Word: thailand
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...Cotterill spent about four years in Laos (he now lives in Thailand). Although he quickly grew to love its unhurried rhythms and the unfailing good humor of its people, he didn't set out to write about it. Instead, his first stab at fiction produced a dense, depressing investigation of child sex-trafficking in Asia, an issue Cotterill has also delved into as an NGO worker. That novel sold "about two copies," Cotterill says. He realized a lighter touch might prove more palatable to readers...
...driven from office and hundreds of ethnic Chinese were killed in a racist pogrom. Prices in Hong Kong slumped through five years of grinding deflation. The city's stock market dropped more than 50% while property prices fell out the window - down a staggering 70%. South Korea and Thailand suffered similar fates, with plunging currencies, collapsing companies and rising unemployment...
Thaksin, who was ousted from power by the military in a 2006 bloodless coup, got the news in London, where he fled in August with his family after his wife, Pojaman, was found guilty of tax evasion by Thailand's Criminal Court. (As the buyer of the land, Pojaman was also charged in the Oct. 21 case, but she was found not guilty by the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Office because she was not a state official, and not liable to conflict of interest charges.) There was no immediate reaction from Thaksin or his lawyers...
...could put an end to any hopes the still-influential Thaksin has for a political comeback in his homeland. But it would not necessarily put an end to his legacy, says Panitan Wattanayagorn, a political analyst at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University - or the current divisions over him that have Thailand's people on the edge of violence. Sometimes said to be the most divisive political figure in Thailand's history, Thaksin remains enormously popular with the rural poor for his populist policies like cheap health care and easy credit. But the billionaire businessman is also still reviled by the urban...
Thaksin has officially applied for political asylum in the United Kingdom, claiming Thailand's courts are biased against him. But his case may be weakening. Last week, a Thai court dismissed an assets concealment charge against the former Prime Minister, and earlier this year three of Thaksin's lawyers were jailed when they were caught attempting to bribe court officials overseeing his cases. All this is making it harder, says Panitan, for Thaksin's friends and allies in Thailand and overseas to defend him in his accusations against Thailand's courts. "Conflict of interest laws are a common feature...