Jamaliah Yacab, 24, and Maryati Sipon, 27, initially faced a capital charge as the amount of heroin came to 16.53g.

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Jamaliah Yacab, 24, and Maryati Sipon, 27, initially faced a capital charge as the amount of heroin came to 16.53g. FOR $300 each, two women risked their lives to help smuggle in 2.5kg of heroin-laced powder. The prosecution amended the charge to trafficking at least 14.99g of heroin and they pleaded guilty on Monday. The court was not told why the amount of heroin was reduced. Anyone convicted of trafficking in more than 15g of heroin is hanged. Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Cheng Thiam told the High Court that the heroin was hidden in a box of detergent among other household items brought in through the Woodlands Checkpoint by Jamaliah, a Malaysian, at 5.30pm on Dec 31, 2007. While Jamaliah carried the drugs, Maryati, a Singaporean, was the money mule.
According to court documents, a ringleader met Maryati at a coffee shop near the Lavender MRT station early that day. He allegedly handed her $30,500 and instructed her to convert it into Malaysian ringgit and to give it to a man, known only as Boy Cino, in Johor Baru (JB). For this task, she received $300. She handed the RM69,690 to Boy Cino at about noon at a taxi stand at City Square in JB. She then returned to Singapore. Two hours later, Boy Cino arranged for Jamaliah to meet him in JB. He gave her RM400 and the plastic bags containing detergent and other items. When she delivered these to 42-year-old Kharul Anwar Zaini that evening, she got another $50. The women, who will be sentenced in two weeks time, face a minimum jail term of 20 years. The maximum is a life sentence. They are spared the mandatory 15 strokes of the cane.

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Abu Sayyaf bandits in Lamitan, Basilan beheaded one of two hostages they took during a raid

Abu Sayyaf bandits in Lamitan, Basilan beheaded one of two hostages they took during a raid in a Christian village in Basilan last Friday and killed another civilian they met along the way after raiding the community, the military said Monday.

Capt. Neil Estrella, Marines spokesman, said armed men possibly from lawless Moro Islamic Liberation Front groups and the Abu Sayyaf seized Cosme Aballes and Ernan Chavez after terrorizing villagers in Sitio Arco on April 10.

Citing military reports, he said security forces from civilian volunteer organizations (CVOs) on Sunday recovered the body of Aballes, whose head was almost severed.
“He was beheaded but troops in the area described that only the skin was connecting head from the body. The term they used was ‘hack’ and its intention is to behead but they probably did not use a sharp tool,” the official said.“We did not have an autopsy on Aballes but we think that he was killed while the rebels were on the run that’s why we just recovered the body because the troops are still pursuing them,” he added.Estrella said the armed men also shot civilian Jacinto Clemente whom they encountered after the raid.
“They are really criminals. They will kill anybody they encounter and the intention they had was to disrupt the Christian activities during the Lenten season when they went to Sitio Arco,” he said.
“Their second motive was to extort from local leaders in the area,” he added, saying that Chavez is still being held by the suspects.
Chavez is the seventh victim being held in Basilan province by the bandits together with Sri Lankan peacekeeper Umar Jaleel and teachers Jocelyn Enriquez, Jocelyn Inion, and Noemi Maudi, who were abducted in Zamboanga Sibugay last month.Estrella said that Marine troops have been conducting pursuit operations to locate the whereabouts of the kidnappers, who are believed be in the vicinity of Sitio Arco in Lamitan, to safely recover Chavez.Meanwhile, Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno said Monday the government remains firm in its stand not to give in to demands of another Abu Sayyaf Group who are holding hostage two foreign volunteers of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Sulu province.However, Puno said that if the bandits would demand for a troop pullback to give way to the release of another hostage, “then we are willing to bend over backwards to do that.”
Swiss national Andreas Notter and Italian Eugenio Vagni remain in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf since their captivity on January 15. A third hostage, Filipina Red Cross worker Jean Lacaba, was released last April 2.Puno said he believes the bandits are after the money which they think they could get from the families of the two Red Cross workers.He said the abductors have allowed their hostages to talk to their families over the phone.

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Thai soldiers sprayed automatic weapons fire into the air and threw tear gas to clear demonstrators blocking roads across the capital

Thai soldiers sprayed automatic weapons fire into the air and threw tear gas to clear demonstrators blocking roads across the capital Monday in a major escalation of anti-government protests that have roiled this Southeast Asian nation. Thailand's armed forces chief vowed Monday to restore order in the capital. In a national television address, Gen. Songkitti Jaggabatara said his troops would employ "every means to end the chaos." But the army chief also said soldiers would use weapons only for self defense and not "excessively." At least 74 people were reported injured in the clashes, most of them in a pre-dawn confrontation in which the demonstrators hurled at least one gasoline bomb and, according to the military, fired at the troops. The protesters were stationed at half a dozen points in Bangkok, including the prime minister's office where thousands remained encamped, defying a state of emergency that bans gatherings of more than five people. The demonstrators are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, saying his four-month-old government came to power illegally. Protesters commandeered public buses to block several key intersections, set tires on fire and sent two unmanned buses, one of them set on fire, hurtling toward lines of soldiers.
The violence is the latest round in a political tug-of-war between the "red shirts," who support the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and the "yellow shirts," who back the current government, reported CBS News correspondent Celia Hatton.
The "reds" are mostly from Thailand's poor majority; the "yellows" come from the country's urban middle classes, added Hatton.
In one of several tense confrontations and cat-and-mouse chases around the city, a line of troops in full battle gear fired volleys of M-16 fire, most of it aimed above the heads of protesters and turned water cannons on the crowd near Victory Monument, a major traffic circle. Protesters at an intersection near the monument set an empty bus on fire and, after weighing down the accelerator with a bag of water bottles, sent it surging toward advancing soldiers.
The bus swerved and then ricocheted off trees on the side of the road before coming to a halt, with no one injured. City officials said the protesters have commandeered about 30 public buses and earlier forced military vehicles to halt, in one case climbing on top of two armored personnel carriers, waving flags and shouting "Democracy." Parliament appointed Abhisit in December after a court ordered the removal of the previous pro-Thaksin government citing fraud in the 2007 elections. Thaksin supporters took to the streets in protest, and their numbers grew to 100,000 in Bangkok last week. A mob of the red-shirted protesters smashed cars carrying Abhisit and his aides on Sunday. The secretary-general of Abhisit's office, Niphon Promphan, was dragged from the car and beaten, suffering head injuries and broken ribs.
Abhisit appealed Monday to the demonstrators to return to their homes, saying the government was using "the softest measures possible" against them. "All the work I am doing is not to create fear or put pressure or to harm any group of people. It's a step by step process to restore order and stop violence," he said on nationwide television. Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the "situation in Thailand is being brought back under control." "In the next few hours, several security measures will be established ... to secure major ports, international airports and infrastructure," he said. In contrast to a complete security breakdown over the weekend, where a 16-nation Asian summit was canceled after demonstrators stormed the venue, security forces began to take action. Now that they have tanks on the streets, it is time for the people to come out in revolution. And when it is necessary, I will come back to the country.Thaksin Shinawatra,Ousted Thai Prime MinisterMonday's first clash began between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m., as troops in full combat gear advanced to disperse the protesters, who were occupying a major junction, according to witnesses. The soldiers fired hundreds of rounds from their M-16 automatic rifles, with Associated Press reporters saying most appeared to have been aimed over the heads of the protesters. The reporters saw protesters throw at least one gasoline bomb which exploded behind the army line and tear gas floated across the eerie dawn scene.

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Unmanned Palestinian fishing boat exploded off the coast of the Gaza Strip on Monday in an apparent attempt to hit naval patrols in the area

Unmanned Palestinian fishing boat exploded off the coast of the Gaza Strip on Monday in an apparent attempt to hit naval patrols in the area, the Israeli military said, reporting no casualties.
An army spokesman said the nearest Israeli vessel was a safe distance from the Palestinian boat when it blew up about 300 yards off the northern Gaza shore near the border with Israel.
The explosion was heard further along the coast in Gaza City, several miles to the south. Local Palestinian media did not immediately report on the incident, and no groups claimed responsibility for the blast.
In 2002, two Palestinian militants on an explosive-packed boat blew themselves up next to an Israeli patrol vessel, killing themselves and wounding four naval crewmen. Islamic Jihad, a violent group backed by Syria and Iran, claimed responsibility at the time.
The Israeli navy closely monitors the coastal strip as part of a general blockade, tightened since the Islamist Hamas group took control of Gaza in June 2007. Patrol boats are particularly on the lookout for attempts to smuggle in arms and explosives.
Israel launched a 22-day offensive into Hamas-controlled Gaza in late December to halt rocket fire at Israeli targets and the smuggling of arms in the strip. The weapons typically make their way into Gaza through underground tunnels along the Egyptian border.
Egyptian authorities, however, have alleged the weapons reach Gaza by the sea.
In January, the U.S. Navy intercepted a Cypriot-flagged ship suspected of transporting explosives from Iran bound for Gaza. The vessel and its cargo were escorted to Cyprus, where they were impounded by authorities.
In February the Israelis intercepted a ship carrying humanitarian supplies and rights activists from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip, towing the vessel to an Israeli port, deporting those on board and delivering the supplies to Gaza by land after a rigorous inspection.

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Swiss Andreas Notter and Italian Eugenio Vagni of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) remain in the hands of the bandit group

Swiss Andreas Notter and Italian Eugenio Vagni of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who remain in the hands of the bandit group in Sulu, as well as six Filipino teachers who were taken in Zamboanga, some of whom are now being held in Basilan.
Pimentel said the agreements could be used to allow the Philippines to borrow “sophisticated equipment” from the Americans that would help local troops find the kidnappers.“We need to monitor their movements, and the Americans are the only ones with this kind of equipment,” the senator said.On the phone Sunday with the Philippine Daily Inquirer in Zamboanga City, Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan said he had stopped talking with the Abu Sayyaf for the release of Notter and Vagni although his emissaries continued to negotiate with the bandit group.But he said he was not losing hope that the two men would soon be freed like Filipino engineer Mary Jean Lacaba.Notter, Vagni and Lacaba were abducted on Jan. 15, after they inspected a water sanitation project at the Sulu provincial jail. Lacaba was released 77 days later.“I am still hopeful; there is still hope that they would be freed any day now,” Tan said.
He admitted, however, that the Abu Sayyaf was still demanding a troop pullout even as the government was standing pat on its decision not to dismantle the military cordon set up in the town of Indanan.“The demand for the pullout of troops, that’s what they are constantly seeking, and I am not giving in to their demand,” he said, adding:“The cordon stays, and it’s more tight now.”Tan said the ball was in the kidnappers’ court: “It depends on them now if they want to release the victims.”Tan said the situation remained tense in Indanan with Notter and Vagni still in the bandits’ hands.
“It’s like a waiting game—waiting and occasionally hanging tough,” he said.Tan said the Abu Sayyaf actually had no clear demands, and that this was why he had decided not to personally deal with them anymore.“I don’t talk to people who do not really know what they want,” the governor said.“My advice to these kidnappers is that they better think well, sit down and discuss among themselves what are their demands. If they don’t have any valid reason [for the abduction] except for this endless call for a troop pullout, they better just release the hostages. They can’t expect anything from us,” he said.Sulu Vice Gov. Nur-Ana Sahidulla said the Abu Sayyaf was willing to negotiate for the release of Notter and Vagni.
But she said the bandit group had emphasized that negotiations could take place only after troops had been pulled out of Indanan.“That’s their only demand—that the troops withdraw,” Sahidulla said.

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