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 The Commerce Ministry will not amend the Foreign Business Act (FBA) to more strictly control foreign management in local businesses, in order to keep Thailand attractive to foreign investors.

news.com.au The Muslim mayor of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Ahmed Aboutaleb, 53, says anyone who does not appreciate the freedom of life in Western civilisations can ''pack their bags'' and ''f ... off''.

bangkokpost.com The lawyer for Mitsutoki Shigeta, a Japanese father of at least nine babies, has filed a lawsuit against the Social Development and Human Security Ministry for taking away his children.



bangkokpost.com The International Labour group said the government's plans to fight human trafficking are a small step forward but experts were not that kind.

irrawaddy.org President Barack Obama's UN ambassador Samantha Power said the humanitarian situation in Burma's Rakhine [Arakan] State continues to deteriorate and virtually no one has been held to account for attacks on minority Muslims.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/us-anti-muslim-attackers-burma-unpunished.html

reuters Thailand must empower victims of trafficking and forced labor to complain and must crack down on corrupt officials if it wants to tackle its human trafficking problem, activists and food industry executives say. Thailand is scrambling to clean up its act after the US State Department named it in June as one of the world's worst centers for human trafficking.



bangkokpost.com Chuvit Kamolvisit, leader of the Rak Thailand Party, and former massage-parlor tycoon, said using health clubs that provide food and drinks is a new type of sex business that can now be found in Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket. A video clip showing naked women entertaining a group of men in a Bangkok fitness centre has ignited the latest uproar among Thai netizens, but the club's owner said it was a private customer party and he had nothing to do with it.

xinhua The Andaman Sea area covering the coastal southern provinces of Phuket, Krabi, Trang and Satun. No less than 21 million foreigners reportedly visited those tourist spots last year, generating more than 9 billion US dollars in tourism-related earnings. [Ed: These are probably the wildest, most ludicrous ''official'' tourism numbers we've ever seen. Pointless lies.]

shanghaidaily.com ''The government should push for the construction of new marinas to moor sailboats in Phuket or other areas on the shores of the Andaman Sea as part of the plan to promote tourism by boat,'' said Tourism Council of Thailand President Itthirit Kinglek. For instance, he said, Phuket only has had a few marinas and more are needed to meet the growing demands for tourism by boat.

thephuketnews.com The high-rise Thavorn Grand Plaza Hotel, located in the heart of Phuket Town, is being refurbished to begin a new chapter in its life under new ownership and the management of the giant Accor hotel chain. Signs outside the site label the hotel as a Novotel -Accor's four-star brand - but this is not a certainty,

AP The World Bank has downgraded its forecast for the global economy this year, blaming stagnation in Europe and Japan and a slowdown in China.

marketing-interactive.com Malaysia's tourism authorities are re-positioning the nation in a bid to promote itself to Chinese tourists, particularly with the launch of its Malaysia Year of Festivals 2015 (MyFest 2015) campaign.

Phuket Update A former Tweed teacher who is fighting to stop a Thai ''dolphinarium'' from opening has been disappointed by Australians' attitudes towards marine animals being used as entertainment. Celi Harper and husband Huw Roberts, who run Gecko School in Phuket, Thailand, were unhappy to see promotions for a new Sea World dolphin show while visiting the Tweed.
http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/dolphin-shows-flippin-sad/2506177/

bangkokpost.com Former boxing champion Payu Daengsee, 33, now earning his living selling counterfeit ''brand'' watches has surrendered to police to answer a charge of knifing a Russian tourist who refused to buy one of his timepieces in Pattaya.

news.com.au The Charlie Hebdo cartoonist who drew a weeping prophet for the next issue has explained why he did it, as Muslim groups called for calm.

nationalpost.com An attack on a passenger bus in eastern Ukraine killed 11 people, likely dealing the final blow to hopes that a short-lived and shaky cease-fire could take hold.

news.com.au A horrifying new propaganda video released by IS purports to show a young boy executing two ''Russian spies'' accused of targeting the jihadist group.

scmp.com Police rescue 37 babies and a three year-old girl after raid on 103 child traffickers working across four regions of China's Shandong province, Chinese television reports.

kyodo news A 55-year-old Japanese university teacher stripped naked on his Tokyo campus in a bid to prove his love for a 21-year-old student, only for his young amour steal his clothes. The student was later located and returned the clothes, local media reported, adding that the pair then went home together..

business-standard.com Online messaging services like Whatsapp and Snapchat may face a ban in Britain as Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to introduce a slew of legislations that would deny terrorists a ''safe space'' to communicate online in the aftermath of a series of terror attacks in France.

afp A man nabbed for attempting to smuggle 94 smartphones into China by strapping them to his body was mocked by amused netizens after pictures of his ''iPhone armor'' went viral.

ttgasia.com Veteran hotelier Hans Jorg Meier, senior vice president of GHM Hotels, has left the company to join COMO Hotels & Resorts as COO, effective January 19. He takes up the mantle from Kuno Fasel, COMO's founding COO of 15 years.



Try Phuketwan's Asean Today daily:
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/asean-today-police-guilty-murder-court-rules-boosts-aid-bali-goes-beijing-singapores-corruption-crunch-21708/



AP West Ham goalkeeper Adrian scored the decisive penalty kick after Everton counterpart Joel Robles hit the underside of the crossbar, leading the Hammers to a 9-8 shootout win following a 2-2 tie and into the fourth round of the FA Cup.

news.com.au Baseball icon Wade Boggs claims to have made a mockery of David Boon's fabled 52-beer Australia to UK record with an insane binge flying across the US. He has made the astonishing claim that he once consumed 107 beers in one day while making a cross-country flight in the US.



Until January 11 Phuket International Boat Show

January 21 Australian embassy outreach to Phuket Call 02-3446300, e: consular.bangkok@dfat.gov.au

February 12-15 Phuket Yacht Show