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PEA announces more long term blackouts
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) has announced yet another disheartening wave of blackouts to carry out maintenance work on high-voltage power lines from November 17-27, confirmed PEA staff member Veera Rairub. “We are sorry for any inconvenience. However, this is our ‘monthly checkup and maintenance period’ and these power outages are necessary in order to continue to provide…
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Highway police bust four people at checkpoint with 13 bags of kratom
KRABI: Phang Nga Highway Police arrested four people, including one minor, at a Krabi checkpoint yesterday for the possession of 130 kilograms of kratom. Kitti Kongderm, 33; Chalee Kongderm, 30; Nuchanat Chorfai, 27 and a 17-year-old minor referred to by police only as ‘Daeng’, were driving two separate cars, carrying a total of 13 bags of fresh kratom leaves. “During…
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Tourists rescued from sinking speedboat
KRABI: A speedboat captain was forced to beach his boat full of Chinese tourists after it started taking on water in Phang Nga Bay yesterday. “The boat, Nong Hong Te, started taking on water at about 6:20pm near Koh Kai [Chicken Island] during a day-trip from Krabi,” explained Krabi Marine Police Chief Anurak Parinyasathiragul. “The captain decided that the best…
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Anni Flynn set to take on world of flowboarding
PHUKET: Phuket’s own surf superstar, Annissa Flynn, is about to take on the world. Already a well-respected pro on Asia’s surf scene, for the past two year’s Anni has been working her way up the rankings for the new water-bound sport, flowboarding, where the surf runs uphill. The flowboarding phenomenon is spreading across Asia, with artificial surf machines popping up…
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Nai Harn museum re-designed to save pine grove
PHUKET: The Nai Harn Movie Museum will be re-designed to ensure that none of the pine trees along the beach front will be cut down. The change in plans to the 40-million-baht facility comes after locals tied pieces of saffron fabric around the trees, threatening to have hundreds protest. “We planned to cut down the trees because the roots can…
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Cop-slaying drunk driver hit with civil case
PHUKET: A civil case was brought against the drunk minivan driver who killed an on-duty police officer on Monday. Sen Sgt Maj Suthat Songmuang, father of two, was promoted to Captain postmortem before he was buried yesterday. Region 8 Police gave 100,000 baht to his family. However, a civil lawsuit for further compensation was filed against the driver, 25-year-old Pichitpol…
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“Missing’ Irish teacher locked up for drunk driving
PHUKET: The Phuket Tourist Police search for an Irish teacher who disappeared Saturday night came to a screeching halt after the Patong Police revealed that the 35-year-old man had been locked up for drunk driving. Eion Cahill, a teacher at Satree Phuket School, was released on bail at 10:30 this morning. “Mr Cahill’s friends last saw him at Tai Pan…
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Officials table banning destructive diving practice
PHUKET: Authorities are looking to ban destructive dive practices that have been developed on Phi Phi Island to cater to mass tourism. Officials are specifically looking to ban a practice they are calling ‘Try Diving’. “In this case, ‘Try Diving’ is where people with no dive experience at all are brought to a shallow reef to walk around and see…
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HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn welcomed to the island
PHUKET: HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn arrived on the island to chair the formal opening of two of Vachira Phuket Hospital’s new buildings yesterday. The ceremony highlighted both the Chalermprakiat 59 Pansa and the Baan Khun Poom buildings. The Khun Poom building was constructed under the request of Princess Sirindhorn in memory of HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s grandson, Bhumi Jensen,…
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Participants lining up for next year’s Raceweek
PHUKET: Participants and sponsors are already signing up for next year’s Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek, booking their rooms well in advance at host resorts Cape Panwa Hotel and Kantary Bay Phuket. Returning in 2016 are sponsors Sailescapes, who last year entered a boat and provided charter opportunities for local and international sailors. Joining them are mixed-used developers Absolute World…
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Drunk minivan driver kills Phuket police officer [video]
PHUKET: A drunk minivan driver killed a Phuket police officer after jumping the curb and running over him at a u-turn near Phuket International Airport this morning. Sen Sgt Maj Suthat Songmuang of the Tah Chat Chai Police was on duty at the time and preparing for his role as part of the security team for the visit of HRH…
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Sea Shepherd hunts Interpol-wanted poacher that escaped Phuket
PHUKET: The hunt is back on for the internationally black-listed illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) fishing vessel that slipped through the fingers of Phuket officials earlier this year, confirmed Captain Siddharth Chakravarty of the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin. “The summer fishing season for toothfish starts now, so we have launched this campaign before the Kunlun can do further damage,” Capt…
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13 arrested in cockfighting raid
PHUKET: Thalang police officers arrested 13 men involved in a cockfight ring during a raid in Pa Khlok on Sunday. About 20 officers raided the cockfighting site, hidden in a rubber plantation. “We seized two roosters and 300 baht in cash at the scene,” said Thalang Police Superintendent Chanuchan Cholsuwat. “The suspects ranged in age from 18 years old to…
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Warming up for Laguna Tri-Fest
PHUKET: Challenge Laguna Phuket’s Tri-Fest event will see hundreds of international athletes come to the island for the legendary Laguna Phuket Triathlon (LPT), to be held on November 22, and the Challenge Laguna Phuket on November 29. The event was presented to organizers, sponsors and media last month at a conference chaired by Santi Pawai, director of the Ministry of…
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A Decade Ago: Airport taxis at it again
PHUKET: As Phuket continues to stumble through the fog of beach rules following the National Council for Peace and Order’s cleanup last year, it is refreshing to look back on simpler times at Patong Beach. Just a decade ago, as the island geared up for its first high season after the tsunami, a total of 1,000 masseuses rolled out beach…
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Earthquake shakes Phuket
PHUKET: An earthquake measuring 6.2 in magnitude rattled the island just before midnight last night. The Thai Meteorological Department reported the quake as striking at 11:47pm with its epicenter about 427 kilometers southwest of Phuket, near the Nicobar Islands in India. The Regional Environmental Office has yet to receive any damage reports. — Chutharat Plerin
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Hyperlocal taxi situation to grab market
PHUKET: Myteksi, an on-demand taxi booking service in Malaysia, quickly diversified its branding and services offered by successfully expanding throughout Southeast Asia. MyTeksi remains the leading taxi-booking application in Malaysia, but is better known in Phuket, and much of the rest of the region, as GrabTaxi. The company continues to work hand-in-hand with local government offices, after garnering the support…
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Island View: Surviving the Slump
PHUKET: Having lived on the island for three years, I have seen my fair share of people come and go. It’s easy to get in a slump when all of the friends you originally moved here with move on to new adventures, get married or become homebodies. The mentality of ‘been there, done that’ is rather consuming. So you end…
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Business Buzz: Earn extra income with affiliate marketing
PHUKET: Affiliate Marketing is where people earn commissions by marketing and promoting other people’s products. This has become very popular in the online world, as people who have the expertise at creating products often do not possess the desire or the marketing skills or, often, the budget required to market them properly. Depending on the platform or organization, the commission…
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Raids net six Phuket drug dealers
PHUKET: Police arrested six Phuket suspects this week for allegedly peddling drugs for a kingpin operating in a prison in Central Thailand. “In two days of raids, we were able to make all six arrests and seize a total of 246 grams of ya ice [crystal methamphetamine] and 114 ya ba [methamphetamine] pills. Additionally, we seized one firearm,” Lt Col…
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10% zone takes hold on Patong Beach – no loungers allowed
PHUKET: Patong Beach has become the first beach on the island to have the official 10 per cent zone implemented, confirmed Phuket Vice Governor Chokdee Amornwat yesterday. “There have been a number of reports circulating in the English-language media about Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada saying at a meeting earlier this week that tourists could put loungers and umbrellas anywhere on the…
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Phuket police catch fraudulent Facebook “catfish’
PHUKET: Police charged a woman with the Computer Crimes Act following her creation of a false Facebook account to defraud buyers. Piyanut Singkaluk, 23, confessed that she started collecting pictures of people from the internet in August in order to create a fake Facebook account, a practice that has widely become known as ‘catfishing’. Once the account was established, she…
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Aussies to be injected with Phuket virus
PHUKET: A Phuket strain of the influenza virus is being mixed into an Australian quadrivalent flu vaccine for 2016 following a record number of cases reported this year by the Australian Journal of Pharmacy (AJP). The Brisbane and Phuket strains of the virus contributed to the 25,000 spike in reported cases, explained Health Minister Sussan Ley. To combat the increase…
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Phuket police on prevention alert prior to Pai rape
PHUKET: Phuket police reassured the community that efforts to enforce closing times of nightlife venues here were already in full swing prior to the directive issued by the Royal Thai Police in the wake of a British woman being raped. Royal Thai Police ordered officers this week to renew efforts in ensuring that all entertainment venues are closed on time,…
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Still no trace of Nai Harn garbage dumpers
PHUKET: It has been nearly five months since the Rawai Municipality received video evidence of a garbage truck dumping waste and construction materials near the award-winning Nai Harn Beach, yet the municipality has thus far failed to identify the illegal dumpers. “I sent the license-plate number of the truck to the Phuket Land and Transport Office [PLTO] months ago, but…
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Car crashes into Phuket International Airport, one injured
PHUKET: An out-of-control car crashed into the departure hall of Phuket International Airport yesterday evening. “Woranut Buted, 33, said she confused the brake and gas pedals, accidentally accelerating into the trolleys and breaking the glass wall near an airport security checkpoint,” said Maj Santi Prakobpran of the Tah Chat Chai Police. A nearby passenger, Chinese national Shuya Zhang, 24, received…
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Special Report: Controversial Dolphinarium puts on first Phuket shows
PHUKET: A number of local schools and orphanages were invited to join the soft opening of Phuket’s highly-contested dolphinarium on the weekend of October 31. Though the manager of the the Dolphins Bay Phuket facility declined to detail exactly how many invitations went out, the five dolphins, two seals and their trainers debuted to a packed 900-seat house. “We actually…
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Phuket mini-van crash kills one; Chinese tourist in coma
PHUKET: An out of control mini-van crashed head-on with a car in Phuket early this morning, killing one person, leaving a Chinese tourist in a coma and injuring five others. “Witnesses explained that the van was heading north on Thepkrasattri Road, near Soi Wat Phra Thong, when the driver lost control of the vehicle on the wet road, crossed the…
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Finance: Growth stocks to beat market
PHUKET: Growth stocks are always popular with Wall Street and retail investors alike because they are companies with sustainable positive cash flows along with revenues and earnings that are expected to grow at an above-average rate relative to the stock market. Here are a couple of individual growth stocks that could be a good fit for your portfolio: Gilead Sciences,…
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Looking Back: Understanding Bangkok blast point
PHUKET: The Erawan Shrine is a revered place of worship located in the heart of Bangkok. Flanked by some of the capital’s best malls and five-star hotels, the shrine is frequented by hundreds of Thai and foreign devotees every day. On a typical day, the shrine is crowded with people who come to offer their prayers. There is a thin…
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