Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha urged Thai citizens during a televised speech Friday night to take the oath to emphasize their loyalty to the nation, its religion and the monarchy.

The event will take place across Thailand on Tuesday in all 76provinces at city halls and district offices.

Provincial governors and district chiefs will lead the oath-taking ceremonies in front of King Bhumibol Aduladej’s photo.

Thai citizens living abroad were also encouraged to take the oath at Thai embassies around the world on Sunday to “let the world know that Thais are eternally loyal to his majesty the king and the royal family.”

Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest reigning monarch, died in October at the age of 88.

Bhumibol was a beloved and unifying figure in Thailand, whose70 years on the throne provided a consistent backdrop of stability to the frequent turbulence of Thai politics.

The weekly mass demonstrations — among the largest seen in South Korea since the pro-democracy protests of the 1980s — have provided a stark challenge to Park’s authority, but the president has defied calls to step down.

After claiming a turnout of around one million for last Saturday’s protest, organisers said they expected around 500,000 people to march in Seoul, with a similar number demonstrating in other cities across the country.

So far the candlelight protests have been largely peaceful, with many families participating, but there was still a heavy police presence on Saturday, with buses and trucks blocking access roads to the presidential Blue House.

“We want to have a peaceful protest as in the three previous rallies”, Nam Jeong-Su, spokesman for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, told AFP.

Nam said he expected the ranks of protestors to be swelled by thousands of students who sat the national college entrance exam earlier in the week.

And this being South Korea — with the world’s highest smartphone penetration rate — many had downloaded a special app showing a burning candle to hold aloft during the rally.

Protestors were expected to converge on Seoul’s ceremonial Gwanghwamun boulevard at around 5:00pm (0900 GMT) to hear speeches before heading towards the Blue House and the police barricades.

– Apologies rejected –

The anti-Park rallies have continued despite two televised apologies from the president over a scandal linked to her friendship with long-time confidante Choi Soon-Sil, who has been arrested for fraud and abuse of power.

Prosecutors are investigating allegations that Choi, 60, leveraged their friendship to coerce donations from large companies like Samsung to non-profit foundations which she set up and used for personal gain.

She is also accused of interfering in government affairs, despite holding no official position.

Lurid reports of the unhealthy influence Choi wielded over Park have seen the president’s approval ratings plunge to five percent — a record low for a sitting president.

In an effort to soothe public anger, Park has agreed to relinquish some of her extensive presidential powers and submit to a probe by an independent special prosecutor to be appointed by parliament.

But she has made it clear she has no intention of resigning and some members of her ruling Saenuri Party have started to push back at the popular protests of the past month.

“Candles are candles. They will just go out with a gust of wind,” one Saenuri lawmaker said.

The scandal has paralysed the Park administration and caused the president to pull out of a gathering of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders in Peru next week.

But after a lengthy hiatus, Park has visibly returned to normal duties and announced she will attend an annual summit with China and Japan in Tokyo next month.

The presidential Blue House said Park was receiving baskets of flowers from supporters, and organisers of a pro-Park rally near Gwanghwamun said they expected 5,000 people to turn out.

Police said they would keep the two rallies well separated to prevent any clashes.

Obama landed at Lima’s Jorge Chavez International Airport ahead of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that is likely to focus heavily on Trump’s shock victory.

On Saturday, Obama will meet leaders of the 12-country trans-Pacific trade agreement, which Trump has opposed and now faces an uncertain future.

White House officials admit the chances of passing the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, are slim, but Obama will urge leaders to give the new president time to formulate policy.

From Obama down, officials have stressed that US economic and strategic interests have not changed as a result of the election, and Trump may yet recalibrate his views.

“It’s only been 10 days since the election,” said US Trade Representative Michael Froman.

“Any new administration needs time to go through the transition process, appoint its people, get briefed up on the state of current policy and to make their decisions about where they want to go from here.”

Froman warned of “serious” strategic and economic costs if the United States walks away from the deal, designed to be a cornerstone of US influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

But already allies are turning their attention to a rival Chinese-backed free trade agreement.

Japanese leader Shinzo Abe, who took domestic political risks to back the US trade deal, visited Trump in New York on Thursday to hear from the president-elect himself.

Trump has sparked concern in Tokyo and Seoul in particular by questioning decades-old mutual defense obligations that underpin their security.

Ahead of Obama’s visit, National Security Advisor Susan Rice told AFP allies should expect those obligations to hold.

“It is manifestly in the United States’s interests for these alliances to endure and to be a source of confidence to our partners and for them to understand that they don’t need to come out from under the US umbrella,” she said.

While stressing that she did not want to speak for or speculate about Trump’s foreign policy, she sought to reassure key US allies in NATO and the Pacific Rim that they will not be abandoned.

“The weight of this office, and the weight of American global leadership, and the responsibilities that it entails, and the history that we share, the interests that endure, make it reasonable for our allies and partners to expect that the United States will uphold its obligations,” she said.

Wendy Cutler, a former US trade negotiator now with the Asia Society think-tank said Asia-Pacific leaders “will use the meetings to find out as much as they can about the possible economic, political and strategic policies to be pursued in the next administration and what this will mean for them.”

“I expect that President Obama will ask his colleagues to give the next administration ample time to shape its agenda,” she added.

While many Pacific nations are clamoring for deeper trade ties with the rest of the world, in the United States and throughout the West there is growing opposition to deals that many believe have contributed to jobs being sent overseas.

Obama is likely to make the case that globalization is a fact of life, and modern trade deals — with sturdy environmental and labor provisions — help shape that trend in the right direction.

Talks in Marrakesh, Morocco, had been underway for two weeks to hammer out the details of last year’s agreement to keep global temperature increases well below 2 degrees Celsius and to pursue efforts to stay below 1.5 degrees.

“The first climate conference after the Paris Agreement has indeed proven to be conference for implementation and joint action,” said the UN climate head Patricia Espinosa at the end of the talks, pointing to 80 millions dollars pledged for countries to adapt to climate change and progress in establishing implementation rules.

Delegates have stressed their plans to continue upholding their commitment to the agreement despite the US election of Donald Trump, who has promised to “cancel” his country’s involvement. The prime minister of Fiji, which will preside over the talks next year, invited Trump to the island country to see the effects of climate change firsthand.

All of the delegates in Marrakesh adopted a statement declaring momentum to fight climate change was “irreversible.” US climate envoy Jonathan Pershing said that momentum could not be changed, pointing to flat carbon emissions over three years of economic growth as a sign for optimism.

But the meetings also took place amid dire news for the planet, as the World Meteorological Organization released data indicating 2016 will be the hottest year on record, coming after the hottest period on record.

On the scheduled last day of talks, 48 countries that are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change pledged to switch their energy production as quickly as possible to renewable sources.

Greenpeace director Jennifer Morgan said there had been a renewed determination to carry out the Paris Agreement, saying, “countries on the frontline of climate change are setting the pace, and their commitment to 100 per cent renewable energy shows leadership and vision, just what we need from everyone.”

Countries will convene again for the UN climate talks in Bonn,Germany. In 2018, they will preliminarily asses their plans to cut emissions and finalise the “rulebook” for carrying out the decisions made in Paris.

“We are moving in the right direction and that is a reason to be optimistic. Let us celebrate tonight and over the weekend for the success of Marrakesh, then let us get back to work from Monday on. There is, indeed, much to do,” Espinosa said.

“I didn’t even look at their surnames when issuing the order. What would matter with such surnames?” Prayut asked rhetorically. “The only reason for the order is to carry out jobs smoothly.”
The order aims to boost workforce fluidity in the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP), where Panita Shinawatra and the other two senior officials had worked, Prayut said.
Panita Shinawatra, a niece of former premiers Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra, will be transferred from her position at OSMEP to the Prime Minister’s Office following the order by the National Council for Peace and Order.
Two other OSMEP senior officials will also be moved. They will work as “government officers to the PM’s office”, new positions |created by the same order for |officials accused of corruption or are under investigation.
The order was issued on Wednesday by the PM in his capacity as the NCPO head.
Panita, who is currently on vacation abroad, told The Nation that she learned of the order from the news and has yet to be |contacted by related authorities.
Despite the order’s abruptness, Panita said she would follow the order without seeking further explanation, as she is a governmental official who has to abide by executive order.
She gave the same explanation when asked whether she considered the order to be involved with a political agenda, given her |relations with the two anti-junta premiers.