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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 Stories
bangkokpost.com Fishermen and boat owners are equally sceptical that six months is enough time to clean up the chaotic fishing industry now under European threats.
nationmultimedia.com Thailand got a helping hand from Indonesia with President Joko Widodo accepting Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha's proposal to set up a working group on fisheries and related affairs.
bangkokpost.com Land prices on Koh Samui could rise 11.8 percent this year, provided the Surat Thani tourist island is not hit by new bombing, a real estate surveyor predicts.
Human Trafficking in Thailand
nationmultimedia.com The US State Department's former ambassador for trafficking in persons has urged Washington to maintain Thailand's bottom-of-the-pile tier-three ranking in its upcoming Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. In his testimony before the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Wednesday, Mark Lagon said: ''I urge the US government to sustain a tier-three ranking should the government of Thailand not show strong will to take corrective action to address human trafficking in short order.''
Phuket World of People
Phuket Update About 400 personnel from two destroyers, the USS Sterett and the USS Dewey, have been enjoying liberty leave and the hospitality of the US Navy League on Phuket.
bangkokpost.com Police are expanding the hunt for members of a gang of corpse snatchers following the discovery of 19 bags of human body parts at a crematorium in Chiang Mai.
Phuket Update Three Indian tourists were taken to hospital for treatment after a tour bus that had dropped Chinese passengers at Phuket International Airport slammed into their taxi and a pick-up truck south of the Heroines' Monument on Thepkrasattri Road.
Phuket Update Phuket's English-language tabloids took different approaches to weather forecasts with one predicting calm weather for the coming week and the other warning of heavy rain and flash floods. Phuketwan will wait and see.
bangkokpost.com The Internal Security Operations Command says violence and fatalities in the southern border provinces declined significantly in the past six months.
telegraph.co.uk A 14-year-old schoolboy has been charged with encouraging beheading and other terror attacks in Australia, becoming Britain's youngest terror suspect. The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of inciting another to carry out an attack on an Anzac parade in Australia.
theguardian.com Funerals were held for refugees who drowned in the Mediterranean's worst-ever migrant disaster as European leaders prepared to discuss measures to stem the flow of those risking their lives to reach the continent.
voanews.com German President Joachim Gauck for the first time called the World War I massacre of 1.5 million Armenians a genocide and said Germany bears some of the responsibility. Gauck said at a service in the Berlin Cathedral that as a wartime ally of the Ottoman Empire, German soldiers took part in planning and implementing deportations of Armenians.
news.sky.com Britain is to send one of the largest ships in the Royal Navy to help deal with the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean. David Cameron said HMS Bulwark will be deployed along with three helicopters and two border patrol vessels as part of a European operation.
reuters Deutsche Bank agreed with US and British authorities to pay a record $2.5 billion to resolve investigations it manipulated benchmark interest rates used to price loans and contracts around the world.
wsj.com Long before Islamic State made headlines by luring US.citizens to join its battle, there were other Americans who defected to the ranks of extremism. Two of them, Adam Gadahn and Ahmed Farouq, were likely killed by separate US drone strikes in January, the White House said.
scmp.com Taxi-hailing app company Uber will launch its helicopter rental services in Shanghai and Hangzhou , expanding a service that began in the United States last year.
Around the Region
Try Phuketwan's Asean Today daily:
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/asean-today-mahathir-accuses-private-hunt-mh370-firing-squad-prepares-china-blasted-22318/
Phuket World of Sport
eurosport.yahoo.com Tickets for the megafight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao finally hit the market and unless your name is Warren Buffet or Madonna you will probably have to watch the May 2 bout on pay-per-view. Prices on Ticketmaster ranged between $1500 to $7500 and those tickets were snapped up in a matter of seconds.
reuters Sevilla's Kevin Gameiro grabbed a late equaliser in a 2-2 draw at Zenit St Petersburg to send the Europa League holders into the semi-finals after woeful goalkeeping had threatened to ruin their night.
telegraph.co.uk Rafael Nadal is not quite as dominant in Barcelona as he is in Paris, with a mere eight titles there against his nine French Opens. But he still came into the ATP tournament there as the favorite, so his straight-sets defeat by Fabio Fognini will be a significant blow to his aura.
telegraph.co.uk In addition to equalling the England record for six Test fifties in succession, Joe Root scored quickly enough to make up for the 50 overs lost on the first two days, completed his sixth Test century, and gave England a lead of 74 in the second Test against the West Indies with four wickets left.
Coming Events on Phuket 2015
May 4 Additional public holiday scheduled
June 20-21 Baba wedding at Old Phuket Town
July 14-16 Trial of Phuketwan journalists at Phuket Provincial Court
July 15-19 Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek
