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- Phuket News
Crackdown on drunk driving
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Provincial Police and the Phuket Provincial Health Office are to launch a breath-test campaign to catch drunk drivers, starting in the early hours of Friday, March 30. Happily for drunk drivers, Dr Boonrieng Chuchaisangrat, Chief of the Health Office, has revealed that the checks will take place in front of Surakul stadium between 2 and 4…
- Phuket News
Policeman held for smuggling Burmese
PHUKET TOWN: Acting on a tip-off, police today arrested 15 Burmese illegal immigrants. They also arrested three Thais who were bringing the Burmese into Phuket, one of them a police officer from Ranong. The Burmese were riding in two pick-up trucks and a car when they were stopped at 5 am, halfway between Thalang and the Heroines’ Monument, by officers…
- Phuket News
Police learn about international crimes
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket Provincial Police hosted a seminar today aimed at educating police in Region 8 about economic and international crimes. Topics discussed at the seminar, held at the Royal Phuket City Hotel, included detection of counterfeit US currency and forged credit cards, and crimes involving international criminals. The seminar brought together police officers from Phuket, Surat Thani, Nakhon Sri…
- Phuket News
Seized luxury yacht to be auctioned
PHUKET TOWN: A luxury motor yacht, which was seized when its Singaporean owner failed to pay import duty, is to be auctioned on March 20 at Phuket Customs Region 5 on Phuket Rd. The yacht’s owner kept it more than six months in Phuket without paying the crushing import duty of about 200%. The yacht, a Sealine T46 built in…
- Phuket News
Thailand a hub for illegal wildlife products
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand has become a regional center for the illicit trade in products made from endangered animals, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) said this afternoon. During a three-month study, the WWF found more than 33,000 animal products in Bangkok made from internationally protected species, in all worth about 160 million baht (3.7 million dollars). Items made from…
- Phuket News
Economic recovery facing severe challenges
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand’s nascent economic emergence from the depths of the crisis is in jeopardy. Recently released indicators provide stark evidence that falling exports are crippling the recovery. The slump has been spurred by a decline in demand in the United States as the economy there slows, but it also reflects a failure to stimulate fresh investment, analysts say. “Foreign…
- Phuket News
Work permits: Governor gets tough
PHUKET: With effect from yesterday, a new multi-department committee will vet all work permit applications in Phuket, Provincial Governor Pongpayome Vasaputi announced today. The committee will also check extensions and renewals, and all information will be added to a central database accessible to all the departments whose chiefs are members of the committee. These departments are the Commercial Registration Office…
- Phuket News
New ‘geezer visa’ rules come into effect
PHUKET: The Immigration Department has recently started applying changes in the regulations covering retired foreigners residing in Thailand. In particular, the department is strictly applying the rules on how much a retiree must have in his or her Thai bank account. The changes were brought into law in October 1998 but it has taken more than two years for them…
- Phuket News
Tintin goes boom-boom
BRUSSELS (AFP): The Belgian prosecutor’s office says it has seized hundreds of forged comic books depicting Belgium’s fabled boy reporter Tintin and his trusty dog Snowy on a sex spree in Bangkok. Some 650 copies of a comic book entitled “Tintin in Thailand” were scooped up by undercover police over the weekend. They depict Tintin, always a model of propriety…
- Phuket News
Malaysia to build free trade zone at Thai border
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – A free-trade industrial zone costing three billion ringgit (789 million dollars) is to be developed near the Malaysian/Thai border over the next decade, a senior official said today. The “ASEAN Industrial Metropolis”, covering 2,400 hectares (5,928 acres), will be built at Bukit Kayu Hitam in the northwestern Malaysian state of Kedah, the state’s chief minister, Syed…
- Phuket News
Prawn farm owner arrested
PHUKET TOWN: The owner of the Wachara Prawn Farm in Pa Khlok, Somsak Wongsawanond, 36, from Songkhla, reported to police in Phuket Town Police Station last night after a warrant was issued for his arrest on one charge of illegal possession of a weapon and another of discharging a weapon in a public area. The warrant was issued last week…
- Pattaya News
Pattaya firm takes over Phuket radio station
PHUKET: The end of a four-year contract has seen Pattaya-based Sunshine Radio win the rights to run the local government radio station, 101.5 FM Phuket. Sunshine Radio won the contract direct from the Phuket branch of the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand (MCOT) in Bangkok. The amount of the winning bid was not announced. “Previously, the contracts were won on…
- Phuket News
62 election results thrown out
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand’s Election Commission today threw out poll results in 62 constituencies where the winning candidates were accused of cheating in the January 6 national elections. Thaksin Shinawatra’s Thai Rak Thai party earned more than half the disqualifications, with five of its candidates being found guilty of corruption and 27 others being handed warnings over graft allegations. The Democrats,…
- Phuket News
Common cold drug banned
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Health Office (PHO), under instructions from the Ministry of Public Health, has announced a ban on the use of Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) in medicines. Research undertaken at Yale University has indicated that PPA may assist the development of a hemorrhagic stroke. PPA is found in many medicines taken for relieving symptoms of the common cold and is…
- Phuket News
German woman in suicide jump
PHUKET TOWN: A 45-year-old German woman apparently committed suicide by jumping from the third floor of the Bangkok Phuket Hospital on Monday at about 7:30 pm. The woman, a tourist, died from severe head injuries, according to Pol Lt Kanuang Pitakulthon of Phuket Town Police Station. The hospital cannot verify the woman’s name because no passport or other identification papers…
- Phuket News
Astrologers say recovery not on cards for 2001
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand’s influential astrologers say their crystal balls and tarot cards confirm what financial analysts have learned from spreadsheets and graphs — the economy is in for a tough time in 2001. Hopes that Thailand could shake off the legacy of the 1997 economic crisis in the New Year will be dashed, as the forces of nature forecast the…
- Phuket News
Airport taxi driver beaten to death
PHUKET: Airport limousine operators threatened to blockade Phuket International Airport yesterday after a “black” taxi driver allegedly beat a legitimate limousine operator to death on Saturday in front of the airport. A fight broke out between Kanisorn “Lert” Downchoowan, 35, the black taxi driver, and Chart Ketwongworachat, 58, the legitimate limousine operator, at around noon after the two argued over…
- Phuket News
Mob blocks road to get rid of eight police
THALANG: A mob of 500 blocked the road to the airport in front of Thalang Police Station for 2½ hours on Saturday afternoon, demanding the transfer of a police captain and seven other officers whom they accused of planting drugs on people and stealing money. The protestors, from Baan Kain in Tambon Thepkrasattri, marched after Pol Capt Sanich Kongnu raided…
- Phuket News
PAWS elects new chairman
PHUKET: The Phuket Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) committee has appointed Howard Cant as chairman, with responsibility for promoting awareness of the society’s activities and for improving efficiency. Eric Wells, the former chairman of PAWS, has resigned and has now set up Dogs in Danger in Thailand (DIDIT), to continue his work for the welfare of neglected canines. The PAWS committee…
- Phuket News
Villagers issue ultimatum over boy’s death
AO MAKHAM: Dozens of protesters today continued to block the road to Cape Panwa with makeshift barricades, following the killing of a local 16-year-old boy. Some of their leaders threatened that if the police case against the boy’s killers is not sewn up by the end of tomorrow they will rally tens of thousands of Muslims from all over the…
- Phuket News
PM hopeful “forgot’ to declare assets
BANGKOK (AFP): Prime ministerial hopeful Thaksin Shinawatra admitted to Thailand’s anti-graft body today that he had failed to declare assets of nearly 15 million dollars, but insisted he had simply forgot. “I have filed an incomplete asset declaration, but I did not intend to, because I had no reason to conceal my assets,” Thaksin told reporters after a crucial appearance…
- Phuket News
King’s Cup sees better conditions on Day 2
KATA: After a first day’s racing that ended with no results in most classes thanks to lack of wind, yesterday’s King’s Cup racing saw better conditions. An enthusiastic start to the Boathouse-QBE race saw a collision on the start line between Mats Johansson’s Diah Tantri and Rodney Cran’s Slice of Heaven in the Performance Cruising class, which cost the former…
- Phuket News
Cyberport meeting identifies challenges
PHUKET TOWN: Experts who gathered on Thursday in Phuket all agreed that the island has the potential to be a “cyberport” — a center for information technology — but that it still has challenges that need to be met. “We still need to address three important factors,” said Prof Dr Pairash Thajchayapong, president of the National Science and Technology Development…
- Phuket News
International hunt for murder suspect
KAMALA: Police are trying to track down a German national, 39-year-old Walter Ober Lener, who is wanted in connection with the murder of his 21-year-old Thai girlfriend, Waraporn Tawaetwong, on Monday. The hunt began after K. Waraporn’s body was found yesterday afternoon in the house she shared with Lener. Her neck had been broken and she had been sexually mutilated.…
- Phuket News
Four charged with million-baht “black money’ scam
PATONG: Police on Wednesday charged four West African men with swindling a Patong restaurateur and his brother out of one million baht, using a classic “black money” scam. Pol Col Kokiat Wongvorachart, superintendent of Kathu Police Station, named the four arrested men as: Gala Sompson, 24, and David Woshington Je, 23, both from Liberia, and John Cacosta, 30, and Goodrid…
- Phuket News
New driving test area to be built
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Provincial Transportation Office (PTO) is to set up a new area for conducting driving tests. The project, which has received the go-ahead from the Department of Land Transport, is expected to be completed within the coming 12 months. Driving tests currently take place on an area next to the PTO office which, the PTO says, is…
- Phuket News
Phuket bus service a step closer to reality
PHUKET: Phuket Town is one step closer to having the bus service that has been promised for so long. The Provincial Administration Organization – which earlier announced its intention to take over the bus project from a private company, after the plan stumbled in the wake of soaring fuel prices – has received the official go-ahead from the Phuket Provincial…
- Phuket News
Police announce softer traffic policy
PHUKET TOWN: Although they will continue stopping those who break traffic laws, Phuket’s police say they will be more systematic about it, and will issue fewer tickets for traffic offenses than before. The new policy follows riots in the streets of Nakhon Sri Thammarat recently when motorcycle owners went on the rampage in protest against what they saw as excessively…
- Phuket News
Tambons angry over slow progress in investigation
PA KHLOK: The chairman of the Phuket OrBorTor Association (POA), an umbrella organization for the island’s Tambon councils, says the POA is ready to complain to the Ministry of Interior about the slow progress made by police investigating the attempted assassination of Pa Khlok OrBorTor member and journalist Siripoj Cheechang. K. Siripoj was working to stop a local “investor” from…
- Phuket News
Red-tape nightmare for parks entry
PHUKET: It’s official: the postponement of the fee hike for foreigners visiting national parks in Thailand has been canceled. Thais will be allowed into the parks at the old price, ranging from as little as 5 baht to 20 baht, whereas foreigners (including foreigners resident in Thailand) will have to pay 200 baht for adults and 100 baht for children.…
