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Son-in-law sought over Phuket home blaze
PHUKET: A Kalim man whose home burned to the ground early Sunday morning suspects the blaze was intentionally set by his son-in-law as an act of revenge. Kathu Police Duty Inspector Jakkapong Luang-aon received a report of a fire on Phra Barami Road, Soi 6 in Kalim at about 1:15am on Sunday. By the time police and 15 Patong Municipality…
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Bt1.5 billion needed for Phuket underpass projects
PHUKET: Three public hearings have resulted in firm decisions as to what shape three major road projects on the bypass road will take, if 1.55 billion baht in funding is made available for them. The final meeting, held late last month at The Metropole hotel, was chaired by Vice Governor Nivit Aroonrat. Also presenting information and fielding questions were Kasem…
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Puppy pity powers Phuket pair up Mt Kinabalu
PHUKET: In a bid to raise money for charity, two Phuket sisters made it 3,560 meters up Borneo’s Mount Kinabalu in the early hours of Thursday morning. Kasia Sambrook, 9, and her sister Alicia, 6, were the only children in a group of 174 climbers attempting the two-day climb to the 4,095-meter summit, the fourth highest peak in the Malay…
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Phuket Architect & Engineering Exhibition starts July 29
PHUKET: Royal Phuket City Hotel will host the 10th annual Architect & Engineering Exhibition 2010 from July 29 to August 1. Open daily from 11am to 8am, the expo will feature exhibits of the latest breakthroughs in construction, interior design and building maintenance technology. A wide variety of construction materials from more than 100 manufacturers will be on display, including…
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Food poisoning outbreak hits Phuket school
PHUKET: Some 120 students from Prachanukroh 36 School in Kamala were treated for food poisoning at the local public health clinic on Sunday. Instructors and school officials rushed the students to the nearby Kamala Public Health Clinic, but overwhelmed staff there transferred the group to the better equipped Patong Hospital. Twenty-five of the ill-at-ease group were admitted for immediate treatment…
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Phuket neighbors describe Finelli as quiet, reserved
PHUKET: Neighbors of confessed murderer Ronald Finelli said he and his family kept to themselves and didn’t have close relations with anyone in the residential estate where they lived for about one year prior to his sudden disappearance. The killing of 33-year-old bar hostess Wanphen Pienjai occurred at a two-story townhouse in the recently-built Tantong Villas estate, opposite the entrance…
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Briton, 29, dies in Phuket suicide plunge
PHUKET: A British man fell to his death from a Patong hotel yesterday in what Phuket Police believe was an act of suicide. Case officer Nitikorn Rawang of the Kathu Police identified the deceased as 29-year-old Mark Edward Stevens of the United Kingdom. Police were notified by hotel staff that a man fell to his death from atop a hotel…
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Yala FC shock FC Phuket, 2-0
PHUKET: FC Phuket lost 2-0 at home to Yala yesterday in a surprise result that is a setback to their otherwise impressive bid to win the Football Association of Thailand’s Division Two South title. FC Phuket went into the game at the top of the table having taken maximum points from every home match so far this season. Yala, by…
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American confesses to murder of Phuket bar hostess
PHUKET: The American man arrested for the murder of bar hostess Wanphen Pianjai has confessed to charges, police say. Ronald Fanelli, 36, was arrested by a team of officers led by Police Region 8 Commander Weerasak Meenawanich early yesterday evening at his newly-rented home in Karon. The successful manhunt was one of the most intense in Phuket in recent years,…
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Wanphen Pienjai murder: American arrested in Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket Police last night arrested an American man for last month’s brutal stabbing murder of bar hostess Wanphen Pienjai. Phuket City Police Superintendent Wanchai Ekpornpit this afternoon confirmed the identity of the suspect as 36-year-old Ronald Fanelli, a US citizen. Mr Fanelli was arrested at his home in the Thanthong Village housing estate in Chalong at about 6pm last…
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‘Close Quarters’ wins Phuket Raceweek Photo Contest
PHUKET: With this year’s Six Senses Phuket Raceweek getting underway Wednesday, the Phuket Gazette is proud to announce the winner of this year’s Phuket Raceweek Amateur Photo Contest.Simon Andrews won with his photo “Close Quarters” showing two yachts in very close proximity as they prepare to round a mark mid-race, capturing in an instant just how competitive yacht racing can…
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Phuket gov warns businesses over trading in stolen goods
PHUKET: Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop on Wednesday took time out from his regular schedule to focus his attention on stolen goods being traded in Phuket. Addressing about 300 business operators at a special seminar held to brief shop owners on their legal obligations under the Auction Sale and Antique Sale Control Act BE 2474, Governor Wichai said, “If the [business] operators…
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Phuket tsunami buoy: recovery mission launched today
PHUKET: Thailand’s early warning system for tsunamis has taken a big step backward with the revelation that its only tsunami direct detection buoy is not only inoperable, but adrift on the high seas. Royal Thai Navy warship Bang Pakong 456 was due to leave its port at Phang Nga Naval Base late this afternoon in a bid to locate the…
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Oh my Buddha! Culture crackdown underway in Phuket
PHUKET: The Phuket office of the Ministry of Culture is on the lookout for the inappropriate use of Buddha images following the shocking revelation that one foreign restaurant owner modified a Buddha image to serve as a garden fountain – one that spouted water from the crown of its head. Phuket Culture Office director Tawichart Intorrarit said on Wednesday that…
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Saphan Hin short cut: Phuket road project approved
PHUKET: Following a successful public hearing process, Phuket City Municipality will move forward with a project to build a new road connecting Chao Fa East Road to Saphan Hin. The final public hearing, organized jointly by the Department of Rural Roads and Phuket City Municipality, was held at the project site on the afternoon of July 8. About 100 people…
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Kusoldharm Phuket protest update
PHUKET: The Kusoldharm Foundation’s board met on Wednesday to address the recent protest by some of its volunteer rescue workers, but have yet to release any information about the meeting’s conclusions. Embattled Kusoldharm Foundation President Benjawan Tamphanuwat told the Gazette by telephone yesterday that she did not want to comment on the dispute at the time, but that the board…
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Phuket Aquarium work on schedule
PHUKET: Phuket Aquarium’s 2.2-million-baht renovation project is on schedule to finish this month, officers at the Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) have confirmed. PMBC officer Surapong Banjongma-nee said Bangkok-based Aquatic Company began work repainting the facility walls on February 22. The work involved draining the large viewing tank with a glass walk-through viewing tunnel, as well as work on five…
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Phuket teens at risk from illegal abortions
PHUKET: A warning issued by the head of the Phuket Public Health Office (PPHO) indicates that illegal abortions are quite common in Phuket. PPHO Director Narinrach Pichyakamin recently told the state-run Thai News Agency that many of the cases involved teenage girls who have abortions without their parents knowledge or permission. Women getting illegal abortions risk complications including hemorrhage, renal…
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Phuket Gazette reader finds runaway boy in Patong
PHUKET: A runaway boy was safely reunited with his family yesterday after being spotted in Patong by a sharp-eyed Phuket Gazette reader. The reader, a Malaysian-born US citizen named Shain from San Diego, contacted the Gazette by email this morning. He spotted the boy, 13-year old Anuchit “Erk” Tan-a-pirom, selling fireworks by the side of the beach road in Patong.…
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Phuket Immigration launches on-line alien tracking project
PHUKET: Phuket Immigration will conduct a training session for hotel staff and apartment owners taking part in an Internet-based tracking system of foreigners living in Phuket. Phuket Immigration Superintendent Panuwat Ruamrak said his office is already at work creating a database of accommodation establishments catering to foreigners. Owners of these establishments will then be able to more easily report the…
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Kusoldharm Foundation Phuket in disarray
PHUKET: Kusoldharm Foundation top-level management are meeting this afternoon to negotiate a settlement to a nasty dispute over a number of issues facing the public-benefit foundation, the largest and most well-funded charity on the island. Relations between management and staff appear to have taken a turn for the worse three months ago following the re-installment of Benjawan Tamphanuwat as president.…
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Ad Carabao, ‘Parn’ give free concert in Phuket today
PHUKET: Central Festival Phuket and HomeWorks are holding a free concert this afternoon featuring Ad Carabao and RS Promotions recording artist Thanaporn “Parn” Waekprayoon. The Ministry of Culture last July named Parn as Thailand’s best female singer. Mr Carabao’s musical achievements are the stuff of legend, but he is perhaps best known among foreign residents for the song “Welcome to…
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Phuket pressure drop: No water in Patong tomorrow
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Waterworks Authority (PWA) has announced it will cut off water supply to customers in Patong from 9am to midnight tomorrow. The stoppage is required to allow workers to conduct maintenance work and install water meters on Phra Barami Road Soi 2 and the area around Suwankiriwong Temple junction. Affected areas will include virtually all of Patong,…
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Phuket packaged in smiles by Nok
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. PHUKET: Nok Air has relaunched its Smile Packages to Phuket, but this time they are grouped into categories — ‘Free and Easy’, Adventure’, ‘Discovery’ and ‘Sightseeing’. The promotion is valid until September 30. According to TTR Weekly, the packages…
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Phuket Gov to lead delegation to Nice, France
PHUKET: Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop will lead a delegation of government officials and private sector representatives to Nice, France to discuss ways of improving links between the two locales, which have been “sister cities” for over two decades. The visit, scheduled to run from July 16 to 23, follows receipt on July 9 of an official letter of invitation issued by…
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Old Phuket Town cable project: phase II starts in August
PHUKET: Having passed the public hearing process with almost unanimous approval, the second phase of the project to bury electric cables in Old Phuket Town will get underway in August, with scheduled completion in March 2011. The project contractor will have 240 days to complete the 57.4-million-baht job, which will cover: – 250 meters of Krabi Road, between Yaowarat and…
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Five murders in Phuket in June
PHUKET: June proved a murderous month for Phuket as a wave of violent crime swept across the island with five murders and 14 cases of manslaughter being reported, according to the latest crime statistics released by the Phuket Provincial Police. Among the unsolved cases is that of the murder of bar hostess Wanphen Pienjai, 33, whose naked body was discovered…
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Phuket hotels urged to discount
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. PHUKET: The Thai Hotels Association (THA) will launch a Buy-One, Get-One-Free promotion this month to match the time frame of the Amazing Thailand Grand Sale 2010, TTR Weekly reports. Phuket hotels are being encouraged to participate in the promotion.…
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Phuket Police nab thieving rapist
PHUKET: Phuket City Police held a press conference on Wednesday to announce the arrest of a Wichit man arrested for raping a young woman at gunpoint and then stealing her computer. The suspect was identified as Phuket resident Wuttikrai ‘Nueng’ Prasopsorn, aged 25. On the night of June 29, the victim reported that a man entered her rented room with…
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FC Phuket beat Pattani FC, 3-1
PHUKET: FC Phuket came three points closer to their dream of promotion with a strong 3-1 win on the road at Pattani yesterday. The road win, the Southern Sea Kirin’s first this year, came as the second-place Satun United “Witch Doctors” were unable to work their magic against Surat Thani FC, going down 3-1 on the road. Surat Thani FC…
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