8 International Wednesday, January 30, 2019 Suicide bomber among Philippines cathedral blast suspects: Duterte President’s account differed from earlier statements by security officials MANILA: A male suicide bomber and his wife carried out Philippines’ deadliest attacks and some of whose factions a Catholic cathedral attack that killed 21 people in the have declared support for the Islamic State. “We are sure country’s restive south, Philippine President Rodrigo of that,” he said. Duterte said yesterday. Duterte told reporters a woman Security officials said earlier yesterday that a group who remains at large left a device that exploded during affiliated with the Abu Sayyaf carried out the cathedral mass at the cathedral in the remote Muslim-majority attack with two explosive devices, one left behind by a island of Jolo on Sunday, and her husband later blew him- woman inside the church and the other hidden on a self up outside. The president’s account differed from ear- motorcycle outside. Duterte said the woman wore a neck- lier statements by security officials. lace “with a large cross” pendant, like a Catholic worship- He said military intelligence told him yesterday the sec- per, which he suggested was the likely reason she was not ond bomb was strapped on to the body of the male sus- intercepted. “It’s not the norm in this country to frisk a pect who detonated it as survivors of the first explosion woman inside the church,” the president said, adding he ran for their lives. “They (investigators) could not find any has ordered the military to “go into a punitive action” part of the body because it exploded, because that was against the Abu Sayyaf. terrorism and that was a suicide,” the president said. If The Jolo attack was carried out days after voters Duterte’s account is confirmed it would be among the few overwhelmingly approved expanding Muslim self-rule in suspected cases of suicide bombings in the Philippines. the south aimed at ending a decades-old rebellion for independence or autonomy for the sizeable Islamic Kidnap-for-ransom group minority of the mainly Catholic nation. The church attack The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for came despite Duterte putting the southern Philippines the cathedral blast, saying two suicide bombers detonated under martial rule after pro-IS militants seized the south- explosive belts, according to the SITE Intelligence Group ern city of Marawi in May 2017. Abu Sayyaf, which is which monitors jihadist activities. Duterte said the Jolo based on Jolo island, has been blamed for the Philippines’ JOLO: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (C) and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana (2nd L, with spectacles) attack was carried out by the Abu Sayyaf, a kidnap-for- deadliest attack, a 2004 ferry bombing in Manila Bay that listen to national police chief Director General Oscar Albayalde (L, in camouflage) as they inspect the damage ransom group that has also been blamed for the claimed 116 lives. — AFP area of a catholic cathedral. — AFP Refugees in W Bengal N Korea says it get land titles amid wants peace, citizenship row relations with US BANGKOK: Authorities in India’s West Bengal state have given land titles to about 30,000 refugees who have lived GENEVA: North Korea said yesterday that relations in settlement colonies for years, and promised that thou- with the United States will develop “wonderfully at a sands more will also get property rights, as a row over fast pace” if Washington responds to its efforts on their citizenship intensifies. Chief Minister Mamata denuclearization with trustworthy measures and practi- Banerjee handed the title deeds on Monday, and said cal actions. North Korea’s ambassador to the United those living in more than 200 settlements will also get Nations in Geneva, Han Tae Song, told the UN-spon- land rights, even though their settlements are on private sored Conference on Disarmament that Pyongyang or federal government land. would continue working to establish a “permanent and “We will try to buy the land from the owners, and we durable peace mechanism on the Korean peninsula”. will ask the central government to regularize the colonies The landmark summit between North Korean leader on plots owned by central agencies,” Banerjee said at a Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump last June public meeting late on Monday. There are an estimated produced a promise to work towards the complete 150,000 families in the eastern state’s refugee colonies. denuclearization of the divided peninsula. Progress Most are from Bangladesh, according to officials. since then has been patchy. Washington is demanding Banerjee’s move is part of a wider push to give more concrete action, such as a full disclosure of North rights to certain refugee groups in the country. Korea’s nuclear and missile facilities, before agreeing to