■ THAILAND
Three Muslim men killed
Suspected separatist rebels have shot dead three Muslim men in separate attacks across the insurgency-hit south, police said yesterday. Two unidentified men on a motorcycle shot dead a 28-year-old villager in front of his house in Narathiwat Province late on Saturday. Hours later in nearby Yala Province, the son of a local politician was killed by gunmen, while a third Muslim was shot dead elsewhere in the same province as he returned home from the local mosque, police reported. More that 3,000 people have been killed since separatist violence erupted in the south in January 2004.
■ CAMBODIA
US investigation called for
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy called yesterday for the US FBI to renew its probe into a grenade attack that killed at least 16 people more than a decade ago. Sam Rainsy addressed supporters outside the parliament building in Phnom Penh, where exactly 11 years ago four grenades were hurled into a crowd of anti-government protesters, wounding at least 120 people including a US citizen. Despite the government's insistence that the case is still open, no one has been arrested in connection with the bloody attack.
■ INDONESIA
Soldier shot to death
A soldier was shot dead in Aceh Province where a 29-year separatist conflict ended with a peace pact in 2005, a report in Jakarta said yesterday. Two men on a motorcycle early on Saturday shot into a car driven by First Sergeant Ujang in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, killing him, the Media Indonesia newspaper quoted Aceh military chief Major General Supiadin as saying. Another soldier and two civilians were also in the car but one of the civilians, a former guerrilla, ran away from the scene and authorities were searching for him, Supiadin said. Violence has been rare in the province since the 2005 peace pact was signed.
■ MYANMAR
Official to visit India
The second-highest ranking member of the ruling junta, Senior General Maung Aye, will visit India in the near future, state-run media said yesterday. The Myanmar-language Myanma Ahlin newspaper did not give a date for the visit of Maung Aye, who is vice chairman of the military council. But diplomatic sources here said it would begin on Wednesday. An aid agreement on the US$120 million Kaladan project is expected to be signed during the five-day visit. India's funding would allow for the upgrading of waterways and highways along the Kaladan river and development of Sittway port in Myanmar's Rakhine state.
■ ITALY
Berlusconi makes plea
Poll favorite former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi urged Italians on Saturday in Taormina not to "waste their ballots" on small parties in next month's election, fearing a messy voting system could deprive him of a clear-cut victory. With just over two weeks to go before the April 13 to April 14 vote, the latest survey before a ban on opinion polls came into force on Saturday gave Berlusconi a lead of 8.6 percent on his rival Walter Veltroni. If confirmed, such a result would grant the conservative media tycoon's People of Freedom party and his allies a comfortable majority in the lower house of parliament.
■ ITALY
Protesters oppose tunnel
A project to bore a tunnel through the Italian Alps to create a high-speed rail link between Turin and Lyon, France, was to face a new protest yesterday. Diehard opponents of the project were to line up in Chiomonte to buy a symbolic square meter of land each along the route of the planned rail line. More than 1,250 activists are involved in the initiative to oppose the tunnel, which has an estimated pricetag of 7.6 billion euros (US$12 billion). "You don't buy a Ferrari when you can't afford a dentist for your children," organizer Alberto Perino said, adding that it would create longstanding debt as well as "causing considerable ecological damage by draining the valley's water resources."
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