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Phuket Air to dump London for Amsterdam
BANGKOK: Phuket Air is to axe direct flights between Bangkok and London, citing the impending low season, and will be replacing the route with a new service between Bangkok and Amsterdam.The airline’s marketing and communications manager, Krona Visutrasai, told the Gazette the London flights had been “suspended temporarily”, and that the company intends to reintroduce the route, but with a…
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Abbot defrocked for bad habit
NAKHON PATHOM: An abbot and well-known fortune teller was defrocked after offering to perform a lewd “good-luck” ritual on a young woman in a short-time hotel. The woman, 20, told police she had gone with her boyfriend to pay respect to the monks at Wat Maeng Mum Hill Temple (Temple on Spider Hill). While there, the woman’s boyfriend had his…
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Missing millions probe “making progress’
PHUKET CITY: Phuket City Police say they are making progress in the investigation into the alleged theft of 2.05 million baht in tsunami-relief funds from Phuket Provincial Hall – but have yet to name any suspects in the case. Phuket City Police Superintendent Pol Col Paween Pongsirin told the Gazette yesterday that his department would “clear up” the case before…
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US trade reps assess investment aid
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura met with US trade representatives and the head of the Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion (OSMEP) on Sunday to discuss ways in which the US private sector might assist in Thailand’s recovery following the December 26 tsunami. The talks focused on ways to channel private-sector investment from the US to affected businesses,…
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B1bn budget for three provinces
PHUKET CITY: Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi provinces will, between them, receive more than a billion baht from the government in their budgets for 2006.Phuket will receive 337 million baht, Phang Nga 335 million and Krabi 378 million – a total of 1.05 billion baht.Around 70% of the money – or 695 million baht – is earmarked for supporting the…
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Phuket girls scoop literary awards
BANGKOK: It was a moment for Phuket to be proud of: the two winners of the Southern Thailand round of the Second Junior Impac Dublin Literary Awards last night scooped all-comers in the overall competition for Thailand.Thipratri Saenkam, 18, and Ella Micheler, 17, won 10,000 baht apiece for their entries in the Southern Thailand round, topping a field of 69…
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Austria to fund health care center
PHUKET CITY: The government of Austria has pledged to spend 500,000 Euros – around 25 million baht – on establishing a health center for the fishing community of Tambon Rassada.Austria will fund the construction of the centre and provide money for staffing, too.The initial purpose of the center will be to improve the health of the fishermen and their families,…
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Patong tsunami warning system by end of April
PHUKET CITY: Dr Smith Thammasaroj, the chief of the investigation into the government’s handling of the December 26 tsunami disaster, has announced that three tsunami warning towers will be operational in Patong by the end of this month.Speaking at The Metropole hotel after a meeting with Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Deputy Chairman, Juthaporn Rerngronasa, TAT Region 4 Chief Suwalai…
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Patong nixes 100-day ceremonies
PHUKET: Patong Municipality has no plans to hold remembrance service on April 4 to mark the passing of 100 days since the tsunami, but services will take place in Kamala and at Wachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket City. Deputy Mayor Chairat Sukbal told the Gazette yesterday that he agreed with Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura, who has barred “ghost-laying” ceremonies after April…
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Work advice center to open in Patong
PHUKET: Phuket Provincial Employment Service Office (PESO) is to open a one-stop shop for advice on employment matters at Patong Hospital.Visitors to the center, which will open next Monday (April 4), will be able to study boards carrying information on jobs in Thailand and overseas, find out about training courses, speak with consultants about employment, work permit and social insurance…
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Shoppers urged to report cheating vendors
PHUKET: People who believe they have been ripped off by shops overcharging – and blaming the hike in diesel prices – are being urged to report the shopkeepers to the Phuket Internal Trade Office (PITO), on Tel: 1569.The office has also issued a checklist to help customers “Buy clever and save money” after the price of diesel soared by 24%,…
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Danish royals to visit Phang Nga
PHUKET CITY: Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and his Australian-born wife, Crown Princess Mary, accompanied by Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and his wife Anne-Matte, are to visit Phang Nga on April 15 and 16.The party will inspect areas devastated by the December 26 tsunami and take part in a memorial service for those who died.Mr Anders Rasmussen has…
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China Dolls to play free Patong concert
PATONG: Thai pop stars the China Dolls and Japanese popsters Day After Tomorrow will play a free concert at Loma Park, on Thaweewong Rd, tomorrow, from 7 pm to 8:30 pm.The concert, organized by the Phuket office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand and major Japanese tour operator HIS, is being held to attract tourists to Phuket.The concert will be…
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Massive casino for Phang Nga Bay
PHANG NGA: In a development likely to be disturbing to some, the government announced this morning that Phang Nga Bay is to become the site for Thailand’s first legal casino.The announcement was made following a hastily-convened session of Cabinet in Bangkok late yesterday evening, at which ministers agreed to invest a whopping 30 billion baht in the mega-facility. It will be built…
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Fishermen to strike over fuel price hike
PHUKET: Members of the Phuket Fishery Association will join a national work stoppage starting Monday (April 4) in protest at the 19% rise in diesel oil prices that came in on March 23. Association Chairman Somyot Boonyakul today told the Gazette that the diesel price hike – coupled with the already high price of regular gasoline – simply makes it…
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Gov calls for greater urgency in tsunami plan
