theaustralian.com.au Australia will deploy a military force of 600 personnel and aircraft to the Middle East as part of international efforts to combat Islamic State extremists, PM Tony Abbott has announced.

abc.net.au Abbott said he received a specific request for military support from the US in the past 24 hours.

theage.com.au Golf great Greg Norman is recovering in a US hospital after almost cutting off his hand with a chainsaw.

afp A Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hyderabad was forced to turn around due to an auto-pilot defect, landing safely early Sunday.

bloomberg Swedes cast their ballots as polls show the largest Nordic economy could be left with a hung parliament amid rising support for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats.


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



bbc.com The murder of aid worker David Haines, 44, was an ''act of pure evil,'' British PM David Cameron has said after the release of a video purporting to show the UK hostage's beheading. Islamic State militants have already beheaded two Americans, saying it was in response to US airstrikes in Iraq. The latest video also includes a threat to kill a second British hostage.

nationmultimedia.com More than 20 major transnational gangs are plaguing Thailand - including Russian and Romanian credit card skimming gangs and Latin American thieves and bank robbers, a new study by the Thailand Institute of Justice has revealed. Acting TIJ deputy director Natee Jitsawang Natee said French and English gangs used cards containing stolen information from bank customers in France and Scandinavia to withdraw cash via ATM machines in Thailand, especially Phuket.

bangkokpost.com Police have deployed five units to locate two more suspected "men in black" and received court approval to extend for 12 days the detention of the four men and one woman already in custody.



nytimes.com The deadly Ebola outbreak sweeping across three countries in West Africa is likely to last 12 to 18 months more, much longer than anticipated, and could infect hundreds of thousands of people before it is brought under control, say scientists mapping its spread for the US government.



scmp.comSlovak businessman Juraj Jariabka, whose international money-laundering plot came undone at the hands of an undercover journalist, was jailed for four years after a dramatic trial. Italian Antonio Papaleo is still receiving death threats. Papaleo, 44, reveals how he infiltrated the Slovakian underworld, travelled to Hong Kong to clean dirty cash and went as far as throwing himself down a flight of stairs at a high-society diplomatic cocktail party just to maintain his cover story. [Papaleo was knifed in an attack while hiding out on Phuket and his spleen was removed.]

bangkokpost.com The Civil Aviation Department is drawing up commercial development plans for 28 provincial airports in a bid to strengthen their operations and take advantage of the growth of budget airlines.

bloomberg Days before a referendum in which Scotland could end its 307-year political bond with the United Kingdom, officials at the Bank of England and the Treasury are gaming out how they would shore up the financial system if that happens.

smh.com.au A ferry with at least 84 passengers and crew onboard sank off the coast of central Philippines after a mechanical problem, and authorities said they were searching for at least 70 passengers who were still missing.

scmp.com Hong Kong's 40-year-old anti-graft agency can be a model for members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, a visiting US senior official says.

forbesindia.com There's a quote by Pico Iyer that I like a lot: ''We travel, initially, to lose ourselves, and we travel, next, to find ourselves.'' Distance makes Koh Chang less popular with the Pattaya-Phuket party animals, which is precisely the reason why we love it.


nytimes.com Malaysia's reported invitation to the US to fly spy planes out of East Malaysia on the southern rim of the South China Sea seems likely to intensify China's anger at American surveillance of the strategic waterway and its disputed islands, analysts say.

brecorder.com Myanmar has temporarily banned its women from working as maids in Singapore due to concerns over abuse and exploitation, an employment body in Yangon said.

crikey.co.uk One of the strangest things about MH370 was the insistence of the government of Malaysia in the wasting of search resources over a South China Sea search when it knew less than two days after its disappearance that the flight had recrossed the Malaysia Peninsula to the north of the entrance of the Straits of Malacca.



theguardian.com Jose Mourinho believes Diego Costa is capable of mustering the ''same profile of career'' at Chelsea as Didier Drogba after the Spain international took his goal tally at his new club to seven in his first four matches with a devastating 22-minute hat-trick against Swansea.

afp A late header by Martin Demichelis from a corner helped Manchester City earn a 2-2 draw in an entertaining Premier League match with Arsenal at Emirates Stadium.

skysports.com Aston Villa pulled off a shock 1-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield with Tom Cleverley making his debut for the visitors in midfield.

mirror.co.uk Steve Bruce is poised to become Newcastle United???s next boss - with Toon owner Mike Ashley ready to sack Alan Pardew this week after a humiliating 0-4 loss at Southampton.

news.com.au Top-ranking Australian swimming coaches took part in parties involving strippers, porn movies and binge-drinking at annual bonding sessions on the Gold Coast, an official investigation has revealed.



September 24-October 2 Vegetarian Festival, Phuket

October 23 Chulalongkorn Memorial Day

November 6 Loy Kratong

November 14-21 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



February 13-15 Phuket Yacht Show