A terrorist bombing on the scale of the Madrid attacks has been averted with the arrests of four Abu Sayyaf members and the confiscation of 36kg of TNT, the Philippine president said yesterday.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who faces a tough campaign for re-election May 10, said the explosives were to have been used to bomb trains and shopping malls in Manila.
"We have prevented a Madrid-level attack in the metropolis," she said, referring to the sprawling capital of more than 10 million people. The March 11 train bombings in Madrid, Spain, left at least 190 people dead.
She said one of the men arrested claimed responsibility for a Feb. 27 explosion and fire aboard a passenger ferry that killed more than 100 people. Officials have not concluded what caused the disaster.
The other Abu Sayyaf suspects were implicated in an October 2002 bombing in the southern city of Zamboanga that killed one US serviceman, the beheading of American hostage Guillermo Sobero the same year and a string of kidnappings, Arroyo said.
Sobero was among 20 people -- including three Americans -- who were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf from the Dos Palmas resort on Palawan island, southwest of Manila, in May 2001.
Police officials identified the suspects as Alhamser Manatad Limbong, also known as Kosovo, who allegedly beheaded Sobero; Redondo Cain Dellosa, who allegedly confessed to the ferry bombing; Radzmar Sankula Jul and Abdulrasid Lim.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS