afp The leader of Thailand's Red Shirt movement, Jatuporn Prompan, called Thursday for a national referendum to resolve a political deadlock.

thephuketinsider.com According to data from STR Global, average occupancy at Phuket resorts for January-April hit 81.7 percent. Comparing this to the same period in 2013, the impact of Bangkok demonstrations resulted in a 1.6 percent drop.

reuters EBay Inc said that hackers raided its network three months ago, stealing some 145 million user records from a database in what is poised to go down as one of the biggest data breaches in history based on the number of accounts.

afp California police have arrested a 41-year-old man accused of kidnapping a teenager and sexually abusing her for a decade, after the alleged victim got in touch via Facebook.

economist.com It may look like one, it may sound like one, but the army insists this is not a coup, and that the civilian government is still in place.


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



nytimes.com A day after imposing martial law, the Thai military on Wednesday put leaders of the country's polarised political camps in the same room in an effort to end six months of political deadlock. A second meeting was planned for Thursday afternoon.

bangkokpost.com The parties involved in the political conflict have agreed that the crisis must end quickly after talks with the army chief to find a common solution. The army chief and all parties were tight-lipped after the meeting.

gmanetwork.com As soldiers fanned out onto the streets of Bangkok - hailed by Time Magazine only last year as the world's most visited city - most shops and businesses stayed open and transport ran normally. The caretaker government led by supporters of self-exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra said it was still running the country and the army said it was not staging a coup. Kellie Carty, a spokeswoman for Australian travel agency Flight Centre Ltd, said visitors were unlikely to cancel trips altogether but would avoid stays in Bangkok.

nationmultimedia.com Senators are considering the appointment of a new prime minister with full authority to run the country, in a bid to find a way out of the political impasse, sources in the upper House said.

bangkokpost.com A Swedish man fell to his death from the third floor of a Phuket guesthouse in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The body of the 50-year-old Swedish national was found on the ground outside the Absolute Guesthouse near Soi Nanai 2 in busy Patong area about 2am, according to Kathu police. [Witnesses said he had an argument with his wife before jumping.]



gmanetwork.com Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents President Hamzah Rahmat said any impact of military law in Bangkok was likely to be short-term and mostly affect the capital. ''The riot is only in Bangkok - Phuket is booming,'' he said.

cnn.com During a wander along popular Bangkok streets, locals could be seen snapping photos of the soldiers and their guns, a few of the bold ones asking military personnel to pose for selfies. On social media, a Thai hashtag on Twitter that roughly translates to ''Show me a cute soldier'' quickly grew in popularity, with locals sharing pics of those they deemed pin-up worthy.

AP Thailand's latest round of political turmoil has prompted the army to declare martial law, once again propelling into international headlines a colorful country known for its beaches and pagodas, spicy food and nightlife, and relative prosperity in a developing region.

globalnews.ca There appears to be relative calm in the country compared to the scenes of violent crackdowns on protesters months earlier. Several photos of foreign tourists and Thai citizens taking photos of and posing with soldiers have circulated widely online.

news.com.au Fighting bulls skewered or trampled all three matadors in an extraordinary upset at Madrid's prestigious Las Ventas bullring, forcing the entire spectacle to be cancelled.

scmp.com Hong Kong needs to rethink its approach to manpower and technological innovation, economists say, after it dropped out of the top three in a global competitiveness survey for the first time in a decade.

reuters The United States has deployed about 80 military personnel to Chad as part of its effort to help find and return more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, President Barack Obama said in a letter to Congress

smh.com.au Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith are reportedly under investigation by child protective services. A controversial photo showing their daughter Willow, 13, in bed with 20-year-old actor Moises Arias has sparked the alleged investigation.

express.co.uk Scientists have been left baffled after discovering female pigs may be able to tell whether a sperm will produce a boy or girl before it reaches the egg.



wsj.com A Chinese engineering and construction company said four of its workers had been killed in anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam last week, raising the confirmed death roll from such violence from two to six.

abc.net.au Some asylum seekers at the Australian-run immigration processing centre on Nauru have been advised they will be sent to Cambodia if they are found to be refugees.

afp The United Nations children's agency defended its Myanmar office rental as ''competitive'', following a report that it was paying up to $90,000 a month amid surging prices in the commercial hub Yangon.

allafrica.com UK public broadcaster Channel 4 has released video footage of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe entering a private hospital in Singapore. Wife Grace Mugabe can be heard asking the cameraperson ''You shouldn't take photo; why are you taking photo?''

huffingtonpost.com Singapore is approaching its yearly ''haze'' season, when smoke from forest clearing in Indonesia chokes the air, with this year likely to be worse than 2013's record pollution thanks to lack of action in Jakarta and an expected El Nino weather pattern.



afp Former world No.1 golfer Rory McIlroy announced he had broken off his engagement to Danish tennis player Caroline Wozniacki only days after sending out the wedding invitations. ''The problem is mine,'' McIlroy said. ''The wedding invitations issued at the weekend made me realise that I wasn't ready for all that marriage entails.''

nationmultimedia.com Thailand's women's football team scored a historic success by securing their first World Cup appearance with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Vietnam in the AFC Women's Cup.

afp At age 11, Lucy Li has become the youngest golfer ever to qualify for the US Women's Open. Li, of Redwood City, California, earned her spot in the tournament by firing rounds of 74 and 68 at a sectional qualifying tournament.

goal.com England have won the Under-17 European Championship by beating Netherlands on penalties in Malta.



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