cpj.org The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for a thorough investigation into the killing of a newspaper reporter in the Thai city of Phuket. "We condemn the brutal killing of Wisut Tangwittayaporn," said CPJ Asia program coordinator Bob Dietz. ''We urge the authorities to do their utmost to investigate this murder and bring the perpetrators to justice. Thai journalists must be allowed to work freely without fear of reprisal.''

eurasiareview.com Reporters Without Borders said it is shocked to learn that Wisut ''Ae'' Tangwittayaporn was gunned down by two men on a motorcycle in the southwestern resort island of Phuket.

smh.com.au Australia's Ryan Harris (1-17 off 11) and Ben Hilfenhaus (2-25 off 10) left India reeling at 4-73 at lunch in the third Test.


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

afp Gunmen shot dead a Thai journalist, local newspaper owner and political activist in a targeted attack on the tourist-friendly island of Phuket, police and local media said.

bangkokpost.com Airports of Thailand plans to bundle the concession rights for firms to build and operate private jet terminals at Phuket and Chiang Mai airports. Mjets, controlled by Minor Group tycoon Bill Heinecke, has expressed keen interest in the rights to set up a facility in Phuket. Space has been constrained at Phuket airport, undergoing a major expansion.

nationmultimedia.com The Phuket condominium market is showing bright prospects in the Year of the Dragon and Kata and Karon will be the areas where enormous number of condominiums will mushroom, according to Knight Frank Thailand research.

indiatimes.com A massive hunt has been launched to nab the persons responsible for videographing semi-naked Jarawa tribal women dancing in front of tourists in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, north-west of Phuket. The women were allegedly made to dance in return for food.

reuters Malaysian long-haul budget carrier AirAsia X will stop flying to Europe and India from its Kuala Lumpur base due to soaring taxes and higher jet fuel prices, it said on its Facebook page. It will suspend flights to Mumbai from January, while the service to New Delhi, London and Paris will cease in March.

afp The US Marines believe they have identified the troops seen urinating in a shocking video on the corpses of insurgents in Afghanistan. The administration of President Barack Obama has expressed revulsion at the video.

csmonitor.com Taliban says urination video won't harm peace talks. Why not? A video showing what appear to be US forces urinating on dead Taliban fighters has drawn only muted reaction, with many Afghans saying they're now inured to US abuses.

moodiereport.com Airports of Thailand has reported a +13.4 percent rise in international passengers to 41,605,432 for 2011, despite a near -5 percent decline in the last quarter of the year.



nationmultimedia.com Mobile Cabinet meetings in the South are to take place at unspecified dates in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani, Songkhla and Phuket. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra plans to hold meetings and stay overnight in all 77 provinces.

Phuket Update A Phuket photographer caught the Czech Republic beauty contestants frolicking at the Kee Resort in Patong as they began their visit to Phuket that ends on Monday. The contest final comes in March. [Find a winner in the Photo Album above.]

nationmultimedia.com David Butler, an American correspondent who arrived in Southeast Asia 41 years ago and wrote an acclaimed book about the last year of the Vietnam War, has died in a Bangkok hospital. Butler, 70, a subeditor at The Nation for more than 10 years, was battling throat cancer.

bbc.co.uk A UK university is to open a campus in Bangkok in what is claimed as the first such UK branch university to be established in Thailand. The University of Central Lancashire has signed a deal with a Thai-based entrepreneur to open a university campus in Bangkok in 2014.

reuters Hundreds of members of Indonesia's Islamic Defenders Front rallied in Jakarta to press the government to ban alcohol as part of its drive to turn the fourth largest country in the world into an Islamic state.

cnngo.com There are so many award titles for the World Travel Awards - we counted 146 - that it would be easy to mistake them for trying to hand one out to everybody.

straitstimes.com Budget airline Jetstar is taking key steps to firmly establish Singapore as its main business and operations hub. It shifted its information technology centre from Melbourne to Singapore a year ago, and its global sales team will make a similar move in the coming weeks.

dpa Malaysia Airlines pilot Thiagu Supramaniam, 30, was charged in a Sydney court over the alleged importation of five kilograms of methamphetamines, concealed in six packages inside his suitcase, into Australia.

guardian.co.uk A Nike factory has agreed to pay $1m in unpaid overtime to Indonesian workers. Nearly 4500 employees at one of the sportswear group's suppliers, the PT Nikomas shoe plant in Banten province, will be compensated for close to 600,000 hours of overtime clocked up over two years.

etravelblackboardasia.com Centra Taum Seminyak Bali, the first overseas venture for the Centra value brand of Thailand's Centara Hotels & Resorts, will be fully open by March 1.



smh.com.au Indian team management and players were left stunned after viewing extraordinary footage of people apparently drinking, lying and walking on the Western Australian pitch only hours before the third Test was due to begin in Perth today.



January 14 Children's Day, Phuket

January 23 Chinese New Year

February 24-25 Phuket Blues Festival, Laguna Phuket

April Opening of Gardens by the Bay, Singapore, three waterfront gardens that will dwarf Kew in London and provide ''green lungs'' for the city.

May 26-June 5 National Youth Games, Phuket

March 29-April 1 Phuket International Boat Show, Royal Phuket Marina



November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket