DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Newspoll shows support for Australia's New South Wales Labor still low” plus 9 more

SYDNEY, March 25 (Xinhua)-- Primary support for Australia's New South Wales (NSW) Labor has dropped to an all-time low, according to a Newspoll published in The Australian on Friday.
The latest poll shows Labor's primary support has declined from 26 percent in the last poll to 23 percent, while that of the Liberal-National coalition remains at 50 percent.
On a two-party-preferred basis, the coalition is ahead by 64 per cent to Labor's 36 percent.
Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell leads Premier Kristina Keneally by 48 percent to 32 percent as preferred premier.
While 33 percent of voters are satisfied with the way the NSW Premier is doing her job, 59 percent are dissatisfied.
O'Farrell, by contrast, has the confidence of 48 percent of voters who are satisfied with his performance but 39 percent of voters are dissatisfied.
The Newspoll was conducted between Monday evening and Wednesday evening and was continuing on Thursday night.

TOKYO, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Tohoku Electric Power Co. will not impose staggered power outages in the northeast region due to amply supply following the region's power conservation efforts, the utility said Friday.
The power company has managed to avoid enforcing power cuts even though much of its service area was adversely affected by the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami that struck the region.
The utility said it will review the situation from April 3, but said it plans to restart a mothballed 38-year old, 350-megawatt power generation unit in early June, to provide more electricity in an effort to counter power shortages in the area by supplying more electricity to the grid.
Tohoku Electric Power Co. said it started inspections of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) and oil-fired No.1 unit at the Higashi Niigata plant in Niigata prefecture on Tuesday and has received approval to increase power generation at the aged facility beyond capacity at two of the facility's generators.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), operator of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, said it will continue with its staggered blackouts in Tokyo and surrounding areas, particularly as demand constantly threatens to outstrip supply, during peak-times of between 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. when millions of commuters are returning home.
TEPCO started the rolling blackouts on March 14 and the planned power outages affect most of TEPCO's service area either once or twice between 9:20 a.m. and 10 p.m.
The utility said the power-saving measures will continue through April.

SEOUL, March 25 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's consumer confidence plunged to a 23-month low in March as Japan's deadly earthquake boosted jitters over global economic recovery, the central bank said Friday.
The consumer confidence index (CSI), gauging domestic consumers ' overall economic outlook, dropped to 98 in March, down 7 points from 105 the previous month, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said in a monthly statement.
The March reading marked the lowest level since April 2009 when it recorded an identical 98. The CSI, also measuring the future direction of private spending, has fallen for the fourth consecutive month since December last year.
The March figure, calculated on a poll of 2,091 households in 56 major cities, fell below the 100-point level for the first time since April 2009. It means pessimists outnumber optimists.
Inflation expectation, an approximate gauge of consumers' expectations on inflation over the next 12 months, strengthened further amid rising agricultural and oil prices.
The country's inflation expectation rate came in at an annual average of 3.9 percent in March, up 0.2 percentage point from 3.7 percent the previous month, the BOK said. It marked the highest level since 4.1 percent in June 2009.
South Korea's consumer prices climbed 4.5 percent on-year in February, and the March figure is expected to rise above 5 percent. The BOK raised the key interest rate by 25 basis points to 3 percent this month in a bid to curb inflation.
Sub-indices fell sharply as consumers were disheartened over the current and future living standards, economic conditions and income, the BOK said.
Consumer sentiment on living standards slid 7 points to 82 in March from a month earlier, with that on prospective living standards plunging 9 points to 87.
In March, consumer sentiment on current and future domestic economic conditions plummeted by 18 points and 19 points respectively, while consumer sentiment on prospective income and spending fell by 5 points and 3 points each.

CANBERRA, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Wind speeds and wave heights over the world's oceans have been steadily increasing for the last quarter of a century, a long-term Australia study showed on Friday.
The study, conducted by researchers at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne of Australia, uses 23 years of satellite altimeter data taken from 1985 to 2008 to show that wind speeds over the oceans have been steadily increasing.
According to Professor Ian Young, the lead author on the paper, the study showed the areas which show increased wind speeds in the study also show increased wave heights.
"Extreme wind speeds have increased over most of the globe by approximately 10 percent over the last 20 years, or 0.5 percent every year," he told ABC News on Friday.
"Extreme wave heights have increased by an average of seven percent over the last 20 years."
"Off the southern coast of Australia, the highest one percent of waves has increased in height from approximately five meters to almost six meters."
The researchers said average wind speeds over most of the world 's oceans have also increased, by at least 0.25 percent per year.
Co-author Professor Alexander Babanin said it is unclear yet how, or if, the trend relates to global climate change.
"All we can say is that there is an overall trend, but extrapolating that into the future has to be done with caution," he told ABC News.
Professor Babanin said the data are potentially useful because they can provide independent validation and verification of what happens to the climate.
The study was published on Friday in Science Express online.

CANBERRA, March 25 (Xinhua) -- BHP Billiton Ltd on Friday said it will spend almost 10 billion U.S. dollars of investment to expand its coal and iron ore operations in Australia.
The world's biggest resource company will spend 6.6 billion U.S. dollars on Western Australia iron ore operations.
Of that amount, 3.44 billion U.S. dollars will go toward developing the Western Australia's Jimblebar mine and rail links. The rest of the money will be spent on further developing Port Hedland with two additional berths, shiploaders and other equipment and on port and rail facilities for blending ore.
"Our intent with these projects is to develop port capacity that, with subsequent de-bottlenecking, will allow us to fill our 240 million tons per annum allocation in the Port Hedland inner harbor," BHP Billiton's president of iron ore, Ian Ashby said in a statement released on Friday.
BHP Billiton said first production from the Jimblebar mine was expected in early calendar 2014.
Meanwhile, the company will also spend 2.5 billion U.S. dollars on three coking coal projects in the Bowen Basin in central Queensland.
The money will be spent on the new Daunia mine, which will be able to produce 4.5 million tons a year of export metallurgical coal after first output begins in 2013, as well as on expanding the life of the Broadmeadow mine by another 21 years.
The company said Hay Point Coal Terminal, owned by a joint venture between BHP and Mitsubishi Development Pty. Ltd., will also increase its capacity to 55 million tons a year from 44 million currently.
"Our strategy is to rapidly progress development of these projects to capture the increasing demand we see for hard coking coal," BHP Billiton metallurgical coal president Hubie van Dalsen said in a statement released on Friday.
In New South Wales, BHP Billiton will spend 400 million U.S. dollars on the expansion of its Hunter Valley energy coal unit, which will enable production at Mt Arthur Coal to increase by four million tonnes to about 24 million tonnes a year.
"The emergence of demand for coal in the key growth markets allows us to get product to market quickly, ahead of further coal preparation plant expansions," BHP Billiton Energy Coal President Jimmy Wilson said.
Earlier in February, BHP Billiton reported a recording 10.524 billion U.S. dollars for the first half net profit between June to December 31, 2010.
Supported by rising demand for metals and minerals from emerging markets, BHP Billiton in February said it expected to spend 80 billion U.S. dollars by 2015 on mines and oil fields.

TOKYO, March 25 (Xinhua) -- The following are the major news items in leading Japanese newspapers on Friday:
The Daily Yomiuri
-- Three workers were exposed to radiation at the troubled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant just after noon Thursday, and two were rushed to hospital, the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.
The Japan Times
-- The scope of radiation-contaminated tap water expanded Thursday, with radioactive iodine detected in tap water in Chiba, Saitama and Ibaraki prefectures, while the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which said the day before its drinking water was contaminated, scurried to distribute 240,000 bottles of water to households with babies.

TOKYO, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks opened higher Friday with the key Nikkei index up 1.27 percent.
At 9:15 a.m., the benchmark Nikkei 225 Average jumped 120.14 points to 9,555.15.
The broader Topix index was up 8.28 points to 862.23.

TOKYO, March 25 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar traded around the 81 yen line early Friday in Tokyo.
The dollar bought 81.02-03 yen at 9 a.m., up from 80.92-81.02 yen in New York and 80.86-87 yen at 5 p.m. in Tokyo Thursday.
The euro was quoted at 1.4168-4171 dollars and 114.80-83 yen, compared with 1.4173-4183 dollars and 114.71-81 yen in New York and 1.4071-4072 dollars and 113.78-82 yen in Tokyo late Thursday.

TOKYO, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Japan's core consumer price index dropped 0.3 percent from a year earlier in February marking the 24th straight month of decline, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Friday.
The CPI reading in the recording period, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, was in line with median economists' forecasts for a 0.3 percent retraction and follows a 0.2 percent drop logged in January.
Meanwhile, Tokyo's core CPI fell 0.3 percent on year in March, for the 23rd straight year-on-year drop, with the pace of decline decelerating from the 0.4 percent fall booked in February, according to the government data.
The capital city's CPI was slightly above median market expectations for a 0.3 percent decline.
Consumer prices in the Tokyo Metropolitan area are largely seen as precursor of prices across the country and Japan's central bank pays particular attention to this leading indicator.
Analysts said that following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan, consumer spending will likely fall as shoppers will stick to buying daily essentials and avoid impulse buying and the purchases of unplanned expensive goods, such as luxury items or automobiles.
Consumer sentiment following the quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant leaking radiation into the atmosphere, contaminating sea, tap water and food in some area, will also dampen consumer sentiment in the coming months, analysts said.
The corporate goods price index in Japan, on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis, is comprehensively tracked as these supply-side price pressures and increases in the index often precede upward movement in Japan's CPI.
If an increase in the CGPI is followed by a rise in the CPI, concerns about inflation may prompt the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates, if the situation is reversed, as is the current case in Japan, the opposite will happen.
The headline numbers are the percentage change in the index month or month and annually.

TOKYO, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said Friday that the three workers were exposed to radiation 10, 000 times the normal level while dealing with an emergency at the No. 3 reactor of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The finding of the high dose of radiation indicated it was likely that part of the fuel in the reactor or the spent fuel stored in the pool in the reactor building had been damaged.
Two of them were taken to the Fukushima Medical University hospital as their feet were injured, possibly by beta rays, and contaminated by radioactive substances.
The two victims are employees of a partner of TEPCO, owner and operator of the Fukushima nuclear plants. They were laying power cables with their feet submerged in the water of the turbine room at the reactor shortly after midday when the radiation exposure occurred.
They will be transferred later Friday to the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba City for further examination.
Radioactive leaks were detected after a series of explosions and fires at four of the plant's six reactors following the failure of their cooling functions due to the damaged power supplies in the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan on March 11.