BANGKOK -- The death toll from a devastating cyclone in Myanmar could top 100,000 people, a U.S. diplomat said yesterday, as a million hungry and homeless survivors wait for help in the closed-off country.

Foreign diplomats here were told the international community has no option but to stand by and watch as "a major humanitarian crisis" unfolds.

Pressure mounted on Myanmar's military rulers to allow humanitarian access as witness reports told of entire villages destroyed.

"The information that we're receiving indicates that there may well be over 100,000 deaths," Shari Villarosa, the charge d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar, told reporters on a conference call from the capital, Yangon. She said the 100,000 figure was not confirmed, but was based on estimates by an international non-governmental organization, which she did not identify.

State Myanmar radio and television reported a death toll of 22,980 with 42,119 missing and 1,383 injured.

The cyclone hit coastal towns and villages Saturday in the rice-growing Irrawaddy delta southwest of Yangon.

(BangkokPost.com) – It’s the first day that police will be keeping a close eye on motorists who talk on the phone while driving.

Spokesman of the National Police force, Pol Lt Gen Watcharapol Prasarnratchakij said motorists who violate the new law from now until June 19 will be given a warning. However, starting from June 20 onwards, violators will be fined between 400-1,000 baht. They will also have points taken off their driver’s license.

As for concerns that the new law may give police officers another reason to put money into their own pockets, Pol Lt Gen Watcharapol assured that these officers will face severe punishments. He urged anyone witnessing police officers committing a wrongdoing to immediately report to the National Police force.

Bangkok Post - 8 May 2008

From today it is illegal to use a mobile phone while driving a vehicle on a road, unless using a hands-free device. Police want to publicise the ban before getting tough and will probably issue cautions at first.

''First, we'll warn violators to alert them to the danger.

''We will fine the stubborn ones from May 20 onwards,'' said deputy Metropolitan Police Bureau chief Panu Kerdlarbpol.

Police have been told to take pictures of drivers who flout the ban, to serve as evidence.

After the grace period ends, offenders will be fined 400 to 1,000 baht.

They will also receive 10 penalty points.

Sixty points normally results in the suspension of a driver's licence. But drivers who break the phone ban a second time will also have their licence suspended.

At least three cases of sexual harassment against students by lecturers at Thammasat University have been reported over the past decade, according to a seminar on sexual harassment at universities yesterday. Malee Pruekpongsawalee, chairwoman of Thammasat University's Women and Youth Studies Programme, said there had been serious cases of sexual harassment prior to last month's scandal involving an engineering lecturer at the Rangsit campus.

However, the university had failed to provide an effective mechanism for dealing with the cases, she said.

Last month, Kamthorn Cherdchukiat, 33, an engineering lecturer, was arrested for allegedly sexually harassing a female student. The student said he approached her and offered her a good grade if she would agree to perform oral sex.

Ms Malee said one female student from the journalism and mass communication faculty had filed a complaint against a lecturer at the political science faculty who she said offered her a good grade if she agreed to masturbate him.

BANGKOK: -- Police have arrested a Uzbekistani man wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation on money laundering and child pornography charges.

Mikhail Komov, 39, was arrested at a condominium on Jomthien Beach in Chon Buri on Saturday. Central Investigation Bureau commissioner Pol Maj Gen Panya Mamen held a press conference at the CIB Tuesday to announce the arrest.

MANCHESTER (UK): -- Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra has hit the club with another shock by asking for the players to bow to him Thai-style before each game, Sunday Mirror reported.

Officials at the Eastlands club have been worried for some time by requests from Thaksin - and his latest is for the team to bow towards him after performing their pre-kick-off sporting handshake with the opposition.

Bowing is a traditional mark of respect in Thaksin's native Thailand. But some at City see this as another example of how the former Thai Prime Minister is turning the club into his personal dictatorship.

A City insider said: "At first we thought it was a joke, but the owner was serious about the players paying their respects. It's just not going to happen."

RANGOON: -- At least 15,000 people were killed in the Burma cyclone and the toll is likely to rise as officials make contact with the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta areas, the military government's foreign minister said today.

Nyan Win said on state television that 10,000 people had died in just one town, Bogalay, as he gave the first detailed account of what is emerging as the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh.

The total left homeless by the 190kph winds and 3.5-metre storm surge is in the several hundred thousands, United Nations aid officials say, and could run into the millions.

The scale of the disaster drew a rare acceptance of outside help from the diplomatically isolated generals, who spurned such approaches in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Bernard Delpuech, a European Union aid official in Burma's main city Rangoon, said the junta had sent three ships carrying food to the delta region, rice bowl for Burma's 53 million people.

Nearly half the population live in the five disaster-hit states.

BANGKOK: -- The Robinson Silom department store will close on May 23 to make way for True Fitness as the new major tenant at the prime central Bangkok site.

Robinson Department Store Plc decided to return the space to the landlord, Silom Asset, before the lease expiry in 2014 because the space was limited at only 5,000 square metres excluding other Central Retail Corporation business units such as Power Buy, said Usara Yongpiyakul, Robinson's assistant vice-president for marketing.

The limited space made it difficult for the company to renovate and extend retail space for additional fashion brand names to match the Silom consumer lifestyle. As well, there are many other retail players located nearby, she said.

Robinson Silom opened 24 years ago and was the company's third flagship store after the Victory Monument branch, opened in 1979, and Ratchadamri. Both of those stores have also closed.

BANGKOK: -- The Treasury Department will lease 200,000 rai of land to farmers for rice and biofuel-crop production in a bid to increase supply and ease price pressures, Deputy Finance Minister Ranongrak Suwan-chawee said this week.

She said by 2011, the department would lease 1 million rai to farmers, who will only have to pay Bt20 per rai annually for a three-year contract.

The department will consult with the Agriculture Ministry on the list of farmers eligible for the leases and the amount of land they can have. Previously, the department granted each farming family a maximum of 15 rai.

NAKHON PATHOM, May 1 (TNA) - Over 700 workers died across Thailand in work-related accidents last year, according to official statistics.

Nationwide 198,652 persons were injured or became seriously ill at work during 2007. Thailand’s work-related accidents last year included not only the 741 persons who died unnecessarily, 16 became permanently handicapped, and 3,259 workers losing body parts, such as hands, arms or legs,

Speaking at a "Safety and Healthcare for Workers" campaign event in this central province marking Labour Day, Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsab, said 198,652 persons nationwide were injured or became seriously ill at work during 2007. Thailand’s work-related accidents last year included not only the 741 persons who died unnecessarily, 16 became permanently handicapped, and 3,259 workers losing body parts, such as hands, arms or legs.

BANGKOK: -- A drug suspect has revealed that her cocaine customers are mostly leading actors and upperclass nightlife seekers.

Sunisa Srikantarak, 19, told police that she earned between Bt2,000 and Bt3,000 per cocaine delivery.

"I had delivered drugs to my customers at RCA area every Friday," Sunisa was quoted as saying at a press conference.

The Crime Suppression Division announced the arrest of Sunisa yesterday afternoon. So far, police have not identified the actors whom Sunina accuses of buying illicit drugs from her.

-- The Nation 2008-05-01

BANGKOK: -- Mobile phones will soon be banned from cinemas as the government strives to combat the high level of intellectual-property-rights (IPR) violations in the Kingdom.

The move follows a meeting yesterday between Deputy Commerce Minister Banyin Tangpaporn and officers of the International Intellectual Property Association (IIPA).

The association urged the creation of a law forbidding mobiles in cinemas, because it found that easy access for high-technology late-model phones had increased copyright infringements.

Yesterday's meeting also sought closer cooperation between the IIPA and Thai authorities in the suppression of IPR violations, following Thailand's relegation to the US Priority Watch List (PWL) for failing to protect US movies, music and computer programs against piracy. The list entails extra scrutiny and the threat of economic sanctions if the US decides to pursue complaints before the World Trade Organisation.

BANGKOK: -- Minimum wages are set to rise marginally later this month, but so will public bus fares and other necessities as Thais brace for a higher cost of living driven mainly by the increase in oil and other commodity prices.

