Police have set up barricades to prevent the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) laying siege to Government House today after 26 days of demonstrations aimed at ousting Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and his cabinet from office. But the prime minister has pledged to refrain from using force against them, amid fears it could provoke violence and plunge the country into a crisis.
PREAH VIHEAR
The Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs will petition Unesco's World Heritage Committee to postpone the registration of Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site. Committee chairman Pikulkaew Kririksh said the panel believed the Foreign Ministry has breached the constitution, which requires the House's approval for any agreement which affects the country's territory.
Investors have seen one trillion baht wiped off share values on the stock market over the past three weeks as a result of domestic political tensions and global inflation concerns.
FAR SOUTH
Two policemen were killed and five others injured by a roadside bomb in Pattani's Thung Yang Daeng district on Wednesday. The explosion in tambon Paku killed Pol Lt-Col Narat Thepchalerm, the Thung Yang Daeng deputy superintendent, and Pol Sen Sgt-Maj Peerasak Sangsomboon as they were returning from a crime scene. One of the five injured officers was in critical condition.
TREATMENT OF REFUGEES
Thailand ranks as one of the world's worst places for refugees due to its poor treatment of Burmese and Hmong asylum seekers and of the long-necked Padaung tribe, according to a survey released on World Refugee Day yesterday. Other countries listed among the worst places for refugees are Bangladesh, China, several European Union (EU) countries, India, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, Russia, and Sudan, according to a 18-page report conducted by the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI).
Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan said yesterday he would not resign from the cabinet despite responsibility for shoring up rice prices being shifted from his ministry.
POLITICS
The Election Commission will ask the Supreme Court to order a by-election in Samut Prakan's constituency 2 after it yellow-carded two People Power party MPS for vote buying in the Dec 23 general election. EC secretary-general Suthiphon Thaveechaiygarn said the commission will submit its request to the court within two weeks.
POLITICS
Sixty-one senators are to file a complaint of negligence against Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and his cabinet with the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) after the government refused to answer their questions in a general debate set for Monday. Mr Samak had his secretariat inform the Office of the Senate Secretariat that cabinet ministers were not available for the general debate proposed by a group of 61 senators for June 23, saying they were all busy preparing for the budget debate, which starts on June 25.
POLITICS
Nam Yimyaem, the chairman of the Assets Scrutiny Committee (ASC) who also heads the ASC sub-panel investigating the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's (BMA) fire truck deal, denies his sub-panel's decisions on the case are clouded by personal interest. Rumours are spreading that the sub-panel is likely to spare Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin from indictment because Mr Nam's son, a BMA civil servant, was recently transferred to a better position.
LAM CHAE RESERVOIR
NAKHON RATCHASIMA : A group of 91 villagers yesterday petitioned the provincial Administrative Court seeking the cancellation of a three-billion-baht project to drain water from Lam Chae dam reservoir for use as tap water in Nakhon Ratchasima municipality. They said the project would drain off water which was needed in Khon Buri district, where the dam is sited.
Truck operators called off their planned protest to bring convoys of trucks to Bangkok after the Transport Ministry gave in to their demand for subsidised diesel prices and low-interest loans to be made available to convert their engines to compressed natural gas. Transport Ministry representatives yesterday met truck operators to discuss an assistance package.
REGIONAL ORGANISATION
Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan has urged the Thai media to play a greater role in setting up an Asean media association, which he says would give people in the region better access to information. The former Thai foreign minister hopes to see the Thai Journalists Association (TJA) and the Confederation of Asean Journalists take a leading role in persuading their Southeast Asian colleagues to form the association.
UNIVERSITY HAZING
Students have been advised to refrain from drinking alcohol during hazing activities because it could lead to brutality. The warning was issued yesterday by Dr Bundit Sornpaisan, director of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Rajanagarindra Institute.
EDITORIAL
The expected confrontation this afternoon between anti-government protesters led by the People's Alliance for Democracy and the police has left many people in dismay. Concern over possible violence has sent the stock market nosediving these past few days. The PAD and the government are lodged so firmly and far apart in their conflict that a compromise seems unlikely.
COMMENTARY
Foreign investors have dumped more than 30,000 million baht worth of shares in the stock market over the past few days. Sad I may be, but surprised I am definitely not.
LET IT BE
Thailand's 2007 Constitution is being put to the test.
COMMENTARY
Both are the victims of the legal system. But their turns of fate are poignantly different and yet closely inter-related.
WORLD REFUGEE DAY
After a half-decade decline in overall refugee numbers, global forced displacement is again on the rise.
BURMA
Everyone knows where Aung San Suu Kyi spent her 63rd birthday yesterday. But as millions of her supporters around the world marked the occasion, no one can say when she will be released from the family home that has been her prison for most of the past 19 years.
METRO
The recent deaths of two major antique collectors - tycoon and avid photographer Surat Osathanugrah and art historian Roxanna Brown - have triggered public interest in the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum (SACM), once a dormant place known only to a limited number of arts aficionados.
PostBag
I know there are many different opinions and theories on what democracy means. But I don't think paying people 200-500 baht to go to the polling booth counts as a legitimate definition of democracy. I have to agree with correspondent Frank G Anderson that "Thailand's democracy is not unique... It just does not exist".
In Media
Courage is what our politicians need to overcome pressing problems affecting our country. Without courage, it is very difficult for national leaders to save their country from harm.
IN Brief
POLITICS :Former Democrat MP Kriengsak Charoenwongsak has undertaken to make Bangkok one of the 20 most liveable cities in the world by 2010 if he is elected city governor in October.
