Bangkok

The founder of Thailand's "yellow shirt" protest movement, which was behind the weeklong occupation of Bangkok's main airports late last year, was shot and wounded early today, a spokesman said. A doctor at Vajira Hospital in Bangkok told reporters that Sondhi Limthongkul was undergoing surgery. Sondhi's car was attacked at a gas station near the country's central bank about 5 a.m., a spokesman for his People's Alliance for Democracy said.

Some 4,000 anti-government protesters agreed early today to end a three-week siege of Thailand's administrative capital after they were surrounded by government forces in downtown Bangkok, protest leaders announced. The protesters were driven from positions around Bangkok by government forces in a day of bloody street battles on Monday.

Thai troops in full combat gear cracked down against anti-government protesters early today, using gunfire and tear gas to disperse a crowd blocking Bangkok's busiest intersection. The demonstrators, wearing red shirts, returned fire with their own tear gas and firebombs. As many as 70 soldiers and protesters have been injured, according to local reports, including two soldiers and two civilians with gunshot wounds. Earlier, the troubled Southeast Asian nation had declared a state of emergency.

Thais took their politics back into the streets of Bangkok on Tuesday, with a sea of red-shirted protesters surrounding government headquarters and demanding that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva step down. Abhisit defied the demonstrators by slipping into his office under heavy protection early this morning, according to news reports. He exited a short time later to attend an official ceremony in another part of the capital, the reports said.

Thousands of protesters marched on Thailand's seat of government in Bangkok, delivering an ultimatum to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to call elections within 15 days or face bigger street demonstrations. Media reports said 30,000 supporters of the United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship were at Government House, which was occupied for three months last year by the People's Alliance for Democracy, a rival protest group. Leaders of the current protest told the crowd that they did not want to cause trouble or storm the compound.

Pineapple Express Sony, $28.96/$34.95; Blu-ray, $39.95 The Judd Apatow comedy factory cranks out another wildly uneven but mostly enjoyable comedy with this shaggy-dog story about two potheads (played by the hilarious James Franco and the movie's co-writer, Seth Rogen) who inadvertently cross a local gangster and end up running for their lives.

A fire swept through a high-end nightclub jammed with hundreds of New Year's Eve revelers early today, killing at least 59 people and injuring more than 200, officials said. A number of foreigners were among the casualties. The blaze erupted shortly after midnight at the Santika Club in Bangkok's entertainment district. The victims died of burns, smoke inhalation or injuries sustained in the stampede to escape the club, which had only one door for the public, Police Maj. Gen.

Flights in and out of Bangkok have resumed after anti-government protests that paralyzed the Thai capital's airports ended with the peaceful ouster of the prime minister. More than 300,000 travelers had been stranded. The People's Alliance for Democracy led six months of street demonstrations and the airport protests.

Hundreds of protesters seeking to topple Thailand's prime minister seized Bangkok's international airport terminal Tuesday, forcing cancellation of all flights. Members and supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy stormed through police lines at Suvarnabhumi Airport and into the fourth-floor departure area, according to reports from Bangkok. They were armed with metal rods, sticks and golf clubs. That forced officials initially to suspend outbound flights.

Rain and wind may have been whipping the Southeast, but "Tropic Thunder" was muted this weekend as moviegoers stayed home, leading to the slowest weekend for theaters in five years. The Nicolas Cage film "Bangkok Dangerous" pulled in a measly $7.8 million for Lionsgate in its opening weekend, according to studio estimates, but that was enough to grab the top spot at the box office. It narrowly edged out DreamWorks/Paramount's "Tropic Thunder," which made an estimated $7.5 million, bringing the movie's total gross to $96.8 million after four weekends in theaters.