Month: August 2010
- Phuket
High-tech drug detectors too expensive for Phuket
PHUKET: Top provincial officers have balked at a plan to install a drug-detecting “X-ray machine” at the Tah Chat Chai checkpoint after learning the cost would run well over 250 million baht. The drug problem was the main topic at the monthly meeting of the Phuket Provincial Peacekeeping Committee chaired by Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday.…
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Chuan slams money politics
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket leaders and ordinary residents put their heads together at a meeting Saturday to consider how Thailand can reform itself and resolve the ongoing political crisis that caused this year’s violent red-shirt protests. The seminar, “Reforming the Country at a Time of Change“, was the fourth of five organized by the National Economic and Social Advisory Council (Nesac)…
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Two-headed turtle turns one month old in Phang Nga
PHUKET: A two-headed turtle born in late July is thriving under the care of staff at the Royal Thai Navy base in Phang Nga as it celebrates its one-month birthday. The green sea turtle, born in a Thai Navy conservation area in the Similan Islands, was initially earmarked as one of scores of turtles to be set free in Phuket…
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Phuket attempted murder suspect arrested
PHUKET: A man suspected of an attempted murder in Phuket last year was arrested by Lampang police on Saturday after more than a year on the run. But it wasn’t all woe for the suspect, 41-year-old Bangkok resident Prasop Homhuan. Prasop told officers escorting him to Phuket from Chiang Mai that despite his arrest he was very excited – at…
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Blackout in Rawai, Phuket tomorrow
PHUKET: Residents of Rawai be warned: the Provincial Electricity Authority has announced a scheduled blackout in parts of the municipality from 9am to 4pm tomorrow to work on high-voltage power lines. The affected area includes Saiyuan Road, from Wiset Rd to Nai Harn Beach, including Soi Khok Yang, Soi Hua Pru, Soi Khok Makham and Soi Naya. Much of Saiyaun…
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Arson considered in Phuket pawnshop blaze
PHUKET: Police have not ruled out arson for a pre-dawn blaze that gutted a Phuket pawnshop warehouse today. No one was reported as injured in the fire, although it took five firetrucks 30 minutes to extinguish the inferno on Sri Sena Road in Rassada. An initial investigation suggests that an electrical short circuit might have started the fire, but the…
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Stealers’ Wheel: missing in Phuket
PHUKET: A retired teacher and his family on a weekend trip to Phuket had an unpleasant surprise yesterday, when they checked out of their Phuket Town hotel to find the spare tire of their pickup had been stolen during the night Niphon Phetkong, 62, a former director of Ban Tha Chang school in his home province of Ranong, said he…
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Osotspa Saraburi down Phuket FC, 2-1
PHUKET: FC Phuket were unlucky to be beaten 2-1 at home by Thai Premier League side Osotspa Saraburi in the opening round of the Toyota League Cup. The first leg of the pairing, which took place at Surakul Stadium yesterday, was a big step up in opposition for FC Phuket, currently two divisions below their opponents. It was Osotspa Saraburi…
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Chuan Leekpai defends democracy at Phuket seminar
PHUKET: Former prime minister Chuan Leekpai said in a speech in Phuket on Saturday that Thailand’s political crisis stems not from flaws in the democratic system, but from the self-serving actions of some individuals. Mr Chuan, a senior advisor to the Democrat Party, was speaking at Royal Phuket City Hotel at a seminar entitled “Reforming the Country at a Time…
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OPINION: Should Phuket be more of a colony?
PHUKET: Consider the humble ant. Ever industrious and capable of astonishing engineering feats, she comfortably air conditions her entire polity, maintains traffic control so no one ever experiences a fatal collision, and supports avidly the concepts of sufficiency economy and Gross Domestic Happiness.She lives in a crime-free, environmentally friendly colony, without recourse to burning hydrocarbons.On Phuket, we too are highly…
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Phuket respects hungry ghosts
PHUKET: Phuket City Municipality hosted the annual Por Tor festival this week (August 26-27) to appease spirits said to be visiting families and roaming the streets of the island throughout their month-long reprieve from the spirit world. The festival – chaired by Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop, his wife Taisika, Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansupapana and Phuket MP Raywat Areerob –…
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Another Phuket drug bust: more than 6,000 pills seized
PHUKET: Phuket’s governor and top police brass held a press conference at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday to announce the arrest of a four-man drug ring and the seizure of over 6,000 ya bah (methamphetamine) pills. The arrest was the result of an investigation ordered by Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop and spearheaded by Lt Col Sutthirat Thochampa, who heads the Provincial…
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Media menaced in Thailand
PHUKET: Press freedom in Thailand, especially for broadcast media such as community radio stations and Web boards, has “palpably deteriorated” over the past six years, says Roby Alampay, outgoing executive director of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (Seapa). “The Internet over the past six years has played a crucial role in allowing people to debate and air their views,” Alampay…
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Phuket newborn dead in a dump truck
PHUKET: A garbage truck driver came across the dead body of a newborn baby while separating trash in the back of his truck in Pa Khlok this morning. Thalang police were notified of the grim discovery by a Pa Khlok Tambon Administration Organization (TAO) officer around 8:30am. “The baby was wrapped in a T-shirt and pieces of newspaper and put…
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Phuket maid murder re-enactment sparks outrage
PHUKET: Emotions ran high in Thalang yesterday afternoon as local villagers and relatives of Sunee Premprasert, the maid whose throat was slashed by an intruder on July 22, reacted angrily to the re-enactment of her murder. Mrs Sunee, 43, was stabbed some 80 times before her throat was slit and she was left to die bleeding on the floor at…
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Snake removed from Norwegian’s Phuket bungalow
PHUKET: Rescue workers from the Phuket Ruamjai Kupai Foundation yesterday removed a large snake from the home of an elderly Norwegian tourist. Chalong Police received a report at 11:30am that a large snake had entered the man’s bungalow on Soi Suki in Chalong Village 9. When workers from the foundation arrived, they found the 78-year-old Norwegian standing inside the dwelling.…
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Phuket Police sting meth dealers
PHUKET: Chalong Police nabbed two alleged ya bah (methamphetamine) dealers in a sting operation in Phuket yesterday. Rawai resident Sanchai “Mack” Phetphlanurak, 21, and Kriangkrai “Krai” Sukprasert, 37, from Nonthaburi, are in police custody and are being charged with possession of a Class 1 narcotic with intent to supply. Chalong Police led by Superintendent Wichit Intorrasorn announced the arrests at…
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US Ambassador’s daughter dead in fall
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news about Thailand from around the world, compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. The 17-year-old daughter of Eric John, the US Ambassador to Thailand, accidentally fell to her death from the window of an apartment block near the Empire State Building in New York. The Daily Telegraph reports this morning…
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Girlfriend helped Aldhouse escape from Phuket, Thailand
PHUKET: The girlfriend of fugitive murder suspect Lee Aldhouse played a key role in helping the Englishman escape Thailand, Phuket Police said earlier today. Chalong Police Inspector Jaran Bangprasert said the girl, a native of the northeastern province of Udon Thani, disappeared with Aldhouse from their shared room on Soi Khok Makham in Rawai soon after the murder of 23-year-old…
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Phuket tourism: UK growth in 2nd Q augurs well for Phuket
PHUKET: Despite the current woes of the pound, new economic statistics and forecasts for the UK lend credence to the Thai Tourism Authority’s recently stepped up efforts to market Phuket in that country. With growth hitting a nine-year high, The Mail Online reports this evening that Britain’s economy expanded at a faster pace than first thought in the second quarter…
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Phuket roads claim another victim
PHUKET: A motorcyclist died early this morning after his motorbike collided head-on with a pickup truck on Chao Fa East Rd in Chalong. Police identified the deceased as Chaiya Choatang, 29, originally from Takua Tung District in Phang Nga. Mr Chaiya’s motorbike collided with the pick-up, truck driven by Chalong resident Kitti Lukchan, at about 3:30am. Driving southbound at the…
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Phuket murder suspect Lee Aldhouse arrested at UK airport
PHUKET: Fugitive murder suspect Lee Aldhouse has been detained by airport authorities while trying to enter the UK, the Gazette has learned. Lt Col Anukul Nuket, investigating officer in the case, confirmed that Chalong Police received the news from British officials yesterday. Aldhouse is said to have departed Thailand from a small border crossing in Khlong Yai, Trat province, on…
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