- The Observer, Sunday January 1 2006
A bomb packed with nails and ball bearings exploded yesterday killing seven people and injuring 53 others in a crowded market in the Indonesian city of Palu, writes John Aglionby in Jakarta. Palu is in Central Sulawesi, a province riven for more than five years by a sectarian conflict that claimed several thousand lives.
Despite warnings that attacks over Christmas were being plotted by Indonesia's most wanted terrorist, the Malay Islamist Noordin M Top, police played down suggestions of his involvement. They believe the culprits are more likely to be from a Muslim group seeking to reignite unrest. The bomb went off at 7am near crowded stalls selling pork for Christian New Year's Eve celebrations. 'We were all thrown to the ground,' one trader said. 'Many buyers lost their legs.' A 2001 peace deal between warring Muslim and Christian held until last May when 20 people died in a bombing in the Christian town of Tentena. Three Christian schoolgirls were beheaded in October.
Slovak avalanche kills 7
Seven Czech climbers were killed yesterday when an avalanche overwhelmed their camp in the Tatra Mountains of northern Slovakia, the local news agency, TASR, reported. A rescue operation, involving two Slovak helicopters and one from Poland, found one survivor. The avalanche followed heavy snowstorms and high winds on Friday which cut off the capital, Bratislava, and paralysed most of the country. The main road out of Bratislava was closed after four people died in a pile-up of 60 vehicles.
German hostages freed
Yemeni tribesmen have freed a former German government minister, his wife and three sons, who had been held captive for three days. Talks led by Yemen's defence minister secured the release of Juergen Chrobog and his family, seized by tribesmen last Wednesday during a trip to eastern Shabwa province. 'The five hostages were handed over to Yemeni authorities and are expected to leave Shabwa soon,' the official said.
Tribute to missionaries
A total of 26 Catholic missionaries were killed in 2005, according to figures released by the Vatican yesterday. In 2004 16 priests, nuns and church workers died, 29 in 2003. This year's list of 'martyrs for the faith' includes one bishop, 20 priests, two nuns, two monks and a catechist. Among them are Sister Dorothy Stang, an American murdered in Brazil after campaigning on behalf of poor farmers against logging companies; Father Luis Velasquez Romero, killed by drug traffickers in Mexico last October; and Luigi Locati, an Italian bishop working in Kenya, murdered after taking disciplinary action against his diocesan priests, one of whom was arrested for his killing.
