Fri, Jun 01, 2012 page7

• World News Quick Take

  • Agencies
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  PHILIPPINES

  More extremist attacks

  A military report says al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants managed to launch more attacks last year than in 2010 despite many battle setbacks. The report, which assesses the first year of the government’s new counterinsurgency program, attributes the increase in attacks by the notoriously violent Abu Sayyaf group to ineffective law enforcement and the failure of authorities to fully isolate the terrorists from their armed and civilian backers. The report said yesterday that the militants staged 19 percent more attacks last year than in 2010.

  PHILIPPINES

  Fire victim called for help

  An aunt of a Filipino nursery teacher who was among 19 dead in a mall fire in Qatar says she received a final frantic cellphone call from her niece pleading for help. Julie Ann Soco told her aunt in the Philippines, “Help me, help me, I’m going to die.” Luzviminda Soco yesterday said she did not understand what the problem was and asked her niece to stop crying. The line was cut shortly after. She says she and Julie Ann’s mother, a caregiver in Egypt, were unable to reach her again. Julie Ann Soco and two other Filipinos were among the dead in Monday’s fire.

  PAKISTAN

  Fourth nuclear missile test

  The government yesterday tested the fourth nuclear-capable cruise missile since India launched a new long-range weapon capable of hitting China on April 20. The Hatf VIII air cruise missile has a range of 350km and can carry conventional warheads, the military said. It described the “low altitude, terrain-hugging missile with high maneuverability” as “state of the art” with “pinpoint accuracy.”

  AFGHANISTAN

  Suicide bomb kills police

  A suicide bomber rammed a police checkpost yesterday, killing at least five policemen and wounding six others in Kandahar Province, an official said. The attacker drove his explosives-laden car into the checkpoint at the district police headquarters of Arghistan district, provincial governor spokesman Jawed Faisal said.

  NEPAL

  Supreme Court judge killed

  Police say controversial Supreme Court judge Rana Bahadur Bam was shot and killed yesterday morning. Bam’s bodyguard and another passenger in his car were also wounded in the attack which occurred as the judge was driven to work after worshipping at a Hindu temple, but his driver was able to escape. Police official Rabindra Shah said two masked men on a black motorcycle drove by the judge’s car and opened fire. Bam was alleged to have taken bribes from criminals in exchange for releasing them with light sentences and fines, but the case is still under investigation.

  INDIA

  Army chief of staff retires

  Army chief General Vijay Kumar Singh retired yesterday after a stormy tenure in office that included a series of public spats with the government. Singh took the government to the Supreme Court in January in an unprecedented dispute over his retirement due to confusion over his date of birth. He lost his lawsuit, in which he sought to remain in his post an extra year, after the court upheld the government’s stance that his birthday in official records was May 10, 1950. Known as an anti-graft campaigner, Singh embarrassed the government in March by alleging that he was offered a US$2.8 million bribe in 2010 to fix a supply contract, a complaint that was not followed up by the authorities.

  UNITED STATES

  Mitt wants better ‘Amercia’

  Republican Mitt Romney says he is running for president in search of a better America. This week, Romney’s campaign could have used a better speller. The campaign released an iPhone app late on Tuesday that featureds slogans supporting his campaign against President Barack Obama ahead of elections on Nov. 6. “We’re With Mitt,” one read. “American Greatness,” another declared. “A Better Amercia,” a third proclaimed, a misspelling that instantly became the subject of jokes on social media. “Mistakes happen,” Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul told MSNBC about the spelling slip. A corrected version of the app was released by Apple on Wednesday.

  JAPAN

  Quake disturbed ionosphere

  The massive earthquake and tsunami that hit Fukushima last year wreaked havoc in the skies above as well, disturbing electrons in the upper atmosphere, NASA reported. The waves of energy from the quake and tsunami that were so destructive on the ground reached into the ionosphere, a part of the upper atmosphere that stretches from about 80km to 805km above the Earth’s surface. In images released on Friday, NASA showed how the earthly disturbances from the March 11 quake and tsunami were echoed in the movement of electrons. Scientists have seen this phenomenon after tsunamis in Samoa in 2009 and Chile in 2010. The Japanese event, however, occurred in a region more closely monitored by a dense network of GPS receivers, NASA said in a statement.

  EGYPT

  Two US tourists kidnapped

  Security officials say two US tourists have been kidnapped while traveling in the Sinai Peninsula. The officials said armed Bedouins snatched the two while they were traveling by car from Dahab to the resort of Nuweiba early yesterday. Both resorts are on the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba. The officials said the two Americans are men in their early 30s. Bedouins have been kidnapping tourists to pressure authorities to release detained relatives or to improve basic services in their areas.

  ISRAEL

  Israel hands over remains

  The government transferred to Palestinian authorities yesterday the bodies of dozens of Palestinian militants, saying it hoped the move would help restart peace efforts. The militants had been buried, some of them for decades, in a desolate military cemetery for “enemy combatants” in the occupied West Bank. They included several suicide bombers. The remains of 80 Palestinians were handed over to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ administration in the West Bank and 11 bodies were slated for transfer to the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas.

  IRAQ

  Bombings hit Baghdad

  A spate of bombings in Baghdad yesterday killed at least seven people and wounded dozens more, with the deadliest violence to hit the capital in weeks breaking a relative calm. Roadside bombs and explosives-packed cars detonated across a half-dozen neighborhoods in the north, south and west of Baghdad, underlining persistent security concerns even as international energy companies met in the center of the capital to bid on oil and gas exploration blocks. The deadliest attack took place in the north Baghdad neighborhood of Shuala, where a car bomb killed at least four people and wounded 14 others, an interior ministry official and a medic said.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    First person arrested as Danjiang Bridge opens

  • 2

    TSMC shares stumble on report, but losses minor

  • 3

    Navy needs 12 subs for modern fleet: CSBC head

  • 4

    Snake on a train spooks riders on Taipei MRT line

  • 5

    HIMARS to be deployed to islands