Gunmen killed a policeman and a bomb wounded three police officers in Thailand's Muslim south yesterday as Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to crack down on suspected Muslim militants and promised more aid for the region.
Unidentified assailants armed with M-16 automatic rifles shot Muslim policeman Aran Santakor, 31, as he walked to work in the province of Pattani, Major Waiyawit Nopparut at Muang district police station told reporters.
The death is the latest in a wave of violence that has killed more than 250 people since January.
Separately, three policemen were wounded yesterday as they investigated an explosion that partly destroyed a rest house in a park in the neighboring province of Yala.
"A booby trap device exploded at the park at around 11am. Three police officers who were inspecting the scene were injured when a second booby trap exploded five minutes later," Yala Governor Boonyasit Suwannarat said. "We believe it was the work of people who want to cause unrest in southern Thailand."
Despite sending in thousands of troops and promising millions of dollars in development aid, the government has failed to stop the violence in the region, home to a fifth of Thailand's 7.5 million Muslims.
Thaksin said yesterday his government was working hard to bring peace and development to an area plagued by more than 600 violent incidents in the four southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia since Jan. 4, when gunmen raided an army camp and stole 400 guns, many of them M-16s.
"The government has intensified all development projects. All ministries involved have started implementing their projects," Thaksin said in his weekly radio address.
"Many more projects are to come because I have given an order that within 30 days, they have to be done quickly," he said. "We need to act quickly on many things, including job creation as well as security. It cannot continue like this. It has been very long already."
Thaksin vowed this month to "go on the offensive," giving security forces 30 days to halt the violence, but attacks have persisted.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
RSS