DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “2nd LD: Death toll rises to 12 as Yemen's police fire at protesters: medics” plus 9 more

SANAA, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Yemeni police forces fired thousands of protesters marching in the capital to call for outing President Ali Abdullah Saleh, killing at least 12 and injuring more than 50 others, medics said.

"More than five bodies of protesters killed by gunshots of government security forces were taken to the opposition-run Technology and Science University Hospital," doctors there told Xinhua.

Earlier, doctors at the field hospital of the Change Square told Xinhua that they received three bodies of protesters, while doctors in the opposition-run Azal hospital said they got four killed by gunshots of government forces.

More than 50 protesters were wounded either by gunshots or smoke of tear gas bombs, according to the doctors.

Witnesses said they heard big explosions in Kintaki intersection, which is located in the southern part of the protesters' epicenter camp.

The attack on the protesters marching through Asar Street, near the headquarters of Saleh's elite Republican Guards, is still going on as the protesters reached Kintaki area on their way to their epicenter the Change Square.

Meanwhile, sporadic shelling and gunfire took place between the government forces and armed tribesmen loyal to opposition tribal leader Sadiq al-Ahmar in Hassaba district, witnesses and residents said.

No casualties among the rival forces were immediately reported.

However, residents and witnesses told Xinhua that the random shelling between the rival forces injured many civilians, damaged several residential houses and forced a large number of civilians to flee the area.

Blackout hit the capital early morning, according to an official at the Ministry of the Electricity.

Yemen, the impoverished Arab country in the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, has faced acute political crisis since the eruption of the protests in late January, demanding to end the 33- year-long rule of Saleh.

SLAMABAD, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani cricket team departed for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday to play matches against the Sri Lankan team starting from Oct. 18.

The Pakistani squad led by skipper Misbah-ul-Haq flew to the UAE from the Allama Iqbal International Airport in country's eastern city of Lahore.

Team captain Haq said that the current team is balanced with the combination of junior and senior players, and it will try its best give positive results in the upcoming series.

"Boys (players) have worked on different areas to improve as tough matches are expected between the two world class teams," Haq added.

On the occasion Pakistan's interim coach Mohsin Khan stressed the need for the Pakistani players to focus on being mentally tough during their matches.

"We have talented players with good record of performances, and I hope that they would show their improvement in the game and consistency,"  said Khan, on the team's departure for the UAE.

Pakistan and Sri Lankan teams are scheduled to play five One-Day International matches, three Test and one Twenty20 matches at the Sheikh Zayed International Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

The first Test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka will start on October 18.

The Sri Lankan cricket team led by right handed batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan has already reached UAE.

These matches were scheduled to be played in Pakistan but Sri Lanka refused to send her team to Pakistan due to security reasons. The Sri Lankan cricket team bus was ambushed by unknown gunmen on March 3, 2009 in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore on its way to stadium.

In the result of the attack eight Pakistanis including six policemen were killed and six Sri Lankan players and two officials were injured.  After that grave incident international sports activities were stopped in the country as other nations refused to send their teams.

Now Pakistani authorities claim that they will arrange foolproof security arrangements for the players if any country sends her team to Pakistan in future.

KABUL, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- A NATO helicopter makes forced landing in restive southern Afghanistan on Friday, the military alliance said on Saturday.

"n International Security Assistance Force CH-47 helicopter conducted a forced landing during a mission in southern Afghanistan yesterday," NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.

The helicopter was flying a troop transport mission with 12 passengers and five aircrew members on board. Shortly after landing, another ISAF helicopter arrived on the scene and transported the passengers to a nearby ISAF facility without further incident, the statement added.

"No members of the aircrew or passengers were harmed," it said.

A maintenance team conducted an initial assessment and it appears that the forced landing was the result of a mechanical issue. No insurgent activity was reported during the landing, the statement said, adding "A complete assessment will be conducted to determine the nature of the forced landing. The aircraft was repaired on site and flew back to its operating base late last night."

A total of 30 U.S. soldiers with the ISAF, seven Afghan army commandos and an Afghan translator were killed when an ISAF CH-47 Chinook was reportedly shot down by suspected Taliban insurgents in country's eastern Wardak province on Aug. 6.

The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since the militant group announced to launch spring offensive from May 1 against Afghan and NATO-led troops stationed in Afghanistan.

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian government decided Saturday that it will begin selling its collected own rice to stop the soaring price as recently raised by opportunists due to flooding in the country.

Sun Kunthor, chairman of Cambodia's Rural Development Bank, said that at the order of Prime Minister Hun Sen, his bank in cooperation with Phnom Penh Municipality to allocate as much rice as possible to the markets in Phnom Penh with the price below the markets.

He said in recent days, the price of rice has been soaring up to about 630 U.S. dollars per ton these days from the original price at around 520 U.S dollar per ton.

Sun Kunthor said the government will "begin selling our own rice tomorrow (Sunday) with the price lower than 600 U.S. dollars per ton."

In a statement released Saturday by Phnom Penh Municipality, it said "The opportunists have hiked the rice price over the past several days amid the Kingdom of Cambodia is facing flooding."

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced Thursday that the flooding that has hit the country since August has killed 247 people while 190,000 hectares of rice fields have been damaged and more than 390,000 others inundated nationwide.

SANAA, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Yemeni police forces Saturday fired on thousands of protesters marching in the capital to call for ousting President Ali Abdullah Saleh, killing at least four protesters and injuring dozens of others, medics and witnesses said.

"So far, one protester's body was sent to the field hospital of the Change Square, three other dead arrived at opposition-run Azal hospital, and dozens of others were severely injured," the doctors told Xinhua.

Witnesses said the attack on the protesters marching in Asar Street, near the headquarters of Saleh's elite Republican Guards, is still going on as the protesters forced their way to the Kintaki area, then to their epicenter Change Square.

Meanwhile, sporadic shelling and gunfire took place between the government forces and armed tribesmen loyal to opposition tribal leader Sadiq al-Ahmar in Hassaba district, witnesses and residents said.

No casualties among the rival forces were immediately reported.

However, residents and eyewitnesses told Xinhua that the random shelling between the rival forces injured many civilians, damaged several residential houses and forced a large number of civilians to flee the area.

Yemen, the impoverished Arab country in the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, has faced acute political crisis since the eruption of the protests in late January, demanding to end the 33- year-long rule of Saleh.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines, Oct. 15 (Xinhua)-- Four people were killed in a vehicular accident in southern Philippines on Friday, police said Saturday.

All but one of the occupants of a mini-jeepney died when their vehicle collided with a sports utility vehicle driven by a police captain in Tago town, in Mindanao's Surigao del Sur province, Superintendent Martin Gamba, spokesperson of the Caraga regional police said.

Among the fatalities were the vehicle's driver and three of the four passengers.

Gamba said the mini-jeep was traveling along the national road in Unidos village when it was hit head-on by the SUV pickup driven by police Captain Darwin Yu.

"The SUV tried to overtake another vehicle and occupied the opposite lane, in the process, hitting the oncoming passenger jeep, " Gamba said.

The police spokesperson said the driver of the wayward vehicle is now under police custody and is facing charges of multiple homicide.

Deadly accidents are common in the Philippines with bad roads, ill disciplined motorists and poorly-maintained speeding vehicles cause thousands of deaths and injuries each year, according to police.

BANGKOK, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- A total of 297 people were confirmed dead and two people were missing in the floods that have inundated the upper part of the country for almost three months, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department reported on Saturday morning.

Eight more people were confirmed dead on Friday in central provinces of Kamphaeng Phet and Nakhon Pathom and northeastern province of Ubon Ratchathani.

Northern province of Phichit still has the highest death toll of 45 people, followed by central province of Nakhon Sawan, of which 30 people killed by flood.

Flash floods and mudslide occurred due to the heavy monsoon since mid July.

Floods still prevail in 61 of 77 provinces, affecting about 2.5 million households and 8.6 million people.

Of 61 provinces hit by flood, the situation in 36 provinces, mostly in the north, have slowly been recovering, the report said, while the flood situation in central provinces, especially provinces adjacent to Bangkok, are worsen.

About 50 main highways in many provinces are flooded and cannot be passed and some north-bound train routes were canceled.

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- The first batch of China's emergency relief aids for Cambodian flood-affected people arrived at Phnom Penh International Airport on Saturday afternoon.

The hand-over ceremony of the aids was made at the airport between the Ambassador of China to Cambodia Pan Guangxue and Cambodia's Vice President of the National Committee for Disaster Management Nhim Vanda and Health Minister Mam Bunheng.

The relief aids included more than 30 types of medications, medical supplies and equipment, mosquito nets, blankets, towels and other relief materials, Pan Guangxue said during the ceremony.

The aids are part of the emergency humanitarian assistance worth 50 million yuan (7.87 million U.S. dollars) to Cambodia for flood relief efforts, he said. The second batch of the relief assistance will arrive here on Sunday evening.

Pan Guangxue also conveyed sympathy from the leaders and the people of China to the government of Cambodia and Cambodian people for the worst floods that have claimed Cambodian lives and damaged enormous properties.

"The aids are to help Cambodia to relieve the difficulties; the aids come from the heartfelt generosity of the Chinese government and people to Cambodian government and people to ease difficulties causing by the floods," he said. "China wishes to see Cambodia a quick recovery from the flood devastation."

Speaking during receiving the relief assistance, Nhim Vanda said the assistance reflected the attention of Chinese government and people to Cambodian people.

"China is largest relief aid donor to Cambodia during the flood disaster," he said. "The aid is timely and will be very useful to help Cambodian people who are affected by the floods."

"On behalf of the government of Cambodia and Cambodian people, I would like to express sincere thanks to the government of  China and her people for the relief aids, and I wish the friendship and cooperation between Cambodia and China to be stronger  and to last forever," he said.

He said the aids would be soon distributed to flood-affected victims.

Cambodia has been hit the worst in the last decade by the Mekong River and flash floods since early August. To date, at least 247 people has been killed and affected about 1.5 million people, said Nhim Vanda.

Some 2,410 kilometers of roads have affected and other 660 kilometers of roads have been damaged.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) concluded on Saturday that it would accelerate its progress to become an integrated economy in a move prompted by the global economic slowdown.

Trade ministers from member states at the two-day ASEAN Economic Council retreat said their priority is set to achieving three tasks this year  to consolidate forces within the region, widen ASEAN's engagement with existing dialogue partners and seek ASEAN's role in engaging with and responding to global issues.

"We all shared the perspective that the slowdown in the world economy will impact our exports and how it would affect our growth. It was quite variable in a sense that those countries that have higher percentage of exposure to Europe and the U.S. obviously have more of an impact," said Mari Elka Pangestu, the trade minister of Indonesia, the country which currently chairs ASEAN.

"The context of us accelerating integration is exactly that. We have agreed to anticipate and respond to the slowdown in the global economy situation that is likely not to be happening only next year but it could last for a few years," she told the press after discussions.

The bloc is determined to form the ASEAN Economic Community for all 10 member states to be an integrated single market by 2015.

Last year, trade among ASEAN members only accounted for 25 percent of the 2.1 trillion U.S. dollars total trade achieved in the region.

Ministers at the retreat addressed the urgency to hike the figure although they have not set a target.

Among other measures discussed were the call for a greater transparency among member states and the removal of non-tariff measures to ease the integration progress, and to produce frameworks that would expand the engagement with existing and future dialogue partners.

They have also addressed proposals by dialogue partners, China and Japan, details of which they said would be conveyed to the two countries in November when the ASEAN summit is held.

MONROVIA, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has maintained her lead in the presidential race, according to provisional results announced by the National Elections Commission (NEC) Friday.

According to the results released by NEC Chairman James M. Fromoyan, Unity Party's Ellen Johnson Sirleaf obtained 265,883 or 44.5 percent of the votes tallied so far, while her main rival Winston Tubman of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) received 172,681 representing 29.5 percent of the total number of votes tallied  so far.

Former Warlord, now Senator Prince Y. Johnson of the National Union for Democratic Progress has maintained his third position with 66,419 votes, representing 11.4 percent, while Charles Brumskine of the Liberty Party polled 38,069 votes representing or 6.5 percent of the total votes counted and collated so far.

The figures were tallied from 2,242 of the 4,457 polling places in the country, representing a little over  50 percent of the total number of votes counted and collated so far.

According to Chairman Fromoyan,  voter turn-out remains at 70.2 percent.

He added that of the 629,627  counted so far, the total number of valid votes are 585,179, while invalid votes are 44,498.

Fromoyan said the Commission is working within 15 days as of the date of day of the October 11 election date to come out with the final result, but assured that the final results would be announced before the October 26 date.

Meanwhile, Liberia's Police Inspector-General, Marc Amblard has warned would-be trouble makers planning to disrupt the current peace and create post-election difficulties for the government to abandon their the move.

"We will not compromise the peace Liberians have enjoyed since 2006 following its return to constitutional democracy, Inspector- General Amblard told reporters on Friday.

The warning comes against the backdrop of reported planned demonstration in Monrovia on the conduct of the just-ended general and presidential elections.

He said those who work within the law have nothing to fear as the police will ensure their civil liberty remains intact but those wishing to undermine peace will face the raft of the police.

Stalwarts of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) of ex-UN Secretary General Special envoy to Somalia, Cllr. Winston Tubman are unhappy with the unofficial results announced by various media outlets in the country since election ended Tuesday ahead of NEC's official results.

Threatening remarks continue to be released  particularly by officials of the CDC, the police boss said.

Also, the Carter Center Election Observation Mission to Liberia has released preliminary report on the conduct of Liberia's 2011 general and presidential elections describing the voting process as transparent and encouraged citizens to await final results.

"All Liberians should await the announcement of final results by the National Election Commission (NEC) and the resolution of formal complaints in order to ensure that the will of the people is expressed," a Carter statement issued on Friday said.

Addressing a news conference in Monrovia, the head of mission, former Nigerian head of state, Yakubu Gowon said the poll mark an important test for Liberia's transition from civil war to democratic, constitutional government.