Sukree Sukplang / Reuters file

Thai custom officials display seized ivory tusks during a news conference at the customs office of Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok in this Feb. 25, 2011, file photo.

BANGKOK -- Ivory is easy to find on the stalls of Chatuchak Market and River City mall in Bangkok. On display at just one shop are hundreds of pounds of carved elephant tusk, unthinkable in most capitals but freely and legitimately for sale in Thailand.

As many as 30,000 elephants were slaughtered globally last year, environmental groups say, and populations are rapidly dwindling, with poachers undeterred by a ban on the international ivory trade in existence since 1989.

Thailand allows its nationals to trade in ivory from elephants that have died of natural causes inside its borders.

But animal activists say the system is abused and ivory from Africa and elsewhere is "laundered" through the country.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) holds a conference in Bangkok from March 3 to 14 and -- to the embarrassment of the hosts -- environmental groups such as World Wide Fund for Nature and TRAFFIC plan to table a motion calling for sanctions against Thailand.

"One of the reasons Thailand is being hit so hard in the CITES conference is, if you look at the numbers of domestic elephants and the numbers of Thailand's ivory carvers, it doesn't add up," said William Schaedla, director of Southeast Asia for TRAFFIC, an NGO for monitoring wildlife trade.

TRAFFIC estimates the country's elephant population and the natural death rate would provide only 18.5 pounds of ivory per registered carver a year. But poor enforcement and regulation mean Thai merchants can lay their hands on much larger quantities.

'A bottomless pit'
After the 1989 ban, countries were supposed to inventory their pre-existing stockpiles so CITES could keep tabs on them. Thailand never did, animal rights groups say.

"There's an undisclosed amount of ivory in the country, so essentially a bottomless pit to launder through," said Schaedla.

Thai ivory is supposed to be certified, but according to Schaedla this involves an easily forged slip of paper that the government doesn't bother to track, meaning African ivory can easily enter the market.

These failures mean Thailand now faces sanctions that, at their strongest, would ban its participation in international trade in the most endangered CITES-listed species, including reptile skins and rare orchids in which it has thriving markets.

Only Thai nationals should be able to buy ivory inside the country but buyers from Europe, the Americas and China are more common. Crackdowns are rare, and mostly occur during the run-up to CITES conferences, NGOs said.

Efforts have been made to clean up the laws governing elephants, but lobbying from ivory carvers and elephant owners derailed the process.

"The resolution of this issue is about political will, and Thailand has repeatedly kicked the can down the road," said Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC's director for South and East Africa.

Some believe sanctions aren't enough, and that the only way to save Africa's elephants is to ban all ivory markets, including those in Thailand and China, the world's largest.

"Our position is any legal market provides a parallel illegal market," said Mary Rice of the Environmental Investigation Agency, a London-based NGO.

Ivory 'should be illegal'
The EIA estimates that over 90 percent of the ivory on sale in China is illegally sourced.

"We must target the demand side and ensure markets in China and Thailand for ivory are banned. Ivory should be illegal without exception," Shelley Waterland of the Born Free Foundation told a news conference in Bangkok on Thursday.

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on Wednesday Thailand would "consider" a ban on the domestic ivory trade, but some officials apparently see no need.

"The Thai government has a system to control the ivory trade from domestic animals already," said Theeraphat Prayurasith, deputy director of Thailand's Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Protection.

"We do not use African ivory in this country, and the quantities are not too large to be from domestic ivory. It is the right of Thai people to use domestic elephants," he said.

Activists will argue at the CITES conference that this system is not working, and the Thai ivory trade is a big factor behind dwindling African elephant populations.

"No one is going to hammer them and hit them with sanctions if they do something. But there's an appearance of subterfuge and stalling," said Schaedla.

Reuters

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China Daily / Reuters

Drug lord Naw Kham is taken from a Chinese jail to be executed on Friday.

BEIJING – A notorious gang leader and drug lord from Myanmar was among four foreigners executed in China Friday, marking the first time Beijing has extradited, tried and put to death foreign nationals. 

