Agencies Two bomb explosions in the Turkish capital have killed a total of 86 people, the country's health minister said. Mehmet Muezinoglu said another 186 people were injured.

bangkokpost.com A 48-year-old German man was found dead on Pattaya beach on Saturday morning. An empty bottle of foreign whiskey and another unopened bottle of the same brand were found near the body.

independent.co.uk Israeli troops have opened fire on Palestinian protesters along the Gaza border fence, killing at least six of them, while a Hamas leader proclaimed the start of a new intifada uprising and the two sides braced for protracted confrontation.


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



reuters Thailand expects a record seven million visitors from China in 2015 compared with 4.63 million last year, the tourism minister said on Friday. Tourism is one of the few bright spots in an economy that has been stubbornly underperforming more than a year after the military seized power in a May 2014 coup.

nationmultimedia.com Thailand has expressed its disappointment over the European parliament's damning resolution on human rights situation in the Kingdom, saying it did not reflect the reality of the ground. It urged the government to lift repressive restrictions on the right to liberty and the peaceful exercise of other human rights.

reuters Coral reefs are suffering a severe underwater heatwave this year for the third time on record, including a mysterious warm patch in the Pacific known as ''The Blob,'' scientists say.



nationmultimedia.com Phuket Governor Jamleran Tipayapongtada said the haze situation in his province had shown signs of improving. He said there had not been any more flight delays because of poor visibility after 24 flights to and from Phuket were delayed between 6am Thursday to 6am yesterday. Suratin Lianudom, a former mayor of Tambon Rassada Municipality, lodged an open letter with the Indonesian president via the provincial Phuket authority demanding that Jakarta pay serious attention to preventing the haze problem.

nst.com.my Countless meetings over more than a dozen years have produced an Asean treaty on transboundary haze pollution. Have these meetings involved so many different hands and minds groping in a haze of different sections of an elephant and in the end missing a pretty straight-forward and simple solution all these years?

nationmultimedia.com Haze delayed at least four flights at Krabi International Airport, while Ranong Hospital deputy director Dr Arun Sattayapisan said the number of patients at the hospital had jumped by more than 30 percent in the past few days because of the smog.



reuters Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has expressed worries over an increase in anti-Muslim sentiment in Myanmar and religion being used for political means, saying that there were, ''very, very worrying signs of religious intolerance which we did not have in this country before.''



bangkokpost.com A new power plant is needed in Krabi to ensure a continued, adequate electricity supply for people on the Andaman coast because demand is rising 4.5 percent or more each year, according to the Electricity Authority of Thailand.

telegraph.co.uk The Workers' Party of Korea will celebrate its anniversary with gusto on Saturday, marking 70 years since it became the ostensibly democratic face of history's only communist dynasty - and glossing over the inconvenient fact that it has done little more than rubber stamp the decisions of three generations of the Kim family, starting with Kim Il-sung, since 1945.

theage.com.au The Australian dollar surged to as high as US73.44 in late European trade, with the Kiwi reaching a 10-week high at US67.22 as investors tweaked their currency positions on expectations that the US central bank will further delay its plan to start lifting interest rates. [A high $A means more Aussies coming to Phuket.]

theguardian.com The US decision to ''pause'' its troubled $500m program to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels to fight Islamic State (Isis) is yet another move highlighting western disarray and failure as Russia continues its airstrikes, which western governments say are supporting Bashar al-Assad.

nytimes.com A small group of Eritrean asylum seekers left Italy for Sweden on Friday, initiating a contentious European Union relocation program meant to help the union's front-line countries deal with the largest movement of refugees on the Continent since World War II.

AP A Tunisian democracy group won the Nobel Peace Prize for its contributions to the first and most successful Arab Spring movement.

reuters At least 253 bodies have been recovered after a massive landslide buried part of a town in Guatemala last week, with 374 people still unaccounted for, national disaster agency Conred said.

bbc.com A man in the western Indian city of Pune has been held after carrying his wife's severed head down a busy road, police say. The 53-year-old man, identified as Ramu Chavan, was accosted by traffic police after they received multiple calls from people who saw him.



ucsusa.org Much of western Indonesia is currently undergoing massive fires, producing enormous amounts of smoke-haze, and disrupting large parts of society in the region. This is unlikely to be 'normal' seasonal burning; it could rank among the worst fire seasons on record in Indonesia, with frequent and larger fires this year than in previous years. The burning will likely last for at least another month.



afp The All Blacks remain short of their champion best and were rattled by the Tongan forwards before some Nehe Milner-Skudder magic set up a 47-9 victory.




October 13-21 Phuket Vegetarian Festival

November Patong Festival

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