Court to Rule on Thai Leader's TV Role

A court is scheduled to decide Tuesday whether Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej violated the Constitution when he appeared several times on a television cooking show, "Tasting and Complaining." Cabinet ministers are forbidden from working for private companies, and opponents brought the case against him in the hope that a conviction could force him to step down. "I have done nothing wrong," the prime minister told the Constitutional Court on Monday. "I was hired to appear on the program and got paid from time to time. I was not an employee of the company." A conviction for cooking could bring a quick and farcical end to Mr. Samak's confrontation with protesters who have blockaded his office for nearly two weeks, demanding his resignation. But it is unclear whether it would bring an end to the protests. Protest leaders say they are aiming for an overhaul of Thailand's political system.