HEADLINE: THAILAND- Thai court acquits 2008 Bangkok airport protesters
CAMBODIA: Heng Sour: The party’s political program on vocational training for poor youth is the key to improving their lives
Heng Sour, Member of the central committee of the Cambodian People’s Party and confirmed to the youth throughout the country that vocational training program for young people from poor families, which is an initiative of Mr Hun Sen, President of CPP Party, is an important mechanism for people from poor and vulnerable families to have a better life.
Heng Sour also a chairman of the capital and provincial division of the Youth of the Cambodian People’s Party, said on March 30, 2024 during he participated in the dissemination of “technical and vocational training programs for young people from poor and vulnerable families” to the 320 youths of the capital, province, municipality, district and commune across the country at the CPP headquarters in Phnom Penh.
Memento Maxima Digital MarketingSINGAPORE: When hot gets hotter: El Nino expected to turn up the heat in April and May, say experts
SINGAPORE – Get ready to sizzle in April and May.
Temperatures in the next two months – usually among the warmest months in the year – could be nudged up further due to lingering effects of the El Nino phenomenon that gripped Singapore from the second half of 2023, experts say.
El Nino is a natural climate phenomenon that brings hotter, drier weather over South-east Asia due to changes in sea surface temperatures and surface winds over the tropical Pacific Ocean.
El Nino conditions are weakening and are expected to taper off by around April or May, said the National Environment Agency’s Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) in response to queries.
But El Nino is likely to still make its presence felt in Singapore in the form of higher-than-usual temperatures in the months ahead, as heat takes time to transfer from the sea surface to the atmosphere, experts told The Straits Times.
This lingering effect of El Nino is expected to overlap with the traditionally warm months of the year in Singapore, they added.
THAILAND: Thai court acquits 2008 Bangkok airport protesters
‘Yellow Shirt’ antigovernment protesters protected under the constitution, charges of rebellion and terrorism dropped.
A court in Thailand has dropped terrorism charges against 67 people who led antigovernment protests in 2008, occupying and shutting down operations at Bangkok’s two airports for more than a week.
The Bangkok Criminal Court ruled on Friday that the so-called “Yellow Shirt” protests, which opposed a government headed by allies of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, were protected under the constitution because they were peaceful and the protesters were unarmed, according to local media and one of the defendants.
“Our ordeal is not wasted. The ruling helps heal our feelings, and many of the defendants shed tears,” said Panthep Puapongpan, the former spokesperson for the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) group, which led the protests at Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi airports, its members donning yellow shirts to show loyalty to the Thai monarchy.
The 67 defendants in Friday’s case had been indicted on charges of rebellion and terrorism carrying a possible death penalty. Demanding the resignation of then-Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, the brother-in-law of billionaire Thaksin, thousands of “Yellow Shirts” took control of the airports, leaving hundreds of thousands of tourists stranded.
They also briefly seized a state television station and occupied Government House for three months in a bid to overturn the administration. Backed by Bangkok’s elites, who loathed Thaksin, PAD halted its action after a ruling by the Constitutional Court dismissed Somchai from office.
Thaksin had himself been overthrown by a 2006 military coup which followed large “Yellow Shirt” protests accusing him of corruption and disrespect of the monarchy. His removal set off years of sometimes violent contention for power between his supporters and his opponents.
The court dropped charges against 31 other PAD protest leaders in January but ordered some of them to pay a fine of 20,000 baht ($550) for violating an emergency decree that was then in place.
In 2011, the Civil Court ordered the leaders of PAD to pay 522 million baht ($14.7m) in damages to the state airport authority. They were declared bankrupt and had their assets seized last year in partial payment of the sum.
