Bangkok - Thailand has targeted June as a tentative date to host regional summits that were derailed earlier this month by protests in Pattaya, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Tuesday.

"We expect the summits to be held in June, possibly in Phuket," Abhisit said after a cabinet meeting.

Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat said consultations were still underway with the other nine members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations

Bangkok - A global petition campaign to free Myanmar's political prisoners has secured 253,524 signatures to date, pro-democracy groups announced Tuesday.

The signature campaign, launched on March 13 marking Myanmar's Human Rights Day, aims to collect 888,888 signatures before May 24, 2009, the date that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi should be released from house arrest, according to the country's laws.

Bangkok - Natural disasters caused by climate change are expected to affect 375 million people by the year 2015, threatening to overwhelm the current humanitarian aid system, a confederation of internatonal aid groups warned Tuesday.

Oxfam International Tuesday launched its report entitled The Right to Survive, studying the potential impact of climate change on the current humanitarian aid system.

Bangkok  - Thai police have arrested a suspected thief who left his toes at the scene of the crime, media reports said Tuesday.

Atthapol Maenkrathok, 42, was arrested over the weekend at a hospital in Uttaradit province where he was being treated for a severed foot.

Police said Atthapol was charged with robbing a woman of her cash and a 1,000-dollar gold necklace on the overnight train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok on April 7, the Bangkok Post reported.

Bangkok - Thai shares rose 2.08 per cent in value Monday, boosted by speculation in energy stocks, analysts said.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand index ended at 466.28 points, up 9.48 points.

"There was a lot of speculation by local investors in energy stocks," Adkinsons Securities analyst Chaiyos Jiwangkul.

Bangkok - Global Fund - the main multilateral donor for health programs combatting HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria - is facing a 4-billion-dollar budget shortfall next year, the fund's executive director said Monday.

"We are facing a financial crisis," Global Fund executive director Michel Kazatchkine said. "We estimate our funding gap in 2010 to be somewhere around 4 billion."