BANGKOK - THAILAND'S cabinet on Tuesday appointed another member of a protest group behind a crippling siege of Bangkok's airports as an advisor to the government, an official spokesman said.

BANGKOK - THAILAND'S new cabinet has approved a package of tax cuts worth 10 billion baht (S$431 million) in a further attempt to boost the economy, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said on Tuesday.

The package comes on top of a 115-billion-baht economic stimulus package which was passed by the cabinet a week ago to counter the economic slowdown after months of street protests against the previous government.

BANGKOK - THAILAND'S premier insisted on Tuesday that his country had respected the rights of boat people from Myanmar, saying reports that the migrants were mistreated and abandoned at sea were 'exaggerated'.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva also said that foreign tourists who reportedly witnessed the incidents may have misunderstood what the Thai army and navy were trying to do with the immigrants.