International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2016 Philippine bombings leave 39 wounded

MANILA: At least 39 people have been injured in two island of Mindanao barely an hour later, wounding six er forms of violence carried out by Muslim extremists separate bomb attacks in the Philippines, authorities people, the military said. "A lamppost was catapulted who consider the region their ancestral homeland, said yesterday. In the first incident, two bombs explod- from the impact of the explosion," said Lieutenant waging a decades-long independence struggle that is ed late Wednesday in the central island of Leyte, Colonel Edgar Delos Reyes. The blast in Aleosan, hun- believed to have claimed more than 120,000 lives. wounding 33 people who were watching a boxing dreds of kilometers south of Hilongos, was close to the Muslim extremists have also been blamed for attacks match in Hilongos, government officials said. Another site of a Christmas Eve church bombing that injured 13. outside Mindanao, such as the discovery of a bomb unexploded bomb was also found in the town, which is Police said it was too early to say if Wednesday's bomb- near the US embassy in Manila in November. In the about 620 kilometers south of Manila, said the town's ings were connected or what the perpetrators' motives deadliest such attack recently, 15 people were killed in mayor Albert Villahermosa. might be. an explosion in President Rodrigo Duterte's hometown A bomb went off on a highway on the southern Mindanao has been wracked by bombings and oth- of Davao in Mindanao in September. — AFP

Religion control in Tibet will increase

BEIJING: The Communist Party's control over religion in Tibet can only increase, the region's top official was quoted as saying yesterday, vowing to step up efforts to expose the "sinister intentions" of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. Chinese troops marched in and took control of Tibet in 1950 in what Beijing calls a "peace- ful liberation". Rights groups say China tramples on Tibet's religious and cultural traditions, charges Beijing denies. The Dalai Lama, denounced by Beijing as a dangerous separatist, fled to India in 1959 following a failed uprising against the Chinese. He says he simply wants genuine autonomy for his homeland. In excerpts of : A visitor leaves after praying at the . (Inset) ’s Defense Minister Tomomi Inada a speech on religious policy carried by the visiting the Shrine. — AFP Photos official Tibet Daily, Tibet's Communist Party chief Wu Yingjie said Tibetan Buddhism had a fine tradition of patriotism Japan defense minister and had made important contributions to maintaining national unity. But Tibetan Buddhism needs to march with the times, and at the same time as visits Yasukuni shrine passing down and teaching its traditional precepts it needs to put more focus on 'Yasukuni Shrine honors millions of Japanese war dead' teachings that "benefit social harmony and move with the times", Wu said. "The party's leadership work over religion can only TOKYO: Japan's hawkish defense minister prayed Inada is a close confidante of Abe, who said at Sophia University and a vocal Abe critic, said strengthen and not weaken," he added. yesterday at a controversial war shrine in Tokyo on a golf course that he had "no comment" on Inada's decision to go to Yasukuni was not a Wu, who took up his post in August, used the day after accompanying Prime Minister Shinzo her action. The visit, which Jiji Press and Nippon rogue act. one of his first public speeches the follow- Abe on a symbolic visit of reconciliation to Pearl TV reported appeared to be the first by a defense "Yasukuni is not a normal shrine," he ing month to denounce the Dalai Lama, Harbor, drawing condemnation from China and chief since 2002, drew the ire of China and South said. "Naturally, she went with Mr Abe's bless- signaling Beijing's hard line is unlikely to . Yasukuni Shrine honors millions of Korea. It is "deeply ironic after the so-called Pearl ing." The of Inada, a member of change under his leadership. mostly Japanese war dead, but is contentious for Harbor reconciliation tour", Chinese foreign min- parliament from western Japan's Fukui prefec- He continued with the theme in his lat- also enshrining senior military and political figures istry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters ture, is well known. She wrote in 2011 that est comments. "Continue to deepen the convicted of war crimes by an international tribu- in Beijing. "It will only make the people of the Japan-the only country in the world to suffer exposure and criticism of the Dalai clique's nal. The indigenous Shinto religious shrine has for world more on-guard against Japan's actions atomic bomb attacks-should consider acquiring reactionaries on politics, its falseness on decades been a flashpoint for criticism from coun- and intentions." South Korea summoned a senior nuclear weapons. In August, after becoming religion, its deceptive methods," he said. tries such as South Korea and China, which suf- official from the Japanese embassy in Seoul to defense minister, she said that Japan "should not "Educate and guide the broad mass of fered under Japan's colonialism and military protest. "Our government cannot but deplore" consider arming itself with nuclear weapons at monks, nuns and believers to clearly rec- aggression in the first half of the 20th century. the visit, foreign ministry spokesman Cho June- this moment". Inada argued yesterday that offer- ognize the reactionary nature and sinister Tomomi Inada's visit was her first since taking Hyuck said in a statement, while in separate ing respect to war dead should be universally intentions of the Dalai clique to split the the key defense portfolio in August, though she comments the defense ministry expressed accepted, echoing the argument repeated by motherland." has frequently gone in the past. "By taking a "grave concern and regret". Japanese lawmakers who frequently visit Believers need to draw a clear line in future-oriented stance, I offered my prayers to Yasukuni. the sand between them and the Dalai build peace for Japan and the world," she told 'Abe's blessing' Abe and Obama paid homage to the more Lama and understand that unity and sta- reporters. She noted that -"the The move by Inada, who holds staunchly than 2,400 Americans killed in Japan's surprise bility are good and separatism and chaos president of a country that dropped atomic nationalist views, was an attempt to appease the attack against the Pacific Fleet and stressed the bad, Wu added. China says its rule has bombs"-had gone to Hiroshima earlier this year, government's conservative base after Abe's con- power of reconciliation. The prime minister's brought prosperity and stability, rejecting while Abe "voiced words to console the spirits of ciliatory gesture to the US, analysts said. "As Ms visit followed Obama's May journey claims from Tibetan exiles and rights the dead" at Pearl Harbor, though she did not Inada was present at Prime Minister Abe's visit to to Hiroshima, the scene of the world's first atom- groups of widespread repression. mention that Japan attacked it. Inada made the Hawaii, she wiped off some-if not all-of her repu- ic attack days in August 1945. Abe has himself Representatives of the Dalai Lama, a Nobel pilgrimage the day after, in Japan time, Abe and tation as a revisionist," said Tetsuro Kato, emeri- avoided Yasukuni after going there three years Peace laureate, held rounds of talks with Obama's joint visit to the site of the Japanese mili- tus professor of Japanese politics at Hitotsubashi ago to commemorate his first anniversary as China until 2010, but formal dialogue has tary's December 7, 1941 air assault on the navy University. "But she also had to address frustra- prime minister. That sparked fury in Beijing and stalled amid leadership changes in Beijing base in Hawaii that drew the into tions from right-wingers among her supporters," Seoul and earned a rare diplomatic rebuke from and a crackdown in Tibet. — Reuters World War II. he told AFP. Koichi Nakano, professor of politics close ally Washington. — AFP