Around the World: Thailand

New Cabinet unveiled

Thailand unveiled a new Cabinet yesterday, bringing in a brewer as foreign minister and an ex-police captain as health minister, prompting critics to dismiss it as second-rate and unlikely to last long.

Sompong Amornwiwat, a veteran politician who used to run his wife's family brewery, became foreign minister.

Another surprising name in the list published yesterday was Chalerm Yubamrung, a former interior minister whose son was controversially acquitted of killing a policeman in a bar brawl in 2001. Chalerm has returned in charge of health.

(China Daily 09/25/2008 page11)