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Sunday, December 26, 2010

Scenes from Thailand

The last time we focused on Thailand, the government crackdown on Red Shirt protesters was taking place in Bangkok. Since then, much of the damaged part of downtown Bangkok has been repaired, and the Red Shirts continue their protests both in the streets and online. Thailand has also been hit with severe flooding, struggled with terrorist attacks, and celebrated Queen Sirikit's 78th birthday. Collected here a a handful of recent photographs from around Thailand.

1. Thai students tour Marble temple in Bangkok, Thailand Wednesday, July 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
2. A rescue staff walks in a flood-hit area in Chok Chai district, Nakhon Ratchasima province, 270 km (167.7 miles) northeast of Bangkok October 19, 2010. The worst floods in decades in Thailand and severe flooding in neighboring Cambodia have killed 20 people, authorities said on Wednesday, as rescue workers braced for more rain and possible flooding in Bangkok. (REUTERS/Roengchai Kongmuang/Greenpeace)
3. Anti-government "red shirt" protesters light candles for their killed comrades during a rally at the Democracy monument, the site of bloody clashes with security forces, in Bangkok October 10, 2010. Thousands of Thai anti-government activists gathered in Bangkok on Sunday to demand the release of protesters detained for their role in crippling demonstrations and bloody clashes with the military. (REUTERS/Damir Sagolj)
4. A woman gets her picture taken next to giant letters reading "Now Open" outside the Central World department store in Bangkok on September 28, 2010. Central World reopened eighty percent of the department store after it was burned down during the anti-government protests that rocked the Thai capital earlier in the year. The renovation cost 5-6 billion baht (163000-197000 USD).(NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)
5. Anti-government "red shirt" protesters sit among flowers during a rally at the Democracy Monument, the site where bloody clashes with security forces previously took place in Bangkok October 10, 2010. (REUTERS/Damir Sagolj)
6. Mahouts ride elephants along a flooded road near the Lopburi River towards the Royal Elephant Kraal elephant sanctuary in Ayutthaya, 80 km (50 miles) north of Bangkok October 19, 2010. (REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang)
7. Devotees of the Chinese shrine of Bang Neow, carry a Chinese god on a palanquin as firecrackers explode during a street procession of the last day of Vegetarian Festival on October 16, 2010 in Phuket, Thailand. Ritual Vegetarianism on Phuket's Island's traces it roots back to the early 1800's. The festival begins on the first evening of the ninth lunar month and lasts for nine days. Participants in the festival perform acts of body piercing as a means of shifting evil spirits from individuals onto themselves and bring the community good luck. (Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)
8. Novices sit in lines in front of the Maha Chedi during a mass ordination at Dhamagaya Temple in Pathumthani province, central Thailand Tuesday, July 20, 2010. Ten of thousands men ordained monkhood in a dawn ceremony to mark the three-month long Buddhist Lent or the rainy season when Buddhist monks remain in the monasteries to study the teachings of Lord Buddha which this year starts on Tuesday, July 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)
9. In a picture taken on October 14, 2010 one of the new "Red Shirt" leaders, Sombat Boonngamanong, checks his page on the Facebook Internet social networking site at his office in Bangkok. When Thai authorities shut down his website, Sombat Boonngamanong turned to Facebook to share political views with fellow supporters of the Red Shirt opposition movement. (PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty Images)
10. Tattoo artist Pitsanut Seanrak works on his client Pansawat Waree during the Tattoo Festival in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Oct 25, 2010. (AP Photo/Sakchhai Lalit)
11. The site of a bomb blast at an apartment complex near Bangkok on October 6, 2010. Thailand blamed the deadly blast at an apartment complex near Bangkok on the anti-government Red Shirt movement as investigators probed whether a bomb-maker caused the explosion accidentally. Authorities said the powerful blast killed at least three people and injured nine late on October 5. (PAIROJ/AFP/Getty Images)
12. People look at the body of a Thai man shot dead while riding his motorcycle in the southern Yala province October 11, 2010. The Buddhist Thai soldier was gunned down by suspected separatist rebels while riding his motorcycle, said the police. (REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom)
13. Thai security personnel and bystanders duck for cover as they are warned of a secondary attack at the site of bombing in the southern Songkhla province October 5, 2010. According to the police, three soldiers were wounded when an improvised explosive device mounted on a motorcycle exploded at their check point. (REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom)
14. Unidentified detained Pakistani men walk through the police station in the southern Thai city of Yala on October 13, 2010 a day after their arrest. Police in Thailand said they had arrested 15 Pakistani nationals involved in suspicious fund raising activity and were investigating possible links to a terrorist organization. (MUHAMMAD SABRI/AFP/Getty Images)
15. A soldier secures the area as the commander of Thai Royal Army meets Muslim religious leaders during a visit to the troubled southern Yala province October 18, 2010. Yala is one of three predominantly Muslim provinces bordering Malaysia where more than 4,100 people have been killed in six years of unrest. (REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom)
16. Mint, a 20-month old male Maltese terrier dog, gets sleepy as he is dressed up for a competition at the Asian Dog Show in Bangkok, Thailand Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010. Hundreds of dogs were brought to participate in the four-day show that ended on Sunday, Oct. 24. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)
17. Thai farmers ride on buffalos during a buffalo racing festival in Thailand's Chonburi province on October 22, 2010. The annual race takes place at the end of the three month Buddhist Lent, before the full moon of the 11th lunar month. (PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty Images)
18. A woman prays at a collective housing for migrant workers from Myanmar near Mae Sot in northwest Thailand October 15, 2010. Myanmar's long standing political crisis has forced millions of people across the border for a better and safer life. Some 140,000 refugees live in official camps along the Myanmar-Thailand border, according to the U.N. refugee agency, and there are concerns that hostilities in the hills of Eastern Myanmar could intensify as a result of a refusal of several ethnic political groups to take part in an election next month. (REUTERS/Damir Sagolj)
19. A boy with his face decorated with thanaka paste waits outside a local school, for children of migrant workers from Myanmar, near Mae Sot in northwest Thailand October 15, 2010. (REUTERS/Damir Sagolj)
20. A woman carries her child past a portrait of Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the Mae Tao clinic in Mae Sot, in northwest Thailand October 13, 2010. (REUTERS/Damir Sagolj)
21. Workers use an earthmover to push an old tank from a ship into the sea off Narathiwat province, southern Thailand Monday, Aug. 9, 2010. Twenty five junk tanks were transported from Bangkok and dumped at sea in the Gulf of Thailand to help forming artificial reefs and providing home for fish. (AP Photo/Sumeth Parnpeth)
22. Teerapong Musigasamphan, 73, a participant of a mass uprising in 1973, sits in front of a picture depicting the uprising during its commemoration in Bangkok October 14, 2010. Hundreds of thousands of students and workers took to the streets 37 years ago in Bangkok in a political revolution that toppled a military dictatorship in which scores were killed by army bullets. (REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom)
23. An official holds up live pangolins after a raid at a house in Ayutthaya province, central Thailand, Friday, Oct. 22, 2010. Thai police have raided a secret warehouse where wildlife smugglers had cached thousands of reptiles for shipment overseas after being illegally collected. (AP Photo/FREELAND Foundation)
24. Thais box on a pole during Chonburi's annual buffalo races festival on October 22, 2010. The event, which also celebrates the rice harvest, originates back to the buffalo trade in Chonburi, once the trade centre of Thailand's east. (REUTERS/Damir Sagolj)
25. A devotee of the Chinese shrine of Jui Tui has his cheeks pierced as he takes part in a procession to mark the annual Vegetarian Festival in southern Thailand's town of Phuket on October 14, 2010. The festival begins on the first evening of the ninth lunar month and lasts for nine days, with many religious devotees slashing themselves with swords, piercing their cheeks with sharp objects and committing other painful acts to purify themselves, taking on the sins of the community. (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)
26. Counterfeit goods are displayed before being destroyed at a destruction ceremony at the crime suppression division Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand. Thai authorities on Wednesday destroyed approximately 90 tons worth about 2,260 million baht ($76 million) of counterfeit and pirated goods in the ceremony presided over by Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlabutr. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)
27. Seized endangered Star Tortoises lie in a box as they are shown to the media at the Thai customs office in Bangkok on September 29, 2010. Thai customs authorities said they had seized 1,140 endangered star tortoises that were smuggled into the country on a flight from Bangladesh. (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)
28. Thai people do mass aerobic exercise at National Stadium in Bangkok Thursday, Aug. 12, 2010 to celebrate Thailand's Queen Sirikit's 78th birthday. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
29. A man tries to catch fish in a flooded area in Thailand's Lopburi province, about 150 km (93 miles) north of Bangkok October 21,2010. (REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang)
30. Residents watch television at their flooded house in Bangkok October 25, 2010. Floodwaters from northeast provinces, which have swamped thousands of acres of farmland, have spread to the Thai capital. (REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom)
31. A Buddhist monk wades through floodwaters at a Buddhist temple in Ayutthaya province on October 25, 2010 as the country struggles following two weeks of flooding. (PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty Images)