Jakarta, April 15
A suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque inside a police compound in Indonesia on Friday, wounding 26 people, police said, in the most serious incident in a recent spate of attacks by Islamist militants.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, has been the scene of some major attacks by militants linked to al-Qaeda over the past decade but there have been few big attacks recently. The bombing came during Friday prayers in the town of Cirebon, about 200 km (125 miles) southeast of the capital, Jakarta. Among the injured were police officers and local government officials.

Police say militants in Indonesia have recently changed tactics and are now going after government and law enforcement officials as well as Western targets. "The police have been the most active in fighting terrorism and that is why they are furious with us," said national police spokesperson Boy Rafli Amar.

Members of Indonesia's anti-terrorist unit were at the scene, trying to identify the bomber and what group was behind the attack. The minister coordinating justice, political and security affairs, Djoko Suyanto, said although this was not the first attack on a mosque in Indonesia, this sort of target had not been expected.

"We hope that the security devices around the police office can reveal the perpetrator. This is something new. Even though we scan people entering the police building, the mosque is for everyone," said Nanan Sukarna, national deputy police chief.

Friday's attack has prompted fresh calls from the intelligence agency, the national counter-terrorism agency and the political, security and justice ministry for stronger laws to net militants before they launch attacks. —Reuters

Tokyo/Fukushima, April 15
With tens of thousands of people unable to return to their homes near radiation-leaking Fukushima nuclear complex, Japanese government today ordered the plant's embattled operator to pay $12,000 in initial compensation to those affected, amid frantic efforts to tackle the atomic crisis.

As the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) promised to act on the government's order to pay damages, Premier Naoto Kan said the authorities would make sure that farmers in Fukushima Prefecture, where the nuclear complex is located, receive sufficient compensation for the losses caused by the atomic crisis.

Kan made the remarks during a meeting with officials of an agricultural cooperative from the prefecture, which sought "full" compensation, national broadcaster NHK reported. Kan said TEPCO holds the primary responsibility for paying damages, but added that the government will ensure that farmers are fully compensated, more than a month after a magnitude-9 quake and tsunami that left nearly 30,000 people dead or unaccounted for.

Kan, in a separate meeting with the governor of Ibaraki prefecture, apologised for the release into the sea of contaminated water from the Fukushima plant. TEPCO chief Masataka Shimizu, facing criticism over his inability to outline a timeframe for containing Japan's worst atomic crisis, said the firm would not hold back anything in streamlining to finance the payments, possibly through downsizing the workforce and overseas operations. — PTI

Tripoli, April 15
Britain, France and the United States said in a joint newspaper article on Friday: "It is unthinkable that someone who has tried to massacre his own people can play a part in their future government."

But their clear intention to achieve regime change in Libya goes well beyond the terms of a United Nations resolution authorising air strikes to protect civilians and other allies have misgivings.

In a strongly worded article published on both sides of the Atlantic, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and US President Barack Obama said leaving Gaddafi in power would be an "unconscionable betrayal".

"So long as Gaddafi is in power, NATO and its coalition partners must maintain their operations so that civilians remain protected and the pressure on the regime builds," they said. The statement seemed intended to both paper over cracks in the Atlantic alliance and increase resolve to stick with the air campaign despite increasing differences.

BRIEFLY

World's oldest man dies
LONDON: The world's oldest man has died of an undisclosed illness at the age of 114 at his home in Montana, US. Walter Breuning was awarded the title of the oldest man by the Guinness Book of World Records after Briton Harry Allingham died in July 2009, according to The Sun. Bruening worked in the Great Falls area of Montana since 1918. US Senator Max Baucus who had honoured Breuning in the US Senate on his 114th birthday, said: "I was honoured to know Walter. He was a real Montanan - thrifty, healthy, hard-working, and he had true Montana grit." Breuning was the sixth man in the world to have reached the age of 114. — IANS

Legal setback for Stalin’s grandson
MOSCOW: A Russian court has reportedly rejected a $388,000 libel suit filed by grandson of Joseph Stalin against a radio station, which said the former dictator had “strangled small children”. Stalin's grandson Yevgeny Dzhugashvili demanded 11 million roubles in compensation for the comment made by journalist Nikolai Svanidze on a show aired last year on liberal Ekho Moskvy (Moscow Echo) radio station. — PTI

11-yr-olds can now order condoms
NEW YORK: Children as young as 11 in Philadelphia city in the US can now order free condoms via mail in a new campaign launched to reduce sexually transmitted diseases. The programme, launched by the department of health, features a website TakeControlPhilly.org that shows facts on diseases like chlamydia, gonorrhoea and HIV/AIDS, as well as instructions for young girls on how to use female condoms, Fox News reports. — IANS

SA town gets first Gandhi statue
JOHANNESBURG: Lenasia, the predominantly Indian suburb in south of the city, now has its first statue of Mahatma Gandhi, more than half-a-century after the area was developed by the South Africa's apartheid government to settle all the Indians of the capital. The statue was installed at the Trade Route Mall shopping complex, which is less than 10 km from Tolstoy Farm, the home of Gandhi and his followers when the Indian leader spent time in the city as a young lawyer. — PTI

A universal cancer jab 'on the anvil'
LONDON: A universal cancer jab, say scientists, who are developing the vaccine, that they claim would stop all tumours in their tracks. According to the scientists, the jab is part of a new generation of drugs that uses the body's own defences to fight cancers like pancreatic, prostate and breast, stopping tumours in their tracks. The jabs would hit the market in just two years' time, say the scientists. — PTI