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

bostonherald.com A bid by Florida cops to probe whether Tiger Woods mixed a powerful potion of painkillers, sleeping pills and booze before he crashed near his home was rejected by a Sunshine State district attorney, according to a newly disclosed document. The report states Woods had access to the sleeping medicine Ambien and the painkiller Vicodin.

philly.com Howard Gensler writes: You know what they say about cockroaches: If you've got one, you've got more than one. Well, for Tiger Woods, they're all coming out of the woodwork. When has Tiger ever quit before 18? As of last night (and granted, there could have been another one last night), the Tiger Tail count was at nine. Now he's only got the back 9 to go.

smh.com.au Holly Sampson, a 36-year-old porn star from Los Angeles, has been outed as the seventh woman to be linked romantically with Woods. Ms Sampson, star of movies including My First Sex Teacher and Flying Solo 2, said through a lawyer she had no comment to make on the matter, New York Daily News reported.

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup telephone poll of 1041 adult Americans shows the Tiger Woods' favorable rating has dropped 24 per cent since June. The result accompanies a number of stinging editorials accusing the golfer of supreme vanity and arrogance.

timesonline.co.uk John Hopkins, golfing correspondent, writes: ''He thought that if he lay low behind the barricades that surrounded the estate on which he lives and said nothing, the reporters would have to turn their cars around and head home.''

guardian.com Millions of British people are unhappy, isolated and unable to cope with profound changes in the workplace, relationships and family life, according to a study. It portrays Britain as a psychologically fragile society in which increased wealth has been accompanied by soaring levels of individual isolation and stress.

huffingtonpost.com Today, one in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in nine families can't make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month.

bangkokpost.com A Bangkok taxi driver has returned cash and valuables worth about 200,000 baht left in his cab by three foreign passengers. Preeda Yunbuaban, 48, spotted a sports bag on the back seat. Inside the bag, he found 25,320 baht, $2000 and 110 Bahrain dinars in notes, seven credit cards, three passports, a video camera and a digital camera. ''I also found an All Seasons Hotel keycard, so I telephoned the hotel and the staff confirmed that the three were guests,'' Khun Preeda said.

rttnews.com India's navy has foiled an attempt made by pirates to hijack a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia. Indian warship INS Godavari dispatched a helicopter to assist Nordic Spirit, a tanker belonging to a Norwegian-U.S. Company, and the pirates abandoned their attempts to hijack the tanker when they saw the helicopter.

abcnews.go.com The influx of millions of dollars in ransoms has changed life in this coastal Muslim community, driving prices up and creating a schism between the pirate haves and have-nots. ''The use of drugs such as cannabis and the drinking of alcohol, sex and other obnoxious misconduct are now becoming common within the pirates, causing social problems,'' said a mosque leader in the town of Galkayo.

huffingtonpost.com PUB, the Swedish department store set to sell the North Korea-made NoKo Jeans line, has pulled the collection from its shelves after deciding it doesn't want to associate itself with the so-called Hermit Kingdom. The jeans were supposed to be sold in the Aplace retail space. A spokesperson for Aplace called his decision ''a bit cowardly.''

afp Noo Wisuksin, 71, is one of 25 million people under threat in Thailand's vast Chao Phraya river delta, which is sinking because of river damming as climate change pushes up sea levels. In the past 30 years, the sea in Khun Samutchine has swallowed more than one kilometre of land and Noo has moved her house back eight times.

thetyee.ca On the weekend, a senior official in the Bangladesh government made news with a public plea for wealthy nations to accept climate refugees. He told the Guardian that 20 million people could be displaced from his country by the year 2020, and called on the UN to redefine laws around refugees to include people who flee circumstances related to climate change.

earthtimes.org Malaysian wildlife officers have seized a honey bear cub, a leopard cat and a slow loris which were found caged as pets at an apartment in Kuala Lumpur. The three animals, which are endangered species, were kept in separate cages and are believed to have been reared as pets for the past three months. Officers arrested a 25-year-old woman believed to be living in the flat.

smh.com.au At the end of a conference in Sydney on the future of Asia, an informal Australian tally counted 20 countries in favor of regular annual meetings of 21 countries, or favourably inclined, and only one firmly opposed. That country? Singapore. Australian PM Kevin Rudd does not want a country of five million to frustrate an initiative designed to encompass 3.6 billion.

bangkokpost.com Foreign visitor arrivals to Thailand are estimated at 13.6 million, down nearly 7 percent from 14.6 million last year, due largely to local political strife and the global recession, according to the latest forecast by the Pacific Asia Travel Association. Wary Chinese tourists in particular, who were expected to flood to Thailand this year, changed their destination to Taiwan.

taipeitimes.com Taiwan welcomed its four millionth overseas visitor of the year on Saturday, a Japanese tourist who received a debit card with NT$400,000 in credit, along with gifts from the Tourism Bureau.

upi.com A rare Komodo dragon has been born at the Singapore Zoo after 34 years of trying to breed the world's largest living lizard, officials said. Female komodo dragons have been known to be hostile during preliminary phases of courtship,''It's as precious as the Mona Lisa for us,'' said a keeper.

abc.net.au A historic Catalina aircraft flying from Spain to outback Queensland has been grounded in Thailand with engine troubles. The Qantas Founders Museum in Longreach says it has already spent about $500,000 buying the plane and preparing it for a 30-day flight to the museum.

Phuketwan Update The Mai Khao Marine Turtle Foundation in conjunction with JW Marriott Phuket Resort and Spa, Marriott's Phuket Beach Club, Marine and Coastal Conservation Center 5 (Phuket), Rajabhat University, Mai Khao District Administration, schools in Mai Khao district and the community are organising a beach and reef clean-up on December 12 from 8am at Mai Khao Village Soi 6-8 and near the Tsunami Warning Tower. Telephone 086 689 2230.