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Phuket sports: F1 – Gladiators, Glamour and Glitz at Monaco
PHUKET: The Monaco GP is one of the most prestigious races in the world, alongside the Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans 24 Hours. These three races form a Triple Crown which only Graham Hill has won. In an irony devised by some god of madness, the Monaco GP and the Indy are to run on the same day this year!…
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Phuket Live Wire: Don’t be evil, AIS
PHUKET: A friend of mine – one of the Sunday morning computer clinic crowd – sends an interesting tale about his pre-paid AIS account: “I recently went through 300 baht of phone service in 10 days. 300 baht usually takes me over a month. Couldn’t figure out why. I routinely receive a ‘News Plus’ SMS message, in Thai, from AIS.…
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Burmese maid cleans house, gets nabbed by Phuket police
PHUKET: A Burmese maid in Phuket who stole about two million baht in cash, diamonds and jewelry from an ex-employer’s house on Monday was captured by the Phuket Provincial Police early this week. The maid, 32-year-old Sandar Win Wan Dee, was tracked down to room number “666” of an unnamed guest house on Soi Patong Whiskey on Monday afternoon. She…
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Phuket Town ultimate hotel guest Hans Maeter recovering well
PHUKET: Hans Maeter, the 88-year-old German expat who was moved from Phuket’s famed On On Hotel to Patong Hospital on May 8, is reportedly doing well. Mr Maeter had been a permanent resident at the On On Hotel in Phuket Town for the past 20 years. The hotel is famed as the Phuket hotel featured in the Leonardo DiCaprio film…
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Phuket expat restaurateur dies in motorbike crash
PHUKET: Long-term Phuket expat Pascal Gradolato, 54, owner of La Chaumiere restaurant on Saiyuan Road in Rawai, has died following a fatal head injury sustained in a motorcycle accident.An officer at the Phuket Tourist Rescue Center who responded to the emergency call told the Phuket Gazette he was notified of the accident at 5:30am yesterday.Mr Gradolato suffered a serious head…
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Pampered pooch feeds on woman’s breasts
PHUKET: A woman in Lampang province hit the headlines after it emerged she was breastfeeding her pet poodle. Amphawan Bunyarak, 42, told reporters she had breastfed her two-year-old dog “Makrood”, whose name means “Kaffir Lime”, every day since he was born. The animal-crazy woman’s house in Sala subdistrict is full of creatures, including chickens, geese, cats, dogs and birds. She…
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Phuket youth snatch gang targeted holiday tourists
PHUKET: Police have arrested a juvenile gang of bag-snatchers responsible for at least 17 thefts targeting tourists on holiday in Phuket.Chaiprasit ‘Jew’ Boonyok, 20, was identified as the leader of the seven-strong gang by Phuket Provincial Police Deputy Commander Pirayut Karajadi at a press conference held at Patong Police Station on Tuesday.The gang members arrested comprised two 15-year-olds, two 16-year-olds,…
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Phuket stages earthquake drill to calm fears
PHUKET: Emergency personnel from across Phuket joined local officials in Thalang District yesterday to conduct an earthquake rescue exercise. The drill was based on possible damages from a hypothetical 5.0 magnitude earthquake centered in the area of Srisoonthorn subdistrict, which sustained the greatest damage on April 16, when a 4.3 Richter quake shook Phuket. “Thalang is in an earthquake-risk zone,…
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PHUKET AMCHAM seminar ‘Identifying and Marketing Brand Phuket – Sports Tourism’ today
PHUKET: The Phuket PR Network and the Phuket Chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) will hold a collaborative event as part of a series exploring Brand Phuket today at the Thanyapura Sports and Leisure Club’s (TSLC) “The View”. Guest speakers include Debbie Dionysius, Assistant Vice President of Destination Marketing at Laguna Phuket, who will discuss how the success…
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Home invasion: Phuket florist stabbed, robbed
PHUKET: A local flower shop owner early yesterday morning survived a brutal home invasion by three men who left him wounded after stealing his safe containing all his valuables. The victim, Sommart Chokekuea, reported the incident to police after receiving medical treatment at Mission Hospital in Rassada. A police check of the victim’s two-storey home in Chalong showed evidence that…
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Phuket business: Door slams shut on Guernsey
PHUKET: In a move that shocked the entire UK pension transfers industry, British tax authorities have halted future transfers to Guernsey. Apparently this action has been taken as an insult. Indeed, the providers in Guernsey have been held to a different standard than other jurisdictions such as the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, or Malta. The good news is, that safe,…
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Phuket live wire: Beware the SCB phishermen
PHUKET: I have been saving up accounts of online fraud directed at people in Phuket, and my inbox is groaning under the weight! Here’s my latest crop of scams you should know about. Hopefully, if you realize other people are getting hit, there’s less of a chance that you’ll lose your shirt to one of these charlatans. The most convincing…
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Phuket Live Wire: How to handle the next disaster
PHUKET: The “tsunami” scare has come and gone, and I’m still livid. Many news organizations spread enormous layers of misinformation and scared the living daylights out of people worldwide, without the slightest regard for the facts. All they cared about was selling more newspapers or gathering more clicks. At 5:23pm on April 11 – an hour before the “tsunami” was…
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Drinking water system heads to northern Phuket
PHUKET: The Phuket Waterworks Authority has revealed a plan to provide public water fountains throughout Mai Khao as a pilot project in rolling out potable water supply to the northern parts of the island. Pichai Wetchrungsri, Deputy Director of the Phuket Waterworks Authority, announced the news earlier this month at a meeting at Provincial Hall, where he explained that the…
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Phuket’s “rescued dolphin’ dead
PHUKET: The striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) rescued off Phuket’s Kata Beach on Sunday has died. Patcharaporn Kaewmong, a veterinarian at the Phuket Marine Biological Center’s Marine Endangered Species Unit, said the dolphin died at 6am yesterday. “We will conduct a post-mortem examination to determine the cause of death,” she said. Fears for the young female dolphin surfaced yesterday when it…
