DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Cambodia election committee starts receiving political party registration for July poll” plus 8 more

PHNOM PENH, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's National Election Committee (NEC) announced on Friday that it will begin to accept registration of political parties and candidates for a July general election from April 29 to May 13.

"Each political party is required to put a down payment of 15 million riel (3,750 U.S. dollars) at the NEC for the registration, " said a statement signed by the committee's chairman Im Suosdey on Friday.

It added that the down-payment will be returned to the party in case that the party gains at least 3 percent of the total votes, or earns one seat at the National Assembly.

Tep Nytha, NEC's secretary general, predicted Friday that less than 10 political parties out of the 43 political parties, which were registered at the Interior Ministry, would run for the forthcoming election.

Cambodia is scheduled to hold a general election on July 28. Some 9.67 million Cambodians are eligible to cast their ballots in the upcoming election.

Political analysts forecast that the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of Prime Minister Hun Sen will dominantly win the election.

Late last month, Hun Sen also predicted that his party would win at least two-thirds majority in the poll.

Hun Sen, 62, has been in power for 28 years and vowed to stay in the office until he is 90.

In the last election in 2008, the CPP won 90 seats out of the 123 parliamentary seats, while the opposition totally won 29 seats, the royalist Funcinpec Party won 2 seats and the Norodom Ranariddh Party 2 seats.

PHNOM PENH, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia exported garment and textile products in equivalent to 1.34 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2013, up 17 percent from 1.14 billion U.S. dollars at the same period last year, the Commerce Ministry's report showed Friday.

Kong Putheara, chief of the ministry's statistics and planning department, attributed the growth to economic recovery in Europe and the United States, which are the main buyers of Cambodia-made apparels.

Besides, Cambodian garment products are sold to Canada, Japan, South Korea, China and some other countries in Asia.

Garment industry is the country's largest income earner, representing more than 80 percent of the country's exports.

The sector consists of more than 300 factories, employing about 350,000 workers.

The whole year of 2012, the country exported garment products in equivalent to 4.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 8 percent year-on- year.

PHNOM PENH, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Princess Astrid of Belgium, special representative of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM), on Friday hailed Cambodia for its successful fight against malaria.

Speaking during a meeting with Cambodian deputy prime minister and foreign minister Hor Namhong, the princess said Cambodia's strategic plan for malaria elimination (2011-2025) was a "good example" for other countries, especially African countries.

In her capacity as the special representative of RBM, the princess pledged to seek funds to support Cambodia in combating the disease.

Meanwhile, Hor Namhong said financial and technical support from donor countries and international development agencies is indispensable to the country's good results in fighting against the disease.

According to Dr. Char Meng Chuor, director of the National Center for Malaria, Cambodia has achieved the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) in reducing death toll from malaria three years earlier than the schedule.

He said in the MDG, Cambodia was required to reduce the malaria death rate to 0.78 deaths per 100,000 people by 2015, but the country had already achieved the target by cutting the mortality rate by malaria to 0.32 deaths per 100,000 people in 2012.

He said death toll from malaria in Cambodia has sharply declined from 151 deaths in 2010 to 93 deaths in 2011 and 45 deaths in 2012.

The country sets an ambitious goal to eliminate malaria death by 2015 and entirely eliminate the disease by 2025, he added.

PHNOM PENH, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Thai counterpart Yingluck Shinawatra talked on border matters on the sidelines of the 22nd ASEAN Summit in Brunei, a Cambodian senior official said Thursday.

"The two prime ministers had a short meeting during a coffee break at the 22nd ASEAN Summit," Kao Kim Hourn, secretary of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters at Phnom Penh International Airport upon Hun Sen's return from Brunei.

"They agreed to encourage both sides' peoples along the borders to continue maintaining good relations and promoting trade and investment," he said. "They also pledged to avoid armed clashes."

The two neighbors have had sporadic border conflicts over territorial dispute near Cambodia's Preah Vihear Temple since the UNESCO listed the temple as a World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008, but Thailand claims the ownership of 4.6 square km of scrub next to the temple.

Deadly clashes between the two sides' troops happened in February and April 2011 during the rule of former Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Military tensions have eased since August 2011 when ex-Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's Pheu Thai Party won a general election and led the current government.

Last week, the two countries delivered their oral statements on the dispute to the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands, and the court is expected to issue a decision on who owns the disputed land around the Preah Vihear Temple later this year.

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, April 25 (Xinhua)-- Leaders of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand met here on Thursday at a subregional summit for sustaining economic stability in spite of the current global crisis.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, president of Indonesia, Tan Sri Abu Zahar Ujang, special representative of the prime minister of Malaysia, and Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra attended the seventh Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) Summit after the 22nd ASEAN summit retreat.

The IMT-GT Summit was proceeded with the signing ceremony of the Center for IMT-GT Subregional Cooperation (CIMT) Establishment Agreement, which signified concrete and reinforced commitments by the three member countries in subregional cooperation.

The establishment of CIMT would contribute significantly to ensuring effective delivery of IMT-GT programs and projects. The center would be located in Malaysia.

The IMT-GT, which was established in 1993, aims to accelerate economic growth and transformation of the IMT-GT subregion by exploiting complementarities and comparative advantages. Currently, all the 10 provinces in the Island of Indonesian Sumatera are members of IMT-GT, in addition to eight of Malaysia's 11 states and all 14 provinces of southern Thailand.

The 22nd ASEAN Summit was closed on Thursday with releasing a Chairman's Statement in which the ASEAN leaders emphasized the importance of realizing the ASEAN Community by 2015.

ASEAN was formed in 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Since then, membership has expanded to include Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

PHNOM PENH, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday charged a 69-year-old German man Gardner Hans with having sex with two underage boy-prostitutes.

"The suspect was charged with the purchase of child prostitutes and indecent act on minors aged below 15 years old," Chea Meth, the court's deputy prosecutor, said after questioning him.

Keo Thea, chief of Phnom Penh Municipal Anti-Trafficking Police, said Gardner was sent to Prey Sar Prison on the outskirts of Phnom Penh after the charges.

"The suspect could face up to 15 years in jail if the court founds him guilty of having sex with children," he told Xinhua over telephone on Thursday.

Gardner was arrested on Tuesday in the capital's Pur Senchey District while he was on his way to Phnom Penh International Airport in his attempt to get a flight to Malaysia, Keo Thea said.

The suspect had admitted to police that he had paid for sex with two boys on April 11-12, whose ages are less than 15, he added.

The arrest was made after the police was alerted about Gardner by child protection NGO Action Pour Les Enfants.

PHNOM PENH, April 25 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday launched a regional framework to combat drug artemisinin-resistant malaria in the Greater Mekong Subregion of Southeast Asia.

Artemisinin is the frontline drug in the fight against malaria. WHO said the emergence of resistance in Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam poses a serious global health threat.

Speaking at the launch of the Emergency Response to Artemisinin Resistance in the Greater Mekong Subregion, Dr. Shin Young-soo, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific, said the 3-to-4- year program would cost about 400 million U.S. dollars, and the Global Fund has committed to providing 100 million U.S. dollars to the plan.

He said the framework would provide high-quality strategic assistance to beat artemisinin resistance and it highlighted key areas where action was urgently needed to contain resistance and to move towards eliminating resistant parasites.

"This is critical not only for the six countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion, but also to the entire Western Pacific Region," he said.

The six countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion are Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and China.

Meanwhile, Dr. Shin called for support from the very highest level of governments in order to bring together all the parties that deal with complex issues -- such as how to treat migrants and other hard-to-reach populations.

He said in addition to the framework, the WHO launched a regional hub in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, to provide coordination and technical support for the intensified containment efforts.

Princess Astrid of Belgium, special representative of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, said at the launch that in recent years, the world has achieved great progress against this preventable and treatable disease, saving millions of lives along the way.

"Now, we are at the crossroads in our efforts," she said. " Financial challenges and the emergence of artemisinin resistance in the Greater Mekong Subregion threaten the hard-won gains we have made."

She said the potential spread of this resistance could leave the estimated 219 million people around the world infected by malaria each year -- of which 30 million are in the Asia-Pacific -- with no effective course of treatment.

Cambodian Minister of Health Mam Bunheng said death toll from malaria in Cambodia has sharply declined from 151 deaths in 2010 to 93 deaths in 2011 and 45 deaths in 2012.

"It is a pride for Cambodia in the fight against the disease, but we are still facing a continuing challenge of emerging malaria drug resistance, especially in border areas," he said at the event. "Failing to contain and control this resistance will have serious implications for Cambodia."

He said Cambodia set its goal to eliminate artemisinin resistance by 2015 and entirely eliminate malaria by 2025.

According to the WHO, artemisinin-based combination therapies ( ACTs) are the most effective anti-malarial treatments available today, and they have been central to recent successes in global malaria control.

Artemisinin-based combination therapies combine artemisinin -- a traditional Chinese herbal drug -- with another anti-malarial drug, it said, adding that the artemisinin component kills the majority of parasites at the start of the treatment, while the partner drug clears the remaining parasites.