Updating All Day, Every Day
bbc.com Islamic State (IS) militants claim that a US female hostage has been killed in a Jordanian air strike in Syria. IS named the woman as aid worker Kayla Jean Mueller in statements online.
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
reuters China and Thailand agreed to boost military ties over the next five years, from increasing intelligence sharing to fighting transnational crime, as the ruling junta seeks to counterbalance the country's alliance with Washington.
afp The United States will not fully reactivate its military alliance with Thailand as long as the junta-controlled country refuses to restore democracy, a senior State Department official warned.
Human Trafficking in Thailand
thephuketnews.com The Royal Thai Navy in Phuket has announced that it will take over leading five other local government departments in cracking down on illegal activities both onshore and along the shore, especially trafficking of foreigners arriving by boat.
newstatesman.com Don't feel too guilty if you don't know much about the Rohingya humanitarian crisis; coverage in the mainstream western media has been gradually tailing off since 2012. What you should be made aware of, though, is the fact that the Rohingya were previously recognised as the most persecuted people in the world. Just let that sink in. It has actually been possible to identify one ethnic group as the world's most persecuted people.
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/02/rohingya-crisis-burma-has-become-protracted-squalid-stateless-status-quo
voanews.com Myanmar, also known as Burma, has halted a national pilot project to verify the citizenship status of Muslim minorities in western Rakhine State.
tulane.edu The attorney general of Thailand, Trakul Winitnaiyapak, a Tulane Law School graduate, is set to discuss law enforcement efforts to combat human trafficking in his country during a public lecture on Tuesday on the Tulane University uptown campus.
Phuket World of People
Phuket Update Local council officials confiscated 57 pieces of beach furniture laid out by a vendor on Surin Beach. Phuketwan expects council officers to act at more beaches around Phuket.
smh.com.au Australian journalist Alan Morison says he is returning to Phuket to face defamation charges and a possible seven-year jail sentence because he is prepared to fight for freedom of the media in the country he has made his home.
http://www.theage.com.au/world/journalist-alan-morison-to-return-to-thailand-despite-defamation-jail-sentence-threat-20150206-137vpk.html
abc.net.au ''Thailand is my home and has been for 12 years, and I have faith in people there to make good decisions and to be able to determine right from wrong,'' Morison said.
the-newshub.com A local Melbourne Thai suggested, through an intermediary source, that if Mr Morison was lucky enough to be in Australia with his passport then he would be wise to stay put rather than return to Thailand and face a tilted judicial system that might well rule again him with a hefty jail sentence.
andrew-drummond.com Gary Glitter awaits sentencing in Britain which may see himself in jail for the rest of his life. By strange coincidence I am kicking my heels with my children in Vung Tao, Vietnam, where some 10 years ago I caught up with the real Paul Gadd - and set about a media frenzy.
nationmultimedia.com As tourism recovers, an airline based in the Maldives and Japan's Peach Airlines planned to begin operating from Don Muang this month. They would join 14 other airlines already using Bangkok's second international airport.
dailymail.com The pilot of the doomed TransAsia was still holding the joystick in the plane's cockpit when his body was found, it has been reported. Liao Chien-tsung, 42, has been hailed as a hero for his actions in the desperate last moments before the crash that killed 35 people.
fiercebiotech.com India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are at the bottom in terms of protections for intellectual property, and much of the rest of Asia is ranked near them in an assessment by a US Chamber of Commerce unit.
afp East Timor resistance hero Xanana Gusmao has submitted his resignation as prime minister, the government said, after more than a decade leading the half-island nation during the fraught early years of its independence.
bangkokpost.com Ayutthaya missed out on its dream of hosting the 2020 World Expo, but the ancient capital is moving on as it was recently picked by the Tourism and Sports Ministry as a tourism development role model for other provinces in the central basin.
independent.co.uk You'd expect red wine to make remembering harder not easier, but in fact it helps prevent age related memory decline, according to new research.
Around the Asean Region
Kyodo News Burma's government is growing increasingly uneasy about nationwide student rallies against a new education law that protesters say limits university autonomy. Authorities released a statement calling the escalating protests ''unlawful,'' saying they were being manipulated by ill-intended people and political groups to create unrest.
Try Phuketwan's Asean Today daily:
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/asean-today-brunei-boycott-grows-burma-persecutes-minority-tycoon-rapes-forests-laos-bids-russians-vietnam-censors-21832/
Coming Events on Phuket 2015
THE SOI DOG Foundation will be holding its fourth mobile event in Phuket on February 21 to offer puppies and kittens for adoption. The event will be held at Macro in Thalang from 11am to 3pm. The kittens and puppets have all been vaccinated and sterilised.
February 26-28 Phuket Old Town festival
March 1-15 Heroines festival
March 4-8 Bay Regatta
April 11-13 Phuket Bike Week
April 17-19 Songkran Festival
May 4 Additional public holiday scheduled
