Poe approved to run for president

Poe approved to run for president

PHILIPPINE: Election officials in the Philippines affirmed on
Friday an earlier ruling that movie icon Fernando Poe is
qualified to run for president, throwing out a petition to
disqualify him on citizenship grounds.

The Commission on Elections voted unanimously to deny a motion
alleging that Poe, the front runner in opinion polls ahead of the
May 10 election, is a U.S. citizen and thus barred by the
constitution from standing.

Lawyer Andres Fournier, brother of the petitioner Manila
lawyer Victorino Fournier, told reporters they would appeal the
decision at the Supreme Court.

Poe's lawyer Estelito Mendoza thanked the election body for
its swift ruling. The case had threatened to hamper Poe's
momentum, with campaigning set to start next week.

Meanwhile, the head of the electoral board, Benjamin Abalos,
on Friday ordered President Gloria Arroyo, Poe and two other
presidential candidates to explain why they had violated a rule
against early campaigning.

Arroyo, Poe, independent Raul Roco and opposition Senator
Panfilo Lacson were all cited by electoral authorities for
putting up posters even before the campaign period officially
starts. -- AFP

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Aglance-Vietnam-accident
11 killed in Vietnam bus crash
JP/12/ASEAN

11 killed in Vietnam bus crash

VIETNAM: Eleven people were killed and 10 injured when a minibus
collided head-on with a speeding truck in central Vietnam, police
said on Friday.

The high-speed crash happened in Binh Thuan province when the
truck encroached onto the other side of the road while trying to
overtake, a police spokesman from the province's Tuy Phong
district said.

Seven people, including the driver of the 15-seater bus, were
killed instantly while four other passengers died in the
hospital.

The truck driver sped off after Thursday's accident but turned
himself in later that day.

More than 11,800 people were killed in traffic accidents in
Vietnam in 2003. -- AFP

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Thailand-south-unrest
Policeman killed in Thailand
JP/12/ASEAN

Policeman killed in Thailand

THAILAND: Motorcycle gunmen shot dead a police officer on Friday
in restive southern Thailand, where a series of attacks have
killed at least 14 security, government and religious figures
since early January, police said.

Sgt. Maj. Panya Darahim, a district police investigator, was
gunned down by two attackers on a motorcycle in southern
Narathiwat province. He was pronounced dead at the hospital, a
police commander said.

"He was shot at around 8 a.m. by two attackers on a motorcycle
as he was getting into his car after dropping off his wife at a
nursery school in Sungai Padi district," Maj. Gen. Khamronwit
Thoopkrajang told AFP.

The attack appears part of a pattern of attacks that have
rattled the deep south, a Muslim-majority region where a
separatist movement has rumbled on for decades and until recently
was considered too fractured to conduct well-coordinated attacks.

The spate of violence erupted on Jan. 4 with a raid on an army
depot in Narathiwat that killed four soldiers, and simultaneous
attacks on 18 schools and two police checkpoints. -- AFP