Anti-government protesters stormed a convention center where leaders of Asian nations were to meet Saturday, smashing doors and searching room by room for the prime minister. Thailand's government canceled the summit and airlifted the leaders by helicopter from the seaside city, AP reported. The red-shirted protesters, who are calling for the resignation of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, declared victory and walked away from the complex after about an hour. «We have won. We have stopped them from holding a summit,» Jakrapob Penkair, one of the protest leaders, said in the capital, Bangkok. «But we have not achieved our goal yet. We will continue to protest in Bangkok until Abhisit resigns.» Abhisit, who has repeatedly refused to step down, went on national television and declared a state of emergency in the area surrounding the summit, but revoked it about six hours later after the leaders left safely. He called the protesters «enemies of Thailand.» The chaos is a huge embarrassment for Abhisit, who has been trying to project an image of calm and normality since taking power in a parliamentary vote four months ago after a court dissolved the previous government for election fraud.
