Bangkok, Nov. 19 : Ajay Chhibber, the head of the U. N. Development Program''s regional bureau for Asia and the Pacific, has warned of the prospect of social unrest in Asia because of the global meltdown.

He told the Washington Post in an interview here that the slowdown in major markets such as the United States and Europe poses fundamental problems for Asian economies that have used exports to fuel their extraordinary growth.

Chhibber said there are still 900 million Asians living below the World Bank poverty line, defined as an income of less than 1.25 dollars a day, Chhibber said, adding, "There are another 300 million who just came out of that group, so they are literally on the margin."

Kuala Lumpur - Pirates have hijacked a Thai fishing boat with 16 crew members off the coast of Somalia, bringing the number of pirate attacks in the troubled region to 95 this year, a maritime watchdog said Wednesday.

The vessel, which was seized Tuesday in the Gulf of Aden, had made a distress call late Monday as it was being chased by pirates in two speedboats, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur.

However, the phone line got cut.

The Thai boat was heading for the Middle East, said Choong. He said the fate of the crew members remains unknown.

Choong said piracy activities continued to increase in the area due to a lack of security.

Bangkok - It's been hard times for Thailand's former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the man who dominated the country's politics between 2001 to 2006 and continues to be the central character in the kingdom's on-going political drama.

Even with his brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat, in place as prime minister and the current cabinet packed with his cronies and nominees, Thaksin has been unable to prevent a series of legal setbacks that have seen him reduced from Thailand's most powerful politician to a homeless, wifeless, fugitive from the law.

Predictably, Thaksin has not taken his new status lying down.

Bangkok - Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra has decided not to appeal an abuse-of-power conviction that carries a two-year jail sentence and has turned him in to a divorced, wandering exile, his lawyer confirmed Tuesday.

On October 21, the Supreme Court for Political Office Holders found Thaksin guilty of abusing his position as premier in 2003 by allowing his wife Pojaman to successfully bid on a prime plot of Bangkok land at a government office.

Bangkok - Thai shares lost 3.28 per cent Tuesday on jitters from news of Japan's recession.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) index ended at 419.97, down 14.24 points, on 7.9 billion baht (229.7 million dollars) in transactions.

"The Thai market was following the Hong Kong and Tokyo bourses down," said Phuwadol Larpudomsuk, an analyst at Asia Plus Securities. "Investors are worried about the impact of recession in Japan on the region."

Bangkok  - A British researcher has arrived in Bangkok to track down nine missing episodes of BBC's legendary Dr Who TV series, the world's longest-running science fiction show that started in 1963, media reports said Tuesday.

"Records show that nine episodes from the 'Dr Who and The Journey to Cathay' series were shipped to Bangkok, and now we're looking for anybody who has any information about it," researcher Damian Finucane told the Bangkok Post.

BBC records show the nine missing DR Who episodes were sent to Thailand in 1967 to be broadcast on Thailand's now defunct Channel 4.