UPDATING All Day, Every Day
cnn.com Pope Francis made his strongest condemnation yet of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, asking for forgiveness and pledging to impose penalties on ''men of the church'' who harm children.
Phuket Update Police are hoping the mother of a newborn baby boy found abandoned in the tray of a pickup near a luxury Phuket resort will contact doctors at Vachira Hospital. The baby was found at the Dream Sea Pool Villa resort, near Phuket's Cape Panwa.
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
heraldsun.com.au Well-loved South-East Asian destinations will see large increases in the number of Australian visitors over the Easter break, with Phuket witnessing a 250 percent spike in demand, Bali up more than 130 percent and the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, up 90 percent.
envirotech-online.com Hotels in Karon, Phuket, Thailand could face closure due to the continued release of untreated wastewater into the canal. Karon Hotels Association president, Angkana Tanetvisetkul, agreed that hotels guilty of dumping wastewater into the canal should be closed in a bid to reduce the amount of water pollution in the area.
bangkokpost.com At least 13 people were killed and 80 others injured in a bad start to the seven-day road safety campaign for the Songkran festival.
wsj.com There's nothing like a water fight to bring people together. At least that's the hope in Thailand, where anti-government protest leaders have called for a break to months of rallying and demonstrations for the Songkran New Year holiday.
bbc.com Seamus Daly, 43, accused of murdering 29 people in the 1998 Omagh bombing has been remanded in custody. The Real IRA attack was the worst atrocity of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Victims included a woman pregnant with twins.
pattayamail.com Pattaya officials are again promising to crack down on Koh Larn ''sea walker'' tour companies after yet another underwater death of a foreign tourist. Koh Larn officials say an unnamed Indian tourist went out on sea walking tour and died of heart failure on the morning of February 27.
pattayamail.com Pattaya's new swimming-area buoys are being blamed for another death after a fully dress 19-year-old took a stroll on one of the pontoons, fell off and drowned.
Latest on Lost Flight MH370
theindependent.co.uk All passengers, crew and pilots aboard missing flight MH370 remain ''under suspicion,'' Malaysia's defence minister has said, as the search for the stricken jet - and its elusive black box - intensifies in the Indian Ocean.
theguardian.com A possible signal detected by Australian air force planes was ruled not to have been a fifth ping - diminishing hopes that the black boxes from the missing Boeing 777 were still signalling, beyond the cusp of their expected 30-day battery life.
scmp.com Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott expressed optimism over the hunt for missing flight MH370 during an official visit to China - despite the search chief's insistence there had been no new breakthrough.
Phuket World of People
bangkokpost.com Public health officials came out in large numbers to welcome anti-government demonstrators, defying the government ban, and sat down with them to discuss reforms, adding to the Yingluck government's discomfort.
nationmultimedia.com Top Public Health Ministry officials submitted a blueprint for reform of Thailand's public health system during their meeting with leaders of the anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee.
dailymail.co.uk Aussie music celebrity guru Molly Meldrum, whose life is being turned into a rockumentary, also mentioned his four weeks in Phuket, Thailand where he stuck to a strict health regime and gave up dairy and wheat.
pattayamail.com An elderly British man supposedly upset with the party habits of his 30-year-old wife apparently hung himself at a central Pattaya condominium. Philip Lee Atkins, 62, was found with a black electrical wire around his neck, although the wire had snapped, causing the body to fall to the ground.
bangkokpost.com Thai Airways International (THAI) and sister budget airline Thai Smile are facing strong competition. The group saw its market share drop to 29.3 percent last year, down from 33.7pc in 2012 and 35.6pc in 2011.
voanews.com More than 400 suspected Uighurs from China, including young children, have been apprehended in Thailand in recent weeks and are waiting to find out their fate. Chinese authorities are pressing the Thai government to send them back to China, but those detained deny they are Chinese Uighurs and want to go to Turkey.
reuters The US said it would not grant a visa to Iran's proposed UN ambassador, citing the envoy's links to the 1979-1981 hostage crisis, in a rare step that raises questions about how much influence the White House can wield over the world body.
scmp.com Australian American media mogul Rupert Murdoch has admitted that his ex-wife Wendi Deng's rumored affair with former British prime minister Tony Blair led him to divorce Deng after 14 years of marriage.
theguardian.co.uk Burmese newspapers printed black front pages in protest against the recent arrests and sentencing of journalists, in the latest sign the country's media climate is worsening. It came as Reporters Without Borders said it was outraged by the imprisonment of a Burmese journalist for trying to interview an education official.
bbc.com Prostate cancer tests, which predict how aggressive a tumor is, underestimate disease severity in half of cases, scientists say. In the study of 847 men with prostate cancer, 209 out of the 415 who were initially told their cancer was slow-growing were found to have a more aggressive form of the disease.
bbc.com Novelist Sue Townsend, best known as the author of the successful Adrian Mole series, has died, a friend of her family has told the BBC. Townsend, 68, died at home on Thursday after a short illness.
Phuket World Sports Wrap
espn.go.com Bubba Watson shot a 4-under-par 68, which goes nicely with the 69 he shot on Thursday. That gives him the 36-hole lead in the Masters, a three-shot edge over John Senden.
pattayamail.com The Top of the Gulf Regatta celebrates its 10th anniversary this year with top sailors from around the world heading to Pattaya, to compete in Asia???s largest multi-class regatta from 1st to 5th May at Ocean Marina Yacht Club.
Phuket Coming Events 2014
Until April 20 Phuket International Cricket, Republic Ground, Chalong
April 11-19 Phuket Bike Week
April 13 Songkran New Year Water Festival
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
December 10 Constitution Day
December 25 Christmas Day
December 26 10th Anniversary, 2004 Tsunami
December 31 New Year's Eve
