Word: thais
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Thailand's Constitutional Tribunal on Wednesday announced the landmark dissolution of the country's former ruling party, further unsettling a nation that has suffered more than a year of political chaos that culminated in last September's military coup. The Thai Rak Thai Party (TRT) - formed by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in last fall's putsch - was found guilty of electoral fraud stemming from annulled elections last spring. The Tribunal barred more than 100 executives from the party leadership from engaging in political activity for five years after finding that TRT had illegally bankrolled smaller parties...
...longtime fixture on Tha Pae Road until this past February, when she moved her design-and-lifestyle emporium, tel: (66) 5321 5166, to Nimmanhaemin. "I suppose I was ready for a new environment," she says. Fans of her old store can still find plenty of its distinctive, boldly colored Thai and Vietnamese lacquerware. Other goodies include two-toned lambskin messenger bags and teak trays inlaid with mother-of-pearl...
...game's expansion is considered good news in Malaysia and Thailand where, two years ago, the government-funded International Takraw Academy was set up in Bangkok to train both local and overseas players, coaches and administrators. The Thais and Malays are historic rivals and dominate international competitions (at Doha, the Thai team took home four golds and a silver; Malaysia left with two silvers and a bronze); both claim the game as their own, and even split the sport's name between them, with sepak meaning kick in Malay and takraw meaning ball in Thai...
...burgeoning international interest in sepak takraw won't catapult their players into the stratospheric income brackets of a Thierry Henry or Kobe Bryant, but it could turn them into decently paid professionals. At present, a top player in the Thai league, the sport's most developed, will earn a rough maximum of $15,000 for a four-month season. A true god of the game like Thai veteran Suebsak Phunsueb-considered sepak takraw's top player for the past several years-might be able to supplement that with advertisements and media work, but he's still no Beckham...
...Right now, there isn't a nation able to regularly defeat the Thai or Malaysian juggernauts, but they're certainly hoping to. Teams like Burma, where the traditional sport of chinlone requires much of the same skills as sepak takraw, and Indonesia, which has brought in top Thai coach Somkiet Sungsatitanon, will need to be taken seriously in coming years (Burma won three bronzes and a silver at Doha; Indonesia came out with three bronzes). And yet Sungsatitanon is under no illusions about the scale of the challenge before him. "If he were to play Thailand...