News
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World News: Australia braces for wildfire day
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Australia braces for “catastrophic” wildfire day Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Australia was bracing today for days of “catastrophic” fire and heat wave conditions, with fires already burning in five states and as a search continued for people missing after devastating wildfires in the island state of Tasmania.Prime…
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World News: Russian church head urges followers to adopt children
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international communityPHUKET: (Reuters): The head of Russia’s dominant church urged its citizens to adopt children, speaking in a Russian Orthodox Christmas address today after President Vladimir Putin signed a controversial law barring Americans from adopting Russian children.Patriarch Kirill paid particular attention to the issue in a Christmas message, lending…
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World News: Clinton resumes duties today after treatment for clot
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international communityPHUKET: (Reuters): U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will resume her official duties today (January 7), five days after being released from a hospital for treatment of a blood clot.Clinton, 65, was released from New York Presbyterian Hospital last Wednesday, after a stay of several days during which…
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World News: Assad to speak as Syrian rebels threaten Damascus this morning
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international communityBEIRUT (Reuters): Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will deliver a rare speech today about the uprising against his rule, which has killed 60,000 people and brought civil war to the edge of his capital.With insurgents fighting their way closer to the seat of his power, state media said in…
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World News: Armstrong may be on verge of admitting drug use
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international communityPHUKET: (News wires): Lance Armstrong is reportedly on the verge of publicly admitting he used performance enhancing drugs throughout his cycling career.The New York Times is reporting that the disgraced American has told associates and anti-doping officials that he is considering a public admission.The newspaper claims this is…
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World News: Fire fears as temperatures soar in New South Wales
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international communityPHUKET: Total fire bans remain in place across New South Wales, Australia, as firefighters battle blazes in searing heat.Parts of Tasmania’s east coast have been cut off by bushfires as a blaze on the Tasman Peninsula continues to burn out of control.More than a dozen properties have been…
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Russian tour counters closed in Phuket, pending probe
PHUKET: All Russian tour counters in the Kata-Karon beach areas have been ordered to close until further notice and the local Labor Office has been requested to investigate them for possible breach for foreign worker regulations. The news came at a meeting at Kata-Karon Municipality yesterday, held to resolve the ongoing dispute between local tuk-tuk and taxi drivers and Russian…
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World News: Rape victim’s friend speaks out
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international communityPHUKET: (Reuters): Passers-by left a gang-raped Indian student lying unclothed and bleeding in the street for almost an hour, a male friend who was assaulted with her said yesterday (January 4) in his first public comments on the case.The 23-year-old student died in hospital two weeks after she…
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Phuket mangrove deforestation probe whittles down encroachment claim
PHUKET: The 70 rai of protected mangrove forests investigated on Phuket yesterday in fear it was being illegally encroached on was whittled down to only two rai after a followup probe this morning. “After I examined the Klong Mudong area in Chalong again today, I was able to determine that only about two rai of the land being reclaimed by…
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Migrant workers can stay “for now’: Phuket Employment Chief
PHUKET: Migrant workers in Phuket will not be deported while waiting to complete the nationality verification process, the Phuket Provincial Employment Office (PPEO) has confirmed. “Whether or not illegal workers will be deported will be announced after the Cabinet meeting on January 8,” PPEO chief Yawapa Pibulpol told the Phuket Gazette today. “It all depends on the Cabinet. We will…
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Marine police hook Phuket fish smuggler
PHUKET: A local resident in Rawai, at the southern end of Phuket, was arrested yesterday trying to smuggle more than 200 protected-species fish to Bangkok.Marine Police and Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) Region 5 office in Phuket arrested Boonsuan Raknawa, 41, after officers received information about protected fish being smuggled to Bangkok via a public bus.“The suspect was…
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Anxiety key factor in Australian tourist death: Phuket hospital staff
PHUKET: While Phuket police continue their investigation into the death of 21-year-old Australian tourist Sebastian Eric Faulkner, staff at Patong Hospital have reported that the young man was showing signs of anxiety when he presented himself to the hospital just hours before his death.On recognizing the symptoms, doctors at Patong Hospital admitted him for minor depression.Mr Faulkner, from Melbourne, plunged…
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World News: Eleven killed in Damascus gas station blast
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community PHUKET: (Reuters): At least 11 people were killed and 40 wounded when a car bomb exploded at a crowded petrol station in the Syrian capital Damascus yesterday. The station was packed with people queuing for fuel which has become increasingly scarce during the country’s 21-month-long insurgency…
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Phuket blockade wins tuk-tuk drivers reprieve from Russian operators
PHUKET: Tuk-tuk and taxi drivers who established a road blockade in Karon last night will take further action if a meeting at 2pm today does not resolve a dispute over Russian tour operators undercutting local prices, the Phuket Gazette was told. Karon Kamnan Winai Chidchiew broke the news after about 100 tuk-tuk and taxi drivers blockaded the Karon beachfront road…
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Phuket United beat Lampang United
PHUKET: Phuket United beat Lampang United 7-3 in their third home game of the Thai Futsal Premier League (TFPL) season on January 2.The match was played in front of 600 supporters at the 4,000-seat Indoor Sports Complex at Saphan Hin.Before the game, Phuket United’s head coach Suphol Senapeng told the Phuket Gazette: “Our main objective for this game is concentration…
