<p><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">The endlessly repeated question put by the media to the captains of industry, business leaders and government economic ministers is &lsquo;When will the current global economic crisis end?&rsquo;</font><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> <br /></font></p>

<p>David Streckfuss - Thanong Khanthong, in his &ldquo;Overdrive&rdquo; column in The Nation of March 6, argues that &ldquo;there is nothing wrong with the lese majeste law.&rdquo; The problem, he says, has more to do with enforcement: the law &ldquo;has been abused by politicians, police and public prosecutors for their own political advantage.&rdquo;</p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt">Another year passes.<span> </span></span></font><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt">5 years on and Somchai Neelapaichit remains disappeared.<span> </span>Another round of commemorations and calls for resolution, for justice, for an end to impunity.<span> </span>This law should be changed; this treaty should be ratified; these gross errors and defects in the investigation process should be put right.</span></font></p>

<p>To mark the fifth anniversary of the police abduction and forced disappearance in Bangkok of human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit on 12 March 2004, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is distributing a series of three extracts from the newly-released English translation of a book by his wife, Angkhana, first published in Thai to mark the same date in 2008. The book, <em>Reading between the lines</em> recalls her husband&#39;s efforts for justice during his own life, and her family&#39;s struggle to uncover the truth and hold the perpetrators to account after his disappearance.</p>

<p>Supara Janchitfah, Bangkok Post - Subcontracted workers are often the first to be axed when costs need to be cut. It might be a cost-effective solution for investors, but it threatens many people&#39;s livelihoods.</p>

<p>According to an announcement issued today on the website of Prachatai, one of the few independent and outspoken media outlets operating in Thailand, </p> <p>&quot;On March 6, at 3 pm, seven police officers visited Prachatai office in Bangkok, showing a search warrant and an arrest warrant for Chiranuch Premchaiporn, Prachatai Director. She is charged with the offense according to Article 15 of the Computer Crime Act. She has refused to answer any questions, and is waiting for her lawyer.&quot; </p>

<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: &quot;Tahoma&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">A decision by the Administrative Court that found that the Ministry of Industry acted &lsquo;unlawfully&rsquo; has sent shivers down the backs of a number of other Ministries.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-size: 10pt">An inadvertent slip by a middle-ranking member of the new Obama administration may throw the US economy into a tailspin.</span></p>

<p><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">On the eve of its delayed annual summit, the 10-member bloc must show its policies are practical rather than rhetorical.</font></p>

<p><span style="font-size: 10pt">The reasonably well-informed and observant visitor to Thailand will need about 10 minutes to stumble across one of its paradoxes.</span></p>

<p>Pravit Rojanaphruk - The unexpected flight of Chulalongkorn University political scientist Ji Ungpakorn last week to England to escape lese majeste charge has sent shock wave through Thai society. It also serves as a reminder of the heavy price to be paid by not only those believed to be violating the controversial law but by Thai society as a whole as the high price to be paid by Thailand in keeping the law - is getting steeper in the eyes of other democratic nations where freedom of expression is a fundamental right.</p>

<p>Since the military coup in Thailand of September 2006 the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) warned of a strong resurgence of regressive anti-human rights forces, especially within the military and the network of their allies in ultra-conservative political circles. Unfortunately, events of the last year offer ample evidence that these forces have now firmly re-entrenched themselves in all parts of government in Thailand and are in the process of pulling apart the nascent liberal-democratic state nurtured during the 1990s, replacing it with an internal-security state reminiscent of that found during earlier decades. </p>