Search Results for: thailand
- Phuket News
Paiboon wins Senate seat
PHUKET: Paiboon Upatising won election on Saturday as Phuket’s representative in Thailand’s Senate. K. Paiboon received 51,059 votes, just 3,290 votes ahead of Chaiwat Narukatpichai, managing director of the Phuket Arcadia Hotel and Resort. Trailing in third place was Dr Sirinit Ratanadilok Na Phuket, with only 8,435 votes. Of Phuket’s 168,356 eligible voters, 132,801 (or 78.86%) voted in the election,…
- Phuket News
FantaSea to build theme park in Langkawi
PHUKET: Pin Kewpaisal, president and CEO of Phuket Fantasea, has revealed that Dr Mahathir Mohamed, Prime Minister of Malaysia, has asked him to build a new theme park in Langkawi, and he has agreed. In an interview with Tansettakit newspaper, K. Pin said that he had already had two conferences with Dr Mahathir to discuss the Prime Minister’s plan. K.…
- Phuket News
City bus service “to start next month’
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket Town’s first real bus service – originally scheduled to start in May last year and then postponed to January this year – is expected finally to be up and running some time in April. Introduction of the service has been delayed because PB Holdings, the bus operator, was not able to find 26 buses of the right…
- Phuket News
Schmid proves he’s top mountain biker
PHUKET: Switzerland’s Marco Schmid, 28, stormed to victory in Sunday’s 30-km Muang Chaofa Mountain Bike Race, repeating his victory a week ago in Surat Thani over Thailand’s Satit Ruanpae. Third was Direc Pamornchat. Satit finished in one hour, 18 minutes and 19 seconds, seven minutes and 10 seconds behind Schmid’s 1:11:09. Direc clocked 1:20:22. The super-fit Schmid admitted he could…
- Phuket News
CAT to hike prices for EMS delivery
PHUKET: The Communication Authority of Thailand (CAT) is to raise the charges for domestic deliveries by its Express Mail Service (EMS) with effect from Wednesday. For mail weighing less than 20 grams, the fee will be increased from 15 to 20 baht. For mail between 20-100 grams, the fee will be increased from 17 baht to 25 baht. For those…
- Phuket News
Ten arrested for illegal immigration scam
PHUKET AIRPORT: Two Malaysian women, a Singaporean woman and a Thai man were arrested yesterday at Phuket International Airport for involvement in an attempt to sneak six Chinese illegal immigrants out of Thailand and into Singapore. The six Chinese were also caught. Pol Lt Col Annop Suwanchatri, an immigration inspector at Phuket International Airport, said there were actually 12 people…
- Phuket News
Burmese boys escape detention center
PHUKET TOWN: Three Burmese boys escaped from the Juvenile Observation and Protection Center near Saphan Hin early yesterday morning. Two were recaptured within hours but the third is still at large. The escape, according to Pongsura Krainara, the center’s chief, took place at around 6 am when the three boys were detailed to help a guard at the center carry…
- Phuket News
11 die in helicopter crash
KANCHANABURI (AFP) – A Thai army helicopter crashed in western Kanchanaburi province today, killing at least 11 people, including seven senior officers, an army spokesman said. Maj Gen Sanchai Rachtawan, commander of Ninth Army division, was among the top army officers who died, along with two pilots and two technicians. Army Lt Gen Lertrat Ratanavanich said the aircraft went down…
- Phuket News
Japanese tourist stabbed four times
PHUKET TOWN: A Japanese tourist who wanted to call his family – to tell them he had arrived safely in Phuket – was robbed and stabbed four times just after midnight yesterday, on his way to make the call. Pol Maj Adul Nirapai of Phuket Town Police Station said that Terai Osamu, 27, came to Phuket with friends and was…
- Phuket News
Parliament acts to drive out evil spirits
BANGKOK (AFP) – Authorities held a multi-faith exorcism in parliament today to drive out evil spirits believed to be responsible for a recent spate of deaths among members of parliament. Since elections in November 1996, eight of the 393 MPs have died in accidents or of natural causes while 11 more have resigned. Yesterday, an MP from the ruling Democrats…
- Phuket News
Tourist kills himself at shooting range
CHALONG: A 50-year-old Japanese tourist yesterday killed himself with a pistol he rented at the Phuket Shooting Range near Chalong Circle. Pol Capt Chockchai Sutthimek of Chalong Police Station said Yoichi Hashimoto went to the Phuket Shooting Range on Wednesday morning. He looked around and left. He returned the following morning. According to a witness, he hung around until the…
- Chiang Mai News
Australian tourists shot dead, injured in Chiang Mai
BANGKOK (AFP): An Australian man was shot dead and his companion injured when ambushed by a gang of thieves in northern Thailand, police and embassy officials said today. The 24-year-old man died instantly when four armed men pounced on the couple in the mountain-top Aung Kha National Park in Chiang Mai province, 700 kilometers (450 miles) north of Bangkok, late…
- Phuket News
PM opens Board of Investment Fair
BANGKOK (AFP): Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai was today due to open the two-week Board of Investment Fair 2000, designed to convince the world that the Thai economy has turned the corner and to lure foreign investors to bolster the recovery. The government is touting the fair, which opens to the public tomorrow and is expected to draw between three million…
- Phuket News
Myanmar dissidents seize Thai hospital
RATCHABURI (AFP): Heavily armed guerrillas from Myanmar dissident group God’s Army stormed a Thai hospital early this morning and took around 700 patients and staff hostage. Up to 20 fighters from the ethnic-Karen militia, which is led by two twin boys, stormed the hospital in the town of Ratchaburi, 123 kilometres (70 miles) west of Bangkok. Seven hours into the…
- Phuket News
“The Beach”: Paradise lost or a tourism godsend?
BANGKOK (AFP): As environmentalists lament a potential paradise lost, Thailand’s tourism industry is hoping for a shot in the arm from next month’s release of Leonardo DiCaprio’s new movie “The Beach.” Despite a court battle over accusations that a beach was ruined during shooting of the film, authorities hope scenes of turquoise seas and heavenly beaches will spark a tourism…
- Phuket News
Green Peace gets “up close and personal’ at Patong Beach
PATONG: Greenpeace (International) staged another rally today, but this time right on the beach in Patong. The event took place just two hours before the group left Phuket aboard the Rainbow Warrior at 1:00 pm. Others participating in the rally were Greenpeace (Thailand), the Phuket Environmental Protection Group, and the Federation of Southern Fisherfolk. Unlike the demonstration at the incinerator…
- Phuket News
Greenpeace ship to visit Phuket
PHUKET TOWN: The fabled Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior, will arrive in Phuket on Thursday to launch the environmental organization’s “Toxic Free” campaign. This will be the ship’s first visit to Phuket. Thara Buakumsri, a member of Greenpeace (Thailand), told the Gazette that the 55-meter vessel, carrying a multinational crew of 33, will arrive in the morning, tying up at…
- Phuket News
German manager held for theft of 5m baht
BANGKOK: Dirk Krebber, the 38-year-old German manager of Aqua Master (Thailand), a dive supply company in Patong, surrendered to police in Bangkok on Thursday to answer questions over the disappearance of five million baht from Aqua Master’s bank account. Sirikate Narin, the company’s assistant managing director, told the Gazette that shortly after a photograph of Krebber was shown on a…
- Phuket News
Phuket in drive to stop whale shark killings
PHUKET: A move to protect whale sharks in Thai waters has been started in Phuket after reports of whale shark killings were brought to the attention of the local office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). “TAT Phuket was informed by dive operators that they had witnessed whale sharks being hunted several times during their dive trips. The animals…
- Phuket News
Police probe missing five million baht
PATONG: Police are looking for the German manager of Aqua Master (Thailand), a dive supply company in Patong, in connection with the disappearance of five million baht belonging to the company. Police told the Gazette that on December 30, Dirk Krebber, 38, went to the Siam Commercial Bank branch in Patong and withdrew funds needed to meet the company’s year-end…
- Phuket News
Business registrations soared in 1999
