Quakes rock Taiwan: An earthquake and more aitershocks rocked Taiwan Saturday following last month's fatal tremor which left more than 2.300 dead, the Central Weather Bureau said. AFP reports from Taipei.

The quake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale struck at 8:48 a.m. (0648 BST) and its epicentre was 32.5 kilometres (20.2 miles) west of Hualien in eastern Taiwan. It originated 1.1 kilometres underground. The quake came after four other major tremors with a magnitude ranging between 5.1 and 4.2 near the same area on Friday, seismologists said. The Hualien auakes originated from a different epicentre from the evastating 7.6 quake which struck central Taiwan on September 21. More than 11.904 aftershocks have been detected since that quake, which left 2.317 people dead and 8.722 injured. Some 100.000 people were also left homeless.

Extremists kill 16 in Algeria:

Sixteen people including eight family members and an army colonel were killed over two days, in five attacks believed to have been carried out by armed Muslim militants In Algeria, reliable sources said Friday. AFP reports from Algiers.

The rampage is the bloodiest since the September 16 referendum in which a majority approved a reconciliation law to grant amnesty to armed Islamists. A group of 10 armed extremists slit the throats of the eight family members Thursday evening in a shantytown on the outskirts of Douaouda. 30 kilometres (12 miles) west of Algiers, the sources said. The father, mother and their six children were killed and their bodies mutilated. A 19-year-old girl was kidnapped, the sources said.

Five executed in Thailand: Thailand has executed five prisoners found guilty of murder, corrections officials said Saturday. AFP reports from Bangkok.

The five men. ranging in age from 26 to 51. were shot dead by firing squad late Friday after their appeals for royal clemency were rejected, officials told. They said it was the largest number of people executed at one time in Thailand. The men were all convicted for murders committed from 1983 to 1996. they said. In July the corrections department said it would suspend executions of death row inmates during the Buddhist lent which continues through October.