Search Results for: fall
- Phuket News
Bangkok airport goes to the dogs
BANGKOK (AFP): The authorities at Bangkok’s Don Muang Airport said today that they had launched a drive to ensure that stray dogs that have made their home next to the runways don’t end up straying onto the tarmac. The dogs have taken up residence on the golf course next to the airport, where they thrive on scraps from the clubhouse…
- Phuket News
One dead, 20 hurt in bus crash
PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN: One passenger from Hong Kong died instantly and 20 Thais were injured when a tour bus carrying passengers from Phuket to Bangkok overturned on the highway early yesterday morning. One of the injured is Pol Lt Col Wuttichai Kumphut, formerly deputy superintendent of Chalong Police Station. He and other passengers were taken to Prachuap Khiri Khan Hospital…
- Phuket News
Patong bar owners claim victory
PATONG: The embattled bar owners of Patong appear to have won a reprieve from the enforcement of the 2 am closure law after putting intense pressure on the government, both locally and in Bangkok. The bar owners gathered this evening in the Pasha discotheque on Soi Sunset. There, the Mayor of Patong, Pian Keesin, announced that a tacit agreement had…
- Phuket News
American dies at police station
PHUKET TOWN: An American man died after falling off a chair early yesterday morning while in custody at the Phuket Town Police Station. Police named the 56-year-old man as William Bryan Brooks. Pol Maj Adul Nirapai of Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that he had received a call late Monday night from staff at the Bai Fern restaurant…
- Phuket News
Nun’s body found in klong
PHUKET: A body of an unidentified woman, believed to have been a nun, was found in the klong behind the Chao Fa Nai Rd branch of the Siam Commercial Bank on Thursday evening. Pol Maj Phailin Jamjomrat of Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that local people found the body in the canal. It was dressed in white nun’s…
- 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
Swiss man stabbed to death
PATONG: Dokkaew Niyonrum, 38, from Buri Ram, has been charged with the murder of a 40-year-old Swiss national named by police as Christoph Albert Hartmann. Dokkaew is alleged to have stabbed Mr Hartmann in the chest during a fight in their home on Sai Nam Yen Rd in the early hours of Sunday morning. Pol Maj Komdech Poathong of Patong…
- 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
Unpaid fornication hits “sex workers’
BANGKOK (AFP): The advent of casual sex is bad news for Thailand’s prostitutes who are going idle as their customers increasingly engage in pre-marital sexual relationships, according to a government report. The Ministry of Public Health said a study of 10,000 sex workers revealed each woman had on average only one customer a night, compared to an average of 1.5…
- Phuket News
Crackdown on traffic violators planned
PATONG: The Superintendent of Kathu Police Station has warned that from February 1 his officers will begin a crackdown on people who break traffic laws, particularly in Patong. Pol Col Paween Pongsirin told the Gazette that Patong’s traffic problems have worsened since police began taking a softer line on law-breakers last October. The softer line was introduced in response to…
- Phuket News
Airport traffic rises again
PHUKET: Passengers arriving or departing the island via Phuket International Airport continue to rise, according to the latest figures released by airport officials. The passenger throughput in November rose to 311,292 – a rise of 4.59% – compared to 299,139 in November, 1999. The statistics show that 311,292 passengers went through the airport in November, compared with 299,139 in the…
- Phuket News
Facts about Thailand
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand, which is holding general elections today, is a constitutional monarchy nominally headed by revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The following are key facts about Thailand: GEOSITUATION: A Southeast Asian country surrounded by the Gulf of Thailand, the Andaman Sea and Indian Ocean. Thailand borders Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia. POPULATION: 62.5 million. ETHNIC GROUPS: Thai/Lao 94 percent, Chinese…
- Phuket News
Banks continue threatened by bad loans
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand’s embattled banking sector will slowly begin to recover in 2001, but a morass of non-performing loans will continue to dog the industry, Merrill Lynch said in a report released today. The outlook for the banking sector next year is cautiously positive, but recovery could be pushed off course by the mountain of bad loans, or if the…
- Phuket News
Road accident figures improving
PHUKET: A total of 855 people were killed or injured in traffic accidents between September 20 and October 20, according to statistics from the Wachira, Thalang and Patong government hospitals. Of the 12 fatalities during the period, nine involved motorcycles while the remaining three involved cars. The death rate was lower than the average per month for the year to…
- Phuket News
Death of jet-ski operator solved
PATONG: The mystery of the jet-ski operator found dead on the rocks below Nakalay viewpoint on November 10 has been solved. In a confession to police, Kwanchai “Dum” Chookum admitted that he had caused the death of Boonsung Wassana, 26, but said that he had done so accidentally. Pol Capt Ardinan Benjasamai from Kathu police station said that Dum had…
- Phuket News
Phuket Rugby Sevens canceled
