Thai Premier Somchai Wongsawat inspected his new offices on Friday at an abandoned airport terminal where he is moving the seat of government to avoid protesters trying to force him from power.
Somchai is converting a terminal at Bangkok’s domestic Don Mueang airport into temporary offices for the more than 2,000 staffers who normally work at Government House, which has been besieged by protesters for more than three weeks.
The airport was Thailand’s main international gateway until a new hub opened two years ago and most of the sprawling complex on the northern edge of Bangkok has since been empty.
“Today I come to survey the site and I find that it’s solid,” Somchai told reporters, adding that he would work from the airport “until Government House returns to normal.”
PROTESTERS
Thousands of royalist protesters stormed the main government complex on Aug. 26, setting up a camp on the lawn to demand that the ruling People Power Party (PPP) leave government.
This week the protesters installed a large tent for shelter from the rain and spread 80 truckloads of sand to cover the once manicured lawn that had turned into a mudpit. They have set up washing machines in the garden and provide free food and haircuts.
Supporters of the government planned their own rally at a nearby plaza late on Friday but insisted that they would stay clear of the Government House to prevent any clashes.
Rival protesters fought in the streets on Sept. 2, leaving one government supporter dead and prompting a state of emergency in Bangkok that was only lifted last Sunday.
NEGOTIATIONS
Thai media have reported that Somchai called protest leader Sondhi Limthongkul to propose opening negotiations on ending the standoff but the prime minister declined to confirm the reports.
“We are all Thais so we can talk to one another. We do not harbor permanent hatreds although we have different opinions,” he said.
Somchai declined to answer questions about his efforts to name a Cabinet, saying only that he would announce the new government soon.
Parliament elected Somchai as prime minister on Wednesday after his predecessor Samak Sundaravej was forced from office by a court that ruled he had been paid illegally for hosting TV cooking shows.
The protesters accuse the PPP of acting as a front for ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a military coup two years ago.
That complaint has taken new resonance with the election of Somchai, who is married to Thaksin’s sister.
With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is today to inaugurate the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), widely presented as the crowning jewel on authorities’ efforts to overhaul the country’s vital tourism industry. With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the museum houses thousands of artifacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of more than US$1 billion. More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates 5 million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display. In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the “historic moment,” describing the
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
China’s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris, the country’s human spaceflight agency said yesterday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country’s space station Tiangong. An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement, without providing a new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China yesterday. The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of debris, such as discarded launch vehicles or vessel
RUBBER STAMP? The latest legislative session was the most productive in the number of bills passed, but critics attributed it to a lack of dissenting voices On their last day at work, Hong Kong’s lawmakers — the first batch chosen under Beijing’s mantra of “patriots administering Hong Kong” — posed for group pictures, celebrating a job well done after four years of opposition-free politics. However, despite their smiles, about one-third of the Legislative Council will not seek another term in next month’s election, with the self-described non-establishment figure Tik Chi-yuen (狄志遠) being among those bowing out. “It used to be that [the legislature] had the benefit of free expression... Now it is more uniform. There are multiple voices, but they are not diverse enough,” Tik said, comparing it
RSS