Article: Role for kings in Asia's democracies; Embattled Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra has called for elections Sunday as crowds urge the king to step in.(WORLD)

Byline: Simon Montlake Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

BANGKOK, THAILAND -- As embattled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra digs in his heels against a strident street campaign to oust him, opposition leaders are turning to Thailand's final arbiter.

Not the Constitutional Court, which batted away a petition to probe Mr. Thaksin's alleged misdemeanors. The ballot box is also mistrusted: Opposition parties are boycotting Sunday's parliamentary elections. Instead, protesters are turning to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Thailand's revered constitutional monarch, in the hopes he will urge Thaksin to step aside.

Thailand's political crisis ...

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