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Sponsored Leap into English mastery with Green Valley's LEAP Programme
For many years, St. Andrews International School, Green Valley’s students who did not speak English as their first language have typically participated in English as an Additional Language (EAL) programmes to build proficiency. However, the school has recently introduced a...
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Illegal sea-walking to continue
PHUKET: Despite an almost two-year-old ban, illegal sea-walking companies were given another eight months to operate on Koh Hey, one of Phuket’s many outlying islands. At a recent meeting at Government House in Bangkok between Phuket Vice Governor Vongsak Sawaspanich, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), and Mrs Paveena Hongsakula, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office (Tourism Division), it was…
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Big Discounts to Europe on Lauda Air
PHUKET: Lauda Air has today announced a whopping 20% discount on Business Class fares from Phuket and Bangkok to any of its destinations in Europe. The offer is available to Gazette Shopper Card holders only and includes a bonus of an extra 10-kilograms in luggage allowance (from 30 kg to 40 kg). Tickets, whether originating from Phuket or Bangkok, must…
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Alleged hirer of hit men surrenders
PHUKET TOWN: A man who is alleged to have hired three hit men in March to kill a 77-year-old woman, surrendered to police on Wednesday. As reported in the Online Gazette in March, the three hit men, Somporn Paotong, Wannarat Kamsoot, and Soontorn Siripan, were first contacted by Saman Jarnjit, a guard at a prawn farm, who hired them to…
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Big hike in water prices imminent
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Town Municipality announced yesterday that the price of piped water supplied from the council’s waterworks will increase massively from next Thursday (June 1). The price will rise by as much as 33% for households and by as much as 44% for businesses. Deputy mayor Jongrak Narukatpichai explained that the hike was necessary because of the spiraling…
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Phuket favored for huge APEC summit
PHUKET: Phuket is the front-runner in the competition to be the venue for a major international summit conference three years from now. Around the end of October, 2003, about 7,500 heads of state, ministers and senior officials from Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries will descend on Thailand for a week of talks. Karoon Rechuyothin, deputy director-general of the Department…
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Man held for selling pirated game CDs
KARON: A street stall owner was arrested on Monday by Chalong Police for selling pirated computer game CDs. Pol Lt Teerawat Liumsuwan of Chalong police station told the Gazette that the arrested man, Charn Mongkolratsameeroj, sells CDs from a stall on Soi Bangla in Karon. He was taken into custody after being reported by Tanarat Meechaiyo, a representative of the…
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More descendants of princess emerge
KAMALA: After the naming of the Yayee family of Kamala as the descendants of the legendary Princess Mahsuri of Langkawi, five more families in the village have claimed blood connections to the princess. The five families– the Doomlak, the Sangthong, the Sariya, the Sooksrisin and the Sungwarn – say they want nothing; they just want the public to know that…
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Fighter pilot crash-lands tuk-tuk
KAMALA: An American fighter pilot who later told police he was bored of flying jets, “borrowed” a tuk-tuk in the early hours of May 22. His high-speed flying skills did not get him far, however; he crashed the tuk-tuk into a ditch and landed in a punch-up with the vehicle’s owner. Pol Capt Komdej Pohthong of Kathu Police Station told…
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At last, lifeguards for beaches
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization, (OrBorJor), is to allocate 3 million baht to providing lifeguards on beaches during the monsoon season, it was announced today. Harnchai Jantarachote, president of the OrBorJor’s Tourism Committee, told the Gazette that statistics compiled by the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) reveal that about 30 people – Thais and foreigners – drowned last…
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Kamala family named as princess’ descendants
KAMALA: Chern Yayee, 62, from Kamala and his family have been named by the Malaysian Government as the long-lost relatives of Princess Mahsuri, a legendary figure in on the Malaysian island of Langkawi. The Yayee family have now been invited to Kuala Lumpur, where they will dine with Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamed, on May 31. According to the…
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QSI confirms PINS takeover
PHUKET: The Board of Directors of the Phuket International School (PINS) announced today that the US-based Quality Schools International (QSI) has accepted its invitation to take over PINS. PINS will therefore close permanently on June 30, and the QSI International School of Phuket will open on the same premises the following day. Mr James Gilson, president of QSI, will be…
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Body found on Cape Panwa beach
AO MAKHAM: The body of a man believed to be a Muslim fisherman was found on the beach in front of the Cape Panwa Hotel on Tuesday evening. Pol Capt Cha-oom Kaosrisuwan of the Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that the man, as yet unidentified, wore a black T-shirt, a green camouflage jacket, and a pair of fishermen’s…
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Crackdown on tinted glass in cars
PHUKET: The traffic police will launch a drive soon against vehicles with very darkly tinted windows, it was announced today. Pol Lt Col Teeraphol Thipjaroen, Deputy Superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that a new law comes into effect on June 6, making it illegal to have car windows that have tints cutting out more than 40%…
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Sleeping teenager shot dead
PATONG: A 15-year-old boy, sleeping peacefully at home, was killed in the early hours of Saturday in what police say appears to have been an accidental shooting. Pol Col Kokiat Wongworachart, Superintendent of Kathu Police Station, told the Gazette that Suchart Duangjamlong, 15, was asleep when two bullets, fired from outside, went through the wooden wall of the boy’s home.…
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Missing boatman’s body found
CHERNG TALAY: The body of a missing boatman was found on Saturday, on the sand at Bangtao Beach. Pol Capt Watcharin Jirattikarnwiwat of Cherng Talay Police Station said police had been told last week that the boatman, Boonthep Padsamai, 25, had been washed out to the sea on Wednesday, May 10. Friends said that Boonthep was helping them to haul…
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Parties gear up for national poll
PHUKET: Two of Thailand’s three major political parties, the Democrats and Thai Rak Thai, are close to final selection of their candidates in the run-up to national elections which must be held before the end of this year. Because of the growth in its population, Phuket will elect two members of parliament – it currently has just one. Thai Rak…
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1999 a fine year for tourism in Phuket
PHUKET: Despite criticism that Phuket has become too expensive for its own good, the number of visitors coming to the island in 1999 was up by 15.9% compared with the previous year. This followed an increase of 10.8% between 1997 and 1998, and 4.8% between 1996 and 1997. The visitors also spent more; the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), which…
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Construction worker electrocuted
SAMKONG: A workman fixing an aluminum ceiling in a new house in the Sam Kong area died yesterday of electrocution. A colleague of the dead man told police that he was working at the back of the house on Yaowarat Rd, about 200 meters from the Bangkok Phuket Hospital, when he heard a scream from the front of the house.…
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French tourist dies after pool mishap
PATONG: A 31-year-old French tourist, Franck Amani, who was pulled from the bottom of a hotel swimming pool yesterday morning, died last night at the Bangkok Phuket Hospital. Pol Maj Pisit Cheanpetch of Kathu Police Station told the Gazette that Mr Amani and his friends had gone to Soi Bangla in Patong the previous night and had not returned to…
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Burmese fisherman murdered
PHUKET TOWN: A Burmese fisherman was found murdered in a rented house near the fishing port early yesterday morning. Pol Lt Kaneuing Pitakkultorn of Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that, at around 10 am yesterday, he received a phone call informing him of the murder. In the house on Anuphasphuketkarn Rd in Tambon Rassada, Lt Kaneuing found the…
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Report slams attitudes on domestic violence
BANGKOK (AFP): Despite greater democracy and improving economic conditions, Thai women are increasingly at risk from domestic violence, social welfare activists warned today. “Nobody outside the non-governmental organization community is working on the issue. It’s a terrible situation … and the police do not take opportunities to improve their knowledge of the issue,” said Siriporn Skrobanek of the Foundation for…
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Farmers demand help with debts
BANGKOK (AFP): Ten thousand Thai farmers massed in Bangkok today, demanding government help in their battle to pay debts and a new push on agricultural reform. The demonstrators arrived in trucks from 17 northern provinces and congregated at the city’s Royal Plaza, close to Government House. “They want the government to pay off their debts and to solve problems over…
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CAT makes deep cuts in overseas call rates
PHUKET: The Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) has reduced the rates for overseas calls to 44 countries by as much as 35% (see table above). Voravit Vorapiboonpong, chief of the Phuket Telecommunications Center, told the Gazette that the rate reductions were introduced because the CAT wants to encourage more people to make overseas phone calls. The reductions will apply to…
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Drug bust nails big ya bah dealer’s brother
PHUKET TOWN: Police yesterday arrested a 30-year-old man who, they believe, had ambitions to take over from his brother as one of Phuket’s biggest dealers in ya bah (methamphetamine). The man, Seksan Tuambang, was arrested in possession of 200 tablets of the drug in a sting operation involving the dealer’s right-hand man, Mongkol Kantakarn, 19. Pol Maj Manat Iamchareonchaikul, Inspector…
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Construction worker’s death was ‘suicide’
THALANG: Local villagers yesterday found the body of a missing construction worker in woods behind the site near Thalang where the new Phuket Coastal Aquaculture Development Center is being built. Pol Capt Somkit Kaosung of Thalang Police Station named the dead man as Sunate Dokkemklong, 32, from Khon Kaen, and said that all evidence pointed to Sunate having committed suicide.…
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Dolphin found dying at Sansook Beach
PHUKET: Boys playing on Sansook Beach in Tambon Rassada found a female bottlenose dolphin dying yesterday evening. “She was still alive when the boys found her floating near the shoreline. They told us that they heard her cries first,” said Supoj Jantrapornsil, a technician at Phuket Marine Biological Center. The dolphin died on the beach not long afterwards. There was…
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Exchange firm robbed of 1 million baht
PHUKET TOWN: Two armed men stole a million baht from a currency exchange in Phuket Town yesterday. Pol Maj Sanya Thongsawas of Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that Parinya Sangrangchujit, 45, manager of the exchange operation, was counting money he had just withdrawn from a bank in Phuket Town, when two neatly dressed men rang the bell. The…
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Ya bah bust next to police station
CHALONG: Three men were arrested on Saturday for possession of ya bah (methamphetamine) at a house just 100 meters from Chalong Police Station. Pol Capt Chokchai Suttimek of the Chalong station told the Gazette that an unidentified man called the police and told them that a ya bah deal was going to take place at Ao Chalong Bungalow. Officers strode…
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Racha Yai auctions postponed
PHUKET: The sale by auction of two of the largest plots of land on Racha Yai Island, south of Phuket, which was initially scheduled for June 1, has been postponed to an unspecified date. Aran Sae-Lim of Harrison Auction Co Ltd, one of the two auction organizers (the other is Mel Giller & Associates), said he expects an announcement about…
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UK dialing codes change
BANGKOK: Telephone dialing codes in Britain have just been changed radically in what has been labeled “The Big Number Change”, the British Chamber of Commerce in Thailand reports. The changes entail the introduction of new telephone codes and local numbers for six locations: Cardiff, Coventry, London, Northern Ireland, Portsmouth and Southampton. There are also changes made to certain mobile phone,…
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