Thai PM cancels overseas trips due to unrest

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has cancelled three preplanned overseas trips so as to closely monitor the country's political situation, a government spokesman said on Friday. Yingluck has cancelled a planned visit to Russia on Dec. 8-9, and assigned a minister to attend on her behalf the opening ceremony of the 27th South East Asian Games on Dec. 11 in Myanmar, Teerat Ratanasevi was cited by the Bangkok Post as saying. Yingluck has also decided to send a minister instead to attend the ASEAN-Japan summit from Dec. 12 to 15 in Tokyo, the spokesman said. The prolonged anti-government protest took a pause on Thursday owing to the king's 86th birthday celebration. Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban is expected to make a speech Friday evening. Meanwhile, "Red Shirts" are planning a massive rally in Bangkok's neighboring province of Ayutthaya next Tuesday to support the government. Three people were injured in clashes that occurred near two anti-government protest sites early Friday, according to Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's Erawan emergency medical service centre.