Bangkok - Hundreds of Myanmar activists protested outside the Chinese and Myanmar embassies in Bangkok Friday, marking the 20th anniversary of a brutal army crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Yangon that left thousands dead.

The protestors, mindful that Friday also marks the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in Beijing, used the anniversary of the 8-8-88 uprising to highlight China's role in supporting Myanmar's notoriously brutish military regime.

On August 8, 1988, thousands of pro-democracy protestors took to the streets in Yangon demanding the end of 26 years of military rule. Their demands were met with bullets and a bloodbath that left an estimated 3,000 dead.

Bangkok - Thailand's rice exports were expected to fall from an estimated 10 million tons this year to 8 million to 8.5 million in 2009 as India returns to the international market, media reports said Friday.

Thailand, the world's largest rice exporter for the past four decades, has benefited this year from India's and Vietnam's temporary bans on rice exports to assure a sufficient supply for their domestic markets.

London, Aug. 7 : Thailand’s former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has dismissed reports that he wants to sell the Manchester City football club due to financial difficulties.

Expressing his dismay over the way talks with potential commercial and business partners have been interpreted, Shinawatra, who has been charged with corruption back in Thailand, said that there was no truth to rumour that he was engaged in a sell out.

Bangkok - A Royal Thai Air Force helicopter crashed Wednesday in the conflict-ridden deep South, killing all six people on board, officials said.

Phnom Penh - Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong will meet his Thai counterpart, Taj Bunnag, on August 18 in an effort to settle a potentially explosive border dispute between the two countries, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday.

In a speech broadcast on state radio, Hun Sen said talks between Hor Namhong and Bunnag would be held in the Thai province of Hua Hin, where Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej has a sea-side palace.

"Hor Namhong will meet his Thai counterpart ... on August 18. Hor Namhong will then pay a courtesy visit to the Thai king," Hun Sen said at a rice farming ceremony in the south-western province of Kampong Speu, 40 kilometres west of the capital.

Bangkok - Thailand has applied with the European Union for geographical indication (GI) protection for jasmine rice from the Thung Kula Ronghai paddy-growing area, to become the "champagne" of Thai rice if granted, reports said Tuesday.

Puangrat Asavapisit, director-general of the Commerce Ministry's Intellectual Property Department, said the application process was about 50 per cent completed and the approval process would take another two years, the Bangkok Post newspaper said.

The GI system protects a product by certifying it comes from a certain area and has characteristics that cannot be replicated elsewhere, a famous example being Champagne, the region in France where the bubbly wine is made.