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What a pity they didn't landed in Singapore and by lunch time they would be sentenced already to at least a year in prison.

Don't be so sure - the Indonesians do not like drunks, especially fighting drunks. Personally, I would prefer Singapore as they speak English and are not religiously against alcohol.

At the end of the day, such losers might prefer to spend a year in jail so as to have bragging rights when they get back to Oz. Much better to hit them where it really hurts, in the wallet. How about 10,000 Aussie dollars each to get them to cool their jets? or more if they are rich low-life!

It is hard to know exactly how to go forward in this situation because organisations are so different.

But one thing is clear - this is Thailand and therefore forget about trying the direct confrontation approach - you do not have enough evidence to form a patter yet and he can make you and your wife lose face.

Instead, assuming that your wife is interested, your wife should document all his bad moves in the following way, by writing to him preferably by email to point out every so politely some of the problems. The approach could be as follows:

"Dear Boss, I know that you probably did not mean to touch me in the way it happened but I feel that I must write to you about it so as to clear the air . . . "

One touch, one stupid word, no one is going to mind. But a volume of emails containing a pattern of sexual harassment with all his nonsense documented and his non-response or lame responses - priceless!

For instance, if his drinking is affecting his work or staff are leaving because of his behaviour, this can be documented on the basis that "Ms X is leaving because she says . . ." This way, your wife does not get stuck with taking sides against him. She is only reporting what she has been told.

If he starts phone stalking her in any way, record it all. Record phone conversations that are suggestive and keep a diary of everything so that you know what activity started when.

The point is then to think strategically - given your description of his character, your wife can make him so dependent on her for turning out the good work that he will behave towards her if he is afraid of losing her and therefore having his non-performance exposed. Bosses do not realise how dependent they are on their good staff - your wife can simply offer her notice if he continues to act up.

If this option is not open to her, she should pick her time when she has enough evidence and go to whoever is above him or HR and say that she is being forced out of her job because of this guys behaviour and can show the pattern of behaviour, including all the time when she had to take over because he was hungover or whatever. If she cannot get any response from the organisation, then it might be time to move on and possibly take legal action.

If there is no one above him (he owns the company or whatever), then all she can do is go legal.

But if there is no way of getting rid of him, then she should either move on or move to a different role to get away from him.

As regards this guys's connections with the army or police, it is amazing how people with such connections can have those connections used against them if there is blowback. No one wants to be associated with an <deleted>; favours have to be returned and can be used up very quickly.

If it is really the case that this guy is wired to God and no one in the organisation above him will do anything and he can have anyone in the Kingdom killed or hurt on a whim (all of which I most sincerely doubt!), then it is time for your wife to move on and find another job.

Good luck

Kinda stings don't it?

What do you or anyone of us Westerners know about such stings? Don't you know that the vast majority of people killed by muslim extremists are themselves muslims living in muslim countries? They know how that hurts far more than Westerners.

Seems this coup suits Erdogan a lot... not want to be a conspiracy guy but for an army which already did 4 coups successfully, this one was amateur hour..

The Turkish government is spinning the coup as a near miss - that had something happened in a slightly different way, it would have been curtains for Erdogan's government.

I too do not support conspiracy theories but it does strike me that a) this coup and the way it turned out was a God-send to Erdogan, his government and his supporters. the ability of the government to suddenly organise within a few days the suspension and arrest of so many people just after a coup is more than surprising. It looks planned.

This post-coup response also looks like a coup itself in its removal of any critical voice in the civil service, the media and in education, especially in the universities.

Britain's NHS does it all the time. It an't known as the World's favourite health service for nothing.

There was a case fairly recently where a Nigerian woman having triplets (ectopic) had treatment worth £140,000 on the NHS, then swanned-off back to Lagos without paying a penny!

Maybe this be a lesson to people trying to save a few ££££'s by not having travel insurance.

Why should Thailand have to "foot this bill" ?

In this case, the patient has racked up 36,000 pounds without paying - therefore, what is the difference between the Nigerian case (which seems very high for an ectopic pregnancy) and this English woman other than the amount?

