Buddhist couple shot dead in Thai south

NARATHIWAT, Thailand, Wednesday (AFP) A Buddhist couple was shot dead and a teacher was injured by a bomb blast in separate attacks in Thailand's restive south on Wednesday, police said. Jarae Chumnisa, 64, and his wife, Im Chumnisa, 47, were shot with a pistol while riding their motorcycle to tap trees in a nearby rubber plantation in Rangae district of Narathiwat province early Wednesday.

"The victims were just normal villagers earning their living by tapping rubber trees," Colonel Apirak Sungkhao, commander of Rangae police station, told AFP. The bomb blast occurred in Sungai Padi in Narathiwat province, and police said they believed militants used a mobile phone to detonate the device which was aimed at killing a border patrol policeman who were escorting teachers to school.