Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday he would likely invoke harsh security laws for protests marking the third anniversary of the coup that ousted Thaksin Shinawatra as prime minister.
The “Red Shirt” movement says it will hold mass rallies in Bangkok on Sept. 19 to commemorate the 2006 coup against Thaksin, who is living in exile, and to renew its calls for Abhisit to resign.
The Red Shirts have canceled two other protests in the past fortnight after Abhisit invoked the Internal Security Act, which allows the government to deploy troops, ban gatherings and impose curfews.
“The Internal Security Act would be considered in next Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting and it is likely that the government will invoke the law again,” Abhisit told reporters after a visit to the central province of Lopburi.
Hundreds of Red Shirts rallied against him during the visit but were outnumbered by thousands of police. Reports that protesters hurled fermented fish and plastic bottles at him could not be immediately confirmed.
Billionaire telecoms tycoon Thaksin has lived in exile since being sentenced to two years’ jail for corruption last August, but the kindgom remains riven by tensions between his supporters and his foes.
The government is keen to avoid a repeat of events in April, when the Red Shirts derailed a key Asian summit and then rampaged through Bangkok for two days in riots that left two people dead and 123 injured.
The Red Shirts want fresh elections, saying that Abhisit came to power illegitimately in December following the siege of Bangkok’s two airports by the rival, anti-Thaksin “Yellow Shirt” movement.
The government’s ability to rely on the police to control next week’s protests has however been thrown into question after Abhisit effectively forced the national police chief, General Patcharawat Wongsuwan, from his job.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Cannabis-based medicines have shown little evidence of effectiveness for treating most mental health and substance-use disorders, according to a large review of past studies published in a major medical journal on Monday. Medical use of cannabinoids has been expanding, including in the US, Canada and Australia, where many patients report using cannabis products to manage conditions such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep problems. Researchers reviewed data from 54 randomized clinical trials conducted between 1980 and May last year involving 2,477 participants for their analysis published in The Lancet. The studies assessed cannabinoids as a primary treatment for mental disorders or substance-use
NATIONWIDE BLACKOUT: US President Donald Trump cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba, strangling the Caribbean island’s already antiquated grid Cuba’s national electric grid collapsed on Monday, the nation’s grid operator said, leaving about 10 million people without power amid a US-imposed oil blockade that has crippled the already obsolete generation system. Grid operator UNE on social media said that it is investigating the causes of the blackout, the latest in a series of widespread outages that last for hours or days and that this weekend sparked a rare violent protest in the communist-run nation. Officials ruled out a major power plant failure, but had still not pinpointed the root cause of the grid collapse, suggesting a problem with transmission. Officials said that
‘HEALTH ISSUE’: More than 250 women are hospitalized every day due to complications from unsafe abortions, and about three die, a study showed Jane had been bleeding heavily for days before finally seeking help, not from a hospital, but from the man who sold her the pills meant to end her six-week pregnancy. Abortions are strictly outlawed in the mainly Catholic Philippines, forcing women to turn to a patchwork of providers operating in the online shadows. While rare in practice, Philippine law allows for prison terms of up to six years for abortion patients and providers, leaving thousands of Filipinas to search for solutions in online forums where unlicensed sellers promote abortifacients. “It was very painful, as if my abdomen was being twisted,” said Jane, whose
RSS