RP files charges against RI suspect
RP files charges against RI suspect
PHILIPPINES: Police have filed charges of illegal explosives possession against a Malaysian and an Indonesian linked to bombings two years ago that killed 22 people in the Philippine capital, a state prosecutor said on Tuesday.
The two men - Malaysian Faiz Bin Abu Bakar Bafana and Indonesian Riduan Isamudin - are said to be members of the Southeast Asian religious group Jemaah Islamiyah, which allegedly plotted to attack Western targets in Singapore last year.
Bafana has been arrested in Singapore but Isamudin, also known as Hambali, is at large.
State Prosecutor Roberto Lao said the charges against the two were based on the testimonies of a Filipino and another Indonesian arrested earlier this year on suspicion they were involved in procuring explosives for the Singapore bombing plot.
Authorities in Malaysia have said they believe Isamudin, said to be a soft-spoken Islamic teacher, met with two of the Sept. 11 hijackers in 2000 and may be a central figure in terrorist groups with links to Osama bin Laden that have emerged in Southeast Asia. --AP
;REUTERS;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-S'pore-Malaysia Singapore says Malaysia offers new water deal JP/12/ASEAN
KL offers new water deal to S'pore
SINGAPORE: Singapore and Malaysia ended two days of talks over water and other contentious issues on Tuesday with Malaysia offering a new pricing formula for the water it sells.
Malaysia pumps millions of gallons of water to the resource- parched city state each day under two deals signed in the early 1960s. But the two sides have not been able to agree on how much Singapore should pay in future.
Singapore Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar told reporters after the meetings of the two nations' delegates the city state would consider the new Malaysian proposal. Jayakumar declined to disclose details of the new offer.
Other issues unresolved since a first meeting in July include a new bridge, treatment of Malaysian pensions held by Singapore and use of Malaysian airspace by the island's jet fighters. --Reuters
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Thailand-weather Mudslide, floods in Thai refugee camp kill 14, 20 missing: offici JP/12/ASEAN
Refugee camp swept away by flood
THAILAND: Fourteen people were killed and 20 were missing after a mudslide and floodwaters hit a refugee camp on the Thailand- Myanmar border, officials said on Tuesday.
Witnesses at the Ban Sala camp in Mae Hong Son province, which is home to more than 15,000 mostly Karen and Karenni refugees, said that some 300 wooden and bamboo buildings were swept away in the disaster.
Three primary schools, a church, and a hospital for the disabled had been destroyed, said Wai Lin Zin from the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), an activist group operating in the camp. --AFP
;AP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Malaysia-naked uproar Malaysian movie takes heat from Islamic fundamentalists over nude JP/12/ASEAN
Movie takes heat over nude scene
MALAYSIA: Islamic fundamentalists in a northern state pulled the plug on the premiere of a Malaysian movie after its director admitted she filmed an actor in the nude, officials said on Tuesday.
About 10,000 people had been expected to attend a special screening of Embun, which means "dew" in the Malaysian language, at a soccer stadium late Monday in Kelantan state, 540 kilometers northeast of Kuala Lumpur.
But state officials canceled the event because the movie was "considered morally unsuitable for the general public," Takiyuddin Hassan, Kelantan's head of public administration, said.
The film has drawn widespread criticism in this conservative, mostly Muslim country over the past week after actor Izi Yahya, who plays a villainous Japanese soldier in the World War II film, revealed that he had stripped for a rape scene on the instruction of director Erma Fatima. --AP