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Pollution and disease were also possible causes of death, Seng Teak said, adding that samples from some dead dolphins have been sent for testing in the US and Canada, but results have not yet been received. (AP)

 

 

Friday, February 17, 2006

 

Burma Called Non-Cooperative in Combating Money Laundering

 

Burma has once again been named by the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering as an uncooperative in the global fight against money laundering during a three-day meeting in Cape Town, South Africa. FATF President Kader Asmal said that two countries—Nigeria and Burma—remain on the list of non-cooperative nations, whose ruling regimes have failed to support the international community’s efforts to fight money laundering. However, the task force was encouraged by the progress these countries were making, the South African newspaper Business Day reported recently. The FATF first named Burma to its list in June 2001.

 

Observers have noted that drug money is widely believed to be keeping Burma’s struggling economy afloat. In 2003, the US Treasury Department reported that the Myanmar Mayflower Bank and Asia Wealth Bank were linked to narcotics trafficking organizations in Southeast Asia. Burma’s ruling junta initiated an investigation of the two banks to uncover any possible drug links, but it is not known whether any formal charges have been filed in the case. Burma’s military government enacted the Control of Money Laundering Law in 2002.

 

Attended by more than 400 delegates from 44 countries, the three-day session in Cape Town, which ends Friday, included discussions about the ways to build effective infrastructures for fighting money-laundering and countering terrorist financing in emerging economies. The conclusions of the meeting will be made available on February 21 on the FATF web site.

 

200 dead, 1,500 Missing in Philippine Landslide

 

A massive landslide rumbled down a mountainside in the eastern Philippines on Friday, burying hundreds of houses and a school packed with elementary students.

 

Sen Richard Gordon, head of the Philippine Red Cross, said an entire village appeared to have been buried on Leyte island, killing perhaps 200 people and leaving 1,500 others missing. Southern Leyte province Governor Rosette Lerias told radio DZBB that 500 houses in Guinsahugon village in St Bernard town were feared buried after nonstop rains hit the area for two weeks. An elementary school was in session when the landslide struck around 9 am “It sounded like the mountain exploded, and the whole thing crumbled,” survivor Dario Libatan told Manila radio DZMM. “I could not see any house standing anymore.”

 

Provincial board member Eva Tomol said only three houses remained standing in the village, which had a population of about 2,500 and is 670 kilometers (420 miles) southeast of Manila. Six survivors were being treated at a hospital, she said. Anthony Golez, deputy administrator of the Office of Civil Defense, said Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz dispatched two rescue helicopters and two navy ships to the remote area, where about 200 rescue workers—including volunteers from nearby provinces—were trying to dig out survivors.