news.com.au Thailand's new military government has moved into one of Australia's favorite holiday destinations, Phuket, and swept the island's beaches clean of deckchairs, umbrellas, masseurs and hawkers.
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/thailands-military-crackdown-rids-phukets-beaches-of-deckchairs-umbrellas-masseurs-and-hawkers/story-e6frfq80-1227101489823

voanews.com The US is scaling back a major annual defense exercise in Thailand, where Washington has criticised a coup. A spokesperson for the US Embassy said Cobra Gold 2015 in February will be ''refocused and scaled down.''

Thailand Update A 24-year-old British woman has died after being given anaesthetic in preparation for cosmetic surgery to her buttocks at a clinic in Bangkok. She had been to SP Cosmetic Surgery for previous treatment. Phuketwan is not publishing her name until relatives have been notified.

AP An emergency room doctor who recently returned to New York after treating Ebola patients in West Africa has tested positive for the virus, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. It's the first case in NY and the fourth in the US.


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



bangkokpost.com Airports of Thailand is predicting sunnier days for Thailand's tourism industry, with an 11 percent jump in inbound air passengers this high season.

xinhua A business sector in southern Thailand has urged the military-led government to immediately lift martial law which has allegedly caused an unfavorable climate over the tourist industry. Major tourist spots in southern Thailand include Phuket island resort and Krabi and Pang Nga provinces on the shore of Andaman Sea, Samui island in the Gulf of Thailand and Hat Yai on the Gulf shore.

ft.com Thailand's economic tsar has a vision of a country at the heart of southeast Asian trade, digital business and vast public-private sector infrastructure projects. ''They give me one year, I take one year,'' Pridiyathorn Devakula reflects in an interview, as he ponders his ambitious program. ''What do I say? I have to deliver.''



nationmultimedia.com Thailand should learn a lesson from its failed bid to join the UN Human Rights Council, Nirand Pitakwatachara, a member of the National Human Rights Commission, said: ''We must admit that we're in a post-coup situation and martial law is still with us.''

bernama Thailand will maintain its constructive role in the United Nations although it was not elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council seat, Thai News Agency reported Sek Wannamethee, spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as saying.



theguardian.com The international response to the Ebola epidemic in west Africa is too slow and providing too few beds for the sick to stop the soaring number of cases and deaths, scientists say: ''Our predictions highlight the rapidly closing window of opportunity for controlling the outbreak.''



nnt Diplomats from eight European countries met with representatives of Thai media to discuss the presentation of personal details of crime victims and inappropriate images by the media. The Italian, French, British, Danish, German, Spain, Czech and Portuguese ambassadors to Thailand submitted a letter addressed to television and print organisations.

mizzima.com The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand met with Thai police and the two Myanmar murder suspects on October 20, and has already submitted a report to the Thai government, according to a Myanmar embassy official.



news.com.au An Australian man holidaying on Phuket has undergone emergency surgery after being attacked by a tiger at a theme park in front of horrified tourists. ''We did everything as the park people advised,'' Paul Goudie, 49, told Phuketwan.com. ''I am not sure why it bit me.''

aap Thai authorities say Mr Goudie, who has two steel pins in an ankle from a previous injury, and was sitting down, may have moved awkwardly as park handlers assisted him back to his feet, with the unusual movement triggering an attack. The tiger was tasered by park staff, forcing it to retreat.

nationmultimedial.com The Spice Spicy Girls go-go bar in Pattaya has been closed for 60 days, after an early-morning incident in which a Kuwaiti army officer was assaulted by a bouncer.

cnn.com China says it will launch an experimental spacecraft between Friday and Sunday that will go around the moon and back to earth, in a first for the country's ambitious space program.

smh.com.au News Corp co-chairman Lachlan Murdoch has invoked his grandfather's reporting of Gallipoli to lash the Australian government's new national security laws that could jail journalists for up to 10 years. Mr Murdoch said Australia's press freedom was under threat and had already fallen dramatically by world standards.

brakken.com After nearly a decade hiatus, Thailand is getting back on the horse this week and offering new licenses for oil and gas exploration. Due to declines in petroleum supplies from the fields in the Gulf of Thailand, the country is now offering licenses after seven years. The Bangkok Post reported that existing reserves in the gulf may last for only seven years.

arabnews.com An influential Washington think tank is criticizing Burma's government for presiding over a ''humanitarian catastrophe'' in western Rakhine state and doing little to track down perpetrators of Buddhist-on-Muslim violence around the country. Those criticisms come in a very mixed assessment by the Center for Strategic and International Studies of the situation in Burma (Myanmar).

ft.com Tesco said its chairman Sir Richard Broadbent would step down, as it confirmed that its first half pre-tax profit had been overstated by 263m pounds because of the way it had accounted for income from suppliers.

traveldailynews.asia Khiri Travel Thailand has won the 16th Annual NTCC (Netherlands-Thai Chamber of Commerce) Business Award for 'Best Tourism Company.' The award was announced at the 2014 NTCC Business Awards presentation dinner at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel, Bangkok.



telegraph.co.uk Authorities advise Indonesia to look out for debris from Malaysia Airlines flight 370 after analysis of currents showed wreckage is likely to drift west from the search zone.

bloomberg If anything, next-door Thailand seems even more paralysed by political divisions. But Malaysia's failings are especially frustrating because they are so unnecessary.

aap Two Australians have agreed to pay a fine for flying into Indonesian airspace in a small plane without permits, but will not be free to leave the country immediately.



afp Maria Sharapova's hopes of ending a year as world number one for the first time in her career faded dramatically when she crashed in straight sets to Petra Kvitova at the WTA Finals.



November 1-3 Patong Carnival

November 6 Loy Kratong

November 14-23 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket

November 29-December 6 Phuket King's Cup Regatta

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