DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Malaysia seeks action against Burundian soldiers held responsible for killing Malaysian reporter” plus 9 more

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian Foreign Minister, Anifah Aman said on Wednesday that his ministry is seeking possible legal action that would impose appropriate penalty on four Burundian peacekeepers who were said to have accidentally shot dead a Malaysian journalist in Somalia.

The Malaysian television cameraman was shot dead in Mogadishu, Somalia last month by Burundian peacekeepers patrolling the coastal city.

Another cameraman was injured in the shooting.

The four soldiers were suspended from duty and repatriated for trial after the African Union Mission for Somalia held them responsible for the shooting.

Anifah told the parliament that a Malaysian mission has been asked to observe the trial of the four soldiers.

KABUL, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Afghan and NATO-led Coalition forces have killed 118 insurgents in 18 days as mounting pressure against Taliban outfit continues, spokesman for Afghan Defense Ministry General Zahir Azimi said Wednesday.

"One hundred eighteen insurgents have been killed, 30 injured and 930 more suspected insurgents have been detained during the joint and independent operations carried out by Afghan National Army (ANA) and Coalition forces over the past 18 days in different parts of the country," Azimi told journalists here in Kabul at a joint press conference with the spokesman of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson.

According to Azimi, the joint forces have also seized 64 pieces of different kinds of weapons and ammunition including Improvised Explosive Device (IED) over the mentioned operation from across the war-battered country.

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

Azimi also admitted at the press conference that the Taliban- led clashes and IED blasts had claimed the lives of 31 Afghan soldiers and left 134 others injured over the past 18 days.

Speaking at the press conference, General Carsten, Jacobson the spokesman of NATO-led troops, expressed the alliance commitment towards Afghan government to enable it ensure its security.

"We have managed to chase the insurgents out of the most populated areas, out of large parts of Afghanistan and we will continue to do so to deny them sanctuaries," the spokesman of over 130,000-strong NATO-led forces said.

As a sign of exerting pressure on Taliban, the Afghan police have also been hugely contributing in war on insurgents to stabilize security in the militancy-plagued Afghanistan.

"Afghan National Police (ANP) have discovered and confiscated four anti-vehicle mines, 11 boxes of automatic machine gun bullets, 20 rounds of mortar mines, four hand grenades, 78 BM-1 rockets, 14 artillery shells, four rocket launchers and explosive devices during series of operations from across the country over the past 24 hours," Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

GAZA, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held in captivity in the Gaza Strip since June 2006, will be moved to Egypt on Monday, Palestinian sources closed to the Islamic Hamas movement said Wednesday.

"The moment Shalit is handed to Egypt, Israel will start to free 450 prisoners from its jails as a first phase of a prisoner swap deal reached between Hamas and Israel on Tuesday," the sources told Xinhua.

Leaders of Hamas and Israel announced late Tuesday that a prisoner swap deal mediated by Egypt had been reached between the two sides. Israel agreed to free 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit's release.

"The freed prisoners will be handed to Egypt in return for handing over Shalit, and they will cross into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing on the borders between the Gaza Strip and Egypt," the sources said.

The exchanging process will be conducted under the supervision of senior Egyptian leaders and heady Egyptian security forces at the borders, the sources added.

The sources also revealed that intensive negotiations were currently holding in Cairo between the parties to finalize the details of the swap deal.

The second phase of the deal will be implemented two months after Shalit is released, when Israel would free 550 prisoners from its jails.

According to the sources, the deal won't include top Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, leader of the Popular Front to Liberate Palestine (PFLP) Ahmed Sa'adat and three senior Hamas militants.

Musa Abu Marzooq, a senior Hamas leader based in Damascus express regret that the deal won't include senior leaders of the Palestinian factions. He told the Gaza-based al-Aqsa TV of Hamas that anyway, the deal "is excellent."

JAKARTA, Oct. 12 (Xinhua)  -- The Joint Preparatory Meeting ( JPM), the Senior Officials' level Meeting of three pillars of the ASEAN Community, was held in Bali of Indonesia on Wednesday to discuss preparations for the 9th ASEAN Coordinating Council which will be held on Nov. 16, a press statement said here.

