Vang Pao, a revered leader of the Hmong-American community and a former general in the Royal Army of Laos, is among 10 men charged with plotting to overthrow the Laotian regime. An undercover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives secretly recorded a Feb. 7 luncheon meeting with Vang Pao, former California National Guard Lt. Col. Harrison Ulrich Jack and others at a Thai restaurant near the state Capitol in Sacramento. They then walked to a recreational vehicle parked nearby to examine machine guns, grenade launchers, anti-tank rockets, anti-personnel mines and other weapons, according to the agent's affidavit.

Thousands of protesters at a mosque in Pattani, Thailand, agreed to stand down June 4 after Fourth Army Region Lt. Gen. Wirote Buajaroon signed an order to establish an independent panel to investigate widespread reports of assaults and harassment of Muslims by the Thai military. Local Muslims businesses had shut down in support of the protest, led by students from Ramkamhaeng university. The protest was launched June 1. Protest leader Tuvaedaniya Tuvaemaengae defended the students who hid their faces with scarves, saying that they were concerned about their safety. (The Nation, Thailand, June 4)

A roadside bomb killed 10 government-hired paramilitary troops in southern Thailand's Bannang Sata district, Yala province, as they returned from negotiations with Muslim protesters May 31. Almost immediately after the bombing, gunmen opened fire on a group of Muslim villagers leaving a mosque after evening prayers in nearby Sabayoi district of Songkhla province, killing seven. (Xinhua, AP, June 1)

The Philippine government and the country's largest Islamic rebel group are moving closer to a deal on defining Muslim ancestral, leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have announced. "It's almost in the bag," said Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesman. "The two sides are prepared to resume negotiations right after the dust of the elections settles. We're close to an agreement on the territory issue." The nearly 40-year-old conflict has killed more than 120,000 people and displaced 2 million in the southern island of Mindanao.

Renewed violence in Dili left one dead as Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta was sworn in May 20 as East Timor's president. UN police to fire teargas and warning shots, and arrested 42. Following the first election since independence in 2002, Ramos-Horta was sworn in to replace the former guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao on the same day that East Timor marked five years since independence. Gusmao, a close Ramos-Horta ally, did not contest the election for the largely ceremonial job of president, but will run for the more powerful post of prime minister in next month's parliamentary polls. Ramos-Horta was sworn in by the man he trounced in the May 9 election, parliament speaker Francisco Guterres from the ruling Fretilin party. The street violence was apparently between Ramos-Horta supporters and Fretilin youth. (AFP, May 21)

A home-made bomb ripped through a bus terminal in Mindanao's Cotabato City May 18, killing three and injuring 15 others. About half of the casualties were children. Authorities said the motive was probably extortion, as the bus company had been receiving letters from armed groups demanding money. But Mindanao has been hit by seven bombings this year, many of them blamed on Muslim extremists linked to the Jemaah Islamiah or al-Qaeda terror networks. The bombing came barely a week after Australia and the United States warned their citizens of possible terror attacks in Central Mindanao. On May 8, a device went off in a crowded market in Tacurong, killing eight. (Manila Times, May 19; GMA, May 18)

A roadside bomb has killed seven Special Forces soldiers in an ambush in Narathiwat's Rangae district, in southern Thailand [May 10]. [The Nation, Thailand, May 10] Two policemen have also been killed in a raid on a security checkpoint in the Narathiwat province, while a local government official has been gunned down. [AFP, May 11] The separatists are purported to be changing their tactics, increasingly concentrating attacks on security forces rather than on civilians. [Reuters, May 11]

Twenty people have been injured after a bomb exploded in a busy night market in the southern Thai province of Pattani on [May 1]. Officials believe that Muslim fighters carried out the attack as a means of stirring up communal tensions and in revenge for a mosque bombing on [April 29]. [AlJazeera, May 1]