Thailand

Wednesday's preliminary hearing for the Black Madam featured testimony about "butt pumping parties" and a woman who goes by the name of "Back Shots. " But perhaps the most bizarre moment came when Black Madam's attorney argued that one reason his client isn't a flight risk is that she always wears 4-inch heels. Judge Jacquelyn Frazier-Lyde didn't buy the argument. She held the case for trial and refused to reduce the $750,000 bail for Black Madam, a transgender gothic hip-hop artist whose real name is Padge Victoria Windslowe.

BANGKOK - Buddhist monks led prayers as tens of thousands gathered Saturday in Bangkok to mark the second anniversary of deadly clashes between soldiers and "Red Shirt" protesters. The scene Saturday was a sharp contrast with two years earlier, when Thailand was at war with itself and troops moved in to crush a nine-week antigovernment protest that left more than 90 people dead and 2,000 injured. It was the country's worst political violence in decades. Many speakers addressed the crowd Saturday to demand justice.

CHIANG MAI, Thailand - Thailand banned logging from forests in 1989, a blessing and curse for its working elephants (and for their masters, known as mahouts). They were sold for logging in neighboring Myanmar or ended up in circuses, sideshows, zoos and camps giving rides to tourists. Many were abandoned, and some starved to death. For years, Sangduen Chailert, known as Lek, had felt in her heart that she had to save the Asian elephants of her childhood in northern Thailand.

AYUTTHAYA, Thailand - The lucky ones traverse this flood-submerged Thai city in navy boats and motorized canoes. The rest float on whatever they can find - inner tubes, swan-shaped pedal boats, huge chunks of muddied white plastic foam. With large sections of Ayutthaya buried under a sea of one-story high water, rescue workers and volunteers are still crisscrossing town to pluck stranded residents from the ruins. Others are staying to protect what's left. One boy donned a snorkeling mask to inspect his house, its corrugated roof faintly visible below the murky brown waves.

To figure out what's going on with Thailand's economy these days, merely look at Siam Cement Co. Officials of the company, Thailand's largest construction outfit, thought they'd struck gold in 1988 when sales rose 25 percent and profits swelled by 75 percent. But they hit platinum this year, with sales and profits expected to rise 40 percent to 60 percent further. "If purchasing power increases, it goes for building new homes and businesses," said Thirasakdi Nathikanchanalab, finance manager of Siam Cement.

Dolly Newport, the director of the Coatesville Library, puts her hands in her pockets and looks around the room. There is so much to do - cleaning up after last week's break-in attempt, planning for children's book week - and so little time to get it done. In about two weeks, she will be halfway around the world. On Nov. 13, Newport will travel to Payap University in northern Thailand, where for two months she will help index the 150-year-old archives of the Church of Christ.

Tiger Woods began his trip to Thailand with a bout of heat exhaustion and food poisoning. By the end, things were working out quite nicely. There was a royal decoration and a blowout victory yesterday in the Asia Honda Classic in Bangna. Woods won the tournament by 10 strokes, and received an embrace from his Thai-born mother on the 18th green while a crowd of 3,000 chanted his name. Woods closed with a 4-under-par 68 for a total of 20-under 268. He earned $48,000 for the victory plus a $480,000 appearance fee. Woods was presented with the royal decoration - for helping promote Thailand's image - by Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh at a reception last night.

I would like to take a trip to Thailand and Burma in October, but have been unable to find a travel agent who can plan an itinerary for me. I particularly want to include Chiang Mai, which I understand is very special. Can you lead me to some informed sources? Information is available from the Tourism Authority of Thailand, 5 World Trade Center, Suite 2449, New York, N.Y. 10048; 212-432-0433. Burma has no tourism office in the United States, but you can get a few brochures and some basic information from the Consulate General of Burma, 10 E. 77th St., New York, N.Y. 10021; 212-535-1310.

On a recent business trip to Thailand, I took advantage of an off day to do some sightseeing. One option listed in the travel brochure in my hotel room that caught my eye was "The Tiger Temple Tour," described as "one of the most extraordinary sights you will ever see. " It turned out to be even better than advertised. As our tour bus arrived at Kanchanaburi, a remote forest region in western Thailand, it was clear that this was neither a temple nor a zoo. The grounds were inhabited by Buddhist monks, who live among such animals as water buffalo, deer, wild boar, peacocks (all roaming about freely)

HAT YAI, Thailand - Suspected Muslim insurgents staged the most deadly coordinated attacks in years in Thailand's restive south, killing 14 people and wounding 340 with car bombs that targeted Saturday shoppers and a high-rise hotel frequented by foreign tourists. A first batch of explosives planted inside a parked pickup truck ripped through an area of restaurants and shops in a busy area of Yala city, a commercial hub of Thailand's southern provinces, said the district police chief, Col. Kritsada Kaewchandee.

BANGKOK - Buddhist monks led prayers as tens of thousands gathered Saturday in Bangkok to mark the second anniversary of deadly clashes between soldiers and "Red Shirt" protesters. The scene Saturday was a sharp contrast with two years earlier, when Thailand was at war with itself and troops moved in to crush a nine-week antigovernment protest that left more than 90 people dead and 2,000 injured. It was the country's worst political violence in decades. Many speakers addressed the crowd Saturday to demand justice.

HAT YAI, Thailand - Suspected Muslim insurgents staged the most deadly coordinated attacks in years in Thailand's restive south, killing 14 people and wounding 340 with car bombs that targeted Saturday shoppers and a high-rise hotel frequented by foreign tourists. A first batch of explosives planted inside a parked pickup truck ripped through an area of restaurants and shops in a busy area of Yala city, a commercial hub of Thailand's southern provinces, said the district police chief, Col. Kritsada Kaewchandee.

BANGKOK - Thailand's police chief said the Iranians who were arrested after accidentally setting off explosives at their rented home in Bangkok were plotting to attack Israeli diplomats, bolstering claims by Israel that the group was part of an Iranian-backed network of terror. "I can tell you that the target was specific and aimed at Israeli diplomatic staff," police chief Gen. Prewpan Dhamapong told a Thai television station late Wednesday. He also confirmed that the type of explosive - a homemade "sticky" bomb - found at the blast site Tuesday matched the devices planted on Israeli diplomatic cars in India and Georgia a day earlier.

CHIANG RAI, Thailand - No one asked the elephants, or their mahouts. In 1989, to halt the rape of its thick forests, Thailand banned the centuries-old industry of logging. The result: Logging was stopped (legal logging, anyway) - and thousands of elephants suddenly found themselves jobless. This was less of a problem for the elephants than for their gobsmacked mahouts (owners), who faced the challenge of providing their elephants with about 500 pounds of food a day with no source of income.

BANGKOK, Thailand - Police were questioning a Lebanese man with alleged links to Hezbollah militants as the U.S. Embassy and Israel warned Friday of a "real and credible" terrorist threat against Americans and Israelis in Bangkok. Police said a bombing had been planned and another suspect was at large. The warning comes during heightened tension over U.S. and Israeli responses to the prospect that Iran is going forward with developing nuclear weapons. Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which has been accused of carrying out terrorist attacks in the Middle East since the 1980s, is avowedly anti-Israel and widely considered to act as a proxy for Iran.

WHEN I was a schoolteacher in Olney, a fellow teacher used to regale the staff every September with stories about his travels to Mexico and South and Central America. Relaxing! A journey he'd never forget, he'd crow a little too loudly in staff meetings as he passed around pictures. I still remember the nausea I felt when I opened a national news magazine a few years later to see his face on a story about international child predators. He was serving 10 years in a Mexican prison for soliciting sex from children the same age that he taught at our school.

PATTAYA, THAILAND - If you are going to run from your troubles, run far. In the wake of a personal hurricane that tore apart my life, I ran all the way to Thailand. Every journey is both external - where you went - and internal - how you felt. I am feeling good - and bad. My journey reconnected me with my college friend Paul DeCeglie, who ran here to something, not from something. It's now his permanent home. He ran to weather he liked, a lower cost of living, a laid-back Thai lifestyle and low-cost, no-guilt sex. It was my first time in Asia, exotic and different - the language, the architecture, the sounds, the smells, the customs.

Extradition set for Noriega PARIS - An attorney for Manuel Noriega said Wednesday the former Panamanian strongman was to be extradited from France to his homeland Sunday. Attorney Yves Leberquier said it was "good news" that "this old and tired man" is returning home "after more than 20 years in American and French prisons. " French authorities approved two extradition requests by Panama, which plans to retry Noriega in two cases in which he was convicted in absentia. Noriega was ousted in the United States' 1989 invasion of Panama, convicted of drug racketeering in Miami, and served 20 years in a U.S. prison.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - A Vietnamese war refugee who survived a 1977 pirate attack that separated him from his wife and infant boy reunited Monday with his grown son in Upstate New York after nearly 34 years apart. Hao Truong was tossed into the South China Sea after pirates attacked a boat taking refugee families to Thailand in December 1977. He said he managed to stay afloat for 16 hours before a fishing boat rescued him. In a Thai refugee camp, Truong learned weeks later that his wife had died; her body washed up on shore along with another female victim.

BANGKOK, Thailand - The death toll from Thailand's worst floods in half a century climbed past 500 Sunday, as advancing pools of polluted water threatened Bangkok's subway system and new evacuations were ordered in the capital. The latest district added to the government's evacuation list was Chatuchak, home to a major public park and an outdoor shopping zone that is a major tourist attraction. The Chatuchak Weekend Market was open but missing many vendors and customers Sunday as floodwaters poured past the market's eastern edge for a second day. So far, Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra has ordered evacuations in 11 of Bangkok's 50 districts, and partial evacuations in seven more.