UPDATING All Day, Every Day
bbc.com A UN employee infected with Ebola has died in Germany, reports say. The man was being treated in a Leipzig hospital, Der Spiegel reports.
au.ibtimes.com Maria Sharapova stopped over in Phuket before flying to Singapore for the BNP Paribas Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Finals.
bloomberg Hong Kong police used chain saws to clear more barricades erected by pro-democracy demonstrators in the city's business district, after Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying signaled he's losing patience with protesters.
mcot Buakaw Banchamek, champion muay thai kickboxer, posted a Facebook message apologising to fans after he walked out of a fight against Enriko Kehl in Pattaya when judges ruled in favor of the German.
PhuketWATCH Daily Media Wrap
PHUKET: The daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media. Beware of inconsistent imitations.
Today's Top News Items
nationmultimedia.com The tourism sector is reiterating its call for Thailand to lift martial law in the face of the continued drop in tourist arrivals. As of Tuesday some 50 countries had issued travel advisories. [Phuketwan estimates a downturn of 15 percent this high season.]
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Martial-law-killing-arrivals-30245420.html
reuters Thai police found scores of boat people hiding on a remote island. All but one of the 79 suspected human-trafficking victims were from Bangladesh, according to local officials. The discovery brings to more than 130 the number of people found since Saturday in the province of Phang Nga, north of Phuket. ''We are finding more and more cases like this,'' said Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project. ''A huge chain of people is involved.''
arabnews.com The high proportion of Bangladeshis cropping up on smuggling routes once plied mainly by Rohingya is consistent with what a leading Rohingya advocacy group says is an alarming rise in ''forced departures'' from Bangladesh.
nationmultimedia.com Authorities are stepping up measures to prevent the illegal inflow of Rohingya from neighboring Burma (Myanmar). Illegal entries by members of this ethnic group usually soar between November and April every year. [The newest arrivals have mostly been kidnapped. They are not willing travellers and clearly human trafficking victims, a sign that Thailand's people trade industry is growing.]
Phuket Update Officials are due to meet today to discuss ways of limiting Phuket's elephant population. As reported by Phuketwan smugglers continue to bring the large creatures onto the island for work in tourism. The Phuket Livestock Office is seeking greater cooperation on law enforcement.
Tourists' Murder on Koh Tao
bangkokpost.com The Lawyers Council is now taking an active interest in the Koh Tao murder case, as police prepare to question three alleged witnesses, and a "concerned" British Foreign Office summons Thailand's top diplomat to explain.
The summons of the Thai charge d'affaires to the UK reveals that the police investigation has placed a considerable strain on relations between the UK and Thailand following the murders.
Latest on the Ebola Outbreak
telegraph.co.uk Ebola screening will begin at London's Heathrow Airport on Tuesday, Jeremy Hunt, the British Health Secretary, confirmed as he warned that the disease will arrive in Britain by Christmas.
cnn.com Two carers are the first known Ebola cases contracted outside Africa in this outbreak and both cases are raising fears that Western hospitals are not ready.
Phuket World of People
Phuket Update National Police Day was marked on Phuket with a gathering of hundreds of officers at Phuket City Police Headquarters to hear the island's new commander and new governor extol the need for good, honest police work and the security of residents and tourists.
dvb.no American fast-food chain KFC, formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, will be coming to Burma in the very near future. KFC and its parent company, Yum Brands, appear set to become the first Western fast food chain to operate inside Burma following the lifting of most international sanctions more than two years ago.
mintpress.news.com Muslims are suffering at the hands of Myanmar's government, which is now planning an awful new program.
http://www.mintpressnews.com/international-community-new-burmese-apartheid/197637/
asiancorrespondent.com Following the brutal murders of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller on Koh Tao last month, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office has updated its travel advice to include a warning about the dangers of travelling to Thailand's island destinations.
news.sky.com North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un has been seen in public for the first time in more than five weeks, scotching rumors of a coup. State media said that Mr Kim visited a residential district and a scientific establishment.
washingtonpost.com Jihadists boast they have enslaved women, as rights organisation says teenagers are bought and sold by fighters for as little as $1100.
afp Participants in a landmark review of Catholic teaching on the family suggested that the Church adopt a more positive perspective on the relationships of cohabiting, divorced and gay couples.
bangkokpost.com A woman was killed when the car she was driving plunged off the Din Daeng-Don Muang elevated tollway onto the Phayon Yothin highway in tambon Khlong Nueng of Pathum Thani's Khlong Luang district, police said.
latimes.com Prosecutors will seek the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius in the killing of his girlfriend, even as a government social worker Monday recommended three years of house arrest, allowing for the possibility of his resuming his athletic career.
voanews.com The parents of an American hostage threatened with beheading by Islamic State militants say they are unable to meet the demands of their son's captors. Paula and Ed Kassig said during interviews that they're trying desperately to free Abdul-Rahman Kassig, who was captured in Syria last October.
telegraph.co.uk A Spanish woman has been forced to confess to cheating on her husband-to-be on her hens night with a dwarf stripper after she gave birth to a baby with dwarfism.
Around the Asean Region
kyodo news Cambodian police have arrested three men in connection with the murder over the weekend of a Cambodian journalist investigating illegal logging in the country's northeast, a local police chief said.
huffingtonpost.co.uk A senior airline manager and aviation industry expert has suggested he does not believe the Indian Ocean is the final resting place for the doomed flight MH370. Sir Tim Clark, the head of Emirates Airline, criticised the search efforts for the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777, which went missing on March 8 with 239 people on board.
Phuket World of Sport
bbc.com Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted the squad needed ''a big injection'' of players. Ferguson retired in 2013 but successor David Moyes was sacked in April as United struggled to seventh last term, their lowest Premier League finish.
bangkokpost.com Latest: K1 officials say they are as shocked as anyone else as to why Muay Thai superstar Buakaw abruptly left the ring in his K-1 MAX world championship final against Germany's Enriko Kehl. No lawsuit is planned at the moment, but they, like everyone else, want to hear from the fighter himself.
Coming Events on Phuket 2014
October 23 Chulalongkorn Memorial Day
November 1-3 Patong Carnival
November 6 Loy Kratong
November 14-23 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
Coming Events on Phuket 2015
February 13-15 Phuket Yacht Show
