BANGKOK – A Thai military court issued an arrest warrant on Tuesday for a second suspect in connection with a wave of deadly bomb attacks last week that killed four people and injured dozens, police said.

Explosions rocked seven provinces in Thailand’s south on Thursday and Friday, just days after Thais voted to accept a military-backed constitution.

No group has claimed responsibility but police and senior officials have publicly ruled out any link to foreign militants.

“The court has approved the arrest warrant for one suspect for the explosions. We can’t say who that individual is,” said Chaiyapol Chatchaidet, commander of the Counter Crime Planning Division.

It was the second arrest warrant issued in connection with the wave of attacks. Police on Sunday said they had arrested one suspect for arson.

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

Reuters, Twitter, AFP

Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan on Monday said the attacks might have involved southern insurgents hired to carry out the bombings but said the bombings were not an extension of a bloody separatist war in the country’s three southern-most Muslim-dominated provinces.

Security experts told Reuters official denial of involvement by Malay-Muslim insurgents was unsurprising as admitting that southern insurgents could be involved would have serious economic and security implications for Thailand.

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

AFP

Thailand is a mainly Buddhist country, but the three southern provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat are majority-Muslim and resistance to central government rule has existed there for decades, resurfacing violently in 2004.

More than 6,500 people have been killed in the region since 2004 in bombings, shootings and arson attacks according to Deep South Watch, a Pattani-based group which monitors the conflict.

YANGON – Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi is heading to China on Wednesday for what is likely to be her government’s biggest diplomatic test, with the fate of a suspended dam project, backed by China but opposed by many people in Myanmar, in the balance.

Myanmar’s former military rulers were shunned by the West and close to China, which has been on a diplomatic offensive since Suu Kyi’s government came to power in April, aiming to forge good ties with its resource-rich southern neighbour.

Finding a solution to the $3.6 billion Myitsone dam project will be important for Suu Kyi who needs China’s co-operation in talks with Myanmar’s ethnic minority armed groups operating along northern borders with China.

“If the Chinese leaders bring up a specific issue like the controversial Myitsone mega-dam project, of course we’ll explain to them what we’ve been doing,” Myanmar foreign ministry permanent secretary Aung Lynn told Reuters.

Former Myanmar President Thein Sein angered China in 2011 when he suspended work on the hydro-power dam, at the confluence of two rivers in the Ayeyarwady river basin, after it drew widespread protests on environmental grounds.

About 90 per cent of the dam’s power would have gone to China. At the time, Suu Kyi also called for the project’s suspension.

China said in March it would push the government to resume the project, insisting the contract was still valid.

A government commission has begun reviewing several hydropower projects, including Myitsone, and is due to report by Nov. 11.

China’s Global Times newspaper, an influential tabloid published by the Communist Party’s People’s Daily, said on Tuesday the commission was a “sign that might herald the restoration of the China-invested project”.

It also noted that Suu Kyi was visiting China ahead of a trip to the United States in September, and that China’s friendship with Myanmar was crucial.

“As Myanmar’s largest neighbour, it is necessary for Suu Kyi to attach importance to China,” the newspaper said.

Other Chinese projects in Myanmar have also proved controversial, including the Letpadaung copper mine, which has sparked repeated protests, and twin Chinese oil and gas pipelines across the country.

Suu Kyi will be in China for four days at the invitation of Premier Li Keqiang. She will also meet President Xi Jinping.

Elements in China have for years maintained contacts with northern Myanmar rebel groups and militias, some of which are led by ethnic Chinese commanders, so China’s help could be key as Suu Kyi’s government seeks to promote peace and stability in lawless border regions.

Her government is holding a peace conference, with most of the country’s ethnic minority armed groups due to take part, on Aug. 31.

SRINAGAR, India – Security forces shot dead five people and wounded another 20 during protests in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Tuesday, according to witnesses and security sources.

Four people were killed in Raipanthan village after residents took to the streets to protest what they said were aggressive tactics by members of the security forces during an overnight patrol designed to enforce a curfew.

One resident said one protester was killed immediately after members of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) opened fire and another three died of their injuries.

A further 12 protesters were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

The identities of the four who died were not immediately known but all were young men.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a security official confirmed to AFP “a patrol party fired on the protesters. Four have died”.

Another protester was shot dead in Larkipora village in south Kashmir after residents clashed with paramilitary troopers, according to witnesses.

A senior police officer in the region and witnesses told AFP that forces fired live rounds during the protests that also left eight people injured.

The deaths come a day after a total of nine people were killed in a series of clashes and gun battles across the region, including a commander of the CRPF which is an Indian paramilitary police unit.

Authorities have imposed a curfew in large parts of Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority state, since July 9 during an upsurge in violence sparked by the killing of a top militant commander called Burhan Wani in a gunfight with security forces.

More than 60 civilians, mostly young men, have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces, and thousands more injured in the region’s worst violence since 2010.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947 but both claim the territory in full.

It is the epicentre of a separatist insurgency, with several rebel groups fighting Indian troops and police as they seek either independence or a merger with Pakistan.

TAIPEI – Three soldiers were killed when a tank slipped and plunged into a river during heavy rains following an annual firing drill in southern Taiwan, officials said Tuesday.

The CM11 armoured vehicle carrying five soldiers was returning to camp in southern Pingtung county around 10:30 am (0230 GMT) after completing the firing test when it slipped from a bridge and fell upside down into the Wangsha river, the army said.

The driver managed to escape with light injuries but four others were trapped inside the vehicle and showed no signs of life when they were rescued.

The army initially said they were all killed but later revised the death toll to three as one soldier was revived after emergency treatment and was transferred to a military hospital in neighbouring Kaohsiung city.

“We are still investigating the cause of the accident,” said Alfonso Yang, a military spokesman.

According to the army, the driver was unable to make a left turn when the vehicle possibly malfunctioned and then fell into the river.

President Tsai Ing-wen expressed her condolences and demanded the military speedily investigate the cause of the incident, her spokesman said.

The accident happened days before Tsai is due to preside over an annual live-fire exercise codenamed “Han Kuang 32” (Han Glory), also in Pingtung county next week, the island’s main yearly drill.