Abdullah to take charge as PM on leave
Abdullah to take charge as PM on leave
MALAYSIA: Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who takes over Malaysia's leadership in October, is to begin a two-month stint as acting prime minister on Thursday.
Mahathir, 77, is going on extended leave after attending an emergency session of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday, according to a statement issued by his office.
Abdullah's two months at the helm will be a rehearsal for when he replaces Mahathir, who has announced that he will retire after an OIC summit here on Oct. 11-14.
Mahathir, who has been in power for 21 years, originally intended to quit last year but agreed to stay on until after the summit on condition he could take two months' leave. Abdullah, 63, will also take charge of the finance ministry during Mahathir's absence. --AFP
;DPA;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-S'pore-rape Stepdad sentenced to 24 years, 24 strokes of cane for rape JP/11/ASEAN
Stepdad jailed 24 years for rape
SINGAPORE: An office assistant who had been raping his 14-year- old stepdaughter for two years was sentenced to 24 years in a Singapore jail and the maximum 24 strokes of the cane for his "bestial" acts, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The girl had tried to run away from home, and her mother took her to see her school's discipline master, to whom the teenager first revealed that her stepfather had been raping her since she was 12, The Straits Times said.
The 42-year-old man had abused his position of trust and had taken advantage of the girl's vulnerability, Deputy Public Prosecutor Benjamin Yim told a court on Monday.
The girl was 3 years old when her mother, a divorcee, married the accused in 1991. --DPA
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Vietnam-marriage Saigon love: 36,000 Vietnamese whisked off their feet by foreigner JP/11/ASEAN
36,000 Saigon girls wed foreigners
VIETNAM: Nearly 36,000 Vietnamese women from the southern business capital of Ho Chi Minh City have tied the knot with foreigners over the past seven years, according to official figures.
"From 1995 until the end of 2002, we granted licenses to 35,993 Vietnamese women to wed their foreign partners," a justice department official from the city, formerly known as Saigon, said on Tuesday.
The grooms came from 50 different countries, with Taiwanese men heading the list. They were followed by their male counterparts from the United States, Australia, Canada and France.
A recent survey conducted by the city's Institute of Social Sciences said that 8 percent of Vietnamese women married to Taiwanese men were illiterate, while 40 percent had only gone to school for one year.
Over 60 percent of the brides-to-be were aged between 18-21 while more than 70 percent of their Taiwanese partners were aged over 40. --AFP
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Thailand-king Thai king admitted to hospital for hernia treatment JP/11/ASEAN
Thai king admitted to hospital
THAILAND: Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej was admitted to hospital on Tuesday for treatment of a hernia, the Bureau of the Royal Household said.
The 75-year-old monarch entered Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital about 5:30 p.m. for treatment of a hernia condition on his right side discovered in November and which doctors said became further aggravated this January, an official statement said.
Treatment was delayed until March due to the king's busy schedule, it said.
The king was seen on Thai television walking into the hospital accompanied by his wife Queen Sirikit, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn and other close relatives. Last June the king had a successful operation to treat a left-side hernia.
In February 2002 he was hospitalized for prostate surgery after a nine-year ailment, which a royal statement at the time said was "not serious". --AFP