UPDATING All Day, Every Day
voanews.com Reports from eastern Ukraine say gunmen have attacked a checkpoint manned by pro-Russian separatists, killing at least four people
NNT Thailand is stepping up preventive measures against coronavirus after a man has reportedly died of the disease. The man had traveled to Saudi Arabia where he came in direct contact with a camel.
foxnews.com A robotic submarine looking for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane continued to dive after completing about half of its search on the bottom of the Indian Ocean with no luck.
voanews.com Angry relatives of hundreds of missing inside a sunken South Korean ferry clashed with police on Sunday as coastguard divers retrieved 10 more bodies from the ship and the official number of dead rose to 46 people.
PhuketWATCH Daily Media Wrap
PHUKET: The daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media. Beware of inconsistent imitations.
Today's Top News Items
timesofisrael.com Israel has asked Thailand to step up security in the coming days along two Bangkok streets that are popular with backpackers after allegations surfaced of a Lebanese terrorist plot against Israeli tourists in the area.
news.com.au Bodies are being recovered from a ferry that sank off South Korean while the vessel's third mate - said to be at the helm - was taken into custody.
bangkokpost.com Democrats and Pheu Thai on Tuesday will be in the same room for the first time in months. They'll talk elections but that doesn't mean the opposition will run.
thehimalayantimes.com About 70 Nepali nationals doing time in different prisons in Thailand have requested the Nepali Embassy and Non-Resident Nepali community to help them ''get transferred'' to Nepal to complete their sentences.
Phuket World of People
bangkokpost.com Editorial The contrast could hardly have been starker: On Monday, a major news agency won the Pulitzer Prize for their work exposing Thailand's involvement in the trafficking of Myanmar's oppressed Rohingya minority through what it called a tropical gulag''. On Thursday, two journalists running a small, independent website in Phuket were formally indicted for criminally defaming the Royal Thai Navy by quoting part of the award-winning report. Those pursuing [Phuketwan] are looking increasingly misguided and vindictive, especially in the face of international recognition for the Reuters report.
Navy must end its attack on reporters
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/405691/navy-must-end-its-attack-on-reporters/
jamaica-gleaner.com The English-language news website Phuketwan posted a story last July carrying excerpts from a report by the Reuters news agency alleging that members of the Thai military were involved in trafficking captured immigrants from Myanmar's beleaguered Rohingya ethnic minority.
bangkokpost.com Opinion What's not great, post-Pulitzer, is that the Rohingya still suffer and their hopeless wanderings across the lonely Andaman persist. What's also not great is that two Phuket-based journalists, Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian, have been sued by the Royal Thai Navy for defamation for quoting the Pulitzer-winning report that alleged the navy's involvement in the trafficking of Rohingya refugees.
ap The charges against Alan Morison, the website's Australian editor, and his Thai colleague, Chutima Sidasathien, came several days after Reuters won a Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for its series on the violent persecution of the Rohingya.
andrew-drummond.com The real media story of the week is the case of Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian who have been charged with criminal libel and libel under the Computer Crime Act for using one sentence of a Reuters story on a subject they know a lot more than Reuters on their website Phuketwan.
reuters Asked for comment on media freedom in Thailand, a Reuters spokesperson said: ''We support the principles of a free press everywhere in the world - and the rights of journalists to go about their jobs without fear or hindrance in reporting the truth.''
Phuket Update The 70 million baht one-stop Phuket yacht center, completed two years ago but swamped by bureaucratic debate, will open on Monday at Chalong pier to trial equipment and staff. Yachts will be tracked in the Phuket region by a computerised GPS-type system.
bangkokpost.com Two men testing a new Phuket bungee jump die when cords fail in an accident expected to lead to renewed calls for proper regulation of such attractions.
nationmultimedia.com Two workers were killed and another injured after a wire sling snapped while they were testing a new bungee jump south of Phuket City. The two dead men rode the platform to the ground while the third jumped into the pond.
watoday.com.au Taxi drivers charged with hundreds of crimes are still driving around the streets of Perth because the Department of Transport had not suspended or cancelled their taxi licences. The Taxi Council of WA backs moves to get rid of rogue drivers.
nationmultimedia.com Five men from Yala out hunting carrying shotguns who reportedly got lost in the jungle and wandered into Malaysia on Thursday were freed.
