Phuket, Thailand - Now is the time for a cheap holiday in Phuket, Thailand's leading beach resort.

Tourism is the number one industry on Phuket, swelling the island's 350,000 official population to more than 5 million each year. More than 48 per cent of these tourists come from Europe.

There was apprehension on the island in November that numbers would drop as a result of the world economic crisis, but future bookings looked good until anti-government protestors in Bangkok closed the two international airports from November 26 to December 3.

Bangkok  - Thailand's convicted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra has lost his diplomatic "red" passport after failing to appeal an abuse of power sentence, media reports said Tuesday.

Thaksin's diplomatic passport was revoked by the Foreign Ministry Friday as Thailand was under a caretaker government.

The Foreign Ministry said the decision was made after Thaksin failed to appeal an October 21 verdict of the Supreme Court that sentenced him to two years in jail for abuse of power when he was prime minister in 2003.

Bangkok - More than 1,000 new species, including the world's largest huntsman spider and the Laotian rock rat, have been discovered in the Greater Mekong Region of Southeast Asia between 1997 and 2007, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) revealed Monday.

The huntsman spider has leg span of 30 centimetres, and the rock rat was previously thought to have become extinct 11 million years ago, according to the report, First Contact in the Greater Mekong.

Some of the 1,068 newly discovered species were found in surprising places, said the report.

Bangkok - Thai shares jumped 2.89 per cent Monday on the election of opposition Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as prime minister, analysts said.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand index ended at 437.06, up 12.27 points.

"Investors think the political picture is clearer now," said Mongkol Phuangphaetha, an analyst at Adkinson Securities.

An extraordinary session of Parliament on Monday selected Abhisit as Thailand's 27th prime minister in a 235-198 vote.

The vote ended weeks of political jockeying to head the next coalition government.

Bangkok  - Thailand's Parliament on Monday selected Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as the next prime minister, giving the 44-year-old Oxford-educated politician a slim majority to form the next government.

An extraordinary session of the lower house gave Abhisit a thin victory by a 235-198 vote over his rival, police General Pracha Promnok, the Puea Paendin Party leader. Three members abstained.

Bangkok  - Thailand's Parliament opened an extraordinary session Monday to vote in a new prime minister after the last premier and much of the cabinet lost their posts in a court ruling.

The vote was expected to be close between the two nominated candidates, Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva and the Puea Paendin Party's leader, police General Pracha Promnok.

"It will be a close call," said Kraisak Choonhavan, a senior Democrat Party member.