A daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media.

independent.co.uk Malaysia Airlines, one of the major players between the UK and Asia, startled the travel business by announcing a short-term seat sale on its twice-daily flights from London Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur and beyond. A round-trip to South East Asia for less than a standard return rail ticket from London to Glasgow: the apparently absurd bargain flight shows the disarray within the aviation industry.
Trailfinders has packaged the flights with hotels to offer an eight-night holiday on Phuket for 499 pounds, including breakfast and transfers.

irishtimes.com Trailfinders and Etihad Airways are offering deals to Thailand which include up to four nights free in hotels. Among those offering free stays is the three-star Centara Karon Resort in Phuket, where an eight-night holiday costs from 929 euros, saving 120 euros per person. There's also four nights free at the five-star Centara Grand Beach Resort in Phuket from 1199 euros for eight nights staying in a luxury ocean-facing room, saving 410 euros per person. [There are catches.]

nytimes.com Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said that he would ask the King to dissolve Parliament, making way for an early election.

nationmultimedia.com Some believe that the date for balloting could be set for July 3. Former PM Thaksin Shinawatra promised his taxi-driver vote base he would launch a tax refund campaign for first-time car buyers, credit cards for taxi drivers and personal loans that allow cross guarantees.

bbc.co.uk Singapore is going to the polls today in the most hotly contested general election in recent memory. The only uncontested constituency is that of Singapore's founding father, Lee Kuan Yew.

radioaustralianews.net.au Asian leaders have arrived in Jakarta for the annual summit meeting of the Association of South East Nations. Indonesia mediated a meeting between foreign ministers of Cambodia and Thailand late Friday in efforts to seek solution over their dispute.

voanews.com Ahead of a regional summit, Indonesia's foreign minister has said Thailand and Cambodia agreed to allow Indonesian monitors to go to the border between the two countries to help prevent further military clashes.

cnn.com Osama bin Laden's wife has told interrogators she didn't venture outside the walled compound where the al Qaeda leader was killed for five years, a Pakistani military spokesman said. The wife, wounded in the raid, said she lived in the compound in Abbottabad with eight of bin Laden's children and five others from another family.

aap A key witness in the case involving Australian publisher Ross Dunkley collapsed at the court in Burma, forcing a further delay just as proceedings were to start, legal sources said. The witness, Ma Khine Zar Lin, seven months pregnant, had initially brought the charges against Dunkley before seeking to have them dropped.

techzone360.com Over the last eight years, admittedly starting from a very low base, the estimated number of internet users in Thailand has increased sixfold. ISPs have recovered from their earlier reputation for unreliable performance and a failure to invest in improved infrastructure and the government has taken the first steps to fix the regulatory regime.

afp Malaysia defended a multi-million dollar plan to provide email accounts to its citizens against accusations of cronyism and waste. The government last month said technology firm Tricubes would carry out the 50 million ringgit ($17 million) scheme to set up new email accounts for people to receive government mail. Opponents say the project is redundant as most Internet users hold free email addresses.

wsj.com Trackers in Colorado at the Mutual UFO Network, one of the oldest unidentified-flying-object research organisations in this world, say that since the slump of the Western banking system in 2008, UFO sightings among Asia's fast-growing economies have accelerated.

theage.com.au ''In terms of Asian tourism, casinos have become the centrepiece of what smart governments think tourism is about,'' says Australian casino operator James Packer, urging the Australian tourism industry to become more competitive.

mirror.co.uk When I mentioned to, well, everyone I knew that I was jetting off to Thailand (yes, a tad smug) I was surprised to discover that not only had most of my friends already been there but each trip sounded completely different.

dailymail.co.uk Nature's been kind to Cambodia, but man hasn't. That's the fascination of the place - it's what makes it more than just another edgy tropical paradise on the backpacker trail.


IBAP meets at IndoChine on May 13 to hear Robert Mather on ''Phang Nga bay ecology, mangroves & sustainability.'' Starting in 2011 he is responsible for developing the International Union for Conservation of Nature's presence and program in Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, as well as managing a new project on Building Coastal Resilience to Climate Change in eight provinces of Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.


May 13 Royal Ploughing Day public holiday
May New PPAO Hospital to open, Phuket City
May 17 Visakha Bucha Day public holiday
June 12 Laguna Phuket International Marathon
June 17 Phuket Property Dot Com Pro Am Invitational, Laguna
June 23-26 Phuket Fun Fly paragliding, Nai Harn
July 3 Phuket Navy League US Independence Day fair at Headstart International School
July 15 Asarnha Bucha Day public holiday
July 20-24 Six Senses Phuket Raceweek
August 12 HM The Queen's Birthday public holiday
October Vegetarian Festival, Phuket
November 26-27 9th Phuket International Soccer 7s
November 27 Laguna Phuket Triathlon
December 3-4 6th Andaman International Soccer 7s
December 4 Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship, Laguna


March 18-28 National Youth Games, Phuket

November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket