Exclusive: Siemens healthcare unit probed by China regulator for bribery – sources

A Siemens logo is pictured on an office building of Siemens AG in MunichBy Adam Jourdan and Engen Tham SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A Chinese regulator investigated Siemens AG last year over whether the German group's healthcare unit and its dealers bribed hospitals to buy expensive disposable products used in some of its medical devices, three people with knowledge of the probe told Reuters. The investigation, which has not previously been reported, follows a wide-reaching probe into the pharmaceutical industry in China that last year saw GlaxoSmithKline Plc fined nearly $500 million for bribing officials to push its medicine sales. China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) accused Siemens and its dealers of having violated competition law by donating medical devices in return for agreements to exclusively buy the chemical reagents needed to run the machines from Siemens, the people said. Reuters was unable to determine whether Siemens had denied the accusations or if any action was taken against the company or the dealers.

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Thai mass grave held bodies of 26 suspected trafficking victims

Security forces are seen at an abandoned camp in a jungle in Thailand's southern Songkhla provinceBy Amy Sawitta Lefevre PEDANG BESAR, Thailand (Reuters) – Dozens of police and volunteers have exhumed 26 bodies at a mass grave near a suspected human trafficking camp on a hillside deep in a southern Thai jungle, police said on Saturday. The digging site, in Sadao district in Songkhla province, yielded five bodies on Friday and 21 more on Saturday, all believed to be migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh. "A total of 26 bodies were uncovered – 24 men, one woman and one unknown," said Police General Jarumporn Suramanee, adding the operation was now completed. Illegal migrants, many of them Rohingya Muslims from western Myanmar and Bangladesh, brave often perilous journeys by sea to escape religious and ethnic persecution and to seek jobs in Malaysia and Thailand, a regional trafficking hub.

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