Bangkok - The Asia-Pacific region is the world's largest broadband market with 39 per cent of the total, the largest mobile phone market with 1.4 billion subscribers and claims 42 per cent of the world's internet users, a UN report revealed Monday.

By mid-2008, China and India alone had over 600 and 280 million mobile phone subscribers respectively, representing nearly a quarter of the world's total, said a report on telecommunications and information communication technology indicators by the International Telecommunication Union released in Bangkok.

The Asia-Pacific region, covering a vast and disparate area from West Asia to the Pacific Islands, notched up several "superlatives" in this year's report.

Singapore - Airlines were resuming their service between Singapore and the popular Thai holiday island of Phuket after the facility reopened following its closure by anti-government demonstrators, a newspaper report said.

Tiger Air and Air Asia planned to resume their service Monday, The Straits Times reported.

SilkAir became the first to reopen the route, resuming its flights Sunday night and upping its regularly scheduled single evening flight between Singapore and Phuket to three to ferry its backlog of passengers between the two destinations. It said it would operate its normal schedule of five flights Monday.

Bangkok - Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on Sunday vowed to stay on in his post despite having lost Government House - the seat of his administration - to protesters for the past six days.

"I came to power in accordance with the law," said Samak, addressing his weekly "Talking Samak Style" television program. "I have done nothing wrong."

Bangkok - Thailand moved into crisis mode Saturday as thousands of demonstrators occupied the seat of government for a fifth day amid signs that the prime minister was losing support from the military, analysts said.

"This weekend will be critical," Thai political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak said.

Bangkok  - Thailand's Foreign Ministry issued a statement Friday that talks between Bangkok and Phnom Penh over disputed border areas were postponed by mutual agreement for internal procedures and not because of political tension in Thailand, as some media reported.

The "meeting has been postponed, not because of Thailand's domestic political situation, but because both sides still need to complete their relevant internal procedures," the press release states.

Anti-government protests in Bangkok by the Thai opposition People's Alliance for Democracy movement, which escalated Tuesday and continued to be tense Friday.

Bangkok - Thai police Friday forced their way through protesters to enter a government building in a compound that anti-government protesters seized Tuesday.

Police said they were not there to disperse the demonstrators, although protest leaders claimed they were.

"We are not dispersing the crowd. Police did not use force on protesters because this is a sensitive matter," deputy police spokesman Major General Surapol Thuanthong said.