asiatraveltips.com Bangkok Airways has launched four new non-stop flights from Chiang Mai to Phuket, Udon Thani and Myanmar (Mandalay and Yangon). Bangkok Airways is offering specials including Chiang Mai-Phuket from 2290 baht.


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



bbc.com An unmanned supply rocket bound for the International Space Station has exploded during its launch from the US state of Virginia. Antares, a 14-storey rocket built by Orbital Sciences Corp, combusted seconds after leaving the seaside launch pad.

thestar.com.my Zhang Jian, the Chinese national who proclaimed himself to be the ''future richest man,'' was arrested in Thailand. The 26-year-old Zhang was undergoing a 100-day temporary ordination program at a temple in Phuket.

nationmultimedia.com The police probe found that the group allegedly used fake ID cards in transactions and set up a company to get ''members'' for the pyramid scheme. The scheme reportedly duped 100,000 people in China of 1.3 billion yuan or 6 billion baht. Chinese authorities arrested a gang member earlier this year and issued arrest warrants for nine people.



reuters Testimonies from Bangladeshi and Rohingya trafficking survivors provide evidence of a shift in tactics in one of Asia's busiest human trafficking routes. In the past, research showed most people boarded smuggling boats voluntarily. Now people are being abducted or tricked into boarding boats and then taken to larger ships anchored in international waters.

voanews.com A leading activist for Myanmar's ethnic Rohingya minority says there is a significant exodus - on a scale possibly unprecedented - of Rohingya leaving the country. There are concerns about the fate of those who departed about two weeks ago.



nationmultimedia.com Public prosecutors began looking into the plea for justice from two Myanmar workers, who say they were forced into confessing to crimes they did not commit. The two migrants have been charged with murdering two British tourists on Koh Tao last month.



news.com.au Ebola can survive on surfaces in low temperatures for more than three weeks, researchers have found.



bangkokpost.com British activist Andy Hall faces a verdict Wednesday in a defamation trial linked to a report he co-authored alleging severe labor abuses in Thailand's food industry, a key supplier to Western supermarkets.

andrew-drummond.com The British Government has supported moves by the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand calling on the Thai authorities to review ''frivolous'' criminal defamation cases brought against veteran British foreign correspondent Andrew Drummond who has been investigating foreign crime in Thailand. Part of the problem identified was poor policing of foreign fraudsters.
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2014/10/british-embassy-and-foreign.html

nationmultimedia.com Bumrungrad International Hospital aims to increase revenue by more than 10 percent next year and hopes to service three million foreign patients, thanks to plans to open additional referral offices overseas and increase its capability in a number of areas.

bangkokpost.com Three teenagers are being sought after a gang led by a 15-year-old who was later caught beat up and robbed a Japanese tourist outside a convenience store in Bangkok early on Monday morning.

nationmultimedia.com Phuket police took an 18-year-old man, who allegedly hit an American tourist in the head with a piece of wood, to re-enact the crime at a beach. The suspect claimed self-defence, saying the tourist, who appeared drunk, knocked him down and was about to beat him with the stick. He said he'd gone to help the tourist whose motorcycle was stuck in sand.

standard.co.uk The end of the high street bank moved a step closer as taxpayer-owned Lloyds Bank announced 9000 job cuts and the closure of 200 branches as part of a digital revolution.

nationbmultimedia.com Investigation into the whereabouts of fugitive Indian car-bomb suspect, who escaped from a maximum-security jail in India in 2004, found no evidence that he had entered Thailand, Army chief General Udomdej Sitabutr said.

citytalk.fm Armed soldiers are being stationed outside the entrance to Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall amid increased fears of terrorist attacks on ceremonial troops in the wake of the Canada shootings.

zeenewsindia.com As compared to men who have had only one partner during their lifetime, having sex with more than 20 women is associated with a 28 percent lower risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer, research shows.

scmp.com French police are on high alert after a spate of incidents involving fake evil clowns terrorising passers-by continues to spread, in a phenomenon that has led to violence and a response by vigilantes.

smh.com.au The UK's new foreign minister has fuelled a European row on refugees with a comment that echoes Australian rhetoric on boat people. Baroness Anelay said the UK would not support a new program of search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean, saying they encouraged refugees to risk taking to sea.

standard.co.uk A man dubbed the Naked Rambler has lost a case at the European Court of Human Rights in which he claimed he had the right to be naked in public. Stephen Gough, 54, spent five years and three months in detention from May 2006 when his arrest for breaching the peace sparked the current case before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.



straitstimes.com A giant helium-filled balloon will float above Singapore from early next year to watch over the Republic's skies and shores day and night. Known as an aerostat, the balloon will be tethered to the ground and house a surveillance radar that can spot hostile aerial and sea threats from as far as 200km away.

nationmultimedia.com Mired in distrust and seemingly irreconcilable differences, Myanmar's volatile Rakhine state risks deteriorating into radicalism and organised violence unless minimal rights are granted to its persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, the International Crisis Group (ICG) has warned.

thestar.com.my The much-anticipated Penang Hop-On Hop-Off bus service will be launched in the state next month. The double-decker bus is air-conditioned but the front half of the upper deck is an open-air section. It can seat 60 passengers and is equipped with disabled-friendly features.

irrawaddy.org Fauna & Flora International (FFI) researchers announced that they have captured the first film footage of wild red pandas in Burma in the mountains of northeastern Kachin State.

wsj.com The final stage of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim 's sodomy trial got under way Tuesday, with the veteran politician questioning the impartiality of the country's justice system as he faces the possibility of up to five or more years in prison.

usatoday.com Along parts of the Myanmar-China border, where heroin addiction is appallingly common, fresh needles are now so coveted that shopkeepers dispense them as change.



news.com.au Fears are growing over F1's future after two teams withdrew from the grid ahead of the US Grand Prix, and other teams on the brink.

scmp.com Manny Pacquiao has been gobbling up his sparring partners, leaving a top contender with a broken nose as he stepped up preparations for his showdown against Chris Algieri in Macau next month.

news.com.au A series of explicit emails reveal Australian Senator Nova Peris sought taxpayers' money to help her carry out a raunchy affair with US Olympic medallist Ato Boldon in 2010.



November 1-3 Patong Carnival

November 6 Loy Kratong

November 14-23 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