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Monks give the breast medicine
TAK: When modern medicine fails, people often turn to what has, in the West, come to be known as “alternative medicine”. Phuket has a large market for such treatments, such as acupuncture clinics and herbal spas offering cures for a wide variety ailments, both real and perceived. These more familiar forms of “alternative” medicine are not all Thailand has to…
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Police hunt fish-paste five
CHONBURI: One might think that armed robbery follows a fairly formulaic process: just grab a weapon, threaten someone and, if everything goes to plan, flee with the loot.However, as with other professions, there are also cultural aspects involved in the choice of equipment. An Amazon Indian might use a blowpipe in a hold-up, whereas a Zulu would more naturally opt…
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Film Fest gets underway
PATONG: The first Phuket Film Festival gets underway at the new SF Cinema City on the 3rd Floor of Jungceylon at 6 pm tonight. The week-long festival will kick off with a star-studded gala event before the screening of Dance Machine, a quirky comedy by Spanish director Oscar Aibar, who won Best Director award for his 1995 film Atolladero at…
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Bodies of ferry sinking victims recovered
PHANG NGA: Rescue workers yesterday afternoon pulled the bodies of a woman and her nine-year-old granddaughter from the sunken car ferry Jern Jern, which capsized about 1 am on Tuesday off Koh Pratong, Kuraburi District in Phang Nga.All bodies have now been recovered from the sinking, which claimed three lives.Pol Maj Nirat Chuayjit of the Marine Police office in Kuraburi…
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Rawai crackdown nets two “road robbery’ suspects
CHALONG: Chalong Police have charged two suspects for armed robbery following a spate of violent robberies on roads in Rawai in recent weeks, but the pair are not suspects in the killing of Norwegian Simen Knudsen last month.The two suspects, identified as Itthipol “Ron” Chudam, 21, from Songkhla, and Boonkiet Chuchao, 18, of Nakhon Sri Thammarat, have denied any involvement…
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One dead, two missing as Phang Nga ferry sinks
PHANG NGA: A ferry overloaded with construction material capsized and sank off Koh Prathong in Kuraburi district about 1 am Tuesday, claiming the life of the captain. Two others survived, but a woman and her granddaughter are missing presumed dead.Pol Maj Nirat Chuayjit of the Marine Police office in Kuraburi identified the sunken ferry as the Jern Jern, a flat-topped…
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Man attacked outside 7-Eleven in Rassada
RASSADA: A man was hospitalized Monday after being attacked by a gang of three men outside a 7-Eleven store on Srisuthat Rd in Rassada.Phuket City Police Investigations Inspector Lt Col Adul Nirapai said the three men set upon Sommaai Jindapol, 22, at about 10 pm.A 7-Eleven employee told police that the attack began outside the store, but spilled inside and…
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VeggieFest Day 7
Over 1,000 mah song (“entranced horses” or spirit mediums) from Chinese shrines around the island joined together this morning to take part in the Jui Tui Chinese Shrine street procession to Saphan Hin. Today marked day seven of the nine-day festival, the island’s signature cultural event that has spread to many other parts of Thailand.
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Body of boat sinking victim found
SATUN: The body of a man missing at sea for 17 days after the boat he was on sunk off Koh Racha Yai was recovered by Marine Police yesterday at Koh Tarutao in Satun.Phuthong Tirawattana, an employee of the Tai Lee Yong seafood restaurant in Saphan Hin, was one of five co-workers left floating through the night in stormy seas…
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Karon Stadium debacle forces major tourneys to relocate
KARON: The poor state of the pitch at Karon Stadium has forced two international sporting events, the Phuket Soccer 7s and the King’s Cup 80-80 International Rugby Tournament, to be relocated.After more than a month of the organizers voicing their concerns over the pitch, which in poor condition could result in player injuries, the Soccer 7s will be played at Surakul Stadium in Phuket…
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Khao Sok Cave Tragedy: Guides were warned, survivor recounts ordeal
SURAT THANI (Nation, Gazette): The two Thai tour guides who led a group of foreign tourists into a cave at Khao Sok National Park over the weekend did so despite a warning by park officials about the danger of flooding inside, the Gazette has learned.Both guides and six of the seven tourists who entered the cave with them died in…
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German tourists die in flash flood
SURAT THANI (Nation): Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of eight German tourists and two Thai guides who died in a flash flood in Ban Takhun district yesterday evening.Police said the tour group went into a cave which has a waterway leading to the Ratchaprapha Dam reservoir in Khao Sok National Park about 7:30 pm when they were swept away…
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Another attack in Rawai, Aussie and Brit mugged
RAWAI: An Australian woman was pulled off her motorcycle and robbed at gunpoint early Sunday morning in the same area where Norwegian tourist Simen Knudsen was killed two weeks earlier.The victim, 27-year-old Australian Sooz Lomas, arrived in Phuket about two weeks ago to learn Thai boxing at the Rawai Muay Thai camp.About 2:30 am on Sunday, Ms Lomas left the nearby Icon…
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Wind shear probable cause of OG269 crash
BANGKOK (The Nation): Transport Permanent Secretary Chaisawat Kittipornpaiboon today announced that decoding of the One-Two-Go flight OG029 “black box” flight recorder revealed that the plane skidded off the runway and crashed into an escarpment due to bad weather.As chairman of the air-crash investigation committee, K. Chaisawat said that the flight suffered from wind shear and the captain could not land as planned.Black…
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Phuket launches twin-bins scheme
PHUKET CITY: Phuket City Municipality has launched an initiative to solve some of the island’s waste woes with the addition of 400 pairs of mobile garbage bins around town, allocated to the areas in town deemed to have the densest population.Each pair comprises a light-blue bin for organic waste and a green bin for general waste. A budget of six…
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Gambling tops September crime statistics
PHUKET: Gambling topped the latest crime statistics released by Phuket Provincial Police, with 230 arrests made in September.In second place, 102 people arrested were arrested for drug-related cases, of which 63 involved ya bah (methamphetamine) with a total of 3,329 pills seized.Seventeen people were arrested for the use of cannabis, with 19.45 grams confiscated. There were 11 arrests for inhalant…
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Pedestrian run down, killed
RAWAI: A 10-wheeled truck mowed down and killed a pedestrian walking on a sidewalk on Saiyuan Rd last at about 3 pm Thursday afternoon, said Pol Lt Col Sanguan Muangtham of the Chalong Police.“When police arrived on the scene they found the body of the man underneath the truck. The victim was male aged 40 to 45 years old. He…
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Not-so-lucky yacht sinks
KOH PHI PHI: A sailing yacht sank in Ton Sai bay, off Koh Phi Phi Don around 2 pm on October 7. The unfortunate vessel, named Lucky, departed from Phuket on October 6 and anchored in Ton Sai bay in Krabi.According to Pol Lt Col Somchart Supawut, inspector of Krabi Marine Police, on the same day, the yacht raised its…
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Vegetarian festivities underway
PHUKET CITY: Thousands of people gathered at Chinese shrines around Phuket today to participate in pole-raising ceremonies before for the Vegetarian Festival, which starts in earnest tomorrow. Permanent Secretary for Interior Pongpayom Wasaputi joined the crowds dressed in white at Jui Tui shrine to place squares of gold leaf on the bamboo poles before they were raised at the auspicious…
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International beach volleyball to return to Phuket
KARON: The world’s top beach volleyball stars will grace the sands of Phuket at the Second Phuket Thailand Open, the last stop on the Swatch-FIVB Women’s Beach Volleyball World Tour.The tournament, to be held at Karon Beach from October 31 to November 4, has a prize purse of US$200,000 up for grabs, with top international teams ready to compete in…
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Fortunate fellow crashes own cremation ceremony
CHAI NAT: Attending your own cremation – as in actually turning up alive, rather than making a brief appearance stuffed in a box before being burned – would be an interesting experience. Think about it, you could hear the good points of your personality extolled in a eulogy and see who looked genuinely upset – and who looked secretly pleased.…
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The pesky python
YALA: Being a teacher in the Deep South during these troubled times takes a certain amount of bravery and acceptance of personal danger. It was perhaps these qualities that helped one teacher from Yala Province keep his head while all those about him were losing theirs when faced with a very real threat. The threat, however, was not a rifle-toting…
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Late flowering lust
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: Police in Thung Song arrested a 73-year-old monk on September 6 after receiving a tip-off from hotel staff that he had been in a hotel room with a woman for an inappropriately long time. Officers from Thung Song District Police Station banged on the door of the sixth-floor room at the Thai Hotel for a considerable time…
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Fatal bus crash promises lottery luck
NAKHON RATCHASIMA: To most people, a fatal road accident would not be a sign of good fortune, but villagers in Dan Khun Thot district were driven to an outburst of lottery fever when they hoped that the remains of a bus that had crashed in the area would reveal lucky lottery numbers. The phenomenon was sparked when a bus from…
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Regional Police HQ coming to Phuket
MAI KHAO: The Royal Thai Police Region 8 command headquarters, currently in Surat Thani, will be moving to Mai Khao, where a 150-rai parcel of Treasury Department land has been put aside for the project.Phuket Governor Niran Kalayanamit chaired a meeting on the move at Phuket Provincial Hall on October 9. He told the meeting that the upcoming moved reflected…
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Three youths no longer suspects
PHUKET CITY: Three youths previously arrested for the fatal stabbing of Norwegian Simen Sparre Knudsen in Rawai on September 23 are no longer under suspicion for the murder, the police officer in charge of the investigation has revealed.Phuket City Police Inspector Pol Lt Col Somkid Boonrat, assigned to investigate the case by Phuket Provincial Police, today said that questioning of…
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Five presidents keep office in OrBorTor elections
PHUKET: A turnout of 72.93% of 54,878 eligible voters cast their ballots at the Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor) presidential and council elections held across across eight tambons October 7.Counting the votes took election officials until midnight last night. Islanders were voting for eight OrBorTor preisdents and 120 councilors.Of the winners of the OrBorTor presidential elections – all men – five…
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Proposed site for ICEC finally selected
PHUKET: Investment group ING Funds (Thailand) has chosen a 350-rai plot of Treasury Department land in Mai Khao as the preferred site for the Phuket International Convention and Exhibition Center (ICEC).The announcement came during a meeting of the project’s siting committee chaired by Phuket Governor Niran Kalayanamit at Phuket Provincial Hall on Thursday.In announcing its conclusion, ING Funds (Thailand) Managing…
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Drug bust nets over 5,000 ya bah pills
PHUKET CITY: A police drug bust on Wednesday resulted in two arrests and the seizure of 5,394 ya bah pills (methamphetamine), 41 kilograms of marijuana and over one million baht in cash and gold jewelry. Police are still looking for one more suspect in the case.The operation was led by Pol Lt Col Teeranat Kademee, Inspector of the Phuket Provincial…
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OrBorTor elections force alcohol ban
PHUKET: Starting tomorrow at 6 pm, sale of alcohol will be banned in all eight tambons holding elections on Sunday for tambon administration organization (OrBorTor) representatives.The ban will last until midnight on Sunday.The eight affected tambons are Chalong, Koh Kaew, Cherng Talay, Mai Khao, Srisoonthorn, Thepkrasattri, Sakoo and Kamala.A representative at the Phuket Election Commission (PEC) confirmed to the Gazette…
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