BANGKOK, Thailand -- Each morning, Buddhist monks wrap themselves in saffron-colored robes and silently stroll, collecting alms in Thailand's three southern provinces while a phalanx of troops armed with assault rifles walk alongside, protecting them from Islamist assassins.

More than 4,700 people on all sides -- Buddhists and Muslims -- have been killed plus 9,000 injured since the rebel's separatist war escalated in 2004.

The military has also set up fortified outposts along the graceful walls of Buddhist temples in the south to safeguard monks and worshippers amid shrines and statues of the Buddha, where troops also detain suspects for questioning.

But an improvised explosive device injured one monk, nine soldiers and three civilians in Pattani province, despite 15 soldiers escorting the monks and young novices returning to their temple on Tuesday morning (August 23), police said.

The remote-controlled bomb was hidden in a five-kilogram cooking gas cylinder in an untended pushcart, which had been used to sell fried chicken.

Rachel Radina is a graduate student working w/ Miami University Defend Ohio “We’re concerned about the push to privatize our public universities in Ohio. Chancellor (Jim ) Petro put out a report last week or a plan to create charter-- or what they’re calling ‘enterprise universities’, ” said Radina. She said universities would get less state funding in exchange for less regulations from the state. She said this would hurt economically vulnerable people.

“So they (Ohio Board of Regents) would have the ability to increase tuition and increase class size. That means less quality education. But it’s going to cost more money. So it’s kind of like a backdoor tax on Ohio families,” Radina said.

WOSU TV refuses to play "Locked Out" the new labor documentary by Joan Sekler. Stacia Hentz, program director for WOSU (2400 Olentangy River Road, Columbus 43210) and she said she did take a look at the information about the documentary and she said, "This program would not fit for my market"!

All the labor union activists who tirelessly worked on SB 5 should be outraged! Why is there no market for a movie about labor in Columbus? Perhaps because the movie depicts a successful revolt by laborers in California?

It is a David and Goliath story of how 560 unionized (ILWU) miners in the desert town of Boron, California, stood up to their employer Rio Tinto, a giant multinational mining corporation, and refused to accept wage and benefit cuts in their new contract last year. The company, in revenge, locked out the workers and replaced them with scabs. For almost 4 months the miners and their families organized a massive campaign and finally won a decent contract, and were able to return to work, and most of the scabs were let go. This was a successful struggle against corporate greed.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Yingluck Shinawatra expects to be confirmed as Thailand's first female prime minister next month, enabling Washington and Bangkok to resurrect their collaboration in America's war on terror which entwined the two democracies before the military toppled her brother's government five years ago.

Mrs. Yingluck (pronounced: "Ying-luck") is the public, smiling face representing her self-exiled, authoritarian brother, Thaksin Shinawatra.

Mr. Thaksin's previous controversial relationship with Washington provides important clues as to how Mrs. Yingluck's new government could shape its political, financial and military policies concerning the U.S.

As prime minister, Mrs. Yingluck is expected to orchestrate an "amnesty" to allow her brother to dodge a two-year prison sentence for corruption, return to Thailand a free man, and receive a refund for $1.2 billion in assets which the government seized from Mr. Thaksin after the 2006 coup.

Mrs. Yingluck's Pheu Thai (For Thais) party won a majority in a nationwide election on July 3.