Year: 2006
- Phuket News
Tour of Siam reaches Phuket
PHUKET: Hong Kong National team cyclist Wu Kin San won the sixth stage of the Sang Som Tour of Siam 2006 yesterday, by cycling the 154.5 kilometers from the Khao Lak Merlin Resort to Saphan Hin in 3 hours, 20 minutes and 56 seconds. He ranks 18th overall.The Tour, which started January 15, consists of seven stages over a total…
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Missing catamaran found in Andamans
ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS: It has been a week for stray yachts being found. First the Wado Ryu, which disappeared from Koh Racha, was found yesterday drifting off the south of Phuket. Today, the missing catamaran Kilo was recovered in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, some 725 kilometers from home. The 46-foot catamaran disappeared from its mooring off Kata Beach…
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Strange double death in Thalang
THALANG: Arun Sukbunpan, 43, a former manager of the Yacht Haven marina, was found dead on Wednesday night, having apparently taken his own life with a shotgun blast to the head.K. Arun’s 78-year-old landlady and close neighbor, Wouba Saharak, died upon learning of the suicide. The exact cause of her death has not yet been ascertained.Pol Capt Seksan Kamsakorn told…
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17-year-old “kills brother-in-law’
RASSADA: A 28-year-old gardener was allegedly stabbed to death by his brother-in-law during a drunken fight between the two at about 10:30 on Sunday night. Pol Maj Parichat Jaturonphan of the Phuket City Police said witnesses told him that a fight broke out between the two men while they were drinking with friends in front of the home they shared…
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Massive facelift planned for Saphan Hin
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) has called on private investors to join it in developing an 80-rai plot of land at Saphan Hin into a new commercial complex to be called Saphan Hin Park.OrBorJor President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr explained to the Gazette that the organization owns the land at Saphan Hin stretching from the triangle at the Phuket Vocational…
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Ao Yon sailing club faces closure
AO YON: David Ratcliffe, Commodore of the Phuket Yacht Club, has called a special meeting of members this Sunday, starting at 2:30 pm, in the hope of staving off the club’s closure due to financial woes.Mr Ratcliffe explained in a email to members, “Your presence is urgently required. The subject of discussion will be the future of the Club. At…
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Two gas stations fined for cheating
PHUKET CITY (Kom Chad Luek): Following consumer complaints, two “low-cost” gas stations were fined 5,000 baht apiece by the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) for overcharging motorists by tampering with fuel pumps, or using pumps that were not operating to standard.On January 18, Supoj Petchsri, Chief of Weights and Measures at the Phuket Provincial Commerce Office, led a team of local…
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TAT to push THAI for more direct flights
LAGUNA PHUKET: Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Juthamas Siriwan today stepped into the lions’ den – a room at the Sheraton Grande Laguna Phuket filled with hoteliers and property industry figures.Many of them have in the past been less than impressed with the TAT’s support for the tourism industry in the tsunami-hit provinces, some vocally so.But K. Juthamas came…
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Missing yacht found adrift
PHUKET: The 12.5-meter yacht Wado Ryu, which went missing from the anchorage off Koh Racha Yai on Friday, was located this afternoon, drifting in waters about 50 kilometers south of Phuket.The yacht was spotted by another on its way to the Red Sea. The French crew of that yacht radioed the Wado Ryu‘s position to the Phuket-based Mobile Maritime Network,…
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Spate of burglaries in Cherng Talay
CHERNG TALAY: Police are warning foreign residents with expensive homes to take greater security measures following a wave of burglaries that has seen some homes broken into as many as five times.Cherng Talay Police Deputy Superintendent Pol Lt Col Suwat Kaewphrom told the Gazette today that there had been continuing reports of burglaries, but that the incidence of the break-ins…
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Samui killers get death sentence
SURAT THANI: Wichai “Loh” Somkhaoyai, 24, and Bualoi Kosit, 23, the two men who confessed to raping and murdering 21-year-old Welsh student Katherine Horton on Koh Samui on the night of January 1, have been sentenced to death by the Surat Thani Provincial Court.At an earlier hearing on January 13, both pleaded guilty to rape-murder charges under sections 276 and 277 of…
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TAT predicts 5m visitors, B80b revenue in 2006
PHUKET: Occupancy rates at 4- and 5-star hotels have averaged about 80% since the tsunami anniversary and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is predicting that 5 million people will visit Phuket in 2006, generating some 80 billion baht in revenue. Speaking to the Gazette yesterday, Siripakorn Cheawsamoot, Assistant Director of TAT’s Region 4 Office in Phuket, described the occupancy…
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Gov urges action to avert water crisis
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Udomsak Uswarangkura has urged the Phuket Irrigation Office (PIO) and the Phuket Waterworks Office (PWO) to ensure there is enough mains water to meet demand in 2006, when an expected five million tourists are expected to push dry-season supplies to the limit.Speaking at the monthly “Governor Meets the Press” conference at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday morning,…
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Yacht missing from Racha Yai anchorage
KOH RACHA: A yacht sailing Phuket’s waters has disappeared, believed stolen, while the crew were having supper ashore on Koh Racha Yai on Friday. The yacht is the Wado Ryu, a white-hulled 12.5-meter sloop. The name of the yacht is painted in large letters along the hull. She is registered in Germany. Pumo Stappelton, the boat’s skipper, told the Gazette…
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Bungled burglary boys
CHON BURI: After arresting three teenagers for passing a counterfeit 1,000-baht note, Pattaya Police were stunned to learn that two of them had just stolen it from a nearby bank. After a tipoff by a vendor at the To Rung Mae Wilai Market, police arrested two homeless boys, 15-year-old “A” and 14-year-old “B” [real names withheld because they are minors],…
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Triple play
KOH CHANG: The guests, it has to be said, were taken aback by the wedding invitation card, which announced the nuptials of bridegroom Yeuifa Meelaap and two brides: Vassana Uysap and Jenny Saibua. A wedding for a threesome was unusual, and all the more so when one realizes that the groom was also a woman. Talking to reporters, the trio…
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Bottled up
PRACHUAB KHIRI KHAN: From this peninsular province comes a cautionary tale about the perils of leaving bottles standing on the floor. Nuy (not his real name) had just finished his ablutions when he slipped on the wet floor of his bathroom and plonked down firmly on his backside. This is the kind of embarrassment many of us suffer from time…
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Amnesty slams death sentence call
BANGKOK (The Nation): Amnesty International Thailand (AIT) yesterday supported the mother of murdered British student Katherine Horton, who has said she does not want to see her daughter’s killers executed.The alleged killers, Bualoi Kosit, 23, and Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, who are due to be sentenced tomorrow at Surat Thani Provincial Court, face the possibility of execution for raping and murdering…
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Blood supplies running low
PHUKET CITY: Stocks of O-type blood – both negative and positive – on the island have dropped to alarming levels, prompting Somchay Chodchasiri, President of the Phuket Blood Donor Club, based at Vachira Phuket Hospital, to put out an urgent call for more donors.“We have nearly run out of supplies in Phuket,” he told the Gazette today. “Operations are sometimes…
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Governor postpones stray dog round-up
PHUKET CITY: The Phuket Provincial Livestock Office (PPLO) has postponed indefinitely its plan to round up hundreds of stray dogs at island beaches and hold them at the Mid Road Dog Shelter in Thalang.At a meeting chaired by Phuket Governor Udomsak Uswarangkura at Phuket Provincial Hall on January 13, the Governor called for better co-operation among government agencies and the…
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Victim’s mother “does not want killers executed’
CARDIFF, UK: The mother of Katherine Horton, raped and murdered on a beach on Koh Samui on New Year’s Day, does not want her daughter’s killers to be executed, a British newspaper has reported.The News of the World quoted Elizabeth Horton as saying that Bualoi Kosit, 23, and Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, should instead spend the rest of their lives behind…
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Four held for credit card forgery
PHUKET: Four people were arrested yesterday on charges of possessing forged credit cards.The four are Tanapol Detpalit, 45, from Ang Thong Province, Ubonrat Pinket, 47, from Ayudhaya, Pornpan Poolpakdee, 25, from Phuket, and Wong Mun Bin, 27, from Malaysia.At a press conference, Deputy Commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau Pol Maj Gen Suchat Muankaew explained, “They were arrested at a…
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Horton killers to be sentenced Wednesday
SURAT THANI: Wichai “Loh” Somkhaoyai, 24, and Bualoi Kosit, 23, the two men accused of raping and murdering 21-year-old Welsh student Katherine Horton on Koh Samui on the night of January 1, appeared in court here today. Both pleaded guilty to rape-murder charges under sections 276 and 277 of the Thai Penal Code, which stipulates either life imprisonment or the…
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B253m budget approved for Phuket tourism
PHUKET: The Cabinet has allocated a 253-million-baht budget to Phuket for the development of tourism in 2006, the Governor’s Office announced yesterday.Krabi received 284 million baht and Phang Nga 252 million for the same purpose.Phuket had proposed several projects requiring additional funding that were turned down by the central government, including two major efforts: burying power cables along the beachfront…
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Dog unearths dead baby
PHUKET CITY: A stray dog dug up the body of a baby boy next to the tsunami warning tower at Saphan Hin on January 11.Pol Lt Col Yongyuth Klongmalai, Inspector at Phuket City Police Station, told the Gazette that he received a phone call from a jogger at Saphan Hin saying that a beach cleaner had stopped her to say…
