{"id":257792,"date":"2016-10-13T12:07:36","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T12:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=257792"},"modified":"2016-10-13T12:07:36","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T12:07:36","slug":"thailands-king-bhumibol-adulyadej-dies-at-88","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=257792","title":{"rendered":"Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej dies at 88"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, has died after 70 years on the throne, the palace says.<\/p>\n

The king, 88, was widely revered in Thailand. He was seen as a stabilising figure in a country hit by cycles of political turmoil and multiple coups.<\/p>\n

He had been in poor health in recent years and made few public appearances.<\/p>\n

The king’s death comes as Thailand remains under military rule following a coup in 2014.<\/p>\n

The palace had warned on Sunday that the king’s health was “not stable”.<\/p>\n

Many Thais had been wearing pink to try to bring good luck to the ailing monarch. Hundreds of people had gathered outside the hospital where he was being treated.<\/p>\n

King Bhumibol’s heir-apparent is 63-year-old Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, who does not attract the same level of affection as his father.<\/p>\n

Strict lese-majeste laws<\/a> mean public discussion of the succession are punishable by lengthy jail terms.<\/p>\n

Given the pivotal role the king has played in maintaining the balance of power in Thailand’s volatile political environment, the succession will be a formidable challenge for the government, says the BBC’s Jonathan Head in Bangkok.<\/p>\n

King Bhumibol, who was born in Cambridge in the US state of Massachusetts, acceded to the throne on 9 June 1946 after his brother, King Ananda Mahidol, died.<\/p>\n

Though a constitutional monarch with limited powers, King Bhumibol was regarded by many Thais as semi-divine. They looked to him to intervene in times of high tension.<\/p>\n

He was seen as a unifying and calming influence through numerous coups and 20 constitutions.<\/p>\n

However, his critics argued he had endorsed military takeovers and at times had failed to speak out against human rights abuses.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, has died after 70 years on the throne, the palace says. The king, 88, was widely revered in Thailand. He was seen as a stabilising figure in a country hit by cycles of political turmoil and multiple coups. He had been in poor health in recent years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":257825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[12598,12599,12600,1608],"class_list":["post-257792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-international-news","tag-king-bhumibol-adulyade","tag-king-bhumibol-adulyade-dead","tag-thailand-king"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=257792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/257825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=257792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=257792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=257792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}