News stories by Marwaan Macan-Markar, page 25

For nearly two weeks, Pairoj Chotsripanporn joined the ranks of anti-government protesters gathered outside the prime minister’s office, wearing the trademark red shirt of the movement.

Water fights and neon-coloured water guns are a standard feature on Bangkok’s streets at this time of the year. They are part of the revelry as Thais douse each other during their New Year festival, Songkran.

Suwicha Thakhor's nightmare in a Thai jail is set to continue after a court delivered a harsh verdict this week that contained a unequivocal message - the Internet in this country is being policed with the aim of limiting free expression.

Suwicha Thakhor’s nightmare in a Thai jail is set to continue after a court delivered a harsh verdict this week that contained an unequivocal message – the Internet in this country is being policed with the aim of limiting free expression.

On a recent morning, tourists who visited a former high school in this city, turned into an infamous torture chamber during the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge regime in the mid-1970s, were in for a surprise – the presence of a man who lived to tell the tale.

For now, the United Nations’ refugee agency has been given breathing room to operate in a western corner of military-ruled Burma, where humanitarian programmes offer some comfort to the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.

It is a photograph from happier times. Nilar Thein and her husband Kyaw Min Yu look relaxed and free. They both sport warm smiles. Kyaw Min Yu, or ‘Jimmy’, is carrying the couple’s baby daughter.

As if the country’s draconian lese-majeste laws are not harsh enough, Thailand’s thought police have another weapon, the computer crimes law, to curtail the space for free expression.

The Thai government is being showered with rare praise from a traditional adversary, South-east Asian civil society, for the diplomatic high note it struck during a recently concluded regional summit.

South-east Asian leaders ended a summit here on Sunday by placing greater faith in the United Nations, than their regional bloc in dealing with a member - military-ruled Burma.