Bangkok - Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Wednesday endorsed the election of former opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as the country's 27th prime minister.

Abhisit, 44, leader of the Democrat Party which has been in the opposition since 2001, won the premiership Monday by a 235-198 vote in the lower house of parliament.

His selection was not official until it was endorsed by the king, who is head of state under Thailand's constitutional monarchy.

Abhisit said he would name his cabinet on Thursday, comprising ministers from a five-party coalition government.

Bangkok - An estimated 3 million foreign tourists are expected to go "missing" from Thailand this high season - December to March - as a result of the recent closure of Bangkok's two airports by protestors, the tourism council predicted Wednesday.

From November 25 to December 3, the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy seized and closed Bangkok's two international airports - Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang - stranding about 350,000 international travellers in the capital.

Phnom Penh  - Cambodian foreign affairs officials on Wednesday welcomed the ascent of a new government to power in Thailand but said it needed to take immediate action to resolve an ongoing border dispute between the two countries.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Kuy Kung said the new government was likely to improve relations between the two South-East Asian neighbours despite Thai prime minister-designate Abhisit Vejjajiva's history of strong rhetoric over the Preah Vihear temple dispute.

"We continue to have a good relationship with Thailand, and this will improve with the appointment of Abhisit Vejjajiva as prime minister," Kuy Kung said.

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Thaksin's diplomatic passport was revoked by the Foreign Ministry Friday as Thailand was under a caretaker government.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