Former US presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush toured parts of southern Thailand yesterday on the first stop of their tour of Asian nations hit by December's catastrophic tsunamis.
Meanwhile, foreign aid workers helping tsunami relief efforts in Indonesia could be the target of terrorist attacks, Canberra warned in a travel advisory yesterday.
PHOTO: EPA
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his country had received intelligence its nationals could come under fire in Aceh and Northern Sumatra.
"New information [has been] received by the government concerning possible terrorist planning for attacks against foreigners involved in relief efforts in Aceh or other areas of northern Sumatra," Downer said in a statement.
"The government is working closely with Indonesian authorities and other governments involved in the relief effort to address this new threat information.
"The government is keeping the security situation in Aceh under close review and new information will be brought to the attention of the public through my department's travel advice."
The official advice said Australians should only travel to Aceh to help the post-tsunami relief effort if they were working with a recognised aid organization which had coordinated security with Indonesian authorities.
It said Australians not involved in the relief effort should leave the region.
Australia has about 1,000 military personnel and numerous civilians involved in the massive aid effort
The Australian military are unarmed and rely on their Indonesian counterparts for protection.
The former US leaders touched down shortly after noon at Phuket and were greeted by Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai.
They then traveled to the devastated fishing village of Baan Nam Khem to assess reconstruction efforts in Thailand's hardest-hit province of Phang Nga.
Clinton and Bush, appointed by US President George W. Bush to head private fundraising efforts following the tsunami, are also set to visit Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives from today.
Nearly 5,400 people were killed in Thailand when the giant waves struck on Dec. 26. Roughly half of the dead are believed to be foreign tourists who were spending holidays on the country's famous beaches.
Some 3,000 people are still missing, and thousands more lost their homes and livelihoods.
A massive international forensics operation is still underway in southern Thailand to identify all of the dead.
Bush and Clinton were to pay their respects for the victims during a ceremony later yesterday, and to meet with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Clinton, a Democrat who defeated the elder Bush in 1992 elections and was succeeded by the Republican's son eight years later, has been named the UN's special envoy for tsunami relief.
The White House has placed former President Bush in charge of efforts to raise private US aid for nations devastated by the tsunami that ripped through the Indian Ocean, killing nearly 289,000 people, most of them in Indonesia.
Clinton and Bush regularly appear in television advertisements requesting donations for the hundreds of thousands made homeless by the tsunamis, which were triggered by a massive undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS