Ousted Thai PM back in Hong Kong en route to Beijing

 HONG KONG, Nov 23, 2006 (AFP) - Thailand's ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was back in Hong Kong to do more shopping and said he will return to Beijing soon to visit friends, a report said Thursday.

 Thaksin -- who just spent a week on the Indonesian resort island of Bali -- and his wife Pojaman were seen holding hands and shopping in upmarket shops, reported the Oriental Daily News, which published pictures of the two.

 The couple were mobbed by local photographers and reporters last week after being seen shopping in expensive shops in the southern Chinese territory.

 Thaksin said he was passing through Hong Kong on his way to Beijing to meet friends. He did not say how long he would be in the territory, or when he would head to the Chinese capital, the report said.

 Thaksin took his wife to a famous local restaurant in Happy Valley to celebrate her birthday Wednesday, when she turned 50, the paper said.

 He requested the restaurant's guitarist and singer to play two classic love songs, "Endless Love" and "Unchained Melody", to which he sang along, the report said.

 Pojaman told the paper Thaksin had given her a pair of emerald earrings as a birthday present. After they finished their meal, they went back to do more shopping, the newspaper added.

 Thaksin was in New York when the military overthrew his government on September 19.

 He then spent a month living in London, where he has a home, but this month he has travelled around Asia, circling Thailand with visits to Beijing, Hong Kong and Bali.

 Thaksin, a self-made billionaire, believed to retain enormous popularity among Thailand's rural poor, has avoided speaking about politics during his travels, instead often joking with the media as he shops or plays golf.

 The junta that ousted him is deeply worried that he will try to return to Thailand and that his followers could take to the streets.

 They have appointed a new government and parliament, but have maintained martial law because of anti-coup "undercurrents" they said they had detected in northern Thailand, where Thaksin's support is strongest.

Agence France Presse