theguardian.com The 69-year-old ferry captain who abandoned hundreds of schoolchildren as the Sewol capsized and sank off the coast of South Korea in April has been sentenced to 36 years in prison.

bbc.com UK police are to return from Thailand after reviewing an investigation into the murders of two British tourists, Scotland Yard has said. The bodies of David Miller, 24, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, were discovered on a beach in Koh Tao on September 15.

reuters Thailand's second largest property developer Pruksa Real Estate PCL said it expects nationwide residential property sales to fall 10 percent this year from a year ago as months of domestic political unrest curbed demand.

afp CNN said it was suspending broadcasting in Russia ''in light of recent changes in Russian media legislation,'' which aim to tighten control on independent news media.


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



nationmultimedia.com Officials in Ranong have trained some 400 villagers to watch out for illegal Rohingya boat people and told them to alert the authorities if they see anyone from the stateless ethnic group. The move is part of a project called ''Andaman Guard''. It aims to convince migrants travelling along the route from Myanmar to Thailand not to go ashore - by providing them food, medicine and fuel so they can continue to a third country.

bangkokpost.com An internal memo at a state hospital in Bangkok asking staff to take birth control pills has created a clamor after it went viral on Sunday. On Monday, Udom Chaovarin, director of Rajavithi Hospital, admitted the memo came from the pharmacy department of his facility. He said he had scrapped the memo and issued a warning on the person putting it out.

nnt Heavy downpours continue in several southern provinces while authorities in Nakhon Si Thammarat will declare the province a disaster zone after floodwater flowed into the city suburbs.



nationmultimedia.com Rohingya from Burma (Myanmar) are experiencing hard time, as Thailand is pushing some boat people back out to sea while Myanmar has rejected a request from Bangladesh to immediately begin accepting back Muslim refugees living in camps across the border.



abc.net.au Authorities in Thailand have been monitoring almost 3000 people for the deadly Ebola virus since June. With two direct flights from Africa landing in Thailand at least twice a day, keeping the disease out of the country is no easy task.



Phuket Update A man arrested for illegally working as a Russian-speaking tour guide on Phuket has been charged with attempting to bribe Tourist Police. Dmitrii Pindiurin, 27, from the Kyrgyz Republic, was nabbed at the Karon View Point and offered to pay the arresting officers 40,000 baht, they said.

Phuket Update Plans for a large scale music festival on Kata or any other Phuket beach that proved suitable have been withdrawn following a lack of interest by island officials, according to reports from the entrepreneurs who proposed the idea.

wsj.com Foreign businesses in Thailand are raising the alarm over new proposals to prevent overseas control of joint venture firms operating in Southeast Asia's second-largest economy, creating a fresh policy headache for the country's military leaders.

fresnobee.com The situation has led to elephants now being used in the tourist industry in Thailand, and it's not all pretty, although a lot prettier than the alternatives. The good news: some resorts and tour operators do a much better job than others at respecting and caring for these majestic creatures.

abcnews.go.com A private jet carrying a prominent Bahamian pastor and eight others en route to a religious conference struck a shipyard crane and crashed into a recycling center about four miles from the airport, a top Bahamian official said.

bangkokpost.com A woman who was raped on a Sungai Kolok-Bangkok sleeper train in 2001 agreed to compensation of 5.2 million baht from the State Railway of Thailand following an arbitration mediated by the Supreme Court, Bangkok South Civil Court secretary Decha Ubonpong revealed.

news.com.au A woman is lucky to be alive after she was struck in the head by a propeller blade that came crashing through her window during a domestic flight in Canada. The aircraft made an emergency landing.

scmp.com US President Barack Obama has announced a deal to extend visas for Chinese visitors to the United States for up to a decade, insisting he wants China ''to do well'' despite simmering tensions between the world's two largest economies.

theguardian.com Regular cannabis use shrinks the brain but increases the complexity of its wiring, a study has found. To some extent the loss of brain volume is balanced by larger numbers of connections between neurons, scientists discovered.



nytimes.com A rare and sometimes lethal form of malaria usually found only in monkeys is becoming so common in Malaysia that it accounts for most malaria hospitalisations there, scientists have found.

wsj.com The message Indonesian president Joko Widodo sent during his first international summit Monday morning was crystal clear: Now is the time to invest in Indonesia. The way he presented it, however, received mixed reactions, with some observers praising his address, delivered in English, and others saying it felt amateurish and focused too much on domestic concerns.

smh.com.au Tourism Australia will work with Singapore Airlines to lure more tourists from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, the United Kingdom, Germany and China as part of a new $12 million, three-year marketing deal.



insidethegames.biz A Mongolian delegation that will compete in eight sports is preparing to depart for Phuket for the Asian Beach Games, which are due to open on Friday (November 14). Despite being a landlocked country, the central Asian nation has a strong heritage in beach sport, having participated in all three previous editions of the Asian Beach Games, winning their only gold, in beach wrestling, at the first event in Bali in 2008.

news.sky.com Much-loved Australian cricket commentator and former captain Richie Benaud has revealed he has skin cancer. The 84-year-old said he has received radiation treatment, and believes years of playing cricket without wearing a hat or cap has taken its toll.



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