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German embezzler snared
NAI HARN: Phuket Immigration Police have arrested a German engineer suspected of embezzling 170 million baht from the City of Munich. The police arrested Richard Muhr, 47, at a Nai Harn-beach bungalow on Friday, January 5 after the German Embassy in Bangkok reported that Muhr and a colleague had embezzled money from the city. Pol Col Apirak Hongthong, superintendent of…
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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,…
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Democrats still dominate Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket Democrat Suwit Sa-Ngiamkul won the Phuket Voting District 1 seat with an overwhelming majority in the in the national election on Saturday. Phuket’s Voting District 1 covers Phuket Town, apart from Tambon Rassada and Tambon Koh Kaew. K. Suwit, whose soaring popularity springs from his role in the Phuket Town Municipality, beat five other candidates at the polls…
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Facts about Thailand
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand, which is holding general elections today, is a constitutional monarchy nominally headed by revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The following are key facts about Thailand: GEOSITUATION: A Southeast Asian country surrounded by the Gulf of Thailand, the Andaman Sea and Indian Ocean. Thailand borders Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia. POPULATION: 62.5 million. ETHNIC GROUPS: Thai/Lao 94 percent, Chinese…
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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…
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National minimum wage increase
BANGKOK: The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (MLSW) has announced a nationwide increase in the minimum wage of three baht per day. The increase, announced by Pol Gen Pracha Promnork of the MLSW, is effective retroactively to January 1, 2001. The increase raises Phuket’s minimum wage, which is among the highest in the country, from 162 baht to 165…
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Health warnings should not concern tourists
PHUKET: Following health warnings issued by the Phuket Provincial Health Department (PHD) on January 2, Dr Jessada Chaikhunnarath, Specialist in Preventive Medicine, confirmed that tourists are not at serious risk of diarrhea or malarial infections. “There were no recorded cases of serious diarrhea or dysentery among tourists in the year 2000. The PHD health survey includes reports from every hospital…
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Stepson killed in family quarrel
KARON: A man accidentally shot his stepson yesterday at 5:30 pm during an argument about ownership of a motorcycle. Kasean Maneethat, 63, who manages the Tommy Big Bike rental shop in Karon, told the Gazette that his stepson, 37-year-old Danupol Wongthai, bought a 100,000-baht motorcycle in Bangkok with money from his mother. Kasean said, “Yesterday, when I asked him why…
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Huge increase in injuries over the holidays
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Health Office (PHO) has reported that 397 people were injured in auto and motorcycle accidents, and three were killed in motorcycle accidents over the four-day holiday period. The number of injuries rose 52% from the same period last year, when 261 were injured, but the death toll is down from the nine reported last year. Of…
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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…
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Government issues health warning
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Health Department (PHD) has issued a public health warning for diarrhea and malaria for the months of January and February. The warning comes after the release of statistics for the year 2000. These statistics show that the number of reported cases of diarrhea and malaria during these months in past years has reached near-epidemic proportions. The…
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Corruption threatens elections
BANGKOK (AFP): Ambitious reforms launched to root out endemic corruption in Thai politics aim to ensure that the January 6 elections will be the cleanest in the kingdom’s history, observers say. But there are fears that with “cash democracy” and patronage politics still deeply entrenched in the country, Thailand is setting itself up for a chaotic aftermath to the ballot…
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Murder suspect may be charged in Germany
KAMALA: A police officer from the German Embassy in Bangkok visited Kathu Police Station on Tuesday to gather evidence regarding the November 13 murder of 21-year-old Waraporn Tawaetwong in Kamala. Pol Col Paween Pongsirin, Superintendent of Kathu Police Station, says that the officer is gathering documents so that police in Germany can charge Walter Roland Oberleitner, 39, a German national…
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Local official shot dead in Krabi
KRABI: An assistant poo yai baan in Tambon Kao Panom, Krabi, was gunned down early yesterday morning after he got into a fight with the owner of a rubber plantation. Police told the Gazette that Jamikon Sung-rod, 25, shot Chob “Yam” Nuan-on, 36, during a fight in the Kao Tong restaurant, which is on the road from Kao Panom to…
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Four tourists die in bus accident
