■The Philippines
Terrorist plot uncovered
Police said yesterday they thwarted a bombing plot and arrested four suspects at a bus terminal in the southern Philippines. Three of the men, detained Tuesday in the southern port city of General Santos, were found carrying an improvised bomb, said Senior Supt. George Aquisap. They were detained in an eatery near the city's public bus terminal following days of surveillance, he said. A fourth man was arrested in another area of the city in a follow-up operation later Tuesday, Aquisap said. Local media identified the suspects as Indonesians, but Aquisap declined to identify their nationalities.
■ The Philippines
War on drugs declared
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo on yesterday declared war on druglords, amid warnings that the country has become a favorite transhipment point for foreign drug cartels. Arroyo said she would personally monitor the campaign and told law enforcement agencies she wanted immediate "strategic results." "This means the neutralization on the top syndicates and the arrest of the leaders -- a focused campaign against drug pushers, dealers and patrons in the government, and especially those in uniforms and a stop in the transnational smuggling of drugs through our shores," Arroyo said in a statement.
■ Vietnam
Democracy activist on trial
Vietnam began the espionage trial yesterday of a cyber-dissident who published an article on democracy on a website, one of at least six dissident writers jailed in the last 18 months. Plainclothes policemen closely monitored the entrance to the Hanoi People's Court and foreign media were barred from the trial of Pham Hong Son, 36, who could face life in prison. "This is the internal affair of Vietnam. You should leave," one security officer told reporters outside the court. Earlier that month, Son had posted a translation of a US State Department essay titled "What Is Democracy" on a Web site. He is charged with espionage.
■ China
Scorpions get loose on train
Passengers screamed in terror when more than 600 scorpions escaped from a box on board a train in southern China, a news report said yesterday. The scorpions were taken onto the train from Guangzhou to Chongqing in a cardboard box by a passenger who was on his way home to set up a scorpion farm, the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily reported. They escaped in Zhaoqing during Monday's journey and set off a panic as railway police, crew members and some passengers spent 30 minutes gathering the scorpions. The owner, from Sichuan, told officials afterwards he bought the scorpions for 2,000 yuan (US$241) to set up a scorpion farm, the newspaper said.
■ Singapore
Party's Web site attacked
Hackers have taken over the Singapore Democratic Party's Web site and turned www.singaporedemocrats.org into a pornographic website called "Mature Sex: Experience is Everything." Visitors to the site will find pictures of nude women instead of the opposition party's news and press releases. The party has since dropped the "s" and moved its contents to www.singaporedemocrat.org. Party Secretary-General Chee Soon-juan said, "The government monitors the opposition party Web sites, so they should know about this. Yet, they haven't made any attempts to block the Web site, even though it now contains pornographic material," he said.
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