Bangkok  - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday shut down its "relief air bridge" to Myanmar after delivering 4 million tons of cargo from Bangkok to the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

Thai authorities were quick to offer Don Mueang, Bangkok's old international airport, as a logistics hub for the massive relief effort for neighbouring Myanmar in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which hit the impoverished country in May, leaving about 140,000 dead or missing and another 2.4 million badly in need of food, medicine and shelter.

The international relief effort was initially stalled by Myanmar's ruling military junta, which was reluctant to allow an unhindered influx of cargo and foreign aid workers into the cloistered country.

Pattani, Thailand  - A bomb killed two people, including a journalist, and injured 30 in a Thai-Malaysian border town in the latest act of violence in Thailand's majority-Muslim deep South, police said Friday.

The bomb was detonated about 9 pm Thursday in Sungai Kolok, 850 kilometres south of Bangkok, after Thai journalists and police had gathered at the scene of an earlier, smaller roadside explosion.

Killed in the blast was a reporter for the Thai Rath newspaper. The second victim, a villager, died in hospital Friday morning, police said.

Bangkok - Former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife, Pojaman, have started legal procedures for seeking political asylum in Britain, media reports said Thursday.

"At this moment, Thaksin's legal team is proceeding to ask for political asylum for Thaksin and his family in Britain," Watchara Seangprathum, the head of Thaksin's legal team in Thailand, told The Nation newspaper.

Bangkok - The Thai baht hit a

Bangkok - The Thai baht hit a nine-month low against the dollar Wednesday, trading at 34.15 to the greenback, bank sources said.

The sharp decline in the currency was attributed to heavy buying of dollars by foreign banks in Thailand and importers, said the Kasikorn Research Center, a think-tank attached to Kasikorn Bank.

Like most Asian currencies, the Thai baht has steadily appreciated against the dollar, gaining almost 20 per cent over the past two years before starting to weaken in June in the wake of rising inflation, growing political instability, declines on the stock market and slowing growth projections.

Phnom Penh - Although talks with Thailand over disputed border territory achieved modest progress, the border crossing at the ancient Preah Vihear temple would remain closed indefinitely, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Wednesday.

Cambodia remained firm in its stance that Thailand had sent troops into Cambodian territory, he told a press conference at Phnom Penh International Airport upon his return from Thailand after talks there Tuesday.