Three bombs planted at an irrigation site in southern Thailand blew up Friday, killing at least two people.

Police say the first two bombs detonated, killing two workers in Narathiwat province. Several others were wounded.

Officials said police responding to the scene tried to defuse a third device, but it also exploded.

The attacks wounded 13 people, including at least four police officers.

About 4,500 people have been killed in southern Thailand since Islamist insurgents began their uprising in 2004.

Article by VOA News

A series of bomb blasts ripped through three Burmese cities Friday, wounding at least two people.

A Burmese government official says a bomb blew up in a house in the administrative capital of Naypyidaw. The home was located across from a market but no one was hurt.

Another explosion destroyed a car in a market in Mandalay, Burma's second largest city. Officials and residents said at least two people were hurt.

Residents said an explosion took place in Pyinoolwin, a city to the east of Mandalay. They said it appeared to take place at an unoccupied house.

Senegal's ruling party has abandoned efforts to change the constitution after riots by opposition supporters in the capital, Dakar.

The protesters clashed with riot police on Thursday and demanded the constitution remain unchanged.

Opposition supporters said a proposed amendment would make it easier for President Abdoulaye Wade to stay in power.

The current constitution says a president must be elected with an absolute majority of the vote — 50 percent plus 1. The ruling party had sought to lower that threshold to 25 percent.

Pakistani police say gunmen riding on motorcycles opened fire on a bus carrying Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims in the southwest, killing three people.

Wednesday's attack took place on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.

Officials say at least nine people were wounded in the attack.

Elsewhere, police say at least five militants were killed and two policemen wounded in a gunfight near the city of Peshawar.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon says police have arrested the leader of a powerful drug cartel, dealing a major blow to organized crime.

Calderon congratulated police for the arrest of one of Mexico's "most wanted criminals" on his personal twitter account Tuesday.

A government spokesman identified the gang leader as Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas, also known as El Chango, or "The Monkey." He said Mendez had been apprehended without violence in the central state of Aguascalientes.

Osama bin Laden’s second-in-command has taken the helm of al-Qaida, following what many call a “corporate succession plan” charted out by the terrorist group’s late leader. This plan illustrates bin Laden’s business sense that he picked up long before he was the face of jihad, while working for his Saudi family's multi-billion dollar construction company. His knack for business has been critical to al-Qaida's growth, but it is also proving to be a vulnerability.

The United Nation’s top legal advisor says the Somali Transitional Federal Government is not in favor of having specialized courts in other countries try Somali piracy suspects. Patricia O’Brien told the U.N. Security Council Somalia says it prefers such a court be established in Somalia and is willing to work with the United Nations toward an agreement on a location for it.

The United Nations has been exploring the idea of a specialized court to handle piracy suspects for some time. Various proposals include having the court established in Somalia or the region.

Somali police say at least 4 civilians died in a roadside bombing in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Police suspect the bombing Tuesday was intended for African Union Peacekeepers who are protecting the fragile Somali government from Islamist militants.

The insurgent group al-Shabab is trying to topple the United Nations-backed government and turn Somalia into a strict Islamic state.

Al-Shabab rules much of southern and central Somalia, while the government controls only small parts of the capital.

Witnesses in Nigeria say gunmen attacked a police station in the northern part of the country late Monday, killing several police officers.

The gunmen, suspected members of the radical Boko Haram Islamic group, also attacked a nearby bank in the town of Kankara in the far northern state of Katsina.

Several days ago, Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing outside Nigeria's national police headquarters in Abuja, killing at least one other person.