Bangkok  - Twenty foreign tourists were abandoned in a tour bus on a roadside after being robbed by the staff, police said Tuesday.

Police found the tourists at 6 am Monday sitting in a driverless bus on the side of the Asian Highway in Ayutthaya province, 90 kilometres north of Bangkok.

The tourists said they had forced the driver to pull over after finding their cash and belongings had been stolen by the bus's three male staff while some of the passengers slept on the overnight bus from the northern city of Chiang Mai to Bangkok.

Bangkok- In a first for a South-East Asian summit, Thailand will host a "global dialogue" next month inviting such bigwigs as United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy, officials announced Monday.

Thailand will host the 14th summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) December 13 to 17 in its northern city of Chiang Mai.

Bangkok - Thai shares lost 2.87 per cent of their value Monday on the country's political unrest.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) index ended at 386.12, down 11.39 points or 2.87 per cent.

"The main factor is domestic politics," said Phuwadon Larpudomsuk, of Asia Plus Securities. "The market started off weak and got worse as the protests continued."

Bangkok - Bangkok's Criminal Court Monday said a Canadian paedophile nabbed in Thailand last year after German police "unswirled" his altered photograph on the internet has been given an additional six years in jail.

The court confirmed that Christopher Paul Neil, 33, had been sentenced to just under six years jail earlier this month for molesting a Thai boy in 2003, after claiming is innocence. He was also ordered to pay 50,000 baht compensation to the boy's family. The verdict was given in an unscheduled hearing on November 14 and not reported at the time.

Bangkok- Bangkok's Criminal Court Monday said a Canadian paedophile nabbed in Thailand last year after German police "unswirled" his altered photograph on the internet has been given an additional six years in jail.

Bangkok - Tens-of-thousands of anti-government protestors, some of them armed with sticks, marched on Parliament Monday in what has been dubbed a "final battle" to topple the cabinet by Wednesday.

Sondhi Limthongkul, a core leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) that has been leading an anti-government campaign in Bangkok since May, launched the march from Government House to Parliament at 6:00 am (2300 GMT Sunday).