Mahathir dares S'pore on water pact
Mahathir dares S'pore on water pact
MALAYSIA: Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Tuesday dared
Singapore to terminate a water purchase agreement immediately and
not wait for it to lapse in 2011.
In the latest tit-for-tat exchange on the issue, the premier
said Malaysia was merely doing its neighbor a favor by supplying
it with water and that it was unfair that the price had not
changed since 1927.
"They want to remove, it's alright. It can stop even now, no
need to wait until 2011," Mahathir told reporters in response to
reports that Singapore wanted to let one of the agreements lapse.
"The price should be fair, it doesn't make sense that the
price has remained unchanged for 75 years," he said.
"We do not want to sell water to them. We are losing money
selling to them. We do not depend on them as sources of income to
finance the government. We are doing them a favor." --AFP
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Aglance-Vietnam-drugs
Vietnam's commercial hub struggling to cope with drug addicts
JP/11/ASEAN
City to cope with drug addicts
VIETNAM: Ho Chi Minh City authorities said on Tuesday more
detoxification centers in Vietnam's southern metropolis were
urgently needed to cope with mass overcrowding and a surge in
drug addicts.
Nguyen Thanh Tai, vice chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City
People's Committee, has ordered the city's social affairs
department to speed up construction of detox centers, a local
government official said on condition of anonymity.
In 2000, hundreds of recovering addicts staged a mass breakout
from a Ho Chi Minh City detox center in protest at overcrowding,
while last year staff at a private clinic were suspended after a
series of suspicious deaths.
Nationwide, a total of 8,196 addicts are waiting to be
interned in detox centers for rehabilitation, with 19,008 people
already in detention as of Aug. 2, official statistics show.
--AFP
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Aglance-RP-Malaysia
Philippines deplores "inhuman" deportation of Filipinos from Mala
JP/11/ASEAN
RP deplores 'inhuman' deportation
PHILIPPINES: Philippine senators on Tuesday demanded a diplomatic
protest against Kuala Lumpur for what they called the inhuman
treatment of some 120 Filipinos deported from the eastern
Malaysian state of Sabah.
Senate president Franklin Drilon said he had received a report
that the Filipinos, 60 of them children, were forcibly sent home
aboard a fishing vessel designed only to carry 30 passengers.
It was not clear when the Filipinos were shipped out of
Malaysia, but a Philippine coastguard vessel said it picked them
up off the Tawi-Tawi island group near the common sea border with
Malaysia and brought them to the nearby port of Zamboanga late
Monday.
"This is not the proper way to treat human beings, even if
they were overstaying aliens. As civilized nations, we are
obliged by international standards on human rights to respect the
dignity of individuals," Drilon said. --AFP
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Aglance-S'pore-Muslim
Singapore website aims to dispel misconceptions about Islam
JP/11/ASEAN
Website to dispel misconceptions
SINGAPORE: An Islamic website first launched seven years ago has
undergone a revamp with the aim of defending the faith from
misconceptions, its developer said on Tuesday.
The relaunch of KampungNet also seeks to provide a channel for
the majority of Singapore's Muslims to voice their views on
issues regarding their faith.
Most Singaporean Muslims stayed silent when their religion
became the subject of intense discussion after the December
arrest of suspected Muslim militants and the government's ban on
girls wearing Islamic headscarves in schools.
Mindful of devastating racial riots in the 1960s, the mainly-
Chinese Southeast Asian state places top priority on maintaining
harmony among its diverse ethnic groups, which include Muslim
Malays and Indians. --AFP