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  • Phuket police: Violent crime, drug cases soaring

    PHUKET: Forty murders in Phuket since the beginning of the current fiscal year have led a 95% year-on-year increase in the number of violent crime cases on the island, according to official police statistics. Figures released by Phuket Provincial Police for this year show eight cases of premeditated murder in July alone, with arrests in five cases. Figures for the…

  • Arson attack on Phuket guesthouse | Thaiger

    Arson attack on Phuket guesthouse

    PHUKET: Police are seeking a foreign tourist who threw a Molotov cocktail into the office of a guesthouse on Nanai Road in Patong yesterday. According to the Siangtai Daily website, the attack shattered a large window and caused a deafening explosion at the Jaraan Guesthouse on Nanai Soi 7 shortly before 1am yesterday. The incident was reported by 65-year-old Krissana…

  • Phuket Property: Vikings wary; Phuket Fitness Fiesta; Cops slammed, loved; Phuket villas | Thaiger

    Phuket Property: Vikings wary; Phuket Fitness Fiesta; Cops slammed, loved; Phuket villas

    Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news about Thailand from around the world, compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. Phuket property: Scandinavians scared Scandinavians are planning to sell their properties in Phuket ‘en masse’ after the political riots in Thailand badly shook their confidence, says Thanan Tanpaiboon, president of the Phuket Real Estate Association. “In the…

  • Revered Phuket monk to turn 114

    PHUKET: Hundreds of well-wishers are expected to help revered Phuket monk Luang Pu Supha celebrate his 114th birthday next month. The secret to the aged monk’s longevity is to “eat less, speak less and always speak the truth”. Last year the Gazette broke the story about Luang Pu Supha’s reputed age on September 4. For previous reports click here. Having…

  • Phuket Thailand Open volleyball dates confirmed

    PHUKET: It has been confirmed that the Swatch FIVB Beach Volley World Tour will once again have a stop in Phuket, with this year’s Phuket Thailand Open to take place on the sands of Karon Beach from November 2 to 7.More teams competed in last year’s event than in any other tournament on the Beach Volley World Tour. This year,…

  • German man found dead in Phuket home | Thaiger

    German man found dead in Phuket home

    PATONG: A German man passed away at his rented home in Patong over the weekend. Kathu police Pol Maj Jongserm Preecha identified the deceased as Josef Stefan Distler, age 68. The body of the late Mr Distler was discovered at 9pm Sunday by the owner of the Ban Dok Din rental homes on Soi Veerakit, off Nanai Road. The deceased…

  • Lucky numbers take root | Thaiger

    Lucky numbers take root

    An obscenely shaped tree at a police station in the northern province of Phayao has reportedly predicted the winning lottery numbers. The talented tamarind tree is in the yard of Phayao Muang Police Station. The tree has an approximately two-foot-long gash in its trunk with a fist-sized sparkling lump at one end. Villagers say the combination makes the tree look…

  • Phuket musician in charity drive for son

    PHUKET: Rino Mangon Vogt, 10, is a boy who knows he could die before the end of this year. Rino is suffering from a rare and congenital heart condition known as Ebstein’s Anomaly. Usually present at birth, this life threatening anomaly can show itself at any time, even into adulthood. The cause lies within one of Rino’s heart valves, which…

  • Blackout in Chalong, Phuket tomorrow

    PHUKET: The Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA), Phuket branch, has announced scheduled blackouts to carry out maintenance on high voltage power lines in Chalong from 9am to 4pm from tomorrow and on Thursday. Affected areas include: August 18: West side of Chao Fah West Road from the Wat Chalong area to and along Soi Ban Klang, and Soi Gloom Yang. August…

  • Phuket Police seek high-tech solution to ya bah problem

    PHUKET: With no end in sight to the battle against the illegal trade in ya bah (methamphetamine), Phuket Provincial Police hope to buy high-tech drug detection technology in order to better check vehicles entering the province at the Tah Chat Chai checkpoint. Phuket Police Commander Pekad Tantipong made the announcement at a press conference at Phuket City Police Station this…

  • FC Phuket clinch Division 2 South title

    PHUKET: FC Phuket clinched the AIS Regional League Division 2 South title with a 2-1 win at Ranong FC on Saturday. Ranong FC went into the match with 34 points, fighting to keep their second place standing and a chance for the promotional playoff spot that goes with it, but like many second-place teams before them, they were no match…

  • New building code affects Phuket hillside projects

    PHUKET: Phuket Natural Resources and Environmental officer Natthaporn Jarunkiatkhajorn has confirmed that tighter controls on building on hillside land in Phuket came into force on July 31, some two months earlier than expected. “After we receive an official letter from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Policy and Planning Division in Bangkok, we will immediately send letters informing related…

  • Phuket Opinion: ‘Terminal’ traffic ills can still be solved | Thaiger

    Phuket Opinion: ‘Terminal’ traffic ills can still be solved

    PHUKET: Residents of Rassada Village 2 have good reason to complain about the lack of a public hearing before the construction of Phuket Bus Terminal 2 in their community. But now that the station has sat idle for seven months, it’s time for all stakeholders to sit down together and work out a solution acceptable to all sides. As long-term…

  • Phuket ‘killer Brit’ has reputation for violence | Thaiger

    Phuket ‘killer Brit’ has reputation for violence

    PHUKET: It has emerged that Lee Aldhouse, the British man being hunted by police in connection with the murder of American Dashawn Longfellow, is “extremely violent” and has threatened to kill in the past. Sources said Mr Aldhouse first came to Phuket in 2006 to train in Muay Thai. He told people he was from Birmingham, England and had been…

  • Where’s Juthamas?; Cambodia’s complaint; floods; hot info | Thaiger

    Where’s Juthamas?; Cambodia’s complaint; floods; hot info

    Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news about Thailand from around the world, compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. Juthamas back in lions’ den PHUKET: The Nation reports this morning that the national anti-graft agency is likely to seek legal indictment of former Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) governor Juthamas Siriwan in connection with a bribery…

  • Phuket ‘Killer Brit’ suspect named

    PHUKET: Chalong police have confirmed the identity of the prime suspect in the brutal stabbing death of American Muay Thai trainee Dashawn Longfellow in the early hours this morning. Case Officer Anukul Nookate confirmed to the Gazette that British Muay Thai fighter Lee Aldhouse, 28, is being sought for arrest in the murder of Mr Longfellow at his room at…

  • American murdered in Phuket; Police hunt “killer Brit’ | Thaiger

    American murdered in Phuket; Police hunt “killer Brit’

    RAWAI: An American man was found stabbed to death in his hotel room near Ya Nui Beach and a search has been launched for the prime suspect, a British Muay Thai boxing student named, so far, only as “Mr Lee”. Chalong police received a report at 6am today that an American “tourist” had been murdered in his room at an…

  • Phuket tuned out; ‘High-end’ again; Dengue critical | Thaiger

    Phuket tuned out; ‘High-end’ again; Dengue critical

    Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news about Thailand from around the world, compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. Phuket tuned out for $3 a night Although Phuket was to have been the first Tune hotel to open among the 24 such $3-a-night lodgings planned for Thailand, the honor, it seems, will now go to Pattaya…

  • Phuket Rotary Club organizes relief for Pakistani flood victims

    PHUKET: The Rotary Club of Patong Beach has launched a disaster relief drive to provide aid to some of the 14 million people in Pakistan displaced by devastating floods and in desperate need of water, food, shelter and sanitation. “As was the case with the Haiti earthquake relief, we’re working with the Canadian shelter box group, newly renamed ‘Disaster Aid…

  • Phuket motorists warned over ‘red plate’ driving

    PHUKET: Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO) Chief Kanok Siripanichkorn has told the Gazette that people driving cars with red license plates have just one month to get regular “white plates” on their cars – or face the consequences. The warning for Phuket drivers follows Land Transport Department Director-General Chairat Sanguansue’s announcement of a “crackdown” on people illegally driving cars with…

