At least 14 people were killed and 59 others injured in a bomb attack in a public market in the southern Philippines yesterday.
The explosion occurred at the meat section of the crowded public market in General Santos City, 1,050km south of Manila.
Three of those killed perished at the scene of the blast, with others dying in two hospitals where victims were rushed, according to the Red Cross and city police chief Superintendent Willie Dangane.
"The fatalities included two children, one of whom was a four-year-old boy," Dangane said. "The bomb was powerful because the market's ceiling was ripped apart."
Dangane said the stall where the bomb was planted was also "a total wreck".
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo condemned the attack and ordered authorities to hunt down the perpetrators.
"We condemn in the strongest possible term the attack," she said in a statement. "There is no justification whatsoever for this heinous deed."
Investigators have not yet determined the type of explosives used or identified possible suspects in the attack.
Lieutenant General Alberto Braganza, chief of the military's southern command, said troops have been dispatched to augment police forces in the area.
"Our troops are coordinating with the police to determine the type of explosive used in the attack," he said. "The troops were also alerted to guard against other attacks."
The last major attack was in April 2002, when 15 people were killed and dozens injured in a bombing at a crowded shopping mall.
That attack was blamed on al-Qaeda-linked Moslem Abu Sayyaf rebels, but officials said the regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah helped plan, finance and implement the bombing.
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS