today ordered police to pay particular attention to security…
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Water deal ends risk of rationing
PHUKET: The island’s immediate water problems appear to be over with the settlement in Bangkok yesterday of a row about who pays for the power for a water pump. At the meeting, the Provincial Waterworks Authority (PWA) agreed on behalf of the Phuket Provincial Waterworks (PPW) to pay 70% of the cost of the electricity required to pump extra water…
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Teen gunned down in Chalong
CHALONG: A teenager was blasted at point-blank range by young hoodlums in Soi Thanuthep yesterday afternoon while on his way to visit a friend. Nattawuth Somanon, 17, from Kata, was riding his motorbike along the soi, with two friends on another motorbike at about 1:30 pm, when two young men rode past in the opposite direction, Pol Maj Jessada Sangsuree,…
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Income boost tipped from film location shoots
PHUKET: A Phuket seminar on making films in Thailand is a step towards doubling the nation’s income from film shoots, according to Dr Sasithara Pichaichannarong, Director-General, Office of Tourism Development. “We see this as a good opportunity to support the film industry,” she told the Gazette. “Next year, we expect to earn double the income we earned last year.” Thailand…
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Thalang man survives gang attack
THALANG: A Thalang man barely survived a vicious beating following an attack by a local youth gang, after local residents found him lying unconscious and covered in blood on the roadside near the entrance to Layan Beach at about 2 am yesterday. The victim, 27-year-old Saroj Sae-khor, managed to flee the gang by motorcycle, but later crashed when he lost…
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Rain! But water row stops flow
PHUKET TOWN: Heavy rains have boosted levels in Bang Wad reservoir but a debate over the cost of an electric pump is delaying a large project designed to ease the island’s chronic water shortage. As a result, the rights and wrongs were being thrashed out at a meeting in Bangkok today. The dispute involves two island water bodies, the Phuket…
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Official’s land holdings worth B100 million
PHUKET: Investigators looking into Phuket’s land title scams have discovered that the former Chief of the Kathu District Land Office, Bunchoo Limraksasin, who was caught by police in Ranong on July 21, owns land worth more than 100 million baht. Checks have also revealed that Bunchoo’s former personal secretary has bank account balances in excess of 28 million baht. Pol…
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Governor is moving up
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi is being promoted to the important post of Director-General of the Department of Local Administration (DOLA) after two years running the province, a vice-governor has confirmed. After Gov Pongpayome came to Phuket in October 2000, he became one of five pioneer Governor CEOs in an experiment initiated by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. In…
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Apec on parade in the rain
PHUKET: Processions of up to 60 cars will be seen on Phuket’s roads during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering, the Deputy Commander of Phuket Provincial Police, Pol Col Decha Butnampetch, has told the Gazette. He said police will be looking after the security and safety of up to 1,000 visitors during the Apec meetings from August 14-23. The dignitaries from…
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Chalermlak to help evicted farmers
PHUKET: Democrat MP Chalermlak Kebsup says that she will closely examine the land scandal and help anyone who has been wrongly evicted from SorPorKor land. About 50 people who had been evicted were banding together to try to win their land back, she said on Saturday following her meeting with land rights activist Uthai Suksirisamphan. SorPorKor land was earmarked for…
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Young at risk on bikes: Governor
PHUKET TOWN: High school students were responsible for more of the 16,000-a-year traffic violations on Phuket’s roads than any other group, according to Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi. He was speaking at the Safety Traffic Control Center at Phuket Town Police Station after talking to senior traffic police on Friday. He urged schools to take a more serious look at the…
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B12m fakes seized in warehouse raid
PATONG: More than 12,000 fake items with a street value of 12 million baht were seized in a raid on a warehouse in Patong yesterday. The haul, one of the largest in Phuket so far, was the latest in a crackdown that now involves police checks on outlets in tourist areas almost every day. Among the imitation items of clothing…
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Traffic survey sparks crackdown
PHUKET TOWN: A two-month survey of moving violation charges has sparked an island-wide crackdown on people breaking traffic laws, a provincial government official announced at a meeting this morning. From June 1 to July 31, eight Phuket police stations tallied traffic law violations in their districts, with Kathu Police Station reporting the most offenders. During the period, 5,728 people were…
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