Word: bangkok
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...worrying news is that over the past several months, China in particular has begun to replace the U.S. as the main obstacle to stronger action. During the IPCC negotiations that took place last week in Bangkok, Chinese delegates-with the support of India and other developing nations-tried to tone down the report, pushing to remove the most ambitious possible targets for future carbon-emission levels. The move failed, but it's unlikely to be the last time China and India drag their feet on climate change. "It's clear that the developed world will not move without something from...
...burgundy robes, the serene statuary, all paint an exotic picture that brings to mind harmless, crystal-wearing Californians rather than religious fanatics. Our image of a clash of civilizations does not include renegade Buddhist monks. Nevertheless, we should be every bit as worried about the protest marches in Bangkok as those in other countries with different faiths, because the Thai call to prayer is being driven by the same worrying trends: nationalism and communalism...
...himself a Muslim. With many of the killings involving Muslims targeting Buddhists (although plenty of Muslims have been murdered as well), it's not surprising that sentiment in usually tolerant Thailand is turning hostile. "Ten years ago, it would have failed," says Mettanando Bhikkhu, a prominent Buddhist scholar in Bangkok, of the movement to make the religion the country's official faith. "But among these Buddhist nationalists, burning sentiments against other religions are very strong...
...wish to see their faith enter politics. And Thai Muslims, most of whom already feel marginalized in this overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, will read any such move as more evidence of their second-class status. "It will inflame the south," says Panitan Wattanayagorn, a security specialist at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "Muslim countries will believe we are against minorities." That would be a shame, since historically Thai culture has shown tolerance toward other cultures and religions. "Most Thais would like to find a compromise or middle path on this [constitutional] issue," says Panitan. A Buddhist theologian couldn't have said...
There have been plenty of explanations for the problems at Bangkok's trouble-plagued Suvarnabhumi Airport since it opened, after 46 years of planning, last Sept. 28. Sinking swampland and hasty construction, Thai bureaucracy and allegedly corrupt deals by the former Thaksin regime are variously mooted as the causes of everything from cracked runway asphalt to customs delays, cramped toilets, monotonous retail outlets and long lines. But Thai geomancer Mas Kehardthum is convinced he has the real answer: construction was started in the wrong phase of Jupiter. "An improper calculation was made for structures in the city's eastern sector...