UPDATE
telegraph.co.uk Luxury cruise liner Azamara Quest, believed to carrying 700 passengers and 400 crew, is adrift east of Malaysia after its power was knocked out by an engine room fire.
PhuketWatch Daily Media Wrap
PHUKET: A daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media.
huffingtonpost.com German architect Ole Scheeren took his talents to Thailand to unveil a stunning floating movie theater off the island of Kudu Noi, near Phuket, Architizer reports. The stage and screen, framed by fairy tale pillars rising out of the water, were part of the annual 'Film on the Rocks' Yao Noi festival, which took place in March.
ibtimes.com The festival, which took place earlier this month, ''aspires to become an alternative platform upon which different worlds converge in order to start a dialogue with not only each other, but also the environment, human and natural, with which it co-exists.''
carrentals.co.uk Car rental agents in Phuket gathered to say one lost eight vehicles to a pair of carnapping women and another says she was blackmailed to deposit 300,000 baht to a bank account if she wanted her rental back. The renters want the media to raise awareness because police haven't been able to recover all the stolen cars.
telegraph.co.uk Authorities in Thailand must act to stop the perennial problem of pollution in Chiang Mai, writes Chris Coplans, who says, ''I have never see the pollution as bad as it was last week. Hospitals have been inundated with cases of respiratory problems. Until Thailand and its neighbors get to grips with the problem, much of this part of the country could be off limits to travellers every spring.''
upi.com Every year, from February through April, "slash-and-burn" farming in the countryside surrounding Bangkok fills the air with smoke, the British newspaper The Guardian reported. This year, air pollution levels are far beyond Europe and US safety levels. [Phuket has no air pollution problem.]
afp Indonesian police killed two suspected terrorists in a raid on the outskirts of Jakarta less than two weeks after officers shot dead five suspects on the resort island of Bali.
bloomberg.com Aung San Suu Kyi is among those standing in by-elections tomorrow for 43 of the Burma legislature's 664 seats to fill posts vacated by lawmakers who joined President Thein Sein's government. Her National League for Democracy party questioned the fairness of the election, citing vote-buying, incorrect voter lists and an incident where a candidate was almost hit with a betel nut.
AP The elections represent a key step for national reconciliation after more than two decades of bitter struggle which set the ruling military against a pro-democracy movement led by Suu Kyi and which turned Myanmar into a shunned, pariah state with stunted development.
smh.com.au Suu Kyi may be offered a role as roving ambassador for the new Burma when she enters parliament, a job she would enjoy and do well. She has spoken of the possibility of making a trip overseas for the first time in three decades.
bangkokpost.com During a phone-in to a red shirt rally fugitive former PM Thaksin Shinawatra invited supporters to meet him in Vientiane on April 12 and 13 and in Siem Reap on April 14 and 15. It is estimated that up to 10,000 supporters from Udon Thani alone will travel to the two neighboring countries this Songkran holiday.
nationmultimedialcom The Democrat Party convened its annual convention unveiling the 15-point strategy to grab power by 2015. The strategy, to be implemented over four years from this year to 2015, spelled out action plans to enable the Democrats to achieve a majority to lead the next coalition government.
bangkokpost.com Disgruntled growers who dumped thousands of pineapples on the main highway to the South have persuaded the government to meet their demands for a price increase. Wirat Tomol, chairman of the pineapple growers group in Prachuap Khiri Khan, said canneries told him they would resume buying pineapples on Tuesday.
afp Malaysian state religious and education officials have changed the title of a teachers' seminar on "the threat of Christianity" following outrage from non-Muslims in the multiethnic country.
therage.co.au A Bangkok-based tourism company was at the centre of scheme to transport Thai women to work in the Australian sex industry illegally, a court has heard. And a former Thai cosmetic saleswoman allegedly held a slave in a Canberra brothel says turned to prostitution to help put her son through school and pay off the mortgage on her family's rice field.
channelnewsasia.com Singapore has been ranked the fifth most important city in the world by high-net worth individuals. It has moved up two notches. However, the Republic took second spot after London for its quality of life.
smh.com.au From tomorrow, the passengers who already pay the most tax in the world - Australians visiting Britain and Britons visiting Australia - will pay $140 imposed by the British government, up 8 percent.
theage.com.au Among many good things about Hong Kong is the public transport. A taxi to Kowloon Station (about $8), an easy bullet train ride to the airport ($15) and pretty soon we're winging home.
scmp.com The graft investigation into the joint chairmen of Sun Hung Kai Properties and a former principal government official wiped HK$38 billion from the company's market value as spooked investors feared the case could undermine the leadership of Hong Kong's biggest developer.
reuters Buzz is building around the largest lottery jackpot in world history - at least $640 million - ahead of the Mega Millions drawing in Atlanta.
Phuket World Sports Wrap
bangkokpost.com The Sports Authority of Thailand has banned mixed martial arts (MMA). "It is brutal and it is not boxing," said SAT deputy governor Sakol Wannapong who oversees professional sports. "Organising a MMA event here would hurt the image of Muay Thai."
dailymail.co.uk Arsenal's manager Arsene Wenger has been handed a three-match ban by UEFA relating to his conduct after the Champions League round of 16 defeat against AC Milan. He allegedly called the referee a ''f---- disgrace.'' Wenger says he will appeal.
autoweek.com Negotiations are under way for a Formula One Thailand Grand Prix, Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz has confirmed: ''Thailand could host a Formula One race in the next two or three years.''
Phuket Coming Events 2012
EVERY year on March 31 at 8.30pm, the Earth Hour - an initiative by WWF (World Wildlife Fund) - is observed. It has spread over 5200 cities and towns and has inspired 18 billion people across the globe.
Until April 1 Phuket International Boat Show, Royal Phuket Marina
April 7 Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation election day
April 13-15 Songkran New Year Festival
April 20-22 Phuket Bike Week
April 23-28 Phuket Pride Festival
April Opening of Gardens by the Bay, Singapore, three waterfront gardens that will dwarf Kew in London and provide ''green lungs'' for the city.
May 1 Labor Day public holiday
May 5 Krabi celebrates the province's 140th anniversary
May 5-7 Corontation Day long weekend
May 9 Royal Ploughing ceremony day
May 26-June 5 National Youth Games, Phuket
Phuket Coming Events 2014
November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket
Sounds like more of the nonsense the Western press always writes about Thailand. I was there in November. The floods were mostly gone except for some rice fields and a few neighborhoods in the central part of the country. Bangkok was almost completely dry. Visibility in Chiang Mai was perfect. Upon visiting the Buddhist temple on top of the mountain overlooking the city 1800' feet up, the entire valley Chiang Mai was in had perfect visibility. If you visit Thailand, don't worry, and believe nothing the Western press writes about it.
Posted by hanno phoenicia on March 31, 2012 06:58
Editor Comment:
The burning season is February to April, hanno phoenicia, and as the author of the Telegraph piece writes: ''In more than 20 years of visiting Chiang Mai, I have never see the pollution as bad as it was last week.'' The Telegraph article continues: ''In Europe and the United States, according to the widely used PM10 scale, the air is considered dangerous if pollution levels reach 50 microgrammes per cubic metres. During our stay, the level in Chiang Mai peaked at 216.65; farther north, in Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai provinces, which have some of Thailand's most popular trekking paths, levels reached 431.6. On March 20, Nok Air, the country's premier domestic airline, cancelled all flights to Mae Hong Son indefinitely.'' Nonsense? I don't think so . . . even if Nok Air isn't quite the country's ''premier domestic airline.'' To draw a link between reporting of the floods and Chiang Mai's pollution is stretching things.