ASEAN to hold anti-terror exercises
ASEAN to hold anti-terror exercises
MALAYSIA: Southeast Asian army chiefs have agreed to hold regional multilateral exercises to boost efforts in fighting terrorism, Malaysia's army chief said on Monday.
"The training will no longer be restricted to two countries, like between Malaysia and Indonesia or Thailand, but will be multilateral in nature," Gen. Mohamed Shahrom was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.
This new form of cooperation in fighting terrorism was agreed at a meeting of army chiefs from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Kuala Lumpur last week, he said.
The generals also agreed that the exchange of intelligence among armies in the region should be improved to fight terrorism more effectively. -- AFP
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-RP-church-Sin Philippines' Cardinal Sin retires JP/11/ASEAN
Philippines' Cardinal Sin retires
PHILIPPINES: Cardinal Jaime Sin, the hugely influential spiritual leader of the Philippine Roman Catholics, has retired at the age of 75, the Vatican's representative office in Manila said on Monday.
Pope John Paul II has nominated Gaudencio Rosales, the archbishop of nearby Lipa city, "as successor to the See of Manila," said Father James Reuter, spokesman for the apostolic nunciature here.
The unfortunately named Cardinal Sin wielded his enormous influence in this Southeast Asian nation of 80 million people, Asia's biggest Catholic outpost, to usher out corruption-tainted Filipino presidents over the past 18 years.
After using his office as shepherd of Manila's faithful to criticize Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorship, the cardinal called hundreds of thousands of civilians into the streets in February 1986, helping convince Marcos to resign and flee into U.S. exile.
In January 2001, the cardinal was also a rallying figure for a military-backed popular revolt that ousted Joseph Estrada after Congress impeached the democratically elected leader for alleged corruption. -- AFP
;AP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Spore-SARS-WHO WHO-led inquiry begins into SARS case JP/11/ASEAN
WHO-led inquiry begins into SARS case
SINGAPORE: A team of international experts is investigating how a Singapore lab worker caught SARS and how to prevent it from happening again, the health minister said on Monday.
The ministry said the researcher is recovering steadily and will be discharged from hospital on Wednesday. He will then undergo 14 days of home quarantine, it added.
Acting Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said the 11-member team -- comprised of local specialists as well as four experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- met on Monday morning to define the scope of the inquiry.
The team is expected to complete their investigations this week, and will make recommendations on bio-safety practices and standards in Singapore, the ministry said in a statement. -- AP
;AP;KOD; ANPAu ..r.. Aglance-Cambodia-HunSen Hun Sen criticized for moves against opponents JP/11/ASEAN
Hun Sen criticized for moves
CAMBODIA: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's decision to sack 17 government officials from the royalist Funcinpec party is unlawful and will aggravate a stalemate over forming a new government, his opponents charged on Monday.
Hun Sen fired the officials on Friday, accusing them of engaging in partisan politics to prevent him from remaining prime minister in the next government. He warned that other Funcinpec loyalists could face the same fate.
Funcinpec spokesman Neou Kassie called the dismissals "unlawful" and a breach of an agreement made when it joined Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party in a coalition government in 1998.
Hun Sen's party won a majority of National Assembly seats in the July 27 general elections, but fell short of the two-thirds majority legally required to form a government on its own. -- AP