DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Cambodia gets first team of explosive ordnance disposal divers” plus 3 more

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Ten Cambodian deminers graduated on Thursday from the first diving training to find underwater unexploded ordnances (UXOs) after a four-week intensive course.

The course was supported by the U.S. Department of State, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement.

Allen Tan, general manager of the Golden West Humanitarian Foundation, which organized the training, said the course, instructed by a former U.S. Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal diver, was attended by 35 deminers from Cambodian Mine Action Center ( CMAC), but only 10 graduated with the full rating of Second Class Diver.

"This is the first time that CMAC deminers receive this honor," he said at the course closing ceremony, adding that three additional recruits are receiving certificates of completion.

"This graduation marks the beginning of a great new capacity for Cambodia. Over the next 1-2 years, these individuals will be further challenged by advanced training from the U.S. Army Dive Salvage unit," he said.

After the training, the graduated divers will recover munitions spilled underwater during the 1960s and 70s, Heng Ratana, CMAC's director general, said.

"With the U.S support, now our deminers have skills to search for underwater unexploded ordnances," he said.

Cambodia is one of the countries suffering from landmines and UXOs as the result of nearly three decades of war and internal conflicts from the mid 1960s to the end of 1998.

An estimated 4 to 6 million landmines and other munitions left over from the conflicts.

As of last year, the country has removed and destroyed some 3 million landmines and UXOs, and it will get rid of landmines and UXOs in the next 10 years, Heng Ratana said. By doing so, the country needs about 30 million U.S. dollars a year.

From 1979 to 2012, a total of 64,202 landmine and UXO casualties were recorded. Of which 19,662 people were killed, 35, 640 were injured and 8,900 were amputated, according to the latest official report.

KUNMING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar drug lord Naw Kham and three of his accomplices, all of whom were convicted of murdering 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River in 2011, will be executed on March 1, a local court in southwest China said Wednesday.

They will be executed by lethal injection in the city of Kunming in southwest China's Yunnan Province, the Kunming Intermediate People's Court said.

Naw Kham's three accomplices were identified as Hsang Kham from Thailand, Yi Lai, stateless, and Zha Xika, Laotian.

After the court rejected their appeals and withheld the death sentence, their sentences were submitted to the Supreme People's Court (SPC) in Beijing for review. The SPC president signed an execution order after review procedures were completed.

The Kunming Intermediate People's Court received a judgment regarding the judicial review, as well as the execution order on Feb. 22. The convicts were informed of the judgment on Feb. 24.

The execution will be supervised by the Kunming People's Procuratorate.

The court has already arranged for the consulates of Thailand and Myanmar in Kunming, as well as the convicts' relatives, to meet with the convicts. The court has also ensured their litigation rights.

After the execution, the court will hand over their remains, wills and personal belongings to their relatives or relevant consulates.

Naw Kham and his gang members were found to have masterminded and colluded with Thai soldiers in an attack on two Chinese cargo ships, the Hua Ping and Yu Xing 8, on Oct. 5, 2011 on the Mekong River.

Under Naw Kham's instructions, several of his subordinates were also found to have kidnapped Chinese sailors and hijacked cargo ships in exchange for ransom in early April 2011.

The gang was broken up in early 2012 in a joint operation conducted by police from China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand after the brutal murders of Chinese sailors triggered calls to rein in rampant crime in the border region.

Naw Kham and the other three convicts were given death penalties on Nov. 6, 2012.

Another two members of Naw Kham's gang, identified as Zha Bo and Zha Tuobo, received a death sentence with reprieve and eight years in prison, respectively.

Nicknamed "the Godfather," Naw Kham was the boss of the largest armed drug trafficking gang on the Mekong River, which flows through China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The pay rise negotiation between Cambodia's garment and footwear manufacturers and representatives of trade unions ended in a deadlock on Wednesday.

The second day talk was made between the employers represented by Nang Sothy, co-chair of the Government-Private Working Group on Industrial Relations, and Ken Loo, secretary general of Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia, and 10 representatives of the kingdom's trade unions.

The negotiation was coordinated by Om Mean, secretary of state at the Ministry of Labor.

"The talk ended up without result today," president of Cambodian Confederation of Unions Rong Chhun who represented workers in the negotiation, told Xinhua over telephone on Wednesday.

"The employers still stick to their yesterday's stance to raise a worker's monthly minimum wage to 72 U.S. dollars, up from the existing 61 U.S. dollars even though we lowered our demand to 100 U.S. dollars from 120 U.S. dollars we proposed yesterday."

"Their increase is too low to accept for workers in the context that the prices of food and fuel are rocketing up, and they have severely affected workers' living conditions," he said.

No date is set for next talks. Rong Chhun warned that he will lead a mass protest if the employers delay talk resumption for a longer period.

Vong Sovann, deputy secretary general of the Committee for the Settlement of Strike and Demonstration at the Ministry of Labor, said Wednesday that the government will try to push them to end the negation in March and hopefully, the workers will receive their pay rise from April.

The garment industry is Cambodia's largest foreign exchange earner. The sector comprises more than 300 factories, employing some 335,400 workers - 91 percent of them are female.

The country exported garment and textile products in equivalent to 4.6 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 8 percent year-on-year, according to a report of the commerce ministry.

The United States and European countries are the major buyers, and other clients are Canada, Japan, South Korea and China.