An armored personnel carrier moves among vehicles of residents fleeing Marawi, Philippines, on Thursday.Ted Aljibe / Agence Francepresse DAVAO CITY, Philippines - Indonesians and Malaysians were among foreign extremists fighting the army in Mindanao Island, the government said on Friday, in a rare admission that outsiders were collaborating with domestic militant groups. Malaysians and Indonesians were among six killed on Thursday in battles that have raged for three days in Marawi City, where the army has been trying to flush out rebels of the Islamic State group-linked Maute group. The Philippines has deployed attack helicopters and special forces to drive gunmen out of the besieged southern city of 200,000 people, with 11 soldiers and 31 militants killed. Before it was just a local terrorist group. But now they have subscribed to the ideology of IS, Solicitor General Jose Calida said. They want to make Mindanao part of the caliphate. President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday delivered on his long-standing threat to impose martial law on Mindanao, the country's second-largest island, to stop the spread of extremism. He recently warned that IS group was determined to establish a presence in the southern Philippines. Calida said the Maute group and the IS group wanted to create an IS province in Mindanao and the government was not the only target of their aggression. People they consider as infidels, whether Christians or Muslims, are also targets of opportunity, he said. What it worrisome is that the IS has radicalized a number of Filipino Muslim youth. His admission elevates the treat of what experts says are moves by the IS to exploit the poverty and lawlessness of the southern Philippines to establish a base for extremists from Southeast Asia and beyond. Abu Sayyaf is notorious for piracy and kidnappings and beheading captives, among them Westerners. The Maute is a little-known group that has been a tricky foe for the military, and was blamed for a bombing in Davao in September, which killed 14 people. Reuters - Xinhua event wristbands ukcustom printed wristbandscustom rubber bandsflash drive wristbandtrio spinners
Recycling experts have voiced concerns over a rising number of demolition and construction projects in China's big cities, which they say is creating a growing volume of waste and is an urgent issue. According to a Beijing municipal government plan, the city will demolish a total area of more than 40 square kilometers of illegal constructions this year, to improve the cityscape and increase space for green development. With the relocation of noncapital functions, such as wholesale markets, to areas outside of the city and the growing trend of demolition to continue in the coming years, more construction waste will be created, according to Li Shuo, deputy general-manager of BCEG Resources Recycling Co, a State-owned company part of Beijing Construction Engineering Group. He said during the 12th China Circular Economy Development Summit in Beijing last month that dealing with a growing volume of waste is an urgent issue, adding that dumping waste in natural environments is unacceptable. According to data from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the volume of overall construction waste in China reached 3.5 billion metric tons last year. As cities such as Beijing and Shanghai upgrade their functions and address big-city diseases, the waste produced by construction and demolition projects is expected to grow. Li said Shanghai will pull down 50 sq km of buildings this year. In some second-tier cities, such as Zhengzhou in Henan province and Xi'an in Shaanxi province, the quantity of existing demolition waste is already huge, which brings both challenges and opportunities to companies in the recycling industry, he said. Li's company analyzes the composition of the building waste and conducts different treatment of the waste accordingly. Through a series of tests, we have proved that our techniques for the treatment of demolition waste are better than natural lime soil in terms of being used for refilling, Li said. During large-scale demolition work, we transform construction waste into resources for refilling, which helps save energy on transporting materials and also protects the environment. Li said the company has two such projects. One is in the Sunhe area in Beijing's northeastern Chaoyang district, and the other is in Tongzhou. In addition to construction waste, domestic waste is also a big challenge for cities. Pan Yonggang, vice-president of the China National Resource Recycling Association, said the recycling industry has seen a decline in profits due to global economic uncertainties in the past three years. Many companies and individuals have given up on the industry, which has resulted in the soaring levels of waste, because there are not enough people to collect the waste and recycle it, he said. According to Pan, the number of people involved in China's recycling industry has fallen from 18 million at its peak to the current 12 million. To address the problem, Beijing is working on deepening coordination between the recycling and environmental sanitation sectors, he added.
