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Filipino fisherman’s death a “mystery’
PHUKET TOWN: A Filipino crewman was found dead at the fishing port near Phya Thai Hospital on Si Sena Rd, Phuket Town, on Monday evening. Though the body was naked when it was discovered floating in the water, a Taiwanese fishing boat skipper at the port identified it as that of Caderlon Ronelo, 26, who had worked for him. He…
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PM opens Board of Investment Fair
BANGKOK (AFP): Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai was today due to open the two-week Board of Investment Fair 2000, designed to convince the world that the Thai economy has turned the corner and to lure foreign investors to bolster the recovery. The government is touting the fair, which opens to the public tomorrow and is expected to draw between three million…
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One killed, one hurt in head-on collision
KARON: A Thai woman was killed and a Danish tourist hospitalized when their motorcycle was hit by a car on the Karon sea front yesterday. Police said that Chutima Katekae, 21, on the back of the bike, and the driver, named by Phuket International Hospital as Walther Marc, were riding toward Karon from Kata in the early hours of the…
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Russian girl mauled by leopard
PATTAYA (AFP): A 19-year-old Russian girl mauled by a leopard in a theme park here has demanded US$15,000 to pay her medical bills, police said today. Irena Biliard filed a complaint with police after she suffered seven deep cuts on her left hand and arm when the leopard attacked her, a police spokesman said. He said she had apparently been…
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Locals beat TV stars in soccer friendly
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket All Stars’ Anurak In-Ting scored a hat trick and put away a penalty kick for good measure to help his team demolish 168 Hours, a scratch team of visiting TV and entertainment stars. The match, at Surakul Sport Stadium yesterday, drew more than 800 spectators, most of them screaming teenage girls come to see their favorite singers…
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15 arrested for fake passports or visas
PHUKET: Police arrested 15 foreigners carrying fake passports or with fake immigration stamps in Patong, Karon, and Kata over the weekend. Pol Col Apirak Hongthong, recently appointed inspector of Phuket’s Immigration Office, said 12 of the arrests were made when his officers checked people selling clothing and fabrics on Patong beach. The other three were made on the beaches at…
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Three arrested for using fake passports
PHUKET TOWN: Three Indian nationals have been arrested by Phuket’s Immigration Police for using fake passports. The three, who were named as Vijay Kumar, 30, Rajeep Uma Mahajak, 31, and Narendar Agarwal, 26, were charged with using forged papers and with entering the country illegally. The arrests came as part of the continuing national drive to inspect foreign residents in…
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Road injuries up in 1999, but deaths down
PHUKET TOWN: The number of people injured in road accidents in Phuket in 1999 was 3% higher than in 1998, but the death toll fell by 6%. A total of 10,553 people were hurt in road accidents, 94% of whom were on motorcycles, up from 10,250 in the previous year. Motorcycles were also by far the biggest cause of road…
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Ten rebels die as commandos end hospital siege
RATCHABURI (AFP): Thai commandos launched a daring pre-dawn raid today to end a 24-hour hospital siege, killing 10 Burmese rebels and freeing their 500 hostages unharmed, officials said. “We were able to save all the hostages; we had to save them because they were patients,” the commander of the raid, Lt Gen Thaveep Suwannasingh, said. He said nine rebels were…
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Drug dealer shot dead in struggle with police
PHUKET TOWN: A drug dealer was shot dead yesterday in a struggle with narcotics police. A spokesman for Muang District Police Station said that undercover officers Sakarin Pookate and Paiboon Jantarin went to a house on Luang Por Wat Chalong Rd at about 1 am and asked Sarawuth ‘Yao’ Koysomboon, 29, to sell them some ya bah. Once the purchase…
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Myanmar dissidents seize Thai hospital
RATCHABURI (AFP): Heavily armed guerrillas from Myanmar dissident group God’s Army stormed a Thai hospital early this morning and took around 700 patients and staff hostage. Up to 20 fighters from the ethnic-Karen militia, which is led by two twin boys, stormed the hospital in the town of Ratchaburi, 123 kilometres (70 miles) west of Bangkok. Seven hours into the…
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German tourist caught with marijuana
NAI HARN: Police arrested a 41-year-old German tourist here on Saturday for possession of marijuana. The German, whom police named as Udo Euler, 41, was arrested shortly after midnight, when Chalong police received a report that there was a foreigner who “looked like a drug addict” walking on Nai Harn beach. The police went to the beach, where they stopped…
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Green Peace gets “up close and personal’ at Patong Beach
PATONG: Greenpeace (International) staged another rally today, but this time right on the beach in Patong. The event took place just two hours before the group left Phuket aboard the Rainbow Warrior at 1:00 pm. Others participating in the rally were Greenpeace (Thailand), the Phuket Environmental Protection Group, and the Federation of Southern Fisherfolk. Unlike the demonstration at the incinerator…
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Greenpeace stages demo at incinerator
PHUKET TOWN: Greenpeace (International) and Greenpeace (Thailand) staged a demonstration yesterday in front the incinerator plant at Koh Pii in Phuket Town. The 30 or so placard-carrying protesters started out from the Phuket Merlin Hotel, marching to a spot in front of the incinerator in Saphan Hin. There, they erected banners urging Phuket to shut down the facility. Organizers said…
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Thailand rocked by quake in Laos
BANGKOK (AFP): An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale rocked southern Laos and northern Thai provinces early today but no casualties were reported, Thai officials said. The epicentre of the quake was in a sparsely populated rural area of Laos, 160 kilometres (100 miles) to the northeast of Chiang Mai, Thailand’s northern meteorological center said. The tremor was felt…
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Fishermen arrested for illegal trawling
RAWAI: Chalong Police yesterday stopped four fishing boats and arrested their 16 crew members for fishing illegally in inshore waters. Yootthana Malakarn of the Phuket Fishery Department received an early-morning call from an informant to say that four fishing boats, thought to be dual-trawling, had been seen in the area between Maiton Island and Aow Island, to the south of…
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German tourist found dead in hotel room
NAI HARN: A German tourist was yesterday found dead, sitting in front of the dressing table in his hotel room. Pol Capt Sanae Panmee, Inspector of the Chalong Police Station, named the dead man as Jürgen Roland Preiss, 40. He had arrived in Phuket on January 11 for a two-week holiday and was staying at the Jungle Beach Resort in…
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Health Office to probe mystery “yellow rain”
PHUKET: People on Chao Fah Nok Rd have been astonished and not a little disturbed over the past 10 days by a stinking yellow rain that has fallen, apparently from the sky, for one or two minutes every evening. Samples of the yellow liquid, which falls over an area of about 100 meters in diameter, are to be collected this…
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Campaigning for provincial council heats up
PHUKET: Elections for 24 seats on the Provincial Administrative Council (OrBorJor) will take place across Phuket on February 5. With all seats being contested by at least two candidates, sound trucks have been out in force throughout the island, with campaign teams putting up posters and handing out candidate biographies and manifestoes to as many voters as possible. In Muang…
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Greenpeace ship to visit Phuket
PHUKET TOWN: The fabled Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior, will arrive in Phuket on Thursday to launch the environmental organization’s “Toxic Free” campaign. This will be the ship’s first visit to Phuket. Thara Buakumsri, a member of Greenpeace (Thailand), told the Gazette that the 55-meter vessel, carrying a multinational crew of 33, will arrive in the morning, tying up at…
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Two arrested for selling ya bah
PHUKET: Weerasak Tantiratthanapitak, 20, and Sunipol Boonnak, 24, were arrested in Phuket Town yesterday following a sting operation when they attempted to sell methamphetamine (ya bah) to plainclothes police. According to Pol Maj Amnuoy Kraiwootthinan of the Phuket Town Police Station, the police then went to the suspects’ apartment on Surin Rd. In the apartment they found 110 tablets of…
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Phuket in drive to stop whale shark killings
PHUKET: A move to protect whale sharks in Thai waters has been started in Phuket after reports of whale shark killings were brought to the attention of the local office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). “TAT Phuket was informed by dive operators that they had witnessed whale sharks being hunted several times during their dive trips. The animals…
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900 ya bah pills seized as police nab 3 dealers
PHUKET TOWN: Police revealed today that they arrested a woman and two men on January 4 on charges of possession of ya bah with intent to sell. They also seized more than 900 pills of the drug with an estimated street value of around 135,000 baht. Pol Lt Passakorn Sootthikul, of the narcotics division of the Phuket Town Police Station,…
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Police make reporting lost documents easier
PHUKET TOWN: Police here have opened three new booths to make it easier for local people and tourists to report the loss of documents. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the new booths are at the intersection of Phang Nga Rd and Phuket Rd; in front of Suan Luang Park on Chaofa Rd; and at the public…
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Patong bars raided for staying open late
PATONG: Kathu police raided several bars and nightclubs in Patong yesterday morning for staying open past the 2 am official closing time. Among the venues raided, said Pol Col Kokiat Wongwarachart, Superintendent of the Kathu Police Station, were Hollywood 99 Pub, Up-2-You Bar, Night Moves, Night Station, The Shark Club, VIP Bar, Chicago’s Fun Pub, as well as several other…
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Easy visas “are encouraging foreign criminals’
BANGKOK (AFP): The easing of visa restrictions as part of Thailand’s efforts to boost tourism has made the country an attractive base for international criminal gangs, officials said yesterday. Songkram Chuenpibal, deputy secretary of the National Security Council, said instituting a visa-on-arrival system for many countries allowed unwanted elements to filter through. “There are Mafia gangs, drugs-trafficking gangs and money-laundering…
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BBAP elects new committee
PHUKET TOWN: The British Business Association of Phuket (BBAP) held its first annual general meeting last night, at the Royal Phuket City Hotel. Members reelected Andy Dowden as chairman and Damian Barratt as treasurer. Paul Spring and William Pinsent were also reelected as committee members. Founder member and secretary Alan Cooke stepped down. On the recommendation of the outgoing committee,…
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Business registrations soared in 1999
PHUKET TOWN: Business confidence soared in Phuket last year, with the number of companies registering in the province leaping by more than 50% compared with 1998, and comfortably exceeding even the pre-Asian-Crisis levels of 1996. Figures compiled by the Phuket Commercial Registration Office show 505 limited companies were registered last year, compared with 332 in the previous year, 311 in…
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Thailand to consider lethal injection for executions
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand’s cabinet will tomorrow consider whether to introduce lethal injections for executions in response to mounting claims that the current use of firing squads is barbaric. “People are horrified that convicts are currently shot to death,” Deputy Interior Minister Vattana Asavahem told reporters this afternoon. The idea of lethal injections was floated in 1996 but never reached the…
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Finnish tourist arrested for overstaying visa
KARON: A 40-year-old Finnish tourist was arrested in Karon yesterday for overstaying his visa – by eight months. Pol Lt Teerawat Liumsuwan of the Chalong Police Station told the Gazette that the tourist, whom he named as Arto Mikel Kivela, arrived in Phuket from Finland on March 10 last year and stayed at the Sompit Bar in Karon Center. Having…
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