PHUKET: A Dutch tourist is out 5,000 baht and a mobile phone after her bag was snatched by a thief in Phuket yesterday. Monika Van Rossum told Chalong Police the theft occurred in the early evening while she and her husband were walking near the PTT service station on Patak Road. “We went out to have dinner.

PHUKET: Phuket Police are investigating the mysterious death of a 27-year-old Nakhon Sri Thammarat man found dead in his pickup truck parked by the side of a road yesterday. The body, identified by police as that of Phumin “Min” Inthongkham, was found at about 6pm in his Nissan NV pickup parked along Rassadanusorn Road, near the entrance to the National Housing Authority project off Soi Kingkaew

PHUKET: Phuket City Police last night raided an apartment building in Chalong, arresting 16 people for gambling on the popular “shrimp-fish” board game and seizing over 400,000 baht in cash. The raid, led by Phuket City Police Deputy Superintendent Serm Kwannimit, caught gamblers off-guard at a makeshift gambling den set up in an eighth-floor room at the Santiphap apartment complex in Chalong Village 1. Raids on gambling dens in Phuket often end with many of the punters scrambling to freedom through pre-planned escape routes, many of them remarkable for their complexity and creativity of design.

PHUKET: A boulder weighing at least one tonne plummeted off a roadside karst near the tourist-popular Ao Nang beach in Krabi this afternoon.

PHUKET: A Thai man accused of stabbing a young British tourist on Phi Phi Island last year pleaded “not guilty” to charges of attempted murder before Krabi Court yesterday. The suspect, 23-year-old Hamed Poonyung, has been

PHUKET: Continuing the series answering questions I hear most often from PC users here in Phuket, I have a very unpopular choice for antivirus (AV) software.

PHUKET: Foreigners in Phuket, both tourists and residents, have developed somewhat of a reputation for complaining over the years. The latest Phuket Gazette readers poll, online now, asks readers: Which of the following topics are you most tired of hearing foreigners in Phuket complain about? And the nominees are: • Overpriced alcohol • Double-pricing (when foreigners pay more than Thais) • Tuk-tuks, taxis • Local driving habits • Immigration requirements • Jet-skis To vote in the poll, click

PHUKET: A pregnant Swedish woman

PHUKET: Coastal residents of Takuapa District in Phang Nga were put on alert this morning following a minor earthquake. The event turned out to be a localized tremor that caused no damage, not the effects of a larger event further away like the tsunami-causing quake that devastated Phuket and the entire Andaman coastline in 2004.

PHUKET: Five people returning from a Phuket cremation ceremony were killed on Saturday night when the crowded pickup they were riding in slammed into a tree in Phang Nga. Sixteen others were seriously injured. A songthaew (pickup modified for passenger transport) was returning Buddhist adherents from the

PHUKET: The Royal Thai Navy Third Area Command arrested 27 Burmese en route to Phuket aboard a fishing boat off the coast of Ranong on February 10. The group were charged with entering the country illegally and were taken ashore to be prepared for deportation. The arrest was made by the staff of HTMS Chonburi under the supervision of Lt Commander Warawut Seejarak.

PHUKET: Government spokesman Prompong Nopparit was back in Phuket last night to launch a new tourist safety campaign that will see a rapid expansion in the number of closed-circuit television cameras in Patong and other popular tourist destinations. Mr Prompong, a party list MP for the ruling Pheu Thai Party, at 7pm held an informal meeting with the press on Bangla Road, where he also met with local business business operators and their staff. The purpose of the latest visit was to launch a nationwide “500,000 eyeballs for tourist safety and security” tourist safety campaign.

PHUKET: The annual Patong Carnival is Phuket’s top free funfair according to a recent readers’ poll by the Phuket Gazette.

PHUKET: A trove of ancient artifacts unearthed in Krabi recently could be up to 3,000 years old, experts at the Fine Arts Department Office in Phuket have estimated. Reporters invited by a village headman in Baan Klang subdistrict, Ao Luek, were the among the first to view the items, discovered by residents of Baan Khao Ngam village last week

PHUKET: Efforts by the Phuket Provincial Office and related agencies to tackle the problem of unregulated “swiftlet ranching” are admirable in their foresight, but regrettable in approach. (See

SPECIAL REPORT Having caused problems in other regions of Thailand, the growing number of swiftlet barns in Phuket came under scrutiny at Phuket Provincial Hall last week. Officials have decided to set up ‘zones’ for the business - despite the fact that it is illegal.

Suggested Heading: PHUKET: Jetstar has scheduled an additional ad-hoc service from Phuket to Australia on Sunday in order to assist travellers stranded by the

PHUKET: All the guests affected by the chlorine gas cloud at the Phuket Orchid Resort in Karon

PHUKET: Dozens of tourists and resort workers were rushed to hospital this morning after a mix of pool cleaning agents “exploded” into a cloud of gas beside a pool at a Phuket resort. Staff at the Phuket Orchid Resort in Karon confirmed to the Phuket Gazette that the cloud of gas was formed by a mix of chlorine and other cleaning agents rapidly expanding in a tank beside the pool.

PHUKET: The weekend forecast for Phuket calls for "widely scattered to scattered" thundershowers through Monday, with variable winds and temperatures at night reaching as low as 22°C. For the 24-hour period starting at noon today, the forecast by the Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) center at Phuket Airport calls for partly cloudy conditions with scattered thundershowers covering 60% of the province.

PHUKET: The return to Phuket of fugitive British murder suspect Lee Aldhouse remains on hold, as the kickboxer has won the right to appeal an extradition order, the UK media has reported. Lee Aldhouse, 27, successfully

PHUKET: The battle to keep Phuket’s beaches free of illegal vendors continues to be a pitched one, with each small advance seemingly followed by a setback. In the latest development, four local residents have set up small restaurants on the sands of Kata Beach with low-to-the-ground Japanese-style dining tables selling grilled and barbecued meats every evening starting at dusk.

PHUKET: Australian tourists

PHUKET: A ban on the sale of alcohol goes into effect in Srisoonthorn Municipality at 6pm tonight ahead of local elections tomorrow. Phuket Election Commission Director Kittipong Thiengkunakrit told the Phuket Gazette, “The alcohol ban will be in effect from 6pm Friday night through to midnight Saturday night due to the Srisoonthorn municipal elections on Saturday, February 18.” Mr Kittipong explained that Srisoonthorn has two voting districts – one with 6,193 eligible voters and the second with 6,179 voters.

PHUKET: National Australian airline Qantas and low-cost carrier Jetstar have announced special fares for tourists left stranded by the financial collapse Air Australia yesterday. Air Australia management declared going into voluntary administration late last night Phuket time, which resulted in the immediate grounding of their entire fleet. Qantas this morning announced the airline was drawing up a plan to assist Australian tourists left stranded.