Search Results for: Bangkok
- Phuket News
One dead, two stabbed at ‘full moon’ party
BANGKOK (AFP): One foreigner drowned and two Britons were stabbed and seriously wounded during a giant beach party at a southern Thai resort last night. According to local reports, about 50,000 people – mainly foreigners – were at the party. A tourist police spokesman on the nearby island of Koh Samui said one foreigner was drowned after going for a…
- Phuket News
Resorts busy but suffering
BANGKOK (AFP): Many resorts have no rooms left, but Thailand’s key tourism industry has taken a battering over the New Year holidays because of the September 11 terror attacks, according to a study released today. Thai Farmers Research Center (TFRC) said fears of terrorism and the gloomy world economy would drive New Year revenue from foreign tourists down to 3.0…
- Phuket News
Senator steps into land row
PA KHLOK: Phuket Senator Paiboon Upatising stepped into the middle of a dispute between local villagers and a Bangkok-based landowner yesterday, standing surety for 15 villagers accused of trespass and of obstructing government officials in the execution of their duty. The charges relate to a piece of land abutting the klong in which villagers keep their fishing boats. The villagers…
- Phuket News
Duangchalerm charged with murder
BANGKOK (AFP): Prosecutors today laid charges against Duangchalerm Yoobamrung and his brother Wanchalerm over the killing of a policeman on October 29 in a Bangkok nightclub. Duangchalerm, 20, who is still in hiding, was charged with murder, while Wanchalerm, who was in court today, was charged with impeding his brother’s arrest and with illegal possession of arms, said Chavalit Lamjuanjorn,…
- Phuket News
TAT figures show effects of Sept 11
BANGKOK (AFP): Projected growth in Thailand’s tourist arrivals this year has been cut by more than half as a result of the September 11 attacks on the United States, officials said yesterday. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) said in a statement that, before September 11, visitor arrivals for the whole year had been predicted at 10.3 million, an increase…
- Phuket News
Pirate goods warehouses raided
PATONG: More than 50 officers from Bangkok’s Crime Suppression Division (CSD) netted more than 7,000 items of fake brand-name merchandise yesterday evening in raids on five warehouses near the market off Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd. The officers organized the raids after being tipped off by private investigators hired by popular brand-name companies. Raphee Chumprapa, who tracks down illegal copies of…
- Phuket News
Ambushes kill five police, one guard
BANGKOK (AFP): Gunmen opened fire in simultaneous attacks on police checkpoints in three southern Thai provinces, killing five officers and a civilian guard, officials said this morning. The unidentified attackers hit five police outposts – one in Yala, one in Pattani, and three in Narathiwat – at about 7:30 last night, local police said. Thai Interior Minister Purachai Piemsoomboon said…
- Phuket News
Vendor arrested for selling protected fish
PHUKET TOWN: A vendor has been arrested for selling protected fish species at the Rassada Pier today, just days after Phuket Senator Paiboon Upatising lodged an official complaint with Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi about gaps in the law that allow many arrested for illegal fishing to walk free. Acting on a tip-off, the Marine Police and officers from the Provincial…
- Phuket News
Police step up festive season security
PATONG: Police will tonight launch a campaign to improve tourists’ safety over the festive season by beefing up the police presence on the street. The campaign will run until January 15. A task force of 100 officers, drawn from Phuket’s Tourist, Marine and Highway Police as well as officers from Kathu Police Station, will assemble at 8 pm tonight at…
- Phuket News
Health Office Chief transferred
PHUKET: Dr Boonrieng Chuchaisangrat, Chief of Phuket’s Provincial Health Office (PHO), has been reassigned to an equivalent post in the northern province of Uttaradit. His transfer will take effect on January 24. Replacing him will be Dr Wanchai Sattayawutitong, currently the Director of the International Health Division of the Office of the Permanent Secretary in Bangkok. Dr Boonrieng told the…
