Amphon Tangnoppakul, who became known as Uncle SMS after he was convicted of defaming Thailand's royal family in a series of text messages, has died in a Bangkok jail.

A Thai man in his 60s who became known as "Uncle SMS" after he was convicted of defaming Thailand's royal family in mobile phone text messages has died while serving his 20-year prison term, his lawyer said today.

A fire caused by explosions in one of the world's largest petrochemical industrial estates has killed 12 and injured more than 100 people in eastern Thailand.

Could George Galloway's widely ridiculed mis-tweet about Respect's by-election being in Blackburn prove a self-fulfilling prophecy? I only ask because even Jack Straw, below, would struggle to brazen it out and remain the MP for Blackburn if he was nicked on suspicion of colluding in the torture of Abdelhakim Belhaj.

Could George Galloway's widely ridiculed mistweet about Respect's by-election being in Blackburn prove a self-fulfilling prophecy? I only ask because even Jack Straw would struggle to brazen it out and remain the MP for Blackburn if he is nicked on suspicion of colluding in the torture of Abdelhakim Belhaj.

Just past the halfway mark in Timothy Mo's seventh novel, his heroine – a strapping Bangkok ladyboy who has joined a company of bloodthirsty Islamist warriors – wanders through a serene orchard on an island close to Singapore. Snooky's jihadi platoon (sanook = fun in Thai) has halted for a brief rest en route to help the insurgent Moros of the Philippines as fellow holy warriors. She (and for all the unwanted testosterone that jungle warfare brings, Snooky's chosen pronoun never wavers) samples the fruit of the ebony tree. It is not dark and dense like the wood, but pale, delicate and enigmatic: "tart and sweet in the same mouthful, soft but crunchy... If marzipan dormice grew on trees... they would taste like this". If this moment smacks of Eden, and forbidden fruit, it also helps initiate Snooky into the mysteries of the jihadi pursuit, where darkness yields to light, stark contradictions resolve themselves, and chaste perfection grows from the crooked timber of humanity.

A British man and his Thai wife have been robbed and beaten to death at a resort in southern Thailand.

The skidding story of the Bangkok bomb plot took another twist yesterday when police revealed they were questioning another Iranian whom they believe could be involved.

Numerous clues were left in the red-light district of the Thai resort by terror team. Peter Popham reports

The explosive devices belonging to three Iranians that went off in Bangkok were more likely designed for assassinating people rather than large-scale terrorism, Thai officials have revealed. They also said the devices were similar to that used to attack the wife of an Israeli diplomat in Delhi earlier in the week.

An Iranian man was seriously wounded in Bangkok today when a bomb he was carrying exploded and blew one of his legs off.

Independent revealed programmes were made by third-party in pay of governments and firms

The success of UK luxury fashion chain Mulberry gathered pace today after it said profits had been given a further boost by a strong Christmas.

The temperature