Thailand grenade attacks kill at least 3
Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- At least three people were killed in a string of grenade attacks in Thailand's capital that wounded dozens of others.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva called an emergency meeting of top officials after the Thursday night attacks, which followed weeks of protests aimed at toppling his administration.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaungsuban told CNN the grenades were launched from the area where anti-government protesters, known as the Red Shirts, have been encamped for weeks, but the protesters denied any responsibility for the attacks.
Suthep told Thai television that three people died in the attacks, while Bangkok's Erawan Emergency and Rescue Center said at least 50 people were wounded. Suthep said riot police and helicopters were deployed to join Thai troops in the area, which was still littered with glass amid the standoff.
Across the barricades, the Red Shirts were playing music and trying to encourage a festive atmosphere.
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Demonstrators told CNN late Thursday they wanted to drive home the point that their demonstrations are supposed to be peaceful.
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Thursday's explosions took place near an elevated train station where the Red Shirts are gathered, said Col. Sansern Kaewkumnerd, spokesman for the Center for Resolutions under Emergency Situation.
Three of the grenades landed on the roof of the station, but at least one landed outside a nearby hotel, Sansern said.
The emergency center, which records patients admitted to Bangkok hospitals, said the victims suffered wounds ranging from light to some more serious injuries.
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The Red Shirts support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006. They want Abhisit to dissolve the government, hold new elections and leave the country.
Meanwhile, pro-government demonstrators have also mobilized to support Abhisit during the crisis.
Thailand's military on Monday stationed about 1,500 troops in the area, a Bangkok financial center that houses offices for some of the nation's largest companies. The Red Shirts are occupying a large area nearby. Clashes between the two sides left about two dozen people dead and hundreds wounded on April 10.
Abhisit declared a state of emergency April 7, hours after anti-government demonstrators stormed the country's parliament. He said then that the "purpose is to restore peace and order and to stop the spreading of false information to the Thai public."
Amid the long-simmering dispute, Thailand's independent election commission recommended the dissolution of Abhisit's Democrat Party after finding it accepted an $8 million campaign donation from a private company and mishandled funds allocated to it by the commission.
The ruling still must be reviewed by the country's attorney general's office and its Constitution Court, but if it stands, the 64-year-old party will be broken up and Abhisit and its other senior leaders will be banned from politics for five years.
Flights resume as ash fear recedes
Air traffic in Europe should be back to "almost 100%" on Thursday, after six days of unprecedented travel chaos, the air traffic agency Eurocontrol says.
Airlines resumed services across Europe on Wednesday, with most scheduled flights going ahead.
But tens of thousands remain stranded around the world after ash from an Icelandic volcano caused the shutdown.
The airline industry says it has lost $1.7bn (£1.1bn) and has called for compensation from European governments.
Eurocontrol said it expected about 22,500 flights to have taken place on Wednesday, out of a normal weekday total of 28,000. The head of the International Air Transport Association (Iata), Giovanni Bisignani, said the impact of the shutdown had been "devastating" and governments "must take their responsibility" and help carriers.
"It is anticipated that almost 100% of air traffic will take place in Europe" on Thursday, the agency added.
At London's Heathrow airport, Europe's busiest, traffic ran at 90% normal service on Wednesday.
Many night flights are being allowed temporarily to help clear the backlog of stranded passengers.
Camping at New York's JFK airport
Transatlantic services have returned to their normal level, with 338 flights arriving in Europe on Wednesday, Eurocontrol also said.
German airline Lufthansa said it would fly at full capacity by operating about 1,800 flights on Thursday, up from about 700 on Wednesday.
Air France says its long-haul flights are now departing as normal, although services in parts of northern Europe remained suspended.
Denmark, Norway and Sweden - among the countries previously worst affected by the ash cloud - have now lifted the last of their bans.
Some airspace restrictions remain over Finland and some remote Scottish isles.
'Too cautious'
The flight bans were imposed by most European countries because in the high temperatures of an engine turbine, ash can turn to molten glass and cripple the engine.
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More than 95,000 flights were cancelled in the six days to Wednesday.
Airlines conducted test flights during the weekend and called for the restrictions to be lifted, saying there had been no damage to planes.
The curbs were eased after EU transport ministers met by teleconference on Monday, and tests showed ash density was low enough to fly.
UK Transport Minister Lord Adonis has admitted that international safety regulators had been too cautious in their handling of the crisis.
He also said UK airports had operated at about 60-70% of normal capacity, while tour companies were planning to get more than 200,000 holidaymakers back in the country by the weekend.
In Iceland, the civil protection agency said on Wednesday that the volcano had lost nearly 80% of its intensity, although the situation remained changeable.
Group flags nations where journalists' killings are unsolved
(CNN) -- The Committee to Protect Journalists has placed 12 countries on its Impunity Index, a list of countries where journalists have been killed and their killers have not been found.
The organization's third annual compilation, released Tuesday, cites Iraq, Somalia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Afghanistan, Nepal, Russia, Mexico, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.
The index, which covers 2000 through 2009, describes the countries as places "where journalists are murdered on a recurring basis and governments are unable or unwilling to prosecute the killers."
Leading the field for the third consecutive year was Iraq, where all 88 journalist killings remain unsolved, the committee said. All but seven cases involve local journalists, "the vast majority of whom" were targeted by insurgents, it said on its website.
But last year marked the first since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 that no killing directly related to a journalist's work was documented there by the organization. Still, four journalists were killed in crossfire in 2009, it said.
Iraq's Impunity Index Rating was 2.794 unsolved journalist killings per million inhabitants, nearly triple the rate of any other country.
Somalia ranked second, "reflecting insurgents' routine use of violence to control the news media," CPJ said.
The incidence of fatal, unpunished violence against journalists has increased in the Philippines, Somalia, Russia and Mexico, it said.
But Brazil and Colombia, long among the world's deadliest nations for the news media, each showed improvements, with Brazil moving off the list, the committee reported.
"We've heard repeated pledges from governments that the killers of journalists will face justice, but until these promises are fulfilled, media will continue to be targeted by those who believe they are above the law and immune from consequences," said Joel Simon, CPJ's executive director.
The group noted that many of the countries on the index present themselves as democracies with functioning law enforcement -- nations such as India, Russia, the Philippines, and Mexico.
The index includes only those nations with five or more unsolved cases.
In the Philippines, 30 journalists and two media support workers were killed in Maguindanao province, it said, boosting the country from sixth to third on the index. "The massacre overshadowed gains that Philippine authorities had made, winning convictions in two journalist murders," the committee said.
In Russia, which ranked eighth, three journalists were killed last year, bringing the country's 10-year total of unsolved killings to 18, it said.
Mexico moved from 11th to ninth, reflecting continuing violence against crime reporters there, it said. In Mexico, self-censorship is widespread, it said. Many nations on the list have seen a reduction in the flow of information.
In fourth-ranked Sri Lanka, with 10 unsolved killings, "many of the country's most senior journalists have fled into exile," the CPJ said.
"Our goal in compiling this index is to spur leaders in these nations to action," said Simon. "Many of these cases are solvable. The perpetrators have been identified but authorities lack the political will to prosecute."
CPJ released the index to coincide with a summit on impunity being held Tuesday and Wednesday in New York.
The index calculates the number of unsolved journalist killings as a percentage of the country's population. Only nations with five or more unsolved cases were included.
CPJ includes only those killings that are considered to have been deliberate attacks against specific journalists in relation to their work.
It does not tally cases of journalists killed in combat or while carrying out other dangerous assignments.
"The only thing you can say about it is that the murder of journalists gets worse and worse, and the problem is that governments around the world are not interested in finding the perpetrators," said Stuart H. Loory, editor of the magazine Global Journalist and the Lee Hills Chair in Free-Press Studies at the Missouri School of Journalism. "Too often they blame journalists for acting out of line."
