PTI Thailand's criminal court issued an arrest warrant for fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra after he failed to appear for the first hearing in a defamation case filed by the Royal Thai Army.

smh.com.au Elise Andrew, the woman credited with making science sexy and interesting for millions around the world, says she was offered $40.1 million to sell her runaway success Facebook page and websites.

bangkokpost.com Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has pledged justice after the weekend's Phuket riot sparked by the deaths of two young men, as probes were launched to find the facts behind the province's worst street violence in years.


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



AP An angry crowd hurled homemade fire bombs and torched vehicles at a police station on Thailand's resort island of Phuket to protest against the deaths of two young men who died in a motorcycle crash while being chased by police.

Phuket Update As Phuketwan has revealed, 14 police were wounded in the clashes, the Thalang Police Station was wrecked and an ambulance carrying a seriously ill man to hospital was forced to turn back by rioters and take a longer route. The patient died.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1&v=P6ZURGrYyqY

bangkokpost.com A committee will investigate how two men on a motorcycle died during a chase by police, sparking a riot in Phuket.



amnesty.org Southeast Asia's ''sailing season'' is again getting under way, with many more refugees likely to join the thousands of Rohingya who have fled persecution in Myanmar (Burma), only to fall prey to trafficking and other abuses.



bangkokpost.com A Facebook photo of a vandalised rock on one of the most popular attractions of Thailand, Samui, has drawn attention from Thai social media users. The rock has been spray-painted in huge red letters in a foreign language: ''This is the work of a Russian tourist.''

nationmultimediacom The Commerce Ministry's Business Development Department plans to focus its investigation on the use of Thai nationals as nominees of foreign-controlled companies in 10 business sectors where it believes the illegal practice is widespread.

bangkokpost.com Police will summon 24 celebrities for questioning following complaints they posted on social media their photos with alcoholic drinks.

amnesty.org The catastrophic moral failure of world leaders who dither and squabble among themselves while callously leaving millions of people to suffer in disastrous humanitarian conditions will define their legacy for generations to come, said Amnesty International today as it released an eight-point plan to tackle the multiple global refugee crises.

smh.com.au United States Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has criticised Germany's commitment to take in 800,000 refugees and migrants this year, including many displaced from the ongoing civil war in Syria. ''What's happening in Germany, I always thought Merkel was, like, this great leader. What she's done in Germany is insane. It's insane.''

nationmultimedia.com One of two Myanmar men accused of murdering two British tourists told a court he admitted to crimes he did not commit after being physically assaulted and threatened with being killed. In Samui Court, Zaw Lin, the first defendant, answered questions from a defence lawyer. During the defence's three-hour hearing he said he was assaulted by police.

bangkokpost.com Two Vietnamese fishing vessels, equipped with destructive fishing gear, were seized and 11 crewmen arrested for illegally fishing in Thai waters off Narathiwat.

theage.com.au Veteran Australian radio commentator Derryn Hinch has formed his own political party, the Justice Party, and the broadcaster has confirmed he will stand for election to the Senate.

bbc.com A 21-year-old man was stabbed to death in front of dozens of customers at a bar in north-west London. Josh Hanson, of Kingsbury, north-west London, was stabbed in the neck at the RE bar in Eastcote.

biztekmojo.com Drones have been easier to obtain and sometimes they can be annoying. British tech firms have now developed a death-ray-like defense system against UAVs. Dubbed as AUDS or the Anti-UAV Defense System, the machine was developed to stop drones dead on the spot.

scmp.com Two more Japanese nationals have been detained in China on suspicion of spying, bringing the number of Japanese held by Chinese authorities for espionage to four, news reports said.

bbc.com Thousands of people have gathered in the centre of Turkey's capital, Ankara, to mourn the victims of twin bomb blasts which killed at least 95 people. Scuffles broke out with the police after some mourners tried to lay flowers at the sites where the bombs went off on Saturday.

nationmultimedia.com Saengjun Limlohakul focused on his hometown, Phuket, towards the end of the great tin-mining boom. You see the peaceful island life, but also American-style strip clubs catering to GIs. One rare image depicts an elephant procession on Phang Nga circa 1955.

theguardian.com The fear of the ground falling away beneath us develops early: young babies will crawl on to a glass floor above a drop seemingly without fear, although their heart rate does increase. As they become better at crawling, they learn to connect what they see and what they do, and so hold back at the edge of the drop.



AP A Singapore Airlines plane has collapsed as an engineer conducted routine landing checks before a scheduled flight from Singapore to Hong Kong. The airline said in a statement the nose gear of an Airbus A330-300 ''retracted while the aircraft was undergoing a landing gear system check.''



telegraph.co.uk Ireland are hopeful that Jonathan Sexton and Peter O'Mahony will recover from injuries they picked up in the 24-9 win against France in time for the quarter-final against Argentina on Sunday.



Phuket Update As the sun sets on Phuket today, all Chinese shrines taking part in the annual Vegetarian Festival will raise their lantern poles so that the Jade Emperor, among the Nine Emperor Gods, can descend from the heavens, heralding the beginning of this year's nine-day event.

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