- Phuket News
One dead, 11 hurt in Patong pileup
PATONG: A man died and 11 other people were slightly injured in a three-vehicle pileup that paralysed traffic during peak hour at one of Patong’s major intersections yesterday. A truck laden with construction tools and bags of cement came barrelling down Patong hill about 5 pm, crashing into a pickup laden with workers and a mini-bus. The force of the…
- Phuket News
300 fake watches seized in Karon
KARON: About 300 fake luxury-brand watches with an estimated retail value of more than 500,000 baht were seized in two sting operations in the Karon area on Friday night. Two dealers were taken into custody. Pubate Mingkwan, legal representative in Thailand for a number of well-known brands, came to Phuket from Bangkok to investigate reports that knock-off watches bearing logos…
- Phuket News
Ambassador seeks 12-month visas for Filipinos
PHUKET TOWN: Filipinos who work in Phuket should be able to obtain one-year visas instead of three-month or six-month visas, the new Philippines Ambassador to Thailand, Antonio V Rodriguez, said today at the end of his first official visit to the island. Making the plea in talks with Vice Governor Niran Kalayanamit, he noted that many entertainers and musicians were…
- Phuket News
Doubt thrown on jet-ski ban plan
PHUKET TOWN: Following Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura’s announcement in late December that jet-skis will be phased out in Phuket over a seven-year period, the Phuket Marine Office (PMO) has set a January 31 deadline for jet-ski owners to register their machines. From February 1 the PMO will begin cracking down on unregistered machines, underage riders and other violations. But the man…
- Phuket News
More tales from the dog pound
PHUKET TOWN: The dog pound design that turned out to be a dog’s breakfast has been cleaned up, say officials. Capable of holding 1,000 animals, Phuket’s pound will open for business on March 1 next year at the latest, the Chief of the Phuket Provincial Livestock Office (PPLO), Sunart Wongchawalit, told the Gazette yesterday. There was consternation last year when…
- Phuket News
Pian gets green light for election
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Election Committee (PEC) has dismissed a complaint against mayoral candidate Pian Keesin, allowing him to stand in the Patong mayoral election on February 8. Kittipong Thiengkunagrit, Director of the PEC, told the Gazette today that the PEC had carefully considered the complaint, lodged on January 19 by rival candidate Songserm Kepsap. K. Songserm presented the PEC…
- Phuket News
Youth shot in second gang outrage
CHERNG TALAY: A crowd of about 100 people massed outside Cherng Talay Police Station last night after an incident in which a young gang member shot a teenager from another gang in the leg. The victim, Jittisak “Sak” Tamtorpol, 18, was wounded at about 9:30 pm while sitting outside a mosque near his home, not far from Surin beach, said…
- Phuket News
Five teens held for gangland execution
PHUKET: Five teenagers are being held by police and two more are still being hunted over the savage gangland execution of a 15-year-old youth on Koh Sireh. Khajornkiat Tongdeesuk was tied up, gagged and beaten before being taken to Naamsai beach early on Saturday where his killer fired a shotgun into his head. Police allege that another 15-year-old known as…
- Phuket News
Pian dismisses allegation as “a game’
PATONG: Pian Keesin, leader of the recently-formed Rak Patong Party, has dismissed an attempt to have him barred from forthcoming municipal elections in Patong as “a political game”. As reported yesterday by the Gazette Online, the leader of the Patong Progress Party, Songserm Kepsap, has furnished officials of the Phuket Election Commission (PEC) with documents he claims show that K.…
- Phuket News
TRT throws its weight into local elections
PHUKET TOWN: The involvement for the first time of the powerful Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party should add a new dimension to Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) elections in Phuket, scheduled for March 14. This development has put two former vice-presidents and colleagues, Samroeng Chaisorn and Wisut Santikun, on opposing teams as rival candidates for OrBorJor President. K. Samroeng will campaign…
- Phuket News
Phuket summit meeting postponed
BANGKOK (The Nation): The inaugural summit of five Asian nations scheduled to take place next month in Phuket has been postponed indefinitely after India’s Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, canceled due to internal politics. Mr Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party is gearing up for general elections in April or May. A new date for the summit of the five leaders of…
- Phuket News
Patong protests early closings
PATONG: More than 400 workers in Patong’s entertainment industry gathered on Saturday at Loma Park to vent their anger over government proposals to restrict the opening hours of entertainment venues to the period from 6 pm to midnight. The change, if approved, is likely to go into effect March 1. Patong Entertainment Business Association (PEBA) president Somphet Moosopon urged the…
- Phuket News
Out with foreign touts
PATONG: Phuket Immigration officers rounded up 24 foreigners over the weekend and charged them with illegal entry into Thailand and working without permits. They are now being held in a Phuket Immigration Police cell awaiting deportation. The operation was aimed at enforcing Article 38 of the Immigration Act of 1979, which has long been ignored by many guesthouse owners. Under…
- Phuket News
Phuket Air “won’t join fares war’
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket Air will not be joining the cheap-tickets war sparked by the launch of Air Asia, its Chief Executive Officer said today. Group Capt Patana Tareekes was speaking at Phuket International Airport, where the inaugural flight of Phuket Air’s new five-times-weekly service, linking Haad Yai with Ranong via Phuket, landed at 10:30 this morning. “We are not going…
- Phuket News
No bird ‘flu on Phuket – official
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Commercial Office has reassured consumers that no cases of avian ‘flu or diarrhea have been reported on Phuket – although huge numbers of chickens elsewhere in Asia have been affected. Archint Ongsakul, a commercial technician from the PPCO, told the Gazette today, “Phuket has no problem with this disease.” A watchdog group, the Consumer Force Association…
- Phuket News
Low-price airfare “open to all’
PHUKET TOWN: Confusion at some airline sub-agencies may have led to some customers missing out on a low-cost airfares promotion by Thai Airways International, an airline spokesman admitted today. “Perhaps some sub-agencies were not properly informed,” Viset Sontichai, Upper-Southern Thailand District Sales Manager for THAI, told the Gazette. “It’s possible that some agencies lost the correct information. THAI has about…
- Phuket News
Patong plans early-closing protest
PATONG: About 150 people from Patong’s entertainment industry met today to discuss measures to oppose government proposals to close the country’s nightlife at midnight. Hundreds more are expected to take part in a full-scale protest at 3 pm on Saturday. Talk of preemptive closures of bars in Patong from 1 am on January 19 was denied by local police as…
- Phuket News
Island to get ‘up to standard’ abattoir
PHUKET TOWN: In an effort to improve food safety standards in Phuket, the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) and Provincial Livestock Office have agreed to get together to build a 60-million baht slaughterhouse in Kathu using a government-subsidized 5% loan from the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Bank. PPLO Chief Sunart Wongchawalit told the Gazette today that the facility, to…
- Phuket News
Mystery over Russian girl’s death
CHERNG TALAY: Mystery surrounds the death of a 10-year-old Russian girl vacationing with her family at the five-star Dusit Laguna Resort Hotel. Police said they suspected the girl might have been electrocuted, but a senior Dusit manager rejected this theory, saying the hotel was awaiting the conclusions of doctors who were examining the body. The girl, named by police as…
- Phuket News
English boost for Phuket Town school
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Thai Hua School has reached a 3-million-baht agreement with the Singapore-based Stamford education group to expand the teaching of English at the school. Sombat Atiset, the President of the Kusolsongkroh Foundation, the charitable organization that runs the school, said that the new English course will be launched at the beginning of this year’s first semester, in…
- Phuket News
Seven glue sniffers arrested
PHUKET TOWN: Seven glue sniffers came unstuck early yesterday morning when police officers on patrol caught them enjoying their preferred form of substance abuse, inhaling the vapor of rubber-based glue. Pol Col Apirak Hongthong, Deputy Commander of Phuket Provincial Police, and a sortie of officers were on their nightly midnight-to-6 am patrol when they came across five youngsters sniffing glue…
- Phuket News
Laguna “confident’ on tin mine titles
THALANG: James Batt, Joint Managing Director of Laguna Resorts & Hotels, has hailed as “good news” the announcements by various officials that the land titles for the 13 plots on which the hotel complex is built are legitimate. Both the Provincial Land Office and the provincial version of the Committee to Solve Problems of Encroachment on State Land (KorBorRor) have…
- Phuket News
Patong vendors’ chief cleared in searches
PHUKET: Police searches of six Phuket properties belonging to Patong Vendors’ Association President Somwang “Lae” Wonghan, 39, have failed to turn up any illegal firearms, Pol Lt Col Chartchai Nikorthanon, Deputy Superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, has told the Gazette. The raids, which were led by Phuket Town Police Station Superintendent Pol Col Paween Pongsirin and Phuket Town District…
- Phuket News
Food, water face strict testing
PHUKET TOWN: Island residents can look forward to improved hygiene in food and water production by the end of this year, according to a report issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under its “Good Manufacturing Practice” (GMP) standards. More than 100 major establishments were tested between January 7 and 9, but only half passed the GMP standards. Speaking…
- Thailand News
Not a ghost of a chance
THALANG: When police cremated an unidentified murder victim without first conducting a religious ceremony, their actions came back to haunt them – literally. Fishermen discovered the body in the waters off Ao Por on the morning of December 10 – and it was not a pretty sight. Pol Maj Anan Jingjit of the Thalang Police Station said that they could…
- Thailand News
A definite case of penis envy
NAKHON PATHOM: Phallic symbols have been worshiped by man since time immemorial, and in Nakhon Pathom’s Phra Phathom Chedi district lives one man who is doing his best to keep that tradition alive. Not only has he collected 300-400 wooden lingams, but he proudly wears 100 of them – all at once suspended – from a special belt strapped around…
- Phuket News
Arson possible cause of Cherng Talay blaze
CHERNG TALAY: Tum Salathai, a seafood restaurant on the entry road to Laguna Phuket, burned to the ground in the early hours of Wednesday. Police are investigating arson as one of two possible causes of the blaze. Restaurant manager Weerachai Srabua told the Gazette today that the blaze started at about 4 am. “People outside noticed the fire. They ran…
- Phuket News
Kota Bahru visa run “still safe’
PHUKET: Despite continuing violence in the south of Thailand, the visa officer at the Thai Consulate in Kota Bahru, Malaysia, insists that the security situation along the border is still calm and that many foreigners continue to arrive each day to renew visas. Kota Bahru is the Thai consulate closest to Phuket, and one of a few in the region…
- Phuket News
War weapons recovered in Kathu
KATHU: Police recovered a briefcase full of explosives along a road in Kathu early Monday morning after investigating an anonymous tipoff. Responding to a call phoned in on the emergency 191 number at about 1:30 am on January 5, Deputy Phuket Provincial Police Commander Pol Col Apirak Hongthong ordered officers from Thung Thong Police sub-district to secure the location before…
- Phuket News
Japanese tourist drowns
KARON: A 30-year-old Japanese tourist drowned at Karon beach yesterday about 6pm. The man, named by police as Kenji Maehama, went for a swim with a group of friends in front of the Phuket Arcadia Beach Resort, where the group was staying. Two got into difficulties, apparently because of a strong undertow. Beach guards were able to retrieve both, but…
