REFUGEE

Narathiwat (Thailand): Two people were killed and 11 others wounded when a bomb exploded in Thailand's far south on Monday, police said, in the latest attack in the troubled region bordering Malaysia.The bomb was hidden in a motorcycle, and was detonated at a busy market in the main town in Narathiwat, one of three mainly Muslim provinces, where more than 3,700 people have been killed in nearly six years of violence.

The attacks came two days ahead of a planned visit to Narathiwat by Thai prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his Malaysian counterpart, Najib Razak, who has advocated a degree of self-rule for the three provinces as a way of stopping the violence.

About 80% of the region's people are ethnic Malay Muslims, who speak a Malay dialect, not Thai, and have more in common with Malaysia than Thailand.

The rubber-rich region was annexed by mainly Buddhist Thailand a century ago, and separatist tensions have simmered ever since.