W O R L D

Thai protesters push for polls
* Grenade attack on army base raises tensions
* PM Abhisit rejects demands for early election
* ‘Red shirts’ regroup, say no immediate plans to march
Bangkok, March 15
Tens of thousands of protesters pressed ahead with a mass street rally in Bangkok on today after Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva rebuffed their demand for elections at a time of heightened political tension.

Supporters of ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra gather for a protest outside the base of Thai Army 11th Infantry Regiment in Bangkok on Monday. — Reuters

ISI sharing info with Lashkar: US lawmaker
Washington, March 15
Pakistan's ISI, which considers the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) as an asset, is believed to be not only sharing intelligence inputs, but also providing protection to the banned outfit, a top US lawmaker has said.

Setback for Putin in regional poll
Moscow, March 15
Russia's dominant ruling party the United Russia was leading regional elections but suffered a string of surprising setbacks against the background of the economic crisis, results showed today.

She wants to become world’s fattest
Melbourne, March 15
Donna Simpson is fat and proud. The 42-year-old already weighs 273kg and has vowed to touch the 450kg mark within two years to clinch the title of the world's fattest woman. Simpson says she is healthy, even though she has to use a mobility scooter when she goes shopping.

Thai protesters push for polls
* Grenade attack on army base raises tensions
* PM Abhisit rejects demands for early election
* ‘Red shirts’ regroup, say no immediate plans to march

Bangkok, March 15
Tens of thousands of protesters pressed ahead with a mass street rally in Bangkok on today after Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva rebuffed their demand for elections at a time of heightened political tension.

After three days of peaceful demonstrations, fears of violence resurfaced when three grenades exploded at an army base in central Bangkok, wounding two soldiers, reinforcing concerns over Thailand's long-term investment outlook.

The attack failed to deter foreign investors, who bought $40 million of Thai stocks on Monday. Thailand's stock market, which leapt 63 per cent last year, remained in positiveterritory, while the baht currency hardly moved.

Despite the increase in tension, foreign funds have been flowing into Thailand's stock market - to the tune of $852 million over the past three weeks — as investors seek to benefit from a swift rebound in Southeast Asia's emerging economies.

Investors are looking beyond the turbulence at a trio of factors: Thai assets are already trading at a substantial risk discount, the economy has rebounded well despite bouts of unrest and Abhisit is widely expected to survive the protests.

It was also unclear whether the attack was linked to demonstrations by ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra's red-shirted supporters, who rallied outside a separate military barracks that has doubled as a command centre for Abhisit.

It came shortly after Abhisit rejected demands by protesters to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections. Abhisit, backed by the powerful military and establishment elite, made a live television appearance flanked by members of his shaky coalition, and said the time was not right for a poll, which analysts say Thaksin's allies would likely win.

Hours after he spoke, crowds waving red banners and rattling plastic foot-clappers jammed a major boulevard in their signature red shirts, chanting: "Abhisit, get out. Elite, get out." — Reuters

ISI sharing info with Lashkar: US lawmaker

Washington, March 15
Pakistan's ISI, which considers the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) as an asset, is believed to be not only sharing intelligence inputs, but also providing protection to the banned outfit, a top US lawmaker has said.

“Despite the government's ban on the LeT, Pakistan's ISI continues to consider the organisation an asset. The ISI is believed to share intelligence and provide protection to the LeT,” Congressman Marvin Weinbaum said at a Congressional hearing last week. When Pakistan, in 2002, curtailed its assistance to insurgents after a US brokered cease-fire that year in Kashmir, the group, with the knowledge of the ISI, shifted most of its training camps and militant operations to the western border with Afghanistan, he said.

"Let me say that there has been reciprocation on the part of the LeT and that is refrain from involvement in attacks against the Pakistan army and against Pakistan civilians," he said. "In fact, although it is definitely part of the terrorist network, which includes the Tehrik-e-Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban, the Al-Qaida and the Haqqani Network, it is viewed by some of the jihadi groups as being too soft on Pakistan. And other extremist groups are skeptical of its linkages with the ISI," Weinbaum said.

"The current leadership in Pakistan may recognise, as it turns out better than any previous government, the dangers that the LeT and these groups pose to the state. But the organisation's deep penetration of the country's social fabric makes any attempts to rein it in by the beleaguered Peoples Party impossible without the military's full commitment," the lawmaker said. — PTI

Setback for Putin in regional poll

Moscow, March 15
Russia's dominant ruling party the United Russia was leading regional elections but suffered a string of surprising setbacks against the background of the economic crisis, results showed today.

The United Russia, whose overall leader is Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, won less than half the vote in some polls for regional parliaments and in a stunning reverse lost the election for mayor in the Siberian city of Irkutsk. The polls yesterday only involved some of the Russia's regions but were being closely watched by the authorities after unusual displays of discontent in recent weeks rattled the Kremlin.

The United Russia won over 48 per cent of the vote in elections for the local parliament in the Khabarovsk region, a key economic hub in the Far East on the border with China, results published by the Central Election Commission showed. In the region of Sverdlovsk that includes the Urals economic capital of Yekaterinburg it polled just 40 per cent of the vote. However, in the sparsely populated Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region it won 86 per cent.

The most unsettling news for the United Russia was in Irkutsk, a city of over half-a-million people, where its candidate in elections for mayor was thrashed by a candidate supported by the Communist Party. — AFP

She wants to become world’s fattest

Melbourne, March 15
Donna Simpson is fat and proud. The 42-year-old already weighs 273kg and has vowed to touch the 450kg mark within two years to clinch the title of the world's fattest woman. Simpson says she is healthy, even though she has to use a mobility scooter when she goes shopping.

"My favourite food is sushi, but unlike others I can sit and eat 70 big pieces of sushi in one go,' News.com.au quoted her, as telling the Daily Mail.

She added: "I do love cakes and sweet things - doughnuts are my favourite." Simpson loves eating junk food while she makes little effort to move.

She wears XXXXXXXL dresses and has already made it to the Guinness World Record as the world's fattest mother, when she gave birth in 2007 weighing 240kg.

A team of 30 medics worked on the delivery of her daughter Jacqueline after a high-risk Caesarean.

However, Simpson's desire to grow fatter remains unchanged. She said: "I'd love to be 1000lb. It might be hard though. Running after my daughter keeps my weight down." Even her long-term partner Philippe, 49, encourages her to eat more.

Philippe himself weighs only 68kg. Simpson said: "I think he'd like it if I was bigger. "He's a real belly man, and completely supports me." According to Simpson, she will have to eat up to 12,000 calories a day, more than six times the average amount, to achieve her goal. — ANI