Motorbike Bombs Kill 4 at Department Stores

Blasts from several bombs planted on motorbikes ripped through three department stores in Thailand’s restive south, killing four people, including a 29-year-old Canadian, and wounding dozens, authorities said today.

The attacks in the region’s main commercial center of Hat Yai came just hours after the military staged a peace rally in the south, the site of a Muslim insurgency, where it expressed hope that people would work with authorities to end the violence. Authorities blamed separatist insurgents for the attacks.