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I should imagine that a significant number of Israelis maintain a healthy scepticism with regard to Germany!

If you consider 24% of Israelis a significant number, then your claim would make sense. But it is significant that in this (presumable representative) sample, only 24% had a negative view of Germany.

One doesn't sustain extensive head injuries from a fall in ones home unless you possibly fell off of the roof of course. extensive head injuries would seem to suggest a battering of the head ,

I have over the years years as a policeman seen such injuries, indeed there are reasons to suppose all is not as we have been told.

Falling over in the shower, tripping up getting in or out of a bath, falling off a step ladder or from standing on a chair or table to reach something, tripping up on a loose mat and hitting head on the floor or hard object, falling down a flight of steps or stairs, slipping on a wet floor and the list goes on.

Yes, you can hit your head when falling off a ladder or chair. But extensive head injuries? And no mention of a ladder or chair? As Siamlpolee says, EXTENSIVE HEAD INJURIES would seem to SUGGEST a battering of the head.

Best destination for life and death thrills........Koh Tao

Best Police shakedown and being forced to urinate into a test jar on the street experience - Asoke

Best taxi shakedown - Bangkok

Best false arrest shakedown for shoplifting - Sumerabhumi Airport

Easiest place to be arrested for Lese Majeste

Best place for dropping cig butt on the street shakedown - Sukhumvit

OK Ok, lets give this island where so many foreigners die the most positive spin we can. Clearly there is a person or group on the island (or is a frequent visitor) who is untouchable but who has a thing about killing foreigners. Instead of raking over the coals in the British tabloids, this condition should be seen as a difficult-to-satisfy-need.

But instead of hiding this fact, why not advertise the island for those who, for whatever reason (illness, depression, gone broke etc) want to be killed. It would be a simple matter of going there and wearing a certain type of teeshirt (an appropriate design could be found, say with a target on it!) so that the wrong person does not stop the bullet. Obviously, there would be a sign at the port warning those not wishing to be offed not to wear such a teeshirt!

This might appeal to those who are too scared to do it themselves and just do not want to know when they are going to be offed. A separate method could be offered for those who want to go while they are doing their favourite activity (and this being Thailand there could be a certain kind of bar-girl who could supply the favourite activity side of the bargain) Any method of killing beyond a bullet in the head would cost more - you could choose a variety of ways of departure and they might even put torture on the menu as a special, depending on client's wishes.

The person or group could both make money for the island and do a public service as well as bringing in much needed income to the island, now that the divers and others have moved on somewhere else. Just a thought . . . . . . .

The usual false moral equivalence arguments from the left. Most Jews and Mormons try to fit in to society and they do not react to satire of their religions with violence. Too many Muslims don't want to fit in and believe that murder is justified when it comes to cartoons mocking their prophet.

When you define "fit in" and you quantify "too many," I might take your post a little more seriously.

How many deaths from "natural causes" does it take to properly investigate these cases on or near this tiny island?

They target Koreans who are usually heavy smokers and Arabs, too. I've seen these rent-a-cops fine unsuspecting tourists along a stretch of Sukhumvit. I'd hardly call this harassment, though. It's littering and it comes with a fine. I believe spitting, dropping cigarette butts, and littering are among the acts which can be legally fined along that small stretch. This is a crappy article. and should be ignored. Much hype over nothing.

So police harassment is "much hype over nothing," given your reasonably well travelled tourist/visitor is not going to know the difference between the real police and the cigarette police.? And if there is no place to place your cigarette butt except in the gutter (along with plenty other trash lying there), what can a tourist do? And to add to that, if you are like me, a non-smoker for over 20 years who has someone else's cig butt waved in my face by one of these cig police claiming that I dropped it, this stops being much hype over nothing.

Add to that the stated topic of this discussion, namely dramatic surge in harassment by Thai police, the trouble with Thai police is that once they stop someone who has been told that he has rights and who tries to exercise them, this can escalate as the police begin to lose face. There have been many many incidents where foreigners died in Thailand in suspicious circumstances and where there is strong belief that the Thai police had a hand in the death in some way. Someone who was not aware of the niceties of the Thai way of doing things and who tried to push for his rights - who knows where that would lead with the wrong set of cops and the wrong set of circumstances.

Did anyone notice how this article conveniently omits any mention of the police shakedowns along Sukhumvit where other scam artists (yes I do mean the RTP) have been causing Thailand's tourism to take a hit. Wonder why this was not highlighted in the article? Is it because Thailand has no solution for cops gone crazy?

And the cigarette "police" who only shake down foreigners.

Businesses that overcharge and have the cops on their side to back up their criminality.

The "shoplifting" scam in the airside of Sumerabhumi where they used the police to detain foreigners illegally for days until they or their families had paid up.

The jet-ski folks who claim that the equipment was broken by the foreigner user and use the local cops to back up their extortion.

And of course the upstairs places in Patpong where all sorts of scams are going on and they use the cops to back up their criminality.

Not to mention all the places where criminal enterprises have been doing business for decades and continue to do so because of the huge amount of money handed to the police.

One even hears that to become a police officer, you now have to pay huge amounts of money because of the large amounts of revenue a police officer can expect to gain during his years of "service."

Perhaps it is time to call time on the biggest scam organisation of all, the RTP

The distribution of condoms or other contraceptives by aid agencies is only providing individuals and their families with choices. No aid agency ever said that it is a condition of receiving aid that people have to use them. Instead, those conservative Catholic voices who criticise the aid agencies and accuse them of cultural colonialism had better be careful with that criticism - most of these developing countries were originally colonised in every sense of the word and had the Catholic religion imposed on them.

Instead of this smoke and mirrors approach, the Pope should just come out with it and make it clear. What can the woman who has had 8 C-sections say to her husband when he wants sex? If you interview these women in the Philippines, they will tell you, "I cannot deny that to my husband." Sometimes this means that such denial will lead to domestic violence. Sometimes it will mean that the man will go somewhere else to be satisfied and that will leave the woman and children without the means for survival.

Or perhaps he ought to address the reason for between 300,000 and 500,000 illegal abortions that occur every year in the Philippines (very hard to get a precise number but it is high). The vast majority of these abortions are back-street or home-made with huge medical problems for the women involved who are doing this out of extreme desperation.

I am not sure I recognise the airport that people are describing in this forum.

I have never encountered stinky toilets but have you every been to Heathrow? Yes, the lines at immigration can be long but have you ever been to Heathrow? How about international arrivals in India? Or Manila? Even getting out of the country in Manila airport can be a drag too, for those who have experienced it.

Wistful for a little down-home charm and politeness, don't arrive on an international flight at Newark (USA)! Actually, don't depart from Newark either - last time my flight left for Singapore at around midnight but the bar and restaurant in the airport shut at 9pm. This was times with precision following 3 hours of being hounded by homeland security, searches etc (this was back in 2008). At least Suvarnabhumi is open 24 hours and you can always get a cup of coffee the way you like it or a beer or food.

And those long walks from immigration to your flight gate? Yes but not as long as Dublin (new terminal), new Terminal (Queen Elizabeth) at Heathrow not to mention the maze that involves going upstairs to go downstairs so as to go back upstairs at Heathrow Terminal 5 plus the train that is so overcrowded with understandably grumpy passengers that you sometimes have to wait for several trains to be able to get on with your hand luggage. And that terminal is only recently built, more recently built than Swampy, may I add!

In Heathrow and in a few European capitals, count your change when you buy something for cash in a shop. Almost invariably, you will be short-changed, especially if you look jet-lagged. I don't find that in Swampy.

What was wrong with Swampy in the past could still be wrong for all I know - the stuff I especially despised was the dirty little scam involving the King Power security guys who would arrest foreigners on trumped-up shoplifting charges. So I just decided not to shop at King Power. And I still decline to shop there.

Yes, the taxi drivers can be a surly bunch. But how would you feel if your income had not been increased in nominal terms for years? Someone remind me but is it really 15 years (or more!) since the taxi fares went up? Which international airport provides you with a taxi service that costs a little over US$10 to drive the 30 or 40 km into town? I feel sorry for these guys and am usually able to bargain them down to Baht 300 plus 50 airport charge plus highway tolls to drive without meter. And if it is Baht 400, who cares! And if he offers Baht700, bargain with him - this is Asia after all and bargaining is expected! If you don't bargain, the taxi driver will just think you have so much money that Baht400 means nothing to you (it just might pay for 4 beers in a Bangkok bar, if you are lucky and in that context when you are buying a round of beers, the Baht 400 probably won't mean that much to you anyway!

The real fault in relation to taxis is with the arrogant authorities who have made the taxi fares so cheap that it is not worth the driver's while to turn on his engine.

