DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “China Exclusive: Xinjiang tourism recovers from 2009 riots” plus 9 more

URUMQI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is poised to become a major tourist destination for Chinese and international sightseers, walking out of the shadows cast by the deadly riots that occurred there in 2009, officials said Thursday.
Last year, Xinjiang reported a record 30 million tourist arrivals, including at least 1 million international tourists, according to Zhang Chunxian, secretary of the Xinjiang regional committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC)l.
At a regional tourism industry development summit in Urumqi, Zhang said Xinjiang's tourism revenues topped 30 billion yuan (about 4.6 billion U.S. dollars) last year, an all-time high for the region.
"This is an inspiring message against the backdrop of the riots that broke out in Urumqi in July 2009, and the international financial crisis," said Zhang.
Shao Qiwei, head of the China National Tourism Administration, said that he has also noticed the recovery of the region's tourism industry.
"When I was in Urumqi this time last year, I saw very few tourists and not a single coach bus near the International Grand Bazaar," he said. "Now, I see huge crowds of tourists flooding the bazaar."
The bazaar is a landmark in Urumqi and a top destination for tourists.
The July 5 riots in the Xinjiang regional capital of Urumqi left 197 people dead and more than 1,700 injured.
Shortly after the riots, industry insiders predicted Xinjiang's tourism industry would need three to five years to recover, said Shao. "It's amazing how fast it's shaking off the shadow," he said.
Starting in May 2010, a total of 19 inland provinces began providing aid to boost Xinjiang's development. The central government has also reduced taxes for travel companies that operate routes to Xinjiang.
"My fellow travelers from Australia traveled along the ancient Silk Road from Xi'an to Urumqi, and we were deeply impressed with Xinjiang's beautiful landscape," said Helen Zhou, an overseas Chinese tourist.
Tourism is playing a crucial role in the projected "leapfrog development" of the far western region.
In Buerjin County, home to the region's renowned Kanas Lake, tourism revenues account for 43 percent of the local GDP, according to Gao Zhimin, the county's top official.
By the end of 2015, Xinjiang plans to host at least 80 million tourists annually. The tourism industry is predicted to generate 100 billion yuan in revenues and create 2 million jobs, according to the region's overall development plan for the next five years.

BRUSSELS, May 24 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) and China share similar views over the development of green economy and cooperation of the two sides in this field is working well, said an EU senior official on Tuesday.
China has recognized the significance of the green orientation of its economy, which is not only necessary, but also could be "profitable", European Commissioner for the Environment Janez Potocnik told Xinhua on the opening ceremony of EU's 11th Green Week.
The year 2011 is the first year of implementation of both the "Europe 2020" Strategy and the China's 12th Five-Year Plan, which are equally concerned about environmental issues and set long-term sustainable growth targets.
The Chinese 12th Five-Year Plan stresses the need to reduce the environmental costs of development and calls for building a resource-efficient and environment-friendly society. Similarly, the Europe 2020 Strategy aims at encouraging a shift towards a resource-efficient and low-carbon economy.
"There are many things on which we believe that we can share our views. We very much cooperate inside all the international conventions, I have pretty regular meetings with representatives of the Chinese government and I could say this relation is working really well," continued  Potocnik.
Europe set specific targets in terms of energy production, efficiency and consumption, which would reduce 60 billion euros (about 84.6 billion U.S. dollars) worth of oil and gas imports by 2020. The Chinese 12th Five Year Plan also set concrete objectives, such as raising the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to 11.4 percent and introducing an environment-based evaluation system.
"China has understood there is a need for an efficiency revolution," commented Professor Ernst von Weizsacker, a member of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) International Resources Panel.
The 11th Green Week, the biggest annual conference on European environment policy, would last till Friday.

BRUSSELS, May 24 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) Tuesday issued bonds worth 4.75 billion euros (6.69 billion U.S. dollars) to raise money for Ireland and Portugal.
Ireland will receive 3 billion euros (4.23 billion dollars) and Portugal will get 1.75 billion euros (2.46 billion dollars) as loan under the European Financial Stabilization Mechanism (EFSM), a bailout fund guaranteed by the EU budget.
"The third successful placement in 2011 confirms the acceptance of the European Union as a benchmark issuer and the continuous confidence of the market in the stability and assistance measures set-up by the EU together with the EFSF and the IMF," said the European Commission.
The 10-year bonds, which are rated triple A by the three biggest credit rating agencies (Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service, and Fitch Group), were oversubscribed three times and books were closed within one and a half hour, the European Commission said.
The money raised through the issuance will be offered to the two countries on May 31.
According to the rescue plan agreed for Ireland last November, Dublin will receive 67.5 billion euros (95.1 billion dollars) in loans from the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), while Portugal will get 78 billion euros (109 billion dollars) under the rescue package endorsed earlier this month.

KHARTOUM, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Violence in Sudan's Abyei region has been increasing recently as the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) adhered to their own positions and rejected solutions proposed by the African Union (AU).
Observers and analysts expressed their concerns over the situation, particularly after bullets have become the only language between the rivals in Abyei, saying that the escalation of violence there might be the last straw for the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which has endured for six years.
The situation in Abyei escalated after the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) ambushed a convoy of Sudanese army soldiers and UN peacekeepers in the area on May 20, which resulted in the deaths of 22 northern Sudanese army soldiers.
On May 21, the Sudanese army took control of the Abyei area and said the region belonged to north Sudan and rejected responding to calls by south Sudan to withdraw from Abyei.
The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) on Tuesday said more than 15,000 civilians have fled Abyei to Agok area in south Sudan after the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) had controlled Abyei.
Abyei is close to the oil fields in southern Sudan's Unity State and at the same time lies in South Kordofan State, the only oil-producing state in northern Sudan.
Mohamed Hassan Saeed, a Sudanese political analyst, told Xinhua that "it seems that the military option has become more likely than any other option and no doubt that the current events in Abyei area will cast their shadows on the progress of the negotiations between the two partners."
Saeed further held the SPLM responsible for the recent tension in Abyei, saying "there were indications for this tension including that the SPLA was irregular and unable to commit to the political and military directives."
"Additionally, the repeated complaints of the SAF against the violations by the SPLA indicated that incidents could take place at anytime. It is true that there were clashes now and then, but the recent ambush by the SPLA against the SAF was the main event which ended years of fragile peace," he added.
He went on saying that "the SPLM, since December 2010, has been occupying the Abyei area which entirely lies north of 1956 borders which the Naivasha agreement considers a special area being under consultations. Besides, the SPLM deployed many armed groups to undermine the security and stability in the area."
Khalid Abdalla, the lecturer of political science at al-Rasid Center for Strategic Studies in Khartoum, told Xinhua that "Abyei has proved that the CPA between north and south Sudan was not comprehensive as it has left many issues outstanding."
"The Abyei protocol was like the barrel of ammunition which could explode at anytime, which set Sudan's future at stake. There are less than two months ahead of the official declaration of south Sudan's independence," he added.
A referendum on Abyei was supposed to be held on Jan. 9, 2011, coincident with the south Sudan referendum, but it was postponed in the wake of a difference between the NCP and the SPLM over who has the right to vote in the referendum.

WASHINGTON, May 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday that he hopes the Iraqi government will ask U.S. troops to stay beyond the end of this year, when they are scheduled to pull out from the country.
"All I can say is that from the standpoint of Iraq's future but also our role in the region, I hope they figure out a way to ask ( for longer U.S. military presence)," Gates said at a conference at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank.
"And I think the United States will be willing to say yes when that time comes," he said.
In mid 2010, U.S. troops in Iraq had been reduced to below 50, 000 soldiers. Washington said that the remaining U.S. troops in Iraq are conducting support and training missions.
U.S. military forces are to pull out completely from Iraq by the end of 2011, according to the security pact signed late in 2008 between Baghdad and Washington.
Still, the defense secretary conceded that it would not be easy for Iraqi leaders to make such a request.
"We have to realize that it is a political challenge for the Iraqis, because whether we like it or not, we're not very popular there," he said.
Last month, anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr threatened to resume activities of his Mahdi Army militia against the American troops if they stay in the country after the end of 2011.

I am so disturbed by the article in the Bangkok Post, published on May 16, 2011 entitled "Border fighting delays mine clearance", stated that Border disputes and problems with ill-defined boundaries have delayed mine clearance operations, according to a report of the Thailand Mine Action Centre (TMAC) of the Royal Thai Armed Forces Command.

Bangkok Post quoted from TMAC's report that "of a total of 3.63 million square metres of mine-infested areas set to be cleared from October 2010 to March this year, the TMAC was able to clear land mines, particularly the anti-personnel mines, from only 1.55 million square metres, leaving an area of about 2.07 million square metres still unsafe."

Logic or Rational?

According to the report provided by TMAC to Landmine Monitor of the International Campaign to Ban Landmine (ICBL) on October 18, 2010 that Thailand conducted manual clearance which achieved 2.55km² in 2009, though Thailand claimed that their achievement attained 70% more than in the previous year of 2008).

However, by far Thailand was short of the targets set out by them, under the Article 5 of the Mine Ban Convention "Extension Request", submitted in August 2008, which called for demining of 43km² or 43,000,000m² in year 2009.

In 2010, Thailand has set their targets, again under the extension request, to clear 43,280,768 m².

Logically if one could make an elementary arithmetic calculation one must come with the exact number of 21,640,384m² or 24.6 km² not 3,630,000m², from October 2010 to March 2011 as stated in the report?

The Article 5 of Mine Ban Convention stated that "Each State Party undertakes to destroy or ensure the destruction of all anti-personnel mines as soon as possible, but no later than 10 years...If a State Party cannot destroy all anti-personnel mines within that time period, it may request the Meeting of States Parties for an extension for a period of up to 10 years..."

Thailand has signed the Treaty at the same time with Cambodia in Ottawa on December 3, 1997.  Thailand and Cambodia are under the obligation to comply with the rules and regulation as set in the Convention.

Thailand has established a national demining agency in 1999 called Thailand Mine Action Center or TMAC which ran under the umbrella of the ministry of national defense.

Unlike Thailand, Cambodia was brokered by the Paris Peace Accord to end decades of wars in the country.  In order to repatriate the refugees and the IDPs, the UN forces assisted Cambodia first with mine clearance, thus to establish "Cambodian Mine Action Center –known as CMAC" in 1992.

Dozens of countries had sent their military experts to Cambodia to help train thousands of Cambodian ex-soldiers in the demining skills.  International demining organizations also entered the then war-torn country to assist in demining operations such as the HALO Trust, MAG and NPA.

Though Cambodia remains one of the most affected countries by anti-personnel mines, but surmounted by incredible achievements.  Almost a million of APM have been cleared and destroyed; hundreds of thousands of hectares of safe lands have been released to landless poor villagers to become their farmlands and tens of thousands of refugees and IDPs have been safely returned and settled...

However nowadays poor Cambodian villagers yet continue to suffer due to the violation of the principle of the international law set by the International Court of Justice in 1962, in which the Court has already recognized the map and the frontier line established by 1904 and 1907 Franco-Siamese Mixed Commissions.

In February 2011, the world still hears the cries of many thousands of those who were peacefully settled "are decades of suffering not enough?"  Unlike the cries foul from other side of the international border-line, quote: "Border fighting delays mine clearance?!" unquote.

What are the real facts?

The Cambodian warring factions (KPNLF, FUNCINPEC and the DK) forces at that time (1979 till 1998) used the border territories to fight.  Obviously, Thailand would not allow even a centimeter of their land to be used by those factions.

To protect their encampments, those factions used anti-personnel land mines, which were still littered everywhere inside the country and hundred kilometers along the border, indeed inside their territories.  Therefore, Cambodia has been recognized by the world that decades of wars "inside" the country had left millions of landmines which still continue to claim limbs and lives of innocent Cambodian villagers.

So, what are then the real facts for the delay of demining operations inside Thailand?

Through the Level I Survey (LIS), Thailand claimed that they have been affected by

2,557km² areas.  With their "land release" methods Thailand enabled to release about 1,239.18km² within 5 years (2005-2009); among which in years 2008 and 2009 combined they have declared 1,148.20km² areas released to the productive use.  However, in their 2009 report, Thailand could clear only 2.54 km² of "real minefield", and found and destroyed only 3,400 anti-personnel mines.

What does that means?  Is Thailand a real affected country by landmines, or Thailand used to use their own mines to protect the Khmer rebels in some areas from intruding their own territories?  Eventually, if Thailand a real affected country why don't they pour more money to demine themselves, no need to beg for funds from the international community, as Thailand has insisted that it is a donor! Had Thailand spared her wealth by demining just 2 or km2 of "real minefield" per year, it would take 200 years to demine.  What is really behind these scenes?

WASHINGTON, May 24 (Xinhua) -- The selection of the next head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should reflect the changing realities of the global economy and not on the basis of nationality, meaning the tradition that requires a European chief, the fund's five key emerging market economies executive directors said on Tuesday.
"The convention that the selection of the managing director is made, in practice, on the basis of nationality undermines the legitimacy of the fund," said IMF directors for China, Brazil, India, South Africa and Russia, or BRICS countries in a joint statement, rejecting that the successor to former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn should continue to be a European.
The recent financial crisis which erupted in developed countries, underscored the urgency of reforming international financial institutions so as to reflect the growing role of developing countries in the world economy, noted the statement.
The new global economy requires "abandoning the obsolete unwritten convention that requires that the head of the IMF be necessarily from Europe, it said.
The Washington-based international financial institution initiated the nomination period to select its next leader on Monday and it will close on June 10.
Strauss-Kahn resigned on May 18 after being arrested and accused of sexually attacking a maid at the Sofitel New York hotel on May 15.

NEW YORK, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street fell on Tuesday amid eurozone debt concerns and high oil prices.
With more troubling news about Europe, investors were concerned that the eurozone crisis will exert a downward pressure on the stock market. Greece's main opposition party said on Tuesday that it opposed the government's latest attempts to reduce debt, dampening investors' hope that the country might be able to repair its financial system.
Meanwhile, Moody's warned that a restructuring of Greece's debt might cause the borrowing costs for other debt-strapped European countries to increase.
These bad news overshadowed positive reports from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley. The two leading investment banks increased their oil price forecasts on Tuesday by more than 20 percent and showed their bullish outlook for commodities.
On those bullish outlooks, basic materials stocks rose 0.89 percent, one of the best performers in the market.
Oil price rose 1.93 percent to settle at 99.59 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, making energy shares more attractive to investors. Energy shares jumped 0.96 percent on Tuesday, leading the market.
On the economic front, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday that new single-family home sales in April jumped 7.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 323,000 units, the highest level since December. The revised reading was 301,000 units in March. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the figure would remain unchanged at a previously posted 300,000-unit rate.
However, there were 175,000 new homes available for sale in April, down 2.8 percent from the prior month. The reading was also the lowest since April last year.
Technology sector was still one of the biggest losers on Tuesday, with major index stocks dropping over 5 percent. The sector closed lower by 0.45 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 25.05 points, or 0.20 percent, to 12,356.21. The Standard & Poor's 500 edged down 1.09 points, or 0.08 percent, to 1,316.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 12.74 points, or 0.46 percent, to 2,746.16.

VIENNA, May 24 (Xinhua) -- The city government of Amstetten, a small Austrian city of the State of Lower Austria, decided on Tuesday to strip the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler of his honorary citizenship.
Herbert Katzengruber, mayor of Amstetten said that an " absolute majority" in the City Council meeting earlier on the day decided to strip the honorary citizenship of Hitler.
It is reported that the Nazi leader visited Amstetten in 1938. A year later, the city government of Amstetten decided to grant Hitler of honorary citizenship. After the end of  World War II, it was forgotten by the people in the city but was under discussion once again after 1996.
Mayor Katzengruber said that the local people has been discussing for many years on whether to remove Hitler's honorary citizenship.
Some people held that the honorary citizenship would lapse automatically after one's death. Therefore, Hitler has  no longer been an honorary citizen of the city.
However, others argued that the city government should take some measures on this issue.
The city of Amstetten, about 130 km away from Vienna, capital of Austria, is the central city of Mostviertler area of Lower Austria. It has a resident population of 23,000.

QUITO, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador's President Rafael Correa on Tuesday swore in Jose Francisco Cevallos as the South American country's new sports minister.
Cevallos, former goalkeeper of the national soccer team, was sworn in as minister in a ceremony held in government's Carondelet Palace in Quito in full attendance of cabinet ministers and Ecuador's top sportsmen.
Cevallos is considered the best goalkeeper in the history of Ecuador and he took office one week after he announced his retirement from professional soccer after a 21-year-long career.
"Welcome to the government of the Citizen Revolution," Correa told Cevallos during the ceremony.
Cevallos, who is replacing Sandra Vela who resigned last week, said he is taking on the position as a "new challenge" in his life and offered to give all his efforts in order to fulfill the targets established by the government regarding sports.
"I trust that the discipline, perseverance and the clean game that has led me in my soccer life will be the basis for good development in this new job," he said, adding that his work will be based "to use sports as tools of education, rehabilitation and integration of all Ecuadorians."
Correa, meanwhile, requested Cevallos to continue ongoing projects that was initiated under Vela.