Besieged Bangkok airport shut down

Thousands of passengers stranded at Bangkok, Suvarnabhumi airport.The airport protests, involving about 8,000 demonstrators, according to police, are part of a campaign by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), a loose alliance of royalists, academics and businessmen, to unseat Somchai, who is expected to return on Wednesday from a summit of Apec leaders in Peru.
Grenade attacks on anti-government protesters have left at least four people injured [EPA] Thai authorities have shut down Bangkok's international airport after a grenade attack injured anti-government protesters occupying the terminal building.

Somchai Wongsawat, the Thai prime minister, Thaksin's brother-in-law,and his cabinet set up
temporary offices at the old airport after the grounds of Government House in central Bangkok
were occupied by protesters in August. Till now, Somchai has rejected calls to step
down as prime minister.
Bangkok was effectively cut off yesterday when its second airport, Don Muang, was closed after
it was stormed by protesters who were also laying siege to the city's main international hub. Don Muang handles only a handful of domestic flights, but it has also served as the prime minister's temporary offices after demonstrators occupied his Government House headquarters compound three months ago.

The blockade of Don Muang was an apparent attempt to stop ministers flying to meet Somchai,
who summoned the cabinet for crisis talks in the northern city of Chiang Mai. The prime
minister's flight was diverted there as he returned from an official trip.
With the closure of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport for a third day, overseas passengers had
little choice but to wait in the hotels provided, hoping for a quick end to the deadlock. The highly organised and well-funded PAD, spearheaded by a business mogul and a former army general, regards the government as a puppet of the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra,
who was ousted in a September 2006 coup, the 18th since Thailand became a constitutional
monarchy 76 years ago.
Airport officials cancelled all outgoing flights and diverted incoming flights to other
airports on Wednesday, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at Suvarnabhumi airport.
"A battle between the traditional elites who want to return to something like a paternal
democracy and the new middle classes under Thaksin [Shinawatra], the former prime minister,
who really want to open up Thailand and see a global presence for the country." An analysis
And fears are rising that the airport siege will do massive damage to its $15bn tourism
industry still reeling from similar but smaller incidents in August when PAD protesters
occupied the airports at popular beach destinations Krabi and Phuket.

Apec Joint ministerial press conference -2008

Singapore, Chile and New Zealand started the ball rolling in 2005 while Brunei joined a year later, forming what is known as the P-4

Australia and Peru just announced that they would join the United States in expanding the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership in March next year in Singapore . Early in September, the US signalled its intention to join.

The enlargement of P-4 or P-7 was announced on the final day of the meeting of Apec mininsters, providing a big boost to the 21-member grouping to free up trade.

Another changes - the revolving door policy used to fill the job of Apec director will stop in 2010. An executive director will be hired to serve a three-year term. The current Apec chief is Mr Juan Carlos Capunary of Peru

Singapore will assume the chairmanship of Apec next year and Mr Michael Tay ( formerly Singapore ambassador to Russia) will take over as director, effectively becoming the last person to fill the post.

Youtube going live, ARE YOU ready ?

You Tube, since its inception in 2005 has been a repository for all kinds of Internet videos, from snippets of TV shows to off-beat demonstrations of skills such as cup-stacking to serious campaign ads in the recent U.S. presidential election.
But as other sites have found, Web surfers can be a fickle bunch of fans and keeping them on your site — which is what advertisers pay for — is a daunting task.

You Tube which is owned by search giant Google Inc., has matured from Web start-up and video fad to a site with loyal fans. But as any good TV industry executive will say, it needs to begin producing new and fresh content to keep its audience.

So, on November 22 2008 in San Francisco, it is launching "YouTube Live," a show featuring well-known stars such as rapper Will.i.Am and singer Katy Perry and YouTube sensations like 20-year-old Esmee Denters, who posted video of herself covering popular songs and became a star on the World Wide Web.

Will you be the next like pop star singing into a Webcam, a homemade success story that eventually had some pop stars doing so creating great popularity.
"It's been a crazy story, and I have all that to thank from YouTube," - Do you know who said that ?
YouTube said it intends to hold follow-up events to "YouTube Live," but it gave no details on those plans.

If you have any latest information to share, do let us know, you are always welcome.