Naw Kham and three accomplices from Thailand and Laos were given a lethal injection in Yunnan’s provincial capital, Kunming, late Friday afternoon.

The four were found guilty last year and sentenced Wednesday for the October 2011 hijacking of two cargo ships and the murder of 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River.

But Beijing’s decision to live broadcast the final moments of the men as they waited in their cells followed by their walk to waiting police cars to the execution facility has drawn criticism across China’s websphere.

The four were additionally found guilty of smuggling drugs, kidnapping and hijacking cargo ships in the “Golden Triangle,” a section of territory that overlaps parts of Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos that accounts for much of Asia’s opium and methamphetamines production.

Beijing contends that, while Naw Kham masterminded the hijacking of the two Chinese cargo ships, he also colluded with Thai soldiers who may have been responsible for the slaying of the sailors. 

Thai authorities are investigating nine of their soldiers alleged to be involved in the incident.

The capture of Naw Kham – who was at the center of the region's bustling drug trade – was a coup for Chinese police and anti-drug ministries, which reportedly spent a year tracking the infamous smuggler.

The search was unprecedented as it marked the first time that Chinese forces were seen actively searching for foreign national criminal suspects outside of China’s borders.

Task force
The importance Beijing placed on the search was underscored by a report last month by Chinese state media that revealed a task force set up to capture Naw Kham had at one point considered a controversial plan to use an unmanned drone to bomb a suspected hideout of Naw Kham’s gang in northeastern Myanmar.   

The scheme was scrapped after the order to capture Naw Kham alive and bring him to trial was reiterated from senior leaders.

Naw Kham’s capture and subsequent trial was given significant coverage in Chinese state media. In the run up to Friday’s execution, long reports detailing the gang’s crimes, celebrating the diligent work of China’s security forces and explaining the method of execution were repeatedly played on Chinese broadcaster CCTV.

CCTV also ran two hours of live coverage leading up to the executions, showing the men’s final moments as they were led from their prison cells to execution facility. Despite rampant rumors and speculation that the state broadcaster was planning on showing the execution live, it ended its live coverage after the men were driven away.  

The magnitude of Naw Kham’s capture and execution was never underplayed, with one CCTV reporter noting that officials there were comparing Naw Kham’s case to the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

The comparison carries an undeniable message from the country’s ruling Communist Party to its people: China can and will look out for its nationals both at home and abroad.

But many in China found the live broadcast of the men’s final moments in poor taste and an uncomfortable reminder of show executions from China’s turbulent period during the Cultural Revolution.

“Even though they are deserved to die, these criminals have dignity too,” wrote one user on China’s Twitter-like service, Weibo, “The Cultural Revolution is back.”

“China is a country without humanity,” lamented another.

“CCTV is as cruel as these criminals,” one user bluntly noted. 

Mo Shaoping, a prominent criminal lawyer and advisor at the Central University of Finance and Economics Law School, argued that Beijing’s decision to broadcast the prisoners’ final moments was less about striking a nationalist chord and more about showing how the country has improved its handling of the death penalty – a sensitive topic for China’s leadership.

“China has made progress in how it deals with the death penalty,” Mo said. “showing everything live helps people see that prisoners are being treated humanely in their final moments.”

Indeed, much of the commentary on CCTV as cameras rolled on Naw Kham in his cell discussed how he had been given a full doctor’s inspection and that officers in the room had made small chat and offered cigarettes to the kingpin to help him relax.

They also noted that Naw had actually gained weight and looked healthier after months under Chinese supervision.

Mo also noted that the use of lethal injection mean that potential donor organs could not be harvested from the men, addressing another common criticism of China’s previous handling of state executions.

NBC News Le Li contributed to this report.

Jerry Root / AP

British couple Peter Root and Mary Thompson, both 34, pose in an undated photo. They were killed in Thailand in a road accident during their round-the-world cycling odyssey.

A British couple's round-the-world cycling odyssey ended in tragedy when both of them were killed in a road accident in Thailand.

Peter Root and Mary Thompson, who had been chronicling their journey in a blog, died Wednesday when they were hit by a pickup truck in a province east of Bangkok, Thai police said Monday.

The couple, both 34 and from Guernsey in the Channel Islands, left Britain in July 2011 and had cycled through Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and China.

The trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the couple, who met in art school and spent six years saving money and planning their journey, Peter's father Jerry Root told the Associated Press in an interview.

"They were both inspirational," Jerry Root said. "They didn't just talk about it, they did it. I couldn't be prouder of them."

He said they were both experienced cyclists who knew the rigors and risks of extended bicycle travel.

"They were camping wild, as they called it," he said. "What helps me is to think of how happy they were with each other. They were leading the life they wanted to. It was the happiest, the most fruitful of lives."

The couple had been posting photos and details of their trip on the website Two on Four Wheels. They also had many followers on Twitter and Facebook who were tracing their journey and vicariously enjoying their adventure, which included a trip through remote parts of Central Asia.

A video they posted from that part of the journey shows them camping in the desert, riding through hills, stopping to swim in rivers and lakes, and braving heavy snowstorms. They also cycle through tense situations as armed conflict breaks out during their journey through Tajikistan.

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There is also footage showing Thompson suffering a gash to her knee after an apparent collision with a truck.

The couple look tanned, joyous and relaxed — if a bit windblown — in the footage. It is apparent life on the road agreed with them.

"They never talked about the trip as having a destination or a deadline or a time scale," said Ben Thompson, Mary's brother. "They didn't have firm plans, they had rough ideas. They just loved people. They were always dragging people to the campfire to share a story and a beer and some food."

After Southeast Asia, the couple were planning to make their way to New Zealand for a brief respite, he said.

Thai Police Lt. Col. Supachai Luangsukcharoen said Monday that investigators found their bodies, their bicycles and their belongings scattered along a roadside, along with a pickup truck that crashed between some trees.

Supachai said the truck driver, 25-year-old Worapong Sangkhawat, was seriously injured in the crash. He told police his truck hit the cyclists as he was reaching down to pick up a cap from the vehicle's floor, Supachai said.

The driver has been released on bail and faces charges of causing death by dangerous driving, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.

Police said the couple's bodies were being kept at a rescue unit in Chachoengsao, 20 miles (30 kilometers) east of Bangkok, until they could be repatriated.

Rosie Brown / Yankee-Brown Productions

A U.S. Navy landing craft arrives at Thailand's Hat Yao beach during Cobra Gold 2013, a military exercise involving 13,000 military personnel.

HAT YAO, Thailand -- An ear-thumping explosion reverberates around the bay as a plume of water shoots hundreds of yards into the air.

Two Marine F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets scream by overhead, while Huey and Super Cobra helicopters bank hard, simulating bombing runs. Heavily armed, amphibious assault vehicles churn up the sand as they unleash hordes of U.S. Marines onto one of Thailand's idyllic eastern beaches.

Cobra Gold 2013 -- the largest multinational military exercise in the Asia-Pacific region -- is officially under way.

Rosie Brown / Yankee-Brown Productions

A Thai marine waits patiently for instructions in the midday sun during Cobra Gold 2013.

The annual exercise is in its 32nd iteration and involves 13,000 military personnel countries, including Japan and South Korea, as well as observers from China and, for the first time, Myanmar.

For 10 days, these forces will conduct a variety of field exercises, from amphibious assaults and jungle warfare to humanitarian and civic assistance projects.

Leading the exercises are more than 1,000 Marines and sailors from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, part of Amphibious Force 7th Fleet.

Many of these servicemen and women will play a major role in America's new "Asia pivot" defense strategy, which calls for the strengthening of U.S. military power in the region.

"The pivot to the Pacific that President Obama has talked about is a refocusing of assets and efforts after over 10 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq," said Capt. Cathal O'Connor, commander of Amphibious Squadron 11. "But the actual relationship of being out here in the Pacific goes back to the time of the Civil War."

Cobra Gold itself is a holdover from the Cold War when it was one of the key pillars of U.S. regional security.

'A deterrent'
During the height of the Cold War, the exercise regularly simulated invasions of Thailand from its northern and eastern borders.

Now with U.S. once again focused on the Pacific, Cobra Gold has taken on renewed significance, explained Jon Grevatt, an Asia-Pacific analyst for IHS Jane's.

"It has new purpose to show the strength of military collaboration between the U.S. and its partner nations, creating a deterrent to Chinese and North Korean ambitions," he said.

Tensions have been rising in the region with the dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku Islands – known as Diaoyu in Chinese -- and North Korea's latest nuclear test.

Rosie Brown / Yankee-Brown Productions

Plumes of smoke rise from simulated bombing runs over Hat Yao beach in Thailand.

This strengthening has already begun with the Navy sending a newly upgraded, guided-missile cruiser, USS Antietam, to join the 7th Fleet based in Japan. The Antietam gives the Navy a more sophisticated air-defense system, particularly against ballistic missiles.

More ships will be arriving in the region in the near future as the Pentagon continues its plan to shift around 60 percent of all Navy warships to the Asia-Pacific theater by 2020.

And it's not just the Navy getting in on the action, the Marines have deployed two battalions -- nearly 2,000 troops -- to Okinawa in the last six weeks with more scheduled to arrive this summer. There are now more than 17,000 U.S. Marines based in Japan -- the most in over a decade.

Both Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta have visited Southeast Asia in recent months, reinforcing how critical the Asia-Pacific theater has become to U.S. strategy.

"We all know that the Asia-Pacific is the traffic highway of so many goods and services. A great many things are manufactured in this part of the world," said Rear Adm. Jeffrey A. Harley, commander of Amphibious Force 7th Fleet. "The United States has been a presence in the Pacific for many, many years… and they will continue to be so."

Sheila A. Smith, an expert on regional security in Asia for the Council on Foreign Relations, said that despite the fact China had accepted an invitation to observe Cobra Gold "military exercises always raise eyebrows."

“The president is a Pacific president," she said. "I think he realizes that the region has been overlooked. It’s not threat-based or military-driven. The large part is an adjustment of diplomatic focus."

Rosie Brown / Yankee-Brown Productions

US Marines assault Hat Yao beach during an exercise as part of Cobra Gold 2013.

Matt Stumpf, an expert on U.S.-Asian relations at the Asia Society think tank, added: "I think what’s notable about this year’s exercise is in the context of the rebalancing of U.S. policy toward Asia.

"The president and [former Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton have both spoken in depth on their views that Asia is critical to the United States in the 21st century. And with the drawdown in Afghanistan and the end of the war in Iraq, there was an opportunity in Asia to refocus diplomatic, defense and development tools for U.S. goals in the region."

NBC News Staff Writer John Newland contributed to this report.

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Tuwaedaniya Meringing / AFP - Getty Images

Thai police stand guard after a suspected insurgent attack at a military base in southern Thailand on Wednesday. Scores of heavily armed gunmen stormed the base in a major assault that left 16 militants dead.

BANGKOK -- A pre-dawn raid on a Thai military base ended with 16 militant Muslim insurgents killed on Wednesday in the deadliest violence in the country's south in nine years, marking a dangerous escalation in one of Asia's least-known conflicts.

Acting on a tip-off, marines lit flares and opened fire as up to 60 insurgents wearing military fatigues approached the base at about 1 a.m. local time in Narathiwat province on the Malaysian border, Internal Security Operations Command spokesman Pramote Phromin said. No Thai military members were hurt.

Violence is common in Thailand's south, but the scale of the attack and targeting of a marine base illustrate the difficulty Buddhist-majority Thailand faces in preventing the low-intensity Muslim insurgency from turning into a more dangerous conflict.

