Thailand's army commander has requested a meeting with the king to ease the influential monarch's concern over a political crisis that has left the government in limbo, a state-run radio station reported yesterday.
Earlier this week, General Sondhi Boonyaratkalin sought to allay fears of a coup by reaffirming the army would not interfere in the crisis and warning military supporters of outgoing Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to stay clear of politics.
"The situation in the country is a cause of great suffering for His Majesty," Sondhi said. "If there is anything I and the army can do for the country, I am ready to do it because I am a soldier under the king."
After months of silence, King Bhumibol Adulyadej stepped into the political arena last month, saying the country was in a "mess" as a result of undemocratic elections and urged the country's top courts to resolve the impasse.
"I would like to stress that the army will not stage a coup because a coup would destroy the democratic system. What the army can do now is educate the public by making the majority of the people understand real democracy," said Sondhi, who is known to enjoy close ties with the king.
The military, mostly led by the army, has staged 17 coups since 1932 during the country's difficult transition from absolute monarchy to a parliamentary system. The last coup was in 1991 when the military toppled the government of prime minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
This time, the military held back as anti-Thaksin demonstrators took to the streets, accusing the prime minister of corruption, cronyism and abuse of power.
The key anti-government group, the People's Alliance for Democracy, plans another demonstration on Monday to urge the Election Commission to resign for mishandling last month's general election.
The poll effectively returned Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party to power but led to a political stalemate that blocked a new government from being formed.
Opposition parties boycotted the April 2 snap polls, prompting a landslide electoral victory for Thai Rak Thai. But in some constituencies where Thai Rak Thai candidates ran unopposed, parliamentary seats remained empty making it impossible for parliament to convene and form a new government.
Bhumibol publicly chastised the top courts for failing to find a solution to the deadlock, prompting the Constitutional Court to rule the polls unconstitutional and annul them.
The Supreme, Administrative and Constitutional courts have since urged members of the Election Commission to step down for mishandling the election, as have other critics who claim the commissioners are government pawns.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
RSS