Thailand Live Monday 21 Feb 2011

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One dead, 13 hurt in bomb in Thai south: police

YALA, February 21, 2011 (AFP) - A bomb exploded Monday in a city in Thailand's insurgency-plagued far south, killing one person and injuring 13 others, police said, the latest in a string of attacks in the region.

The blast occurred at 4.30 pm (0930 GMT) on a busy street in central Yala, the main town in one of three provinces near the Malaysian border that have been under emergency rule since 2005.

"The bomb was hidden inside a motorcycle parked in front of a shopping centre," a local police officer said, adding that the incident took place close to the site of a car bomb attack last week that wounded 18 people.

A female shop worker was killed in the blast and the injured included a police officer.

In neighbouring Narathiwat province, meanwhile, two villagers were killed in a drive-by shooting, police said.

Shadowy Islamic insurgents have waged a violent campaign in Thailand's southernmost region bordering Malaysia since early 2004, leaving more than 4,400 people dead, including both Muslims and Buddhists.

Violence appears to have intensified recently. A bomb in Yala province killed nine villagers last month and an unusually bold attack by militants a week earlier on a military base left at least four soldiers dead.

Seventeen people were wounded in Narathiwat town on Saturday when insurgents launched a grenade attack on a karaoke bar and then detonated a bomb nearby, police said.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2011-02-21

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Phuket police investigate Englishman’s ‘whiskey poisoning’

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to be continued

Thailand Live Tuesday 22 February