Word: thais
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...three decades now to emerge from the shadow of its more moneyed crosstown rival, Manchester United. Even Birmingham's lackluster Aston Villa, after all, maintains a dogged fan base in Thailand's capital. No, the reason Manchester City is taboo in Bangkok is because its new owner is ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra...
Deposed in a bloodless coup last September, Thaksin has acquired quite the post-power diversion. Last month, he bought Manchester City Football Club for $162 million - mere pocket change compared with the roughly $2 billion in funds Thai authorities have frozen from his family bank accounts. The military junta now controlling Thailand condemned his acquisition of the team - Thai courts have slapped Thaksin, who made his fortune in the telecom business, with corruption and abuse-of-power charges stemming from his time in office. On Tuesday the Thai supreme court issued a warrant for Thaksin's arrest for failing...
...home in London, is also working hard to turn on the charm in his country of exile. On Aug. 4, Thailand's longest-serving elected Prime Minister (O.K., it was only five years) threw a street party in Manchester that drew thousands of revelers. City fans were treated to Thai delicacies such as red curry and stir-fried rice noodles, while karaoke-loving Thaksin lent his voice to a rousing rendition of the team's anthem, Blue Moon...
...militants, razing classrooms and slaughtering teachers is a justified strategy. Besides their anger-and that of many ordinary Thai Muslims-at what they perceive to be the marginalization of the south (the region is among Thailand's poorest), the insurgents have long despised government schools, whether Buddhist or Muslim. The rebels see them as representative of a Thai state they believe suppresses the culture, language and religion of Malay Muslims, who make up the majority of people in the southern provinces of this otherwise overwhelmingly Buddhist nation. Resistance to Bangkok's assimilation policies-banning Muslim headscarves, closing schools not conforming...
...Terrorizing teachers is central to driving minority Buddhists from the region-a "de facto ethnic cleansing," according to Zachary Abuza, an American academic who specializes in militant Islam in Southeast Asia and who is writing a book on the conflict in the Thai south. "Teachers are very vulnerable, and targeting schools is a very effective tactic," says Abuza. "If you can't send your kids there with any degree of safety, you're going to leave." Terrorizing state schools also forces more parents to send their children to private Islamic schools, where "hundreds of young militants have been recruited...