RP confident of Al-Ghozi's capture
RP confident of Al-Ghozi's capture
PHILIPPINES: President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo expressed confidence on Friday that Philippine authorities would soon recapture fugitive Indonesian bombmaker Fathur Roman Al-Ghozi.
"We are not pegging a date for the capture of Al-Ghozi, but the hunt for him will be focused, intense and relentless," Arroyo said in Manila. "The dragnet is closing in on him and we are severely limiting his chance of getting through it."
Al-Ghozi, a self-confessed member of al-Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah, was serving a 12-year prison term for possession of explosives and was scheduled to be arraigned in connection with the 2000 Manila bombings that killed 22 people when he escaped from a maximum security cell at the national police headquarters in July.
Arroyo said she would visit soon the southern Mindanao region, where Al-Ghozi is believed to be hiding, to check on the efforts to track him down and to review peace efforts with Moro rebels.
Formal peace talks with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front were expected to resume in October. -- AP
;AFP;ANJ; ANPAu..r.. Glance-S'pore-politics-poll People want Lee to retire: Poll JP/11/Spore
People want Lee to retire: Poll
SINGAPORE: A majority of Singaporeans want their nation's elderly founding father, Lee Kwan Yew, to quit politics, according to an Internet poll held after he said he would not retire while he could still contribute.
Lee, who turned 80 this week, served as prime minister from the nation's independence in 1965 to 1990 and has since kept an influential role in the government as senior minister, a Cabinet post.
Lee told the Straits Times newspaper in an interview to mark his birthday that he would remain senior minister as long as he could contribute, and after that he would keep his parliamentary seat until he was no longer fit and able.
"You don't have to tell me. I can feel it when I am no longer making a contribution," Lee said.
But many Singaporeans, who live under a political system that has allowed the People's Action Party to rule since independence, want him to retire, according to the poll carried out by Internet portal Yahoo Singapore.
By 2 p.m. (1 p.m. Jakarta time) on Friday, 43 percent of 5,675 respondents said they wanted Lee to retire from politics immediately, while another 10 percent said he should retire "soon".
Forty-four percent said he should continue in politics while the rest were unsure. -- AFP
;AP;ANJ; ANPAu..r.. Glance-death-penalty Amnesty launches campaign against death JP/11/death
Amnesty launches campaign against death
SINGAPORE: A convicted Malaysian heroin trafficker was launching a last-ditch bid on Friday to avoid the death sentence, while international human rights group Amnesty International urged Singapore to grant a retrial.
Amnesty International issued a news release late on Thursday asking people to write letters urging Singapore authorities to grant Vignes Mourthi, 23, a new trial, saying the previous one was flawed.
"Amnesty International is concerned about a number of alleged irregularities during the trial proceedings," the statement said.
The human rights group says that a handwritten police transcript of a conversation between Mourthi and an undercover officer used as evidence in the trial should not have been admissible in court. Mourthi denies the conversation took place, the statement said.
Mourthi was convicted in September 2002 of heroin trafficking. A High Court judge rejected his appeal earlier this month, saying only the country's president had the power to overturn a death sentence.
"We are asking for a retrial," said M. Ravi, Mourthi's lawyer. "The appeal is exhausted so now we file a motion for retrial." -- AP
;REUTERS;ANJ; ANPAu..r.. Glance-Vietnam-Iraq-crash Vietnamese killed in Iraq JP/11/Iraq
Vietnamese killed in Iraq
VIETNAM: Three officials, on their way to talks with Iraq's U.S.- backed transitional government on humanitarian aid from Vietnam, were killed in a car accident after crossing the Jordan border, the government said on Friday.
Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement three men, two of whom were trade attaches at the Vietnamese Embassy in Iraq, died in the car accident on Sept. 16.
The statement did not mention the cause of the accident but state media said the car overturned after a tire punctured.
The officials were on a mission to promote economic and commercial links between Vietnam and Iraq, now under the rule of the U.S.-selected Iraqi Governing Council, on humanitarian aid from Vietnam, said the statement.
Nguyen Kim Trong, general director of the state-run tea firm Vinatea, was among the three victims, it added.
Trong was seeking to reestablish Vietnam's tea exports to Iraq. Iraq was Vinatea's biggest client before the U.S.-led war with sales in 2002 of US$11.5 million. -- Reuters