Six months after a landslide election victory that gave him absolute control of Thailand’s legislature, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is under fire from political opponents and civil society groups for adopting emergency powers to deal with an insurgency in the southern provinces, powers that they say threaten democratic institutions. After several months of flirting with restraint in the south, Thaksin took powers that bypass many rights protected in the Constitution under a decree issued by the cabinet on Friday and approved by King Bhumbol Aduladej over the weekend. Full Story