DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “11 killed in road accident in Indian-controlled Kashmir” plus 9 more

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 11 people were killed and 28 others were injured after a passenger bus they were travelling in skidded off the road and fell into a gorge in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said Saturday.

The accident took place Friday evening at Panzinila Top in Kargil district of Ladakh division.

"Eleven people were killed and 28 others were injured after a bus fell into a gorge here," said a police official posted in police control room (PCR) Kargil. "The injured were immediately rushed to Government hospital for treatment and critically injured were airlifted to Leh hospital for specialized treatment."

According to officials, the ill-fated vehicle was on way from Zanaskar to Kargil, when it fell into a deep gorge.

Police said the cause of accident was stated to be the slippery condition of the road. On Friday the area was experiencing rainfall.

Deadly road accidents are common in this mountainous region often caused by overloading, bad condition of roads and reckless driving.

According to traffic department officials, 1,080 people died in more than 6,129 road accidents across Indian-controlled Kashmir last year.

GUIYANG, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Another injured person in an explosion in southwestern Guizhou province died in a hospital on Saturday, bringing the accident's death toll to nine, local authorities said.

Four of the 219 injured people remain in critical condition, while 81 have been discharged from hospital, said the publicity bureau of the city of Fuquan, where the accident happened Tuesday.

Two cargo trucks loaded with about 70 metric tons of explosives blew up in front of a motor vehicle testing station on Tuesday morning in Fuquan, about 100 km from Guizhou's capital of Guiyang.

Seven people were immediately killed and over 200 others were injured. One injured bystander died in hospital Wednesday, pushing the death toll from seven to eight.

The powerful blast also damaged some 5,200 nearby houses and other facilities, forcing residents to live in temporary tents. Six schools, which accommodate 6,000 students, were also closed for over two days for safety checks.

As of Saturday, the city government has earmarked 10 million yuan (1.6 million U.S. dollars) to the relief efforts and the reconstruction.

MANILA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- A Filipino military officer was killed and another was wounded Saturday in an ambush staged by leftist rebels in the northern Philippine province of Albay.

Second Lieutenant Catalino Tiago, 27, head of 2nd Battalion, was on board a military truck along with his men to conduct medical mission in remote village of Nabasan in the township of Daraga when they were ambushed by 15 New Peoples Army rebels, ground military commanding officer Colonel Arthur Ang said.

He said some of the soldiers were able to jump out of the truck and fought with the rebels in a 15-minute firefight, leaving Tiago dead and Private First Class Genesis Broso wounded.

The rebels later withdrew after sensing military reinforcement were coming. Troops were dispatched to pursue the rebels.

The NPA, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has been waging a guerrilla campaign in the countryside for more than four decades. The Philippine military estimates there are over 4,000 NPA guerrilla fighters scattered in more than 60 provinces throughout the country.

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's flood evacuees in many parts of the country have finally returned home, but aid relief to those who were seriously affected will continue for at least three more months, a government official said Saturday.

Keo Vy, spokesman of the National Committee for Disaster Management, said, "By tomorrow, some 51,000 families who had evacuated from homes due to flooding will all return to their homes."

He said there are just about 1,000 families who are preparing to return homes, while the rest had already done so.

However, he said, despite the flooding has subsided from the affected areas across the country, aid relief "will be continued for at least three more months for those who are severely affected. "

He said the flooding that began in August has left 18 Cambodian cities and provinces submerged.

It has been the worst flooding that hit the region in a decade, with at least 250 people killed and 1.5 million people affected.

According to Keo Vy, more than 350,000 people have so far been provided with aid relief.

The flood is estimated to have cost Cambodia 521 million U.S. dollars, mainly in damages of rice paddies and roads.

Many foreign countries and charitable organizations have provided relief assistance to Cambodia, including Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand, Laos, Singapore, Germany, the United States, France, and Australia as well as the United Nations agencies and Asian Development Bank.

KADUNA, Nigeria, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's police in northern Kaduna State said it had commenced investigations into the killing of two women by unknown gunmen at Zonkwa area of the state on Friday.

The reasons for the attacks have yet to be established.

State police spokesperson Aminu Lawal confirmed the incident to reporters, saying some other worshippers were injured during the shooting and had been hospitalized.

He said the command had also deployed more policemen on patrol to restore law and order in the area.

Lawal said the police had launched a man-hunt for the suspected gunmen, while investigation into the shooting had commenced.

An eyewitness told Xinhua that the women were killed during a vigil in a church in the early hours of Friday, adding that 14 other persons who were injured during the attack were receiving treatment at St. Francis Hospital, Zonkwa.

Governor Patrick Yakowa and the Police Commissioner Ballah Nasarawa had visited the scene of the incident.

DAMASCUS, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- A Syrian foreign ministry source on Saturday slashed as "irresponsible" a statement made by the U.S. State Department advising Syrians not to surrender themselves after Damascus announced an amnesty for those who gave up their weapons.

With its statement the U.S. administration has proved once again its flagrant intervention in the Syrian affairs and revealed its policy that supports killing, as well as its funding of " terrorist groups," the source was quoted by the state news agency as saying.

The Syrian interior ministry on Friday called on those who carried, sold or distributed weapons but didn't commit homicides to turn themselves in within a week to receive amnesty.

In a statement carried by the state TV, the ministry pledged to release those who turned themselves in between Nov. 5 and 12, saying that "this will be considered as an amnesty to those who surrender themselves and hand over their weapons."

After the issue of the Syrian statement, the U.S. State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland told reporters that "I wouldn 't advise anybody to turn themselves in to the (Syrian) authorities at the moment."

"This would be about the fourth amnesty that they've offered since I took this job about five months ago," she said, "So we'll see if it has any more traction than it's had."

The Syrian government "condemns this irresponsible statement that couldn't be interpreted but as aiming to foment sedition and support killing and terrorism practiced by armed groups against Syrian citizens," the foreign ministry source said.

The Syrian government urged the international community to confront those policies "that run against the rules of the international law and the UN Security Council resolutions pertaining to combating and funding terrorism," the source said.

NEW DELHI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- India's Nehru-Gandhi scion, Rahul Gandhi, will soon become the head of the country's ruling Congress party, taking over the reins from his mother Sonia Gandhi in the next few weeks, local media reported Saturday.

The coronation of the 41-year-old Rahul is likely in "four to eight weeks" and his mother and current Congress President Sonia would restrict her role to providing broad directions to the country's oldest political party, local dail The Economic Times quoted unnamed senior party leaders as saying.

Sonia has been at the helm of Congress party since 1998.

Rahul will be a year older than his father, the late Rajiv Gandhi, who took over as prime minister and party chief in 1984 after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

With Rahul taking over the party, recurring rumours of a leadership change in the government will also be put to rest, though Congress leaders told the newspaper that there is no plan to change horses in mid-stride.

Rahul, a Member of Parliament representing the Amethi constituency in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is currently General Secretary of the Congress party. He entered politics in 2004.

An MPhil from Cambridge University, Rahul had earlier worked at the Monitor Group, a management consulting firm, in London before coming back to India in 2002 to become one of the directors of Mumbai-based technology outsourcing firm Backops Services Private Ltd.

MANILA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Members of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) are searching for the crew of a distressed vessel off Ilocos province in north Philippines, upon receiving a report from Hong Kong authorities.

Philippine National Police spokesman Agrimero Cruz Jr. said Saturday that the Philippines received a faxed message from Hong Kong Maritime Rescue Coordinating Center regarding MV Oceanic Union, which its captain ordered to be abandoned.

"The captain of said vessel declared abandon ship at latitude 19 degrees 59.7 minutes north, longitude 118 degrees 49.8 minutes east," he said.

Philippine police from nearby municipalities have sent ambulances and helicopters for the rescue of the vession, which may have sunk, he said.

ANKARA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- One member of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) was killed in a clash with the Turkish security forces in southeastern Turkey, said an official statement reaching here Saturday.

The clash between the Turkish security forces and the PKK militants took place late Friday in Eruh town of Siirt province and one village guard was wounded in the clash, said the statement issued by Siirt governor's office.

The wounded village guard was taken to Siirt Military Hospital by helicopter for medical treatment, said the statement.

It added that the Turkish security forces had launched a large- scale operation in fight against the PKK rebels in the region.

The PKK has recently intensified attacks on Turkish troops, police and civilians. Turkish officials vowed to reciprocate with absolute determination.

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.

BAGHDAD, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Four people were killed and 11 injured Saturday in a bomb attack on the house of an anti-Qaida group leader in north of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

The attack took place in the early morning when gunmen planted four bombs in the house of a local leader of the Awakening Council group in the town of Taji, some 20 km north of Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 11 others, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The group leader escaped the attack unharmed as he was not at home when the attack occurred, while his brother and wife were among the dead, the source said.

The house collapsed completely after the powerful blasts, which also caused severe damages to nearby houses, the source said, adding that many of the victims were from the neighboring houses.

Iraqi security forces sealed off the scene and launched an investigation into the incident, he said.

The Awakening Council group, or Sahwa in Arabic, consists of armed groups, including some powerful anti-U.S. Sunni insurgent groups which fought al-Qaida militants in the Sunni Arab areas after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Violence is still common in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease since its peak in 2006 and 2007 when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.