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]

The following account makes it sound like the the litigants were whining and frivolous, just looking for a cynical buck. But a photo caption accompanying the story in the Denver Post read: "Protesters display a photo of a sick child whose disease believed to have been caused by pollution from the Newmont mining during a demonstration against the mining company outside a court in Manado, 24 April 2007." From the AP, April 24:

Hundreds of Buddhist monks rallied outside the parliament building in Bangkok April 17 calling for Buddhism to be enshrined in the constitution as Thailand's national religion. The country's military-appointed government plans to unveil a new national constitution this month. In 1997, a campaign to make Buddhism the national religion was dropped amid concerns that it would divide the country. Since then, an Islamist insurgency has flared in Thailand's south, leaving more than 2,000 dead in the last three years. Previous Thai constitutions have never declared a state religion, although the current constitution states that the king must be a Buddhist and upholder of all religions. (MWC News, April 18)

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), called on the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and Manila to abide by a 1996 agreement that was meant to end conflict in the southern Philippines. An ongoing battle over the past three days has killed 18 people, including a child, and displaced thousands. Government forces dropped 250-pound bombs and fired rockets into the base of MNLF commander Habier Malik near Panamao town on the southern island of Jolo over the weekend after he fired mortars on their headquarters on April 13, killing a child that lived nearby. (Reuters, April 16)

A bomb blast tore through a busy market in the town of Yala in southern Thailand April 12, injuring 11 people. The attack happened amid a protest held by mourners after the funeral of Buddhist woman, Patcharapom Busamad, who was shot dead and then set on fire April 11. Police say Islamist insurgents, who have been blamed for over 2,000 deaths in the last three years, were behind this attack as well as the April 11 shooting. A second bomb near the scene was safely defused. Some 200 residents paraded the charred remains of Patcharapom Busamad through the streets of Yala to protest the escalating violence. The villagers wrapped her body in white cloth and placed it outside a government building where Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin, head of the Thai junta, was meeting with local leaders.

A proposal to make Buddhism the national religion of Thailand in the country's new constitution has sparked huge debate. Though overwhelmingly Buddhist (95% of the country), Thailand is in the grips of escalating strife in the southern, predominantly Muslim parts of the country.

Leaders of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations, meeting in New Delhi, pledged to make "tangible progress" in the next six months on issues of water, energy, food and environment. Two agreements were signed — on setting up a South Asian University in India and forming a regional food bank. Leaders also pledged to work towards full implementation of the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement in "letter and spirit." The summit's closing statement stressed "the need for ensuring market access through smooth implementation of [the] trade liberalisation programme..." The leaders also called for the "urgent conclusion" of a comprehensive convention on international terrorism.

Thailand's daily The Nation reports that "suspected militants" fired grenades into two mosques in Yala's Yaha district April 4, wounding 15 Muslim worshippers. In the first attack, assailants fired M-79 grenades into the Hassaladawa Yaha mosque during morning prayers. The assailants then got back into their pick-up truck and drove to another mosque about one kilometer away, firing another grenade into it. The explosion damaged the building but claimed no casualties. (The Nation, April 5)