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MoI to consider Thai nationality for 2,000 people
PHUKET: The Ministry of Interior (MoI) has set a deadline of January 20 for Governors of tsunami-affected provinces to submit applications for Thai nationality from an estimated 2,180 people who may qualify for nationality but who have not yet applied.The estimate was arrived at after research conducted by local officials in June last year, as part of a drive to…
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Get your smart card: Mayor
PHUKET CITY: Phuket City Municipality is now offering “smart card” ID cards, providing citizens with a replacement for old identification cards. Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwannasuppana, explained at a press conference yesterday, “People who have a valid ID card can request a smart card by submitting their existing ID card and a copy of their house registration. “A 40-baht fee…
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Monorail project would cost B20bn – consultant
PHUKET: A consultant to the Phuket Provincial Government said today that his company estimates that a proposed monorail light rail transit (LRT) system linking Phuket International Airport and Phuket City would cost 20 billion baht.Krai Tungsanga, President of Pyramid Development International Co (PDI), explained that a feasibility study into the LRT proposal began in October last year and will continue…
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Horton killers “had watched porn movie’
KOH SAMUI (The Nation, Phuket Gazette): The two fishermen who have confessed to raping and killing 21-year-old Welsh student Katherine Horton were drunk and had been watching a pornographic movie before swimming ashore to find a victim, the Deputy Police Commissioner, Region 8, Pol Maj Gen Santhan Chayanon, said yesterday.“They said they intended to find a woman to have sex…
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Thai fishermen confess to Horton murder
KOH SAMUI: Two young Thai fishermen whose DNA matched that of semen samples taken from the body of murdered tourist Katherine Horton have confessed to raping and murdering her, police said today.Ms Horton, a 21-year-old student from Wales, arrived on Samui with a fellow student on December 31, in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve there.She was last seen going…
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OrBorJor office broken into
PHUKET: The Division of Finance at the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) building was broken into over the weekend.Wannee Supradit, Director of the Division of Finance, told the Gazette that some OrBorJor officers work during weekends and that, on Sunday, she went to work earlier than usual because of a heavy workload.She said she noticed nothing untoward until a fellow…
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Property sales taxes topped B1bn in 2005
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Land Office (PPLO) collected 1.1 billion baht in property taxes and fees in 2005.The tax gathered has soared recently, thanks to booming land prices and sales of homes in property developments. By comparison, PPLO statistics show that the province collected 370 million baht from land and property sales in 2003, and 932 million baht in 2004.PPLO…
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Swiss man arrested on pedophilia charges
PHANG NGA (The Nation): A 53-year-old Swiss national, Bernhard Rudolf Hager, has been arrested and charged with pedophilia and illegal detention of three underage Thai boys, police said yesterday.The arrest came after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation provided Thai police with a photo taken from the Internet, which showed a foreigner molesting young Thai boys, police said.In the photo,…
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Enough water for high season, say officials
PHUKET: Rain over the past few weeks has boosted the volume of water in the Bang Wad reservoir to 5.5 million cubic meters, which is enough to meet expected demand until the end of May, water officials believe.Isara Anukul, Chief of the Water Allocation Division of the Phuket Irrigation Office (PIO), noted, “Normally the rainy season arrives at the beginning…
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Mea culpa, says highways chief
PHUKET: Phuket Provincial Highways Office (PPHO) Chief Thanit Sakiya has accepted responsibility for not delivering on a promise he made to Governor Udomsak Uswarangkura to have the surface of the bypass road completed by December 26 last year.On December 20, 2005, Governor Udomsak Uswarangkura ordered the road surfacing work finished by the December 26 deadline so as to avoid inconveniencing…
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New Year road safety campaign ‘a failure’
PHUKET: Dr Wanchai Sattayawutthipong, Chief of the Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO), yesterday called the provincial road safety campaign over the holiday period a “failure”.Between December 29 and January 4, one man and one woman were killed and 90 people were injured in road accidents on the island.The PPHO had set “targets” of a maximum of four dead and 69…
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Four questioned in Horton murder probe
KOH SAMUI (The Nation/Phuket Gazette): Police detained four men last night for questioning as part of their investigation into the murder of Welsh university student Katherine Horton on this popular resort island. They also took DNA samples from the four, all employees of a resort close to the bungalow where Ms Horton, 21, was staying. Witnesses saw the men dining…
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