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Tourists witness murder of tuk-tuk driver
PHUKET TOWN: A horrified group of Western tourists watched helplessly as their tuk-tuk driver was shot dead by a hit-man in the road outside The Metropole hotel in Phuket Town on Saturday night. Prasit Petchkong, 56, from Phattalung province, had just picked up the group when two men on a black Honda Dream motorcycle with no license plates stopped nearby.…
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New Governor flies in tomorrow
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket’s new Governor, Charnchai Soontharamut, will arrive in Phuket tomorrow. He will be met at the airport by the province’s vice-governors and members of the local civil service before being whisked away on a tour of the island. But conspicuously absent from the airport greeting will be 60 of Phuket’s top movers and shakers. They leave tonight on…
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Phuket wins “Most Idyllic Island’ award
PHUKET: Condé Nast Traveller, one of the world’s premier consumer magazines, has named Phuket “Most idyllic island in the world” following a survey of its readers. Phuket came ahead of Pangkor Laut in Malaysia, Hawaii, Sardinia, Tobago in the Caribbean, Bali and Koh Samui.
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Thai wins country’s first surfing contest
KATA BEACH: Chalong Tonaus, 24, is no longer just a lad from Phitsanulok working as a beach boy in Patong. On Sunday, he became the first surfing champion in Thailand. Chalong was elated by his victory over some 50 other surfers in the Quicksilver Phuket Surfing Contest, organised by Aloha Surf Sports in cooperation with the Tourist Authority of Thailand…
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Patong may be first beach to have lifeguards
KATHU: Pol. Col. Kokiat Wongvorachart, Superintendent of Kathu Police Station, told the Gazette this morning that his unit is sponsoring two new tourist safety projects for the coming high season in Patong. The proposals are currently awaiting approval from the Ministry of Interior in Bangkok. Khun Kokiat says he is optimistic that approval, along with the required budget allocations, will…
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Rough seas for software pirate
BANGKOK (AFP) – A Thai-Japanese engineering firm has paid the largest ever out-of-court settlement in southeast Asia for the use of pirated software, a software industry alliance announced this morning. “This settlement sends a very clear warning: using pirated software carries high risks and will result in severe financial penalties,” said Heuy Tan of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) in…
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Phuket Town has “best police station in the South’
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Town Police Station has won a special award for being the best police station in southern Thailand, beating 111 other police stations in the seven provinces that comprise Police Region 8. The citation came as part of a nationwide drive by the Ministry of Interior to improve police operations in Thailand. Police stations were evaluated on…
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Qantas 747 accident closes airport runway
BANGKOK (AFP): One runway at Bangkok’s Don Muang Airport was closed today after a jet belonging to the Australian airline Qantas ploughed off the end of it while landing in heavy rain last night. None of the 410 passengers and crew aboard the plane was seriously injured, a Qantas spokeswoman said, but the Boeing 747 sustained damage to the nose,…
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Appeal for help in dugong preservation drive
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Provincial Forestry Office has issued an appeal for people to help in a national survey of dugong. The aim is to preserve these slow-moving, vegetarian, marine mammals. Dugongs are one of the 15 species of animals protected by Thai law, but their numbers have diminished significantly over the past few years, partly because of destruction of…
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Fruit seller charged with rape of child
PHUKET TOWN: A 53-year-old man has been arrested by Phuket Town police and charged with the repeated rape of a 13-year-old girl. The man was arrested after a Patong Beach food seller reported that her daughter had been raped a number of times by the man, a fruit merchant in the Patong area. The daughter told police that she had…
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Taiwan businessman robbed of a million baht
PHUKET TOWN: Police are investigating the theft on Saturday or Sunday of more than a million baht from a visiting Taiwanese businessman. The businessman, Ho Min Sun, 56, came to Phuket with his son and two friends to buy tuna for export to restaurants in Taiwan. All four stayed in the Daeng Plaza Hotel on Phang-Nga Rd. When he checked…
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Police “know who Supercheap killers are’
PHUKET TOWN: Police believe they now know the identities of the two men involved in the recent Supercheap murder-robbery, but are compiling more forensic and witness evidence before they can move to arrest them. Pol Col Chalit Thintanee, superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that he and his men are currently awaiting the results of forensic tests…
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Factory explosion kills 22, injures dozens more
CHIANG MAI, (AFP): At least 22 people were killed and dozens injured this morning when an explosion destroyed a Taiwanese-owned fruit factory in San Pa Tong, northern Chiang Mai province, police said. All of the victims were Thai. The blast ripped through a longan processing plant while 30 people were working in it. Bodies and charred equipment lay in the…
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Skal Golf event raises 125,000 baht for charity
CHERNG TALAY: The Skal Club held a highly successful golf tournament on Wednesday at the Banyan Tree Golf Club, raising 125,000 baht for charity. Forty-six golfers took part. A total of 65,000 baht was raised on the golf course, plus 4,000 baht from the dinner at the Whispering Cock pub following the tournament, 42,000 baht in an auction, and 18,000…
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Local team in shock defeat of national side
PHUKET TOWN: A scratch soccer team made up of players from Phuket and Chumphon beat Thailand’s national under-17 team 1-0 on Thursday, with a last-minute goal at the Saphan Hin stadium. The loss was a blow for the national squad, who are the Asian champions in their age group, and who preparing for the Under-17 Football World Championships in Napier,…
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Court told how Tong murder suspects were arrested
