telegraph.co.uk Twelve girls caught in a stampede while trying to escape from their school among at least 70 killed after earthquake of 7.5 magnitude hits north-east Afghanistan, with tremors reported in India and Pakistan.

bbc.com A whale-watching boat has sunk off the coast of British Columbia in Canada, leaving at least four people dead, emergency bodies say. The boat sank near Tofino on Vancouver Island in the west of the country, coastguard and rescue officials said.

reuters Former TV comedian Jimmy Morales, who has no experience in government, won Guatemala's presidential election in a landslide after a corruption scandal toppled the last president and stoked outrage with the political establishment.


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



nationmultimedia.com More than 9000 foreigners were busted for illegally entering the country - four of them wanted by Interpol - during a weeklong police crackdown that finished Sunday.

bangkokpost.com Tougher penalties for visa overstays are being considered by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha. The Immigration Bureau has asked for a ban on foreigners found guilty of overstaying in Thailand from re-entering the country for one to 10 years. An estimated 800,000 foreigners are overstayers.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/742528/overstayers-face-stiff-re-entry-bans

afp At least 100 people were injured when a high-speed ferry travelling from Macau to Hong Kong hit an ''unidentified object'' in the water, according to authorities. Pictures showed wounded people being stretchered off the boat, some wearing oxygen masks, onto a pier in Hong Kong's central financial district to waiting ambulances.



bangkokpost.com Interpol has agreed to allow the Royal Thai Police to use the agency's database of international arrest warrants and a memorandum of understanding will be signed soon.

nationmultimedia.com Already renowned for its Banyan Tree, Angsana and Cassia properties, Banyan Tree Holdings is extending its portfolio to cover a fourth brand, Dhawa, for middle-class travellers. A Dhawa property will be introduced in Phuket soon, while the company is reaching out to small hotel owners who want to convert their three-star hotels into a property of the group.

bangkokpost.com The alleged ''suicide'' of a lese majeste suspect has civil rights activists demanding that the military close its makeshift jail and court martials.

theguardian.com Only one of Tony Blair's mea culpas in his CNN interview stands out as truly significant: his partial acknowledgment that without the Iraq war there would be no Islamic State (Isis). Until now, Blair had refused to link the two, insisting instead in the lead-up to the war that sending western troops would deny jihadis an arena and prevent Saddam Hussein from using them as proxies in his standoff with the west.

nationmultimedia.com The Pollution Control Department's PM statistics on Sunday showed that the amount of PM10 had fallen in many provinces. Songkhla recorded PM10 of 87 micrograms; Phuket recorded PM10 of 81 micrograms; Phang Nga 77 micrograms; Satun 60 micrograms; Pattani 59 micrograms; and Narathiwat 58 micrograms.

reuters The European Union faces collapse if the bloc cannot agree on a plan to confront the sudden influx of refugees through the Balkans, Slovenia's premier warned as leaders bickered over who was to blame for the crisis.

telegraph.co.uk Migrants crossing the Balkans will begin freezing to death as winter approaches, the head of European Union has said, as leaders warned the continent was ''falling apart'' trying to deal with the biggest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War.

express.co.uk Britain waswarned to prepare for a record cold winter with savage Arctic gales and heavy snowstorms even WORSE than the bitter white-out of 2009/10.

reuters German police in the western city of Cologne used water cannon on left-wing radicals protesting against a rally held by about 600 supporters of the xenophobic Hooligans Against Salafists (HOGESA) group.Roughly 10,000 counter-demonstrators vastly outnumbered those at the HOGESA rally itself, where speakers called for Germany's borders to be closed and a ban on building mosques.

afp Nearly two months of illegal slash-and-burn farming fires in Indonesia have led to a choking haze settling over southern Thailand, sickening the populace, canceling flights and affecting the vital tourism industry, AFP reported. ''It's considered a crisis. It's the worst in 10 years,'' Halem Jemarican, head of Songkhla province's Environment Office, said to AFP.

scmp.com A South Korean man died of complications from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) in the first death linked to the virus in the country for more than three months.

crikey.com.au If the view is taken that a business model that involves deliberately hurting and humiliating adult sized passengers is ultimately bad for air travel then a report in the South China Morning Post about Cathay Pacific's thoughts on smaller seats in 777s is rather bad news.

derbytelegraph.co.uk American Ashrita Furman went to Phuket in Thailand to have a go at the record for projecting a Champagne cork as far as possible from the mouth. Apparently, it's something to do with air pressure. Anyway, he set the benchmark for doing something most people probably never dream of with a distance of 8.55 metres or just over 28 feet.



theguardian.com Seventeen people have died in a fire that tore through a packed karaoke bar on Indonesia's Sulawesi island, with 71 others taken to hospital for smoke inhalation. Witnesses said the fire started on the second floor of the three-storey building at about 1am on Sunday. There was only one door to the building.



Phuket Update Phuket FC managed a 2-1 win over Bangkok FC at home in Phuket City with Belgian striker Ndebi Berlin scoring a double and now hit the road to take on the Thai Tobacco Monopoly on Wednesday before returning home to meet Ayuthaya on November 1. Relegation is still a prospect.

smh.com.au The Wallabies will meet old foes New Zealand in their fourth World Cup final after a four tries-to-none 29-15 victory over a wholehearted Argentina at Twickenham.

theguardian.com Lewis Hamilton won his third Formula One world championship when he triumphed in a chaotic United States Grand Prix.



November 1-3 Patong Carnival

November 20 Laguna Phuket Triathlon

November 25 Loy Kratong festival

November 29 Challenge Laguna Phuket 2015

November 29 Phuket King's Cup Regatta

December 5 HM The King's Birthday

December 26 Tsunami memorial ceremonies



January 7-10 Phuket International Boat Show