MANILA, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Gunmen opened fire on a delivery truck commissioned by the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) in the southern Philippines, killing a truck helper in what was the first attack on any U.N. unit in the country, an official from the agency said on Monday. The truck had just finished delivering bags of rice to temporary shelters in Muslim-dominated Lanao del Sur province and was returning to neighbouring Cotabato City on southern Mindanao island late on Sunday night when gunmen fired at the vehicle. Two other men on the truck were not hurt, the WFP said. "WFP strongly deplores the senseless loss of life of an individual who was assisting in the delivery of humanitarian assistance," Stephen Anderson, WFP country director, said in a statement. In September, almost half of the total 60 bags of 50-kg rice donated by WFP to residents displaced by fighting between government troops and Muslim rebels was stolen by gunmen who blocked a WFP delivery truck in another part of Mindanao. The WFP has distributed more than 4,000 tonnes of rice, biscuits and dates to more than 700,000 displaced people since mid-August 2008 after violence escalated in six provinces on southern Mindanao island. Most of the villagers have returned home as fighting subsided in the last three weeks, disaster agency officials said, adding that about 60,000 to 70,000 people remained in temporary shelter areas. The WFP, which has been working in 80 countries across the globe, said it was well aware of risks involved in the delivery of emergency food assistance in conflict zones worldwide. The government wants to restart peace talks and end a decades-old Muslim secessionist conflict in the country that has kept most investors away from minerals-rich Mindanao island. (Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Rosemarie Francisco and Valerie Lee)
A farmer collects latex in a rubber plantation at Deli Serdang district of the Indonesia's North Sumatra province December 16, 2008. With tyres accounting for 70 percent of world rubber demand, ...
