KL begins hunt for cosmonaut

KL begins hunt for cosmonaut

MALAYSIA: As China counts down to the launch of its first manned space mission, Malaysia invited applications for the job of cosmonaut on Tuesday.

The small Southeast Asian country plans to put its first person into space by 2005 aboard a Russian spacecraft as part of a defense deal it struck with Moscow earlier this year.

Defense Minister Najib Razak said two Malaysians would be picked by Russian experts to undergo training with that country's space program starting in 2004, the Bernama national news agency reported.

The best of the two trainees would eventually join two Russian cosmonauts on a Soyuz rocket that would rendezvous with the international space station, Najib said.

"We will select anyone, irrespective of gender, who fits the bill," Najib was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times newspaper. "We hope the space program will spur more Malaysians to pursue a career in space studies and encourage local scientific and space industries."

Malaysian participation in the Russian program was part of a US$900 million deal for Malaysia to buy 18 Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30 MKM fighter jets, which was signed during a visit in May by Russian President Vladimir Putin. -- AP

;AP;ANJ; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Singapore-maid S'pore bans window displays of maids JP/11/ASEAN

S'pore bans window displays of maids

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Manpower has ordered maid employment agencies to stop displaying their foreign workers behind storefront windows for prospective employers, saying it gives Singapore a bad reputation.

Putting the workers on display as well as displaying their biographical data and photos behind glass panels "are both considered unacceptable practices," according to a circular distributed to maid agencies last month and released to the media on Tuesday.

The ministry said it made it seem that the women were being displayed "much like other commodities."

"Some have even drawn similarities between such display to that of ... the vice trade," the statement said. "This has created international disrepute for Singapore, as we are perceived not to have accorded the foreign domestic workers basic human dignity."

Many agencies had forced their maids to sit in front of large windows, in some cases all day, so that prospective employers could look at them before entering the agency office.

Agencies who continue to put their employees on display will have their business licenses revoked, it said. -- AP

;REUTERS;ANJ; ANPAi..r.. Aglance-Vietnam-Buddhists Hanoi tackles Buddhist group JP/11/ASEAN

Hanoi tackles Buddhist group

VIETNAM: After a brief reconciliation, Vietnam is back on the warpath against an outlawed Buddhist group whose leaders appear to be seeking to revive the organization in defiance of the ban, diplomats said on Tuesday.

The crackdown on the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) by the communist authorities followed a meeting of the group on Oct. 1, at which it vowed to revive its legal status, the diplomats added.

After a series of run-ins with the government starting in the late 1970s, the UBCV was replaced by an officially sanctioned Buddhist group in 1981.

Earlier this year, the government signaled warmer ties with the organization.

But just a week after the Oct. 1 meeting, authorities halted group patriarch Thich Huyen Quang and his deputy Thich Quang Do as they left their monastery for Ho Chi Minh City and questioned them for several hours about their activities.

The Foreign Ministry accused the men on Friday of "carrying evidence of wrongful acts, including many documents classified as state secrets". -- Reuters