WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. -- A large-scale search for a Scarsdale woman missing in Panama ended Sunday when officials found her body on Bastimento Island, according to multiple sources. 
 
 The body of Catherine Johannet, who was last seen around 10 a.m.Thursday on Isla Colon was discovered on an island trail Sunday afternoon, officials said. 
 
 A cause of death has yet to be released. 
 
 Johannet, 23, who had been staying at Bocas del Toro, was reported missing by her friends, who also hung posters across the area in hopes of finding her, said Newsroom Panama. 
 
 The widespread search involved volunteers and agents of the National Police, the National Civil Protection Agency, and the Bocas del Toro Fire Department. 
 
 Johannet was reportedly heading to Red Frog Beach and had planned to return in the afternoon, said Newsroom Panama. 
 
 She had been staying in a hostel on Bocas del Toro, where her belongings were found. 
 
 Her family is reportedly on the way to Panama. 
 
 Check back to Daily Voice for updates. 
 
 Click here to read the Newsroom Panama story ||||| This article is over 4 years old 
 
 David Miller, 24, from Jersey, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Great Yarmouth, found dead on island of Koh Tao 
 
 Two young British tourists who met while backpacking have been murdered after partying on a beach at a popular island resort in southern Thailand. 
 
 David Miller, 24, from Jersey, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Great Yarmouth, were found half-naked with several deep wounds to their bodies near a beachside bungalow on the island of Koh Tao, Thai police said. 
 
 A nationwide manhunt was reportedly under way for a third British backpacker whom police suspect of carrying out the attack before fleeing the island. 
 
 A local police official told reporters that the pair had been murdered with a garden hoe found nearby on the island, which is popular for its serene beaches and diving sites. 
 
 Locals were reported to have blockaded Koh Tao's only pier to prevent the killer escaping. According to the Daily Telegraph, however, the local police chief, Colonel Songsak, said a British man who may have known Miller had left the island. 
 
 thailand WEB 1609 
 
 Police Colonel Prachum Ruangthong said the male victim had sustained extensive injuries to his head and the woman had injuries to her face. 
 
 Investigators were checking CCTV from local bars and restaurants, and appealing for witnesses. 
 
 Ruangthong said a bloodied garden hoe used in the "gruesome" attack and bloodstained clothes were found near the bodies. 
 
 Another local police chief said the pair were believed to have travelled separately to Koh Tao, a popular island for backpackers in Surat Thani province, and met while staying at the same budget hotel beside the beach. 
 
 CCTV showed they went to the same bar and left together at 1am on Monday, said Major General Kiattipong Khawsamang. Local media reports said there had been a beach party for about 50 people, mainly tourists, on Sunday night that continued into Monday morning. 
 
 Witheridge is believed to have been travelling with three other friends while Miller is thought to have arrived on the holiday resort island with two others. 
 
 Local police official Jakkrapan Kaewkhao said the two travellers had arrived in Thailand separately on 25 August. "Their bodies were found 30 metres from the bungalow," he said. 
 
 An employee at the seaside resort where the pair had been staying told AFP that the bodies were found behind large rocks on the beach. 
 
 "It was the first time this has happened on the island, I have never seen anything like this," the staff member added, requesting anonymity. 
 
 The Foreign Office said: "We are aware of the death of two British nationals on 15 September on the island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand. The embassy is urgently seeking information from the local authorities and stands ready to provide consular assistance." 
 
 The mountainous island of Koh Tao, which is described on tourism websites as "an island of adventure action sports" and a place of "peace and tranquility", is popular with tourists but draws fewer travellers than the neighbouring island of Koh Phangan with its well-known full moon parties. 
 
 The double murder came the day before the half moon party, a similar event that attracts tens of thousands of people each month. 
 
 Thailand's lucrative tourism industry has been battered in recent months after a prolonged political crisis ended in a coup that saw the army suspend the constitution and impose a curfew and strict martial law on the country. 
 
 Although the curfew was swiftly lifted from tourist hotspots, visitor numbers have not recovered. 
 
 Thailand's military leaders have promised to clean up the kingdom's tourist resorts after complaints of scams, assaults and police extortion. ||||| It’s been 12 years since Panama regained control of its canal, and the country’s economy is booming. Cranes stalk the skyline of the capital, Panama City, where high-rises sprout one after the next and immigrants arrive daily from around the world. Among those who have landed en masse in recent years are American expatriates and investors, who have banked on Panamanian real estate by building hotels and buying retirement homes. The passage of the United States-Panama free trade agreement in October is expected to accelerate this international exchange of people and dollars (the countries use the same currency). 
 