The JPM plays an important role in coordinating initiatives and input from the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting (SOM), the ASEAN Senior Economic Officials Meeting (SEOM) and the Senior Officials Committee for the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (SOCA) in advance of the meeting of the ASEAN Coordinating Council.

The SOM, SEOM and SOCA leaders of ASEAN member states will be present at the JPM in order to ensure work across the political- security, economic and socio-cultural pillars of ASEAN is well coordinated, synergized and harmonized.

The meeting also discussed preparations for the 19th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits, to be held in Bali in November, including the 6th East Asia Summit and the various ASEAN+1 meetings.

MANILA, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Tropical storm Banyan has so far left "minimal effect" with five dead, nine others still missing and a few areas flooded, Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said Wednesday.

In a press briefing, NDRRMC executive director and Office of Civil Defense administrator Benito Ramos said four of the fatalities were children who drowned in Barotac Viejo village in Iloilo City on Tuesday.

Ramos initially said the four fatalities were swept away by strong current when they crossed a river, which was swollen by heavy rains.

The fifth fatality was Daryl Gales, 20, a small miner, who was trapped inside a mining tunnel in Sta Cruz village in Butuan City that collapsed on Tuesday. Ramos said the body of Gales has been retrieved.

According to Ramos, there are nine still missing, including Lyka Llosendo, 8, who figured in the Iloilo City incident. The eight others missing were composed of seven fishermen from Misamis Oriental and another fisherman from Leyte.

Ramos said at least 373 families have been evacuated due to Banyan. Many others who were living in risk areas have sought refuge with their families even before Banyan made a landfall on Wednesday morning.

Ramos said rains brought about by Banyan have caused flooding in the northern part of Cebu province.

Ramos also noted that Banyan has weakened as it hit the mountains, prompting weather officials to downgrade Banyan from tropical storm to just tropical depression.

MANILA, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said Wednesday the government is reviewing the Public-Private Partnership  (PPP) program to speed up the process and to ensure that the country gets the necessary infrastructure projects at the cheapest possible price.

"We are reviewing the whole process and we're trying to compress the time element involve. We are hoping that we get the needed infrastructure at the cheapest price possible and (least) burden on the people and hence the necessity for all of the reviews," Aquino said at the annual Presidential forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

Aquino said the review includes a "rethinking" of a possibly " wrong" assumption that the government can't tap the budget for PPP projects especially as the savings that it generated has created some fiscal space.

The President said that the "biggest assumption" in the PPP program was that "there would be practically nothing in the budget that could be utilized for these needed infrastructure projects."

"However, we managed quite a bit of savings. There is a significant reduction in our deficit," he said, and cited in particular the global peso bond float which has given the government "the fiscal space" to consider modifying the PPP program.

DAMASCUS, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Hamas Politburo chief Khaled Mashaal headed to Cairo Wednesday to complete a prisoner swap deal with Israel, according to a statement posted on Hamas website.

In a televised speech broadcasted late Tuesday by the Syrian TV, Mashaal said 450 Palestinian prisoners will be released within a week and the rest of 1,027 prisoners two months later according to the swap deal that secures the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit held in captivity since 2006.

He said more than 300 Palestinians sentenced to life imprisonment will be freed along with all 27 Palestinian women in Israeli prisons. However, he didn't specify when Gilad Shalit would be released.

A source at the Hamas office in Damascus said Ahmed Sa'adat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who was arrested by the Palestinian National Authority in 2001 for alleged links to the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi will not be released.

The source said prominent leaders from al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, would be released, adding that the deal will be concluded in Egypt.

Mashaal denied reports that Hamas would move its offices from Damascus and said such an issue hadn't be brought up.

The Hamas leader praised Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Syria and Germany for their efforts in sealing the deal.

He pledged that his groups would continue to work for the release of all Palestinian prisoners.

Meanwhile, Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is currently on a tour to Columbia and several European countries, said in a statement that he blessed the prisoner swap deal reached between Israel and Hamas.

Thousands of Hamas supporters took to streets right after Hamas and Israel reached a prisoner swap deal, waving flags and chanting slogans in support for the Islamic movement.

JAKARTA, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia, is expecting delivery of 20 new planes from Boeing and Airbus in the next two years to meet increasing demand, a senior official of the airlines said here on Wednesday.

"The delivery of the new Boeing and Airbus planes would commence in the next three months," Garuda Indonesia Financial Director Elisa Lumbantoruan said.

According to Elisa, Garuda Indonesia has set plans to procure 60 new planes in the next five years, adding that besides Airbus and Boeing planes, Garuda would also procure planes produced by Brazilian and Canadian planemakers, Embraer and Bombardier.

She said that Garuda Indonesia operates 86 planes in its fleet with three of them, two Boeing 737-800 NG and one Airbus A330-200 being delivered early this year.

She added that Garuda Indonesia expects to operate a total of 92 planes by the end of the year and 154 aircraft by 2015.

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- At least 180,000 hectares of rice paddies in Cambodia have been destroyed by the Mekong River floods since early August, Minister of Agriculture Chan Sarun said on Wednesday.

"So far, 180,000 hectares out of the 2.4 million hectares of grown rice paddies this year have been destroyed by the floods," he told reporters after a meeting. "However, it will not affect our food security and rice export policy as we will distribute rice seeds to affected farmers as soon as possible after the floods."

Chan Sarun said that the ministry has reserved about 3,450 tons of rice seeds to give out to affected farmers to replant rice crop soon after the floods.

Cambodia has been hard-hit by the flood since Aug. 13, inundating 19 cities and provinces.

Keo Vy, spokesman for the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), said Wednesday at least 207 people were killed, excluding 6 people killed on Wednesday morning as a boat capsized in Siem Reap province.

The floods have also affected some 1.2 million people, he said.

About 600 houses were swept away by floods and other 196,600 houses, 1,132 schools and 400 Buddhist pagodas are submerged.

In addition, approximately 180 kilometers of national roads and around 1,800 kilometers of gravel roads have been blocked.

BANGKOK -- A total of 281 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 Wednesday.

A total of 12 more people were confirmed dead on Tuesday, with seven in eastern province of Prachinburi. (Thailand-Floods)

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KABUL -- A total of 118 insurgents have been killed in Afghan and NATO-led Coalition forces operations over the past 18 days, a spokesman for Afghan Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

"Some 118 insurgents have been killed, 30 injured and 930 more suspected insurgents have been detained during the joint and independent operations carried out by Afghan National Army (ANA) and Coalition forces over the past 18 days," General Zahir Azimi told reporters in a joint press conference with the spokesman of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson. (Afghanistan-NATO-Insurgents)

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SEOUL -- South Korea raised the issue of Korean women who were exploited as sex slaves under Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule at a UN meeting in New York, the foreign ministry in Seoul said Wednesday.

At the 687th session of the UN General Assembly Tuesday, local time, South Korea's Deputy Chief Envoy to the UN Shin Dong-ik expressed concerns over "systematic rape and sexual slavery" that constitutes "war crimes" and even "crimes against humanity," according to the ministry.

Shin also called for proper compensation for war-rape victims and ending impunity, the ministry said in a press release. (South Korea-Japan-Sex Slaves)

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MANILA -- Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said that the 72 billion pesos (1.66 billion U.S. dollars) stimulus package would cushion the economy from the impact of an uncertain global recovery, but assured that this will not be done at the expense of the country's fiscal health.

"We will do what we can within the bounds of fiscal prudence to keep the economy growing," Aquino said in Wednesday's briefing organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP).

Aquino said that the stimulus package, which will finance reconstruction plans and infrastructure projects, will be financed by government savings and not by additional borrowing that may widen the country's deficit. (Philippines-President-Stimulus)

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NEW DELHI -- India Wednesday launched its latest satellite, the Megha-Tropiques, and three other satellites into space from Sriharikota spaceport in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh to study the patterns and dynamics of the monsoon, an official said.

The 1,000-kg Indo-French satellite Megha-Tropiques was one of four hoisted into space, and all were successfully placed in orbit by India's Polar Satellite Launch vehicle-C18 following their launch by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) from Satish Dhawan space center, he said. (India-Satellite-Monsoon)