In brief: Attack on mosque leaves one dead

HAT YAI, Thailand – Police say gunmen opened fire at a mosque in Thailand’s insurgency-plagued south, killing one man and injuring another after the start of Ramadan on the weekend.

Police Col. Panyawat Petchum said an unknown number of suspected insurgents armed with rifles fired multiple shots into the mosque in the Panare district in Pattani province where about a dozen Muslims were praying.

He said the pre-dawn attack today left a 66-year-old man dead and a 47-year-old man with gunshot wounds in his arm and leg.

Panyawat said the attackers fled the scene.

Building collapse prompts arrests

NEW DELHI – Police in southern India detained five construction company officials Sunday as rescuers using gas cutters and shovels searched for dozens of workers believed buried in the rubble of a building that collapsed during monsoon rains. It was one of two weekend building collapses that killed at least 26 people.

Nearly 90 contract workers were believed to have been in the basement of the 11-story structure to collect their wages when it collapsed Saturday on the outskirts of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state.

Police said eight died on the spot and another seven succumbed to injuries in a hospital. Another 20 people have been pulled out alive.

J. Jayalalitha, the state’s top elected official, visited the site on Sunday and said another 40 people may still be trapped under the debris, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.