Asia’s ‘grim view on drug crime’
HONG KONG, China (CNN) – At dawn on Friday, a hangman at Changi Prison in Singapore placed a hood over the head of drug trafficker Van Nguyen, put a noose around his neck and opened a trap door in a “long-drop” procedure that killed the Australian citizen.
The death sentence for the 25-year former salesman was handed down after he was arrested at Changi airport while transiting from Cambodia to the Australian city of Melbourne in 2002, carrying nearly 400 grams (14 ounces) of heroin.
The city-state enacted tough drug laws in 1975 which made the death sentence mandatory for trafficking in more than 15 grams (half an ounce) of heroin, 30 grams of cocaine or 500 grams of cannabis.
More: edition.cnn.com
Related Travel Information
Second Australian sentenced to life on drug charges
An Australian man was Monday sentenced to life in prison on charges of drug smuggling.
In a trial at the Denpasar District Court, judges ruled that Scott Rush, 20, should serve the rest of his life in an Indonesian prison for acting as a so-called drug mule.He was seized at Bali's Ngurah Rai airport with 1.3 kilograms of heroin taped to his legs.
He is the second Australian to be sentenced to life in prison Monday for trying to smuggle heroin from the Indonesian resort island of Bali to their homeland, judges said.
They were the
Drug Trafficking in South Asia Continues says UN
Lapses in the control of pharmaceutical preparations containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances have led to widespread abuse among all segments of the population in South Asian countries including Bangladesh, says a UN report. "Drug trafficking and abuse problems in South Asia continue to be both serious and multifaceted," said the annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) for 2006 that was released Wednesday.
It said "In South Asian countries, particularly Bangladesh, India and Nepal, lapses in the control of pharmaceutical preparations containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances have led to widespread
HIV epidemic could hit Asia-Pacific drug users: UN
Asia-Pacific countries risk a full-blown HIV epidemic among drug users unless governments do more to keep youths off drugs and make clean needles available, a UN official said today.
Injecting drug use or IDU fuels at least 70 per cent of HIV transmission in places such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam, said Prasada Rao, Asia-Pacific director of UNAIDS, the UN body fighting HIV/AIDS.
Those countries, and others including Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, have a very severe IDU epidemic almost in the offing, about to break out in the open,
FX Asia: Taiwan Dollar Sets Sight On New 2006 Low
The New Taiwan dollar is increasingly favored in carry trades as low interest rates and heightening political tensions with the Chinese mainland make the currency a cheap funding vehicle for purchases of higher-yielding units such as the Thai baht.
Although the Taiwan dollar is recovering from falls earlier in the week thanks to a resurgent Japanese yen, its longer-term outlook remains grim.
Technical charts, in particular, are pointing to fresh lows ahead for the currency, already facing pressure ahead of Taiwan's Peace Memorial Day on Feb. 28 when some are expecting
Singapore to create investment funds for Asias infrastructure needs
Singapore is seeking to tap opportunities in Asias infrastructure building growth, and it hopes to attract investors by providing incentives for infrastructure funds.
Asian countries are expected to spend US$250b a year over the next five years to build large-scale projects such as roads systems, bridges, and power generators, and Singapore aims to make it easier for both institutional and retail private investors to pool their money together to finance such projects.
Singapores neighbours like Indonesia and Vietnam are now relying on offshore banks to lend them money for their infrastructure projects,
