Bangkok - Thailand's auto parts industry is at risk of shedding 40,000 permanent jobs this year as domestic and global demand for vehicles shrinks, media reports said Wednesday.

Discussions Tuesday between the Industry Ministry and 1,600 auto parts manufacturers concluded that 20 per cent of 200,000 permanent employees in the sector were in danger of losing this jobs this year, the Bangkok Post reported.

Bangkok - Thailand's 81-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Tuesday congratulated Barrack Obama on his inauguration as the 44th president of the US and sent his wishes for greater "progress and prosperity" for the American people.

"I am pleased to extend to Your Excellency my sincere congratulations and best wishes for your success and happiness as well as for the greater progress and prosperity of the United States of America and her people," said the king in a congratulatory message to president-elect Obama.

Bangkok - Thailand's military has agreed to investigate reports that its navy pushed hundreds of Rohingya boat people back out to sea last month, leaving as estimated 500 missing and feared drowned, the army commander-in-chief confirmed Tuesday.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva requested the investigation after meeting with human rights groups at a meeting Monday at which the Rohingya refugee situation was raised.

Bangkok - Thailand's military last month pushed out to sea at least 992 Rohingya refugees - stateless Muslims from Myanmar - leaving 400-500 missing and feared dead, a Rohingya-watch group announced Monday.

In what is turning into a major embarrassment for Thailand's new government under Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Arakan Project has provided evidence based on the testimony of survivors that the Thai Navy pushed back to sea some 992 Rohingyas between December 18 to 30 in engineless boats on the high seas.

Bangkok - A Bangkok court on Monday sentenced an Australian author to three years in jail for allegedly insulting the Thai monarchy in his novel Verisimilitude published in 2005, court sources said.

The Bangkok Criminal Court found Harry Nicolaides, 41, guilty of lese majeste for a passage in his novel that allegedly criticized the son of Bhumibol Adulyadej, Thailand's much-revered king for the past 62 years.

Bangkok  - The five-year-old conflict in Thailand's deep South has cost the state an estimated 109 billion baht (3.1 billion dollars) and lost 3,287 lives, an independent study revealed Monday.

Deep South Watch, an independent research group that monitors the conflict, has put the southern death toll over the last five years of violence at 3,287 lives, of whom 1,788 were Thai Muslims and 1,348 Thai Buddhists, with another 5,405 people wounded, The Nation newspaper reported.