Fairfax Media, which publishes The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, will cut 1900 staff and erect paywalls around the websites of its two main metropolitan newspapers as it adjusts to shrinking advertising revenue. The broadsheets are to become tabloids. The organisation is beginning a retreat from printed newspapers.


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

Phuket Update Phuket City mayoral candidate Somjai Suwansupana was reelected to her third term in a poll distinguished by a 34.75 turnout, quite high considering Khun Somjai was one of the firmest favorites for an election on Phuket in years. Official declaration of the result is expected shortly.

Phuket Update Rebranded Phuket FC won at home in Phuket City 2-1 over Bangkok FC. It was their first win at home since October.

thecanadianpress.com A maid found two sisters from Quebec dead inside their hotel room on Phi Phi, a popular resort island in southern Thailand, police confirmed Sunday, saying the women did not appear to have been murdered and their belongings had not been taken.

bangkokpost.com Canadian embassy officials had arrived at Krabi Hospital to talk to the authorities about the pathology tests. Health authorities would not issue any health advisory to tourists and residents until they received more information.

torontosun.com The small Quebec town of Pohenegamook is in mourning after two young residents were found dead on Phi Phi in southern Thailand. Uncle Eric Belanger said: ''We're still waiting to hear back from a specialist who was sent to analyze the bodies - and (the media) are already telling us they were poisoned.''

QMI agency The women were on the last part of a five-week trip to Asia. QMI Agency has learned that the women's family was en route to Thailand on Saturday. "The last message I received from them said the sisters were headed to Thailand for nine or 10 days and they were excited to show me photos of their trip and everything was going really smoothly," said a friend.

theglobeandmail.com The Belanger family - which also includes the mother, Linda and an older daughter, Elena - is very close and travels together a lot, a friend said. Noemi, who had a BA in psychology and was studying to be a dentist, had also travelled alone to developing countries to do humanitarian work, she said.

reuters Thailand's government has hit out at pop sensation Lady Gaga for a second time in as many weeks by filing a police complaint over the singer's "offensive" use of its national flag during her sellout concert. The Culture Ministry said Gaga's use of the flag, tied to the back of a motorcycle while dressed in provocative outfit, was "inappropriate" and disrespectful.

reuters "We have successfully overthrown three prime ministers, which proves our track record is excellent," says Chamlong Srimuang, co-leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy, whose yellow-clad members shut down Bangkok's international airport in 2008. "We have the ability to overthrow another government again if need be."

stickmanweekly.com Thailand's naughty nightlife industry was never part of the country's draw when I first visited, but when a mate and I stuck our heads in Phuket's Rock Hard A Gogo in the late '90s we were amazed. There were so many slim, pretty, friendly and amazingly, incredibly polite women. This was nothing like the odd strip bar we had been in back home.

reuters At first, the boat bobbing in the water in the middle of the night appeared to be empty. But when Bangladeshi villagers took a closer look, they found a baby too weak to cry, a refugee from marauding mobs in Burma (Myanmar) apparently abandoned by her family. The cleft-lipped infant, just weeks old, is among hundreds of Rohingya Muslims who fled this month's sectarian violence, packing themselves into rough wooden boats and heading for the shores of neighboring Bangladesh.

eurasiareview.com The week-long sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma's western Rakhine state has thrown the spotlight on the Rohingya, one of the most oppressed groups in the country, and compels the government to address a burning issue that has been swept under the carpet for decades.

afp Burma (Myanmar) pledged to hunt down those responsible for the deaths of 50 people in communal clashes, as the relief effort was stepped up for tens of thousands displaced by the violence.

bbc.co.uk Everyone here is eager to be first out of the starting blocks as the economy of Burma, a previously isolated country, opens up for business. "Twelve years ago, when I was in China, I felt the same rush," says Vinod Chugani, an American-educated Singaporean.

afp Rodney King, whose beating by police in 1992 sparked the LA race riots, has been found dead in his swimming pool. He was 47.

thejakartapost.com Police say rescuers are searching the ocean off eastern Indonesia for 14 missing people after a wooden boat sank in high waves.



PORTUGAL overcame an early spurt by the Netherlands while Germany tamed Denmark, both winning by 2-1 scores and advancing to the final eight of Euro 2012. Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice to lead Portugal into the quarter-finals and send the Netherlands home. Germany finished with a perfect record in the three-match qualifiers, and now face Greece to try to advance to the semi-finals.

aap Angry Argentine David Nalbandian unloaded a tirade of abuse on tennis officialdom after he was defaulted from the Queen's Club final in London. Fans were shocked and outraged after Nalbandian kicked a courtside advertising sign, resulting in a linesman's left shin being badly cut midway through the second set.



Until June 22 Southern Prisons Fair, Saphan Hin, Phuket City

July 1 US Independence Day picnic, Headstart International School of Phuket, from 11am

July 18-22 Phuket Raceweek

July 21-22 Toyota motor racing at Saphan Hin, Phuket City



November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket