Thaksin meets party lawmakers in HK

BANGKOK • Fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra met lawmakers from his Puea Thai party in Hong Kong, where he called for party unity ahead of an approaching general election, party members have said.

Mr Prayuth Siripanich, a Puea Thai party member and its former representative for the north-eastern Thai province of Maha Sarakham, yesterday said 10 lawmakers flew to Hong Kong last Saturday and returned yesterday.

REUTERS

Jakarta blocks 70,000 'negative' websites

JAKARTA • Indonesia has blocked over 70,000 websites displaying "negative" content such as pornography or extremist ideology in the first month of using a new system to help purge the Internet of harmful material, said Minister of Communication and Information Technology Rudiantara.

The "crawling system" developed by a unit of state-run Telekomunikasi Indonesia was launched last month, using 44 servers to search Web content and issue alerts when inappropriate material is found.

REUTERS

Streets reopen after Tibet temple blaze

BEIJING • Streets around Lhasa's fire-hit Jokhang temple, one of the most sacred sites for Tibetan Buddhism, were reopened to pilgrims on Sunday after a blaze broke out the night before, Chinese state media said, but the extent of damage remains unclear.

The official Xinhua news agency said the fire had erupted last Saturday evening in a part of the more than 1,300-year-old temple, but was soon put out. The temple is a Unesco World Heritage Site and lies at the heart of old Lhasa.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE