Word: coups
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Rumors already swirling across the country of an imminent military coup were further fueled by a spokesman for Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat who told The Nation newspaper on Friday that the prime minister would remain in the northern city of Chiang Mai because of uncertainty related to movements of the armed forces. Tanks were seen in several locations around Bangkok on Thursday, but Army Commander in Chief Gen. Anupong Paochinda, who urged the prime minister the day before to dissolve parliament to hold new elections and the PAD to end its demonstrations, denied his forces would topple the government...
...tour of America and performed in front of U.S. President Richard Nixon, who jokingly asked the young fighter to become his bodyguard. Li's precocious reply - "I don't want to protect an individual; I want to defend my 1 billion Chinese countrymen!" - was regarded as a great propaganda coup by Chinese apparatchiks, whose darling he became. Li also became, at the age of 12, China's national wushu champion - not junior champion, but champion, period. He held that title for the next four years and performed in over 45 countries before his 18th birthday, trotted out like a national...
...Thaksin, who was ousted in a September 2006 bloodless coup, has been convicted in a Thai court of conflict of interest over a land deal he approved while prime minister and was sentenced in absentia last month to two years in jail. The former prime minister, who insists that he is innocent and that the courts are under the control of his enemies, has fled Thailand and was last reported to be in Dubai...
...yellow-clad demonstrators call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD). But they represent neither the majority of Thai people nor universal democratic values. Their mission is to erase from government any influence of billionaire populist Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed as Prime Minister in a 2006 army coup. Although the telecom tycoon is beloved by many poor Thais who once gave him a record electoral mandate, the urban middle class, which forms the bedrock of the PAD, accuses Thaksin of being a power-hungry strongman. In October, the former P.M. was sentenced in absentia to two years' imprisonment...
...Mayhem is just what the opposition alliance craves. PAD leaders are hoping that the military, which has masterminded 18 coups since Thailand's absolute monarchy was abolished in 1932, will intervene again to contain anarchy and set up a new, Thaksin-free regime. But shortly after the air terminal takeover, the army publicly quashed putsch rumors and called for the PAD to leave the airport. (Army chief Anupong Paochinda did, however, urge Somchai to "return the power to the people" by calling fresh elections.) The military's reluctance to let tanks roll on the streets presumably derives from the fact...