http://www.kuwaittimes.net/international.asp?dismode=article&artid=1297138888
US offers $50,000 bounty for militant MANILA: Washington is offering a $50,000 reward for the capture of a Muslim rebel blamed for bomb attacks in the southern Philippines just ahead of a summit of Asian nations this month, the US embassy said yesterday. Abdul Basit Usman, a former member of the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who is believed to have ties with radical militant groups Jemaah Islamiah and Abu Sayyaf, was said to be behind bomb attacks on Mindanao since October 2006. "It is time to bring this despicable terrorist to justice," the U.S. embassy said in a statement, encouraging informers to call Manila's anti-terrorist task force and the embassy. Basit Usman was a relative of Salamat Hashim, the late founder and leader of the MILF, the largest of four Muslim secessionist groups in the troubled south of the mainly Roman Catholic nation in Southeast Asia. Hashim is now dead. The MILF is engaged in a peace process with the government, but many members have broken away and continue to fight security forces. Philippine security officials said Basit Usman trained under Indonesian militants on assembling crude bombs made from unexploded shells of 60mm and 81mm mortars, detonating them with mobile phones or with timing devices. Vietnam sentences eight drug traffickers to death HANOI: A court in northern Vietnam yesterday sentenced eight people to death for heroin production and trafficking in one of the country's largest drug cases. The eight were convicted of trafficking some 950 kilograms of heroin from Laos into Vietnam since 1996 until they were arrested in 2005, said Mai Thanh Nghi, a court official in Son La province, 320 kilometres northwest of Hanoi. Two of the eight were also convicted of producing 44 kilograms of heroin from 500 kilograms of opium, he said adding this is the first time heroin production was uncovered in Vietnam, where most heroin is trafficked into the country from elsewhere. The court also sentenced 13 other defendants to life in prison for their involvement in the ring and nine others were given jail terms ranging from eight years to 30 years, he said. One defendant was sentenced to six months in jail for failing to report the case to authorities, he added. Nghi said the court also ordered the defendants to pay fines of between 5 million dong (US$312) and 500 million dong (US$31,200). The defendants have 15 days to appeal. Vietnam has one of the world's toughest drug laws. Possessing, trading or trafficking 600 grams of heroin or 20 kilograms opium is punishable by firing squad or life in prison. S Korean gangsters 'happier' than police SEOUL: South Korean gangsters get more satisfaction from their line of work than the police, according to a survey published yesterday in local dailies. According to the survey conducted among 109 jailed mobsters by the Korean Institute of Criminal Justice, 79.3 per cent of gangsters said they were somewhat or very satisfied with their life in organised crime. About 65 per cent of police said they enjoyed their profession, according to a separate survey. South Korean gangsters make on average about 4 million won ($4,255) a month, which is typically higher than the pay for police. The criminal justice survey said crime syndicates in South Korea get most of their money through traditional methods such as extortion, prostitution and gambling. But mobsters have been looking to diversify their operations and are trying to muscle their way into shady stock deals or earn a share of corporate mergers and acquisitions, it said. Quake strikes off Australia's Island SYDNEY: A magnitude 6.7 earthquake rocked the coast of Australia's remote Macquarie Island yesterday, the US Geological Survey said. The quake struck west of Macquarie Island at 2:54 pm local time and was centred 10 kilometres below the seabed. The US Geological Survey originally recorded the temblor as a 6.3 magnitude, but later upgraded the quake to 6.7. Stuart Koyanagi, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre at Ewa Beach, Hawaii, said the quake was unlikely to generate a major Pacific-wide tsunami. "Normally at this magnitude we don't expect any kind of destructive tsunami," he said. Clive Collins, a seismologist at Geoscience Australia, said the Macquarie Island earthquake involved two tectonic plates moving against each other horizontally, rather than vertically, and was unlikely to displace the large quantity of water needed to generate a tsunami. "It's most unlikely there would be any tsunami," he said. "It's a fairly large earthquake and it's fairly shallow, but we don't think there's any risk." The isolated, sparsely populated island lies around 1,343 kilometres south of the island state of Tasmania, and serves as a base for Australian expeditions to Antarctica. Copter crashes in Malaysia KUALA LUMPUR: A helicopter crashed in the South China Sea off Malaysia's eastern state of Sarawak yesterday, the Star newspaper's mobile phone message service said. The fate of the 10 oil rig workers and two pilots aboard was not immediately known, but a search operation was under way, it added. Rebels raid goldmine MANILA: Members of communist rebel group, the New People's Army (NPA), have raided a gold mine in the southern Philippines ahead of a government auction for mining rights in the area, police said yesterday. Some 50-heavily armed guerrillas set fire to a bulldozer and a welding machine belonging to local firm JB Mining and Management Corp. on Sunday morning after disarming two guards, regional police spokesman Belflor Causing said. The mine was on a 8,100-hectare reservation on Mount Diwalwal, a famous gold-rush area on the southern island of Mindanao. The government is auctioning the right to explore and develop 4,000 hectares on Mount Diwalwal on March 2. The NPA, which has been waging one of the the world's longest-running communist insurgencies, is opposed to foreign and local corporations mining Philippine sites and has attacked companies and their operations before. Causing, however, said Sunday's attack was part of the rebels' attempts to extort "revolutionary taxes" from businesses. "This is part of the extortion activities of the NPA," Causing told Reuters by phone, adding that the rebels stole a rifle and one .357 revolver from the guards. Officials of JB Mining were not immediately available for comment. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is trying to encourage foreign investment into the mining sector to reduce the country's debts and revive its once mighty industry. Diwalwal is one of 24 priority projects that the government is promoting. Sudanese rapist jailed MELBOURNE: A Sudanese refugee convicted of violently raping two teenagers and an elderly lady in a three-day crime spree a month after arriving in Australia was sentenced yesterday to 24 years in prison. Hakeem Hakeem, 21, was sentenced in the Victoria state Supreme Court on 15 charges including rape, armed robbery and false imprisonment. The offences took place between March 10 and March 12, 2005, just over a month after he arrived in Australia with his parents and six siblings. His crimes started with the rape and beating of a 16-year-old girl in a derelict building in the town of Dandenong, on the southeast fringe of the state capital, Melbourne. The next day, Hakeem broke into the Dandenong home of a 63-year-old woman, raping, stabbing and beating her. She was hospitalised for 11 days and underwent surgery. On March 12, Hakeem attacked a teenage couple at the same building where the first rape took place, forcing them to have sex in front of him. He also raped the 16-year-old girl and cut the hair of both teenagers to keep as a memento. The court was told Monday that Hakeem had been exposed to murders and bombings since the age of three in war-ravaged Sudan. +++ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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