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The women claimed they had been living "in exile" in Switzerland and Germany and that they were visiting Southeast Asia using passports "issued by the Sunda Democratic Empire," Shankar said. The "empire" refers to the former monarchies of the Sundanese people in Indonesia dating back centuries—no longer recognized by Indonesia and other countries in the region.

The women managed to enter Brunei in July, but they claimed they had been forced into the buffer zone—considered by both countries to be under Malaysian jurisdiction—because they were eventually expelled by Brunei authorities, Shankar said. State prosecutors charged them Wednesday in Sarawak's High Court with entering Malaysia illegally and representing themselves with false travel documents, Shankar said. They face unspecified prison sentences and fines if convicted, he said. Immigration officials familiar with the case could not immediately be contacted. Court hearings for the case would proceed this week, and the women were in custody in a police lockup, Shankar said. (AP)

Iraqi, South Korean Lead for AFC Player of the Year

Iraq captain Younis Mahmoud and South Korean World Cup veteran Lee Woon-jae are among 33 players in the running for the Asian Football Confederation's Player of the Year award. Contenders include five players from Asian Cup champion Iraq, four from Japan, three from Saudi Arabia, two each from Iran, South Korea, Thailand, Kuwait, Vietnam, Oman and Syria, and one each from the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Bahrain, Uzbekistan, North Korea, Tajikistan and China, the AFC said in a statement Wednesday. The AFC Annual Awards ceremony is scheduled for November 28 in Sydney, Australia. (AP)

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Tuesday, September 11, 2007

2 Dead, 5 Missing in Vietnam Flash Flood

Flash flooding triggered by torrential rain killed two people and swept five others away in northern Vietnam, a government official said Tuesday. The floodwaters engulfed seven workers as they slept at Suoi Ngoi Duong hydroelectric plant in Lao Cai province, said Thao A Tua, a provincial disaster official. Lao Cai is 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of Hanoi. Last year, natural disasters in Vietnam killed at least 500 people, injured nearly 3,000, and caused nearly US$1.17 billion in damage. (AP)

Vietnam Seizes Chickens Smuggled from China

Authorities in northern Vietnam confiscated 2,500 chickens smuggled in from neighboring China, highlighting the challenges of stopping bird flu, officials said Tuesday. Authorities confiscated 1.3 tons of chickens found in a truck early Tuesday morning, said Nguyen Thang Loi, director of Lang Son provincial market control department. The chickens will be destroyed, he added. In neighboring Quang Ninh province, authorities on Sunday confiscated 4.3 tons of chickens smuggled in from China in two separate cases, said provincial chief market inspector Nguyen Dang Truong. Loi said his staff have confiscated some 50 tons of chickens smuggled in from China so far this year, while authorities in Quang Ninh have confiscated and destroyed more than 60 tons of the birds in the same period. Loi said many local residents who live along the border have been lured to work as porters who haul chickens on their backs and could be paid up to 100,000 dong (US $6.2) a day, a much better income than working as farmers. Quang Ninh province's chief market inspector Truong said it's very difficult for authorities to completely stop the smugglers, who are motivated by huge profits. (AP)

US Space Tourism Company Partners for Singapore Spaceport

More than a year after the project was first announced, US company Space Adventures Ltd said Tuesday it was still seeking local partners and financing for a Singapore-based spaceport to launch suborbital tourism flights. The company said in February last year it was forming a venture with a Singapore-based consortium to build a US$115 million facility in the Southeast Asian city-state. Eric Anderson, president and chief executive of Virginia-based Space Adventures Ltd., on the sidelines of a business conference in Singapore, said the company was looking at a number of other Asian locations for its spaceport, including China, Japan and Korea, but remained confident of the Singapore project's success. He did not provide a timeframe for the project. The project will be partially funded by the Crown Prince of Ras Al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, the company said.