Associated Press About 30 children were buried by a landslide that hit a Malaysian orphanage and two bodies have been recovered. Selangor police said firefighters and villagers pulled out six children who were critically injured.


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

bangkokpost.com The board of Thai Airways International endorsed a plan to establish a new budget airline to directly compete with AirAsia. The national carrier wants to create an airline, tentatively known as Thai Wings, because its attempt to form an affiliate with Singapore-based carrier Tiger Airways has gone nowhere.

bloomberg.com Tiger Airways, part-owned by Singapore Airlines, announced plans to buy a 33 percent stake in Indonesia-based PT Mandala Airlines as it competes with AirAsia for budget travelers across Southeast Asia. It also reported a 94 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit after its Australian unit suffered from tax charges and a slowdown in demand.

xinhua Tiger said that Mandala will adopt the business model of Tiger Airways and will offer low-fare travel to international and domestic destinations with a five-hour flying radius from Indonesia, the Business Times reported.

myfoxal.com Andrew Velasquez, 22, of Boston, is going to ignore a US preacher's prediction that May 21 is Judgement Day. "My plans are to take in the apocalypse at a birthday party," he said. "And then tomorrow, in exchange for my impending doom, I'm going to go to a beer festival."


Phuket Police Commander Major General Pekad Tantipong is proving to be a real ''crime fighter'' as he works out in a gym each day for a charity bout with Thailand's most famous boxer at Saphan Hin in Phuket City on Tuesday. The event is to aid police who lost homes and businesses when floods struck Thailand's southern provinces.

cnn.com Former IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released on bail from the jail cell on Rikers Island where he had been held for nearly a week, the New York City Department of Correction website said.

abcnews.go.com Strauss-Kahn, indicted on seven counts of sexual assault against a hotel chamber maid, was released into the custody of private security firm Stroz Friedberg. Under a bail agreement, Strauss-Kahn will be allowed to stay in the Stroz Friedberg's corporate apartments and will be monitored around the clock.


Phuket Update Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is to visit Phuket on Thursday for a Democrat rally at Saphan Hin public park in Phuket City. Phuket is regarded as a stronghold for the Democrats, who are expecting a strong challenge nationally from the Pheu Thai party, now being led by fugitive PM Thaksin Shinawatra's sister, Yingluck.

bangkokpost.com Business operators around Ratchaprasong intersection are to sue the government and leaders of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship for loss of revenue. ''If the government can't handle this issue and lets demonstrations happen everywhere, it should not manage the country anymore,''' a spokesperson said after Thursday's large anniversary red shirt rally.

time.com On the one-year anniversary of a bloody confrontation between red shirt protesters and Thai government security forces that left scores dead and Bangkok in flames, the opposition Pheu Thai party listed 10 Red Shirt leaders among its candidates for parliament in national elections scheduled for July 3. But the controversy over Red Shirt leaders running for office was overshadowed by the party's choice for its lead candidate: Yingluck Shinawatra, who Pheu Thai hopes will become Thailand's first woman Prime Minister, should the party prevail at the polls.

nationmultimedia.com The top five 'people searches' online in Thailand in 2010 were for Seh Daeng (MajGeneral Khattiya Sawasdiphol, who was fatally shot during the red shirt rally last May); Annie Brook (who hit the headlines after revealing that famous singer ''Film'' Rattaphum Tohkongsap was the father of her child); Phraewa (who was perceived as showing no remorse for causing a fatal road accident); Thaksin (Shinawatra); and Tono of The Star reality show, according to TrueHits.

eonline.com Universal Studios Theme Park in Singapore is giving Arnold Schwarzenegger a big ol' hasta la vista, baby. The scandal-plagued actor was disinvited from a scheduled appearance at the amusement park's opening festivities this weekend, a source tells E! News.

independent.co.uk Britain's Lord Chief Justice made an outspoken attack on "modern technology" and drew a parallel between those who spread lies on the internet and paedophiles who circulate child pornography. Lord Judge called on society to bring "under control" those "who in effect peddle lies about others" online.

bangkokpost.com The iconic Sino-Portuguese architecture of Phuket has added value to local souvenir products after a manufacturer decided to incorporate small replicas of the island's buildings in his packaging. Phuket architecture adorns 14 types of local sweets and pastries for Pornthip Sea Store by Pornthip (Phuket) Co.

smh.com.au The latest edition of The Economist ranks Australians as the world's biggest gamblers per capita, spending the equivalent of 902 euros ($A1208.75) each last year.

asiaone.com Malaysian police said they have handed a businessman suspected of channelling funds to a Philippine Islamic militant group to Singaporean authorities. A senior official in the police special task force for operations and counter-terrorism, who did not want to be named, told AFP that Singaporean Abdul Majid Kunji Mohamad was handed over.

nzherald.co.nz Police and foreign governments have said that Jemaah Islamiyah used al-Qaeda money to fund the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202. But it's unclear how much influence al-Qaeda still wields on Indonesian militant groups, which are constantly splintering and morphing.

rnzi.com Solomon Islands have booked a place at the Fifa Futsal World Cup Thailand 2012 after after a dramatic come-from-behind 6-4 victory over Tahiti in the final of the OFC Futsal Championship in Suva.

stuff.co.nz Fiji authorities say there have been no casualties or injuries after high waves struck the country's popular Coral Coast tourist area. Several hotels have been affected by the waves, which were triggered by a slow moving trough of low pressure.



Until May 22 Phuket's nightly village fair of local products, food and entertainment, Saphan Hin, Phuket City
May 24 Charity boxing at Saphan Hin in aid of southern flood victims
May 27-29 Phuket International Rugby Tens
June 1 New PPAO Hospital to open, Phuket City
June 6-11 Phuket Snooker Championships, Patong
June 10-11 Traditional Baba wedding festival, Phuket City
June 12 Laguna Phuket International Marathon
June 17 Phuket Property Dot Com Pro Am Invitational, Laguna
June 23-26 Phuket Fun Fly paragliding, Nai Harn
July 3 Phuket Navy League US Independence Day fair at Headstart International School
July 15 Asarnha Bucha Day public holiday
July 20-24 Six Senses Phuket Raceweek
August 12 HM The Queen's Birthday public holiday
October Vegetarian Festival, Phuket
November 1-6 Women's Beach Volleyball Series at Karon on Phuket
November 26-27 9th Phuket International Soccer 7s
November 27 Laguna Phuket Triathlon
December 3-4 6th Andaman International Soccer 7s
December 4 Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship, Laguna


March 18-28 National Youth Games, Phuket

November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket