Reminds me of this Rolling Stones song.
[Regnum] A 35-year-old woman suspected of seducing Buddhist monks and extorting money has been arrested in Thailand. This was reported on July 16 by AP News.
Investigators believe that Vilawan Emsawat deliberately entered into close relationships with Buddhist monks, violating their monastic vows, and then blackmailed the clergy by threatening to make these stories public.
It was established that at least nine high-ranking monks were defrocked because of the scandal. The investigation was prompted by the confession of the abbot of one of the temples: he left the monastic order after Vilavan threatened to reveal the fact of their affair and demanded 7.2 million baht (about 17.3 million rubles) under the pretext of pregnancy.
According to police, the woman received transfers from the monasteries totaling about 385 million baht (about 924 million rubles) over three years. These funds were allegedly spent on gambling.
The woman has been charged with extortion, money laundering and possession of stolen goods. The country's authorities have announced their intention to strengthen financial control over temples and create a mechanism to monitor the behavior of monks.
Earlier, Sindonews reported that a well-known Buddhist monk, former chairman of the Buddhist Association of the People's Republic of China Shi Xuecheng, was removed from office in China. The reason was accusations of sexual and financial violations. According to investigators, the accused sexually abused nuns, explaining this as a supposed religious practice. Shi Xuecheng denied his guilt, calling the accusations falsified.
[DAILYMAIL.CO.UK] Los Angeles is now so rough tech companies are buying dummies to use as fake homeless people while testing their new delivery robots.
The wheeled devices have been filmed maneuvering past mannequins sprawled on the City of Angels' grimy sidewalks while being tested by food delivery firm Serve Robotics.
In the latest footage, a stunned witness shared a clip of the device after catching Serve Robotics engineers testing their device on the sidewalk.
But the witness quickly realized the dummies were a good idea - because in real life the little robots will regularly have to maneuver LA's thousands of vagrants.
'My mind went straight to, yeah they better learn how to dodge all that,' he said.
'It's more important to be safe and go around and dodge lawsuits.'
The footage circulated across social media as people were left in awe at what passes for normal in LA in 2025.
Continued on Page 47
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
