theguardian.com The owners of the Daily Telegraph secured a 250m pound loan from HSBC for a struggling corner of their business empire shortly before the newspaper's reporters were allegedly ''discouraged'' from running articles critical of the bank.

bangkokpost.com Delayed by the coup, the 109 billion baht plan to expand Suvarnabhumi gets a thumbs up, including a new terminal, a third runway and capacity of 60 million passengers a year.

Sports Update England were out for 123 against New Zealand in their World Cup one-day match, with Tim Southee taking 7/33. NZ scored 2/125 off 12.2 overs.

smh.com.au Former Australian professional tennis player and coach Nick Lindahl, 26, has been charged by police after allegedly throwing a match on which his associates bet and won thousands of dollars.


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



bangkokpost.com After a large protest, the commander of the 1st Artillery Regiment calls out 200 troops to beef up security for the energy policy forum to be held Friday afternoon at Government House.

nationmultimedia.com Public prosecutors indicted ex-PM Yingluck Shinawatra for negligence and filed criminal charges at the Supreme Court, in a case that could result in a jail term of up to 10 years. The charges stem from the Yingluck government's controversial rice-pledging scheme, which caused 600 billion baht losses to the state.



mcot Sek Wannamethee, spokesman of Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed disappointment with Britain's Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) which reported Tuesday that Thailand has made no progress in tackling human trafficking.

cambodiadaily.com Indonesian authorities rescued 17 Cambodian migrants enslaved aboard two Thai vessels illegally fishing the archipelago nation's waters, according to a statement issued by Cambodia's Foreign Ministry. The ministry's spokesman, Koy Kuong, said the men told a now-familiar story of deception to Indonesian authorities about how they ended up on the boats.

mizzima.com Failure to address human rights violations and abuses in Burma, including discrimination against Rohingya, and to address growing hardline nationalist attitudes and advocacy of hatred is a recipe for further violence, says Amnesty International. .



bangkokpost.com Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's '''no-talks''' stance with former leader Thaksin Shinawatra has effectively ended the rumors about a ''super deal'' between the military regime and the de facto boss of the Pheu Thai party.

thephuketinsider.com Thai Airways International's current financial dilemma has far reaching consequences for the Phuket market. Recently TG has abandoned services to Johannesburg, Madrid and Moscow. Next up on the cutting board is the Phuket-Seoul service at the end of March.

ttrweekly.com Four of the top beaches in Asia are in Thailand, according to TripAdvisor that announced the winners of its 2015 Travellers' Choice awards for beaches.

Krabi Update Some 2000 Chinese tourists have been arriving at Krabi in 12 direct flights from China each day since Tuesday and they are expected to generate some 340 million baht of revenue for the southern seaside province during the Chinese New Year, an official said.

scmp.com Two cyclones bearing down on northeastern Australia dramatically intensified as emergency officials warned residents to take shelter on higher ground ahead of torrential rain and flooding, destructive winds and massive seas.

foxnews.com President Obama took pains to stress, once again, that the West is ''not at war with Islam'' as he wrapped a three-day White House forum on ''violent extremism'' - but in the end, drew criticism that he was going to extremes to avoid talking about the threat of Islamic extremists.

nytimes.com France's Socialist government survived a confidence vote in the National Assembly, two days after it forced through a contentious package of economic measures without a ballot.

abcnews.go.com Renowned neurologist and author of ''Awakenings'' Oliver Sacks announced that he has terminal cancer. Sacks, 81, a professor of neurology at New York University School of Medicine, said in a New York Times article that cancer had been found in his liver nine years after he was first diagnosed with a rare ocular tumor.



Try Phuketwan's Asean Today daily:
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/asean-today-bans-boob-job-cambodians-enslaved-trawlers-singapore-property-slide-21907/



afp A black French man pushed off a Paris metro train and racially abused by Chelsea supporters said the fans must be punished. ''These people, these English supporters, must be found, punished and locked up,'' the victim of the widely condemned assault told Le Parisien newspaper.



February 26-28 Phuket Old Town Festival

March 1-15 Heroines festival

March 4-8 Bay Regatta

April 11-19 Phuket Bike Week

April 17-19 Songkran Festival

May 4 Additional public holiday scheduled

June 20-21 Baba wedding at Old Phuket Town

July 15-19 Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek