AirAsia Shifts to Don Muang; Phuket Pair Confess; Bali Murder Probe; Phuket Events

nationmultimedia.com Budget airline Thai AirAsia announced it would move its base of operation from Suvarnabhumi to Don Muang Airport, thanks to attractive incentives. The news ended a month-long row over its relocation - a move the government was forced to take because of overcrowding at the new airport.

smh.com.au Singapore Airlines has singled out Australia as one of two markets it is targeting for growth in flights this year in yet another ominous sign for Qantas's loss-making international operations. Qantas's arch-rival plans to boost flights from Australia to 112 a week - from its present schedule of 102 - by the end of this year.

traveldailynews.asia According to the Phuket Tourist Association, 10 years ago a 600 million baht plan was establish for a comprehensive system of police cars, security cameras and a surveillance centre for Phuket. However, only 20 million baht was finally attributed by the government of the time with Patong district mostly benefiting from the funding. Patong remains today one of Phuket's safest areas for travellers.

bangkokpost.com The rapid expansion of European exhibition conglomerates in the Asean and Asian regions could drive local exhibition companies to "extinction," the head of the Asian Federation of Exhibition & Convention Associations warned last week.

smh.com.au Two men arrested in Thailand over the stabbing murder of Perth travel agent Michelle Smith last week have allegedly confessed to the crime, Phuket police say.

mcot.net The first suspect who allegedly stabbed the victim [Michelle Smith] was identified as Surasak Suwannachote, 26. He fled to Chumphon province while the other man, Surin Thatthong, 37, who drove the motorcycle, fled to Samut Sakorn province.

3aw.com.au A Geelong woman has been stabbed five times after refusing to hand over her handbag to a robber. The 25-year-old was walking home alone along Ryrie Street just after 3am when she was attacked.

smh.com.au Indonesian police have opened a murder investigation into the death of an Australian man found on the side of a road in Bali. It was initially thought Mark Ovenden, from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, may have died after falling from his motorcycle.

theage.com.au An autopsy carried out by forensic specialists at Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar has revealed the primary cause of death was asphyxiation. It has also been revealed that there was evidence of blunt force trauma on Mr Ovenden's head and neck.

bangkokpost.com A Malaysian court approved the extradition of Iranian Masoud Sedaghatzadeh to Thailand on suspicion of being involved in an alleged bomb plot against Israeli diplomats in Bangkok.

lfpress.com One of the most profitable organised crime enterprises on the planet, human trafficking shackles an estimated 1.2 million children and for every victim - child and adult - drawn into the sex trade, nine are forced into inhuman working conditions in homes, fields, factories or on boats.

gq-magazine.co.uk A Thai proverb gives 'Catching The Sun' (HarperCollins, ??12.99) its epigraph: ''Do good - get good. Do bad - get bad.'' If Alex Garland's 1996 novel 'The Beach' was 'Lord Of The Flies for Koh-Samui', then Tony Parson's take on present day Phuket is 'Conrad's Heart Of Darkness' for grown-ups that fancy a gap year.

Euro 2012 and World Sports Wrap

afp Five-time champion Venus Williams suffered her worst Wimbledon defeat in 15 years, slumping to a first-round exit at the hands of Russia's Elena Vesnina, but defiantly insisted she would not quit.

belfasttelegraph.co.uk Jose Manuel Lara has been disqualified from the BMW International Open in Cologne after his caddie tried to hide the fact that the Spaniard began the event with an extra club in his bag. Lara was thrown out of the event.

bangkokpost.com A consumer rights group kicked off a campaign calling for a boycott of GMM Grammy's products and services in a backlash to the Euro 2012 dispute.

Sourced: phuketwan