Australian advisory on Bali retained
Australian advisory on Bali retained
AUSTRALIA: Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on
Wednesday that he had rebuffed an Indonesia request that he ease
a government warning against travel to the resort island of Bali.
Nearly five months after 89 Australians and some 120 other
people were killed by a double bombing of two Bali nightclubs,
Downer said it was too early to withdraw the foreign ministry
advisory urging Australians to avoid the island.
Indonesia's tourism minister met Downer last month and urged
him to drop the warnings, because they were harming Indonesia's
economy.
Indonesian police have arrested several suspects in the
bombing, believed carried out by members of Jamaah Islamiyah, a
radical Islamic group linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda
terrorist network. --AFP
;REUTERS;KOD;
ANPAu..r..
ATW-Canada-jail-rampage
Canadian in jail goes on rampage
JP/12/ATW
Canadian in jail goes on rampage
CANADA: A Canadian man facing the death penalty in Riyadh went on
the rampage when his father made a rare visit on Tuesday,
physically attacking his Saudi jailers as well as cursing them,
witnesses said.
William Sampson, who was in a prison hospital room, first
ordered his father to leave and then began throwing objects at
everyone within range, including the Canadian ambassador.
It was the latest in a series of troubling incidents involving
Sampson, who was arrested for murder in December 2000 along with
a Briton and a Belgian after a Riyadh car bomb blast that killed
a British man. They initially admitted the charges but later
withdrew their confessions.
Sampson's trial started last year and his Saudi lawyer says
the prosecutor demanded the death penalty for the three men,
whose case has been referred to the supreme judicial court.
The Sampson case has put a severe strain on relations between
Canada and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah
called off a trip to Ottawa in 2001 amid allegations that Sampson
had been tortured in jail. Officials from both sides later said
he had injured himself in a suicide bid. --Reuters
;AFP;KOD;
ANPAu..r..
ATW-UN-ETimor-troops
UN to slow withdrawal from E. Timor
JP/12/ATW
UN to slow withdrawal from E. Timor
UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday
recommended slowing the phased withdrawal of United Nations
troops from East Timor because of an upsurge in violence by pro-
Indonesian former militiamen.
"A sharp increase in the frequency and magnitude of security-
related incidents" in the past three months "strongly suggest the
need to adjust the downsizing plan," he said in a report to the
Security Council.
Riots which took place on Dec. 4 in the capital, Dili, were
"on a quite different scale" from previous disturbances and were
"manipulated by elements" seeking to undermine the authority and
legitimacy of the government, he said.
The UN Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET) -- set up on
May 20, 2002, the day East Timor became independent -- currently
comprises 3,853 troops and 730 police officers, supported by
2,300 international and local civilian staff. --AFP
;AFP;KOD;
ANPAu..r..
ATW-SriLanka-Tamil-hostages
Sri Lanka's LTTE free hostages
JP/12/ATW
Sri Lanka's LTTE free hostages
SRI LANKA: Tamil Tiger rebels on Wednesday freed two security
personnel, ending a tense stand-off that threatened to jeopardize
a Norwegian-brokered truce, officials said.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) released a soldier
taken hostage in December and a policeman seized more recently,
following talks with the chief truce monitor, Norwegian army
general Trond Furuhovde.
Official sources said the two hostages were due to travel to
the capital Colombo later in the company of the Scandinavian
truce monitors.
Furuhovde traveled to the LTTE-held town of Kilinochchi to
take up the issue of the two men, whom the Tigers held despite
the top monitor's rulings that they be released.
The Tigers had earlier wanted the government to free six of
their cadres, arrested with 35 claymore mines, in exchange for
the policeman and the soldier. The monitors rejected the demand.
--AFP