Davao City, Philippines - Six soldiers were killed when a landmine planted by communist rebels exploded in the southern Philippines, an army battalion commander said Saturday.

Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Sequitin said the incident occurred Friday in a remote village near Mabini town in Compostela Valley province, 990 kilometres south of Manila.

Sequitin said victims were making preparations for a medical mission next month in the village when they tripped over the landmine, causing it to explode.

Washington, Oct 25: Results of two recent polls have revealed that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will get
75-80 percent of Jewish votes in the Nov 4 polls.

The Jewish community has been traditionally voting for Democratic candidates.

A Gallup tracking poll of 564 Jewish registered voters, taken over the first three weeks of October, found Obama leading Republican John McCain by a 74-22 percent margin, a 13-point increase for the Democratic nominee since July when he led 61-34 percent.

Hong Kong  - H

Hong Kong - A solar-powered lamp, which is as thin as a magazine cover and sticks onto most surfaces has been developed by a Hong Kong inventor, a media report said.

The lamp won designer Keikko Lee, 26, the gold price in South Korea's first international design competition held in October, the South China Morning Post said.

Lee said the lamp has electroluminescent material on one side and solar panels and sensors on the other.

Tokyo - Operating profits of Japan's second-largest carmaker Honda Motor Co are likely to drop sharply owing to the yen's strengthening against the dollar, a newspaper report said Saturday.

The Nikkei business newspaper reported that Honda's operating profits are expected to drop by about 40 per cent to between 550 and 580 billion yen (5.8 to 6.15 billion dollars).

At the beginning of the business year, which runs until March 31, 2009, Honda had projected operative profits of 650 billion yen, but revised it downwards in April to 630 billion yen.

Bangkok - A Mandalay court has sentenced six opposition leaders to prison terms of up to 13 years on charges of threatening national "tranquility" and stirring up hatred ,anti-government sources said Saturday.

The six senior members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) were arrested in September and October last year in a nationwide crackdown on dissent following the Buddhist-monk-led protests in Yangon.

An army crackdown on the demonstrations, dubbed the "saffron revolution," left more than 30 dead and scores missing.