Search Results for: Bangkok
- Phuket News
Phuket students petition against dolphinarium
PHUKET: Students from the Prince of Songkla University Phuket campus yesterday handed Governor Maitri Inthusut a petition with more than 400 signatures to protest the nearly-complete Nemo dolphinarium in Chalong. “We have heard about the dolphinarium set to open on Soi Palai. We do not think that it is a good idea to keep dolphins in a park,” said Latifa…
- Business News
Thai rubber farmers feel ‘betrayed’ by military government
PHUKET: Thai rubber farmers who supported anti-government protests that led to a military coup in May say they feel betrayed because the ruling military is failing to help soften the blow of plunging rubber prices. Thailand is the world’s largest rubber producer and exporter, but falling prices and a decision by the military not to extend subsidies risks alienating rubber…
- Thailand News
Thai ‘baby factory’ doctor to turn himself in
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Thai ‘baby factory’ doctor to turn himself in – police Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: A Thai doctor who performed in vitro fertilisation (IVF) for women involved in a surrogate baby business dubbed the “baby factory” has agreed to turn himself in, police said on Monday.…
- Thailand News
Surrogate mums admit lying in court over Shigeta’s babies
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Surrogate mums admit lying in court over Shigeta’s babies The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Two Thai surrogate mothers told police yesterday they were instructed to lie to the courts during adoption hearings – to say that their babies were conceived during affairs with the Japanese…
- Thailand News
Gen Prayuth officially appointed 29th prime minister of Thailand
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Prayuth officially appointed 29th premier The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Junta chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha today was officially installed as the 29th prime minister of Thailand. In a ceremony at the Army headquarters in Bangkok, Gen Prayuth received a royal command appointing him to the…
- Pattaya News
Full Metal Dojo brings MMA to Patong once more
PHUKET: “Full Metal Dojo 2: Protect Your Neck” saw fighters from around the globe (including Thailand, Sweden, France, Canada, Philippines, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Japan and more) enter the cage. History was also made as a professional Thai-against-Thai women’s MMA bout took place inside the kingdom for the first time. FMD veteran Michael Dubois took care of business in under 30 seconds,…
- Phuket News
HRH Princess Srirasmi lands in Phuket to open ‘Family Love Center’
PHUKET: HRH Princess Srirasmi, the Royal Consort of HRH Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, today graced the opening ceremony of the “Family Love Center” in Phuket. The center is aimed at encouraging better family ties between generations: children, parents and grandparents. Princess Srirasmi landed on the island at about 11am and was welcomed by Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut and high-ranking officers.…
- Phuket News
Homeless Brit found sleeping rough in Phuket
PHUKET: A homeless British man and his Thai girlfriend were picked up by police early this morning after they were discovered sleeping rough in Phuket. Alarmed villagers called police after the couple were discovered huddled together in front of a Cherng Talay house, Sub Lt Jira Cherdchay of the Cherng Talay Police explained. “At the house when we arrived, we…
- Pattaya News
Phuket Police adopt rapid-response policy for missing children
PHUKET: Anxious parents of missing children no longer have to wait 24 hours before police can take action to find them, under a new policy revealed by Phuket City Police Superintendent Sermpan Sirikong last week. “Now, when someone in your family goes missing, you can inform police immediately,” said Col Sermpan. The new policy came into sharp focus this week…
- Food
Donnafugata flies high during Regent Cape Panwa wine dinner
PHUKET: There is Italy, and then there is Sicily, the country’s most southern region that is, in many ways, closer to Africa than to Europe. There are Sicilian wines, and then there is Donnafugata – the region’s ambassador and symbol of quality. There are wine dinners, and then there are wine dinners at Regent Cape Panwa. The latest, which paired…
- Phuket News
Roving metered taxis to hit Phuket’s streets by September
PHUKET: A fleet of newly registered roving metered taxis will be hitting the streets by September 1, the Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO) chief told the Phuket Gazette today. “We registered 80 metered taxi drivers during our one-stop registration service from August 9-12 [story here]. Since then, more than 30 additional drivers have applied to register and become metered taxi…
- Thailand News
Gen Prayuth voted to become next premier
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community NLA votes Gen Prayuth to become 29th premier The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: The National Legislative Assembly yesterday voted unanimously for junta chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha to be the 29th prime minister of Thailand. He was the sole candidate for the job. Prayuth was widely…
- Phuket News
Phuket Town pub owner arrested for B500mn ‘foreign-inheritance’ scam
PHUKET: An owner of the well-known H2O Pub and Restaurant in Phuket Town has been arrested for fraud in Phang Nga after cheating nearly 300 people from across Central Thailand out of more than 500 million baht. Phang Nga City Police arrested Wilawan Na Takuathung, 39, on Tuesday, said Phang Nga City Police Commander Chalit Kaewyarat. “Mrs Wilawan is no…
- Thailand News
Obec to cut school hours
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Obec to cut school hours The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: The Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) will start implementing a policy to reduce classroom hours from this second semester, Obec secretary-general Kamol Rodklai said yesterday. The agency would at first reduce study hours in…
- Thailand News
Japanese surrogacy dad Shigeta faces police summons
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Japanese dad Shigeta faces police summons The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Police will summons Mitsutoki Shigeta for questioning after a DNA test initially confirmed the 24-year-old Japanese man’s claim that he had fathered the nine surrogate babies recently discovered in a Bangkok condominium. Meanwhile, Boonreung…
