desertsun.com American Walter Lee Williams, 65, on the FBI's list of Ten Most Wanted, taught anthropology, gender studies and history at a university and lived in Thailand, Indonesia and Polynesia before being arrested in Mexico on sex charges relating to underage Filipino boys.

bangkokpost.com The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) defended its handling of the rice-pledging case against former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra after public prosecutors rejected its call to indict her, citing insufficient evidence. NACC chairman Panthep Klanarongran said the case against Ms Yingluck was solid.


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 4th Army was considering lifting martial law in Phuket and Krabi but military units in those provinces wanted to tackle forest encroachment first, a source said after Thailand's PM Prayuth Chan-ocha's weekly 'Happiness to the People' television program. The NCPO has no plans to lift martial law in Bangkok.

nbcnews.com A turboprop plane headed from New York to Florida stopped responding to radio calls and veered hundreds of miles off course - prompting a chase by two F-15 fighter jets - before crashing off the coast of Jamaica, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

bbc.com A North American air defence (Norad) spokesman said it was not possible for the jet fighter pilots to see inside the plane before it crashed as the windows were frosted or fogged over. The two passengers on board have been named as Larry Glazer, a real estate developer from Rochester, New York, and his wife Jane.

bangkokpost.com As his cabinet prepares to hold its first meeting on Tuesday, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha calls on everyone in Thailand to help move the country forward, and warns people not to listen to ''instigators'' who criticise the monarchy.

reuters Pilot errors, inadequate crew training and lapses in emergency response procedures led to a plane operated by budget carrier Lion Air crashing into the sea off Bali in April 2013, according to a final report into the incident. None of the 108 passengers and crew died in the crash, which took place as heavy rain affected visibility for a Boeing 737-800 on a scheduled flight from Bandung.

dpa Indonesia's largest budget carrier Lion Air said it had improved safety protocols after investigators blamed pilots for a crash last year involving one of its aircraft. [Lion Air this week announced a daily service between Phuket and Bangkok at an amazingly low fare.]



usatoday.com With all supplies of an experimental drug exhausted, doctors and nurses caring for the third Ebola patient to return to the US will rely on conventional methods of treating symptoms and preventing complications for physician Richard Sacra, 51.



Phuket Update A ceremony to send off 141 Hajj pilgrims to Mecca, Saudi Arabia was held this week at the Hajj Facilitation Center at Phuket's Sirinath National Park, near Phuket International Airport.

bignewsnetwork.com The military's harder line is already directly felt by some journalists. Chutima Sidasathan, a reporter on a Phuket-based web news service, who with an Australian editor, [Alan Morison], faces criminal defamation charges brought by the Royal Thai Navy after republishing parts of a Reuters report of July 2013 claiming Navy personnel were tied to human trafficking of Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar. Chutima says since the coup she has faced increasing harassment by navy personnel in Phuket.

eurasiareview.com Burma (Myanmar) officials have refuted media reports that Burma would resettle thousands of Rohingya living in Bangladesh, insisting that the Rohingya were not ethnic nationals of the country.

pattayamail.com While the National Council for Peace and Order sent soldiers to remove beach vendors and dismantle illegal structures in Phuket, the military so far has taken a hands-off approach to umbrella-dotted Pattaya and Jomtien beaches. The NCPO ordered city officials to clean up the beach and have assigned the Royal Thai Navy to keep tabs on their efforts. Beach chair and umbrella vendors can be a stubborn and even rancorous lot.

smh.com.au The US is drawing together a coalition of nations for new military action in Iraq, including air strikes against the Islamic State extremists, and Australia is ready to play its part, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop says.

bangkokpost.com A hotel in Phattalung province has been closed for 30 days after authorities found it was being used by teenage students who skipped classes to indulge in sex and drugs. Local officials who visited the hotel found 26 students aged between 13 and 16 years (18 males and eight females) in rooms with cigarettes and used condoms.

aap President Obama carved out time to play tourist, stopping at Stonehenge before flying back to Washington after attending a Nato summit in Wales.

AP Justin Ross Harris, who allegedly sat in his office exchanging nude photos with women while his son was dying, locked for hours in a hot car, has been charged in the US with murder more than two months after the child's death.

cnn.com At least 137 people have died in the last few days from flooding caused by intense monsoon-season rains that have been lashing parts of Asia for weeks, according to government and media accounts.

bbc.com Researchers believe that California blue whales have recovered in numbers and the population has returned to sustainable levels. Scientists say this is the only population of blue whales to have rebounded from the ravages of whaling.

marketwatch.com Expected to open in 2016, Hyatt Place Phuket, Patong will mark the first Hyatt Place hotel in Phuket, Thailand.

nydailynews.com Guests at comedian Joan Rivers's Sunday sendoff in Manhattan will walk a special crimson carpet before paying their final respects to the 81-year-old, US Weekly reported.



skynews.com.au A second Australian has died surfing in Indonesia in as many months, as the search for another missing man continues. Friends of the latest victim found the 54-year-old floating in the surf, about 100 metres from the shore at Sorga Beach, in Lombok, local police say. The whereabouts of Peter Maynard, 45, remain unknown.

theguardian.com Six months after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, families of the missing passengers and crew say they are still waiting for answers.

news.malaysia.msn.com Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, with 239 mostly Chinese people on board, disappeared on March 8 about an hour into a journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in the world's greatest aviation mystery.

channelnewsasia.com The number of international visitors to Singapore saw a 19.2 percent spike in July from a month ago, representing the highest monthly arrival figure for the year, according to Singapore Tourism Board (STB) statistics.

o.canada.com According to the Indonesian ministry for Tourism and Creative Economy, the number of tourist arrivals in Indonesia during the period of January to July, 2014 increased some 9.56 percent to 5,328,732 million from 4,872,262 million visitors in the same period last year.

narinjara.com A mud volcano in Kyouk Phyu township of Arakan in western Burma erupted and it destroyed over 100 acre farmland, said the locals.



usatoday.com ''You know, tennis is great, but the health is more important,'' Wozniacki said after her US Open victory that earned her a spot in Sunday's final against Serena Williams. Her opponent, Peng Shuai, appeared to suffer heat exhaustion, conceded and required treatment.



nationmultimedia.com Take a trip to Phuket and make peace with your fellow creatures. The Southern province will again fly the yellow flags of the annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival from September 24 to October 2.

September 7 Thailand vs Phuket FC 6.30pm

September 12 Amcham at Angsana: the New Phuket

September 24-October 2 Vegetarian Festival, Phuket

October 23 Chulalongkorn Memorial Day

November 6 Loy Kratong

November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket

December 5 King's Birthday

December 10 Constitution Day

December 25 Christmas Day

December 26 10th Anniversary, 2004 Tsunami

December 31 New Year's Eve



February 13-15 Phuket Yacht Show