Thailand’s prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, has told the nation on television 15 March that he will not give in to demands by tens of thousands of red shirt protestors that he resign today, insisting that changes must be the result of elections where voices of people other than the protestors have a chance to be heard. The protestors gathered outside the army barracks Monday where Vejjajiva had gone when a rally with an estimated (BBC numbers) 100,000 took place Sunday, but he left in a helicopter shortly after his TV appearance.
The red shirts back former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has remained abroad following a two-year prison sentence for abuse of power, which he and his supporters say was politically motivated.
Opposition group UDD leader Natthawut Saikua responded by saying 1,000 litres of blood will be taken from donors Tuesday and spread outside Government House to force government workers to walk across a bloody trail.
Links to other sites: Bangkok Post, BBC,
Switzerland's air force provides air space security during the Davos WEF meeting which brings in world leaders
Update 23:00 Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper was given the unusual privilege, according to news agency Canadian Press, of an honour escort guard by two Swiss military jets as he left Switzerland Friday 29 January. The jets suddenly appeared, about 30 metres from the wingtips of the Airbus A340 carrying the prime minister, his team, security guards and media. For the Canadians, the honour guard is a sign of close friendship between the two countries. The Swiss have not made an official announcement about the flight (image on CTV Canada)
Harper was in Switzerland for the Davos World Economic Forum, but he also used the visit to meet with Swiss President Doris Leuthard.
Former Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has died in a Bangkok hospital after a year-long bout with cancer, his former secretary reported 24 November. While in government, he was accused of corruption for having accepted payment for a tv show on which he cooked and commented on national affairs. He had presented the show many times in the past, but not while he was prime minister.
Samak became prime minister in 2007 after street protests that led to the ousting of Thaksin Shinawatra as prime minister in 2006. His government was widely accused of being a stand-in for the ousted Thaksin, and street protests resumed. He was forced out of office after a court ruling found him guilty of conflict of interest.
An estimated 1,000 people known as Forgotten Australians were part of a large crowd that attended a ceremony in Canberra, Australia Sunday 15 November where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally apologized to the estimated 70,000 people who were abused in state care from about 1930-1970, many of them part of a group of British children forced to migrate to Australia and work as forced labour on farms, some of them sexually abused as children. The British prime minister will also formally apologize in 2010 for the British forced migration policy, his office has announced.
Links to other sites: ABC, Australia, BBC, Sydney Morning Herald
Italy is again debating the question of whether Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi should be granted immunity from prosecution. The country’s top court is debating whether a law passed soon after he came to office in 2008 is constitutional. It grants the prime minister immunity from prosecution while in office. Opponents argue that no one is above the law. His supporters claim that without the protection, Berlusconi would be “distracted” from governing and may be forced to resign.
Berlusconi has been the object of several court cases involving corruption, including one where his British lawyer, David Mills, was found guilty earlier this year. Prosecutors in that case are appealing to the Constitutional Court about Berlusconi’s immunity.
In a separate corruption trial a judge ruled 5 October on a case involving his media holding company Fininvest and ordered it to pay €750 million in damages. The judge said that as the owner of the company Berlusconi was “co-responsible.” BBC, Corriere della sere (Ita), Reuters
A pre-dawn commando raid 8 September by British paratroopers to rescue two NY Times reporters from their Taliban kidnappers in Kunduz province of Afghanistan ended in the release of the British-Irish journalist, Stephen Farrell, and the death of his Afghan colleague and interpreter, Sultan Munadi. A British paratrooper, an Afghan soldier, the owner of the house the hostages were being held in, and an unidentified woman, reportedly the house owner’s sister-in-law, were also killed.
Farrell and Munadi were captured 5 September when they were in a Taliban-controlled area without a military escort investigating the airstrike on two hijacked fuel tankers ordered by Nato troops 4 September in which up to 90 people were killed, many of them civilians taking fuel from the trucks, which were stuck in the river.
The commando raid was praised by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, but some commentators say that negotiations were underway with the kidnappers, and their release was imminent. Farrell was briefly held by insurgents while working for the The Times in Iraq in 2004. The Guardian,Kansas City Star, NY Times
Lyons, France (GenevaLunch) - Ireland’s former Taoiseach (prime minister) Garrett FitzGerald, 83, and a group of 20 people, mainly family, staying with him at a chateau in Auvergne, France, have been quarantined as a precaution after several members of the party showed symptoms of flu, reports AFP. The symptoms are reportedly mild and only one person was given Tamiflu as a precautionary measure.
Turkey’s top court has ruled that the prime minister was involved in anti-secular activities. The court published the ruling, given against the PM last July, on 24 October. NYT
