BANGKOK - THIS week's edition of the Economist magazine has been banned in Thailand for articles critical of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, bookstore staff said on Monday, although it was unclear who ordered the ban.

Neither the police, Foreign Ministry nor Culture Ministry - home to the official censor - said they knew of a formal ban on the magazine, which acknowledged in the article that many Thais would 'squirm' at its breaching of the taboo on discussion of the king's role in politics.

HANOI - EIGHT Vietnamese Catholics went on trial on Monday charged with disturbing public order and destroying property in the communist country during rallies over a land dispute.

The defendants were among thousands who joined prayer vigils and peaceful rallies over the past year in the capital Hanoi demanding the return of Catholic church land seized by the state half a century ago.

KURULU (Indonesia) - WEARING nothing but feathers and a long, tapering gourd jutting from his groin, Papuan tribesman Suroba says the Indonesian government cannot force him to wear pants.

Mr Suroba, who estimates his age in his sixties, remembers the last time the government launched a campaign to eradicate the penis gourd, known here as a koteka, in the 1970s. It was a dismal failure.