- Phuket News
Shrimp farmers’ loss is consumers’ gain
PHUKET: Shrimp lovers are being urged to eat up vast quantities in Thailand’s national interest. The price of Pacific white shrimp, a popular crop with shrimp farmers, has plummeted because of oversupply and anti-dumping measures being taken in the US and Europe. Prices that were around 200-230 baht a kilogram just weeks ago are now down to 80-100 baht. Tharadol…
- Phuket News
Galaxy of stars for New Year in Patong
PATONG: New Year festivities in Patong will include concerts featuring a galaxy of Thai stars. Every night from December 23 to January 1, local bands and students from local schools will provide live entertainment at Loma Park. There will also be a beer garden as well as market stalls selling food, souvenirs and trinkets. On New Year’s Eve, artists including…
- Phuket News
Klong to gain new lease on life
PHUKET TOWN: A plan to clean up and beautify eight kilometers of the Klong Bangyai waterway was launched today at a meeting between local authorities and six American representatives from Portland, Oregon. Over the next two years, a plan will be prepared that could see the klong turned into a boating attraction for tourists as well as ensuring that its…
- Phuket News
British couple arrested in Patong
PHUKET TOWN: A British couple arrested for working illegally in Thailand were released yesterday after posting bail of 200,000 baht each with Phuket Provincial Court. Pol Lt Col Panudej Sookwong, Superintendent of the Phuket Tourist Police, identified the couple as 38-year-old Timothy Jones and Frances Christodolou, 40. Their arrests followed an allegation by a tourist that the pair swindled her…
- Phuket News
Mangrove land “encroached upon’
PA KHLOK: The Mangrove Resources Development Office (MRDO) and the Phuket Provincial Forestry Office (PPFO) are expected to ask Thalang police to prosecute the owner of land in Baan Yamoo who, they allege, has encroached on some 15 rai of reserved mangrove land. Thawatchai Nuwan, from the MRDO, and colleagues from the PPFO have been surveying areas of Phuket for…
- Phuket News
Trash sorting facility opens
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket Town Municipality held a ceremony this morning to officially open its new trash separation facility, next to the incinerator at Saphan Hin. The new facility will cut down on the amount of waste that needs to be burned at the incinerator, which is currently operating at more than its design capacity. The outgoing Mayor of Phuket Town,…
- Phuket News
B5m blaze grills tuna boat
PHUKET TOWN: A tuna boat loaded with diesel fuel and bottled gas for a month-long trip burned to the waterline in a five-million-baht fire at Rassada on Saturday. The blaze was spotted about 11 am on Saturday but seven hours of efforts by seamen and firefighters failed to douse the flames and the boat was burned to a blackened hulk.…
- Phuket News
Officials check visa service firm
PHUKET: The investigation into fake entry permits for foreigners took a halting step forward recently when Immigration officers visited a “visa service” company and seized 20 passports found on the premises. “We checked the company where, foreigners informed us, they had obtained stamps, and now we are waiting for further instructions,” Pol Capt Krissarat Nusen of the Phuket Provincial Immigration…
- Phuket News
Police raid FantaSea over tiger cubs
KAMALA: About 20 officers from the Forestry Police Division, the Highway Police and the Tourist Police raided the FantaSea entertainment center in Kamala today and seized 14 tigers that had been transported there, allegedly without permission. Officers said that the tigers, most of them cubs aged three to six months, had been put on show for tourist photo sessions after…
- Phuket News
Patong vendors’ leader arrested
PHUKET TOWN: The President of the Patong Vendors’ Association was arrested on Tuesday night by Phuket Town Police for carrying an unlicensed firearm into a popular downtown restaurant. Somwang “Lae” Wonghan, 39, was taken into custody by police at about 11:20 pm as he sat in the new Chilli Phuket pub on Dilok Uthit Rd 1. Fellow diners contacted police…
- Phuket News
Concern over missing divemaster
KAMALA: Police and workmates say they are concerned for the safety of a divemaster who vanished after a party at a bar in Kamala last Saturday (November 29). Phikun “Nori” Srisaksungnoen, 25, from Kamala, had been celebrating with colleagues after returning from diving off Phi Phi. She was last seen at 10 pm, leaving behind her car and her two…
- Phuket News
Buffalo meat smugglers thwarted
KOH KEAW: Veterinarian Jirayu Niranvirot of the Phuket Provincial Livestock Office [PPLO] – working on a tip-off – today discovered two tons of smuggled buffalo meat in a pick-up truck outside a house in the Baan Na Nai area of Koh Keaw. Illegally-imported Australian cheese was also found. Sunart Wongchawalit, Chief of the PPLO, told the Gazette that the market…
- Phuket News
Phuket “winning’ War on Drugs
