Bomb attempt foiled in Palu

Bomb attempt foiled in Palu

Palu, CENTRAL SULAWESI: The Central Sulawesi Police bomb squad
defused a bomb at the Hasanuddin shopping center in Palu on
Monday morning.

The bomb was discovered at about 4 a.m. after a scavenger
reported a suspicious plastic bag to the shopping center's
security guard, who contacted the police.

The chief of the provincial police's Mobile Brigade, Adj. Sr.
Comr. Saiful Bahri, confirmed the bomb plot and said the homemade
explosive had been defused.

He said the police were investigating the motive for the
thwarted attack and the possible culprits.

There have been four bombings in the provincial capital over
the last two months. A major blast occurred on July 17 in the
Pantai Penghibur recreation park, destroying a cafe. There were
no fatalities. --Antara

Smuggling of tortoises foiled

Surabaya, EAST JAVA: About 1,600 tortoises of various species
were seized by the police on Monday at Surabaya's Tanjung Priok
Port before they were smuggled to Riau.

Rosek Nursahid, the head of KSBK, a nonprofit wildlife
protection institute, said on Monday the tortoises were being
loaded onto a motorboat for delivery to Riau via Banjarmasin,
West Kalimantan, when they were seized.

Seven hundred of the tortoises are unprotected species, 650
internationally protected and the rest are partly protected by
Law No. 5/1990 on the conservation of biological resources.

Yellow-necked tortoises, though legally tradable, can be sold
only with permits from the Convention of International Trade in
Endangered Species and the provincial National Resources
Conservation Center.

"The confiscated tortoises should be released into rivers in
conservation zones in order to better guarantee their survival,"
added Rosek Nursahid. --Antara

Luxury cars from S'pore seized in Batam

Batam, RIAU: The customs authority in Batam, Riau, is holding
152 used luxury cars that entered the country illegally from
Singapore, and is seeking a way to reexport them.

Informed sources told Antara on Monday that a lot of stolen
cars from Thailand and Malaysia, mostly sedans, were sent to
Batam through illegal terminals in Singapore.

Batam customs officials, meanwhile, said they could not yet
set a date to reexport the vehicles to Singapore, which tended to
refuse the indirect import of used vehicles.

At present, about 200 more vehicles are reportedly ready to
enter Batam from Singapore, but have been prevented from doing so
following an outcry in the media. Batam has banned the import of
used cars from Singapore since April 2002. --Antara