Pants punishment

A Thai mayor is under investigation for allegedly forcing a reporter to strip to his underwear after a newspaper article alleged that the mayor had a romantic liaison with a schoolgirl. Premsak Piayura, the mayor of Ban Phai in northeast Thailand, is accused of removing the trousers of Korsit Kongchom, a Daily News journalist, after the paper published a front-page photograph of an apparent engagement ceremony with the girl. Korsit and four other journalists claim that Premsak called them to a press conference, but they were taken into a locked room, where Premsak ordered three aides to strip Korsit to his underpants and took pictures of him, asking him how it felt to be photographed in an intimate manner.