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| Southeast Asia |
| Malay minister miffed by dogged Aus. security |
| 2002-11-30 |
| Malaysia's Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz has blown her top at Australian security personnel for trying to use sniffer dogs to check her luggage during a visit to Sydney for a recent WTO meeting, newspapers said on Saturday. Rafidah said the Australians were insensitive in subjecting her to a screening using an animal considered haram, or "forbidden" in Islam, when they knew she was a Muslim. Dogs are what they've got. They don't have any otters or marmosets that can do the job... The minister said she warded off two attempts by airport security to check her luggage with dogs after she arrived in Sydney on November 14 for the World Trade Organisation meeting. But on reaching her hotel, she found another canine team waiting. "This time, I blew my top," the New Straits Times quoted her as saying. "I am a bigwig! Why should I be subjected to the same security the common folk get?" Cowed by the angry minister, whose sharp tongue has earned her the nickname "Madam Rapidfire" among some foreign media, the security officials eventually relented. Wonder if she'll be invited back again, though? Australia has boosted security measures, particularly screening of visitors and issuance of travel visas, since the October 12 bomb attacks in Bali, Indonesia, which killed more than 180 people, mostly Australians. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 Maybe they need to train some bomb-sniffing pigs just for the Muslims. It would make a nice movie: Babe 3: Pig in the Airport. "That'll do, pig. That'll do." |
| Posted by: BarCodeKing 2002-12-01 05:47:28 |
| #1 Bomb-sniffing kangaroos? I can't see it myself. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2002-11-30 23:09:10 |