But, just around the corner, no one was paying much attention to the Democracy Monument, a grandiose sculpture on the ceremonial King’s Highway – the floodlights still shone, but the lights are going out for democracy in Thailand

In Khaosan, the 24-hour party continues. Girls wearing just enough to be dressed leaned over the balcony of the Up2u Tattoo and Massage Parlour. He asked why the US was not destroying its arsenals and said that the issue was a “pretext” taken by Washington to impede Iran. “They are not interested in the bomb, they want to stop the development of our country,” he said.Tellingly, however, the President did not seek to undermine the negotiations themselves. A European official said talks between the EU foreign affairs commissioner, Xavier Solana, and his Iranian counterpart, Ali Larajani, which were meant to take place in New York, were now expected to happen next week. Those contacts aim to coax Iran into engaging in longer-term talks on condition that it agrees to suspend its enrichment activities first.”We will tell you when the time arrives” for Iran to enact such a suspension, Mr Ahmadenijad said, suggesting he does not rule out meeting the condition.

Nor was he prepared to withdraw the remark attributed to him earlier this year that Israel should be “wiped off the map” Skirting the question, he did say: “I am not anti-Jewish. I respect all Jews.”He several times took rhetorical flight when asked about the contention made by the West that Iran is enriching uranium as a step towards developing a nuclear bomb. However, General Musharraf makes no secret of his distaste for the strong-arm tactics he faced from Mr Armitage. “I think it was a very rude remark,” he says in the interview. “One has to think and take actions in the interests of the nation, and that’s what I did.”In a press conference yesterday, meanwhile, Mr Ahmadinjad tempered his repeated outbursts this week against the US and also Britain with the suggestion that contacts between his government and European officials on resolving their nuclear stand-off are “moving down the right path”.Even so, Mr Ahmadinejad could not resist the chance once more to pour scorn on countries, which, he said, “believe they have more right to rule world affairs than anyone else”. His success in taking the media limelight in New York – in the General Assembly, in television interviews and at a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday – has clearly got under the skin of American officials.The Iranian President repeatedly refused yesterday to say whether Iran would abide by a UN resolution forbidding the delivery of arms to Hizbollah fighters in southern Lebanon.

This month 19 UK military personnel have been killed in Afghanistan, and ministers have admitted resistance from the Taliban is proving far tougher and more persistent than expected. Currently Britain has nearly 5,000 troops in the country – including 3,600 in Helmand, with 900 more on the way The total Nato force is around 20,000 The RAF has seven Harrier fighter jets based there.. The President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, reveals in an interview to be aired at the weekend that, soon after the terror attacks of 11 September 2001, the United States threatened to bomb his country “back into the Stone Age” if he didn’t offer its co-operation in fighting terrorism and the Taliban. “The intelligence director told me that [Armitage] said, ‘Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age’,” General Musharraf said, according to excerpts of the interview released by CBS last night.President George Bush has been battered at the UN this week, notably from President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who bluntly called him the “devil”, and by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.Shortly after 9/11, Pakistan indeed ended its support of the Taliban and became a frontline ally of America in the “war on terror”. The revelation was made by General Musharraf during his visit to New York for the annual General Assembly of the United Nations. It comes after a week in which the US has been criticised by a number of foreign leaders for trying to impose its will on other nations.
Talking to a correspondent of the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes to be shown on Sunday evening, General Musharraf claims that the warning was delivered to his own director of intelligence by the US Assistant Secretary of State, Richard Armitage.

“A female harrier pilot ‘couldn’t identify the target’, fired 2 phosphorous rockets that just missed our own compound so that we thought they were incoming RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), and then strafed our perimeter missing the enemy by 200 metres.” In “contrast” to the RAF, the US air force had been “fantastic”, according to the major “I would take an A-10 over Eurofighter any day,” he adds. The battle group are said to have fired more than 300,000 rounds of light ammunition. “From my point of view, controlling and directing air, arty and mors (artillery and mortars) is the best way to influence the battle,” he wrote “The RAF have been utterly utterly useless. “Twice I have had Harriers in support when c/s on the ground have been in heavy contact, on one occasion trying to break clean. The comments were put up on an MoD-hosted website yesterday, but removed shortly afterwards and the department was unable to confirm their content or authenticity. The MoD released a text of the newsletter article today in a bid to demonstrate that Major Swift’s views had been taken out of context.

Sources at the department said any suggestion of an MoD conspiracy was “absurd and untrue”. The newsletter apparently did not quote Maj Swift verbatim, but stated: “He questioned whether the scale of casualties was being reported in the media as the overall numbers were very significant and showing no sign of reducing. “He appreciated that the current strategy was following political rather than military imperatives and anticipated that, unless it changed, his Company would likely move and be redeployed in a couple of weeks, although nothing was certain.” Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Nick Harvey said: “The Government must provide an urgent statement in response to these disturbing comments. “These emails demonstrate the need for a reassessment of the full range of capabilities required to accomplish the Nato mission. “As our troops face increasing violence, we need to see a clear and achievable strategy and an honest assessment of the challenges ahead.” The unnamed major gives an example of failure of air support in one of the emails. Major Swift – whose 2 Platoons and Fire Support Group have been supporting 3 Para in the Helmand outpost of Naw Zad – was also said to have criticised the operation as “politically” driven in an interview for the Royal Fusiliers newsletter. “The comments this Major makes about the RAF are, however, unfortunate.