A blast wounded 10 people in Thailand’s capital yesterday when assailants hurled an explosive device at anti-government protesters who have camped out for the past two months to block access to the prime minister’s office.
The pre-dawn attack occurred a few hours before protesters rallied in central Bangkok outside the British embassy to demand the extradition of deposed Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is now a fugitive and living in London.
About 1,000 protesters sealed off the embassy’s street and waved “Most Wanted” banners with pictures of Thaksin, who was convicted earlier this month of violating a conflict of interest law and sentenced to two years in prison.
Protesters planned to march later through a main shopping district. The US embassy issued a warning for citizens to avoid the area if possible, and to exercise caution if anywhere near the demonstrations.
There was no claim of responsibility for the pre-dawn attack in northwestern Bangkok nor any immediate indication of who was behind it.
All of the wounded were guards for the anti-government protest movement, the People’s Alliance for Democracy, police Captain Pompet Chotelang said. The group has occupied the grounds of Government House as well as the Makawan Bridge leading to the office complex since April.
Thursday’s explosion targeted protesters at the bridge at about 3am local time.
Anti-government protesters said two assailants arrived by motorcycle, with one dismounting and throwing the explosive before they both sped off, police Colonel Viboonyut Santavej said.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
POLITICAL PATRIARCHS: Recent clashes between Thailand and Cambodia are driven by an escalating feud between rival political families, analysts say The dispute over Thailand and Cambodia’s contested border, which dates back more than a century to disagreements over colonial-era maps, has broken into conflict before. However, the most recent clashes, which erupted on Thursday, have been fueled by another factor: a bitter feud between two powerful political patriarchs. Cambodian Senate President and former prime minister Hun Sen, 72, and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, 76, were once such close friends that they reportedly called one another brothers. Hun Sen has, over the years, supported Thaksin’s family during their long-running power struggle with Thailand’s military. Thaksin and his sister Yingluck stayed
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS