PRESS DIGEST - Thai newspapers - March 3
BANGKOK, March 3 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in Thai newspapers on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
TOP STORIES
- Extraditing convicted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from his self-imposed exile will not be easy, says Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva (BANGKOK POST)
- Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij supported further deregulation of the Thai capital markets, with a subcommittee tasked with completing a study for cabinet consideration in the middle of the year (THE NATION)
- Business leaders are concerned about the government's plan to rescue the automotive sector with a 3 percent excise tax cut, saying it might encourage other industries to ask for similar assistance (BANGKOK POST)
- More than 400 cassava growers from Chanthaburi and Sa Kaew provinces sealed off the Commerce Ministry for two hours (THE NATION)
- Chiang Mai Zoo hopes to welcome the country's first panda offspring in October after artificial insemination was performed on Lin Hui (BANGKOK POST)
BUSINESS
- Thai stocks dived 3.48 percent as most European and Asian markets closed sharply down over fresh worries about the health of the global financial sector (BANGKOK POST)
- Despite the announcement of a further negative inflation figure for last month, the Commerce Ministry and economists voiced the view that it represented only technical deflation, as the prices of most consumer goods remain high (THE NATION)
- The European Union is willing to begin bilateral free trade talks with Thailand in a process that would move together with existing ASEAN-EU talks, a European Commission official said (BANGKOK POST)
- The country's largest developer, Land & Houses Plc (LH) LH.BK, expecting a 10-15 percent drop in the property market and a 2 percent fall in GDP, is to diversify its range of residential units to achieve 1.2 percent sales growth, said senior executive vice president Naporn Sunthornchitcharoen (BANGKOK POST)
** Looking for more information from local sources? Factiva.com has eight Thai sources including the Bangkok Post and The Nation.
