DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Ancient oriental herb takes root as future New Zealand export” plus 9 more

WELLINGTON, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- When the sun comes out in New Zealand, schoolchildren are told to don hats and stay in the shade to protect themselves from the high levels of ultraviolet light.

But those cancer-causing UV rays over the southern hemisphere could soon be transforming traditional Chinese pharmaceuticals half a world away.

"Our New Zealand ginseng plants have very high levels of antioxidants, which they produce to protect themselves from the ultraviolet radiation that's our big point of difference when we market our ginseng in China," said Glen Katu, chief executive of Maraeroa C Incorporation.

The incorporated society, run by New Zealand's indigenous Maori, already has a number of other unique selling points for its ginseng, the medicinal root used for thousands of years in many traditional Chinese and Korean remedies, which is said to aid longevity and restore the body's energy levels.

"We're probably the only grower of simulated-wild, natural, organically grown ginseng in New Zealand," said Katu.

Tests at China's National Ginseng Products Quality Supervision Inspection Center, Yanji City, Jilin Province, last year also showed the Maraeroa C ginseng was very high in the root's active ingredient, ginsenoside, which has been shown to have a range of physiological effects.

"The ginseng needs a high level of ginsenoside if it's for use in pharmaceuticals or nutriceuticals, so it was good news it came back so high."

Maraeroa C is already working with a Shanghai-based distributor to market their crop under the label Pureora NZ Ginseng, named after the area in the central North Island where its crops are grown, but based also on the Maori words for "ritual" (pure) and " well-being" (ora).

The society is now seeking a joint venture partner who can invest up to 4 million NZ dollars (3.36 million U.S. dollars) in what they believe could be a new major horticultural export for New Zealand with potential to match the global success of the country's kiwifruit industry.

BEIJING, Aug.31 (Xinhuanet) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has announced a deal between his country's oil company Rosneft and U.S. oil and gas giant ExxonMobil. The agreement is aimed at building a strategic partnership in a number of areas, including joint Arctic exploration.

Talks between the two oil giants concluded in the Russian city of Sochi on Tuesday. Under the agreement, Rosneft will be working with ExxonMobil in the Russian Arctic and deep-sea shelves, as well as in the United States and other countries. Direct investments into the deal may amount to 200 and 300 billion U.S. dollars.

The agreement also provides for around 3.2 billion dollars to fund exploration in the Kara and Black Sea. The two sides will also create an Arctic Research and Design Center for Offshore Developments in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, which will be staffed by employees from both companies.

BEIJING, Aug. 31 (Xinhuanet) – Arecent national survey shows a strong growth in digital reading, with 252 million Chinese aged between 18 and 70 reading books and articles online in 2010 and about 83.6 percent of the respondents saying they would prefer the electronic version of a book if available.

So will e-reading replace books one day? "There are now many ways of spreading knowledge like the computer, which may one day replace Gutenberg's invention," says J.M.G. Le Clzio, "but I cannot imagine a world without books." He hastens to add, though: "It (the book) is a tool as indispensable as hammer, knife, lamp or teapot, and as delicate as violin, flute and percussion instrument."

Le Clzio, "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization" as the Nobel Committee described him while awarding the Literature prize in 2008, was invited by Nanjing University to deliver a lecture on "Books and our World" on Aug 21. Talking to China Daily on books and new media, he says books have played an essential role in the development of the world, by granting universal access to knowledge and turning it from the privilege of dominant classes into ordinary people's rights a role it performed especially well during Enlightenment.

"Without printed books we would be living in a totally different world. It may prosper as well, but it will be a closed world resistant to progress, desperately imbalanced, filled with unfairness and injustice." He cites the ancient Mayan civilization as an example. What was once illuminating and ripe disappeared for want of print: "There was no democracy and hardly equality before the law while the quality of citizen dwelled on a relatively low level."

"In such a world, knowledge would not serve interaction or social progress, but only draw a new line between those who have knowledge and those who don't There can still be marvellous wonders like the Pyramid, but the people will only build them like slaves, not understanding the meaning of their labor."

The essential role of the media, old or new, is to offer everyone in society equal access to culture and knowledge, so that no one is illiterate and thus socially inferior, says the author of masterpieces such as Desert, Onitsha, Wandering Star: A Novel and Terra Amata. "The book, however old-fashioned it may be, is the ideal tool. It is practical, easy to handle, economical. It does not require any particular technological prowess, and keeps well in any climate."

Compared with new media that have the advantages of being timely, interactive and having larger information capacity, traditional books have a unique and eternal charm: "A book has nothing to do with video or audio; it is like slow food, the content of which must be dealt with slowly." For Le Clzio, and for others who share his passion and pleasure, a book is something to "digest", to "reflect, to read one part of it and leave some" for another day. It offers a different path from the culture of fast food, that is, reading through network-based new media, and it will always appeal to those who wish to get a thorough understanding of knowledge.

"Its (the book's) only flaw - and this is where I would like to address publishers in particular - is that in a great number of countries it is still difficult to gain access to books." In Mauritius, which he calls his "little fatherland", the price of a novel is equivalent to a sizable portion of a family's budget, while in many developing countries in Africa and other continents books remain an inaccessible luxury.

That has been a paradox for him as an author, and for which he often cites Swedish writer Stig Dagerman to describe: "While all he (the writer) wanted was to write for those who are hungry, he now discovers that it is only those who have plenty to eat who have the leisure to take notice of his existence." As a remedy, Le Clzio has proposed joint publications with developing countries, establishment of funds for lending libraries and book mobiles, and greater attention to requests from and works in so-called minority languages to make literature and books continue to be a wonderful tool for knowledge.

His wife, sitting beside him, adds that he has devoted much effort to that work. "He sends books to libraries that need books, and goes to publishers and lets them send books too." His new book, a collection of short stories, will hit the stands in France in October.

Like some other writers, Le Clzio has maintained the habit of writing with pencil and paper, his wife says. In fact, it was in Nice just after the end of World War II, when material shortage was most serious, that he wrote his first text, on the back of a ration book, using a carpenter's blue and red pencil. "Pencil is the normal tool (of writing) for him."

But keen love for paper books does not prevent Le Clzio from employing modern technology as well. He thinks new media like the Internet, if well used, can help books play their role better by promoting understanding and interaction. "I love very much the Internet, and I think it is a great invention People will get better understanding, better news circulation, every kind of communication."

He thinks new media can serve to further break the monopoly of power on knowledge and information by granting universal access, by making everyone understand what is happening. "It probably can bring peace. Who knows, if the Internet had existed at the time, perhaps Hitler's criminal plot would not have succeeded - ridicule might have prevented it from ever seeing the light of day."

But to perform that role, the Internet must be used to spread the knowledge of books and written language, or we would enter the process of "drawing a new line to divide those who have access to communications and knowledge, and those who are left out". He hopes that every "child receives the benefits of writing" through the progress in communications so as to "provide a foundation for equality".

The only flaw of the Internet is that its information can be untrue, he says. But "books can be wrong too". The need is to make access to knowledge and culture universal because the more people know the less possible will it be for them to believe in wrong information. "Neither books nor new media can foretell the future but I believe in progress."

WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- The advanced economies on both sides of the Atlantic have moved into a continuing period of slow growth, but they may be able stave off a double-dip recession with sound policies and reforms, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said here Tuesday.

"It's more likely than not that Europe and the United States would avoid a double-dip," Zoellick told Xinhua during an exclusive interview Tuesday on the eve of his trip to China. He added that policy action in those economies will be important in determining whether they are able to accelerate the pace of recovery and lay the foundations for stronger, long-term growth.

"Over the past year, there has been a modest global economic recovery, but that recovery is at some risk," he said.

Zoellick believed that the recovery has been characterized by different speeds, with developing countries growing quite well and having returned to or exceeded the pre-crisis levels, while developed economies have been struggling in the aftermath with issues of sovereign debt, deficits and unemployment.

Developing and developed economies face different challenges, Zoellick said. "For many of the developing countries, the issue now is how to avoid overheating and inflationary risks, such as the one China is seeking to address," he said.

"We are moving into a more sensitive phase," he said, referring to advanced economies including the United States, Europe and Japan. The bank chief said that he has been stressing this point to the policymakers and urging them to adopt appropriate policies. "Some of these are fiscal and monetary policies, but they also need to focus on fundamental and structural reforms," Zoellick said.

Some reasons for the current economic and fiscal headwinds facing the eurozone and the United States are similar in nature, he said, but some are different.

BAGHDAD, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Eid al-Fitr came in war-battered Iraq on Tuesday, bringing revived hope for the people, who have been seeing violence almost on daily basis since 2003.

The traditions of Ramadan are meant to unite families and neighborhoods in a spirit of charity, peace and hospitality. And Eid al-Fitr, which marks the ending of the holy month of fasting, was featured with feast and party in the capital city of Baghdad this year.

After a whole month of daily fasting, families were seen on Tuesday flock into markets to buy food, drinks and other stuff for enjoyment.

Hareth Nather, a 28-year-old shop owner in Baghdad's western neighborhood of al-Jamia, told Xinhua that he was going to open the business till midnight.

"There is no comparison between the current security situation and that for past a few years. You would see customers roam on street after midnight," Nather said.

It is widely agreed that the danger is much less in Iraq, compared with the terror peak years of 2006 and 2007.

People in Iraq will hardly forget Samarra district of the Salah ad Din province.

During Ramadan in 2006, a bombing rocked a shi'ite shrine in Samarra, resulting in sectarian conflicts and a curfew in town, which kept people from feast and gathering when the Eid al-Fitr came.

Couple of days ago in Baghdad, a suicide bombing took place at a mosque, leaving 28 people dead, but people seem to ignore that.

"For Iraqi people, if bombing, which kills more than 10, happens only once in a month, it could be seen as a peaceful month, " a passer-by, insisting on anonymity, told Xinhua reporters.

It could hardly be seen as a joke.

Back to Nather's shop. "Soft drink, yogurt, milk and dates are increasingly demanded by customers for Eid," the owner said jubilantly. However, power shortage sheds shadow on his happiness.

"A big sum of my profit was spent to provide the shop with electricity, which is paid either to public generator, or for fuel for my private one," he said.

Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces have witnessed fuel and electricity shortages during the Ramadan, with temperature hovering around 50 Celsius degrees.

Price hike is another concern.

Um Ali, a 38-year-old housewife, complained that the price of some food items were doubled during Ramadan.

"We have to be used to higher prices during the fasting month of Ramadan," she said.

Traffic was heavy and youth hung around in alleyways, playing the traditional games like mahaibis, in which one person on a team conceals a ring in his hand and the other team must guess who has it.

"One day, there will be no bloody explosion and killing. I'm optimistic that Ramadan will one day be full of prosperity and peace for all," 19-year-old Omer Mohammed told Xinhua reporters.

Despite improvements in security, violent attacks continue and will continue to be a danger in Iraq. The al-Qaida has claimed to launch 100 attacks in Iraq during the Ramadan to revenge on Osama bin-Laden's killing.

But despite the challenges that Iraq still faces, at the end of this holy month, citizens can celebrate not only the Islamic traditions that unify them as Muslims, but also the success that unite them as Iraqis.

MOSCOW, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Russian oil company Rosneft and U.S. oil and gas giant ExxonMobil signed on Tuesday an agreement on building up strategic partnership including joint Arctic exploration, said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

After talks with senior officials of the two companies in the Russian city of Sochi on Tuesday, Putin told local reporters that the partnership would facilitate cooperation between the two companies.

"The deal will of course be positively accepted by the international energy markets because new horizons will be opened," Putin said.

According to the prime minister, the direct investments into the deal may amount to 200 billion to 300 billion U.S. dollars. " Together with investments in the infrastructure, the total spending may reach 500 billion dollars," Putin said.

Under the agreement, Rosneft will be working with ExxonMobil in the Russian Arctic and deep-sea shelves, as well as in the United States and other countries throughout the world.

The Russian company may also embrace good prospects in the U.S. market, as the deal allows Rosneft to work in Texas and Mexico Gulf oil fields.

The agreement also includes approximately 3.2 billion dollars to be spent funding the exploration in the Kara Sea and the Black Sea.

ExxonMobil said on its website that the blocks "are among the most promising and least explored offshore areas globally, with high potential for liquids and gas."

The two sides will create an Arctic Research and Design Center for Offshore Developments in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, which will be staffed by Rosneft and ExxonMobil employees.

The two companies will also implement a program of staff exchanges of technical and management employees.

In January, Rosneft and Britain's BP agreed on a 16-billion share swap and Arctic shelf development deal. However, the deal was later blocked by a court injunction following legal action by the AAR consortium, which represents BP's partners in the TNK-BP Russian joint venture.

Russia's Vedomosti business daily said on its website that Rosneft's deal with ExxonMobil means that the U.S. enterprise replaced BP.

Related:

BP, Rosneft deal blocked due to TNK-BP's objection

LONDON, March 24 (Xinhua) -- British energy giant BP on Thursday confirmed that its proposed deal with Russia's state- owned oil producer Rosneft, which includes Arctic exploration and a share swap transaction, has been blocked by an arbitral tribunal in Sweden.

BP signed a new deal with Rosneft in January, under which BP would swap five percent of its stock for approximately 9.5 percent of Rosneft's shares. It also allowed BP to explore three blocks in Russia's Arctic shelf that BP said could contain billions of barrels of oil and gas.  Full story

New strategy outlines Denmark's Arctic engagement

COPENHAGEN, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Better livelihoods for Arctic communities will take center-stage in Denmark's new strategy for the region, the country's foreign minister said here Monday.

"We are keen supporters of economic development and foreign investments in the area," said Foreign Minister Lene Espersen, when launching a 10-year strategy document outlining Denmark's engagement in the Arctic.