Word: rai
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...have been open for a year and a half and in the beginning it was very difficult. There was a stiff investigation to get a permit for a night like this," says Yahia as the band finishes up a song by Algerian rai music legend Khaled, before launching into a cover of The Eagles' "Hotel California." "But slowly things are getting easier...
...York Times, Nature and others on conservation, in addition to teaching at the University of Montana. (His family was initially doubtful of his career choice, fearing that it was financially unstable, but they became convinced after they saw him being interviewed by the Indian actress Aishwarya Rai - one of the biggest stars in Asia...
...weeks later, Mati was dishing out bowls of beef noodles when she noticed police cars crowding her street. A man sauntered toward her restaurant and ordered some soup. It was the Prime Minister, who said he had come to personally promise her that he would combat the Chiang Rai drug trade. Today Mati's son, at least, is clean. "Thaksin is my hero," says his 53-year-old mother, wiping away tears with her apron. "He is the only Prime Minister who ever cared about normal people...
...Thailand's beloved King - but, for people upcountry, as the Thais like to call it, Thaksin's populist health-care initiatives and village funds were manna. "When the soldiers took over, people were scared to say they liked Thaksin," says Nuntana Sommun, a teacher of Thai dance in Chiang Rai. "But in our hearts we still supported him." Such sentiments propelled the People Power Party (PPP) to victory in the first postcoup elections last December. A proxy for Thaksin, whose own party was disbanded by the junta, the PPP is led by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej. His new Cabinet teems...
...Even so, the government's survival isn't assured. On Feb. 26, Thailand's election commission found the PPP's deputy leader, Yongyuth Tiyapairat, guilty of vote-buying in Chiang Rai. Under Thai electoral law, the ruling could lead to the PPP's dissolution. Nor can Thaksin run for office, since he was banned from politics for five years by the junta. Any attempts by Samak's government to ease Thaksin back into politics could ignite protests by upper- and middle-class Bangkok residents, who took to the streets by the hundreds of thousands shortly before the former...