BANGKOK: Thailand’s anti-corruption authorities launched an investigation against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday in a new setback to her government following weeks of mass opposition protests. The move came as officials pleaded with police to arrest protest leaders who have threatened to take the prime minister and her cabinet ministers captive. The National Anti-Corruption Commission said its inquiry against Yingluck would probe possible negligence of duty in connection with a controversial subsidy scheme for rice farmers. The panel said it would consider whether Yingluck had violated criminal law, but did not say what punishment she could face if found guilty. The panel will charge 15 peoples, including a former commerce minister, with corruption linked to the rice programme, spokesman Vicha Mahakun told a news conference. The scheme has been criticised by Yingluck’s opponents, who have occupied major intersections in the capital since Monday as part of efforts to force her elected government from office and install an appointed “people’s council” in its place.
Food poisoning hits 905 pupils
TOKYO: A total of 905 pupils at elementary schools in a central Japanese city fell ill in a suspected outbreak of mass food poisoning, officials said yesterday. The students were from 14 elementary schools in Hamamatsu, a seaside city around 200km southwest of Tokyo. About 40 teachers and staff at these schools also showed symptoms of food poisoning. “Most developed such symptoms last night. They had eaten school lunch but any causal relation with the symptoms have yet to be confirmed,” Seiko Terada, Director of Health and School Lunch said. Agencies
