Int'l News in brief

Protesters shut hundreds of Bangkok polling stations

BANGKOK (AP):

Protesters trying to derail Thailand's national elections yesterday forced the closure of hundreds of polling stations in a highly contentious vote that has become the latest flash point in the country's deepening political crisis.

Around the country, the vast majority of voting stations were open and polling proceeded relatively peacefully. Polling stations closed for the day with no reports of violent clashes, easing fears of bloodshed a day after gun battles in Bangkok left seven people wounded.

The national focus was riveted to the capital where 488 of the capital's 6,600 polling stations were shut and several skirmishes broke out between protesters intent on disrupting the vote and frustrated would-be voters. The Election Commission said the closure of polls affected more than six million registered voters.

In some cases, protesters formed blockades to prevent voters from entering polling stations. Elsewhere, protesters blocked the delivery of ballots and other election materials, preventing voting stations from opening. The Election Commission said hundreds of polling stations in the south, an opposition stronghold, faced similar problems.

Angry voters at one Bangkok district stood outside closed voting stations waving their identification cards and shouting "Election! Election!"

Rival rebel leader killed in twin car bombing

BEIRUT (AP):

Al-Qaida fighters killed the leader of a rival Islamic brigade in a twin car bombing near Syria's northern city of Aleppo, an attack likely to further exacerbate rebel infighting even as government forces continued their intense shelling of opposition-held areas of the city on Sunday.

Syrian aircraft bombed buildings, burying people underneath rubble in the Bab Neirab area, said the Aleppo Media Center. It wasn't immediately clear how many casualties there were.

The bombings came after military aircraft dropped barrels packed with explosives over rebel-held areas on Saturday, killing dozens, including an attack that killed 34 people in the rebel-held neighborhood of al-Bab, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The group collates the country's war death toll.

Syrian forces have inched into eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo in recent weeks, their most important advance there since rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad seized the areas in mid-2012.