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It's not getting any better
I'm due in Bangkok at the weekend.....
Troops have been deployed on the streets of the Thai capital Bangkok after police failed to disperse anti-government protesters.
The protesters, who are assembled outside the parliament building, are trying to stop lawmakers from leaving.
Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat managed to escape the building by climbing over a fence and being evacuated by helicopter.
Earlier, a woman died when a suspected car bomb exploded near the parliament.
One witness said that shots had been fired at the police by protesters, who are from the staunchly royalist People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD).
The BBC's Jonathan Head, in Bangkok, says the appearance of troops outside parliament is a clear sign that the government is struggling to maintain its authority.
Police earlier fired volleys of teargas for a second time to try to disperse the protesters, but without success.
Mr Somchai had been holding talks with military commanders on how to end the stand-off, before he was forced to flee the parliament building.
The protesters accuse him and his recently ousted predecessor, Samak Sundaravej, of just being proxies for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The PAD wants to replace the one-man, one-vote system with one in which some representatives are chosen by professions and social groups rather than the general electorate.
Mr Thaksin, Mr Somchai's brother-in-law, was forced from office in a military coup in 2006.
The protesters have been occupying the grounds of government buildings for six weeks, but until Tuesday the demonstration had been largely peaceful.
Several thousand PAD protesters broke out of the compound where they had been staying and marched to the parliament late on Monday.
They tried to seal off the building by putting up barriers of old tyres and barbed wire.
The police responded with tear gas, injuring more than 100 people. Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said he was resigning over the clashes.
The protesters later regrouped - locking some lawmakers inside the building and cutting off the power supply.
The new government says it wants to start negotiations with the PAD, but it is also pushing ahead with controversial plans to amend the constitution, a key grievance of the protesters who see it as part of a plan to rehabilitate Mr Thaksin.
The alliance says the government must resign because of its links to Mr Thaksin, who lives in the UK and has requested political asylum there.
It accuses him of corruption and abuse of power while he was in office, and has also suggested that Mr Thaksin and his allies have a hidden republican agenda, a serious charge at a time when the country is beset by anxiety over the future of the monarchy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/7656073.stm
I'm due in Bangkok at the weekend.....
Troops have been deployed on the streets of the Thai capital Bangkok after police failed to disperse anti-government protesters.
The protesters, who are assembled outside the parliament building, are trying to stop lawmakers from leaving.
Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat managed to escape the building by climbing over a fence and being evacuated by helicopter.
Earlier, a woman died when a suspected car bomb exploded near the parliament.
One witness said that shots had been fired at the police by protesters, who are from the staunchly royalist People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD).
The BBC's Jonathan Head, in Bangkok, says the appearance of troops outside parliament is a clear sign that the government is struggling to maintain its authority.
Police earlier fired volleys of teargas for a second time to try to disperse the protesters, but without success.
Mr Somchai had been holding talks with military commanders on how to end the stand-off, before he was forced to flee the parliament building.
The protesters accuse him and his recently ousted predecessor, Samak Sundaravej, of just being proxies for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The PAD wants to replace the one-man, one-vote system with one in which some representatives are chosen by professions and social groups rather than the general electorate.
Mr Thaksin, Mr Somchai's brother-in-law, was forced from office in a military coup in 2006.
The protesters have been occupying the grounds of government buildings for six weeks, but until Tuesday the demonstration had been largely peaceful.
Several thousand PAD protesters broke out of the compound where they had been staying and marched to the parliament late on Monday.
They tried to seal off the building by putting up barriers of old tyres and barbed wire.
The police responded with tear gas, injuring more than 100 people. Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said he was resigning over the clashes.
The protesters later regrouped - locking some lawmakers inside the building and cutting off the power supply.
The new government says it wants to start negotiations with the PAD, but it is also pushing ahead with controversial plans to amend the constitution, a key grievance of the protesters who see it as part of a plan to rehabilitate Mr Thaksin.
The alliance says the government must resign because of its links to Mr Thaksin, who lives in the UK and has requested political asylum there.
It accuses him of corruption and abuse of power while he was in office, and has also suggested that Mr Thaksin and his allies have a hidden republican agenda, a serious charge at a time when the country is beset by anxiety over the future of the monarchy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/7656073.stm
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