More News from the Region and the World
bangkokpost.com Police found 1900 ping-pong bombs ready for delivery after raiding a damaged house in Samut Prakarn in search of clues into the death of a six-year-old girl. One of two blasts made a crater of the kitchen.
thehindu.com Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong asked Singaporeans to welcome foreigners, saying those who show bigotry are a ''disgrace to Singapore''. Mr Lee said he was appalled to read about those who harassed the organisers of the Philippine Independence Day celebrations.
scmp.com A strong 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck off Papua New Guinea's Bougainville Island but there was no risk of a widespread tsunami, seismologists said.
bangkokpost.com A former member of the Thai Airways International Plc (THAI) board has backed the blanket privatisation of the financially ailing national flag carrier. The airline would face critical debt in the next six months if nothing is done to solve the problem, warned Banyong Pongpanich.
anantara Indonesia is now putting in place industrial development programs across the country in an effort to create a new economic growth momentum and emerge as a new Asian economic tiger.
cnn.com Two days after an international pact was brokered with the stated goal of easing tensions in Ukraine, the major players met again in Kyiv to hash out plans to push it along but ended their meeting offering little indication of progress.
latimes.com Talk about clingy! A newly discovered cave insect can copulate for up to 70 hours, possibly because the female has a ''penis-like'' sexual organ that penetrates deeply into her male partner, anchoring him for the duration, scientists say.
traveldailymedia.com A group of hotels on Bangkok's Chao Praya River have joined forces to create a new marketing alliance.The new Bangkok Riverside Marketing Partnership includes the Anantara Bangkok Riverside & Spa, Chatrium Hotel Riverside Bangkok, Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, Millennium Hilton Bangkok, The Peninsula Bangkok, Ramada Plaza Bangkok Menam Riverside, Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel & Towers and the Shangri-La Hotel Bangkok.
Latest on Lost Flight MH370
bbc.com The search area for the missing MH370 plane has narrowed and will be at ''a critical juncture'' in the next two days, says Malaysia's acting transport minister.
hindustantimes.com Australian officials supervising the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 said that an underwater search for the black box recorder based on ''pings'' possibly from the device could be completed in five to seven days.
reuters A US Navy deep-sea drone is diving to unprecedented depths to scour a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean floor and the Malaysian government said it may use more remote control submarines.
express.co.uk Since 1948, 100 aircraft have gone missing in flight and never been recovered. Aviation history is peppered with disasters that defy explanation.
Phuket World of Sport
afp Sunderland, the league's bottom club, condemned Chelsea to their first home Premier League defeat under Jose Mourinho with a stunning 2-1 victory that took Liverpool a step closer to the title.
bangkokpost.com Thailand is not interested in hosting the 2019 Asian Games after Vietnam withdrew from organising the tournament for financial reasons, Thai officials said.
abc.net.au ''The Indonesian people would be proud of being the 2019 Asian Games host country after it held the Games several decades ago,'' said Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) official Ade Lukman.
Phuket Coming Events 2014
Until April 20 Phuket International Cricket, Republic Ground, Chalong
Until April 19 Phuket Bike Week
April 20-27 Phuket Pride Week
April 26 Vote for mayor in Patong, alcohol sales banned in election area from 6pm April 25 to midnight April 26
April 30 US Embassy Outreach, Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort, 8am-noon.
May 24 Visakha Bucha Day
July 11 Arsanha Bucha Day
August 12 Queen's Birthday
September 24-October 2 Vegetarian Festival, Phuket
October 23 Chulalongkorn Memorial Day
November 6 Loy Kratong
November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket
December 5 King's Birthday