PHUKET TOWN: Business confidence soared in Phuket last year, with the number of companies registering in the province leaping by more than 50% compared with 1998, and comfortably exceeding even the pre-Asian-Crisis levels of 1996. Figures compiled by the Phuket Commercial Registration Office show 505 limited companies were registered last year, compared with 332 in the previous year, 311 in…
- Phuket News
Woman gets eight years for ‘enslaving’ Thais
LOS ANGELES (AFP): A Thai was sentenced today to more than eight years in prison for illegally bringing three Thai women into the United States and forcing them to work in slave-like conditions. Supawan Veerapol, the 55-year-old common law wife of Thailand’s former ambassador to Sweden, used her diplomatic connections to bring the women into the country to work in…
- Phuket News
Finnish tourist arrested for overstaying visa
KARON: A 40-year-old Finnish tourist was arrested in Karon yesterday for overstaying his visa – by eight months. Pol Lt Teerawat Liumsuwan of the Chalong Police Station told the Gazette that the tourist, whom he named as Arto Mikel Kivela, arrived in Phuket from Finland on March 10 last year and stayed at the Sompit Bar in Karon Center. Having…
- Phuket News
1999 HIV infections likely to show increase
PHUKET: Based on preliminary figures for 1999, Phuket’s health chief believes the number of people diagnosed as HIV-positive will be significantly higher than the 283 diagnosed in 1998. If Dr Boonrieng Chuchaisangrat’s preliminary figures are accurately reflected in the final statistics, the number of HIV infections per 100,000 people in Phuket at the end of 1999 will put the island…
- Phuket News
Thai customs nab Japanese drug trafficker
BANGKOK (AFP): Thai Customs officers charged a Japanese woman with drug trafficking this afternoon after she was arrested just before boarding a Thai Airways flight to Osaka, officials said. Customs officers searched Tamaki Nagayama, 29, and found 1,300 amphetamine tablets strapped to her stomach. Nagayama confessed she was trafficking in drugs and helped by friends from Thailand and Myanmar, said…
- Phuket News
Long jail terms for Krabi tourist killers
KRABI (AFP): The two teenagers arrested for the murder of an Australian tourist in Krabi have received long jail terms after a nine-hour court session in which both pleaded guilty. The older of the two, 19-year-old Pairoj Yoamyat, was initially sentenced to death for robbing and murdering Cheree Cobcroft, 24, whose naked body was found tied to a stake near…
- Phuket News
Gruesome toll on Thai highways
PHUKET: The Public Health Ministry says at least 300 people died and 19,433 were injured in auto accidents in Thailand over the holiday period. Ministry officials speculate that many of the accidents were caused by drivers relying on amphetamines to stay awake. During the four-day New Year’s holiday here in Phuket, 261 people were injured and 9 killed in car…
- Phuket News
Bitterness expressed in bad taste
BANGKOK (AFP and the Phuket Gazette): Thailand’s opposition leader has given arch-rival Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai food for thought this New Year — seven boxes of iodised eggs, often used to ward off retardation in children. General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said the eggs were “to nourish his brain and improve his intelligence,” according to local media reports today. “Eating the eggs…
- Phuket News
Chuan easily defeats no-confidence motion
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand’s government survived a no-confidence vote in parliament today after a bitter five-day debate in which it faced allegations of corruption and economic mismanagement. The majority of the six-party coalition led by the Democrat Party of Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai held rock-steady in the vote in the lower House of Representatives. A total of 229 members supported the…
- Phuket News
MP shot after censure debate session
BANGKOK (AFP): An MP from Thailand’s governing Democrat party was ambushed and shot after leaving the censure debate in Parliament, party officials said today. Parnawat Liangpongpan, an MP from Buriram province in Isarn, was attacked by a gunman outside his apartment in Bangkok as he got out of his car in the early hours of this morning. “He was shot…
