theguardian.com Facebook was unavailable worldwide for more than 30 minutes on Thursday, the longest outage on the site for four years.

asiaradiotoday.com Thailand's military raided four foreign-language radio stations in Pattaya, closing three of them, reports Pattaya One. Several foreign language stations on Phuket also remain off air following the military crackdown.

theguardian.com Iraq has asked the US to stage air attacks on Sunni insurgents as the Islamist fighters edged closer to full control of Iraq's largest oil refinery and continued to hold out against troops trying to retake the city of Tal Afar.

reuters The European Union will delay signing an agreement on closer economic and political ties with Thailand and demands a swift return to democracy following the country's military coup, according to a draft document seen by Reuters early Thursday.

theguardian.com Amazon entered the smartphone war with the Fire Phone, a feature-packed device built for shopping and aimed at turning up the heat on rivals Apple and Google.


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 Royal Forest Department is to relaunch investigations into Phuket's Freedom beach foreshore and two other high-profile public parkland encroachment investigations. Title deeds have been issued on two plots of land totaling 65 rai in Khao Nak Kerd national forest reserve.

nationmultimedia.com The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) will introduce a smart-card system for the taxi queue at Suvarnabhumi Airport to end the ''mafia-style operation'' there. A computerised system, linked to the database of registered taxi drivers' personal history and fingerprints, will issue queue cards to taxis waiting to pick up passengers from the airport.

bangkokpost.com The army felt that the first priority in taxi management should be at the airport, for the sake of the country's image.

wsj.com The nation's generals, who took power in a coup last month, have stopped short of an outright seizure of the nation's 56 state-owned companies, which include Thai Airways International and oil-and-gas producer PTT. But they have put public pressure on the heads of these firms to resign, and many have begun to comply.

bangkokpost.com Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi and family have emerged as Thailand's largest land owner with 630,000 rai, as the junta considers approving a property tax for the first time.



nytimes.com The defending champion Spain failed in its attempt to win a second successive World Cup after a 2-0 defeat to Chile meant Vicente del Bosque's team was eliminated with one group game still to play.

theguardian.com Australia, the lowest ranked team at the World Cup, gave Holland one hell of a scare and can count themselves bitterly unlucky to leave Porto Alegre with nothing to show for their efforts. Australia 2-3 Holland.

reuters Croatia gave themselves a fighting chance of reaching the World Cup knockout phase for the first time since 1998 when they thrashed toothless Cameroon 4-0 with defeat condemning the Africans to an early tournament exit.

Cup Games Tonight
Colombia v Cote d'Ivoire; Uruguay v England; Japan v Greece



nationmultimedia.com The residential, office and retail property markets in Bangkok and the provinces are expected to recover in the second half of the year, with confidence now returning following the coup on May 22, according to research by property agency Colliers International (Thailand). Demand for luxury villas was still growing in Phuket.

dailymail.co.uk A white man speaking ''fluent English'' was in charge of a Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab which gunned down at least 60 people in a Kenyan coastal town on Sunday evening, according to witnesses.

afp A teary-eyed King Juan Carlos has sealed his abdication of the Spanish crown after a four-decade reign, clearing the throne for his 46-year-old son, Felipe VI.

cnn.com Japan has finally made the possession of child pornography a punishable offense. The bill notably excludes the possession of explicit anime or manga, a point of contention for campaigners who say that cartoons depicting child sexual abuse should also be banned.

stuff.co.nz The boat restaurant has no set schedule. It cruises the islands off Krabi. The skipper throws anchor wherever there's a beach with potential customers. On board are two cooks and two delivery boys, who deliver orders right to your boat or beach towel.

reuters The tiny particles in vehicle exhaust and other sources of air pollution may hasten cognitive decline in older adults, according to a new US study.

latimes.com C. David Burgin, a longtime editor who gained a reputation as a troubleshooter for fading newspapers, died at his home in Houston after a lengthy illness. He was 75.



dvb.no A senior UN official has referred to the humanitarian situation in western Burma's Arakan State as ''appalling,'' upon concluding a four-day visit to the country. Kyung-wha Kang, UN assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told reporters in New York that she witnessed ''a level of human suffering in IDP [internally displaced persons] camps that I have personally never seen before''.

reuters An overloaded wooden boat carrying 97 suspected illegal Indonesian immigrants sank off Malaysia's western coast, with rescuers searching for at least 42 missing people, Malaysian officials said.

bloomberg Pawnbrokers are proliferating across Singapore as gamblers seeking short-term loans add to demand for quick cash from people struggling to make ends meet in the world's most expensive city. Since Singapore's two casinos opened in 2010, about 20 percent of the increase in pawnbroking activity is driven by clients raising money for gambling.

postonline.co.uk According to analysis by AM Best the 10 Asean region economies are becoming an integral part of the global economy. Altogether Asean countries have grown their combined GDP 1.5 times the size of 2008 and three times that of 2003.

bloomberg Tiger Airways, the unprofitable low-fare carrier part-owned by Singapore Airlines, said its Indonesian venture will stop flying, as the budget airline tries to restructure operations.



July 11 Arsanha Bucha Day

July 16-20 Phuket Race Week yachting, Cape Panwa

August 12 Queen's Birthday

September 24-October 2 Vegetarian Festival, Phuket

October 23 Chulalongkorn Memorial Day

November 6 Loy Kratong

November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket

December 5 King's Birthday

December 10 Constitution Day

December 25 Christmas Day

December 26 10th Anniversary, 2004 Tsunami

December 31 New Year's Eve