Search Results for: gold
- Phuket News
Police officer robbed during Phuket stay
PHUKET TOWN: An Immigration Police officer from Surat Thani, working in Phuket on assignment, had his jewelry and his gun stolen from his hotel room at the S.T. Hotel on Sakdidet Rd on Saturday night. Pol Lt Parichat Jaturonphan, of Phuket Town Police Station, said that Pol Capt Sudjarit Vongsakate was staying at the hotel with his family. Lt Parichat…
- Phuket News
Burglars rob MP’s company of B1m
PHUKET TOWN: Burglars on Saturday night broke into exporting company Jianvanich Office, of which Phuket Democrat MP Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr is Managing Director, and stole cash and jewelry worth about 1 million baht. Pol Lt Parichat Jaturonphant, of Phuket Town Police Station, told the Gazette that at 11:30 yesterday morning, Apirak Vanich, 37, the company’s manager and K. Anchalee’s younger brother,…
- Phuket News
A quieter Chinese New Year
PHUKET: The Chinese New Year may have opened in Phuket with many a bang from strings of firecrackers, but otherwise it’s pretty quiet, an informal survey by the Gazette indicated today. Fresh food sellers, jewelers and other retailers in Phuket responded with much the same bottom-line answer: sales are down. Usually gold, symbolizing wealth and good fortune, is given to…
- Phuket News
Tourist’s death puzzles police
PATONG: Mystery surrounds the final hours of an Italian tourist whose body was found in a shallow pool of water near Patong Beach yesterday evening. Alerted by a tip-off at about 6 pm yesterday, police went to the site, near the Phuket Palace Hotel on the main Patong-Karon road, and found Luca Tesei, 35, lying face-down in the shin-deep pool.…
- Phuket News
Boom in business registrations
PHUKET: The latest statistics on business registrations show that business people on the island are not nearly as pessimistic as might be thought, given the global downturn and the expected effects of the September 11 atrocities. In fact, the numbers from the Phuket Commercial Registration Office (CRO) show, there has been an increase in new business registrations. Veerachai Tantiwathanavallop, Director…
- Phuket News
Seminar identifies greatest threats to Phuket
PHUKET TOWN: The greatest threat to Phuket’s continued success as a top tourist destination is not a lack of planning, but the fact that few plans are put into action and, when they are, there is a lack of supervision or enforcement. That was the clear message from the majority of speakers in yesterday’s seminar on “The Prospects for Land…
- Phuket News
Chef Ronnie does it again
BANGKOK: Chef Ronnie Macuja of the Phuket Cabana’s Sala Bua restaurant has scored a second huge victory in the New Asia Cuisine competition, once again beating top chefs from Bangkok in the contest, one of the highlights of the Asian Food & Catering Fair at the Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Center. Chef Ronnie was the surprise winner in last…
- Phuket News
Three arrested for bar owner’s murder
PHUKET TOWN: Thanks to a combination of sheer good luck and one officer’s good memory, police have arrested Taweewut Saeton, 31, and two minors aged 15 and 16 in connection with the rape and murder on Saturday of Pranorm Anuan, 24, the owner of the Shark Otto Bar in Soi Eric, Patong. Taweewut and one of the minors are from…
- Phuket News
Fall in tourists “our own fault’ – Gov
PHUKET: Governor Pongpayome Vasaputi has blamed the falling number of tourists on Phuket’s poor attitude towards tourism. Speaking after the release of Phuket International Airport’s latest statistics on passenger throughput, he described Phuket as a “golden island that attracts fortune seekers”. But, he said, “Once all the gold has been dug up, it will just be an ordinary island.” The…
- Phuket News
After 100 days, jury still out on Thaksin
BANGKOK (AFP): After 100 days in office, the jury is still out on Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra — literally. Thailand’s constitutional court is deliberating corruption charges against Thaksin. If convicted, he may be forced out of office and barred from politics for five years. That pressure has seen him scrambling to leave a legacy by pushing through his populist…
- Phuket News
Two million baht robbery reported
PHUKET TOWN: At 10 am on Monday, May 14, Sophana Tawahudee reported to Phuket Town police station that her house on Mae Luan Rd had been robbed, and that cash and valuables worth over two million baht had been stolen. K. Sophana, the manager at the Andaman Sea View Hotel in Karon, said that the bandit had made off with…
- Phuket News
June launch for 30-baht medical treatment
PHUKET: The Thaksin government’s scheme to provide medical treatment for Thai citizens at 30 baht per hospital visit will become available in Phuket from June 1. Dr Jessada Chaikunwat, Deputy Chief of the Phuket Provincial Health Office (PHO), explained that dates will soon be announced on which Thais who wish to join the scheme may go either to the PHO…
- 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
Another fishing port murder
PHUKET TOWN: A man was found murdered in the fishing port in Mu 7, Tambon Rassada, early yesterday morning. Pol Maj Thanet Phuangmanee of Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette, “A crewman from a fishing boat told me that as he was moving fish from the boat to the dock he saw the body floating in the water. He…
- Phuket News
Bag-snatchers have a busy week
PHUKET: Motorbike-riding bag-snatchers have been busy over the past week, police report, with two or three cases a day, all in the same area south of Phuket Town. “Most of the thefts took place on Chao Fa Nok Rd, Chao Fa Nai Rd, Kwang Rd, or Sakdidet Rd,” said an undercover policeman who asked not to be named. “They work…
- Phuket News
Thief steals 500,000 baht while victims sleep
PHUKET TOWN: A well-known Ranong fishing raft owner and his wife lost close to 500,000 baht in the early hours of Tuesday morning when a thief stole into the Phuket Town hotel room where they slept. Pol Lt Khaneung Pitakkullatorn of Phuket Town Police Station said that the victims, 39-year-old Apirak Sornsom and his wife, were staying at the Phuket…
- Phuket News
Police suspect murder in death of jet-ski operator
PATONG: The body of a Thai jet-ski operator was found near the Nakalay viewpoint, near the Thavorn Beach Village Hotel, on Friday afternoon. Although the cause of death has yet to be established, the police are treating it as murder. Local fisherman, who had noticed a foul smell, discovered the body on the rocks 20 meters below the Nakalay viewpoint…
- Phuket News
Leaking policeman gets into hot water
PHUKET TOWN: Stopping to pass water can be a dangerous business, as an Immigration Police officer found out on Monday. Pol Snr Sgt Maj Wichien Petphang-nga told the Gazette that he was driving, in plain clothes, toward the center of Phuket Town when he heard the call of nature. He decided to stop at the Sanamchai football field, opposite the…
- Phuket News
Treasure hunters suffocate in cave
KANCHANABURI (AFP): Six treasure hunters died in a cave in this western province as they searched for gold rumored to have been stashed there 50 years ago by defeated Japanese soldiers. Police in Sangkla Buri district said today that the four men and two women died after becoming trapped 50 meters into the narrow cave. “They died because of lack…
- Phuket News
Robbers stab German resident to death
CHANTABURI (AFP): A 52-year-old German man was stabbed to death in a bungled robbery in eastern Thailand yesterday. One of the three men suspected of killing him has been shot dead, police said. Dieter Meyer, from Frankfurt, was found dead early yesterday in the Kitchakud district of Chantaburi Province, Pol Lt Komon Cholcheep said. He had been stabbed five times.…
- 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
Dead man in woods “killed himself’
KARON: The man who was found dead in the woods to the east of Karon two days ago has been identified as Prasert Chuwong, 42, a former cook at Chao-Kuen Restaurant in Kata. According to Pol Col Sati Malakanond, the superintendent of Chalong Police Station, Prasert was left jobless after the restaurant went out of business some time ago. Based…
- Phuket News
Robbers beat shop owner, steal 600,000 baht
PHUKET TOWN: Two armed thieves held up a woman in her shop on Ong Sim Phai Rd late Saturday night and stole 600,000 baht, a gold chain worth about 6,000 baht, and a mobile phone. They then pistol-whipped the woman and her niece, who arrived on the scene just as the robbers were completing their work. Pol Lt Parichat Jaturonpan…
- Phuket News
University lecturer charged with murder
BANGKOK (AFP): A Japanese-American university lecturer has been arrested on charges of murdering his Thai girlfriend and dumping her body into a river, police in Bangkok said yesterday. The man, identified by police as Michael Yoshinaka, 34, a teacher at a university in California, was arrested in a hotel on Friday night. They said a gold ring belonging to his…
- Phuket News
Armed group storms Myanmar embassy in Bangkok
BANGKOK (AFP): A group of 12 men armed with grenades and AK-47 assault rifles stormed the embassy of Myanmar (Burma) in central Bangkok just before noon today. Some 20 embassy staff are believed to have been taken hostage or to be trapped in their accommodation in the compound. In a statement faxed from inside the embassy, the group said the…
- Phuket News
Patong car bomb puts three in hospital
PATONG: A gold shop owner, his wife and an employee were hurt yesterday afternoon when a home-made car bomb exploded after they got into their vehicle. The bomb exploded after Somkiet Sopark, 32, his wife Hongsuda, 43, and employee Sirinapa Kaopho-ngam got into the car outside the Soparks’ gold shop and residence at 18 Sirirat Road, Patong. The bomb, which…
- Phuket News
Policeman dies in high-speed motorbike chase
KATHU: One policeman died and another was injured last week when their motorbike crashed as they chased a gold robber. Kathu Pol Capt Kittipong Klinekaew said his station received a call that a man had grabbed a gold necklace from a woman’s neck at Phuket Highland Ville on the Samkong-Kathu Road. As the robber drove his motorcycle towards Patong, Policeman…
- Phuket News
Phuket residents in tantalum rush
PHUKET TOWN: Dozens of Phuket residents have been digging recently along the left bank of the cape at Saphan Hin, in a frantic search for the metal tantalum. The scene, reminiscent of a gold rush, was sparked by an ex-miner, Khun Vichian Sonlarp, who found tantalum along the shoreline just over two weeks ago. Diggers have been finding an average…
- Phuket News
Major theft at Wachira Hospital
PHUKET: Police have issued a warning to patients visiting Phuket Town’s Wachira Hospital after a 73-year-old woman who went there for tests was robbed of valuables worth 500,000 baht. The woman, Khun Lamay Lakthan of Chaong, was asked to change into a hospital gown so that X-rays could be taken. A man she later described as being between 40 to…
- Phuket News
Thai officials linked to drugs
BANGKOK, June 7 (AFP) – More than a thousand Thai government employees are caught up in lucrative drugs trafficking, a senior minister admitted Monday. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Jurin Laksanavisit said 1,088 officials were involved in trafficking, most of them in the northeast and south of the country. “Most of the drug problem involves narcotics being smuggled in…