The Thai prime minister stayed away from his office yesterday as thousands of protesters calling for his resignation and allied with deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra surrounded the seat of government for a fifth day.
Protesters ignored police warnings to stop blocking entrances to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s office, where they have gathered since Thursday in the largest protests since his administration arrived in December.
The demonstrators say Abhisit’s government came to power through illegal means and should step down. Abhisit has rejected their calls.
PHOTO: AFP
Abhisit said last week he would enter his office at Government House yesterday. But he revised the plan yesterday morning, saying the situation remained under control, but he would not be going to his office before traveling to London today for the G20 summit.
“I have not received any report of anything abnormal,” he told reporters at parliament before a meeting at the UN’s regional headquarters, which is near Government House.
Hundreds of protesters staged a loud but peaceful protest outside the UN office amid tight security.
The protests are the latest episode in Thailand’s long-running political turmoil, which last year was dominated by months of demonstrations by Thaksin’s political opponents, who besieged Government House and shuttered Bangkok’s two main airports for a week.
Outside Government House, police shouted warnings through loudspeakers: “If you don’t disperse, we will use crowd control measures ranging from soft measures to harsh measures.”
But the warnings emboldened thousands of protesters gathered in the midday heat, as they listened to speakers on a makeshift stage.
“Please prepare yourselves for possible crackdown,” one protest leader, Nattawut Sai-kua, told the crowd. “But you have nothing to fear. Thousands more will join us if the police use violence.”
Police lieutenant-general Worapong Chiewpreecha said security officials have not been ordered to disperse the crowd. Abhisit has repeatedly said the government will not use violence.
The latest protests have been organized by demonstrators commonly known as the “red shirts” because of their attire, which contrasts with the yellow shirts worn by their rivals, who led last year’s protests.
The group is an eclectic mix of Thaksin loyalists, rural farmers and laborers.
On Sunday, Abhisit said authorities are trying to block the call-ins by Thaksin, who has become the main attraction at the rallies, speaking via video link on an almost nightly basis from abroad. He has called for supporters to stage nationwide protests.
Thaksin was deposed by a 2006 coup for corruption and abuse of power. He fled into exile last year before a court convicted him in absentia of violating a conflict of interest law.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
RSS