News
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World News: Monkey back in space; Arms intercepted; Italian plane probably downed by missile
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Iran launches monkey into space, showing missile progress Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Iran said yesterday it had launched a live monkey into space, seeking to show off missile systems that have alarmed the West because the technology could potentially be used to deliver a nuclear…
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Phuket Gazette Sports: All about the numbers
Woods triumphs by four shots at Torrey Pines Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Tiger Woods withstood a late bogey, double-bogey, par, bogey wobble in strengthening winds to end a week of dominant golf by clinching his 75th PGA Tour title by four shots at the Farmers Insurance Open yesterday. Six strokes in front overnight at 17 under with 11 holes…
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Taxi driver mob tears down Russian tour agency sign, forces closure
PHUKET: Phuket taxi drivers in the popular tourist beach area of Bang Tao today successfully staged their second protest against Russian tour companies operating in the area. The mob of angry taxi drivers from the Baan Bangtao Taxi Club pulled down the signs of one of their primary targets, Alex Holiday Tour Co Ltd in Cherng Talay, alleging that the…
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Phuket Business: New car owners due B1.2bn
PHUKET: More than 14,300 new car owners in Phuket took advantage of the government’s first-car rebate scheme, with the combined value of due rebates amounting to more than 1.2 billion baht. According to figures from the Phuket Excise Department (PED), a total of 14,327 eligible applications were filed in the province from September 16, 2011 to December 31, 2012. These…
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Scottish tourist drowns at Phuket beach
PHUKET: A Scottish tourist on holiday in Phuket drowned early yesterday morning at the secluded beach at Ao Sane (map here), on Phuket’s southwest coast. Police named the victim as Neil Gray, 36. Mr Gray was swimming at the scenic beach at about 8 am when his friends noticed him signalling that he was in distress, Capt Chienchai Duangsuwan of…
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Italian arrested after naked Phuket joy ride
PHUKET: Police arrested an Italian man who stole a BMW that was left running in front of a laundry shop near Phuket Technical College yesterday. Responding to a report from Surawit Siangdee, 36, that his black BMW had been stolen at 3:30pm, Phuket City Police notified police stations island-wide. Thalang traffic police spotted the car, with mag wheels and lowered…
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World News: Brazilian nightclub fire kills at least 233
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Nightclub fire kills 233 in Brazil Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: A nightclub fire killed at least 233 people in southern Brazil early yesterday morning when a band’s pyrotechnics show set the building ablaze and fleeing party-goers stampeded toward blocked and overcrowded exits in the ensuing…
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Phuket Gazette Sports: FA Cup Shocks
Liverpool stunned by Oldham to cap FA Cup shocks Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Third-tier Oldham Athletic rekindled memories of happier days by slaying seven-times winners Liverpool 3-2 at home yesterday, capping a weekend of FA Cup fourth-round shocks that gave the Premier League a bloody nose. The hard-up League One side, who put three backroom staff on gardening leave…
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More Rohingya refugees found adrift off Thailand’s coast
PHUKET: Another group of desperate Rohingya refugees found shelter along the Khura Buri coast north of Phuket yesterday after 25 days at sea, making them the third group to land along Thailand’s Andaman coast this month. The 96 refugees shared the same harrowing story as the 179 who came ashore on January 23: days at sea surviving on scant rations…
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Phuket Opinion: Stateless visitors need more than hospitality
PHUKET: The plight of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar’s Rakhine State during the current sailing season clearly shows the need for Asean and other international bodies to come together to help solve, or at least alleviate, the root causes of the problem inside Myanmar as soon as possible. This will of course be no easy task. Few international humanitarian issues on…
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Phuket Islamic Council calls for desperately needed essentials for Rohingya refugees
PHUKET: The Phuket Islamic Council is collecting donations at their office in Koh Kaew for the hundreds of Rohingya refugees being held in detention centers across Southern Thailand. The Islamic Council is asking for blankets, dried food and toiletries. Kitti Islam, a member of the Phuket Islamic Council, told the Phuket Gazette yesterday that the council has already received a…
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Phuket job fair opens
PHUKET: The annual Phuket Provincial Employment Office (PPEO) job fair began today at the Central Festival East shopping complex on the bypass road, with 3,538 jobs available for job-seekers. Phuket Vice Governor Sommai Prijasilpa declared the event open at 11am, and was accompanied by Phuket Democrat MP Raywat Areerob, Phuket Provincial Police Deputy Commander Arayapan Pukbuakao and PPEO chief Yawapa…
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Triathlon: Laguna to take on new Challenge
PHUKET: The Challenge Family recently announced a partnership with Asia’s longest running triathlon, Laguna Phuket Triathlon (LPT), and in doing so, revealed its commitment to developing a series of half and full distance events throughout the region. LPT has been attracting the the sport’s legends and age groupers alike to the stunning tropical island for two decades. In 2013 it…
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New Zealand expat sailor drowns in Phuket boating mishap
PHUKET: Popular Phuket sailor Richard Spraggs, from New Zealand, drowned in an early morning boating accident today. Mr Spraggs, 59, was re-anchoring his boat La Zingara at about 5am after an overnight storm had pushed another boat too close to his, Capt Chianchai Duangsuwan of the Chalong Police reported. Mr Spraggs was trying to push the boats apart when he…
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Football: Phuket FC defeat Dredger’s Army in friendly
The Islanders continued their pre-season preparation ahead of the upcoming 2013 Yamaha League 1 season by playing PhangNga FC in a friendly at Surakul Stadium last night. The match gave Phuket’s new signings the chance to get to know each other in a match situation, and with unlimited subs and three 35-minute period, instead of the standard two 45-minute halves,…
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Phuket Police search for drive-by target “Dannie’ Knudsen
PHUKET: Patong Police are searching for Danish national Dennis Mark Knudsen, 24, the intended target in the drive-by shooting in Patong on Tuesday night that saw two German tourists accidentally wounded (story here). The news follows Australians John Cohen, 32, and Adam Shea, 26, opening fire in Soi Sansabai, near the tourist-popular Soi Bangla. Their intended target was a man…
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Burmese dies rushing from Phuket Town to Thalang party
PHUKET: A Burmese man working in Phuket was killed and another injured when the motorbike they were riding slammed into a roadside guard rail at high speed near Baan Sapam Mongkol Wittaya school (map here) Wednesday night. The driver, Zaw Min Oo, 37, died at the scene. His passenger, Myo Aung Chay, also 37, suffered a broken leg and was…
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Swiss student tourist Janisch out on bail
PHUKET: A Swiss national held by Ranong Immigration since December 25 on charges of stealing an officer’s camera was released on bail yesterday after her mother appeared in Ranong Court to post 130,000-baht bail bond. Unaware that her daughter, Tscherina Nora Janisch, was being held in a Thai prison north of Phuket, Elizabeth Maria Janisch initially reported Tscherina as missing…
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Man tortured, murdered in mangrove forest near Phuket Town
PHUKET: Phuket Police found the bloodied body of an unidentified man who appeared to have been tortured before being murdered in a mangrove forest near Rassada Port, on the east side of Phuket Town (map here) early this morning. Pieces of a broken beer bottle and a bloodied piece of wood believed to be the murder weapons were found nearby.…
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Rohingya: Only 4 meals in 16 days at sea
PHUKET: The 179 Rohingya taken into custody north of Phuket yesterday survived on four meals of uncooked rice in their 16 days at sea, one of the survivors told officials. Local fishermen spotted the refugees – fleeing escalating ethnic violence in their native Rakhine State in Myanmar – off the Phang Nga coast at about 11am. About 30 officers from…
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Phuket Sports: Taekwondo tourney
PHUKET: THE national Taekwondo coach, of Thailand, Choi Yong Seok, met with various sporting dignitaries in Phuket last month to discuss the preparations for the first Phuket International Choi Yong Seok Taekwondo Championship. The event will be held at Saphan Hin Indoor Sports Complex this weekend, and is expected to attract competitors from 12 countries, including about 120 from South…
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Police charge “real driver’ over lethal tour van crash
PHUKET: Police confirmed this week that they have charged the “real driver” of the Phuket tour van involved in the accident on November 29 that claimed the life of 9-year-old schoolgirl Kunnarree Lattuada-Lancini (story here). “Makeesan Samae has been charged with gross negligence causing death under Section 290 of the Criminal Code and with reckless driving under Section 43 of…
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World News: Women in US, France and India make the headlines
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community U.S. to lift ban on women in frontline combat jobs Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: The U.S. military will formally end its ban on women serving in frontline combat roles, officials said yesterday, in a move that could open thousands of fighting jobs to female service…
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Missing Swiss student tourist alive and well, in Thai prison
PHUKET: A 22-year-old Swiss student tourist reported missing while on holiday in Thailand has been found alive and well. She’s being detained in Ranong Prison for allegedly stealing a camera belonging to an immigration officer. The search for Tscherina Nora Janisch, a foreign-exchange student studying at the National University of Singapore, began on January 15 when her mother, Elizabeth, posted…
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World News: Indian women learning to look after themselves
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Women take up self-defence, pepper spray after India rape Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Women in India’s capital are taking self-defence classes, snapping up pepper sprays, booking cabs with female drivers or leaving work early, all signs of growing insecurity following the brutal gang rape and murder of…
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Phuket Gazette Sports: Tough times for EPL’s poor relations
Premier League’s poor relation seeking new backers Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: While the Premier League generates recession-busting revenue increases, times are tougher for the 72 football clubs outside the elite as they battle for media exposure and commercial deals. Those clubs comprise the three-tier Football League, which features such illustrious names as former champions Nottingham Forest and Leeds United…
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Thailand News: Preah Vihear Temple; Boy killed in shooting; Call for regional help
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community ‘Thais won’t accept ICJ ruling in temple dispute’ Phuket Gazette / The NationPHUKET: A yellow-shirt group yesterday submitted letters to the United Nations, the Army chief and the Supreme Court president, demanding rejection of the ongoing International Court of Justice hearing into the Thai-Cambodian dispute.Hundreds of members…
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Phuket Gazette Sports: Australian Open update
Juggernaut Sharapova blasts into Melbourne semi-finals Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Maria Sharapova continued her perfect run in Australian Open quarter-finals by swatting aside Russian compatriot Ekaterina Makarova on Tuesday.Sharapova had not lost any of her previous five Australian Open quarter-final matches, a record she extended with ease against the 19th-seeded Makarova with a 6-2 6-2 victory. The pair had met…
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Phuket Sports: Buakaw draws thousands to Patong fight
PHUKET: Buakaw ‘Dam Dot Com’ performed an artistic demonstration of ancient Muay Thai against two opponents at once, at the Patong Boxing Stadium recently, in front of thousands of cheering fans.Buakaw’s demonstration began at 10:45pm, after a number of opening fights featuring local fighters. Formerly known as ‘Buakaw Por Pramuk’, before a longstanding dispute with his former gym forced his…
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Live Wire: Making the right connections
PHUKET: In last week’s Live Wire, I stepped you through an exhaustive list of the internet packages available in Phuket. I say “exhaustive” because, at this point, the only way to get a list of all of the internet packages is to physically schlep to all of the internet service providers’ offices, pick up brochures, and grill the staff on…
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