PHUKET: Two ferry crewmen were arrested and charged yesterday after CCTV evidence showed the pair stealing a laptop computer from a tourist travelling on their boat. The victim, 31-year-old Australian national Evan Russell Darnley-Pentes, was returning with a friend from Phi Phi Island on Sunday when the theft occurred.
PHUKET: Officials are moving ahead with a campaign to reduce the number of deaths on Phuket’s roads to just 50 per year within the next three years. Last year, 116 died in road accidents in Phuket. The move is part of a nationwide campaign to reduce the road accident death toll in conjunction with the United Nations’ “Decade of Action for Road Safety”, which aims to reduce the global toll from the current 3,500 lives lost every day in traffic accidents around the globe.
PHUKET: Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha is set to retire from civil service on September 30, just 19 days away, but his replacement has yet to be named, the Phuket Gazette has learned.
PHUKET: Welcome to the third of four installments in my ongoing series about where the computer industry is headed as we barrel along to the Christmas season. If you are thinking about buying any new electronics – computer, tablet, phone, maybe even a TV – it would be worthwhile to stay on top of developments between now and Christmas. Some of the stuff coming down the pike is quite impressive, and we should be able to get at least some of it here in Thailand.
PHUKET: The rumor that Central Festival Phuket is intending to expand onto 30 rai of land that is currently home to the Thainaan Restaurant on Wichit Songkhram Road has been dismissed by a company spokesman. Speaking to the Phuket Gazette, Lertwit Bhumipitak, the business development Deputy Managing Director for Central Retail Cooperation Co Ltd, said that the company had no plans to expand south into the Thainaan Restaurant area at this time. Instead, Central Retail Cooperation’s current plan involves expanding eastwards across Chalermprakiat Road (the bypass road) into the area currently housing the HomeWorks complex.
PHUKET: Sports fans and spectators packed the 4,000-seat Indoor Sports Complex at Saphan Hin to the rafters on Saturday for the new venue’s official opening ceremony. Built on 207 rai at a cost of about 153 million baht, the center was first used for the 28th National Youth Games, dubbed the “Phuket Games”, held on the island earlier this year. Among the guests at the event on Saturday were Phuket MPs Anchalee Vanich Thepabutr and Raywat Areerob, along with Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansupana.
PHUKET: For the first time in its 15-year history, the annual Phuket Good Taste Food Festival at Saphan Hin in Phuket Town this year will be held specifically without any alcohol for sale and with no plastic food containers. Announcing the news on Saturday, Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansupana said that about 100 booths selling food will be at this year’s week-long festival, together generating about 10 million baht.
PHUKET: Police do not suspect foul play in the death of a foreign woman found dead in her Phuket villa yesterday morning.
PHUKET: Motorists have been warned to expect major delays when construction begins next month on a 599-million-baht underpass at the Darasamuth Junction, on the bypass road near the
PHUKET: Any serious effort to improve road safety in Phuket will need a major shift away from the existing “police checkpoint” method of enforcing traffic law and instead move towards catching violators in the act. Results of a recent