MANILA — Philippines security officials said Thursday they had uncovered a plot by Islamic militants linked to the Al-Qaeda network to assassinate President Gloria Arroyo and target foreign embassies here.
Her security chief, Brigadier General Romeo Prestoza, said Arroyo had been informed of the threat, which forced her to cancel a scheduled trip Friday to the northern resort city of Baguio. The announcement came a day ahead of a major rally by Arroyo's political opponents to demand her resignation over allegations of corruption linking the first family. Security forces in the Philippines were placed on full alert, with Prestoza saying the plot was hatched by "extremists Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and the Abu Sayyaf," referring to Muslim militant groups with reported links to Al-Qaeda.
"It is not just the president, there are other targets," he told reporters. "A number of embassies in Manila have also been targeted for attack," Prestoza said, without naming the embassies. "The only event we have cancelled is the President's trip to the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio as it is wide open and difficult to secure."
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Kosovo police late Thursday reported an explosion behind a building housing the advance team for the European Union mission at the flashpoint town of Kosovska Mitrovica.
"There are no injured," Besim Hoti, the police spokesman in the town, told AFP by phone. Two windows of a nearby house had been smashed in the blast, he added. The building is in the northern, Serbian part of the town, which is divided between Serbs and ethnic Albanians. Hoti said investigation for possible reasons behind the blast was underway.
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Serbia voids Kosovo sepratists independence declaration
February 14, 2008
BELGRADE - The Serbian government said Thursday it considers Kosovo's expected unilateral declaration of independence as well as all decisions by the European Union to send its mission to Kosovo "null and void."
Kosovo's parliament is expected to declare independence from Serbia on Sunday. After that, the EU is due to send a mission to the province in order to oversee law and order in Kosovo. The intended declaration by the ethnic Albanian majority of Kosovo "violates the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Serbia..., the U.N. Charter, U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244 from 1999, as well as the existing international law," the government said in a statement.
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