bangkokpost.com Thai Airways International (THAI) admitted it has experienced a four-fold increase in the number of safety inspections by aviation authorities.

nationmultimedia.com Crashes claimed 25 lives and left 348 people injured on Thursday - the first of Songkran's so-called seven days of danger on roads around Thailand.

bangkokpost.com Myanmar (Burma) police have outlawed sales of Viagra, birth-control pills and even condoms during Thingyan, the country's version of Songkran.


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



AP Officials say a car bomb has exploded at a shopping mall on a Thai island popular with foreign tourists, injuring seven people. Samui Island's disaster prevention and mitigation chief Poonsak Sophonpathumrak said the bomb was hidden in a pickup truck, and that it went off late Friday night on the basement level of the hopping Central Festival mall after a fashion show.

dpa Ten people were injured late Friday when a car bomb detonated in the car park of a shopping mall on Samui, a provincial governor said. The blast occurred about 11.30 pm at the Central Festival shopping mall.

reuters The cause of the explosion at Central Festival Samui has yet to be confirmed and is under investigation, Police Lieutenant General Prawut Thawonrsiri, a spokesman for the Royal Thai Police, told Reuters.



voanews.com Indonesian authorities are stepping up investigations into the fishing industry after authorities found nearly 550 enslaved fishermen on a remote Indonesian island. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is working with the Indonesian government and embassies to support legal cases against the fishing companies at the center of the charges.

''Even Asean non-interference principles should have their limits, when it comes to a serious human rights violation, like what happened in Burma with the Rohingya,'' said a speaker at the Asean People's Forum.



bangkokpost.com The Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission submitted to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha the names of more than 100 government officials it claims are corrupt.

reuters Hillary Clinton will announce her second run for the presidency on Sunday, starting her campaign as the Democrats' best hope of fending off a crowded field of lesser-known Republican rivals and retaining the White House.

voanews.com The White House says US President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, are expected to have a discussion on Saturday, in a historic encounter at the Summit of the Americas in Panama.

rbth.com Russia and Thailand plan to increase annual trade to $10 billion by 2016. Prime Minister Medvedev made this declaration during a meeting with the Prime Minister of Thailand Prayuth Chan-o-Cha on April 8, 2015 RIA Novosti reported.

insidehighered.com Some former faculty and current and former students at Webster's campus in Thailand have been yelling that their school is (figuratively) on fire for nearly five years now, to little effect. The allegations are wide-ranging.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/04/10/reports-troubles-webster-u%E2%80%99s-branch-campus-thailand

telegraph.co.uk Raiders in Hatton Garden spent up to 24 hours drilling through concrete before ripping open some 70 safety deposit boxes and making off with hundreds of millions of pounds of jewellery. Several rough diamonds and a half-cut aqua diamond worth 500,000 pounds are thought to be among the haul.

thetimes.co.uk Scotland Yard was alerted to an ''intruder alarm'' at the scene of the Hatton Garden jewellery raid but decided not to send any officers to check it out, it emerged.

contactmusic.com Actress Alyssa Milano Has Received An Apology From A Heathrow Airport Official In London For ''Any Confusion Caused'' After She Was Forced To Dump Her Pumped Breast Milk Due To Tough Travel Restrictions.

nationmultimedia.com Thais in Phuket, Samui and other parts of the Southern region are more likely to indulge in Songkran festivities than Bangkokians, according to new research by Dunnhumby, a UK-based customer-science company.

smh.com.au VIDEO The winning 728 kilo pumpkin from the Royal Sydney Easter Show became breakfast to four elephants at Taronga Park Zoo. Adults Porntip and Pak Boon and calves Pathi Harn and Tukta, were quick to pounce.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/what-time-is-it-when-four-elephants-sit-on-a-728-kilo-pumpkin-20150410-1mih84.html

rescue.org The International Rescue Committee is assisting over 700 Burmese refugees who were left homeless after fire broke out in the Ban Mae Nai Soi refugee camp in northern Thailand on April 7. Nearly 200 houses were destroyed in the fire, along with a school and several IRC health training facilities.

youredm.com Fom January 2-6 you will have the opportunity to go on a 5 day, 4 night cruise from Singapore to Phuket and back. Featuring 30 world class DJs and an immersive aquatic theme with a steam punk twist, Shipsomnia is surely a party cruise of a lifetime.



bangkokpost.com As talks open on proposals to change Myanmar's constitution so that Aung San Suu Kyi can seek the presidency, some fear she has already lost the fight.



theguardian.com Jordan Spieth set a 36-hole scoring record at the Masters after a 66 in the second round. The 21-year-old Texan is going to the weekend with a 14-under 130 total. That broke the record of 131, set by Raymond Floyd in 1976.



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