The world united yesterday to condemn the suicide bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, as Malaysia hoped that its two citizens suspected to be the masterminds would be caught soon and brought to justice.
In a spontaneous show of solidarity for Indonesia, governments around the globe offered all help to overcome Saturday night's tragedy, the latest in a string of terrorist attacks in the world's most populous Muslim country in the past three years.
Australia offered medical and police aid, Britain sent an emergency assistance team, and the US and New Zealand pledged to help in any way possible to catch the terrorists suspected in the three, near simultaneous blasts that killed at least 25 people and injured more than 100.
PHOTO: AP
RESPONSIBILITY
No one claimed responsibility but suspicion fell on the al-Qaeda linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, which officials say was also behind the Oct. 12, 2002, bombings in Bali that killed 202 people.
Indonesian police said the masterminds are suspected to be Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top.
The two men fled to Indonesia after a Malaysian crackdown on suspected Islamic militants following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the US. They have been on the run since then.
"These people may be Malaysian by citizenship but they are not with us," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said.
"If they were in Malaysia we could have taken some action," he said.
"I hope they [Indonesians] are successful in investigating and catching these two men," Syed Hamid said. "If these people are responsible, everyone would like to see them apprehended. The Indonesian government has been chasing them. It is a question of apprehending them."
"It is very sad. Bali is such a beautiful place," he said.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard also condemned the bombings as "an indiscriminate murderous attack."
"I see it very much as part of an ongoing attempt by terrorists to undermine democratic Indonesia," he said.
One 16-year-old Australian was killed in the blast and two others were grievously hurt.
Howard said his government will provide medical evacuation to Australia or Singapore for those injured in the blasts, "irrespective of their nationality." Australia was prepared to send investigative and police support as soon as possible, he said.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whose government has been fighting Islamic militants in the country's south, said the attacks show the resilience of the terrorists to strike "when our guard is down."
"We have limited the movements of terrorist cells and kept them on the run. But the price of freedom is perpetual vigilance," she said.
ABOMINABLE
Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said the attack is "a reminder that although weakened, terrorist groups remain a threat to our societies."
Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have arrested scores of Jemaah Islamiyah suspects in recent years, many of whom have been jailed without trial.
Japan's government, which confirmed the death of a 51-year-old Japanese vacationer in Bali, condemned the attacks as "abominable."
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called it a "cowardly attack."
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said such "callous and cold-blooded" acts "are an affront to humanity."
In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "The British government stands ready to help in any way we can."
Britain's ambassador in Indonesia, Charles Humfrey, would be sent to Bali along with an "emergency deployment team" based in Hong Kong. Further details were not immediately available.
White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said the US government was ready "to assist in any way."
"The United States stands with the people and government of Indonesia as they work to bring to justice those responsible for these acts of terrorism," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.
A poignant note was struck by Australian Brian Deegan, whose 21-year-old son was killed in the 2002 Bali bombings.
"It's just devastating," he said.
"It's just so needless, it's just so pointless," he said, his voice cracking.
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
‘DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY’: The melting of thousands of glaciers is a major threat to people in the landlocked region that already suffers from a water shortage Near a wooden hut high up in the Kyrgyz mountains, scientist Gulbara Omorova walked to a pile of gray rocks, reminiscing how the same spot was a glacier just a few years ago. At an altitude of 4,000m, the 35-year-old researcher is surrounded by the giant peaks of the towering Tian Shan range that also stretches into China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The area is home to thousands of glaciers that are melting at an alarming rate in Central Asia, already hard-hit by climate change. A glaciologist, Omarova is recording that process — worried about the future. She hiked six hours to get to
The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older has hit a record high of more than 95,000, almost 90 percent of whom are women, government data showed yesterday. The figures further highlight the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks. As of Sept. 1, Japan had 95,119 centenarians, up 2,980 year-on-year, with 83,958 of them women and 11,161 men, the Japanese Ministry of Health said in a statement. On Sunday, separate government data showed that the number of over-65s has hit a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of