Cheers rang out outside Bangkok’s Klong Prem prison on Thursday as Thailand’s billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra walked free on parole, eight months after a court ordered him to serve prison time he had earlier avoided through an extended stay in hospital. Now 76, the business magnate spent a quarter-century reshaping and dominating Thai politics. Yet his grip on the country’s political landscape has weakened in recent months after his jailing and after his once-powerful Pheu Thai Party suffered its…

BANGKOK — Thai police disguised as a red-and-yellow lion during Lunar New Year festivities tackled and arrested a 33-year-old man suspected of stealing Buddhist artifacts after weeks of surveillance, authorities said. The Wednesday evening arrest followed a report earlier this month of a home burglary in a suburb of the capital that involved “numerous Buddhist objects and two 12-inch Buddha statues,” according to a statement from Bangkok’s metropolitan police. Investigators also found evidence of repeated attempts to break…