 Among the notable development projects is the Panama Canal itself, which is in the early stages of a multibillion-dollar expansion. The project will widen and deepen the existing canal and add two locks, doubling the canal’s cargo capacity. For those who want to see the waterway as it was originally designed, now is the time. The expansion is expected to be completed by 2014, the canal’s 100-year anniversary. 
 
 Other high-profile projects include the construction of three firsts: The Panamera, the first Waldorf Astoria hotel in Latin America (set to open in June 2012); the Trump Ocean Club, the region’s tallest building, which opened last summer; and Frank Gehry’s first Latin American design, the BioMuseo, a natural history museum scheduled to open in early 2013. Even Panama City’s famously dilapidated historic quarter, Casco Viejo, has been transformed. The neighborhood, a tangle of narrow streets, centuries-old houses and neo-colonial government buildings, was designated a Unesco World Heritage site in 1997 and is now a trendy arts district with galleries, coffeehouses, street musicians and some of the city’s most stylish restaurants and boutique hotels. 
 
 Across the isthmus, on Panama’s Caribbean coast, the Bocas del Toro archipelago has become a popular stop on the backpacker circuit, with snorkeling and zip lining by day and raucous night life after dark. FREDA MOON 
 
 2. Helsinki, Finland 
 
 Design. Design. Design. Aesthetics fuel a new cool. 
 
 Copenhagen’s culinary awakening and Stockholm’s trend-setting fashion may have ignited the world’s current infatuation with Nordic culture; now Helsinki is poised for the spotlight. The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design has designated it the World Design Capital for 2012. 
 
 Design has long been part of the city’s DNA, but in recent years the scene has been increasingly energized: the official Design District has ballooned to encompass 25 streets and nearly 200 design-minded businesses, which range from shops selling housewares and furniture to boutique hotels and clothing stores. Design has infiltrated the restaurant scene as well, notably the elegant Chez Dominique and the hot newcomer (and Michelin-starred) Olo. 
 
 On top of all that is the spectacular new $242 million Helsinki Music Center. Student ensembles from the Sibelius Academy — the sole university in Finland devoted exclusively to music — will perform in the striking glass-walled space, and both the Vienna Philharmonic and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestras will give concerts in 2012. INGRID K. WILLIAMS 
 
 3. Myanmar 
 
 Back on the tourist map after being off-limits for years. 
 
 With renowned cultural treasures, world-class boutique hotels and deserted beaches, Myanmar has long been high on intrepid travelers’ wish lists. For years, though, heeding calls by the pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and others, many stayed away in protest of Myanmar’s authoritarian regime. 
 
 Now, however, this is changing. 
 
 Since November 2010, when Myanmar’s rulers held nominally free elections and released Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi after 15 years of house arrest, the boycott has been lifted and Myanmar is set for an influx of visitors. 
 
 Because the country has been so isolated, the deeply Buddhist “Land of the Golden Pagoda” resonates with a strong sense of place, undiluted by mass tourism and warmed by genuine hospitality. Travelers will find atmospheric hotels and a network of well-maintained regional jets serving the main sites. (Keep in mind that visas are still required and that the economy remains largely cash-based.) 
 
 But locals are aware of the potential downside of tourism as well. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi has called for sustainable development and “trickle down” tourism where dollars will do the most good. 
 
 With these goals in mind, nestled along the banks of meandering Lake Inle in eastern Myanmar, the ViewPoint eco-lodge combines locally sourced materials with individually tailored activities supporting the local economy (like garden-to-table lunches at an island village house). 
 
 Similarly, in Ngapali Beach — a pristine swath of coastline on the Bay of Bengal — the Amara Ocean Resort ratchets up the om factor with a hand-built spa. The resort finances relief projects in the Irrawaddy River delta. CEIL MILLER-BOUCHET 
 
 4. London 
 
 The Olympics! The Queen! Charles Dickens turns 200! 
 
 Dotted with construction sites, London is preparing for the pomp and circumstance of the Olympic Games and the Diamond Jubilee celebration of the Queen’s 60th year on the throne. New stadiums, public spaces and shopping centers are emerging on the city’s eastern edge, and on the western edge a 137-room Waldorf Astoria has opened on a 400-acre estate near Heathrow Airport. 
 
 But it’s not all sport and royalty. On a street of chocolate-box Georgian houses in Bloomsbury, the Charles Dickens Museum is open, in time for the author’s 200th birthday. Across town, Warner Brothers Studio Tour will open the Harry Potter studios to those keen to re-live the films. The Rolling Stones, celebrating their 50th anniversary, might tour again, with a possible finale here. And Robert Redford will inaugurate a London outpost of the Sundance Film festival at the O2 Arena in April. 
 
 Amid the hubbub, flashes of eccentricity emerge. If the Waldorf doesn’t appeal, stay in an architect-designed boat, perched on the edge of a roof overlooking the Thames. Or visit the British outpost of Occupy London, which will be maintaining its tent city outside St. Paul’s cathedral. RAVI SOMAIYA 
 
 5. Oakland, Calif. 
 
 New restaurants and bars beckon amid the grit. 
 
 Tensions have cooled since violence erupted at the recent Occupy Oakland protests, but the city’s revitalized night-life scene has continued to smolder. 
 
 The historic Fox Theater reopened in 2009 and quickly cemented its status as one of the Bay Area’s top music venues, drawing acts like Wilco and the Decemberists. Meanwhile, the city’s ever more sophisticated restaurants are now being joined by upscale cocktail bars, turning once-gritty Oakland into an increasingly appealing place to be after dark. James Syhabout, the chef who earned Oakland its first (and only) Michelin star two years ago at Commis, followed up in May with the instant-hit Hawker Fare, a casual spot serving Asian street food. Big-name San Francisco chefs are now joining him. Daniel Patterson (of two-Michelin-star Coi) opened the restaurant Plum in late 2010 and an adjacent cocktail bar later, and another restaurant, called Haven, in the recently renovated Jack London Square last month. INGRID K. WILLIAMS 
 
 6. Tokyo 
 
 With some tourists slow to return, greater opportunities for those who do. 
 
 
 
 The thought of traveling to Tokyo will most likely make some people nervous. Though the city is about 180 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, the site of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl — and the State Department recommends travelers avoid only the area directly around the disaster site — Tokyo has suffered as well, a problem of perception as much as reality. 
 
 But from another vantage point, it’s a perfect time to visit. A decrease in tourism and business travel is making the city all the more accessible and welcoming. According to Laurent Vernhes, a founder and the chief executive of TabletHotels.com, a travel site with a curated list of distinctive lodging options, tourism hasn’t yet returned to normal levels. “Rates are still down about 10 percent on average compared to the same time last year,” Mr. Vernhes said. 
 
 When I visited the city in the fall, it was clear that it is still crackling with energy. But now it’s possible to get a previously unthinkable last-minute reservation at one of the city’s many world-class restaurants or a room in hotels usually booked solid. A Saturday night dinner at Kagurazaka Ishikawa, a pricey but discreet restaurant with three Michelin stars and an artful tasting menu? No problem. And lodging options for all budgets have gotten easier. Chances are you can find a room at the elegant Park Hyatt Tokyo, a luxurious high-rise, or at the Tokyo Ryokan, a family-run hotel with just three simple bedrooms that often are reserved well in advance. OLIVER STRAND 
 
 Note: An earlier version of the subheading with this entry has been changed because it was unintentionally insensitive in making a link between last year’s tragedy in Japan and the opportunity for tourism. 
 
 
 
 7. Tanzania 
 
 Coming into its own as an upscale safari destination. 
 
 For the last several years the number of tourists going to Tanzania has been edging up, according to East African travel specialists like Hippo Creek Safaris and Abercrombie & Kent. But it wasn’t until several violent attacks on visitors to neighboring Kenya that the numbers really took off, as Tanzania started to absorb skittish Kenya-bound safari seekers. 
 
 Not that Tanzania is coasting along solely on Kenya’s troubles; it’s always had Mount Kilimanjaro, after all. And now other attractions are being discovered, too — places like Gibb’s Farm, a small lodge from which guests can hike to the Ngorongoro Crater area, a prime destination for big game viewing. In addition, the opening of exclusive safari reserves like the Singita Grumeti and the upscale camps managed by Nomad Tanzania and Chem Chem are evidence that the country’s tourist infrastructure is becoming more sophisticated, perhaps even catching up to Kenya’s. GISELA WILLIAMS 
 
 8. Chilean Patagonia 
 
 Proof that adventure doesn’t have to mean roughing it. 
 
 With its mix of snowy peaks, pristine rain forest and network of virgin national parks, Chile is emerging as one of the world’s adventure hot spots and now has a spate of rugged luxury lodges in which adventure-seekers can stay. 
 
 Puma Lodge, a glass-and-wood design showcase about an hour and a half south of Santiago, features heli-skiing through miles of untouched powder, and outside of Patagonia’s Torres del Paine Park, the brand-new Tierra Patagonia offers activities like horseback riding over the steppes and boat outings on a glacial lake (while also offering creature comforts like a spa and a heated indoor pool). Meanwhile, the latest Singular property, which also opened in November outside the park, leads expeditions into the nearby glaciers. For custom trips, pioneers to the region like Cazenove & Loyd can help navigate the logistical challenges of criss-crossing Chile’s dramatic landscapes. ONDINE COHANE 
 
 9. Lhasa, Tibet 
 
 New luxury hotels bring respite — and controversy. 
 
 Tibet’s holy capital is in the throes of a luxury-hotel boom. In Lhasa, this is news: not only is operating an upscale hotel at nearly 12,000 feet above sea level no small feat, but real-estate developments here are, almost by default, also culturally loaded. 
 
 The majestic, 162-room St. Regis Lhasa Resort has been in full operation since May. In 2010, a charming Tibetan-owned villa called the Lingtsang reopened as a boutique hotel with opulent, colorful woodwork and courtyard verandas. And coming soon are the sprawling InterContinental Resort Lhasa Paradise and the 284-room Shangri-La, both scheduled to open in 2013. 
 
 On the upside, it’s the first time that travelers can get high-end amenities in a city where even basic hospitality has been a challenge. On the downside, the openings — like Lhasa’s booming population, new business districts and shopping malls — are seen by many Tibetans and interested outsiders as more cultural colonization and exploitation of a sacred land. KIMBERLY BRADLEY 
 
 10. Havana, Cuba 
 
 The Cuban capital is once again within Americans’ reach. 
 
 The only thing that lies between Americans and the sultry streets of Havana these days is the Florida Straits, since the Obama administration has widened the kind of travel allowed. A growing list of organizations have licenses to operate trips to Cuba, including National Geographic Expeditions, Austin-Lehman and the Center for Cuban Studies. There are also more flights from more American cities: Fort Lauderdale and Tampa recently joined New York, Miami and Los Angeles on the list, and Chicago will be added this year. 
 
 The “people-to-people” rules require Americans to interact with Cubans (sun-and-sand vacations are still prohibited) so tours involve meeting with art historians, organic farmers and others. Conveniently, new restaurants and bed-and-breakfasts, some in gorgeous colonial villas, have sprung up over the past year as the government has allowed more private enterprise. Havana is also gearing up for its 11th Biennial, from May 11 to June 11, which will draw more than 100 Cuban and international artists. VICTORIA BURNETT 
 
 11. Moscow 
 
 New cultural venues add a dash of the sacred and profane. ||||| HORRIFYING 
 
 Just days after he was discovered to be missing, 19-year-old cancer survivor Beau Solomon turned up dead on Monday. 
 
 ROME — Beau Solomon, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Wisconsin in Madison came to Rome to fulfill a dream to study abroad. Instead he was found floating in Rome’s muddy Tiber River, likely killed a few hours after he arrived in the eternal city. His death is being investigated as a murder after someone used his credit card to rack up more than $1,500 in charges in Milan. 
 
 
 
 Police have arrested 41-year-old Massimo Galioto on charges of aggravated homicide. Galioto, a homeless man, has not yet been charged with the theft of Solomon’s wallet and phone. Authorities tell The Daily Beast they believe a gang of thugs who prey on foreign tourists may have been involved in mugging the American, but Galioto is accused of throwing him in the river. Autopsy results that should indicate whether Solomon died from drowning or was dead before he was thrown into the Tiber River are expected this week. 
 
 Solomon’s brother Cole told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that his brother had a head wound and blood on his shirt. 
 
 Solomon arrived in Rome on Thursday, June 30, to attend a five-week course at Rome’s popular John Cabot Universtiy, the orientation of which was held July 1. When Solomon arrived, he and the others attending the course went to a popular bar in the lively Trastevere district of Rome near Piazza Trilussa, which is well-known for its nightlife. He was last seen around 1 a.m. Friday morning, and when he didn’t show up for orientation at the university the next morning, authorities at the school alerted the police and the American embassy, which, in turn alerted his family. 
 
