<div> <p>Royalist says unsparing use of law not in interest of monarchy as institution The broad use of lese-majeste law is not beneficial to the monarchy, says Prof Thongthong Chandrangsu, a well-known royalist, expert on royal history and former dean of Chulalongkorn University&#39;s Faculty of Law. </p> </div>

<p>A court in Rangoon on March 5 sentenced three men who didn&rsquo;t know each other to a decade&rsquo;s imprisonment for a crime that they never committed &ndash; or rather, for a crime so nebulous that if any of them had ever used a computer he wouldn&rsquo;t know if he had committed it or not. </p>

<p>A friend told this writer recently that her father had stopped subscribing to Matichon newspapers after being a loyal reader for more than half a decade. This, she said, is almost certainly due to the fact that her parents are now big fans of ASTV, the satellite mouthpiece of the People&#39;s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) which has over the past few months accused Matichon, a long-standing quality broadsheet, of being a pro-Thaksin Shinawatra paper. </p>

<p>A group of Thai students at Oxford University plans to petition Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva today, calling for a reform of the lese-majeste law and the Computer Crime Act while the PM visits the school to speak at his old college. </p>

<p>Last week&#39;s arrest of prachatai.com web director Chiranuch Premchaiporn for an alleged computer crime - allowing the posting of remarks deemed offensive to the monarchy - have shocked people who care about freedom of expression. </p>

<p>BBC - Police in Thailand have arrested the editor of a leading political website, on charges of carrying content that threatens national security.</p>

<p><span>After a full week of Asean news, any readers would be forgiven for not wanting to read more Asean news. The task of building Southeast Asia as a community doesn&#39;t end with the elitist Asean Summit, however. While lots of taxpayers&#39; money has been spent on Asean meetings and on salaries of people like Surin Pitsuwan, the Asean secretary-general, when it comes to the end of the day, peace, democracy and success of people in this region will be tested by how much we know and care about one another.</span></p>

<p><strong>(CNN)</strong> -- Myanmar will allow Rohingya refugees back into the country if they can prove that they are Bengali, Thailand&#39;s foreign ministry said.</p>

<p>BANGKOK POST and AGENCIES - The United States government has admitted for the first time that it had a secret jail in Thailand where suspected al-Qaeda operatives were flown in to be interrrogated, including being subjected to &quot;waterboarding&quot;.</p>

<p>Andrew Walker and Nicholas Farrelly, New Mandala - The following statement was presented at a press conference held at the Foreign Correspondent&rsquo;s Club of Thailand in Bangkok at 10 AM today. The press conference was attended by local and international media and interested members of the public. The press conference was addressed by Thongchai Winichakul and Andrew Walker, both via internet links.</p>

<p>A GROUP of academics have launched a campaign to reform tough laws protecting Thailand&#39;s widely revered monarchy, amid a growing crackdown on alleged violators.</p>

<p><span>DPA - More than 50 international scholars and dignitaries presented a petition Wednesday calling for the reform of laws designed to protect the Thai monarchy which they claim are being abused for political reasons.</span></p>