- Phuket News
Double homicide claims 20-year-old girls
KOH KAEW: Phuket City Police are searching for a man who shot and killed two young women on a motorbike early on Friday. At about 2 am on November 28, Phuket City Police were notified that two women had been found murdered at the mouth of the access road to Laem Hin in Koh Kaew Village 7, Muang District. Police…
- Phuket News
Governor urges police to quash trade in sex, pirate goods
PHUKET CITY: Fearful that foreigners will view Phuket as a “sex tour” destination and center for trade in counterfeit goods, Phuket Governor Preecha Ruangjan has urged police to take a more serious approach in enforcing prostitution and intellectual property laws. At the monthly meeting of the Provincial Committee for Social Stability held at Phuket Provincial Hall on November 27, Gov…
- Phuket News
100,000 passengers miss flights in 3 days
BANGKOK: Nearly 100,000 passengers have missed flights since protesters shut down Bangkok’s two main airports on Tuesday and the total could hit 300,000 as the shutdown continues, Tourism and Sports Minister Weerasak Kowsurat said yesterday. “The total number could hit 300,000. When Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports are cleared, it will take 24 to 48 hours to verify aviation standards.…
- Phuket News
Advice for British citizens
PHUKET: Amid increased tensions this morning at Bangkok’s two airports, both under seige and rendered inoperable by PAD protesters since Tuesday, the British Embassy has called for publication of the following information: “For any British Citizens requiring assistance or advice, please telephone the British Embassy in Bangkok, 02 – 3058333, or, in case of extreme emergency, the British Honorary Councilor…
- Phuket News
Coral Reef Squadron: 9 down, 1 to go
BANG TAO: Phuket Governor Preecha Ruangjan yesterday went to personally inspect progress on the sinking of the “Coral Reef Squadron”, an artificial reef project being sunk about two kilometers off the coast at Bang Tao Bay. Like many newcomers to Phuket, the new governor, who comes from landlocked Phichit province, is allocating some time here to learn how to dive.…
- Phuket News
King’s Cup racing delayed
PHUKET: The King’s Cup Organizing Committee has this afternoon announced a change in the racing schedule for this year’s regatta. Racing will commence Tuesday, December 2 and will continue through to Saturday, December 6. There will be no lay day. The delay in starting the regatta is to allow those held up by the Bangkok airport closures to reroute their…
- Phuket News
Travelers stranded by Bangkok airport closures exempted from overstay fines
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Immigration Police Superintendent Chanatpol Yongbunjerd has confirmed that any travelers stranded in Thailand by the closure of Bangkok’s two airports will be exempted from paying overstay fines. Immigration headquarters in Bangkok has instructed immigration officers nationwide to extend “special assistance” to stranded travelers, just as it did in the wake of the 2004 tsunami disaster, he said.…
- Phuket News
Tomorrow’s Gazette on time despite airport closure
PHUKET: At a time when few major newspapers are available on the newsstands of Phuket, the Gazette will be out on schedule tomorrow morning, November 29, with all deliveries completed by 2pm – despite the shutdown of Bangkok’s Suvarnaphumi airport and limited service out of Don Muang. To ensure that our commitment to readers continues uninterrupted, a tradition started with…
- Phuket News
Capital increasingly tense as coup rumours spread
BANGKOK (The Nation): The situation in the capital was extremely tense yesterday as coup rumours prompted reaction from anti-government protesters and their rivals. Both camps mobilised their supporters for street fighting, while government and business offices suggested their staff get out early. Newspaper offices were flooded with phone calls inquiring or giving “tips” about an imminent coup. A source claimed…
- Phuket News
Battle brewing over U-turn closure
RASSADA: Residents of Village 2 are threatening to protest if Rassada Municipality moves ahead with a plan to permanently close down the U-turn on Thepkrasattri Rd, just north of Supercheap. At a meeting of Village 2 residents and local officials yesterday morning, residents led by spokesman Anurak Hongwongpaisarn said the plan to close the U-turn announced by Rassada Municipality last…
