BBC News with Neil Nunes

The Thai opposition leader Yingluck Shinawatra has led her party to victory in the general election five years after her brother Thaksin was

depose

d in a military coup. Provisional returns gave Ms Yingluck's Pheu Thai party a clear majority of seats, and the

incumbent

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has admitted defeat. Rachel Harvey is in Bangkok.

Yingluck Shinawatra is poised to become Thailand's fifth prime minister in as many years, a

statistic

which might give her pause for thought. "I don't want to say that Pheu Thai has won today," Ms Yingluck told her

jubilant

supporters. "This is a victory for the people." Thailand's fragile democracy has been

derail

ed before, including by the military coup which removed Yingluck's brother Thaksin from power. If she's to govern effectively, Ms Yingluck knows she'll have to reach an understanding with the generals.

Syrian tanks and troops are reported to have been deployed around the central city of Hama two days after it was the scene of the largest demonstration yet against President Bashar al-Assad. Owen Bennett-Jones reports from neighbouring Lebanon.

Unverified video images filmed yesterday showed a column of 15 tanks, many adorned with Syrian flags, moving towards Hama on flatbed trucks. And today, there are reports of tanks, soldiers and regime loyalists in civilian clothing being deployed on the entrances to the city, and according to opposition activists, there have been many arrests within the city as well. Last week, there were reports that the frontline security personnel in Hama had been withdrawn. It seems that the government, having tried that policy, is now