DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Thai consumer confidence lowest in a decade” plus 9 more

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.

BANGKOK, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Thai House of Representatives has voted to pass the first reading of 2012 fiscal Budget Bill proposed by the government, Bangkok Post online reported on Friday.

The voting followed 29 hours of debate over two days, during which the leading opposition Democrat Party fiercely attacked the budget as being without priorities and saying it did not provide for the needed solutions to the pressing flood problems facing the country.

However, the vote result is 237 to 2, with 177 abstentions, to pass the first reading of the Bill proposed by the government. The vote took place late Thursday night.

The budget debate started Wednesday when the cabinet submitted the 2012 Budget Bill outlining 2.38 trillion baht (77.65 billion U. S. dollars) spending to the Lower House.

A 63-member House committee was then set up to scrutinize the 2012 fiscal budget and then report back before holding a meeting for the second reading.

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- The president of pro-Indian ruling party National Conference (NC) Farooq Abdullah asked his brother Mustafa Kamaal to immediately resign from the post of chief spokesman and additional general secretary, a party statement said.

"Mustafa Kamaal has been making certain statements which are not in tandem with the policies of the National Conference and are against the Coalition Dharma," the party statement quoted senior Abdullah as saying.

Abdullah is also the Indian Minister for New and Renewable Energy.

The statement was issued by National Conference Thursday evening.

Kamaal was appointed last month as additional general secretary and party spokesman of NC. Since his appointment as spokesman, he has been continuously making controversial statements targeting New Delhi, Indian army, Congress, separatists and region's  main opposition pro-Indian Peoples Democratic Party.

Soon after taking charge, he accused Indian army of orchestrating the grenade attacks to strengthen its case against revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act. However the statement was later retracted by him.

Currently NC is running a coalition government with Indian Congress party in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

On Thursday Kamaal said All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi has no role in running the government in Indian-controlled Kashmir. His statement came in response to region's Congress party Chief Prof Saif Din Soz's remarks that Rahul Gandhi was not happy with governance in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

COTABATO CITY, Philippines, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Leftist rebels killed a government soldier in an ambush staged Friday in the southern Philippine province of North Cotabato, military said.

Regional military commander Brig. Gen. Rey Ardo said Corporal Hassan Sarif of the Charlie Company of the 57th Infantry Battalion along with two others were heading to their camp when they were attacked by an undetermined number of New People's Army (NPA) rebels in Makilala town.

The soldiers managed to return fire but private First Class Alex Calon was killed, said Ardo, adding the rebels withdrew after military reinforcement arrived.

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 over 4,000 NPA guerrilla fighters are scattered in more than 60 provinces throughout the country.

HONOLULU, United States, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- The United States will be focusing on building a trans-Pacific architecture as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Thursday said the 21st century will be the United States' Pacific Century.

As the war in Iraq winds down and efforts in Afghanistan to transition begin, the U.S. administration is to pivot its diplomatic efforts elsewhere, namely the Asia-Pacific region, Clinton said here.

"After a decade in which we invested immense resources in these two theaters, we have reached a pivot point," the U.S. top diplomat said before leaders from 21 economies of the Asia-Pacific rim are to meet for their annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit hosted by the United States.

"We now can redirect some of those investments to opportunities and obligations elsewhere. And Asia stands out as a region where opportunities abound," she said.

However, the United States, still mired in economic maladies and having dispatched too many assets around the world, faces daunting challenges including its capacity limit when refocusing on the Asia-Pacific region.

The Asia-Pacific region has several largest and fastest-growing economies, and consequential challenges such as military buildups and natural disasters, as Clinton described.

"It is becoming increasingly clear that in the 21st century, the world's strategic and economic center of gravity will be the Asia-Pacific, from the Indian subcontinent to western shores of the Americas," Clinton said.

"One of the most important tasks of American statecraft over the next decade will be to lock in a substantially increased investment - diplomatic, economic, strategic, and otherwise - in this region," she said.

In addition to "forward deployed" State Department assets and economic focus, Clinton also mentioned the 50,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan and South Korea.

"As this region changes, we must change our force posture, to ensure that it is geographically distributed, operationally resilient, and politically sustainable," she said.

"A more broadly distributed military presence provides vital advantages, both in deterring and responding to threats, and in providing support for humanitarian missions," Clinton said.

However, as Michael Green, Japan Chair and Senior Adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington thinktank, said one issue that will certainly be on everyone's mind is the budget woes facing the U.S. military. If the debt committee at Congress failed to meet its Nov. 23 deadline to find 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars in government-wide savings over 10 years, the Pentagon's budget will automatically shrink more than 20 percent.

The budget issue is one reason there are concerns in the United States that it is not a time to reach out, but rather to come home.

Clinton said she is aware of such financial concerns, noting "this thinking is understandable, but it is mistaken."

"What will happen in Asia in the years ahead will have an enormous impact on our nation's future. We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and leave it to others to determine our future for us," said Clinton.

After the APEC meeting, U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to travel to Australia, while Clinton will head for Manila, Philippines and Bangkok, Thailand before she joins Obama at Bali, Indonesia for the East Asia Summit.

HONOLULU, United States, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- China is willing to build a cooperative partnership with the United States based on mutual respect, mutual benefit and win-win results, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said here Thursday.

Yang made the remarks during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, two days before the annual leaders' meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Honolulu.

The upcoming meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama is of great significance to the steady development of China-U.S. relations, Yang said.

He added that under the current situation, China is ready to make concerted efforts with the United States to deepen understanding and enhance mutual trust, and to better carry out the consensus reached by the two countries' leaders.

For her part, Clinton said President Obama is looking forward to his meeting with President Hu.

The U.S. side values its cooperative partnership with China, which is not only in the interests of both sides, but also of great importance to the world at large, she said.

Clinton voiced her hope that the two sides would join hands to make U.S.-China relations develop smoothly.

Yang and Clinton expressed their willingness to strive for positive outcomes from the APEC summit.

The two sides also exchanged views on some international and regional issues of common concern, including the situation on the Korean Peninsula and Iran's nuclear issue.

KATHMANDU, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- At least 549 people died and more than 5,000 were injured in road accidents across Nepal in the last six months. Available data showed  that on an average five people die every day in road accidents across the country.

According to the data posted on Nepal Police's (NP) website, 1, 587 people died across the country in the last fiscal year, while 12,000 sustained minor injuries during the same period as 5,519 accidents occurred across the country.

Police website posted that 1,734 people were killed in the fiscal year 2009/10, while 1,356 people died in the fiscal year 2008/09. Thus, over 5,000 people have lost their lives in road accidents in the last three and half years.

Drunk-driving, violation of traffic rules, overloaded vehicles, poor condition of roads and vehicles and encroachment on roads are major causes of road accidents. Besides, steering system of motor vehicles, disparity between vehicles and road engineering  are emerging as new challenges towards minimising accidents, said NP Spokesman DIG Binod Singh.

CANBERRA, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- A female Royal Australian Navy sailor has died during a port visit to Cambodia, Australian Defense Force chief General David Hurley told Macquarie Radio on Friday.

Herly said the ship had just finished a major exercise in the South East Asian area with Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and the female sailor died while the ship was on shore to leave in Sihanoukville of Cambodia.

"She was doing port visits after the exercise, we don't know any more... the exact cause of death is unknown," he said.

General Hurley said the sailor's family had been informed and Australia has flown an Defense Force investigator to investigate the incident.

The death comes weeks after the shooting death of Perth-based Able Seaman Ewan McDonald aboard the HMAS Toowoomba while docked in Mumbai of India on October 23. The investigation of the death is also underway.