DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “12 insurgents killed, 22 arrested in Afghanistan” plus 9 more

KABUL, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- A total of 12 insurgents have been killed and 22 captured in operations launched by security forces in different parts of the country over the past 24 hours, Afghan Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

"A total of 12 armed insurgents had been killed, 22 arrested and three injured as a result of 11 joint and independent operations launched by Afghan National Police (ANP) with the assistance of army and coalition forces over the past 24 hours in Laghman, Kandahar, Helmand, Logar, Paktika, Baghlan and Paktiya provinces," said the statement providing daily operational updates here.

A handful of weapons and ammunition were also discovered and seized by ANP, it said.

In another development, militants shot and killed a senior police officer in Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province earlier Sunday, Abibullah Shamalani, district chief of Nad Ali told Xinhua.

"Insurgent ambushed and killed Mudir Asadullah the commander of local police forces in Sayed Abad area of the district after Asadullah rescued a policeman from insurgent custody this morning, "Shamalani told Xinhua.

He accused Taliban for attack, adding no one was injured in the incident.

In neighboring Marjah district, Taliban on Sept. 3 assassinated Abdul Haleem commander of local police force recently established by Afghan government and NATO forces to fight with the Taliban and provide security in their own areas.

BANGKOK, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chookiat Ophaswongse, Honorary President of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said on Sunday that he foresees rice export of Thailand for year 2012 to drop by 30 to 40 percent.

The country's rice export is originally expected to reach 10 million tonnes next year, but as the newly installed government will launch rice pledging scheme on October 7, the export quantity is very likely to drop, according to Mr. Chookiat.

Under the mortgage scheme, rice price will generally increase by 40 percent as the price for fragrant Hom Mali paddy rice is set at 20,000 baht per tonne, while premium white paddy rice will fetch 15,000 baht.

The current price for Hom Mali rice is 15,000 baht per tonne and white paddy is between 9,500 and 11,500 baht.

He anticipated that due to rising rice price, most of foreign customers would instead buy rice from Thailand's competitors such as Vietnam and Cambodia as the price is cheaper there.

He also hoped that the government would have effective measures to curb adverse impact of the policy as well as prevent corruption.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, HBO's Prohibition-era drama "Boardwalk Empire" and HBO turned out to be top winners as this year's Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards were presented at the Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles Saturday night.

Paltrow, 38, added an Emmy to her awards haul in addition to the best actress Academy Award in 1999 for her role in "Shakespeare in Love," and many others. She was honored for her appearance in three episodes of "Glee" as substitute teacher Holly Holiday, garnering the outstanding guest actress in a comedy series at the award ceremony.

The star has become the third Oscar-winning actress to earn the title, joining previous winners Emma Thompson and Cloris Leachman. All of them have Oscars to go with their guest-starring Emmys.

Saturday's event mainly consists of technical categories including picture editing, costuming, hairstyling, makeup, lighting and sound.

Justin Timberlake was named outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for hosting the season finale of NBC's "Saturday Night Live," his second win in the category in three years. He won the honor for every stint as the show's host at the Creative Emmys. With four Emmy awards to date, he is on track to become one of the all-time great hosts.

Leading all programs in terms of network pack is "Boardwalk Empire," a new drama series which has seven honors to its name. The drama won for outstanding casting for a drama series, makeup, art direction, single camera picture editing, special visual effects, sound editing and cinematography.

All told, HBO has walked away with 15 awards, dominating the tight race, followed by PBS with 10, and Fox with nine.

ReelzChannel, a fledgling cable channel which this year is taking over from E! as the broadcaster of the Creative Emmys, landed its first three Emmy Awards for its first original program, acquired mini "The Kennedys."

The Creative Arts Emmy Awards will be aired on the network next Saturday.

Winners in the top 25 categories will be announced at the 63rd annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 18, also at the Nokia Theater.

"Glee" star Jane Lynch will host the ceremony, which will be aired on Fox.

BANGKOK, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on Sunday that Brunei is keen to buy more jasmine rice from Thailand after returning from her official visit to Brunei as part of her ASEAN tour, state-run media MCOT reported.

Brunei is the first nation the premier made official overseas trip since assuming office last month.

Yingluck paid a courtesy call on Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah at his palace to introduce herself as Thailand's new prime minister Saturday evening before attending a state banquet hosted by the sultan.

According to Yingluck, the Sultan of Brunei expressed interest in Thai jasmine rice and told her that Brunei was ready to import more.

The prime minister returned to Thailand early Sunday morning. On Monday she is scheduled to visit Indonesia, the current chairman of ASEAN, and then go to neighboring Phnom Penh on Thursday and Vientiane on Friday respectively.

CANBERRA, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The world will experience a second, deeper downturn between the beginning and the middle of next year, visiting American economic forecaster Harry Dent predicted on Sunday.

He said the downturn will start in Europe and spread to the United States, China and eventually Australia.

"Australia is probably the best place in the world to survive this, but we do think Australia will not escape as well as it did from the last crisis (in 2008)," Dent told Australia Associated Press on Sunday.

He said that at the center of the coming debt crisis is real estate.

"People in places like Sydney or Tokyo or Miami say, `Hey, real estate can never go down here, we're a great place, everyone wants to move here, there's not much land for development,' and what I say is that is exactly the kind of place that bubbles," Dent said, adding that the downturn will hit on Australia's house prices, returning it to late 1990s or early 2000 levels.

Dent said driving all these changes is simple demographics, specifically the peak of the baby boomers' spending.

"We predicted this (current) downturn in the U.S. 20 years ago, " he said.

"We said that in 2007 the peak number of baby boomers will reach their peak spending. They would have bought all their homes and then they will start saving for retirement ... and that you are going to see this downturn."

