abc.net.au Australia has ordered a ban on food imports from parts of Japan amid fears of radiation contamination from the country's crippled nuclear plant. The ban follows similar restrictions placed on Japan by the US, Canada, Hong Kong and the UK.


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

thisisscunthorpe.co.uk A plane crash in Thailand that killed 90 people could have been avoided, a coroner has said. Six failures to comply with standard operating procedure caused the One-Two-Go OG269 flight from Bangkok to Phuket International Airport to crash onto the island's runway and burst into flames on September 16, 2007.

bbc.co.uk Coroner Stuart Fisher said pilot error was partly to blame for the crash. But he added this had to be understood in the context of a corporate culture which encouraged the crew to work well beyond their safe flying hours and failed to provide them with adequate training. "It is my understanding, given the evidence that I've heard, that the airline company One-Two-Go exhibited a flagrant disregard for passenger safety," he said.
The coroner added: "The primary failure, as far as I'm concerned, relates to the corporate culture which prevailed both prior to and following the air crash. It seems to me that all airlines should place passenger safety as a matter of the highest priority. Clearly, this was not the case with One-Two-Go airlines."

walesonline.co.uk An air crash investigation expert has revealed the Phuket air disaster could have been avoided had the co-pilot flicked the ''Take Off Go Around'' switch. Phil Taylor, principle inspector of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch, told the inquest the crew breached standard operating procedures before flight OG269 crash-landed at Phuket International Airport.

telegraph.co.uk The Britons who died were Steven Saunby, 41, and his partner Susan Howell,27, who had travelled to Thailand to marry. Their friends Neil Slater, 43, and his wife Helen, 31, also died along with Alex Collins, 22, and girlfriend Bethan Jones, 22, and pensioners Anthony Weston, 68, and his wife Judith, 64, who were emigrating from Bristol to live in Australia. [One-Two-Go has since been absorbed by its parent, Orient Airlines.]

smh.com.au Passengers on a Qantas flight from the Philippines to Sydney were left terrified after pilots had to put out an electrical fire in the cockpit and the plane was forced to land in the far-north city of Cairns.

usatoday.com Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor had survived numerous illnesses and injuries during her lifetime, but in the end she succumbed at age 79 to heart disease, the leading killer of women in the world.

Associated Press Thai authorities raided a factory that was producing substandard 140 baht children's motorcycle helmets labeled with fake safety stickers. Bangkok factory owner Somkiat Yensa-ard was arrested and charged with producing products that do not meet government safety standards. He faces up to two years in prison.

scmp.com Hong Kong is banning all fruit, vegetables and dairy products from five quake-affected prefectures in Japan from noon today after three food samples were found to be up to 10 times acceptable levels.

reuters Tokyo residents were warned not to give babies tap water because of radiation leaking from a nuclear plant crippled in the earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeast Japan in the world's costliest natural disaster.

washingtontimes.com ''It is really scary. It is like a vicious negative spiral from the nuclear disaster,'' said Etsuko Nomura, a mother of children ages 2 and 5. ''We have contaminated milk and vegetables, and now tap water in Tokyo, and I'm wondering what's next.''

cnn.com The operator of the nuclear reactors and power plants on the northern coast of Japan has a documented history of errors and cover-ups and, according to anti-nuclear activists, a pattern of hiding the truth when things go wrong.

npr.org "A tsunami wave that hit a coastal city in Iwate Prefecture after the March 11 massive earthquake is estimated to have reached 23.6 meters in height, a government-commissioned field survey by the Port and Airport Research Institute showed Wednesday," Kyodo News reports. It wasn't a record, though. Kyodo says: "The tsunami wave measured in the city of Ofunato was lower than the domestic record of 38.2 meters marked in the 1896 Meiji Sanriku Earthquake Tsunami, and 34.9 meters logged in the wake of the 2004 earthquake off the Indonesian coast of Sumatra."

guardian.co.uk The team of UK pilots flying fast jets over Libya includes a woman who is understood to be the first to undertake combat missions in the RAF's new Typhoon fighter. About 12 percent of personnel in the RAF are now women.

afp Two more Indian airline pilots have been arrested for using fake qualifications to gain their flying licences, as regulators delve into a growing aviation safety scandal. After the men were detained in the western city of Jaipur, an anti-corruption police chief said the men had submitted forged flying certificates.

rfa.org People in Burma are grappling with a serious fuel shortage on the back of surging gasoline and diesel prices, but the commodity is being smuggled into China for higher prices there. Compounding the problem is a black market for fuel in Burma, with residents having to wait for hours and dig deeper into their pockets to pay for daily supplies.

speroforum.com In an attempt to limit access to the net and further maintain their stranglehold on communications, Burma's ruling generals ordered all public and private Internet cafes to stop overseas communication through Skype and other VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls, deeming them illegal.

prnewswire.com Want to holiday like the Royals? Princess Eugenie, daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah ''Fergie'' Ferguson, is said to be a fan of Phuket. Spotted at the trendy Lizard Lounge club, Eugenie was seen dancing on tables after she downed beer with ketchup for a bet during a wild night out.

eturbonews.com Thailand's first competition for medical-tourism bloggers, www.MedBlogContest.com, provided a dozen international finalists with an opportunity to witness first-hand the superior quality of treatments and procedures available for foreign nationals.

venturebeat.com As if you needed a reminder that the next browser wars have begun, Mozilla's Firefox 4 browser managed to double Internet Explorer 9's first day downloads in less than 24 hours, CNet reports. CNet noted that Firefox 4 had 4.7 million downloads a few hours before the end of the browser's first day of release, compared to IE9's 2.3 million downloads.

latimes.com Sudden spurts of moderate or intense physical activity like passionate sex (or even jogging) by people who don't get regular exercise greatly increase their chance of having a heart attack, researchers at Tufts Medical Center in Boston announced.



THE Tourism Authority of Thailand plans to host the Songkan Festival in 13 provinces - including Chiang Mai, Sukhothai, Kanchanaburi, Ubon Ratchathani, Phuket, Samui and Surat Thani (Had Yai) - and expects that this year's celebration would generate total spending of 2.2 billion baht.

PHUKET Navy League is planning a free Independence Day event on Sunday, July 3 from 10am to 7pm at Headstart International School, across the street from Makro, near Central Festival in Phuket City.

ST PATRICK'S DAY BALL. Life Home Project and Ireland's honorary consul Helene Fallon-Wood are hosting the Second St Patrick's Day Ball at the Movenpick Resort and Spa in Karon on March 26 with cocktails from 6.30pm and dinner to follow. Tickets at 4000 baht benefit the Life Home Project. Contact Khun Joojee 081 3979809 or Khun Eee or Nee 086 9469232. Tickets will be available at BAKE Chalong, Cherng Talay and BIS.

March 26 St Patrick's Day Ball, Movenpick Resort and Spa, Karon. Details 081 3979809 or 086 9469232
March 26 Earth Hour commemoration on Phuket
March 28-31 longboat races, Koh Panyee, Phang Nga
April 1 Turtle release, Banyan Tree seafront, Laguna Phuket
April 2 'To Japan from Phuket With Love' charity concert, Karon Beach
April 8-10 Phuket Bike Week, Patong
April 13-15 Songkran Festival
May New PPAO Hospital to open, Phuket City
June 12 Laguna Phuket International Marathon
June 23-26 Phuket Fun Fly paragliding, Nai Harn
July 20-24 Six Senses Phuket Raceweek
October Vegetarian Festival, Phuket
November 27 Laguna Phuket Triathlon
December 4 Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship, Laguna


March 18-28 National Youth Games, Phuket

Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket