Feuds of the Week*

Thaksin Shinawatra vs. Purachai Piumsombun:
Thailand's Prime Minister, left, and its popular Justice Minister faced off after a budget dispute spilled into the headlines. In better days, Thaksin called his Thai Rak Thai colleague (and police-academy classmate) a potential successor. But last week he told a group of generals, "I will have to look for someone else" because Purachai "can't get along with anyone." Purachai claimed the real issue was his refusal to "rubber stamp" an inflated budget request from his permanent secretary, who happens to be Thaksin's brother-in-law.

Thaksin is used to getting his way, but he found a formidable opponent this time. Purachai's record as an anticorruption fighter and his high-profile "social-order campaign"—which instituted a 2 a.m. curfew and random drug tests at Bangkok's notorious nightclubs—won widespread public support. And when it appeared Thaksin was trying to engineer Purachai's resignation, Thaksin's own political mentor, Chanlong Srimuang, publicly backed the Justice Minister. By Friday, Thaksin backed down, niftily taking credit for keeping Purachai in the government—"He definitely won't quit, I insist"—while also heading off potential divisions in his party. There has, however, been no more talk of succession.

India vs. Bangladesh: An argument over the citizenship of a group of snake charmers trying to cross into India inflamed debate over the number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in India (Dhaka says none; New Delhi says 20 million).

Japan vs. History: Yamakawa Shuppan, which publishes history textbooks used in nearly half of Japan's high schools, airbrushed its account of the casualties inflicted during the 1937 Nanjing Massacre by deleting the words "tens of thousands to 400,000" and leaving "many Chinese"; the Ministry of Education approved the revision(ism).