Dent said the drop-off in spending will affect everyone, even mighty China.

To survive the incoming "economic tsunami," Dent said investors should sell their excess real estate and buy up assets in U.S. dollars.

"Gold and silver are going to crash, they're a bubble," he said.

"Once we write down all these crazy debts, we are going to destroy a lot of dollars that were created in the boom and that makes the (U.S.) dollar a lot more valuable."

Dent is in Australia to promote his book, The Great Crash Ahead - How to Prosper in the Debt Crisis of 2010-2012, and will be speaking at the Secure the Future conference in Sydney and Brisbane of Australia in October.

JINAN, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Following is the staring lineup of  Thailand against DPR Korea at the Asian Women's socer qualification for the 2012 London Olympic Games here on Sunday:

Goalkeeper: Pannipr Kamolrat

Defenders: Darut Changplook, Supharhon Kaeobaen, Kwanruethai  Kunupatham, Saengchan Kwhanrudi

Midfielers: Junpen Seesraum, Warunee Phetwiset, Anootsara  Maijarern, Wilaiporn Boothduang

Forwards: Nisa Romyen, Dangda Taneekarn

BAGHDAD, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his militiamen to cease attacks against U. S. forces which are withdrawing from Iraq.

"For the sake of Iraq's independence and withdrawal of the invading U.S. forces from the country, I am obliged to suspend military operations of the Iraqi resistance until the completion of (U.S. troops) withdrawal," Sadr said in a statement posted on his website on Sunday.

Sadr warned that if the troops' withdrawal can not complete and Iraq remains under occupation, the military operation will be resumed with "new means and tough power."

Earlier, Sadr repeatedly confirmed his stance to oppose the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq after the Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline, even as trainers for the Iraqi security forces.

U.S. military forces are to pull out completely from Iraq by the end of 2011, according to the security pact, named Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), signed late in 2008 between Baghdad and Washington.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki frequently said that SOFA cannot be renewed as stated in the agreement, but talks with the Americans is expected to let small force of U.S. troops to stay in Iraq beyond the end of 2011 deadline only for training Iraqi forces under the SOFA.

HANGZHOU, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Charities should build up their own professional teams and promote transparency in management, said Jet Li, famous Chinese kung fu star and founder of the One Foundation, on Saturday.

Li noted that there is insufficient legislation over the philanthropic sector in China.

"The lack of professionals and transparency has hampered the development of charities in China," he said during the 8th Netrepreneurs Conference in east China's Zhejiang Province.

"I almost died in the 2004 tsunami. I don't know when I will be close to death again, so I set up the foundation," Li said.

The One Foundation was founded in 2006 in Chinese mainland. It initially operated as a special program under the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC), but the cooperation ended in January.

Since the cooperation with the RCSC ended, the One Foundation has become the first non-governmental foundation affiliated with a government-run organization to successfully transition into a public fund-raising organization.

The RCSC recently came under fire after a woman named Guo Meimei, who claims to be affiliated with the society, posted photos of her lavish lifestyle to her microblog.

People in online communities speculated that her extravagant purchases may have been funded by money embezzled from the RCSC, showing public demand for information disclosure by charities.

GUIYANG, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The first day competitions of horse racing have been canceled at the ninth Chinese Traditional Games for Ethnic Nationalities, said organizers here on Sunday.

The speed racing 1,000m final and horse walking 1,000m final were suspended since some of the racing horses had been reported to be sick, according to Fan Min, deputy director of the Qing-Town training base which is run under the sports authorities of Guizhou province.

"I was informed earlier by an official from the organizing committee that today's title events in horse racing were confirmed to be off the plan, and the new schedule is to be further released later," said Fan.

A source close to the Xinjiang delegation's horse racing team told Xinhua that the participants were informed late on Friday night that the two finals would be suspended and rescheduled to be raced on Sept. 15.

Some audience have made the scene for the events outside the downtown of the capital city of the southwestern Guizhou province earlier on Sunday before a notification was posted.

All the competitions and performance of the National Ethnic Games are open to the public and people only need to ask for free ticket to make access to the multi-sport ethnic gala.

Teams from eight delegations have entered for the five-event horse racing tournament, slated for Sept. 11-17.

BEIJING, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- New yuan-denominated lending in China reached 548.5 billion yuan (85.8 billion U.S. dollars) in August, up 9.3 billion yuan year-on-year, the central bank said Sunday.

By the end of August, the outstanding broad money supply (M2), which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, rose 13.5 percent year-on-year to 78.07 trillion yuan, down 1.2 percentage points from July growth and 5.7 percentage points from the same period last year, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement on its website.

The narrow measure of money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, increased 11.2 percent year-on-year to 27.33 trillion yuan, down 0.4 percentage points from July and 10.7 percentage points from August last year.

New lending in August was 55.9 billion yuan higher than those increased loans in July.

"The new loans in August were basically in line with my expectation of 550 billion yuan," said Zhao Qingming, a senior researcher with China Construction Bank, one of the country's largest lenders.

Zhao said lending growth was recovering during August because the central bank noted that medium- and small-sized enterprises had difficulty accessing loans and, thus, lessened its liquidity tightening efforts in the markets.

The accelerated construction of government subsidized housing units also helped boost the lending increment in August, Zhao said.

According to the PBOC statement, new yuan-denominated deposits dropped  373.6 billion yuan from August last year to reach 696.2 billion yuan in August.

By the end of August, outstanding yuan-denominated deposits totalled 78.67 trillion yuan, up 15.5 percent year-on-year. The August growth rate was down 0.8 percentage points from July and 4.1 percentage points year-on-year.

Meanwhile, outstanding foreign currencies-denominated deposits stood at 256.1 billion U.S. dollars, up 14.5 percent year-on-year.