PHUKET: The plight of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar’s Rakhine State during the current sailing season clearly shows the need for Asean and other international bodies to come together to help solve, or at least alleviate, the root causes of the problem inside Myanmar as soon as possible. This will of course be no easy task. Few international humanitarian issues on the planet have a more confounding range of underlying problems, dating back to colonial times, than those of the Rohingya.
PHUKET: Another group of desperate Rohingya refugees found shelter along the Khura Buri coast north of Phuket yesterday after 25 days at sea, making them the third group to land along Thailand’s Andaman coast this month. The 96 refugees shared the same harrowing story as the 179 who came ashore on January 23: days at sea surviving on scant rations of water and uncooked rice (story
PHUKET: A 22-year-old Swiss student tourist reported missing while on holiday in Thailand has been found alive and well. She’s being detained in Ranong Prison for allegedly stealing a camera belonging to an immigration officer. The search for Tscherina Nora Janisch, a foreign-exchange student studying at the National University of Singapore, began on January 15 when her mother, Elizabeth, posted a concerned note on the popular travel website
PHUKET: A grilled pork vendor claimed this year’s Red Cross Fair “Lucky Draw” grand prize of more than 500,000 baht’s worth of gold with her ticket number 59319 yesterday. Atcharaporn Weerakarn, 47, was delighted as she received the hefty amount of gold from Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut. “I bought only one ticket and I am very lucky to have won.
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: 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: Police yesterday morning confirmed that the body of 26-year-old Dutch tourist Stephan Buczynski had been sent to Bangkok for an autopsy.
PHUKET: Phuket police believe a Honda Jazz belonging to a beachfront seafood restaurant owner was maliciously set ablaze last night as part of an ongoing conflict between vendors in the Surin Beach area.
PHUKET: Two out of the four Russian men who allegedly led an unprovoked attack on a well-known local couple at Catch Beach Club on Surin Beach have been charged with assault. Phuket Police are still searching for the two other men. Canadian Tom Travers, managing partner of Indigo Real Estate agency, was beaten unconscious and had his cheekbone broken in three places during the attack.
PHUKET: Migrant workers in Phuket still waiting to complete the nationality verification process, in order to become legally registered laborers, have at least a one-week reprieve from any deportation crackdown, the Phuket Provincial Employment Office (PPEO) chief Yawapa Pibulpol confirmed this morning. The news follows the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, not discussing the issue of whether or not to officially extend the deadline for migrant workers to complete the nationality verification process at the regular Cabinet meeting in Bangkok yesterday