Month: July 2012

  • Phuket

    TAT Phuket Director steps up to Bangkok

    PHUKET: Bangonrat Shinaprayoon, Director of the Phuket office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), bade her final farewell to Governor Tri Augkaradacha at Phuket Provincial Hall this morning before her move to Bangkok.Ms Bangonrat leaves the island on August 1 to take up her new position in Bangkok as Director of Attractions Promotion Division.“My new department is responsible for…

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  • Phuket

    Phuket expat Dokset murder trial: all charges denied

    PHUKET: In a day for denying criminal charges at Phuket Provincial Court, Norwegian national and long-term Phuket expat Stein Havard Dokset yesterday denied all charges against him for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Rungnapa Suktong. Dokset was arrested in a police raid on his luxury villa in Kata on February 28. Officers searching the house found the remains of a…

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  • Phuket

    Krabi killers escape after ‘M16 ambush’

    PHUKET: Krabi Police suspect revenge was the motive for a shooting in Khlong Kanan subdistrict on Saturday, when gunmen opened fire on a moving pickup truck in a well-planned ambush. One person was killed and five others were injured in the attack. The murder victim, driving an Isuzu D-Max, was identified by police as Paruhas Kongbannuek, village headman of Baan…

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  • Thailand

    Thailand News: Death sentences for police who murdered youth

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Death terms for police guilty of murdering youth Phuket Gazette / The NationPHUKET: The Criminal Court yesterday handed down a guilty verdict to five former Kalasin-based policemen for their involvement in the extrajudicial killing of a 17-year-old boy in 2004. Three of them were sentenced to death,…

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  • Thailand

    Intellectual Property: Dildos, porn and sex pills seized in massive haul

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community PHUKET: Members of Thailand’s largest ring of traders in aphrodisiacs and sex toys were apprehended in Bangkok with goods worth more than 100 million baht, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) chief said yesterday. DSI Director-General Tharit Pengdit and Pol Lt-Col Chinnachot Daengsurisri, commander of the Intellectual…

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  • Phuket

    Michelle Smith “killers’ reject confession

    PHUKET: The two men charged with the death of Australian travel agent Michelle Smith, who died from a stab wound inflicted in a bag-snatch in June, yesterday denied all charges against them. Surasak Suwannachote, 26, and Surin Tadthong, 37, were presented at Phuket Provincial Court to enter pleas to the charges, which collectively accuse the men of murder and gang…

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  • Phuket

    Murder suspect arrested in Phuket flown to Bangkok

    PHUKET: A murder suspect arrested in Phuket yesterday was flown to Bangkok* last night, flying out of Phuket at 9pm. Chalong Police Superintendent Sirisak Wasasiri told the Phuket Gazette that 57-year-old Marc De Schutter was arrested at a home on Soi Samakee 2 in Rawai, where he was living with his Thai girlfriend. Phuket Immigration Police and Chalong Police both…

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  • Phuket

    Phuket Live Wire: How Windows 8 will roll out

    PHUKET: Even if you have no intention of getting Windows 8, there are currently forces at work in the computer industry that will have an enormous impact on what kinds of computers are available in the near future, and how much they will cost. If you’re thinking about buying a new computer, you need to understand what’s about to happen.…

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  • Phuket

    Belgian ‘Most Wanted’ arrested in Phuket

    PHUKET: A top-secret investigation has led to the arrest of one of Belgium’s most-wanted criminals in Phuket. The suspect, named as Marc de Schutter, was reportedly wanted for murder, money laundering and economic crimes in his native Belgium. His arrest by some 30 officers of the Crime Suppression Division and Chalong Police followed a one-month investigation launched at the request…

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  • World

    Phuket Gazette: Four sentenced to death in Iran’s biggest bank fraud case

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Four sentenced to death in Iran’s biggest ever bank fraud case Phuket Gazette / News WiresPHUKET: A court in Iran has sentenced four people to be executed for their role in what has been described as the country’s largest ever bank fraud case, judicial officials said yestersday.…

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  • Phuket

    Election alcohol bans to cost Patong venues B5mn a night

    PHUKET: The mandatory ban on the sale of alcohol for upcoming elections at the end of this month will cost Patong’s nightlife industry at least 5 million baht a night, the Phuket Gazette has been told. The sale of alcohol will be banned across Phuket on August 26 and again in Patong on September 2 as voters go to the…

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  • Thailand

    Olympic: Shooter Sutiya misfires; Thai lifts silver; Phuket’s Maneepong progresses

