Thailand News
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Monk cops out royally
TAK: While impersonating a policeman for personal gain is nothing new in Thailand, one monk in Mae Sot who thought he may have picked the wrong career took it one step further over the Songkran holidays. The monk not only claimed to be a high-ranking policeman, but also a member of the royal family and a representative of the Bureau…
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Man stands by limbless bride
UDON THANI: Villagers from across the Northeast and as far away as Laos have been flocking to get a glimpse of a high-profile newlywed couple in Phen District. This couple are not celebrities, but a local Udon man and a female reticulated python he has fallen love with. The happy groom, 35-year-old Sathian Khenkutrang, said he believes that he and…
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Fowl play suspected in local election
ANG THONG: Police Region 1 are leaving no stone unturned in their attempt to bring to justice a vicious gang of youths who abducted 1,500 waterfowl from a local politician, in what police believe could be a politically motivated ducknapping. At about 3 am on March 28, six young men, some on motorcycles, some in a six-wheeled truck, pulled up…
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Burglar busted during cat nap
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: In most professions, apart from those involving heavy machinery or driving perhaps, falling asleep on the job will earn you a strict telling off, a warning letter or in the worst case, the sack. In the burglary trade, however, sleeping on the job can have somewhat more serious consequences as one young army deserter in Phraphrom District…
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Hot-headed soldiers shoot up police station
NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Dealing with the police can be a frustrating experience in any country. Minor traffic offenses are often ignored and when a crime is reported, often nothing seems to be done. Weeks or months can go by with no apparent effort to arrest perpetrators and put them behind bars. Most people can do little but sit and fume at…
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Trash or treasure?
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: The heady days of “Jatukham Fever” last year, when sale of the over-sized Jatukham Ramathep medallions hit a record high, are clearly over.The large amulets – particularly beloved by tuk-tuk drivers, gunmen and others in dangerous professions – were reputed to bring good fortune. Some individual medallions sold for millions of baht and one woman was literally…
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Lucky four-eared feline catnapped
PATHUM THANI: The owners of a four-eared cat fear that their pet has been kidnapped, after the feline mysteriously disappeared following a story in a national newspaper highlighting the luck the homeless kitty had brought its owners after they rescued it from the side of the road. The missing cat, named Jao Chom Jan (“the one who admires the moon”),…
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Mischievous monkey meddlers meet their match
SRISAKET: A man was arrested in the early hours of February 21 for kidnapping monkeys from a popular tourist spot in Rasi Salai District. Police believe the monkeys were to be smuggled to Korea, to be eaten for perceived health-giving benefits.At 3:30 am, Pol Lt Col Wisanu Reuangsri, an investigating officer at Rasi Salai District Police Station, received a phone…
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Abbot killed in “chicken shoot’
KAMPHAENG PHET: A temple abbot was shot dead February 5 after one of his students mistook him for a chicken. Phra Khru Silwachirakan, known to his followers as Luang Por Pheuan, the abbot of Wat Traiphum in Phrankratai district, was tending cattle belonging to the wat with three followers, Phra Pui, 27, Sanong Phobanlang, 37, and Buntham Phairoj, 54, when…
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Lustful teens get lewd in local library
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: Most parents would be happy to know that their teenagers were spending their free time hanging out in the library. What better place could there be to engage in some extracurricular learning and curl up with a good book? In Nakhon Sri Thammarat public library, however, teenagers have been curling up for some X-rated extracurricular activities –…
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Rasta roadie nearly roasted at roadside
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: A sound technician for the popular Thai reggae band “Marijuana” almost went up in smoke January 17, after the fuel system he had just installed in his sedan malfunctioned and exploded. The technician, identified only as Charin, was driving from Surat Thani to Nakhon Sri Thammarat when he was almost lit up. He was on his way…
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Spineless heroes
LOPBURI: Dogs and horses are known for their faithful service in law-enforcement activities. In Lopburi Province, however, police recently found a new animal ally – the humble leech. On the evening of January 13, Pol Lt Col Theerayuth Yungthong, investigation inspector at Lopburi Muang District Police Station, received a call from the headman of Village 6 in Tambon Khao Sam…
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Abbot aberration under investigation
NONTHABURI: When Commander Kritsapha Suksaengdao from the Department of Civil Aviation walked up to Luang Por Prasit Sithikaroh, abbot of Wat Sainoi, on December 26 and offered a polite wai, the abbot probably thought nothing of it. After all, the abbot was the most revered monk in the province and counted many high-ranking military and government officials among his throng…
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Attack of the 50-foot pret
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: In the increasingly litigious nations of the West, any accident in the work place, including those caused by the victim’s own stupidity, are an immediate opportunity for cash payouts. Apparently the concept hasn’t filtered down to rural Thailand, as shown recently by a man who, after losing both hands in a horrific crane accident, proceeded to blame…
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Villagers make murky discovery
BURIRAM: The discovery of ancient artifacts is always a cause for excitement. A common way to unearth such relics is at an archaeological dig, though just as often they are discovered by pure chance at construction sites. While some finds are more dramatic than others, few can beat a recent tale from Isarn of two 1,500-year-old Buddha images rising from…
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Going out with a bang
YALA: The risk of being blown to smithereens has become an fact of everyday life for people in the Deep South as attacks by insurgents continue to occur on an almost daily basis. However, the insurgents are not the only threat in such a weapons-saturated environment. Even close friends can be dangerous, as five young men found out when their…
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Incombustible cleric
RANONG: Funerals of esteemed monks are always auspicious occasions for believers, a chance to bid farewell to a spiritual leader and wonder what rewards he will get for his life-long accumulation of merit. At the funeral of an abbot in Ranong, the deceased clergyman’s spiritual power was reportedly so strong that his mortal remains refused to burn. Phrakhru Praphasawiriyakhun, abbot…
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Deadly debate
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: Political discussions can get a little heated the aworld over, but in Thailand few provinces are more renowned for fiery political debate than Nakhon Sri Thammarat, where formerly close friendships have been known to fall to pieces over political disagreement. In the latest case, however, the debate turned fatal. In the early hours of November 8, Wichan…
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Boomtown or bust!
PATTANI: With bombings in the Deep South regrettably almost a daily occurrence, it comes as little surprise that some might refer to the region as a “boomtown”. In fact, the Deep South is also in the middle of its own little “gold rush”, though the object of the hopeful prospectors desire isn’t gold, but a mysterious black ore thought to…
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Police baffled: Burglary or buggery?
NAKON SRI THAMMARAT: When villagers in Chawang District heard the abbot of a local temple shouting he was being assaulted by a thief on October 14, they naturally rushed to assist. When police, led by Lt Samphan Wathanasong, arrived, they came upon a throng of more than 10 people happily beating the suspected thief and abbot assaulter. Police put a…
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Holy cow?
SRISAKET: Villagers in Srisaket’s Khun Han district have been flocking to pay their respects to the body of a buffalo calf that not only looked human, but also had the superhuman ability to transmit the winning numbers in the upcoming lottery draw. The calf was born at 2 pm on September 22 to a female buffalo belonging to farmers Yim…
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Monks give the breast medicine
TAK: When modern medicine fails, people often turn to what has, in the West, come to be known as “alternative medicine”. Phuket has a large market for such treatments, such as acupuncture clinics and herbal spas offering cures for a wide variety ailments, both real and perceived. These more familiar forms of “alternative” medicine are not all Thailand has to…
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Police hunt fish-paste five
CHONBURI: One might think that armed robbery follows a fairly formulaic process: just grab a weapon, threaten someone and, if everything goes to plan, flee with the loot.However, as with other professions, there are also cultural aspects involved in the choice of equipment. An Amazon Indian might use a blowpipe in a hold-up, whereas a Zulu would more naturally opt…
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Stressed cleric seeks karaoke
SRISAKET: Apart from imparting knowledge, a key role for any educator should be setting a good moral and ethical example for his or her students. This is especially true if the teacher is in charge of disseminating religious doctrine. Teaching can be a stressful business, however. Thus, it was “the need to unwind” that one high-ranking monk gave as his…
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The pesky python
YALA: Being a teacher in the Deep South during these troubled times takes a certain amount of bravery and acceptance of personal danger. It was perhaps these qualities that helped one teacher from Yala Province keep his head while all those about him were losing theirs when faced with a very real threat. The threat, however, was not a rifle-toting…
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Late flowering lust
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: Police in Thung Song arrested a 73-year-old monk on September 6 after receiving a tip-off from hotel staff that he had been in a hotel room with a woman for an inappropriately long time. Officers from Thung Song District Police Station banged on the door of the sixth-floor room at the Thai Hotel for a considerable time…
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Fatal bus crash promises lottery luck
NAKHON RATCHASIMA: To most people, a fatal road accident would not be a sign of good fortune, but villagers in Dan Khun Thot district were driven to an outburst of lottery fever when they hoped that the remains of a bus that had crashed in the area would reveal lucky lottery numbers. The phenomenon was sparked when a bus from…
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Cops collar banana tree rapist
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: “Banana Tree Aek” – feared rapist of women, domestic animals and fruit trees – was finally taken into custody by police August 27. His excuse for his animal raping antics was, according to police, “everybody does it”. Aekarat Dapngen, 23, was wanted for the rape of several women and animals in Nakhon Sri Thammarat City’s Ton Wah…
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Bounty of bras reveals a sad tale
ROI-ET: Stories of men dying in strange circumstances while dressed in women’s clothing are not so unusual. A few years ago the BBC reported that an up-and-coming UK Conservative Party Member of Parliament was found dead with “a black bin liner over his head and wearing stockings and suspenders”. Police in Roi-Et Town, however, were initially left a bit flummoxed…
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Temples tricked by ladyboy’s lies
SAMUT PRAKAN: The life of a Thai ladyboy is full of challenges that most members of Thai society could hardly fathom – let alone deal with. On the bureaucratic front, this can be seen from the current debate raging on whether to let those who have undergone “sex reassignment surgery” use the title “Miss” on their ID cards. Before it…
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