Gunmen kill academic in Aceh

A senior university administrator in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh has been shot dead.

The attack followed an offer he made on Monday to mediate in the conflict between the government and separatists of the Free Aceh Movement.

The man, Dayan Dawood, chancellor of Syiah Kuala University, was the second academic to be killed by an unidentified group over the past year.

The chancellor of the state-run Institute of Islamic Studies, Safwan Idris, was killed late last year. Dawood's death comes two days before President Megawati Sukarnoputri makes her first visit to Aceh since taking office in July.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service