Bangkok  - Thai police arrested a female teacher for having sex with a 13-year-old boy whom she was tutoring in her room, media reports said Tuesday.

Police arrested Thanawan Klongsinchai, a 29-year-old English teacher, Monday on charges of molesting a minor, the Khao Sod newspaper said.

Thanawan denied the charge, claiming the sex was consensual.

Parents of the 13-year-old, who was big for his age group, pressed charges against the teacher after the boy told his friends of the affair, the newspaper said.

Bangkok - Thailand Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will attend the upcoming G-20 summit in London in his capacity as chair of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), foreign ministry officials confirmed Monday.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was reportedly impressed by the Oxford-educated 44-year-old Thai premier when they met in Davos at the World Economic Forum last month, personally invited Abhisit to attend the G-20 meeting in London on April 2.

Bangkok - Thailand's Defence Ministry on Thursday approved the air force's plan to buy six more Grippen fighters next fiscal year, completing a squadron of the Swedish-made jets.

Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said the procurement, to be spaced over over five years, would be allocated from the Air Force's budget and not burden government spending, reported The Nation online news.

The Thai military has been enjoying steadily increasing budgets for arms purchases and other expenditures since staging its latest coup on September 19, 2006.

Pattani, Thailand - A bomb explosion Thursday killed three Thai policemen returning to base after escorting teachers to school in the conflict-ridden province of Pattani.

The bomb, planted on a public road in Nongjik district of Pattani, 700 kilometres south of Bangkok, was detonated by a mobile phone shortly after 8 am (0100 GMT) as the pickup truck carrying police passed over it, said Lieutenant General Prasit Kirisri, commander of the joint army/police task force in the deep South.

Jakarta  - Thailand will work with the UN refugee agency and neighbouring countries to help Myanmar's Rohingya boat people, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said Wednesday.

The Thai military has been accused of mistreating migrants belonging to the Rohingya minority group, who said they were fleeing persecution in Myanmar, by towing more than 10 vessels out to sea and leaving the refugees in engineless boats without sufficient food and water.

Almost 400 of the Rohingya migrants were rescued by the Indonesian Navy off the coast of Aceh province in January and earlier this month.

The Rohingya told Indonesian officials they had been physically abused by Thai authorities before being abandoned at sea.

Bangkok - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva should seek royal advice on changing the lese majeste law that has led to a slew of cases in recent months and forced a prominent academic to flee the country, well-known social critic Sulak Sivaraksa said Wednesday.

"There is a chance to change the law but the government must have moral courage," said Sulak, 76, who himself faces a lese majeste charge that may be officially lodged with the Attorney General later this month.