News
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Phuket Gazette World News: Syria warns Lebanon; Myanmar in democracy drive; UN damns drones; Spain retirees hit
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Syria threatens to strike at rebels in Lebanon Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Syria has warned it may strike at rebels hiding in neighbouring Lebanon if the Lebanese army does not act, as its patience “is not unlimited”, the state news agency SANA said yesterday.Syria’s Foreign Ministry told…
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Phuket Sports: Truth, tyres and tall tales – F1
PHUKET: The 2013 Formula 1 rules are much the same as last year, so slower teams have had a better chance to copy and catch-up in the off-season rather than have faster teams increase their lead with innovations. But the new Pirelli tyres are going to degrade even faster than the 2012 versions. So I expect a very close season.…
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New Phuket buses ready to run the gauntlet
PHUKET Governor Maitri Inthusut confirmed to the Phuket Gazette that he will approve the long-awaited bus service to start serving tourists arriving at Phuket International Airport. The new bus service – to launch with six buses departing the airport to provide a “hop on, hop off” service to the major tourist beaches down the west coast – has one final…
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Phuket Opinion: Awesome Phuket
PHUKET: As I’m sitting with friends on the way to see James Bond Island and Koh Panyee (the floating sea gypsy village), bouncing to and fro in our wave-battered dinghy, a thought occurs to me: living here ain’t half bad.In order to bring our focus back to why we came here in the first place, I offer you just a…
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Triple homicide prime suspect caught at Phuket visa run pier
PHUKET: Police have arrested the prime suspect wanted for a triple homicide over a land conflict in Phang Nga.After nearly three months on the run, Somsak Wongsri, 49, was arrested in Ranong on Tuesday.He was wanted for the execution of Prajuab Choojit, 24; Sarawut Boonklin, 31; and Somboon Kimtin, 69, who was the father of popular Thai country music singer…
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Record-breaking 96-page Gazette hits the newsstands today
PHUKET: Phuket Gazette readers are urged to make more room in their travel bag for the Phuket Gazette this week as our bumper issue hits a record-breaking 96 pages.Leading the charge is our exclusive front page report on the new airport bus service, which is ready to launch next week and, apparently, prepared to take on the tuk-tuk and taxi…
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Phuket Sports: Fair Play League deciders this weekend
PHUKET: The penultimate round of matches in the 2013 Fair Play League were held last weekend at Phuket’s British International School. The Under-11s started proceedings with a strong Brazil side proving too strong for a weakened England in the opening game, confidently winning 9-3 and picking up two bonus points for conceding zero fouls. At the same time, the top…
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Phuket Opinion: Get on the bus
PHUKET: There is only one way that breakthrough projects such as Phuket’s first airport-to-beaches bus service get up and running, and that is if everyone in the community gets behind it and supports it. That means: use it. Get on the bus and go to work, to the beach, to see a friend, a movie or even spend a night…
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Phuket Sports: Ready to sail at ACYC
PHUKET: The Ao Chalong Yacht Club (ACYC) has announced the 2013 ACYC Keel Boat and Multihull Club Championship Race Series 1 – FCI Watermaker Series. The second race is this Sunday, March 17. Eligibility and entry: The series is open to all keel yachts and multihulls with an overall length greater than six meters. Eligible boats may enter by completing…
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Phuket tour operator turns to drugs to boost baseline profits
PHUKET: Drug Suppression officers last night arrested a former Phuket tour business operator for selling drugs after his business had closed due to hard times. Muang District Chief Supachai Pochanukul told the press today that Siriwat Srisuriyachai, 43, from the northeastern province of Buri Ram, was arrested outside an entertainment venue on Sakdidet Road (map here) in Phuket Town at…
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Phuket Gazette World News: Giving women rights could destroy society – Egypt’s Islamists
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Egypt’s Islamists warn that giving women some rights could destroy society Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood warns that a U.N. declaration on women’s rights could destroy society by allowing a woman to travel, work and use contraception without her husband’s approval, and…
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Phuket Gazette World News: Li voted China premier; Italy election gridlock; Pope cited in ‘dirty war’ book
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community China’s Li formally picked for premier Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: China’s legislature elected Li Keqiang as premier today, installing an English-speaking bureaucrat as the man to lead the world’s second-largest economy and combat pressing woes like a frothy housing market and an over-reliance on investment.The largely rubber-stamp…
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Phuket Gazette Queer News: Stressed monk in abbott attack
PHUKET: A monk in Samut Prakan has been defrocked – and is facing criminal charges – for kicking a senior monk in the neck during a ceremony attended by almost 100 other clergymen. Bang Ya Phraek Temple monk Phra Thongthip, 52, attacked Phra Khru Sunthon Suttasan as the older holy man presided over a ceremony appointing a third monk as…
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Phuket dog-lovers livid over ’round up strays’ policy
PHUKET: The current Phuket Gazette online poll asking whether or not stray dogs should be rounded up and taken off Phuket’s streets has stirred the island’s dog-loving community into a frenzy. The poll, launched last Saturday (click here), offered respondents the following options: Yes, get them off the streets; they are a nuisance and dangerous. Yes, but only dogs identified…
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Miss Thailand World contestants stun Phuket beach goers
PHUKET: The 20 Miss Thailand World contestants on a publicity tour in Phuket wowed onlookers yesterday morning when they took part in a swimsuit photo shoot on the beach in front of the Cape Panwa Hotel, where they stayed. Among the 20 beauties is one Phuket native: Nathasinee Wichaidit, 20, from Koh Kaew. After arriving on the island on Tuesday,…
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Bikes blazing across Phuket, arson suspected
PHUKET: A series of suspected arson attacks on motorbikes in Phuket over the last two days has police scrambling to identify the culprit(s). “We suspect the bikes were set on fire by a single gang of teenagers out to cause trouble,” Phuket’s top cop, Provincial Police Commander Choti Chavalviwat, told the Phuket Gazette. “I have already assigned a joint police…
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Phuket Gazette World News: Khmer Rouge Ieng Sary dead
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Ieng Sary, minister for Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge, dies in hospital Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Ieng Sary, who was standing trial for crimes against humanity during his time as the Khmer Rouge’s foreign minister in Cambodia in the 1970s, died this morning, the court said.Ieng Sary’s death will…
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Bus driver charged with drunk driving after dropping tourists off at Phuket Airport
PHUKET: Police arrested a drunk bus driver returning from a drop-off of tourists at Phuket Airport last night. The arrest occurred after he clipped a pick-up truck near the airport and was chased down by the driver of the truck.Sirisak Suksai, 48, was driving the truck on Thepkrasattri Road near the airport when his vehicle was clipped by the tour…
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Phuket Gazette Sports: Champions League and FA Cup results; EPL look ahead
Nervy Bayern, slick Malaga reach Champions League quarters Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Last season’s beaten finalists Bayern Munich survived a severe case of stage fright to edge into the Champions League quarter-finals on away goals and were joined in the last eight by debutants Malaga last night. Nervy Bayern were beaten 2-0 at home by Arsenal but progressed thanks…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Royal Thai Navy Commander-in-Chief dismisses Human Rights Watch’s report
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Navy dismisses reports on Rohingya killings Phuket Gazette / The NationPHUKET: Royal Thai Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Surasak Rounroengrom dismissed the report as impossible and untrue and asserted that the Thai navy had not killed any Rohingya people as it did no more than offer them humanitarian aid.…
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Police raise alarm after Phuket hotel thief uses skeleton key
PHUKET: Police have warned hoteliers across the island to beware of thieves targeting Phuket hotels after a Patong hotel room safe was robbed by a man who reportedly used a skeleton key to enter the room.The news follows 29-year-old Russian tourist Egor Nikolaev reporting valuables being stolen from his room safe at the hotel on the Patong beach road where…
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Phuket Heroines Festival to re-enact Battle of Thalang
PHUKET: Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut tonight will play a leading role as King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, also referred to by Thais as “Rama I”, in the annual re-enactment of the Battle of Thalang.The event marks the historical battle in 1785 in which Phuket’s own “angels”, Thao Thepkrasattri and Thao Srisoonthorn, better known as the Phuket Heroines, led local villagers to…
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Miss Thailand beauties in Phuket, bound for Myanmar
PHUKET: A bevy of 20 Miss Thailand World 2013 contestants are in Phuket to attend high-profile publicity events and join a swimsuit beach photo shoot tomorrow morning. After the contestants arrived at Phuket International Airport yesterday morning, they paid homage to Thao Thepkrasattri and Thao Srisoonthorn at the Heroines’ Monument in Thalang, then visited the Phuket Pearl Farm at Koh…
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Bangkok tip-off prompts Phuket abortion pharmacy shutdown
PHUKET: An unlicensed pharmacist in central Phuket Town has been charged with illegally selling abortion pills after being caught in an undercover operation carried out by Ministry of Public Health officials.A complaint filed directly to police in Bangkok resulted in the sting operation on the City Health Care pharmacy, on Dibuk Road, near the junction with Soi Romanee, late yesterday…
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Phuket Gazette Sports: Champions League latest; Barc and Galatasaray win; Arsenal falling short – Graham
Magical Messi lifts Barca to stunning comeback Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: A fired-up Lionel Messi answered his critics by inspiring Barcelona to a sensational Champions League comeback against AC Milan last night with two goals in a 4-0 home win to help them reach the quarter-finals. A rampant Barca, all-but written off after a surprise 2-0 reverse at Milan’s…
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Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Three Thai butterfly close to extinction
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Three Thai butterflies close to extinction Phuket Gazette / The NationPHUKET: Three Thai butterfly species are close to extinction but can still be traded under international laws. Watana Sakchoowong, of the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, said yesterday the endangered species are Teinopalpus imperialis,…
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Phuket Gazette World News: No Pope as black smoke rises over Sistine Chapel
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Cardinals begin voting in earnest for new pope to face Church crisis Phuket GazettePHUKET: Cardinals begin the process of choosing a new pope in earnest today, holding their first full day of voting for a leader to face a major crisis in the Roman Catholic Church.The 115…
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Phuket Gazette Queer News: Masturbating old monk ends career
A MONK was disrobed after 20 years as a clergyman after he was caught red-handed masturbating in the lobby of an apartment building in Phang Nga. Police received a report that a monk was creating a scene, revealing his penis and shouting indecently in the lobby of Sunimit Mansion. Police rushed to the scene, but when they arrived the monk…
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Government chief, 100-year-old tree deliver crushing blow to driver’s insurance
PHUKET: The chief of the Phuket Provincial Social Security Office (PPSSO) has denied any liability for a tree – believed by locals to be about 100 years old – that fell and crushed five cars in the Social Security car park this morning.No injuries were reported in the incident.“It was an accident and the tree was here before the building,”…
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Phuket Vice Governor tees off probe into course-side land conflict
PHUKET: Conflicting descriptions of property boundaries on the land titles for a plot beside the Loch Palm Golf Course and for the course itself has prompted Phuket Vice Governor Somkiet Sangkaosuttirak to launch an investigation into which title deed is accurate. Vice Governor Somkiet visited the site in person after Rattana Bunyoungponglert filed a complaint that Loch Palm had built…
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