theSun | THURSDAY AUGUST 13 2009
news without borders
said.
In central Chiayi county, some
500 people remained without wa-
ter and electricity in several vil-
lages around Mount Ali, a popular
tourist attraction.
The death toll included three
rescuers who died when their
helicopter crashed into a river in
heavy fog in the southern county
of Pingtung on Tuesday.
Another 45 were reported in-
jured, authorities said.
Armoured vehicles, marine
landing craft and rubber dinghies
have been mobilised in the rescue
Noordin Top eludes police
him’s family in Cilimus and it’s a
100% match,” Eddy Saparwoko,
head of Indonesia’s Disaster Vic-
tim Identification unit, told a news
conference. Cilimus is a district in
Cirebon in West Java.
Police showed CCTV foot-
age where Ibrohim, who called
himself Boim at work, appeared
to be surveying parts of the lobby
and restaurant in the hotel. He
disappeared immediately after the
attacks.
Soekarna described him as the
“field commander” for the op-
erations. Police said he had been a
member of JI since 2000.
“He was the planner, organiser,
controller, operator of the JW Mar-
riott and Ritz-Carlton bombings,”
added Soekarna, who said Ibrohim
had attended a meeting that in-
cluded Noordin and the two suicide
bombers prior to the attacks.
Ibrohim had also been seen
accompanying one of the suicide
bombers at the hotel and had
helped smuggle in bombs to room
1808 at the Marriott where they
operation, which involved more
than 17,000 troops across the is-
land, the defence ministry said.
The typhoon has caused losses
of at least T$9 billion (RM980 mil-
lion) for agriculture and another
T$570 million in lost tourism after
ravaging the island’s scenic moun-
tain and hot spring regions.
Hongkong pop star and actor
Andy Lau was to lead a string of
Taiwanese entertainers fronting a
major fundraising event, organis-
ers said.
Lau, one of Hongkong’s big-
gest names who is also popular
EPAPIX
were assembled, police said.
Police have identified the suicide
bombers as two men, aged 18 and
28, who were previously unknown
to authorities.
Police believe Ibrohim was also
lined up to be the suicide bomber
 11
briefs
Taiwan to hold conference on sexology
Taipei: A Taiwan university will hold an international seminar this
weekend to discuss sex-related issues concerning the Chinese,
including sexual habits, sex education, homosexuality and sexuality
among the elderly, the organiser said yesterday.
Some 160 sexologists and scholars, including 60 from China,
Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the United States, will attend
the First International Conference on Chinese Sexuality, which
starts tomorrow at the Shu-Te University in Kaohsiung County in
southern Taiwan. During the four-day conference, the participants
will release three dozen papers and hold several workshops.
The papers will discuss various aspects of the sex life of Chinese
people, including various sexual habits, homosexuality, mastur-
bation among Chinese students, sexual harassment in school,
and the changing Chinese attitude toward nudity. Taiwanese and
Chinese scholars will also jointly hold a Sex Art Joint Exhibition, the
university said on its website. – dpa
Damaged Women face ID problem after surgery
buildings SHANGHAI: A group of Chinese women who travelled to
after South Korea for cosmetic surgery baffled immigration officers
Typhoon on their return home when their new looks did not match
Morakot their passport photos. The 23 women, who were aged be-
swept tween 36 and 54, had bigger eyes, higher noses and slimmer
Kaohsiung chins than shown in their passports, the English-language
county, China Daily reported yesterday.
Taiwan on “After they took off their huge hats and big sunglasses
Tuesday. following our request, we saw them looking different, with
(Left) A man bandages and stitches here and there,” Shanghai Hongqiao
moves a Airport officer Chen Tao told the paper. “We had to compare
gas cylinder their uncorrected parts with their photos very carefully,” he
and a stove said. The identification process on Sunday took several minutes
after floods per woman, instead of the usual average of 45 seconds. - AFP
submerged
his kitchen in
Pingyao town Top drug boss pleads guilty in US court
in Hangzhou, WASHINGTON: A drug kingpin whose cartel once supplied over
Zhejiang half the Colombian cocaine in the United States pleaded guilty to
province, trafficking, murder and racketeering charges in a Florida court on
China on Tuesday, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Tuesday. Diego Montoya, former leader of the Norte del Valle cartel,
pleaded guilty to importing cocaine and “obstruction of justice by
murder” in a Miami court and agreed to serve 45 years in prison.
The 48-year-old, who was once an FBI top-ten fugitive, entered
the plea as part of an apparent deal with prosecutors, which also
saw him sign a document detailing his rise to the top of one of
Colombia’s most bloody cocaine gangs.
Prosecutors estimate that between 1990 and 2004, the Norte
REUTERSPIX
Valle Cartel exported more than 500 tonnes of cocaine worth more
in China and Taiwan, will join than US$10 billion (RM35 billion) from Colombia to the US. – AFP
more than 200 homegrown stars
to take donation pledges over the
phone from the Taiwanese public
Special guardian for MJ’s kids named
tomorrow in the four-hour fund- LOS ANGELES: A Los Angeles judge has appointed a special
raiser. guardian to represent the financial interests of Michael Jack-
Taiwanese charities and son’s three orphaned children, heirs to his massive music
companies have also launched empire, a court statement said Tuesday.
donation drives for flood victims, The Los Angeles Superior Court said that attorney Margaret
raising more than T$2 billion as Lodise a partner with the law firm Sacks, Glazier, Franklin &
of Tuesday, reports said. Lodise, LLP, had been selected to represent the interests of
Morakot is one of the worst Jackson’s son Prince Michael, 12, his daughter Paris, 11, and
typhoons to strike Taiwan in 50 seven-year-old son Prince Michael II. Lodise’s advocacy on
years. In August 1959, a typhoon behalf of the three Jackson children is to be independent of
killed 667 people and left around the management of the late singer’s estate, and separate as
1,000. – AFP well from decisions on their behalf made by children’s paternal
grandmother Katherine Jackson, who is their legal guardian. The
ruling was handed down by Judge Michael Beckloff. – AFP
Indonesian court rejects vote challenge
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Constitutional Court yesterday rejected
opposition complaints of irregularities surrounding last month’s
presidential polls, confirming Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s re-
election.
The court said it could find no reason to order another poll after
challengers Megawati Sukarnoputri and Jusuf Kalla claimed millions
of voters had been disenfranchised.
“Based on all evidence and laws, we decided to reject all com-
plaints filed by the plaintiffs,” court chairman Mohammad Mahfud
An said while delivering the ruling.
Indonesian “Their objections cannot be accepted. This ruling has been taken
police officer without any dissenting opinion.” – AFP
holds up a
picture of
a terrorist Bloggers arrested over cannibal hoax
suspect BEIJING: Police in southern China have reportedly arrested four
identified as men allegedly behind a bizarre internet hoax which claimed
Ibrahim alias cannibals were responsible for the disappearance of 10 miss-
Boim, who ing people. The bloggers in Guangdong province faked photos
was shot which they claimed showed a corpse being prepared for con-
dead in the sumption by cannibals, the Global Times said yesterday.
gun battle in “Those responsible for the post, which led to rumours of
Temanggung cannibals being at large in the area, are now detained,” a
on Saturday. police official in the city of Yangjiang told the paper.
The four suspects, surnamed Lei, Tan, Chen and Yu, were
in a plot to attack a residence of detained on Friday by police following an online investigation.
President Susilo Bambang Yud- They claimed some local villagers ate people in nearby Songbai
hoyono using a minibus packed township and faked photographs of a corpse which they then
with explosives in retaliation for placed on their website. The grisly claim started circulating
the execution of the Bali bombers on the Internet and caused panic when a 19-year-old woman
last year. – Reuters went missing last month, the report said. – AFP