A daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective and reports from national and international media.

abc.net.au Correspondent Karen Percy: The island of Phuket is hosting 5000 American sailors right now as part of a courtesy call by the USS Ronald Reagan and two other US naval ships. Phuket's girly bars are a honey pot for the young men who are following the footsteps of many before them. This visit is timely, coinciding with the release of the results of a US army sponsored trial of a vaccine for the human immunodeficiency virus HIV which is often contracted through sex or intravenous drug use.

nytimes.com A new AIDS vaccine tested on more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand has protected a significant minority against infection, the first time any vaccine against the disease has even partly succeeded in a clinical trial. Scientists said they were delighted but puzzled by the result. And the researchers do not know why it worked.

miamiherald.com The World Health Organisation and the UN agency UNAIDS said the results ''instilled new hope'' in the field of HIV vaccine research. The vaccine - a combination of two previously unsuccessful vaccines - cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 percent. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that this is ''not the end of the road,'' but said he was surprised and very pleased by the outcome.

bbc.co.uk It is no surprise that Thailand has held the largest ever trial of an HIV vaccine. The South East Asian country has long been at the forefront of the battle against HIV and Aids. ''I did this for others,'' said 33-year-old electrician Thanad Yomha. ''It's for the next generation''. Thanad was one of more than 16,000 Thais who volunteered to take part in the trial, which was run jointly by the Thai government and US military.

samaylive.com Thailand has an estimated 600,000 people who are living with HIV/AIDS. About 400,000 Thais have died of AIDS-related diseases since the virus was first detected in the country in the mid-1980s. Thailand has been deemed a success story for its anti-HIV/AIDS programs, which have included public awareness campaigns, passing out free condoms at brothels and making anti-retro viral drugs available at subsidised prices to many of those infected with the virus.


spinalcolumnonline.com Interview with Aviation Structural Mechanic 3rd Class Jennifer Janes of USS Ronald Reagan, now anchored off Phuket: There's a lot of stuff crammed into very little space. Everybody's living quarters are very small, and working quarters are very small. There's all kinds of different people out here. It's more along the lines of a floating world than a city, because it's not just one type of person. You've got people from all over the world (aboard), so you learn a lot about people while you're out here. I think it's a great learning experience. You learn a lot about yourself when you've been out here so long away from everybody. You learn a lot about other people and how they deal with issues and problems, and that teaches you how maybe you need to change and how to deal with things a little bit better next time. It's difficult, but great at the same time.


forbes.com Like a big kid beaming over his favorite toy, William E. Heinecke shows off his current jet, a Cessna Citation X that's ''the fastest private plane you can buy'' (only the Concorde was faster). It has whisked Heinecke away on dozens of trips throughout Asia and the Middle East over the past year. Most recently the chief executive of Minor International has jetted from Bangkok to Phuket, Hong Kong, the Maldives, Mauritius. One-third of its 1084 food outlets and 15 of its 29 hotels are situated outside Thailand in seven other countries.

mog.com Less than a week after she announced plans to perform in Malaysia this October, a Pan Malaysian group has come forward to say Beyonce is not welcome. ''We oppose the holding of such concerts and we will take action to prevent it,'' said a spokesman for the PMIP (Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party). According to the group's statement, Beyonce's dress and onstage antics are not acceptable to Muslims.

Associated Press Honda's ''personal mobility'' device looks like a unicycle, but all riders do to zip around on it - sideways, forward and reverse - is lean their weight into the direction they want to travel. The U3-X, available for a test-run in Tokyo, was designed to be small, safe and unobtrusive enough to mingle with pedestrians, Honda Motor said. The U stands for ''unicycle'' and ''universal.''

reuters.com Google's email service on Thursday suffered its second technical problem in a month as users reported difficulty accessing their contacts. The disruption, which took two-and-a-half hours to resolve, followed a two-hour outage of Google's news website this week.

novinite.com The massive scale of global corruption is obstructing the sustainable economic growth, according to a report of Transparency International (TI). The Global Corruption Report 2009: Corruption and the Private Sector, shows that corrupt practices such as bribery, price-fixing cartels and undue influence on public policy, cost billions and constitutes a destructive force that undermines fair competition, and slows down economic growth.

themalaysiainsider.com Global corruption watchdog, Transparency International (TI), has ranked Malaysia as the 47th least corrupt nation in the world and commended the island state of Penang for its anti-corruption efforts. Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden was listed by TI as the top three least corrupt countries as measured by the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which ranks countries in terms of the degree to which businessmen and country analysts perceive corruption to exist among public officials and politicians.

etravelblackboard.com Outrigger Laguna Phuket Resort and Villas in Thailand will open December 1 with unbeatable value rates commissionable to agents. Until March 31, 2011 the 229 square metre two-bedroom villa will sell at 6000 baht* (US$176), the 457 square metre three-bedroom pool villa will start sell at 9000 baht* (US$265), and the 604 square metre four-bedroom pool villa will be 13,000 baht* (US$382). Prices include daily continental breakfast delivered to the villa, free WiFi internet, butler service, and complimentary transfers to the private Outrigger beach club.


wsj.com the Indian wedding has hit the road as families try to outdo each other in far-flung locales like Dubai, Phuket, Macau and even France. Tourism boards and travel agents also are turning out in force at wedding exhibitions. Technopak Advisors, an India-based consulting firm. notes that costs can climb as high as $30 million. ''When you get married in your own city, the wedding becomes a fish market,'' one prospective groom says says, pointing to the weddings in Mumbai and New Delhi that bulge with 1000 or more guests because of social obligations.

travelmole.com Langham Hotels has set out plans for $1 billion expansion through new hotels mainly in North America and Asia. The signing of a management agreement for a 224-key Langham Place, Resort and Spa in the Bahamas, means the company has more than doubled the number of properties which are open or in development from 10 to 21 in the last 12 months. Langham Hotels intends to invest $1 billion in new hotels, primarily in North America and Asia.

upiasia.com The first of six Saab Gripen C and D fighter planes destined for the Royal Thai Air Force made its first flight from the Swedish manufacturer's Linkoping facility last week.With a budget of almost $4.5 billion in 2008, Thailand rose to the top ranks of military spenders in the South Asia region, according to defense analysts Jane's. The large budget increases in 2007 and 2008 means Thai defense expenditure has moved above both Malaysia and Indonesia but remains much lower than that of regional leader Singapore.


smh.com.au For the first time, more Australians are visiting Victoria for a holiday than Queensland. Data released by Tourism Research Australia shows NSW still heads the list with 7.2 million domestic visitors in 2008-09, followed by Victoria with 5.4 million and Queensland with 5.1 million. Victorian tourist chiefs believe that during tough economic times, Australians' tastes have shifted toward short breaks to experience Victoria's cultural activities and away from Queensland's physical attractions.

canadian press Renault should have been returning to the site of a triumph at the Singapore Grand Prix. Instead, this weekend's race has become more like revisiting the scene of a crime. Fernando Alonso won last year's inaugural Singapore GP against the odds, and thinks the team may be poised for another breakthrough on Sunday. But recent revelations that Renault teammate Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed in last year's race to help engineer Alonso's victory means that win will forever be tainted.