PRESS DIGEST - Thai newspapers - March 17

BANGKOK, March 17 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in Thai newspapers on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

TOP STORIES

- Unprecedented car bombs in Pattani and Yala that left three people dead and many injured have triggered concerns among security authorities and analysts that insurgents in the far South are shifting to more advanced and radical tactics (BANGKOK POST)

- Security forces went on high alert in the deep South, carrying out blind sweeps amid growing fears that more car bombings would be carried out after two such incidents (THE NATION)

- The head of the provincial Chamber of Commerce has made an urgent plea to hotels, entertainment sports and retail outlets to boost their security after the fatal attack at the upscale CS Pattani Hotel (THE NATION)

- Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej says Westerners are overly critical of Myanmar and he has new-found respect for the ruling junta after learning that they meditate like good Buddhists should (BANGKOK POST)

- Continuing political polarisation reflected in the growing number of media outlets either for the Thaksin-Samak administration or the pro-palace, pro-military People's Alliance for Democracy is raising concerns in many quarters (THE NATION)

- A senator threatened to file a suit in the Constitutional Court against three cabinet members who have refused to suspend themselves from duty after an anti-graft panel filed charges against them (THE NATION)

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