DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Government troops destroy petro-chemical plant in Brega: spokesman for Libyan rebels” plus 9 more

BENGHAZI, Libya, July 9 (Xinhua) -- A petro-chemical plant in the Libyan oil city of Brega has been destroyed by the government troops, a spokesman for the rebel forces said here on Saturday.

Ahmed Bani, spokesman for the rebel forces said in a press conference in Benghazi, the second largest city of Libya, that the plant and its equipment were actually destroyed by the government troops, not the rebel forces as the government earlier alleged.

The oil refinery town of Brega lies on the frontline between the rebel-held east and the government-held west.

Bani said the blast of the plant "has not only hurt the interest of the Libyan people, but also caused pollution to the environment."

The rebels have already deployed heavy forces to protect the other sites of oil production and refinery, he said.

And he added the government troops are now totally besieged in Brega.

Meanwhile in Tripoli, Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi denounced on Saturday the air strikes launched on the country by the NATO-led alliance to an envoy of UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon, according to state TV.

He called the air attacks "flagrant violations of the (UN) resolution of 1970 and 1973" and "must be considered as crimes against humanity and an act of genocide."

The UN envoy's visit was agreed during Thursday talks between Mahmudi and Ban. The UN chief called Mahmudi to halt the fighting and improve the humanitarian conditions in the African country.

MEXICO CITY, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Mexican authorities on Saturday sent reinforcements of 1,800 police troops in the fight against drug cartels, after more than 40 people were found dead in three Mexican cities over the past two days as drug gang fighting intensified, local media reported.

The Public Safety office announced that the well-equipped 1,800 federal agents were sent to Michoacan state on Saturday, in a battle there mainly against the Knights Templars, a splinter group of the La Familia drugs cartel.

National Security Council spokesman Alejandro Poire said it was a "reinforcement operation faced with the possibility of greater mobilization by organized crime groups."

Poire reiterated that it were these criminals, not the government's crackdown on organized crime, that has caused waves of drug gang-related violence. More than 35,000 people have died since President Felipe Calderon stepped up the fight against organized crime in 2006, according to official figures.

"The violence won't stop if we stop battling criminals," Poire said. "The violence will diminish as we accelerate our capacity to debilitate the gangs that produce it."

At least 20 people were killed and five injured when gunmen opened fire in a bar late Friday in the northern city of Monterrey, where the Zetas gang is fighting its former ally, the Gulf Cartel, according to Alejandro Poire.

Eleven bodies were found earlier Friday near a water well on the outskirts of Mexico City, where the gang is fighting the Knights Templar, an offshoot of the La Familia gang that has terrorized its home state of Michoacan, said Poire.

Poire added another 10 people were found dead early Saturday in different parts of the northern city of Torreon, where the notorious Zetas are fighting the Sinaloa cartel.

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Xinhua) -- As South Sudan formally declared independence on Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on the newest nation and its northern neighbor to resolve the outstanding issues between them.

In an article published on the website of The Washington Post on Saturday, the top U.S. envoy wrote that "There is reason to hope for a better future -- if the people and leaders of both Sudan and South Sudan commit themselves to the hard work ahead."

She wrote: "Just as independence was not inevitable, neither is a lasting peace between Sudan and South Sudan. Decades of war have left deep distrust on both sides and significant social, political and economic challenges. Both nations will have to take decisive steps to consolidate progress."

The two-decades civil war between north and south Sudan ended in 2005 when they signed a peace deal, which set up a referendum in January this year in which the southerners voted overwhelmingly for separation.

However, a number of core issues remain unresolved between the two sides, including border demarcation, the status of the oil-rich Abyei region, division of oil revenue and external debt as well as citizenship, prompting fears of a possible return to war.

Clinton called on the two neighbors to "quickly" return to the negotiating table and seek to complete the unfinished business of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which expired with the full independence of South Sudan on Saturday.

"That means settling outstanding questions related to finances, oil and citizenship; demarcating remaining border areas; and fully implementing their agreement on temporary arrangements for the contested Abyei area, which lies along the border of Sudan and South Sudan, including the redeployment of all Sudanese military forces," she wrote.

"The violence that has flared in Abyei in recent months cannot be allowed to return and jeopardize the larger peace," she added.

She also urged South Sudan to address its internal challenges, as people in the 54th nation in Africa face "wrenching poverty, inadequate education and health care, and the continuing presence of armed militia groups."

"To succeed, South Sudan will have to begin building an effective, democratic and inclusive government that respects human rights and delivers services with transparency and accountability," she wrote.

BOGOTA, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Colombian police reported on Saturday the capture of a national, sought by U.S. justice and accused of sending at least 50 kilos of heroin to that country.

A police statement said Agustin Murillo "was arrested at Buenaventura (town) in Valle del Cauca (department), after two years of research, which allowed us to identify him as a part of a druf trafficking network."

The suspect, 31, is requested for extradition by the Southern District  Court of New York, accused of conspiracy to smuggle drugs into the United States, specifically heroin or a semi-synthetic drug, originated from the opium.

Authorities said that Murillo "was in charge of recruiting people to smmugle heroin from Cali to New York" and "managed the contacts for the shipment of containers with cocaine hydrochloride."

Police reports indicated that besides the detainee previously referenced, 108 drug trafficking suspects wanted by foreign justice authorities, mainly the United States, have been arrested so far in 2011 in Colombia.

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. House Speaker John Boehner on Saturday rejected a 4-trillion-dollar deficit reduction deal with the White House, saying he would pursue a "smaller measure" in Sunday's upcoming talks at the White House.

"Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes," Boehner said in a statement released Saturday night.

Boehner said he believes "the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure, based on the cuts identified in the Biden-led negotiations, that still meets our call for spending reforms and cuts greater than the amount of any debt limit increase."

The White House is negotiating with congressional leaders on a deal to raise the 14.29-trillion-dollar debt ceiling, it also involves cutting the federal budget deficit. The White House has proposed an ambitious plan to cut budget deficit by 4 trillion over 10 years, in exchange for closing some tax loopholes.

Boehner's statement means the two sides will focus on a scaled-back option of cutting 2 trillion deficit. White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer on Budget Negotiations put out a statement saying "we cannot ask the middle-class and seniors to bear all the burden of higher costs and budget cuts. We need a balanced approach that asks the very wealthiest and special interests to pay their fair share as well."

The parties are due to attend talks Sunday in the White House. Pfeiffer said come Sunday, President Barack Obama "will make the case to congressional leaders that we must reject the politics of least resistance and take on this critical challenge."

SINGAPORE, July 10 (Xinhua) -- British author Alan Shadrake, who had been jailed five weeks in Singapore for contempt of court, has been deported to London, local media reported on Sunday.

Shadrake, 76, was deported on Saturday hours after being discharged from prison, the Chinese language daily Lianhe Zaobao said.

Shadrake's lawyer confirmed that he had been released after spending five weeks behind the bars for publishing a book critical of executions in Singapore. The book contains a profile of Darshan Singh, the former chief executioner at a local prison. Passages in the book have been found to undermine the integrity of Singapore's judicial system.

Shadrake was arrested last year when he came to Singapore to launch the book.He had said he had no regrets writing the book.

He was sentenced to six weeks in jail and a fine of 20,000 Singapore dollars (16,000 U.S. dollars) in November last year. He appealed against the sentence but it was rejected by the court of appeal in May.

The appeal court disagreed with the idea of giving Shadrake a " sentencing discount" to signal that the courts have no interest in stifling legitimate debate on the death penalty. Shadrake's conduct was "still the worst case of scandalizing contempt" that has come before the Singapore courts, it said.

The revenge of the loser of Thai general election and that is also the solace he can console himself is to become a fear-monger. That has happened to outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban. To be a good sport, he should leave quietly for now and allow the democratic process in Thailand to take its normal course, under the Pheu Thai Party government. He should remember that the people of Thailand have spoken.

Had he care about Thailand, and less about his personal interests, he would have said "the Democrat Party would be in the opposition, but it would act within the scope of the law," and that is good enough for Thailand.

