Train fire kills 66; militants blamed
An explosion on a train headed for Pakistan set off a fire that swept through two cars and killed at least 66 people in an attack that a government minister said was aimed at undermining the peace process between India and Pakistan.
Authorities said two suitcases packed with unexploded crude bombs and bottles of gasoline were found in cars not hit in the attack, leading them to suspect the fire was set off by an identical explosive device.
“This is an act of sabotage,” Railway Minister Laloo Prasad told reporters in Patna, India. “This is an attempt to derail the improving relationship between India and Pakistan.”
India’s junior home minister, Sriprakash Jaiswal, said the homemade bombs were not powerful and were simply intended to start a fire on the train, one day before Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri was to arrive in New Delhi for talks on the ongoing peace process.
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad made a similar accusation, blaming the attack on militants.
BANGKOK, Thailand
Series of bombs kills at least 7
A string of at least 29 bombings and attacks by gunmen in parts of southern Thailand plagued by a Muslim insurgency killed at least seven people and wounded dozens more, officials said today.
The bombings were the first time insurgents struck all four of Thailand’s Muslim-majority provinces at the same time, said army spokesman Col. Akara Thiprote.
The bombs, triggered by digital watches, exploded between 7:15 and 8 p.m. and targeted hotels, karaoke bars, power grids, commercial sites and schools. Two people were killed Sunday in a bombing at a karaoke parlor in the tourist town of Betong on the Malaysian border.
Elsewhere Sunday, three people of Chinese descent were gunned down in Pattani and another person was shot and killed in Narathiwat, Akara said.
The violence continued this morning when a homemade bomb killed a Thai army officer near his home in Yala province and wounded a 7-year-old boy, provincial police chief Maj. Gen. Phaitoon Chuchaiya said. In Narathiwat, a bomb explosion injured three police officers and seven others.
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia
Explosion wounds six at McDonald’s
An explosion hit a McDonald’s restaurant in the city center on Sunday, injuring at least six people, officials said.
The explosion blew out windows at the restaurant and partially destroyed the ceiling, said Irina Andriyanova, spokeswoman for the Emergency Situations Ministry.
Ekho Moskvy radio, citing eyewitnesses, said the blast went off in the handbag of a restaurant patron. Officials did not say whether they believed the explosion was related to terrorism or a criminal act.