DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Cambodia arrests 281 suspects for drug related charges in 2 months” plus 9 more

PHNOM PENH, March 7  -- The Cambodian authorities have arrested 281 suspects for drugs in the past two months in fighting against drug sales and trafficking in the country.

A report filed by the Phnom Penh Municipal police, a copy of it seen Monday, showed that between Jan. 11 and March 2, the authorities have arrested 281 suspects involving in 115 cases of drug related charges.

Of all arrested suspects, 57 were women.

According to the report, the suspects involved in producing, distributing and consuming drugs.

Along with the arrests, the authorities confiscated 197.86 grams of methamphetamines, 9.86 grams of heroin, 471 pills of yama (yaba), and 71.12 grams of marijuana and 3 scales.

The report indicated that the arrested include Meok Dara, lieutenant general of Cambodia's national police, who was secretary general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs prior to his arrest.

The ex-general was summoned for questioning on Jan. 12 and was officially charged on Jan. 16 with receiving bribes in exchange of releasing a drug related suspect.

According to the law, Meok Dara might face three to seven years in jail if found guilty.

It is not known yet when the court will set the date for his trial.

Cambodia has been known as one of the drug transit countries. Prime Minister Hun Sen has called for increased efforts in fighting against drug trafficking in the country.(Xinhua/sp)

Liaoning port throughput; Yunnan trade
BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The following are some China economic news items in brief.

SHANXI TO ENLARGE GREEN COVERAGE
North China's Shanxi Province plans to have the area under afforestation to reach 1.77 million hectares in the coming five years and to expand its forest coverage to 23 percent by 2015, the local forestry bureau said Monday.
Then the province's total forest area will reach 3.6 million hectares in 2015.
Shanxi's forest coverage stood at 14.12 percent in 2005, and area suffering from soil erosion accounted for 69 percent of the province's total territory.
In 2010, Shanxi reported 328,000 hectares of afforested area.

SHANDONG'S FOREIGN TRADE UP MORE THAN 50 PCT   
East China's Shandong Province generated 20.12 billion U.S. dollars in foreign trade in January, a 51.2-percent year-on-year rise, the local customs house said Monday.
The total included 10.65 billion U.S. dollars of exports, up 47.5 percent year on year, and 9.47 billion dollars of imports, up 55.5 percent.   
In January, the province exported 4.26 billion U.S. dollars worth of machinery and electronics, up 39.5 percent year on year, 1.23 billion dollars worth of new- and high-tech products, 1.77 billion dollars worth of textiles and garments, and 1.56 billion dollars worth of farm produce, up 65.4 percent.

JIANGSU'S PRIVATE BUSINESS EXPANDS
The non-state sector in east China's Jiangsu Province generated 1 trillion yuan (152.1 billion U.S. dollars) in value-added industrial output in 2010, a growth 16.5 percent on 2009, the provincial bureau of statistics said Monday.
The figure accounted for 47.3 percent of Jiangsu's total industrial output.
The non-state sector invested 1.49 trillion yuan in fixed assets last year, or 64.2 percent of the province's total fixed-assets investment. The share was 1.6 percentage points higher than the year-earlier level.
At the end of 2010, private businesses numbered 1 million in Jiangsu, of which 2,905 each involved at least 100 million yuan in registered capital, doubling the year-earlier level.

LIAONING'S PORT THROUGHPUT UP NEARLY 25 PCT
Ports in northeast China's Liaoning Province reported a cargo throughput of 67.62 million tonnes in January, a 24.12-percent year-on-year rise, the provincial transport bureau said Monday.
The total included 16.38 million tonnes of cargos for foreign trade, up 8.41 percent year on year, and 988,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers, up 21.82 percent.

YUNNAN'S FOREIGN TRADE UP MORE THAN 65 PCT
Southwest China's Yunnan Province generated 1.32 billion U.S. dollars in foreign trade in January, an increase of 66.5 percent on the same month of 2009, the local customs house said Monday.
The growth rate was 22.6 percentage points higher than the national average.
The total included 478 million U.S. dollars in trade with ASEAN members, up 58.9 percent year on year, 120 million dollars in trade with the European Union, up 5.8 percent, and 72.88 million dollars in trade with the United States, up 150 percent.

BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- People have been lining up to visit the Shanghai Art Museum since it opened for free to the public for the first time on Saturday.
The museum received 12,099 visitors on Saturday, eight times its usual 1,500 daily visits. Another 4,000 to 5,000 visitors filled the museum on Sunday despite rainy weather to see an exhibition of paintings by China's modern master artists Wu Guanzhong and Lin Fengmian.
Some enthusiastic visitors left home at 4 am to join long lines around the museum building.
"I've never been here before," Wang Ning, a Shanghai native who had waited about 45 minutes with her 10-year-old son at the museum door, was quoted as saying by Monday's China Daily.
"I think it's good for my son to learn something about art. It's good that we can visit the museum free of charge," Wang said.
The museum had previously charged 20 yuan (3 U.S. dollars) for entry.
"We appreciate the public enthusiasm for art," said Zhang Wenqing, deputy director of the Shanghai Art Museum. "I believe as time goes by there will be no need for people to wait in long lines when visiting the museum free of charge. We want visiting the gallery and museum to be a regular part of citizens' lives."
In Beijing, the National Art Museum of China also opened its doors to the public for free on March 2, and has since welcomed some 6,000 visitors every day.
"At the beginning, when the museum opened for free, some people even came into the museum's washroom to wash the vegetables they bought from a nearby market," said museum publicist Yu Ge.
Although some visitors were still speaking loudly in the exhibition hall, Yu believes people will gradually learn how to behave in a museum.
However, the sudden increase of visitors did bring challenges to the museum administration.
For example, while security staff were busy stopping people from using flash photography, cleaners found themselves changing toilet paper three or four times an hour. Even the souvenir shop in the Shanghai Art Museum was fully packed on the weekend.
However, some people did complain about poor tour guide service for the artwork.
"We are an art museum that puts on temporary shows most of the time, and this brings a greater challenge to our tour guide service," explained Zhang, deputy director of the museum. "And we'll adapt our exhibition arrangements and improve our guide service."
More than 100 people have signed up for volunteer service at the museum.
Yu with the National Art Museum suggested senior citizens can visit the museum from Monday to Friday, leaving more tickets on weekends for people busy during weekdays.
In addition, Yu said, when the exhibition hall is full, the ticket booth can slow down ticket distribution.
"People need a quiet environment to appreciate the artwork, so they should arrange their visiting hours properly to avoid clumping people together," Yu said.
On Feb 10, the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Finance vowed that the public would have free access to public art galleries within two years.
The policy is also underway in seven other galleries in Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shaanxi, Hubei and Beijing.

BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter Scale jolted Solomon Islands at 8:09 a.m. Beijing Time Monday, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.
The epicenter, with a depth of 40 kilometers, was monitored at 10.3 degrees south latitude and 160.8 degrees east longitude, the center said.

BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao will pay a state visit to Russia this year at the invitation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told a press conference Monday.
Yang said last year China-Russia relations achieved a lot of good results, and leaders of the two countries reached consensus on further deepening China-Russia strategic partnership of coordination.
"China-Russia relations have been lifted to a higher level," he said.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the signing of the China-Russia Treaty of Good-neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation, and the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Russia strategic partnership of coordination, according to Yang.
The two sides will seize the opportunities to further advance their strategic partnership of coordination, he said.
He said the two countries will work together to step up their cooperation on some key projects in such fields as economy and trade, high technology as well as their exchanges at the local level; to institutionalize the popular activities under the framework of National Year and Language Year between the two countries; and to step up their cooperation in regional and international organizations and enhance collaboration and coordination in addressing regional hot-spot issues.
Yang said that in a world China and Russia are good neighbors, friends and partners, trust and credibility form the foundation of all undertakings.
"This is a major conclusion we we have drawn from the growth of China-Russia relations. It is also an important guarantee for the sustained, coordinated and steady development of China-Russia ties," he said.
Yang made the remarks on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature.

BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said at a press conference Monday that Asian countries should forge a peaceful, stable, open and inclusive relationship with the goal of archiving a win-win result.

SEOUL, March 7 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's exports of information technology (IT)-related products rose 4.8 percent in February from a year earlier, a government report showed Monday.
South Korea's February shipments of IT products gained 4.8 percent on-year to 11.18 billion U.S. dollars, despite the decreasing number of working days due to the Lunar New Year holidays during the month and external uncertainties triggered by the political unrest in the Middle East, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in a monthly report.
The February reading marked the 17th straight month of growth on a on-year basis since October 2009, when it posted a 0.6 percent gain, the ministry added.
Growth remained positive for most key export items, with outbound shipments of semiconductors jumping 9.7 percent in February from a year earlier to 3.67 billion dollars, according to the report.
Exports of smartphones shot up 351.6 percent on-year to 830 million dollars in February, bolstering shipments of mobile phones in general. In February, South Korea shipped 1.98 billion dollars worth of mobile phones, up 5.7 percent from a year before.
The report, however, showed exports of display panels declined 3.2 percent on-year to 2.26 billion dollars due to the falling unit-prices and reducing exports to the European nations.

SYDNEY, March 7 (Xinhua) -- For the past three months, Australians have come face to face with the guardian warriors of China's First Emperor, entombed for over 2000 years, and talked and love these terracotta warriors.
"It is gorgeous. The statue look so vivid that it seems these warriors are alive" said Mary Goldsmith, a school teacher in Sydney.
Her partner John Harris echoed Mary's view. "Through this exhibition I knew a bit more about Chinese ancient history which I am fond of," he said.
"The First Emperor: China's entombed warriors" exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which began in early December last year, has brought one of the world's greatest archaeological discoveries to Sydney.
In 1974, farmers in the central China province of Xi'an were digging a well when they unearthed the head, hands and body of a life-size terracotta warrior. They had come across the first soldier in what is now known to be an army numbering over 7000, created to protect the tomb of the First Emperor.
The First Emperor, Qin Shihuang (259206 BC), is remembered as an almost mythical figure of Chinese history, the founder of a united China. Within 10 years of his reign as king of the State of Qin, he had unified all seven of the Warring States to create the Qin dynasty, and reigned as First Emperor from 221 to 210 BC. He oversaw the standardisation of currency, weights, measures and script and extended the construction of the Great Wall.
The exhibition is curated by the gallery's director, Edmund Capon, a leading authority on Chinese art and one of the first westerners to see the initial find in 1974.
"The exhibition opens people's eyes to the reality of ancient China and the amazing artistic achievements of her people of two millennia or before," Capon told Xinhua in an interview.
"People see the real and tangible objects that were made so long ago, still exist and the wonder of their having been found within their own lifetimes," he said.
The Australian public's knowledge of China is on the whole pretty minimal, according to Capon. "The image of China is big; Great Wall, Chairman Mao, long history and lots of ancient art." The exhibition, he said, brings into a tangible focus on the real world of ancient China.
"An ancient China that is largely mythical in most people's eyes and only received in a kind of fantastic way; through distant imagery and marvellously operatic films."
The exhibition, which features 10 of the world-renowned warriors and horses, and significant recent finds from the First Emperor's mausoleum in Xi'an, has been very well received by the public and critics. "It looks like this exhibition will be one of the gallery's most popular exhibitions ever," Capon said.
The presentation of the works has also been highlighted by local media. John McDonald, art critic for the newspaper Sydney Morning Herald commented that the display of the exhibition created a new benchmark for exhibition design in this country.
The display recreates the actual pits of the entombed warriors, giving visitors a unique opportunity to examine up close the superb detail of these extraordinary life-size figures.
Capon, in his essay titled "The First Emperor: inheritance and legacy" in the exhibition catalogue, said what is so remarkable about the First Emperor's buried army is not only its immense scale but its authenticity and realism. "For here are images of the scale, presence and detail of real people that are totally without precedent."
"For all his military vigour, his administrative reforms, his unification of an empire, perhaps the First Emperor's greatest legacy was in precipitating a revolution in art," he added.
The exhibition closes on March 13 and the gallery has plans for future exhibitions of Chinese art. "Other shows with China are an absolute certainty and discussions are underway," and many Australians were looking much forward, Capon said.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Post-mortems on victims of the Christchurch earthquake are likely to be completed in the next few days, police said on Monday.
The official death toll remained at 166 on Monday. Police said identification of all the victims could take some time.
VICTIMS IDENTIFICATION TAKES TIME
Superintendent Sam Hoyle told a news conference on Monday that the number on the missing persons list is reducing as more of the dead are officially identified.
However, he says the list is a "moveable feast" because names are being removed as identifications progress and, even at this stage, one or two names are being added, particularly of tourists or backpackers.
Search and rescue teams cleared 300 buildings in central Christchurch on Sunday. Teams continue to try to clear the stairwell at the Forsyth Barr building where they are making slow progress.
The Fire Service said the Hotel Grand Chancellor has been cleared and the operation there is over.
The 26-storey building has been on a lean since the day after the earthquake, but no decision has been made as to whether to demolish or salvage.
The national controller for Civil Defence said buildings that pose a safety risk for search and rescue crews working through them will be completely or partially demolished. He says every endeavor is made to contact the owner should a demolition be necessary, but if a building needs to be pulled down quickly for safety reasons, he is responsible for approving the demolition.

MINISTER URGES REALISM OVER DEMOLITIONS
New Zealand Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said on Monday he has no desire to bulldoze Christchurch but people must be realistic about the demolition of heritage buildings.
Brownlee had earlier signalled that all but a few of the city's heritage buildings would have to go.   The opposition then accused him of overstating the case and the city's mayor, Bob Parker, said the tension between retaining the city's old buildings and making progress needed to be carefully weighed.
rownlee said on Monday that many of the 1600 heritage buildings in the city have been severely damaged and are unlikely to be rebuilt.
Buildings damaged in the Sept. 4 earthquake were still in a bad state of repair and some are becoming hazards, he said.
CHRISTCHURCH SCHOOLS BEGINNING TO REOPEN
Five schools in Christchurch reopened on Monday and the Ministry of Education expects a further 25 to reopen this week.
All schools were shut in the days following the 6.3-magnitude quake that damaged buildings, roads and cut water and power.
Those that opened on Monday were all primary schools.