rian.ru A bus with Russian tourists overturned about 6am near Pattaya, the Russian embassy in Bangkok said on Sunday, injuring as many as 20 of the 42 passengers. ''We were informed by a tourist company which organized the trip,'' said the head of the consular department of the Russian embassy in Thailand.


A daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media.

Associated Press The Obama administration is to warn US citizens to be vigilant in Europe in a ''travel alert''. Such a move could have negative implications for European tourism, business and diplomacy. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because a final decision has not been announced.

bloomberg Reports have focused on attacks similar to the 2008 ones by the Lashkar-e-Taiba guerilla group in Mumbai that left 166 people dead. In those attacks, militants armed with grenades and rifles stormed into the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel and the Oberoi Trident complex, singling out foreign nationals and taking hostages in a three-day siege.

Phuketwan Update Two Phuket sea gypsies were caught with 18 protected coral fish off Racha island by officials from the Phuket Department of Marine and Coastal Resources. The men, due to appear in court, said they had poached fish more than 10 times at the request of a seller from Bangkok's Chatuchak Market. In the past, officials had failed to catch the pair with fish.

nationmultimedia.com PM Abhisit Vejjajiva suggested that the emergency decree will be further extended for Bangkok and neighboring provinces at the next Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Sources at the Centre for Resolution of the Emergency Situation said the premier is worried that the security situation could worsen from October to December.

bangkokpost.com Child pornography is being openly sold on the footpaths of Bangkok's busiest road, outraging both tourists and residents. Some of the VCD covers, which graphically showed children in sex acts, advertised that the children were as young as seven years old. Several diplomats who live in the area expressed dismay when told of the open sales.



FORTY-FIVE people from the Malaysian state of Kedah, led by Dato Haji Ahmad Zaini Bin Japar, have paid a visit to Phuket. Kedah includes the holiday island of Langkawi. The Malaysian group was met by Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation President Paiboon Upatising. Both sides hope to learn and grown the relationship.

telegraph.co.uk The First World War will officially end today, 92 years after the guns fell silent, when Germany pays off the last chunk of reparations imposed on it by the Allies. The final payment of 59.5 million pounds writes off the crippling debt that was the price for one world war and laid the foundations for another.

cnn.com A crash involving two trains in central Indonesia Saturday killed 36 people and injured 26, officials said. The crash occurred when a train traveling from Semarang in Central Java to the capital of Jakarta was struck from behind by another train headed to Jakarta from Surabaya in East Java.

bbc.co.uk Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has said the US committed ''crimes against humanity'' in a study that infected hundreds of Guatemalans with gonorrhoea and syphilis more than 60 years ago. President Barack Obama has apologised for the medical tests, in which mentally ill patients and prisoners were infected without their consent.

boston.com In Tuskegee, scientists knew African-American sharecroppers had become infected with syphilis but withheld treatment, in the name of tracking the progression of the disease. In Guatemala, prisoners, soldiers, and inmates in mental asylums were willfully infected, sometimes by using prostitutes provided by the scientists, sometimes by pouring the germs onto skin abrasions the researchers caused.

Phuketwan Update Officers arrested a dishwasher from a large Karon resort after he tried to flee from police in Vichit, south of Phuket City. Chalermpon Phonpermpoonkul, 29, had two yah ba (methamphetamine) pills in a jeans pocket. He said he regulars paid 500 baht each for pills from a motorcycle taxi rider at the nearby Kwang Road junction.

irrawaddy.org Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya is working on a plan to repatriate Burmese refugees and intellectuals after the November 7 election, saying that the Thai government will assist in their return to ''half-democratic'' Burma.

Associated Press Singapore's government says Kwa Geok Choo, the wife of the country's first prime minister and the mother of its current leader, has died. Kwa, 89, suffered strokes in 2008 and had been bedridden and unable to speak since then.

smh.com.au David Beckham has been caught up in a divorce battle between a jewellery designer and her millionaire lawyer husband. In the divorce papers, the woman said her ''delusional'' husband tried to run Beckham off the road, wrongly believing they were having an affair.

news.com.au My tip for anyone travelling to Phuket to shop would be to leave Australia with an empty suitcase to fit your new clothes in and stay under the baggage limit for the flight home. It's sad that children as young as six, with their dads in the corner, are allowed to fight at the muay thai stadium. They earn about $25 a fight, which will pay for the weekly groceries.

eturbonews.com A world-wide fascination with the wonders of Thailand has fueled a dynamic tourist economy that continues to expand to every corner of this delightful, value-oriented nation. A new schedule just announced has increased daily flights from Bangkok to Phuket, Phnom Penh, Male and Yangon.



DATES for the 2011 Phuket International Blues Rock Festival have been announced: Phuket grooves on February 26-27 next year.

October 1-3 Asian Hospitality and Travel Show, Hafale, Phuket City
October 8 IBAP panel on Phuket's economy, Thai Naan restaurant, Central Festival corner, 7pm.
October 8-16 Vegetarian Festival, Phuket
October 12 Qatar begins daily flights to Phuket
November 2-7 Phuket womens' beach volleyball, Karon beach
November 5 Phuket Charity Pro Am Golf, Blue Canyon
November 19 AustCham at the new Westin Hotel at Koh Sireh from 3pm. E: harry@ladypie.com Tel: 081 2731740
November 28 Laguna Phuket triathlon
December 4-11 Phuket King's Cup Regatta
December 5 Laguna Ironman title
2011
January 6-9 PIMEX boat show, Royal Phuket Marina
February 9-13 The Bay Regatta - Phuket, Phang Nga, Krabi