Quote:PANARE, Thailand - Around 50 Thai Air Force planes “bombed” the largely Muslim southern with paper birds on Sunday as a symbol of peace for the restive region where nearly 500 people have been killed since January.


Villagers stared into the sky awaiting the deluge of an estimated 100 million paper birds, one of which was signed by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and carried the promise of a scholarship or a job for the finder.

Children ran around in excitement in one village as the plane appeared several thousand feet overhead at the time promised, and although the unloading of the birds was invisible to the naked eye, the paper birds descended.

Unfortunately the wind blew them beyond the village.