Our daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective. Reports from national and international media, with translations into English from Thai.

Straits Times Malaysian PM Najib Razak on Sunday defended police who used tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters and also arrested several hundred people, including teenagers, on Saturday. The demonstration against the controversial Internal Security Act drew thousands of protesters downtown, and the chaos sparked massive traffic jams and disrupted train services. About 550 protesters were allowed to go on Sunday, but civil liberty groups demanded the release of the remaining protesters, including a 16-year-old boy.

Bangkok Post Official records show a sharp rise in criminal offences at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, especially those involving shoplifting, but it is not easy to get a clear picture of the number of cases involving extortion. Records at the Ratchathewa police station, which oversees the airport area, show that since 2008 there have been 207 theft cases at the airport. Of these, 78 resulted in convictions, 66 are under police investigation, 10 have been dropped and most of the rest are being handled by prosecutors. A member of the National Anti-Corruption Commission said Thailand's reputation has already been damaged by publicity from recent cases: ''This is not a small issue and it deserves serious investigation.''


dailymail.co.uk Spa trends for 2009 are clear: raw food is rockin' - fruit, veg and nuts are ''cooked'' below 42C to maximise nutrient content. Colonic irrigation is back in fashion and the workout of the moment is kinesis. Six Senses is a mecca for macrobiotic A-listers. The raw food is seriously impressive, while the hotel's carbon footprint is tiny as 95 percent of everything consumed is local, which is why they have no meat. Choosing between Six Senses, off Phuket, and Hua Hin's Chiva-Som is tricky. But both prove one thing: in economically uncertain times, there's only one solid investment. Your health.

3news.co.nz A brave audience kept their distance in Thailand, as a group of ear-splitting contestants attempted to break the Guinness World Record for the loudest scream. Eleven competitors qualified for the final from a field of over 1500 entrants in the competition, held in Pattaya. Russian man Sergey Savelyev came out on top with a loudest scream of 116.8dB, well short of the world record of 129dB set by Britain's Jill Drake in London in 2000 but the loudest in this competition.

bbc.com The Philippines has declared 10 days of mourning for Corazon Aquino, Asia's first female president, who has died at the age of 76. Hundreds of people have tied symbolic yellow ribbons to cars and trees. Mrs Aquino had been suffering from colon cancer. She became president when the 1986 ''people power'' uprising deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos, catapulted into politics following the murder of her husband, who had been preparing to run for president. Mrs Aquino said of her husband's death: ''His sacrifice, certainly, awakened the Filipino people from their apathy and indifference.''

bloomberg.com Thailand's industrial production fell for an eighth month in June as the global recession slashed demand for automobiles and processed food. The magnitude of the drop was the smallest since November. A measure of manufacturing production dropped 7.8 percent from a revised 9.8 percent decline a month earlier. Southeast Asia's second-largest economy, in its first recession in a decade, may return to growth in the fourth quarter, the Bank of Thailand predicts, citing indications the worst of the contraction has passed.

hoteliermiddleeast.com London has always been a draw card for Arab Nationals during the May to August period - but this year there are signs that contrary to global trends, these tourists are spending more than usual. Hotels such as London's biggest five-star hotel, the Grosvenor House, have been at 100 percent occupancy for some weeks now and around 90 percent of guests hail from the Middle East. The personal shopping service at Harrods revealed that one Middle East client spend $50 million on luxury products in one morning - making the department's budget for the entire year - while the buyer for established British luxury goods company Asprey London reported similar spending patterns by Middle East clients.

AFP Spain's tourism sector fears a deadly bomb attack on the island of Majorca could scare off holidaymakers at the height of the season. Majorca, which attracts millions of foreign tourists every year, was in shock over the killing by suspected Basque separatists of two policemen in the beach resort of Palmanova. Many of the tourists at Palmanova's hotels, which have 30,000 rooms, were stunned by the massive security that followed the attack. There were some 400,000 tourists on the island, which was temporarily sealed off. Spain's media has also lashed out at the treatment of the attack by some foreign newspapers, notably in Britain, which it said focused on the effect on holidaymakers rather than the deaths of the two policemen.

oanow.com Auburn University student Michael Harrie's two-week odyssey began with an undelivered message. Harrie, reported missing July 16, spent the last few weeks traveling in Thailand and briefly in Malaysia, Paul Harrie, his father, says. Michael Harrie was supposed to meet his parents in Tokyo, but decided to take the side trip to Thailand. Paul Harrie said his son's e-mail about the change of plans never arrived. ''That's the reason I think he may have been a little surprised that this happened,'' Harrie said. ''He was under the assumption he had contacted us and we knew.'' The 29-year-old learned he was missing from Thai hotel staff, who recognised him when he tried to check in.

guardian.co.uk Question of the week: Should people travel abroad and risk the spread of swine flu to unaffected areas? Yes, says John McEwan, chairman of the Association of British Travel Agents: Staying away from countries reliant on tourism will have a real impact on the livelihoods and incomes of millions of people. Tourist services are often the main source of employment in many countries and any drop-off in visitor numbers is potentially disastrous. No, says Robert Dingwall, an adviser to the government on planning for pandemic flu: Modern air travel means you can be infected at home, travel in an infectious condition and deliver the virus to a remote destination with a vulnerable population before your own symptoms appear. You will get whisked off to a Western-style hospital, but the people you went to help will not be so lucky.

wsj.com It is difficult to understand bullishness about Singapore Airlines when the carrier itself is warning of a difficult year. The airline posted a $212 million loss for the quarter ended June and said it could be headed for its first ever full-year loss. Analysts collectively expected a near break-even quarterly figure, and still forecast an annual profit.

monstersandcritics.com Burma's military regime has collaborated in recent years with North Korea and Russia to develop a reactor capable of producing one nuclear bomb a year by 2014, say news reports based on the testimony of two defectors. A two-year investigation into Burma's nuclear ambitions by Desmond Ball, a regional security expert at the Australian National University, and Phil Thornton, an Australian journalist based on the Thai-Burma border, says Burma is excavating uranium in 10 locations and has two uranium plants in operation to refine uranium into ''yellowcake,'' the fissile material for nuclear weapons.

foreignpolicy.com Burma's widespread poverty and brutal autocracy are a cancer in the heart of Asean. Since the junta rejected the results of the country's last elections in 1990, Burma's people have grown poorer as its ruling elite have grown richer from trade in gems, timber, narcotics, and other commodities, as well as the development of offshore natural gas fields that will deliver billions of dollars in revenues to Burma's governing elite over the coming decade. Civil conflict stemming from the junta's rule has produced millions of internally displaced people and refugees. Forced and child labor are rampant. The pathologies that afflict Burma's failing state, all either derived or exacerbated by political misrule, make its regime a threat to its people, its neighbors, and the wider world.

scmp.com Greg Torode writes: From the perspective of North Korea's paranoia, the possession of nuclear weapons is entirely logical. The US has never invaded a nuclear armed state. And with 27,000 US soldiers stationed in South Korea, even its basic strategic assumptions have had to be rewritten following Pyongyang's n-tests. There is a growing realisation that unless a way is found of seriously addressing North Korea's security concerns in any discussions, there is unlikely to be any progress. Expect a continued pattern of highly destabilising missile and even nuclear bomb tests in the meantime.

smh.com.au The Australian Trade Commission told one of its most senior diplomats that he was under police investigation for alleged child sex offences, allowing the man to resign quietly and return home, where he later repeatedly sexually abused a 15-year-old boy. John Finnin held a top-secret security clearance from the Australian Government until July 2006, at a time it was alleged he was involved in an international child sex ring. No charges were laid on this matter. On Friday a court remanded Finnin for sentencing after he was found guilty last month of 23 child sex charges after a trial lasting almost three weeks.

vindy.com When Governor Ted Strickland signed Ohio's first trafficking-in-persons law, most Ohioans probably wondered why this state would even need such a statute. After all, the news stories have focused on countries like Thailand, where the child sex industry is thriving. But a report released this week by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center shows that America is not exempt from this scourge. Indeed, the Greater Cincinnati Human Trafficking Report, which notes that 100,000 to 300,000 American youth are at high risk of being trafficked for sex, describes Ohio as a high supply, transit and destination state for victims. Cases have been identified throughout Ohio. It is a problem - nationally and globally.

AFP Malaysia's newspapers are facing a serious challenge from online news portals, which are winning a reputation for being fast and more credible than the government-friendly press. The number of Internet newspapers has mushroomed from one to eight over the past two years, with new titles appearing in Chinese, Malay and English to cater to the multicultural population. Engineer Ryan Kong, 30, clicks on the website of pioneer portal Malaysiakini to get his daily dose. ''There are the cost and convenience factors, and I can get today's news today rather than wait until tomorrow for the newspaper,'' he said.


Phuket Campaign on Litter Broadens to Energy
Latest The Clean Up Phuket Campaign is growing and attracting widespread support. Now it embraces the need to save energy and to recycle, too.
Phuket Campaign on Litter Broadens to Energy

Phuket Monkeys Win 60m Baht Mangrove Home
Latest Monkeys in a large mangrove forest near Phuket City are likely to be safer with the implementation of a 60 million baht improvement plan for the area.
Phuket Monkeys Win 60m Baht Mangrove Home

Ancient Phuket Giants Fall to Timber Poachers
Latest Phuket loses some mahogany giants to timber poaches, and the governor warns that people need to be on the lookout to prevent more heritage destruction.
Ancient Phuket Giants Fall to Timber Poachers

Pattaya and Patong: Keep Your Shirt On, Please
Latest Patong and Pattaya both have reputations for being holiday towns where anything goes. But it seems the lines are clearly drawn, as police revealed in two cases this week.
Pattaya and Patong: Keep Your Shirt On, Please

Motorcycle Rock Throwers Held for Attempted Murder
LatestLike paid assassins, the youths rode alongside a target vehicle then hurled a rock through the windscreen. Now four Phang Nga boys face attempted murder charges.
Motorcycle Rock Throwers Held for Attempted Murder

Phuket Monks Don Flu Masks: Photo Special
Photo Album Monks at a Buddhist temple on Phuket have donned masks in a blessing ceremony organised by Public Health to spread the word, not the flu.
Phuket Monks Don Flu Masks: Photo Special

Green Ban Halts Fast Patong-Chalong Road
Latest A new road between Patong and Chalong that would cut the time and distance to one quarter has been blocked, much to the Governor's displeasure.
Green Ban Halts Fast Patong-Chalong Road