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

nationmultimedia.com The Tourism Council of Thailand is proposing a strategy to help get the tourism industry back on its feet. The strategy focuses on four areas: new products, investment incentives, information resources, and domestic tourism. The TCT projects 17 million to 17.3 million arrivals next year.

bangkokpost.com Centara Hotels and Resorts has outlined a five-year plan to expand from 42 properties to 65, one year earlier than its previous plan. Centara this month is launching its new three-and-a-half-star brand called Centra, at the Centra Ashlee Hotel Patong in Phuket. The new Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket, covering 41 rai on Karon beach, features 252 ocean-facing rooms and suites and 10 villas.

Phuket Update Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha and Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation Chief Executive Paiboon Upatising have joined local officials in opening a new road between the bypass road near HomeWorks and Surakul Stadium in Phuket City. The road will alleviate crowd problems at stadium events. New drains should prevent chronic flooding in nearby homes.

abc.net.au More people are making it home for Christmas as conditions continue to improve at airports and railway networks throughout Europe. But with Christmas just days away, it is unlikely the backlog will be cleared and many passengers will not make it home in time.

scmp.com Some 250 Hong Kong students stranded at London's Heathrow airport after heavy snowfalls returned home from Manchester on a special Cathay Pacific flight. The airline is providing extra flights to bring about 1000 students home.

UKPA A man who was critically injured in Thailand in a motorcycle fall has finally arrived back in Britain after being delayed for days due to adverse weather. Antony Giles was due to fly home on Saturday night but was diverted to Copenhagen. He finally landed on home ground on Tuesday.

bbc.co.uk Millions of people around the globe have been hit by an outage at the popular internet phone service Skype. Users as far afield as Japan, Europe and the US have all reported problems.

channelnewsasia.com Thailand's political turmoil in 2010 has had little impact on the kingdom's economic growth, although it did affect the tourism industry. Surapol Sritraku, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, said: "Many tourists are still frightened of the possible danger if they come to visit Thailand, so they avoided coming to Bangkok. Consequently, foreign tourists opted for other regions in the country, especially in the south, which is well-known for beautiful beaches."

smh.com.au Air New Zealand's revolutionary "SkyCouch" seat design may be the first step toward a new era in economy long-haul seating. The airline today takes delivery of its first Boeing 777-300ER aircraft in Seattle - the first to be kitted out with the radical economy class seat design, nicknamed ''cuddle class.''

nationmultimedia.com Two C-130 military planes returned to Bangkok last night bearing the coffins of 25 Thai tourists who died in a bus crash in the mountains of Malaysia on Monday. Insurance companies arranged transport to their home towns, mostly Bangkok, Suphan Buri, Phetchabun, Chiang Rai and Phuket.

bangkokpost.com Four of the 10 survivors of Monday's horrific bus accident in Malaysia have returned to Thailand and are being treated for their injuries. Six remaining injured victims are being treated at a hospital in Malaysia. Two are in intensive care.

dailymail.co.uk Headline on a column about Julian Assange by Max Hastings: This megalomaniac sleazeball embodies the nightmares we face in the anarchic age of the internet. And below: It is impossible for the rest of us not to laugh heartily at the falling-out between Julian Assange and The Guardian, which he used as one of his principal conduits for publishing WikiLeaks material. The newspaper is now in his doghouse for biting the hand that fed it - revealing explicit details of the sexual allegations made against him in Sweden.

smh.com.au The Australian dollar is ending the year on a high note, pushing through the parity mark with its US counterpart again overnight as it marked yet another record against the European common currency.

cnn.com CNN's Wolf Blitzer visits North Korea and writes: One miscalculation can quickly lead to all-out war and hundreds of thousands of military and civilian casualties on both sides. The North Koreans took our passports, return flight tickets and cell phones upon arrival at the airport. I believe this is the most dangerous spot on Earth right now.

afp A British man wanted in the UK for molesting children as young as 18 months and selling images of the abuse online has been arrested in Thailand after over a decade on the run. David Charles Taylor, 66, fled to Thailand in 1998 after British authorities found tens of thousands of pornographic pictures of children on his computer.

abc.net.au A UN report into the Indonesia region of Aceh says the area's recovery from a catastrophic tsunami six years ago has been remarkable. The UN Development Program says Aceh's recovery since the tsunami goes beyond anything imaginable six years ago.

bernama Thailand's resort province of Phuket plans to host a tsunami remembrance ceremony next Sunday in memory of the victims killed in the Boxing Day tsunami sixyears ago. Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha said ceremonies marking the sixth anniversary of the tsunami tragedy will be staged in three locations, with two along the Pa Tong and Kamala beachfront in Phukets Katu district, the other near the city's tsunami memorial wall in Thalang (Mai Khao).

ndtv.com A former sex worker has won first prize in a Thai literary contest for her book about her life in Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan. Thanadda Sawangduean, 42, won the women writers' Chommanard Book Prize for her recently published autobiography 'I am Eri: My Experience Overseas,' an account of her years on the game.

reuters.com Visitor arrivals to Singapore in October rose 15.8 percent from a year earlier to 978,000, the highest number of arrivals recorded for the month of October ever, the Singapore Tourism Board said.

theage.com.au Apparently more and more Australian women are unhappy with the appearance of their genitalia. Women's magazines have long been obsessed with our vaginas, but in the past few years they've become positively transfixed by the "designer" variety.

monsterandcritics.com Cambodia says it plans to cancel an agreement with the UN on the processing of Vietnamese refugees, stoking fears about its willingness to accept asylum seekers. The government announced plans last week to close a centre run by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for Vietnamese Montagnards, a highland minority group.

smh.com.au US senator John McCain infamously branded ultimate fighting as ''human cockfighting.'' One Australian state government has blacklisted the cage-fighting event, declaring the UFC as not in line with community standards.

cnn.com Operating profits for airlines in the US exceeded $7.1 billion in the first nine months of 2010, according to the US Department of Transportation. That tally surpasses the industry's full-year profits going back to at least 1999, when airlines posted income of $6.8 billion over 12 months.



PHUKET is to join in marking Earth Hour on March 27 at 8.30pm, Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha announced yesterday. The growing international gesture that emphasises energy conservation involves cities around the world switching off electric lighting for an hour.

PHUKET International Academy is to handle all Phuket Soccer 7s tournaments at their 11-a-side astroturf pitch for the next three years, say organisers. The Phuket Spicy Soccer 7s will be held on February 26 and 27 with Open Age and Women's caregories.

December 22-24 Disaster warning drills on Phuket
December 26 Tsunami sixth anniversary: Memorial commemorations at Patong, Kamala and Mai Khao. Others in Phang Nga.
December 30-January 9 Phuket Red Cross Fair, Saphan Hin park, Phuket City


January 6-9 PIMEX boat show, Royal Phuket Marina
January 22 QSI International fun run day at Bang Wad Dam, Kathu
January 23 The Great Phuket Rubber Duck Race Day, Laguna Phuket
February 9-13 The Bay Regatta - Phuket, Phang Nga, Krabi
February 26-27 Phuket Spicy Soccer 7s, Phuket International Academy
March 14-19 ADFEST 2011 at Movenpick Resort, Phuket
March 27 Earth Hour commemmoration on Phuket


Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket