BEIJING: China made its first substantive comments yesterday to reports of US surveillance of the Internet, demanding that Washington explain its monitoring programmes to the international community. Several nations, including US allies, have reacted angrily to revelations by ex-CIA employee Edward Snowden over a week ago that US authorities had tapped servers of Internet companies. The Chinese government had not commented directly on the case but repeated the government’s line that China is one of the biggest victims of hacking.
Filipino cop shot dead
MANILA: Suspected Abu Sayyaf militants shot dead a policeman last night in Basilan, police said yesterday. The victim, Henry Noel Hidalgo, a member of police intelligence group, was heading home around 11.40pm when he was attacked by three gunmen in the village of Aguada in Isabela City, regional police commander Noel delos Reyes said. Hidalgo died due to several bullet wounds he sustained in different parts of his body and the authorities were looking into the involvement of Abu Sayyaf group in the attack.
US scientist
‘hanged self’
SINGAPORE: Lawyers for the Singapore government told a coroner’s inquest yesterday that American scientist Shane Todd had hanged himself in the city-state last year and was not murdered as his family claims. Summing up state agencies’ findings on the death of the electronics engineer in June 2012, they said: “It is clear from forensic evidence that the medical cause of Shane’s death was asphyxia due to hanging.”
Seven likely dead in ferry capsize
MANILA: The Philippine authorities yesterday said they had abandoned hope of finding alive seven people missing from a ferry which sank last week with dozens on board, after three days of searching in strong currents. Rescuers recovered two bodies and saved 61 passengers after the Lady of Mount Carmel went down on Friday off the coast of central Masbate island, more than 300km southeast of Manila. Regional Civil Defence chief Raffy Alejandro said that divers had not been able to reach the ferry on the seabed. “We are shifting from rescue to retrieval. We will search if someone spots something floating near the coastline,” he said.
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