(Photo Source:Yahoo News)
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP) – Makeshift bombs striked a Roman Catholic church and a commercial building from the southern Philippines early Sunday, causing fear and damage but no injuries, the local authorities said. The first explosion hit the gate of a two-storey church in downtown Zamboanga as people were arriving for the dawn Sunday mass, shattering glass doors and causing part of the ceiling to collapse, police said. Terrified churchgoers stampeded out of the prayer hall but there were no reported injuries, police investigators added. A parked truck on the church courtyard was also damaged by the blast. About 10 minutes later a similar bomb exploded outside a closed Internet cafe at a commercial building near the church, causing minor damage but no casualties. Police said good thing the establishment was closed at the time. Zamboanga mayor Celso Lobregat told reporters the authorities have not yet identified any suspects up to this time and the motive of the attacks were still unknown.
An official from former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s party says Parliament has passed a resolution seeking a U.N. probe into her case. Izhar Amrohvi says Pakistani lawmakers were unanimous in adopting the resolution late Monday. It urges the government to request the U.N. to investigate Bhutto’s assassination in December. President Pervez Musharraf has blamed a Taliban militant leader, Baitullah Mehsud, for the attack, although Mehsud denies it. Musharraf had opposed a U.N. probe but had allowed the Scotland Yard to look into what caused her death. Pakistan’s new government and parliament is dominated by a coalition led by Bhutto’s party. (Source:Yahoo News)
Myanmar’s Junta Chief Than Shwe revealed in his 15-minute speech in front of 13,000 soldiers in a ceremony to mark Armed Forces Day that civilians will take over the government after the elections in 2010, as soon as the constitution is approved. The said constitution will give broad powers to the military. However, neither the date as to when the proposed constitution will be presented to the public nor the schedule for a referendum to approve it was yet to be disclosed.
Chief Than Shwe made this announcement in Naypyidaw, the new capital of Myanmar, where foreign journalist were not allowed to cover the event. In fact, these media men were not denied visas, six months after the crackdown on Buddhist monks who led the pro-democracy protests.
United Nations Chief Ban Ki-moon advises the Israelis, Palestinians and the whole international community to increase efforts on peace settlement in these two nations this year. Ban is optimistic in reaching what he quoted as an ambitious goal. “If not now, when?” he said in the opening of the United Nations Security Council’s monthly debate on the Middle East. Ban furthered that it is very important to push for the peace process despite the violence that takes place and that it should lose the momentum. Israeli and Palestinian leaders who were present at the US-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Maryland to revive peace negotiations in November last year pledged to seek efforts to finally end the conflict that already spans six decades.
Arizona Senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain warned Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, both Democratic presidential hopefuls, that the withdrawal of US troops in Iraq would be an “unconscionable act of betrayal and a stain on their character as a great nation.” McCain strongly supports the presence of American troops in Iraq. He and Clinton continue to disagree on this matter. On the other hand, he and current President George W. Bush, who also happens to be a Republican, share the same views in opposing the removal of US forces in Iraq.
John McCain is reported to be running near if not ahead of Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in the national polls.
Senator Chris Dodd, a former Democratic presidential candidate, is calling to his fellow Democrats to support the presidential candidacy of Senator Barack Obama.
Sen. Dodd cautioned that a fiery battle between Democrats running for presidential nomination could possibly damage the Democratic Party. There is the danger of divisiveness; the candidates, the consultants, and the advisers.
Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton is on a very close fight for the Democratic presidential nomination. Obama is currently leading the fight for winning eleven times in a row. He has already gained 1, 327 delegates while Clinton has 1, 255.
Obama and Clinton will be having their next competition on March 4 in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont.