Regional News in Brief

Regional News in Brief

Miss India wins Miss Universe 1994

MANILA (AFP): Sushmita Sen, an 18-year-old New Delhi model and fan of Mother Teresa, won the Miss Universe 1994 contest here on Saturday, to become the first Indian to wear the prestigious beauty crown.

A mysterious explosion that killed a man about a kilometer from the contest venue, and a march by feminists protesting against the "spectacle of female flesh", failed to disrupt the pageant, televised live to an estimated 600 million viewers.

Sen, an articulate hazel-eyed brunette who stands 1.75 meters, was a surprise winner, and will take home some US$220,000 in cash, prizes and privileges, according to organizers.

She edged out first runner-up Miss Colombia Carolina Gomez Correa, 19, and Miss Venezuela Minorka Mercado, 22, the overwhelming pre-finals favorite.

Asked at a post-victory press conference what cause she would like to champion during her reign, Sen said: "If I would choose a cause, it would be population," adding that prostitution and poverty were other issues she was concerned about.

Sihanouk appeals for cease-fire

PHNOM PENH (AFP): King Norodom Sihanouk appealed to the Cambodian government and Khmer Rouge yesterday for an unconditional cease-fire if the two sides fail to find a political solution to the country's civil war at peace talks this week.

"I beg you ... to accept an unconditional, immediate, complete, lasting and irreversible cease-fire over all Cambodia," if a political solution is not reached, the king said in a letter released by his residence in Beijing.

In the letter, addressed to co-premiers Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen, as well as Khmer Rouge nominal leader Khieu Samphan and National Assembly chairman Chea Sim, the king said he was not trying to "impose" a political solution on them.

But he said, he hoped "from the bottom of my heart" that a political solution could be found to Cambodia's long-running civil war at peace talks due to be held in Pyongyang on May 27.

King Sihanouk said the cease-fire would be monitored by a commission made up of government and Khmer Rouge officers and led by two "neutral" generals representing the Cambodian king.

Dam project questioned

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Tribal leaders from Malaysia's Borneo state of Sarawak are in Kuala Lumpur to seek answers about a dam project which will displace some 5,000 natives and drown ancestral lands, they said yesterday.

"We're here on a one-week visit to try and talk to (government) ministers about the Bakun dam project and what it means to our community," Gara Jalang, a member of the Ad Hoc Bakun Action Committee, told a news conference.

"The communities have not got any information whatsoever about the dam, how they will be affected and how they will be compensated," he said.

Malaysia's ambitious 15 billion ringgit (US$5.8 billion) Bakun dam project, to be built in the upper reaches of the Rejang river in Sarawak, will clear 80,000 hectares of forest land and flood an area the size of Singapore.

Hewson's future looks bleak

SYDNEY (Reuter): Australian opposition leader John Hewson's hopes of holding onto his job dimmed further yesterday as key supporters deserted him ahead of today's vote on the Liberal Party's leadership.

But Hewson said he was confident he had the numbers to win and planned to battle on despite suggestions he withdraw.

"There is a fairly widespread view in the party that we need to be a tolerant and inclusive and broadly based party in order to win the next election," Hewson told reporters in Sydney.

"There's a very strong view that the best way for us to win that election is to re-confirm my position as leader tomorrow," he said.

Driver questioned over murders

SYDNEY (AFP): Police were yesterday questioning a 50-year-old man and several other people in connection with the murders of seven backpackers, most of them tourists, a police spokeswoman said.

Police searched homes in the Sydney area and other locations in New South Wales before the man, identified as a truck driver, and "a number of other people" were interviewed, a police spokeswoman said.

The truck driver was questioned at his home in the south- western Sydney suburb of Eagle Vale and was taken to nearby Campbelltown police station "to assist with their inquiries," police said.

The seven bodies were found in 1992 and 1993 in the thick Belanglo state forest near Bowral 120 kilometers south of here. The gruesome finds sparked the biggest murder hunt in Australian history.

Khmer Rouge denies attack on embassy

BANGKOK (AFP): Cambodia's Khmer Rouge guerrillas yesterday denied being behind a grenade attack on the Malaysian Embassy in Phnom Penh last week.

In a broadcast monitored in Bangkok, Khmer Rouge radio "officially and completely" denied involvement in the attack, which some have linked to Phnom Penh's requests for foreign military aid.

Malaysian Embassy staff in Phnom Penh said Friday the chancery was slightly damaged when a grenade was thrown into the compound early Thursday by unidentified assailants. No injuries were reported.

In Malaysia, Bernama news agency quoted Foreign Minister Abdullah Badawi as saying there was "a great likelihood" the attackers had mistaken Malaysia for another country.

S'pore bans bogus beauticians

SINGAPORE (AFP): The Health Ministry will crackdown on unqualified beauticians whose practices have harmed patients, a newspaper reported yesterday.

"We are concerned over the increased number of complaints from the public who developed complications from treatment of their skin disorders by unqualified practitioners," said Aline Wong, the Minister of State for Health.

Wong said that the ministry is investigating complaints by six patients who were scarred by bogus beauticians and are willing to press charges, the Sunday Times quoted her as saying.

Last year 31 complaints and reports from the public, hospitals and other health establishments were received by the ministry, the minister said at the 11th Regional Conference of Dermatology on Saturday.

Police to pursue MP for gambling

BANGKOK (AFP): Thai police have targeted an opposition MP for illegal gambling and are to request that parliament lift regulations which normally would protect him from prosecution, a local daily reported yesterday.

Bangkok's crime suppression division will ask the Parliament's speaker "to hand over" Chongchai Thiengthem, a member of the Chart Thai party, in order to formally charge him, according to The Nation, an independent English-language newspaper.

All Thai MPs enjoy immunity from prosecution while parliament is in session. The current session ends in late July.

On Friday, Chongchai and 87 others were rounded up in a pre- dawn raid by some 60 police officers on a gambling den owned by a Bangkok tycoon.

He was taken to a police station but was promptly released when he claimed immunity from prosecution, police said. He has insisted he went to the gambling tables to reclaim a personal debt, not to bet.