reuters Thailand's military government warned women against posting ''selfie'' photos of the lower half of their breasts - a social media trend that has gone viral - saying their actions could violate the country's computer crime laws.


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



therakyatpost.com Passengers experienced tense moments on board a KLM flight on landing in Bangkok after a small fire inside an overhead compartment for hand luggage. A spokesman for the Dutch airline said the cause was under investigation, but a passenger claims it was sparked by a lithium ion battery inside a traveller's bag, according to a report.

nst.com.my A three-month-old baby was among five Malaysians killed when the family's multipurpose vehicle they were in crashed into a lamp post in Satun, southern Thailand. Three others in the family were seriously injured. The family was heading back to Kedah after visiting relatives.

bernama The victims who died have been identified as Abdul Rahman Abdullah, 44, Ramlah Adam, 38 (wife of Abdul Rahman), Nur Aneesa Abdul Rahman, 21, Mehad Abdul Rahman, 7 and Hajimuddin Abdul Rahman, 3 months.



bangkokpost.com Polish tourist Kaparzyna Pietrzycki, 42, suffered serious facial injuries after she was hit with a high-heeled shoe by transvestite Plakad Somchan, 23, who had been talking to her husband in Pattaya. Police have charged him with assault.

stickmanweekly.com It's a great shame that so many foreigners who have done so much for the country - been pillars of industry, loyal servants of the education sector and even those who have long-term relationships with a Thai partner, built a home, had Thai children and perhaps even look after the extended Thai family of their spouse - aren't truly accepted.

nationmultimedia.com Police will seek the extradition of a man suspected of masterminding the hand-grenade attack on the Criminal Court last week, Royal Thai Police commander General Somyot Poompanmuang said. Suspect Manoon or Anek Chaichana, who is also known by the alias Anek San Francisco, has reportedly been living in Australia.

bangkokpost.com Bars will be banned and tourist numbers limited on Koh Tachai as part of measures to protect the Similan Marine National Park in Phangnga province.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/497041/islands-get-bar-ban-and-tourist-limit

afp Chinese tourists are flocking to the remote Palau islands as China's growing number of rich seek new frontiers abroad, but not everyone in the Micronesian paradise is happy about it. Some are worried the long-term damage may be too great: ''They wreck corals and throw their rubbish in the sea.'' ''Do we want to control growth or do we want growth to control us?''
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/foreign-relations/article/1738288/chinese-descend-remote-palau-wanderlust-deepens

independent.co.uk Vladimir Putin has said Russia was so fearful of attack at the height of the Ukraine crisis that it was preparing to arm its nuclear weapons, in extraordinary claims aired on state TV. Putin described the Ukrainian revolution as an armed coup ''masterminded by our American friends''.

reuters An Austrian newspaper reported that Putin was suffering from back problems, and that a Viennese orthopaedic expert had travelled to Moscow to treat him.

nationmultimedia.com UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon invited Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to attend the UN General Assembly in New York in September. The invitation came hot on the heels of Prayut's statement that may have led some people to believe the US has banned him from travelling to the US.

afp Strong currents hampered efforts to retrieve the bodies of victims of a ferry accident which killed at least 34 people off western Myanmar (Burma), as hopes dimmed for the missing. The ship was officially carrying 214 passengers and crew. But locals fear unregistered ticket holders may have been on board

reuters Brazil's government said 54 passengers died when a bus carrying evangelical Christians plummeted over a cliff in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.

news.com.au He's a tall, slim, middle-aged man with grey hair and a composed demeanor. But this ordinary-looking person is accused of being Australia's worst paedophile. Peter Scully is charged with some of the vilest acts known to humanity, including the torture and sexual abuse of children as young as 18 months old, human trafficking and the murder of a 12-year-old.
http://www.news.com.au/world/it-was-chilling-face-to-face-with-accused-paedophile/story-fndir2ev-1227263526533

birminghammail.co.uk Lance Whitmore who was caught in a Pattaya Supermarket with close to 200 ecstasy tablets seven month ago is now covered in sores, pale and pitifully thin, in Thailand's hellish Klong Prem prison. Crippled by tooth decay, the former soldier shares a cramped, furnace-hot cell, designed to accommodate 20 people with 78 other inmates.
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/former-soldier-lance-whitmore-faces-8841573

cnn.com Three teenagers, at least two of them British, are in custody at a central London police station after being stopped by Turkish authorities as they attempted to travel to Syria, police said.

smh.com.au Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has announced an initial $5 million aid package to cyclone-ravaged Vanuatu, after the monster category-five storm killed at least eight people, with fears the death toll may rise into the dozens.

mirror.co.uk Dolce and Gabbana have hit back at Sir Elton John after he called for a boycott of their fashion line. The designers have refused to back down in the IVF row where they claimed ''the only family is the traditional one''. Sir Elton ripped into Dolce and Gabbana after the designers branded IVF babies ''synthetic''.

reuters Four Americans who may have been exposed to the deadly Ebola virus in Sierra Leone have arrived in the US and are being observed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the hospital said.

news.com.au Five airline failures: About 4000 passengers were left stranded in 2012 when Air Australia went bust seemingly out of the blue, suddenly grounding flights around its network. It had pushed itself to the financial brink, literally running out of money to buy fuel on Phuket.
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/flying-into-failure-airlines-that-no-longer-exist/story-e6frfq80-1227262359412

nytimes.com With its sewer system under siege, tallying millions of dollars in equipment damage across its underground maze, New York City is confronting a menace that has gummed the gears of plumbing networks around the world: the common wet wipe.

thecitizen.org.au The ''arrogance'' of print media in refusing to adapt to emerging digital media technologies is the main reason behind the decline of newspapers, according to media executive Kim Williams: ''The costs of operation in running a newspaper are unsustainably high.''



washingtonpost.com During his last visit to Burma (Myanmar), in November, President Obama set five tests for measuring whether the transition from authoritarianism ''has been fully realised.'' The regime is failing all of them. It is proceeding with a vicious campaign to deny rights, including voting rights, to the Muslim Rohingya minority.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-failing-engagement-with-burma/2015/03/14/e77aa304-c365-11e4-9ec2-b418f57a4a99_story.html

Try Phuketwan's Asean Today daily:
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/asean-today-swiss-man-held-child-abuse-why-burma-working-stunt-planes-crash-gurkhas-face-axe-22056/



goal.com Tottenham put in one of their worst performances of the season as Manchester United punished them with a 3-0 win that represents a big blow in the top-four race.

news.com.au After one lap of Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, there were just 13 cars left in the race. After the last lap, there were just 13 spectators awake.

news.com.au A hundred from Sarfraz Ahmed helped Pakistan cruise to victory over Ireland and set up a World Cup quarter-final date with Australia.



April 11-19 Phuket Bike Week

April 13-15 Songkran Festival

May 4 Additional public holiday scheduled

June 20-21 Baba wedding at Old Phuket Town

July 15-19 Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek