Crew blamed for ferry tragedy
Crew blamed for ferry tragedy
PHILIPPINES: Rescuers searched rough seas off the Philippine capital on Monday for survivors of a ferry collision that claimed at least 28 lives, as officials blamed crew incompetence for the accident.
Naval and coastguard ships and military helicopters were pursuing the search at the mouth of Manila Bay, while marine divers searched underwater for bodies from the San Nicholas ferry, said Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes.
A coastguard spokesman said no new survivors nor bodies had been found by mid-afternoon.
The small, wood-hulled San Nicolas was sunk after it crashed into the port-side of the much larger Super Ferry 12 on Sunday morning, Reyes said on local television.
Rescuers saved more than 200 people, while the larger ship, with 1,400 people on board, returned to port without casualties or serious damage. -- AFP
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Thailand-Cambodia Security tight for joint Cabinet meet JP/11/ASEAN
Security tight for joint Cabinet meet
THAILAND: Security will be tight at a forthcoming joint Cabinet meeting between Thailand and Cambodia after a threat against Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was revealed last week, a Thai official said on Monday.
The Saturday meeting is to be split between a morning session in Siem Reap, the gateway town to Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temple complex, and an afternoon session in northeastern Thailand's Ubon Ratchatani.
Thailand has already provided Cambodia with bomb detection and other security equipment, a Thai intelligence official said.
Cambodia will be the third country with which Thailand has held a joint Cabinet meeting, following Singapore and Malaysia, in an initiative by Thaksin Shinawatra aimed at boosting relations with neighbors.
The meeting was slated for March, but was postponed after anti-Thai riots in Phnom Penh in January. -- AFP
;DPA;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Malaysia-haze Kuala Lumpur hazed over JP/11/ASEAN
Kuala Lumpur hazed over
MALAYSIA: Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur was shrouded on Monday in a smoky blanket of haze caused by a prolonged dry spell, as well as smoke from forest fires in Indonesia, environmental officers said.
Visibility levels in Sepang district, where Kuala Lumpur International Airport is located, were dangerously low at 6 kilometers, a spokesman for the Meteorological Department said.
Normal visibility levels are at 10 kilometers, she said, adding, "This happens every year, and it comes with a natural weather change."
Satellite imaging by the Department of Environment (DOE) had earlier in the day detected 38 hot spots -- areas showing high levels of heat -- on Sumatra and 16 on Borneo island. -- DPA
;REUTERS;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Cambodia-AIDS Cambodian operas to fight AIDS JP/11/ASEAN
Cambodian operas to fight AIDS
CAMBODIA: Phnom Penh launched a daring soap opera about star- crossed lovers, sex workers and HIV on Monday -- the latest weapon in its fight to contain the deadly AIDS virus.
An estimated 158,000 people, or 2.6 percent of adults, are HIV-positive in the war-scarred nation.
Although not on the scale of sub-Saharan Africa, many fear that if left unchecked, AIDS could wreak as much damage as the "Killing Fields" genocide of the Khmer Rouge.
After a condom campaign that targeted Cambodia's rampant sex industry, AIDS campaigners are now shifting their focus to families, to try and prevent the many thousands of husbands who regularly visit sex workers from passing HIV/AIDS on to their wives. -- Reuters