A daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media. PLUS World Cup Watch, every day.

World Cup Scores: Paraguay 5:3 (on penalties) Japan Spain 1:0 Portugal
Screening July 2: 9pm Netherlands v Brazil 1.30am Uruguay v Ghana

guardian.co.uk Fifa president Sepp Blatter performed an uncharacteristic U-turn, promising to consider the introduction of goalline technology in the wake of Frank Lampard's disallowed goal for England against Germany. Blatter revealed he had apologised to the English FA over the Lampard incident and to their Mexican counterparts over a Carlos Tevez goal that was clearly offside during their defeat to Argentina.

nationmultimedia.com Tourist numbers in the first six months have improved only slightly from last year's level, while growth in third-quarter hotel bookings has also slowed, operators said. Prakit Chinamourphong, president of the Thai Hotels Association, said operators have received fewer hotel bookings for July and August, while hotels along Patong Beach on Phuket are experiencing 50 percent and many other parts of the island just 20-30 percent.

bangkokpost.com Tax incentives to help revive the struggling tourism sector will aim to encourage domestic tourism and offer assistance for small and large businesses alike, says Winai Wittawatkaravet, the director-general of the Revenue Department. Minor International, which operates the Four Seasons, Anantara and Marriott brands, said earlier this month that foreign arrivals were expected to drop to just 13 million this year, compared with an earlier forecast of 16 million and against 14.1 million last year.

smh.com.au Travel is a game of calculated risks, and if you spent your entire time ensuring everything you touched adhered to Western health and safety standards, you'd never leave the airport.

ft.com A veneer of calm may have returned to Thailand after the recent violent protests, but in the dusty villages of the opposition heartland, a deep well of resentment seethes and bubbles, threatening a new eruption. ''Some groups feel disappointed, and they want to give up, but others want to use violence against the government,'' says Maliwan Rojpatraphasit, a lawyer who was among the last demonstrators cleared from central Bangkok.

wsj.com While many of the demonstrators were from Thailand's poorer rural heartland, many of their backers are believed to hail from a new generation of entrepreneurs and businesses who are challenging Bangkok's old military and bureaucratic chiefs for a greater say in how Thailand is run, analysts say. Thailand's army-backed government is trying to shut those backers down and prevent any repeat of violence.

ft.com Ryanair is to cut capacity in the UK by 16 percent this winter as it shifts its aircraft to countries with cheaper airports and lower passenger taxes such as Spain. Europe's biggest budget airline said it would reduce the number of aircraft at its main UK base of Stansted, where it is by far the biggest carrier, from 24 last winter to 22. According to Michael O'Leary, chief executive, the capacity cuts would result in the loss of 2500 jobs at the airport in a full year and 1.5m passengers between November and March 2011.

nytimes.com Ford began laying the foundations for a large manufacturing plant in Thailand in February. Although red shirt protesters swarmed Bangkok's streets soon after, the American carmaker continued expansion plans. The story of its persistence tells a broader tale of Thailand's economic resilience and the continued loyalty of many companies, especially car manufacturers.

businessweek.com Thailand may lose its status as the world's top rice exporter to Vietnam by 2015 as higher costs and a weaker Vietnamese currency eroded its competitiveness, the Thai industry association for shipments said. Exports were 8.6 million metric tons last year, compared with Vietnam's 6 million tons, according to the US Foreign Agricultural Service.

bangkokpost.com Thailand has become the world's third largest operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores, beating Taiwan for the first time. Suvit Kingkaeo, senior deputy managing director of CP All Plc, the local operator of 7-Eleven, said there were about 5500 outlets in Thailand. Japan tops the list with 12,000 and the US has more than 6000.

nytimes.com Southeast Asia recovered swiftly from the global financial crisis that started in 2008, helped by large monetary and fiscal stimulus packages quickly adopted by governments to support domestic demand. Even Thailand surprised, despite its political troubles, with first quarter GDP up 12 percent from a year earlier, fastest growth in 15 years.

