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Is cannabis really safe? Here’s what you need to know
Thai society’s views on cannabis continue to change for the better as the industry grows. More and more people are starting to embrace the plant for its medicinal and holistic wellness benefits. But despite growing acceptance, some stigma and perception...
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Sea World project a dead duck for now
CAPE PANWA: Phuket’s ambition to build a major tourist attraction around its sea life has been put on hold, indefinitely. The original plan was to build a “Sea World”, costing about 1.5 billion baht, as a major tourist attraction. The centrepiece of the facility would have been a huge three-storey-high, 2-million-litre aquarium with a glass tunnel running through it, allowing…
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Boxes on sale for Phuket Rugby Sevens
PHUKET: Organisers of the Phuket Rugby Sevens have announced that corporate boxes for the two-day international event are now available. The tournament takes place at Saphan Hin, Phuket Town, on July 3 and 4, and will feature top international teams from Asia and Europe. The boxes cost 60,000 baht and include 15 tickets and two meals per person per day.…
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Sun Vista sinks off Malaysia
PENANG: The luxury cruise liner Sun Vista, a familiar sight in the waters off Phuket, sank at 1:22 this morning after its engine room caught fire yesterday. The 210-meter ship, which was en route to Singapore with 472 passengers and 632 crew, went down about 60 nautical miles south of Penang. The Gazette understands that everyone on board was rescued…
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Inferno yacht to be salvaged
PHUKET: The Head of the Harbour Master’s Office has told the Gazette that the wreck of the yacht Catalina, which burned and sank in Chalong Bay in March, will be salvaged. Khun Soontree Hirunwan said that following talks with a representative of the Catalina’s owners, a salvage company has been contracted to raise the wreck in the coming week. Following…
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Chicken wholesaler shot dead
PHUKET TOWN: Chicken farmer and wholesaler Yunud Kayankit was shot in the head in the garage of his Koh Kaew home early yesterday morning. He died in the emergency room at Wachira Hospital. Phuket Town Police told the Gazette that Khun Yunud, 31, was shot twice, once in the left cheek and once in the forehead, as he prepared to…
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Poll: Most people want Soi Bangla closed to traffi
PHUKET: Just under two thirds of the voters in the latest Gazette online poll believe that Patong’s Soi Bangla should be closed to traffic and designated “pedestrians only”. But, interestingly, there was a considerable difference of opinion between foreigners and Thais. Participants in the poll were asked to vote on the statement “Soi Bangla should be closed to vehicles and…
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Fisherman finds unidentified corpse
THALANG: A fisherman yesterday found the body of an unidentified man in the water near Baan Tah Chat Chai. Police said the dead man was Asian, dressed in brown trousers and shirt. They estimated his age at around 25 to 30 years, and his height at about 1.6 metres. The corpse carried no identification, but police believe he may have…
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Emergency helicopter saves sick islander
ANDAMAN SEA: A police helicopter from Phuket braved stormy weather earlier this week to rush a woman with acute appendicitis from Koh Yao Yai to hospital in Phuket Town. The woman, 35-year-old Khun Sukanya Jittanavee, was whisked from the island to Phuket’s Wachira Hospital on Tuesday for emergency surgery, thanks to a new initiative by the Phuket Provincial Health Office…
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Phuket prepares for regional sports contest
PHUKET TOWN: The local office of the Sports Authority of Thailand is currently putting together the squad to represent Phuket in the “Four Ages Sports Against Drugs” tournament in Songkhla between May 29 and June 2. Khun Wirat Visuttarom, head of the office, explained that the purpose of the tournament is to promote sport, to build relationships between various groups…
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Rugby star’s wife hospitalised after accident
PHUKET TOWN: The wife of top Australian rugby player Kerrod Walters was rushed to the Bangkok Phuket Hospital in the early hours of Sunday (May 9) after an accident in a tuk-tuk near the Safari Club in Patong. Mr Walters told the Gazette that his wife Maureen, 31, was on holiday in Phuket with a friend, staying at the Patong…
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Pipe work begins on wastewater treatment system
PHUKET TOWN: Traffic on Mae Luan Road is likely to be disrupted for about three months from next Monday (May 17) as pipe-laying work begins on the second phase of Phuket Town’s sewerage system. The excavations will extend from the offices of Phuket Prevention Guard Co to the junction with Wichit Songkram Road. Phase 1 of the project, which involved…
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Mountain hikes to resume
PATTANI PROVINCE: Local authorities here have decided to repeat their successful eco-hikes to the top of Sankalakiri Mountain, the highest peak in southern Thailand. Over the course of two days and one night, hikers will be guided through the forest and to the top of the mountain. From the summit, 1,300 metres above sea level, they can look down into…
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Advice on spotting funny money
PHUKET TOWN: Khun Chaiyos Chinda-Udomset, president of the Phuket Commercial Banks Association, has offered advice on how the public can identify forged 1,000- and 500-baht notes that are circulating in Thailand. He said the fake bills are printed on thinner paper than the real ones, and the surface of the paper is more slippery than that of genuine notes. In…
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Taxmen on target for 2.5 billion baht
PHUKET TOWN: Halfway through the revenue year, (October 1, 1998 – Spetember 30, 1999), Phuket’s taxmen have collected almost exactly half their targeted tax. Against a budget of 2,459.496,000 baht for the full year, 1,233.884,000 baht, or 50.17%, had been achieved during the six months to March 30, 1999. All revenues are up apart from the Special Business Tax, which…
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Eleven dead of AIDS in past month
PHUKET TOWN: The government Health Office recorded 11 AIDS-related deaths in Phuket province during the month to April 20, and 30 new cases of full-blown AIDS. The new cases bring to 945 the number registered by the Phuket Provincial Health Department since it began keeping records of AIDS cases in January 1989. Of the 945 cases, 403 are, or were,…
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Bank officer testifies in Tong murder trial
PHUKET TOWN: The prosecution called a bank officer to the witness stand at the Phuket Provincial Courthouse today, in the resumption of the trial of five people charged in connection with the murder of businessman Danis Wayne Tong. Manit Panme, Prajuab Sukkong, Pairat Raksawong, Pratin Praktong and Belgian entrepreneur Hugo Vandervelde stand accused of taking part in a murder-for-hire scheme…
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Latest monthly road toll: 18 dead, 948 injured
PHUKET: Eighteen people died in traffic accidents in Phuket between February 20 and March 20. Khun Ampaipan Pawawattananusorn, the Professional Nurse at the Phuket Provincial Health Office, reported that according to figures from the three government hospitals — Wachira, Thalang and Patong – 948 people were injured on the island’s roads during the latest reporting period, some of them severely.…
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Tourists to get VAT refunds from June 1
PHUKET TOWN: From June 1, tourists buying goods in Phuket will be able to get the value added tax (VAT) on those goods refunded when they leave the country. Khun Annop Buakruen, Chief of the Phuket Provincial Revenue Office, explained that tourists will be able to get refunds at four airports in Thailand — Bangkok, Phuket, Haad Yai and Chiang…
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Murder trial testimony again delayed
PHUKET TOWN: Judge Amornpoj Kulwijit today postponed testimony in the murder trial of Nongnut Tungkaburi and Kraisorn Kamnoun. The two stand accused of participation in a murder-for-hire scheme in connection with the brutal stabbing death of 56-year-old British publican Roger Jennings at his home in Patong Hill Estate on December 15, 1997. The judge heard that the lawyer for one…
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Weatherman warns swimmers: Be careful!
PHUKET: The island’s top meteorologist has warned that people should be careful when swimming off Phuket’s beaches because of large swells generated by storms out at sea. Khun Amorn Chantanavivate, Director of the Meteorological Department, said a tropical depression over the South China Sea was causing storms in the region. He urged swimmers to check flags on beaches to see…
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Ministry boss gives progress the thumbs-up
PHUKET TOWN: A senior government official today gave Phuket his seal of approval for its progress in implementing projects funded by the central government. Khun Anand Tejavanija, Deputy Director-General of the Community Development Department of the Ministry of the Interior explained that he was visiting Phuket to check on progress in using the 2.15 million baht allocated by Bangkok for…
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Teams named for Phuket Rugby Sevens
PHUKET: The Thai Rugby Union has named 15 of the 16 teams that will compete in the Phuket Rugby Sevens on July 3 and 4 at Sapanhin Stadium. Negotiations to confirm the last of the 16 sides are continuing. Apart from Thailand, the sides already confirmed are: China, England, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Scotland, Singapore, Sri…
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Public meeting to discuss local elections
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Provincial Election Commission will hold a public meeting next Wednesday (April 28) to discuss local administration elections. Khun Kitipong Thienkunagrit, one of Phuket’s five Provincial Election Commissioners, said that the election commissioners and the legal advisory committee have completed a draft bill to cover the way local elections are to be handled. But since these elections…
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Fund to pump millions into democracy education
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket has received approval from the Miyazawa Fund to spend millions of baht educating people about Thailand’s new constitution. Though the exact amount to be spent on the five-month project is not yet finalised, it will involve hiring four coordinators at 8,000 baht a month each, and 96 educators at 5,000 baht a month each, for a total…
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Wettest March in 30 years
PHUKET: Rainfall in Phuket in March and the first week of April this year was the heaviest in 30 years, a government meteorological officer told the Gazette today. Khun Amorn Chantanavivate, Director of the Weather Forecasting Sub-Division of the Southwestern Regional Meteorological Center, reports that Phuket had 132.7mm of rain in March and 31.7mm in the first week of April.…
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Big rise in claims by traffic victims
PHUKET: Claims for compensation from the Government’s Traffic Accident Victims Fund have shot up in 1999. The fund, which is run by the Phuket Insurance Office, paid out 111,097 baht to 12 claimants in the first three months of the year. This compares with 150,085 baht for the whole of 1997 and 122,732 baht in 1998. The fund pays victims…
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Snake strikes foreigner in the Similans
SIMILAN ISLANDS: Australian Anthony Lynam was airlifted from the Similan Islands to Phya Thai hospital earlier this week after being bitten on the foot by a deadly Pope’s pit viper. Lynam, 34, was on a diving trip with Santana Diving Co of Patong when he decided to take a look around the local forest. Because of storms and high seas…
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Teenager dies after saving swimmer
BANGTAO: The Governor of Phuket Province, Chadej Insawang, is to make a posthumous award for courage to Patchya Dangkrajang, who died in heavy seas on Songkran Day after rescuing a foreigner who got into trouble swimming. The Governor is also expected to award 22,000 baht from public welfare funds to the family of the 16-year-old hero. Patchya, who was helping…
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Business registrations up 30% over last year
PHUKET TOWN: New businesses registered in the first quarter of this year show an increase of 30 percent over the same period in 1998, indicating a surge of confidence in the island’s economy. Khun Virachai Tantiwattanawanlop, Head Administrator of the Phuket Commercial Registration Department, told the Gazette that in the first three months of 1999, 163 new firms registered with…
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18 Dead, 862 Hurt In Traffic Accidents
PHUKET TOWN: Eighteen people were killed in traffic accidents between February 20 and March 19, and a further 862 were injured, according to figures from Phuket’s three government hospitals – Wachira, Thalang and Patong. Motorcycle accidents were to blame for the vast majority of deaths and injuries. Of the 18 dead, 16 were on motorcycles, while 787 of those reported…
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