Cooperation vital to security, trade
Cooperation vital to security, trade
SINGAPORE: The attacks on the United States and the threat of terror in Southeast Asia make global cooperation vital to ensure security and economic health, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan said on Sunday.
Singapore and neighboring Malaysia have dealt with the rise of homegrown militancy by arresting dozens of suspects accused of links to Muslim radicals in Indonesia and Afghanistan.
On Monday, dozens of academics and regional government officials will discuss issues ranging from the strategic environment to trends in military modernization.
Singapore is also hosting a four-day Asian aerospace conference and exhibition from Tuesday which will focus heavily on security and defense in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. --Reuters
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Malaysia-RP Philippines, Malaysia cooperate to extradite top Filipino criminal JP/9/ASEAN
KL to extradite top Filipino criminal
MALAYSIA: Malaysian police were cooperating with their Philippines counterparts to extradite a top Filipino criminal who was arrested here, Philippine Ambassador Jose Brillantes said on Sunday.
Noel Nericueco, 39, is the alleged leader of a gang that Philippine authorities say carried out several contract killings in the past decade. He fled the Philippines several years ago.
A top Filipino police officer based in Kuala Lumpur said that Nericueo, who is a fugitive in the Philippines, was arrested by Malaysian police last week in northern Penang state.
The official said Manila had made a request to Malaysian police to extradite Nericueco, adding that the suspect was wanted for a series of murders, swindles and rapes in the Philippines. --AFP
;REUTERS;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Cambodia-refugees UN says Cambodia, Vietnam undermining refugee deal JP/9/ASEAN
Cambodia, Vietnam cripple refugee deal
CAMBODIA: The United Nations and the U.S. on Sunday accused Vietnam and Cambodia of undermining an agreement to voluntarily repatriate asylum seekers fleeing Vietnam's restive Central Highlands.
The two Southeast Asian governments on Friday announced an April 30 deadline for returning ethnic minorities to Vietnam during a controversial trip by Vietnamese officials to a UN refugee camp in Cambodia.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the deadline jeopardized the "voluntariness" of returns and the United States labeled it as bid to marginalize the world body.
Police in Cambodia used electric shock batons to subdue several asylum seekers who verbally objected to going back to Vietnam during the visit, rights activists and witnesses said.
More than 1,000 Vietnamese minority people, most of them members of Christian hilltribes who supported the United States during the Vietnam War, are housed in two UN-run facilities in Cambodia. --Reuters
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Malaysia-S'pore Singapore land reclamation should not encroach on Malaysian terri JP/9/ASEAN
KL worried about S'pore land reclamation
MALAYSIA: Kuala Lumpur hopes neighboring Singapore's land reclamation program will not encroach on its territory, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said on Sunday.
"Singapore's land reclamation activity is getting closer to Malaysia's border. What they do within their borders is their affair," he told reporters.
"But what is important is they do not encroach into our territory."
The Berita Harian newspaper, a Malay-language daily, Sunday reported that Singapore was carrying out reclamation works that could disrupt the water flow of the Tebrau Strait off Malaysia's southernmost state Johor. Malaysia and Singapore are separated by the narrow Strait of Johor. --AFP
;AP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-RP-People Power Left-wing groups to use 'people power' anniversary to protest U.S. JP/9/ASEAN
Left-wing groups to use 'people power'
PHILIPPINES: Left-wing groups said on Sunday they will use the anniversary of the "people power" revolution that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos 16 years ago to protest a counterterrorism exercise involving U.S. troops in the southern Philippines.
Hundreds of activists plan to march in front of the heavily guarded U.S. Embassy compound in Manila to protest the exercise aimed at improving the Philippine military's capability to destroy Abu Sayyaf rebels holding an American missionary couple hostage.
Leftist groups have held small but almost daily protests against the war exercise, which they say violates a constitutional prohibition on the presence of foreign troops.
They have criticized Arroyo for her strong support for U.S. military involvement in Philippine counterterrorism efforts, calling her an "Am-girl." --AP