PHUKET: The unprecedented expanse of smog blanketing Phuket in recent months has quite rightly trained the spotlight on Indonesia, where out-of-control forest fires continue to belch smoke into the atmosphere at a dangerous rate. Although illegal in Indonesia, ’slash-and-burn‘ land clearing techniques that set off these annual conflagrations have long been a source of friction between Indonesia and its neighbors, particularly Singapore and Malaysia.
PHUKET: Let’s pick up the story of the Rohingya were we left off last month In year 1826, the British invaded and took control of Arakan after the first Anglo-Burmese War. By this time the Arakan region, plagued by war, was critically depopulated. Farms had been left untended for many years
PHUKET: Police last night arrested a minivan driver at the Tah Chat Chai Checkpoint after officers discovered 3,921 ya bah (methamphetamine) pills and four grams of ya ice (crystal methamphetamine) in the van he was driving. Following his arrest, Sutthichai Kongsamut, 34, told police that he was running methamphetamine for a drug lord operating out of a prison in Nakhon Sri Thammarat.
More: Phuket Town meth network unraveled, guns seized
PHUKET: An expat and his wife received quite a surprise when they discovered a 1.5 meter cobra relaxing in a shoe rack inside their Ao Yon home this morning. The pair called Kusoldharm Foundation rescue workers as the snake made its way out of the house and into an old broken boat in their garden.
Read more here: Phuket air pollution back to safe level
More here: Haze causes more delays for flights at Phuket Airport
PHUKET: Despite earlier reports, more than a dozen flights were kept in a holding pattern over Phuket this morning due to the thick Indonesian haze currently blanketing the island. Three of the 15 flights were forced to land at Bangkok, Penang and Samui airports, while the others were cleared to land here after 10am, confirmed Amnuay Sarachart, deputy director of the AoT Phuket Office.
PHUKET: Employees of a speedboat tour company were unable to save the life of a snorkelling client at Koh Kai yesterday evening.
View original post here: Free air pollution masks distributed at Phuket hospitals, government offices