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



bangkokpost.com The international ratings firm Moody's says Thai families and small businesses are taking out too many loans, driving up debt and default too quickly.

thehindu.com The death toll in the Indian Army's strike on two militant camps inside Myanmar could touch 70 as defence officials spoke of keeping up the pressure on anti-India insurgents operating from there. In a late-night development, the Myanmar government denied any raid on inside its territory.

nationmultimedia.com About 10 percent of trips to South Korea have been cancelled for fear of Mers, the Thai Travel Agents Association said.

bangkokpost.com A Thai woman returning from South Korea to Samut Prakan is voluntarily undergoing mandatory 14-day medical surveillance to check on whether she has contracted the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) virus.



nationmultimedia.com Public prosecutors dealing with the Rohingya trafficking case will be ready to indict all 53 suspects in custody by June 25, deputy Attorney General Somnuek Siangkong said.

DPA A two-week mission by the Thai navy to provide humanitarian assistance to Rohingya refugees is due to end, officials confirmed.

gulf-times.com Bangladesh has started demolishing illegal Rohingya settlements in forests surrounding the southeastern tourist city of Cox's Bazar, officials said. ''We began the drive on June 4 when we demolished 51 dwellings illegally set up by Rohingya and would continue the eviction and demolition of illegal structures scattered in the forest,'' Cox's Bazar south forest division chief Ali Kabir told newsmen.

bbc.com Four experts discuss with the BBC World Service Inquiry program who can and will help the Rohingya.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33007536



news.com.au A murder charge against a 59-year old Western Australian man in Thailand has been dropped after security footage backed his claim he was acting in self defence when a security guard was killed in a fight outside a nightclub. Mark Pendlebury, a long time resident of Phuket, known on the resort island for his sailing tours and signature captain's pipe and hat, was charged with the murder of a 26-year-old security guard stabbed in a scuffle outside the nightclub in the early hours of March 11.

nnt Krabi, a famous tourism province of Thailand, has stepped up MERS-CoV surveillance to ensure safety of all tourists, revealed chief of the Krabi Public Health Office Panas Soponpong.

bangkokpost.com Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha was in the East, where he said the long-term solution to the chronic water shortage is more freshwater lakes. [Ed: Agreed. Phuket needs a sensible water retention strategy.]

swimmingworldmagazine.com It was an absolutely incredible night for British International School, Phuket (BISP) in the pool on Sunday 7 June at the 28th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, currently underway in Singapore. In one evening, the school's student-athletes - representing Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand - brought home one gold, one silver and one bronze medal, in intense competition against the finest swimmers in the whole of Southeast Asia.

AP Militants tried to attack the ancient temple of Karnak in southern Egypt, with a suicide bomber blowing himself up and two gunmen battling police. No sightseers were hurt in the thwarted assault, but it suggested that Islamic extremists are shifting targets from security forces to the country's vital tourism industry.

bbc.com Bangkok University has published dress codes for transgender students, showing how either ''ladyboys'' or ''tomboys'' can dress according to their chosen gender and still stay within the official dress code. Transgender people are unusually visible in Thailand.

skynews.com.au Indonesian woman Noor Ellis has been sentenced to 12 years jail for ordering the murder of her Australian businessman husband Robert Ellis in Bali. Prosecutors had recommended Ellis get 15 years in prison for paying five men $14,000 to kill her 60-year-old husband. Instead she was sentenced to 12 years jail, with Judge Wirakanta saying her politeness and remorse had counted in her favor.

ndtv.com The bodies of German schoolchildren killed in the Germanwings plane that was deliberately crashed in the French Alps arrived in their grieving hometown. Tearful friends and loved ones lined the route in Haltern as the procession of hearses, 14 white vehicles carrying the teenagers and two black cars with their teachers, rolled past their high school.

bangkokpost.com Opinion: The NRC has declared war against Thaksin, instead of identifying the real enemy of democracy that lurks beneath: money. If faith is the enemy of reason, then money has shown itself to be the true enemy.

washingtonpost.com After the nearly three decades, and three never-aging tykes, they have had together, TV's longest-running couple is calling it Splitsville. (''Mmmm . . . a tasty split.'') Yes, Marge will be as blue as her towering hair, because Homer seeks a cure for his narcolepsy, and soon ''falls in love'' with the woman who can treat what ails him: a pharmacist.



theguardian.com The father of a British woman arrested in Malaysia for posing naked on Mount Kinabalu has appealed to the authorities not to make an example of her, amid fears for her safety after the prank was blamed for causing a deadly earthquake.

Try Phuketwan's Asean Today daily:
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/asean-today-face-quake-romp-charges-suu-kyi-china-volcano-rumbles-singapore-campus-shuts-22638/



Phuket Update Local farmers are set for the 18th annual Phuket Goat Fair, which will be held June 11 through 13 behind Tesco Lotus in Cherng Talay.

June 20-21 Baba wedding at Old Phuket Town

July 14-16 Trial of Phuketwan journalists at Phuket Provincial Court

July 15-19 Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek