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PHUKET WEATHER ALERT: PM’s office warns of flooding
PHUKET: The Prime Minister’s Office has warned residents in Phuket to brace for flooding, which has already stalled services at Nakhon Sri Thammarat and Samui airports. Thousands of passengers were stranded on Koh Samui in Surat Thani province yesterday, while Nakhon Sri Thammarat Airport has been closed since Sunday. Bangkok Airways canceled all 36 domestic and international flights in and…
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Phuket storm: Gov orders landslide watch
PHUKET: Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha today ordered all government officers to be on the lookout in high risk areas where the onslaught of rain may cause landslides. “As it has been raining heavily in Phuket for the past few days, it may cause problems with flooding and landslides,” said Gov Tri. Specifically, he ordered all three District Offices in Phuket…
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Phuket storm winds rip yachts off their moorings
PHUKET: Severe weather conditions in Phuket today broke several boats from their moorings and pushed them ashore at Ao Yon, near Cape Panwa. Many boat owners were caught unaware by the force of the storm as the bay had long been considered a safe shelter at this time of year. “Last night, very strong winds challenged the moorings and quite…
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Services for Phuket’s Lionel Cleary
PHUKET: A memorial service will be held for the late Lionel Cleary at Rawai Temple (Wat Rawai) tomorrow evening, starting at 7pm. Mr Cleary, a regular visitor to Phuket for 29 years and a resident for more than 18 years after that, died of organ failure on Friday. “People wishing to pay their respects are advised to arrive from 6pm…
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Phuket Airport remains open as wild weather ravages South
PHUKET: Phuket Airport remains open today despite winds gusting to more than 30 kilometers per hour and a flood warning issued early this morning. “A low pressure [system] is covering the middle of southern Thailand. Torrential rain with heavy to very heavy fall in many areas remains over the south,” read the warning issued this morning by the Thai Meteorological…
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FC Phuket 2 – 0 RBAC
PHUKET: FC Phuket now sit atop Division 1 of Thai League Football, following a hard-fought 2-0 win in rainy conditions at Surakul Stadium this evening. A goal well into the second half by FC Phuket striker Kone Adama secured the victory for the Southern Sea Dragons over a scrappy RBAC side. Former table leaders Big Bang Chulalongkorn University (BBCU) failed…
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Phuket Opinion: Policy on Thai residency should not be secret
PHUKET: It’s time for the Ministry of Interior (MoI) to set up a special task force to begin fast-tracking the processing of the huge backlog of permanent residency (PR) applications it is now sitting on in silence. Such a move would have multiple benefits for all parties involved, including, especially, foreign investors (potential and extant) and Thailand’s all-important tourism industry.…
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Body of missing Phuket teen found in rubber plantation
PHUKET: The body of a teenage boy who went missing over a week ago was discovered by the side of the road in a Phuket rubber plantation yesterday morning. Villagers found the badly decomposing body of an unidentified male a few meters off the access road to Namuang Village, a rubber planting community off Thepkrasattri Road, about eight kilometers south…
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Earth Hour Phuket: The hour of darkness is upon us
PHUKET: Phuket will join the rest of the world in marking Earth Hour 2011 when the lights on the iconic Royal Paradise Hotel in Patong are switched off for one hour tonight, starting at 8:30pm. People and organizations throughout the island will be taking part, joining an estimated one billion people from 131 countries on the planet. Those in Phuket…
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MET issues storm warning for Phuket, South
PHUKET: The Meteorological Department (MET) has issued a storm warning for Phuket and the entire southern region for the weekend and through until Tuesday. An “intense” high pressure system covering most of Thailand will bring torrential rain with isolated heavy rainfall across the south, according the warning issued at 10am today. Unusually heavy, wind-driven waves are expected in both the…
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Call for Gov, Phuket to support “Silvy The Star’
PHUKET: All of Phuket will be cheering on Pavida “Silvy” Moriggi this evening when the 15-year-old Kajonkietsuksa School student takes the stage in round three of the nationally-televised reality television series The Star 7. Only six contestants remain in the hugely-popular nationwide talent search; one will be voted off after this evening’s competition. Silvy’s mother and school principal called on…
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TAT targets yachties in new Phuket strategy
PHUKET: Phuket’s world-class marinas and vibrant yachting community are key to the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s new strategy to attract high-end tourists to the island. TAT Governor Suraphon Svetasreni believes the infrastructure already in place in Phuket means the island has the potential to become a world-class center for marine tourism. Phuket already has a number of marinas suitable for…
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Body recovered from Phuket ravine
PHUKET: Phuket emergency response volunteers last night struggled in rain and darkness to recover the body of an unknown man from a ravine in Wichit. The body was discovered at about 5:30pm yesterday by local plantation owner Kittidej Jingjit. Mr Kittidej was en route to check construction of a hillside workers’ sala off Soi Anusorn in Wichit Village 3. Noticing…
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Italian man arrested on rape charges at Phuket Airport
PHUKET: An Italian man was taken into police custody at Phuket Airport last night on an arrest warrant for the alleged rape of a Thai woman on Koh Samui. The suspect, in his 30s, was to fly out of the country last night. He was intercepted at the airport at 9:30pm after Immigration officers there were informed that Samui District…
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Phuket’s Lionel Cleary passes away
PHUKET: A wake for well-known and much loved long-term Phuket resident Lionel Cleary will be held at Nikita’s Beach Restaurant on the Rawai beachfront this Sunday from 3pm. After weeks in hospital due to a fall, he eventually succumbed to organ failure this morning at Bangkok Hospital Phuket. He was 76. Mr Cleary first arrived in Phuket with friends via…
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Phuket police bust drug dealers in Kamala, Mai Khao
PHUKET: Police yesterday arrested the young wife of a Phuket Airport taxi driver, catching the woman with a stash of ya bah (methamphetamine) pills and a firearm in the family home where she was caring for her three young children. Thachatchai Police identified the suspect as 22-year-old Sukhon “Bow” Bajongjit, a resident of Phuket. Police obtained a warrant to search…
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Phuket St Patrick’s Day Ball charity event tomorrow
PHUKET: A charity ball marking St Patrick’s Day will be hosted tomorrow evening at the Mövenpick Resort & Spa in Karon. The annual ball is a major fundraising event for the Life Home Project, a local foundation that provides shelter for women and children affected by HIV as well as childcare, vocational training, health education and hospice assistance. The event…
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Phuket Island View: Sidecars extremely dangerous, but not to worry
PHUKET: The crackdown on motorbike passengers having to wear helmets has been excellent, though it hasn’t stopped parents from carrying babies, talking on a mobile phone, or smoking (or all three) while driving.I understand the trusty Honda Dream is the sole mode of transport for many families on Phuket, and that if they could afford something with four wheels they…
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Dr Robert Thurman to lead Buddhist retreat in Phuket this weekend
PHUKET: World-renowned Buddhist scholar Dr Robert Thurman is in Phuket to give a talk and lead a meditation retreat at the Thanyapura Mind Center at Phuket International Academy this weekend. Dr Thurman, Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University in New York City, is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost scholars of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies. A…
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Phuket media coverage takes a leap forward with iApps
PHUKET: Long a leader in online publishing, the Phuket Gazette has taken a leap into the handheld space with crisp and functionally ‘immediate’ new Apps for both the iPad and iPhone. And though only a couple of weeks into these new media, the company is more than pleased with the response. “These were basically R&D-type projects for us. I don’t…
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Phuket beach vendor found hanged
PHUKET: A 25 year old man was found hanged at his rented house in Phuket this morning. Thalang Police named the deceased as Apichart Aoonkaew, a vendor on Nai Yang and Na Thon beaches. A relative discovered the body at the house in Thalang at about 9:30am when he entered the room to wake Mr Apichart for work, police said.…
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Second Phuket hit-and-run killing in a week
PHUKET: A Phuket mechanic was killed instantly last night when his motorbike collided with a pickup truck, the driver of which sped off without stopping. The accident occurred at about 11:30pm on Route 4027, the main road to Pa Khlok from the Heroines’ Monument. At the scene, about one kilometer east of the monument, police and Kusoldharm Foundation rescue workers…
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Phuket’s new hospital to open in May
PHUKET: The hunt is on for qualified medical staff to work at the first Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (PPAO) Hospital, now scheduled to open by the end of May. The hospital, on Sri Sena Road in Phuket Town, will be the first in the country to be administered by a provincial authority. “The outpatient department will open around the end…
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Phuket Tourist Police in the spotlight
PHUKET: Members of a special government working committee were in Phuket earlier this month to gather information for a study on whether Tourist Police nationwide should be transferred out of the Royal Thai Police for administration by a different government agency or agencies. Among those who visited the Tourist Police station in Phuket Town were committee chairman Asst Prof Noppadon…
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Murder suspect arrested in Phuket after 17 years in hiding
PHUKET: After 17 years on the lam, a suspect wanted for a 1994 stabbing murder of a man in Uthai Thani province was arrested by Phuket City Police yesterday. The suspect, 44-year-old Pornsak “Nu” Ketkaew, was arrested when he took a 10-wheel dump truck for repairs at a garage off Thepkrasattri Road. Mr Pornsak was arrested by officers who confirmed…
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Phuket ATM scams run rife
PHUKET: An English expat has gone public about 814,000 baht allegedly stolen from his bank account in an ATM scam. Following the Phuket Gazette report of the arrest of a Romanian gang for ATM fraud in Patong on March 13, Paul Treherne felt it was time to let other people know about his own ordeal. The four Romanians were arrested…
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Phuket hit-and-run: security guard killed
PHUKET: Phuket Police are searching for the driver of a pickup truck that hit and killed an unidentified motorbike driver in Cherng Talay last night. Cherng Talay Police duty officer Somkhit Khawsung was notified of the fatal accident at 7:35pm. At the scene, the road from Koktanode to Layan near the Laguna Phuket Outrigger resort and villa complex, they found…
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Thai Health Minister Jurin in Phuket
PHUKET: Thai Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanawisit was in Phuket today to inspect first hand the anti-radiation tablets being issued free to passengers at Phuket International Airport bound for Japan. “In the past five days, 71 people – 69 Japanese, one American and one Thai – have each collected a 130mg bottle of Potassium Iodide from the booth,” said Minister…
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Fears of explosion spark Phuket gas shop raid
PHUKET: Fears of a serious explosion at a local store illegally refilling gas cylinders prompted a raid by officials from the Phuket Energy Office this morning. Led by Phuket Energy Office chief Jirasak Tummawetch, the officers arrived at the unnamed gas shop near Kettho Junction on Wichit Songkram Road in Kathu. Energy chief Jirasak said, “Normally, small shops are not…
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Phuket convention center one step closer
PHUKET: Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij told a public hearing in Phuket yesterday that he can “guarantee” the project to build a convention and exhibition center will go ahead if his Democrat Party holds on to power in the upcoming elections. Mr Korn was speaking at a public hearing at The Metropole hotel in Phuket Town to present three architectural plans…
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