BANGKOK – The leader of Thailand’s junta on Thursday accused fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of being behind a series of small anti-junta protests that have flared in the capital this week.

Rivalry between the former telecommunications tycoon and the military-dominated establishment has been at the heart of a decade of fractious politics and any suggestion Thaksin is stirring dissent is likely to raise concern about stability.

The military seized power in May 2014, overthrowing an elected government led by Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, saying it had to maintain order after months of anti-government protests organised by allies of the establishment.

The military government has banned protests and stifled criticism and anti-junta activity is rare.

But since Monday, activists have gathered at various places in Bangkok to show opposition to a military-backed draft constitution and to protest against the detention of a former minister who spoke out against it.

Asked by reporters who was behind the protests, junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha replied: “Lobbyists living overseas and Thaksin.” The army ousted Thaksin in a 2006 coup. He has lived in self-imposed exile since being sentenced to a prison term in 2008 on corruption charges he said were politically motivated.

He remains hugely popular among his legions of poor, rural supporters and is still highly influential. With his huge wealth, he is seen as capable of supporting more active opposition to the government, if he chose to.

Thaksin was not immediately available for comment but Noppadon Pattama, a former legal adviser to Thaksin, said in a statement that Thaksin was not behind the protests. “Thaksin Shinawatra has not employed any lobbyists overseas,” he said. “He is not behind any government in exile.” Several people have been detained at the protests but there has been no violence.

Opponents of the military government, including Thaksin’s supporters, object to the constitution that will be put to a referendum on Aug. 7, saying it would give the military sweeping powers.

The military denies seeking indefinite power saying the constitution should heal divisions and usher in stable, clean politics.

Watana Muangsook, who was a minister of social development in a Thaksin government, was taken into military custody on Monday over criticism of the constitution he posted on Facebook.

Watana’s lawyer, Narinpong Jinpak, told Reuters by telephone that he was with his client but he declined to comment.

The government said this week campaigns, either for or against, would not be allowed in the run-up to the referendum.

The military has promised an election by the middle of next year.

TAIPEI – Taiwan prosecutors angered China over the weekend by freeing 20 Taiwanese suspected of defrauding Chinese nationals in a telecoms scam but on Thursday changed their minds, taking most of them into custody on suspicion of committing “serious crime”.

The move came as island officials are in Beijing this week to negotiate the return of 45 of its citizens who were forcibly sent to China from Kenya and linked to a similar telephone fraud case abroad against Chinese nationals.

Taiwan at the time accused China of kidnapping the suspects.

China has since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 regarded self-ruled Taiwan as a breakaway province, to be taken back by force if necessary should it make moves towards independence.

Since Tsai Ing-wen and her independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party won Taiwan’s presidential and parliamentary elections by a landslide in January, Beijing has been stepping up pressure on the self-ruled island.

Taiwan authorities had said they had requested evidence from China ahead of the arrival of the 20 Taiwanese deported on Friday from Malaysia, but no information was provided.

Hong Chia-juan, a chief prosecutor in the Taichung District Prosecutors Office, said Thursday’s move came after visual evidence gathered from Malaysian authorities gave his team the evidence they needed to detain most of the individuals for at least two months for investigation.

Two of the suspects were under effective house arrest with their movements limited, Hong said.

Led by the island’s justice ministry, Taiwan officials left for China on Wednesday in the hope of establishing a way to jointly investigate the two cases.

Seoul – Malnutrition remains a significant health issue in North Korea, with a drought last year slashing crop output and undermining the push for agricultural self-sufficiency, according to a new UN report.

More than three quarters of North Korea’s population of 25 million remain “food insecure and highly vulnerable to shocks,” said the report compiled by UN agencies in Pyongyang and published Wednesday.

“An estimated 18 million people are in need of some form of humanitarian assistance,” it added.

Malnutrition rates continue to be a public health concern, with significant gaps remaining in nutritional intake, particularly affecting women and children under-five.

Undernutrition is a major underlying cause of “maternal and child mortality and morbidity,” said the report.

According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO)’s 2015 State of Food Insecurity report, the proportion of people undernourished in the total population was 41.6 per cent in 2014-16, up from 35.5 per cent in 2005-07.

By the end of 2015, the impact of two consecutive drought seasons had “severely affected” crop performance, with production down 11 per cent from the previous year.

“The country continues to suffer from food insecurity as well as limited access to health and water, sanitation and hygiene, resulting in chronic malnutrition and poor health outcomes,” the report said.

Production is constrained by insufficient arable land, land degradation due to intensive cultivation, as well as a scarcity of quality seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, the report said.

North Korea has suffered regular food shortages and hundreds of thousands are believed to have died during a famine in the mid-to-late 1990s.

International food aid, especially from South Korea and the United States, has been drastically cut amid tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

“The protracted humanitarian situation (in North Korea) is largely forgotten on the global agenda,” the UN report said.

DEHRADUN, India – A horse was buried with “police honours” after dying from injuries suffered in an attack allegedly by an Indian politician, with his death triggering renewed outrage.

The police horse, called Shaktiman, became the subject of a weeks-long row between rival political parties in India after his injured hind leg turned gangrenous and had to be amputated.

Ganesh Joshi, from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was briefly arrested last month on charges of cruelty to the horse which was wounded during a party protest in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

Shaktiman was fitted with a prosthetic limb reportedly rushed in from the United States and every detail of the animal’s road to recovery was covered by the Indian media.

But Uttarakhand police announced on Wednesday that Shaktiman had gone into shock and died after being given anaesthesia to treat another infection.

“The doctors had administered anaesthesia to him as they needed to treat an infection but he could not handle the anaesthesia,” senior superintendent Sadanand Datte told AFP.

Datte said the animal was buried with “full police honours” in state capital Dehradun late Wednesday. Shaktiman was wrapped in a white cloth in a ceremony watched by politicians and police, an AFP reporter at the funeral said.

The news triggered fresh anger, with national minister and animal rights campaigner Maneka Gandhi calling for those responsible to be thrown in jail for “killing a police officer”.

BJP state lawmaker Joshi again denied he had attacked the horse with a stick during the protest. “If I am found guilty, then cut my leg,” Joshi was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

The Uttarakhand government, run by the rival Congress party, had spared no expense in treating the horse, with the creature becoming a cause celebre.

Shaktiman had been treated to repeat visits from the state’s chief minister and an American veterinary surgeon had reportedly been flown in from Bhutan to provide treatment, in what some critics saw as a case of political point-scoring.

Indians took to Twitter on Thursday over the death, some accusing politicians of “using #Shaktiman as a political tool”.

Bollywood actor Neha Dhupia said: “We are sorry #Shaktiman. U didn’t deserve this… It’s us… What’s the human race coming to.”