Bangkok - A Bangkok court jailed an oil engineer for 10 years Friday for posting a picture deemed insulting to the Thai monarch on a website, the first verdict using new computer crime laws enacted in 2007.

Suwicha Thakho was initially sentenced to 20 years but the court lowered the term because of his guilty plea. Suwicha, a married man with children, wept after the sentencing, the Nation newspaper reported.

Phnom Penh  - Cambodian and Thai soldiers exchanged gunfire Friday morning at a disputed border area where a fatal skirmish between the South-East Asian neighbours erupted last year, a government spokesman in Phnom Penh said.

No casualties were reported in the clash at the ninth-century Preah Vihear temple, government spokesman Phay Siphan said.

He said about a dozen Thai troops crossed the border about 7.15 am (0015 GMT) and were immediately confronted by Cambodian soldiers.

Bangkok  - Thailand's anti-government Red Shirt movement is ready for six months of countrywide protests to force a new election and defeat their critics, Jakrapob Penkair, a leader of political group loyal to fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said Thursday.

Jakrapob's group - the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship - is now focused on a creating a huge show of popular anger against an "illegitimate government" next Wednesday, he said.

Bangkok - Thai shares climbed 2.96 per cent Thursday on the back of a robust overnight performance by Wall Street and a shiver of optimism over the global financial crisis although prices remained dogged by local political worries, analysts said.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand index ended at 422.96, up 12.87 points.

Bangkok - Asia's tourism industry may bounce back from the global financial crisis sooner than other regions, but it is in such a fragile state that another shock could be disastrous, a senior industry official said Thursday.

The Pacific Asia Travel Association, an industry lobby, forecast an average 4.2-per-cent annual growth in tourist arrivals from this year through to 2011, with a mild recovery showing later this year or in early 2010.

Bangkok - Anti-government protestors are to march on the Finance Ministry Thursday to demonstrate against borrowing foreign money to bolster the shrinking Thai economy, protest leaders said.

The move appeared designed to crank up tension in Bangkok before Songkran, the Thai New Year, which begins April 13, a time when most Thais leave the city to visit their families.