theage.com.au A passenger on a Qantas flight forced to turn back to Bangkok airport with engine problems says he saw ''pulses of flames'' and heard repeated bangs.

bloomberg Thailand's weather service blamed obsolete equipment for failing to predict the severity of rains that killed 307 people, saying authorities ignored upgrade requests that could have mitigated the impact of flooding.

Radio New Zealand Forensic experts fear a missing German yachtsman was ''hacked to pieces and burned'' by cannibals while visiting a remote island in French Polynesia on the trip of a lifetime. Ash remains, believed to be those of 40-year-old Stefan Ramin, have been found in Nuku Hiva, the largest of the Marquesas Islands.


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

Phuket Update FC Phuket returned to the winners' trail as Sarat ''Tang'' Au-Yen came back from duty with the national side to score a welcome goal after 13 minutes against Samutprakarn at Surakul Stadium in Phuket City. The win before a crowd of about 2000 kept alive Phuket's hopes of promotion from Divsion One as the season winds down.

avherald.com A Qantas Boeing 747-400, registration VH-OJS performing flight QF-2 from Bangkok to Sydney, with 356 passengers, was climbing out of Bangkok about 10 minutes into the flight when a loud bang was emitted by an engine followed by vibrations. The crew shut the engine down and returned to Bangkok for a safe landing about 75 minutes later.

smh.com.au Qantas is sending more aircraft maintenance offshore, and has lost a contract to service another airline's jets as the fallout from industrial wrangles are felt internationally. Chief executive Alan Joyce criticised unions representing its pilots, maintenance engineers and ground handlers for holding the company to ransom.

dailymail.co.uk Passengers begged to be allowed off an Air India flight left stranded on a plane for nine hours at London's Gatwick Airport after their flight was diverted because of heavy fog.

smh.com.au Protests against corporate greed, government incompetence and growing inequality have gone global, with demonstrations in 950 cities across more than 80 countries intensifying pressure on world leaders to produce a decisive plan to rescue the euro zone.

bangkokpost.com Bangkok is safe, with the much-feared mass of water runoff from the North having moved past the capital, flood prevention agencies say.

bangkokpost.com Employers' representatives sitting on the Central Wage Committee will ask the board to delay for six months its consideration of a proposal to increase the daily minimum wage to 300 baht, reasoning that many industrial estates have been hit by floods, affecting more than 10,000 factories and hundreds of thousand of workers.

afp Ayutthaya has discovered a new menace lurking in the floodwaters - crocodiles. Around 100 reptiles are thought to be on the loose after escaping from farms and authorities have issued a 1000 baht ($33) bounty for each crocodile caught alive, said Public Health Minister Vitthaya Buranasiri.

bangkokpost.com Decades of mismanagement and short-sightedness cannot be blamed on any one government. It requires a collective effort to achieve this level of incompetence.



aap IndyCar champion Englishman Dan Wheldon accepted a lucrative offer of $US5 million to compete in the race that was to claim his life in a fiery 15-car pile-up.

smh.com.au World Cup Rugby semi-final: Time and again the ball landed on black, black, black, always black - and the All Blacks back line exploded into action each time.New Zealand 20, Australia 6.



October 28-30 Save Nature@ Phuket seminars and clean-up for divers, Phuket Marine Biological Centre

November 1-6 Women's Beach Volleyball Series at Karon on Phuket

November 19 The Khao Lak Community Appeal and the Foundation for Education and Development are holding the second Khao Lak Charity Golf Tournament at Tab Lamu Navy Golf Course. Last year the two charities raised 420,000 baht for their causes, with a great turnout. Details: 081 5441837.

November 26-27 9th Phuket International Soccer 7s

November 27 Laguna Phuket Triathlon

December2-5 Phuket Musiq Festival, Saphan Hin, Phuket City, nightly

December 3-4 6th Andaman International Soccer 7s

December 3-10 King's Cup Regatta, Kata beach

December 4 Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship, Laguna



Late February Phuket Blues Festival, Laguna Phuket

March 18-28 National Youth Games, Phuket

March 29-April 1 Phuket International Boat Show, Royal Phuket Marina



November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket