DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “China to Help Cambodia Boost Social, Economic Development” plus 9 more

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 21-- Cambodia and China on Monday signed six agreements on bilateral cooperation, aiming at assisting Cambodia to develop its economy and to alleviate poverty, said officials.

The agreements were signed here during the 2nd China-Cambodia Strategic Economic Dialogue, co-chaired by Anu Porn Moniroth, secretary of state of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Cambodia and Fu Ziying, visiting Chinese vice commerce minister.

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon and Chinese ambassador to Cambodia Pan Guangxue attended the signing ceremony.

The grant and loan agreements included a grant to Cambodian Ministry of Economy and Finance; a donation of air-conditioners and desktop computers to the Senate; a project to dispatch Chinese experts to study the feasibility of the construction of  agricultural laboratory building in Cambodia; a loan agreement for the construction of a 22 kilovolt electricity transmission line in the length of 1.9 km in the provinces of Kampong Speu, Preah Sihanouk, Prey Veng and Kampong Cham.

Moreover, the construction contract of enlargement of the national road No. 6A (in the length of 40 km) to four lanes under a soft loan from China, and the consultant contract on the enlargement of the national road No. 6A were also signed.

Aun Porn Moniroth expressed profound thanks to China for its timely and unconditional financial and technical assistances to Cambodia.

"As the world was affected by the global financial crisis, China had still provided its assistance to Cambodia," he said, adding"this has helped Cambodia to prevent and overcome the crisis successfully."

"Chinese aid to Cambodia is very essential to develop the economy and alleviate poverty,"he added.

Fu Ziying said that Cambodia is a good neighbor of China and pledged to continue supporting Cambodia in its development of economy.

"China and Cambodia are willing to help each other,"he said, adding "in the future, China can be a big market for Cambodian products."

"We want closer cooperation with Cambodia on agriculture and mining as well as other sectors,"he said.

Fu Ziying is scheduled to pay courtesy call on Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday afternoon.  (Xinhua)

CANBERRA, Feb. 21-- A boy who was attacked by a crocodile on a remote Northern Territory island in Australia is not expected to be found alive, authority said on Monday.

The 14-year-old boy was playing with his brothers in a creek at Milingimbi Island, about 400km east of Darwin, while the crocodile bit him on Sunday morning.

According to Australia Associated Press (AAP), it is believed the victim was then swept away in the tidal creek.

Northern Territory Police Superintendent Helen Braam said extensive land and seas searches began on Sunday, and a helicopter joined the search team on Monday morning.

"I guess there is always hope (that he will be found alive), but I think it unlikely,"she told AAP on Monday. "I think we're looking for a body."

Braam said several people, trained to work with children, were also interviewing the young Aboriginal witnesses, who speak very limited English.

Two major crime investigators, eight officers from the tactical response group, the officer-in-charge of Ramingining Police Station, several park rangers and local Aboriginal trackers were also combing the area for the crocodile.

Crocodiles in the state dwindled to about 3,000 by 1971, as a result of hunting for their skins for many years.

Since becoming a protected species, there is now one dangerous saltwater crocodile to every two people in the Northern Territory.

This latest attack will cause the debate about crocodile culling to resurface, as it did during an inquest last year into the death of 11-year-old Briony Goodsell.

Briony was killed by a three-meter crocodile while swimming with friends in Black Jungle Swamp on the outskirts of rural Darwin in 2009.

Australia Associated Press said the Northern Territory government in 2011 will once again lobby the federal government to allow crocodile safari hunting, with strict conditions and restrictions, across the state.(Xinhua/sp)

SUVA, Feb. 21 -- By sending a delegation to the 2nd Asian Mediation Association Conference to be held in Malaysia on Feb. 24-25, Fiji is seeking an active role in the association.

Filipe Bole, Fijian Minister for Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment, on Monday confirmed to the media that the Fijian delegation will be led by Chief Justice Anthony Gates, with Judge of the Employment Relations Court Justice Anjala Wati and his ministry's chief mediator Vimlesh Maharaj.

Bole said Fiji was invited to the conference hosted by the Malaysian Mediation Center because his ministry had recently become an associate member of the Asian Mediation Association (AMA) secretariat based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

This came about due to the successful international accreditation of mediators within the ministry's mediation unit, Bole said.

According to the Fijian official, participation in the conference will facilitate networking and easy access to best regional expertise for conflict resolution and connection to leading mediation bodies around the world.

This initiative will enhance the setting of the proposed national mediation center in collaboration with the judiciary, for venturing into commercial and industrial mediation apart from employment related matters the ministry is engaged in through the enactment of Employment Relations Promulgation 2007, Bole said.(Xinhua/sp)

CANBERRA, Feb. 21-- West Australian iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group on Monday announced to appeal a decision by the Federal Court that found the company made misleading claims about infrastructure deals that never came to fruition.

On Friday, the full bench of the Federal Court overturned an earlier dismissal of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's (ASIC's) 2009 case against Fortescue and its chief executive Andrew Forrest.

Chief Justice Patrick Keane, Justice Arthur Emmett and Justice Ray Finkelstein determined Fortescue had made inaccurate public statements in 2004 about "binding" deals with Chinese firms.

Forrest accused the corporate regulator, ASIC, of spending millions of dollars pursuing him in order to get a high profile scalp, and said ASIC had neglected its responsibilities in other areas in order to concentrate on prosecuting him.

He told reporters on Monday he would seek leave to appeal the decision in the High Court.

"I think there is no other justification. Their charter is to respond to complaints, and help those and defend those who aren't able to do so," he told a press conference in Perth, quoted by ABC News on Monday.   "That was not this case. No one complained - there is on the record not one single complaint - and there is on the record that no shareholder lost money."

If Fortescue's appeal to the High Court is unsuccessful, there is a possibility that Forrest could be banned from being a director of the company he founded.(Xinhua/sp)

CANBERRA, Feb. 21-- Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd on Monday condemned the violence in Libya and urged Australians in Libya to get out while they can.

According to Australia Associated Press, more than 200 people are believed to have died in Libya, since security forces started cracking down on anti-regime street protests that began last week.

The protesters, who took control of the second city, Benghazi, want an end to strongman Muammar Gaddafi's four-decade rule, but the regime has vowed to crush the revolt and  "fight to the last bullet".

Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has blamed foreigners for fomenting the unrest which he warned could lead to civil war.

Rudd condemned the violence and slammed suggestions foreigners were behind the protests.

"That's just not true," he told reporters in Canberra of Australia on Monday.

"And what Colonel Gaddafi needs to have a look at is his own backyard where people are rising with the legitimate aspiration for freedom."

Rudd said Gaddafi should embrace democratic reform, and a violent response will make the situation worse and Libya will be effectively exiling itself from the rest of the international community.

Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has upgraded its travel warning for the North African nation as deadly clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces intensify.

Rudd said there were just under 100 Australians registered with Australia's diplomatic mission in Tripoli of Libya.

"If you are there and it is commercially possible and safe for you to exit you should exit now," Rudd told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

"And if you're thinking of traveling to that part of the world, reconsider it now. It's a difficult, dangerous and bloody place."(Xinhua/sp)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 -- The U.S. State Department on Sunday voiced its "strong objections" to the use of "lethal force" against demonstrators in Libya, and authorized the voluntary departure of family members of U.S. Embassy staff.

"The United States is gravely concerned with disturbing reports and images coming out of Libya," department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a statement. "We are working to ascertain the facts, but we have received multiple credible reports that hundreds of people have been killed and injured in several days of unrest, and the full extent of the death toll is unknown due to the lack of access of international media and human rights organizations."

He said the department has raised to a number of Libyan officials, including Foreign Minister Musa Kusa, "our strong objections to the use of lethal force against peaceful demonstrators."

He added: "We reiterated to Libyan officials the importance of universal rights, including freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. Libyan officials have stated their commitment to protecting and safeguarding the right of peaceful protest. We call upon the Libyan government to uphold that commitment, and hold accountable any security officer who does not act in accordance with that commitment."

The department also issued a travel warning on Sunday, advising U.S. citizens against non-essential travel to the North African state and those currently in the country against non-essential travel to its eastern part.

It authorized "the voluntary departure from Libya of family members of U.S. Embassy staff," saying that "while demonstrations have not been directed toward Westerners, U.S. citizens are urged to remain alert to local security developments and to be vigilant regarding their personal security."

Protests broke out in several cities in Libya, particularly in the second largest city of Benghazi, where demonstrators called for political and economic reforms. Dozens have reportedly died over the past three days.

Twenty bodies of protesters were found in Benghazi and seven in the eastern city of Derna, the country's independent Oea newspaper reported on its website on Friday. (Xinhua/sp)

SEOUL, Feb. 21 -- South Korea's financial regulator is worried about potential bank runs in local savings banks, a local brokerage said Monday.
"South Korea's financial watchdog is concerned about potential bank runs in domestic savings banks," Lee Soo-jung, a Seoul-based credit analyst at SK Securities, said in a report.
"Assuming that concerns over some troubled savings banks spill over into overall savings bank sector and cause depositors to rush to withdraw their assets, normal savings banks will inevitably fall into liquidity squeeze."
Despite the local financial regulator's repeated pledge that there would be no further suspension of operations in local savings banks, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) will likely suspend more banks' businesses if a savings bank faces massive withdrawals of deposits or fails to meet regulatory capital requirements, Lee added.
The FSC imposed on Thursday a six-month suspension of operations on two local savings banks due to their liquidity shortages.
The Busan Savings Bank, the country's biggest savings bank by assets located in the port city of Busan, was ordered to suspend its business from Feb. 17 to Aug. 16, while its affiliate Daejeon Savings Bank was also ordered to shut down over the same period.
Just two days after the decision, the FSC suspended three affiliates of the Busan Savings Bank, including Busan Central Savings Bank, Busan 2 Savings Bank, Jeonju Savings Bank, along with the Bohae Savings Bank, one of the five savings banks that fall short of the 5 percent capital requirement.
One month earlier, the FSC suspended operations of a mid-sized Samhwa Mutual Savings Bank, which is now up for sale by the Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. (KDIC). Woori Finance Holdings, the country's second-largest financial group by assets, was selected as the preferred bidder on Friday.
The FDIC said the six suspended savings banks, excluding Samhwa, will be sold to third parties if they fail to normalize on their own. (Xinhua/sp)

SEOUL, Feb. 21  -- South Korean spy agency officials broke into a hotel room of visiting Indonesian presidential envoys last week in Seoul, local newspapers reported Monday.

South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper and Hankyoreh newspaper said three people who intruded into the hotel room in downtown Seoul and fled after being witnessed by a member of the Indonesian delegation were actually officials at the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

The delegation, led by Indonesia's Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa, was here to seek support from the South Korean government and companies for their economic projects.

The NIS has denied the reports.(Xinhua/sp)

SEOUL, Feb. 21  -- South Korea's foreign ministry on Monday unveiled declassified diplomatic documents on issues ranging from U.S. forces stationed here to fishing regulations between South Korea and Japan.

Some 180,000 pages of the documents have been made public after 30 years, an attempt to "promote the public's right to know and seek administrative transparency," the ministry said in a press release.

The dossiers also deal with issues including the popular democracy uprising in the 1980's, diplomatic relations with the United States, bettering status of ethnic Koreans living in Japan and relations between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ( DPRK) and the U.S.

The ministry has declassified a total of 1.58 million pages of diplomatic documents since 1994.(Xinhua/sp)

SEOUL, Feb. 21 -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Monday threw his weight behind his signature campaign aimed at making the country a fairer society.

"Now is the time for us to redouble our efforts to create a fair society," he said in his biweekly radio speech. "Building a fair society is an essential process in our march toward a leading advanced country."

The president pointed out that "unreasonable practices" still exist in the country, and that rapid economic growth has left disparity in opportunity and wealth widened. But South Korea, Lee said, will be able to overcome these challenges and "present a new model of a fair society to the international community."

The speech came after he held the first-ever intergovernmental meeting last week focused on mapping out action plans for creating a fair society, where issues including military service, tax payment, education and labor were brought up.

The government will take initiatives in addressing "illegal and expedient practices" of the society, Lee said, calling for " active participation by all sectors of society" especially that of social leaders. (Xinhua/sp)