Word: thailand
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...Thaksin returned to Thailand on Feb. 28, ending 17 months of exile that began when he was deposed in a bloodless military coup. Thousands of jubilant Thais greeted him at the airport. The former PM faces charges of corruption and abuse of power, which he has denied. But the court cases matter little to Thaksin's many supporters. Even though he has vowed to stay away from politics, a local polling center found that Thaksin is still Thailand's most popular politician. "Everyone says, 'Oh, half of Thailand hates Thaksin,'" says Soonthon Prueksapipat, a website employee who went...
...That love is strongest in Thailand's rural north, where Thaksin grew up. Bangkok residents may rattle through a litany of Thaksin's alleged faults - corruption, a disregard for human rights, even an attempt to build his reputation at the expense of 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...
...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...
...plight of the country's refugees, who escape by the thousands to neighboring China, hoping desperately for a better life, and for a chance to get into South Korea. Only a very lucky few do. At safe houses run by Christian missionaries in northeastern China, in refugee camps in Thailand and in the jungles of Vietnam and Laos, I have heard tales of bloodcurdling anguish - stories that defy belief, except that there's simply no way in hell these people could be making them up. A young woman who became pregnant in China is captured by Beijing's security services...
...Myung Bak, former CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, one of South Korea's largest construction companies, has built everything from churches in his homeland to roads in Thailand. After being sworn in Monday as South Korea's new President, he's about to undertake another big job: shoring up the country's economy...