KL mulls new

KL mulls new
'ocean policy'

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Maritime experts were yesterday mulling
ways to shape a new "ocean policy" for Malaysia to protect the
Malacca Strait from encroachment and pollution and maximize its
economic potential.

"The Strait of Malacca is a life line to Malaysia. We have to
do a lot more to keep it safe, clean and economically rich," said
B.A. Hamzah, director-general of the Malaysian Institute of
Maritime Affairs (MIMA), a maritime think-tank.

MIMA opened yesterday a two-day conference of more than 100
Malaysian government officers and diplomats and maritime experts
from France, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands
and Norway to help formulate a new ocean policy for Kuala Lumpur.

The officials and experts are assisting MIMA in a study on how
the various maritime laws and enforcement bodies of Malaysia
could be integrated to safeguard the narrow waterway on the west
and the broader South China Sea on the east, Hamzah said.

He said the lack of coordination among the various agencies
was a major hindrance to maritime enforcement in Malaysia.

Seven more top
police in gem scam

BANGKOK (AFP): A former head of Thailand's national police
force and six other officers face charges over the handling of
the 1989 theft of US$20 million in jewelry from Saudi Arabia, an
Interior Ministry source said yesterday.

Warrants for the arrest of former director-general Sawasdi
Amornvivat, Police Gen. Sanong Wattanawarangkul and five lower
ranking officers have been prepared, the source told AFP.

But they have not yet been issued because Aree Wongsearaya,
permanent secretary at the Interior Ministry, left for the United
States yesterday without signing the warrants, he said.

The case involves the theft of precious jewels from the palace
of a Saudi prince by a Thai domestic worker. The Thai returned
home and was caught the following year.

Some of the jewelry was never returned to the prince and much
of what was handed back was fake.

Most Singaporeans
back caning

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Eight of 10 Singaporeans familiar with the
case of American teenager Michael Fay approve the flogging
sentence he received for vandalism, a survey by Singapore state
television found.

The Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) said yesterday
that the survey it commissioned also showed nearly the same
number of Singaporeans felt that no exception should be made for
the 18-year-old Fay, now awaiting a decision from Singapore
President Ong Teng Cheong on an appeal for clemency.

An SBC official said 272 Singaporeans over the age of 15 were
asked over the telephone if they were aware of Fay's case,
whether they approved of the caning sentence and if they thought
the government should make an exception to the law by not
flogging Fay.

The survey was conducted by Media Research Pte Ltd between
April 15 and 21.

Ancient cliff
painting found

BANGKOK (AFP): An ancient painting has been found on a cliff
face in northeast Thailand, and the local government hopes to
turn it into a tourist attraction, a district official said
yesterday.

Srinakarinwiroj University archeologists recently inspected
the painting on a face of Hill 362 near Ban Nong Saeng village,
some 630 kilometers from Bangkok, and believe it to be very old,
said Thongkam Champathong, the deputy official of Boonthrik
district in Ubon Ratchatani province.

The painting in red depicts a cow surrounded by a fence with a
triangular shape believed to be hay, Thongkam said.

The deputy governor of the province inspected the painting on
Tuesday and the government now hopes to develop the site as a
tourist attraction, he said.

Thailand to test
HIV vaccine

BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand will begin its first tests in June of
a vaccine to combat the virus that leads to the deadly Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), a Thai Red Cross official said
yesterday.

Thirty test subjects will be chosen from among 70 volunteers,
said the official, who works on the project. Of these, 24 will be
given the actual vaccine to combat the Human Immuno-deficiency
Virus (HIV) and a control group of six will receive a placebo.

The volunteers include a monk, taxi driver, military officer,
policeman, lawyer, nurse and teacher, but most are businessmen,
he said.

The official did not say why the people had volunteered for
the project, which will be small and merely repeat work that has
been done in the United States and is now in progress in
Australia and China.

Mahathir leaves
for Zimbabwe

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
left here yesterday on a five-day visit to Zimbabwe where he will
hold talks with President Robert Mugabe, officials said.

Mahathir's working visit will also see three bilateral
economic pacts signed between Malaysia and Zimbabwe, they said.

The visit, the first by a Malaysian premier, is aimed at
boosting trade and economic cooperation with the South African
state.

Mahathir, who is accompanied by a business delegation, is
scheduled to open the Zimbabwe International Trade Festival 1994
in Bulawayo, 450 kilometers from Harare, at the invitation of
Mugabe.

He would also witness the signing of three memoranda of
understanding on the avoidance of double taxation, investment
guarantees and air services.

Miss Malaysia says
sorry to RP maids

MANILA (AFP): Miss Malaysia, in the Philippines to compete in
next month's Miss Universe beauty pageant, has apologized on
behalf of her country for the arrest of 1,200 Filipina maids,
press reports here said yesterday.

Going further than Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad,
the 18-year-old Liza Koh was quoted as saying, "I am sorry about
what happened to your fellowmen. It's just that our government
may have overreacted and detained all the girls."

"My personal apology to you in behalf of my country," she
said.

The Philippine government had officially protested against the
Palm Sunday roundup of the Filipinas at a Roman Catholic
churchyard in Kuala Lumpur, but the Malaysian government did not
apologize, saying the women were detained for illegally staying
in the country.

Most of the women were subsequently freed without charges.

Army colonel
plunges to death

BANGKOK (Reuter): An army colonel plunged from more than 1,000
meters to his death when his parachute failed to open properly on
a training exercise, officials said yesterday.

Col. Krispetch Kamdee was dead on arrival at hospital in Lop
Buri 153 kilometers north of Bangkok on Tuesday.

Krispetch had jumped from a helicopter during a training
exercise at the army's special warfare command headquarters, an
army spokesman in Lop Buri said.