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura has ordered the provincial branch of the Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM) to speed up its coastal evacuation planning and work more closely with local government bodies in order to prevent a repeat of the confusion that followed last Monday’s tsunami alert. Gov Udomsak made the call at yesterday’s monthly meeting of…
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Crackdown on crime for Songkran
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Police have revealed plans to keep crime and disruption during the Songkran holiday period to a minimum.Phuket City Police Superintendent Pol Col Paween Pongsirin told the Gazette that the Government has set a target of a 15% reduction in the number of accidents compared with last year, so there will be a crackdown on motoring offences.Col Paween…
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Thai, German scientists discuss tsunami topics
PHUKET CITY: Thai and German marine geologists gathered at the Royal Phuket City Hotel today for a seminar on a variety of tsunami-related topics.The three-day seminar, from March 29 to 31, covers such topics as sea floor mapping, bathymetric surveys, numerical modeling of tsunami events, seismic surveys of the Andaman Sea, marine ecology and coastal management for handling disaster. Speakers…
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Sixes cricket starts on seventh
KARON: The Lighthouse Phuket International Cricket Sixes tournament gets underway on April 7 at Karon Municipal Stadium. The 18 teams taking part in this year’s tournament include Gauhati Town Cricket Club from India, Lamma CC from Hong Kong and PALPA CC from Pakistan, as well as the Perth Postels and the Warathais from Australia. Local teams include the Green Man…
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UK policeman dies in road smash
TAKUA PA: A British police officer who was a member of the the UK’s Disaster Victims Identification (DVI) team working in Phuket died yesterday in a minibus crash in Phang Nga. Two of his colleagues were seriously injured.The accident happened around 4pm yesterday, when the minibus in which the three officers were travelling was in collision with a Phuket-Bangkok tour…
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40 families get new homes
PHUKET: Forty families left homeless by the December 26 tsunami took possession of new homes yesterday morning during ceremonies at Koh Sireh’s Laem Tukkae and along Klong Pak Bang, at the southern end of Patong Beach.At the Sea Gypsy Village at Laem Tukkae, 24 Sea Gypsy families moved into new permanent dwellings at a ceremony presided over by Governor Udomsak…
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Senators slam banks, bureaucrats
PHUKET CITY: A Senate fact-finding team has found that only half of businesses and individuals affected by the tsunami have received any financial assistance from the Government. For this they blame bank lending policies, red tape and unhelpful officials.The senators, about 20 in all, met for a seminar at the Royal Phuket City Hotel on March 26 to discuss problems…
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V/Gov appeals for massive donations
PHUKET CITY: Vice-Governor Winai Buapradit has requested hundreds of millions of baht, along with practical support, from foreign donors, the Thai private sector and the Thai government to help Phuket recover fully from the December 26 tsunami.During a meeting at Provinical Hall on March 24, V/Gov Winai outlined several situations in which the local authorities need help in putting right damage…
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Pre-Songkran re-opening for aquarium
AO MAKHAM: The Phuket Aquarium will reopen to the public on April 9, after being closed for renovations and improvements for two and a half years.The management is marking the reopening by offering free admission to all on April 9 and 10.Wannakiat Tubtimsang, Director of Phuket Marine Biological Center, which runs the aquarium, told the Gazette that 81 million baht…
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Anti-terrorist system in place soon
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Immigration should have a new international anti-terrorism database system in operation by mid-year, the head of Thai Immigration told a press conference this morning.Speaking at a gathering of provincial Immigration Police chiefs at the Phuket Immigration Office, Immigration Commissioner Lt Gen Amarin Niemskul announced that Phuket would be one of three pilot provinces to get the new…
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Not-so-lucky charm
PHAYAO: A Phayao man is behind bars after allegedly stealing the preserved corpse of a stillborn baby boy from Phayao Hospital to use as a lucky charm. Jakree Tiemkaew, a 35-year-old builder from Tambon Ban Dam in Muang District, was taken into custody on February 22 after he took the tiny corpse to a local glass cabinetmaker and asked to…
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Dengue outbreak reports “exaggerated’
PHUKET CITY: Dr Wanchai Sattayawutthipong, Chief Of Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO), today denied media reports that 100 people in Phuket have contracted dengue fever already this year, saying that only half that number had been confirmed as having the disease.A report by the state-run Thai News Agency (TNA), an arm of the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand, for example,…
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Patong plan takes a step forward
PATONG: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will fund a 200-million-baht project to improve road surfaces, sidewalks and drains along the beach road in Patong, it was announced yesterday.The announcement came during the third meeting of a committee set up to oversee redevelopment of Patong in the wake of the December 26 tsunami. The meeting, held at Patong Municipal offices…
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Mystery over murdered woman
RASSADA: Police are investigating the stabbing murder of an unidentified woman whose decaying corpse was discovered near the Sri Suchart Grand Ville 2 housing estate off the bypass road yesterday.Phuket City Police Investigator Pol Lt Col Tewet Preamsook told the Gazette today that the discovery of the body was reported in a telephone call by Chalong resident Arkom Na Takuatung…
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Farewell to ghosts
PATONG: A ceremony was held at Patong Beach yesterday to exorcize “sea ghosts” of people killed by the tsunami, in the hope that Korean tourists will be persuaded to return to Phuket.The ceremony was organized by the the Seoul, South Korea, office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).The Patong Beach ceremony was conducted by Korean medium Lee Hyo Nam.…
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