Thai jihad update, from [1] Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

BANGKOK: Unidentified gunmen shot dead two elderly Buddhist men in Thailand's largely Muslim south hours before a trip to the troubled region by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Sunday, police said.

A 63-year-old store owner in Narathiwat province's Sukirin district was shot six times in the chest, arm, and hip early Sunday by a gunman posing as a customer, police said.

The killer fled on a motorcycle. The victim died on the way to hospital.

Late on Saturday, unidentified men sprayed a Chinese Buddhist shrine in nearby Yala province.

A Buddhist man, in his sixties, was hit by two bullets and died at the scene.