DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Cambodia deny as false the report published in the Nation” plus 9 more

BEIJING, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday cut China's growth forecast to 9.3 percent for the year from its previously estimated 9.6 percent.

The ADB also lowered its estimate for the country's economic growth to 9.1 percent from 9.2 percent for next year, according to the update to the Asian Development Outlook released Wednesday by the Manila-based lender.

China's economic growth slowed during the first half of the year, mainly due to the country's tightening policies and weakening outbound demand, said Paul Heytens, ADB country director for China, in the report.

The country's gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 9.5 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2011, tapering off from the 9.7-percent growth posted in the first quarter of this year and 9.8 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

The report said the country's economy will largely be driven by domestic consumption and future investment. Urbanization and the massive construction of government-subsidized housing projects will become important engines for GDP growth.

A possible economic slowdown in the second half is mainly due to the faltering global economic recovery, especially the weak demand from European countries as a result of the deepening debt crisis, according to the report.

ANKARA, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Two police officers were heavily injured in an attack by a group suspected to be members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey, local Today's Zaman newspaper reported Wednesday.

The paper quoted witnesses as saying that three suspected PKK rebels attacked the traffic policemen late on Tuesday in the Pazarcik town of Kahramanmaras province and heavily injured two police officers who are identified as Haci Kalkan and Yavuz Bayal.

The injured officers were taken to the Pazarcik State Hospital for medical treatment, the paper said on its website.

The PKK, which recently stepped up its attacks in the east and southeast of Turkey, has killed more than 40 soldiers in the past few months.

Listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, the PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. More than 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the PKK during the past over two decades.

JAKARTA, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) - Indonesia and Vietnam on Wednesday agreed to increase trade volume from 3.3 billion U.S. dollars to 5 billion U.S. dollars before 2015, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said here on Wednesday.

President Yudhoyono told a joint press conference along with Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung after a meeting at the State Palace that both countries insisted to boost investment.

"We are going to boost trade volume. Last year (the trade volume) was 3.3 billion U.S. dollars. We agreed to raise it to 5 billion U.S. dollars before the year 2015," said Yudhoyono.

Indonesia saw Vietnam had a central role to help build Indonesia's relation with the countries in the sub-region such as Cambodia and Laos, he said.

Both countries insist to boost cooperation in food security, including increasing rice production which may contribute more on the regional rice stockpile, said Yudhoyono.

BAGHDAD, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and 41 wounded Wednesday in a car bomb explosion in a town near the city of Hilla, some 110 km south of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

The attack took place in the morning rush hours when a booby- trapped car parked outside a popular restaurant in the town of al- Shomaly southeast of Hilla, the capital of Babil province, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

All the victims were civilians who often have breakfast at the restaurant before work, the source said.

Violence and sporadic high-profile bomb attacks continue in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease of violence over the last three years.

NAIROBI, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The number of Kenyans who have died from the petrol explosion and fire at an informal settlement in Nairobi has reached 87, the country's humanitarian aid agency said on Wednesday.

The Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) Disaster Risk Reduction Officer Daniel Mutinda said four more people died at the hospital on Tuesday while one body was retrieved from the scene early on Wednesday.   "We have just retrieved a body from the sewer inside the stream while four more people lost their lives while undergoing treatment at the hospital bringing the death toll to 87," Mutinda told Xinhua on Wednesday.

He said rescuers and family members are still searching for the dead in a nearby river, where charred corpses can be seen as some relatives of those missing after Monday's tragic fire at Sinai slum spent the better part of Tuesday and Wednesday shuffling between hospitals and mortuaries searching for their kin.

Mutinda said up to 37 people had been reported missing by Tuesday afternoon. "That is the number of people who have made the reports to us but more and more people are coming because we also have a tent at the Kenyatta National Hospital," he said.

The missing were among hundreds of people who had been siphoning fuel when a pipeline with highly flammable super petrol burst causing a massive fire that killed at least 87 people according to the Red Cross.

More than 115 people are reported to have injured after a petrol pipeline exploded and started a fire in an informal settlement located next to the fuel depot.

The informal settlement, known as Sinai, is located in the industrial area of Nairobi where the fire is believed to have caused extensive damage in.

The exact cause of the explosion remains unknown, although it is believed to be linked to a petrol leak spilling into an open sewer in Sinai, a densely populated Sinai area lies between Nairobi's city centre and the airport.

Experts say fire can spread rapidly in Nairobi's slums and informal settlements which are often located in areas which make them vulnerable to fire, such as the industrial area with its petrol pipes and depots.

The poor quality of construction of homes, the materials used and the overcrowded conditions in settlements can all increase the risk of fires.

This latest incident of fire basically illustrates the particular vulnerability and inadequate conditions faced by people living in slums and informal settlements.

YOKOHAMA, Japan, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Asia's No. 1 apparel chain Fast Retailing Co., the maker of casual wear Uniqlo, aimed to fivefold its total net sales to five trillion yen in 2020 from one trillion in 2010, its president said Tuesday.

The company aimed to increase its sales by 500 billion yen per year from 2011 to 2020. To achieve this, it planned to open 300 Uniqlo stores that would each generate annual net sales of two billion yen every year, Tadashi Yanai, President of Fast Retailing told a business strategy meeting in Yokohama.

"We will make Uniqlo a brand that represents Japan in the world and a brand that represents clothing, by using the strengths of Japan such as innovative technologies, meticulousness, service at stores and item-by-item management," Yanai said.

Targeting the world's No. 1 in clothing industry, Fast Retailing would strive to further strengthen Asia's top spot by expansion in growing markets such as China and India, he added.

It would develop 100 billion yen business in China in two to three years, before it achieved a one trillion yen business eventually with an operating income margin of over 15 percent, Yanai said.

The company also planned to increase the number of global production bases to 50, which will manufacture five billion articles of clothing by 2020. It will build factories in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia and start full-fledged production in India.

RAMADI, Iraq, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- At least 15 soldiers were killed and 20 others wounded in a bomb attack in Iraq's western province of Anbar on Wednesday, a provincial police source told Xinhua.

HANOI, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam tries to maintain the annual growth rate of between 10 percent to 12 percent for the export turnover of the handicraft articles, worth about 1.6 billion U.S. dollars, by 2015, according to the sector's development plan for 2010-2015 approved by the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Under the plan, focus has been made in establishing stable raw materials supply areas, built in lines with concentrated, specialized farms and family-run gardens; promoting production of traditional handicraft products along with modern technology -- based processing; encouraging skilled artisans to hand down experience and train young workers; and further expanding the export markets, including the United States, the EU countries, Japan, Russia, Australia, South African and North European countries, said the report.

According to the Vietnam Handicraft Exporters Association ( Vietcraft), in the first six months, the export value of handicraft articles reached 500 million U.S. dollars, of which 96 million U.S. dollars came from the rattan, bamboo, rush and carpet items, a year-on-year decrease of 3 percent.

Prices for the raw materials increased almost by 30 percent since the beginning of this year, which made handicraft producers work sluggishly, just around 30 percent less compared to the same period last year, Vietcraft reported.

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed and eight others injured Tuesday when a car bomb went off in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, the provincial administration said on Wednesday.

"A unit of police were conducting a routine search mission along a road in Ghartala area of Musa Qala district in Helmand province on Tuesday morning but a car bomb went off near checkpoint. As a result, a policeman and a civilian were killed," the provincial administration said in a statement on Wednesday.

Eight more civilians, including three women, were injured in the blast, the statement said.

However, the statement did not provide more details whether police were the target of the attack.

No group has claimed responsibility for the incident so far.