Bangkok - Thai Airways International PCL has offered early retirement to 400 to 500 staff after notching up a second-quarter net loss of 9.3 billion baht (276.8 million dollars), the national carrier said Thursday.

President Apinan Sumanaseni said the airline's executive board had approved a budget of 700 million baht to encourage employees to opt for early retirement as part of its cost-cutting efforts this year, the Manager newspaper's website said.

Bangkok - Thailand's food exports earned the kingdom 380 billion baht (11.3 billion dollars) during the first half of this year, up 28 per cent year-on-year, media reports said Thursday.

The huge jump was attributed primarily to price hikes of agricultural commodities, especially rice, that more than doubled during the January-to-June period, said the Nation newspaper.

Yuthasak Suphasorn, director of the National Food Institute, predicted that earnings from the country's food exports would slow slightly in the second half of 2008, to 367 billion baht (10.9 billion dollars).

Bangkok - The Mekong River has swollen to levels not seen since 1966, causing floods in Bokeo, Xaignbouri and Vientiane provinces that are likely to last all week, Lao media reports said Wednesday.

"Damage from the floods, which have already inundated thousands of hectares of agricultural land, has been severe," said Radio Laos in a broadcast monitored in Bangkok.

The state-run radio did not provide more details on the flood damage but other reports suggest the flood waters have reached record levels in the land-locked communist country.

Bangkok - Thai authorities are preparing to seize 2.3 billion dollars in frozen assets belonging to ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife, who fled the country last weekend, media reports said Wednesday.

The foreign ministry is also preparing to cancel Thaksin's diplomatic passport, the Thai News Agency (TNA) reported.

Bangkok  - Deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife Pojaman failed to appear at the Supreme Court Monday, as ordered, amid speculation that the former first couple were seeking asylum abroad.

The court on July 29 granted Thaksin and Pojaman, who face several abuse-of-power and corruption cases in Thailand, permission to travel to Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing on Friday.

Bangkok - Thailand, a predominantly Buddhist country, has revived ceremonial worship of the Rice Goddess to commemorate the queen's upcoming birthday and boost the morale of the country's 3.7 million rice-farming families, news reports said Sunday.

The Ministry of Agriculture on Saturday held a ritual to worship Mae Phosop, or the Rice Goddess, at a demonstration farm in Ang Thong province, the Bangkok Post reported.

The ceremony was presided over by Queen Sirikit, the royal consort of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who will celebrate her 76th birthday on Tuesday.