UN envoy meets with Suu Kyi to end deadlock
UN envoy meets with Suu Kyi to end deadlock
MYANMAR: A United Nations special envoy met with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon on Thursday in his latest attempt to speed up reconciliation talks between the ruling military regime and pro-democracy forces.
Razali Ismail, a former Malaysian diplomat. Razali was accompanied by Patrice Coeur Bizot, resident representative of the United Nations Development Program and Leon de Riedmatten, a representative of Center for Humanitarian Dialog.
On Wednesday, he met with Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, the No. 3 leader in the ruling junta, Foreign Minister Win Aung and senior leaders of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.
National League for Democracy (NLD) secretary U Lwin said on Thursday that the year-old reconciliation talks with the ruling military were still at the "confidence-building stage" because of the number of political prisoners still behind bars. --Agencies
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Philippines-fire More than 200 prisoners evacuated as fire hits Philippine prison JP/9/ASEAN
Fire hits prison, 200 inmates moved
PHILIPPINES: Fire struck the maximum security wing of the Philippines' main prison on Thursday, forcing the evacuation of more than 200 inmates who escaped unharmed, a jail official said.
One building of the National Bilibid Prisons' maximum security compound, holding some of the most dangerous convicts, caught fire mid-afternoon and was put under control about an hour later, Superintendent Venancio Tesoro said.
Jail guards moved all 222 inmates out of the burning building and transferred them among the compound's 12 other buildings.
Tesoro said the cause of the blaze was not known, although he said it could have been set off by illegal wiring installed by the prisoners themselves.
The prison holds 14,900 inmates, including about 8,000 serving life terms or awaiting judicial execution, Tesoro said. The affected building held life-termers. --AFP
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-S'pore-crime-feces Elderly messenger loses 30,000 dollars to feces-armed robbers JP/9/ASEAN
Messenger loses US$30,000 to robbers
SINGAPORE: An elderly Singaporean messenger lost almost US$30,000 in cash after pickpockets smeared feces on his pants and stole the money while pretending to help him, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
Miskon Haji Taib, 71, was about to enter a bank to deposit the money for his employer when he felt a shove from the back and the next thing he knew, his trousers were covered with feces, the Straits Times said.
Inside the bank, two men offered to help him wipe it off with tissue paper, and they stepped out to avoid fouling up the air inside.
After thanking the duo for helping him clean up, Miskon went inside the bank to queue up and then realized to his horror that the money was missing from one of his front pockets.
Fortunately for Miskon, more than half the money was covered by insurance and his employer for the past 10 years decided to write off the rest. --AFP
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Malaysia-immigrants Malaysia to continue deporting Filipino illegals amid unrest JP/9/ASEAN
KL to deport Filipino illegals amid unrest
MALAYSIA: Kuala Lumpur will continue deporting illegal Filipino immigrants despite political turmoil in the southern Philippines, an official said on Thursday.
A total of 566 immigrants were sent back to the southern Philippines city of Zamboanga from Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo island Thursday, said Bustami Yahya, deputy director of the state's task force on illegal immigrants.
Bustami was quoted by the official Bernama news agency as saying authorities hoped to send back another 1,000 illegals before the Eid al-Fitr celebrations next month marking the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadhan.
From January to October this year, a total of 23,546 mostly Filipino and Indonesian illegal immigrants were deported from the state. --AFP