- Phuket News
Fire guts seven houses
PATONG: Fire swept through seven wooden houses in Patong yesterday morning, causing damage estimated at 300,000 baht. No one was hurt. Firemen took 40 minutes to extinguish the fire in Soi Rong Bambat Namser, 50 metres from Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd. Pol Lt Serm Kwannimit, in charge of investigating the fire, told the Gazette that it started in a house…
- Phuket News
Loch Palm murder still a mystery
TUNG TONG: Some 15 months after the mutilated body of a woman was found near the Loch Palm Golf Course, police are still trying to find out who she was – and who killed her. The victim died of blood loss from six stab wounds – two in her stomach, one in her throat, one in an armpit, one in…
- Phuket News
Bars should close at 11pm – Purachai
PHUKET: Interior Minister Purachai Piemsomboon shocked bar owners in Patong today when he commented he would like to see them close their doors at 11 pm each night. During a two-day inspection tour of entertainment venues in Patong and Karon, K. Purachai was stopped in Soi Bangla by three people claiming to represent owners of Patong entertainment venues. Handing him…
- Phuket News
Drug suspect makes a run for it
PHUKET: Torhed Cholahat, one of four suspects arrested on Monday (see https://thethaiger.com/news/index.asp?id=1833 ) for possession and sale of ya bah (metamphetamine), went on the run for seven hours yesterday after leaping out of a police pick-up truck. He was recaptured in a tin mine lagoon by a student who is on the Rajabhat Phuket Institute boxing team. An officer from…
- Phuket News
Tourist’s death puzzles police
PATONG: Mystery surrounds the final hours of an Italian tourist whose body was found in a shallow pool of water near Patong Beach yesterday evening. Alerted by a tip-off at about 6 pm yesterday, police went to the site, near the Phuket Palace Hotel on the main Patong-Karon road, and found Luca Tesei, 35, lying face-down in the shin-deep pool.…
- Phuket News
New foot-and-mouth sweeping south
THAILAND: A recently discovered strain of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is sweeping through Southeast Asia, a top Australian expert has warned. Dr Laurence Gleeson, regional coordinator of the South East Asia FMD control program, said, “This pan-Asian strain seems to be very well adapted to pigs and cattle, and has the capability to spread. It’s now in every country in Southeast…
- Thailand News
Fowl play suspected
KALASIN: Porn Yeejuan knew she was a good cook and had spent the day busily preparing for her daughter’s engagement party, to which the whole village had been invited. Among the range of delicacies she had prepared for her guests was boiled chicken. Once she had finished preparing all the food, she left it in the kitchen at the back…
- Thailand News
An explosive relationship
CHIANG MAI: Sixty-year-old Katsuo Buno met and fell in love with 32-year-old Jitra Chuwong two years ago when Jitra went to work in Japan. Deciding that she was the love of his life, he quit his job, sold his belongings, cashed in his pension and moved to Chiang Mai so that he could be with his goddess. But Jitra, apparently…
- Thailand News
Grave problems for market
RAYONG: Vichai Eaksuk reckoned he was in luck. He’d found a place to hold a small fair for the last two weeks in November. A man called Anek was willing to rent out the area in front of 14 bungalows he managed. What Anek didn’t mention was that villagers believed bungalow No 5 was haunted. So, Vichai set up his…
- Thailand News
Murder victim has his revenge
SUKHOTAI: U-thai Saengkaew, 38, was haunted. The ghost of the person he had murdered, he was certain, had come back to claim his life. U-thai’s body was found on November 7. Forensics established that he had hanged himself from a beam in his house at least three hours earlier. Neighbors told the police that the previous night U-thai had been…
- Thailand News
Policeman has the ripe stuff
NONGKHAI: Pol Col Chalong Parkpinyo, Superintendent of Phonphisai Police Station, found his way to the hearts of the people of Phonphisai – by going bananas. Wanting to make his police station a “place for the people”, Col Chalong started several projects to improve the station’s appearance and reputation. But the project that most impressed people was an unrelenting series of…
- Thailand News
Pinning his hopes on golden implants
Ratchaburi: Like many people, 67-year-old Preecha Iamkum puts faith in a supernatural power to protect him from harm. What makes Preecha different is the way he invokes this protection: by having three-centimeter-long gold pins fully inserted into his body. Preecha first places the custom-made pins, which are made of an 80% gold alloy, in a bowl of sesame oil and…
- Thailand News
Gambling habit ends with an unlucky draw
CHANTHABURI: Prajum Noikul, 39, liked gambling. Her husband, Saichol, was getting tired of it. It infuriated him to see her wasting her time and his money. On October 10, his fury boiled over. In a bid to make his wife understand that he really didn’t like her gambling, Saichol, 39, took out his 9-mm handgun. He pointed the gun at…
- Thailand News
Hungry horror lurking under the house
ANG THONG: Rattana Thithanukul, of Jarakae Rong village, has had rat problems before. But now, they’re getting out of hand. One of the local mongrels had recently given birth to eight pups under Rattana’s house, which sits on stumps about a foot off the ground. The pups’ mother came back to feed them only occasionally, so Rattana decided to keep…
- Thailand News
A tale of vegetables and aliens
CHANTHABURI: Police at a checkpoint on the Chanthaburi-Sra Kaew Rd stopped the approaching Isuzu pickup because the high-sided truck looked like it was massively overloaded. Checking the back of the pickup, officers confirmed the driver’s disclosed cargo of sweet potatoes under the tarpaulin. And under the sweet potatoes, jammed in shoulder-to-shoulder, they found 35 Cambodians, ranging in age from 14…
- Phuket News
Masseuse garotted by suspected hitman
PHUKET TOWN: Angkana Seawsuk, 28, a practitioner of traditional Thai massage, was murdered in the Rome Place Hotel yesterday evening by a young man posing as a customer. Pol Maj Songwut Khunjan, inspector of Phuket Town Police Station, told the Gazette that Narong Noppiboon, manager of the massage section, told investigators he was doing a routine check of massage rooms…
- Phuket News
PM’s sister launches women’s club in Phuket
PHUKET TOWN: Yaowares Shinawatra, sister of Prime Minister Thaksin, today chaired a meeting to launch the Phuket chapter of the Business and Professional Women’s Association of Thailand (BPWAT) at the Phuket Pearl Hotel. K. Yaowares, who is the Vice-Chairperson of the Business and Professional Women’s Association for the Asia-Pacific region, said, “I came here today to invite Phuket’s professional women…
- Phuket News
THAI silk turning to sandpaper?
BANGKOK (AFP): Thai Airways (a.k.a THAI) is re-launching the quest for a leader who can get the airline to shrug off its rapidly deteriorating image and revalidate its claims of running “smooth as silk”. THAI’s reputation used to be one of the best in Asia. But analysts and passengers are starting to see the airline fall apart. And Thailand’s prime…
- Phuket News
Phuket Town inches closer to public buses
PHUKET TOWN: Public bus services are set to start next month on two routes in Phuket Town as soon as the vehicles are ready, says a senior member of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor). The proposed transport breakthrough follows years of promises and postponements. The biggest hurdle now faced by the project is opposition from tuk-tuk drivers and motorcycle…
- Phuket News
Police traffic blitz set for January 16
PHUKET TOWN: January 16 will be D-day for traffic offenders in Phuket Town, Pol Lt Col Teeraphol Thipjaroen, Deputy Superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, warned today. On that day, he told the Gazette, police will arrest anyone caught breaking traffic laws in Phuket Town, with special attention being paid to motorcyclists not wearing helmets. The crackdown will coincide with…
- Phuket News
TAT chief suspended over graft allegations
BANGKOK (AFP): The Thai government has suspended the head of its tourism office, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), amid graft allegations over a railway construction contract, officials said today. Prime Minister’s office minister Somsak Thepsuthin said TAT governor Pradech Phayakvichien had been suspended and would be investigated over his links to a company that won the contract a decade…
- Phuket News
Police seize fuel-smuggling mother ship
PHUKET: Marine Police boarded and seized two Thai tankers laden with a total of 1.1 million liters of gasoline, which was being smuggled into the country on New Year’s Day. Pol Col Peera Boonliang, Superintendent of the Phuket Marine Police, said this morning that investigations into a smuggling ring led to the raids in which eight Thai crewmen were arrested.…
- Phuket News
When an island is not an island
PHUKET TOWN: Is Phuket an island? This was the difficult question that Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi was asked to rule on this morning after more than 70 Thai tour guides came to his office to protest against the arrests of two of their colleagues by the Tourist Police. The two guides were arrested after it was found they possessed only…
- Phuket News
Tourist in heated exchange with police
BANGKOK (AFP): An American arrested for refusing to pay his bill at a bar on the resort island of Koh Samui later started a fire at a local police station, authorities said this morning. Robert Alexander Sharkey, 36, was arrested at the bar last night when he refused to pay his food and beverage tab of about 1,000 baht (22…
- Phuket News
Holiday road toll: four deaths per hour
BANGKOK (AFP): More than 500 people were killed across Thailand, mostly in road accidents, during six days of revelry marking the New Year holiday, the health ministry said this morning. The holiday death toll was 18 percent higher than expected, with 541 deaths between last Thursday and late yesterday, it said in a statement. Some 391 of them were the…