It appears that we seem to want European politeness (which is a myth anyway), American service standards but at North Korean prices!

I don't hear anything in this story that merits the international interest it is getting. Yes, if it happened in a country where there are gun-control laws, it would indeed be a story if shots were fired near the residence of the VP. But in the USA with so many guns and so little regulation, it is quite likely not to have anything to do with the VP and more to do with some guy who felt like discharging his weapon for whatever reason he had or no reason at all.

By the way, this interpretation holds whether you are for or against gun control laws. Pro-gun control folks want to limit the number of firearms and make it more difficult to get a license and make it easier to have a license revoked. Anti-gun control folks just want more arms for the "good guys" as, in their interpretation, the only way to defend yourself against a gun toting criminal is to have a gun or be better armed than s/he.

A dog is mans best friend a chicken cow or pig fish etc are part of the food chain.

Cruelty in all forms is disgusting however the killing of our food sources is mostly done human land the beast doesn't suffer and people will happily sit down and eat their leg of lamb without a second thought.

However the other day the article on the ivory trade drew around 8 posts which really shows how much people care.

Mankind has a lot to answer for!

But Chinese, Korean and North Vietnamese cultures see dog not only as food but in fact eating dog is central to their worldview that combines health and spirituality - in Vietnam, the dog (Thit Cho) restaurants are usually empty during most of the time but fill up just before the end of the lunar month because they believe that eating dog purges all the bad stuff (a mixture of bad medical and spiritual elements) so that you can start the new lunar month clean. This is even more so prior to the Lunar New Year (Tet).

I don't agree with killing animals cruelly and I agree with any law that prevents that. But consumption of meat, including dog, does not automatically imply cruelty. Instead of preventing the consumption of dog (which occurs a lot in Thailand and in Laos as well as in the neighbouring countries possibly because of intermarriage and the influence of Chinese and Vietnamese cultures from next door), it would be better if the authorities focussed on how they are butchered.

(*) I haven't found money figures, but although the A380 deliveries are small quantity, each one accounts for quite a few 737/A320...

Ive heard a380 orders are stalling, the plane is not versatile enough and can only land at certain airports, there was an incident last year where an a380 landed with only 3 tons of fuel left, good for 10 minutes of flight time, as they encountered and had to wait out bad weather at the destination airport and at the alternative airport, all other airport runways in the area were not suitable

Future is efficient versatile widebodies for long haul, a330neo, a350, 777, 787

The problem with the A380 is not that it cannot land but that it cannot take off unless it has a longer runway - minimum length of runway to land at Maximum Landing Weight is 5,000 feet - minimum runway length for takeoff at Maximum Takeoff Weight is 9,000 feet.

To take-off the 747-800 at MTOW (Maximum Takeoff Weight), needs a runway that is 9,901 ft long; at MLW (Maximum Landing Weight), it needs a runway that is 7,545 ft.

There are many examples of large planes routinely taking off with lower weights than MTW on much shorter runways. And the 747-200 or 400 will probably need less runway anyway. But comparing the 747-800 and the A380, the A380 looks better.

These stats are from planes.findthebest.com

Hell hath no fury as that of a woman scorned!!

The definition of insanity to to repeat an action that, under identical prior circumstances, proved to be futile.

Besides, I have never understood the idea of destroying something just because someone else had unauthorised use of same item. Imagine destroying your car because a thief had stolen it, even if thieves had stolen it twice!

Wipe the phone, and reload the operating system. Or just be faithful... :-)

After you have wiped it, if the following week she asks you if your phone

is ok, then you will know she put in tracking software.

You an wipe all you like, deleting files, etc. But this does not deal with the oldest trick in the book. You need to check the phone simcard account. If your girl set up the account, it is very easy to have all sms and call info sent to her own phone. I don't know whether she would be able to track your phone using this method but it would not surprise me.

Don't try to grab a policeman's gun. Lesson learned.

Most of these guys are high on something, be it a drug, alcohol or stupidity, otherwise,

no expiations why would anyone will go head to head with an armed, ready to shoot,

cops?

What exactly do you mean by "most of these guys?" You are clearly referring to a category. Did you mean black guys? After all, the story refers to a black guy who was killed by the cops - we all know that this is becoming frequent.

Or did you mean persons with mental illness? The deceased had mental health problems (which apparently the officers knew about because they were specialist gang officers and very familiar with the neighbourhood).

In any country, there are people who for various reasons are going to act out in public. In countries other than the USA, this will invariably involve an encounter with the police and some sort of detention until the matter is resolved at least to some degree. In the USA, there is a high probability that such a person will be killed by the police. And a high percentage of those killed by the police are black.

I am not going to claim that no other developed country has any racism among its police - clearly, there have been cases of racism in at least some countries. But such racism (including institutional racism) in those countries usually does not invariably lead to the death of the suspect. These countries have developed methods of dealing with "non-compliant" suspects that do not involve killing them. Perhaps the USA should adopt some of these too, not to mention banning hand-guns at least in cities.

bi-weekly testing blah blah.

These actors know what they risk. No sympathy from me.

So they deserve to get HIV? You deserve therapy.

Imagine the following scenario: a couple who individually had very active sex lives decide to be committed/get married and get tested so that they can dispense with protection. Even though both are faithful to each other, some time later, it turns out that both are HIV + (because the test did not pick up the original infection due to timing etc). Do they "deserve" it? And no sympathy?

All activities have risks and many carry a risk of very severe injury or death - driving vehicles, for instance. Or playing sports. Do we say that everyone who engages in driving, riding in vehicles, crossing the street, engaging in sports deserves the severe injuries or death that a very small number experience?

Perhaps the original poster would prefer that no one leave their homes and not engage in food preparation or any kind of work (all such activities carry risks).

I think that it is quite an achievement by the porn industry that there has been so little HIV+ transmission on sets. This safety record is because of the testing system that is in place. Of course, no safety system will reduce risk to absolute nil - even with all the extra safety features in vehicles today, people still die and are horribly injured in car crashes.

The best cough suppressor is Codeine but even relatively small doses will make you sleep all day. And it carries the same danger of other such tablets if they are around people with suicide on their mind.

But I had something called cough syncope which in itself has its dangers and this is what I used. I slept for most of 2 days on the stuff but at the end my terrible cough was gone.

I can only assume that these comments were designed to satisfy a domestic audience, because the outside world would laugh its conkers off before extraditing anyone

And foreign media outlets are taking notice - this story appeared on BBC Radio 4 (UK station) this morning.

Morphine and amphetamine tests for retirees? I would have thought that of all people applying for visas, retirees would be the least likely to test positive for these drugs.

What a complete and utter waste of time (everyone's) and resources.

What happens if the retiree is on medication - morphine for bone cancer, for instance? Or another med that can give a positive of amphetamine in the basic test that they do.

The difference between an on-the-spot urine test and this hospital test is that it is dead easy to fake the latter. Find someone who is approximately your age, who is clean and who is prepared to take the test. Since your passport is with immigration anyway, you don't have to produce your original passport. Another pointless exercise.

It seems that it is easier to find a paid assassin to kill your enemy than to find someone who will painlessly euthanise your pet!

And after the 1st $1200 another $1200 and another $1200 and so on.

These Africans are so slippery.

And none of their scams are sophisticated in any way.

Actually some of the scams in Africa are quite sophisticated, as I have personally experienced. For instance, when they hack wifi in hotels in West Africa, find out who you are talking to on Skype, find out your name and then call the person you were talking to later that day saying that you said 'that I ought to get in touch with you about this opportunity." Sometimes they can even introduce themselves using your email client!.

Yes, some countries are not as sophisticated with respect to the Internet and credit card/bank scams but some are really up to date.

The Japanese have had enough of Thailand, it's floods, corruption, lack of law and order, laziness, and unregulated businesses. Have you ever seen Japanese outside the Emporium area, Thonglor 55 or the factories outside central Bangkok in chauffeured cars and their country clubs? japanese never go around walking in Thailand except around Soi 55 and 24 clubs. They don't consider Thailand safe and very high risk. The Japanese are running from Thailand. They have had enough.

But do they really think that Philippines is less risky? On the point of personal security, there is no comparison between Bangkok and Manila. Lack of law and order means that such companies would have to cozy up to some local strongman or family with leverage in the areas where they would like to manufacture.

Philippines gets flooded frequently and is hit with major storms on average 20 times per year during typhoon season.

I feel sorry for the AirAsia girl / girls having to deal with him alone they should have strong security to help them, what if he had attacked them? They should have had real Airport police drag him off immediately, less distress to other passengers.

The air crew don't have strong security to help them because in Asia people presume that all adults will behave like responsible adults and children will be kept controlled by their parent(s).