KL allows foreign wives to work

KL allows foreign wives to work

MALAYSIA: The government has eased immigration rules to allow foreign wives of Malaysians who have lived in the country for at least three years to work, a report said on Sunday.

The New Sunday Times said the immigration department issued a circular two months ago, giving the green light for foreign wives who have held social visit passes for three years to find jobs.

Some 40,000 foreign women live in Malaysia on social visit passes, which are renewed annually, the newspaper said.

"We have found that many foreign women married to locals have high academic qualifications," immigration director-general Mohamad Kamal Jamdi was quoted as saying.

Kamal said wives of expatriates were, however, allowed to work only with social groups or voluntary organizations if they had registered with the department. --AFP

;DPA;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-RP-Jailbreak 27 inmates bolt jail in southern Philippines, nine re-arrested JP/11/ASEAN

27 flee jail in Philippines

PHILIPPINES: Twenty-seven inmates escaped from a provincial jail in the southern Philippines on Sunday, using fake bombs to scare off the guards, an official said.

Nine of the inmates were re-arrested in separate operations by the police about six hours after the jailbreak in Misamis Oriental province, 810 kilometers south of Manila.

Jail officer Demosthenes Arbelon said police were continuing to hunt down the 18 other prisoners, most of whom were still on trial for murder, homicide, rape or robbery charges.

Arbelon said among those re-arrested was the mastermind of the jailbreak, Fernando Acosta, who was charged with kidnapping and four cases of robbery. --DPA

;REUTERS;KOD; ANPAu..r.. AGLANCE-MYANMAR-PRISONERS Myanmar junta frees 21, says it wants democracy JP/11/ASEAN

Junta frees 21, wants democracy

MYANMAR: Myanmar's military government said on Sunday it had freed 21 political prisoners, including 12 members of Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party, in what it called an effort to move closer to multi-party democracy.

Some 1,100 to 1,200 political prisoners languish in Myanmar's colonial era gaols, according to UN rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who abruptly cut short a visit late in March after discovering a bugging device while interviewing a prisoner.

The junta said on Sunday the government had no desire to suppress political expression and wanted a "safe, sound and successful" democratic transition.

It said among those freed was Salai Tun Than, 74, a former professor who stood at a busy Yangon intersection in 2001 urging passers by to "go into the streets" and "fight to the finish". --Reuters

;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Vietnam-press-freedom Vietnam defends its record on press freedom JP/11/ASEAN

Hanoi defends media freedom record

VIETNAM: Vietnam on Sunday vigorously refuted charges by international media watchdogs that the country's media was strictly controlled.

According to the Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People's Army), the army mouthpiece, criticism by the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF or Reporters without Borders) had been "manufactured".

The newspaper asserted that Vietnam had seen a "media explosion" in recent years.

According to the annual report of Reporters sans Frontieres released last week, freedom of the press is guaranteed in barely half of the world's countries. Iraq, Cuba and Vietnam are the worst countries where to be a journalist, according to a list published Friday in New York by the CPJ. --AFP

;REUTERS;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Thailand-Thaksin Thais happy to have Thaksin govt for 20 years-poll JP/11/ASEAN

Thais happy with Thaksin govt

THAILAND: Most Thais are happy with the idea of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government wielding power for the next two decades, an opinion poll showed on Sunday.

Thaksin, who swept to a landslide election victory in January 2001, said last week he intended to stay in office for at least eight years and that he was confident his party, Thai Rak Thai (Thais Loves Thais), would hold on to power for 20 years.

Bangkok's Assumption University and KSC Internet's poll of 1,372 voters in Bangkok this week, showed 52 percent of respondents were happy for Thaksin's government to run the country for the next 20 years.

But 63 percent of respondents said they were concerned the government would use political power for the benefit of friends and its own interests, if Thaksin, a multi-millionaire telecoms tycoon before he became prime minister, stayed in power for that long. --Reuters

;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Malaysia-media Malaysian party launches Internet radio to reach voters JP/11/ASEAN

DAP launches Internet radio

MALAYSIA: A Malaysian opposition party on Sunday launched its Internet radio in a bid to reach out to voters ahead of general elections which must be called by 2004.

The Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP) said supporters who logged onto its website could now listen to speeches and news broadcast over the Internet.

With some two million Internet-literate Malaysians, the Internet has become a critical tool because the "democratic space has become smaller" for dissenting voices, said the DAP's Secretary-General Kerk Kim Hock.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government has pledged there would be no control of Internet content, in line with the creation of the Multimedia Super Corridor, Malaysia's answer to Silicon Valley. --AFP