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Phuket’s Maneepong progresses to knockout stagesPhuket Gazette / The Nation PHUKET: Despite bitter disappointment for world No 22 Boonsak Ponsana, Thailand’s badminton team have kept the flag flying in the 30th Olympic Games, with the men’s duo of Bodin Isara and Phuket’s Maneepong Jongjit storming their…

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  • Phuket

    Decomposing body recovered off Koh Racha, Phuket

    PHUKET: Chalong Police are trying to identify a badly-decomposed human body found washed ashore at Koh Racha Yai early this morning, and now in storage on Phuket.After the Phuket Tourist Rescue Center at Chalong Pier was notified of the discovery at 7am, they dispatched a speedboat marked as operated by the “Chalong Tambon Administration Organization” (now called Chalong Municipality) to…

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  • Phuket

    Krabi drug rehab school owner called to answer police inquiry

    PHUKET: Following the reported drowning of a runaway student, the owner of the Por Noh Klong Gom School during a video-conference with Royal Thai Police Deputy Commissioner-General Adul Saengsingkaew admitted that “improvements” to the school’s management were urgently needed. The video conference, at Krabi Provincial Hall on Saturday, was in reaction to the drowning and subsequent mass-walkout by hundreds of…

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  • Phuket

    Restaurant, resort ordered removed from Phuket protected forests

    PHUKET: More than 150 officers from the Royal Forest Department (RFD) led raids on three sites in Phuket on Saturday.In Thalang, officers discovered a resort under construction within the boundaries of the protected Bang Kanoon Forest.“We found buildings that looked like a resort under construction on land inside the forest. However, there was no one at the site to declare…

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  • Thai Life

    Phuket People: Raise a toast to a coffee roast

    PHUKET: Each cup of coffee served at Hock Hoe Lee has more than 50 years of history steeped inside. It’s a taste to be savored. Three generations of one Phuket family have worked tirelessly to create the coffee served up today at Hock Hoe Lee, which has shops in town and in Rawai. Back in 1958, when Chinese migrant Cheng…

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  • Business

    Boonthaworn Phuket showroom to open by October 1

    PHUKET: After years of delay, Bangkok-based construction materials retailer Boonthavorn is moving forward with its plans to enter the Phuket market with the opening of a “mini-showroom”.The new facility will be located between Songkhla and Yaowarat roads, near the Tesco-Lotus junction in Rassada.Speaking to the Gazette at the project site, Boonthavorn architect Jiravut Kararun said the company is currently renovating…

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  • Phuket

    Yamaha Division One: Phuket 0 – 1 PTT Rayong

    PHUKET: A single goal was all that PTT Rayong FC needed to prevail over Phuket FC on Saturday night at Surakul Stadium in Phuket Town. It was the second time the two sides met this season; exactly two weeks earlier Phuket endured a 6-0 thrashing at Rayong. It was the last straw for former coach Milos Josic of Serbia, who…

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  • Business

    Phuket Business: New trade surplus high; FDI jumps 66%; Foreign shares to be scrutinized

    PHUKET: Three-quarters of the way into the government’s current fiscal year, international trade in Phuket is thriving, with this year’s trade surplus already surpassing last year’s record high. Phuket Customs House’ records through June 30 show that the value of exports in the 2012 government fiscal year (October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012) is now at 12.06 billion baht…

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  • Phuket

    Bone fragment of Lord Buddha installed at Phuket temple

    PHUKET: A bone-fragment relic of Lord Buddha was respectfully installed at Chedi Dok Bua Kaew “Crystal Lotus Pagoda” in Nakaram Temple, Wichit, during a ceremony on Friday. The ceremony was led by Phra Thepsitthimunee, Deputy Monk Dean of Region 16 from Dusidaram Warrawiharn Temple in Bangkok, along with 108 Buddhist monks from the greater Phuket area. “The relic of the…

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  • Phuket

    Phuket man rescued from dire drunk dozing decision

    PHUKET: A drunken man chose an exceptionally bad place to sleep off the effects of alcohol over the weekend: in the middle of the busiest and most deadly road in Phuket.A good citizen called the Phuket Kusoldharm Foundation at 6:45pm yesterday to report that a man was asleep in the left lane of Thepkrasattri Road outbound in Srisoonthorn, opposite the…

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  • Thailand

    National News: Three arrested for shootings; Govt criticized; Olympics update

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Three arrested in shooting deaths of soldiers in Pattani Phuket Gazette / The Nation PHUKET: Three men have been arrested for their alleged role in Saturday’s fatal shooting of four soldiers in Pattani, according to Pattani Governor Thira Mintarasak. “We have also retrieved 9mm guns stolen…

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