DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “80th Interpol General Assembly convenes in Vietnam” plus 9 more

HANOI, Oct.31 (Xinhua) -- The 80th General Assembly of the International Criminal Police organization (Interpol) was open here on Monday, with participation of nearly 1,200 police officers from 188 countries and territories.

Themed,"Connecting police for a safer world - Strong partnerships, innovation and building capacity", during the 4-day meeting, participants would discuss on possibilities to cooperate in crime prevention, especially for high-tech crimes and pirates, and improve capacity for crime prevention.

Through cooperation with the Interpol, Vietnamese police had exposed different ways by the criminals to hide drugs, and cooperated with foreign partners to prevent many terrorist schemes and actions, said Vietnamese Minister of Public Security (MPS), Lieutenant General Tran Dai Quang.

According to MPS, over the past 20 years as an Interpol member, Vietnam had received news and handled more than 12,000 cases relating to international wanted subjects, over 12,000 cases to cross-border criminals and over 6,000 cases to drug- and economy- related criminals.

Vietnamese police had coordinated with their foreign partners to capture and extradite many dangerous criminals, among them Bui Huu Tai and Nguyen Thanh Thang were listed by the FBI among the top-ten most dangerous criminals in 1998, reported MPS.

Prior to the meeting, Interpol President Khoo Boon Hui was received by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Vietnam will do its utmost to promote cooperation with the Interpol in crime prevention and enhancing capacity to combat crime, Dung said.

Interpol President highly spoke of the close and effective cooperation between the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security and Interpol over the past time, saying that cooperation between the national police forces through Interpol was significant for global crime prevention.

SEOUL, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's defense ministry said Monday four officials at the ministry's intelligence agency were arrested for breaking into a university professor's e-mail account, local media reported.

The four Defense Security Command (DSC) officers, based in Seoul and Gwanju, are charged with hacking an e-mail account of 48- year-old professor Ki Gwang-seo at Gwangju-based Chosun University, who the counterintelligence officials thought might leak confidential military information, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Ki was once arrested for violating the National Security Law that bans the vaguely defined "anti-state acts."

Investigators have reportedly said they found no evidence the four men, who also attempted to destroy evidence of the hacking, followed orders of their superiors.

Suspicious of a possible involvement of higher-ranking military officials in the incident, opposition parties here have claimed that the military is trying to cover up its illegal surveillance activities targeting civilians.

The DSC is an intelligence unit tasked with collecting and protecting military intelligence.

JAKARTA, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- The ASEAN common currency issue is too premature for the region as it has to deal with more important issues and has to learn from European Union, experts said here on Monday.

"For ASEAN, although it is an intriguing idea, I think common currency is a premature one. There is a great risk to go along with the idea," said Jon D. Mills, manager of Harvard University of Asia Center.

He said that ASEAN should learn from the European Union before implementing such a regime.

"We still have more important issues here than common currency, " said Mills.

Djauhari Oratmangun, director general for ASEAN Cooperation at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, said that ASEAN thinks that the issue is not a prioritized one.

"We must learn from European experience before we enter to the issue," he said.

Bagus Santoso, lecturer at Department of Economics at the University of Gajah Mada in Yogyakarta province, said that the idea is a possible one but could not be implemented in a short term.

"We should move step-by-step. It is different with the EU that puts the policy in the first place. ASEAN puts it in the last one. It is important that if the regime was implemented some day, we could run it smoother than the EU," he said Santoso.

Fukunari Kimura, chief economist at the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia that ASEAN needs time to adopt the policy, considering the whole macro economy within member states.

"We must study the advantages and disadvantages," he said.

JAKARTA, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- PT Toyota Motors Manufacturing Indonesia (TMMIN) is seeking an alternative component supplier in order to continue to produce vehicles as the ongoing flooding has closed many industries in Thailand, a media reported here on Monday.

"Toyota is still looking for other component suppliers outside Thailand," TMMIN vice president Johnny Darmawan was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying.

The vice president said that TMMIN production had been disrupted because the factory producing Toyota components in Thailand was flooded.

Johnny said the company had already found a solution and was hoping it would not have a major impact on production. "At the most we will be 5 percent off our original target."

From January to September, TMMIN had already produced 86,497 vehicles, an 18.1 percent increase from the 73,185 vehicles it made over the same period last year.

HARBIN, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- The Harbin City Government will enforce a regulation from Tuesday to intensify the preservation of the site of former Japanese troop Unit 731 to expose the crimes of the Japanese invaders and call for peace across the world, according to an official statement.

Under the regulation approved by the provincial legislature of Heilongjiang in northeast China, the protection includes the headquarters of the largest biological warfare team in the world, a factory producing shells containing biological agents, a liaison office on Jilin Street, a dormitory, the then-Japanese Consulate, single and group structures and their facilities in the suburban testing ground Chengzigou as well as other mobile and immobile cultural relics displayed at the site.

Established in 1939 as a top-secret biological warfare research base of the Japanese Kwantung Army, the unit was the nerve center of Japan's biological warfare in Southeast Asia during the Second World War. More than 10,000 civilians and war prisoners from China, the former Soviet Union, the Democratic Republic of Korea and Mongolia died as the subjects of experiments conducted by Unit 731.

When the Soviet army took back Harbin in 1945, the Japanese blew up the base.

In October 2000, 900-plus pages of confidential documents belonging to Unit 731 about experiments conducted in northeast China were discovered by a Japanese scholar in a library's warehouse of a medical college in Japan.

The documents contain key research showing that the troop had spread pestis bacteria in northeast China's cities of Nong'an and Changchun in the 1940s.

The records detail the way the pestis bacteria was produced and spread, the conditions of the affected viscera and the relationship between plague and climate.

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday urged Cambodian athletes to try all their best at the 26th Southeast Asian Games (SEA GAMES) in Indonesia's Jakarta and Palembang from Nov. 11-22.

During a meeting with a group of 230 Cambodian athletes and coaches led by the Tourism Minister Thong Khon, president of national olympic committee, the premier said Cambodia has no ambition to be the leading sports country, but the country has to stride to gain medals in order to demonstrate its sportsmen's abilities and to honor the nation's reputation.

However, the premier said win or lose doesn't matter, but the athletes have to strictly comply with the rules in the tournaments to reflect the dignity of Cambodia.

Thong Khon said Cambodian athletes will contest in 20 sports at the SEA Games, including boxing, volleyball, badminton, wresting, athletic, swimming, weightlifting, petanque, soccer and tennis.

Cambodia's sports delegation will start to leave Cambodia for Indonesia on Nov. 5.

In the previous SEA GAMES, the country earned 40 medals, but only 3 golds.

The government of Cambodia generally provides 6,000 U.S. dollars for a gold medal winner, 4,000 U.S. dollars to the silver medal winner and 2,000 U.S. dollars to the bronze medal winners. Also, there would be cash bonus from private companies to the winners.

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday advised Cambodian athletes to try all  their best to gain medals in the 26th Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in Indonesia's Jakarta and Palembang from Nov. 11 -22.

During a meeting with a group of 230 Cambodian athletes and coaches led by the Tourism Minister Thong Khon, president of  national olympic committee, the premier said Cambodia has no ambition to be the leading sports country, but the country has to stride to gain medals in order to demonstrate its sportsmen's abilities and to honor the nation's reputation.

However, the premier said win or lose is not the matter, but the athletes have to strictly comply with the rules in the  tournaments to reflect the dignity of Cambodia.

Thong Khon said Cambodian athletes will contest in 20 types of sports at the SEA GAMES. They are boxing, volleyball,  badminton, wresting, athletic, swimming, weightlifting, petanque, football, tennis, Shorinji Kempo, golf, karate, table tennis,  wushu, judo, basketball, vovinam, taekwondo, and traditional boat racing.

He said the Cambodia's sports delegation will start to leave Cambodia for Indonesia from Nov. 5.

In the previous SEA GAMES, the country earned 40 medals, but only 3 in gold.

The government of Cambodia generally provides 6,000 U.S. dollars for a gold medal winner, 4,000 U.S. dollars to the silver medal winner and 2,000 U.S. dollars to the bronze medal winners. Also, there would be cash bonus from private companies to the  winners.

The SEA GAMES is attended by sportsmen from all the ten ASEAN member states and Timor-Leste.

SEOUL, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's rival parties have reached a tentative compromise over a controversial clause in the free trade agreement with the United States, possibly clearing a hurdle for the agreement on the way to legislative approval, local media reported Monday.

Opposition parties have demanded the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISD) clause, which allows U.S. investors to settle disputes with the South Korean government at international courts, be removed before the South Korean parliament votes on the long- pending trade deal.

Following discussions Sunday, the floor leaders of the ruling Grand National Party and the main opposition Democratic Party agreed that Seoul and Washington start negotiations over the clause within three months after the pact takes effect, according to local broadcaster MBC.

It remains to be seen whether the Democrats would agree to the tentative compromise between the floor leaders, according to MBC, while the ruling camp seeks to pass the bill through the parliamentary trade committee as soon as possible.

Seoul's two-way free trade agreement with Washington has been one of the most polarizing political issues here since it was signed in 2007, with opposition parties vowing to block what they see as a lopsided agreement in favor of Washington.

Policy think tanks here say the bilateral trade deal will create 350,000 new jobs and increase South Korea's gross domestic product by 5.66 percent, but critics dispute the estimate.

JAKARTA, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Dialogue partners will take benefit from the ASEAN Connectivity as it has a political dimension that will contribute to security and stability in the region, ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said here Monday.

He told a press conference that all dialogue partners want to see ASEAN more consolidated and integrated.

"It has a political dimension and will contribute to security and stability in the region. If the region is prosperous, then the dialog partners can benefit from the prosperity with the rising of middle class. More multinational companies will move to ASEAN, setting up headquarters in Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta and others, " said Pitsuwan.

He has been asking member states not to expect donation and contribution from dialogue partners which includes the United States, Russia and some other western countries. Instead, he suggests ASEAN countries need to connect to the international standards for attracting investment.

He said that the region must comply with issues of international property rights, immigration and customs and standard of products.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- At least four people including three civilians were killed and two injured Monday morning when a truck bomb went off followed gunshots in Kandahar city, the provincial capital of southern Kandahar province, police said.

"So far, three civilians and a suicide attacker have been killed," Deputy provincial police Chief Rahmatullah Atrafi told Xinhua, adding "The car bomb blasted at around 06:30 a.m. local time (0200 GMT) near a foreign institution's building in Kandahar city."

The suicide car bomb targeted a non-governmental organization -- the International Relief and Development (IRD), a police officer near the site told Xinhua.

The police source, who talked in condition of anonymity since he was not allowed to talk to media, told Xinhua that at least four Nepali nationals who serve as security guard for IRD office have also been killed in the pre-dawn attack in second sub- district of the city.

The powerful blast completely destroyed the IRD office building besides damaging several houses around the blast site.

IRD is a non-profit organization involved in reconstruction and development projects in Kandahar province.

Gun fighting is still going on and sporadic firing still could be heard.

Police forces rushed to the site and begun battling an unknown number of armed militants holed up a building near the blast site, a Xinhua reporter near the site said.

"Based on initial reports from the spot, three local civilian have been killed and two others including a Nepali National wounded in Truck-born Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack near the IRD branch in Kandahar city," provincial government said in a statement released here.

Two armed insurgents have taken place inside an animal clinic building and begun small arms firing small arms toward the security forces in the area, they have been facing the hard resistance by the police and will be detained or either killed shortly, the statement added.

Meantime, Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack.

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesman in talks with local media via cell phone from undisclosed location said the outfit fighters have carried out a suicide car bomb against IRD office of foreign forces killing several foreign forces and that many Taliban still fighting with Afghan and forcing forces there.

Militancy has been rampant since May this year when Taliban militants announced to launch spring offensive in the war-battered Afghanistan.

Taliban claimed they carried out a suicide car bomb that killed 13 U.S. soldiers and civilian employees with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in capital city of Kabul on Saturday.

The powerful car bomb occured in Darul Aman locality west of Kabul city on Saturday also killed a policeman and three civilians.