GUNMEN opened fire on a group of Thai anti-government demonstrators driving away from a Bangkok rally, killing one and wounding four.
The shootings raised tension in a political crisis that has gripped the country for months.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the violence, which brought the death toll to 24, with scores wounded, since protesters took to the streets in November in an attempt to force Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office and erase the influence of her brother, ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
Ms Yingluck has resisted mounting pressure to step down and her "red shirt" supporters have called for a mass rally in Bangkok on Sunday, raising the risk of further confrontation.
In a rare piece of good news for Ms Yingluck, who is battling negligence charges brought by the national anti-graft commission, unofficial results of Thailand's weekend Senate election suggest a pro-government majority.
She has been charged with dereliction of duty for her role in overseeing a disastrous state rice-buying scheme that has run up huge losses. Should the National Anti-Corruption Commission forward the case to the Senate for possible impeachment, she could be removed from office.
That would require the votes of three-fifths of the senators.
Thailand's 150-seat Senate is made up of 77 elected senators. The other 73 are appointed and are largely seen as opponents of the government.
Preliminary results released by the Election Commission show winning candidates in the north and northeast, Thaksin strongholds, are largely linked to the ruling Puea Thai Party and Thaksin's now-defunct Thai Rak Thai party.
Paiboon Nititawan, an appointed senator who has sided with anti-government demonstrators in the past, said: "The names we are seeing on the list of winners are mostly pro-government, with ties to the ruling party and coalition party.
"It is not possible the Senate will get the three-fifths of votes needed to remove the prime minister."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article