- Thailand News
A Krathong for your bong
BANGKOK: In the run up to Loy Krathong festival every year, there are a host of predictable stories in the Thai press about teens who choose to lose their virginity during the romantic, full moon celebration. Other common reports involve rampant price gouging on candles and other materials needed to make krathongs as the special day draws near. This year,…
- Phuket News
No end in sight for Patong Hospital staffing crisis
PATONG: Service at Patong Hospital continues to suffer, with no doctors on its permanent staff and no reinforcements expected until the middle of next year. Hospital Director Dr Taveesak Netwongse explained that the 60-bed hospital continues to get by with a skeleton crew of doctors on loan from other state-run hospitals including Vachira Phuket Hospital, Thalang Hospital and some in…
- Phuket News
Bangkok Airways announces flight cancellations
PHUKET: Bangkok Airways announced this morning that following a series of flight cancellations yesterday due to disruption of services at Suvarnabhumi Airport, a further 76 domestic and international flights in and out of Bangkok have been canceled for the period from 0600 hrs to 1800 hrs today. However, the airline is still operating scheduled services between the following destinations: Samui…
- Phuket News
4,500 travelers hit by Suvarnabhumi Airport closure
MAI KHAO: Almost 4,500 travelers have had flights canceled from Phuket International Airport (PIA) today following the closure of Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. Protests by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) forced authorities to close Suvarnabhumi to all air traffic at 4 am today. Bangkok’s Don Muang airport remains open, though it is understood there have been cancellations there too.…
- Phuket News
B39.7m approved for “Patong Tunnel’ study
PATONG: Patong Municipality’s recently approved 271-million-baht budget for fiscal year 2009 includes 40 million baht to conduct a detailed study into the possible construction of a tunnel to connect the town with Tambon Kathu. Thanin Attasup, President of the Patong Municipal Council, stated that the recently-held third ordinary meeting of the council for 2008 was attended by Patong Mayor Pian…
- Phuket News
Kathu man confesses to grisly murder of neighbor while drunk
KATHU: A Kathu man confessed to the shooting and stabbing to death of a neighbor on the morning of November 23. Under questioning at Tung Tong police station, Wichian Choosri, 38, stated that he killed 39-year-old Nitti Limboot while in a drunken rage earlier that morning. A neighbor of Mr Wichian reported the murder to the police, who arrived at…
- Phuket News
Bangkok Airport Closed – Thousands Stranded
BANGKOK (The Nation): Up to 10,000 passengers are being stranded after the Suvarnabhumi Airport has been ordered closed as a result of a blockade by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD). The Airports of Thailand (AOT) has decided to close the airport after the protesters blocked an entrance, entered passenger terminals and scuffled with airport officials. The closure, ordered around…
- Phuket News
Baan Rim Pa founder Tom McNamara passes away
PHUKET: Prominent local foreign resident Tom McNamara passed away last night at the age of 62. The Gazette this morning received from the Baan Rim Pa restaurant group confirmation reading as follows:“On behalf of Thomas McNamara’s wife, Khun Pensri and children Casey, Fleur and Pure, it is with great sadness I must inform you that Tom, a long term resident…
- Phuket News
192 kilos of illicit drug ingredients seized
PHUKET: Thai and Australian law enforcement officials yesterday afternoon joined Phuket Governor Preecha Ruangjan at Phuket City Police Station to announce the arrest of a drug suspect and the seizure of 192 kilograms of pseudoephedrine (PSE), the chemical compound used to produce methamphetamines. Officers from the Royal Thai Police Narcotics Suppression Bureau and Phuket Provincial Police arrested 38-year-old Thai National…
- Phuket News
800 Phuket PAD members to join protest in Bangkok
PHUKET CITY: At least eight buses will leave from Phuket late this afternoon to transport Peoples’ Alliance for Democracy (PAD) members and supporters to join a huge anti-government protest in Bangkok tomorrow. Phuket PAD spokesman Natjarong Ekpermsup told the Gazette this morning that the buses will leave from the Esso service station opposite Satree Phuket school at 5 pm. At…
- Phuket News
Nai Yang Beach restaurant operators fight eviction
NAI YANG BEACH: The owners of 13 beach-side restaurants located inside Sirinath Marine National Park are refusing to relocate to new premises that were built for them at the park’s visitors center, saying that the new shops are too small and distant from the sea. The latest dispute in the area is only the latest chapter in a decades-old dispute…
- Phuket News
Phuket second highest HIV infection rate in Thailand
PHUKET CITY: Phuket now ranks second among Thailand’s 76 provinces in terms of HIV infection, with the large number of nightlife entertainment venues and the sex industry seen as the cause. Dr Wiwat Sitomnoch of the Phuket Public Health Office reported that the incidence of HIV infection among teenagers and young adults in Phuket is rising, as are the number…
- Phuket News
Emergency medical training course for scuba staff
PHUKET CITY: The Badalveda Diving Medicine Network, on behalf of the TDA Diving Association (Thailand) and Bangkok Phuket Hospital, has announced the presentation of an Emergency Medical Management Training Course to be offered to the general scuba diving community. The course will include Basic First Aid, Oxygen Provider, and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) training that can improve the emergency medical service…
- Thailand News
Aussie stabbing: no worries, mate
PATONG: Officers at Patong Hospital have denied reports in a local Thai-language newspaper that an Australian serviceman on shore leave was in a coma after being stabbed repeatedly following an altercation in Patong on the night of November 5. In fact, the soldier was treated for only minor stab wounds, which were stitched in the hospital. He was released shortly…
- Phuket News
Nuvo to play benefit concert for Coral Reef Squadron project
PATONG: Veteran pop band Nuvo will play a benefit concert at Jungceylon on Friday, November 28 to raise funds for the Coral Reef Squadron artificial reef project, which will have its grand opening ceremony the following morning. ‘For Sea Foundation’ Press Coordinator Siri “Poo” Vorabutra said the six-member band, with hits like Pen yang nee tung tae kerd luey (I’ve…
- Phuket News
The next Miss France is on Phuket
NAI YANG: Phuket’s natural beauty got even more attractive this week with the arrival of 36 Miss France contestants who are here to film a segment of the pageant to be broadcast in France next month. On November 14 the Miss France contestants and their entourage, totaling 85 people, arrived at Indigo Pearl resort, where they will based during their…
- Phuket News
Over 30 guns seized at Tah Chat Chai checkpoint
TAH CHAT CHAI: Beefed up security at the Tah Chat Chai road checkpoint in Mai Khao has resulted in the seizure of more than 30 firearms in under two months and police are planning to invest a further 26 million baht to curb gun smuggling onto the island, according to the Manager online news service. Last Friday at Phuket City…
- Phuket News
Mysterious documentary filmed today in Phuket City
PHUKET: At least four pairs of contestants taking part in a travel documentary are racing around Phuket using various forms of transport today. One of the challenges that faced the contestants was to pull each other through Phuket City in the midday heat using rickshaws as they searched for “King Rama V Park”. The contestants pictured here made “four wrong…
- Phuket News
High-season tourism outlook bleak: PTA
PHUKET CITY: Despite a large drop in fuel prices internationally, the outlook for this year’s high season for tourism remains bleak, a top tourism industry leader says. Phuket Tourist Association (PTA) Vice-President Bhuritt Maswongsa told the Gazette that current occupancy rates and bookings from now until the end of the year should result in an island-wide average occupancy rate of…
- Thailand News
Curious cockroach gives traveler trauma
CHIANG MAI: At some point in their lives, most people are likely to have had some pretty unpleasant bus trips, whether on a crowded Greyhound Bus in the States or a steaming hot, jam-packed third-class “Orange Crush” hurtling though the Thai countryside. If you think your bus journeys have been hell, consider the case of one passenger from Khon Kaen…
