Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships destroyed a camp for suspected tribal militants in the insurgency-wracked southwestern part of the country, killing five suspects and capturing seven others, a government spokesman said Wednesday. The target of Tuesday’s operation was a headquarters and training camp for Baluch militants near Dera Bugti, Baluchistan province, a government spokesman said. He added that security forces had retrieved the bodies of militants and seized a weapons cache and bomb-making materials.
Bolivia: President honors Guevara
President Evo Morales celebrated the birthday of Che Guevara on Wednesday, the first time a top Bolivian leader has paid tribute to the revolutionary who was executed in the Andean nation four decades ago. Surrounded by Cuban and Venezuelan officials, Morales observed the 78th anniversary of Guevara’s birth, using the occasion to praise his close allies President Fidel Castro of Cuba and President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Guevara, an Argentine, launched an armed revolt in 1966 to bring communism to Bolivia.
Philippines: Killer inmates escape
Eleven prisoners escaped from a jail in the eastern Philippines after killing two guards and wounding two others, police said Wednesday. The escaped inmates were led by a communist guerrilla, Jessie Galecio, who had escaped from jail twice before, a police superintendent said. The prisoners fled Tuesday from the facility in Dancalan, about 300 miles southeast of Manila. “My order is to shoot them on sight once they resist arrest,” he said.
Indonesia: Volcano alert rises
Indonesia’s most volatile volcano nearly enveloped a village with a searing gas cloud during an eruption Wednesday and forced thousands of residents to evacuate just one day after officials lowered the alert level and people returned home. “The situation is … life-threatening,” said the head of the government’s Vulcanology and Disaster Mitigation Center, after the alert level for Mount Merapi was raised to its highest status again and it dumped thick ash on scores of houses. The state news agency Antara reported five villagers were unaccounted for after the eruption.
From Herald news services
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