Tourist Killing, Child 'Under Bodies'; Phuket Prober Pushed Aside; New Viagra Costs 25 Baht; Peace Team Eyes Phuket

independent.co.uk Four people died in a brutal gun attack on a British-registered car in the French Alps after what police believe may have been an attempted robbery or hijacking. There has been a series of robberies and attempted hijackings of tourist cars in France this summer.

news.sky.com A four-year-old girl has been found alive hidden in a car under the bodies of the victims of a shooting in the French Alps. Public prosecutor Eric Maillaud told AFP the child was only discovered when investigators gained access to the crime scene, some eight hours after a cyclist happened upon the carnage.

bbc.co.uk A large number of spent cartridges are said to have been found on the ground around the BMW. Three of the four victims of the shooting appear to have been British tourists.

guardian.co.uk Benita Veliz, a young Hispanic, struck a blow for immigrant rights when she became the first undocumented person to address a national political convention. Veliz openly proclaimed her unauthorised status in front of millions of American TV viewers at the Democratic Convention.

''I want to nominate a man cool on the outside but burning for America on the inside.'' Bill Clinton nominates Barack Obama for president.

xinhua Two people were reportedly killed in the 7.6-magnitude earthquake that jolted the western coast of Costa Rica.

bbc.co.uk Roger Federer was knocked out of the US Open with a surprise defeat by sixth seed Tomas Berdych, who will face Andy Murray in the semi-finals on Saturday.

PhuketWatch Daily Media Wrap

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

nationmultimedia.com Many Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission officials wore black to protest the transfer of secretary-general Colonel Dusadee Arayawuth to the Justice Ministry. Leaflets detailing cases - including one related to forest encroachment on Phuket - claimed Dusadee was removed after he turned down requests to cover up wrongdoings.

nationmultimedia.com ''I can tell you that the suspects behind some big cases are quite close to certain influential figures,'' Dusadee said at an exclusive interview with The Nation. ''Some of my younger colleagues wear jackets with the Justice Ministry logo, but I wonder if they have ensured justice for anybody.''

bangkokpost.com Experts say the scandal involving a member of the Yoovidhya family will lead to a backlash against Red Bull, one of the world's best-known Thai trademarks. Consumers, academics and public relations gurus agree that sales of Thailand's third best-selling energy drink will drop for a few months because of the incident.

ft.com Much of the commentary has focused on the widespread view that Thailand's wealthy and politically connected elite get away with crimes. It is common to read of suspended jail terms handed to offenders with aristocratic surnames or strong political connections.

bangkokpost.com The Central Wage Committee will implement the 300-baht minimum daily wage across Thailand from January. It said studies have shown there has been no adverse impact on economic growth from wages increases so far on Phuket and in six other pioneer provinces. There would be no further increases in 2014 and 2015.

nationmultimedia.com Private-sector organisations have called on the government to review its plan to extend the 300 baht minimum daily wage nationwide amid uncertainty over global economic growth, which would result in the double whammy of reduced sales for exporters amid higher production costs.

bangkokpost.com The Government Pharmaceutical Organisation plans to produce a generic anti-impotence drug that costs 25 baht and says it will be available in the marketplace from October 15. Silagra is a Viagra equivalent that contains generic sildenafil, the same drug that powers Viagra, which costs 200 baht.

nationmultimedia.com The Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council, officially established yesterday, will set up its secretariat in Thailand and meet once a year. [Could Phuket become the group's home? Members of the council flew to Phuket last night and are staying at the Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket Resort.]

bangkokpost.com Thailand's global competitiveness ranking has risen one place to 38th, breaking a six-year streak of declines, according to the World Economic Forum. Government instability ranked as the top problem for businesses, followed by corruption and policy instability.

nst.com.my Malaysia slipped by four notches to 25th position in the latest Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013.[Switzerland ranks most competitive, with Singapore second and Finland third.]

wsj.com Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan are among the most competitive economies in Asia and the world, according to the latest rankings from the World Economic Forum.

bangkokpost.com Home buyers must be extra cautious in purchasing condos in Pattaya as smaller developers are expected to face difficulties in actually starting construction of their projects, according to a major developer, SET-listed Raimon Land.

thejakartapost.com Bali is struggling to cope with diminishing water resources that have been over-exploited to meet the increasing demand for clean water for tourist-related facilities while the industry has done little to solve the problem, a study concluded. Tourism absorbed 65 percent of the island's total water supply, said British academic Dr Stroma Cole: ''In many tourist destinations, including Bali, the availability of water is reaching the crisis point.''

reuters Sweden is the most effective at using the internet to improve people's lives, ahead of the US and Britain, while Austraila places eighth, according to a global survey launched by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web Foundation's Web Index measures the economic, social and political impact of the internet.

bbc.co.uk Pattaya is saddled with a sleazy reputation and that includes all the trappings that come with so-called sex tourism. 'Fast Track' reports on the efforts to keep the city safe and ambitious plans for changing its image.

travel-news.co.uk Despite an international outcry over human safaris in the Andaman islands, the local administration has bowed to the high demand to visit the homelands of ethnic tribes.The plight of the Jarawa tribe highlights exploitation as a tourist novelty. At the height of the tourist season, there can be as many as 150 private tour vehicles on the first convoy of the day.

news.com.au Qantas is expected to announce a partnership with Middle Eastern airline Emirates today. some Qantas flights would transit via Dubai instead of Singapore. Qantas would no longer fly to Frankfurt, its last port in mainland Europe.

cnn.com Cathay Pacific, the world's largest carrier of air cargo, will stop shipping unsustainably sourced shark products in a move marine conservation groups characterised as a big step forward in efforts to protect the animals.

telegraph.co.uk Years of multi-national firms being absent from Burma's markets have proved a field day for the copycats and fakers who have exploited the pent-up demand among the country's consumers for western goods that were barred by international sanctions against the pariah military dictatorship. But all that is beginning to change fast.

telegraph.co.uk ''Of all noxious animals ... the most noxious is a tourist,'' wrote the clergyman-diarist Francis Kilvert in the 19th century. Scarcely anyone has had a good word before or since. The tourist, reckoned Evelyn Waugh, was ''a comic figure, always inapt in his comments [and] incongruous in his appearance''. I sense heads nodding.

smh.com Thailand is not a dangerous country. I would confidently tell anyone to go there for a holiday, to enjoy culture in the north, to play in the south, to soak up the buzz of Bangkok in the middle. But for some reason the only times I've ever feared for my life have been in Thailand.

businessinsider.com Autopsy reports on Canadians Audrey and Noemi Belanger, found dead in their hotel room on Phi Phi in June, show they may have been poisoned by the insecticide DEET, CBC news Montreal reports. [The presence of insecticide in the bodies was first reported by Phuketwan.] The news agency accessed the womens' autopsy reports from a Bangkok hospital.

wired.com Even Phuket Wan (which seems remarkably tough-minded for a publication focused on tourism) seems unconvinced by the mosquito repellent hypothesis, noting that it would be unusual for only two people to be poisoned by a shared bucket drink. Could it be a cover up, the paper asked, for a heavy-handed use of insecticide in the sisters' room? Insecticides have been suspected in some of the other deaths.
Could it be that island authorities were trying to hide the existence of a killer who was deliberately spiking drinks? Or, slightly less creepily, that the women had been killed by excessive use of insecticides by hotel management and that authorities were moving to protect reputations? ''All options remain open,'' the paper warned, until the authorities produce evidence of a much more meticulous investigation. Writer Deborah Blum is author of 'The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York'.

news.com.au IT'S an airline horror story to rival many others: a woman has been awarded $US80,000 over a mid-flight spider bite. Brandi DeLaO, 38, was left with a hand-sized ''crusty, oozing mass of dead skin'' on her thigh after the incident on a Delta Airlines flight to South Africa earlier this year, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Sourced: phuketwan