straitstimes.com Some 50 next of kin of MH370 passengers boycotted a meeting in Beijing in anger as Malaysia had not sent an official to meet them despite their repeated requests for a high-level government contact.


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 Beleaguered Thai Airways is mulling the sale of 30 local and overseas office buildings and staff residences in an effort to halt its financial bleeding.

nationmultimedia.com China strongly opposes Thailand's decision to allow registration of a Falun Gong association and has already protested to the Thai government, a Chinese Embassy official said.

bangkokpost.com The confirmation of Glyn Davies as the new US ambassador to Thailand, a position left vacant for 10 months, is unlikely to ease the tense relationship between Washington and Bangkok, said political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Chulalongkorn University.



nationmultimedia.com Police chief General Somyot Poompanmuang called the meeting of related officials from 22 coastal provinces to report the progress of measures they have taken to curb human trafficking.

thefinanciaexpress-bd.com The foreign ministers of Bangladesh and Malaysia have agreed to work closely to find a permanent solution to the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar's Rakhine state. Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali and his counterpart, Anifah Haji Aman, met in Kuala Lumpur on the sidelines of the 22nd Asean Regional Forum.

dailymail.co.uk Australia has turned back 20 boats carrying 633 migrants in the last 18 months, the country's immigration minister announced. Official figures reveal the country has only taken in 25 Rohingya.



worldcoal.com Alstom Power Systems and Marubeni and the consortium of Power Construction Corp. of China and Italian-Thai Development have both put forward bid submissions for a proposed construction of a 48 billion baht coal-fired power plant in the southern province of Krabi, Thailand.

afp All eyes were on brash billionaire Donald Trump as the Republican Party's White House hopefuls prepared to do battle Thursday in the first debates of the 2016 race.

nationmultimedia.com Former Tourism Authority of Thailand governor Juthamas Siriwan will be indicted for allegedly accepting 60 million baht in bribes in 2010 in exchange for giving two US film executives movie festival contracts, an anti-graft official said.

bangkokpost.com Vietnam suspended an air link between Can Tho and Bangkok, less than a month after the launch, as the service struggled to show it could be profitable.

AP France will divert more resources to the search for MH370 wreckage off the coast of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, following the discovery of a wing part thought to belong to the missing plane. Additional plane parts had been found on the island, as well.

cnn.com ''I don't believe it,'' one family member told CNN. ''This announcement is very irresponsible.''

reuters A suicide bomber killed at least 15 people in an attack on a mosque used by members of a local security force in southwest Saudi Arabia, the interior ministry said, an assault that an online statement said was carried out by Islamic State.

independent.co.uk The IS militant group has executed 19 women in its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul for refusing to have sex with fighters, a Kurdish official has claimed. Said Mimousini, a spokesperson for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), said that IS's treatment of women and dealings with money were proving to be increasingly divisive within the organisation's own ranks.

cnn.com The remains of the two Japanese climbers have been found, police said, 45 years after they went missing on the Matterhorn.

metro.co.uk Almost anyone can be called up for jury duty. The 43rd President of the United State George W Bush honored his civic duty and appeared in court as a potential juror in his home state of Texas. He was not selected.

cnn.com After years of waiting and speculation, we can collectively exhale: Jennifer Aniston has finally tied the knot. Aniston and fellow actor Justin Theroux made it official in an intimate ceremony at home, sources told People magazine.



todayonline.com Trade ministers of 12 countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade initiative are unlikely to meet again by the end of this month amid remaining differences that prevented them from reaching a broad deal last week, negotiation sources said.



theage.com.au England Humiliate Australia: Australia's Ashes hopes are in tatters after posting 60 in the shortest first innings in Test history. Then Joe Root alone more than doubled their score.

antony green/tweet The first test innings in history where the ball by ball summary fits in a tweet.

smh.com.au An angry Lionel Messi was lucky not to be red-carded after headbutting and grabbing the throat of Roma's Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa. Both players were given yellow cards after the ugly exchange in the pre-season match, which Barcelona went on to win 3-0 at the Nou Camp.



August 12 HM The Queen's birthday

August 23-30 Por Tor (Hungry Ghost) Festival

September Quicksilver surf carnival at Patong beach

October 15-23 Phuket Vegetarian Festival

November Patong Festival

November 20 Laguna Phuket Triathlon

November 25 Loy Kratong festival

November 29 Challenge Laguna Phuket 2015

November 29 Phuket King's Cup Regatta

December 5 HM The King's Birthday

December 26 Tsunami memorial ceremonies