Bangkok - Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has chosen a respected career diplomat to become the country's next foreign minister at a time of heightening political crisis for his government, official sources said Saturday.
Samak has named Saroj Chavamaviraj, 66, the new foreign minister and on Friday submitted the appointment to Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej for approval, a foreign ministry source confirmed.
Saroj retired in 2002 as ambassador to France. Prior to his Paris posting he was permanent secretary of the foreign ministry for four years.
Bangkok - Nattahan Sirichotphaisal, a Bangkok landlord, is an angry woman. She is one of thousands of die-hard members of the People's Alliance for Democracy
(PAD) who seized Government House on August 26 and have been there since, transforming the once immaculate office compound of the state executive into a smelly public park.
The PAD, a Bangkok-based movement born three years ago out of the growing public frustration with the self-serving rule of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, returned to the capital's streets on May 25 with a new goal - the resignation of current Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej.
Bangkok - Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on Thursday refused to resign his post despite growing pressure on him to step down after failing to evict thousands of protestors from Government House, the seat of power, for more than a week.
"I cannot leave because under a democratic system no one group can force me to resign," Samak said in a broadcast to the nation Thursday morning. "I will stay on to heal the country's democracy."
Bangkok - Thailand's 43 state enterprise unions failed to deliver a nationwide strike Wednesday in a show of support for protestors who have occupied Government House for the past week, forcing the prime minister to declare a state of emergency.
On Monday representatives of some 43 state enterprises and 200,000 state employees threatened a nationwide strike starting 9 am Wednesday to support members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) who have occupied the seat of government since August 26.
Bangkok - A flash flood killed one woman in Thailand's northern province of 
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has chosen a respected career diplomat to become the country's next foreign minister at a time of heightening political crisis for his government, official sources said Saturday.
Bangkok - Thailand's Hat Yai International Airport reopened Thursday after a two-day closure forced by anti-government protestors.
Bangkok - Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on Thursday refused to resign his post despite growing pressure on him to step down after failing to evict thousands of protestors from Government House, the seat of power, for more than a week.
Bangkok - Thailand's 43 state enterprise unions failed to deliver a nationwide strike Wednesday in a show of support for protestors who have occupied Government House for the past week, forcing the prime minister to declare a state of emergency.
