Kongsak targeted as huge Lumpini crowd told of fishy plan to buy jet fighters from Moscow. Refusing to accept Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s olive branch, media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul kept up his campaign against the government yesterday by alleging that a plan to buy a squadron of jet fighters from Russia had been put together with dubious intentions.

Familiar, yes, but bigger and better

Lisnaree Vichitsorasatra and Kupluthai Pungkanon get caught up in the excitement at the opening of Siam Paragon. Siam Paragon is a warm, familiar back-to-the-future trip into the Westernised side of Thailand’s culture, rather than a miraculous or nightmarish monster-sized shopping centre - dubbed the largest in Southeast Asia. Despite heavy traffic, which began early in the morning, by noon the 500,000-square-metre ultra-modern mall was already crowded with students, adults, foreigners and guests coming in to witness the opening of Siam Paragon.

Spoof ads take digs at PTT, GSB and government spending

Sondhi dropped another publicity bomb on Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in the form of cynical TV ads depicting the premier’s family and associates as a coterie of greedy manipulators enriching themselves at taxpayers’ expense. An ad broadcast during his anti-government show in Lumpini Park yesterday accused Thaksin, Thai Rak Thai Party secretary-general Suriya Jungrungreungkrit, party spokesman Sita Divari, and the premier’s son, Panthongtae, of benefiting from the profits of the state-owned Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) by at least 30 per cent.