THE PHILIPPINES. MANILA COURT SENTENCES THREE MILITANTS TO DEATH

a Philippine court sentenced three Muslim militants, including an Indonesian, to death for the bombing of a bus that killed four people in Manila on February 14, 2005.
The bombing on Valentine's Day in the capital's financial district was part of coordinated attacks that also hit two cities on the troubled southern island of Mindanao, killing a dozen people and wounding about 100.
One of those convicted was Rohmat, alias Zaki, an Indonesian suspected of belonging to the regional Jemaah Islamiah (JI) network, which was blamed for bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali and other deadly attacks in the region.
The two others -- Gamal Baharan, alias Tapay, and Angelo Trinidad, alias Abu Khalil -- were suspected members of Abu Sayyaf, the smallest of four homegrown Muslim rebel groups. Trinidad had converted to Islam from Roman Catholicism, the main religion in the Philippines.
Abu Sayyaf, on a US blacklist for suspected links to al Qaeda, was also blamed for the country's worst terror attack -- the sinking of a ferry near Manila in February 2004 that killed more than 100 people.
In her verdict, Judge Marissa Guillen said the three men were given a fair trial, with the two Filipinos making "free and voluntary pleas of guilt" and the Indonesian being allowed to use a lawyer of his choice.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, called the court decision "another victory in our relentless fight against terrorism".
Two Abu Sayyaf leaders, Khaddafy Janjalani and Abu Solaiman, were among the accused but were not sentenced because they remained at large.