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
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. 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
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. 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
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. 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