His ill-sayings about Pheu Thai Party to have "set up armed elements," "organized people to harass the government;" his wild speculation that "the form of administration will be changed," because the Red Shirts have control of more than half of the country, just only days after the Democrat Party lost the election to the Pheu Thai Party, speak loud about the man who had been vested with full power to win the election for the Democrat Party.

For the past two years he had strategized by all means whether or not they are legal or not fully legal as long as they are inside the gray area between legality and illegality, with the purpose of knocking out all other contenders, especially the Pheu Thai Party.

It is damaging for Thai politics, when top politicians did not understand the meaning of "singing the Swan song," but kept on kicking and screaming to shake off their direct responsibility of losing the election to a political party "not in power," to speak ill and blame the winning Pheu Thai Party, and turn to be a fear-monger.

Suthep Thaugsuban's acrimonious remarks on "Thai-Cambodian relations" as reported by the Bangkok Post 6 July 2011 under the title Suthep makes grim prediction, saying: "He expected Thai-Cambodian relations to improve because Pheu Thai and the Hun Sen government were friends," implies beyond any doubt that he has long cast the Democrat Party and the outgoing Abhisit Vejjajiva government as the enemies of the Royal Government of Cambodia, resulting in numerous Thai armed aggression against Cambodia.

At last a surprised admission has been uttered by Suthep Thaugsuban.

I said to Mr. Suthep Thaugsuban: Learn to be a real politician, learn to sing the swan song when you had to relinquish the power, and stop being a fear-monger when you lost the general election to the Pheu Thai Party. Pen Ngoeun Member of the Press and Quick Reaction Unit (PRU) 9 July 2011.

CHANGSHA, July 8 (Xinhua) -- A former lawmaker in central Hunan Province was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday for gang-related crimes, according to a court verdict.
Li Xiangming, 38, former deputy to the Hunan Provincial People's Congress, was also deprived of his political rights for two years and fined 1.52 million yuan (233,846 U.S. dollars), the Yuhu District People's Court in Xiangtan City, Hunan, announced in the verdict.
Li, also board chairman and general manager of Hunan Zhongyi Group, a real estate developer, stood accused of organizing and masterminding a series of crimes since 2008 that included rape, assault, racketeering, illegal imprisonment and gun smuggling.
Twenty-six other defendants who were involved in the crimes under Li's direction were sentenced from 14 months to 14.5 years and were fined a total of 1.277 million yuan.
Li's company, Hunan Zhongyi Group, was also fined 1 million yuan for loan fraud, according to the verdict.

BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met with his Philippine counterpart Albert del Rosario Friday in Beijing, saying del Rosario's visit will help boost bilateral ties.
Yang said that del Rosario's first visit to China as Secretary of Foreign Affairs would be helpful for the two countries to increase communication and coordination in international and regional affairs.
Yang and del Rosario are expected to discuss a wide range of topics, including trade, investment, culture, tourism, defense cooperation, and coordination in combating transnational crimes.  
Del Rosario arrived in Beijing Thursday for the visit at the invitation of Yang.

BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) -- China's business climate index rose to 135.6 in the second quarter of this year, up 1.8 points from the previous quarter, said the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday.
The bureau said the index of the information transmission and software sector rose 14.7 points to 165.1, topping all industries. Indices of construction, social service, accommodation and catering enterprises also rose.  
Meanwhile, the wholesale and retail sector index dropped 4.2 points to 149. Indices of transportation, postal and real estate enterprises also dropped.
The index reflects the operational climate of enterprises. A reading above 100 indicates an upward trend for the business climate.
The country's entrepreneurs were less confident in the economy during the second quarter as the Entrepreneur Confidence Index dropped 5 points to 132.4. The index has been on the rise after hitting an eight-year low of 94.6 in the fourth quarter of 2008.
The confidence of construction company managers was greatly shaken with the sector's index slumping 6.6 points to 139.
The index results were based on a survey of a large number of  enterprises nationwide. It is compiled on the basis of the understanding, views, judgements and expectations of entrepreneurs concerning the external environment of the market economy and the macro policy and reflects the feelings and confidence of entrepreneurs in the macro economic environment.