Search Results for: Tak
- Phuket News
Industry Minister pledges B2bn in SME support
PATONG: Industry Minister Pongsak Raktapongpaisan announced yesterday that the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP) has earmarked 2 billion baht from its Venture Capital Fund to buy between 10% and 49% interest in tsunami-affected SMEs in order to provide much-needed cash flow. There will be no interest levied on the capital injection nor will the OSMEP claim any…
- Phuket News
DNA work complete in two weeks – Bhokin
PHUKET CITY: The bodies of approximately 2,200 unidentified tsunami victims are still awaiting extraction of DNA samples for analysis in China. Most are being kept at Wat Yanyao and Wat Bang Muang in Phang Nga, Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula told a a press conference at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday afternoon.K. Bhokin said that forensic science teams can extract DNA samples…
- Phuket News
Business owners slam demolition
PATONG: As Patong Mayor Pian Keesin was sitting down with TAT officials yesterday to discuss remodeling of the town’s tsunami-damaged beach road, a backhoe operator hired by the town was already at work tearing down parts of roadside resorts damaged by the tsunami.Owners of the properties on a 250-meter stretch at the south end of Thaweewong Rd complained that the…
- Phuket News
OrBorJor warning system in the works
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) is planning to establish and operate its own 8.8-million-baht emergency radio network and warning system in order to help prevent a repeat of the December 26 disaster.The idea is the brainchild of OrBorJor President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr, who said her own efforts to coordinate an emergency response to the tsunami failed when mobile telephone…
- Phuket News
Rooms tax break for island hotels
PHUKET CITY: In order to help soften the blow to Phuket’s tourism industry caused the tsunami, the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) is exempting all hotels from the controversial 1% rooms tax for the first nine months of 2005.Explaining why the exemption was being applied to all hotels, and not just those with structural damage, OrBorJor President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr said,…
- Phuket News
Governments begin relaxing travel advisories
PHUKET: Foreign governments have been relaxing their warnings against travelling to Phuket, although the change is by no means universal, and all government websites visited by the Gazette are still recommending that their nationals avoid Phi Phi and Khao Lak. The French government was one of the first to take Phuket off the pariah list. On Friday last week, the…
- Phuket News
Seafood “safe to eat’
PHUKET: The island’s health chief has confirmed that seafood supplies are safe to eat, though he has also reminded people not to eat raw seafood.Dr Wanchai Sattayawutthipong, Chief of the Phuket Provincial Health Office, told the Gazette that every kind of meat should be well cooked before being served. Such precautions apply at all times, not just now, he said.“I…
- Phuket News
German Foreign Minister visits Phuket
PHUKET: German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer toured Phuket and Phang Nga at the weekend to assess the damage caused by the December 26 tsunami.Mr Fischer said a top priority should be identifying the bodies of people still classified as “missing”. Some two weeks after the waves hit shorelines around the Indian Ocean, 60 Germans were confirmed dead, while 700 more…
- Phuket News
Candidates register for general election
PHUKET: Tsunami or no, the four parliamentary candidates from the two big political parties turned up this morning to register their candidacies for the upcoming general election.With the Democrat Party candidates in blue, their Thai Rak Thai (TRT) opponents in red, all wearing yellow garlands and cheered on by enthusiastic supporters, the atmosphere was reminiscent of the final minutes before…
- Phuket News
Help pours in for damaged schools
KAMALA: Financial assistance has been pouring in from Thailand and around the world to help rebuild Phuket schools damaged by the December 26 tsunami. The Education Ministry has already issued 800,000 baht in emergency funding to rebuild four schools damaged by the December 26 tsunami, said Damrong Boonchoti, Director of the Phuket Educational Area Office. Most of the funding will…
- Phuket News
Gay Festival postponed until April
PATONG: The Phuket Gay Festival, originally scheduled to take place in February, has been postponed because of the tsunami. The event will now be run from April 7 to 10. Festival organizers have announced that although most gay venues escaped direct damage from the tsunami, two were hit, with one member of staff killed. An announcement on the organizer’s website…
- Phuket News
Bizarre twists in UK travel advisory
PHUKET: In a bizarre twist possibly sparked more by politics than reality, Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) yesterday took Phuket off its list of places for British travelers to avoid, and then, within hours, put it back on.On its website, the FCO had advised, since the tsunami struck, against “all but essential travel to affected resorts and towns along…
- Phuket News
Japanese rescuers leave for home
PHUKET: In another sign that the island is moving into the recovery-and-rebuilding phase, 49 members of a Japanese rescue team flew back to Tokyo yesterday afternoon after briefing Rear Admiral Tana Bunnag, Commander of the Third Naval Area Command Based at Cape Panwa on what they had achieved. Team leader Toshimizu Ichigure said that 60 Japanese took part in the…
- Phuket News
Swedish boy “missing, not kidnapped’
PHUKET: A 12-year-old Swedish tsunami victim feared abducted from a Phang Nga hospital was not kidnapped, but is instead still missing, police said last night.Pol Lt Col Virit Kamolrat of Phuket Tourist Police told a press conference last night that a boy taken from Tai Muang Hospital by an older German man was not Kristian Walker of Sweden, but another…
- Phuket News
Misleading reports about missing toddler
PHUKET: A number of misleading emails and media reports are circulating about Hannes Bergstrom, the 20-month-old Swedish toddler who was taken to Phuket International Hospital after the tsunami, and could not at first be identified. Hannes was, however, indentified and reunited with family members after his plight was featured in the Gazette Online on December 27, 2004 (see story here).…
