Philippines grapples with new wave of bomb attacks

MANILA, Oct 21: Martin Manoloto and his family skipped their usual trip to the Mall on the weekend and instead quickly bought groceries to enjoy at their home amid a new wave of bomb attacks in the Philippine capital and the troubled south.

"I can’t take any chances," said the 41-year-old real estate executive. "Things seems to have gone haywire the past few weeks."

Like many Filipinos, Manoloto has been struck with fear despite assurances from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that security officials were in control of the situation.

"Our uniformed protectors are on alert," Arroyo said in a public address following the bombing of a bus in Manila on October 18, killing three people and injuring more than 20. "Let us live our lives normally under the protection of the authorities."

But Arroyo’s words were drowned late yesterday by another bomb attack at a Roman Catholic shrine in Zamboanga city, 875 kilometres south of Manila, killing one soldier and wounding 16 others, including a 10-month-old baby girl.

"This is very unfortunate," was all that Zamboanga city mayor Maria Clara Lobregat could say as she visited the victims in a hospital.

Lobregat was in the same hospital on October 17 to console victims of the bombing of two department stores in the commercial district of Zamboanga city, which killed seven people and injured more than 140 others.

Several security measures have already been put in place to thwart more bomb attacks, including stringent body searches on people entering public places as well as inspection of packages deposited in baggage counters.

Some 1,700 police trainees were set to be deployed in vital installations in Manila to boost police and military forces already securing the capital. The Interior department gave local executives a freehand to arm village security forces to further augment government efforts to prevent new terror attacks.

The department of Transportation and Communication has ordered transportation operators not to allow passengers to take their ride if they refuse to have their baggage checked.

Several Congressmen were also entertaining thoughts of granting emergency powers to arroyo, who has ruled out the need for such a measure, according to aides.

The military was quick to blame the bomb attacks in Zamboanga city on Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels, who have been the subject of a relentless US-backed Government offensive since late last year.

The Abu Sayyaf is the smallest but most violent Muslim rebel group in the conflict-wracked southern region of Mindanao. It has been held responsible for numerous kidnappings and bomb attacks in the area for a decade.

The wave of bombings in Zamboanga city began on October 2, when a US soldier and three Filipinos were killed in an attack on a Karaoke bar outside a military camp in Malagutay district. More than 20 others, including another American soldier, were injured.

The Malagutay blast occurred one week after Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadafi Janjalani warned the rebel group remained strong despite the military’s offensive. He also called for attacks on "enemies of Islam".

But political analyst Conrado De Quiros was not taking the military’s assessment hook-line-and-sinker.

"It is possible," De Quiros said about the suspected involvement of the Abu Sayyaf in the Zamboanga bombings. "But that raises more questions than puts them to rest."

"How can a criminal group that is desperate, in fear of its life, and just about to breathe its last, be able to sneak in and out of the belly of the beast?," he wrote in his newspaper column. "There’s something very wrong with the picture."

Armed forces spokesman Brigadier General Eduardo Purificacion admitted that other groups might be involved in the bombings.

"The Abu Sayyaf is one of the main suspects because of their capability to sow terror, but this does not limit our suspicion to the terrorist group," he said. "We have a suspicion that other groups are involved, probably some other small groups that are out to embarrass or destabilise the Government," he added. "They might just be taking advantage of the present situation."

Lobregat said foreign terrorists were also suspected to be involved in the attacks.

"I believe the same group was behind the attacks and I think foreign terrorists were aiding them or giving them instructions what to do," she said.

Officials have been careful not to link the spate of bombings to the deadly Bali attack on October 12. The extremist group, Jemaah Islamiya, is being investigated for the massacre.

Veteran journalist and newspaper columnist Amando Doronila warned the spate of bomb attacks has seriously put into question Arroyo’s Ability to govern the country.

The 55-year-old economist was swept into power by a military-backed mass uprising that ousted former President Joseph Estrada in January 2001 amid allegations of widespread corruption.

"There is widespread perception and strong undercurrent of dissatisfaction with her leadership," Doronila wrote in Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper.

Doronila noted that there was a growing belief among business, political and civic leaders that the Arroyo administration was "imploding" and in "a drift", with the President losing control and direction.

Manoloto said he hopes that Government efforts to secure the public against more terrorist attacks would succeed, noting, "who else can we turn to? we don’t have that much choice". (DPA)

Norwegian facilitator’s arrival draws strong JVP protest

COLOMBO, Oct 21: Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister, Vidar Helgesen, who arrived in Sri Lanka with a five-member delegation faced a street protest for nearly half an hour by over 1000 Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) activists on his way to the southern Hambantota district last evening.

The demonstrators led by JVP Parliamentarian Nihal Galappathi have protested alleging that the ongoing peace was aimed at dividing the island nation with the LTTE participating in the talks without laying down their deadly weapons and condemned the Norwegians for facilitating for the division of the country.

Mr Helgesen, accompanied by Norwegian Ambassador Jon Westborg and the Second Secretary Thomas Stangeland was on his way yesterday to Hambantota to inspect the development projects funded by Norway in the region.

The Marxist JVP, which is now taking the anti-peace hard-line position, was accused by the Parliamentarians of the north-east-based Tamil political parties being involved in the communal clashes against the Tamils living in the eastern Trincomalee district where at least three Tamil civilians were killed and over 50 injured early this month.

Based on the complaints made by the Tamil Parliamentarians, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has already ordered an inquiry into the Trincomalee clashes and instructed the law enforcement authorities to take severe action against the anti-peace elements regardless their political affiliations.

Mr Helgesen who is directly involved in the ongoing peace dialogue between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tiger rebels, is here in Sri Lanka Colombo to prepare the ground for the second round of talks, scheduled to commence on October 31 in Thailand. During his five-day stay in Sri Lanka, he would engage in series of meetings with the Government and opposition leaders including President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the leadership of the Tamil Tiger rebels as well as Sri Lanka Muslim Congress.

Western diplomatic sources said that the discussions with the Government and the LTTE would mainly focus on the establishment of the Joint Task Force (JTF) as a part of the preparation for the next round of talks and also on the problems related to the truce agreement, especially the tension on the eastern province.

The JTF would be a partnership body involving government and the LTTE to handle the rehabilitation and reconstruction programme in the war-ravaged north-east for which most of the international funding agencies have already pledged a large quantum of money on humanitarian ground.

The Norwegian delegation is scheduled to visit Jaffna and the Wanni on October 22 and 23. According to sources, the delegation would spend one overnight in the Wanni and would hold discussions with the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, political advisor and chief negotiator Anton Balasingham and other senior leaders of the LTTE, including V Balakumar, who is the former leader of the defunct EROS (Eelam Revolutionary Organisation for Students) and tipped to be appointed by the LTTE leadership to represent the rebels to the proposed JTF.

Mr Helgesen is here in town at a time when the governance of cohabitation between the President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the United National Front (UNF) Government is at its odd end.

The Government has locked horns with the President with the Supreme Court shooting down its proposal to remove the executive powers of the President to dissolve Parliament arbitrarily any time after one year in office.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the proposal needs a two third majority votes as well as a referendum which is hard to achieve for the UNF Government with the present composition in the Lankan Parliament. Although the Government prefers a snap general election, the decision for the dissolution of present Parliament and fresh elections lies entirely in the hands of the President. (UNI)

Amateurs help astronomers identify ‘moon’ as man-made space debris

LOS ANGELES, Oct 21: Scientists have confirmed that a mysterious second earth moon discovered by an amateur astronomer is in fact debris from one of the Apollo missions 30 years ago.

Reflected light from the object, named Joo2e3, was consistent with the white paint used on the huge Saturn V rocket which blasted men to the moon.

It was discovered on September 3 by an amateur astronomer, Bill Yeung, using a telescope in Southern California.

The 60-foot object was initially thought to be a small asteroid. But closer surveillance showed that Joo2e3 was probably the third stage of the Apollo 12 rocket which was lost as the rocket was taking astronauts to the moon in 1969.

Even though Joo2e3 can be seen by amateur astronomers using 10-inch telescopes, telescopes such as NASA’s hubble telescope were unable to make a positive identification. Hubble’s 2.4-metre mirror cannot capture images of objects smaller than 80 metres wide. J002e3 is about a third of that.

So amateur astronomers helped the professionals by supplying enough orbit information for them to zero in on it. A high-power telescope analysis showed that Joo2e3’s surface is covered in white paint.

News of the earth’s "second moon" quickly spread among sky-watchers. Experts calculated that the object had been orbiting the sun until April, when it was captured by earth.

One theory was that it was a piece of one of the Saturn V rockets which launched astronauts to the moon during the Apollo programme. And two professional astronomers at the university of Arizona’s lunar and planetary laboratory provided clinching evidence that the object was an Apollo rocket part.

Dr Carl Hergenrother and Dr Robert Whiteley trained the 61-inch telescope near Mount Bigelow in the Santa Catalina mountains north of Tucson, Arizona, on the object. Hergenrother and Whiteley used various filters to sample the colours that it reflects.

By analysing the reflected light they were able to work out the chemical composition of its surface. It turned out to be white paint.

"Rather than looking like a known asteroid, the colours were consistent with the spectral properties of an object covered with white Titanium Oxide paint (TIO)," said Hergenrother. "The Apollo Saturn S-IVB upper stages were painted with TIO paint."

Other experts took infrared readings of the object which confirmed that the chemical signature of Joo2e3 was consistent with titanium oxide. The object was most likely to be a rocket section from either Apollo 8, 10, 11 or 12 - with Apollo 12 the most likely, said Hergenrother.

The Saturn V remains the largest and most powerful expendable launch vehicle built in the United States. Together the rocket and Apollo space craft was 363 feet high and weighed more than six million pounds. The "V" refers to the five powerful f-1 engines that powered the first stage.

S-IVB was the designation given to the vehicle’s third stage, above which sat the housing for the lunar module which landed on the moon. The third stage boosted the space craft out of earth’s orbit at 24,500 mph before being ejected.

Apollo 12 launched astronauts Charles Conrad, Richard Gordon and Alan Bean to the moon on November 14, 1969. It was the second mission after Apollo 11, which saw Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin make history by becoming the first men to walk on the moon. Conrad and Bean landed on a site called Oceanus Procellarum - ocean of storms’’ - on November 19, 1969. (DPA)

US seeks Pak assurance to cut North Korea nuke link

WASHINGTON, Oct 21: Secretary of State Colin Powell has said though US had chosen not to rake up Pakistan’s past in aiding North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme he has secured an assurance from Pakistan that it would not assist the North Korea in its programme.

Asked on ABC’s this week if Gen Musharraf was confronted about Pakistan’s past help to North Korea, the Secretary of State said, "I don’t want to get into the past and sources and methods because there obviously were nations who were helping North Korea as they acquired the technology."

The New York Times reported this week that Pakistan was a major supplier of technology and equipment to the North Korean nuclear program.

Secretary Powell said he had talked to Gen Musharraf, but not about the New York Times report.

But "our concerns are about nuclear proliferation and development of these weapons by North Korean and how it is important that no nation, and Pakistan in particular, be involved in any relationship or any trading with North Korea to develop such weapons or the means to deliver such weapons," he said.

Gen Musharraf gave him his assurance, Secretary Powell said, that Pakistan is not doing anything of that nature.

Asked whether he took Gen Musharraf at his word when he said charges of Pakistani assistance were baseless, Powell said, "I didn’t talk to him about the charges (mentioned in the New York Times)."

"What I said was we talked about the need not to assist North Korea in any way and have any kind of relationship with North Korea now that would give them the wherewithal to develop those kinds of weapons or the means to deliver them. And he assured me that Pakistan was not doing that now."

Asked why he did not talk to Gen Musharraf of past Pakistani assistance, the Secretary of State said: "because there are reasons that I would prefer not to talk to him about the past. The past is the past and there isn’t a whole lot I can do about it. I’m more concerned about what is going on now."

"We have a new relationship with Pakistan so that I can talk to President Musharraf in these very direct, open terms and get assurances from him. And I don’t want to go back into the means by which we learn of certain things," he said. (UNI)

Vietnam sends 12 to prison for land protests,
hostage-taking

HANOI, Oct 21: A court in northern Vietnam handed down stiff prison terms for 12 people who took part in land-rights demonstrations that ended with several Government officials being taken hostage, court officials said today.

Demonstration leader Pham Minh Con was sentenced to 13 years on charges of illegal demonstration, disturbing public order, illegal detainment and assault against police, according to Phuong Thao, secretary of Ninh Binh People’s Court.

"The punishments were strict enough to warn other people not to take use of democracy to cause public disorders," Thao told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) by telephone today.

Sentences for the other 11 defendants ranged from probation to an 11-year-jail term.

Con’s wife, two of his brothers and three of his sons were also convicted in the trial Friday in Ninh Binh, 90 kilometres south of Hanoi. His wife, Pham Thi Lanh, was given probation after she pleaded guilty and expressed regret for taking part in the protest.

Con had a history of disputes with the Government over what he said was unfair compensation for land taken for public use. Last year, he wrote the provincial Government accusing local authorities of taking bribes, according to Dao Thi Tin, deputy judge in the case.

"Con was born in a family with a tradition of petition," Tin said. "He has written many letters to the province complaining about land compensation and even slandering the local authority."

On August 29, 2001, he persuaded his family and at least 100 other villagers to march on village officials’ homes, seize them and force them to sign documents agreeing to land redistribution, Tin said.

There were several similar incidents before Con and his family were arrested in April 2002, he said.

Land use is one of the most controversial issues in Communist Vietnam, where all land officially belongs to the Government, but farmers are granted long-term leases.

The vast majority of still rare, but increasing, numbers of anti-Government protests are over land rights. (DPA)

Bombay Symphony founder dies

LOS ANGELES, Oct 21: Mehli Mehta, founder of the Bombay Symphony, longtime leader of the the American Youth Symphony and father of conductor Zubin Mehta, has died at the age of 94.

