World Cup hosts to help ASEAN

World Cup hosts to help ASEAN

MALAYSIA: Japan and South Korea will use lessons learned from hosting the soccer World Cup to teach Southeast Asian countries about security for big events, an official said on Sunday.

Singapore will host a conference in August or September of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at which Japan and South Korea will discuss security problems they encountered at the May 31-June 30 World Cup finals and how they were overcome, said Tan Boon Huat, deputy secretary-general of Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry.

"The focus will be on security preparations against terrorism," Tan said on the sidelines of a meeting in Kuala Lumpur of ASEAN home ministers.

The conference was agreed upon during a meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum officials in Brunei last week, Tan said. The forum is a security group which joins ASEAN with other Asian countries, the United States, Europe and other nations.

Tan said the Southeast Asian Games, the regional version of the Olympics, was one event which could be a potential target for terrorist attacks. The last games took place in Kuala Lumpur on Sept. 11 last year, when terrorists flew jet liners into buildings in the United States, killing thousands. -- AP

;AFP;ANJ; ANPAu..r.. Australia-ETimor-visits Australian FM heads to ETimor, Thailand and Indonesia JP/12/AUSTRALIA

Downer to attend Australia-RI dialog

AUSTRALIA: Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer began a six-day trip to Southeast Asia by joining thousands of guests at Timor Lorosae's (East Timor's) independence celebrations on Sunday, before traveling to Thailand and Indonesia.

After the celebrations in Dili, which he was attending with Prime Minister John Howard, Downer will co-host the Coolum Forum with Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, in Phuket.

He will also hold bilateral talks with a number of other Thai ministers on May 22 before meeting his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirayuda in Bogor, near Jakarta, for the inaugural Australia-Indonesia Dialogue on May 23 and 24.

"The dialogue will bring together a new generation of leaders from Australia and Indonesia, including representatives from politics, business, academia and the media," he said.

"Its aim is to build enduring relationships and to provide ideas on how to strengthen bilateral relations."

He will also meet other Indonesian ministers. -- AFP

;REUTERS;ANJ; ANPAu..r.. CAMBODIA-ROUGE (PICTURE) Cambodia mourns Khmer Rouge victims on "Day of Hate" JP/12/CAMBODIA

Cambodians mourn Khmer Rouge victims

CAMBODIA: More than 1,000 Cambodians gathered at a former Khmer Rouge execution ground on Sunday to mourn victims of the "killing fields" regime as dark clouds hang over the future of a Cambodian genocide trial.

Dozens of Buddhist monks chanted prayers as mourners old and young gathered at the site, located 17 kilometers from Phnom Penh, where the Khmer Rouge bludgeoned and shot to death some 17,000 people in the 1970s.

The mourners came to lay offerings of incense sticks and flowers at a memorial glass pagoda containing the skulls of 8,000 Khmer Rouge victims exhumed from mass graves in the area.

The ceremony marks what Cambodians call the "Day of Hate", against the 1975-1979 regime of Democratic Kampuchea, popularly known as the Khmer Rouge, during which thousands, perhaps millions, of people are estimated to have died from sporadic bloody skirmishes with the Vietnamese military, disease, starvation, forced labor and execution. -- Reuters

;REUTERS;ANJ; ANPAu..r.. PHILIPPINES-HOSTAGE Philippine troops clash with gang holding Korean JP/12/ASEAN

Troops kill suspected kidnappers

PHILIPPINES: Philippine troops killed five suspected kidnappers in a gunbattle on Sunday with Moro gunmen believed to be holding a South Korean hostage for more than three months, the military said.

Other members of the kidnap gang escaped, taking Korean businessman Jae Kwon-yoon with them during the hour-long clash in the mountains of Maitum, 80 km (50 miles) west of General Santos city, army area commander Colonel Alexander Yano said.

There were no reports of government casualties.

"We received reports from villagers that the Korean hostage was with the group in Maitum," Yano said by telephone.

"Our forces did not see the Korean and we suspect that he was taken by the others, who escaped during the fighting."

Yano said the group that clashed with his troops numbered about 35 gunmen. -- Reuters