Word: samaklis
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Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has a notoriously big appetite. In an interview with TIME earlier this year, he spent far more time expounding on his favorite fried-rice recipe than detailing just how he would tackle rising prices of the grain. But on September 9, Samak's food fetish looked like it would cost him his premiership when the nation's constitutional court found him guilty of conflict of interest for having hosted several episodes of a commercial T.V. cooking show earlier this year. According to the Thai constitution, the P.M. may not accept compensation from a private...
...Samak's unlikely ouster comes as thousands of protesters with the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) have been besieging his office compound. Since Aug. 26, they've turned the manicured grounds into a rallying ground for opposition orators, and they greeted the court decision with loud cheers and claps. Members of the PAD staged daily protests in Bangkok since late May, calling for Samak's resignation. But they upped the ante when they stormed Government House late last month and forced Samak to abandon his normal offices. PAD leaders claim Samak, whose People Power Party...
...Although the cooking-show ruling is sure to please the PAD, Samak may not be out of a job for long. Thailand's ruling coalition holds the right to reinstate him as Prime Minister, something party officials have already vowed...
...just hours before the verdict against him was handed down, Samak wasn't about to offer an easy way out. On Tuesday morning, the Premier defiantly toured a vegetable and meat market in the country's northeast, a culinary gimmick that echoed his T.V. cooking-show appearances. Still, even if he is voted back to office by members of the ruling coalition, Samak still faces other legal hurdles. His party faces possible dissolution by the courts because of an electoral-fraud conviction of its former deputy. And a defamation suit against Samak, which could carry a jail sentence, is also...
...Bangkok Antigovernment Protests Grow Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej declared a state of emergency in the capital after antigovernment protesters clashed with the regime's backers, leaving one dead and dozens injured. Samak, whom critics denounce as a proxy for former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, vowed to weather the demonstrations, even as protesters occupied his offices and the nation's election commission recommended that his party be disbanded...