Bangkok violence claims 21 lives

ANTI-GOVERNMENT protesters dug into their encampments around Bangkok and rejected talk of negotiations yesterday after a month-long standoff escalated into clashes that killed 21 people in Thailand’s worst political violence in nearly two decades.

Bullet casings, pools of blood and shattered army vehicles littered the streets where soldiers had tried to clear the protesters. At least 874 were injured in what one newspaper called “The Battle for Bangkok.”

Protesters are demanding that the prime minister dissolve Parliament, call early elections and leave the country.