PHUKET: The Tiger Discotheque tragedy on August 17 demonstrates yet again that when it comes to “disaster preparedness” Phuket seems to be battling invisible demons, continually hit in the back of the head by obvious threats we had somehow managed to either ignore or even identify as a possibility. The latter is of course best exemplified by the 2004 tsunami. Since then, Phuket has been the stage of many highly-publicized tsunami evacuation drills, with Navy helicopters magically appearing off Patong Beach just minutes after the hypothetical „tsunami” is scheduled to arrive, and emergency rescue workers suddenly appearing to whisk mock victims – smiling and covered in ‚blood‘ – to the relative safety of Soi Sansabai.
PHUKET: Police on Wednesday arrested a serial snatch-and-run thief who allegedly committed at least 12 robberies in Phuket Town over the past month. The suspect was identified as 20-year-old Wuttipong Uonpong, listed as a resident of Ayutthaya
PHUKET: A debt collector for a local loan shark survived a bullet wound to his back inflicted by a gang of teenagers in Phang Nga yesterday afternoon.
PHUKET: With coral reef systems in Thai coastal waters at a “crisis” level, the director of the Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) has vowed to step up his department’s efforts to mitigate the damage caused by the fishing industry and other human factors. “Currently, our natural coral reefs are not half of what they used to be – we are in a crisis,” said PMBC director Pinsak Suraswadi on Tuesday
PHUKET: Families of the two
PHUKET: Alcohol sales will be
PHUKET: The organizers of the annual Phuket Halal Expo, to take place early next month, have invited Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Asean Secretary-General Dr Surin Pitsuwan to give speeches at the event, which will have special activities in Patong and Phuket Town. Officially entitled „Phuket Andaman Halal for Tourism 2012“, the expo is intended to showcase the island’s Muslim culture, history and cuisine
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Drug pusher shot dead by Bangkok police Phuket Gazette / The Nation PHUKET: Police shot dead a drug suspect during an operation to stop the distribution of 1.5 million methamphetamine tablets onto Bangkok’s streets yesterday.
PHUKET: This week’s Weird World News Roundup is full of colonizing fears: from busy bee activity in New York City to South Africa taking on the elephantine issue of birth control.
PHUKET: A Phuket motorcycle taxi driver who entered the charred remains of the Tiger Discotheque the day after the fatal fire claims that photographs he took inside bare images of the spirit of a woman who lost her life there. The motorcycle driver told the Phuket Gazette that he belonged to a group of motorcycle taxi drivers who pick up fares from in front of Ocean Mall on Bangla Road in Patong, a short walk from the ill-fated disco. “On August 18, I talked to two or three friends who also operate motorcycle taxis at the same spot.