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Phuket strike action sees 400 workers laid off
PHUKET: More than 400 employees of the formerly named Evason Phuket & Bon Island resort today staged a protest in front of the hotel in Rawai after learning that they had all been sacked – with immediate effect.Warin Sungkong, who presented himself as vice president of the Phuket Island Union, told the Gazette that the employees first noticed that the…
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Somjai opens canvassing for Phuket City Mayor election
PHUKET: Somjai Suwansupana yesterday was the first to register her candidacy in the upcoming Phuket City Municipal election on June 16, marking her attempt for re-election to her third consecutive term as Phuket City Mayor.Given the favorable voting ballot number 1, Ms Somjai led her Khon Noom “Young Turks” party in registering their candidacies for the 24 council seats up…
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Phuket rescue team calls for donations to save slashed dog
PHUKET: A team of Phuket emergency response officers are calling for donations to help a stray dog that has been inflicted with an eight-inch wound to its stomach. Officers at the Patong Municipality Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) first noticed the dog, now named “Nin”, meaning black, when he wandered into the area near their offices last Thursday.…
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Phuket rescue services to hold earthquake drill
PHUKET: Emergency rescue personnel from across Phuket will join local officials in Thalang district to conduct an earthquake rescue drill tomorrow, starting at 2pm.The drill will be based on damages from a hypothetical 5.0 magnitude earthquake centered in the area of Srisoonthorn subdistrict, which sustained the greatest damage on April 16, when a 4.3 Richter quake shook Phuket.“Thalang is in…
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Weird World News: Packing and products from a “pickle’ to poo
PHUKET: This week’s Weird World News roundup is about putting your product out there, whether it’s a poop machine in Australia, aged hardwood lubricant in the United States or a man’s pickle packaged in a mankini for the Olympics. Smells like ‘modern art’ Those who thought Marcel Duchamp’s urinal art was pushing the limits, hold your nose because Australia’s most…
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Phuket sports: Formula 1 – 5 races 5 winners
PHUKET: At Catalunya no driver has ever won starting lower than third on the grid, which makes it a boring race, right?Right and wrong.It was McLaren’s race to lose again. And they did – again! Lewis Hamilton keeps winning on the track, and his pit crew keeps losing it for him. This is from a team renowned for its meticulous…
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French tourist drowns off Freedom Beach, Phuket
PHUKET: The body of Stephane Dacosta, a 33-year-old French national, thought to have drowned yesterday, was recovered from the waters off Freedom Beach this morning.Mr Dacosta was reported missing at about 5pm yesterday by friends who had attempted, with the help of local fishermen, to save him after noticing the French man struggling to swim in the current.“We checked the…
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Dolphin blood-test results reveal serious infection
PHUKET: Blood tests have revealed that the stranded striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) rescued in Phuket waters Sunday morning has a serious infection and only a 10 to 30 per cent chance of survival. The young female dolphin was recovered from the sea after being sighted by staff from Karon Beach Resort, and was transferred to Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC),…
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Phuket’s second drug rehabilitation camp planned for next month
PHUKET: Following the successful drug rehabilitation camp in Koh Kaew at the beginning of this month, organizers are now planning a second one in Wichit for June. “The Koh Kaew drug rehabilitation camp was a success with 67 of a total of 80 subjects participating,” Phuket’s Muang District Chief, Supachai Pochanukul, told the Phuket Gazette on Friday. “The 13 who…
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Phuket live wire: Mac attack
PHUKET: It was inevitable that somebody would create a Trojan – a botnet, no less – for the Mac OS X. But I don’t think anybody expected the first major Trojan would hit as hard, or so many people, as the one we’re witnessing right now. According to numerous sources, more than 600,000 Macs have been infected – and most…
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Phuket business: Google bridges the gap
PHUKET: Amid the fast paced “age of online” a bulk of local businesses have fallen behind a rapidly evolving consumer base, and companies need to catch up, says Ariya Banomyong, head of Google Thailand The country’s first manager for the iconic IT giant was in Phuket last week and the Gazette had the privilege to pick his brain for an…
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Phuket live wire: Yet more scams – be careful out there!
PHUKET: Last February I wrote about a reader who placed an ad in the Gazette, and was strung along by a scammer. The scammer had a long, contrived story that ended with a demand that the person who placed the ad actually send money to the scammer, with threats from PayPal, Western Union and the FBI. About a month ago,…
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Launch of new Phuket incinerator misfires
PHUKET: The long-awaited second incinerator at the Phuket City Municipality facility in Saphan Hin failed to fire correctly during a trial burn this month, dousing the surrounding neighborhood in a foul stench.The disconcerting odor sparked a stream of complaints from local residents and from families visiting the popular recreational park nearby.“We had to move to solve the problem immediately,” said…
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FC Phuket sustain first half dogfight with Airforce, new president appointment official
PHUKET: FC Phuket came from behind in a closely contested match on Saturday night to draw with Airforce United 3-3 at Surakul Stadium in Phuket Town. All six goals of the season’s 10th fixture were scored in the first 31 minutes of play, with both sides failing to break the deadlock throughout the rest of the match. Opening the score…
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Phuket pileup kills woman, 21
PHUKET: A rear-end collision spun a car out of control on Thepkrasattri Road in Koh Kaew yesterday morning, causing the car to slam into a motorbike, killing the rider.Thalang Police duty officer Patiwat Yodkwan was notified of the accident at 9:15am.At the scene, about 300 meters south of the Tah Reua Temple, Capt Patiwat, fellow police officers and Kusoldharm Foundation…
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