usatoday.com The US military, along with Arab allies, launched the first airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria as the war ordered by President Obama against the militant organisation took on an urgent new phase.

nytimes.com Offering critical new detail about its first airstrikes against Sunni militant targets in Syria, the US military said that five Arab nations - Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates - ''participated in or supported'' the attack.


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



metro.co.uk A British backpacker is in hiding after naming the alleged killer of David Miller and Hannah Witheridge in Thailand. Sean McAnna, a friend of Mr Miller, claimed in a Facebook posting which has since been deleted, that the owner of a bar on the island of Koh Tao was responsible.

standard.co.uk Meanwhile, police in Thailand said they are investigating new evidence suggesting that the murders may have been due to ''sexual jealousy''.

bangkokpost.com Tests have shown the DNA samples police collected from 30 people did not match any of the suspects of the Koh Tao double murder case.

themalaymailonline.com The murder of two young British tourists on a Thai island will make many travellers think twice before travelling to the Southeast Asian nation on holiday, Thai police said: ''Given the enormous media interest in this case that is only natural.''



aap The family of an Australian journalist facing criminal defamation charges in Thailand has appealed for Prime Minister Tony Abbott's help in getting his passport back so he can return home to visit his ailing 91-year-old father. Alan Morison from Melbourne, editor of Phuketwan, and Thai reporter Chutima Sidasathan, have been charged under Thailand's tough Computer Crimes Act and face lengthy jail terms if found guilty.

ibtimes.co.uk Colonel Suppatee Boonkrong, acting head of Pattaya City Police, told the Bangkok Post he was aiming to totally eradicate street prostitution: ''I want to completely change the image of Pattaya from being sin city to a friendly town that everyone can enjoy.''

dvb.no ''The question is when, if ever, Thai officials are going to finally figure out that more anti-trafficking posters at the airport, and big seminars with public pronouncements of 'commitment,' are not convincing anyone that Thailand is serious about systematically addressing the trafficking problem,'' said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch.

wsj.com Tensions over Hong Kong's political future were laid bare on Monday as students walked out of classes to demand genuine electoral choice. Scores of the city's business leaders descended on Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and air their own views.

scmp.com An Islamic State spokesman has called on Muslims around the world to rise up and kill civilians in countries that belong to the US-led coalition against the militant group.

ft.com A French citizen has been kidnapped and threatened with death in Algeria, apparently by an armed group supporting Islamist militants in Iraq targeted by a French air strike last week.

afp Australian warplanes are being deployed to the Middle East to join the US-led campaign of air strikes on jihadist targets in northern Iraq, Defence Minister David Johnston said.

smh.com.au In her first major speech, made at the UN headquarters in New York, British actress Emma Watson launched the HeForShe campaign, to call on men to speak up for oppressed women everywhere.

nationmultimedia.com A campaign to take Bua Noi - a female gorilla held in the Pata Zoo - to a better home has gained fresh momentum as the chief of a key agency has now agreed to look into the case. The Pata Zoo is on the top two floors of the Pata department store in Bangkok. It houses more than 200 species of animals, reptiles, turtles, birds, monkeys, leopards, tigers, bears, and the lone gorilla, Bua Noi.

smh.com.au The Australian dollar has cracked through to US88c to its lowest level in nearly eight months.

reuters Thai full-service carrier Bangkok Airways PCL plans to sell a 24.8 percent stake in an initial public offering in October. Two people familiar with the matter said is aimed at raising $500 million.

afp An offer by French flag carrier Air France to freeze the expansion of its low-cost operation in a bid to end a strike by pilots was yesterday rejected by the main union, dashing hopes of a breakthrough.

abc.net.au The case of 'Baby Gammy' might serve as a cautionary tale of the complications of treating babies as commodities, but it has also forced authorities to confront a major problem. For human rights experts, and a judge familiar with this area of law, there has to be change from the top.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2014/09/22/4090232.htm

traveldailynews.asia The Tourism Authority of Thailand has leveraged Russia's top travel trade show, held in Moscow between September 16-19 in launching a strong effort to diversify the choice of Russian visitors' popular destinations beyond Pattaya, Phuket and Samui.

nbcnews.com Colorado officials have indicted nearly 20 people for running a drug ring that allegedly sold and distributed methamphetamine across Denver - including a woman accused of peddling meth out of a taco truck.

nbcnews.com Men who take just five healthy steps can reduce their odds of a heart attack by four-fifths, but just 1 percent of men do so on their own, according to new research.



reuters Burma (Myanmar) gave citizenship to 209 Muslims displaced by sectarian violence, after the first phase of a project aimed at determining the status of about a million Rohingya whose claims to nationality have been rejected in the past.

thanhniennews.com Vietnam will investigate whether 40 percent of its migrant workers suffer passport retention and debt bondage in Malaysia's electronics sector as suggested in a US-funded report, which described the situation as tantamount to ''modern slavery.''



bangkokpost.com The Thai football team hammered Indonesia 6-0 in its final Asian Games group match and will next meet China in the second round on Thursday.

afp Qatar will not host the World Cup in 2022, according to Theo Zwanziger, the German member on the executive committee of world football's governing body FIFA.



September 24-October 2 Vegetarian Festival, Phuket

October 23 Chulalongkorn Memorial Day

November 1-3 Patong Carnival

November 6 Loy Kratong

November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket

December 5 King's Birthday

December 10 Constitution Day

December 25 Christmas Day

December 26 10th Anniversary, 2004 Tsunami

December 31 New Year's Eve



February 13-15 Phuket Yacht Show