bbc.com The Italian coast guard says a merchant ship with at least 400 migrants on board and no crew is heading for the Italian coast. Almost 1000 migrants were rescued from another ship found abandoned without any crew earlier in the week.

smh.com.au A $35 trip home from the Sydney CBD to Coogee cost Jade Wilkes $213 with an Uber car service on New Year's Eve.

xinhua Road accidents killed 70 people in Thailand on Wednesday, the second day of the accident-prone New Year week, bringing the holiday road accident death toll to 128, official data showed. [Two deaths occurred on Phuket.]


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 military regime is urging all the armed forces to hurry up and get their dream lists in for the 2016 budget, with major increases in military spending.

theguardian.com Most cases of cancer are the result of sheer bad luck rather than unhealthy lifestyles, diet or even inherited genes, new research suggests.

afp More than 76,000 people were killed in Syria's conflict in 2014, including thousands of children, making it the deadliest year yet in the war, a monitoring group says.



scmp.com Analysts have claimed the pilot of the crashed AirAsia flight may have made an emergency water landing, only for the plane to be overcome by high seas.

smh.com.au New claims lend weight to the impression that the plane was subject to extraordinary forces from the weather. Leaked figures show the plane climbed at a virtually unprecedented rate of 6000 to 9000 feet per minute, then fell at an even more incredible rate: 11,000 feet per minute with bursts of up to 24,000 feet per minute.

straitstimes.com A pilot on an AirAsia flight tested positive for morphine in a test conducted after the plane touched down in Bali, Indonesia's Kompas website reported.



nationmultimedia.com Phuket Deputy Governors Somkiat Sangkhaosutthirak and Suthee Thongyaem led officials and members of the public to offer alms to 199 Buddhist monks to mark the new year. Phuket head monk Phrarajasirimuni blessed the people and urged them to observe the five precepts strictly while also being loving, kind and united towards one another.

scmp.com Chinese tourists made international headlines yet again after four threw hot water and noodles at a Thai flight attendant. Mainland tourists are still, unfortunately, maintaining their reputation for boorish behavior as more spread their wings and travel abroad.
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1671504/rude-awakening-chinese-tourists-have-means-not-manners

reuters Police have denied reports a stampede that killed at least 36 people during New Year's Eve celebrations in Shanghai was caused by people rushing to pick up fake money thrown from a building overlooking the city's famous waterfront.

scmp.com Shanghai police admitted that they underestimated just how many people would crowd into the city's historic riverside area where a New Year's Eve stampede killed at least 36 people.

independent.co.uk German Chancellor, Angela Merkel: ''Worldwide there are more refugees than we have seen since the Second World War. Many literally escaped death. It goes without saying that we help them and take in people who seek refuge with us.''

smh.com.au Charlotte Chou had just finished feeding her then one-year-old son Lincoln and put him in his cot when plain-clothed police officers showed up at their home in Guangzhou, a thriving metropolis in China's south. Told to report immediately to the local police station, Chou left her son with his nanny. It would be more than six years before she saw him again.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/cautionary-tales-on-the-risks-of-doing-business-in-china-from-freed-australian-charlotte-chou-20150101-12giye.html

afp Japan's estimated number of newborn babies last year fell to 1.001 million, the lowest figure on record, further contributing to the ageing and shrinking of the country's population, official data showed.

washingtonpost.com Spare a thought for one of the world's most prominent ''stateless'' communities. The Rohingya of western Burma number more than a million and can trace their existence in the country back generations. Yet they are not recognised as citizens by the Burmese state, which considers them Bengali Muslim interlopers from neighboring Bangladesh.

chinapost.com.tw The Rohingya people - Stateless. Marginalised. Persecuted. These are the words used to describe the plight of Myanmar's Muslim minority the Rohingya - a people whose very identity Myanmar's leaders and would-be leaders including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi decline to recognise.

travel.asiaone.com In Yahoo's 2014 Year in Review, its users in Singapore kept Maldives, Boracay and Langkawi high on its list of most searched destinations. Thailand - a popular vacation spot for Singaporeans - saw its famed beaches Krabi and Phuket appearing in the list at fifth and eighth spot respectively.

newscientist.com In recent decades, social isolation has been recognised as a major risk to our health and longevity. It's twice as bad for you as being obese and nearly as bad as smoking. The rising number of people who say they are affected, across a wide range of ages, is startling.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26739-loneliness-is-a-modern-epidemic-in-need-of-treatment.html#.VKTwQtKUfdk

aap Australian human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson has criticised the government for not taking a stronger stance with Egypt over the jailing of journalist Peter Greste.He also slammed Foreign Minister Julie Bishop for raising hopes that Mr Greste would be freed, following the review of his conviction by the Egyptian appeals court.

nationmultimedia.com The Thai Journalists Association has named 2015 the ''Year of Media Reform,'' calling for all parties to join in solving problems related to the news media.

bangkokpost.com Until 2014 to have a three-starred (the highest rank of the prestigious Michelin Guide) restaurant permanently stationed in Thailand seemed almost impossible. (Although there was Aziamendi, sister eatery of Spain's three Michelin-starred Azurmendi, which was quietly launched at upscale boutique hotel Iniala Beach House in Phuket at the end of 2013.)

news.com.au A couple who were high on drugs spent two days believing they were trapped inside a janitor's closet only to discover when the cops arrived that the closet had been open the whole time.



See Phuketwan's new Asean Today column
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/asean-today-top-stories-2014-storm-hampers-airasia-recovery-pervert-faces-extradition-21644/



independent.co.uk What a terrible start to the year it has been for Jose Mourinho, after his Chelsea team lost 5-3 at Tottenham. Incredibly, for only the second time in his 715-game managerial career, a Mourinho team conceded five goals.

theguardian.com Steven Gerrard has decided not to sign a contract extension with Liverpool and is set to announce he will be leaving his boyhood club at the end of this season.

skysports.com Leicester City staged a stunning second-half comeback to draw 2-2 with Liverpool at Anfield. The hosts went 2-0 up in the first half through two Steven Gerrard spot-kicks.

afp Frank Lampard demonstrated his worth to Premier League champions Manchester City with the winning goal in an extraordinary 3-2 home victory over Sunderland on New Year's Day. Manchester United came through a test of character to draw 1-1 at Stoke City.



Phuket International Boat Show returns to southern Thailand's beach destination from January 8 to 11.



January 6-11 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