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

scmp.com Eighteen of the ''49ers,'' the pilots sacked en masse by Cathay Pacific Airways during an industrial dispute in 2001, have won compensation and damages expected to total more than HK$61 million for unfair dismissal and defamation. A Hong Kong judge handed the pilots a victory in their long-running legal battle, with individual awards of HK$3.3 million for defamation together with a month's pay and HK$150,000 for the sackings. The judge added that they had been sacked primarily because of union activities.

examiner.com Things look set to heat up in Thailand again, with a large anti-Thaksin demonstration in Bangkok just being announced by the People's Alliance for Democracy. According to the Bangkok Post, the PAD demonstration will be held on Sunday November 15 starting at 4pm at Sanam Luang. Tourists in Bangkok would be well advised to stay away. This latest situation is going to further damage Thailand's already damaged tourist industry, with some estimates showing tourism is down 60 percent from last year.

The Nation Thailand's Ambassador to Britain, Kitti Wasinondh, clarified Thaksin Shinawatra's status in a letter to The Times online: ''Dr Shinawatra is neither Thailand's current opposition leader nor a leader in exile, but a person who is choosing to stay abroad to avoid a two-year jail term resulting from a finalised corruption case.''

hotelsmag.com Thailand's Dusit International, one of Asia's leading international hotel chains, reaches another major milestone with the announcement of its first Dusit property in China - Dusit Thani Sanya. Opening in December 2010, Dusit Thani Sanya is located on Hainan Island, which is often referred to as the ''Hawaii of the East.'' The resort is on the most easterly point of the island with spectacular views of the ocean and the coastline.

etaiwannews.com Anti-smoking activists in the Thai capital carried out a spirited protest as the tobacco industry opened a major three-day meeting in Bangkok on how to market its wares. About 500 people, mostly students, wearing T-shirts saying ''Tobacco kills,'' marched outside a meeting hall where more than 3000 international tobacco industry players are expected to attend the Tabinfo Asia 2009 conference and exhibition.

aljazeera.net China, India and other Asian powers should keep up pressure on Burma to ensure elections next year are ''free, fair and credible,'' Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, has said. Speaking in Singapore ahead of a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders, Clinton said Asian nations should reach out to Burma. She said China had an important role to play as Burma's biggest ally and trading partner.

cnn.com Suspected Somali pirates hijacked a Greek-owned bulk carrier with 22 crew members, according to the European Union's Naval Force for Somalia. MV Filitsa was seized in the early morning about 740 kilometers northeast of the Seychelles as it headed toward Durban, South Africa.

smh.com.au Kathy Lette writes: Twenty years ago it took open-heart surgery to discover what went on inside an Englishman. Not any more. People who once sported stiff-upper-lip facial expressions by taxidermy now cry buckets over X Factor contestants. And then there's the newly won reputation as the beer-swilling barbarians of Europe.

ntnews.com.au Australia is seen as a ''soft target'' for people smugglers, a Darwin judge said in sentencing a British man to nine months in prison for his part in a people-smuggling racket. Robert Derek Davies, 63, pleaded guilty to taking part in illegally bringing a man to Australia. The court heard he handed a boarding pass in his name for a flight to Australia to a Sri Lankan in Singapore in June. Davies lives in Thailand with his wife, and has to leave periodically to renew his visa.

cnn.com A passion for ivory ornaments is what helped decimate African and Asian elephant populations until a 1989 ban on ivory trade. But today, China's economic rise, and along with it a seemingly insatiable appetite for status symbols by its nouveau riche, has spurred demand for African ivory. ''I can get you as much as you like,'' says one Guangzhou dealer.

abc.net.au A new deal has been offered to the Sri Lankans who are refusing to leave the Australian customs ship, the Oceanic Viking in Indonesia. Those people already recognised as refugees by the UN have been promised resettlement in Australia within as little as a month. Others on board, not yet deemed to be refugees by the UNHCR, have been promised resettlement within 12 weeks of disembarking, if their claims are proven.

smh.com.au Last week in a middle-class suburb in the heart of Colombo, a mentally ill Tamil boy was beaten to death in the sea by a group of men with sticks. Hundreds of people watched. The boy had been throwing stones at a police station. A citizen journalism website reported: '''If cold-blooded murder can take place in the heart of Colombo in broad daylight, in front of a crowd, we can only wonder what happened on bloody battlefields in the Vanni, with no one left to tell the tale.''

pattayadailynews.com A wanted Bahraini national has been arrested hiding in a Pattaya Hotel on the charge of prostitution trafficking. The man has allegedly been trafficking Thai women from Isarn provinces to Bahrain under false pretences, eventually forcing them to prostitute themselves against their will. Mohamed Ebrahim Yasuf Naser Isa, 27, was arrested in room 404 of the Marine Plaza Hotel, South Pattaya.

ciobinterninternational.org Despite the global slump and high vacancy rates, the pipeline is bulging for new-build hotels in Asia as firms bet on a huge demand potential. In October alone two major new hotels opened in Hong Kong: a 381-room Hyatt Regency on top of a shopping mall in Kowloon and a 117-room ''Upper House'' by the Hong Kong group, Swire. A 300-room Ritz-Carlton is among the hotels due to open there next year. Many such projects got under way before the economic slowdown but hotel companies big and small are still pressing ahead with major expansion plans in Asia.

straitstimes.com Singapore is gaining a pair of black and white furry envoys from China to mark the milestone of 20 years of diplomatic relations. Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao announced that a pair of giant pandas will be delivered to Singapore, as he expressed confidence that Singapore-Sino relations will reach ''a new high''. The endangered creatures, which China rarely sends overseas, will arrive in 2011

cnn.com US President Barack Obama paid tribute on November 11 to those who have lost their lives in wars, as well as to the men and women who currently serve. In the US, the sacrifices of the military in the raging war in Afghanistan and the winding-down war in Iraq stand front and center in the nation's consciousness.

e-pao.net Manipur police on India's eastern border forced three Swiss nationals to cancelled a trip by car to Thailand via Burma as they had not obtained a Protection Area Permit from the authority before entering Manipur. Fabian Kung, Ruedi Wannei and Maicel Haushen possessed valid visa and other travelling documents but they were not aware of PAP. They will return the way they came.