Thai Army wants officers' gold

The army in Thailand has asked its high-ranking officers to donate the gold from the stars, buckles and insignia on their uniforms to the government to help the country's struggling economy.

The Thai army commander-in-chief General Chetta Thanajaro said he expects each general to give about eighty grams of gold, worth about eight-hundred dollars; fifteen grams would be expected from colonels.

The gold will go to the government's morale-boosting campaign, which has already raised nearly four-hundred-thousand dollars from the public to help pay off Thailand's debts.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service