PHUKET TOWN: Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura today announced that Phuket is winning the war on drugs. “The island is not completely rid of them, or of the users and dealers, but society will no longer be affected by them,” Gov Udomsak declared. At a special ceremony at Saphin Hin, Gov Udomsak and others – including Vice- Governors Pongpow Ketthong and Winai…
- Phuket News
Paradorn to play at Laguna
CHERNG TALAY: Thai tennis hero Paradorn “Ball” Srichaphan will play two exhibition matches at the Laguna Beach Resort on December 20 and 21. The matches are part of the Paradorn Super Tour, a round-robin tour also taking in Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen, and featuring world No 11 Paradorn, Thailand’s top woman player Tamarine “Tammy” Tanasugarn, Mark Philippoussis of Australia…
- Phuket News
King’s Cup: Hi Fidelity moves ahead
PHUKET: In the first of two races today in the Racing Class of the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta, veteran sailor and 2001 winner Neil Pryde steered Hi Fidelity to provisional honors, followed by Spanish boat Pris Play with Fred Kinmonth’s Stella-Minter-Ellison finishing third. The highly rated Thai boat Pasaya, which is being chartered by a team from Switzerland this year…
- Phuket News
Wildlife sanctuary goes for double-pricing
THALANG: Khao Prataew Wildlife Sanctuary (KPWS) will begin collecting standard entrance fees of 200 baht from foreigners and 20 baht from Thais next week, the Chief of the sanctuary, Awat Nitikul, has announced. K. Awat told the Gazette that the park – which includes the Tonesai and Bangpae waterfalls – attracts about 4,000 tourists a month. Most of the foreigners…
- Thailand News
Banged to rights
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: As 40-year-old Somsak Chinaphan sat in front of a mom and pop store in Phibul District on October 27, local police turned up and placed him under arrest for rape. Accompanying the arresting officials, and boldly pointing the finger of blame, was his ex-wife and mother of their three children, 38-year-old Somreudee Chinaphan. K. Somsak, the owner…
- Thailand News
Pricey pawing
PATHUM THANI: Udomdech Rattanasathien, Secretary to Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan, led a team of department officials and police on a raid at another dubious treatment facility, also in Phatum Thani, on October 7. This raid followed complaints by a female patient that she had been sexually assaulted during treatment – by a well-known monk. The woman said her treatment…
- Thailand News
Massively massaged
PATHUM THANI: When it comes to traditional Thai massage, some like it harder than others. But few people suffering from stiffness or poor circulation want to emerge from massage treatment looking as if they had just gone five hard rounds in a Muay Thai fight – which was the type of service a renegade massage parlor in Pathum Thani had…
- Phuket News
Plis Play takes line honors in King’s Cup
PHUKET: The first race in the 17th Phuket King’s Cup Regatta started with good winds gusting up to 15 knots when the action got underway off Kata Beach today. Under overcast skies with some rain the night before, racing started in good winds which hung around during the early afternoon instead of dropping off early, as in past regattas. Race…
- Phuket News
Illegal guns trigger 10 arrests
PHUKET: Although Phuket residents still have until December 15 to turn in illegal firearms without fear of prosecution, crime statistics from Phuket Provincial Police show that 10 arrests on charges of illegal gun possession were made between November 1 and November 25. And even though the province was declared drug-free on Loy Kratong Day – November 8 – there were…
- Phuket News
Aids rise troubles health chief
PHUKET TOWN: A worrying rise in the rate of HIV transmission on Phuket has led to the Chief of the Phuket Provincial Health Office, Dr Wanchai Sattayawuthipong, warning about the island’s secret sex industry. Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura revealed in his message for World Aids Day that the infection rate among pregnant women had increased in the year to June…
- Phuket News
Planet’s purple people in a spin
PHUKET TOWN: Police raided the newly-opened Planet Concert Hall disco in Phuket Town soon after midnight on November 29 and checked revelers for drugs and proper ID cards. Ten of the 486 people at the disco on Weerapong-Hongyok Rd tested positive when their urine samples turned purple and will be required to check with police in 10 days when the…
- Phuket News
Police hit underground lottery vendors
PHUKET TOWN: Seven vendors of underground lottery tickets were arrested on Friday, and 17,680 baht cash, a number of illegal lottery tickets and ticket sales records were seized. Masquerading as punters, officers led by Phuket Provincial Security Affairs Chief Nikorn Torhiranyapreuk bought tickets from the vendors between noon to 4 pm, then turned around and arrested them. K. Nikorn named…
