BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s prime minister said on Wednesday he expected his party to have the edge in a mid-year general election but he would probably need to form a coalition to govern, signalling a close and potentially volatile poll.

“We are looking at some time around the first half of this year,” Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told Reuters in an interview. “It is a close election like last time, except that we are slightly ahead. The latest polls show we are ahead in all polls except the northeast.”

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s prime minister said on Wednesday he expected his party to have the edge in a mid-year general election but he would probably need to form a coalition to govern, signaling a close and potentially volatile poll.

“We are looking at some time around the first half of this year,” Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told Reuters in an interview. “It is a close election like last time, except that we are slightly ahead. The latest polls show we are ahead in all polls except the northeast.”

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai and Cambodian troops clashed for a fourth straight day on Monday over a disputed border area surrounding a 900-year-old Hindu temple as Cambodia urged the U.N. Security Council to intervene.

Shelling and machine gunfire resounded in the morning in the 4.6-sq-km (two-sq-mile) contested area around the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple on a escarpment covered in jungle and claimed by both Southeast Asian neighbours, witnesses said.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai and Cambodian troops clashed for a fourth straight day Monday over a disputed border area surrounding a 900-year-old Hindu temple as Cambodia urged the U.N. Security Council to intervene.

Shelling and machine gunfire resounded in the morning in the 4.6-sq-km (two-sq-mile) contested area around the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple on a escarpment covered in jungle and claimed by both Southeast Asian neighbors, witnesses said.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai and Cambodian soldiers fought with rockets, guns and tanks on Sunday in a third day of clashes over disputed territory surrounding a 900-year-old Hindu temple, the area’s worst fighting in years.

Tracer bullets cut through the dark and shelling could be heard from a 4.6-sq-km (two-sq-mile) contested area around the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple on a jungle-clad escarpment claimed by both Southeast Asian neighbors, witnesses said.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Fresh demand for rice in two big Asian countries is sending a worrying signal the region’s main staple may join a surge in prices for other grains, worsening Asia’s spiralling food inflation.

Asian rice traders say aggressive buying in heavily populated Indonesia and Bangladesh could spread, pushing up world rice prices even though bumper crops in Thailand and Vietnam should mean ample supplies.

BANGKOK, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Fresh demand for rice in two big
Asian countries is sending a worrying signal the region’s main
staple may join a surge in prices for other grains, worsening
Asia’s spiralling food inflation.

Asian rice traders say aggressive buying in heavily
populated Indonesia and Bangladesh could spread, pushing up
world rice prices even though bumper crops in Thailand and
Vietnam should mean ample supplies.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (Reuters), Jan 13 – Nguyen Duc Tai was on a mission one sweltering January morning in Vietnam’s commercial capital, Ho Chi Minh City.

Flush with cash from his annual bonus, he wanted to buy his wife a new mobile phone, a gift for the coming Tet lunar new year holidays. In a county where the average annual income is about $1,100, a good phone is a big investment. Tai wanted to make the right choice with his 5 million dong ($250).

BANGKOK (Reuters) – The Thai military played a larger role in the killing of civilians during political unrest in Bangkok this year than officials have acknowledged, leaked state documents seen by Reuters show.

A preliminary state probe into political violence in April and May concluded Thai special forces positioned on an elevated railway track fired into the grounds of a Buddhist temple where several thousand protesters had taken refuge on May 19.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – The Thai military played a larger role in the killing of civilians during political unrest in Bangkok this year than officials have acknowledged, leaked state documents seen by Reuters show.

A preliminary state probe into political violence in April and May concluded Thai special forces positioned on an elevated railway track fired into the grounds of a Buddhist temple where several thousand protesters had taken refuge on May 19.