Ex-Thai PM Thaksin granted a royal pardon, reducing his sentence.

  BANGKOK -- Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been granted a royal pardon, reducing his jail sentence to a year just days after he returned to the country from exile. The announcement was published Friday on the website of the Royal Thai Government Gazette. The statement explained that as Thaksin had served as prime minister, contributing to the country and its people, he was deserving of the pardon.