Labour Minister Uraiwan Thienthong said yesterday she expected a "surprise" on the minimum-wage rise. A decision will be made tomorrow by the Tripartite Wage Committee, representing employees, employers and the government.

BANGKOK: -- Yongyuth Tiyapairat of People Power party (PPP) announced his resignation as House Speaker as he faces trial for electoral fraud charges in the Dec 23 general election.

Mr Yongyuth held a press conference announcing his decision at 5pm on Wednesday.

He said he does not want to his cases to damage the image of the parliament.

He insisted that there is no hidden agenda behind his decision, and that it is not done to clear the way for the appointment of a new House Speaker who has the authority to influence MPs on constitution amendments.

--Bangkok Post 2008-04-30

BANGKOK: --A national survey by Public Health Ministry reveals that only 20 percent of public toilets across country pass the hygiene standard.

The survey had been conducted in 2007 to ask member of public about their pleasure to use public toilet. The survey found 40 percent of people are pleasure to use public toilet

-- The Nation 2008-04-30

BANGKOK: -- A recent global sex survey found that 70 per cent of Thai women cannot achieve orgasm.

Others reach orgasm through masturbation or having sex with another woman, while 79 per cent of Thai men climax during sex, according to research by condom manufacturer Durex.

The survey was conducted in 26 countries and questioned 26,000 respondents about their sexual behaviour and attitudes.

It revealed that 54 per cent of Thai couples cannot reach orgasm, while Italians, Spanish, Mexicans and South Africans are the most likely to climax almost every time, at 66 per cent. Only 24 per cent of Chinese couples achieve orgasm and the Japanese recorded 27 per cent.

BANGKOK: -- A recent survey has revealed shocking findings: many children enjoy watching scenes of rapes on TV and they come to see sexual assaults as something common.

"Some children even say they want to be like leading male characters in TV series so that they can rape a woman," Dr Noppadon Kannika said Tuesday as the head of the Assumption University's research centre, "This is worrying".

Conducted from April 24 to April 27, the survey covered 2,159 respondents in Bangkok and major cities. The respondent age starts from two years old up.

According to the survey, raping scenes are the favourite among 21.1 per cent of children aged between 13 and 19 years old, 10.3 per cent of children aged between two and six years old and 6.4 per cent of those aged from seven to 12 years old.

-- The Nation 2008-04-29

BANGKOK: -- Supreme court on Tuesday officially kicked off an abuse-of-power trial against former premier Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife Pojaman for the purchase of a plot of land at a government auction five years ago.

Thaksin did not appear in court but was represented by his wife.

Potjaman told the Supreme Court for Political Cases that she and her husband were innocent.

Thaksin, who is currently in London, stands accused of abusing his position as prime minister in 2003 by allowing his wife to make a Bt772 million bid for a plot of land in a government auction.

--The Nation 2008-04-29

BANGKOK: -- Despite soaring oil prices coupled with a rising cost of living, Thailand's Ministry of Finance is optimistic that the average rate of inflation this year will not exceed the 4.5 per cent level projected earlier, a senior ministry official said on Monday.

Fiscal Police Office director-general Pannee Sathavarodom said her office was confident that Thailand's average inflation in 2008 would not rise above 4.5 per cent if average Dubai crude oil price stands at US$95 per barrel.

By Monday afternoon, the spot price of Dubai crude oil was at US$110 per barrel.

As recovery in local consumption and private investment continued through the first quarter this year, inflation as well was on the move, climbing to 5 per cent, sharply up from the 2.9 per cent registered in the fourth quarter of 2007, said Mrs. Pannee.

BANGKOK: -- An armed robber Monday forced a businesswoman to hand him Bt200,000 cash at gunpoint inside the toilet of a Bangkok Bank branch.

Aimorn Jindasombatjaroen, 50, said she was going down to the bank's parking area when the robber grabbed her by the neck.

"He showed me his gun and forced me into the toilet. He then took away my cash," the businesswoman said.

She said she just withdrew the cash from the bank on Lat Phrao Road.

-- The Nation 2008-04-28