■ INDONESIA
Airplane crashes in Jakarta
A light airplane crashed into a residential neighborhood in the capital yesterday, killing the pilot and injuring one person on the ground, police said. The aircraft apparently developed engine trouble during the flight before slamming into a water tower and four houses, said police Captain Sudaryo, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name. The 60-year-old pilot -- the only person onboard -- died instantly. One person on the ground was slightly injured, he said. The Pelican aircraft was flying from Tangerang, an industrial town south of Jakarta, to a small airstrip in the east of the capital. The cause of the accident was under investigation, Sudaryo said.
■ INDIA
Grenade thrown at festival
Suspected insurgents lobbed a hand grenade at thousands of people participating in a cultural festival yesterday in the northeast town of Jonai, killing three and wounding another 50, police said. Nearly 15,000 people belonging to the Mising tribe were participating in the festival when the blast went off, said Diwakar Mishra, the top district administrator. Fourteen seriously wounded people were taken to a hospital in nearby Dibrugarh, Mishra said. Police blamed the blast on the United Liberation Front of Asom, a separatist group that has been fighting for an independent homeland in the area for more than two decades. Mishra said the attack in Jonai came as the rebel group observed its "Army Day," which is held to commemorate the date it set up its armed wing in 1981. Several rebel groups are fighting for autonomy or independence in the country's northeast.
■ THAILAND
Swede murdered in Phuket
A Swedish tourist was stabbed to death in the popular southern resort island of Phuket on Saturday, police said. The body of Charlotta Sanua Backlund, 27, was found in Phuket's Mai Khao beach, a tourist police official said. "She was stabbed five times in the neck and had stabbing wounds on her wrists. She was killed around 10 in the morning," the official said, adding that Mai Khao beach was usually quiet. "We believe she was killed by one man who tried to rape her," he said. Police have not made an arrest in the case.
■ THAILAND
Bombs kill two, wound 18
Bombs killed two men and wounded 18 people in two separate attacks in the troubled Muslim deep south, police said yesterday. A 20kg remote-controlled bomb, hidden in a car near the entrance of the CS Pattani hotel in the city of Pattani, killed one man and wounded 13 others on Saturday, police said. Three were injured seriously in the blast. Hours after the hotel bombing, suspected militants used a mobile phone to detonate a 5kg bomb at a Pattani school, killing one firefighter and wounding five others. As security forces rushed the wounded to hospital, they were ambushed by insurgents. One soldier was wounded seriously, police said.
■ JAPAN
Peruvian leader pays visit
Peruvian President Alan Garcia was due to arrive yesterday for a trip symbolizing reconciliation after years of friction over former Peruvian leader Alberto Fujimori. Garcia is expected to seek more investment from Japan on his three-day visit, the first by a Peruvian leader in nearly a decade. The last official visit was by Fujimori himself in 1999, one year before he fled to Tokyo and faxed his resignation from a hotel room, ending a controversial decade in power as a corruption scandal worsened at home. In a sign of the transformed relations between Tokyo and Lima, a Japanese official said Fujimori's ongoing trial in Peru "is not going to be a big issue" during Garcia's visit.
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