PHUKET: The mass influx of Rohingya refugees – 400 within four days – landing in Phang Nga, north of Phuket, this week is straining the capacity of immigration detention centers in the province, said Phang Nga Governor Thamrong Charoenkul. The news follows an initial 171 Rohingya refugees, fleeing persecution in their homeland in Myanmar, being taken into custody in Phang Nga’s Kuraburi District on Thursday (story
PHUKET: The life of a beloved mother, wife and friend was taken away by a killer on Chao Fa West Road, south of Phuket Town, last night. Police have identified Mrs Jintana ‘Nong’ Mahattanapak, 42, a resident of Yaowarat Road in Phuket Town, as the victim of the execution-style slaying (story
PHUKET: Imagine this headline: “Taxi driver returns money to customer; says she overpaid.” Impossible? It happened to me. All the taxi news seems negative recently, what with high fares, delays in getting illegal drivers to register as legal, and metered cabs being pushed out of some markets (story
PHUKET: A woman driving alone south of Phuket Town was killed by a single gunshot to head this evening. Police arrived at the scene, at the junction of Kwang Road and Chao Fa East Road (map
PHUKET: Police today released a composite image of one of the two men wanted for the robbery of the guests’ safe boxes at the Karon Place Hotel, on Phuket’s west coast, in the early hours of Monday morning (story
PHUKET: A taxi driver speeding from JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa at Mai Khao Beach to pick up a passenger at the airport died after losing control of his car on Thepkrasattri Road early this afternoon. Witnesses reported that Warongsak Rungsawang, 29, entered one of the sharp curves in Baan Mak Prok at high speed southbound, lost control and hit a power pole.
PHUKET: Swedish Police ended a two-year hunt for a tax exile on Monday when they arrested Bernt Olov Inge Eriksson at Phuket’s tourist-popular Patong Beach. Mr Eriksson was wanted in Sweden on a 100-million-baht tax evasion charge. A task force of Swedish officers began their hunt in Thailand after learning Mr Eriksson, 67, was in the country through a tip-off.
PHUKET: The first seven days of the month-long police safety boost (story
PHUKET: The Phuket Regional Blood Center (PRBC) received two units of Rh-negative blood and two single-platelet donations yesterday, in response to urgent requests on behalf of a foreigner due to undergo heart surgery (story
PHUKET: A French chef working in Phuket’s premier party town, Patong, was arrested yesterday for the alleged rape of a disabled woman in his home country in 2004. Christopher Pierre Verdino, 28, slipped into Thailand in 2007 three years after French authorities issued an arrest warrant. His exact whereabouts became known to the French Embassy in Bangkok after he made a request for a name change on his passport.