DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “5 Taliban insurgents killed in E. Afghanistan” plus 9 more

KABUL, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Afghan police, backed by army and NATO-led Coalition forces, have killed five Taliban insurgents in the country's eastern Laghman province, the Afghan Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

"The Afghan National Police (ANP), Afghan army and Coalition Forces launched a joint operation in surrounding areas of the Doulat Shah District of Laghman province over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement.

"As a result of this operation five armed Taliban were killed," the statement said, adding the ANP, during this operation, also discovered and confiscated three AK-47 guns, two machine guns, one pistol, a grenade launcher, seven anti-vehicle mines and 40kg of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

Separately, Afghan police discovered and defused four drums of 20kg full of explosives, six anti-vehicle mines and four hand grenades as a result of security operations in surrounding areas of Kabul, Laghman, Kandahar and Nimroz provinces, according to the statement.

The Taliban has yet to make comments.

Afghan and NATO-led coalition forces keep up pressure on insurgents all over the country as over 290 insurgents had been killed and around 430 detained by joint forces in October alone, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry.

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were killed and another was injured in a court firing Saturday morning in Rawalpindi, a city adjacent to Pakistan's capital Islamabad, reported local Urdu TV channel Geo, adding that all the killed were criminal suspects under police custody.

LHASA, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region plans to invest a total of 380 million yuan (59.9 million U.S. dollars) to boost its farmland irrigation and water conservation infrastructure in the coming winter and spring, local authorities said Saturday.

The total investment, an increase of 15 percent over the previous year, will be earmarked for projects including renovating facilities damaged by floods, building rural flood-control and drought-resistant facilities, and setting up farmland water conservation systems, according to Tibet's Water Resources Department.

In all, 1,023 flood-damaged facilities in the region are expected to be rebuilt and a 301-km-long water canal will be dredged. The work will mean 220,000 more people will have access to tap water.

The region's water storage capacity will also increase by 340,000 cubic meters, with 20 square km of soil-erosion areas brought under control.

HONOLULU, United States, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- As leaders of the 21 economies in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) community arrive here Friday to convene their annual meeting, CEOs of companies in the region are also kicking off their APEC CEO summit as part of the private sector input to the forum. Business leaders told Xinhua that they look to APEC to facilitate trade in the region.

David Cunningham, president of shipping giant Fedex' Asia-Pacific division, told Xinhua in an interview Friday that the CEO summit provides the business community an opportunity to connect with governments in identifying "what's important to facilitate trade, and to move economies along in a way that facilitates people and growth and enrichment."

"It produces tangible, real benefits for the economies that were involved, and it creates real opportunity for business and leaders of the various APEC economies to work together to identify key activities and key issues to resolve," said Cunningham.

The CEO summit provides the private sector opportunity to network and also audiences with government leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, as well as ministerial officials such as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

However, economic headwinds are taking a toll on the summit, as attendance of the meeting appears to fall short of expectations and is lower than at past summits.

But Cunningham said that with economic difficulties in many economies, the meeting is becoming even more relevant.

"The most important thing that can happen at this summit, beyond specific agreements to facilitate trade, lower trade barriers, make it easier for the flow of goods around the globe, is the dialogue," said Cunningham

"When you have economies that are in difficult situations... it's the most important time to have those dialogues," he added, noting that the world is interconnected in ways never seen before, and significant downturn in one part of the world has real impacts to other economies.

APEC has set itself a theme of "Toward a Seamless Regional Economy," with three specific priority areas that include strengthening regional economic integration and expanding trade, promoting green growth, and advancing regulatory coherence and co-operation.

The aspiration is shared by the private sector. According to a survey done by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) published on Friday, two-thirds of the more than 320 Asia-Pacific CEOs surveyed said APEC leaders should take a lead role in eliminating trade barriers, and 63 percent see free trade in APEC region as critical to business success.

As leaders work out agreements on the grand scheme, Cunningham said the private sector can make their input through participation at the CEO summit.

In interactions with senior government leaders at the summit, Cunningham said, CEOs and the leaders can have "very honest and direct dialogues back and forth in terms of particular issues that need to be addressed, or the ways that economies and business can work together."

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- At least one policeman was killed and another injured in a police checkpost attack Saturday morning in northwest Pakistan, reported local Urdu TV channel Samaa.

According to the local media reports, the incident took place at about 8:50 a.m. (local time) Saturday when a police checkpost in Shabqadar, a small town located some 20 kilometers north of Peshawar, was attacked by a rocket.

Shabqadar is just several kilometers away from Mohmand Agency, a tribal area in northwest Pakistan which borders Afghanistan, where there exist different groups of militants who often launch attacks deeper into the neighboring areas of Pakistan.

On May 13, the Pakistan Taliban launched a twin suicide bomb attack at a police training center in Shabqadar's neighboring city of Charsadda, killing 98 policemen and injuring over 140 others.

No group has claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack on the police checkpost in Shabqadar.

According to the latest figures released by the Pakistani government, over 3,500 policemen have been killed in various terrorist attacks in the country since 2001.

HANOI, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The comprehensive cooperation between China and the ASEAN has made notable progress since they established dialogues 20 years ago, making positive contributions to maintaining regional stability and promoting common prosperity, Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Kong Xuanyou told Xinhua in a recent interview prior to the upcoming 19th ASEAN Summit.

Over the past two decades, China-ASEAN relations have witnessed historic progress. The two sides have conducted effective all- round cooperation for development, continuously enhanced political mutual trust, and deepened economic integration. The practice has shown that China-ASEAN relations have become a model of friendly exchanges between nations in the region, which have brought tangible benefits to the people and made a valuable exploration to solve global peace and development issues, he said.   The ambassador pointed out some enlightenment by the China-ASEAN relations. Firstly, the regional peace and development should always be the premise for the national relations. They should see each other as cooperative partners and take other's development as an opportunity, not a threat, as well as handle the existing problems through friendly consultations, and respect the right of each country to independently choose its development path.

Secondly, national relations should always aim for mutual benefit by practical cooperation in economy, culture, education, energy and other key areas, and jointly cope with traditional and non-traditional security threats.

Finally, the relations should bring benefits to the people of each country. People's support is a powerful driving force for the development of China-ASEAN relations. Improving people's well being is the fundamental goal of each country's policy makers, which is also an important experience between China and the ASEAN during the last two decades, as well as an important guarantee for sound and steady development of China-ASEAN relations in future.

In recent years, with the joint efforts of the ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea, the "10 +3" cooperation has made great progress in breadth and depth, becoming the most dynamic cooperation mechanism in East Asia.

"The East Asian cooperation should continue to adhere to the ASEAN-led mechanism, as well as be inclusive and open to the whole world," Kong said, "all parties should continue to maintain the momentum of the '10+3' cooperation, in order to achieve their sustainable development and mutually beneficial cooperation between countries in the region."

Referring to the East Asia Summit officially expanding to the " 10+8" mechanism, Kong said, as an annual meeting of leaders in East Asia, the summit has created a new model and a new platform of regional cooperation. After six years of development, the summit has established a well-run mechanism, as well as principles of reaching a consensus through consultation, making steady progress and considering the benefits of all sides, defining five key areas of cooperation in energy, dealing with avian flu, finance, education, and disaster alleviation.

"The ASEAN should continue playing a leading role in the summit, as well as sticking to the established principles and cooperation in these fields after expanding to '10+8', especially in the context of current world economic instability, the spreading debt crisis of the U.S. and Europe, and widespread flooding in the region, which have negative impacts on the East Asian economy," he added.

Referring to the positive note of the promotion of the ASEAN integration process, Kong said to complete building the ASEAN Community by 2015 is an important political goal for ASEAN countries. Southeast Asian countries have made notable achievements in politics, economy and culture, maintained a peaceful and prosperous development since the ASEAN was established 44 years ago, becoming a major force in the world, especially after entering into the new century, the ASEAN integration process has been significantly accelerated.

Kong said that the ASEAN integration process is of great significance for the promotion of the East Asian integration, as the ASEAN is an important part of the East Asian integration. The ASEAN integration experience, including its political system, economic system and cultural difference, provides useful references to the East Asian integration process.

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- At least one person was killed and another injured in a blast that occurred Saturday morning near a police checkpost in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of Mohmand Agency which borders Afghanistan, reported local Urdu TV channel Samaa.

MANILA, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The worsening debt crisis in the Eurozone, particularly in Italy and Greece, coupled with the economic uncertainties in the United States, has pulled down the flow of foreign direct investments (FDI) into the Philippines in August dashing hopes of the government of President Benigno S. Aquino for a stronger economic growth this year.

Although the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the country's central bank, has reported that there was still a net inflow of FDI in August amounting to 50 million U.S. dollars, it was, however, lower by 55 percent compared to the figure in August 2010.

In a statement posted on its website, the BSP said that developments in Europe and the United States have caused investor risk aversion to rise sharply.

"Notwithstanding the Philippines' solid macroeconomic fundamentals, global economic setbacks, particularly the financial strains arising from the sovereign debt crisis in Euro area periphery and the sluggish growth experienced in the U.S., have profoundly affected economic prospects," the BSP said.

As a result, cumulative FDI inflows for the eight-month period totaled only to 810 million U.S. dollars, or a 19.2 percent decline from the 1 billion dollars net inflows posted in the same period a year ago.

But the BSP said the net FDI inflows for the first half of 2011, which totaled 779 million U.S. dollars, was still higher by 16.4 percent compared to the 669 million dollars net inflows recorded in the same period a year ago.

According to the BSP, foreign direct capital in August that came from the United States, Japan, China's Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea and Singapore, were channeled mainly to real estate, manufacturing, mining and quarrying, utilities and wholesale and retail trade sectors.

The announcement on the drop of the FDI came on the heels of two negative economic indicators that could further trim down the gross national product (GDP) growth forecast for this year.

Philippine exports suffered a huge 27.4 percent decline in September compared to that of last year, its biggest fall since January 2009.

The National Statistics Office (NSO), a government agency monitoring the country's economic indicators, said that the big export contraction in September was mainly due to the decline by 47.9 percent of Philippine electronics exports during the month.

Total receipts from electronic exports, still the country's top export product, was valued at only 1.81 billion dollars compared to 3.48 billion dollars registered in September 2010.

On a monthly basis, electronic exports contracted by 12.6 percent from 2.07 billion dollars posted in August 2011.

The decline in electronics exports was due to the low demands in Japan and the United States, the Philippines' top export destinations with both countries suffering from a prolonged economic downturn.

Also in August, the government's debt stock rose to 4.79 trillion pesos (111.48 billion U.S. dollars), up by 1 percent, from the July level primarily due to a weaker Philippine peso and a net issuance of domestic securities.

This means that with the country's population at 95.6 million, every Filipino citizen has now an outstanding debt of 50,141 (1, 166 U.S. dollars).

Bureau of the Treasury (BT) data showed that 58 percent of the country's outstanding debt, or 2.757 trillion pesos (64 billion U. S. dollars), was borrowed from domestic lenders while local debt increased by 0.8 percent, from the figure posted in July.

The increase was attributed to the government having issued more local debt papers compared with new ones that were redeemed.

Analysts said that the increase in foreign debt was due mainly to the depreciation of the peso against the U.S. dollar, which added 15 billion pesos to the debt stock. The appreciation of the yen and the euro against the dollar also pushed up the country's total foreign debt by an additional 8 billion pesos.

Despite these unfavorable economic indicators, BSP Governor Amando Tetangco continues to be confident that the Philippine economy will be able to weather the setbacks brought about by the worldwide financial turmoil.

In a recent speech, Tetangco described the structural makeup of the Philippine economy as "self-sustaining" since a large part of its GDP is attributed to robust household consumption.

On top of that, Tetangco said, remittances from overseas Filipino workers have remained on the uptrend, reaching 13 billion dollars in the first eight months of the year.

"By sustaining an environment of stable prices and healthy financial institutions, it is our belief that domestic consumption is likely to remain solid and vigorous," Tetangco said.

Tetangco said that the BSP has been able "to strike an effective policy balance of supporting economic growth while maintaining stable inflation by being forward-looking and taking preemptive policy actions."

He said that baseline forecasts showed a lower inflation path, consistent with the 3-5 percent target range for 2011-2013, while inflation expectations remain well-contained, supported by easing commodity prices.

BANGKOK, Nov.11 (Xinhua) -- The wide-spread flooding has damped Thai consumer confidence in the overall economy, which dropped from 72.2 in September to 62.8 in October, the lowest in 10 years, according to a study of the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) .

The central bank has lowered the economic growth projection for 2011 from 4.1 percent to 2.6 percent, triggering consumers' concerns about rising living costs. The consumer confidence index on job opportunity for October stood at 63.7 and on future income was 90.9, also the lowest in 10 years, according to the UTCC.

Thanawat Ponwichai, UTCC's Economic and Business Forecasting Centre director, said it is estimated that the flood would cause damage to the domestic economy between 300 billion and 400 billion baht.

"The floods will trim gross domestic product growth for the year to only 1.5 to 2.5 per cent," the Bangkok Post quoted Thanawat as saying.

But he said if prompt measures could be taken to rebuild the economy, GDP growth for 2012 might be four to five percent.