The Grumpy Expat Forum

Gareth Williams was found dead in a holdall in his bath with, apparently, no signs of injury.

If you dig below the simplification and dramatisation by the press, the police and government utterances so far don't add up. Williams was employed at GCHQ and was coming to the end of a secondment to MI6 in London, it's said. We were told that he hadn't been seen for two weeks but now we are told he ...

The redesign of the UK passport will bring it more into line with those of other countries and be more secure against faking. The moving of the personal details page to the front of the document should avoid those fumbles to find it that so irritate Immigration officials and photocopy shops employees.

A rather charming feature will be the inclusion of typical UK scenes such as the White Cliffs Of Dover and, according to the ...

It seems possible that priests in Ireland may be bombers as well as bummers. Here's a case in which a priest was suspected of involvement in a bombing but was deliberately not interviewed by the authorities and moved to the Republic to work. There were suspicions during the 'Troubles' that priests were in collusion with the IRA but this is the first possible case to be exposed by the press.

I don't think that anyone ...

This long running and excellent example of British sit. com. humour at its best comes to an end this week, accompanied by cries of 'ageism' from its audience.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11057180

Example:

Clegg: We've all had that uncomfortable feeling that the Almighty's not all that competent.


Another example:

Compo: Ah, there were that time during the war with Hilda Mason and them three Yanks. Everybody knew it were rape. But she ...

Perhaps it's no surprise but Haiti's Electoral Council has found a few reasons to bar him from standing in the coming Presidential elections. The decision is accompanied by strong comments from elsewhere about his claims to doing charity work in Haiti. I don't know whether the allegations in this instance are true but I have always been wary of people claiming to pass on donations to charity.


http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/ ... 39/1/.html

Associated Press reports that 5 people were killed in a helicopter crash during heavy rain in northern Thailand yesterday. Here's the full report:

Government helicopter crashes in Thai rain forest; all 5 on board believe killed

By The Associated Press (CP) – 19 hours ago

BANGKOK — A government helicopter crashed during a rain storm in northern Thailand and all five people aboard, including senior officials from the environment ministry, are believed dead, officials said ...

This is from the BBC site...........

Police in Thailand have launched a manhunt for a British Thai boxing expert who is suspected of murder.

The Thai authorities say they believe Lee Aldhouse, 28, is the main suspect in the killing of a 23-year-old ex-US Marine who was found stabbed to death.

The killing happened after a bar fight on the holiday island of Phuket.

More on this story at.........http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-10982945 ...

Apparently, these artifacts were smuggled out of Thailand 30 plus years ago and turned up in a British university when they did an audit and contacted the Thai embassy to arrange for their return.

The Ban Chiang artifacts are some of the most important discoveries in Southeast Asia thus far with evidence of prehistoric occupation dating back to 3600 BC.

The Ban Chiang settlements are named after a village in Udon Thani's Nong Han district, ...

There is a Thai-registered ship carrying an estimated 500 Tamils on its way to Canada. The ship has been at sea since April and apparently some of those on board have developed tuberculosis and one person has died. I read somewhere that the ship had been turned away from Australia, no doubt fearing the passengers would all claim asylum.

Sri Lanka's high commissioner to Canada is urging the government to refuse refugee status, claiming the ...

The Burmese military junta, having prepared the way by excluding certain opposition groups from voting, has announced that a general election will take place on November 7.

This from the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-10961366