Thailand said it remains on course for elections next year and that curbs on political parties will soon be eased, as pressure mounts on the military government to roll back restrictions on campaigning.Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha said last month a vote will be held in November 2018, though analysts are concerned the military will seek to retain power.
US lawmakers proposed sanctions Friday against Myanmar's military, in some of the strongest efforts yet by Washington to pressure the Southeast Asian nation to end abusive treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority.House Republicans and Democrats introduced legislation that would curtail assistance or cooperation with Myanmar's military and require the White House to identify senior military officials who would have US visa bans imposed or re-imposed against them.A bipartisan group i
It sounds like something out of a high stakes action flick, ala Mission Impossible – a fugitive on the run in a wild goose chase around the world across continents while slipping the fingers of the authorities at every twist and turn.But such is the reality faced by ousted Thai leader, Yingluck Shinawatra who fled the nation days before she was due to stand trial for criminal negligence at the Supreme Court which could have seen her imprisoned for 10 years.
Thailand has revoked the passports of ousted premier Yingluck Shinawatra, who has yet to publicly emerge since she slipped out of the country two months ago ahead of judgement day in her negligence trial, officials said Tuesday.The former prime minister, whose elected government was toppled in a 2014 coup, was sentenced to five years in prison in absentia last month for failing to stop graft in a rice policy.The verdict, which closed the curtain on her political career, was lambasted by Yingl
The media has "exaggerated" the number of Rohingya refugees fleeing an army crackdown, Myanmar's commander-in-chief said Thursday, in a brash rebuttal of accusations of ethnic cleansing by his forces.Some 520,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar's western Rakhine state since August 25, when the military launched a sweeping campaign against militants from the Muslim minority.
Thailand’s military government is looking to start construction of projects under a 1.5 trillion baht (45 billion dollars) investment plan before the country’s possible return to democracy late next year.Enabling laws for the so-called Eastern Economic Corridor initiative should be in place by the end of 2017 to bolster investor confidence, and construction of some of the planned infrastructure could begin next year, Kanit Sangsubhan, the secretary-general of the office overseeing the plan, s
Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been found guilty of corruption and negligence in her government’s rice-pledging scheme – which incurred losses amounting to 10 billion dollars. Thailand’s Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Offices read its verdict today against Yingluck despite the absence of the former Thai prime minister.
Four Thai army rangers were killed Friday when a roadside bomb tore through their truck as they were securing a road for teachers, an army official said, the latest carnage in an insurgency roiling the kingdom's far south.The Muslim-majority region that borders Malaysia has seethed with violence for over a decade as ethnic Malay insurgents battle the Buddhist-majority state for more autonomy.More than 6,800 people have died – the majority civilians – in a conflict marked by weekly bombin
"Montesquieu once said 'There is no crueller tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice'," Thaksin Shinawatra tweeted on August 29, 2017. Thaksin broke his two-year silence on Twitter by issuing the tweet in both English and Thai which quoted the 18th century French philosopher Charles de Montesquieu. The tweet went viral on Thai social media and has been retweeted 11,700 times to-date.
