Five countries in military exercises
Five countries in military exercises
MALAYSIA: Troops from Australia, Britain, New Zealand, Malaysia
and Singapore have begun a 15-day major military exercise
codenamed Flying Fish in the South China Sea, officials said on
Monday.
Some 24 warships, 71 attack aircraft and hundreds of personnel
including commando units from the Five Power Defense Arrangement
(FPDA) have been engaged in various military exercises since
Saturday, said a Malaysian naval official who did not want to be
named.
"The main objective is to exercise FPDA participating forces
in the conduct of combined military maritime, air and land
operations for the defense of Malaysia and Singapore in a limited
conflict scenario," the army said in a statement.
It said that the exercise was designed to strengthen military
ties between the five countries. --AFP
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Aglance-Cambodia-rebels-vote
Group threatens to overthrow govt
JP/11/ASEAN
Group threatens to overthrow govt
CAMBODIA: An outlawed Cambodian group blamed for a coup attempt
in 2000 has threatened to overthrow the government of Prime
Minister Hun Sen if upcoming elections prove unfair, a report
said on Monday.
The English-language Cambodia Daily newspaper quoted Cambodian
Freedom Fighters (CFF) leader Chhun Yasith, an accountant based
in Long Beach, California, as saying: "If there is a (electoral)
fraud then the CFF has plans."
The CFF was blamed for the Nov. 24, 2000, coup attempt when
about 60 armed men stormed into Phnom Penh firing AK-47s and
rockets at government buildings, leaving at least four people
dead. More than 100 people have since been jailed over the
attack.
Some 22 political parties -- including Hun Sen's ruling
Cambodian People's Party (CPP), the royalist FUNCINPEC and the
main opposition Sam Rainsy Party -- will contest the July 27
polls. --AFP
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Aglance-Thailand-Murder
Woman kills husband, boils his penis
JP/11/ASEAN
Woman kills husband, boils his penis
THAILAND: A Thai woman, upset by her husband's plans to leave her
for another woman, hacked him to death with a garden hoe, cut off
his penis and boiled it in an electric cooker and then hanged
herself, news reports said on Monday.
Police in the northeastern province of Nakhon Pathom said the
jealous wife, Preeyapha Tasuwan, 37, left a note saying she
killed her husband, Rangsan Supaktattana, 46, late Saturday night
because he intended to marry another woman.
Rangsan's daughter, Amporn, 22, was quoted by The Nation
newspaper as saying she found the bodies when she came to visit
her father. She said her father had been married for four years
to Preeyapha, her stepmother, who had recently been taking
medication for mental problems.
A note found near Preeyapha's body read: "When we loved each
other a lot, you never reprimanded me. You asked me to stop
working as a prostitute and I obeyed." --DPA
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Aglance-Malaysia-Headhunt
No promotion of head-hunting history
JP/11/ASEAN
No promotion of head-hunting history
MALAYSIA: Malaysian officials urged tour operators on Monday not
to promote Borneo island's history of head-hunting, saying
visitors might mistakenly fear for their safety.
Abang Johari Openg, tourism minister of eastern Sarawak state,
said the government was trying to evoke images abroad of exotic
parks and colorful festivals - not an ancestral practice
discarded decades ago.
Abang Johari said tour operators who emphasize Sarawak's head-
severing history could "drive tourists away and tarnish the
state's tourist image."
Indigenous warrior tribes that once inhabited Sarawak's steamy
jungles and mountain ranges were renowned for collecting human
skulls as victory trophies. But many natives began abandoning the
habit when British and Dutch colonists took over most of Borneo
in the late 19th century. --AP