ASPAUCULE

Bomb prankster scares Davao department store

A suspected prankster left the NCCC Center Point department store in Davao City gripped with fear as shoppers rushed out of the building after one of them saw a bag suspected of containing a bomb on the third floor Sunday morning.

Bomb experts, however, said that the bomb contained only rocks.

Mga bato lang 'yung laman nito, said Raul Marata, one of the bomb experts who rushed to the department store in Matina district.

Experts also said that the bag had a cellular phone attached by wire to a baby's feeding bottle.

Officials of the bomb disposal unit said the bomb would not go off since it had no battery. Also, it cannot be detonated by any means because it was poorly-made and had no explosive ingredients.

Police have launched an investigation to determine who left the bag inside the department store and his motive for doing it. With a report from Vincent Virtucio, ABS-CBN Davao

Lebanon government denounces Hezbollah coup in Beirut

Reuters
BEIRUT - Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah group took control of the Muslim half of Beirut on Friday in what the U.S.-backed governing coalition called "an armed and bloody coup".
The United States pointed to Hezbollah's links with Tehran and Damascus and said it was talking with other powers about taking measures against "those responsible for the violence".
At least 18 people have been killed and 38 wounded in three days of battles between pro-government gunmen and fighters loyal to Hezbollah, a Shi'ite movement with a powerful guerrilla army.
The violence follows 17 months of political deadlock between the Hezbollah-led opposition, which demands more say in government, and the ruling coalition. It has paralyzed the country and left it without a president.
Lebanon's worst internal strife since the 1975-90 civil war erupted this week after the government decided to dismantle Hezbollah's military communications network. The group said the government had declared war.
In scenes reminiscent of the civil war, men with rifles roamed the streets amid smashed cars and smoldering buildings.
Fighting died down as outgunned government supporters, many of them supporters of Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri, handed over their weapons and offices to the army, which has tried to remain neutral in the conflict.
Syria and Iran
The anti-Syria ruling coalition said the "armed and bloody coup" was aimed at increasing Iran's influence and restoring that of Syria, forced to withdraw troops from Lebanon in 2005.
A U.S. State Department spokesman said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had phoned her French and Saudi counterparts and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss "what the international system can do to support this Lebanese government ... in the face of illegal acts, by the armed gangs".
"The linkages that we know exist, and are ongoing, between Hezbollah and Syria and Iran, are starting to manifest themselves in the current crisis," he said.
"We are seeing now some evidence of those groups that are linked to Syria ... taking a much more active role in fanning the flames of the violence."
A White House spokesman said: "The United States is consulting with other governments in the region and with the U.N. Security Council about measures that must be taken to hold those responsible for the violence in Beirut accountable."
Syria said the issue was an internal Lebanese affair, while Iran blamed "the adventurist interferences" of the United States and Israel for the violence.
A senior opposition source told Reuters that Hezbollah and its allies would maintain roadblocks, including barricades on routes to the airport, until a full resolution of the crisis.
"All issues are linked. Beirut will remain shut until there is a political solution," the source said.
An influential pro-government leader called for dialogue.
Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Druze minority, said Hezbollah "regardless of its military strength, cannot annul the other".
Killed trying to flee
The dead included a woman and her 30-year-old son, killed while trying to flee Ras al-Nabae -- a mixed Sunni-Shi'ite Beirut district and scene of some of the heaviest clashes.
"They were trying to flee to the mountains. Instead ... they reached the hospital, dead," said a relative, who declined to give her name out of fear for her own safety.
"It was terrifying during the night. We couldn't even move about in the house," said another woman, a Ras al-Nabae resident who fled the area at first light with her children. "We spent the night in the corridor."
Hezbollah seized the offices of pro-government factions, including Hariri's Future group in the predominantly Muslim western half of the city.
Backed by gunmen from the Shi'ite Amal group, Hezbollah handed over the offices to the army. Hariri supporters gave up their offices to the army elsewhere in the country.
Hezbollah also moved into Hariri-owned media outlets, and Hariri's television and radio stations went off the air. Opposition gunmen of the Syrian Socialist National Party set ablaze a building housing studios of Hariri's TV station.
"It certainly leaves the government weaker and the Future movement weaker," said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
But Hezbollah does not want to be seen as an "occupier of Beirut", he said, and handing control to the army appeared its most likely exit.
The European Union, Germany and France urged a peaceful resolution. Syria said the issue was an internal Lebanese affair while Iran blamed the United States and Israel for the violence.
Hezbollah was the only Lebanese faction allowed to keep its weapons after the civil war to fight Israeli forces occupying the south. Israel withdrew in 2000 and the fate of Hezbollah's weapons is at the heart of the political crisis.

CPP calls AFPs bounty scheme a desperate act

The Communist Party of the Philippines on Thursday said that the bounty scheme implemented by the Armed Forces of the Philippines is a "desperate act" in its failure to quell the growing revolutionary movement.
"The bounty scheme is now officially an incentive to military units for ā€˜successes in military operations against the armed revolutionary movement," said CPP spokesman Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal in a statement posted in the CPP Web site, www.philippinerevolution.net .
Rosal said the bounty scheme is a "pretext for more corruption and brutalities" and bound to produce more fake reports, false raids and more atrocities against innocent civilians.
Agence France Presse reported that under the plan, a military battalion that destroys a guerilla "front" of the CPP and New Peoples Army will receive P300,000 cash incentive.
Monetary incentives, which are drawn from the militarys operational funds, will also be given for captured communist leaders, hitting their targets and taking rifles from captured or slain rebels.
It added that cash incentives are being offered to help meet President Arroyos target of defeating communist rebels by 2010.
Nothing new
Rosal added that there is nothing new in the military's cash incentive scheme except that it is now being publicized and openly admitted.
"Ever since, AFP field commanders, in collusion with their high command and underlings, have regularly and blatantly been fabricating reports about operations supposedly conducted, and victories allegedly gained against the NPA, just to collect their supposed expenses for operations that never took place," said Rosal.
"Worse, they also falsely report as 'elimination' or 'neutralization' of 'rebels' their massacres and illegal arrests of activists in the legal arena, suspected supporters of the revolutionary movement, and innocent civilians," he added.
He said the AFP force ordinary barrio folks to "surrender" in order to make spurious reports and then pocket their collections from the Rebel Returnee Funds.
Rosal explained that the Armed Forces' reports on dismantled rebel bases were actually attacks and burning down of clusters of farmers homes and peasants working camps in the field.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that newly-installed AFP chief Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano ordered accelerated offensives against CPP-NPA rebels in two dozen areas.
"We are on track with our targets and we'll just sustain the momentum and step up our operations in the priority areas," Yano said. With reports from Agence France Presse and Reuters

Asia mobile phones sales tipped to exceed 400M in 2008: report

Agence France-Presse
SINGAPORE - Mobile phone sales in the Asia Pacific region excluding Japan is expected to grow an annual 10 percent to more than 400 million units in 2008, fuelled by China and India, an industry report said Wednesday.
Mobile phone sales in 2007 totaled 366 million units, IDC said in a report.
China and India, which together accounted for over 60 percent of regional demand, still offer much room for growth despite the huge jump in mobile phone users, it said.
The mobile penetration rate in China and India, at 40 percent and 20 percent respectively, shows there is plenty of scope for expansion, the research firm said.
"The twin engines of this growth are India and the PRC , which together commanded more than 60 percent of shipments in the region," said IDC analyst Aloysius Choong.
He said mobile phone sales in India should grow by 19 percent this year.
On the vendor side, Finnish telecom giant Nokia remained the dominant leader with market share of over 50 percent last year, up from 42 percent in 2006, said IDC.
Trailing in second place was South Korea's Samsung with 12.1 percent, followed by Motorola at 8.3 percent, Sony Ericsson 6.9 percent and LG took fourth spot with 5.2 percent.
"Nokia is poised for continued success in the market, thanks to its strong brand, broad portfolio and uncompromising execution," said Melissa Chau, IDC's associate market analyst for personal systems research.

US State Dept revokes visas of Erap, others in espionage case

By CES DRILON
ABS-CBN News The US State Department has revoked the US visas of at least six current and former government officials, in connection with the first known case of espionage from within the White House involving naturalized FIlipino American Leandro Aragoncillo last year.
But a close Estrada associate, whose visa was cancelled, estimates fifteen to twenty opposition figures suffered the cancellation of their visas, including former President Joseph Estrada and former House Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella.
In July 2007, a Federal Court in New Jersey sentenced Aragoncillo, a naturalized Filipino-American intelligence analyst who worked for US Vice-President Richard "Dick" Cheney, to ten years imprisonment.
He was charged for stealing classified information about President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and passing it on to known opposition leaders in the Philippines.
Former member of the Lower House Gilbert Remulla received a letter from the US Embassy in June last year informing him of the cancellation of his US visa.
The letter cited the US Immigration and Nationality Act which "prohibits the issuance of a visa to anyone who seeks to engage in espionage against the US, as well as for sabotage and/or illegal export from the US of goods, technology and sensitive information."
Remulla said he has appealed his case and reapplied for a visa but was told by a US consular official that Washington would have to review his application. In contrast, his children were granted visas valid for ten years.
The former 2nd district of Cavite representative said he may have been a recipient of a group e-mail sent by Aragoncillo, although he doesn't recall having read it.
He added he does not know Aragoncillo personally and has never communicated with him, other than the possible group e-mail. Remulla protested the US action as being too arbitrary.
Remulla chaired a House investigation into the "Hello Garci" scandal at the height of the impeachment move against President Arroyo in 2005.
President Estrada, Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson and former Speaker Fuentebella, who were identified as Aragoncillo's co-conspirators in court filings on the case, denied their visas were cancelled. A Senate source, however, disclosed the visas of two staff members of Senator Lacson have been revoked.
President Estrada claimed his visa merely lapsed while he was in jail on plunder charges. He said he had gone to the US embassy last week to apply for a new visa and for fingerprinting. Estrada said he plans to visit the US in late June or after he travels to Beijing, China for the Olympics in August.
An Estrada associate whose visa had been cancelled, but asked not to be named, said had Presisent Estrada's visa been cancelled, the matter would have been moot since the Sandiganbayan had cancelled his passport during his plunder trial.
The Estrada associate also said he had warned the former President not to attempt to step on US soil because he risks facing arrest in connection with the espionage case.
Other officials whose US visas were revoked include a congressman and a Metro Manila mayor identified with the opposition.
The US Embassy declined to comment on the issue, saying privacy regulations on an individual's visa status prevent them from disclosing any information.