bbc.com Thailand's legislators have voted to impeach former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and ban her from politics for five years.

bbc.com Former Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra will face a criminal charge over a controversial rice subsidy scheme, the attorney general's office says. The news came as the legislature prepared to vote on whether to impeach her for dereliction of duty over the same scheme.

cambodiadaily.com Hooters, the US restaurant franchise famous for its scantily-clad waitresses and chicken wings, has signed an agreement with a Thai firm to open 30 additional branches throughout Asia, including in Cambodia, following the success of the Phuket outlet.

theguardian.com King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has died aged 90 after a short illness, state television announced. He has been succeeded by Crown Prince Salman, his half-brother.


bbc.com Saudi Arabia has postponed the flogging of blogger Raif Badawi for the second week running, according to human rights group Amnesty International. Amnesty said the decision was made after doctors advised against this week's 50 lashes on health grounds.


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 A group of taxi drivers at Thailand's Suvarnabhumi airport has responded to a Japanese businessman's online complaint about an overcharging cabbie by refusing to take any Japanese passenger.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/458803/airport-cabbies-retaliate-against-japanese-passengers

theguardian.com A military-appointed legislature in Thailand will decide on Friday whether to ban the former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra from politics over a botched rice subsidy scheme - a move that analysts say is aimed only at further consolidating power and could provoke fresh violence.

bloomberg The impeachment case against Yingluck, 47, has more to do with a decade-long vendetta aimed at erasing her family's influence from politics after victories in every national election since 2001.



telegraph.co.uk Indonesian rescuers will attach giant air bags to the fuselage of the crashed AirAsia QZ8501 jet to lift it to the surface, according to the commander of the navy's western fleet.



reuters Rising threats from climate change and nuclear arsenals prompted the scientists who maintain the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic countdown to global catastrophe, to move it two minutes closer to midnight on Thursday, its first shift in three years. The Doomsday Clock, devised by the Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, now stands at three minutes to midnight, or doomsday.

independent.co.uk A 23-year-old libertarian campaigner and Ukip supporter has died on a backpacking holiday in Thailand. Christina Annesley, the former vice-chair of the Yorkshire branch of Ukip's youth wing, was said by her family to have died of natural causes after seeking treatment for a chest infection.

nationmultimedia.com The murder of a dog, even if it's a stray, will now matter in Thailand thanks to the newly enforced animal protection law. A 32-year-old man gave himself up to police to fight charges of killing a street dog late on January 13 as he was driving out of the Imperial Lat Phrao shopping mall.
hhttp://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Man-surrenders-after-being-charged-with-killing-do-30252478.html

cnn.com The coalition fighting ISIS has killed more than 6,000 fighters, including half of the top command of the terror group, U.S. diplomatic officials said

scmp.com More than 300 Chinese nationals have used Malaysia as a transit point to join up with militant Islamic State (IS) forces in the Middle East, Kuala Lumpur has revealed.

bangkokpost.com The United States has reaffirmed its participation in and support for the region's joint military exercise codenamed Cobra Gold 2015 to be held in Thailand in February, defence spokesman Kongcheep Tantrawanich said.

Phuket Update A man escaped with minor injuries after crashing his car at Phuket's notorious ''bent neck'' curve, having allegedly fallen asleep at the wheel. Rescue workers took Pichayakarn Masuk, 22, to Thalang Hospital and he was later transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital. He had been travelling south in Thepkasattri Road when he struck the Koh Ean bend.

bangkokpost.com Bangkok ranks last in economic performance in a new survey of 300 world cities by bank JPMorgan Chase and an American think tank.

theguardian.com Cities in the developing world, especially China, dominated the top of the annual economic rankings of 300 cities worldwide by the Brookings Institution and JP Morgan Chase. The study ranks cities by growth in employment and in economic output per person.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/459167/bangkok-ranks-last-in-economic-performance-in-300-city-survey

Phuket Update The new chief of the Phuket Employment Office has denied allegations that his office is taking up to two months to process work permits. ''I guarantee that as long as we receive the correct documentation with the application, it will be issued within seven days,'' said Pitool Dumsakorn.

economist.com On January 9 Raif Badawi, a blogger, received the first of his 1000 lashes fin Saudi Arabia. Mr Badawi has also been sentenced to a decade in prison. Three days later a woman accused of murder was dragged through the streets of Mecca and beheaded with a sword. Though America disapproves of this sort of thing, it does not let it upset relations.

independent.co.uk A favorite theory to explain the sudden demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago has been debunked by an experiment suggesting that it would have been unlikely for a giant asteroid impact to cause a global firestorm.

huffingtonpost.com Kirk Gillock, a young American expatriate, is trying to save lives by protecting the heads of anyone riding on two wheels. Slowly but surely, he's making some progress. Last year, the 41-year-old former Texan drove his pickup truck on a month-long tour of the country to broadcast his message about motorcycle safety.



Try Phuketwan's Asean Today daily:
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/asean-today-aussies-bali-die-airline-xed-khmer-rouge-excesses-revealed-paris-hilton-21760/



reuters England World Cup captain Eoin Morgan has been victim of an attempted blackmail over a former relationship, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said. According to the ECB, an Australian man had demanded a five-figure sum to prevent a story about one-day skipper Morgan and a previous girlfriend appearing in national newspapers in Australia and Britain.

smh.com.au A moment of pure football magic sent Australia through to the semi-finals of the Asian Cup, with an unforgettable Tim Cahill bicycle kick helping the Socceroos defeat China 2-0 in Brisbane.



Until January 24 Local Food fair at Saphan Hin in Phuket City

January 30 US consular outreach, Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort