JAKARTA, Indonesia – Two bombs exploded this morning at a busy market in central Indonesia, killing at least 19 people and wounding 20 in a volatile region marred for years by religious fighting, a police official said.
The twin blasts occurred in the Christian-dominated town of Tentena, said Riky Naldo, deputy chief of police in nearby Poso, the coastal town where fighting between Muslims and Christians has claimed hundreds of lives since 2000.
Police in January discovered 60 homemade bombs stashed in an abandoned house in Poso, about 35 miles from Tentena.
Poso was a major battleground in fighting between Christians and Muslims four years ago. About 1,000 people were killed and thousands of others displaced.
Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation, but the central area has approximately equal Muslim and Christian populations.
Aussie gets 20 years for smuggling
An Australian woman was convicted and sentenced by an Indonesian court to 20 years in prison Friday for smuggling 9 pounds of marijuana onto Bali island, provoking shouts of “Liar!” from her mother. Schapelle Corby, 27, wept as the verdict was announced in a case that has attracted enormous media interest in Australia, where many people believe her claims that the drugs were planted in her luggage. She could have faced the death penalty under Indonesian law.
Saudi Arabia: King is hospitalized
King Fahd, whose efforts to strengthen ties between Saudi Arabia – the world’s largest oil exporter – and the United States provoked the wrath of Islamic militants, was hospitalized Friday, apparently suffering from pneumonia. Fahd’s half-brother, Crown Prince Abdullah, has been Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler since Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995. Abdullah is expected to become king should Fahd die.
Canada: U.S. guardsman attacked
A military mechanic from the U.S. Air National Guard was headed out for a meal with a friend early Thursday when a man jumped out of a truck and attacked him near Courtenay, B.C., stabbing him five times, Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia said. The 28-year-old guardsman, based in Klamath Falls, Ore., was reported in stable condition later Thursday at Victoria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital with wounds to his lower neck, back and chest. The attacker fled before police arrived. Police said they knew the suspect, but he was not immediately arrested.
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