KATHMANDU: Police in ethnically-tense southern Nepal said Thursday they have arrested three people in connection with a bombing at an election rally that injured 55 people.

Three people were arrested at the scene of the blast and the number of injured increased from 45 overnight, Yogeshwor Rom Khami, a senior local police officer, told AFP.

The bombing at late Wednesday’s rally is believed to have been carried out by one of around two dozen armed ethnic groups that have emerged in the last year and are fighting for greater representation for ethnic Mahadhesis in national politics.

The rally had been organised by former rebel Maoists and mainstream political parties, who signed a peace deal in November 2006, to prepare the area for April 10 elections that will decide the country’s political future.

“Several groups have claimed responsibility. The extremist Mahadhesi groups are using this as an opportunity for publicity,” the police officer said from Birgunj, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Kathmandu.

The investigation was ongoing.

Armed Mahadhesi groups have vowed to derail the polls unless the government immediately grants the region increased autonomy.

Scores of people have been killed in unrest that began just over a year ago in the fertile southern plains region bordering India.

Mahadhesis, residents of the southern plains, make up around half of Nepal’s 27 million population and say they have long been treated as second class citizens being underrepresented in the government, army and police. - AFP/ac

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JAKARTA: A crucial part of a tsunami detection system placed in Indonesia’s busy Sunda Strait has gone missing amid indications that it was deliberately removed, an Indonesian official said on Thursday.

The device is one of just four installed off Indonesia so far as part of a regional alert system designed to help predict the kind of killer waves that swept the Indian Ocean in December 2004.

It last transmitted data on December 30, 2007, Ridwan Djamaluddin, head of Indonesia’s marine technology research centre, told AFP.

The Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) uses a sensor on the seabed to send signals to a buoy on the surface, which in turn transmits the information to authorities on land.

Djamaluddin said he suspected that the cable holding the buoy in place was snapped after being dragged by a passing object, possibly a ship.

“The buoy is attached with a steel line to an ocean floor unit. The steel line was severed at a depth of 150 metres,” he said, and the ocean floor unit was moved a distance of some two kilometres (1.25 miles).

He added that the buoy was designed to withstand a pulling force of up to six tonnes.

Djamaluddin said he believed the unit was deliberately pulled out from its place, but did not say who would have done it.

The other three DARTs are currently located off the coast of Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra island, and at two different points along the western coast of Sumatra.

At least 22 similar devices are planned to be launched as part of the early warning network.

The Indian Ocean region’s first DART was deployed off Thailand’s Phuket in December 2005.

Indonesia and Thailand were among a dozen nations lashed by a catastrophic earthquake-spawned tsunami in December 2004.

Indonesia, which suffered the highest national death, including 168,000 in Aceh alone, sits on a so-called Pacific Ring of Fire where continental plates collide, meaning earthquakes are a regular and often deadly occurrence.

Offshore, shallow quakes can trigger tsunamis, which occur less frequently but can hit coastal areas quickly and claim a large number of lives.

- AFP/so

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SINGAPORE: Some car dealers have said that car prices may go up as high as 30 per cent in 2009. This follows news that from May 2009, the government will halve vehicle population growth to 1.5 per cent.

Dealers said this will reduce the number of COEs - leading to higher prices.

Car dealers added that they don’t expect frantic buying but a gradual increase in sales.

Another reason to buy now is due to the 10 per cent reduction in the Additional Registration Fee or ARF, from March 2008.

Edmund Gin, Manager of Mitsubishi Sales, said: “Looking at the reduction in ARF - that will definitely decrease the selling price of cars. For Japanese cars, it will range from S$1,000 to S$3,000 in terms of the selling price.”

In 2008, around 13,000 car COEs will be issued at the current growth rate of three per cent.

But in 2009, when the rate is halved, only about 6,500 will be issued.

Dealers said replacement COEs make up the bulk of the total number of COEs available each year.

But such COEs have been decreasing gradually.

Honda dealers said there were some 63,000 replacement COEs in 2007 and they expect a drop to 58,000 in 2008.

They also expect COE prices to go up by about S$3,000 to S$5,000 in the next bidding in March.

Vincent Ng, Product Manager of Honda, Kah Motor, said: “People are keeping their cars longer. In the past, people used to keep their cars for three years and change to a new one. But now it seems like it is 5 years and that trend seems to be continuing. So people might be keeping their cars up to 7 years - purely for economic reasons.”

Car dealers said they have to change their strategies come 2009.

For example, they will have to shift their focus more towards medium and large cars as first time car buyers looking to buy small cars may just decide to stick to public transport.

And it’s clear the industry is set for some challenging times ahead.

Chin Kee Min, Manager of Kia Operations, said: “Unfortunately the margins for a small car is also not a lot, so you can’t actually cushion the blow very much because the COE is increasing too fast.”

Michael Wong, President of Motor Traders Association, said: “Traders have lived in very tough times and good times, so we will probably knuckle down. We will look at our entire operating costs and make our own operations more efficient, more effective.”

Besides being effective, car dealers must also consider how a possible economic slowdown will affect demand. -CNA/vm

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