DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Cambodia records 11 pct drop in landmine casualties in 6 months” plus 1 more

PHNOM PENH, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia on Saturday reported 100 landmine casualties in the first six months of this year, a 11 percent decrease compared with 112 casualties at the same period last year, according to a report from the Cambodian Mine and Explosive Remnants of War Victim Information System.

The report said that from January to June this year, landmines had killed 21 people and injured 79 others, down 16 percent and 9 percent respectively.

During the first half of this year, the worst tragedy occurred on Feb. 3 when an anti-tank mine exploded, killing 8 people in Banteay Meanchey province, some 400 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

Since 1979 to June 2012, landmines had killed 19,641 people and injured 44,480 others, said the report.

Cambodia is one of the world's worst countries affected by mines as the result of nearly three decades of war and internal conflicts from the mid-1960s until the end of 1998.

Five most mine-laid provinces are Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, Oddar Meanchey, Pailin and Preah Vihear.

PHNOM PENH, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia is willing to speed up talks with Thailand on the plan for the joint development of overlapping maritime claims in the Gulf of Thailand, a Cambodian senior official said Friday.

Speaking briefly to reporters after a meeting with visiting Thai delegation led by Senator Suradet Jiratiticharoen, chairman of the Senate's Committee on Energy, Cambodia's deputy Prime Minister Sok An, chairman of Cambodian National Petroleum Authority, said that Cambodia wanted to accelerate negotiations with Thailand towards the joint exploration and exploitation of oil and gas in the overlapping area.

"I told the Thai delegation our stance for the Overlapping Claim Area (OCA) and we hope to find a formula that is acceptable to both sides in order to jointly exploit oil and gas from the area," he said.

Cambodia and Thailand have the Overlapping Claim Area (OCA) in sea, covering 27,000 square kilometers and the area is believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits.

The two countries entered into a Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU) regarding the area of their overlapping maritime claims to the continental shelf in June 2001, setting out an agreed area to be delimited and an agreed joint development area (JDA).

Since then, the two countries had subsequently held constructive discussions and negotiations until 2007 with extremely fruitful result. However, the official talk on the issue between the two countries was in limbo during the former Thai government under Abhisit Vejjajiva's administration.

"Now, it has been more than 10 years in negotiations, but no agreement has been reached yet," Sok An said.