DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “6,156 Cambodian families from Flood receive relief aid” plus 9 more

CAMBODIA, KOMPONG THOM, Nov 17, 2011-6,156 families in Kompong Thom province of Cambodia who have suffered from the flood recently got the donation from Cambodian Red Cross.

Poum Chanteny, a senior official of CRC urged the victims to take care about the health and sanitation after the flood. So far, over one million people have received the donation from CRC and charitable organizations.

Cambodia lost about $520 million and 1.5 million people affected from flood. Cambodia needs about 250 million to restore the physical infrastructure.

CAMBODIA, PHNOM PENH, Nov 17, 2011-Malaysian Tourism council in Cambodia in cooperation with Malaysian airlines on Thursday started doing their campaigns to boost Khmer to visit Malaysia in the next few months. Sao Roatha, marketing manager of the Malaysian tourism council said: "tourism package to Malaysia will be discounted from 10 to 70 per cent and they enjoyed buying the electronic, jewelry and cosmetics in the country." "Malaysian, Cambodian tourism companies started their campaign from December to February and two ASEAN countries are easy to connect direct flights."

Kong Sophearak, chief of tourism department said: "in 2010, there were 48,618 Cambodians visited Malaysia and 89,852 Malaysians visited Cambodia with an increase of 22 per cent if comparing to last year.

Malaysia's report said:  In 2010, Malaysia gained 20 billion tourist arrivals and it earned about $18 billion from tourism industry. In 2011, it expected to gain 25 million tourists while the income will reach to $20 billion.

HANOI, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) appeared to stop spread in Vietnam. However, there have been a total of 84,000 people infected by the disease so far this year, of which southern cities and provinces account for 65 percent.

Dr. Tran Ngoc Huu, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute, made the announcement on Thursday at a seminar on the institute's 120-year research and prevention of the infectious diseases.

Addressing the conference with participants from the famous Pasteur Institutes throughout the world, including those from France, Australia, the United States, Japan and Singapore, Dr. Huu spoke of the HFMD outbreak in Vietnam and other Asia-Pacific countries.

Children are more vulnerable to the disease due to their less resistance to the EV71 virus, so efforts should be made to apply hygienic measures, especially at kindergartens and schools, Huu said.

BALI, Indonesia, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The ASEAN leaders adopted the Bali Declaration on ASEAN Community in a Global Community of Nations, or the Bali Concord III here on Thursday, which, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty M. Natalegawa said, would help ASEAN to act in unison in global matters.

"We have discussed at the session a broad range of issues. We have discussed regional connectivity, the implementation of the ASEAN Charter, the role of ASEAN, and exchanged views regarding international and regional issues," said Marty M. Natalegawa at a press briefing after the signing ceremony.

"Our main result is the Bali Concord III. The signing of the Concord was the start of a process where ASEAN will play an increased role at the global level. For the next ten years, there will be concrete actions and measures so that ASEAN can act in unison in global matters," he said.

"We are getting where we want to be," he added.

Earlier in the day, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in his opening speech that the spirit of Bali Concord III is to have greater participation and contribution of ASEAN to achieve a more peaceful, just, democratic and prosperous world.

The Concord is part of three key outcome documents adopted Thursday that also included the Agreement of the Establishment of the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Center) adopted by ASEAN Foreign Ministers, and the ASEAN Declaration on Unity in Diversity: Towards Strengthening the ASEAN Community adopted by ASEAN Ministers for Cultural Affairs.

The Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, known as the Bali Concord I, was adopted in 1976, which established the rules for how member states shall engage with each other, especially agreeing not to use violence and solve disputes through peaceful means.

The Bali Concord II was adopted in 2003 that approved the institution of ASEAN Community and its completion by 2020, which was later speeded up to 2015. The ASEAN Community will consist of three correlated pillars, including the Security Community, Economic Community and Socio-Cultural Community. 

BANGKOK, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The tourism industry of Thailand in the second half of this year has been widely affected by floods and the deluge will lower the projection of tourist number by 8.7 million, according to a report issued by Kasikorn Bank Research Center Thursday.

As the worst floods in over 50 years have lashed the country since late July, swamping most of the areas in northern, northeastern, central Thailand and the capital Bangkok, the number of holiday makers is anticipated to decrease from original 105 million to 96.3 million, the report said.

The expected income from the tourism industry were also reduced from 415 billion baht (13.4 billion U.S. dollars) to 380 billion baht (12.3 billion U.S. dollars), according to the report.

The research center forecast that the tourism industry will start to recover in the second quarter of next year.

In total, 64 out of 77 provinces have been inundated by the floods which so far have affected around 13 million people and left 567 dead.

KABUL, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Two NATO soldiers were killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan's restive southern region on Thursday.

"Two International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service members died following an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in southern Afghanistan today," the NATO-led ISAF said in a statement.

However, the brief statement did not provide details and the nationalities of the victims, saying "it is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities."

Troops mainly from the U.S., Britain, Canada and Australia have been stationed in southern Afghanistan known as Taliban hotbed.

