Opposition groups said yesterday that they would revive street protests against Thailand's outgoing prime minister, accusing him of controlling the government from behind the scenes despite having handed power to a deputy.
Months of street protests forced Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to step aside and appoint an acting prime minister.
However, the People's Alliance for Democracy, which led the anti-government street protests, laid out a new calendar for demonstrations in the coming weeks after a pause around recent elections and the traditional Thai New Year holiday, which ended on Sunday.
"We are fighting to root out Thaksin's regime from politics," said an alliance spokesman, Parnthep Pourpongpan. "Even though he has declared a break from politics, he is pulling the strings behind the acting government, and we cannot accept that."
Parnthep said the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) had planned a rally yesterday in the eastern province of Sa Kaeo and more in the south over the next two weeks until May 2, when a major rally is planned in Bangkok.
Thaksin had called an April 2 snap election to defuse the anti-government protests. But the vote -- boycotted by the opposition -- raised new complaints.
The PAD and opposition groups filed two complaints to the Election Commission before the election, accusing Thaksin and his party of fraud in the run-up to the vote.
Thaksin's opponents subsequently filed a complaint to the Administrative Court, seeking to nullify the vote due to alleged fraud at polling stations.
Thaksin handed power to his longtime friend and Deputy Prime Minister Chitchai Wannasathit, who will be acting prime minister until the convening of Parliament and the formation of a new government.
Meanwhile, one of the key leaders of the protests has defied a subpoena over an alleged insult to the king, police said yesterday.
Media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul, a one-time Thaksin ally who became his most vocal critic, had been ordered to meet police yesterday for questioning over his statements during a rally last month.
Instead, Sondhi sent his lawyer Suwat Apaipakdi, who brought a letter denying that he had insulted the king along with evidence and nine proposed witnesses in his defense.
Suwat said Sondhi could not comply with the subpoena because he was leading a new anti-Thaksin rally in the eastern town of Sa Kaew.
He asked that his appearance before police be postponed to May 17, but police refused the request.
"We will issue another subpoena for Sondhi but the exact date has yet to be decided. If he fails this time, he will face arrest," said Vinai Thaongsaeng, head of the Central Investigation Bureau.
Suwat accused police of making a politically motivated move against Sondhi.
"It's clear that politicians are trying to discredit Sondhi," he said.
Sondhi's remarks appeared in a Thai-language newspaper last month. The paper apologized for publishing the comments and suspended publication for five days as it pleaded for royal clemency.
Repeating an insult to the king is a crime in Thailand.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the