On Sunday evening the 63rd Cannes Film Festival came to a shocking, exhilarating close with the Palme d’Or going to “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” from the Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Surely the only Palme winner to feature sex between a princess and a thrashing catfish, “Boonmee” is a fantastical tale about a dying man whose past lives — and ghostly relatives — enraptured some critics while turning others off. The speculation that it might appeal to the jury president, Tim Burton, along with some of his more discerning fellow jury members, proved true.

On accepting the award Mr. Weerasethakul (Khun Joe) said in English that “this is like another world for me,” and noted that “Uncle Boonmee” is the first Thai film to win the Palme. “I would really like to kiss all of you,” he said to the jury, telling Mr. Burton that he liked his hairstyle. Mr. Weerasethakul thanked “all the spirits and ghosts in Thailand,” who made it “possible for me to be here.”

The Grand Prix, effectively second place, went to Xavier Beauvois’s “Of Gods and Men,” a quiet, touching French drama, loosely based on actual events, about Cistercian monks imperiled by Muslim fundamentalists as civil war begins sweeping across Algeria in the 1990s. The Jury Prize went to “A Screaming Man,” another film set against civil war, this one directed by the Chadian-born director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun.

The lead singer of a band called Burn has been charged with starting a Bangkok nightclub fire that killed 65 partygoers on new year's eve by launching fireworks from the stage.

The tragedy in the crowded Santika nightclub exposed the dismal safety standards of Bangkok's shady entertainment scene. An official inquiry into the incident found a catalogue of safety failures and that the nightclub was part-owned by a senior police officer who allegedly protected it from official scrutiny.

Shortly after midnight a blaze engulfed the crowded building with around 1000 people trapped inside and only one marked exit. The fire killed 65 people and injured more than 200 others, including several foreign tourists.

"Eyewitnesses and evidence points to fireworks as the cause of the fire at Santika pub, because the fireworks hit the club ceiling and the fire broke out 30 seconds after the fireworks were lit," said General Jongrak Jutanont, deputy national police chief on Tuesday.

Thailand's "Scorpion Queen" set a new world record on Saturday after living with thousands of deadly scorpions in a glass room for 33 days, beating her previous record by one day.

Kanchana Ketkaew, 39, smiled after emerging from the 12 sq. metre room where she ate and slept with 5,000 venomous scorpions.

She was bitten 13 times on her arms, legs and fingers, but appeared unharmed.

"It's very difficult but I tried because I received a lot of support from Thais and foreign tourists in the past 33 days," she said after breaking her 2002 record for living with 3,400 scorpions for 32 days.

It seems utterly amazing that the Strat, the archetypal electric guitar, is over 50 years old. The Rickenbacker 'Frying Pan' may have got there first, and even Fender's own Telecaster was a precursor, but the Strat was the guitar that became the true king of rock 'n roll.

Those stratchplate horns, that curvaceous scratchplate, the three single-coil pickups and , yes, oh yes, the tremolo bar.

Why has this shape become ubiquitous? Because it was so ergonomic right from the start, with those twin cutaways giving access to the full length of the rosewood fingerboard. Yet despite more me-too products than the iPod will ever have to suffer, the Fender ' twang' is a sound that has proven impossible to replicate.

Singapore, Thailand's neighboring country where shopping is exhilarating, is located on an island where the city's neatness and the beauty is famous. There are many interesting tourist attractions such as Sentosa Island and night Safari, the world's first night zoo which fascinates people with various kinds of animals like the striped hyena and cape buffalo.

Besides the Night Safari, Singapore offers you Jurong Bird Park where several kinds of birds reside. In addition, there are fantastic shows of orangutans and other kinds of animals at world famous Singapore Zoo. Then relax comfortable by shopping in famous shopping areas.

Kate Moss called Pete Doherty a slug after they first split up but they're now reportedly on such good terms, she's invited him to Thailand for Christmas.

The supermodel, 33, has been seeing Kills frontman Jamie Hince, 38, for 3 months but she's still very fond of her troubled ex.

'There's no doubt that Kate still has feelings for Pete,' a source tells The News Of The World, 'They are always texting each other.

There are many pubs in Bangkok that have live music, but very few that make it the focal point rather than a mere entertainment alternative to the TV, pool and darts. Brick Bar states its aims clearly with a stage that covers most of one wall of this size-able but still intimate venue.

Most of the hefty six-to-eight person wooden tables are laid out right in front of the stage, giving a small concert atmosphere, with good views also available from the mezzanine.

Miss Japan, Riyo Mori, 20 years-old, was crowned Miss Universe 2007 yesterday in a contest marked by protests, a banned dress and the withdrawal of one beauty queen on the ground the pageant degrades women. The first Japanese Miss Universe was Akiko Kojima, who was Miss Universe in 1959. The second Asian finalist was Honey Lee of Korea.

Other Asians Misses who made it as semifinalists were Puja Gupta of India and Farung Yuthithum of Thailand. Miss Brazil, Natalia Guimaraes came out on the second place and Miss Venezuela on the 3th place. Miss Thailand, Farung Yuthithu ended up on the 14th place.

Here we go again, it seems that the Thai police is again searching and raiding pubs around Bangkok in search of illegal drugs. This weekend they raided a pub at Thong Lor and a pub/bar/dancing in the Suttisarn area.

All raids turned out nothing and they only confused a few foreigners who did not understand what was happening. Maybe the police, if they going to continue this drugs raids on entertainment revenues, can also bring a police officer who can explain in common understandable English what is happening.

Microsoft is getting tough on its policy to ban all modified Xbox consoles from the service of Microsoft Live.

In a statement Microsoft says; one of the great things about LIVE and the unified community is that we work hard to create a level playing field for all gamers and have a no tolerance policy towards inappropriate behavior like hacking or cheating.

As part of our commitment to our members, we do not allow people that we have detected to have modified their console to connect to LIVE. This is an important part of our efforts to try and maintain a fair gaming environment for the large majority of gamers that play by the rules.