PHUKET: A German tourist tumbled from a balcony in Patong early this morning and is on life support at Vachira Phuket Hospital.
PHUKET: Krabi villagers staged a protest, across the bay from Phuket, yesterday in fear that a proposed coal-fire power plant would damage their health as they allege a previous one had.
PHUKET: The Wat Chalong Fair 2013, a 7-day extravaganza of performances, food, games and shopping, is now in full swing (map
PHUKET: The investigation by the Public sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) into allegedly illegally issued land titles covering more than 500 rai of land in Phuket has silently been dropped. The PACC, set up specifically to fight corruption among government officials, quietly dropped the probe into hundreds of Phuket land titles just days after Col Dusadee Arayawuth, who had initiated the investigation, was transferred to the Ministry of Justice on October 1 last year, the Phuket Gazette recently discovered
PHUKET: A breakthrough arrangement with banks and insurance companies means that all taxi drivers in Phuket have until February 28 to become legally registered – or face a 2,000-baht fine every time they are caught carrying passengers. The deal, brokered through the Phuket Provincial Transportation Office (PPTO), was announced at a meeting with illegal taxi drivers at the Amora Beach Resort Phuket in Bang Tao on Wednesday. PPTO chief Teerayut Prasertpol explained that one of the biggest obstacles for many illegal drivers was changing the registration of their vehicles from “private” to “public” so they can be registered with the PPTO as taxis.
PHUKET: Police quickly nabbed a Phuket druggy by using the GPS tracking feature of the iPhone he had stolen from a German tourist yesterday. The German tourist, David Trebs, was standing in front of the 99 Oldtown Boutique Guesthouse in Phuket Town at about 2am yesterday when a man on a motorbike drove by and snatched his iPhone, explained Lt Col Prawit Engchuan of Phuket City Police. Acting quickly, the Phuket City police arrived at the scene and used the “Find my iPhone” function of another iPhone operating system that allowed them to track the GPS signal of the stolen iPhone.
PHUKET: One man is dead and another injured after a landslide buried them while they were building a retaining wall high in the hills of Patong late yesterday afternoon. The two men were working in a trench about two meters deep when the land beside them gave way, burying them alive, explained Lt Thawatchai Srimai of the Patong Police. Rescue workers called to the scene worked frantically for two hours before they could free Mr Wid Inthong, whose head was nearly fully covered by the dirt.
PHUKET: Karon Police are looking for a jet-ski rental operator at Kata Beach who yesterday allegedly swung an anchor at the head of a German tourist.
PHUKET: The ongoing struggle to protect the beauty and environmental health of the tourist-popular Racha Yai Island, about 25 kilometers south of Phuket, continued yesterday in a meeting with Vice Governor Sommai Prijasilpa. Santi Chandi, representative of Racha Yai residents, asked the vice governor to solve the problems she had promised to solve at a meeting in May 2012. At that meeting, environmentalists told V/Gov Sommai that Koh Racha faced environmental damage due to some resort owners improperly disposing of trash and wastewater.
PHUKET: An inspection team from Bangkok will be arriving in Phuket to help local officers investigate businesses with foreign owners that are suspected of using nominee shareholders, Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut announced at a meeting this afternoon. About 3,700 “foreign-owned” business are registered in Phuket, explained Department of Business Development Phuket Office chief Nimit Kangkajit at the meeting. “Of course Thais will hold at least 51 per cent of the shares of any business and foreigners will be limited to only holding 49 per cent of the shares,” Mr Nimit said.