reuters As many as 700 people are feared dead after a boat carrying migrants capsized off the Libyan coast overnight, in one of the worst disasters seen in the Mediterranean migrant crisis, officials said.


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



bangkokpost.com Key National Reform Council figures say new charter may not be perfect but is likely to be endorsed. If it isn't, NRC will be dissolved and members will lose their six-figure monthly salaries.

nationmultimedia.com Several Education Ministry officials have been transferred or suspended from duty pending probes over alleged corruption or irregularities, deputy government spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd said.

bangkokpost.com The Japanese expat whose online complaint about airport taxi rip-offs went viral in January is back with a new 750-baht horror story. [Ed: Every Bangkok rip-off taxi story is a shadow of the rip-offs on Phuket.]
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/532575/japanese-taxi-basher-vents-again



pri.org It's been 47 days since Abdul, a scrawny Rohingya, sent his 14-year-old daughter Dildar away from the Internally Displaced Persons camp in Burma where they'd been living in squalid conditions. Until Dildar's traffickers are paid off, she is being held captive in a secret location, somewhere on the border between Thailand and Malaysia: ''Most people get on the boats thinking they are going directly to Malaysia, but what they find is that they are taken on shore in Thailand and clandestinely transported to what we refer to as 'torture camps.'''
http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-04-18/human-traffickers-find-easy-prey-among-myanmars-minorities

aa.com.tr To escape abuses, the Rohingya usually pay smugglers to take them on rickety boats towards the Malaysian coast, but many of them are intercepted in southern Thailand where they are kept in hidden camps until their families pay a ransom for their release.



bangkokpost.com A 51-year-old Dutch tourist was killed when he lost control of his rented motorcycle and crashed in Pattaya on Saturday. The man was found lying in a pool of blood on the road along Pattaya beach in front of the Hard Rock Cafe.

huffingtonpost.com Of all the things I imagined Thailand to be, I never expected it to make me feel so beautifully overwhelmed. Even the weather has this way of taking over your senses, its impact is immediate.

bangkokpost.com A 29-year-old transvestite accused of swindling money from men by posing as a beautiful woman online has been arrested in Nakhon Ratchasima. The arrest followed complaints by several users of a chat application that they had been duped into transferring money to advance their relationship with a ''beautiful young woman''.

theindependent.com If you're thinking about a vacation, my son recommends Thailand, where life is a nonstop celebration, prices are amazingly low and you can enjoy delicious foods, the identity of which is often a mystery.

bangkokpost.com A 52-year-old man charged with the drug-fuelled murder of a woman in Chiang Mai over Songkran faces charges for a similarly grisly crime in Bangkok nine years ago, according to police.

nytimes.com Turkey's prime minister accused Europe of showing signs of racism after the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on his government to recognise the mass killings of Armenians in the collapsing Ottoman Empire as genocide.

theguardian.com A deckchair from the Titanic has sold at auction in Devizes, Wiltshire, for just over 100,000 pounds. The Nantucket wooden chair was on the first-class promenade deck when the luxury liner sank in the Atlantic after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912.

Try Phuketwan's Asean Today daily:
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/asean-today-troops-barred-bars-singapore-frees-extremists-second-maid-beheaded-22284/



dailymail.co.uk Chelsea moved to the brink of winning the title with a 1-0 win over Manchester United, but Jose Mourinho says the race is not over yet.

independent.co.uk Until the 105th minute of this FA Cup semi-final Adam Federici was one of the heroes of Reading's bold resistance, the Australian goalkeeper producing two outstanding saves as the Championship underdogs gave holders Arsenal a real fright. Then Alexis Sanchez tried a shot which somehow, excruciatingly, squeezed through Federici's hands, arms and legs, and over the line. Reading 1-2 Arsenal.




Until April 19 Phuket Bike Week

May 4 Additional public holiday scheduled

June 20-21 Baba wedding at Old Phuket Town

July 15-19 Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek