The April 8 arrest in Bangkok of a Chinese woman with Thai citizenship alleged to be the leader of a criminal syndicate involved in fraud, surrogacy and human trafficking is just one recent example of an increasingly sophisticated crime wave inside Thailand.
Size Matters: Myanmar junta leader red-faced as the size of his fighting force is assessed mizzima.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mizzima.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
International actors seeking to end Myanmar’s civil war make an assumption that on its face appears reasonable: They need to focus on the coup regime for any resolution of the conflict, the thinking goes, because the military is simply too big to fail. But is it? The Sit-Tat, as the armed forces are known, is an opaque institution, shrouded in secrecy, with the question of its actual size a major mystery. As explained below, analysts who lack reliable evidence tend to make estimates of military manpower that are far too high.