BANGKOK - THAILAND'S fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra told his rallying supporters on Sunday he would return to the kingdom if authorities launched a violent crackdown on protests in the capital.
In a telephone address to a thousands-strong crowd gathered outside Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's offices, Thaksin said he was closely monitoring a state of emergency declared earlier to force an end to the rallies.
BANGKOK - TANKS and armoured vehicles rumbled across Bangkok on Sunday as Thai premier Abhisit Vejjajiva cracked down on protesters leading the most serious challenge yet to his four-month rule.
One day after wrecking a summit of Asian leaders, demonstrators fired into the air and attacked his convoy as he was being driven away from the interior ministry where he had minutes earlier imposed a state of emergency in Bangkok.
MOMBASA (Kenya) - US WARSHIPS and helicopters stalked a lifeboat holding an American sea captain and his four Somali captors on Sunday, while his crew briefed FBI agents about how they fought off the pirates who boarded their ship.
Nineteen American sailors guarded by US Navy Seals reached safe harbor in Kenya's northeast port of Mombasa on Saturday night, exhilarated by freedom but mourning the absence of Capt. Richard Phillips, who sacrificed himself as a hostage to save them.
BEIJING - CHINA had planned to announce a $10 billion infrastucture investment fund and offer credit to neighbours at a cancelled weekend summit of Asian leaders in Thailand, its foreign minister said.
Anti-government protestors forced the cancellation of the summit in Pattaya after they swarmed into the summit venue.
