Mr Somchai, 61, will not take office until he is endorsed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, a process that could take several days. However, anti-government protesters who have occupied the grounds of the prime minister’s offices for three weeks have already vowed to continue their rally to force Mr Somchai from power.

For political fringe-dwellers like the Greens, there was no threat to Australia’s national security to warrant the 2005 anti-terrorism laws. The legislation was, they said, all a ruse to hide the government’s real agenda, ramming the new industrial relations laws through parliament during that first week in November 2005.

The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a British jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage.

The multi-million-dollar legal battle over a pair of missing pants has headed back to court, shocking many in the dry-cleaning and legal communities. A three-judge appellate court panel has agreed to hear an appeal of the case next month, more than a year after a judge ruled against the plaintiff, former judge Roy Pearson.

A dog nicknamed “Scooby” has become the first animal in the world to appear as a witness in a murder trial. During a preliminary hearing the pet was led into the witness box by a vet to see how it reacted to a suspect. It is said to have “barked furiously”.

Defying state law, the Republican administration has decided to hide a hard-fought race for the United States Senate at the bottom of the ballot, where they clearly are hoping some voters will overlook it. Their proposed design is not only illegal. It shows a deep contempt for Mississippi’s voters.

Apple has admitted that a British man played a part in developing the iconic and extremely profitable iPod, although he has so far received no money for his invention. In 1979 Kane Kramer from Hertfordshire filed a patent for a digital music player that stored just three and a half minutes of music to a solid state chip.

‘South Park’, a cartoon aimed at adults and featuring a group of nine-year olds in a Colorado town, has courted controversy since its 1997 debut, lampooning celebrities, politicians, religion, gay marriage and Saddam Hussein.

Judge Robert Patterson of the Manhattan District Court said that US publisher RDR Books would violate copyright in publishing Steve Vander Ark’s ‘Harry Potter Lexicon’. His ruling said that RDR Books “failed to establish an affirmative defense of fair use,” the court clerk told AFP.

Inaccurate media releases by the registrar of elections warned that students registering to vote could no longer be claimed as dependents on their parents’ tax returns, a statement the Internal Revenue Service says is incorrect, and could lose scholarships or coverage under their parents’ car and health insurance.