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LONDON: Two men who played key roles in the 2002 bombing of Bali
said in an interview published Sunday that al-Qaeda had not funded
their attacks. Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron also told The Sunday
Times from their prison cells that they had not meant to kill as
many people as the 202 mostly-holidaymakers who died. The 2002
bombings were blamed on the militant Jemaah Islamiyah network. The
group has been accused of staging repeated attacks in Indonesia and
other Southeast Asian countries, though the Bali atrocities were the
most deadly.
-- AFP
BEIJING: China plans to spend billions of
dollars to build a culture-symbolic project in the eastern province
of Shandong, home to ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, to
revive traditional cultural values including Confucianism. Jiang
Daming, governor of Shandong, announced at a news conference on
Saturday in Beijing that the “Chinese Cultural Symbolic City”
will be built in Ji’ning City, spanning more than 300 square
kilometers. The city will incorporate the county-level city of Qufu,
ancestral home of Confucius, and Zoucheng, home of Mencius, and the
Jiulong mountain range between the two cities. The whole project
covers refurbishing the homes of the two ancient philosophers and
building new architectures in the Jiulong mountain range, Jiang
said.
-- Xinhua
UNITED NATIONS: The Security Council is set to
vote Monday to marginally tighten UN sanctions against Iran over its
refusal to freeze sensitive nuclear fuel work. The 15-member council
was scheduled to hold consultations from 10:30 a.m. Monday ahead of
the vote to adopt a third sanctions resolution which was slightly
amended by its Western sponsors late Friday. The vote, initially
planned for Saturday, was delayed until Monday to give the sponsors
more time to try to win over four reticent council members:
Indonesia, Libya, South Africa and Vietnam, which have questioned
the need for new sanctions.
-- AFP
UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon
on Saturday called for an immediate end to attacks between the
Israelis and Palestinians, condemning Palestinian rocket attacks and
Israel’s “disproportionate and excessive use of force.” Ban
made the appeal at an emergency session of the UN Security Council
called at the request of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas after
Israeli forces killed dozens of Palestinians, including many women
and children in the Gaza Strip. “I condemn Palestinian rocket
attacks, and call for the immediate cessation of such acts of
terrorism, which serve no purpose, endanger Israeli civilians, and
bring misery to the Palestinian people,” the UN chief said. “I
call for an end to these attacks.”
-- Xinhua
TAIPEI: With the presidential vote barely three
weeks away, Taiwan’s nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party candidate
Ma Ying-jeou has widened his lead over rival Frank Hsieh of the
ruling party, a poll said Sunday. The survey of 1,264 people by
television network TVBS indicated that Hsieh of the Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP) had failed to cash in on last week’s huge
rally honoring thousands killed in a 1947 crackdown by KMT troops.
Ma’s support rose to 54 percent, up 5 percent compared with last
week, while support for Hsieh rose from 19 percent to 20 percent.
-- AFP
SHIJIAZHUANG, China: Dusty weather and
sandstorms continued in northern China on Sunday, downing visibility
and fouling the spring air. The Hebei Province, encircling Beijing,
experienced its first dusty weather this year, which brought strong
winds and whipped-up dust, experts with the provincial
meteorological observatory said on Sunday. The dusty weather
occurred after the province suffered an exceptional drought last
year, which halved precipitation in many places and left earth arid
and prone to becoming floating dust. According to the China
Meteorological Administration forecast on Saturday, sandstorms would
hit parts of China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and northern
Shaanxi Province in the next two days.
-- Xinhua
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