Thailand's anti-junta 'Red Shirts' charged as referendum looms

Bangkok

NINETEEN leaders of Thailand's pro-democracy "Red Shirt" movement were charged onTuesday with breaching a ban on political gatherings, as the junta clamps down before a referendum next weekend.

Thais will decide on Sunday whether to accept a new military-drafted constitution in the first vote since the generals toppled the elected government in 2014.