Word: primed
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...cheered until their voices grew hoarse. But beneath the revelry lay a measure of menace. These were not simple partygoers but protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), who on Aug. 26 besieged Government House, Thailand's seat of power, vowing to occupy the manicured grounds until Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej resigned. At first, the demonstrators - many middle-class professionals who took to hanging their washing lines over Government House's hedge topiaries - clapped as their leaders called for the government's downfall. But after a week, the celebratory mood began to fade. On Sept. 2, after...
...Populism vs. Elitism The brittle state of Thailand's young democracy was highlighted back in 2006 when the military masterminded a bloodless coup against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. That confrontation, which is echoed in today's showdown, pitted members of a traditional Bangkok élite against an upstart billionaire whose populist policies intoxicated many rural-poor voters. Although the military claimed legitimacy by accusing Thaksin of misrule, the appearance of tanks on the streets pulled the country back to the bad old days when putsches, not polls, were the mechanism for changing governments. Thaksin's party was banned...
...charged itself with finding that alternative path. Led by a motley crew that includes a retired army general, a media mogul and a labor activist, it organized anti-Thaksin rallies back in 2006 that swelled to tens of thousands of people before the military finally toppled the former Prime Minister. Back then, the PAD accused Thaksin of graft and human-rights abuses, even going so far as to imply that the telecom tycoon had disrespected Thailand's monarch - an incendiary charge in a country where the King is deeply revered...
...Hirst will walk away with pretty much every dollar his work gets hammered down for.) If it meets expectations, the sale could put about $120 million into Hirst's already well-lined pockets, a payday unlike anything any living artist has seen. And The Golden Calf will be the prime lot, with a presale estimate of $14.6 million to $22 million. Sometimes a bull is truly a cash...
...rule of law. But more than anything it was a sobering reminder of how little the European Union can do to enforce its wishes against an unreasonable and powerful adversary, and a far cry from the "root and branch" review of Europe's relations with Russia that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had called for on the eve of the summit...