A cave flood at a park in Southern Thailand claimed the lives of six European tourists and their two Thai guided this week. The cave is located about 400 km south of Bangkok. There was only a single survival of the ordeal, 21 year old Helena Christina Carol of Britain, who had been trapped in the cave for over 20 hours. Among the deceased were both Swiss and German tourists. Water in the cave rose to the cieling after 3 hours of heavy rain. This has been a very bad monsoon season for the country, with many fatalities due to the increase in rain. Scientists have suggested that the increase in precipitation is due in part to global warming, and predict that conditions will worsen over time.



Apichart Sukhakkhanant, chairman of the Thai Election Commission warned political parties to refrain from any form of vote-buying in the upcoming December elections. He continued to say that any such infraction will result in the exclusion of such parties from the election. There are over 80 political parties that will participate in the election, though it is predicted that the majority of votes will be devoted to only two (slightly reminiscent of American elections, only with a bit more noise in the votes, and possibly less corruption).



In other news, the fortune telling buisiness in Thailand is booming due to an increase in availability through internet and telephone services. Fortune telling has been a long-time cultural practice in the face of uncertainty, and with internet fortune tellers, Thai people can access these revelations from the comfort of their own homes- for a price! Shineedotcom, a fortune telling company with over 200 professionally employed fortune tellers has reported an average of over 2 thousand calls a day at 15 baht per minute (this is about 35 cents a minute depending on the current exchange rate). Approximately 30% of calls are from returning clients.