News
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American man found dead in Phuket
PHUKET: An American man was found dead in his rented home in Phuket’s Paklok subdistrict late yesterday afternoon. Thalang Police duty officer Pratiwat Yodkhwan identified the deceased as 51-year-old Albert Alletzhauser, originally from New York. Mr Alletzhauser’s body was discovered by his wife after someone at his daughter’s school called to ask why nobody had come to pick up their…
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Phuket light rail investors push for Surat Thani, Phang Nga links
PHUKET: The latest joint-venture to approach Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha with ideas for Phuket’s light-rail project yesterday highlighted the need for developing transport links with other provinces. “If the routes in Phuket are linked with routes in other provinces, rather than only focusing on light rail within Phuket, it can be a profitable investment,” said independent investor liaison Pranom Phuangkanok.…
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Get the Phuket “Governor’s eggs’ and watch ‘talented’ ladyboys
PHUKET: Fairgoers will be able to get their hands on the “Governor’s eggs” at only 1.50 baht each and enjoy a “Miss Ladyboy Got Talent” show at this year’s Phuket OTOP (One Tambon, One Product) fair, which kicks off at Saphan Hin on Friday. Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha revealed the fair’s theme “Phuket Governor’s eggs – 1.50 baht each” at…
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Phuket to endure more blackouts this month
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) has announced scheduled blackouts to carry out maintenance on high-voltage power lines, install new lines and move power poles. The dates and locations of the operations, which will be carried out from 9am to 4pm, are: May 12 – Chalong Along Chao Fa West Road, from the entrance to Ananda Garden Hill Villa…
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Phuket Live Wire: How Twitter is changing the way news breaks
PHUKET: News of Osama bin Laden’s death came to international attention when, around 11:40pm Washington time on May 1, US President Barack Obama announced that American forces had entered bin Laden’s compound and killed him. But if you’d been following Twitter starting more than two hours earlier – from about 10:30am in Phuket – you would’ve already known the whole…
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Phuket roads undergoing B140mn overhaul
PHUKET: New road projects planned for Phuket and Phang Nga are budgeted at more than 140 million baht, the Highways Department has revealed. Scheduled for major upgrades are the road to the airport, the road on the north side of the Sarasin Bridge and the bypass road. Sathaporn Sornchana, deputy general manager of the regional Highways Department office, said work…
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Phuket Housing Bank overwhelmed by first home buyers
PHUKET CITY: Island residents hoping to get their first home loan queued up at the Phuket branch of the Government Housing Bank as early as 6am yesterday – the first day of receiving applications under the government mortgage scheme for first time homeowners. Welcomed by lower and middle-income earners, the scheme promises zero interest during the first two years of…
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Phuket football: Kamala, Wichit host tournaments
PHUKET: Phuket football enthusiasts are welcome to enter teams in the third annual Kamala Cup, a seven-a-side football tournament with 120,000 baht in prize money up for grabs. All are welcome to take part in the event, including foreigners. Competition will be divided into three groups: Open (entry 3,000 baht per team), Over -35s (2,000 baht) and Under-13s (1,000 baht).…
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Thunderstorms, wind and rain prompt Phuket weather alert
PHUKET: The Thai Meteorological Department (MET) today issued a thundershower and flash flood alert for Phuket effective through Wednesday. Other provinces named in the warning as potential disaster areas were Ranong, Phang Nga, Chanthaburi and Trat. Prevailing southwest monsoon winds, expected to reach up to 40kph, will cause wave heights of up to three meters along Southern Thailand’s west coast…
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ASEAN 2015 prompts Kajonkiet to open “International School’
PHUKET: The Kajonkiet group of schools is preparing for a major shift in island demographics and greater demand for English-language education by opening its first international school this month. Permkiat Ketkul, manager of Kajonkietsuksa School and Chairman of the Phuket Private School Association, said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plan to lift cross-border travel restrictions and become a…
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Phuket population “only’ 525,000: Census
PHUKET: Preliminary figures from the nationwide census conducted last year report 525,018 people living in Phuket: 409,137 Thai (77.9%) and 115,881 foreigners (21.1%). Of those, 261,957 are male (49.9%) and 263,061 are female (50.1%), said Prapai Pukngarm, of the Statistical Techniques and Planning Branch at Phuket Provincial Statistical Office. The tally gives Phuket a population density of 967 persons per…
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Phuket woman found hanged in Pa Khlok
PHUKET: Police are treating as suicide the death of a Phuket woman found hanged by the neck in her Thalang home on Sunday morning. Thalang Duty Officer Pratueng Polmana identified the deceased as 58-year-old Thitima Boonrueng, a resident of the Baan Suan Neramit 1 housing estate off Route 4027 in Pa Khlok. Relatives discovered Ms Thitima’s body hanged by the…
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FC Phuket 2 – 2 Samut Prakan
PHUKET: FC Phuket pulled back from down two-nil to salvage a point on the road at Samut Prakan in the Thai League’s Division 1 yesterday. The Southern Sea Kirin appeared to be on yet another hard-luck road trip when Samut Prakan’s Lee Tuck scored early in the second half and then set up teammate Weerasak Kiatsoong-nern put his side up…
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Phuket Opinion: Has the Convention Center project become a farce?
PHUKET: The latest turn in the decades-old saga of Phuket’s fruitless efforts to build a world-class convention and exhibition center taxes the nation’s credibility. It recently came to the attention of the Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning that the140 rai of coastal land slated for the project lies in a “tsunami risk” zone, necessitating the need…
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War of the Wires: Phuket cable TV providers suspect sabotage
PHUKET: Following a spate of cable-cutting incidents over the past few months, local cable providers around the island are fed up. Suspecting sabotage, Atsadakorn Sidokbuap of KPP Cable TV and Kampanat Thantiwat, managing director of PA Business Phuket, filed a formal request for action to Phuket Electricity Authority (PEA) chief Somchai Krueapat on Tuesday. Mr Kampanat said he was acting…
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Phuket coral gets its groove back
PHUKET: Recent shallow-water surveys conducted off Phuket have documented significant regrowth of coral, marine biologists say. Researchers headed by divers from the Marine and Coastal Biology and Ecology Unit of Phuket Marine Biology Center (PMBC) reveal the island’s coral reefs are starting to show signs of recovery from last year’s devastating coral bleaching episode. Initial post-bleaching damage assessments showed that…
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Bin Laden killing: Phuket reacts
PHUKET: The announcement by the US government that its military force had assassinated Al Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden on May 2 was greeted with celebrations in the US and Europe. But what was the reaction of the man in the street half the world away in Phuket? The Phuket Gazette set out earlier this week to see what Phuketians…
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Phuket Crime: A special report on teen gang violence in paradise
PHUKET: Amid the scenic farms and hills of northern Phuket, beneath the ebb and flow of idyllic rural life, boils a rage – the rotten by-product of changing times. In Thalang, the body count continues to rise as neglected youth while away their days with a lethal cocktail of drugs and petty territorial disputes, while their parents work full-time just…
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Patong-Chalong shortcut bypassed in Phuket road upgrade
PHUKET: The shortcut between Chalong and Patong, directly across the Nakkerd Hills, was omitted from a 93.5-million-baht Department of Rural Roads project to upgrade unsealed roads throughout Phuket. The Thanon Rai Feun (“Dust-free Roads”) project recently concluded with 12 previously unpaved roads on the island now signed, sealed and delivered, said Department of Rural Roads Phuket Office Director Teeraporn Jirarattanakorn.…
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Phuket’s new incinerator hits halfway mark
PHUKET: Work on Phuket’s second solid waste incinerator is nearly half complete. When finished, the facility will house the highest capacity trash-to-electricity plant in the country, Phuket City officials say. The news follows a progress-update meeting on Tuesday of Tawarat Sutabutr, deputy director of the Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency (DEDE); Phuket Mayor Somjai Suwansupapana; and Prachoom Suriya,…
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No arrests yet in Phuket dive death: Police
PHUKET: Police have yet to make any arrests in the investigation into the death of Japanese tourist Hitomi Shibata, Chalong Police Duty Officer Attawat Suwannarat told the Phuket Gazette this morning. “We have not arrested or pressed charges against anyone as we still have to question the boat driver and the crew about what happened first,” said Lt Attawat, who…
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Phuket man plunges into water well, drowns
PHUKET: Phuket Police are treating as an apparent suicide the death of an elderly man whose body was found at the bottom of a water well in Thalang early this morning. Thalang Police were notified of the tragedy at 7am by residents of Ban Nai Khlam in Cherng Talay, many of whom were gathered around the well by the time…
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Japanese dive tourist “struck in face by propeller’: Police
PHUKET: Hitomi Shibata, the Japanese tourist who died while on a dive tour off Koh Racha yesterday, was struck in the face by the propeller of the dive boat she was with, police told the Phuket Gazette today. “From our initial investigation, Miss Hitomi was diving with her dive instructor and a friend when they saw her suddenly start to…
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Election Thailand: Raewat, Jirayus to run in Phuket polls
PHUKET: Phuket MP Raewat Areerob of the Democrat Party yesterday announced he will contest the “Phuket 2” constituency in the national elections. Speculation is rife that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will dissolve parliament tomorrow or Monday, paving the way for the Election Commission to announce the date of the elections. The Phuket 2 constituency covers more than half of the…
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Phuket pirate raids net 11 vendors, B6mn in goods
PHUKET: Raids on Phuket shops selling pirated DVDs and CDs this evening ended with 11 arrests and evidence worth up to 6 million baht seized. Led by Pol Lt Gen Krisada Pankongcheun, deputy director of the police Center for Suppression of Intellectual Property Crime, the raids targeted 13 shops in Patong, some along the beach road and others in the…
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MOU seen as solution to Phuket Deep Sea Port blockades
PHUKET: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Cape Panwa taxi drivers and tour operators who use the Phuket Deep Sea Port will be drawn up in an attempt to resolve the ongoing dispute over access to tourists disembarking there. Phuket Vice Governor Weerawat Janpen this morning chaired a discussion on the issue at Provincial Hall. The MoU, to be drafted…
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Phuket poll: Is police drug testing effective?
PHUKET: Every member of the Phuket Provincial Police force was due to be tested for ya bah (methamphetamine) use in April, the provincial police commander recently announced. Thus far, there have been no reports of any officers testing positive for the powerful stimulant. The latest Phuket Gazette readers’ poll asks whether the testing is an effective measure to ensure that…
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King cobra eggs raise Phuket snake alarm
PHUKET: A man worried that a clutch of king cobra snake eggs beside his house were about to hatch today called in the egg-citing find to rescue workers to have them removed immediately. Ruamjai Rescue Foundation workers received a call from the owner of the house, in Soi Ban Klang off Chao Fa West Road, at about 2pm. Eleven eggs,…
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Mentally ill man guards mother’s body for a week
A MENTALLY ill man in Bangkok spent five days crouched over his mother’s dead body in a Bangkok apartment before the foul smell alerted the landlady. Walisa Amnuaypon, 58, said she knocked on the door but received no response. When she opened the room with her spare key she was shocked to find Somchai Saeju, 59, sitting next to the…
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Tsunami fears prompt Phuket convention center redesign
PHUKET: Concerns over whether the Phuket International Convention and Exhibition Center (ICEC) would be able to withstand a tsunami have sparked a full review of the project design plans. Wongsakorn Nunchukhan, from the Department of Public Works And Town & Country Planning office in Phuket yesterday told a progess-update meeting at Provincial Hall that the141-rai coastal site in Mai Khao,…
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