DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Cambodian, Chinese firms sign deal to build railway, seaport” plus 3 more |
- Cambodian, Chinese firms sign deal to build railway, seaport
- Cambodia, China's Yunnan province meet on anti-drug cooperation
- Yearender: Xinhua's top 10 world news events in 2012
- Cooking gas canister explosion injures 12 in Cambodia's capital
| Cambodian, Chinese firms sign deal to build railway, seaport Posted: 30 Dec 2012 11:44 PM PST PHNOM PENH, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- A Cambodian company and a Chinese firm on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in order to build a railway and a seaport in Cambodia to serve iron and steel mining industry. The deal was inked between Zhang Chuan You, general manager of Cambodia Iron and Steel Mining Industry Group, and Liu Ziming, chairman of China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group, under the witnesses of Cambodian Minister of Public Works and Transport Tram Iv Tek and Bai Zhongren, president of China Railway Group Limited. Zhang Chuan You said at the signing ceremony that the two firms will jointly invest in building a 404-kilometer railway from Preah Vihear province to Koh Kong province and a seaport in Koh Kong province to support metal mining industry in Preah Vihear province. He said the railway will run through the province of Preah Vihear, Kampong Thom, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Speu and Koh Kong, while the seaport will be capable to handle about 50 million tons of goods a year. The railway will connect the country's northeastern part and southwestern part, he said, adding that the project will begin on July 2013 and is expected to be completed within 4 years. "It will greatly contribute to developing Cambodian economy when the project is completed," he said. Zhang Chuan Li, chairman of Cambodia Iron and Steel Mining Industry, said before the signing ceremony that the firm also set to build a steel plant in Preah Vihear province as the firm conducted a feasibility study in 2009 and found that the province is rich in iron ore. Speaking at the signing ceremony, Tram Iv Tek said that this is an ambitious project and if it happens, it will greatly spur Cambodian economy and reduce poverty. "It will be a new railroad and an international large-scale seaport, I wish the project success in order to contribute to developing the economy," he said. | |||||
| Cambodia, China's Yunnan province meet on anti-drug cooperation Posted: 30 Dec 2012 07:53 PM PST PHNOM PENH, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Anti-drug officials from Cambodia and China's southwestern province of Yunnan met here on Monday to initiate cooperation in combating drug trafficking by air, according to a press release by Cambodia's National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD). "It aims at preventing drug trafficking by air between Cambodia and China's Yunnan province," the press release said after a meeting between You Sunlong, NACD secretary general, and Hu Shuiwang, deputy director of Yunnan Provincial Public Security Bureau. Suon Khoeun, deputy chief of NACD administration department, told reporters that from early 2013, there will be direct flights between Yunnan's capital of Kunming and Cambodia's Siem Reap City so that the cooperation was very important for both sides to prevent and crack down on drug trafficking. You Sunlong highly spoke of good cooperation between Cambodian and Chinese authorities in preventing and cracking down on cross- border drug offences and other crimes. He also expressed thanks to Yunnan province in particular for providing equipment and technical assistance to NACD and supporting capacity building for Cambodian anti-drug officials. Meanwhile, Hu Shuiwang hailed close ties between China and Cambodia and agreed that the two countries had good cooperation in fighting against all forms of crimes. "I hope that our cooperation in combating drug trafficking will be further strengthened in order to ensure security and social order," he said. | |||||
| Yearender: Xinhua's top 10 world news events in 2012 Posted: 30 Dec 2012 07:53 PM PST BEIJING, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- The following were the top 10 news events around the world in 2012 as selected by Xinhua (in chronological order): 1. U.S. SHIFTS MILITARY FOCUS TO ASIA-PACIFIC REGION On Jan. 5, U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled a strategic defense guideline that vowed a stronger military presence in the Asia-Pacific region despite defense budget cuts. On June 2, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that, by 2020, the U.S. Navy would re-position its forces from a roughly 50-50 percent split between the Pacific and the Atlantic to about a 60-40 split. In November, Obama visited Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia in his first foreign tour after re-election, highlighting Asia's growing importance to the U.S.'s global strategy. 2. EGYPT'S MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD COMES TO POWER On Jan. 21, the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, won the largest number of seats, or 47.2 percent, in the lower house of parliament. On June 30, Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi was sworn in as the country's first freely elected president in 30 years and thus the Islamist group officially took over the largest Arab country. Arab countries including Tunisia, Yemen, Libya and Egypt have all experienced regime change since turbulence and violence beset West Asia and North Africa, with Islamist parties gaining governmental or parliamentary advantages in many countries in the region.
3. RELIGIOUS ISSUES TRIGGER ANTI-U.S. WAVE On Feb. 21, four people were killed and more than 200 others were injured when thousands of Afghans demonstrated over a report that foreign soldiers burned copies of the Muslim holy book, the Koran. On Sept. 11, the U.S. ambassador and three other employees were killed during an armed assault on the U.S. consulate in Libya's Benghazi. Several thousand Libyans surrounded the U.S. embassy in protest at a movie the Muslim community deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed. The movie infuriated the Muslims worldwide and sparked protests and assaults against U.S. diplomatic missions in Egypt, Libya, Sudan and Tunis, widening the conflict between the U.S. and the Islamic world.
4. U.S. MARS ROVER TOUCHES DOWN ON RED PLANET On Aug. 6, NASA's Mars rover, Curiosity, loaded with the most sophisticated instruments used to explore another world, touched down on the red planet seeking signs of past and present habitable environments. Mars is the chief component of NASA's long-term deep space exploration plans. U.S. President Barack Obama has set a goal of astronauts orbiting Mars by the mid-2030s followed by a landing.
5. RUSSIA BECOMES OFFICIAL MEMBER OF WTO Russia officially became the 156th member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Aug. 22 after 18 years of laborious negotiations. By including Russia, with a population of 143 million and ranked 11th globally in terms of nominal GDP, the WTO now covers 98 percent of global trade. The organization said Russia's accession would help the country integrate into the global economy, stabilize the trade environment, and promote universal trade rules. 6. JAPAN'S "ISLAND PURCHASE" CHALLENGES POSTWAR INTERNATIONAL ORDER Despite China's repeated opposition and protests, the Japanese government on Sept. 10 decided to "purchase" and "nationalize" China's Diaoyu Islands, flagrantly violating China's territorial sovereignty and challenging the postwar international order. The island-buying farce severely inflamed relations between China and Japan and alerted the international community to the rise of Japanese right-wing hardliners.
7. SYRIA'S ANTI-GOV'T REVOLT ACCELERATES INTO ARMED CONFLICT Syria's 20-month-old crisis deepened after the Free Syrian Army announced on Nov. 7 its battle to "liberate Damascus" had moved into the second phase, turning the political center and its surrounding areas into the main battle field between government forces and armed rebels. Syria's opposition formed a new bloc called the National Coalition for the Opposition Forces on Nov. 11, which was recognized by the United States the following month. Some foreign countries have been openly supporting the opposition with arms and cash, complicating efforts to find a political solution. Mediation by the UN and the Arab League has yet to succeed. 8. CHINA'S 18TH CPC NATIONAL CONGRESS ATTRACTS WORLD ATTENTION The 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress was convened in Beijing from Nov. 8 to 14. The congress agreed to incorporate the Scientific Outlook on Development into the CPC Constitution as the party's action guideline, along with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important principle of the Three Represents. It also nailed down the goal of completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects. The first plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, held after the national congress, elected China's new CPC leadership. The international community paid great attention to and praised the congress as a milestone, saying it set the direction for China's future development. They believed China, under the new leadership, would carry on the policy of reform and opening up, play a significant role in the world arena by being an active and responsible major power, and work with other countries to tackle global challenges, injecting fresh vigor to world peace and development.
9. DOHA CLIMATE TALKS REACH AGREEMENT ON 2ND PERIOD OF KYOTO PROTOCOL The United Nations climate conference, held from Nov. 26 to Dec. 9 in the Qatari capital of Doha, adopted a package of drafts for a second period of the Kyoto Protocol. The agreement, to apply from 2013 till 2020, stuck to the "common but differentiated" principle and safeguarded the basic institutional framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol. However, the developed countries, diluting their historical responsibilities and the "common but differentiated" principle and lacking the political will to reduce emissions and transfer technology, have become the main obstacle to international efforts to counter climate change. 10. EUROPE'S DEBT CRISIS DRAGS ON GLOBAL ECONOMIC RECOVERY Eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund clinched an agreement on Nov. 27 to reduce Greek debt and release a fresh 44-billion-euro (57-billion-U.S. dollar) bailout tranche to Athens, yet, uncertainties remained on whether Greece would quit the eurozone. Meanwhile, Spain, which also plunged into a crisis, has officially requested a European Union bailout worth 37 billion euros (48 billion dollars), and France's debt rating was downgraded by both Standard & Poor's and Moody's rating agencies. All these suggest the European debt crisis, far from being cured, is still the main obstacle to global economic recovery. | |||||
| Cooking gas canister explosion injures 12 in Cambodia's capital Posted: 30 Dec 2012 07:50 PM PST
PHNOM PENH, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- At least 12 people were injured in a cooking gas canister explosion on Saturday afternoon here, a firefighting police chief said. The accident occurred at 1:50 p.m. local time at a fast food and cafe shop near the capital's central market due to the cook changed a cooking gas container carelessly and triggered the explosion leading to a fire, Neth Vantha, chief of the Phnom Penh Firefighting Police Office, said. "Six were critically injured and six others were slightly injured in the accident," he told Xinhua over telephone, adding that all the victims were sent to Calmette Hospital soon after the event. "We used 12 fire trucks to fight the fire and it was completely extinguished an hour after the explosion," he said, adding that properties in the shop were destroyed in the fire. He said a couple from China's Taiwan, who run the shop, were also injured in the accident. |
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