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

pcmag.com Superstorm Sandy flooded the streets of New York City and left eight million without power, including several popular blogs. The storm affected the servers of Gawker Media, The Huffington Post, and Buzzfeed, which turned to Twitter and Gawker in the interim.

wsj.com Airlines on Tuesday began flying again to some East Coast airports affected by Sandy, but flooding and power outages at the three airports near New York City raised doubts about whether anyone will be able to fly in or out of the city before Thursday.

afp Subway trains and buses remained suspended for a third day and hundreds of thousands of homes face up to a week without electricity. A major hospital had to evacuate more than 200 patients at the height of the storm.

presstv.ir The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman has called on all Muslim countries and international bodies to take swift measures to end the mass killing of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Burma (Myanmar). ''The crimes committed in Myanmar and the genocide of the Muslims more than ever inform the public opinion of the falseness of the Western countries' human rights claims,'' Ramin Mehmanparast said.

radioaustralia.net.au Asean Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan has warned that sectarian violence in Burma could radicalise minority Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state, and destabilise the rest of Southeast Asia.

reuters As security forces police the edgy aftermath of sectarian bloodshed in western Burma, fearful Buddhists and Muslims are arming themselves with homemade weapons, testing the government's resolve to prevent a new wave of violence.

aap Food, water and medical help are in short supply at camps in western Burma that are ''stretched beyond capacity,'' a UN agency said.

independent.co.uk The governments of America and Europe have tried to justify their inaction in the face of this ethnic cleansing by arguing it is difficult to get accurate information. Yet they take no action to secure a UN investigation.

afp Hundreds of thousands of the stateless Rohingya have left aboard rickety boats in past decades, and there are signs of another exodus looming. ''We are likely to see a dramatic increase in the number of Rohingya taking to the sea this year,'' said Matthew Smith, a researcher with Human Rights Watch.



PHUKET Governor Maitree Inthusud is in Malaysia with a Phuket tourism road show. He should be back on Phuket in time for a media conference on Friday when Paris Hilton's two-day New Year beach party for 50,000 and private profit on one of Phuket's public beaches is likely to be a hot topic.

stuff.co.uk Banyan Tree, also located in the Laguna Phuket complex, recently rebranded its DoublePool Villas into a ''resort within a resort''. But the rebrand is a little gimmicky; one of the two pools is barely deep enough to wade in and Laguna shuttle buses refuse to use the dedicated reception. Naka Island needs to work on its food menu: Western dishes are limited and all taste the same. The writer was a guest of Naka Island and Banyan Tree.

pattayadailynews.com Sixty-year-old Australian Jacky Kristopher called the police after spotting her stolen jewelry worth more than 500,000 baht in a gold shop in a Tesco Lotus department store in north Pattaya. The shop owner was charged with buying stolen property.

bangkokpost.com With Thaksin confidante Jarupong Ruangsuwan as new party leader, Pheu Thai says it is ready to try again to get public opinion behind a rewrite of Thailand's constitution.

bbc.co.uk At least 10 people have been killed and thousands evacuated after ethnic clashes erupted in two villages in Indonesia's Lampung province. There has been a long-standing hostility between ethnic Lampung people and migrant communities of Balinese descent in the province on the island of Sumatra.

wsj.com Singapore Airlines' tie-up with Virgin Australia comes as the city state's flag carrier trims some of its costliest ultralong-haul services that traditionally targeted premium passengers. Subject to regulatory approval, Virgin Australia will take control of Tiger Australia as the budget airline continues to recover from the grounding of its entire fleet last year for safety breaches.

eturbonews.com Malaysia Airlines will become a full member of the oneworld alliance with effect from February 1, 2013, adding one of commercial aviation's most frequent award winners to the world's leading quality airline alliance.

reuters Italy passed an anti-corruption law, the latest move by the government of Prime Minister Mario Monti to shed the country's image tarnished by former leader Silvio Berlusconi. Transparency International said 87 percent of Italians regarded corruption as one of the country's most serious problems and blamed political parties.

ft.com Mickey Mouse has forged an unlikely alliance with Darth Vader after Walt Disney agreed a $4bn deal to acquire Lucasfilm, the company behind the Star Wars films, and revealed plans to release a seventh movie in the series.

dailytelegraph.com.au Students planning schoolies trips to party hot spots such as Bali, Phuket, Fiji and Vanuatu won't be rescued by the Australian Government if they are arrested for being drunk or involved in a fight.

bangkokpost.com Its formal name is the Phuket Baba Museum to Honor HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, and although the museum has yet to open it already has a designated home in a 102-year-old Sino-Portuguese building which once housed the original Phuket branch of Standard Chartered Bank.

thejakartapost.com Property analysts have estimated that private rented villas in Bali will continue to see low occupancy levels after a slight decrease of around 9 percent, during the first half. Occupancy was affected by the increasing supply and the decreasing length of time guests stay.

nationmultimedia.com After an absence of two and a half years, Regent Hotels & Resorts is back with a vengeance. It will start with Phuket, where its property under management will stage its grand opening in December.

bangkokpost.com "Even though Phuket is a high competition area, it still has room to grow thanks to the increasing number of tourists," said Brice Borin, general manager of Regent Hotels and Resorts, adding that advance bookings had reached about 20 percent.

boston.com Fling open your curtains at Regent Hotels & Resorts' new resort in Phuket, Thailand, and you will have clear views of the sparkling Andaman Sea. The 105-room resort, called Regent Phuket Cape Panwa, is perched on a cliff in a secluded bay with access to its own beach.

voanews.com Syrian opposition backers say fighting and airstrikes across the country killed more than 120 people Tuesday.

thejakartaglobe.com A 16-year-old boy from Karangasem, Bali was brought to local police after residents of the town caught him having sexual intercourse with a dead chicken. Last month the boy was discovered having sex with a cow.

AP The incoming Dutch government has ditched plans for a national ''weed pass'' that would have been available only to residents and that would have effectively banned tourists from Amsterdam's marijuana cafes.



telegraph.co.uk This was one of the craziest of cup ties, a classic of a game that saw Arsenal amazingly recover from 4-0 down to reach the quarter-finals of the Capital One Cup. Arsenal pulled off one of the great escapes thanks to Theo Walcott's hat-trick. Reading 5-7 Arsenal.

bangkokpost.com Fifa will decide Wednesday whether the Bangkok Futsal Arena, where the flooring is behind schedule, can be used for the Futsal World Cup 2012 which is due to kick off tomorrow.

reuters Serbian police have charged 12 people with violent conduct after a mass brawl following a Euro Under-21 qualifier against England two weeks ago.



November 1 Futsal World Cup, Bangkok

November 9 IBAP network meeting

November 25 Laguna Phuket Triathlon

November 28 Loy Kratong Day

November 30 AustCham Phuket sundowners social and business networking

December 1 World AIDs Day

December 1-8 King's Cup Regatta

December 5 HM The King's Birthday

December 10 Constitution Day

December 15-20 Patong Carnival

December 16-18 Asia Superyacht Rendezvous, Bang Tao beach

December 25 Christmas Day



October 5-13 Phuket Vegetarian Festival



November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket