Police fired tear gas canisters today at several thousand demonstrators trying to bar politicians from Thailand’s Parliament, injuring scores of them and heating up a political crisis that has gripped the country for six weeks.

A brother-in-law of deposed leader Thaksin Shinawatra was elected the new prime minister of Thailand in a parliamentary vote today.

Bangkok police are hunting a man whose tongue was bitten off by a girl he allegedly tried to rape.

MILLIONS of volunteers led by emergency teams fanned out across Thailand yesterday in a new drive to fight bird flu after the prime minister gave officials 30 days to eradicate the epidemic.