PHUKET TOWN: It was announced yesterday that this year’s Phuket International Rugby Sevens tournament has been canceled. The announcement came just 10 days before the tournament was due to start. The Thai Rugby Union (TRU) blamed the cancellation on a 2-million-baht shortfall in sponsorship. No hint of these problems was given in the last meeting between organizers and sponsors, held…
- Phuket News
Two held on fake gold charges
PHUKET TOWN: Two women were arrested on Saturday night for pawning fake gold in order to get money to gamble at a casino near Kathu. Pol Maj Sermpan Sirikong, Chief of the Special Duties Division of the Phuket Provincial Police Department, said that he received a complaint from Paisarn Vechawanichsanong, a pawnbroker, that he had paid 90,000 baht to vegetable…
- Koh Samui News
Tourist raped on Koh Samui
KOH SAMUI: A 26-year-old Norwegian tourist was allegedly raped by a sorng taew (local bus) driver around midnight yesterday. The woman, identified by police as Gry Slaem, told police that she had been drinking with a friend and had fallen asleep. When she woke, her friend was gone and she did not know the way back to her room at…
- Phuket News
Storms contribute to fatal traffic accident
PHUKET TOWN: Two people were killed in a weather-related traffic accident on the bypass road Saturday night. Pol Maj Pitsanoo Poolwong of Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that the deaths occurred when a Toyota pick-up truck was involved in a collision with a bus coming in the opposite direction around midnight. Maj Pitsanoo said that the accident occurred…
- Phuket News
Rotting body “was executed’
THALANG: The bloated and rotting body of a murdered man was found Saturday in a rubber plantation next to the entrance to the Bang Pae waterfall in Thalang. Pol Maj Jaroon Plaiduang of Thalang Police Station said that police had not been able to identify the victim because the corpse had been rotting for about seven days. However, they suspect…
- Phuket News
Jumbo problem returns to Bangkok
BANGKOK (AFP): Elephants are returning to Bangkok after being banished three months ago, forcing a showdown with authorities who say they have no place in the busy city. “Thirty-eight elephants have returned to the city since mid-May and are living around Ramkamheng,” a Bangkok suburb, veterinarian Alongkorn Mahannop of the Dusit Zoo told AFP today. “There is no food for…
- Phuket News
Roof workers find historic documents
PHUKET TOWN: Workers fixing the roof of the Phuket Provincial Office made an extraordinary find last week in a corner of the building’s attic: four stacks of documents dating back as far as 80 years ago. Astonishingly, the find came just a few days after another group of roofing workers found similar documents under the roof of the Phuket Provincial…
- Phuket News
Parties gear up for national poll
PHUKET: Two of Thailand’s three major political parties, the Democrats and Thai Rak Thai, are close to final selection of their candidates in the run-up to national elections which must be held before the end of this year. Because of the growth in its population, Phuket will elect two members of parliament – it currently has just one. Thai Rak…
- Phuket News
Farmers demand help with debts
BANGKOK (AFP): Ten thousand Thai farmers massed in Bangkok today, demanding government help in their battle to pay debts and a new push on agricultural reform. The demonstrators arrived in trucks from 17 northern provinces and congregated at the city’s Royal Plaza, close to Government House. “They want the government to pay off their debts and to solve problems over…
- Phuket News
Masked men rob grocery store
PHUKET: Three robbers, all wearing ghost masks, robbed a grocery store off Chao Fa Nai Rd near Suanluang Park last night, taking 67,000 baht in cash and gold jewelry belonging to the owner and his family. Pol Maj Winai Kongkaew of the Phuket Town Police Station said that Witoon Pinta, 35, the owner of the grocery store in a camp…
- Phuket News
Boffins identify source of “yellow rain”
PHUKET: The Provincial Health Office today confirmed that the “yellow rain” that has fallen on a small area along Chao Fah Nok Rd over the past 10 days or so is pollen. Dr Boonrieng Chuchaisangrat, chief of the Health Office, told the Gazette that samples of the “rain” were passed to the Phuket branch of the Songkhla Regional Medical Science…
- Phuket News
Health Office to probe mystery “yellow rain”
PHUKET: People on Chao Fah Nok Rd have been astonished and not a little disturbed over the past 10 days by a stinking yellow rain that has fallen, apparently from the sky, for one or two minutes every evening. Samples of the yellow liquid, which falls over an area of about 100 meters in diameter, are to be collected this…
- 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
Phuket’s power system said to be “Y2K-ready”
PHUKET TOWN: The island’s Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) is now ready for whatever the Millennium may throw at it, says PEA vice president Kumnueng Tadsri Khun Kumnueng says the entire computer system has been upgraded to comply with standards set by the General Accounting Office. All elements of it have been tested and are Y2K-ready. But just in case the…
- Phuket News
Four crushed to death in truck accident
CHALONG: Four construction workers from Phuket were crushed to death and two others were seriously hurt when a 10-wheel truck crashed on Patak Rd in Karon on Saturday. Pol Capt Sanae Panmee of Chalong Police Station told the Gazette that the truck was carrying a 3½-ton excavator as well as 10 construction workers, four in the cab with the driver…
