UPDATING All Day, Every Day
The Australian dollar has plunged on the back of surprisingly weak retail figures, taking it perilously close to a four-year low. [A higher $A brings more Australians to Phuket.]
news.com.au Protest leaders are threatening to expand the unrest in Hong Kong if their demands for electoral reforms are not met. Even larger crowds are expected to flood the streets on Wednesday, China's National Day holiday.
foxnews.com President Obama shared an elevator earlier this month with an armed security contractor who has three felony convictions relating to assault and battery, in the latest report of a serious violation of Secret Service security protocols.
PhuketWATCH Daily Media Wrap
PHUKET: The daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media. Beware of inconsistent imitations.
Today's Top News Items
time.com Thailand's tourism minister said that visitors to the country will receive identification wristbands listing emergency contact information, a heightened safety precaution in the wake of the murders of two British tourists this month.
channelnewsasia.com ''In case they (tourists) get drunk and fall asleep on the beach we can bring them back to their hotels,'' Apichai Ti-armataya, commander of the Tourist Police told AFP. He said the plan would be rolled out ''soon'' on popular resort islands such as Koh Tao and Koh Phangan and also the tourist beach area of Pattaya, adding that new ''zoning'' curbs would likely control all-night bars and clubs.
nbcnews.com Neither the wristbands nor the ideas of imposing curfews or limiting beach parties were likely to go over well with tourists, who account for nearly 10 percent of GDP. Visitor levels dropped in August 11.9 percent from a year earlier.
businessinsider.com.au Tourists Are Staying Away From Thailand And Now The Government Wants To Put I.D. Wristbands On Them.
nationmultimedia.com Forensic police pulled out of Koh Tao after completing their task collecting DNA samples from a large number of men, both Thai and migrant workers, in their hunt for the killers of two British citizens.
Latest on the Ebola Outbreak
afp With its collapsed health service and broken economy, Liberia finds itself on the brink of societal breakdown, experts warn.
businessweek.com The United States Centers for Disease Control confirmed the first case of Ebola to be diagnosed in the US. A patient in Dallas who arrived from Liberia on September 20 began to develop symptoms four days later.
Phuket World of People
nypost.com As part of the annual Vegetarian Festival in the southern Thai town of Phuket, religious devotees inflict unimaginable on harm on themselves as a way of seeking purification. One worshipper of the Chinese Jui Tui Shrine paraded in a street procession and was photographed with two drills piercing his cheeks.
bbc.co.uk RAF jets have carried out their first strikes on Islamic State targets in Iraq, attacking a ''heavy weapon position'' and an armed pick-up truck.
bangkokpost.com Thailand will get its chance to buy the iPhone 6 at regular prices October 24 when Apple Corp officially brings its latest two devices to retailers and mobile-phone operators in the kingdom, an industry source said.
andrew-drummond.com Two women, one Russian, and one Danish, aged 23, reported being raped by motorcyclists in the Gulf of Thailand resort of Pattaya.
standard.co.uk Britain must not ''sleepwalk'' into becoming a sectarian society, Theresa May warned and called on Muslims to reject extremism, embrace British values and to give their daughters more freedoms.
bangkokpost.com Exports fell to a 32-month low in August as the weak global economy brought lower than expected demand.
vogue.co.uk ''George and Amal radiated love all night,'' Alamuddin's mother Baria told People. ''The wedding was so unbelievably special, it was legendary. These three days - the friends, the families, the atmosphere, everything - will stay with me all the rest of my life.''
news.com.au A male tourist has been raped after going to urinate in bushes at the Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich.
money.usnews.comIt is possible to stretch your retirement nest egg to enjoy a better lifestyle in Southeast Asia than you could afford anywhere else in the world. For example, in the United States you're probably paying at least $50 per month for reasonably fast Internet. In the Philippines Internet costs $12 per month, likely for faster speeds than you have now. In Thailand and Malaysia fast Internet is $18 per month.
Around the Asean Region
aljazeera.com Burma (Myanmar) has confirmed to the United Nations it is finalising a plan that will offer minority Rohingya Muslims citizenship if they change their ethnicity to suggest Bangladeshi origin, a move rights groups say could force thousands into detention camps.
reuters Most of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya are stateless and live in apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine state on the western coast of the predominantly Buddhist country. Almost 140,000 Rohingya remain displaced after deadly clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in 2012.
channelnewsasia.com Global police agency Interpol will open its first Digital Crime Centre in Singapore, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office S Iswaran announced.
dvb.no Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha will visit Burma on 9 and 10 October and then attend the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Italy on 16 and 17 October.
Phuket World of Sport
smh.com.au Swim star Michael Phelps was arrested on DUI charges for the second time after he was stopped for speeding.
Coming Events on Phuket 2014
September 24-October 2 Vegetarian Festival, Phuket
October 23 Chulalongkorn Memorial Day
November 1-3 Patong Carnival
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
Coming Events on Phuket 2015
February 13-15 Phuket Yacht Show
how will a wristban stop a female tourist from being raped or murdered? Look at the last 3 incidents!
Posted by expat tiger on October 1, 2014 10:00
Editor Comment:
That's the puzzle. It certainly helps officials mop up any mess but wristbands are even less effective at prevention than issuing whistles would be for female travellers. A very odd suggestion that shouldn't have gone public, indicating the minister needs better advice.