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Student dies of electrocution in Phuket
CHALONG, PHUKET: A 17-year-old student of the British International School died from an accidental electrocution on Christmas Day. Chalong Police Investigator Boonlert Onklang identified the deceased as Anurak Gottschalk, son of a German photographer and his Thai companion who works as a cook aboard a tour boat. At about 5:30pm, the boy’s German uncle and a housemaid found Anurak dead…
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Cooking contests at Phuket Red Cross Fair
PHUKET CITY: A contest to find the best cooks of local Phuket dishes will be one of the many highlights of the annual Red Cross Festival that begins at Saphan Hin today. Somsak Songnui, chief of the Phuket Provincial Development Office, said his office has organized the competition as part of this year’s Local Food Festival, which runs concurrently with…
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Phuket gets THB 10 billion for development projects
PHUKET CITY: Cabinet has approved a 2010 budget that includes ten billion baht (approx US$ 295 million) in funding for Phuket under the Finance Ministry’s ‘Thai Khem Khaeng’ (Strong Thailand) stimulus package. The new budget green lights projects intended to solidify Phuket’s position as one of Southeast Asia’s leading tourist destinations. Highlights of the plan include a major airport expansion,…
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TAT ‘worried’ about Phuket tuk-tuk gangs
PHUKET CITY: The director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office in Phuket says her agency is ‘working on a plan’ to deal with aggressive tuk-tuk drivers in Phuket, the Gazette has learned. Bangornrat Shinaprayoon, director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) South Region Four office in Phuket, told the Gazette today that she was aware of the…
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Malacca Strait security meeting in Phuket
PHUKET CITY: Royal Thai Navy officers and their counterparts from Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia are taking part in the four-day ‘Intelligence Exchange Group Meetings’ aimed at boosting security in the Malacca Strait.Leading the Thai contingent is Commander Suchart Thammapitak, Director of the Naval Civil Affairs Department at the Royal Thai Navy Third Naval Area Command Base at Cape Panwa.The talks,…
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French tourists attacked for parking in ‘wrong place’
PHUKET: Chalong Police are on the hunt for a man presumed to be a ‘tuk-tuk / taxi driver’ who allegedly set upon a French family with a beach umbrella in the Kata area of Phuket on Saturday evening. The family, an elderly couple on holiday with their 44-year old son, his wife and their three children, aged 14 months, seven…
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Phuket Gov calls evacuation drill a success
MAI KHAO, PHUKET: Five years after the tsunami that devastated parts of the Phuket coastline, authorities set out to prove that the island is ready to cope if a similar tragedy occurred today. Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop pronounced the Christmas Day simulation a success. “Everybody took it seriously,” he said. The exercise came as part of activities organized to mark…
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Phuket Rajabhat Students to take census data
PHUKET CITY: The National Statistical Office (NSO) will get the help of 650 Phuket Rajabhat University students when it collects data in Phuket throughout July as part of its 11th National Census. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) formalizing the agreement was signed at Phuket Provincial Hall last week. The document was signed by NSO Director-General Jirawan Boonperm, Rajabhat Phuket University…
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New Phuket flyover under consideration
PHUKET CITY: The Highways Department is studying the possibility of building a flyover or tunnel to relieve traffic congestion at the Darasamuth School Intersection near Central Festival Phuket.The first in a series of five planned public hearings on the issue took place at The Metropole Hotel on Thursday morning.The Highways Department has included the project in its 10-year development plan…
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Phang Nga remembers the tsunami dead
PHUKET CITY: It was a somber time in Phang Nga on Saturday, when residents gathered to take part in ceremonies remembering those who died in the 2004 tsunami disaster that shocked the world five years ago. Early in the morning, 1,000 Buddhist monks took part in a mass alms giving ceremony in front of the Takuapa Police Station. At the…
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OPINION: Phuket looking ahead to 2010
PHUKET: As 2009 draws to a close, it would be easy – very easy – to highlight issues which remain thorns in the sides of Phuket’s expatriates. Negatives almost always trump the positives in the world of news. However, it is encouraging to see that Phuket has made progress toward the island’s continued development not only as an international tourist…
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Colorful Phuket Countdown 2010
PHUKET CITY: With Christmas 2009 now in the past, Phuket is gearing up for the arrival of 2010 with a three-day ‘Colorful Phuket Countdown 2010’ festival to take place at the main stage at Saphin Hin from December 29 to 31…and well into the opening hours of 2010. The event is being jointly organized by the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization…
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Phuket’s ‘Seven Days of Danger’ announced
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Police are gearing up for the annual ‘Seven Days of Danger’ road safety period that will this year run from December 29 to January 4. Nine main police checkpoints on major roads and 18 more on local roads will be manned around the clock to ensure public safety, according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation…
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Government support for Phuket investments
PHUKET: Phuket OEM Co plans to build a 76-million-baht surgical-mesh factory on the island following a grant of tax incentives from Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI). Surgical mesh is used to help surgical wounds heal better and more quickly. BOI senior executive investment adviser Hirunya Suchinai said the company had been successful in turning a Swedish company’s research on synthetic…
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Santa to remain in Phuket for high season
PHUKET: In an exclusive, impromptu interview with the Phuket Gazette earlier this morning, Santa Clause – spotted arriving at a Phuket beach by long-tail boat on the last of his deliveries to the island’s good boys and girls – said he plans to take some time out here. Mr Clause said he had been thrown off his sleigh and dumped…
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Child labor ‘not a big problem’ in Phuket
PHUKET CITY: Workplace inspections by the Phuket Provincial Labor Protection Office have found that minors make up a very small fraction of the Phuket workforce. At a meeting at the Phuket Provincial Labor Protection Office chaired by Phuket Vice Governor Tri Augkaradacha yesterday morning, it was revealed that inspection tours in fiscal 2009 discovered 24 unregistered workers under the age…
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TOT rolls out fiber optic Internet service in Phuket
PHUKET CITY: TOT has launched a new fiber optic internet service in Phuket. Starting at 8,600 baht per month, the long-awaited ‘Fiber To You’ service offers internet speeds of 10-20 megabits per second. TOT President Varut Suvakorn said the state-owned company invested 200 million baht to install its ‘fiber to the x’ (FTTx) network in selected parts in each of…
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Catholic mass schedule for Phuket
PHUKET CITY: While Christmas is little more than a celebration of consumerism for most people in Phuket, for the island’s small Catholic community – and many Catholics here on holiday – it remains a Holy Day of Obligation under canon 1247 of Canon Law, which states: ‘On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate…
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Wrong corpse: cremation cut short
ANG THONG: A funeral was called to an abrupt halt on December 12 after mourners opened the coffin just before the cremation was to begin and realized they were about to burn the wrong corpse. The funeral was ostensibly for 39-year-old Prachuap Arachon, found dead of apparent heart failure in Chachoengsao at the end of October. Finding Mr Prajuap’s ID…
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Phuket ‘EM Ball’ project underway
PHUKET CITY: In a bid to help the environment, a group of activists on Saturday released thousands of ‘effective microorganisms’ (EM) balls into the sea off Pa Khlok and into Klong Pakbang in Patong. The event was presided over by Fourth Army Area Commander Lt Gen Pichet Wisaijorn. Joining him were project manager Pareeya Jullaphong of Bangkok Hospital Phuket’s Cooperate…
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Blackout in Rawai tomorrow
PHUKET CITY: The Phuket Provincial Electricity Authority (PPEA) has announced a blackout in Rawai tomorrow in order to continue its work on high-voltage power lines. The affected area will be along both sides on Patak Road, from Chalong Circle west to the Shell Station. The power will be cut from approximately 9am to 4pm. The PPEA apologizes for any inconvenience.…
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Kathu Police change drug testing policy
PHUKET CITY: To keep Patong free of drugs, Kathu Police have adopted a new strategy that focuses on a new method of random drug testing for nightclub staff. Kathu Police Superintendent Grissak Songmoonnark said that Kathu is compiling lists of staff from participating nightclub owners in order to conduct surprise urine testing to see if staff test positive for ya…
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Phuket to host Canon Photo Marathon Thailand 2009
PHUKET CITY: Central Festival Phuket will host the Canon Photo Marathon Thailand 2009 photography contest on December 26 at in the outdoor area on the ground floor. The Phuket event will be the first and only leg of the photo marathon to take place in Southern Thailand. Similar events have already taken place in Bangkok, Khon Kaen and Chiang Mai.…
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Russian Orthodox Church coming to Phuket
THALANG, PHUKET: A Russian Orthodox Church now under construction in Tambon Thepkrasattri is scheduled for completion by the end of next year. The groundbreaking religious ceremony at 4pm yesterday was performed by Archbishop Hilaion of Volokolamsk from Moscow and other clerics representing the Russian Orthodox Church in Thailand. The service was attended by Vice Governor Smith Palawatvichai and Rasada Mayor…
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Phuket Police promise peace in Patong
PATONG, PHUKET: Kathu Police and supporting organizations held a ceremony on Soi Bangla last night that included a brief photo shoot with tourists, assuring them that their safety is a top concern. Activities started at 7pm in front of the Baan Sukhothai Hotel & Spa on Soi Bangla. The large ceremony was presided over by Phuket Vice Governor Teerayut Eimtrakul.…
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Phuket’s Kajonkietsuksa School signs MOU with PSU Wittayanusorn
PHUKET CITY: Phuket’s Kajonkietsuksa School has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Prince of Songkla University’s (PSU’s) Wittayanusorn School in Haad Yai, one of the top secondary schools in Southern Thailand. Phuket Vice Governor Teerayuth Eimtrakul was guest of honor at the signing ceremony, which took place at the Royal Phuket City Hotel late Friday afternoon Signing the…
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Phuket’s Happy Air launches Langkawi flights
PHUKET CITY: New regional airline Happy Air on Saturday launched its three-times-weekly flights from Phuket to Malaysia’s duty-free island of Langkawi. The service, which takes 40 minutes, is aboard a Swedish-built SAAB 340A aircraft. The 34-seat, twin-engine turboprop plane will be manned by two cabin crew per flight. The Happy Air marketing team told a press conference at the The…
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Patong motorbike taxi drivers get free helmets
PATONG, PHUKET: Hoping to improve both safety standards and their public image, scores of blue-vested motorbike taxi drivers on Saturday took part in a training project and received free safety helmets. The initiative is part of a road safety and crime prevention campaign created by Kathu Police Superintendent Grissak Songmoonnark. At 1 pm on Saturday, about 400 members of the…
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New tsunami buoy deployed off Phuket
PHUKET: Thailand’s tsunami direct detection buoy has been successfully replaced and the new unit began transmitting data via satellite at 9:15am Thursday morning.Staff of the National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) and technical experts from the US who conducted the mission returned aboard MV Seafdec at 8am yesterday, as planned.NDWC Director Viriya Mongkolveerapan told the Gazette the old unit will be…
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PTT expands search for liquid gold off Phuket
PHUKET: PTT Exploration and Production Plc (PTTEP) will continue its search for oil and natural gas reserves off Thailand’s Andaman Coast, with the possibility of drilling as early as 2013, a company project manager told the Phuket Governor on Thursday.PTTEP project manager Bandit Chaisilboon, responsible for three concession areas (A4/48, A5/48 and A6/48) off the Andaman Coast, said PTTEP has…
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