Word: coups
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...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...
...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...
This was, in fact, one of several self-proclaimed final showdowns by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which has long been intent on erasing from government any influence of billionaire populist Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed as Prime Minister in a 2006 army coup. After surrounding Parliament and forcing lawmakers to abandon their work, the PAD moved on to Bangkok's old airport, where a VIP lounge now serves as the makeshift headquarters of current Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat. A brother-in-law of Thaksin, Somchai was evicted from his real office by the protesters, who have besieged...
...same time, Chávez's feckless foes should realize that they're still weak enough for El Comandante to consider the constitutional issue a still viable option. Chávez, a former army paratrooper officer who led a failed coup attempt in 1992 before winning the presidency in the 1998 election (and a special race in 2000 under a rewritten constitution), has benefited greatly from a dysfunctional opposition led largely by leftovers from the old guard that pilfered Venezuela's oil wealth and left more than half the population in poverty; it thwarted Chávez last year only...