Bangkok  - Government officials accounted for 3 per cent of HIV/AIDS patients to receive treatment in Thailand over the past 24 years, health officials revealed Sunday.

Public Health spokesman Suphan Srithamma said that since HIV/AIDS was first detected in the country in 1984, there were 337,989 accumulated patients at government hospitals of whom 92,111 had died, reported the Bangkok Post online news service.

Bangkok - The owner of Thailand's popular Farang restaurants was shot and killed while sitting in of one of his eateries early Saturday, local media on the island of Phuket reported.

Chid Raknang, also known by his nickname Kit, had recently opened a Farang restaurant in the capital Bangkok after two other ventures blossomed on the resort island.

The former head chef at a five-star hotel offered food one reviewer recently called "a real shining light among places to eat in Phuket."

Police said a drive-by gunman riding a motorbike killed Chid at around 1 am. The name of his restaurants, Farang, caused some amusement locally because it translates into English as the somewhat derogatory word for white foreigner.

Bangkok - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva flew to the country's troubled deep south Saturday for his first official time, days after saying he would review controversial emergency laws permitting extended detention without trial.

Abhisit had earlier shrugged off concerns about his safety visiting three provinces where some 3,500 people have died in the five years since a long-running Muslim separatist conflict became much more intense.

Bangkok - Thailand's government is investigating reports that a boatload of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar were set adrift in an overcrowded boat by border officials in December, allegedly resulting in many deaths, the foreign ministry said Friday.

Thailand remains committed to "humanitarian principles," even in the face of the "increasing urgency" and the "increasing size" of human trafficking in the region, the statement added.

Tokyo - Nissan Motor Co plans to shift production of its March subcompact car to Thailand as a way to reduce cost amid the business slowdown, a Japanese business daily said Friday.

Nissan would be the first Japanese automaker to transfer production of a top-selling car to overseas operations.

The Japanese automaker was expected to incur an operating loss for the 2008-09 fiscal year that ends March 31 due to the slowdown of global car sales and a stronger yen.

Bangkok- Thai shares slipped 3.01 in va