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||| THAILAND. Marching to prevent the government from conveying a policy speech to lawmakers

Protesters occupy PM’s grounds

||| The People’s Alliance for Democracy is on the edge ever since the arrest of two of its leaders. ||| The political party claims corruption in the Thai poll system, demanding to revoke the one-man, one-vote deliverance.

The Associated Press
 

BANGKOK – Protesters in Thailand who have occupied the grounds of the prime minister's office for six weeks marched Monday night to the streets outside parliament, vowing to block the government from delivering a policy statement to lawmakers.
The action by the People's Alliance for Democracy came in the aftermath of the arrests of two of its leaders, and seemed intended to spark a confrontation to revive its flagging movement.
"We are marching to the parliament, which the puppet government has been using as a tool to hold on to power," Sirichai Maingam, one of the protest leaders, told the crowd as they embarked.
"A government, which has no legitimacy, has no right to announce their policies because whatever they say, they will end up corrupting everything," said another leader, Somsak Kosaisuk.
The alliance claims Thailand's electoral system is susceptible to vote buying, promoting corruption in politics. It derides Thailand's rural majority – who gave landslide election victories to the current government – as too poorly educated to responsibly choose their representatives.
The protest group wants the country to abandon the system of one-man, one-vote, and instead have a mixed system in which some representatives are chosen by certain professions and social groups.
They have not explained how exactly such a system would work or what would make it less susceptible to manipulation.
About 300 police were stationed at parliament Monday night, but did nothing to stop the protesters, who appeared to number several thousand, from closing off the street and setting up tents.
On Sunday, police arrested Chamlong Srimuang, a key protest leader and one-time Bangkok mayor on charges of insurrection and other crimes.
Another key figure, Chaiwat Sinsuwongse, was arrested Friday on the same charges. |||

||| CATASTROPHE. Killing over 30 people

Earthquakes hit Tibet

Tracie Cone | AP Writer
 

BEIJING – A pair of strong earthquakes jolted the capital of Tibet and surrounding areas Monday, killing more than 30 people and causing hundreds of houses to collapse. Rescuers rushed to the scene to try to save an unknown number of people buried under rubble.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the first quake measured magnitude 6.6 and struck at 0830 GMT 50 miles west of Lhasa, more than 1,600 miles away from Beijing.
The second temblor measuring magnitude 5.1 hit about 15 minutes later, about 60 miles west of the Tibetan capital, it said.
Thirty people died and hundreds of houses collapsed in Gedar township near the epicenter in Dangxiong County, and traffic and telecommunications were cut off.
An unknown number of people were still trapped under rubble, and soldiers and rescue workers were hurriedly dispatched to the site.
Deaths were also reported in a neighboring county, the report said, but no figures were available. The Lhasa airport and the Qinghai-Tibet railway continued to operate, the agency said.
China says Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially independent for most of that time. On March 14, monk-led protests against Chinese rule turned violent in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, and ethnic Chinese residents were attacked.
China's State Seismological Bureau said the initial temblor was centered in Dangxiong county, which has a population of about 42,000 people, mostly herdsmen.
“I felt the building shaking a little bit and saw a bench overturn,” said Ge San, an employee at the Baima Hotel in Dangxiong, who was sitting in a room with about five other employees.
“The shaking was not heavy. We stayed in the room and were not frightened,” she said, adding that all the hotel's guests remained on the premises.
“I was in my office on the third floor,” she said. “The shaking lasted for about half a minute.”
Xinhua said that so far, none of the city's landmarks, such as the Potala Palace, appeared to be damaged.
One of the agency's reporters in Lhasa said shops remained open and there was no panic on the streets.
In Lhasa, employees at the Civil Affairs Bureau rushed out of their building when the tremors began but returned soon after.
Authorities said seismologists and officials were sent to the area and were assessing the situation. |||