Surapan Boonthanom / Reuters

Thai security personnel investigate around bodies of insurgents at the site of an attack on a military base in the troubled southern province of Narathiwat on Wednesday.

Although there is no indication of the fighting spreading beyond the provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, just a few hours' drive from some of Thailand's most popular tourist beaches, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra appears powerless to quell the almost daily gunfights and bomb attacks.

"It was only going to be a matter of time before this type of incident happened," said Anthony Davis, a Thailand-based analyst at security consulting firm IHS-Jane's.

"The insurgents have been moving towards larger attacks on military bases since 2011. At the same time, there has been more proactive security intelligence work."

Experts say the insurgency is becoming better organized. Wednesday's death toll was the biggest since security forces stormed a mosque, known as the Krue Se mosque, in 2004, killing 32 Muslims in a raid that intensified the insurgency.

Since then, more than 5,300 people have been killed in the three provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, where insurgents are seeking greater autonomy.

About 94 percent of the region's 1.7 million people are Muslim, the main religion in neighboring Malaysia and in nearby Indonesia, and about 80 percent of them speak a Malay dialect as a first language, according to a 2010 survey by the Asia Foundation.

In recent weeks, attacks have appeared bolder. Five soldiers were killed by suspected insurgents on Sunday. That followed a spate of attacks on civilians, including one this month in which four fruit traders from outside the region were found shot dead with their hands and legs bound.

The government is considering imposing a curfew in parts of the south, where the military already has wide-ranging powers of search and arrest under an emergency decree.

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Nicolas Asfouri / AFP - Getty Images

Somyot Prueksakasemsuk arrives at criminal court in Bangkok on Thursday. He was handed a 10-year prison sentence for insulting the monarchy.

BANGKOK -- A Thai activist and former magazine editor was given a 10-year prison sentence Wednesday for insulting the royal family under the country's draconian lese-majeste law, drawing condemnation from international rights groups and the European Union.

Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, who was editor of a magazine devoted to self-exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was found guilty of publishing articles in 2010 defaming King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The government later shut down the magazine, called Voice of Taksin, or "voice of the oppressed."

The articles criticized the role of a fictional character meant to represent the king, public prosecutors said in a July 2011 report. Discussions about the role of the monarchy are forbidden under the law, which translates to "injured majesty."

"The accused is a journalist who had a duty to check the facts in these articles before publishing them. He knew the content defamed the monarchy but allowed their publication anyway," a judge said in passing sentence.

The European Union Delegation to Thailand said the verdict and sentence undermined the right to freedom of expression.

"At the same time, it affects Thailand's image as a free and democratic society," it said in a statement.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said the ruling was "more about Somyot's strong support for amending the lese-majeste law than about any harm incurred by the monarchy".

Rights groups say the lese-majeste law is used by Thailand's powerful elite to silence political opponents, including supporters of pro-Thaksin groups.

Websites accused of defaming the royal family are frequently shut down.

The 85-year-old king, who has been in hospital since 2009, is seen by many in Thailand as a unifying, semi-divine father figure.

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Thais divided by anti-free speech crackdown

MAE SOT, Thailand -- Clipboard in hand, Dr Francois Nosten worked his way down a ward of malaria patients. He stopped in front of five-year-old Ayemyint Than, who sat to attention and smiled. The smile told Nosten as much as his lines of graphs and figures.

Ian Williams / NBC News

Ayemyint Than, 5, is being treated for malaria in northwestern Thailand.

"She's doing well," he said, moving to an older man, whose pale face and dull sunken eyes told a very different story. "Day five, and he's still positive?" he asked another of the doctors. "That's not very good. It means he was very slow to clear the parasite, no?"

To Nosten, it was further evidence of an alarming rise in resistance to artemisinin, currently the front-line drug in the treatment of malaria. He fears it could be the start of a global "nightmare" in which millions of people could lose their lives.

"We have to beat this resistance, win this race and eliminate the parasite before it’s too late. That's our challenge now," he said.

He said that artemisinin should take about 24 hours to deal with the parasite, but it was now taking three or four days in some cases. "We are going to see patients that don't respond to the treatment anymore,” he warned.

Nosten runs the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, which is part of the Faculty of Tropical Medicine at Thailand's Mahidol University.

The unit has a string of clinics on both sides of the Moi River, which marks the porous border between Thailand and Myanmar.

Ian Williams / NBC News

Migrants cross the Moi River, marking the border between Myanmar and Thailand.

Nosten set up the first one in 1986, since when there has been a steady fall in the total number of cases of malaria, but most recently a worrying emergence of drug resistance.

He first sounded the alarm in research published earlier this year, following the emergence of similar drug resistance along the Thai-Cambodia border.

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Nosten’s not sure whether the resistance he's found has spread from the Cambodia border or is home-grown. Either way, he's worried.

"It means that all the progress of the last 10 to 15 years will be lost," he warned. "Now the resistance is here, we worry that we are running out of time."

Ian Williams / NBC News

Staff examine a baby who has been brought to the clinic with a fever, suspected to be malaria.

The malaria parasite -- carried by infected mosquitoes from person to person -- still kills an estimated 655,000 people a year.

That's almost 2,000 a day, mostly in Africa, with children being most at risk.

If the world loses its front-line drug, the impact could be devastating.

"The nightmare scenario is that the resistance will travel," Nosten said.

"We know what will happen in Africa when resistance is bad because we've been there before in the 1990s with chloroquine (another anti-malarial drug) … millions of deaths," he warned.

"We must prevent artemisinin resistance reaching Africa, but we also need to control it for the people in Asia - for their future."

Ian Williams / NBC News

Dr Francois Nosten, right, consults staff as he meets malaria patients at a clinic near Mae Sot, Thailand.

Resistance to just about every major anti-malarial drug has started in the border regions that have been home to Nosten for more than 25 years.

Nobody knows exactly why, but poverty, conflict and large migrant and refugee populations constantly on the move all likely play a part. As do fake drugs or a failure to properly complete a course of treatment.

In the case of chloroquine, once the anti-malarial drug of choice, it took less than 20 years for resistance to spread from the borders of Thailand to Africa.

Study: Mosquitoes change habits to avoid anti-malaria nets

Nosten is worried that artemisinin resistance is growing much faster than he'd anticipated, with the drug failing initially to fully clear the parasite in more than half the cases he now sees.

"It initially goes after a few days, then it comes back. We see that more and more now," he said.

"In 2009, we still had 90 percent of patients cured. In 2010, it dropped to 60 to 70 percent. Now it's about 50 percent," he added.

Ian Williams / NBC News

Migrants from Myanmar wait to be examined at a clinic on the Thai side of the border.

Some scientists claim this is too alarmist, since the parasite does eventually die, with longer treatment and higher drug doses, but Nosten sees no room for complacency.

"We have to respond quickly, not next year or three years' time. It's now or probably it will be too late," he said.

Artemisinin comes from a Chinese plant and is quick, potent and with no side effects. Little wonder it has been hailed as a wonder drug, the golden bullet in the global fight against malaria.

What makes the resistance so worrying is that there is no new drug ready to replace it.

Nosten said that although several drugs are in development, they could be five to 10 years away from deployment "if they make it  … and we haven't got five to 10 years.”

The Shoklo Malaria Research Unit runs its own labs fashioned out of a sprawling old Thai house in the border town of Mae Sot, where teams of research scientists are working to better understand the parasite and the mosquitoes that carry it from person to person.

It is here that Chiara Andolina keeps mosquitoes that are literally hand-reared -- fed from her arm, which she extends through a mesh hole into a container of the hungry creatures every three days.

"Usually I feed around 600 of them in a cage like this," she said.

Of course these are not infected mosquitoes, though watching them settle on her arm for a good lunch is not a sight for the squeamish.

Read more international coverage from NBC News

In another room, Nosten settled over photographs showing the rapid development of the parasite once it has invaded a blood cell.

"If you can kill them very, very young -- like these -- they don't have time to develop into big fatty ones," he said, his pen jabbing at the photo. "These fatty ones are the ones that get stuck in your brain and kill you."

In other rooms, the DNA of parasites was being isolated and sequenced and drugs were being tested as part of Nosten and his team’s efforts to figure out what's behind the emerging resistance.

They are also looking for vulnerabilities and new ways to attack their enemy.

"It's hugely important to understand what's going on and contain it if we can," Nosten said. "We need to try things. We need to explore. It’s like exploring new territories in malaria."

Bazell: Malaria vaccine a half-effective, temporary protection

The French scientist has spent most of his working life in the tropics, initially with the medical humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières.

He believes he is engaged in a vital battle -- "a race against malaria" -- as he puts it.

After so many years on the malarial front lines, the battle has become deeply personal.

He dreams of completely eliminating this familiar but wily enemy.

However, he also knows that with the emergence of artemisinin resistance the stakes have never been higher.

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Royal Household Bureau via EPA

Thai people wearing yellow shirts flock to Royal Plaza ahead of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej's public appearance during 85th birthday celebrations on the balcony of Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall in Bangkok, Thailand, Dec. 5.

Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

Thai people, wearing yellow, wave flags as tens of thousands come to pay respect to Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej as he makes a rare public appearance on the occasion of his his 85th birthday, Dec. 5, in Bangkok, Thailand.

Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

Thai people, wearing yellow, come to pay respect to Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej as he makes a rare public appearance on the occasion of his his 85th birthday, Dec. 5, in Bangkok, Thailand. 

Kerek Wongsa / Reuters

Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej leaves the Siriraj Hospital for the Anatasamakom Throne Hall in Bangkok, Dec. 5.

Chaiwat Subprasom / Reuters

A volunteer carries a woman as she fainted before Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej arrived for a ceremony outside the Anatasamakom Throne Hall in Bangkok, Dec. 5.

Hundreds of thousands lined the streets of Bangkok and crowded into the city's Royal Plaza to pay tribute to King Bhumibol Adulyadej on his 85th birthday. The world's longest-reigning monarch was hospitalized in September 2009 and has since taken up permanent residence at the Siriraj Hospital. He appeared on the ceremonial balcony before crowds wearing yellow clothing, the color associated with the monarchy and adopted by the country’s royalists. Last month, the monarch met with President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. The queen was not present for the king’s speech, but his son and heir-apparent, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, was at his side.

Royal Household Bureau via EPA

Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, center, sitting next to his family members, from left to right: Princess Soamsawali Mahidol, his older daughter Princess Ubol Ratana, Princess Siribhachudabhorn, youngest daughter Princess Chulabhorn Mahidol, Princess Aditayadornkitikhun, Royal Consort Princess Srirasm, grandson Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, his son Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn and his daughter Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.

Athit Perawongmetha / Getty Images

People hold up candles and sing a song honoring King Bhumibol Adulyadej during a ceremony celebrating the King's birthday on Dec. 5, in Bangkok, Thailand.

Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

Thai royal nurses hold candles during celebrations for King Bhumibol Adulyadej 85th birthday, Dec. 5, in Bangkok, Thailand.

Reuters

Police scuffle with anti-government protesters near the government house in Bangkok on Nov. 24.

Reuters

Tear gas is thrown as police scuffle with anti-government protesters near the government house in Bangkok on Nov. 24.

Thousands of protesters gathered near parliament in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, on Saturday, demanding the ouster of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. 

AP reported: The rally was mostly peaceful in its early stages. Police, however, fired tear gas to disperse between 50 to 100 people who tried to break through a line of concrete barricades erected on a street near the protest site.

The demonstration underscores the still-simmering political divisions that have split the country since the army toppled Yingluck's brother Thaksin Shinawatra in a 2006 military coup.

Continue reading the AP article.

Sunti Tiger / AP

A tear gas canister is thrown to anti-government protesters, who call for Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down in a rally, in Bangkok on Nov. 24.

