MOROCCO: Edouard Kunz knows timekeeping is important but the former Swiss watch precision mechanic admits that James Bond’s Oriental Desert Express in remote eastern Morocco never runs on schedule.
WAKEBOARDING: It takes pure dedication for any athlete to reach the top of their game, but luckily, this is something that two young Phuketians – Luke and Ryan Carrick – have in abundance. The young brothers were recently rewarded for all their hard work and training when they were called upon to represent Team GB (Great Britain) at the upcoming European wakeboarding championships.
A survey of Pacific corals has found many severely bleached, some near-dead, according to marine researchers who warned recently that global warming threatened the precious ecosystems very survival.
CHINA: It was a hot summer afternoon in Harbin and tourists strolled cobblestone streets with the Chinese city’s famous milk popsicles in hand. But indoors, it was perfect weather for skiing.
PHUKET: A Free Trade Zone (FTZ) expert has called for Phuket to become the “test bed” for the country to prove the economic viability of a “Free Zone” as part of the support for the Thai government to push ahead with the Kra Isthmus Canal, or now called the “Thai Canal”, which would cut a shipping lane through Southern Thailand from the Andaman Sea to the Gulf of Thailand.
PHUKET: The floods last week that wrought havoc on homes and displaced families across the northern half of the island – and now officially noted as the worst on record – seemed to take many people by surprise, but anyone who has lived on the island for at least couldn’t say they didn’t see it coming.
SURAT THANI: An American man wanted for child sex abuse in his home country has been arrested on Koh Samui.
NETHERLANDS: At 22, Dutch pole-jumper Sytse Bokma is getting to the top of his game – literally. But on a muggy summer’s afternoon in rural northern Netherlands, things just weren’t going his way.
BANGKOK / SAMUT PRAKAN: Police have arrested 11 foreign suspects during raids on six targets in Bangkok and Samut Prakan as part of a crackdown on transnational crime networks and people staying in the country illegally.