DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “U.S. Seventh Fleet Commander Visits Cambodia” plus 9 more

SANAA, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- At least two security soldiers and two opposition-led fighters were killed in fierce clashes on Monday following a collapse of ceasefire in Yemen's southern province of Taiz, the Defense Ministry and medics said.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement on its website that the opposition-backed armed tribesmen launched attacks on several security checkpoints stationed in the northern entrances of the city of Taiz, killing two soldiers and injuring four others.

"The security forces fired back and confronted the opposition- armed attacks, killing a number of militants and injuring several others," the ministry said without specifying the number of the killed or injured among their opponents.

It also said the security forces have launched a manhunt after "those opposition armed tribesmen who managed to flee after the security forces foiled their attacks to bring them to justice."

The ministry blamed the branch of the opposition coalition in Taiz for breaking the truce deal, which was made under the supervision of the country's Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and representatives of the opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP).

The fragile truce between the opposition-backed armed tribesmen, who were assigned by the JMP to protect the protesters who demanded an immediate end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33- year rule, and the Republican Guards collapsed last Tuesday after the two sides refused to commit to a ceasefire deal, said officials in the mediation committee assigned by Hadi.

Meanwhile, doctors in Taiz hospital told Xinhua that the hospital received 13 injured from the opposition-led armed tribesmen and "two of them already died."

Opposition media reported that "a shell hit a house earlier Monday during the clashes between rival forces and left six civilians dead, including a child."

An eyewitness told Xinhua that the opposition gunmen set a security pick-up truck on fire and fired a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) on a tank of the Republican Guards in the 60th Street in northern Taiz city, which is the key anti-Saleh city where tens of thousands of people were still camping in the Liberation Square to press for Saleh's removal.

Residents said warplanes were seen hovering over the hideouts of the opposition fighters.

XI'AN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Continuous torrential rains have battered parts of northwest China's Shaanxi Province since Sunday, affecting almost 120,000 people and leaving three workers missing, local authorities said Tuesday.

More than 5,000 people have been evacuated from low-lying areas, and the downpours have also inundated 5,400 hectares of cropland and damaged almost 9,000 units of housing, a spokesman with the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Civil Affairs said.

In addition, three workers at a a national nature reserve in Hanzhong were swept away by floods, and were yet to be found, the spokesman said.

The department has ordered local civil affairs authorities to guard against natural disasters and ensure the dispatch of relief supplies, he said.

Local meteorological authorities forecast more torrential rains would hit those areas Thursday.

SINGAPORE, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said that Singapore will not be changing its economic direction despite political challenges following the recent general election, local daily Straits Times reported on Tuesday.

The government will continue to take a long-term, rational perspective and Singapore will remain open to global investments and talent, Lee said said at the 50th anniversary dinner of the Economic Development Board (EDB) on Monday evening.

The prime minister said the country's fundamental constraints remain and it needs to stay connected to the world to survive.

Singapore has overcome the odds and transformed its economy in the past 50 years, taking it from the third world to the first. The per capita GDP (gross domestic product) is 60,000 Singapore dollars, or 13 times that of 1961 in real terms.

"I think investors are reassured to hear this message, because we take seriously what we say and what we commit to. But they will also wait to see what we actually do. And if over time, they find that we have not become as welcome as before, or if our business environment has become less favourable, then of course there will be consequences for Singapore," Lee said.

Lee called for support for consistent and rational policies to create jobs and wealth.

Lee said that no one could have foreseen that Singapore would have done so well over the past 50 years, and that it was hard to predict what would happen in the next 50 years.

The ideal scenario would be a world at peace, globalization continuing apace and countries creating prosperity, he said.

Lee said the Economic Development Board and Singapore must be ready for all scenarios.

"EDB needs to maintain its edge, build new links and deepen existing ones, find ways to boost our strengths and address our challenges -- such as limits on our manpower, limits on our land and space, such as rising costs as we continue to grow," he said.

SINGAPORE, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- An inter-agency taskforce of Singapore on trafficking in persons has released a detailed response of five pages to a recent U.S. report on human trafficking, local daily Straits Times reported on Tuesday.

The response was sent to the United States on Monday, weeks after the government reiterated and pointed out "inaccuracies and misrepresentations" in the latest annual report released by the U. S. State Department released in June, the newspaper said.

The U.S. report upgraded the ranking of Singapore to Tier Two, which means that it is among a group of countries making efforts to meet the U.S. standard of human trafficking but does not yet meet the standards. Singapore has earlier said it noted the change to Singapore's ranking but is dismayed to find the report riddled with inaccuracies.

The report claimed that forced labor on fishing vessels has been found to have originated from Singapore, and that no trafficking victims were offered medical and other services at shelters in the past year. It is also "unabashed" in awarding the United States itself the top ranking, whereas U.S. mainstream media also reported on teenagers coerced into prostitution in the United States are treated not as trafficking victims but as miscreants who are arrested and prosecuted.

"As is well known, the United States also suffers from serious problems with illegal immigrants, many of whom are trafficked by well-organized criminal gangs which seem to be able to operate with impunity. On any objective criteria, the United States has a more serious TIP (trafficking in persons report) problem compared with Singapore," Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.

"The report also seems to assume that the domestic processes of all countries reviewed are the same as that of the United States," it said, adding that U.S. Senator James Webb also said there are some inconsistencies in the report.

"Perhaps this incongruity could be explained by the fact that the Report does not apply a consistent, transparent, and measurable standard for all countries," the ministry has said.

The taskforce said it has found new inaccuracies in the response on Monday.

The taskforce includes representatives from the Singapore Police Force and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority and is co-chaired by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Manpower.

ROME, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- A boat carrying 296 refugees was found Monday along the coast of Italy's southernmost island of Lampedusa, and 25 of them were already dead, authorities said.

All the deceased were young men who may have died of asphyxiation as nearly 300 people crammed the boat, Lampedusa port authorities were quoted by ANSA news agency as saying. Thirty-six women and 21 children were among the 271 refugees found alive, and nationalities of the living and dead refugees aboard remained unknown.

Since the onset of the Mideast unrest in January, Lampedusa has become a key transit point for refugees fleeing that region, with the arrival of some 30,000 immigrants and refugees, mostly from Tunisia, Libya and sub-Saharan Africa since then, according to Italian official statistics.

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon Sunday voiced deep concern over reports from Syria that hundreds of protesters have been killed or injured in the city of Hama and other towns across the country during the weekend.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, he strongly condemned the use of force against the civilians and called on the government of Syria to immediately halt the violence.

Ban reiterated that the Syrian authorities have an obligation to respect the human rights of the Syrian people, including their freedom of expression and right to peaceful assembly. He urged the government to heed the legitimate aspirations of the population.

"The Secretary-General reminds the Syrian authorities that they are accountable under international human rights law for all acts of violence perpetrated by them against the civilian population," said the statement.

Syria has been in unrest since mid March when anti-government protests broke out in the southern province of Daraa and spread to other cities. The Syrian authorities blamed the unrest on "armed groups and foreign conspiracy" and stressed that it would track down gunmen who have intimidated people and damaged public and private properties.