Sakchai Lalit / AP

Anti-government protesters calling for Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down, protect their eyes as police fired tear gas to disperse them in Bangkok, Nov. 24.

Reuters

Police detain anti-government protesters after a scuffle near the government house in Bangkok on Nov. 24.

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Updated at 9:50 a.m. ET: BANGKOK - President Barack Obama kicked off a three-country Asian tour with a visit to Thailand on Sunday, using his first post-election trek overseas to try to show he is serious about shifting the U.S. strategic focus eastwards. 

Obama's itinerary will include a landmark visit to once-isolated Myanmar and an East Asia summit in Cambodia as he seeks to re-calibrate U.S. economic and security commitments. This is intended to counter China's influence at a time when America is disentangling itself from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

But his attention will be divided during his travels as he faces a simmering crisis in the Gaza Strip pitting Israel against Hamas militants, plus economic problems at home. 

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In Bangkok, a monk in bright orange robes gave Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a private tour of the centuries-old Wat Pho temple, taking them past its massive reclining Buddha. 

Somehow, the fiscal problems back in Washington came up. 

"We're working on this budget. We're going to need a lot of prayer for that," Obama was overheard telling the monk, a light-hearted reference to a fiscal showdown in Washington over tax increases and spending cuts that kick in at the end of the year unless Obama and congressional Republicans can reach a deal. 

Capitol Hill leaders sound optimistic notes after fiscal cliff talks with Obama

Later, at a press joint conference with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra the president said it was no accident that Thailand was the first  country he decided to visit after his re-election.

"As I've said many times, the U.S. is a Pacific nation. (The) Pacific will sculpt the future of the U.S.," he said. "That's why I've made restoring U.S. engagement a cornerstone -- Thailand is America's oldest friend in Asia ... we've been treaty allies for 60 years."

The U.S. administration regards Thailand as a key ally for advancing an "Asia pivot" that Obama announced last year with an eye to an increasingly assertive China. Obama, who was born in Hawaii and spent part of his youth in Indonesia, has called himself America's first "Pacific president". 

His choice of Southeast Asia for his first foreign trip since winning re-election on November 6 is meant to show he intends to make good on his pledge to boost ties with one of the world's fastest-growing regions, a strategy his aides see as crucial to his presidential legacy. 

It is his second extensive trek through Asia in little more than a year. 

Audience with king
Obama also had a an audience with King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 84, the world's longest-reigning monarch, who has been in hospital recovering from an illness since September 2009. 

The king's softly spoken words made Obama smile at one point. "Elections in the United States are very long but it's very gratifying to know people still have confidence in me," the president responded. 

Royal Palace / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks with Thai King Bhumibol Adulayadej during an audience at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok on Sunday.

"I thought it was very important that my first trip after the elections was to Thailand, which is such a great ally," he added. 

Obama and the king also exchanged gifts, according to journalists traveling with American officials. The president gave the monarch an album with pictures of the king with former U.S. presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson and former first lady Nancy Reagan.  

It wasn't immediately known what the king's present to the Obamas was.

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Myanmar visit
In the centerpiece of his three-day tour, Obama will on Monday make the first U.S. presidential visit to Myanmar, also known as Burma, another milestone in Washington's rapprochement with the former pariah state, where a fragile transition is under way after decades of military rule. 

The trip "was not an endorsement of the Burmese government," Obama told journalists at the press conference in Thailand. It was instead an "acknowledgement that there is a process underway inside that country that nobody foresaw -- the president is taking steps that move us in a better direction, Sui Kyi is now a member of parliament, prisoners have been released."

Obama will meet President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the struggle against military rule and, like Obama, is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. 

Prisoners freed in Myanmar ahead of Obama visit

The president's aides have said the Myanmar trip was meant to lock in progress so far and that he will speak forcefully on the need to do more on human rights, especially to curb sectarian violence. 

Reuters and NBC News staff contributed to this report.

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