 About 120 million origami birds were air-dropped over southern Thailand yesterday in an attempt to quell a Muslim insurgency that has led to the deaths of more than 500 people this year. The gesture, heavily promoted by the Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, was intended to show solidarity with the region's inhabitants, but has been derided by critics as pointless and liable to cause a litter problem. More than 50 military aircraft were involved in the exercise, which began at the auspicious hour of 9.09am. But as the air-drop continued a retired prosecutor, Nat Wipaseth, 62, was shot dead at his shrimp farm in Pattani, and a bomb was defused at a roadside where bird collectors had gathered. | Doubtless the shooter used an origami rod, and the sappers defused an origami IED... |
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