bbc.com Israel and Hamas have said they have accepted a 12-hour humanitarian window in Gaza. The truce is due to begin at 0800 local time. Efforts to negotiate a seven-day ceasefire are still ongoing.


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 Thailand's hotel industry is not expected to recover by the start of the high season in October, says the Thai Hotels Association. ''The key factor for the hotel business is lifting martial law, at least in resort destinations such as Phuket, Krabi, Samui, Hua Hin and Cha-am,'' said President Surapong Techaruvichit. The Phuket model, which purports to clamp down on the taxi mafia and other scams and clean up the beaches on the island, was a good start and should be applied to other destinations.

nationmultimedia.com Pornthip Hirunkate, vice president of the Tourism Council of Thailand, said the private sector would ask the military rulers to lift martial law in tourist destinations such as Pattaya, Hua Hin, Cha-am, Samui and Phuket. Other areas can follow later. If martial law is lifted, tourists will be able to buy travel insurance before coming to Thailand or during their stay. Average occupancy at hotels across Thailand in June dropped by 25 percent after the coup.

bangkokpost.com The military has been keeping a close watch on former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra since she flew to Paris where she will attend self-exiled brother Thaksin's birthday party on Saturday. A Royal Thai Army source said her every move was being monitored while she is in France.

theindependent.co.uk With its army asking for more time to deal further blows to Hamas, the Israeli government's security cabinet rejected US Secretary of State John Kerry's proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.



nzherald.com Low season in Phuket corresponds nicely with our dismal winter. Accommodation prices drop, sometimes dramatically, making Phuket affordable at the time we most desire it. This coincides with Northern Hemisphere summer when a whole swag of Europeans tend to stay at home. That means more loungers for us.

nationmultimedia.com The junta chief denied that the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) was planning to exercise its power to control media, saying it needed cooperation from the media to help maintain peace and order in the country: ''We are just asking the media to be careful when they report news.''

bangkokpost.com The National Council for Peace and Order has spent the past week defending a new media policy that journalists say amounts to intimidation and makes it difficult to do their jobs.

pattayamail.com Pattaya officials have suspended operations of Koh Larn Travel Co., the operator of a ferry that sank last year, killing seven tourists. The deaths and injuries aboard the Koh Larn Travel I occurred not only because the captain was abusing methamphetamines while working, taking the boat off course, but because it was severely overloaded and lacked sufficient numbers of life jackets and flotation devices.

nationmultimedia.com Singer Tata Young said she and new husband Mor met when they were 16 and had indeed been an item, but then split up, only to reunite in May, when they happened to meet in Phuket, where he has a hotel business.

trust.org About 86,000 Rohingya people left Rakhine state in Burma (Myanmar) by boat between June 2012 and April 2014 to start new lives, and rights group say the exodus will continue.

voanews.com With Thailand's military government firmly in control, authorities are carrying out plans they say are aimed at restoring discipline, morality and patriotism to all Thais. The measures include a crackdown on illegal gambling, education reforms to promote students' moral development, and a new 24-hour phone hotline for citizens to report misbehaving monks.

thestar.com.my Police have advised Malaysians to avoid travelling to southern Thailand following a car bomb explosion outside a hotel in Betong, Yala, that is reported to have killed two people and injured up to 55. More than 6100 people have been killed in near-daily bombings and shootings in the Muslim-majority region near Thailand's southern border with Malaysia since 2004.

bangkokpost.com Editorial: While the rationale behind the ''good deeds passport'' for schoolchildren is not a bad one, the project is tangible proof of how the top-down bureaucracy has lost touch with modern society.

ft.com Britain has finally emerged from its longest economic slump in more than a century, an achievement hailed by chancellor George Osborne as a ''major milestone'' in the recovery from the financial crash and six years of lost growth.

thetimes.co.uk A butler who was taking tea to a guest's room has been crushed to death by a lift at Burghley House, the manor featured in the television series 'Middlemarch.'

rudaw.net Up to four million women in parts of northern Iraq controlled by the militant Islamic State (IS) face the risk of undergoing female genital mutilation, according to UN officials in Iraq. ''The militant group is reported to have issued an order requiring women in Mosul to undergo FGM,'' said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, Jacqueline Badcock.

afp A campaign to promote male circumcision to prevent AIDS infection also indirectly benefits women by reducing their risk of contracting the HIV virus, according to a study presented at the world AIDS forum in Melbourne.

holidaysplease.co.uk Thailand is renowned for its stunning beaches and popular islands such as Samui, Krabi and Phi Phi. Whilst these islands are truly beautiful, we have discovered a new Thailand favorite, Trang.

Historic Anniversary July 28, 2014 marks the centenary of the first world war's outbreak in Europe.



afp Dozens of the victims are still unaccounted for and Australia and the Netherlands are preparing to deploy police and troops to secure the sprawling crash site in rebel-held eastern Ukraine. Dutch authorities said some 227 bodies have been accounted for, suggesting that those of 71 victims have not been recovered.

nzherald.co.nz The fate of Malaysia Airlines remains uncertain. Options for the loss making airline include full nationalisation, merging with another carrier and, no matter what, a rebrand.

afp Charity workers in Burkina Faso, entire families, expatriates, tourists . . . the victims of the Air Algerie crash in Mali have left behind scores of shell-shocked relatives and friends.



themalaymailonline.com Singapore's Straits Times defended today Singapore's decision to increase the fee on foreign cars entering the republic, but rapped Putrajaya for the apparent retaliation of a new surcharge for cars entering from the city state.

channelnewsasia.com At least three people died after an overloaded boat ferrying Indonesians home for the coming Hari Raya festival sank off southern Malaysia, a maritime official said.



evertonfc.com Everton's first-team squad and coaching staff have touched down in Thailand ahead of their friendly against Leicester City on Sunday.

abc.net.au Didier Drogba completed a remarkable return to Chelsea, signing a one-year deal to rejoin the club where he wrote his name into the record books and spearheaded the most successful period in its history.

belfasttelegraph.co.uk Bebe's nightmare spell at Manchester United has finally come to an end after he was sold to Benfica.



August 11 Special holiday for Queen's Birthday

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



February 13-15 Phuket Yacht Show