Community Affairs and Youth Minister Dale Butler made the news in Brunei yesterday as he paid a courtesy call on his counterpart in the Southeast Asian country.

Radio Television Brunei reported that Mr. Butler and Brunei?s Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Pehin Major General Dato-Seri Pahlawan Awang Hj Mohammad bin Hj Daud discussed ways of ?enhancing cooperation on related matters between the two parties?.

Mr. Butler?s went to Malaysia ? which borders Brunei ? to join eight high school students from the Berkeley Institute and CedarBridge Academy, who are on a sponsored expedition there.

The Government is one of several principal sponsors, but Mr. Butler is said to have paid for his own journey to meet them, and intends to join them on the last leg of the expedition, where they will climb Mt. Kinabalu in the state of Sabah.

A number of Mr. Butler?s planned activities were mentioned in the report, including a boat trip on Kampong Ayer and a visit to the Brunei Malay Technology Museum.

The report outlined a very busy schedule for the Minister?s three-day visit, which ranged from visiting a mosque to touring a shopping centre.

Mr. Butler would also, the report boasted, ?experience the natural wonders of the tropical rainforest.?

It also referred to Bermuda as ?a stable, intelligently run island with a highly sophisticated infrastructure?.

Radio Television Brunei ? which released the report on Mr. Butler?s trip ? is a government-controlled body that operates all broadcast media in the country. The Press is entirely privately-owned or controlled by the family of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah ? leader of one of the longest ruling dynasties in the world and also one of the world?s richest men.