■ PHILIPINES
Bombing suspect arrested
Police in the south said yesterday they had arrested a man suspected of being involved in a series of deadly bombings in recent years. Inspector Leo Ajero, the chief of Kidapawan city police in Cotabato Province, said Musalim Abas, 35, was arrested for a bombing in October that killed a child and injured 39 other people. He is also suspected of involvement in other bombings as part of a gang called the Al-Khobar group, which attacked public places as part of extortion operations against businessmen.
■ SRI LANKA
Blast wounds at least eight
A bomb went off in a bus in a Colombo suburb yesterday, wounding at least eight people, a hospital official said. Passengers were evacuated from the bus in the town of Mount Lavinia after the crew raised the alarm over a suspicious parcel left inside the vehicle, Sri Lankan military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. The blast occurred outside a court house, the official said. "As the people got off the bus, the package exploded. The bus caught fire," the military official said. Eight people were brought to a hospital with minor injuries, a hospital spokesman said.
■ AUSTRALIA
'China ties not a liability'
A top diplomat said the US should pursue a more positive dialogue with China. He spoke at the close of a daylong series of meetings with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other US officials. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said at Parliament House that Canberra's growing trade relationship with China will not hurt its strong and long-standing ties with the US. He said the situation could be "win-win" and acknowledged that China was a topic of discussion during the meetings. Smith said: "We can have a very good economic relationship with China, which doesn't adversely impact upon our relationship with the United States."
■ INDIA
Troops kill six militants
Troops killed six separatist rebels in a fierce gun battle near the border with Myanmar yesterday and recovered several weapons, a military spokesman said. The militants were identified as members of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), fighting for the independence of nearly two million people in the northeast Indian state of Manipur. Colonel L.M. Pant said a cache of automatic rifles, rocket and grenade launchers, and pistols was recovered after the shootout close to Moreh, a Manipur town bordering Myanmar. The UNLF accuses New Delhi of doing little for the economic welfare of the verdant, hilly state, and has waged an armed struggle for almost two decades.
■ SINGAPORE
Panty thief pleads guilty
A professor who nicked bras and panties pleaded guilty to stealing women's underwear from a university dormitory, a newspaper said yesterday. The 39-year-old man -- an associate professor in a Chinese university -- was charged for taking women's underwear from a university hostel's clothes-line last December, the Straits Times reported. The Singaporean professor, who teaches in China, was in the city-state for his leave when he committed the crime. "I have heard stories before about underwear being stolen, but I never thought it would happen to me," a victim was quoted as saying. A lawyer for the professor said that he was an honorable and kind person who had no intention of causing annoyance to the underwear owners.
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