BANGKOK (Reuters) – In the early days of Thailand’s devastating floods, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was seen knee-deep in muddy waters in wading boots, greeting evacuated villagers, surrounded by clicking cameras and appearing to take charge.

Fast-forward a month, as the worst floods in half a century close in on inner-city Bangkok, Yingluck’s three-month-old government is under fire for badly managing the crisis — from shoddy policy coordination to poor communication and conflicts with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Traffic clogged roads out of Bangkok Friday as thousands of people fled ahead of a high tide that may worsen floods that have inundated factories and prompted foreign governments to warn citizens to stay away from one of Asia’s biggest cities.

Authorities have expressed concern that Bangkok’s main Chao Phraya River will burst its banks over the weekend during the unusually high tide that begins Friday. Buildings across Bangkok have been sand-bagged for protection, and some vulnerable streets are nearly deserted.

BANGKOK, Oct 28 (Reuters) – Traffic clogged roads out of
Bangkok on Friday as thousands of people fled ahead of a high
tide that may worsen floods that have inundated factories and
prompted foreign governments to warn citizens to stay away from
one of Asia’s biggest cities.

Authorities have expressed concern that Bangkok’s main Chao
Phraya River will burst its banks over the weekend during the
unusually high tide that begins on Friday. Buildings across
Bangkok have been sand-bagged for protection, and some
vulnerable streets are nearly deserted.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Rescue workers reinforced make-shift walls and sand-bags around Bangkok on Saturday as the worst floods in half-a-century threatened Thailand’s low-lying capital after swamping entire provinces in the north.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra sought to reassure Bangkok’s 12 million people they would largely escape floods that have swept over a third of Thailand since July, killing at least 297 people, causing about $3 billion in damage and turning villages and industrial parks into lakes.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – In a remote prison in Myanmar’s northernmost state, comedian and dissident Maung Thura nearly lost touch with the world. His parents died. He was forbidden contact with relatives for more than a year.

So when guards startled him awake at 5:30 a.m. on a cool Wednesday morning to free him and about 200 other political prisoners in a rare amnesty, he was ecstatic. He could see his two children again. One of the world’s most reclusive and autocratic states may finally be changing, he thought.

BANGKOK, Oct 14 (Reuters) – In a remote prison in Myanmar’s
northernmost state, comedian and dissident Maung Thura nearly
lost touch with the world. His parents died. He was forbidden
contact with relatives for more than a year.

So when guards startled him awake at 5:30 a.m. on a cool
Wednesday morning to free him and about 200 other political
prisoners in a rare amnesty, he was ecstatic. He could see his
two children again. One of the world’s most reclusive and
autocratic states may finally be changing, he thought.

BANGKOK, July 4 (Reuters) – Thailand’s powerful military
accepted on Monday a stunning election victory by the party of
fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, adding to a
new sense of stability in a country plagued by unrest since his
ouster in a coup five years ago.

A day after the victory by the Puea Thai Party headed by
Thaksin’s youngest sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, the military
agreed not to intervene or stop her from forming a government,
according to the outgoing defence minister.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s opposition appeared headed for a landslide election victory on Sunday, led by the sister of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, in a triumph for rural and urban poor red-shirt protesters who clashed with the army last year.

Exit polls showed Yingluck Shinawatra’s Puea Thai (For Thais) party winning a clear majority of parliament’s 500 seats, paving the way for the 44-year-old business executive to become Thailand’s first woman prime minister.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – The opposition won Thailand’s general election by a landslide on Sunday, exit polls showed, paving the way for Yingluck Shinawatra to become the country’s first female prime minister in a victory for a red-shirted political movement.

Television showed Yingluck, younger sister of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, swarmed by flashing cameras and journalists after exit polls showed her Puea Thai (For Thais) party winning a clear majority of the 500 seats in parliament.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand voted on Sunday in an election that will test whether one of Asia’s most promising nations can end a six-year crisis marked by bloody protests, military crackdowns and growing tensions between rich and poor.

Opinion polls give a clear lead to the opposition Puea Thai Party led by Yingluck Shinawatra over Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s Democrat Party, but it was unclear if she could win by a big enough margin to form a new government.