News
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Thai, German scientists discuss tsunami topics
PHUKET CITY: Thai and German marine geologists gathered at the Royal Phuket City Hotel today for a seminar on a variety of tsunami-related topics.The three-day seminar, from March 29 to 31, covers such topics as sea floor mapping, bathymetric surveys, numerical modeling of tsunami events, seismic surveys of the Andaman Sea, marine ecology and coastal management for handling disaster. Speakers…
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Sixes cricket starts on seventh
KARON: The Lighthouse Phuket International Cricket Sixes tournament gets underway on April 7 at Karon Municipal Stadium. The 18 teams taking part in this year’s tournament include Gauhati Town Cricket Club from India, Lamma CC from Hong Kong and PALPA CC from Pakistan, as well as the Perth Postels and the Warathais from Australia. Local teams include the Green Man…
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UK policeman dies in road smash
TAKUA PA: A British police officer who was a member of the the UK’s Disaster Victims Identification (DVI) team working in Phuket died yesterday in a minibus crash in Phang Nga. Two of his colleagues were seriously injured.The accident happened around 4pm yesterday, when the minibus in which the three officers were travelling was in collision with a Phuket-Bangkok tour…
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Body in sea ‘probably a foreigner’
PHUKET: The body of an unidentified man, probably a foreigner, was found floating in the sea about one mile south of Laem Promthep yesterday. The gruesome discovery was made at about 11 am near Koh Kaew Pissadarn by fisherman Sanée Kreasang, 41.Pol Maj Chana Suttimath of the Chalong Police Station told the Gazette the man was at least 30 years…
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Senators slam banks, bureaucrats
PHUKET CITY: A Senate fact-finding team has found that only half of businesses and individuals affected by the tsunami have received any financial assistance from the Government. For this they blame bank lending policies, red tape and unhelpful officials.The senators, about 20 in all, met for a seminar at the Royal Phuket City Hotel on March 26 to discuss problems…
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V/Gov appeals for massive donations
PHUKET CITY: Vice-Governor Winai Buapradit has requested hundreds of millions of baht, along with practical support, from foreign donors, the Thai private sector and the Thai government to help Phuket recover fully from the December 26 tsunami.During a meeting at Provinical Hall on March 24, V/Gov Winai outlined several situations in which the local authorities need help in putting right damage…
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Pre-Songkran re-opening for aquarium
AO MAKHAM: The Phuket Aquarium will reopen to the public on April 9, after being closed for renovations and improvements for two and a half years.The management is marking the reopening by offering free admission to all on April 9 and 10.Wannakiat Tubtimsang, Director of Phuket Marine Biological Center, which runs the aquarium, told the Gazette that 81 million baht…
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Phuket on high alert, but no tsunami
PHUKET: Seaside towns and villages around Phuket were evacuated last night after warnings from the Meteorological Department that there was a high possibility of another tsunami hitting the island. The warnings came after a massive earthquake jolted Sumatra, just 200 kilometers from the site of the temblor that caused the tsunami on December 26 last year. That wave killed an…
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Not-so-lucky charm
PHAYAO: A Phayao man is behind bars after allegedly stealing the preserved corpse of a stillborn baby boy from Phayao Hospital to use as a lucky charm. Jakree Tiemkaew, a 35-year-old builder from Tambon Ban Dam in Muang District, was taken into custody on February 22 after he took the tiny corpse to a local glass cabinetmaker and asked to…
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Dengue outbreak reports “exaggerated’
PHUKET CITY: Dr Wanchai Sattayawutthipong, Chief Of Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO), today denied media reports that 100 people in Phuket have contracted dengue fever already this year, saying that only half that number had been confirmed as having the disease.A report by the state-run Thai News Agency (TNA), an arm of the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand, for example,…
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Patong plan takes a step forward
PATONG: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will fund a 200-million-baht project to improve road surfaces, sidewalks and drains along the beach road in Patong, it was announced yesterday.The announcement came during the third meeting of a committee set up to oversee redevelopment of Patong in the wake of the December 26 tsunami. The meeting, held at Patong Municipal offices…
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Your police force needs you!
