News
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Ao Yon sailing club faces closure
AO YON: David Ratcliffe, Commodore of the Phuket Yacht Club, has called a special meeting of members this Sunday, starting at 2:30 pm, in the hope of staving off the club’s closure due to financial woes.Mr Ratcliffe explained in a email to members, “Your presence is urgently required. The subject of discussion will be the future of the Club. At…
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Two gas stations fined for cheating
PHUKET CITY (Kom Chad Luek): Following consumer complaints, two “low-cost” gas stations were fined 5,000 baht apiece by the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) for overcharging motorists by tampering with fuel pumps, or using pumps that were not operating to standard.On January 18, Supoj Petchsri, Chief of Weights and Measures at the Phuket Provincial Commerce Office, led a team of local…
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TAT to push THAI for more direct flights
LAGUNA PHUKET: Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Juthamas Siriwan today stepped into the lions’ den – a room at the Sheraton Grande Laguna Phuket filled with hoteliers and property industry figures.Many of them have in the past been less than impressed with the TAT’s support for the tourism industry in the tsunami-hit provinces, some vocally so.But K. Juthamas came…
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Missing yacht found adrift
PHUKET: The 12.5-meter yacht Wado Ryu, which went missing from the anchorage off Koh Racha Yai on Friday, was located this afternoon, drifting in waters about 50 kilometers south of Phuket.The yacht was spotted by another on its way to the Red Sea. The French crew of that yacht radioed the Wado Ryu‘s position to the Phuket-based Mobile Maritime Network,…
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Samui killers get death sentence
SURAT THANI: Wichai “Loh” Somkhaoyai, 24, and Bualoi Kosit, 23, the two men who confessed to raping and murdering 21-year-old Welsh student Katherine Horton on Koh Samui on the night of January 1, have been sentenced to death by the Surat Thani Provincial Court.At an earlier hearing on January 13, both pleaded guilty to rape-murder charges under sections 276 and 277 of…
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TAT predicts 5m visitors, B80b revenue in 2006
PHUKET: Occupancy rates at 4- and 5-star hotels have averaged about 80% since the tsunami anniversary and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is predicting that 5 million people will visit Phuket in 2006, generating some 80 billion baht in revenue. Speaking to the Gazette yesterday, Siripakorn Cheawsamoot, Assistant Director of TAT’s Region 4 Office in Phuket, described the occupancy…
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Gov urges action to avert water crisis
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Udomsak Uswarangkura has urged the Phuket Irrigation Office (PIO) and the Phuket Waterworks Office (PWO) to ensure there is enough mains water to meet demand in 2006, when an expected five million tourists are expected to push dry-season supplies to the limit.Speaking at the monthly “Governor Meets the Press” conference at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday morning,…
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Yacht missing from Racha Yai anchorage
KOH RACHA: A yacht sailing Phuket’s waters has disappeared, believed stolen, while the crew were having supper ashore on Koh Racha Yai on Friday. The yacht is the Wado Ryu, a white-hulled 12.5-meter sloop. The name of the yacht is painted in large letters along the hull. She is registered in Germany. Pumo Stappelton, the boat’s skipper, told the Gazette…
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Triple play
KOH CHANG: The guests, it has to be said, were taken aback by the wedding invitation card, which announced the nuptials of bridegroom Yeuifa Meelaap and two brides: Vassana Uysap and Jenny Saibua. A wedding for a threesome was unusual, and all the more so when one realizes that the groom was also a woman. Talking to reporters, the trio…
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Bottled up
PRACHUAB KHIRI KHAN: From this peninsular province comes a cautionary tale about the perils of leaving bottles standing on the floor. Nuy (not his real name) had just finished his ablutions when he slipped on the wet floor of his bathroom and plonked down firmly on his backside. This is the kind of embarrassment many of us suffer from time…
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Amnesty slams death sentence call
BANGKOK (The Nation): Amnesty International Thailand (AIT) yesterday supported the mother of murdered British student Katherine Horton, who has said she does not want to see her daughter’s killers executed.The alleged killers, Bualoi Kosit, 23, and Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, who are due to be sentenced tomorrow at Surat Thani Provincial Court, face the possibility of execution for raping and murdering…
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Blood supplies running low
PHUKET CITY: Stocks of O-type blood – both negative and positive – on the island have dropped to alarming levels, prompting Somchay Chodchasiri, President of the Phuket Blood Donor Club, based at Vachira Phuket Hospital, to put out an urgent call for more donors.“We have nearly run out of supplies in Phuket,” he told the Gazette today. “Operations are sometimes…
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Victim’s mother “does not want killers executed’
CARDIFF, UK: The mother of Katherine Horton, raped and murdered on a beach on Koh Samui on New Year’s Day, does not want her daughter’s killers to be executed, a British newspaper has reported.The News of the World quoted Elizabeth Horton as saying that Bualoi Kosit, 23, and Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, should instead spend the rest of their lives behind…
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Four held for credit card forgery
PHUKET: Four people were arrested yesterday on charges of possessing forged credit cards.The four are Tanapol Detpalit, 45, from Ang Thong Province, Ubonrat Pinket, 47, from Ayudhaya, Pornpan Poolpakdee, 25, from Phuket, and Wong Mun Bin, 27, from Malaysia.At a press conference, Deputy Commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau Pol Maj Gen Suchat Muankaew explained, “They were arrested at a…
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Horton killers to be sentenced Wednesday
SURAT THANI: Wichai “Loh” Somkhaoyai, 24, and Bualoi Kosit, 23, the two men accused of raping and murdering 21-year-old Welsh student Katherine Horton on Koh Samui on the night of January 1, appeared in court here today. Both pleaded guilty to rape-murder charges under sections 276 and 277 of the Thai Penal Code, which stipulates either life imprisonment or the…
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B253m budget approved for Phuket tourism
PHUKET: The Cabinet has allocated a 253-million-baht budget to Phuket for the development of tourism in 2006, the Governor’s Office announced yesterday.Krabi received 284 million baht and Phang Nga 252 million for the same purpose.Phuket had proposed several projects requiring additional funding that were turned down by the central government, including two major efforts: burying power cables along the beachfront…
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MoI to consider Thai nationality for 2,000 people
PHUKET: The Ministry of Interior (MoI) has set a deadline of January 20 for Governors of tsunami-affected provinces to submit applications for Thai nationality from an estimated 2,180 people who may qualify for nationality but who have not yet applied.The estimate was arrived at after research conducted by local officials in June last year, as part of a drive to…
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Get your smart card: Mayor
PHUKET CITY: Phuket City Municipality is now offering “smart card” ID cards, providing citizens with a replacement for old identification cards. Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwannasuppana, explained at a press conference yesterday, “People who have a valid ID card can request a smart card by submitting their existing ID card and a copy of their house registration. “A 40-baht fee…
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Monorail project would cost B20bn – consultant
PHUKET: A consultant to the Phuket Provincial Government said today that his company estimates that a proposed monorail light rail transit (LRT) system linking Phuket International Airport and Phuket City would cost 20 billion baht.Krai Tungsanga, President of Pyramid Development International Co (PDI), explained that a feasibility study into the LRT proposal began in October last year and will continue…
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Horton killers “had watched porn movie’
KOH SAMUI (The Nation, Phuket Gazette): The two fishermen who have confessed to raping and killing 21-year-old Welsh student Katherine Horton were drunk and had been watching a pornographic movie before swimming ashore to find a victim, the Deputy Police Commissioner, Region 8, Pol Maj Gen Santhan Chayanon, said yesterday.“They said they intended to find a woman to have sex…
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OrBorJor office broken into
PHUKET: The Division of Finance at the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) building was broken into over the weekend.Wannee Supradit, Director of the Division of Finance, told the Gazette that some OrBorJor officers work during weekends and that, on Sunday, she went to work earlier than usual because of a heavy workload.She said she noticed nothing untoward until a fellow…
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Property sales taxes topped B1bn in 2005
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Land Office (PPLO) collected 1.1 billion baht in property taxes and fees in 2005.The tax gathered has soared recently, thanks to booming land prices and sales of homes in property developments. By comparison, PPLO statistics show that the province collected 370 million baht from land and property sales in 2003, and 932 million baht in 2004.PPLO…
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Swiss man arrested on pedophilia charges
PHANG NGA (The Nation): A 53-year-old Swiss national, Bernhard Rudolf Hager, has been arrested and charged with pedophilia and illegal detention of three underage Thai boys, police said yesterday.The arrest came after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation provided Thai police with a photo taken from the Internet, which showed a foreigner molesting young Thai boys, police said.In the photo,…
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Enough water for high season, say officials
PHUKET: Rain over the past few weeks has boosted the volume of water in the Bang Wad reservoir to 5.5 million cubic meters, which is enough to meet expected demand until the end of May, water officials believe.Isara Anukul, Chief of the Water Allocation Division of the Phuket Irrigation Office (PIO), noted, “Normally the rainy season arrives at the beginning…
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New Year road safety campaign ‘a failure’
PHUKET: Dr Wanchai Sattayawutthipong, Chief of the Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO), yesterday called the provincial road safety campaign over the holiday period a “failure”.Between December 29 and January 4, one man and one woman were killed and 90 people were injured in road accidents on the island.The PPHO had set “targets” of a maximum of four dead and 69…
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Four questioned in Horton murder probe
KOH SAMUI (The Nation/Phuket Gazette): Police detained four men last night for questioning as part of their investigation into the murder of Welsh university student Katherine Horton on this popular resort island. They also took DNA samples from the four, all employees of a resort close to the bungalow where Ms Horton, 21, was staying. Witnesses saw the men dining…
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Phi Phi construction ban eased
PHI PHI ISLANDS: The government has finally allowed construction of tsunami relief homes on Koh Phi Phi Don, along with temporary structures so that locals may conduct business.Phankam Kitithorakul, Chairman of the Ao Nang Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor), the local authority responsible for the Phi Phi Islands, told the Gazette, “[It is] lucky for us that I had the chance…
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Thalang man stabbed to death
THALANG: A young Thai man was stabbed to death in the early morning of January 2 at Baan Li Porn. A motive for the murder has not yet been determined.The police received a phone call at around 1 am from a local citizen saying that a man had been stabbed in front of the car tire store Baan Li Porn…
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Briton fined for having handgun
THALANG: Englishman Adam Douglas, 52, was arrested on December 30 after taking a .38 revolver loaded with five rounds into a restaurant near Wat Sri Soontorn on Thepkrasattri Rd.Pol Col Chinrat Rittakananon, Superintendent of Thalang Police Station, told the Gazette police visited Mae Khin Restaurant during their routine daily patrol to ensure that local venues closed at 1 am.Douglas was…
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One killed and 67 injured over New Year
PHUKET: One man was killed and 67 people were injured in road accidents in Phuket over the New Year celebrations.The fatal accident occurred at 4:30 am in Chalong on December 31 when a motorcycle collided with a pickup truck. The motorcyclist, Suwit Mumngen, was killed instantly.Siriporn Sasu, an officer with the Phuket Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM), told…
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