Thailand News
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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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Like maggots from heaven
PATTAYA: Caught out with a full bladder on his way home after a fishing trip, squid fisherman Singha Sangnuam, 26, met an unexpected sight when he stopped to relieve himself against a tree in Banglamung on September 24. Part way through his business, something dropped from the branches and landed with a thud right in front of him. A cloud…
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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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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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Fortunate fellow crashes own cremation ceremony
CHAI NAT: Attending your own cremation – as in actually turning up alive, rather than making a brief appearance stuffed in a box before being burned – would be an interesting experience. Think about it, you could hear the good points of your personality extolled in a eulogy and see who looked genuinely upset – and who looked secretly pleased.…
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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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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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Wai the need for violence?
PHITSANULOK: Religious institutions are intended to be places of peace and goodwill, but a temple in Phitsanulok recently proved to be anything but when a monk who thought a nun had disrespected him responded by beating her. At 9 am August 21, Maechi Phronchon Chomphukpan, 53, a nun at Wat Ban Khek in Nakhon Thai District, walked into the local…
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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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Rampant rapist eludes vengeful vigilantes, police
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: A group of irate villagers in Nakhon Sri Thammarat Municipality launched a vigilante squad July 31 to try to track down an inhalant-addicted rapist from whom not even dogs, pigs and banana trees were safe. A meeting was held at 1:30 pm that day at the house of Phairot Mathayawut, head of the local Volunteer Crime News…
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Super-sized surprise
BANGKOK: Following a report by a 30-year-old woman on July 25, Buppharam police thought they had a rapist at large. Upon more detailed questioning of the suspect, it turned out that the large problem was actually the size of the man’s member. A woman, who police named only as “K. Phen”, 30, told police that a taxi driver had taken…
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A severed engagement
PHUKET: On August 1 a man was admitted to Phuket International Hospital with an unusual injury: his penis was almost completely severed after his fiancee, suspicious that he was still seeing an ex-girlfriend, attempted to cut it off. The incident was reported to Capt Sathit Noorit, Duty Officer at Phuket City Police Station, who led an investigation team to the…
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Guns, drugs and an empty casket
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: When a funeral goes on for several weeks and is protected by a gang of armed men, you can usually bet that it’s for someone important. But a funeral in Thung Yai held for a fictitious money-spinning witch doctor left villagers confused when the funeral’s organizers started selling “lucky” lottery tickets. The funeral was reported to the…
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Electrified fence at forest temple
LOPBURI: More than 200 people from Baan Nong Kam in Lopburi’s Muang District held a protest June 27 to drive out a local abbot, whom they accused of setting up an electrified fence to keep villagers away from his forest temple.One of the protest leaders, 58-year-old Charoen Wongpao, told reporters that Phra Khru Palatwiroj Ophaso, Abbot of Wat Suwanahong Forest,…
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Pistol penisectomy
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT (Gazette, Kom Chad Luek): A Buddhist ordination ceremony in Phraphrom District took a turn for the worse on July 6 after an outbreak of violence led to a firearms incident which left one unlucky follower of the Middle Way with a serious pain in his crotch. The evening began jovially at the ceremony held in Na Phru…
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Temple trots
NAKHON RATCHASIMA: A man known locally to villagers in Kham Thalay So District as Mor Thewada, (which, roughly translated, means ‘Angel of Mercy’ doctor) is under investigation after a patient claimed that his medicine gave him a nasty case of diarrhea. The story surfaced after a patient checked into Kham Thalay So Hospital suffering from a bad case of the…
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It’s no yolk! Egg theft ring cracked
NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Accounts of police breaking up rings of drug dealers, armed robbers and teenage motorcycle thieves are a fairly common occurrence in Thailand these days. Officers from Chalermprakiat District Police had a more unusual task at hand on June 20, however, when they managed to crack a ring of egg thieves who had been terrorizing chicken coops across Khorat.…
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Cat burglar crash
PHUKET: Being a keen breeder of songbirds, 34-year-old Chalong resident Warathep Udomsap would have been used to being woken up by the dawn chorus coming from the bird cages he kept at the back of his house. At dawn on May 28, however, he was awoken by some much less appealing noises: a loud crash followed by anguished wailing. As…
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Talisman tales
CHIANG MAI: With the craze for Jatukam Ramathep amulets still going strong, stories of miraculous survivals from shootings, stabbings, car crashes and other seemingly-dangerous events are a fixture in the Thai press at the moment. On June 1, one lucky 14-year-old in Rayong appeared in the pages of Thai Rath newspaper after he was left with only a small bruise…
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Thirsty thieves
KANCHANABURI: A man noted for his integrity, Acting Royal Thai Police Commissioner General Seripisut Temiyavej has spent the best part of his life fighting the twin scourges of crime and corruption. In an ironic twist of fate, however, Thailand’s top cop recently found himself the victim of a horrific crime when thieves broke into his riverside holiday home in Kanchanaburi…
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Miniature elephant or mammoth scam?
TAK: Taking a break from bashing his cousins in the Karen National Union, a sergeant major from the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) reportedly crossed the Thai border recently with an unusual piece of merchandise, one he came to hawking at an extraordinary price. Sgt Maj Tinai, from the DKBA 999 Division, claimed to be in possession of none other…
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Thieving teens
PHUKET CITY: A gang of young thieves was collared by Phuket’s finest recently as they carried away vehicle parts from a city parking lot. While wayward teenagers pilfering spare parts from parking lots hardly constitutes news these days, in this case the choice of venue chosen by the young hoods was noteworthy: the vehicle impound lot of the Phuket City…
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From nuptials to nightmare
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: A wedding celebration turned to hasty funeral preparations when a respected guest accidentally shot himself in the head while trying to fire a shot into the air to welcome the groom’s procession to the bride’s home. Pol Lt Col Worote Sukger, Deputy Superintendent for Investigations of the Pakpanang District Police, received a report of the incident at…
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Chancy chat at chick shop
TRANG: An employee at the Trang branch of Tesco Lotus had a lucky escape April 19 when an angry KFC worker attempted to shoot him at point blank range with a shotgun. The cartridge, however, misfired. About 10 am, Sombun Sikhajan, 31, was working in the tape section as usual when Phichet Kanmak, 33, who worked at the store’s branch…
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A professional disagreement
PETCHABUN: In any profession, accepting the rise of a younger generation can be difficult; no one likes to see their skills being surpassed by up-and-coming youngsters. Going by a recent incident in Phetchabun, the world of hired killers is no different, apart, perhaps, from being a bit more dangerous. In the early hours of April 14 Maj Kittiphong Phromsuwan, an…
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Hitman hit
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: A gunman-for-hire listed on the Police Region 8 most-wanted list was whacked, not by zealous cops or victims’ relatives out for revenge, but by his long-suffering companion as he lay asleep in bed. At 10 am on March 30, Chawang District Police Inspector Lt Col Sompong Prohmreuangchart received a report of a shooting at house number 134…
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Holed up
SRISAKET: When the stresses of life and the pressure to be polite become too much, the idea of retreating into a little place to get away from it all can be quite tempting. This is exactly what one man in Srisaket province has done – for the past 20 years. While out visiting his charges in the province’s Nam Kliang…
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