India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, key goals of Pyongyang - easing international sanctions which spells out refugee rights and state responsibilities to and declaring an official end to the 1950-53 Korean protect them. Nor does it have a domestic law to protect the more than 200,000 refugees it currently hosts, includ- War that ended with an armistice. GUWAHATI: Activists of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) burn the effigies of India’s Prime Minister and Chief ing Tibetans, Sri Lankans, Afghans, Bangladeshis and The summit had brought about a dramatic turn in rela- Minister of Assam in Guwahati on January 8, 2019 after India’s lower house passed today legislation that will Rohingyas from Myanmar. But in recent years, the govern- tions that had been “the most hostile on earth” and con- grant citizenship to members of certain religious minorities but not Muslims. — AFP tributed to ensuring peace and security on the peninsula, ment has been granting limited rights to some refugee Han said. He referred to the two leaders’ joint statement groups. Last year, the western state of Maharashtra grant- from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, who came to appealed to President Ram Nath Kovind to reject the issued after their meeting in Singapore and Kim’s New ed land ownership rights to refugees who had fled what is India before Dec. 31, 2014. Citizenship Bill as it discriminates on the grounds of reli- Year’s Address, adding: “Accordingly we declared that we now Pakistan some 70 years ago, when the countries were “Land ownership is an issue for refugees, so having a gion and “violates the constitutional principle of equality”. would neither make and test nuclear weapons any longer partitioned at independence. title will make them feel more secure,” said Achin There have also been protests in the northeastern state nor use and proliferate them and we have taken various Indigenous Chakma and Hajong refugees who left Chakraborty, director of the Institute of Development of Assam, where residents complain that immigrants from practical measures. “If the US responds to our efforts Bangladesh more than five decades ago have limited citi- Studies in the West Bengal capital Kolkata. “But the issue Bangladesh have encroached their land and strained with trustworthy measures and corresponding practical zenship in India, but not land rights, while Tibetan over the cut-off date still remains, and it is not clear if resources. The bill, which was passed in the lower house actions, bilateral relations will develop wonderfully at a refugees get welfare benefits, but no property rights. having a land title is enough,” he told the Thomson of parliament earlier this month, is expected to face fast pace through the process of taking more definite and Refugee rights are in focus with the Citizenship Reuters Foundation yesterday. Chakraborty is one of resistance from the opposition Congress party in the epoch-making steps,” he said. — Reuters Amendment Bill, 2019, which proposes to give citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis more than 100 academics and activists who have upper house. — Reuters ‘French Spiderman’ LGBT people in arrested after scaling Singapore ‘fearful’ Manila skyscraper after HIV data leak MANILA: French urban freeclimber Alain Robert was arrested yesterday, police said, after he scaled one of Manila’s tallest towers in his latest high-risk ascent. KUALA LUMPUR: A major leak of the confidential data of 14,200 The 56-year old adventurer dubbed the “French spiderman” climbed the 47- people with HIV in Singapore could hamper a fight against new storey GT Tower without safety equipment, leaving watchers on the ground star- infections among LGBT+ people in the city-state, campaigners ing in amazement. “This is my path, this is my way of living. It is as important to said yesterday. The health ministry said on Monday that an me as eating, sleeping. I need that. It keeps me alive,” he told reporters after com- American, who lived in the country previously, disclosed online the pleting the climb. details of 5,400 Singaporeans and 8,800 foreigners who were Police were less enthusiastic about the stunt and took him into custody as soon diagnosed with HIV in Singapore. as he reached the ground after the roughly two-hour climb up and down the build- About half of the 434 new HIV cases reported in 2017 were ing. He was being held on a charge of public disturbance and was awaiting a deci- transmitted through same-sex intercourse, official data shows. Gay sion from prosecutors on bail. Robert has scaled more than 100 structures without sex remains a crime in Singapore under a British colonial-era law. ropes or other safety equipment, setting a record for “most buildings climbed LGBT+ groups have set up support services following the breach, unassisted” according to Guinness World Records.