Thailand store bomb deaths

Published on Sunday 17 September 2006 00:58

A SERIES OF bomb attacks left four dead and more than 50 injured in Thailand last night.

Three department stores were hit in the south of the country, in the commercial centre of Hat Yai. The attacks came just hours after the military staged a peace rally in the south, at the site of a Muslim insurgency, and expressed hope that people would work with authorities to end the violence.

Authorities quickly blamed separatist insurgents for the attack. Since 2004, they have waged a bloody campaign that has left at least 1,700 dead. Most of those have been civilians.

Hurricane alert

HURRICANE Lane strengthened to a dangerous category three yesterday as residents of storm-lashed resorts on Mexico's Pacific coast tied down yachts and boarded up windows.

The storm, packing sustained winds near 115mph, is moving towards the Gulf of California.

Hurricane warnings were issued for the southern tip of Baja, and residents between El Roblito and Topolobampo were told to expect hurricane conditions within 24 hours.

Tunnel crash

A BUS carrying a youth ice hockey team collided with a car in a highway tunnel in Switzerland yesterday, killing at least six people.

A fire broke out in the Viamala tunnel following the accident on the A13 highway in the canton of Graubuenden, and heavy smoke was hindering rescuers, police said.

Authorities said two people were still missing.

Money talks

THE Group of Seven rich nations yesterday urged China to let its currency rise faster, to ease imbalances in trade and capital flows that pose a risk to global growth.

G7 finance ministers and central bank chiefs said large emerging economies were not pulling their weight in the collective management of the world economy.

But China, accused by critics of holding the yuan down to boost its exports, was the only country singled out by name.

Bodies dug up

AUSTRALIAN investigators probing the execution-style killing of 17 aid workers exhumed two bodies from a cemetery in eastern Sri Lanka yesterday.

The 17 employees of Action Against Hunger - all but one of them ethnic Tamils - were shot at close range in August amid a fierce battle between the government and rebels for the eastern town of Muttur.