bangkokpost.com Two members of an alleged human smuggling gang have been arrested in Phang Nga province with two SUV vans carrying 37 Rohingya migrants. A source said influential figures and corrupt state officials were involved in a long-standing migrant smuggling racket in the province.


PHUKET: The daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media. Beware of inconsistent imitations.



AP Thailand will install more surveillance cameras and better lighting in major tourist areas after two British tourists were killed last week on a resort island, a senior government official said.

bangkokpost.com Since the killings, police have focused on finding Asian men 170 centimetres tall and with a 40 shoe size, based on surveillance camera footage and footprints on Sairee beach where the couple died. Police now are trying to determine who left the island in the hours and days after the killing in hopes to revealing new suspects.

bangkokpost.com Three resorts at Karon - Club Med Phuket, Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort and Centara Grand Beach Resort - were forced to pay rent to sunbed operators who had leases on beach space in front of them, according according to Pol Lt Gen Panya Mamen. The same pattern was found in other beaches including Patong, he added.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/434266/police-crack-down-on-lucrative-public-beach-business



reuters US President Barack Obama called on more nations to help fight the world's worst outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, saying hundreds of thousands of lives were at stake.



mcot The Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT) has proposed an extension of Thailand's long New Year holiday, one of the tourism stimulus measures for the Tourism and Sports Ministry to forward to the Cabinet for consideration, said Piyaman Tejapaibul, TCT chairperson. She said the New Year's extension will include five days off from December 31 this year through January 4 next year.

cnn.com The slaughter of dolphins has begun again in a small Japanese village, in a controversial annual hunt that pits Western environmentalist values against what locals say are traditional hunting practices.

bangkokpost.com The Bangkok Criminal Court sentenced five Malaysian men to more than 500 years in prison each for using fake credit cards to pay for goods and withdraw cash in Thailand. The thieves used the fake cards 142 times in many provinces, including Krabi, Trang and Songkhla.

nationmultimedia.com After attracting sympathy and donations from Thais in Bangkok, a German with an excessively swollen leg was seen enjoying drinks and the nightlife in Pattaya on Wednesday night. Tourist police have detained Benjamin Holse, 29.

bangkokpost.com The US has praised Thailand's efforts to tackle human trafficking and emphasised the importance of the countries' long-standing relations, according to Foreign Ministry permanent secretary, Sihasak Phuangketkeow.

news.com.au Vietnamese airline VietJet is getting slammed for an alleged promotional campaign featuring lingerie-wearing models. A popular Vietnamese lingerie model posted the images on her Facebook page over the weekend, claiming they were a promo shoot for VietJet.

nationmultimedia.com Chinese travellers have selected four Thai cities among their top 10 favorite cities during National Day Golden Week holidays. Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket and Samui are all listed in the top 10 Asian searches, according to data from Hotels.com.

irrawaddy.org Burmese civil society groups published a damning review of the performance of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC), saying that it had not successfully investigated ''any case submitted to it'' since it was formed by President Thein Sein in 2011.

afp President Barack Obama has told his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi that jailed Australian journalist Peter Greste and his two Al-Jazeera colleagues should be freed, US officials say.

theage.com.au The Australian dollar has fallen more than one percent in the past day to an eight-month low of 87.88 cents, while the New Zealand dollar has fallen close to 1.8 percent.

afp Forty ''rioters'' were killed in China's far-western Xinjiang region after a series of coordinated explosions, state media said.



straitstimes.com Malaysia has designated the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as a terrorist organisation and said it would take stern action against its members.

perthnow.com Australians travelling to Bali over the school holidays will be faced with increased levels of security after terror suspects were arrested in Indonesia over the weekend.

straitstimes.com Singapore's population grew at its slowest pace in a decade in the one year to June 2014, due to a slow down in the inflow of foreign workers. Total population now stands at 5.47 million, up 1.3 percent.

aljazeera.com Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is the latest figure to be caught in the government's widening sedition crackdown and questioned by police, in what one human rights group called ''blatantly politically motivated''.



bangkokpost.com Thailand dominated 10-man China, winning 2-0 in Asian Games football on two superb goals by Adisak Kraison.

theage.com.au Australia's only Tour de France champion, Cadel Evans, has confirmed he'll quit the sport in February after his own inaugural Great Ocean Road Race in Victoria.



September 24-October 2 Vegetarian Festival, Phuket

October 23 Chulalongkorn Memorial Day

November 1-3 Patong Carnival

November 6 Loy Kratong

November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket

December 5 King's Birthday

December 10 Constitution Day

December 25 Christmas Day

December 26 10th Anniversary, 2004 Tsunami

December 31 New Year's Eve



February 13-15 Phuket Yacht Show