PHUKET TOWN: A senior policeman gave evidence in court today about the circumstances surrounding the arrests of four of the five people charged in connection with the 1997 murder of American businessman Danis Wayne Tong. On trial for the murder are Thais Manit Panme, Pratin Praktong, Prajuab Sukkong and Pairat Raksawong, and Belgian Hugo Vandervelde. Prosecution witness Pol Maj Sian…
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Film to be screened free to dodge censorship
BANGKOK (AFP): Organizers of the Bangkok Film Festival refused today to cut scenes from a controversial Dutch film and said they would hold free screenings in order to avoid violating a censorship law passed in the 1930s. Festival director Brian Bennett said he had been told by police that the film “Jesus was a Palestinian” would have to be cancelled…
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Microsoft battles to fix “very dangerous” bug
SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp is rushing to create a patch for flaws in its Internet Explorer web browser, versions 4 and 5, and in Outlook 98. These flaws allow anyone who has a website, or who can send email in HTML format, to upload instructions to the victim’s computer. Phuket-based computer expert Michael Jenselius said: “Anybody can do it through a…
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Police step up action against fuel smugglers
PHUKET TOWN: The Marine Police have stepped up checks on Thai-flag vessels in an effort to curb any rise in gasoline or diesel smuggling, following the latest increase in fuel prices. A further 30 satang per liter was added to fuel prices yesterday, the result of a combination of rising international oil prices and the falling value of the baht…
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Thailand to lead SEA force in East Timor
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand today agreed to a request from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that it lead the Southeast Asian contingent in the international force for East Timor, officials said. Thailand will take the post of deputy commander of the operation under Australia’s overall command, government spokesman Akapol Sorasuchart said. “Kofi Annan wanted to see Thai cooperation and involvement as…
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Patong takes different approach to dog killings
PATONG: Following the recent announcement by Phuket Municipality that it has launched a month-long drive to kill stray dogs, the Mayor of Patong, Pian Keesin, has told the Gazette that his town, too, is targeting strays, though its approach is somewhat different. “You see, Patong has a lot of tourists,” he explained. “If the officers want to kill stray dogs,…
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Prurience leads to arrest, charges”¦ and hospital
PATONG: A laborer who molested a Czech tourist early on Saturday morning ended up in hospital with a broken leg and the prospect of a prison sentence. Pol Col Kokiat Wongvorachart, Superintendent of Kathu police station, told the Gazette that the tourist, 20-year-old Jana Mikulasona, was staying in the Kalim Apartments with her American boyfriend. The two went out on…
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Slaughter of stray dogs begins
PHUKET TOWN: Dog owners in Phuket Town have been warned to keep their animals at home until the end of September as a drive to shoot stray dogs gets underway. Municipal employees, hunting in teams of four, will use darts fired from powerful air guns to kill any stray dogs found on the streets of Phuket Town. The carcases will…
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New source of funding for smaller firms
PHUKET TOWN: Amnuay Sanguannam, one of Phuket’s three vice-governors, today opened the newest branch of the Industrial Finance Corporation of Thailand (IFCT), at 18/15-16 Mae Luan Rd, Phuket Town. It will serve companies in both Phuket and Phang-Nga. Anothai Techamontrikul, the Bangkok-based president of the IFCT, said the Phuket branch was expected to approve 200 million baht in loans to…
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Thai woman in Kamala suicide
PATONG: Police were called to the Kamala home of a retired Western businessman yesterday after receiving a report that his girlfriend had committed suicide. Pol Lt Col Suchert Supmee told the Gazette that they found the body of 26-year-old Wannapa Pasom, from Nakhon Phanom, hanging by the neck from a belt attached to window security bars in the bathroom. The…
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Magic date sees boom in babies, car sales
PHUKET TOWN: The Thai for the number nine sounds like the Thai for “to advance” or “make progress”. So today – 9/9/99 – was a special day in Thailand, and very much so in Phuket. At hospitals babies were induced, or even delivered by Caesarian section, so that they would enter the world on this auspicious date. The director of…
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Police seize missiles destined for drug army
CHIANG MAI (AFP): Thai police today seized two surface-to-air missiles and a launcher allegedly destined for the largest Burma-based drug-trafficking organization, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), officers said this morning. Two Thai men arrested in Chiang Mai province allegedly told police they had bought the Russian-made SAM-7 missiles from Cambodian soldiers in the eastern Thai border town of Aranyaprathet.…
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Tourist Police boss appeals for help
PHUKET TOWN: The new Inspector of Phuket’s Tourist Police today appealed to the private sector for help in repairing the department’s two vans, eight cars and eight motorcycles. Pol Lt Col Chak Onnim – who moved to Phuket on August 23 from Chokchai Police Station in Bangkok, where he was in charge of investigations – explained that the hilly landscape…
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Supercheap employee killed in robbery
PHUKET TOWN: Jennarong Utoksaenee, 65, a Phuket-born employee of Supercheap, the warehouse store on Thepkrassatri Rd, Phuket Town, was shot dead in his car at 3 pm today by robbers who fled with around 1.6 million baht. Police said two men on a motorcycle came alongside the car outside the electricity substation near Supercheap. The passenger on the bike fired…
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Thai MP commits suicide in family feud
BANGKOK, Sept 6 (AFP) – A Thai member of parliament shot and killed himself this morning after a family argument over assets worth millions of dollars, police said. Hangthong Thamawattana, of the opposition Prachakorn Thai Party, apparently shot himself with a pistol after a row with his brother, Deputy Police Chief Pornsak Durongkaviboon told reporters. “Initial reports say he committed…
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