United Nations climate change talks in Bangkok have advanced in forging a negotiating text for the Copenhagen Climate Summit but have stalled on key political issues, the chairman of the talks said Thursday, the penultimate day of negotiations.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been holding talks on a negotiating text for the Copenhagen climate summit in December, which will in theory provide a new climate deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.

The current session started on September 27 and will end Friday.

The Lao army began Saturday to prepare temporary shelter for 8,300 people left homeless by Typhoon Ketsana in the southern provinces of Sekong and Attapeu this week, state media reported.

Defence Minister General Duonchai Pichit, who heads the committee for natural disasters, ordered the shelters built for victims of the storm that hit the landlocked country Wednesday, Radio Laos reported in a broadcast monitored in Bangkok.

Thai shares shot up 2.95 per cent Monday on a regional rally boosted by higher oil prices.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) index ended at 613.67, up 17.56 points or 2.95 per cent.

The opening of a regional highway from Bangkok through Laos to south-western China's Yunnan province has encouraged more traffickers to try smuggling drugs into China, state media said Friday.

Thailand's cabinet Tuesday approved a 122-million-baht (3.4-million-dollar) budget to purchase 20 armoured cars to better protect government leaders and visiting VIPs, following attacks by anti-government protestors.

Deputy government spokesman Supachai Jaisamut said the cars will be used by the Defence Ministry to provide beefed up security for Thai and foreign leaders.

Forced recruitment by the Myanmar military has driven 3,000 Karen refugees into Thailand, and is likely lead to a bigger exodus soon, the Karen Human Rights Group said Tuesday.

Thai health authorities have reported the country's first suspected case of influenza A H1N1, although they were awaiting lab results from the US for verification, media reports said Sunday.

With street violence and assassination attempts on the rise in Thailand, automobile companies have found a lucrative new growth market - bulletproof cars - news reports said Thursday.

This week Germany's BMW AG launched its X5 Security Plus model in Thailand, marketing the vehicle as the first to offer protection against AK-47 assault rifle attacks while Ford Motor Co has offered two bulletproof cars to the deputy prime minister in charge of security, The Nation newspaper reported.