AP Newly-crowned Wimbledon champion Andy Murray will compete in the Thailand Open in September, along with two other men ranked in the world's top 10, No.6 ranked Tomas Berdych and defending champion Richard Gasquet, ranked 9th.

indonesian.cri.cn Gangster Fight in Phuket: Thailand will conduct a campaign to eradicate foreign gangsters on Phuket to improve the safety of tourists. Eradication action will begin at the end of this month.

theaustralian.com.au Staff at travel publisher Lonely Planet's Melbourne headquarters arrived at work today to news of up to 100 redundancies. In March, BBC Worldwide, sold the publisher to Nashville-based NC2 Media, owned by billionaire Brad Kelly.


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

thainews.prd.go.th The Department of Special Investigation is preparing to tackle Phuket taxi drivers who behaved like ''mafias,'' threatening tourists, and the problem of nominee operations. The DSI will meet with officials from Phuket Airport, Phuket bus terminal, the Phuket tourism office, and other local bodies to seek solutions and take action against the taxi ''mafias''.

nationmultimedia.com The Commerce Ministry said 56 companies in Phuket are suspected of breaching the Foreign Business Act by having Thais acting as nominees. Deputy Commerce Minister Natthawut Saikua said Phuket is a popular tourist destination so the ministry would closely work with Tourism and Sports and the DSI to ensure that the inspection of companies did not negatively affect tourism and business sentiment.

independent.ie An Irishman who has spent the past four weeks in a coma after an accident in Thailand will be flown home tomorrow. Robbie Robinson, 32, from Wicklow, fell from a fourth storey balcony while visiting friends in Thailand.

bangkokpost.com Thailand's largest low-cost carrier is putting more Mandarin-speaking crew on AirAsia flights in recognition of the fast-growing importance of Chinese travellers.

nationmultimedia.com The DSI announced that it had rescued 12 Burmese (Myanmar) women aged between 16-29, forced into prostitution in Phang Nga and Phuket.The victims, whose cell phones and passports were seized by the brothel owner, said they were beaten if they refused to work. They had been told they would be paid 150 baht per customer but the money was not paid.

Media Release Amnesty International has called into question President Thein Sein's recent commitment to clear Burma's jails of prisoners of conscience by the end of the year. On the same day he made this promise to delegates at a conference in London, police in Rakhine state arbitrarily detained a 74-year-old Rohingya human rights defender.

huffingtonpost.com While Thein Sein certainly enjoyed being given red-carpet treatment in Downing Street, there is nothing to show for the visit in terms of concrete pledges to improve human rights. The most we got is a repeat of a promise to release all political prisoners by the end of the year. Given Thein Sein's track record of lying, very few people in Burma believe he'll keep this promise.

trust.org The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said an estimated 27,000 people, including some Bangladeshis, have left from the Bay of Bengal between June 2012 and May 2013, while Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy group, puts the numbers at nearly 35,000. Either figure makes the exodus the largest in years. During the same time period a year earlier, June 2011 to May 2012, only 9000 people were thought to have left.

reuters Burma could go a long way towards resolving the refugee crisis by providing Rohingya papers that give them ''a legal basis for declaring their point of origin,'' said Michael Vatikiotis, Asian regional director for Humanitarian Dialogue, a conflict-mediation organisation. ''Countries like Malaysia have plentiful jobs for legal migrant labor, but so long as the Rohingya arrive as refugees without legal status, they are prone to trafficking.''

bbc.co.uk Heathrow Airport has unveiled three options for a new runway, saying each one would be ''quicker and cheaper'' than plans for a rival hub airport.

news.com.au A senior Pakistani Taliban commander has written to Malala Yousafzai, the teenage activist shot by militants, accusing her of ''smearing'' them. Gunmen from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) shot Malala, now 16, in the head in her home town in Swat, where she campaigned for the right of girls to go to school, last October.

nytimes.com After graduating from Northwestern University School of Law in May, Topher Michail headed to the beach at Phuket, Thailand, where he blows off steam after 10-hour study days by practicing muay Thai, a form of kickboxing, at a local gym.

aap The irate family of a Lebanese Druze woman who married a Sunni man attacked her new husband, cutting off his penis and pulling out his teeth.



bangkokpost.com The towering Romelu Lukaku look-a-like drilled a first-half penalty to give new-look Chelsea a 1-0 win over the Singha All-Star XI, who humbled Manchester United by the same scoreline last week.

bbc.co.uk Manchester United rejected Chelsea's opening offer for Wayne Rooney on Tuesday night and remain insistent the England striker is not for sale. Chelsea are understood to have offered 10m pounds in cash plus a player, thought to be either Juan Mata or David Luiz, in part exchange for the 27-year-old.

dw.de Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has been indicted by German prosecutors for alleged bribery. He stands accused of bribing a German bank executive over the sale of a stake of the motor-racing franchise with a $58-million payment.

news.com.au Chubby naked streaker Wati Holmwood, wearing only running shoes, handed Queensland an extra set of six at the most crucial stage of the state of origin series against NSW. Comment: NSW had 14 BUMS on the field!! and that's not counting the refs.



Until July 21 Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek

July 20-21 Toyota Motorsport Festival Phuket City

July 22 Arsarnha Bucha Day

July 22-24 Fifth annual Kathu Street festival. Opening night parade, 5.30pm

August 12 HM The Queen's Birthday

October 5-13 Phuket Vegetarian Festival

October 23 Chulalongkorn Memorial Day

October 29-November 3 Womens' volleyball, Karon beach

November 17 Loy Kratong Day

November 24-December 1 Challenge Laguna Phuket Tri-Fest. Laguna Phuket

December 5 HM The King's birthday



January 9-12 Phuket International Boat Show, Royal Phuket Marina

November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket