DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Jimmy Connors praises Cuban system in selecting talents” plus 9 more

HAVANA, March 7 -- American Jimmy Connors, the only tennis player who owns over a hundred titles on the ATP professional circuit, visited Cuba and praised the local system in selecting the talents, local media reported Monday.

Connors visited the facilities used in the 1991 Pan American Games, and said he was impressed.

"It's good to know that here the talented children are found from an early age throughout the country and that they are well trained," Connors said.

The former player, winner of eight Grand Slam titles and 106 titles on the professional circuit, arrived here invited by a travel agency and met with Cuban tennis executives, athletes and coaches.

Last week, the 58-year-old Connors appeared as the best player in history, according to a study by U.S. researcher Filippo Radicchi from the Northwestern University.

Radicchi compared all the players who played at least one professional match from 1968 to 2010.(Xinhua/sp)

Port-au-Prince, March 7(Xinhua)  -- With scant progress made in improving the livelihood of Haitian children, most of them still live in miserable conditions and suffer both physical and psychological abuse, a UN expert said on Monday.

"Many Haitian children are exposed to abuse, exploitation and violence, these are part of the complex issues that Haiti deals with," said Virginia Perez, a children protection specialist with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

These children, born in the poorest families, have been handed over to wealthy families who have promised them housing, food and education in exchange for light house work, Perez said.

In most cases, these promises are not kept, forcing the minors reduced to "restavek children", the Haitian Creole language used to refer to children living in slavery conditions.

"The majority of the restavek children, especially the girls, receive no pay and are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse," Perez said, citing a 2009 study by the Pan-American Development Foundation.

For years, impoverished minors have been subjected to slavery conditions, which has become a norm in Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

"It's necessary to do an enormous work on the sensibility involved in dealing both with the families that receive these children as well as those that hand the children over," said Perez.

UNICEF statistics showed that since 2002, the number of restavek children had grown by 30,000 alone from 172,000 to more than 200,000.

In a country where children make up almost half of the total population, most youngsters in Haiti are exposed to extreme hardships and the already grim conditions worsened significantly last January when Port-au-Prince was devastated by a huge earthquake that has killed 250,000 people.

Of all the children in Haiti, 1.3 million are under the age of five, among whom between 30,000 to 50,000 currently live in the 1,000 official care centers and some 300,000 live in the 800 camps for victims displaced by the quake.

"The government is trying to do everything possible to guarantee the safety of the children and to provide them with protection," Jeanne Bernard Pierre, director of the social welfare office at Haiti's Ministry of Social Affairs.

"But we are in difficult situation," he told Xinhua, adding that the local authorities are still overwhelmed with disaster relief efforts in the aftermath of the earthquake, which has left thousands of children orphaned.

Since the earthquake, children kidnapping has turned into large-scale human trafficking both inside Haiti and abroad, but local authorities don't have enough resources to deal with all the cases, Bernard Pierre added.

Perez also added that resources toward aiding the reunification between parents and children separated by the earthquake are extremely limited.

"It's like looking for a needle in a haystack," she said.

BARRANQUILLA, Colombia, March 7 -- Hundreds of folklore groups joined a traditional parade on Sunday to celebrate and preserve its cultural legacy.

The parade, the 44th in the country, was part of the Carnival of Barranquilla celebrations. Participants performed traditional dances such as porro, fandango, cumbia and mapale on streets to demonstrate the beauty and grace of Colombian women.

The Carnival of Barranquilla, which has been popular in the country for more than a century, was declared in 2003 by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

"We rehearsed every week throughout the year to give a perfect performance today and we perform with our heart so everyone sees the folklore of our land is full of joy and flavor," dancer Yesenia Diaz told Xinhua.

Dance groups of children and elders from the neighborhoods of Barranquilla in northern Colombia also joined this parade.

During the carnival, the city of Barranguilla is usually bustling with  street dances, musical and masquerade parades.(Xinhua/sp)

WASHINGTON,  March 7  -- During the heat of the world economic crisis, the benefits from cooperation were evident, but the current international coordination are facing more challenges, said Monday Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Kahn said international policy cooperation was fairly easy during the crisis, because countries faced relatively similar situations, and the clear and present danger of the crisis spurred leaders into coordinated action. So in 2009 and the first half of 2010, the will to cooperate was strong.

However, the current phase is much more complex, which has made international coordination more challenging, said the IMF chief.

"Countries are recovering from the crisis at different speeds, so countries are facing different economic situations. Also, leaders naturally want to go back and deal with problems at home, though they forget that in today's globalized world, there can be no domestic solution to global problems," Kahn said.

With respect to this issue, Kahn said it was helpful to focus on three different types of situations, where international coordination might help achieve better global outcomes.

First, there are situations where policy changes in a country would advance the global interest, and also the country's own self-interest.

Second, there are situations where acting unilaterally could make a country better off, but would ultimately make everybody worse off, once other countries react to the policy changes of the first.

The third situation, where policy changes in a particular country would make it worse off, but the global economy better off - is perhaps the most complicated one.(Xinhua/sp)

RIO DO JANEIRO, March 7 -- U.S. President Barack Obama will tour a slum during his upcoming visit to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro governor Sergio Cabral said on Monday.   

Obama, who will soon embark on his frist South America trip as U.S. president, is expected to make the slum tour in Rio de Janeiro on March 20, one day after his arrival in Brazil, Cabral told reporters.

The Rio city hall and the U.S. government haven't chosen a slum for the visit, but the governor said he would like Obama to visit Chapeu Manguiera in the south of the city facing the Leme beach, the shooting scence of the Brazilian movie "Orfeu Negro" that was described in details by the U.S.president in his autobiography.

"Obama could be excited with this slum, because thanks to this movie, her mother, who is white, was in loved with African-descendant people and Obama has spent pages and pages of his biography to talk about this topic," Cabral said.

The governor also said he wants Obama's visit to strengthen the economic ties between both countries so that more U.S. companies would invest in Rio's projects for hosting the Soccer World Cup of 2014 and the 2016 Olympic Games.

Obama is scheduled to meet his Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff during his stop in Brazil, the first leg of his South American tour that will also take him to Chile and El Salvador.(Xinhua/sp)

WASHINGTON, March 7 -- A commission established to study diversity in U.S. military recommended Monday that the Defense Department rescind its policy that prevents women from being assigned to ground combat units below the brigade level.

In a report, the Military Leadership Diversity Commission recommends that the department and the services eliminate combat exclusion policies for women, as well as other "barriers and inconsistencies, to create a level playing field for all qualified service members."

Retired Air Force General Lester Lyles, who chaired the commission, said the recommendation can help military get more qualified women into its more-senior leadership ranks.

"We know that (the exclusion) hinders women from promotion," the Pentagon's news service quoted Lyles as saying. "We want to take away all the hindrances and cultural biases."

The commission was established as part of the 2009 National Defense Authorization Act to evaluate and assess policies that provide opportunities for promotion and advancement of women and racial and ethnic minorities in the armed forces.

The U.S. military precludes women from being assigned to ground combat units, but women have for years served in ground combat situations by serving in units deemed "attached" to ground units. That distinction keeps them from being recognized for their ground combat experience -- recognition that would enhance their chances for promotion, Lyles said.(Xinhua/sp)

BOGOTA, March 7  -- Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Monday appointed businessman Carlos Urrea as the country's new ambassador to China.

Santos made the announcement after the resignation of the current Colombian Ambassador Guillermo Velez.

"Urrea is a great businessman, a person, I am sure, will represent us in this great nation, with great effect, and I think there is an important step in showing the importance we give to Asia and China," Santos said.

Santos said he was satisfied with the work of the outgoing Velez, saying he did a "magnificent job" in China.

The president said Colombia will also open new embassies in Indonesia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turkey.(Xinhua/sp)

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 7-- During the first three days of carnival in Brazil, 129 people were killed in 2,619 highway accidents, which also injured 1,473 others, the Brazilian Highway Federal Police said on Monday.

The accidents only included those registered on the federal highways, but did not include those on regional roads and in urban areas.

These were the highest figures recorded in recent years of the carnival, the police said in a statement.

On Sunday alone, when most travelers arrived at the places where they would enjoy the carnival, 611 accidents occurred, killing 34 people and injuring 524 others.

During the past three days, the police also inspected 25,067 vehicles and detained 152 drivers for drunken driving. The police also stopped many cars which were not under right mechanical conditions.

The worst accident, so far, was registered on Saturday when a truck crashed against a passenger bus in Santa Catarina state and killed 26 people.(Xinhua/sp)

Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Monday that local officials and private businessmen from 43 provinces in four Southeast Asian countries are meeting here, 9-10 March, to discuss ways of attracting investments and promoting growth along the southern economic corridor of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).

The 2-day symposium, organized by the Asian Development Bank and funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), will bring together public and private stakeholders to discuss public investments, central and provincial government policies, and private sector business environment conducive to the corridor's development. ADB said in its statement, adding that the Southern Economic Corridor (SEC) covers provinces in Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Thailand, and Viet Nam.

The GMS countries have envisioned SEC as an engine of economic growth and social development, creating jobs, increasing incomes, reducing poverty and improving the living conditions of the people in the areas while ensuring that its development is inclusive and sustainable.

"We need to look at GMS corridors as not simply a connection between two points because their effects also extend to other less developed areas that can enjoy enhanced access to major economic centers, and thereby reinforcing regional integration in the GMS, " said Pradeep Srivastava, Senior Regional Cooperation Specialist in ADB's Southeast Department.

Through the economic corridor approach, ADB is extending the benefits of improved transport links to remote and landlocked areas, handicapped by their lack of integration with more prosperous and better-located neighboring areas.

"A recent study commissioned by AusAID estimates that reducing trade costs could generate an increase in GDP of more than 6% for Cambodia and Laos, as well as significant benefits for other countries in the Mekong," said Michael Wilson, AusAID's Minister-Counsellor for Mekong and regional programs. "Improved connectivity will help to reduce poverty throughout the subregion."

"Australia will also continue to work closely with Governments, other donor partners and civil society organizations in the Mekong to assist communities affected by the construction of new transport corridors to access fair compensation and services, as well as re-establish viable livelihoods," said Mr. Wilson.

At the symposium, governors from the provinces will speak on the role of provincial authorities in the corridor development. They will discuss initiatives taken in promoting and facilitating the development of the SEC, the difficulties encountered in expanding trade and investment, and ways of strengthening cooperation and coordination between provincial authorities and the business sector. Progress and issues on trade and transport facilitation, and logistics development along the SEC will be discussed, including enterprise clusters and cross border economic links in manufacturing, agro-business, and tourism.

The GMS is made up of Cambodia, the People's Republic of China (PRC, specifically Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam. The East-West Economic corridor, the North-South Economic corridor, and the SEC are designated as flagship initiatives by the GMS countries.