bangkokpost.com Heavy rain and flooding along the Thai-Malaysia border have left one child dead, two people missing, dozens of villages inundated, and the Sungai Kolok border crossing closed.

afp Taliban gunmen who stormed a school in northwest Pakistan toyed with captive students by suggesting some could be let go before lining them up and gunning them down in front of their classmates, according to a new account by survivors.

cpj.org More than 200 journalists are imprisoned for their work for the third consecutive year, reflecting a global surge in authoritarianism.

smh.com.au Australia has transformed into the global Scrooge just in time for Christmas, with spending on foreign aid set to plunge compared to other wealthy industrial countries. Australia's generosity towards the world's poor will fall to an all-time low.


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



nytimes.com The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century after the release of an American contractor held in prison for five years, President Obama announced.

bangkokpost.com International tourist arrivals in November increased 2.5 percent from the same month a year earlier, the first month in which anti-government protests began to affect Bangkok. The increase in Chinese visitors was offset by plunging arrivals from Russia that plummeted 29 percent.

economist.com As the rouble fell off a cliff over the past two days, a new skit appeared on Russian state television. A popular talk-show host asks his iPhone's voice-recognition app, ''Where shall I go on holidays next year?'' ''This year - nowhere,'' answers the app.



shanghaiist.com A group of Chinese tourists caused a commotion on Saturday when they pushed down a line of protective barricades at the Grand Palace in Bangkok and refused to admit their fault to staff. The argument effectively ended when staff members mentioned the surveillance footage from inside the palace, ifeng News reports.

bangkokpost.com Sanpetch Suppabawonsathien, president of the Thai Hotels Association, said the Russian tourist market in Pattaya was slumping for the first time in 12 years. ''Hotel room reservations from the Russian market have already dropped by 70 percent for this high season,'' he said.

kentonline.co.uk A member of the gang jailed after a 5 million pound cocaine haul was at the centre of a fundraising campaign last year when he collapsed from a heart attack while on holiday in Thailand. Friends and family of Gareth Harnett, who was jailed for five years and four months, raised thousands of pounds for the Broadstairs man after he travelled to Phuket in January 2013 without insurance then needed to pay for life-saving medical treatment.
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet/news/jailed-drugs-gang-mans-fundraising-28781/

bangkokpost.com Twenty-one Bangkok city officials were injured, three seriously, when a bus they were travelling in overturned in Surat Thani before dawn on Wednesday. The bus was taking 43 officials to Krabi.

Media Release Regent Phuket Cape Panwa has been voted and awarded World Luxury Hotel Awards 2014 - the Global winner in the Luxury Island Resort category, the pinnacle of achievement for luxury hotels and resorts worldwide. ''We are extremely thrilled,'' said Brice Borin, General Manager of Regent Phuket Cape Panwa.

bangkokpost.com The economics of today's cheap mobile phones and virtually free calling don't apply behind the walls of Thailand's prisons where a cellphone can cost up to 2.5 million baht and inmates charge calls at 2000 baht a minute.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/450441/behind-bars-phone-calls-don-t-come-cheap

scmp.com A Chinese tourist has died after falling from a hot-air balloon in Turkey when a strong gust of wind caught the craft as it came in to land.

theage.com.au Russell Brand: "These are some objective facts about Australia - it's free and it's safe and it's open - just as long as you're doing roughly what they tell you to do. Terrorism is continually used as a tool to control a domestic population. I'm not saying there aren't a lot of dangerous people out there, I'm saying a lot of those people are in government.''

news.com.au As Sydneysiders continue to come together to mourn the victims of the cafe siege, Premier Mike Baird said a permanent memorial will be erected in Martin Place. The hashtag #illridewithyou sparked hundreds of thousands of tweets and became a global phenomenon, trending worldwide as Australians took a stand against racism and bigotry.

independent.co.uk Airline pilots can be exposed to the same levels of radiation as people on sunbeds, a new study has claimed. Previous research has suggested that pilots are at a higher risk of skin cancer, with ultraviolet radiation encountered in the cockpit believed to be a possible cause.

traveller.com.au Koh Payam is too often admired with the hex, ''Just like Phuket 30 years ago,'' so see Phayam before ''progress'' indeed Phukets it. Reach there by 40-minute speedboat from Ranong.

newsweek.com Even if all plastic pollution ceased today, the material would continue to increase in abundance in the deep sea, due to the shredding and long life span of the stuff already in the ocean. The solution to the plastic problem is to reuse and recycle plastic, and, quite simply, to prevent it from being thrown away.



AP State-run newspapers published an Information Ministry announcement telling the Irrawaddy Publishing Group that it must change the names of its two publications named after the Irrawaddy River to use the spelling ''Ayeyawady.''

abc.net.au The chair of the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights has blamed police abuses in Papua province on the failure of the force to ''adapt'' to a democratic Indonesia.

theaustralian.com.au I would like to conduct my life, starting now, from the oceanic white-dressed bed of Villa 119 at Banyan Tree Lang Co in Vietnam. Aside from scooping the stakes when it comes to five-star havens, this resort wins the location, location, location trifecta.



nst.com.my Thailand maintained their unbeaten run in the AFF Cup by overcoming the spirited Malaysia 2-0 in the final, first leg at Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok. The teams will meet again in the return leg at National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Saturday.

independent.co.uk It was a win at last for Liverpool, the first in four games and 16 days, and some respite from the grip of anxiety that has taken hold at Anfield in recent weeks. Bourmemouth 1-3 Liverpool.



December 25 Christmas Day

December 26 10th Anniversary, 2004 Tsunami

December 31 New Year's Eve



February 12-15 Phuket Yacht Show