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Hotels urged to watch for suspicious foreigners
PHUKET TOWN: The Deputy Commander of Phuket Provincial Police, Pol Col Apirak Hongtong, last night appealed for hotel and resort staff to be on the lookout for foreigners acting suspiciously, in order to aid police in solving crimes committed by tourists. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Thai Hospitality Club of Phuket, held at The Metropole hotel, Col Apirak…
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Phuket Town blackout postponed
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Provincial Electricity Authority has postponed the Phuket Town blackout scheduled for tomorrow (July 17). The blackout, from 9 am to 4 pm, will now be on Tuesday, July 22. The affected areas are: Montri Rd, from Phuket Post Office to Surin Circle; and Phang Nga Rd, from the Mazda showroom junction to the Sinthavee Hotel. Please…
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Beachside villagers resist expulsion
CHERNG TALAY: Villagers in Cherng Talay today called a press conference to demand fair treatment as a deadline set by Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi for them to vacate public land expired. On March 16, the Governor gave the villagers four months to quit the beach and other pieces of land near the Laguna resort complex after no records of ownership…
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Take a policeman home
CHALONG: Chalong police are now more visible around the clock in response to an increase in muggings in the Chalong, Rawai and Nai Harn areas. Pol Col Sati Malakanond, Superintendent of Chalong Police Station, told the Gazette, “It’s not just tourists that have been attacked. So have locals and foreign residents running businesses.” Police officers are now more visible at…
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Job losses mounting, but recovery on track
PHUKET: Latest figures indicate that the island’s recovery from the negative effects of Sars is on course but that more suffering may lie ahead before good times return. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) predicts that by December, total visitor numbers may be only slightly down on last year. Paradoxically, small businesses and workers continue to feel the after-effects of…
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TAT Deputy slams tourism restructuring
PHUKET TOWN: Following many complaints about delays in tourism business and tour guide registrations, the Deputy Director of the local Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office yesterday criticized the shift of responsibilities to Bangkok in the government’s latest restructuring efforts. As of July 1, as part of a move to place the TAT under the authority of the Sports and…
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No helmet, no hill: safety crackdown
PHUKET: Patong Hill has been chosen as the island’s first “Helmet Heaven”, with motorcyclists barred from it from next month unless they wear helmets. While details are still being worked out, Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi told the Gazette that riders traveling without helmets would be turned back at checkpoints on both sides of the hill, day and night. It is…
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Who needs a barbecue?
NAKHON NAYOK: Many people love the taste of charcoal-grilled food, but a young woman in Nakhon Nayok has taken her love for charcoal one step further – bypassing the food and eating the charcoal instead. In Tambon Pakplea, a 26-year-old widow, Urai Setsuriya, carries a bag of the black carbon sticks with her wherever she goes, sometimes munching up to…
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Peg-leg snatcher in the slammer
BANGKOK: A two-month, 10-victim purse-snatching spree in Bangkok ended on May 17 with the arrest of a one-legged thief who used a motorcycle to make his getaways. Payao Thongpong, 30, after grabbing the purse of his latest victim, rode his motorcycle practically into the hands of police at a checkpoint, where officers had been given his description. Payao told police…
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MP’s sister involved in land probe
PHUKET: Investigators led by Pol Maj Gen Pansiri Prapawat today inspected three more plots of land with allegedly suspect titles. The three pieces belong to Yanyong Kebsup, a sister of Phuket Democrat MP Chalermlak Kebsup and wife of Phuket Provincial Administration Organization member Chaianan Suthikul; Boonkeng Srisansuchart, who was called to Phuket Town Police Station yesterday for questioning, and Pantong…
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Gov offers to help validate titles
PHUKET TOWN: Big business investors who want to check the legitimacy of titles to land they are thinking of buying can ask the Phuket Governor’s office for help, Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi said today. He told the Gazette that his staff would work with the Phuket Provincial Land Office so that investment could continue without being delayed by investigations now…
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Hilton enters Phuket market
PHUKET: Hilton International has finally made an entry into the Phuket market after negotiating a contract to manage the Panwaburi Resort and Spa at Cape Panwa. The resort, which will undergo a US$7-million (292-million-baht) refurbishment, paid for by its owners, is expected to reopen in October as the Conrad Phuket Resort and Spa. Conrad is Hilton’s top-of-the-line five-star brand. Methee…
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More fishing but fewer fish
PHUKET TOWN: The number of illegal alien workers on fishing boats in the Andaman Sea was increasing at the same time as vital marine stocks were being depleted, said Vice-Admiral Pairoj Theerachai of the Royal Navy Third Fleet. Fishing boats were using large illegal gill nets that diminished fish resources and also trapped and killed other marine animals, he explained…
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Two businessmen questioned in land scandal
PHUKET: Two senior members of Phuket’s business community were called to Phuket Town Police Station today for questioning about dubious land titles. About 50 officers from the Crime Suppression Division (CSD), the Forestry Police, Phuket Town police, the National Parks Department and the Royal Thai Navy, armed with warrants from the court, also searched four homes at 5 am. Questioned…
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Missing Briton found safe in Krabi
KRABI: Missing Briton Eric Wells has turned up safe in a guest house in Krabi, his son told the Gazette this evening. Guy Wells said that he had spoken by phone with his father, who was unharmed, but that the reasons why he had ended up in Krabi were not clear. He also thanked all those who had gone out…
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Top businessman held over Samsara deed
PHUKET TOWN: Chamnan Pachantabutr, former owner of the land on which the Samsara luxury property development is currently being constructed, was arrested today for his alleged part in falsifying a land document – the original title for the Samsara site. Chamnan, who is one of the owners of the Phuket Cabana Resort and of the Kan Eang restaurants in Chalong,…
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High price for high fliers
PHUKET: Expensive rainmaking flights costing as much as 480,000 baht a day have yet to make an appreciable difference to Phuket’s water supplies. Three aircraft from the Royal Rainmaking Service are currently in Phuket. The two smaller airplanes each incur a cost of 50,000 baht a flight in fuel, chemicals and other costs while the third, larger aircraft costs 60,000…
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All-night party raided
CHERNG TALAY: An all-night party at a Japanese businessman’s holiday home came to an abrupt end when police raided the mansion at 8 am yesterday and tested the 30 revelers for drugs and netted three gamblers. The Deputy Commander of Phuket Provincial Police, Pol Col Apirak Hongtong, led the raid after police received complaints at about 4 am from local…
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Still no sign of DIDIT founder
PHUKET: The family of Briton Eric Wells have asked that anyone who has seen him since the evening of Friday, July 4, get in touch with them immediately. Mr Wells and his wife Linda are co-founders of Dogs In Distress In Thailand (DIDIT), which looks after stray dogs in temples around the island. Mr Wells went to feed dogs at…
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Free air tickets to boost tourism
BANGKOK: Thai Airways International (THAI) has announced a campaign to celebrate its 43rd anniversary by giving away 20,000 tickets as prizes in a lottery among passengers who fly on the airline between now and September 30. The “Luck Is In The Air” campaign will, it is hoped, attract tourists to make repeat visits to Thailand. A total of 16,000 free…
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Police nab pair for mugging tourists
PHUKET: Two men now under arrest have confessed to assaulting and robbing German tourists Rainer and Susanne Siebert and two others have confessed to receiving the stolen goods. The Sieberts, who were knocked unconscious and robbed last week, flew out for Germany yesterday afternoon with most of the stolen items after recovering from their injuries. Surachai “Jade” Khonginn, 25, and…
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Nearly one death a day on Phuket roads
PHUKET TOWN: Motorcycle mayhem between April 20 and May 20 brought 26 deaths on Phuket roads despite more concerted attempts to cut the toll. All those who died in that period were motorcycle riders or pillion passengers, according to statistics from the Wachira, Thalang and Patong government hospitals. The carnage followed a much-praised police crackdown in Phuket over Songkran that…
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Boot camp for idle police
PATTAYA: There has long been debate about whether criminals can ever be reformed, and about the most effective methods to change their antisocial habits. But when those responsible for protecting society from the lawless need straightening out, there’s little question of what needs to be done – at least in the mind of Pol Lt Col Sakrapee Preawpanich, Deputy Superintendent…
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Creating the perfect crime
BANGKOK: Police spent more than three hours searching for a van hijacked by gunmen carrying 440,000 baht in expressway toll fees and a hostage – before they realized that the man who reported the theft had invented the entire story. The man, identified as Rungniran Nabamrung, 29, faces a charge of making a false statement to police, punishable by up…
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Tourism “boom’ tipped soon
PHUKET TOWN: The outlook for tourism in Phuket is much brighter now, Santhichai Auengjongprasit, Deputy-Governor for Marketing of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said today. Numbers were still down on last year’s low season, he conceded, but were improving. The effects of the Sars scare were no longer being felt and discounts and travel promotions were already working, he…
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Govt turns up the heat in SorPorKor probe
BANGKOK (Gazette, Nation): Fifty-seven officers from the Crime Suppression Division and more than 40 from the Forestry Police, the Land Department and the Agriculture Land Reform Department arrived in Phuket yesterday, complete with helicopter, to help speed up the government probe into abuses of SorPorKor land occupation. In the meantime, in Bangkok, the much-feared Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) has announced…
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Town to get traffic cameras
PHUKET TOWN: In the latest effort to bring some order to Phuket’s traffic chaos, Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisang, who is responsible for traffic in the Southern provinces, has announced that a 4.15-million-baht video surveillance system will be installed at three Phuket Town intersections. The intersections are the one next to Satree Phuket School, the one next to Wachira Phuket…
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Park land fenced off, police told
CHERNG TALAY: As the Phuket property probe continues, Cherng Talay police have been informed, in an official report, about cases of suspected encroachment on land in the Sirinat Marine National Park. Prasart Tongpong, an officer at the national park, reported the suspected encroachments to Pol Lt Col Siriwat Intrayim yesterday evening. Fifteen plots of land in Moo 6 in Cherng…
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Rainmakers back in Phuket
PHUKET TOWN: The Royal rainmaking team and its aircraft are back in Phuket to try to alleviate the island’s water crisis. Whenever conditions are right, the team’s three aircraft are now seeding the clouds above the island in an emergency measure that is expected to cost 450,000 baht. Surachart Kuntavichayanont, Chief of the Phuket Agriculture and Cooperatives Office, which requested…
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Wichit wins good governance award
PHUKET TOWN: Wichit Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor) has won a best-governance award and additional funding of 1.7 million baht in competition against seven other Phuket OrBorTor. OrBorTor Pa Klok received additional funds of 1.4 million baht for coming second and OrBorTor Sri Suntorn received 1.2 million baht for third place, Sorawich Chaiyasawat, Chief of the Phuket Provincial Local Administration Office,…
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