Year: 2016
- Phuket News
First Mother’s Day bombings suspect arrested
BANGKOK: Police today confirmed the arrest of a suspect linked to the wave of bombings in tourist towns last month that killed four people and wounded dozens, including foreigners. The bombs and arson attacks August 11-12 in various towns south of Bangkok including Hua Hin, Surat Thani and in Phuket raised fears that a Muslim separatist insurgency, for years largely…
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Saturday power cuts scheduled for Koh Kaew
PHUKET: Power is scheduled to be shut-off in Koh Kaew sub-district on Saturday, September 17 and Saturday September 24, the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) has announced. The power outage is scheduled from 9am until 5pm on both days to facilitate construction work on the Ban Khu Underpass. The areas to be specifically affected by the power cut are Koh Kaew…
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Blaze guts Phuket Town home
PHUKET: It took five fire trucks about 40 minutes to extinguish a second-storey blaze in Phuket Town yesterday. Emergency services received a report of the house fire at 9:20am at number 44/2 on Patiphat Road. The second floor bedroom and prayer room in the two-storey house, named ‘Baan Thamrongpornsawat,’ were ablaze when firefighters arrived,” said Phuket City Police Lt Thaksin…
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Motorcyclist killed as CRV driver runs light
PHUKET: A motorcyclist was killed in Chalong on Saturday when a CRV driver ran a red light and crashed into him. CCTV footage from Chalong Municipality shows the CRV crashing into the motorbike at the T-junction in front of Baan Chalong School on Cha Fa West Road. The bike rider, Wattana Enkbuth, was thrown off and his head hit the…
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Phuket blood center needs AB supplies
PHUKET: The Phuket Regional Blood Center (PRBC) is holding blood donation sessions across Phuket throughout September to replenish blood stocks, especially AB blood types. Under the banner ‘Give Blood to Fellowmen’, the September blood donation drive is in honor of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit’s 84th birthday anniversary and His Majesty the King’s 70th anniversary of his accession to the throne.…
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Train bombing may derail peace talks
THAILAND: Thais in the deep South continue to endure regular violent attacks, despite ongoing peace talks in Malaysia. Trains operating in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat have been suspended for 10 days after another bomb exploded on the railway line on Friday. The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) ordered the temporary suspension of train services to the three southernmost provinces in…
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Sinkhole swallows bus
PHUKET: The back of a bus was swallowed by a sinkhole that opened up beneath the vehicle in Thalang district on Saturday afternoon after several hours of torrential rain. Baan Kluay Road in Srisoonthon sub district has been closed off until the bus can be removed and the hole in the road filled in. Srisoonthorn Mayor Worrawut Songyot said the…
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Prime Minister to visit Phuket this month
PHUKET: Prime Minister Gen Prayuth Chan-o-cha is to visit Phuket on September 16 for the regional launch of a new nationwide initiative aimed at helping budding local businesses get off the ground and into the international arena of digital commerce. The Startup Thailand 2016 campaign was launched by the prime minister in Bangkok in April as a joint government and…
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2,700 tonnes of frozen fish moved off detained vessel
PHUKET: Officials from Department of Fisheries are removing about 2,700 tonnes of frozen tuna from two fishing vessels that were detained under suspicion of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing seven months ago. The fish will be transferred from the Deep Sea Port, where the vessels are located, to cold storage at the Fish Marketing Organization in Rassada. The transfer…
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American woman falls off cliff while fleeing assaulter
PHUKET: An American tourist fell into a crevice off a 45-meter-high cliff at Railay Bay, Krabi while trying to save herself from sexual assault late Thursday night. The suspect, named Apai Ruangwong, 28, admitted to the attempted assault when police questioned him. He was also the one who notified the authorities for help. The 23-year-old woman, whose name is being…
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Medical schools join forensic probe into land suspect’s death
PHUKET: Forensic teams from medical schools have joined the investigation into the mysterious death of a former land department official – a major suspect in an illegal land-title registration case – while in police custody. Justice Minister General Paiboon Koomchaya said yesterday that to ensure transparency in the case, forensic teams from Chulalongkorn University, Ramathibodi Medical School, and Siriraj Medical…
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Opinion: Easing the migrant registration process
PHUKET: Pitool Dumsakorn, 54, is the current chief of the Phuket Employment Office. Originally from Phatthalung, he has a master’s degree in Public Administration from Prince of Songkla University in Hat Yai. He has taken up this position to manage unemployment on the island. Here he talks about how employment laws must not only be strictly applied, but also be…
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Profile: Montree Todtan – Rescuing nature’s gentle giants
PHUKET: Phuket native Montree Todtan is the CEO of the soon-to-open ‘Phuket Elephant Sanctuary’ in Pa Khlok. The sanctuary is a dedicated last home for Asian elephants rescued and rehabilitated from life in the captive elephant tourism industry. Now 46 years old, Mr Montree grew up in Phuket and after completing high school went to Ramkamheang University for three years…
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Island View: Retail Goliaths killing the local community
PHUKET: Unemployment in Thailand is practically zero. The official unemployment rate is around the one per cent mark. Compare that to somewhere like the UK where unemployment figures over the past decade have fluctuated wildly between 12 and seven per cent, and one has to ask why a developed nation has an unemployment problem with millions dependent on government handouts.…
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CPN invests B20bn into new Central Phuket
PHUKET: Central Pattana PCL (CPN) recently confirmed long-awaited expansion plans for Phuket, announcing a 20 billion baht investment to build a second mega complex opposite Central Festival Phuket shopping mall. The new world class mega project in Phuket, to be named Central Phuket, is part of a 60 billion baht plan to develop and renovate 10 shopping centers nationwide between…
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Municipality springs to action as social media complaint goes viral
PHUKET: A Phuket woman turned to social media for help after her complaints about an injury from a hanging wire allegedly went unheeded. Facebook user Fern A Romdee shared her complaints on a public Facebook group on Wednesday. She said the incident occurred as she was driving past Supercheap at Naka market. “At about 7pm on August 31, I was…
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New e-payment service aims to ease fund transfers
PHUKET: A new payment method designed to ease bank transfers, backed by the central bank of Thailand, was announced at a press conference held in Phuket last week. Saowapa Limsila, chief of the Phuket Office of the Comptroller General, and Jongrak Angtanya, vice president of the ‘Phuket Bankers Club’, jointly chaired the meeting held at Phuket Provincial Hall. The new…
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Tranlee assets go up for auction
PHUKET: More than 150 assets of the embattled Tranlee Travel Co are to be auctioned off on September 6, Phuket’s Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) announced yesterday. The assets – 33 boats, 57 buses, parcels of land and millions of baht – were seized after investigators declared that the Phuket-based tour operator had been established illegally (story here). AMLO Secretary General…
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Opinion: Phuket’s growing reputation for ATM fraud
PHUKET: The recent hacking of Government Savings Bank automatic teller machines (ATMs) nationwide raises a host of troubling questions. These relate not only to the identities and whereabouts of the thieves, but also to the general state of security for ATM users in Thailand, the repeated failure of immigration police to keep known foreign criminals from our shores, and the…
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Keep It Green: The cost of cutting trees
PHUKET: I live in Saiyuan in the south of Phuket. Every day for years and years, I have taken pleasure from the presence of a magnificent forest tree, probably a dipterocarp, high above the road and providing an arching green canopy to drive under on my way home. Inspiring… but in the blink of an eye, this tree, maybe 100…
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Ministry of Farang Affairs: Attracting the worst people
The Ministry of Farang Affairs is a one-stop shop where foreigners in Thailand can learn all they need to know about living here. No, we’re not talking about work permits, visas or taxes. We’re talking about day-to-day life in the Land of Endless Shocks and Riddles, of Blur, Befuddlement and the Bizarre. Stay tuned for weekly insights from Minister Stephff.…
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By The Book: The British love affair with Phuket
PHUKET: For a long time, the British have been coming to Phuket on vacation, for their retirement, and to set up businesses here. For a lot of Brits coming from aboard, Phuket is an attractive location for a holiday home or investment property, and UK buyers have established themselves as a permanent segment of the island’s property market. For the…
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Getting your Aussie visa application right
PHUKET: Often you will hear people say getting a visa to Australia is very hard, but the reality is, as long as you meet the basic criteria, it could not be easier. Many people make it much harder for themselves than is necessary, and hopefully this article will assist people to be successful the first time. 1. Make sure you…
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Darasamuth Underpass southbound lane closed
PHUKET: The southbound lanes of the Darasamuth Underpass have been temporarily closed and the traffic light system shut down. “We found out about a problem with the lane indicators this afternoon so we shut down the lanes to prevent any confusion that could lead to accidents,” Patiwetwottisak Sookhii, director of the Phuket Highways Office, told the Phuket Gazette this afternoon.…
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Three foreign tour guides arrested
PHUKET: Three foreign nationals were arrested for working illegally as tour guides in Phuket yesterday. The arrests were made by a team of provincial officials on the lookout for illegal workers at the Asia Marina in Rassada. “The team spotted the three men working as guides for Chinese tourists at about 10am,” said Phuket Vice Governor Prajiad Aksornthammakul. The suspects…
