Thailand News
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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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Brownnose bloodsucker
NAKHON RATCHASIMA: A man was admitted to Bua Yai Hospital on June 7 with complaints of abdominal pains, which he said were caused by a leech that crawled up inside his anus while he was trying to catch fish for his wife’s dinner. Nong Chingpho, 43, told doctors that he had intermittent stomach pains for about a month, ever since…
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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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Man bites dog
“When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news.” PATHUM THANI: The above quote, often attributed to 19th-century New York Sun editor John B Bogart, is the standard maxim given to young journalists to remind them what is newsworthy and what is not. It…
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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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All a-bout love
RAYONG: Many Thais are fond of a wager and high stakes betting on muay Thai bouts is certainly nothing unusual. The organizers of a charity Thai boxing night in Rayong, however, claimed to have a world first when two Assistant Village Chiefs went head to head in the ring to fight – not for a large sum of cash, but…
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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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Fists of fury
LOP BURI: Not used to being on the receiving end of beatings, officers in Lop Buri’s Baan Pong District Police Station were given a nasty shock when a speed-crazed former World Boxing Association (WBA) flyweight world champion contender stormed into the station in frenzy in the morning of March 5. Police told reporters that Sgt Maj Ithipol Sawatdee was sitting…
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Pot luck with the spirits
UDON THANI: When two clay pots covered by a white sheet were found by the side of the road in Ban Pon Sawan village bear Udon Thani city on February 19, villagers nervously began to hypothesize what could be inside. The sheets, tightly tied around the pots, were covered in cryptic inscriptions, so no one dared to open the pots…
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Of monks and munitions
KALASIN: Police arrested 38-year-old monk Phra Phornphanom Sommai February 26 after villagers reported seeing him shouldering a gun while sitting pillion on a motorbike speeding through Nong Hua Ling village, Kuchinarai district. When police caught up with him, they found that he was drunk, said Maj Somchai Phukongchana, Investigating Inspector at Kuchinarai District Police Station. Police then went to search…
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Free willy at the wat
CHALONG: A naked Slovenian man who ran short of medication for a nervous condition was found wandering around naked at Wat Lathiwanaram shortly after midday on Saturday. His stroll came to an abrupt end, however, when he was confronted by a white-robed temple nun. According to Lt Col Anek Mongkol of Chalong Police, the Slovenian, 38, rode his motorbike from…
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A self-made man
SONGKHLA: No one would claim the life of a laborer in Thailand is easy; having to toil in the midday sun while others make all the money is sure to rankle. This is presumably the reason why casual-laborer-for-hire Thanongsak Rakngam, 31, a native of Songkhla province, decided to turn to a more easeful occupation. Thinking that police work looked like…
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Centipede on steroids
RAWAI: Villagers in Rawai were dumbfounded when a huge centipede, reportedly half a meter in length, was spotted near a public waterhole in Village 2. At 1 pm on February 6, villagers in the area of Baan Thai Mai (New Thais Village, or “Sea Gypsy” village) on Wiset Rd were seen crowding around a 20-meter-tall sugar palm tree. All were…
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Members only
RAWAI, PHUKET: Outraged residents of Village 2 are demanding the immediate removal of numerous Sivaleung (Shiva’s member, or lingam) statues that decorate a newly-built spa, claiming that the phalluses will embarrass tourists and other passers-by. On January 20 Aroon Solos, President of the Rawai Tambon Administration Organization, paid a visit to the Suppaya Spa (Suppaya means “Assets of the Supreme…
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Brown nectar of the gods
PHRAE: Scores of villagers in Phrae were given a gut-wrenching shock when a “holy” spring they had prayed to and drunk from turned out to be the result of faulty plumbing rather than a gift from the gods. The font was discovered on January 4 by Anong Kwanphetch, 52, in the middle of her lawn in Tambon Mae Jua, Denchai…
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Bad news for the Tiger of Thalang
THALANG: Being the leader of a youth motorbike gang in Phuket is always dangerous. Occupational hazards include bullets and blades from members of rival gangs, police who will eventually make a charge stick, and carelessly-driven pickups that can quickly put an end to motorcycling mayhem. Despite the obvious risks, gang leader Kroekkriat Jantananon, from Baan Liphon in Thalang, would no…
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Chick or cheat?
PATONG: A front-page headline in the December 30 edition of a daily Thai-language newspaper shocked readers with the horrific news that a mother had murdered her newborn child and left its lifeless corpse to rot in a field behind a row of low-rent apartments. The headline for the initial report, roughly translated, read: “Wicked brutality: Mother kills child, stuffs in…
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Deviantly deceived
Living life as a “woman of the second kind” is bound to hone a one’s skills of impersonation. To make the act convincing, many effeminate men walk, talk and act like a lady to fill their preferred gender role. After being fired from his job as an assistant nurse at Khon Kaen Central Hospital for pilfering medical equipment, aging ladyboy…
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Going bananas
KOH SIREH: For almost the past month, fortune seekers from as far away as Phattalung, Phang Nga and Krabi have been traveling to Koh Sireh in the hope that a uniquely-shaped banana tree will somehow convey to them the winning digits in the upcoming lottery draws. Word of the tree’s miraculous ability to predict winning lottery numbers began about a…
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Monkey’s best friend
PETCHABOON: When the abbot of a temple in Tambon Taboh preaches about the need for love and social harmony, he has a good example to point to right on the temple grounds: an orphaned monkey and a crippled dog who grew up together and have become loyal, inseparable friends. Phrakhru Arun Pacharakij, Abbot of Pa Reirai Buddhist Temple in Petchaboon’s…
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The root of suffering
“Attachment is the origin, the root of suffering; hence it is the cause of suffering.” – The Dalai Lama at Harvard University, 1988 A devout monk in Phattalung’s Kongra District took the quest for non-attachment to an unprecedented level recently, when he cut off his erect penis, which was was distracting him during a meditation session. News of the story…
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Full-House Fiasco
CHON BURI: Three unlucky vacationers from the Islamic Republic of Iran were taught a lesson on November 15, when they learned the hard way that pleasures of the flesh rarely come cheap – even in the steamy sois off south Pattya’s infamous Walking Street. The three men, Sedaghat Heiydari, 30, Saber Mobanazade, 31, and Nohsen Nadsill, 32, came to the…
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That’ll teach him
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: Mystery surrounds the murder of a who was found beaten and stabbed to death, his penis burnt to a crisp. The grisly murder was reported to Thung Yai District Police around dawn on November 2. Arriving at the scene, in a rubber-tapping community in Tambon Prik, police led by Duty Inspector Pol Lt Col Leuachai Thongsin found…
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A bloody offal story
CHALONG: Residents of Chalong Village 10 called police on the evening of October 11 to report a pile of apparently-human organs tossed into a thicket along Saneh Soi 10. Shocked and in fear that a serial killer was on the loose, they were somewhat relieved to eventually learn that the abandoned innards were of canine, not human, origin. Responding to…
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