DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “5 students killed, 23 injured in traffic accident in eastern Turkey” plus 9 more

ANKARA, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Five students were killed and 23 others injured when a school bus collided with a truck in eastern Turkey Monday, local newspaper Today's Zaman reported on its website.

The accident occurred in the Sarikamis district around the Mescitli village in the province of Kars, said the report.

Three of the injured were in critical conditions, it said, adding that an investigation into the accident was underway.

DUBAI, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates' non-oil foreign trade hit 445 billion dirhams (about 122 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of this year, an increase of 22 percent year on year, the Federal Customs Authority said in a statement published Monday.

Imports grew by 20 percent from 236.5 billion dirhams in the first half of last year to 285 billion dirhams, while the exports witnessed a 44 percent growth rate from 36 billion dirhams to 54.7 billion dirhams. Re-exports experienced a growth rate of 17 percent to reach 105.3 billion dirhams, according to the statement.

Like other Gulf oil producers, the UAE has been striving to diversify its oil-dependent economy and boost sources of income from the non-oil sector, taking advantage of its energy resources, developed infrastructure and a strategic location in the heart of a massive consumer market.

India, China, the United States, Germany, Japan, Britain, Italy, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Switzerland topped the list of countries exporting to the UAE in the first half of this year with a total of 175.5 billion dirhams, which constitutes 62 percent of the UAE's total imports, the statement said.

Statistics showed that gold ranked first among imports with a value of 45.6 billion dirhams followed by diamond, cars, ornaments, jewelry and telephone sets.

Gold also came first among exports in the first half of this year valued at 27.7 billion dirhams followed by fire-fighting, guiding and other ships.

DAMASCUS, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford has left the unrest-hit country for security reasons, a secretary at the U.S. embassy in Damascus told Xinhua Monday.

HANOI, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) held here on Monday a seminar to work on macroeconomy and human resource development in Vietnam, with participation of representatives from the two countries' ministries and branches.

To help Vietnam upgrade productivity, JICA focused on cooperation in human resource training to meet the demand of production sectors, said Takeshi Hachimura, JICA chief advisor to the State Bank of Vietnam.

There has been an imbalance between saving and consumption in Vietnam for a long time. Domestic saving is not used to develop other sectors and can't readjust the imbalance of domestic capital. Hence the vicious circle of the Vietnamese economy is due to backward financial system, Takeshi said.

Participants to the conference agreed that in the coming time the two sides should continue to share with each other technical transfer and training. Support for Vietnamese universities specialized in science and technique training should be promoted, providing connectivity between the universities and Japanese business circle.

They also said that Vietnam has to modernize monetary transactions and implement the campaign "to strengthen the power of the Vietnamese dong" among the citizens, which will find out the root and limit illegal transactions, improve management and enhance confidence in the international arena.

WARSAW, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- A Polish soldier was killed and another seriously injured in a roadside bomb explosion in the Afghan province of Ghazni on Sunday, the PAP news agency reported on Monday.

The soldier, 28-year-old Mariusz Deptula, was killed when an improvised explosive device went off under the armoured vehicle he was travelling in, Major Miroslaw Ochyra of the Operational Command told the PAP.

The other soldier sustained a leg wound and would be evacuated to Poland. Other soldiers in the patrol received lesser injuries and are not in a life-threatening condition, though they will be under medical observation for some days, according to Ochyra.

Deptula is the 30th Polish soldier killed in Afghanistan. Currently Poland has 2,600 troops in Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan, Polish units guard the province Ghazni. Their mission focuses on maintaining security, training local security forces and aiding local authorities in reconstruction work.

Poland is expected to start to reduce its contingent in Afghanistan by the end of 2011 and completely withdraw from that country in 2014.

BANGKOK, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Commerce Minister Kittirat na Ranong on Monday unveiled after meeting with flood-hit manufactures that the ministry plans to propose the Cabinet for the consideration of a set-up of 100-billion-baht fund (3.3 billion US dollars) for business reconstruction.

The Monday meeting was held to discuss ways to revive affected businesses with representatives of factories from eight inundated industrial estates including Saharatana Nakorn, Hi-Tech, Bang Pa- in, Rojana and Factory Land in Ayutthaya province as well as Bangkradi and Navanakorn in Pathum Thani province.

The commerce minister said the meeting aimed at enabling those flood-hit entrepreneurs to resume their production in 45 days after floods subside.

Meanwhile, the Board of Investment of Thailand will grant eight- year tax exemption to the affected manufacturers when importing machineries or equipments from abroad, according to Kittirat.

Is has been initially estimated that damage cost for those flood-stricken industrial parks, homes to over ten thousand factories, could be at least 100 billion baht (3.3 billion US dollars) or cut economic growth projection of this year by one percent, according to experts.

ISTANBUL, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- A total of 213 aftershocks were recorded into the early hours of Monday, in the wake of a 7.2- magnitude earthquake that hit southeastern Turkey's Van province Sunday.

The biggest recorded aftershocks up to 0430 GMT Monday morning measured 5.7 and 5.5 on the Richter scale, according to data from the Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute.

Another 37 quakes were recorded in the neighboring regions of Agri, Bitlis, Mus, Igdir, Kars and Erzurum with the biggest measuring 3.8 on the Richter scale.

Turkey, lying atop the North Anatolian fault, has been plagued by earthquakes frequently. On March 8, 2010, at least 38 people died and dozens of others injured after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Elazig province in eastern Turkey.

On Aug. 17, 1999, two powerful earthquakes, measuring 6.7 and 7. 4 on the Richter scale respectively, hit northwestern and western Turkey, killing about 18,000 people and affecting hundreds of thousands of others.

A major earthquake hit Van province in November 1976, with 5, 291 confirmed dead. The province has a population of just over 1 million.

SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korea will send five rescue workers to earthquake-hit Turkey later in the day to assist search and rescue efforts there, local media reported Monday.

The government also reportedly plans to send relief supplies in consultation with the Turkish government.

A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey Sunday, killing at least 138 people. No South Korean casualties have been reported.

"The government will do everything we can to help rescue and reconstruction efforts," the foreign ministry in Seoul said in a statement.

NEW DELHI, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- An Indian court Monday granted bail to a senior Indian MP, Amar Singh, in connection with the 2008 cash-for-vote scandal.

The Delhi High Court cited "humanitarian grounds" to give bail to 55-year-old Singh as he is in poor health, but restrained him from leaving the country without its permission, an official said.

"The court also asked him to furnish a personal bond of 5 million rupees (100,00 U.S. dollars) and two sureties of like amount. He was also asked to surrender his passport before the lower court which is hearing the cash-for-vote case," he said.

The former leader of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh- based Samajwadi Party was arrested by Delhi Police on Sept. 6, and booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act for his alleged role in the cash-for- vote case.

He was subsequently sent to Tihar Jail for his alleged involvement in the bribing of three Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party MPs ahead of a trust vote in Parliament in the wake of Indo- U.S. nuclear deal in July 2008.

The politician was shifted to a hospital seven days later, after he complained of vomiting and pain in the kidney.

MANILA, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Despite the assurance of Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino that the government would not resort to an all-out war against the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), there is now an undeclared war in Mindanao in the Southern Philippines as government troops were forced to retaliate amidst continued attacks by Moro guerrillas in three provinces.

On Sunday in Basilan, the site of the carnage of 19 government troops last Oct. 18, MILF guerrillas led by Hassan Asnawi, commander of the MILF's 114th Base Command, ambushed a truck owned by a rubber cooperative in the island-province, leaving five civilians dead and eight others wounded.

Asnawi, who led the treacherous attack on the soldiers last Oct. 18, was also responsible for the beheading of 14 soldiers in 2007.

Killed in the second Basilan incident were Renato Aligay, Junrel Langugon, Delord Johnson and Buenaventura Lugamay, all rubber tappers, and militiaman Fernando Tantalo. Wounded were workers Danilo Tonghay, Julibert Dingkong, Adzar Madjakin, Francisco Taklindo, Abdul Mot and Alfredo Rojas, and militiamen Gilbert Guevarra and Bonifacio Dagodog Jr.

In Sultan Naga Dimaporo, Lanao del Norte, also on Sunday, armed MILF rebels ambushed troops led by Lt. Col. Bagnum Gaerlan of the 5th Infantry Battalion, killing two soldiers and wounding four others.

According to Philippine authorities, suspected MILF rebels also seized two schools in Zamboanga Sibugay on Saturday. A day earlier, the MILF also killed seven soldiers in the same province.

The fatalities in the two attacks put the overall toll of lives in Mindanao in renewed violence last week at 33--28 of them soldiers and policemen. The dead included 19 killed in Basilan on Oct. 18, and seven on Oct. 21 in Zamboanga Sibugay.

After the ambush massacre last Oct. 18, President Aquino said that the incident would not affect the ongoing peace process with the MILF, even berating the military for preventing the bloodbath.

Soldiers who survived the massacre and some ground military forces have expressed dismay over the President's statement blaming the military for "operational lapses," prompting some sectors to say that there is now some restiveness in the military establishment.

Some officers were particularly disgusted over the relief of their commanders, and the Army spokesman Col. Antonio Parlade who earlier expressed his opinion that the government should temporarily suspend the ceasefire agreement with the MILF and go after the rebels responsible for the carnage of the soldiers in Basilan.

Realizing that he may have stirred a hornet's nest in the military ranks, President Aquino has since backpedalled and said "nobody was happy over the incident and everyone was saddened."

"We are not going to stop going after lawless elements, not only here but in other areas. There are actually ongoing operations in Zamboanga Sibugay as we talk, these will not stop," Aquino said over the weekend when he visited the wake of the slain soldiers whose bodies were brought to Manila from Mindanao.

"I want to convey that the state is ready to defend our countrymen anywhere and everywhere in the Philippines and areas that we are in control of, that are part of our territory," he said.

Mr. Aquino vowed to give justice to the death of the soldiers and assured relatives that those behind the attacks would be hunted down by government troops.

"For all those who were responsible for the death of these soldiers, I warn you the government will not let this pass, we will hunt you down and give justice to the victims," Aquino said.

Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang, spokesman of the Western Mindanao Command where most of the MILF ambuscades happened, said troops had been dispatched to pursue the rebels in Basilan, Lanao del Norte and Zamboanga Sibugay.

Meanwhile, some Philippine legislators have also rejected the President's decision to pursue the peace talks despite the spate of attacks by the MILF.

After the Oct. 18 massacre, Representative Rodolfo Biazon, chairman of the committee on national defense of the House of Representative, urged the Aquino government to immediately suspend the peace negotiations with the MILF and hunt down the group of Asnawi.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the Senate defense committee also hit the administration for allowing organized groups like the MILF to bear arms and even give them belligerency status.

"It has become a vicious cycle--the rogues conduct atrocities, kidnap civilians or attack and ambush our troops, then seek refuge within the confines of the MILF encampment or 'territories,'" Lacson said.

Lacson lamented that renewed peace negotiations have become an arena for posturing by the MILF. "Our peace negotiators should now wake up to that reality," he said.

Both Biazon and Lacson have military background; Biazon was former chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines while Lacson was former director-general of the Philippine National Police.

Senate President Pro-tempore Jinggoy Estrada said that since the MILF admitted that they killed the soldiers, it is about time that the government decides to wage an all-out war against them.

Senator Estrada is the son of former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada who ordered an all-out war against the Muslim secessionist group during his short-lived tenure.