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Volunteer diver hospitalized after being run over by speedboat
PHUKET: The driver of a speedboat is still at large, after running over a volunteer diver picking up trash yesterday. The diver, a fourth year student at Phuket’s Rajabhat University, is undergoing treatment at Vachira Phuket Hospital after having her right thumb amputated. Thirty-one year-old Patcharin Phetlorian was diving with fellow volunteers of the Phang Nga Provincial Natural Resource and…
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PEA holds bomb drill in Patong
PHUKET: Emergency services rolled into action at the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) office in Patong in a simulated bomb incident yesterday. Fire fighters and medical personnel, along with police and a bomb disposal squad, evacuated crisis actors on stretchers for the annual drill as part of the PEA’s Incident Management Plan. The drill began at 9am and went on until…
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Second TYS to feature more small boats
PHUKET: Organizers of the second edition of the Thailand Yacht Show (TYS) at Ao Po Grand Marina from December 15-18 are looking to add new features to attract different visitors. One of these, the ‘Premier Display’ is intended to give visitors the opportunity to view the latest small boats and other watercraft on offer in Southeast Asia. “At the first…
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DDPM warns of flash flooding, landslides on Thepkrasattri
PHUKET: The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) has warned that parts of Thepkrasattri Road are threatened by landslides and flash floods in the coming few days. In an official letter signed by Phuket Vice Governor Chokdee Amornwat yesterday, the DDPM told local government offices to prepare for landslides and flash flooding along the main route through Phuket. The…
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Koh Kaew construction delayed due to ‘mistake’
PHUKET: Construction work to widen a waterway and build a retaining wall along Soi Koh Kaew 33, behind the Isuzu showroom on Thepkrasattri Road, has been delayed due to a “mistake” in the setting the wall’s pilings. The 8.4-million-baht project to build a three-meter-high retaining wall along a 500 meter stretch of roadside was initially scheduled to be completed by…
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“Suicide’ of Land Department official now called into question
PHUKET: The autopsy on a former land department official who allegedly hanged himself in custody yesterday revealed that the man suffered an injured liver and internal bleeding, his brother said this afternoon. Tawatchai Anukul, a retired senior official of the Phang Nga Provincial Land Department, was found dead inside a detention room at the Department of Special Investigation yesterday (story…
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Landslide forces airport road closure
PHUKET: Motorists are being warned to stay off the small road that runs parallel to the runway at Phuket International Airport following a landslide. The slide occurred near the air traffic control tower and Aeronautical Radio of Thailand office there. “Continuous rain over the past few days loosened the earth on the 141-meter-tall hill (Khao Bo Sai) next to the…
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Former land official in Phuket DSI case found hanged in cell
PHUKET: A former land department official under investigation in Phuket land-title cases allegedly committed suicide while in official custody yesterday. Tawatchai Anukul, who was under investigation for illegal registration of land deeds for about 1,000 plots in Phuket and Phang Nga, allegedly took his own life. Custody officials said the suspect was found to have hung himself just hours before…
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Public outcry stops demolition of Vachira Hospital buildings
PHUKET: Vachira Hospital administrators have reached an agreement with concerned community members and employees over the proposed demolition of historic 100-year-old buildings and their surrounding mahogany trees. The plans to demolish the existing structures in order to make way for a new 298-bed hospital wing were halted after a public outcry from doctors and community members reached a fever pitch…
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Police blame Russian for theft of B3mn in ATM hacks
PHUKET: Police have asked for an international arrest warrant for a Russian national believed to be involved in the theft of more than 12 million baht from ATMs across Thailand, including Phuket. Chief investigator Panya Mamen said Rustam Shambasov, 29, was caught on surveillance video footage after stealing more than 3 million baht from over a dozen ATMs last month.…
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Phuket Town fruit vendors fed up with theft
PHUKET: Fruit vendors in Phuket Town are fed up with fruit from their stalls being stolen overnight and the lack of progress in apprehending the culprits, despite giving police CCTV footage showing teenagers pilfering the produce. Vipharat Na Kling, who owns one of the stalls along Srisana Road, said the thefts have cost her thousands of baht. “I reported the…
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Pick-up slams into pole, splits in half
PHUKET: Police have charged a woman with reckless driving and damage to public property after she lost control of the truck she was trying to drive and slammed into a power pole yesterday. The driver, Pavalee Khamleang, 27, and her Indonesian passenger were injured in the accident. Ms Pavalee sustained injuries to her neck and back. The passenger, Tranggielia Lokon…
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