Given the higher costs in the UK, especially in private medicine, the cost of the Thai medical care would have been much higher in the UK anyway.

It is about time that the British government insisting on seeing an insurance policy or a bond before allowing its passport holders to go abroad outside the EU (soon that will include the EU too!).

Your bring in more than 30 days supply of medication. One day customs will search you, monkey house for you.

I am on a serious amount of controlled medication for a chronic condition. In case I get ill abroad, I bring with me a letter from my specialist which shows the amount of medication I take so that a hospital will know about my condition in an emergency.

Once I was searched by customs on entry to Thailand and they saw the meds - I had three months worth. No problem.

At the end of the day, whatever you find drinkable and whatever your body can put up with is what you can drink. And good for you if you can knock back cheep wine in Thailand with no ill effects.

But given the fact that Thailand charges high tax on foreign wine and the wine has had to travel huge distances from overseas, it is highly unlikely you will get a decent bottle of wine cheaply in the Kingdom. Most likely when you buy a cheap wine in Thailand, you will get some terrible plonk that is full of chemicals, some of which act as flavour enhancers - the more chemicals, the more likely you are going to get a hangover or some other nasty effect. Ironically, if you want to buy a decent bottle of wine that is not going to break the bank, head to Laos where they don't overdo the taxes and seem to have a tradition of drinking wine (maybe from the French times) and have a number of shops in Vientiane that stock good stuff.

Yes, in certain parts of the world where they grow grapes and make wine, you can get really cheap fantastic wine with no additives but this is not going to be the case in Thailand. But if your body can take the chemicals of a cheap (300 baht) wine in Thailand, good for you. For me, if I drink wine in Thailand, I always go high-end and therefore only drink it occasionally. Going high-end, even if you know your stuff, is not going to guarantee you a decent wine but it at least ups the probability of it being drinkable by my standards.

Catering for dirty old men isn't really applicable in the 21st century. I must admit picturing a young pretty Thai lady barely 20 years old, with a drooling fart, old enough to be her grandfather is quite repulsive. In EU this would be considered unacceptable. Regretfully, Thailand does seemingly attract the dregs of society .. the sex tourists, perverts, and criminals. Most come after failing to attract a woman in their home country, (which is not surprising). So they come to LOS, as looks/age don't matter, so long as you have a fat bank account. I have witnessed 60 year-old men acting like a 21 year-old, which just looks ridiculous. Would be nice if Thailand cleaned-up it's act. The bars, and whore-houses were catering for the US service men at the time of the Vietnam war, well those days are gone. Time to clean-up the image of the country that is for sure.

Wow......at least we know how you feel.

Ahem, correct me if I got your wrong but . . . the "dirty" old men you refer to are not in a brothel but with a girl-friend. How do you legislate against such an old man being with a young girl-friend? Closing the brothels is unlikely to make any difference.

Yes, I too am sometime appalled by the behaviour of falang in Thailand - the presence of a number of loud drunk males in "wife-beater" t-shirts com plainly loudly never improves my evening. To solve this, I just go to places where those guys don't hang out.

I have to disagree with you on the age-difference issue. I have met quite a number of older foreign gents with younger wives in Thailand who are polite, good company and are well-integrated. I have also met a few older Thai gents with much younger partners. Why do you have something against them?

I have to declare a personal interest in this argument - and no, before you jump to conclusions, I don't live in Thailand, I am not over 60 years old and I don't have a 20-year-old girlfriend. It is just that my father was a few decades older than my mother and they met when she was about 20 (BTW, neither of them were Thailand and neither had ever been to Thailand). If somehow you had managed to legislate against them being together, I would never have been born!

I have no idea why a small riot or disturbance in Berlin has appeared in Thaivisa. But perhaps I can provide a little background for the very few who are interested.

Berlin, even before the Berlin Wall came down, had a highly politicised house squatting and protest scene left over from the 1960s. Small scuffles to larger fights between police and protesters were relatively commonplace with much larger protests and street fighting between citizens and police on special days, such as Mayday (May 1st) every year.

Because the city of then West Berlin was limited in size because it was surrounded by East Germany, some landlords were purposely allowing perfectly good buildings become dilapidated so as to escape rent controls and charge much higher rents Squatters would take over an empty apartment house that was being made dilapidated, replace the part of the roof that had been broken (broken roofs and windows help the dilapidation process) and live in it.

Various attempts would be made by the police and the authorities to throw them out and, because some of the folks were quite political in the anti-nuclear and other movements, police used to sweep through these squats to search for "trouble-makers" etc. The point was that by law you are supposed to be registered at your address and without a lease or ownership papers you could not and therefore you registered with friends - this living where you were not registered did not sit well with the authorities.

A hard core left-wing group within the house squatting scene were the autonomen (the autonomous guys). They were left-wing anarchists who wanted to make a part of Kreuzberg (and eventually everywhere else) into an autonomous area free from capitalist exploitation and police aggression. Eventually, these rather run-down but generally very safe areas in Berlin changed, the folks got older and some of the squatted buildings were handed over to the squatters and now look very nice.

But the movement moved over to the former East Berlin where there were plenty of older dilapidated buildings around for landlords and squatters to fight over. However, the squatted house movement kinda died down because with unification there were plenty of properties for everyone and rents fell. However, the old sentiments die hard and I hear that the legentary street fights between the police and protesters continue and the Mayday event is looked forward to with relish each year by both sides.

Very few people are actually hurt during these riots and the number of deaths (of protesters) could be counted on the fingers of one hand over the last 40 years or so.

Incidentally, this is now a solely Berlin scene - you will not find it in other parts of Germany.

There is a lesson for all of us........ check your entry stamp before leaving the immigration check point.

Oh, and another learning point....................... keep your mouth shut when you are in the wrong and/or dealing with Immigration.

Immigration did nothing wrong and I think it is appropriate in this situation to say "som nom naar"

The rule is always, "Immigration is always right. And even when they are wrong, they are still right."

I wish they would make the distinction between someone of British ethnicity (ie, cleaving to thousands of years of local culture) and someone simply holding a British passport (ie, having just turned up and made himself at home). Big difference.

They're reporting the news, not pandering to the sensitivities of the bigoted.

Bigoted, and racist.

At least he has a British passport. When the British occupied India, pillaged it and called it home for 200 years, they didn't bother to hold an Indian passport. Some people just don't seem to understand that in politics, economics and sociology, as in all other matters, you reap what you sow. But most of all, some people (or should I say most) have a very short memory span.

As for the 'thousand years of local culture' ...

1/ The Angles (who gave England its name) were of Germanic origin and invaded the islands in pre-Roman times.

2/ The conquest of England by the Romans started with Julius Caesar around 50 bc, continued by Claudius about a century later. Emperor Hadrian's wall was built around 125 AD.

3/ The Norman conquest of England occured in 1066 under the leadership of William II of Normandy. To this day, innumerable traces of the Norman/French culture are to be found in the English culture and language.

4/ Until 1917 the House of Windsor, to whom Her Gracious Majesty belongs, was called House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

All these 'foreign' influences didn't make English culture poorer, they made it richer. A richness wich is now severely under attack by parochialism, xenophobia and narrow-mindedness.

You forgot to mention the Dutch invasion of William of Orange. It is glossed over as an invitation but I think that invitation was issued long after the guests had arrived and made themselves at home.

Call them and explain your issue.

Call them? I don't know about Thailand but I tried to call them from a European country where their website announced a bank account for making payments. After many attempts to call them, they said that this was not a valid account even though it was provided via their website! And the local authorities could not do anything legal against them despite the fact that they had falsely advertised, broke a basic contract, infringed my consumer rights and refused to pay back what they owed.

Actually they never refused - they just did not do it. No one on their side would agree to take a position.

It took several months to get a refund and I probably spent at least 12 hours and untold phone/Skype credit trying to get them to agree to repay. It was very clear that I would not be able to do anything legal against them.

Use Paypal? NEVER AGAIN!

And Paypal has the reputation of being easily hacked too.

They do what they like because they can.

Instead I use visa debit cards which work perfectly well.

Easy to be wise after the event. He made a decision to go to war and it was the wrong one therefore he gets castigated for it.

In the late 30s, Neville Chamberlain made the decision not to wage war against Hitler and he too was castigated. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Because the decision usually needs to be made quickly (ie the Falklands response) you can't hold a referendum on it. Take Brexit, we're still arguing the toss and will be for years to come.

I hold no love for the Labour party or Tony Blair, but right or wrong, he had to make a decision and he did just that. I'm sure he knew at the time that it could come back to bite him in the aris but he had the bottle to decide and not sit on the fence.

If WW2 had gone the wrong way I wonder if we'd be knocking Churchill and praising Chamberlain? Us Brits are pretty handy with the flail, especially when using it on ourselves.

Correct me if I am wrong but Saddam Hussein never declared war on the UK. He may have made a few threats - sure. But the UK was never worried about any Iraqi flotilla off the coast of Scotland or the massing of Iraqi forces in Northern France. The only thing that Tony Blair could wave in the fashion of a shroud was the lie that missiles/chemical weapons could be sent to the UK in 45 minutes.

I also disagree with your assessment that the decision had to be done quickly. The famous memo by Blair to Bush was written in July 2002, they went to the UN in Autumn 2002 and went to war in March 2003. They had plenty of time to plan both for the waging to the war (including on the British side to get enough of the right equipment such as ceramic bullet proof jackets and land vehicles, both of which were severely lacking).

But unlike WW2, no effort was made by the Allies to create any institutional framework for the running of the country. The Allies dismantled all law enforcement, dismissed all civil servants and the Iraqi army. In a country with a history of strife between Sunni, Shia and Kurd, no effort was made to prevent or reduce revenge killings which quickly escalated into civil strife. Looting was rife. There was no official currency (the allies got rid of the currency because Saddam's face was on it!).

Not a single institution was left for the running of the country and those with guns (mainly former Iraqi soldiers) were able to form gangs along sectarian lines. On the British side, the best they could do is to put completely inexperienced volunteer British civil servants in charge of large areas with no institutions which they could use to implement any strategy.

Even when they had gotten rid of the old currency, the Americans put some military guy in charge of running the economy and introducing a new currency - a military guy who had never studied economics, finance etc

It may sound chilling to say this but it is a wonder that there is a place called Iraq anymore and it is also a surprise that even more people were not killed and maimed in its aftermath.

He was working as an English teacher at a language institute and was also employed as a singer.

I enjoy singing. Where can you get a job singing? Where was this guy singing? There must be an opening now he's singing the jail house rock.

There are many Philippino/a singers and musicians in Thailand and other Asian countries - they seem to have a cultural in-built skill for it.

You have probably seen many live bands in Thailand - many of them are either made up entirely of Philippinos or at least the singers are Philippinos. It is easy to just assume that the live singers are Thai.

But what exactly is the "dark side" referred to in the headline?

If it is that women are being coerced or forced into the activity, then fine - use of force or coercion is covered under slavery laws and if they are applied then job done. Any woman who is coerced or forced into anything should get the protection of the law. But where is the dark side in this case?

If the surrogates are not getting adequately paid, then wave the exploitation flag. But that case is not being made. If they are being trafficked, then say that. But to throw together a few quotes from some gay adoptive fathers who would prefer not to be bothered by the media along with some rather vague stuff from an NGO does not make for a "dark side."

If we want dark side, then what about child labour? child sex trade (now thankfully much reduced or even almost gone, depending on who you talk to)? Outright forced labour/slavery on boats and ships for shrimp fishing etc. And of course, women forced into non-consensual sex, whether by forced marriage, trafficked into forced prostitution etc. These are indeed "dark side' activities but surrogacy does not even come near them.

Perhaps it is because poor women from a so-called developing country are being paid for their reproductive abilities, to conceive, carry and give birth to a child and then give that child up and this affects our Western ethics. Our Western ethics are such that we would much prefer that the women not get any money rather than engage in paid surrogacy. If you are looking for a dark side, then there it is - Westerners who prefer to dictate their code of ethics on everyone else even though it means that women in poor countries along with their families do not get to eat or buy shoes or whatever.

Instead, those who are really concerned about this issue should put their efforts into regulating surrogacy in Cambodia so that we do not get another situation like in India.

Why not rejoice in the fact that certain aspects of the respective cultures are similar? Of course, how stupid of me, that would make the Thais the same as the Cambodians and no Thai could accept that!

I am yet to hear one 'expert' present even the foggiest notion of what effect it will have. The people who voted 'stay' or 'leave' didn't have a clue either.

The most ill informed referendum ever presented to a 'haven't a clue' population in the history of Democracy.

The many experts provided their comments on what would happen if Britain were to be so dumb as to leave the EU - they commented especially on what would happen to the UK because it was the British who were going to make the decision.

Since then, never before have we heard such "buyer's remorse" after such a large collective decision - so many British seemed to believe that the Remain vote would carry the day that they felt free to cast a Brexit vote in protest - now many are calling for a review because, just as the experts predicted, Sterling would fall and become unstable, there would be falls in the stock market etc.

But if you need a comment on what will happen to the EU or Europe, the issue is frankly so open-ended that it is impossible to say with precision at this early stage. Much will depend on the deal that the UK gets on accessing the EU market as this will dictate whether businesses will leave the UK for some other EU country in order to have ready access to the EU market for their goods and services.

But the type of things that can happen are many. It is always possible that the EU member states will take the opportunity to reform (remember that it is the member states who can change the commission and make the EU governance more democratic but to date they do not choose to do so!). Yes, this would be the best outcome for all but I think that it would be over-optimistic.

More likely is that reform is not on the agenda and several more states will leave - in some respects, that would not be such a bad thing for the EU if Hungary clears out - there are many, including myself who saw the expansion of the EU to include Romania and other middle-European states as premature.

I think that if there is instability in the EU, you could see a return to the Western European model or a fast and slow track to integration with Germany, France, Benelux all heading for closer integration with the rest of the South and Middle European countries consigned to a slow track or perhaps leaving the EU.

But whatever happens to the EU, Brexit has made it far more likely that many EU countries are going to find themselves in a low-growth-high unemployment "stagflation" scenario or are probably already in that scenario right now and Brexit will entrench it. None of this is good for the UK or anyone else.

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

Just arrived in Scotland. Place is going wild over the vote. They took their country back, just like we will take America back. No games!

ily ‏@lilyallen

@realDonaldTrump Scotland voted IN you moron

-------------------------------

Trump at his best . The world needs leaders with such an extrem knowledge. Yes, "Belgian is a nice city", too, Mr. Trump.

Si tacuisses, ........

It's nice to hear different words from a man with a higher IQ.

Ah, good old Trump the Chump who does not realise that the Scottish voted overwhelmingly for remaining inside the EU!

If the EU want to make this a separation based on what's good for all people (which they won't), part of the separation agreement should be an easy visa system between the UK and the EU. All citizens of EU countries living in the UK (without serious criminal record) automatically get leave to remain visas and vice versa.

Listening to Radio 4 yesterday here in the UK, there's panic amongst Europeans living in Blighty. They're scared and a paranoia has set in that they're not wanted here, that they're hated. From my point of view this simply isn't the case. Yes, the UK needs immigration control, it's got twice the population density of Germany, it doesn't have sufficient housing and public services to cope with a continued mass influx. But, for those people from other EU countries already established here, life should not be made difficult (it's difficult enough thanks).

The referendum campaign and certainly the communication of any sort of immediate plan in case of Brexit was an utter disgrace on both sides, leading to the sort of extreme uncertainty we're now witnessing.

The UK has a population density of 267 per square km of land - Germany has a population density of 232.

But actually I think that this is a complete side show in the central argument. I just don't get why the UK, the 5th most wealthy country cannot provide sufficient housing and public services. I also don't understand why the UK did not do what other EU countries do, which is deny benefits to all non-citizens until they can prove several years of tax-paying in-country.

The sad truth about the campaign for and against was the UK media - no matter what anyone said, they only reported the controversial stuff, amplifying the scare tactics of the UKIP and others even above the voices of the moderate Brexit politicians, not to mention repeating the lies about the amount of money saved if the Brexit vote won.

The equally sad facts that the Brexit supporters will find out over the next few years is that being outside the EU will cost the UK more than being inside (if they adopt the Norwegian model which is about the best option). It will do little to stem the tide of immigration, especially illegal immigration, as EU countries will no longer have an incentive to stop migrants on the European mainland side. Within the UK it will sow the seeds of division between the older and the younger, the northerners versus the Londoners, Scotland versus the rest of the UK and create the infrastructure of division again in Northern Ireland.

Remove the bulb and place a coin in the socket, then replace the bulb. That will take them a while.

<Ahem> please make sure that the light is switched off when you attempt this!

Did I miss something here but did the man apologise for "hurting the military" by wearing the uniform but not for hitting his girlfriend? I would have thought that the military filled with big and strong males would be a lot more able to withstand that hurt than his girlfriend.

Apart from being a ridiculous law that makes about as much sense as the Ugandan anti-same sex (consensual) law that will get both perpetrators at least a decade each in jail, the irony is that e-cigs made their debut in thailand - long before they were even heard of in other countries. I bought a set for a smoker pal who lives in the UK but he was afraid to try it.

Why don't the authorities just tax it like everything else instead of putting non-criminal foreigners in jail - they have had long enough to figure it out. It does not matter who says it is legal or illegal when you are being thrown in jail by a cop who wants to make his tea money big time

The beverages will not kill you unless toxic chemicals, heavy metal, mold and more are in the water.

If that will not kill you the air may, or just a million other things.

Life is short.

Enjoy it.

Since you can even get cancer through acid reflux where the stomach acids change the composition of the cells in the oesophagus. Would it not be possible that hot fluid might have the same effect?

Why William? Why not Edward? Ive noticed he's been quiet. its common knowledge that Edward bats for the other side,after all thats been said over the years.I hate all this Royal clannish cover up shit.In this day and age,why doesnt he just come out and admit it.I dont think its going to be a surprise to anyone.Even Queen Victoria had homosexuality in her family,and that was considered to be a hanging offence in those days .I have to admit that i've always wondered how much Sophies yearly wage is for playing the game.

It is a truth, universally known to people who read about such matters, that every member of the British Royal family and their relatives have either been said to be gay or a major philanderer (of the opposite sex) or both.

To me it would not matter if William or Ed were gay. William would not be the first gay dad, if this rumour were true.

What is not true is that Sophie gets a wage. You are dealing with people who are above such plebeian matters as wages which are for the working classes.

By the way, I am not a Royalist - far from it, I am a Republican (in the sense of believing that the head of state should be elected) even though not a militant one.

So ''Man doesn't read airline policy'' is now news. I don't see why Air Canada apologised: this is pretty standard (albeit annoying). Same thing happened to my little cousin: uncle paid for ticket but didn't complete verification procedure (Never made that mistake again)

I can't figure out if this is some weird paid for advertisement for Air Canada or whether it really is just a slow news day

I have had this problem in the past even when I was the person flying. In each case, the airline was acting illegally.

I don't see why everyone should have the required PhD in legalese to read through many pages involved.

I took a quick look at Air Canada website - there is no mention of these rules in the FAQs. Nor can you find it in the first number of pages when you google Air Canada Credit Card policy.

There are many large companies that have policies for everything but many of those policies are actually illegal in a variety of ways but mainly against the consumer protection laws of the state or country. The cause of many annoyances for airline passengers and other consumers of products and services are that the provider has actually done something illegal but gets away with it because individual consumers do not have the financial wherewithal to sue the company in question in open court. As in this case, they refund the extra ticket and provide $500 even though this does not by a long shot cover all the expenses.

The only thing that these companies worry about is their revenue - that is why this guy and his wife are absolutely right to bring the case straight to the media and maybe one of these stupid policies will be changed.