RP nearer to finding Al-Ghozi
RP nearer to finding Al-Ghozi
PHILIPPINES: The Philippine army said on Friday it was getting closer to recapturing Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi on the southern island of Mindanao after the Indonesian militant escaped from a Manila jail in mid-July.
"Al-Ghozi is still there. We have leads and, hopefully, within the week we will have good news," army chief Lt. Gen. Gregorio Camiling told a news conference.
He did not elaborate on what the leads were or say when the army hoped to recapture Al-Ghozi.
The self-confessed member of the Islamic militant network Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) is accused of masterminding bombings in Manila in December 2000 that killed 22 people.
Al-Ghozi was arrested by Philippine police in January 2002 and jailed later that year. He walked out his cell at the heavily guarded national police headquarters on July 14. --Reuters
;DPA;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Thailand-massage Police, masseuses dispute charges JP/11/dispute
Police, masseuses dispute charges
THAILAND: Bangkok police have refused to accept criminal complaints from masseuses against undercover police who allegedly had sex with, and then arrested them, in an antiprostitution sting operation, news reports said on Friday.
Col. Varanvas Karunyathat, the acting chief of police in the Bangkok district of Suthisahn, was quoted by The Nation newspaper as saying officers involved in the sting operation needed to have sex with the masseuses to gain evidence for their arrest.
Police arrested nine masseuses and receptionists on Tuesday night after officers posing as customers allegedly caught the women engaging in prostitution.
Varanvas defended the police action and said that in addition to the testimony of the undercover officers police confiscated hundreds of used condoms from the four massage parlors raided on Tuesday night. --DPA
;; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Singapore-Internet Teenager caught in e-mail hoax JP/11/mail
Teenager caught in e-mail hoax
SINGAPORE: Authorities in Singapore have charged a 14-year-old boy for posing as the nation's education minister in an email hoax, local media reported on Friday.
Hoping to trick his school principal into expelling two students, the boy allegedly used email to pose as former Education Minister Teo Chee Hean in May, the Straits Times newspaper said. Teo is now the Defense Minister.
The bespectacled boy, who appeared in court on Thursday with his mother, is out on bail of $6,000 (US$3,415) and is due in court again on Oct. 2, the paper said.
Adults found guilty of the offense could face S$50,000 in fines or 10 years in jail, or both. Fines for minors include community service, probation, being placed in a juvenile home or reformative training. --Reuters
;AP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-KL-S'pore-water Water dispute brought to arbitration JP/11/water
Water dispute brought to arbitration
MALAYSIA: Malaysia and Singapore have agreed that their long- running spat over water will be settled through arbitration, Malaysia's foreign minister said on Friday.
The two neighbors have been in a fierce rhetorical battle for years over the price Singapore pays for water pumped each day across a short causeway connecting the island city-state to peninsular Malaysia.
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Malaysian laws would be applied in an arbitration process to resolve the dispute. He added that his country was preparing to present its case.
It was not immediately clear who or what organization would arbitrate the dispute. In February, Malaysia and Singapore agreed to take a festering territorial dispute over a strategic island to the World Court. --AP