BANGKOK (AFP): Four Malaysian tourists were killed and another 30 seriously injured in Thailand early today when their bus careened off the Asian Highway and overturned. The group was on its way to the southern city of Hat Yai, as part of a tour of Thailand that took them as far north as Chiang Rai. The accident occurred in Nakhon…
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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…
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Crashed cement truck blocks road
KATHU: A cement truck overturned on a sharp curve on Patong hill at noon today, forcing traffic police to close the road for two hours. The driver, Jarouy Promhoun, lost control of the truck after stalling the engine on the way up the hill, Pol Cap Kittipong Claikaew told the Gazette. The truck, owned by Chalong Concrete Co, overturned just…
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African men imported for Thai sex industry
BANGKOK (AFP): African men are being transported to Thailand to work in the capital’s commercial sex industry, reports said earlier today. African male prostitutes have become “fairly popular among gays and wild older women,” the Nation daily said, quoting a Thai man who frequently purchases the Africans’ services. Transported to Thailand from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and the Sudan, the men…
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Astrologers say recovery not on cards for 2001
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand’s influential astrologers say their crystal balls and tarot cards confirm what financial analysts have learned from spreadsheets and graphs — the economy is in for a tough time in 2001. Hopes that Thailand could shake off the legacy of the 1997 economic crisis in the New Year will be dashed, as the forces of nature forecast the…
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Man arrested for suitcase murder of Briton
BANGKOK (AFP): Thai police said this afternoon that they had arrested a 19-year-old Iranian man on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a British man whose dismembered body was found in a suitcase in a Bangkok suburb. The body of 52-year-old John Morris Neville, part-owner of a hotel in the Thai capital, was discovered on December 9, packed into…
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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…
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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…
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Airport boss moved to Chiangmai
PHUKET: Suthara Huangsuwan, the boss of the Phuket International Airport, was abruptly moved to a new post in Chiang Mai yesterday. An airport official denied that his transfer was the result of his inability to solve the problem of “black” taxis at the Phuket airport, which came to a head on December 16 when a licensed taxi driver was beaten…
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Disappointing start to Tourist Police raids
PATONG: The Phuket Tourist Police, under their new inspector, Pol Lt Col Supawat Sookjaroen, have launched a series of raids that will continue until January 15, and which will be aimed at reducing crimes against tourists. Lt Col Supawat was a “little disappointed” by the results of the initial raids on Tuesday, he told the Gazette. “We expected to catch…
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Paedophile placed on FBI’s most-wanted list
BANGKOK (AFP): The FBI’s decision to put accused paedophile Eric Rosser on its most-wanted list was welcomed today by Thai child rights activists who said it served as a powerful warning to sex criminals. Rosser, a former piano player at Bangkok’s prestigious Oriental Hotel and a tutor to the city’s elite, is believed to be the first paedophile listed among…
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Economy may be headed for another recession
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand risks heading into another recession unless monetary policy is eased in the face of a slowing economy, ING Barings said in a report released yesterday. The merchant bank downgraded its growth forecast for 2000 to 4.0 percent from 4.8 percent, a day after official data clipped expected GDP expansion to 4.5 percent from an earlier goal of…
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Airport taxi driver beaten to death
PHUKET: Airport limousine operators threatened to blockade Phuket International Airport yesterday after a “black” taxi driver allegedly beat a legitimate limousine operator to death on Saturday in front of the airport. A fight broke out between Kanisorn “Lert” Downchoowan, 35, the black taxi driver, and Chart Ketwongworachat, 58, the legitimate limousine operator, at around noon after the two argued over…
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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…
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Navy thanks Governor with flowers
PHUKET: The Commander in Chief of the Royal Thai Navy Third Fleet, Vice Admiral Sathirapan Keyanon, today presented Phuket Governor Pongpayome Vasaputi with flowers to thank him for his role in resolving the Cape Panwa blockade last week. The Governor played a central role in resolving the blockade by local villagers after a Navy non-commissioned officer shot a local Muslim…
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PAWS elects new chairman
PHUKET: The Phuket Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) committee has appointed Howard Cant as chairman, with responsibility for promoting awareness of the society’s activities and for improving efficiency. Eric Wells, the former chairman of PAWS, has resigned and has now set up Dogs in Danger in Thailand (DIDIT), to continue his work for the welfare of neglected canines. The PAWS committee…
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