scmp.com Beijing and Taipei have signed a landmark tariff-reduction trade pact, bringing the long-term political rivals to their closest point since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.

xinhua Foreign tourist arrivals in Cambodia increased 11.5 percent in the first five months of this year compared to the same period last year. From January to May this year, Cambodia had received 1,054,821 foreign tourists, up 11.5 percent, compared to the same period last year of 945,807 tourists, said a report.

thesun.co.uk A Brit woman plunged to her death from a balcony while celebrating England's win over Slovenia. Pretty Sarah Royle, 31, suffered a brain clot in the accident on June 23. Paramedics managed to resuscitate her after she died on the way to hospital in Singapore. But doctors turned off her life support machine that weekend after her two sisters, Johanna, 35 and Premsa, 32, flew to be with her.

tyglobalist.org The antitrafficking organisation Free the Slaves estimates that worldwide, approximately 27 million people are currently enslaved for purposes such as forced sex, labor, and domestic servitude. This is more than double the number of Africans enslaved during the transatlantic slave trade. Southeast Asia is a hotspot for human sex trafficking, with Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam ranked either High or Very High as countries of origin for trafficked people.

stickmanweekly.com Letter: You think things may not be much fun these days in Bangers. Try a couple of weeks in Johannesburg where the restaurants, bars and cafes near my hotel are shut at night because no-one in their right mind goes out after dark, where there is a constant sense of danger, and where the incompetence of staff makes Thailand seem like Switzerland. Sure, there may not be gunfire on the streets, but there is undoubtedly a dystopian future in the west, and many sons of NZ, Australia, Britain, USA etc would sooner put up with some of the day-to-day annoyances of life in Thailand than watch their lives ebb away in their home countries.

Associated Press A student died at Malaysia's top military college after he was allegedly hazed and the authorities were investigating five of his schoolmates, one of whom had been expelled. The 17-year-old boys are being investigated for suspected murder in the death of Mohammed Naim Mustaqim Mohamad Sobri, who apparently collapsed after being kicked in the abdomen while he was doing push-ups as part of the alleged hazing.

Associated Press Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and three other Cabinet ministers have contracted swine flu and the premier is recovering after several days of medical care, the health ministry said.

bbc.co.uk A rare ''white elephant,'' a traditional symbol of good fortune and power in South-east Asia, has been captured in Burma, state media reports. White elephants are only nominally white - they often look reddish-brown in the sun, and light pink when wet. Analysts say the animal is likely to be brought to the capital, Naypyidaw, for the military ruler, General Than Shwe.



bbc.co.uk Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz admitted the best team won after Spain beat their Iberian neighbors 1-0 to book a World Cup quarter-final with Paraguay. David Villa's strike proved to be the difference in Cape Town. ''Spain had the better chances and I think, sadly, they deserved to win,'' said Queiroz.

washingtonpost.com Paraguay joined three other South American nations in the World Cup quarterfinals, outlasting Japan 5-3, in a penalty kick tiebreaker after 120 miserable and scoreless minutes.



July 4 US Phuket Navy League Independence Day free family picnic at the Headstart International Learning Center directly across from Makro (near Central Festival) in Phuket City from 10am-7pm.
July 9-18 Phuket Pineapple Show and Flower Festival, Saphan Hin park, Phuket City
July 21-25 Phuket Six Senses Race Week, Evason, Rawai
July 24 Third Worldwide Photo Walk, with at least one walk for photographers on Phuket
July 30 AustCham Thailand Sundowners at 4.30pm at Skippers, RPM. AustCham Thailand will host this Sundowners business networking session with a marine industry theme. Contact Harry Usher harry@ladypie.com 0812731740
October 1-3 Asian Hospitality and Travel Show, Central Festival Phuket Convention and Exhibition Center, Phuket City
December 4-11 Phuket King's Cup Regatta
2011
January 6-9 PIMEX boat show, Royal Phuket Marina
February 9-13 The Bay Regatta - Phuket, Phang Nga, Krabi