Taiwan arrests
Taiwan arrests
RI sailors
TAIPEI (Reuter): Taiwan authorities have arrested nine
Indonesian sailors for alleged gun-running to Taiwan's
underworld, the coastguard said yesterday.
The nine are alleged to have tried to smuggle 16 handguns and
776 bullets on a cargo ship that docked at the southern port of
Kaohsiung after sailing from Bangkok, a coastguard statement
said.
"All nine are still being detained," a coastguard spokesman
said." We are still looking for another man, whom the sailors
call Tony. He was supposed to take delivery of the guns in
Kaohsiung."
The sailors had been promised US$200 for delivering each of
the guns, he said. "Tony" -- also an Indonesian -- was to sell
them to the local underworld for US$500 each.
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Aglance-Philippines-ship
S'pore ship barred from leaving Manila
JP/11/ASEAN2
S'pore ship barred
from leaving Manila
MANILA (Reuter): Owners of a Philippine ferry involved in a
collision in which more than 140 people died won a temporary
court order yesterday preventing the other vessel, a Singapore-
registered ship, from leaving Manila.
The Manila Regional Trial Court issued the order requiring the
Customs, Coast Guard and ports authority to prevent the 12,549-
ton container ship Kota Suria from departing.
William Lines, the owners of the Cebu City ferry which sank a
week ago after colliding with the Kota Suria at the mouth of
Manila Bay, said they would be seeking unspecified damages from
the cargo ship's owners.
Altogether 47 bodies have been recovered since the accident,
but divers were continuing to search the wreck of the Cebu City
for around 100 people still missing. More than 450 people were
rescued.
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Aglance-Thailand-animals
Kangaroos, birds seized from trawler
JP/11/ASEAN3
Smuggle attempt
foiled
BANGKOK (Reuter): Thai customs officials seized from a
drifting fishing trawler south of Bangkok about 100 young
kangaroos and various kinds of birds believed to have come from
Australia.
The officials, acting on a tip, searched the trawler about 100
kilometers south of Bangkok late on Thursday, they told reporters
yesterday.
No person was on board but the officials found cages
containing about 100 baby kangaroos and various kinds of birds,
including 82 baby cockatoos, two birds of paradise and two emus,
all very young and looking weak and exhausted.
Four kangaroos had already died from exhaustion, a
veterinarian said.
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Aglance-Philippines-Pope
China's delegates to welcome Pope
JP/11/ASEAN4
China's delegates
to welcome Pope
MANILA (AFP): China is to send 100 delegates to the World
Youth Day celebrations in the Philippines next month, where
300,000 young people from around the world will be addressed by
Pope John Paul II, organizers said yesterday.
The Vatican has no formal ties with the state-sponsored "open"
Roman Catholic church in Beijing, but the Rev. Socrates Villegas
said the Chinese agreed to take part in the biennial event for
the first time following "government to government" talks with
the hosts.
"Surprisingly, the Chinese government made it easy for us to
get the delegates to come" to the Jan. 12-14 meeting in Manila,
Villegas told a news conference.
He said the delegates were all members of China's "open"
Catholic church. There would be no representatives of the
"underground" Chinese Catholics who are loyal to the pope, he
added.
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Aglance-Singapore-drugs
Three hanged for trafficking
JP/11/ASEAN5
Three hanged
for trafficking
SINGAPORE (Reuter): Two Malaysians convicted of trafficking in
heroin were hanged yesterday along with their Singaporean
accomplice, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said.
The three men were arrested in July 1989 after CNB officers
recovered 39 packets of heroin weighing 8.25 kilograms from a
secret compartment in the fuel tank of a vehicle in which the two
Malaysian technicians were travelling.
CNB officers had earlier followed the Malaysian-registered
vehicle of Tan Seang Hock, 40, and Yeap Kai Pang, 38. Singaporean
barber Kong Weng Chong, 56, was travelling separately in a taxi,
CNB said.
In November 1992, the Singapore high court sentenced the three
men to death. A year later, the Court of Criminal Appeal rejected
their appeals.
The death sentence is mandatory for anyone found guilty of
trafficking in more than 15 grams of heroin, 30 grams of morphine
or 500 grams of cannabis.
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Aglance-RP-workers
Filipino workers not target of crackdown
JP/11/ASEAN6
Filipino workers not
target of crackdown
MANILA (Reuter): Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim
said yesterday Filipinos were not being singled out in his
government's crackdown on illegal workers.
"The issue of illegal workers is real. It is not just confined
to Filipinos," he told a press forum on a visit to Manila.
Anwar said the problem also involves people from other
countries, such as Indonesia and Myanmar.
Filipino workers in Malaysia have complained about what they
perceive as heavy-handed treatment by authorities in Kuala
Lumpur.
Malaysia welcomes foreign workers, Anwar said, since it is
short of both skilled and unskilled workers, but will continue to
monitor illegal immigration.
"How do you expect a government just to allow the free flow of
illegal workers without any form of enforcement?" he said.