Thaksin: US a useless friend

BANGKOK: Thailand's prime minister, a key American ally in the war on terror, blasted Washington yesterday as a “useless friend” after a US State Department report criticised his government's human rights record. 

“I am very upset and annoyed by the report,” Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters, reacting to the State Department's annual report on the state of human rights in the world during last year.