UPDATE
telegraph.co.uk Homes have been evacuated and schools closed as the wild weather sweeping Britain causes some areas to experience a whole month's rainfall in just 24 hours.
PhuketWATCH Daily Media Wrap
PHUKET: A daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media.
hospitalitynet.org Hotels in the Asia-Pacific region experienced mixed results for August 2012, according to STR Global. Phuket, Thailand, reported the largest occupancy increase, rising 10.4 percent to 76.8 percent.Three markets achieved RevPAR increases of more than 20 percent: Phuket (+26.6 percent to THB2315.92); Jakarta (+24.7 percent to IDR467,740.71); and Tokyo (+22.7 percent to JPY11,784.54).
bangkokpost.com Competition among budget carriers Nok Air and AirAsia will heat up once the market leader AirAsia starts using Don Muang airport as the airline's new main hub in Thailand from next Monday. Nok Air has an ambitious plan to relaunch international service next year.
heraldsun.com.au A chaperone is travelling with nine young Australian Rules Football stars from the Adelaide club to Phuket for a post-season holiday from October 12. The club's unprecedented move follows the tragic death of Port Adelaide player John McCarthy on an end-of-season trip to Las Vegas.
balidiscovery.com Bali received another dose of reality via arrivals numbers recently released for July 2012 that saw month-on-month total arrivals slip 6.92 percent with 258,781 foreign visitors for the month. On a cumulative basis for January-July 2012, however, arrivals remain 5.10 percent ahead of 2011.
Editor's Choice: Today's Essential Viewing
Car Flips Over in Traffic
A RUSSIAN driver has had a lucky escape after his car was caught up in fallen cables and flipped on its roof.
http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/car-flips-over-in-traffic-20120924-26gqx.html/
wbur.org After decades of enforced silence, Singaporeans who spent years in jail without charges or trial are shattering a political taboo by speaking out about their detention - and the colonial-era security laws that made it possible. The affluent trading hub, known for its solid rule of law, still allows the government to detain citizens indefinitely.
france24.com French President Francois Hollande and his German counterpart Angela Merkel celebrated the 50th anniversary of a speech by Charles de Gaulle to German youth that marked the beginning of the two countries' close relationship.
reuters Foxconn Technology Group has closed a factory at Taiyuan in China's Shanxi province after a personal dispute spiraled into a brawl involving 2000 workers in a dormitory, injuring 40.
Editor's Choice: Today's Essential Reading
Survivors of Nepal avalanche say camp was strewn with pieces of tents, bodies of dead climbers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/survivors-of-nepal-avalanche-say-camp-was-strewn-with-pieces-of-tents-bodies-of-dead-climbers/2012/09/24/94ca93ae-0688-11e2-9eea-333857f6a7bd_story.html/
bangkokpost.com Japanese travellers are among the ''quality tourists'' that the TAT is pinning its hopes on to help meet the government's goal of two trillion baht in annual tourism revenue by 2015. The strengthening yen is encouraging Japanese to travel to Thailand, but safety remains a big issue.
telegraph.co.uk The Pakistani government has distanced itself from an offer by one of its Cabinet ministers to pay $100,000 for anyone who kills the maker of an anti-Islam film.
ausbt.com.au Thai Airways will take delivery of its first Airbus A380 this week, ahead of commercial flights commencing next month. It's the first of six superjumbos for Thailand's national airline, with flights between Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore before the big birds move onto daily flights to Frankfurt, Tokyo and Paris.
thejakartapost.com Bali has set itself the target of attracting at least 51 cruise liners, or around 24 percent of the 215 cruise ships expected to visit Indonesia this year, an official said. The resort island has three harbors capable of receiving such visits.
mizzima.com As Burmese President Thein Sein prepares to speak to the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, his closest aides said they are not worried about him being upstaged by Aung San Suu Kyi.
Phuket World Sports Wrap
Brandt Snedeker doesn't claim to be the best player in the world, the best player on the PGA Tour or even the best overall player in the FedEx Cup playoffs. All he needed was the best round of his career at East Lake to become FedEx Cup champion, giving him $10 million, the biggest paycheck in golf.
Phuket Coming Events 2012
September 30 Go-Eco divers' undersea cleanup
October 14 Vegetarian Festival
October 21-24 Phuket International Sports Fishing titles
November 25 Laguna Phuket Triathlon
November 28 Loy Kratong Day
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 25 Christmas Day
Phuket Coming Events 2014
November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket
