Now this is strange.

Just as George W. Bush gets set for a polls-boosting PR trip around Asia, Phillipine officials claim to have killed a major terrorist in a shootout at a roadblock in Mindinao. Officials say Fathur Rohman Al-Gohzi was killed when the car he was travelling in was stopped by police and the car's occupants opened fire. But local residents and even police officers claim there was no sign of a shoot-out.

Rumours have been circulating for weeks that Al-Gohzi had been captured by a group who were negotiating his hand-over. The government had posted a 10 million peso (US$183,000) dead or alive reward for al-Ghozi, who was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment last December but then - very embarrassingly for the government - walked out of a jail in July.

"We don't consider any connection between the slaying of al-Ghozi and Bush. This is a routine operation," said Philippine police chief Hermogenes Ebdane. But then Ebdane said a group of civilians would receive the reward money.

Now here's my question: why would civilians receive reward money if the car was stopped at a routine roadblock?