The Pentagon has authorised the transfer of $1bn (£758m) to army engineers for new wall construction

along the US-Mexico border.

The funds are the first under the national emergency declared by President Donald Trump to bypass
Congress and build the barrier he pledged during his election campaign.

Democrats have protested against the move.

The funds will be used to build about 57 miles (91km) of fencing.

President Trump has called the situation at the southern border a "crisis" and insists a physical barrier is
needed to stop criminals crossing into the US. His critics say he has manufactured the border
emergency.

A Pentagon statement said acting US Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan had "authorised the
commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers to begin planning and executing up to $1bn in support to
the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol".

Trump faces anger over wall emergency plan

A major land grab by Trump

The statement cited a federal law that "gives the Department of Defence the authority to construct
roads and fences and to install lighting to block drug-smuggling corridors across international
boundaries of the United States in support of counter-narcotic activities of federal law enforcement
agencies".

As well the 18ft-high (5m) "pedestrian fencing", the funds will cover road improvements and new lights.

Democratic senators complained that the Pentagon had not sought permission from the appropriate
committees before notifying Congress of the funds transfer.

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption Thousands of people cross the border every year seeking a new life in the US
"We strongly object to both the substance of the funding transfer, and to the department implementing
the transfer without seeking the approval of the congressional defence committees and in violation of
provisions in the defence appropriation itself," the senators wrote in a letter to Mr Shanahan, CNN
reported.

Mr Trump declared the emergency on 15 February after Congress refused his requests for $5.7bn
(£4.4bn) to construct the wall. By declaring an emergency he sought to bypass Congress and build the
wall with military funding.

Democrats branded the declaration unconstitutional.

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed a resolution to overturn the emergency last
month, and 12 Republicans later sided with Democratic Senators to get it through the Senate.

Media captionTrump issues first veto of his presidency

However, Mr Trump vetoed the resolution earlier this month.

Congress will now need a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override him, which correspondents
say is unlikely to happen.

Thailand's former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has alleged that the election on Sunday was
plagued with "irregularities".

Mr Thaksin, who was ousted in 2006 and lives in self-imposed exile, told the BBC the inconsistencies
"worried" him.

The election was Thailand's first since a military coup in 2014 removed Mr Thaksin's sister, Yingluck
Shinawatra.

Early results saw the pro-military Palang Pracha Rath Party (PPRP) gain a larger share of the popular
vote.

But there have been growing complaints about discrepancies in the voter turnout and number of ballots
cast. Officials have said there were some cases of "human error" in reporting the data.

Official results will be released in May.

'Making our country lose credibility'

Mr Thaksin was removed by a coup in 2006. He now lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a conviction in
Thailand for abuse of power, but remains hugely influential in Thai politics.

Speaking to BBC Thai in Hong Kong, he said there were "a lot of irregularities which made me worried to
see the country's politics and electoral system so backward".

The early results indicate Pheu Thai, the party linked to Mr Thaksin, had won the biggest number of
seats in parliament but not the most votes overall.

It remains unclear which party is most likely to be able to form a government.

A guide to Thailand's post-coup election

Thai rivals woo allies amid poll confusion

Mr Thaksin cited one example, saying there were "pictures from Petchabun province where the ballot
boxes were taken out and the ballot paper put back in at a local office".

He added that the number of ballot papers were higher than those casting the votes, adding that in
many constituencies, the PPRP's vote "just jumped all of a sudden... from third place to first place."

"In some constituencies, the PPRP switched from losing to winning... I see it as damaging and making
our country lose its credibility," he said.

'Was the election rigged?'

Analysis by BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok

In the five years since their coup the military junta and its conservative backers have tried to purge
Thaksin Shinawatra from Thai politics, and failed.

His name and image were barred from the election campaign, and parties risked dissolution if any links
to him were found. Yet everyone knows his party, Pheu Thai, still refers to him for all important
decisions.

Pheu Thai supporters express open affection and nostalgia for his time as prime minister. He is a fixture
they cannot remove. For now.

Thai journalists flocked to Hong Kong to see him at his daughter's wedding last Friday. Now he has given
a series of interviews.

His party did worse than expected in the election. It won only half the votes it got in the 2011 election,
and far fewer seats, though still more than any other party.

Many of his supporters suspect electoral fraud, and will take his allegations of the same seriously. But
there are always infractions and irregularities, as he calls them, in Thai elections. Whether these have
significantly altered the overall result is not clear yet, but it seems unlikely, despite some shoddy
handling of the results by the Election Commission.

A wholesale rigging of the results would not have allowed the staunchly anti-military party Future
Forward to do so well.
Was the election rigged? In a way, yes, because the entire electoral system was weighted so heavily in
favour of the pro-military party, especially the appointed 250-seat senate.

But one of the few independent monitoring groups has cited poor preparation by the authorities and
inadequate voter education as a principal cause of the unexpectedly low turnout, and a reason to
describe the vote as not free and fair.

Mr Thaksin's thoughts were echoed by many Thais on social media. On Monday, the hashtags "Election
Commission (EC) exposed" and "cheating election" were