Word: eves
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Irina Martin, a German tourist who was in Bangkok for the party-loving city's raucous New Year's Eve festivities, must be glad she listened to her gut. Around 9 p.m. on Dec. 31, the kindergarten teacher from Hamburg was grappling with the unnerving news that six bombs had detonated across the Thai capital just a couple of hours earlier, targeting everything from a shopping mall and a supermarket to a bus stop at Victory Monument, one of the city's busiest gathering places. Watching the police comb for evidence at Victory Monument, Martin changed her mind about attending...
...Year's Eve blasts were the work of small, crude devices, but the impact of the bombings felt outsized for a nation that depends heavily on tourism and foreign investment. Bangkok and its environs serve as a regional manufacturing hub, and part of the capital's attraction had been its reputation as a terror-free zone in a region where security threats are omnipresent. Complicating matters, the country's financial edge has been blunted lately by the new military-installed government, which is making foreign investment in Thailand more difficult-just as countries like China, India and even Vietnam...
...fire. Initially, regional police, who made up one of Thaksin's strongest constituencies, blamed faulty wiring. But the military junta has cited the fires, which they consider deliberate torchings by Thaksin supporters, as justification for keeping parts of the nation under martial law. Certainly, linking the New Year's Eve violence to elements close to Thaksin could benefit the military junta. "[The government] may have felt that if they cracked down hard against their opponents they would appear too harsh, and the public would turn against them," says Panitan Wattanayagorn, a security expert at Chulalongkorn University. "But now they...
...most immediate task for Thailand's new rulers is to bring the New Year's Eve bombers to justice. "Whether or not they can catch those who are responsible will be very important to the credibility of this government," says Professor Panitan. "As long as they can't arrest these people, the international community will not have confidence in Thailand." After such a tumultuous 2006, Thais can only hope that the new year restores some measure of stability-and safety...
KILLED. Darrent Williams, 24, rising NFL star and defensive back for the Denver Broncos; in a drive-by shooting that wounded two others in the limo in which he was riding, following a dispute at a nightclub on New Year's Eve; in Denver. Police said they had no reason to believe that Williams, who finished the season with four interceptions, was a target...