Thai graft body to probe rice subsidies, adding to PM's woes amid protests

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By Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat and Andrew R.C. Marshall BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai anti-corruption agency said on Thursday it would investigate a money-guzzling rice subsidy program that has fuelled opposition to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, as protesters marched through the capital demanding she resign. The unrest flared in November and escalated this week when demonstrators led by former opposition politician Suthep Thaugsuban occupied main intersections of the capital, Bangkok, but the number of people camping out overnight at some of the intersections appears to be dropping. The turmoil is the latest episode in an eight-year conflict that pits Bangkok's middle class and royalist establishment against the mostly poorer, rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Yingluck's Puea Thai Party was helped to power in 2011 by offering to buy rice at way above the market price to help poor farmers.




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