- Phuket News
Cabinet slashes visas on arrival
BANGKOK (AFP, Gazette): The cabinet decided at a meeting yesterday to axe 81 nations from a list of 97 whose citizens may obtain a 15-day tourist visa on arrival. The new list of 16 is expected to be brought into force about a month from now. Citizens from the countries chopped off the list will then have to obtain a…
- Phuket News
A false sense of security
PHUKET TOWN: This year has not been a good one for 47-year-old security guard Pirat Rungpian, from Nakhon Pathom. After six years of robbing businesses he was supposed to be protecting, his career in crime finally came to a halt after a wheel fell off. Literally. Pirat was arrested in Nakhon Sawan on Friday on a charge of attempted robbery…
- Phuket News
Three confess to Ao Nang murder – police
KRABI: Police have arrested three construction workers from Amphur Chaoud, Nakhon Sri Thammarat, who, they say, have confessed to stabbing 33-year-old German tourist Petra Sack on Ao Nang Beach on November 28 at Ao Nang. Miss Sack died four hours after the stabbing. Two of the three were arrested on Sunday. One, a 16-year-old, was found in Songkhla, where he…
- Phuket News
Slow going in Krabi murder probe
KRABI: Police have released one suspect held during investigations into the November 29 murder of German tourist Petra Sack, after it was found that the man, Santi “Neng” Sagnakul, was in Phang Nga at the time of the murder. Another man, Somchai “Ann” Samartjit, 22, is still being questioned, though police say they are now more inclined to believe that…
- Phuket News
Deputy PM calls for traffic-free Bangla
PATONG: Deputy Prime Minister Pitak Intrawitayanunt, who is also Minister for Tourism, conducted an inspection tour of Patong on foot last night to investigate the possibility of converting part of the beach road and all of Soi Bangla into a pedestrian zone at weekends. The proposed L-shaped zone would cover about 1.5 kilometers of road, starting from the Phuket Cabana…
- Phuket News
Casino boss gambles on nudists
BANGKOK (AFP): Senator Vikrom Isiri, the entrepreneur who built the Andaman Club casino and hotel on Myanmar’s Son island, close to Ranong, now plans to build a nudist colony on the nearby island of St Luke’s. The Nation newspaper reported that the resort will cater to Europeans who “like to take their clothes off in public”. “Everybody [guests] will have…
- Phuket News
Foreign musicians to be hunted down
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand pledged Monday to crack down on overseas singers and musicians as part of a wider plan to cut the number of illegal migrant workers here by up to 30 percent, a senior official said. While there were some 200 mostly Filipino singers, musicians and artists working legally in hotels and bars in Thailand, many more had entered…
- Phuket News
Chalerm questioned over missing guns
BANGKOK (AFP): Police questioned Thai politician Chalerm Yoobamrung and his wife Lamnao for two hours today in connection with the murder of a police officer for which their son, Duongchalerm, is the chief suspect, officials said. Chalerm and Lamnao, were questioned separately over the disappearance of two handguns from their home, one of which is believed to have been used…
- Phuket News
Customs officials seize armadillos
BANGKOK (AFP): Thai customs officials seized a truck carrying nearly 500 legally protected armadillos destined for the stewpots of Chinese restaurants across Asia, an official said this afternoon. Manit Wityatem, customs chief in Thailand’s southern Chumphon province, said his officers had intercepted 483 armadillos believed to have been smuggled in from Malaysia. They were worth about a million baht (22,800…
- Phuket News
“UFOs’ seen over Phuket Town
PHUKET TOWN: Mobile phone systems were jammed last night as people phoned friends all over town to tell them about mysterious white lights zooming around the sky to the north of Phuket Town between 8 and 9 pm. Niyompong Torwong, Public Relations Officer of the Bangkok Phuket Hospital, told the Gazette that he saw a star moving very fast around…
- Phuket News
Artist dies in head-on smash
PHUKET: Well-known Rawai-based artist Jirasak Patanapong, 45, died of severe head injuries after being involved in a head-on collision on Chao Fa Nai Rd at about 10 pm on Friday. Two other people were injured in the accident. Tawin Tongpeng today told the Gazette that he was driving his pick-up truck to his home behind Wat Thepnimit after picking up…
- Phuket News
Phuket Town wins prize
PHUKET: Phuket Municipality has won the King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) Prize, awarded to local governments that listen to the views of local people and give them the opportunity to take part in the running of the town. Phuket Municipality was one of just four municipalities in the whole country to win the prize, out of 432 towns that entered. The…
- Phuket News
Another bomb blast at Tesco Lotus
BANGKOK (AFP): A bomb blast rocked another branch of retailer Tesco Lotus this afternoon in the third attack against the chain since a deadly terror campaign began in July. Today’s bomb went off in the parking lot of the Lotus store in the northern province of Ubon Ratchatani, said provincial police commander Chalosak A-sa. Chalosak said police were still investigating…
- Phuket News
Police deny Duongchalerm is in Patong
PATONG: The Superintendent of Kathu Police Station has said he does not believe reports that fugitive Duongchalerm Yoobamrung, wanted in connection with the murder of an undercover police officer in Bangkok, is hiding out in the Patong area. Seventeen days after the shooting in a Bangkok nightclub, politician’s son Duongchalerm is still at large. Officers of the Crime Suppression Division…
- Phuket News
Briton to be extradited over killing
BANGKOK (AFP): A Briton wanted in his home country for murder, and who was found hiding out in Patong, is expected to be extradited from Thailand within the week, police said yesterday. Peter Mann, 45, was arrested in July in connection with the murder of David Maher, 37, whose dumped body was discovered by a milkman in Devon, southwestern England,…
- Phuket News
Duongchalerm’s brother arrested
BANGKOK (AFP): Thai police today arrested Wanchalerm Yoobamrung, older brother of fugitive Duongchalerm Yoobamrung, on charges of illegal weapons possession, conspiracy to assault, and interfering in the course of justice. The charges relate to the shooting of a police officer in the Twenty Club in Bangkok on October 27, allegedly by Duongchalerm. Police chief Gen Sant Sarutanond said several witnesses…
- Phuket News
Drugs claiming ever younger victims
BANGKOK (AFP): When Supabun Kosum took her first methamphetamine tablet she was a curious 18-year-old schoolgirl wanting only “to test” if the little orange pill delivered the euphoria and invincibility her friends raved about. But her schoolyard experimentation with the drug in Thailand’s northern Nakhon Sawan province touched off a seven-year addiction that would consume her life and her income,…
- Phuket News
THAI to hike domestic fares by 15pc
PHUKET: Fares for domestic flights on Thai Airways (THAI) will be hiked by 15% with effect from November 15, Viset Sontichai, THAI’s District Sales Manager for Upper Southern Thailand, announced today. The newspaper Thai Rath reported that the rise was because THAI’s domestic services, with the exception of those between Phuket, Bangkok and Chiang Mai, were unprofitable. The news agency…
- Thailand News
A job for Crocodile Dundee
BANGKOK: Thai authorities yesterday stepped up their hunt for about 10 fully-grown saltwater crocodiles that have been on the lam since escaping from a farm in flash floods last week. Four of the reptiles, measuring three to four meters in length, have already been captured near the Million Years Crocodile Farm, about 175 kilometers east of Bangkok. Another two reptiles…
- Phuket News
Outrage at escape from murder rap
BANGKOK (AFP): The Thaksin government’s failure to apprehend the son of a widely distrusted politician has exposed glaring flaws in Thai democracy. Murder suspect Doungchalerm Yubamrung, a junior army officer and the son of a prominent member of Thaksin’s coalition government, has been on the run for a week since a police officer was shot dead in cold blood at…