Thursday's casualties brought to six the number of ISAF soldiers killed in Afghanistan in two days. Four foreign soldiers were killed in two separate IED blasts in southern Afghanistan and an insurgent attack in eastern region on Wednesday.

Over 520 foreign soldiers, most of them Americans, have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year.

Thursday's attack came a day after the four-day traditional Loya Jirga or grand assembly of tribal elders, lawmakers and government functionaries opened in the capital city of Kabul.

With over 2,300 participants, the assembly convened to discuss the proposed strategic partnership with the U.S. as well as government-initiated peace talks with the Taliban in the militancy- plagued country.

MOSUL, Iraq, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Three people were killed Thursday in bomb attacks targeted Iraqi security forces in Mosul, the capital city of Iraq's northern province of Nineveh, a provincial police source said.

Two roadside bombs went off simultaneously near a police convoy in southern Mosul, killing Major Jabar Rasheed Mwlood, chief of a city police station, the source from Nineveh's operations commands told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

A passer-by was also killed by the blasts, which destroyed a police vehicle, the source said.

In a separate incident, a booby-trapped car detonated near an Iraqi army patrol in the al-Zuhoor neighborhood in eastern Mosul, killing a civilian, the source added.

Nineveh province has long been a stronghold for insurgent groups, including al-Qaida militants. Its capital Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, is one of the country's most restive cities.

HANOI, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Under the 4th SEA-EU-NET Stakeholders Conference, three seminars on EU-ASEAN ecological imprints, building and managing green, sustainable cities in the context of climate change, and water security and management were held here on Nov. 16-17.

According to Vietnam News Agency Thursday, during the seminar " EU-ASEAN ecological imprints", representatives all agreed that ecological imprints in Southeast Asia is still at low level but it will become bolder rapidly due to the economic growing models in many countries in the region is causing damage on the environment.

At the seminar themed "Building and managing green, sustainable cities in the context of climate change", reports indicated that there is now a change in demographic situation in Africa and Asia' s developing countries.

Meanwhile, reports at seminar on "Water security and management " showed that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world's population could be living under water stressed conditions.

During the seminar, representatives also identified that strengthening of water management helps building trust and cooperation will be an important tool in reducing the risk of conflicts between nations, regions in the future.

SEA-EU-NET, a project under the EU's 7th framework program (FP7) on research and technological development cooperation, is annually held to gather managers and scientists from the two regions, aiming at connecting the network between scientists from the two regions and boosting participation of the Southeast Asian countries.

BALI, Indonesia, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The ASEAN leaders adopted three key outcome documents after closed-door sessions here on Thursday.

The heads of state or government from ASEAN states adopted the Bali Declaration on ASEAN Community in a Global Community of Nations, or the Bali Concord III, which is expected to increase the ASEAN's active role in addressing global issues and to map out the road for ASEAN's interaction with the global community.

Earlier in the day, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers have signed the Agreement of the Establishment of the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Center), and the ASEAN Declaration on Unity in Diversity: Towards Strengthening the ASEAN Community was adopted by ASEAN Ministers for Cultural Affairs.

The Bali Concord II was adopted in 2003 by ASEAN leaders that approved the institution of ASEAN Community and its completion by 2020, which was however speeded up to 2015. The ASEAN Community will consist of three correlated pillars, including the Security Community, Economic Community and Socio-Cultural Community.

MOSCOW, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) will facilitate its economic and trade cooperation with China and increase Russia-China cooperation, Russia's chief WTO negotiator has told Xinhua.

Maxim Medvedkov, who is also the head of the Trade Negotiations Department within the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, said Russia and China would expand their economic and trade cooperation under the same WTO rules after Russia joins the trade bloc.

Russia and Georgia signed an agreement in Geneva on Nov. 10 under the mediation of Switzerland, removing the main barrier to Russia joining the 153-member trade bloc.

Russia, which has been seeking WTO membership for 18 years, is the only large world economy remaining outside the global trade organization.

Medvedkov said Russia had conducted reforms in various fields in a bid to join the trade bloc.

"We completely changed the system of technical regulations -- to work out and use new and normative technical standards; we adopted a new customs code and changed the customs administration system; we considerably revised laws on veterinary, phyto-sanitary and other measures," the official said.

The reforms, Medvedkov said, brought opportunities for both Russia and China, as the two will trade under the same rules.

"This is of significance. Our exporters and importers will learn these rules because those will be the same for our trade with China and with any other country," Medvedkov said.

Over the past 18 years, Russia had learned much from China, Medvedkov said.

China officially entered the WTO on Dec. 11, 2001 after years of tough negotiations, becoming the 143rd member of the global institution.

"We have came across the same problems China had experienced. We have learned much from our Chinese colleagues, we communicated a lot," Medvedkov said.

He highly valued China's achievements in the decade since it joined the WTO, saying China's accession led to "modernization and economic booms" in the country.

"China's accession to the WTO also positively influenced our bilateral trade, we see it is growing and its structure changes. This is, in the large part, due to China's membership in the WTO," Medvedkov said.

"I think our membership in WTO will also promote the development of our relations with China, this is obvious," he said.