DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “U.N.-backed court concludes hearing on 4 Khmer Rouge leaders” plus 9 more

PHNOM PENH, June 30, Kyodo - A U.N.-backed tribunal concluded a four-day preliminary hearing Thursday, the first move in cases against four senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge blamed for the deaths of at least 1.7 million Cambodians in the late 1970s.

Presiding Judge Nil Nonn of the Trial Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia said decisions stemming from the hearing will be handed down at a later date.

It is unclear if the tribunal will considered more preliminary matters, as requested by defense teams, before the trial begins later this the year.

After the hearing, Avocats Sans Frontieres issued a statement saying the ECCC appears willing to work with all people who want to play a part in the trials.

Martine Jacquin, project manager for Avocats Sans Frontieres, was quoted in the statement as saying the preliminary hearings were ''encouraging.''

Only the defense team for ''Brother No. 2'' Nuon Chea, 84, expressed dismay with the first sessions, saying the team feels its concerns have yet to be addressed.

Among the preliminary arguments heard this week were those concerned with witnesses, victims and experts and who and how many will be allowed to testify at trial.

Those concerns and other motions will be considered and decided by the five-member Trial Chamber panel ahead of the trial itself.

Beyond legal niceties and legal wrangling, for many watching the court proceedings, the health of the four accused seemed the more pressing matter.

Ieng Sary, 85, who was the Khmer Rouge's foreign minister, suffers from back pain and made only brief appearances in the courtroom.

Nuon Chea, the regime's chief ideologue, asked leave to be absent on three days and Ieng Thirith, 79, Ieng Sary's wife who was Khmer Rouge social affairs minister, missed the first two days of the hearing.

Only Khieu Samphan, who was head of state, stayed in court and monitored the whole process.

Khieu Samphan, 79, told the court Thursday it is ''fortunate'' he is in good health and promised to ''work with the court'' as long as his health remains good.

He also insisted he did not know everything that happened from 1975 to 1979 but pledged to relate, to the best of his knowledge, what he knew.

Nuon Chea asked the court to allow him to wear a blue and white knitted-ski cap and dark sunglasses during the hearing because he is ''allergic'' to air-conditioning and bright lights.

He then turned the floor over to his defense team to explain his contention the crimes and deaths during Khmer Rouge rule involved the United States and Vietnam.

For Ieng Sary, the hearing centered on the contention that because he was convicted in absentia in 1979 for genocide and sentenced to death he should not be tried a second time.

In 1996, he was pardoned by then King Norodom Sihanouk at the behest of the government for delivering a mass defection of Khmer Rouge fighters to the government.

All four defendants in what is referred to as Case 002 were arrested in 2007 and are charged with crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes.

All have denied guilt.

Case 001 against former prison chief Kaing Guek Ieu, alias Duch, ended in conviction and a sentence of 19 years in prison in addition to time already served.

==Kyodo

XI'AN, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Four people have been detained over a building collapse that killed seven workers in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Saturday, the local government said Wednesday.
Among the four detainees was Zhang Shuangquan, a villager from the outer Weiyang District of the provincial capital city of Xi'an.
Zhang hired 12 workers to build an additional floor on top of his privately-owned five-story building, said the city's safety chief Zhang Jianmin.
The seven workers were killed when the structure collapsed at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
The safety official said that Zhang's construction project was illegal, as he never received approval for the project from the local government. He added that the building's structure and the materials used to build it were not up to local safety standards.
Police have also detained the project's contractor, He Gouwa, and two other people in connection with the fatal accident.
An initial investigation showed that the house's owner was renovating the building after being told that the building would be demolished. He reportedly wanted to add the extra floor in order to get more compensation from the local government after the building's demolition.

departments
BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- About 32,000 Chinese who were not members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) worked in various levels of government agencies, legislatures and judicial departments by the end of 2010, an official said here Wednesday.
They were from China's democratic parties or had no party affiliation, Chen Xiqing, deputy head of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said at a press conference.

BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- China has indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and their surrounding waters, a Chinese official said here Wednesday.
Safeguarding the sovereignty is a common responsibility for Chinese living on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, Yang Yi, spokesman with the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a press conference.

BEIJING, Jun.29 (Xinhua) -- Following are home news items to be covered or pursued by Xinhua on Wednesday:
-- Xinhua Insight: Communist Party strengthens cadre training by revolution review and international exchange  
-- Machinery industry to maintain stable growth
-- A slump oil price helps China ease inflation pressure
-- China's A-shares lost 140 billion dollars of market value in first half
-- Sluggish sales prompt anxious banana farmers in southern China's Hainan turn to netizens for help

TV News Magazine: CHINA VIEW
1, Click on Today
2, Tainted Chrysanthemums Sparks Fear for Food Safety
3, In the Steps of a Master Traveler
(14:30,19:30, 23:00)

Editor's Notes: 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.

BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- ChiNext Index opened at 844.85 points Wednesday, 0.67 points higher than the previous close.
The index, officially launched on June 1, 2010, on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, has a base value of 1,000 points.
The ChiNext Index, together with the Shenzhen Component Index and the Shenzhen SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) Board Index, makes up the three core indices reflecting the performance of China's stocks listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- China's stock index futures opened mixed on Wednesday with the contract for settlement in July, the most actively traded, up 9 points at 3,050.
The August contract opened 5.6 points higher at 3,055.
The contract for settlement in September opened 1.6 points higher at 3,063.2 points.
The contract for settlement in December opened at 3,111.8 points, unchanged from the previous close.
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.

BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Fires resulted in the deaths of 3,865 people and injured 1,967 others between 2008 to 2010, according to a report submitted on Wednesday to the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress, the country's top legislature.
According to the report, about 398,000 fires occurred between 2008 and 2010, incurring property losses of 5.21 billion yuan (0.8 billion U.S. dollars) during the three years.
Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu said the country's rapid industrialization and urbanization have created new challenges for fire control.

BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- China's stocks opened mixed on Wednesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.07 percent to open at 2,757.4.
The Shenzhen Component Index opened at 12,048.86, up 0.01 percent.

BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Following are the central parity rates of the Chinese currency Renminbi (RMB) against seven major currencies announced on Wednesday by the China Foreign Exchange Trading System:
Currency           Unit          Middle Price (in RMB yuan)
U.S. Dollar        100                647.18
Euro               100                928.99
Japanese Yen       100                7.9933
Hong Kong Dollar   100                83.133
British Pound      100                1,034.84
Malaysian Ringgit  46.959             100
Ruble              434.49             1008
The central parity of RMB against the U.S. dollar is based on a weighted average of enquired prices from all market makers before the opening of the market in each business day.
The central parity of RMB against the other six currencies is based on the central rate of RMB against the U.S. dollar of the same business day as well as the exchange rates of the six currencies against the U.S. dollar at 9 a.m. of the same business day in the international foreign exchange market.