DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Senior official urges frontier security in Yunnan” plus 3 more

KUNMING, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- A senior Chinese official has called for improvements to people's livelihoods, ethnic unity and frontier security in southwest China's Yunnan Province, a region bordering Myanmar.

Zhou Yongkang, a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said during an inspection tour of Yunnan between Oct. 27 and 29 that public security bureaus should strengthen border inspection and crack down hard on drug smuggling and terrorism.

Zhou's visit came just over a month after a Myanmar drug runner and five of his gang members stood trial for the murder of 13 sailors on the Mekong River in the Golden Triangle Region on Oct. 5, 2011. Naw Kham, the principal suspect, pleaded guilty to murder in a local court in Yunnan. The verdict has yet to be announced.

Visiting the public security bureau in Yunnan's Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, which investigated the murdering case, Zhou extended his gratitude to its contribution to seizing the suspects.

Zhou, also secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Political and Legal Affairs, praised the Kunming City Intermediate People's Court in the provincial capital for its innovation in hearing the murder case.

"It is a severe transnational criminal case, which attracted great attention from the Party, government and people," Zhou said, adding the case was busted with the assistance of relevant nations and China's law enforcement authorities at all levels.

Some law enforcement staff even gave their lives investigating the case, said Zhou, who extended his condolence to the judicial staff.

The senior official expressed hope that judicial authorities can do solid work in sentencing Naw Kham and his associates, using facts as a basis and the law as criterion, so that "the case will stand the test of law, history and people."

With a length of almost 5,000 km, the Mekong is one of the most important waterways in Southeast Asia, linking China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It plays a crucial economic role among the Greater Mekong Sub-region countries.

Cargo ferries, though briefly suspended following the murders, resumed services on the river in December.

VIENTIANE, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Members of the Lao National Assembly committed to the UN Declaration on reaching zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths in the country during a national round-table discussion on HIV/AIDS held in Laos' southern province of Champassak on Monday.

The event was hosted jointly by the National Assembly, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

The incidence of HIV/AIDS in Laos is presently rising, but less prevalent than in surrounding countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar. The overall population living with HIV/AIDS in Laos is expected to be around nine thousand at the moment, with one thousand new cases last year. The total population of Laos is around 6.4 million.

With the support of the government, extensive prevention, testing, monitoring, and treatment campaigns have been launched over the last decade. These have targeted the most at-risk groups for HIV/AIDS in Laos: sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM), and injecting drug users.

Monday's round-table discussion aimed to bring together the Lao National Assembly, civil society organizations and development stakeholders to discuss and disseminate the HIV/AIDS Declaration adopted in a High Level Meeting held in New York in 2011. In the Declaration, UN Member States committed to a number of strategies to move towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

"As opinion-leaders and decision-makers, the parliamentarians have decided to ensure that government commitment to the New Political Declaration on HIV is honoured and will advocate for the Getting to Zero Strategy in Lao PDR and promote respect among their constituents for people living with HIV, encourage informed debate on issues related to HIV, based on scientific evidence and supportive cultural values not popular myths, prejudicial beliefs or harmful cultural practices," said President of the Social and Cultural Affairs Committee of the National Assembly Professor Phonethep Pholsena at the discussion.

The round table discussion was the first activity to mark World Aids Day 2012, commemorated every year on Dec. 1 to raise awareness about the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection.

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday that the country has no plan to build a nuclear power plant for present time, citing nuclear disasters in Ukraine and Japan.

He said that it was a misunderstanding that a neighboring country (Thailand) reportedly said that he allowed the construction of a nuclear power plant in Koh Kong province.

"One asked to conduct a feasibility study for a nuclear power plant in Koh Kong province, but I did not allow it," the premier said at a graduation ceremony of students at Asia-Europe University. "It is not the right time for Cambodia to build it."

Cambodia's capacity has not reached the level of building the nuclear power plant, he said, adding that even Indonesia has not yet reached that level.

His clarification was made after The Bangkok Post of Thailand reported on Oct. 10 that Thai Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha expressed concern over Hun Sen's plan to build a nuclear power plant in Cambodia's Koh Kong province adjacent to Thailand's Trat province.

Hun Sen said that neighboring countries have their rights to voice their concerns because if there is an explosion, it will not only affect Cambodia, but also damage others in the region.

The premier also cited the world's two worst nuclear incidents. One was the catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred in April, 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine and the other was Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan in March last year.

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- Road accidents have killed at least 1,589 people in Cambodia in the first 10 months of 2012, a report of the Interior Ministry's public order department showed Sunday.

The death number this year was comparable to that of last year. During the 10-month period last year, 1,591 deaths were recorded.

The report said that from January to October this year, 3,553 road accidents happened, representing a 16 percent drop from 4,244 cases at the same period last year.

In addition to the deaths, 6,114 others were injured in road accidents during the period, down 16 percent from 7,338.

Main causes of the accidents remain over-speed driving, alcohol driving and neglect driving.

In the whole year of 2011, traffic accidents had claimed 1,890 human lives in the country and were estimated to cost the country about 310 million U.S. dollars.