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- Phuket News
Phuket police nab Chinese ‘stopover thieves’
PHUKET: Chalong Police have arrested three mainland Chinese they think are part of a gang who specialize in burglarizing guests at luxury hotels the world over. Chalong Police Deputy Superintendent Narong Laksanawimol identified the three suspects at a press conference today as: Liu Shuiping, 45; Liu Jianhua, 39; and Liu Shuidong, 40. All are listed as residents of Jiangxi, China.…
- Phuket News
PHUKET REMINDER: FC Phuket at home against JW Rangsit tomorrow
PHUKET: FC Phuket will be going all-out for three points tomorrow at Surakul Stadium, where they take on JW Rangsit FC in a Thai League Division 1 match starting at 6pm. The Southern Sea Kirin, who sit in sixth place after the third week of the season, will be trying for their second win. Both sides are playing in their…
- Phuket News
Phuket home to UN marine management project
PHUKET: Getting eight culturally diverse countries with varying systems of government and historically contentious relationships to co-operate on environmental management is a mammoth task. That is precisely what the Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem project (BOBLME) hopes to facilitate over the next four years with nations in the Bay of Bengal region. BOBLME, covering about 6.2 million square kilometers…
- Phuket News
Phuket heeds Japan’s call for aid
PHUKET: The Phuket Tsunami Relief Center for Japan has been set up at Provincial Hall as a collection point for donations to aid survivors of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11. The center was established on Tuesday following talks between Phuket Japanese Association President Kazushi Miyashita and Governor Tri Augkaradacha. “Seven years ago when the tsunami…
- Phuket News
Phuket moves for Japan disaster relief
PHUKET: Bangkok Hospital Phuket has set up a drop-off box to collect donated items for survivors of the earthquake and tsunami disaster that struck Japan on Friday. Estimates of the earthquake’s magnitude made it the most powerful earthquake to ever hit Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world since record-keeping began in 1900. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto…
- Phuket News
Lady Pie is off to the Hong Kong Sevens
PHUKET: It will be the life of pie for hungry rugby fanatics later this month when a popular Phuket eatery sends 8,500 “scrummy” pastries to Hong Kong for the world-renowned Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Rugby Sevens tournament. A bulging crowd of 120,000 people are expected to descend on Hong Kong Park over three days, starting on March 25, to see which…
- Phuket News
Drug Rehab: Phuket ‘camp’ for first-time offenders
PHUKET: Arrested under the ongoing nationwide police crackdown on drugs, 82 first-time offenders in Phuket last week began a voluntary rehab program as part of their suspended sentences. The five-day “camp”, run by the Phuket Heath Office, aims to help first-time offenders kick their habits before they become repeat offenders or get involved in serious drug crimes. “All of them…
- Phuket News
Woman arrested after stashing ya bah pills near Phuket school
PHUKET: Police yesterday arrested a woman who stashed close to 2,000 ya bah (methamphetamine) pills on top of a phone booth in front of a primary school in Phuket Town. At a press conference at Phuket City Police Station today, officers asked the press not to release the identity of the woman as doing so could compromise the ongoing investigation…
- Phuket News
Phuket Live Wire: To 3BB or not to 3BB?
PHUKET: I’m tired of paying so much for ADSL. I have ADSL lines in three of the four Sandwich Shoppes (CAT EV-DO in Villa Market), plus one in the bakery and two in my home office. That’s six ADSL lines. For years I’ve been using the TT&T, then 3BB, MaxNet Premiere 4 Mbps service. For years, I’ve been paying almost…
- Phuket News
Blackouts: Phuket to enjoy obligatory Earth Hours
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) has announced scheduled blackouts to carry out maintenance on high-voltage power lines, install new lines and move power poles. The dates and locations of the operations, which will be carried out from 9am to 5pm, are: March 15 – Chalong Along Luang Por Chuang Road, from the TOT office on Chao Fa West…
- Phuket News
Phuket special needs center facing crisis
PHUKET: The Center for Special Education in Phuket is facing a budgetary and staffing crisis because the number of disabled children on the island is going up every year, its director says. Wanida Suraban said the center, in Kathu, now looks looked after 191 children with problems including blindness, learning disabilities, communication problems, deafness, autism and other conditions. The center…
- Phuket News
Confessed Phuket murderer Fanelli on the inside
PHUKET: Murder suspect Ronald Fanelli has yet to enter a plea with the Phuket Provincial Court and the American says his detention at Phuket Provincial Prison is making him physically ill. Speaking through a telephone in the visitors’ center on March 1, Mr Fanelli said a court appearance scheduled for February 24 had to be postponed after “a timing mix-up”…
- Phuket News
Phuket blood center seeks Songkran stocks
PHUKET: The Phuket Regional Blood Center run by the Thai Red Cross has announced the dates and locations of its mobile blood donation clinics in Phuket and the Andaman Coast region this month. Center director Pornthip Rattajak thanked those who responded to an emergency call for negative blood types last month. There are currently no shortages, but the center wants…
- Thai Life
PHUKET LIFESTYLE: ‘Phuket a diamond’ for rich jet owners
PHUKET: MJETS is in talks with Airports of Thailand (AOT) about building a private jet terminal at Phuket International Airport (PIA). The move comes on the back of the success of its first private jet terminal at Don Muang Airport in Bangkok, the company says. MJets Executive Chairman, Jaiyavat Navaraj, believes the company’s venture at PIA could put Phuket on…
- Phuket News
Phuket Promise: The beach guards ‘will be back’
PHUKET: Lifeguards will soon be back on the beaches in greater numbers and with more new lifesaving equipment, Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) President Paiboon Upatising has confirmed to the Phuket Gazette. The news follows the February 26 expiration of the contract for the Phuket Lifeguard Club (PLC) to guard the beaches, leaving no organization officially responsible for saving swimmers.…
- Phuket News
British man, 37, dies in Phuket suicide plunge
PHUKET: A 37-year-old British man died in Phuket yesterday after falling from a five-storey apartment block in what police believe was an intentional suicide leap. Thung Thong Police duty inspector Sakchai Chuyong received a report of the apparent suicide at 7:30am. The name of the deceased was widely reported in the Thai media, but is being held by the Phuket…
- Phuket News
Phuket Live Wire: Internet speeds up; TOT down; iPad2 launches
PHUKET: Tales of woe about TOT lines to new housing developments in Phuket continued this week. In at least two cases, major new developments have reached exclusive agreements with TOT to deliver voice and data lines to the developments. As you might have guessed, the results have been, uh, less than stellar. The lesson: for best service, count on competition.…
- Phuket News
What’s in this week’s Phuket Gazette?
PHUKET: This week’s Andaman Edition of the Phuket Gazette went on sale yesterday and 20,000 copies of our Nationwide Edition were delivered early this morning to all Star Alliance airlines for placement aboard all of their flights serving Thailand. Both editions contain extensive content not available here in the Gazette Online. However, digital subscribers may click here to download their…
- Phuket News
Phuket Mining Museum now open
PHUKET: Governor Tri Augkaradacha stepped up to buy the first entrance ticket to the Phuket Mining Museum yesterday to mark the official opening of the 180-million-baht attraction. The museum showcases Phuket’s tin mining history and the lives of the Chinese miners of the era through indoor and outdoor exhibits in both English and Thai languages. Outdoor displays include an abandoned…
- Phuket News
Phuket gears up for Heroines’ Festival 2011
PHUKET: This year’s Phuket Heroines’ Festival will feature the acting debut of Phuket governor Tri Augkaradacha, who will take center stage in the role of King Rama I in a historical drama based on the history of Thalang. The 2011 installment of the annual event will take place March 13 to 15 at Thalang Victory Memorial Field in Thepkrasattri subdistrict.…
- Phuket News
New Phuket police station plans inch forward
PHUKET: Plans to build a new police station in Karon are progressing at a snail’s pace, but work on the new Police Region 8 headquarters now under construction in Mai Khao is steaming ahead, officials were told this week. Maj Gen Decha Budnampeth, Deputy Commissioner of Provincial Police Region 8, told a meeting on Tuesday that his office was still…
- Thai Life
Phuket telephones: Phone booths dying but some to stay – for now
PHUKET: The last decade has seen rapid development in telecommunications technology, which has led to cheaper mobile phones and greatly reduced need for public land lines. Consequently many phone booths in Phuket, run by the TOT Public Company, have been removed. However, according to Chanwis Bunjongkarn, the TOT’s Senior Director for Phuket Customer Services, phone booths continue to provide an…
- Phuket News
Russia extends invitation to Phuket
PHUKET: The first vice mayor of Nakhodka, Phuket’s Russian “twin town”, invited local officials yesterday to visit the far-eastern port city. Mayor Boris Gladkikh extended the invitation to Phuket Vice Governor Nivit Aroonrat during a meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall to discuss building closer relations between the two cities. Nakhodka, on the Sea of Japan near Vladivostok, has been Phuket’s…
- Phuket News
Finnish tourist found dead in Phuket room
PHUKET: Police are not treating as suspicious the death of a Finnish tourist found in his rented room opposite Patong Municipality offices yesterday. Capt Weerapong Rakkittoo of Patong Police said he was notified of the death at about 2:30pm. At the scene, a rented room on the second floor of a shop-house on Ratchapatanusorn Road, Capt Weerapong found the body…
- Phuket News
Karen visit to Phuket full of firsts
PHUKET: Nine-year-old Ywa Hay Tha never went on family trips to the beach; never saw his favorite films on the big screen; never got a chance for a “normal” life. Nine-year-old Ywa Hay Tha was more concerned with keeping himself alive when he fled the Burmese military through the jungles of eastern Burma to the relative safety of the Umpiem…
- Phuket News
Greater Phuket: Shock TAT report on stinking beach
PHUKET: Despite regulations of the local village government stipulating that garbage not be placed out for collection before 8pm, trash continues to be dumped on Krabi’s Ao Nang Beach in broad daylight. Tourists say they don’t like it. The stink and the unsightly mess are a source of harsh complaints not only from tourists, but also from local residents. The…
- Phuket News
Phuket lucky license plate auction raises more than Bt23mn
PHUKET: The sixth annual “Lucky License Plate Auction” held in Phuket Town over the weekend raised 23,504,500 baht, Kanok Siripanichkorn, chief of the Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO), has told the Phuket Gazette. “I am very happy with the revenue raised – it’s five million baht more than last year,” he said. All 301 plates up for auction were sold,…
- Phuket News
UK Ambassador puts Phuket safety on common agenda
PHUKET: UK Ambassador to Thailand Asif Ahmad met Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha this afternoon to discuss a slew of issues affecting British residents and tourists, with the aim of working together with local authorities to boost safety on the island. “We have 850,000 British tourists who visit Thailand every year. I’ll say up to half come to Phuket… The majority…
- Phuket News
Phuket Live Wire: When good lines go bad
PHUKET: International internet speeds in Phuket have been surprisingly good this week, with TOT finally recovering from whatever was ailing it last week. TOT Fiber Optic is only marginally faster than 3BB’s 12Mbps line or True’s 10Mbps line – at five times the cost. True “3G” HSPA continues to run very fast, but only on the extreme west coast of…
- Opinion
Phuket Opinion: Bull elephants should be banned from Thai tourism
PHUKET: The terrible stomping death of a Swiss tourist by a berserk male elephant last week once again underscores the need to restrict tourism work to female elephants, as many operators who provide these services already do. (See story, current issue of the Phuket Gazette. Digital subscribers click here to download the full issue.) Riding through the jungle on the…