S'pore to crack down on maid abuse
S'pore to crack down on maid abuse
SINGAPORE: The island state promised Indonesia on Thursday it would act to prevent the abuse of foreign maids working in the city-state.
Singapore Labor Minister Lee Boon Yang told his Indonesian counterpart, Jacob Nua Wea, that the government will monitor employment agencies that hire out maids, offer maids additional training and require employers to take an orientation course.
These initiatives were announced earlier this month after a string of brutal beatings sparked a debate over the treatment of maids in Singapore. Many of the victims were Indonesian.
Nua Wea said Jakarta will better regulate Indonesian recruiters who send maids to Singapore and provide the maids with better training.
Some 140,000 maids are employed in Singapore, with about 80,000 coming from the Philippines and the rest from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand. --AP
;AP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Cambodia-Falun Gong Falun Gong members deported JP/11/ASEAN
Falun Gong members deported
CAMBODIA: Phnom Penh's national police chief has admitted for the first time that two Chinese Falun Gong members were arrested and deported earlier this month, but claimed the police did not know they were under UN protection.
Gen. Hok Lundy told reporters on Wednesday that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Phnom Penh did not inform local authorities that asylum seekers Li Guojun and his wife Zhang Xinyi were under its protection.
Hok Lundy's comments are the first public acknowledgment by a Cambodian official that the couple were forcibly returned to China. Hok Lundy had said last week that he had "no knowledge" of the couple's arrest.
According to Falun Gong activists in New York the couple were arrested on Aug. 2 and deported on Aug. 9 to China. They had arrived in Cambodia in 1998 from China. --AP
;AP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Vietnam-US MIAs Remains of American MIA found in Vietnam JP/11/ASEAN
Remains of American MIA found in Vietnam
VIETNAM: A group of Vietnamese scrap metal scavengers has found two sets of human remains in the wreckage of a helicopter in southern Vietnam, along with papers indicating at least one may have been an American pilot, officials said on Thursday.
The 10 scavengers discovered the remains in the wreckage of the helicopter several meters below a rice field in Long Thuan village in Long An province, a provincial official said.
One set of remains was found in the front seat of the helicopter, along with a dog tag, personal papers and an ID card with a photograph and name, a village official said. A photo of the U.S. military ID showed that it belonged to a 2nd Lieutenant.
Another smaller set of remains with no dog tag or personal papers was found in the back seat, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. --AP
;AP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Malaysia-family feud Father wants to return home JP/11/ASEAN
Father wants to return home
MALAYSIA: A 71-year-old Malaysian pensioner asked a court to demand that his three sons let him back into the family home and look after him, newspapers reported Thursday.
Former steamroller driver A. Kuppusamy filed papers in the High Court seeking an order that he be given food, clothing, medical assistance and other daily requirements by his sons, who threw him out claiming he had abused their mother for 30 years, The Star newspaper reported.
Documents filed in the case described a family feud that had been raging for more than a decade.
In an affidavit, Kuppusamy said his family started locking him out whenever he left their house in Kuala Lumpur and only let him in at night or when neighbors begged them to relent, The New Straits Times newspaper reported. --AP