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Phuket Opinion: Losing Patong’s beauty to the dust of progress
PHUKET: Wichan Sawatdirak, now in his 80s, was the Kamnan for Patong for more than 20 years, long before Patong became a municipality.Born in Baan Mon village, he has lived in Patong his entire life. Respected by Patong locals, he was instrumental in the development of Patong’s transport infrastructure by providing vital roads around Patong City and links to Kathu…
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Phuket Opinion: Examine Phuket’s crackdown culture
PHUKET: The majority of readers who took part in the Phuket Gazette‘s recent online poll called for local authorities to strictly enforce existing laws in regards to illegal “black plate” taxis. Unfortunately, the inability or unwillingness of traffic police to consistently seek out and punish violators virtually guarantees no change in the status quo. Thus, recent efforts by the Phuket…
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Phuket suffers deadly “Seven Days of Danger’
PHUKET: The nationwide Seven Days of Danger road-safety campaign ended at midnight last night with three more deaths on Phuket’s roads than during last year’s safety efforts, but far fewer accidents reported. Nine deaths and 24 injuries in a total of 27 accidents were recorded by the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Phuket branch (DDPM-Phuket). Last year, six people…
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Phuket Police bust man with “Million-baht meth foot’
PHUKET: Phuket Police have busted a man with methamphetamine crystals and pills, worth an estimated street value of one million baht, taped to his foot while they were making routine stops at a road checkpoint. Narong Pongkornsopha, a 35-year-old resident in the neighboring area of Pa Klok, was stopped at the checkpoint to the south of the Heroines’ Monument at…
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Phuket Police closing in on Phi Phi speedboat driver’s killers
PHUKET: Police have made headway in identifying and capturing the murderers of a Phi Phi speedboat driver who was stabbed to death in Phuket Town just before dawn yesterday. Ronnachai Chayliang, 26, was found dead in front of Wat Wichit Sangkharam, on Narisorn Road, at about 5:20am. He had suffered knife wounds to his neck, chest and back. “The body…
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Human Rights Watch urges Thailand: “Don’t deport Rohingya boat people’
PHUKET: International human rights agency Human Rights Watch today called for the Thai government to immediately halt its plan to deport ethnic Rohingya back to Burma. Thai authorities should allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN refugee agency, unhindered access to these and other boat migrants from Burma’s Arakan State to determine whether they are seeking…
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Phuket Media Watch: UN lifts Syria death toll to ‘truly shocking’ 60,000
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international communityPHUKET (Reuters): More than 60,000 people have died in Syria’s uprising and civil war, the United Nations said on Wednesday, dramatically raising the death toll in a struggle that shows no sign of ending.In the latest violence, dozens were killed in a rebellious Damascus suburb when a government…
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Phuket Rohingya repatriated to Myanmar
PHUKET: In a stunning development this morning, Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut announced that the 71 Rohingya rescued from an open boat adrift off Phuket yesterday are en route to be repatriated to Myanmar. The move to repatriate the refugees, including women and children, came at the request of the refugees themselves, Gov Maitri said. Speaking at the monthly “Governor Meets…
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Krabi tourists roused by new year fire
PHUKET: Tourists on holiday in Ao Nang, Krabi, across the bay from Phuket, were roused from their new year slumber early yesterday morning as hotel staff ordered an emergency evacuation and firefighters attempted to douse a blaze in a room full of gas cylinders. Hundreds of tourists staying at the Ao Nang Buri Resort ran for the safety of Haad…
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Former NBT broadcaster Phuket’s first road death for the new year
PHUKET: A former broadcaster for the National Broadcasting Services of Thailand (NBT) has become the eighth person to die on Phuket’s roads since the Seven Days of Danger national new year road-safety campaign began last Thursday. Eak Eakwewchakul, 26, died when his Toyota sedan overshot a curve and hit a power pole near the Phuket Go-Kart track in Kathu on…
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Phuket ushers in the New Year 2013
PHUKET: About 1,000 people gathered at Queen Sirikit Park in Phuket Town this morning to join a mass blessing ceremony to usher in the new year 2013. Phuket residents, officials and tourists offered alms to 145 monks as part of the festivities this morning. Phuket Vice Governor Sommai Prijasilpa at 7am officiated the blessing ceremony, joined by Vice Governors Somkiet…
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Phuket 2012: Safety shaken, not stirred
PHUKET: The need for a quicker exit from Phuket’s nightlife capital of Patong was highlighted by the chaos on the road in the early hours of April 11, after a 7.3-magnitude, submarine earthquake, that struck off Sumatra, caused the National Disaster Warning Center to issue a tsunami “alert” (not a warning) that had coastal residents heading for the hills. A…
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Phuket’s deadly ‘Seven Days of Danger’ claims two more lives
PHUKET: Two men on a motorcycle on Thepkrasattri Road in Thalang were hit and crushed under a Phuket tour bus early this morning, bringing to seven the number of deaths in the ongoing “Seven Days of Danger” new year road-safety campaign. As is relatively standard practice in Phuket, the bus driver fled the scene and is being sought by the…
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Phuket 2012: Crimes take center stage
SPECIAL REPORT PHUKET: There were many high-profile crimes on Phuket in 2012. Perhaps none horrified the audience of the world as much as killing of Australian tourist Michelle Smith, 60. Mrs Smith, a travel agent, died from stab wounds after two men tried to steal her handbag and she fought back.Her assailants, Surasak Suwannachote and Surin Tadthong, were apprehended, tried…
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Phuket Opinion: Trash the past for the New Year
PHUKET: A new 960-million-baht incinerator went into operation in the middle of last year, yet Phuket still faces a solid waste crisis – one that requires a better solution than simply building a third incinerator at Saphan Hin. (See also tomorrow morning’s Web review of ‘Phuket 2012: Feeling the pinch from growing pains’.) When the new plant went into operation,…
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