UPDATING All Day, Every Day
bangkokpost.com This year's military reshuffle which takes effect in three weeks will result in the appointments of 1092 generals, more than ever before. Thailand's total military strength is 550,000 men and women, of whom about 245,000 are reserve or paramilitary.
PhuketWATCH Daily Media Wrap
PHUKET: The daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media. Beware of inconsistent imitations.
Today's Top News Items
Phuket Update A severe storm dumped on Phuket City early today and more rain is expected to lash Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi, with a dozen other provinces facing heavy rains over the next four days. Floods and landslips are possible. Small boats are advised not to put to sea.
bangkokpost.com Thailand is seen around the world as endemically corrupt, as shown in polls such as that by Transparency International. Fighting corruption needs a leader and a voice. One hopes Prayuth Chan-ocha is up to this part of the task.
bangkokpost.com Despite efforts by the junta and companies to deal with child labor and slavery allegations, it is highly likely Thailand will remain at the lowest Tier 3 level in the US human trafficking in persons report next year.
bangkokpost.com Lawyers for Mitsutoki Shigeta, the mystery man at the heart of Thailand's ''serial surrogacy'' scandal, told police the son of a mobile-phone tycoon wanted to father 20 children among whom he planned to split his family fortune.
nationmultimedia.com Mitsutoki Shigeta, 24, has declared assets of over Bt4 billion and earned Bt80 million a year from dividends alone, according to details provided by the lawyer, Kong Suriyamonthon: ''His parents know about his surrogacy children.''
channelnewsasia.com Thailand's interim government has opted to maintain martial law in the country for now, after holding its very first Cabinet meeting. The measure has been in place since the army coup in May led by the now Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha.
The Apple Watch: Everything You Need to Know
businessweek.com The Apple Watch costs $350, so $100 more than Motorola's Moto 360 smartwatch but significantly cheaper than a Patek Philippe. It goes on sale next year.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-09/apple-watch-everything-you-need-to-know
Latest on the Ebola Outbreak
afp Liberia is bracing for an upsurge in Ebola cases following a grim World Health Organisation assessment that the worst is yet to come in the fight against the killer virus.
Phuket World of People
skynews.com.au A Singapore court has sentenced a London-based woman to 10 weeks in jail for illegally entering the city-state by sea in a ''vigilante's attempt'' to take custody of her two-year-old son. She was arrested with Briton Adam Christopher Whittington, managing director of Sweden-based Child Abduction Recovery International, at a downtown hotel. Australian catamaran master Todd Allan Wilson was also arrested on board the vessel.
bangkokpost.com Police arrested two men and are seeking two others who allegedly attempted to rob Chinese visitors on Samui last month. The pair told police they had robbed more than 10 victims this month and picked only foreign tourists as their targets. Two more members of the gang are being sought.
afp The Thai authorities launched anti-drug raids across Bangkok sending scores of ''addicts'' to rehabilitation centres after conducting door-to-door urine tests, the police said, in the latest junta crackdown on law and order.
bangkokpost.com The Royal Thai Air Force said it will take disciplinary action against officers caught on video enjoying a song sung by a naked female singer at a banquet held at a military club.
scmp.com The suicide rate of people over 65 in Hong Kong is almost double that of any age group, and with a rapidly ageing population, prevention authorities face an uphill struggle.
bangkokpost.com A joint NACC-OAG panel has been set to re-investigate charges of dereliction of duty against former PN Yingluck Shinawatra's rice scheme.
cnn.com Authorities have killed almost 5000 dogs in the Chinese city of Baoshan after rabies was blamed for the deaths of five people, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.
independent.co.uk The average Briton spends over a year of their life nursing a hangover - and it takes women two hours longer than men to recover. People will spend on average 315 days of their lives battling with inevitable headaches and nausea caused by a hard night's drinking, Macmillan Cancer Support estimates.
reuters Canadian explorers have found the wreck of one of two ships lost in the 1845 Franklin expedition to Canada's Northwest Passage, solving an enduring historical mystery and bolstering Canada's claim to the key Arctic trade route.
smh.com.au Fares to destinations in Asia such as Phuket in Thailand, the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore are about 5 per cent cheaper than this time last year, according to Flight Centre.
news.com.au Apple has revealed plenty of information about its new phones and watch - including the all-important charger - but other questions remain to be answered.
theage.com.au Shares in Apple were up sharply early in the day but slumped after the release of its new phones and smart watch.
Around the Asean Region
tuoitrenews.vn Customs officers at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City said that tests showed the white powder weighing 2.78kg found in the luggage of a Russian woman is cocaine. Dapirka Maria, 28, arrived on Flight VN659 from Singapore on Saturday. Reportedly a Phuket resident, she could face the death penalty.
news.asiaone.com Singapore plans to impose a sweeping ban on sports betting via overseas websites, but experts said that virtual private networks (VPNs) would erode the effectiveness of the move.
reuters Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 broke apart over Ukraine due to impact from a large number of fragments, the Dutch Safety Board said in a report that Malaysia's prime minister and several experts said suggested it was shot down from the ground.
dvb.no A senior United Nations delegation departed for the Arakan State capital of Sittwe to ''take stock of the ongoing humanitarian and development situation in Rakhine [Arakan] State and review priorities for the UN system,'' according to a statement.
Phuket World of Sport
afp Former Formula One champion Michael Schumacher has left a Swiss hospital and will continue his treatment at home after a devastating ski accident in December, his family said in a statement.
AP Ray Rice and Janay Palmer can be heard shouting obscenities at each other, and she appears to spit in the face of the US football star right before he throws a brutal punch in a video shown to The Associated Press by a law enforcement official. The NRL has suspended him indefinitely. Rice, 27, stood to make $4 million this year.
Coming Events on Phuket 2014
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
Coming Events on Phuket 2015
February 13-15 Phuket Yacht Show