  • Arrested Colombians got car in Phuket | Thaiger

    Arrested Colombians got car in Phuket

    PHUKET: A set of Phuket-issued car license plates was among seized evidence presented by police today during a Bangkok press conference to announce the arrest of a Colombian couple on burglary charges. Bangkok Metropolitan Police Commander Santhan Chayanont announced the arrest of Colombians Camilo Andres Albois Gonzalez, 27 Luzda Lee Taborda Ospena, 44. Presented as evidence was a red Honda…

  • Central Festival Phuket food hall now open | Thaiger

    Central Festival Phuket food hall now open

    PHUKET: Central Festival Phuket celebrated the opening of its Central Food Hall with a ceremony on Wednesday. Chairing the ceremony was Phuket Vice Governor Nivit Aroonrat. He was joined by Central Food Retail Company President Alistair Taylor, who said the 60-million-baht investment in the project would assure the facility was be the best of its kind in Southern Thailand. The…

  • Phuket Town coastal community flooded by seawater

    PHUKET: About 50 households in the Haad Saen Suk community in Phuket Town are calling for help from local authorities after their neighborhood flooded with seawater during the recent monthly high tide on Tuesday. Some 200 people live in the affected area, which is built on a 200-meter-long dirt road along a canal leading to the nearby coast. The recent…

  • New Phuket bridge mars local village life

    PHUKET: Residents living in Tah Chat Chai, at the northernmost tip of Phuket, have been hard hit by the roadworks and the construction of the new bridge off the island. Storm drains have been filled in by earthworks, causing their village to flood every time another rainy season deluge comes. The recent redirection of northbound traffic over Thepkrasattri Bridge has…

  • Thai Navy reveals arrest record at Phuket base | Thaiger

    Thai Navy reveals arrest record at Phuket base

    PHUKET: Statistics announced by the Royal Thai Navy Third Area Command for its fleet operations in the Andaman Sea during the first eight months of 2010 show a remarkably low number of arrests for smuggling and illegal fishing over the period. The figures were revealed during a meeting at the Marine Operations Coordination Center, chaired by Royal Navy Third Fleet…

  • Poisonous potions land Russian tour boss in jail | Thaiger

    Poisonous potions land Russian tour boss in jail

    A RUSSIAN tour company boss is behind bars for allegedly selling bottles of liquor containing the pickled remains of poisonous animals including king cobras, centipedes and scorpions. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the concoctions themselves turned out be poisonous. Pattaya Police arrested Andrey Akulov, 40, on July 31 after receiving reports that one man died and others suffered strong allergic reactions from drinking…

  • Phuket mother caught in drug run | Thaiger

    Phuket mother caught in drug run

    PHUKET: Three children are spending Mother’s Day without their mom today after she was caught at Tah Chat Chai checkpoint trying to smuggle 2,000 ya bah (methamphetamine) pills onto the island by wrapping them in sanitary napkins. Phuket native Chamaiporn Khiewkaew, 30, with friend Chanjira Boonmark, also 30, riding pillion were stopped and searched by checkpoint police yesterday after the…

  • Burmese man found torched in Phuket

    PHUKET: Police yesterday recovered the body of a Burmese rubber tapper who had been murdered in the hills overlooking the famous Patong Beach. The upper half of his body had been set alight and his hands were tied behind his back. Wissanu Itsang, who owns a rubber plantation near where the body was found, reported the gruesome discovery to Kathu…

  • Phuket keen to host 2015 World Weightlifting Championships | Thaiger

    Phuket keen to host 2015 World Weightlifting Championships

    PHUKET: The Thai Amateur Weightlifting Association (TAWL) is considering proposing Phuket to host the World Weightlifting Championships in 2015. A TAWL delegation visited Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday morning to discuss the idea in a meeting chaired by Phuket Vice Governor Teerayut Eimtrakul. TAWL director Montol Chartsuwaan said Phuket was among three locations under consideration. The others are Pattaya and Hua…

  • 383 dengue cases in Phuket

    PHUKET: There have been 383 cases of dengue fever year-to-date in Phuket, but no deaths, the Ministry of Public Health says. Dr Wiwat Seetamanotch, deputy director of the Phuket Public Health Office and an expert on the disease, said the 383 cases so far this year has already surpassed the total number of cases in 2009, when 309 were recorded…