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Gov to push for expo center in Ao Phuket
PHUKET: Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura says he will ask the Cabinet later this month to approve plans for Phuket’s International Conference and Exhibition Center (ICEC) to be built in the proposed Ao Phuket development. “The estimated cost of reclaiming land in Ao Phuket is 1 million baht a rai, which is cheap compared with the price at which land in Phuket…
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Bamboo sharks released at Cape Panwa
CAPE PANWA: The Phuket Marine Biological Center (PBMC) and Phuket Provincial Administration Organization pooled their resources and released 99 Indonesian Bamboo sharks yesterday in a gesture to mark the birthday of HM King Bhumibol Adulyedej.The sharks – between six and 12 months old and measuring up to 50 centimeters long – were bred at the PMBC. Harmless to humans, these creatures…
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Mobile minimarts launched
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) yesterday unveiled some of the “mobile minimarts” which will sell “clean” food around the island in a 1.5-million-baht initiative to promote food hygiene among vendors and buyers.Phuket Technical College worked with the OrBorJor to design a stainless steel rust-free minimart attachment for motorbikes, at a cost of 23,000 baht each.OrBorJor President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr…
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Gov mediates in spa tax dispute
PHUKET: Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura has agreed to ask the Finance Ministry to review the controversial 10% excise tax on spas, following a meeting on the issue held at his office this morning. Gov Udomsak chaired the meeting, which was attended by Phuket Spa Business Club Chaiman Pakin Raktae-Ngam, who is leading the opposition to the tax, and Supatra Horsrisumpun,…
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Phuket “should be special admin zone’ – NIDA
PHUKET: A group of researchers from the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida) today argued in favor of Phuket being turned into a special administrative zone with an elected Governor. At a seminar at the Phuket Merlin Hotel today, the Nida research team, led by Juree Vichit-Vadakan, said that results of a survey they conducted showed that 83% of 298…
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On a wing and a prayer
PHUKET: People in Phuket have made more than half a million origami birds to be sent to the troubled southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat as part of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s unusual peace initiative.Nationally, more than 80 million of the origami birds have been collected. They will be taken by aircraft and scattered over the three provinces – which…
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Three arrested over murder of laborer
PATONG: Police have arrested three men for the murder of Boonsong Sulaopa, a 31-year-old construction worker from Loei, whose body was found dumped in a ditch near Laem Daeng Beach, between Patong and Kamala, on November 24.Pol Capt Sophon Borirak, of Kathu Police Station, said that police had charged Pacheun Muangnontasri with murder, while his brother Boonjan and fellow laborer…
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Plan now or face problems, Phuket warned
PHUKET CITY: The Deputy Secretary General of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB), Santi Bangor, today warned that without proper planning Phuket may face growing environmental problems.The island’s official population is 270,000, he said, but some 200,000 other people live here unregistered, and Phuket also gets some four million tourists a year.This means, in effect, that Phuket has…
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Gamblers still top crime stats
PHUKET: Gambling topped the latest Provincial Police crime statistics, for the period November 1 to 25, with 172 people arrested for playing illegal games of chance, 29 of them caught buying or selling underground lottery tickets. Some 73 people were arrested on drug-related charges, with 27 arrests involving ya bah (methamphetamine) and 261 pills seized. The remaining 46 drug-related arrests…
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Copy of giant Buddha cast
PHUKET: Work began yesterday on a smaller version of the controversial Mingmongkol Buddha, as the committee behind the project sought to dispel allegations that brass donated to the project had “disappeared”.Rumours have been circulating that more than 12 tons of brass earmarked for the massive image atop the Nakkerd Hills in Karon, had gone missing.The head of the project committee,…
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Date set for Jantra murder trial
PHUKET CITY: The Phuket Provincial Court has set an inital date of January 24 for the trial of Briton Michael John Taylor, 40, who is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Jantra Weangta, in August.Taylor has already pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. The court initially set an earlier date for the trial, but Mr Taylor asked the court for…
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Pracha unmoved by Patong pleas
PHUKET: Venues in entertainment zones in Phuket must close at 1 am, tourist destination or no tourist destination, Deputy Minister of the Interior Pracha Maleenont has declared.The deputy minister was responding to a request from the Patong Entertainment Business Association (PEBA) to be allowed to stay open until 2 am.Speaking yesterday to Thai Rak Thai parliamentary candidates Sriyada Palimapan and…
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New law for hotel operators
PHUKET CITY: Hotel and guesthouse owners have been informed of regulations governing the industry, expected to come into force in mid-January after HM the King signs them into law.Nilubon Tantichupan, Secretary General of the Thai Hotels Association (THA) Southern Chapter, told THA members gathered at The Metropole hotel that the new Hotel Act will cover many aspects of hotel ownership…
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Shortage of monitors for general election
PHUKET: Just over two months before Thailand’s general election is due to take place, Phuket still does not have enough observers to monitor the polling to ensure that it is clean, one of Thailand’s four Election Commissioners revealed yesterday.“This is a big problem,” the Commissioner, Prinya Nakchudtree, told local authority officials gathered at Phuket Municipality.K. Prinya said the shortage of…
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Blaze damages eight shophouses
KARON: Eight shophouses near the Central Waterfront Tower in Karon were damaged yesterday afternoon in a fire that caused damage estimated at around 10 million baht.Some of the three-story buildings in the row were still under construction and the fire is believed to have started when electricians welding steel in one of the houses dropped sparks into a can of…
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Storm turns into damp squib
PHUKET: Tropical Storm Muifa, which killed some 65 people in the Philippines and was expected to hit Surat Thani, bringing wet and windy weather to Phuket, veered to the north yesterday evening and made landfall in Chumphon.The storm, which had weakened to a tropical depression by the time it hit the Thai coast, dumped heavy rain on the east coast…
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Burmese found with throat slashed
PHUKET CITY: The body of a Burmese fisherman with a three-inch gash across his throat was found in the Rassada Port area on Tuesday.Pol Maj Watcharin Jirattikarn, Inspector of Phuket City Police Station, said he received a phone call from local Thai residents informing him that a body had been discovered near the fishing port.Police officers arrived at the scene…
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Visitors to Phuket up by 10pc
PHUKET CITY: Around two million tourists visited Phuket between January and June this year – an increase of more than 10% on the same period in 2003 – according to the Director of the Phuket office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Suwalai Pinpradab.This year’s visitors brought around 38 billion baht into Phuket, around 4 billion more than during…
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Tropical storm may bring heavy weather
PHUKET: Tropical storm Muifa, which took the lives of at least 65 people when it passed over the Philippines last weekend, is in the Gulf of Thailand and the storm center is expected to make landfall around Surat Thani or Nakhon Sri Thammarat early tomorrow morning. Vichit Phuangsombat, Director of the Southern Meteorological Center (West Coast) told the Gazette that…
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Spas rally against 10% excise tax
PHUKET CITY: Pakin Raktae-Ngam, Chaiman of the Phuket Spa Business Club, today lashed out at the 10% excise tax levied on spas, saying that if his spa is forced to pay the tax, he would register it as a massage parlor.K. Pakin’s strong comments were made at a protest against the tax by some 200 owners and managers of spa…
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Deputy PM nixes underpasses plan
PHUKET: Two underpasses on the bypass road will not be built in the immediate future, Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop has announced.During his recent visit to Phuket, K. Suwat said the proposals for the underpasses – at the notorious Samkong and Darasamut School intersections – will not even be considered until the widening of the bypass road is completed in September…
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Russian star for Paradorn tour
PHUKET: Rising Russian tennis star Anna Chakvetadze has been confirmed as one of the players in the 2004 Paradorn Super Tour which stops off at Laguna Beach Resort next weekend (November 27 and 28).Chakvetadze, 17, replaces Karolina Sprem, who is suffering from a persistent viral infection.Moscow-born Chakvetadze, who will play singles and mixed doubles matches against Tamarine Tanasugarn, defeated French…
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Patong Tower apartments up for auction
PATONG: Eighty apartments in the tallest building by far in Phuket, Patong Tower, will come under the auctioneer’s hammer on December 12, some 13 years after planning permission for the 32-story block on Thaweewong Rd was first given. Siripong Chechang, chief of the Public Works Department of Patong Municipality, today addressed concerns by some potential buyers that the building was…
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Murdered tourists’ parents in disbelief
BANGKOK (The Nation): The parents of British backpackers Vanessa Arscott and Adam Lloyd, who were murdered by an off-duty police sergeant in Kanchanaburi province in September, have reacted with fury at the “secret” release of the policeman on bail.They now plan to fly to Bnagkok to meet with, among others, the Ministry of Justice and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.A…
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Expo Center dithering continues
NAI YANG: A meeting called yesterday by Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop shed little new light on the continuing saga of where Phuket’s proposed International Conference and Exhibition Center (ICEC) will be sited.The Deputy PM chaired the meeting, at the Pearl Village Hotel at Nai Yang Beach, held to discuss the progress of various government policies on the island.At the…
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Couple “make wedding history’ at Kata viewpoint
KATA: Bride Amanda Gudgin and groom Steve Hancock, from Melbourne, made a small bit of history at 4 pm yesterday, when they were wed at the Kata viewpoint.Ms Hancock, in a traditional white wedding dress, explained to the Gazette that her family used to live in Hong Kong. “We have been regular visitors to Phuket since 1977,” she said.Her father,…
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Gunfight gangsters charged
PHUKET CITY: Phuket City Police have charged four youths in connection with a gunflight in Phuket City centre two weeks ago.The fight took place outside Phuket Grocery Co, near Robinson department store in the early hours of October 31.After a tip-off from an informant, police arrested Natee Srisamut, 20, and Niwat Sae-tan, 19, along with two youths aged 16 and…
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500 pray for peace in troubled South
PHUKET CITY: About 500 people, including local leaders of the major faiths in Thailand, held a mass session yesterday to pray for peace to return to the troubled provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.The congregation gathered at Phuket Provincial Hall in support of the government’s call for mass prayer, which Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura explained was inspired by HM Queen Sirikit’s…
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US donates anti-terror gear
PHUKET CITY: As part of its fight against terrorism, the US Department of Defense has donated anti-terrorism equipment worth about 2 million baht to Royal Thai Police Region 8, which includes Phuket.In a ceremony at Phuket Provincial Police Headquarters this morning, David Turner, Chief of the US Defense Department’s Force Protection Detachment at the US Embassy in Bangkok, presented the…
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Bangkok “monitoring early closing’
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura has said that the government is monitoring reaction to its controversial early-closing policy for entertainment venues, but that it is still “early days”.Speaking at his regular press conference at the Provincial Hall on Monday, the Governor also stressed that he did not have the power to alter the rules for Phuket.Since September, entertainment venues…
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