Erstellt am: 22. 5. 2014 - 14:17 Uhr

Reality Check: Thailand on the brink

The army takes over in Thailand; China-Russia gas mega-deal; Cohesion in the EU; Terror attack in China; Egypt: a personal view

EPA/NARONG SANGNAK

Thai soldiers guard in the area during a meeting between the army and the main political rivals at the Army Club in Bangkok, Thailand, 21 May 2014

Army coup in Thailand

The last hope for a negotiated solution to Thailand’s on-going political crisis has come to nothing. Earlier this week the army in Thailand imposed martial law and forced the opposing political parties to come to the negotiation table. At that time army chiefs were at pains to point out that this was not a coup. All that it seems has now changed. Tony Cheng is in Bangkok and experienced what happened first hand

China-Russia gas deal

A 400 billion dollar deal to supply Russian gas to China for the next 30 years has been signed. The deal will require the building of two new pipelines with a total length of around 6000 km and, if China has its way, the whole thing will be up and running by 2018. Those are the astonishing numbers behind the China –Russia gas deal but perhaps more interesting are the possible political and geo-political implications of the deal.

EU elections - Cohesion

Voting in the EU parliamentary elections started today in the UK and the Netherlands. By Sunday night voting across the 28 member bloc will have finished and we’ll be analyzing the results. Euro–sceptics are expected to do particularly well this time around and one reason for that is that Brussels is very bad at promoting itself and communicating the good things it does. For example, have you ever heard of the “Cohesion Fund”?

EPA/HOW HWEE YOUNG

19 August 2010E Ethnic Uyghurs and Han Chinese at a morning market in Urumqi, Xinjiang province, China.

China attack

Another deadly terrorist attack has rocked the Xinjiang province of China. Reliable details are still a little hard to come by but it seems that explosives hurled from two vehicles which ploughed into an open market in the city of Urumqi killed 31 people and injured dozens more in the deadliest act of violence in the region in years. Fingers are being pointed at the Muslim Uighur community. We speak to veteran China correspondent Cornelia Vospernik.

Egypt: A personal view

The news coming out of Egypt in recent months has not been very encouraging. The mass death sentences for members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the arrest of journalists and the economic mess in which the country finds itself where certainly not the results that were expected of the Arab Spring uprising. We speak to Salma Adel a young industrial and social designer who is in Austria for the Südnovation Exhibition taking place in the city of Graz.