The elder Mehta died on Saturday at Santa Monica-Ucla Medical Center of heart failure and other complications of aging, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.

The Indian-born Mehta was a lifelong devotee of western classical music. He studied at the University of Bombay and the Trinity College of Music in London. He went on to found the Bombay Symphony in 1935 and served for 10 years as concertmaster before becoming its conductor.

Born in Bombay in 1908, he moved to New York in 1945 to study violin and later moved to Los Angeles, where he directed until 1976 the Orchestra Department of the University of California at Los Angeles.

Violinist Lawrence sonderling, a former American youth Symphony Concertmaster, told the newspaper that Mehta "did everything with great intensity and great purpose and great love for music ... Always the intensity was there. And the passion." Mehta was mentor to generations of music students during 33 years has music director and conductor of the American Youth Symphony, where he was known as an inspiring taskmaster. Under his leadership — he retired in 1998 — the orchestra grew to 110 musicians and performed around the world.

"Any concert of mine that he attended there was no doubt to whom my message was going," Zubin Mehta said.

Zubin Mehta, former music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic, is currently director for life of the Israel philharmonic and general music director of the Bavarian State Opera.

Mehli Mehta’s other son, Zarin, is Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic and was previously Executive Director of the Montreal Symphony as well as the Ravinia festival in Chicago.

In addition to his sons, Mehli Mehta is survived by Tehmina, his wife of 67 years, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. (AGENCIES)

New ordinance bars Benazir, Sharif from
running for senate

ISLAMABAD, Oct 21: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has promulgated yet another ordinance barring former Premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif from running for elections to the senate despite criticism that religious parties posted gains in the Oct 10 elections due to ban on top leaders from contesting.

With the formation of the new Government largely hinging on the composition of the upper house, senate, Musharraf has Amended Senate (election) Ordinance binding all candidates running for it to submit their nomination papers in person with returning officer who shall acknowledge the receipt of these papers.

This new rule would effectively bar Bhutto and the Sharifs from contesting for the 100-member senate elections on Nov 12 as they can not travel to pakistan from their exile abroad.

Benazir lives in self exile in Dubai and London while Sharif and his family have been exiled to Saudi Arabia.

The ordinance has been criticised by PPPP leaders who said it would increase the chasm between them and Musharraf and set them on a collision course.

In another development, Bhutto-led Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) has hardened its stand against Musharraf stating it would join the Government only if coalition partners agree to reject Musharraf’s presidency and constitutional amendments.

Bhutto, who met PPPP leaders in Dubai over the past two days, said the party would join a coalition only if they agree for re-establishment of the 1973 constitution, bar uniformed army general as President, respect supremacy of Parliament and reject Musharraf’ constitutional amendments, party spokesman Fartullah Babar told PTI.

Bhutto has conveyed the condition to other parties through PPPP leader Mukhdum Amin Fahim, who has returned home after holding talks with Bhutto in Dubai.

"It is the need of the hour that all political parties of the country sit together and the PPPP is making efforts to achieve that objective, but we will not compromise on principles," Fahim said yesterday.

The polls for the senate are significant as its elections are based on the proportional representation of seats won by political parties at the national and provincial assemblies.

The leaders could easily get elected as the PPPP and PML-Nawaz have won large seats in the national and provincial assemblies. (PTI)

Malaysian HC dismisses Quattrocchi’s plea

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21: In a major setback to italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, a Malaysian High Court today dismissed his application for a judicial review of the extradition proceedings against him to bring him to India for trial in Bofors case.

Judge Abdul Aziz Bin Mohamad of Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that Quattrocchi’s application for a judicial review of the extradition case, filed against him in the Sessions Court, is premature.

"Judicial review being a discretionary remedy, a pre-committal application for judicial review of the extradition process is premature," the judge said.

"I therefore dismiss this application with costs," he said. The judge also asked Quattrocchi to pay costs.

Quattrocchi’s counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said he will seek a review of the judgement in the court of appeal. He has a month to challenge the judgement.

The judge held that Quattrocchi can raise all the issues that he wanted to during the proceedings before the Sessions Court.

Counsel Cyrus V Das represented the Government of India, while Kamarul Hisham, Senior Federal Counsel, represented the Government of Malaysia.

If Quattrocchi opts for appeals against the judgement, the lower court can still proceed with re-opening of the case, the lawyers said.

To stop the Sessions Court from re-starting the extradition case, Quattrocchi has to get a separate stay order, said lawyers.

Lawyers say it is uncertain when the Sessions Court would re-start extradition proceedings as this also depends on the availability of dates from the judge and the counsels representing the case and may take a few weeks. (PTI)

| home | state | national | business | editorial | advertisement | sports
| international | weather | mailbag | suggestions | search | subscribe | send mail |