Bangkok  - Thai authorities have allegedly arrested a Hmong refugee who once guided a BBC TV team to Laos to document atrocities committed against the minority group, a Hmong advocacy group claimed Sunday.

"Around 8:30 pm Saturday night, Thai authorities in Huay Nam Khao camp arrested Joua Va Yang, a former guide for the BBC," Chicago- based Hmong Advocate Joe Davy said in a statement.

"Witnesses on the scene claim that authorities had beaten Mr Yang very badly during the arrest," Davy said.

A study has disclosed that India ranks second in medical tourism all
through the world by spending just 1.2% of its GDP on health matters.

The study also said that India takes proper care of patients, which comes from foreign countries.

In 2007, around 4.5 lakh foreign patients were treated in Indian hospitals as compared to other nations.

Thailand topped the list with a record number of 12 lakh.

The
two-year study conducted by healthcare researchers Deloitte also said
that India treat patients not only from its neighboring states and West

Bangkok  - China's Tsingtao Brewery Co has set up a joint venture with Thai partners to invest 2 billion baht (55.5 million dollars) in beer production near Bangkok, media reports said Saturday.

Theparak Luengsuwan, one of the Thai investors, said at a press conference that Tsingtao has chosen Thailand over Malaysia for its first-ever overseas brewery partly because of a free trade agreement the kingdom has in place with Australia.

Bangkok - Fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinwatara on Friday named the current privy council president as his main political nemesis and a plotter of the coup that toppled him from power in 2006.

Thaksin, in a live video broadcast to thousands of this followers in Bangkok, named Prem Tinsulanonda, the current Privy Council president and Thai prime minister from
1980 to 1988 as the main "powerful" person behind the September 19, 2006, coup that brought Thaksin down.

Bangkok - The body of a British national who was murdered on his yacht earlier this week was found Friday floating in Thai waters offshore of Satun province, media reports said.

A Thai search team found the body of Malcolm Robertson, 64, about 10 kilometres off Ravi Island in the Andaman Sea, about 800 kilometres south of Bangkok, The Nation online service reported.

Robertson was killed on Monday while holidaying on his yacht with his wife Linda. His body was thrown overboard.

Bangkok (Thailand), Mar. 27 : Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Friday refused to step down, as the anti-government protest raised its tempo.

"Whether I resign or do not resign from my position will be determined under the normal political proccess," the Bangkok Post quoted him as telling reporters at the parliament building.

"I have no engagements there [Government House] today but if I have time I will go there. ''Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban reassures me there is no problem and we are still going into the compound," he added.