Search Results for: Tak
- 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
115 illegals held in raids on wat fair
CHALONG: The annual fair at Wat Chalong has proved a bonanza for officers targeting illegal immigrants. In the first two days – Tuesday and yesterday – 115 Burmese were arrested, and there are four more days to go. “There are many construction camps in the area, and the fair is famous among the Burmese,” explained Pol Col Abhirak Hongtong, superintendent…
- 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
Chuan to open major seminar in Phuket
PHUKET: Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai will open the 18th National Chamber of Commerce Seminar, which will take place in Phuket on February 3 and 4, hosted jointly by the Phuket Chamber of Commerce and Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC). The seminar, which is expected to draw about 150 participants representing chambers of commerce from across Thailand, will begin at 8:30…
- Phuket News
Dutchman held for working illegally
PHUKET TOWN: A Dutch national living in Phuket was arrested on Saturday evening for working without a work permit. Police told the Gazette that Provincial Defense Officers, led by Chief Nikorn Torhiranpruek, were conducting a sweep for illegal workers when they found William Pittel, 46, helping his Thai wife to sell limes at the Down Town Night Market, opposite the…
- Phuket News
Common cold drug banned
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Health Office (PHO), under instructions from the Ministry of Public Health, has announced a ban on the use of Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) in medicines. Research undertaken at Yale University has indicated that PPA may assist the development of a hemorrhagic stroke. PPA is found in many medicines taken for relieving symptoms of the common cold and is…
- Phuket News
Airport bomb hoax
MAIKHAO: At 5:15 pm yesterday, an anonymous phone call was made to staff at Phuket International Airport by a man claiming that a bomb had been planted and was set to go off in 30 minutes. The call was made from a public phone by a man believed to be a Thai. After immediately notifying the police, staff informed the…
- Phuket News
Largest drug haul in Thai history
TUBLAMU, PHANG-NGA: The Royal Thai Navy recorded the largest drug bust in Thai history on Sunday, after they seized an estimated five million ya bah (methamphetamine) pills and 100 kilograms of heroin valued at more than a billion baht ($25 million). Four naval patrol boats and a Dornier helicopter from Tublamu base captured two fishing trawlers, one carrying the drugs,…
- Phuket News
Loan shark took nude photos of staff
PHUKET TOWN: Police found a naked woman with hands and feet bound in chains in the house of a loan shark on Soi Taling Chan yesterday after receiving a tip-off about an illegal gun. Pol Lt Akanit Danpitaksart, of Phuket Town Police station, obtained a search warrant after hearing that an illegal pistol had been seen in the house in…
- Phuket News
Woman dragged one kilometer by truck
PHUKET TOWN: A delivery van dragged a woman and her motorbike along Thepkrasattri Rd for about a kilometer early on Wednesday morning after a collision. Wipa Kongpisutthikul, 25 of Phuket Town, told police that while she was waiting to turn right near the intersection of Thepkrasattri Rd and Komaraphat Rd, the van driven by Sanit Maichum, 27, hit her and…
- Phuket News
Big turnout at Saphan Hin for Democrats
PHUKET TOWN: Thousands of Democrat Party supporters gathered in Saphan Hin last night to listen to the Prime Minister before the national elections on Saturday, January 6. Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai and other Democrat Party ministers, Abhisit Vejjajiva, Surin Pitsuwan, Trairong Suwankiri, and Suthep Thaugsuban, took the stage in support of Phuket’s Democrat candidates for MP: Suwit Sa-Ngiamkul, for District…
- Phuket News
German woman in suicide jump
PHUKET TOWN: A 45-year-old German woman apparently committed suicide by jumping from the third floor of the Bangkok Phuket Hospital on Monday at about 7:30 pm. The woman, a tourist, died from severe head injuries, according to Pol Lt Kanuang Pitakulthon of Phuket Town Police Station. The hospital cannot verify the woman’s name because no passport or other identification papers…
- Phuket News
A tale of two Kesorns
PATONG: Nationwide publicity about the kidnapped ‘beggar girl’ case has put the spotlight on Kathu Police Station’s finest. On December 14, Buri Ram native Huad Sooksaeng, 34, contacted Kathu police claiming that the begging girl, seven-year-old Kesorn, was her daughter, and that Kesorn had been kidnapped from her home in the northeast of Thailand three years ago. The police responded…
- Phuket News
Thaksin found guilty of false declarations
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand’s anti-graft watchdog ruled today that leading prime ministerial candidate Thaksin Shinawatra was guilty of filing a false declaration of his assets, an offence that could result in him being banned from politics for five years. The nine-member board of the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) voted 8-1 that Thaksin “intentionally filed a false statement of assets”, said…
- Phuket News
Post Office ready to face the world
PHUKET TOWN: Thanks to a piece of technical wizardry introduced by the Phuket Post Office and local company C&P Sticker, letter writers now have the chance to use their own personal stamp on the envelope. It’s being done to mark International Children’s Day. Anant Muangmee, an officer at the Phuket Post Office, explained that those wishing to send letters with…
- Phuket News
3 die, 36 hurt in bus crash
THALANG: Three people died yesterday afternoon when a Phuket Central Tour bus crashed on Thepkrasattri Rd about a kilometer south of the entrance to the Yacht Haven. The remaining 36 passengers, including six foreigners, were injured. Just 45 minutes after it left Phuket Town, bound for Bangkok, the bus flipped onto its side and crashed off the road on an…
- Phuket News
Mother rescues daughter from beggar gang
PATONG: A mother from Isan has been reunited with her daughter after three terrifying years during which the girl was kidnapped by a gang and set to work begging on the streets of Patong. Three years ago, Huad Sooksaeng, 34, from Buri Rum, decided to come to work in Phuket. She left her four-year-old daughter, Kesorn, in the care of…
- Phuket News
Mob blocks road to get rid of eight police
THALANG: A mob of 500 blocked the road to the airport in front of Thalang Police Station for 2½ hours on Saturday afternoon, demanding the transfer of a police captain and seven other officers whom they accused of planting drugs on people and stealing money. The protestors, from Baan Kain in Tambon Thepkrasattri, marched after Pol Capt Sanich Kongnu raided…
- Phuket News
Villagers lift Cape Panwa blockade
AO MAKHAM: Following a mass meeting between villagers and high-level government officials last night, and agreement by the officials to two additional demands made by the villagers, the blockade of Cape Panwa ended peacefully this morning. A barricade across the road leading to the cape was erected on Wednesday as part of a mass protest at the shooting to death…
- Phuket News
Villagers issue ultimatum over boy’s death
AO MAKHAM: Dozens of protesters today continued to block the road to Cape Panwa with makeshift barricades, following the killing of a local 16-year-old boy. Some of their leaders threatened that if the police case against the boy’s killers is not sewn up by the end of tomorrow they will rally tens of thousands of Muslims from all over the…
- 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
Phuket-Krabi flights mark launch of Air Andaman
PHUKET: The new Phuket-based airline, Air Andaman, will take to the air on Monday with a twice-daily service between Phuket and Krabi. The frequency will increase to three flights a day from Friday. Montri Rattanapiphop, Regional Sales Manager at Air Andaman’s Bangkok office, told the Gazette, “We will fly from Phuket to Krabi at 0930 and 1720. The return flights…
- Phuket News
Mass reburial of unclaimed bodies planned
PHUKET: The Kusonlatham Foundation has announced that it will exhume and rebury some 2,000 unclaimed bodies between February 7 and March 27 next year. This will be the fourth time that unclaimed bodies in Phuket have been reburied. The first time was in 1976 and the most recent was in July 1989. About half of the corpses involved in the…
- Phuket News
Phuket tops list for AIDS in pregnant women
PHUKET: The island has Thailand’s highest rate of HIV infection in pregnant women, the Chief of the Phuket Provincial Health Office, Dr Boonrieng Chuchaisangrat, has revealed. He said that of every 100 woman going to the province’s hospitals for pre-natal care or to give birth, four test positive for the deadly disease. Dr Boonrieng stressed that all government departments should…
- Phuket News
Prison cancels Open Days
PHUKET: Phuket Provincial Prison has canceled its Open Days, scheduled to take place between December 2 and 8, following the breakout and hostage drama at Samut Sakhon prison last week. Pairoj Pankaew, chief of the prison, told the Gazette today that he had received instructions from the director of the Region 8 Prison Service, in Nakhon Sri Thammarat, that Open…
- Phuket News
Local investment at centre of IBAP meeting
PHUKET TOWN: At a public meeting tomorrow, (November 24), Phuket Senator Paiboon Upatising and Provincial Governor Pongpayome Vasaputi will join local business leaders to hear the views of a distinguished economist and a cyber-expert about the future of investment in Phuket. Addressing a meeting of the International Business Association of Phuket (IBAP) will be Chulalongkorn University lecturer Thitinan Pongsudhirak and…
- Phuket News
Eight Burmese in jail-break hostage drama
SAMUT SAKHON (AFP): Eight armed Burmese prisoners holding the jail governor and six of his staff hostage have broken through the gates of the prison here and driven outside the compound in a pick-up truck, police said this afternoon. Provincial police chief Major General Surasri Sunthornsarathoon said negotiators were now trying to win the release of the hostages, two of…
- Phuket News
French deputy mayor killed in bike smash
PATONG: A deputy mayor of the French ski resort of Chamonix died in a motorcycle accident in front of Phuket Simon Cabaret early yesterday morning. Pol Maj Pisit Cheanpeth of Kathu Police Station told the Gazette that at around 2.30 am, the man, whom he named as Jean-François Girod, aged about 38-40, crashed his rented motorbike into a culvert at…
- 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
Four held for trying to rob currency exchange firm
PHUKET TOWN: Four men who had lost money gambling decided on Saturday to take an even bigger gamble – they held up a currency exchange company. But their luck was still bad. They came away empty-handed and were nabbed soon afterwards by police. The four, identified by police as Jaroen Sakjapitak, 42, from Sakhon Nakhon, Jantai Singkam, 34, from Loei,…