Legion of Angels News Archive

BANGKOK, Thailand – A Thai court found former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra guilty of corruption and sentenced him Tuesday to two years in prison, adding a new twist to the country’s paralyzing political crisis.

The guilty verdict was the first against the country’s former leader since he was ousted by a 2006 military coup after being accused of corruption and abuse of power.

Thaksin, 59, jumped bail and fled to England two months ago along with his wife, Pojaman, 51, who was also charged. The Supreme Court acquitted her on Tuesday.

From his home near London, Thaksin condemned the conviction but said it was hardly a surprise.

“It was politically motivated since the court is a carry-forward of the coup d’etat,” Thaksin told The Associated Press. “I’m a politician and after I was toppled by the coup, it’s normal that they will try every means to justify it.”

The ruling was greeted with excitement by the political movement trying to force out the current government, which they accuse of being controlled by Thaksin.

Raucous cheers erupted among several thousand members of the People’s Alliance for Democracy, which has occupied the grounds of the prime minister’s offices since August. They chanted, “Go to jail, go to jail!”

The charges stemmed from allegations that Thaksin facilitated his wife’s purchase of lucrative Bangkok real estate from a state agency in 2003, while he was prime minister.

“The defendant was the prime minister at the time. He should have been honest and ethical and should not have violated counter-corruption laws,” Thongloh Chomngam, head of the court’s nine-judge panel, said in reading from the lengthy verdict.

A prosecutor said the attorney-general’s office “will speed up” its effort to extradite Thaksin, who remains the country’s most influential politician. A formal request has yet to be made.

“We set up a special task force to handle Thaksin’s extradition process some time ago,” said Seksan Bangsomboon. “Tomorrow we will come and get the verdict and have it translated into English and then send it with our request to the British government asking for the extradition of Thaksin.”

Extradition across borders is usually a lengthy and complicated process, and many countries make an exception for cases where there may be reason to believe that politics played a part in the legal proceedings.

Thaksin said he was confident he would be able to remain in Britain.

“I was waiting for today before planning my life,” he said. “I want to be a prominent businessman in the U.K. if the British people will welcome me.”

The Supreme Court’s widely expected ruling made Thaksin the first politician convicted of corruption committed while prime minister, but it was unlikely to ease the political tensions that have been boiling since the protesters took over Government House on Aug. 26 and staged militant street demonstrations.

“We still will not leave Government House, and we still call for political reform to get rid of the Thaksin regime and the current political system plagued with corruption and abuse of power,” said Pipob Thongchai, a protest leader.

The protest leaders say they want to stamp out political corruption. But their critics say their plans would disenfranchise the country’s poor majority and put more power in the hands of the traditional elite.

The court found Thaksin guilty of violating several laws barring bar public officeholders and their spouses from holding a contract with the state. Thaksin’s lawyers had argued that the agency from which the land was purchased was an independent body.

Thaksin built up a political base in the countryside during his 2001-2006 time in office by implementing a raft of populist programs.

His brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat, is the current prime minister and has been labeled a Thaksin puppet by protesters demanding his ouster.

Somchai’s government has been virtually paralyzed by the protests.

Former telecommunications tycoon Thaksin turned politician faces a string of court cases and investigations into alleged corruption and abuse of power during his six years in office.

Thaksin has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, saying the charges were politically motivated.

The court also Tuesday ordered a fresh arrest warrant for Thaksin, who already has several warrants out for him in connection with other corruption cases.

Source — Yahoo!

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) – Unable to strike a deal on its own, Microsoft Corp. reportedly is hoping to snap up Yahoo’s online search operations with the help of News Corp. and Time Warner Inc.

The latest twist in Microsoft’s convoluted courtship caused Yahoo’s shares to rise more than 3 percent in Wednesday’s sinking stock market, even though the chances of a deal getting done still seemed remote.

If nothing else, the enthusiastic reaction to the unconfirmed report in The Wall Street Journal served as another reminder that investors want Yahoo to pursue a different path than the one mapped out by Chief Executive Jerry Yang.

And that could be bad news for Yang, who started Yahoo as an Internet directory 14 years ago. Unless he can sway shareholder sentiment before Yahoo’s annual meeting August 1, Yang could lose his job in a boardroom coup being attempted by investor Carl Icahn.

Recognizing Yahoo’s vulnerability, Microsoft is trying to recruit News Corp., Time Warner’s AOL or other media partners to put together a joint bid that would slice Yahoo into pieces, according to the Journal. The story cited undisclosed people familiar with the discussions.

Microsoft declined comment Wednesday. A Yahoo spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

Under the reported breakup plan, Microsoft would emerge with Yahoo’s online search operations — the main object of the software maker’s desire since it began stalking Yahoo as long as ago as 2006.

After the two sides couldn’t agree on a price, Microsoft withdrew a $47.5 billion bid to buy Yahoo in its entirety in early May.

Just two weeks later, Microsoft offered to pay $1 billion for Yahoo’s search engine and invest another $8 billion for a 16 percent stake in Yahoo’s remaining business.

Yahoo rejected that offer, too, and instead forged an advertising partnership with Google Inc., whose rapid growth prompted Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo in the first place.

Now, Microsoft is trying to figure out a way to carve up Yahoo’s business and hand off the non-search pieces to News Corp., AOL or other media partners, the Journal said.

Neither News Corp. nor AOL are new players in this soap opera.

Yahoo explored possible deals with AOL and with News Corp.’s popular online hangout, MySpace.com, while trying to fend off Microsoft’s advances. And Microsoft previously has talked to News Corp. about making a joint bid for Yahoo.

Desperate to placate its peeved shareholders, Yahoo has resurrected a previous proposal to combine with AOL and give Time Warner a minority stake in the merged operations, according another Journal story late Wednesday that cited unnamed people. The odds also appear stacked against that idea working out, the Journal reported.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had hoped to pitch his latest breakup proposal to Yahoo in a meeting on Monday of this week, but then canceled for unexplained reasons, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.

Yahoo hasn’t heard another formal proposal since June 8, said this person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the on-again, off-again negotiations are considered confidential.

Microsoft’s talks with possible partners are still in a preliminary stage and unlikely to culminate in a deal, according to people who spoke to the Journal.

But the mere prospect of Microsoft returning with another offer was enough to lift Yahoo shares 68 cents, or 3.4 percent, to close at $20.88. Microsoft shares fell 99 cents to finish at $25.88.

Yahoo’s stock price has sunk by 27 percent since Ballmer withdrew an oral offer of $33 per share for the entire company in early May. Ballmer walked away after Yang sought $37 per share — a price that Yahoo’s stock hasn’t reached in nearly 2 1/2 years.

Stanford Group analyst Clayton Moran estimated Yahoo’s breakup value at $20 to $24 per share, well below the $33 that Microsoft offered in early May.

With its shareholders fuming, Yahoo has unsuccessfully tried to persuade Microsoft to revive its bid for the entire company at $33 a share.

The impasse has deepened the animosity between the two companies, with Yahoo denigrating its suitor as “unresponsive and inconsistent” and Microsoft accusing Yahoo of engaging in “revisionist history.”

By floating the idea of a Yahoo breakup, Microsoft may be trying to provide Icahn with ammunition for his attempt to overthrow Yahoo’s nine-member board. Icahn didn’t return a call Wednesday, but he has publicly stated he is opposed to doing a Microsoft deal unless it involves selling Yahoo as a whole.

Source — CNN