Bangkok proposes U.S.-ASEAN summit
Bangkok proposes U.S.-ASEAN summit
THAILAND: Thailand and the United States have agreed in principle to hold a U.S.-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit here next year, foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai said on Wednesday.
Surakiart discussed the proposal with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell late last month and invited President George W. Bush to pay an official visit to Thailand in Oct. 2003 when the kingdom plays host to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
The last Thai visit by a U.S. president was by Bill Clinton in 1996.
The US-ASEAN summit, to be held alongside the already scheduled APEC meeting, would be the first since 1984 in Manila, and the first since the regional grouping expanded to 10 members, Surakiart told reporters. --AFP
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu.r.. Aglance-RP-Malaysia-probe Manila probes claims Malaysia ill-treated Filipino illegals JP/12/ASEAN
RP probes ill-treatment of its workers
PHILIPPINES: Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople on Wednesday ordered the country's mission in Kuala Lumpur to investigate allegations that Malaysian authorities had ill-treated Filipino illegal immigrants.
Ople cautioned against calls by senators to file a diplomatic protest with the Malaysian government over the issue, saying Manila needed to investigate first.
Some 120 Filipino illegals, 60 of them children, in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah were allegedly sent back to the Philippines on a fishing vessel designed only to carry a quarter of the load.
They arrived in the southern Philippine port of Zamboanga late Monday after being rescued by a Philippine coast guard vessel. --AFP
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Malaysia-opposition Anwar party youth chief jailed on corruption secrets charges JP/12/ASEAN
Party youth chief jailed in KL
MALAYSIA: A leader of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's party was jailed for two years on Wednesday for leaking secrets about a corruption investigation into two senior Malaysian ministers, a party spokesman said.
Ezam Mohamad Noor, the youth chief of the National Justice Party (Keadilan), was found guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act, Raja Petra Kamarudin said.
The former close aide to Anwar was accused of disclosing to reporters details of a probe by the Anti-Corruption Agency into International Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz and former Malacca state chief minister Abdul Rahim Tambi Chik in November 1999.
Lim Kit Siang, leader of the opposition Democratic Action party (DAP) said the "harsh" sentencing was testimony that in Malaysia "corruption is no crime while exposing corruption is the heinous crime". --AFP
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-RP-politics Jailed Philippine rapist-legislator dropped from rolls JP/12/ASEAN
Rapist-legislator dropped from rolls
PHILIPPINES: A jailed Philippine politician who last year won a seat in the legislature five years after being found guilty of statutory rape has finally been dropped from the rolls, officials said on Wednesday.
The Commission on Elections called for special elections on Aug. 26 for the House of Representatives seat of Romeo Jalosjos that his colleagues have declared vacant, election official Luzviminda Tancangco said.
Jalosjos, then an incumbent legislator, was jailed for life in late 1996, months after a lower court found him guilty of having sex with an 11 year-old girl.
As the case went on appeal, Jalosjos campaigned from his prison cell and in 1998 retained his seat in the House, representing the first district of the southern province of Zamboanga del Norte. He was elected to a third and final three- year term in May 2001. --AFP