- Phuket News
Appeal for more items for Khao Lak
PHUKET: The organizers of a convoy of relief supplies for 700 homeless families in the Khao Lak area and for others further north have appealed for donations of more items to fill the vehicle, which leaves tomorrow.What follows is a list of items requested by the Khuk Khak Tambon Administration Organization and the Takua Pa District Office, with the approximate…
- Phuket News
Khao Lak needs cooking implements
KHAO LAK: Volunteers gathering relief for survivors in the devastated area around Khao Lak have appealed for items urgently needed there. These include: Cooking Utensils – Pots and pans, woks, plates, bowls, mugs, forks and spoons; Cooking Oil; Simple gas stoves (like those used for camping); Simple rice cookers (non electric). A collection point for such items has been set…
- Phuket News
DNA centers set up to help identify victims
PHUKET: The Scientific Crime Detection Division (SCDD) of the Royal Thai Police has set up three centers in Phuket and one in Krabi to facilitate the collection of DNA samples from relatives of missing people in an effort to identify the victims of the tsunami. Wachira Phuket Hospital and Patong Hospital, and Phuket City Hall are the island’s sampling centers,…
- Phuket News
13 looters arrested in Patong
PATONG: Police have arrested 13 people for looting damaged businesses in the Patong area.Pol Col Teeraphol Thipjaroen, the Superintendent of Kathu Police Station, told the Gazette that since December 26 his officers had arrested nine Thais and four Burmese for looting.“In accordance with the law, people engaged in theft at a time of crisis like this are subject to severe…
- Phuket News
Unidentified victims “will not be cremated’
PHUKET: Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula today stressed that the bodies of foreign victims of last Sunday’s tsunami will not be cremated or buried before they can be identified.His statement contradicted an earlier one by Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura that burials would begin at a site in Mai Khao today.Speaking at a press conference at the emergency center at Phuket Provincial…
- Phuket News
Midnight memorial in Patong tonight
PATONG: There will be a memorial service for victims of the December 26 tsunami at midnight tonight at the west end of Soi Bangla, near the Patong waterfront. The event is being organized jointly by the Phuket Tourism Association and the Patong Beach Hotel Business Association as a way for survivors to remember friends and relatives who perished in the…
- Phuket News
Appeal for forensic experts, body bags
KHAO LAK: A volunteer helping to collect and wrap bodies in this epicenter of the tsunami tragedy issued an urgent appeal this morning for forensic experts to come to the shattered resort to help set up some system for identifying the dead.John Dalley, originally from Leeds, England, but now a resident of Phuket, told the Gazette, “There are lots of…
- Phuket News
Devastated Khao Lak resembles war zone
PHANG NGA: Hotels, resorts and other structures along the beach in Khao Lak were devastated by last Sunday’s tsunami waves, which ravaged everything in their path and pushed wreckage back all the way back past Highway 4, the main road through the area.A fisherwoman, Sawaad, told the Gazette, “I saw the huge wave come over one kilometer onto the land.…
- Phuket News
Phang Nga death toll 1,000 and climbing
PHANG NGA: The bodies of over 1,000 victims of the Boxing Day tsunami have already been recovered in Phang Nga and the number is expected to rise as rescue teams continue their search. Phang Nga Governor Anuwat Metheeviboonwut announced the figure during an interview on Thai television this morning, adding that rescue workers would try to complete their searches of…
- Phuket News
Donations urgently needed
PHUKET: As the island continues its recovery from the tsunami that hit the island on Sunday morning, many hospitals and other organizations are calling for donations to assist victims. Hospitals: clothes, shoes, counseling: Wachira Phuket Hospital and other hospitals say there is an urgent need for shoes, shorts and T-shirts, especially in sizes large enough for foreigners. Shoes are the…
- Phuket News
Cabinet approves B2.8bn in emergency aid
PHUKET: The Cabinet yesterday approved a 2.8-billion-baht emergency relief budget to help relieve the suffering of those affected by December 26 tsunami.Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula said that during a video-conference Cabinet meeting in Phuket yesterday morning, PM Thaksin ordered that the search for bodies in the areas of the Phi Phi Islands and Khao Lak be intensified.Bodies are now piling…
- Phuket News
Patong clean-up underway
PATONG: Patong Municipality yesterday approved a 20-million-baht budget to begin clean-up operations following the devastation wrought by tsunami waves on Sunday.Mayor Pian Keesin today told the Gazette that municipal officials were still searching for bodies, but that 100% of those who suffered injury had already been sent to hospitals.He said workers and vehicles had been hired to clear debris along…
- Phuket News
Tourism Council President calls for speedy assistance
PHUKET: Tourism Council of Thailand President Vichit Na Ranong has called for the government to expedite assistance to help in the clean-up effort in the wake of the December 26 tsunami.“It’s too early to estimate the total cost of the damage, but we must begin the clean-up as soon as possible. We can’t afford to wait for three months. The…
- Phuket News
THAI adds more special flights, bigger planes out of Phuket
PHUKET: Thai Airways has announced a change to larger aircraft and two special flights from Phuket to Bangkok.Mr Kanok Abhiradee, THAI’s President, said that the airline has taken the step to facilitate transportation of the injured and others affected by the natural disaster in the South of Thailand. The special arrangements take effect from today, 27 December, onwards.The special, additional…
- Phuket News
Baby boy identifed
PHUKET: A young boy rescued by a couple and taken to Phuket International Hospital has been identified as a 20-month old Swedish boy.Family members in Finland saw the photograph of young Hannes Bergstrom on the Phuket Gazette website and contacted the boy’s uncle, Tim Karkkinen, in Pattaya within an hour of the story going online.Mr Karkkinen told the Gazette that…