- Thailand News
NCPO appoints new national police chief
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Somyot gets national police chief job in unanimous vote The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Pol Gen Somyot Poompanmoung was yesterday chosen in a unanimous 6:0 vote by a junta-installed selection committee as the new Royal Thai Police chief. He will replace Pol Gen Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit,…
- Phuket News
Phuket parents plead for information on missing 13-year-old daughter
PHUKET: The worried parents of 13-year-old Sirinut “Nong Guy” Chaowalert are urging anyone who has seen their daughter to call them immediately. Nong Guy was last seen at the family home in the Prompan housing estate near the SuperCheap complex on Thepkrasattri Road in Rassada on Saturday. “She was at home with her 15-year-old sister while I was at work…
- Property
Thai tourists take to Japan
PHUKET: Mist is covering Mount Yotei like a soft white blanket as I sit in the train station waiting for the 15:15 local to Otaru. Despite being school holidays, and prime-time summer, the weather is decidedly wet. Travel by railway in the country is always one of my guilty pleasures despite this being a business trip. Sitting at the North…
- Thailand News
AMLO seized more than Bt9 billion in 15 years
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community AMLO seized more than Bt9 billion in 15 years The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Pol Colonel Seehanat Prayoonrat, secretary-general of the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO), said at an event marking AMLO’s 15th anniversary yesterday that the agency had so far confiscated up to Bt9.7 billion…
- Thailand News
Nationwide wheel-locking campaign kicks off
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Wheel-locking campaign kicks off The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Police yesterday launched a nationwide operation to lock the wheels of cars found violating the law yesterday in a bid to ease traffic congestion. Pol Lt-General Wuthi Liptapallop, an adviser to the Royal Thai Police in…
- Phuket News
Phuket lottery winners to spend B26mn prize on children’s education
PHUKET: A Phuket couple who won 26 million baht from the national lottery this weekend have set their children’s education as their top priority in spending the windfall prize. Sutin Nuanjan, 46, and his wife, Puangkaew 39, discovered on Saturday that they had won millions of baht. “On Wednesday [August 13], we went to the market in Rawai and asked…
- Property
Property Watch: These are a few of my favorite things
HAVE you ever heard music ringing in your ears or else started humming to yourself in a hotel room? You have indeed stumbled as an extra onto the movie Sound of Music. Not. But hotels that provide an emotional uplift from design, art or creative energy can be a source of inspiration for even the most road hardened traveller. What’s…
- Business News
The fire-powered business of barbecues
PHUKET: In Thailand you’re never far from a barbecue. A massive chunk of the ever-present street food is based on grilling different kinds of meat over an open fire. Still, Brad McElroy felt he wanted a barbecue of his own and decided to import one from his home country, the motherland of barbecue – Australia. That was 18 years ago…
- Opinion
Phuket road safety: Time to tank it in
PHUKET: Recent developments on our roads seem to indicate that the law enforcement campaign ordered by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) may be pushing up against a serious limit: Thai society’s deeply ingrained “culture of carelessness”. The past week in Phuket has seen an unprecedented spate of high-speed vehicle tragedies resulting in deaths, serious injuries and property…
- Business News
Hotels and shops plead for end to martial law
PHUKET: Hotels and shopping malls in Bangkok are pushing for the lifting of martial law before the high season arrives in the hope that tourists and business travellers will come back to the capital. Prakit Chinamourphong, an ex-president and adviser to the Thai Hotels Association, said that if the junta ended martial law, the hotel and travel business would quickly…
- Thailand News
DNA tests show 9 babies fathered by same man
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community DNA tests show 9 babies fathered by same man The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: The nine infants discovered in a police raid last week at a Bangkok condominium in connection with unauthorised surrogacy were fathered by the same man. However, a DNA link between them…
- Phuket News
Happy Birthday Your Majesty
PHUKET: Today, August 12, Thais throughout the country and the world celebrate the birthday of their beloved Queen and Mother of the Nation – Her Majesty Queen Sirikit Kitiyakara, who turns 82 this year. The day is also celebrated in the Kingdom as National Mother’s Day. Born in Bangkok in 1932, Queen Sirikit is the eldest daughter and the third…
- Thailand News
Over 100 Thai surrogates may be carrying babies for Aust couples
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Probe into ‘baby clinic for Aussies’ The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: The Health Service Support Department is investigating a Bangkok clinic that provided surrogacy services to more than 100 clients, including the Australian couple linked to the baby Gammy controversy and probably many other Australians.…
- Opinion
Playing the role of manager and mum in Phuket
Sumontha Urvois, 37, from Suphan Buri, is the Executive Assistant Manager of the Grand Mercure Phuket Patong. She has a master’s degree in hospitality management and more than 14 years’ experience in the industry with the Accor Group. Before coming to Phuket, she worked for two years as Rooms Division Manager at the Novotel Bangkok on Siam Square. Here, she…
- Thailand News
Probe into Japanese ‘dad’ eyes baby trafficking intent
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Probe into Japanese ‘dad’ eyes baby trafficking intent The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Police are looking into whether the 13 babies purportedly linked to surrogacy services were meant to be trafficked, as evidence suggests a Japanese man fathered at least nine infants via surrogate mothers.…
