Bangkok - Cobra Gold, an annual Thai-US military exercise inv

Bangkok - A hike in opium prices in South-East Asia led to a slight increase in poppy cultivation in the Golden Triangle last year, a UN report released Monday said.

"We have an increase in cultivation, which is worrying because it implies an intent to produce more," said Gary Lewis, the regional representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The UN's latest report on cultivation in the Golden Triangle - which consists of parts of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand and accounts for 5 per cent of the world's opium supply - said the region produced 424 tons of opium last year, down from 472 tons in 2007.

Bangkok  - Southeast Asia Energy Ltd, a Thai-owned hydropower project in Laos, is preparing to list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand later this year, media reports said Monday.

Ch Karnchang, a Thai construction firm that owns the plant, is seeking a financial adviser for helping with the listing, which would become the first such cross-border listing of a company from Indochina on the Thai bourse, The Nation newspaper reported.

The company needs funding to complete the Nam Ngum II hydropower plant. The plant on the Nam Ngum River, a major tributary of the Mekong, is to generate 615 megawatts of electricity to be sold to Thailand.

The Bangkok bourse has a target to attract at least 40 firms from Indochina - Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Bangkok  - Thailand's Culture Ministry is urging authorities to crack down on a rising trend of Thai students using the internet for direct-sale prostitution, media reports said Sunday.

Culture Minister Theera Salukpetch asked the Education Ministry, the Communications Technology Ministry, police and internet service providers to increase their vigilance against website prostitution, which he blamed on faulty values among the country's youth, The Nation newspaper reported.

Academics urged colleges and the government to take action against the trend of students using social networking websites such as Hi5 to advertise prostitution by posting their pictures with suggestive messages.

Bangkok  - Thousands of protestors on Sunday ended a midnight demonstration at government headquarters in Bangkok after lodging a list of demands from the current administration and setting a 15-day deadline.

An estimated 30,000 Red Shirts, a movement tied to ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, marched on Government House late Saturday night, breaking through police barriers to reach the gates of the compound before midnight.

Bangkok - Thousands of anti-government protestors turned a royal park in central Bangkok into a sea of red Saturday night, putting pressure on a new Thai government that seeks national reconciliation after three years of political upheaval.

The followers of controversial former prime minister Thaksin Shinwatra are demanding the government take action against rival demonstrators who closed Bangkok's airports in December, including the current foreign minister, Kasit Pirom.