pti Former US President Bill Clinton will lead a high-level White House delegation to attend the State Funeral of Singapore's founder Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on Sunday.

afp At least 14 workers were killed and dozens more injured after scaffolding collapsed at a steel plant in central Vietnam, officials said, as rescue teams Thursday searched for bodies still trapped in the wreckage.

AP Thailand's biggest seafood company said it has cut ties with a supplier named in an Associated Press report after determining it might be involved with forced labor and other abuses.


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



reuters Investigators have retrieved cockpit voice recordings from one of the ''black boxes'' of the German jet that crashed in the Alps, killing everyone onboard, and they expect a preliminary read-out of their content in days, an official said.

smh.com.au As officials struggled to explain why a jet with 150 people on board crashed in relatively clear skies, an investigator said evidence from a cockpit voice recorder indicated one pilot left the cockpit before the plane's descent and was unable to get back in.

scmp.com Singaporeans wept on the streets and gathered in their thousands to pay their respects to founding leader Lee Kuan Yew as his flag-draped coffin was transported on a gun carriage to parliament for public viewing.

nationmultimedia.com Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will at least greet Prime Minister General Prayut Chanocha with a smile if their paths should cross in Singapore on Sunday at the state funeral of Lee Kuan Yew, a former Pheu Thai MP said.



bangkokpost.com/ap At Benjina island in Indonesia, Thai and Myanmar men are kept in cages when not catching or packing fish bound for Thailand and foreign export, mixed with legitimate seafood.
http://bangkokpost.com/news/general/508855/slave-labour-fish-mixes-in-with-thai-catch

khaosodenglish.com Thailand's military leader has asked the media not to report on human trafficking in Thailand without considering how the news will affect the country's seafood industry and reputation abroad.

reuters A group of suspected Uighur Muslims has become the focus of a diplomatic tug-of-war in Thailand between China and Turkey, with both countries wanting to repatriate them and hundreds of other suspected Uighurs detained in Thailand as illegal immigrants.

anadolu agency A Bangkok court will determine the fate of a Uighur family detained in Thailand last year as they fled Chinese persecution in their homeland in a judgement set to be handed down on March 27. Meanwhile, Turkey, as part of efforts to provide a safe haven for the Uighurs, granted them Turkish passports.



mirror.co.uk A British man has drowned while snorkelling off a tropical island in Thailand. The man, in his 40s, got into difficulties while snorkelling off the island of Koh Wua, near Samui. It's believed he was exploring the coastline at Angthong National Marine Park without a life-jacket when he drowned.

shropshirestar.com Harry Styles appeared to break down in tears on stage in Jakarta as he apparently struggled to come to terms with Zayn Malik's sudden departure from boyband One Direction. Malik said he quit the world's biggest band as he wants the chance to be "a normal 22-year-old". [Malik moved on after being photographed holding hands with a fan on Phuket who was not his fiancee.]

reuters Thai junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha has lashed out at journalists saying he would ''probably just execute'' those who did ''not report the truth,'' in the latest outburst aimed at Thailand's media.

theage.com.au Russell Crowe grabbed headlines this week when he told the UK's Radio Times magazine that he had twice been rejected in his application for Australian citizenship. The only trouble is, the Immigration Department has no record of the New Zealand-born actor ever applying to officially become an Australian.

sun-sentinel.com Fighting extradition to a foreign country where he fears he could be tortured and executed without a fair trial, a South Florida man told a federal judge that he is innocent and very scared. Federal prosecutors say Shawn Abraham Shaw, 43, is an international fugitive who hid out after he kidnapped a wealthy US businessman in Thailand and negotiated a $2 million ransom in December 2013.

bangkokpost.com Krabi hopes to make itself a year-round destination to increase tourism revenue to 85.9 billion baht this year while helping local communities. The southern province wants to send a message to tourists that they can travel to Krabi 365 days a year, as it has more than just beautiful beaches and islands to explore.

xinhua Thailand looks forward to having an increasing number of high-end Chinese tourists who will spend more money and time in the country than earlier, said the Deputy Director of the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) Supawan Teerarat.

forbes.com In the 4th quarter of 2013, there were more than 600,00 Russian visitors to Thailand, while in the 4th quarter of 2014 there were fewer than 200,000 according to the PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) mPower database.

ft.com Heinz is to take over Kraft Foods to create one of North America's biggest food companies in the latest blockbuster deal engineered by the formidable tandem of Warren Buffett and Brazil's 3G Capital.

traveller.com.au Hitting the beach is now a cheaper proposition since the government has stopped daybed hires. Go early to nab a shady spot then call for a beachside massage (THB500). Belinda Jackson was a guest of Swissotel Resort Phuket and Sri Panwa.

news.com.au Australia's taxi industry has come out swinging against ride-sharing services, saying UberX are ''cheap copies'' of taxi services. The Australian Taxi Industry Association released a statement that rejects as ''complete fiction'' claims that it is anti-competitive and has influenced governments to stand in the way of ride-sharing services.

nationmultimedia.com MBK Hotels and Resorts will rebrand the Sheraton Krabi Beach Resort as Dusit Thani Krabi Beach Resort in July. Suvait Theeravachirakul, MBK Group chief executive officer, said that the hotel's current management contract with Sheraton would end on June 30.



skysports.com Substitute Lukas Podolski grabbed an 81st-minute equaliser to rescue a 2-2 draw for World Cup winners Germany in an entertaining friendly against Australia in Kaiserslautern.

independent.co.uk Former Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner scored a hat-trick as Denmark came from behind to beat the US 3-2 in Aarhus.

bbc.com India will not be daunted by Thursday's World Cup semi-final against Australia whether the Sydney pitch favors pace or spin, says opener Rohit Sharma.



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