Free Republic

MANILA : A 13-year-old girl and two communist guerrillas have been killed following a gunbattle with Philippine troops, the military said. Four others were wounded in the hour-long firefight, triggered when some 100 New Peoples Army (NPA) guerrillas attacked an army detachment near the mining town of Monkayo in the southern island of Mindanao. High school student Hannah Joy Villaber was slain in the crossfire while two rebels were shot dead. A soldier and three other civilians were also wounded, a military report said. Local army commander Colonel Maximo Caro said the NPA was stepping up its attacks ahead of...

Malaysia has extended the detention for another two years of seven suspected members of the Jemaah Islamiah group. They are detained under the Internal Security Act which allows for indefinite detention without trial. Thirteen detainees with suspected links to Islamic militancy have had their detention extended this week. Some are alleged to be members of Jemaah Islamiah, which is held responsible for terror bombings in Indonesia and the Philippines, including the Bali bombings that killed 202 people in October, 2002. Intelligence officials in the region have linked the group to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.