4 dead, 23 wounded in S.Philippine attack
E. Timor honors US senator
JOLO, Philippines, March 26, (Agencies): At least four people were killed and 23 others wounded in a grenade attack in the southern Philippines that appears to be unrelated to terrorism, officials said Sunday.
Army Col Cirilito Sobejana said the attacker was arrested following the late Saturday grenade blast in Busbus village near the domestic airport in Sulu province’s Jolo town.
The motive for the attack wasn’t immediately clear, but a military officer said the attacker, who was identified by police as Sedimar Rabbah, returned to the area to retaliate after being beaten by a group of men who accused him of stealing a cellphone. Police, however, were checking if he has links with Abu Sayyaf militants.
Aside from kidnappings for ransom, bombings and killings by Abu Sayyaf extremists, predominantly Muslim Sulu has long been troubled by a large number of illegal guns and other weapons, many in the hands of warlords and other armed groups.
Jungle-clad Sulu, about 950 kms (590 miles) south of Manila, is one of the country’s poorest provinces, although it has rich resources and pristine beaches and islands.
Hollande visits S’pore:
French President Francois Hollande, on an official visit to Singapore, expressed a desire Sunday to strengthen France’s partnership with the Southeast Asian city-state.
“France considers Singapore not only for an economic partner, but also as a friendly country,” Hollande said at a state banquet, where he gave a toast in French.
“In this geopolitical environment of isolation, nationalism and protectionism, we have to lead by example and make our bilateral partnership not only strong and dynamic, but to show the way for opening confidence in international trade,” added Hollande, making the first official visit by a French president to Singapore.
The two countries signed a Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership in 2012 to deepen cooperation in areas such as trade and investment, defense and space technology.
Singapore’s president, Tony Tan, said that France was a “special friend,” noting that it was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Singapore after its independence in 1965.
“At a time when the global political and economic environment is uncertain, many governments are facing pressures to turn inwards,” Tan said. “Against this backdrop, being able to work with reliable friends is more important than ever. France is such a friend of Singapore.” Some 15,000 French nationals and 1,800 French enterprises are based in the city-state.
Trade between the two countries is strong as well. Last year, their bilateral trade was valued at 16 billion Singapore dollars ($11.4 billion). France was Singapore’s second-biggest trading partner in the European Union.
In 2015, French foreign direct investment in Singapore was about 14.8 billion Singapore dollars ($10.6 billion).
Hollande is set to meet with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and deliver a lecture on Monday. He leaves for Malaysia on Tuesday.
US plane makes emergency landing:
An American military plane made an emergency landing at an airport in Indonesia’s Aceh province, an Indonesian air force spokesman said Saturday. There were no injuries.
The US Air Force Boeing 707 requested permission to land Friday after one of its four engines failed, said Air Vice Marshall Jemi Trisonjaya.
He said permission for an emergency landing was granted and several fire trucks and ambulances were deployed to the airport’s runway. The plane successfully landed at Sultan Iskandar Muda airport in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province.
The plane was carrying 20 American military personnel to Kadena Air Base, a US military base in Japan, from a base in Diego Garcia in the central Indian Ocean. The cause of the plane’s engine failure was unclear.
Trisonjaya said no one aboard the plane was injured.
US senator honored:
US Sen Jack Reed has received the highest honor that a foreigner can be given from the country formerly known as East Timor.
The Order of Timor was presented to the Rhode Island Democrat from the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, nearly two decades after Reed visited the island on a fact-finding trip to learn more about the residents’ struggle for freedom.
Reed has been an advocate for the Timorese people during his time in both the US House of Representatives and Senate. He says he first learned about human rights violations occurring on the small Southeast Asian island from a group of concerned PortugueseAmerican citizens and from college students and professors from Brown University.
A former colony of Portugal, the island was later occupied for two decades by Indonesia.
Ex-guerrilla leader vows to fight:
A former guerrilla fighter vowed Saturday to keep peace and unity as East Timor’s new president, delivering a victory speech after the final tally showed he was on course to win the election.
Francisco “Lu-Olo” Guterres received 57 percent of the vote in Monday’s election, according to final figures announced late Friday. His main rival, Antonio da Conceicao, got 32 percent. The remaining votes were divided among six other candidates.
The results released by the National Election Office still need to be vetted by the court of appeals before they are official.
While East Timor’s president has a mostly ceremonial role, the prime minister heads the government.
East Timorese voted overwhelmingly in 1999 to end 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation that killed more than 170,000 people. Indonesia’s military and pro-Indonesian militias responded to the independence referendum with scorched earth attacks that devastated the East Timorese half of the island.
Lu-Olo received a visit from da Conceicao conceding the election soon after the final results were released Friday.