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 On Monday, John Cabot University released a statement confirming Solomon’s death. “John Cabot University is deeply saddened to announce that the body of Beau Solomon, the missing American visiting student, has been found in the Tiber River,” the statement said. “We express our most heartfelt condolences to the Solomon family and to all those who loved Beau.” 
 
 Solomon’s Wisconsin university also issued a statement. “All of us at UW-Madison are greatly saddened by this loss. Beau was a bright and caring young man who lived the Wisconsin Idea through his work at Badger Boys State and his desire to travel and experience other cultures,” Chancellor Rebecca Blank said, according to the Journal article. “Our hearts go out to Beau’s family and friends at this difficult time.” 
 
 
 
 The American embassy could not be reached on the Fourth of July, and the friends who reached out to The Daily Beast when he was missing have asked for time to process the loss of their loved one before commenting. 
 
 In 2005, Solomon met his favorite football player Brett Favre thorough the Make A Wish Foundation, according to the Green Bay Packers website. He had survived a rare cancer as a child and had undergone extensive surgery and chemotherapy. He was part of the Make a Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to terminally ill children. His was to meet his favorite football star Brett Favre. 
 
 His friends and family at home used social networking and reached out to media, including The Daily Beast in Rome, to get the word out about the missing teen. In searching for the young man, police somehow failed to connect testimony from two Italians who reported seeing someone being “hurled off a bridge” about a mile upriver from where Solomon’s body was found. Police apparently did not send officers to investigate the scene when the report was made in the early hours of Friday morning. 
 
 Local police also apparently failed to make an immediate connection on Sunday night when they found the body of a young man with serious wounds to his head without any identification in a seedy section of Rome’s Tiber River, where it is common to find the remnants of stolen purses and wallets that float down the river and get stuck in the overgrown trees that line the banks. 
 
 Solomon’s credit card was used in Milan over the weekend, and police were working under the assumption that the young man had perhaps made the charges. Only when the American embassy pressured police to find the missing student did they put all the pieces together. 
 
 Investigating magistrate Marcello Monteleone now has to connect the dots of the mysterious death together, starting with just who Solomon left the bar with on Thursday night, and just who made the charges on the dead man’s credit card 24 hours later. He has opened a homicide investigation and an autopsy will be conducted on Tuesday to determine Solomon’s exact cause of death and to see if he had any strange substances in his body. 
 
 In 2014, a 21-year-old American student John Durkin, was found dead in a train tunnel in Rome, his legs severed from a passing train after leaving a bar under similar circumstances. His wallet and phone had also gone missing, and the circumstances surrounding his death are still unclear. 
 
 In January, a 35-year-old American artist named Ashley Olsen was found strangled in her apartment in Florence after partying at a local nightclub. Cheik Diaw, the man she went home with from the nightclub, has been charged with her murder and stealing her cellphone from her apartment before he left. 
 
 Young Americans are frequently criticized for their bad behavior when they come abroad to study, free from the chains of drinking ages and parental controls. Though these deaths rarely serve as a warning to the hoards that arrive each year that there are predators looking for just the type of vulnerable novice drinker a fresh American abroad often is.
– "I found paradise and it's called Isla Ina," wrote Catherine Johannet on Jan. 28 on Instagram of an island off Panama's coast. It would be the 23-year-old's final post. The 2015 Columbia University grad was found dead Sunday afternoon on the country's Bastimentos Island. Now the New York Daily News cites Panama's La Prensa in reporting an initial autopsy suggests she was strangled. The Edgemont, New York, native was last seen Thursday morning. The Briarcliff Daily Voice reports she had planned to leave Colon Island, where she was staying, to go to Red Frog Beach on Bastimentos for the day; authorities were alerted when she didn't return to her hostel, and her body was found by a police officer days later in a wooded area near Bastimentos' shore. The Daily News calls Johannet a "globetrotting Scarsdale woman," and her brother Paul elaborates on that in a Facebook post. "She was a world traveler—by the age of 23, she had already visited 6 continents and innumerable countries, including a recent 18-month trip to Vietnam where she taught English Literature to local students." Panamanian investigators, in concert with the FBI, on Tuesday conducted raids on the area as part of their investigation, though no details have been given regarding them or whether there are any suspects. Adds brother Paul, "She was cheerful, adventurous, thoughtful and warm—all qualities I strive towards. I'll always look up to my youngest sister." (A teen confessed on Monday to killing an American tourist in London.)