Bangkok - Global Fund - the main multilateral donor for health programs combatting HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria - is facing a 4-billion-dollar budget shortfall next year, the fund's executive director said Monday.

"We are facing a financial crisis," Global Fund executive director Michel Kazatchkine said. "We estimate our funding gap in 2010 to be somewhere around 4 billion."

Bangkok, Apr. 19 : The general public has approved Thailand''s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government''s quelling of last weekend''s rioting in Bangkok. The latest ABAC public opinion poll says that a majority of the people feels it was done in a transparent manner.

According to the Bangkok Post, the poll showed 74.9 percent of the people questioned thought the riot control measures that were imposed were acceptable. Only 25.1 percent did not think so.

Bangkok  - Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra on Saturday left the United Arab Emirates for Nicaragua, where he has been granted a diplomatic passport, media reports said.

Thaksin has been in the United Arab Emirates for the past month, the Arabian Business magazine said.

Bangkok  - Thailand's state railway was expected to sign a 90-million-baht (2.5-million-dollar) deal with Deutsche Bahn International to operate Bangkok's airport rail link to open later this year, media reports said Saturday.

Tawalyarat Onsira, the Transport Ministry's deputy permanent secretary, said the State Railways of Thailand hoped to finalize the deal with the German firm this month, The Nation newspaper reported.

Bangkok  - The Thai cabinet decided Friday to keep Bangkok and its surrounding provinces under emergency law until peace is fully restored to the capital, which was rocked by violent clashes between protestors and authorities earlier this week.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the state of emergency would be maintained "for as short a period as possible, in order to restore peace and normalcy in Bangkok and its neighbouring areas."

Bangkok, Apr. 17 : Thailand's media mogul and founder of the People''s Alliance for Democracy Sondhi Limthongkul has been declared safe after doctors successfully removed bullet shrapnel from his head.

Limthongkul survived an attempt on his life on Friday when gunmen attacked his car with automatic rifle fire.