Philippine police foils bombing at gas station

Philippine police said Monday that they foiled what could have been a "disastrous" bombing of a gas station in the country's volatile south. According to AP, an attendant found a homemade bomb in a plastic bag that was placed near a gas pump at a station in General Santos city late Sunday, regional police chief Charles Calima Jr. said. The bomb was made from two mortar rounds and wired to a cellphone. Police cordoned off the area and defused the powerful bomb, Calima said. CCTV security cameras indicated that the bomb was left by a man while his companion asked a cashier to change his money to smaller bills, apparently as a way to distract the attendants. The two men were believed to have fled later on motorcycles driven by two other men, Calima said. With the bomb's discovery, police "foiled what could have been a very disastrous incident," a police statement said.