News
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Report slams attitudes on domestic violence
BANGKOK (AFP): Despite greater democracy and improving economic conditions, Thai women are increasingly at risk from domestic violence, social welfare activists warned today. “Nobody outside the non-governmental organization community is working on the issue. It’s a terrible situation … and the police do not take opportunities to improve their knowledge of the issue,” said Siriporn Skrobanek of the Foundation for…
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Farmers demand help with debts
BANGKOK (AFP): Ten thousand Thai farmers massed in Bangkok today, demanding government help in their battle to pay debts and a new push on agricultural reform. The demonstrators arrived in trucks from 17 northern provinces and congregated at the city’s Royal Plaza, close to Government House. “They want the government to pay off their debts and to solve problems over…
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CAT makes deep cuts in overseas call rates
PHUKET: The Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) has reduced the rates for overseas calls to 44 countries by as much as 35% (see table above). Voravit Vorapiboonpong, chief of the Phuket Telecommunications Center, told the Gazette that the rate reductions were introduced because the CAT wants to encourage more people to make overseas phone calls. The reductions will apply to…
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Drug bust nails big ya bah dealer’s brother
PHUKET TOWN: Police yesterday arrested a 30-year-old man who, they believe, had ambitions to take over from his brother as one of Phuket’s biggest dealers in ya bah (methamphetamine). The man, Seksan Tuambang, was arrested in possession of 200 tablets of the drug in a sting operation involving the dealer’s right-hand man, Mongkol Kantakarn, 19. Pol Maj Manat Iamchareonchaikul, Inspector…
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Construction worker’s death was ‘suicide’
THALANG: Local villagers yesterday found the body of a missing construction worker in woods behind the site near Thalang where the new Phuket Coastal Aquaculture Development Center is being built. Pol Capt Somkit Kaosung of Thalang Police Station named the dead man as Sunate Dokkemklong, 32, from Khon Kaen, and said that all evidence pointed to Sunate having committed suicide.…
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Dolphin found dying at Sansook Beach
PHUKET: Boys playing on Sansook Beach in Tambon Rassada found a female bottlenose dolphin dying yesterday evening. “She was still alive when the boys found her floating near the shoreline. They told us that they heard her cries first,” said Supoj Jantrapornsil, a technician at Phuket Marine Biological Center. The dolphin died on the beach not long afterwards. There was…
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Exchange firm robbed of 1 million baht
PHUKET TOWN: Two armed men stole a million baht from a currency exchange in Phuket Town yesterday. Pol Maj Sanya Thongsawas of Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that Parinya Sangrangchujit, 45, manager of the exchange operation, was counting money he had just withdrawn from a bank in Phuket Town, when two neatly dressed men rang the bell. The…
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Ya bah bust next to police station
CHALONG: Three men were arrested on Saturday for possession of ya bah (methamphetamine) at a house just 100 meters from Chalong Police Station. Pol Capt Chokchai Suttimek of the Chalong station told the Gazette that an unidentified man called the police and told them that a ya bah deal was going to take place at Ao Chalong Bungalow. Officers strode…
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Racha Yai auctions postponed
PHUKET: The sale by auction of two of the largest plots of land on Racha Yai Island, south of Phuket, which was initially scheduled for June 1, has been postponed to an unspecified date. Aran Sae-Lim of Harrison Auction Co Ltd, one of the two auction organizers (the other is Mel Giller & Associates), said he expects an announcement about…
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UK dialing codes change
BANGKOK: Telephone dialing codes in Britain have just been changed radically in what has been labeled “The Big Number Change”, the British Chamber of Commerce in Thailand reports. The changes entail the introduction of new telephone codes and local numbers for six locations: Cardiff, Coventry, London, Northern Ireland, Portsmouth and Southampton. There are also changes made to certain mobile phone,…
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Helicopter rescue fails to save woman
MAITON ISLAND: The Police Aviation Division’s helicopter flew to Koh Maiton on Friday to pick up a woman who had had a heart attack. She was rushed to a hospital in Phuket Town. Dr Boonrieng Chuchaisangrat, head of the Phuket Provincial Health office, told the Gazette that he had received a phone call from Maiton Resort at 6 pm on…
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Thai beaches disappearing quickly
BANGKOK (AFP): Some of Thailand’s most popular beaches are disappearing as man-made structures speed up coastal erosion, reports said today. A 115-kilometer (71-mile) stretch of beaches famed amongst Thais and foreigners since the reign of King Rama VI early last century has been severely eroded, the Bangkok Post reported. The resort regions of Hua Hin, Cha-am and Petchaburi, south of…
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Briton wins PEGS tournament
PHUKET: Andrew Marshall of the UK scored 42 points off of a handicap of 17 on Thursday, beating some 60 other players and winning the monthly Stableford tournament of the Phuket Expat Golf Society (PEGS). Second in the tournament, on the Blue Canyon Country Club’s Canyon Course, was American lawyer Brad Moore, a five-handicapper, who scored 39 points. South African…
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PINS opts for white knight solution
PHUKET: The Board of Directors of the Phuket International School (PINS) has decided to invite US-based Quality Schools International (QSI) to assume operation of the cash-strapped school. Although the decision was up to the directors, parents were asked for their opinions on five options. These were: – To affiliate with QSI; – To remain independent but raise fees to a…
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Head of child beggar racket arrested
PATONG: Tee Phan, 37, the kingpin of a child beggar racket, was arrested by Kathu police in Patong early yesterday morning. “Our motorcycle patrol was just checking along the beach road as usual. Then, around 1:30 am, we saw a group of child beggars in front of Patong Seafood Restaurant,” said Pol Capt Adinan Benchasamai. There was a crying boy…
