Thai police fire tear gas against crowd, 65 injured

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BANGKOK, Oct 7 (Agencies): A senior government minister in Thailand has resigned after violent clashes between police and protesters.
Deputy PM Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said he was stepping down to take responsibility for the clashes, which injured at least 65 people.
The unrest came just hours before new Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat delivered his inaugural speech.
Police fired teargas to disperse anti-government protesters trying to block the road leading to parliament.
The protesters say Mr Somchai and his recently ousted predecessor, Samak Sundaravej, are just proxies for former PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
Mr Thaksin, Mr Somchai's brother-in-law, was forced from office in a military coup in 2006.
Riot police using tear gas clashed Tuesday with several thousand protesters who barricaded Parliament while trying to block Thailand's new prime minister from delivering his first policy speech to lawmakers. Scores of protesters were injured.
Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat opened the parliamentary session after a 90-minute delay but as he spoke chaos escalated outside the building. Anti-government protesters regrouped and barricaded all four entrances to the Parliament, saying their goal was to block top officials from leaving the building.
"Victory is near. We are surrounding the building so he cannot leave," one of the protest leaders Somsak Kosaisuk told a cheering crowd outside Parliament, where protesters had chained one of the gates shut.
The unrest was the latest twist in a political crisis that has gripped Thailand for six weeks and virtually paralyzed the government.
Some protesters were seriously injured in the morning clashes, including one man whose left leg was blown off at the knee.
Army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the army was "concerned" about the violence against unarmed protesters and that any serious injuries should be investigated. He dismissed speculation of a military intervention to end the unrest in Thailand, where the military has staged 18 coups since the country became a constitutional monarchy in 1932.
Protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy - which is seeking the government's resignation and a major overhaul of the electoral system - have occupied the grounds of the nearby prime minister's office since late August. They expanded their protest overnight by marching to Parliament, and erected barbed wire and tire barricades in an effort to derail the Tuesday parliamentary session.
Somchai made no immediate comment about the unrest as he stood before lawmakers reading from a prepared policy text, covering issues from the global financial crisis to global warming, health care and restoring national unity.
As he spoke, police briefly fired more tear gas canisters to disperse a group of demonstrators near the Parliament armed with wooden batons and slingshots. The opposition Democracy Party boycotted the speech.