PATTANI (Thailand) - SUSPECTED Muslim rebels killed 10 civilians in a flurry of attacks in insurgency-plagued southern Thailand, the army said on Tuesday on the fifth anniversary of a bloody assault by security forces against militants at a mosque.
KUALA LUMPUR - FIVE people believed to be Pakistanis drowned after their boat capsized off Malaysia's southern coast, police said on Tuesday.
One teenager survived the accident and marine police have launched a rescue operation in case there were more survivors, Mr Mohamad Amirul Abdullah, a local policeman told AFP.
MANILA - COMMUNIST insurgents who claimed to have wounded a US soldier mistook a light-skinned Filipino for an American, a Philippine military spokesman said on Tuesday.
The communist New People's Army (NPA) said it had wounded a US soldier helping local troops on the central island of Masbate two weeks ago, citing this as evidence of illegal US involvement in counter-insurgency operations.
MANILA - THE Philippines, the world's biggest supplier of merchant sailors, o Tuesday called on fellow APEC members to improve the protection of ships against pirate attacks off Somalia.
Transporation Secretary Leandro Mendoza told APEC transporation ministers that Filipinos and Philippine-flagged vessels are 'in the lowest category in terms of priority in (naval) escorts in Somalia.' 'Secretary Mendoza appealed to the ministers of the different APEC economies to give assistance,' Transportation Department spokeswoman Elena Bautista told reporters on the sidelines of the ministers' two-day meeting.
