DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “China stock index futures open lower Monday” plus 9 more

BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) -- China's stock index futures opened lower Monday, with the contract for settlement in May, the most actively traded, opening 2.8 points lower at 3,119 from the previous close.
The June contract opened at 3,118, down 10.8 points from the previous close. The contract for settlement in September opened 9.2 points lower at 3,160.4 points.
The contract for settlement in December dropped 11.4 points at the opening to 3,204.2.
The stock-index contracts, agreements to buy or sell the Hushen 300 Index at a present value on an agreed date, are designed to allow investors to bet on and profit from both gains and declines in the market.
The index futures were launched at the China Financial Futures Exchange (CFFEX) and started trading from April 16, 2010. The CFFEX has set the base value for all the four contracts at 3,399 points.

HEFEI, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Six people were killed and 11 others injured in a truck-coach accident Sunday afternoon in east China's Anhui Province, local authorities said Monday.
The truck, running from south to north, hit an oncoming medium-sized coach at 5 p.m. on a road at Zhangqiao Township in the county of Dingyuan, said a spokesman with the county.
The injured were rushed to hospital for treatment, and it was not immediately known yet whether their injuries were life threatening or not.
The cause of the accident is under investigation, according to the spokesman.

BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Following are home news items to be covered or pursued by Xinhua on Monday:
-- Tibet marks 60th anniversary of peaceful liberation
-- Seminar in Beijing commemorates 60th anniversary of Tibet's peaceful liberation
-- News Analysis: China's economy faces inflation and slowdown, but "hard landing" unlikely
-- Largest work by contemporary Chinese painter Qi Baishi gets 65 million dollars in auction
-- Follow-up on central China coal mine accident
-- Follow-up on Foxcon workshop blast

TV News Magazine: CHINA VIEW
-- Vision of a Living Buddha
-- Dege Sutra Printing House in 100 Years
-- Protection of Hoh Xil Nature Reserve

Editor's Note: China View from CNC World is a 30-minute daily English in-depth news program that brings global audience a panorama of what happens across China and face-to-face interviews over hot issues in China that interest people around the world.
Global viewers can tune into CNC English programs via Asia-Pacific Satellite-6 at 134 degrees east longitude, with parameters set as "6065MHz/3840MHz." The programs can also be viewed at www.cncworld.tv.

COLOMBO, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka Navy on Sunday warned not to fall into traps laid by human traffickers and take risks at seeking illegal entry into Australia.
Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya, Navy Spokesman, told reporters, any attempt by human smugglers to smuggle people into Australia will make them end up in Malaysia under the Cooperative Transfer Arrangement signed by the governments of Australia and Malaysia.
He said any person who arrives in Australia illegally by sea will be transferred to Malaysia for the determination of their refugee status.
Warnakulasuriya added that these illegal persons would be sent to the back of the asylum seeking queue and will not be given any resettlement priority.
The Australian government recently announced this new arrangement as part of a Regional Cooperation Framework that will help put the people smugglers out of business and prevent asylum seekers making perilous journeys to Australia by boats, he said.
The Australian High Commission in release said that the Government of Australia worked closely with the neighboring countries including Sri Lanka to deliver an agreement for a Regional Cooperation Framework through the recent Bali Process Ministerial Conference.
The High Commission said Australia is also engaged in ongoing talks with Papua New Guinea about the establishment of a refugee assessment center as part of this framework.

TOKYO, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said here Sunday that developing long-term stable and mutually beneficial ties with South Korea is a strategic foreign policy of China.
As neighbors and countries of important influence, China and South Korea need to strengthen high-level communication, enhance political and strategic mutual trust, and join hands to meet challenges so as to boost peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the whole world, Wen said when meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
The Chinese premier said that economic and trade cooperation between China and South Korea enjoys a very good growth momentum, and the two sides should strive toward the target of bilateral trade of 300 billion U.S. dollars by 2015.
The two sides also should make efforts to expand cooperation in new sectors, including energy saving and environmental protection, renewable energy, biotechnology and information technology, Wen said.
Negotiations on a Free Trade Area between the two countries should be started as soon as possible to facilitate the free flow of trade and investment and give new impetus to bilateral economic and trade cooperation, Wen said.
On the situation of the Korea Peninsula, Wen said China has been actively pushing peace and talks in this regard as well as the resumption of the six-party talks.
China firmly holds that dialogue and consultation are the ultimate way to the resolution of the issue, and the six-party talks can play an important role in maintaining peace and stability in the region and realizing denuclearization of the peninsula, Wen said.
Lee spoke highly of the development of China-South Korea relations and agreed with Wen's ideas on deepening cooperation between the two countries.
The South Korean president said South Korea attaches great importance to its ties with China and is willing to work with China to push bilateral strategic partnership to a new stage when the two countries mark the 20th anniversary of their diplomatic ties next year.
Lee said that his country highly appreciates the active role that China has played in maintaining peace and stability of the Korea Peninsula and that South Korea is willing to continuously keep close communication and cooperation with China.
Wen left Tokyo for home late Sunday, wrapping up a two-day trip to Japan, where a China-Japan-South Korea trilateral summit was held.

TOKYO, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday put forward a four-point proposal for boosting China-Japan-South Korea economic cooperation.
Wen, in a speech at a trilateral business summit luncheon, said he profoundly exchanged views with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on trilateral economic cooperation and reached important consensus earlier Sunday.
Wen presented a four-point proposal for promoting trilateral economic cooperation in the speech.
First, the three countries should expand trade, Wen said.
The three countries are among the world's top 10 countries in terms of foreign trade, but trade among the three only accounts for 11 percent of their total foreign trade volume. Therefore there is much room for further development of trilateral trade, Wen said.
"We should act in light of the situation, further open markets to each other, reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers and comprehensively expand cooperation in customs, quality inspection, transport, movement of people and other fields to improve environment for tripartite trade," the premier said.
Wen said the three countries are expected to start negotiations on the establishment of a trilateral free trade zone next year, adding China is willing to push forward the negotiations with greatest sincerity.
Second, the three countries should deepen investment cooperation, Wen said.
Mutual investment among the three countries makes up for less than 10 percent of their total foreign investment, so there is huge potential for cooperation in this field, he said.
Since 2005, the three governments have made arduous efforts in reaching a trilateral investment treaty. They have held 12 rounds of talks on the treaty and reached agreement on the majority of issues.
Wen said China would like to exert biggest efforts to wrap up the talks by the end of this year.
Third, the three countries should promote cooperation in green economy and circular economy, said Wen.
The three countries are all poor in terms of per capita natural resources, Wen said, adding that developing green economy and circular economy and realizing sustainable development are their common objectives.
China is willing to strengthen cooperation with Japan and South Korea in renewable energy such as wind and solar energy, Wen said.
China proposes establishing a tripartite innovation alliance in renewable energy production, study and research, he said.
Fourth, the three countries should boost cooperation in disaster prevention and reduction and post-disaster reconstruction, Wen said.
They face the common challenges of frequent natural disasters, he said, adding the three governments have agreed to promote disaster management cooperation.
China suggests the three countries jointly carry out earthquake, tsunami and volcano research. He said China would like to provide initial funds for the research program.
Premier Wen visited Japan on Saturday and Sunday for a China-Japan-South Korea summit and a trip to the quake and tsunami disaster zone in northeastern Japan.
China currently is the biggest trading partner for both Japan and South Korea. In 2010, China-Japan trade reached nearly 300 billion U.S. dollars, while China-South Korea trade totalled over 200 billion U.S. dollars, both of which made new highs.
Japan and South Korea are China's major sources of foreign investment. They have established nearly 100,000 companies in China with an accumulative investment of 120 billion U.S. dollars.

OSAKA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- From the women's 200m breaststroke final, a new national junior record was set up in the Japan Open Swimming Championships at Namihaya-Dome in Kadoma of Osaka on Sunday.
Touching the wall first in the fourth lane, Kanako Watanabe sent the audience into cheers, by setting up a junior record of 2:23.90.
It's her third gold medal at the three-day championships where Watanabe broke the Japanese junior record three times in a row to become an indisputable rising star in the women's breaststroke in Japan.
Watanabe, a 3rd grade student in junior high school, broke the junior national record in women's 100m breaststroke on the first day, clocking 1:07.10, which was the second best result in history.
She then improved the junior national record in a gold winning time of 31.83 seconds in the 50m breaststroke the following day.
Watanabe looks neither tall nor robust. She is only 163cm tall and weighs only 54kg. Looking shy atop the podium, she said that she was also surprised at her record in 100m breaststroke and she didn't expect such stunning performance.
Born on Nov. 15, 1996 in Tokyo, Watanabe is still in the Musashino Middle School.
At the age of four, she started swimming and mainly focused on individual medley, backstroke and freestyle before entering junior high school.
However, she suffered injuries to her right shoulder in backstroke training during her first year in junior high school, and had to switch to breaststroke instead for less burden for her shoulders.
Surprise to all, it became the starting point of her outbreak. Under the guidance of Ryuji, she achieved good results in training that aimed at minimizing the water resistance and renewed the Japanese junior record several times in less than two years.
In an interview after the championships, Watanabe said that she lost the chance to compete in the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai because she was so nervous and didn't perform well in the trials in April.
And stress-free was the reason for her outstanding performance this time in Osaka, according to Watanabe.
Many Japanese swimmers have high expectations for her, and the Japan Swimming Federation chairman Kouji Ueno even tips her to be the "London Star" at the 2012 Olympics.

SANAA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- At least two anti-government protesters were killed and dozens of others were wounded on Sunday in separate clashes with government backers in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, a human rights activist said.
One protester was shot dead when armed government supporters intercepted and clashed with hundreds of their rivals in Al-Matar Street to prevent them from joining the thousands of protesters near Sanaa University demanding an immediate end to the 33-year rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Dozens from both sides were injured during the clashes, the activist told Xinhua.
Another protester was killed and tens of other were injured earlier in the day in separate clashes between pro- and anti- government protesters in south of Saleh's presidential palace in Sanaa, he said.
Yemen has been rattled by four-month-long street protests to press Saleh to leave office.

TEHRAN, May 22 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian lawmaker said Sunday that the Iranian Majlis (parliament) is reviewing a plan to impose sanction on 26 U.S. officials for violations of human rights, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Kazem Jalali, rapporteur of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran's Majlis, said that Majlis studied the records of U.S. officials in terms of violation of human rights, according to the report.
The U.S. officials, to be sanctioned, have perpetrated crimes that amounted to blatant violation of human rights in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world, Jalali said without specifying their names.
The U.S. officials have escalated terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan by violence in the name of campaign against terrorism and some of them abetted drug trafficking, Jalali was quoted by IRNA as saying.
If the Majlis approves the plan, the U.S. officials will be sanctioned and punitive measures will be envisaged for ignoring human rights in Iraq and Afghanistan and the other parts of the world, he said but did not talk further about the nature of punitive measures.
Majlis will make the final decision to this end during the session on Tuesday, Jalali was quoted as saying.  
The United States and its Western allies have already slapped sanctions on a number of Iranian officials over their involvement in the country's controversial nuclear program and alleged violations of human rights.

JERUSALEM, May 20 (Xinhua) -- With an open dispute between Israeli and American leaders even before the Israeli prime minister landing on the United States, the expectations that Benjamin Netanyahu would bring a breakthrough in his upcoming speech in the U.S. congress have been dwindling.
Israel and the U.S. on Sunday tried to assuage the tension between Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama.
Netanyahu said in a statement that he is "determined to work with President Obama to find ways to renew peace talks," following the U.S. president's speech earlier in the day before an American pro-Israel lobby group who reaffirmed "ironclad" U.S. commitment to Israel's security.
However, a photo taken during the two's meeting in the White House on Friday has grasped the eyeballs of the world media as a blunt display of their differences. Before the cameras, Netanyahu and Obama were looking at different directions with embarrassed faces. The Wall Street Journal calls the two's photo-op "most undiplomatic moments of international diplomacy ever offered for cameras."
RIGHT OR WRONG
Despite questioning Netanyahu's handling of the disagreements with the U.S. president, Israeli media on Sunday criticizes Obama' s wrong understanding of the current situation in the region.
"Instead of presenting the 1967 borders as the end of the process, Obama made them its start. Instead of tying them to the end of demands and the end of the conflict, they were tied to greater demands and continued conflict," said an op-ed in Ha'aretz, an Israeli daily considered leftist.
As another example exhibiting the complex between the two Middle East feuds, the 1967 borders are connected to nearly all the cores issues in the peace process, including the Jewish settlements, the status of Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugees.
"They are borders that leave too many Israelis outside of Israel's borders and thus it wouldn't be right to return to those borders," Netanyahu's top security advisor Yaakov Amidror told Israeli media on Sunday, suggesting the major settlements in the West Banks.
The international community considers the Israel settlements which are beyond 1967 lines as illegal.
Apparently in an effort to shrink the gap between the positions of Israel and Washington, Obama said on Sunday's speech by definition, his reference to "the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps" means that the parties themselves, the Israelis and Palestinians, will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967.
The remarks, in eyes of some Israeli analysts, is a correction of the president's speech on Thursday.
However, there have been critics over the Israeli prime minister, saying he had neglected the land swaps principle already mentioned in Obama's Middle East policy speech on Thursday.
NEW OR NOTHING NEW
With the rift between Netanyahu and Obama over the latter's " new" initiative, at least in a fresh policy speech, analysts are hardly foreseeing anything "new" in the Israeli prime minister's upcoming speech in U.S. congress scheduled on Tuesday.
Local analysts and media had expected Netanyahu would raise some of his government's fresh initiatives to break the current stalemate in the peace process. Netanyahu's associates have said that the speech is far-reaching, and it establishes a series of principles which Israel would not be willing to compromise in any negotiations with the Palestinian National Authority.
"In his speech he points out spots that are deep in the Israeli consensus that a large majority public can stand behind them," said a source close to Israeli government.
"Bold move on Netanyahu's part is out of the question, and he is not going to put any peace plan on the table," said Ziad Abu Ziad, a former Palestinian minister and columnist based in Jerusalem.
He, anticipating that the Israeli prime minister will mention joint Hamas-Fatah agreement, Syria turmoil and Iran issue in his speech, argued that Netanyahu will only play "tricks to show that he is serious."
"Don't worry, he will manipulate and play those old games," Abu Ziad told Xinhua.
Some Israeli analysts, in the meanwhile, blame Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of avoiding direct peace talks with Israel by forming the unity deal with Hamas, at the same time, stressing the internal difficulties facing both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
"Netanyahu and Abbas are crippled by their own governments, because they have weak coalitions and their own problems inside them," said Shlomo Aronson, professor from Department of Political Science of Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
"Netanyahu's coalition wants the settlements, and I really don' t see any possible solution to this issue," said the professor when asked whether Netanyahu's speech in the U.S. will bring anything feasible for pushing forward the peace process.
HAPPY OR UNHAPPY
With the quick confrontation between Netanyahu and Obama at the beginning of the former's U.S. visit, both the two are now between a rock and a hard place.
Some analysts argue that Obama now may be trying to conduct in two tracks: the first is to continue with the process as if he has an agenda and all the parties will give in to his demands; the second is to gain time by constructing a fictive confrontation with Israel and creating a linkage regarding other issues such as Iran.
However, Obama's fresh Middle East policy speech has seemingly pleased nobody. On one hand is Israel's dispute over the 1967 borders, and on the other hand is the Arab world's frustration.
"The American policy has been the same policy since Roosevelt. Obama tried to create cosmetic changes, but his countless speeches reveal Washington's real policy. The policy remains the same, and the change is only in the leaders," Prof. Abed el-Satar Qassem from Nablus University told Xinhua, commenting Obama's Middle East policy as a whole.
The same embarrassment is facing the Israeli prime minister, according to analysts.
Eitan Haber, an Israeli columnist, argued that Netanyahu in his speech in Washington will be trying to have the cake and not to eat it. He said that Netanyahu wants to be self-satisfied, at the same time pleasing the Americans, the Palestinians and the international community.
Eventually no one will be happy with him because he thinks he must satisfy his right-wing ideology, and his ultra nationalist right wings friends, and only after that the others, Eitan told Xinhua.