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After corrupt poll, Thailand tries again
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand will make a second attempt Saturday to fill its upper house of parliament after a first round of voting under a new anti-corruption constitution was tainted by rampant vote buying. Twenty-six million voters will be called out in 35 provinces where winning candidates in the March 4 Senate polls were disqualified for cheating. But doubt has already…
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Korean tour guide arrested
CHALONG: Phuket tourist police yesterday arrested Gon Soo Lee, 33, for acting as a tour guide without a license. Lee, a Korean national who is a guide with Club Tour, was later released on bail. Pol Capt Chokchai Suttimek of Chalong Police Station told the Gazette that the tourist police arrested Lee while he was with clients at an elephant…
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Italian nurse arrested for theft
CHALONG: Angela Pucillo, 29, an Italian nurse, was arrested by Chalong Police on Saturday for stealing money from Mr Chijeo Inoo, a 29-year-old Japanese tourist. Pol Capt Thanate Poungmanee of Chalong Police Station said that Pucillo and Mr Inoo arrived in Bangkok on April 11 on the same flight. They decided to travel together. They took a bus to Phuket…
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Rapist caught in the act on Patong Beach
PATONG: A 19-year-old woman from Ayuthaya was raped on Patong Beach last Friday night. Pol Maj Sa-nguan Muangtam of Kathu Police Station said that at about 11 pm on April 21, Wanchai Teanprarooyai, a 33-year-old motorcycle taxi driver, reported that a girl was being raped in a tent toward the north end of the beach near Loma Park. Police went…
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Major land auction to be held in Phuket
PHUKET: Two of the largest land plots on Racha Yai Island will be up for public auction here in June. Racha Yai is located about twenty kilometers south of Phuket. The total area of the island is 1,700 rai (approx 680 acres). There are currently three resorts on the island: Ban Raya, Raya Executive, and Raya Resort. There is also…
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Key Buddhist date now a UN international day
BANGKOK: United Nations member countries have reached agreement that Buddhism’s Visakha Bucha Day will henceforth be recognized by those countries as an official UN “international day”. It marks the first time that the world body has established such a day based on religion. The announcement was made yesterday by the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the World Fellowship of…
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Panic after “corpse’ comes back to life
BANGKOK (AFP): A Thai man sparked panic when his body twitched as it was loaded into cold storage a day after he was pronounced dead, forensic experts said today. Aroon Chansawan, 75, collapsed at a nursing home near Bangkok late Tuesday and was declared dead after police officials failed to detect a pulse. His body was taken for an autopsy…
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Bus service launch delayed again
PHUKET TOWN: The date for the launch of Phuket Town’s first real bus service has been postponed for at least another month because PB Holdings, the operator, has not yet been able to find all the buses it needs. The launch of the service has been plagued with delays. Originally planned for May of last year, the date was pushed…
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Police deny Tamil Tigers report
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket Marine Police today denied a report in a major daily newspaper that they had recently checked and then released a speedboat that might have been used by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to transport supplies from Phuket to an LTTE base on an island nearby. The LTTE have been waging a long and bitter civil…
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Westerner’s body found in Suan Luang Park
PHUKET TOWN: The body of a Western man was found floating in the lagoon at Suan Luang Park on Chao Fa Nai Rd on Saturday morning. Pol Col Chalit Tintanee, Superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, said the man, as yet identified, is estimated to have been about 25 to 30 years old. He was about 180 centimeters tall and…
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Diesel smugglers arrested
PHUKET: Four Thais were arrested on Saturday evening on charges of smuggling untaxed fuel into Thailand, and 60,000 liters of low-grade diesel, worth about 180,000 baht, was seized from their vessel, the Look Kob. The vessel was also impounded. Pol Col Surapol Tuanthong, Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Thai Marine Police, said that the modified fishing vessel was stopped near…
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Chalerm denies masterminding assassination attempt
BANGKOK (AFP): The deputy leader of Thailand’s main opposition party denied masterminding the attempted assassination of a prosecutor who was allegedly investigating his sons, reports said yesterday. “A man like me does not need to hire anyone to kill someone else. I would do it myself,” the Bangkok Post quoted Police Captain Chalerm Yubamrung, deputy leader of the New Aspiration…
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On-the-ball bellboy bags burglar
KATA-KARON: The alertness of a bellboy at the Marina Cottage Hotel, who heard a guest-room door close when he knew that the family staying in the room were all at dinner, resulted in the red-handed arrest of a burglar. Pol Lt Teerawat Leamsuwan of Chalong Police Station told the Gazette, “The guests staying in the room that was burgled [a…
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Kao Mai Party denies election accusations
PHUKET TOWN: The OrBorJor Kao Mai Party, which swept into power in the Provincial Administration Organization elections (OrBorJor) on February 4, today denied in court accusations leveled at it by the losers in the election, the Pattana Tongtin Party. In the first hearing into the accusations, the Phuket Provincial Court this morning heard the charges filed by 10 of the…
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Health warnings issued as rains approach
PHUKET: With the rainy season approaching, the Phuket Health Office has issued warnings about the increased risk of dengue fever and malaria. The office recommended using an insect repellent to ward against the mosquitoes that spread dengue fever and malaria. Cases of dengue in Phuket have receded sharply over the past year. Dr Boonrieng Chuchaisangrat, chief of Phuket Health Office…
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