PHUKET: The Tourist Police are hoping to recruit 100 people, including foreigners, to complete a weekend-long course and become volunteer tourist police officers, capable of safeguarding the wellbeing of tourists.Phuket Tourist Police inspector Pol Maj Bundit Khaosutham told the Gazette that the course would cover topics such as first aid and how to spot con men and others who might…
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Farewell to ghosts
PATONG: A ceremony was held at Patong Beach yesterday to exorcize “sea ghosts” of people killed by the tsunami, in the hope that Korean tourists will be persuaded to return to Phuket.The ceremony was organized by the the Seoul, South Korea, office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).The Patong Beach ceremony was conducted by Korean medium Lee Hyo Nam.…
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Smiling girl from Bangkok is “Miss Phuket’
PHUKET: A 19-year-old from Bangkok was last night named the “People’s Choice” out of the 44 young women competing to be named Miss Thailand Universe 2005.A total of 864 members of the 2,000-strong audience of VIPs at Phuket FantaSea voted for Nootsara “Jum” Suknamai to win the “Miss Phuket” award, after seeing all the contestants model batik and Yahya (Phuket-style)…
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Prince Andrew to visit Phuket
PHUKET: HRH Prince Andrew, fourth in line to the British throne and Britain’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment, is due to visit Phuket on April 25 and 26 after attending Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan.The announcement was made by Phuket Vice-Governor Niran Kalayanamit following a meeting with representatives of the British Embassy and Buckingham Palace staff in Phuket…
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Tourists “will return in October’
PHUKET CITY: Panu Maswongsa, Vice-President of Marketing of the Phuket Tourism Association, has said that he expects the number of tourists visiting Phuket to return to normal by October, when European tourists start to come back in larger numbers.“The number of tourists [to Phuket] will not increase in the immediate future because we are now entering the low season, but…
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More rain on the way
PHUKET: Parched Phuket can expect more rain this afternoon (Tuesday) after a heavy shower of about 30 minutes yesterday, mostly around Thalang and the airport.The director of the Southern Meteorological Center (West Coast), Vichit Phuangsombat, told the Gazette, “This [rain] is following the normal pattern of the rainy season in the South – the rain usually starts by the end…
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Second disaster warning system for Patong
PHUKET: Patong has been chosen as the pilot site for the government’s high-tech Early Warning System for disasters and will have three siren poles operational by the end of April, an official from the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology said today.The announcement was made at the Phuket Governor’s Office this morning by Manus Somsang, deputy chairman of the sub-committe…
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Beauties and the four-wheel beasts
PHUKET: Demonstrating that there’s more to a beauty queen than good looks, the 44 competitors in the Miss Thailand Universe 2005 indulged in a little pistol shooting, raced all-terrian vehicles and rode on elephants.The activities, filmed by Channel 7 TV for broadcast on March 26, the day of final of the contest, took place at the Phuket Shooting Range. Yesterday…
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Chalong death “was suicide’
CHALONG: Police have identified the body found hanging from a rubber tree in Chalong in the early hours of yesterday morning as that of Wachara Rodklongtan, 21, who lived with his parents in a house in Soi Nakok, Chalong.Pol Maj Anek Mongkol, from Chalong Police Station, told the Gazette that K. Wachara is believed to have committed suicide. He disclosed…
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WTO calls for easier access to soft loans
PHUKET CITY: World Tourism Organization (WTO) consultant JK Robert England today called for more flexibility in providing soft loans to tourism-related small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the post-tsunami environment.Speaking after meeting with Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura, he said, “The government has been amazingly successful so far in response to an unprecedented problem. However, more things can be done, more…
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THAI offers packages to boost tourism
BANGKOK: The national carrier, Thai Airways International (THAI) today announced special domestic packages offered by its Royal Orchid Holidays subsidiary aimed at kickstarting the tourism-led economies of Phuket, Krabi and Trang Provinces following the tsunami.The “Southern Sun and Sea” round-trip packages will be available for departures from Bangkok to the three southern provinces with prices pegged at 5,000 baht per…
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Plea for Fiona to contact parents
TORBAY, UK: The parents of Englishwoman Fiona Hodgkinson – who is known to have arrived in Bangkok in February and indicated that she was planning to stay at the Siam Hut, near Bai Lan Bay (Lonely Bay) on Koh Chang – are asking for help in ensuring that she is safe. Ms Hodgkinson is 30 but looks younger. She is approximately…
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Miss Thailand Universe beauties touch down
PHUKET: Forty-four beauties – all entrants in the Miss Thailand Universe 2005 contest – arrived at Phuket International Airport today at the beginning of an arduous round of photo opportunities and public appearances aimed at promoting Phuket’s wobbly tourism market.Among the places the lovely ladies are set to visit are Wat Chalong, the Phuket Home for the Aged, Patong’s infamous…
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Immigration service on the move
PHUKET: The Immigration Department will launch a mobile service as part of its contribution towards boosting Phuket’s tourism industry.Throughout April and May, immigration officers will staff desks at the Sheraton Grande Laguna Phuket on Tuesdays and at the Kata Beach Resort on Thursdays – except on the April 12 and 14 Songkran public holidays.Phuket Immigration Superintendent Pol Col Witawat Buranasompop…
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Prognosis is knot good
PHUKET: Doctors at Patong Hospital were left scratching their heads over the mysterious case of a teenage construction worker who was admitted to hospital after vomiting a three-inch nail and a knotted length of string. After vomiting up the string and nail, 17-year-old Samorn Ngamphosri, from Buri Ram Province, was taken to Wachira Phuket Hospital, where an X-ray determined that…
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Krabi tsunami corpses transfered to Phuket
PHUKET: Ten refrigerated containers holding the bodies of tsunami victims from Krabi Province have been transfered to the cemetery at Mai Khao.Five containers holding 212 bodies were brought to Phuket on Sunday and the other five arrived yesterday. The temporary mortuary in Krabi has now been closed.The bodies, all of which are believed to belong to foreigners, will be kept…
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Police get training in handling bombs
PHUKET CITY: The Special Operations Unit (SOU) of Phuket Provincial Police are receiving some timely training in the use of blast suppression blankets – commonly known as bomb blankets – from Frank Boyd, a Supervisory Security Specialist with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service at the US Embassy in Bangkok. Pol Capt Charkrawat Buntaweekulsawat, the Chief of Phuket SOU, stressed that…
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Fed Cup tennis comes to Phuket
PATONG: A 4,000-seat tennis court will be built in Patong so that Phuket can host one of the Group II quarterfinals of the premier international women’s tennis competition, the Federation Cup, between Thailand and Croatia, on April 23 and 24.The Federation Cup is an annual team tennis competition. After round-robin play last year between 88 countries, 16 teams have won…
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Bypass project nears halfway mark
PHUKET: Motorists are asked not to be unduly alarmed by the sound of explosions as they travel along the bypass road to do their weekend shopping – it’s all part of the Government’s 111-million-baht project to widen Chalermprakiat Ror IX Rd to make for room for Phuket’s ever-growing number of vehicles. Boonyakiat Kongketyai, government engineer with the Highway Department and…
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