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Rh-negative blood donors sought
PHUKET:The Phuket Blood Donor Club, based at Wachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket Town, is looking for donors of the rare Rh-negative blood type. Rh-negative is difficult to find, occuring in 0.3% of Thais and 15% of Caucasians. Although the club is looking at the moment especially for people with Rh-negative blood, donors of any type are welcome at all times.…
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Good hair days for schoolgirls
PHUKET: At last, after almost a century of short cuts, the girls can let their hair down. Female students at Satree Phuket have been told that from the new school semester this week, they can grow their hair to eight inches in length. At Satree Phuket, Assistant Director Ajarn Duangkamol H said that fashions and rules today were different from…
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Warrant issued for Bang Tao murder suspect
CHERNG TALAY: An arrest warrant has been issued for a man named Suwat Kaewkong on a charge of murder following Saturday’s double killing at the Freeway restaurant on Bang Tao beach. Pol Lt Col Sirisak Wasasiri, Duputy Superintendent of Cherng Talay Police Station, alleged today that Suwat was one of the three men who shot dead Suwim Noodang, the owner…
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Tourist sub on its way
PHUKET: A US$2.5 million (107 million baht) submarine, designed to carry tour parties underwater, will arrive at Phuket Deep Sea Port on June 6 and go into service in November. Steve Nutting, President of Phuket Submarine Ltd, said today that the DS-48 submarine had left Florida aboard a ship on May 8. Thai staff will spend about six months in…
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Gov raids drug-dealing suspects
PHUKET TOWN: Police raided the houses of suspected drug dealers last night and seized pills and property valued at about 5 million baht. The raid, about 7:30 pm, was led by Pol Lt Col Paween Pongsirin, Superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, and Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi. The Governor said today that he believes the alleged dealers, a married couple,…
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Gulf War of words ends in court
PHUKET TOWN: Around the world protestors are turning out in their thousands almost every day to protest the prospect of a US-generated war on Iraq. There was the protester at a recent international golf tournament who held up a sign saying “Make par, not war”, and a woman in a street demonstration who held a banner saying, “The only bush…
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Patong killing: police arrest two
PATONG: Police have arrested a man and charged him with strangling and killing another man in the shallows at Patong Beach early on Sunday. Suchart Torkratoke, 24, from Korat, a laborer working in Patong, was charged with the murder of Surasak Saensuwan, 42, from Chiang Mai, who worked as an accountant with a Phuket company. Suchart was arrested at his…
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Vendors caught with B500k in fakes
KARON: Police raided shops and stalls in Patong and Karon yesterday and seized 6,300 fake brand-name items with a street value of more than 500,000 baht. Seven vendors admitted selling imitation goods. The officers in the raid, from Chalong Police Station, were accompanied by Suparerk Tohwatcharakul and other officials from Bangkok, who were acting on behalf of Christian Dior and…
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Police arrest “Dr Feelgood’
PHUKET TOWN: Police arrested a doctor and three others in raids early yesterday that uncovered dealings in marijuana, the “love drug” ecstacy and cough syrup containing the opium derivative codeine. Dr Somchai Wongbanterng, 35, who has a clinic on Wichit Songkram Rd and lives at Joe Mansion, near the Phuket Hill Hotel in Mae Luan Rd, was due to face…
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Police call for officer to turn himself in
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket Town Police have filed murder charges against a Kathu Police Station officer for the murder of his wife. The officer is expected to turn himself in soon. The killing occurred on March 6, apparently following a dispute over underground lottery winnings. The victim, 49-year-old Bang-on Chookam of Surat Thani, had been living with her husband, Pol S/Sgt…
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Man strangled at Patong beach
PATONG: Police are seeking two men who were seen fleeing the spot where a body was found strangled and lying face-down in the shallows at Patong beach on Sunday morning. From what officers have been told by a motorcycle taxi rider, they believe the dead man was aged 35, was probably gay and probably worked in a karaoke in Soi…
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Security boost planned for Saphan Hin
PHUKET TOWN: Police are planning to increase their presence in Saphan Hin and a police box will be erected there following another gang murder at the now-notorious recreation area. After dark, the park transforms from a peaceful area for sports and picknickers into a dangerous playground for thrillseekers and ruffians. The latest killing took place on Wednesday (see “Murder on…
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Developer denies rumors of drug-dealing
PHUKET TOWN: Slamming rumors that his name might be included on the much-feared government “blacklist” of suspected drug dealers, Boonkeng “Ko-Keng” Srisaensuchart, owner of Srisuchart Transport Co and Srisuchart Grandview Projects, today emphatically denied any involvement in the illegal drugs trade, past or present. He blamed unnamed business rivals for the rumors, which, he said, “are a trick to destroy…
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Bottom-toucher hacked to death
PHUKET TOWN: A man who touched a karaoke girl on the bottom was hacked to death in a machete-swinging melée between two groups that followed the seemingly trivial incident early today. The girl’s boyfriend, who was outraged at the bottom-touching, is being sought over the killing and the wounding of two other men in a battle behind Tuenjai Apartment at…
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Murder on wheels: three held
PHUKET TOWN: Three teenagers were being held on murder charges today as police revealed details of a killing-on-wheels at Saphan Hin in which a shotgun was used to blow away a young rival. The three were arrested yesterday in Chalong and police confiscated two motorcycles and two shotguns allegedly used in the attack on 19-year-old Nikorn Onbutra at about 10…
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Arrest your friends, minister tells governors
BANGKOK: Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha wants provincial governors to arrest any of their friends or relatives believed to be involved in the illicit drugs trade, the Bangkok Post reported today. Meeting governors yesterday, he said Bangkok wants them to focus on large-scale dealers rather than small ones. He also told them to seize all drug dealers’ assets, the…
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Warning on electricity bills
PHUKET TOWN: The Manager of the Phuket Provincial Electricity Authority (PPEA), Sornchai Uparamai, has warned users not to pay their bills to staff sent out to cut off their power for non-payment. The staff cutting off electricity were temporary employees, he said. People wishing to make sure their electricity is not cut off should pay at the PPEA’s temporary office…
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Breaking up is hard to do
HAAD YAI: A former Drug Suppression Division officer who turned to retail petroleum sales in Haad Yai established a personal fortune of more than 100 million baht. This, he assumed, entitled him to just about everything in the little empire he had created, including the right to repeatedly rape the wife of one of his most trusted employees. The husband,…
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What’s wrong with this picture?
UBON RATCHATHANI: What’s wrong with this scene: a man and a woman sitting side-by-side, happily drinking beer together to celebrate the purchase of a new vehicle. Although it may seem like a scene straight out of a car commercial, this otherwise happy image becomes tainted when the man involved is a monk and the scene is the monks’ quarters in…
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Stabbed man found in klong
PHUKET TOWN: Police are seeking to identify the body of a man found floating in a klong at the weekend, the apparent victim of a stabbing. A villager reported the body floating in Klong Bang Yai, on Rassada Rd, on Sunday. The body was dressed in a brown-and-white long-sleeved shirt over a blue long-sleeved shirt, and green tracksuit pants. The…
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Stats show doubling of murder rate
PHUKET: Eight people were murdered in Phuket between February 1 and 24, more than double the monthly average, the latest police statistics reveal. Only two of those murders have been solved, reflecting the wider picture throughout Thailand, where the Government campaign against drug abuse has triggered a wave of professional killings. In the same period, 160 people were arrested for…
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Wachira dominates hospital games
PHUKET TOWN: Athletes from Wachira Phuket Hospital dominated the Phuket Public Health Sports Games which finished yesterday at the Saphan Hin Sport Center, beating squads from the Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO), the Thalang Hospital and the Patong Hospital. The tournament featured seven sport – table tennis, sepak takraw, pétanque, chair ball, volleyball, badminton and soccer. Wachira Phuket Hospital gained…
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Governor claims “success” in drugs war
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket’s campaign in the first month of the national war on drugs has been a “success”, Phuket Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi announced yesterday at the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization meeting hall. The Governor, the leader of the campaign in Phuket, said that 88 suspected drug dealers have been either arrested or killed between February 1 and 27. This…
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Prison numbers rise
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket Provincial Prison remains massively overcrowded, according to monthly statistics released by prison officials this week. And the Government’s war on drugs is likely to increase prison numbers, at least in the short term. The figures reveal that there are 1,035 men and 174 women incarcerated at the jail. This compares with 955 male and 204 female prisoners…
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Honest limo driver returns B900,000
PHUKET AIRPORT: In an act of outstanding honesty, 42-year-old airport limousine driver Nopporn Kreupanich on Wednesday returned the equivalent of more than 900,000 baht in cash to a German tourist who managed to forget it on the floor of K. Nopporn’s vehicle. K. Nopporn drove the forgetful passenger, Christian Biberger, from Phuket Airport to the Karon Villa Hotel on Wednesday…
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Worker shot dead in “revenge killing’
PHUKET TOWN: A furious argument yesterday apparently boiled over into violence early this morning, resulting in the death of a construction worker and a police manhunt being launched for a fellow-worker. The victim, Theerapong Kwantongyen, died on the way to Wachira Phuket Hospital after being shot at his home in Rassada Nakorn Village on Thepanusorn Rd about 1 am today.…
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Safari Pub raided twice and closed
PATONG: Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi has closed the Safari Pub in Patong for a month, sparking a row about interpretation of the 2 am closing law. The case involves prominent Patong businessman Chairat Sukbal and Surapong “Od Patong” Rittee, the newspaper and TV reporter gunned down by a lone hitman in Patong earlier this month. Police raided the Sirirat Rd…
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Green-and-purple piddle puzzles police
PHUKET TOWN: A drug-test raid on restaurants and karaoke bars early yesterday morning along Wanich Rd produced 12 positive purple tests – and one new green-and-purple result that police had not seen before. While the 79 people who were tested went about their business as usual today, police puzzled over the unusual sample. “It was quite weird,” said Pol Capt…
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Child wounded as hitmen kill neighbor
PHUKET TOWN: A four-year-old girl was shot in the shoulder as hitmen murdered a man in what police say they suspect was another drug-related execution yesterday afternoon. Bullets hit pig keeper Jaruek Sae Tan, 35, in the chest, chin, back, neck and head and he died outside a no-name restaurant on Chao Fa Nai Rd, behind the Suan Luang Park,…
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B20m revamp for FantaSea
KAMALA: Phuket FantaSea is to spend up to 20 million baht on renovations, new technology and changes to the show as part of a plan to boost the number of visitors this year. Pin Kewpaisal, President of Phuket FantaSea, said on Monday, “We need to do this to ensure that tourists who have seen our show already can come back…
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