Bangkok - Thailand's exports are expected to increase up to 20 per cent this year, after hitting 87.11 trillion dollars in the first six months, the Export-Import Bank of Thailand forecast Tuesday.

The bank's economic information department noted that Thailand's exports to new markets surged 31.1 per cent during the first half of 2008, the state-run Thai News Agency reported.

Exports to Africa rose 60.5 per cent, while those to Indochina, a group consisting of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, rose 57 per cent, and exports to Eastern Europe were up by 31.8 per cent.

Bangkok - Thousands of Thai protestors marched on the British embassy in Bangkok Tuesday to demand Britain refuse asylum to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife, Pojaman, who fled to London last week to escape pending corruption cases against them.

About 2,000 protestors from the People's Alliance for Democracy, a loose coalition of anti-Thaksin groups, stopped traffic on Ploenchit Road, a major artery in central Bangkok, as they marched to the embassy, where they shouted slogans and delivered a letter to the ambassador.

Cha-am, Thailand - The foreign ministers of Thailand and Cambodia began bilateral talks Tuesday on how to defuse tensions over a border temple dispute that sparked a military standoff between the two countries last month.

Thai Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag and his Cambodian counterpart, Hor Namhong, met in the Thai beach resort of Cha-am, 110 kilometres south-west of Bangkok, to discuss long-term solutions to the dispute over the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, which has been a flash point for relations between Thailand and Cambodia since the late 1950s.

Bangkok - Thailand's rice exports are heading for "tragedy" in 2009 if the government pursues its policy of offering above-market prices to farmers to stockpile the grain, industry sources said Thursday.

Commerce Minister Chaiya Sasomsap has hinted the government would pay rice farmers up to 15,000 baht (446 dollars) per ton for ordinary rice and 19,000 baht per ton for jasmine rice in the coming months to boost farmers' incomes and stockpile the grain for exports.

Bangkok - Thai Airways International PCL has offered early retirement to 400 to 500 staff after notching up a second-quarter net loss of 9.3 billion baht (276.8 million dollars), the national carrier said Thursday.

President Apinan Sumanaseni said the airline's executive board had approved a budget of 700 million baht to encourage employees to opt for early retirement as part of its cost-cutting efforts this year, the Manager newspaper's website said.

London, Aug 14 : Thailand today confirmed that it will request the extradition of former Thai Prime Minister and owner of the Manchester City football club, Thaksin Shinawatra, from Britain, after he fled to London to avoid facing a trial for fraud.

Thai Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag said that the country’s first step would be the cancellation of the diplomatic passports held by Thaksin and his wife, Potjaman, after arrest warrants were issued for them on Monday by the country’s Supreme Court.