DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Cambodian defense minister heads to Thailand for talks on border cooperation” plus 7 more

PHNOM PENH, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian deputy prime minister and defense minister Tea Banh left here on Thursday for Thailand to meet with his Thai counterpart Gen. Sukumpol Suwanatat in order to discuss measures to strengthen and expand cooperation along the border.

The two defense ministers will meet on Friday at the ninth Cambodia-Thailand General Border Committee (9th GBC), to be held in Rayong province's Wang Chan district.

Speaking to reporters at Phnom Penh International Airport before his departure, Tea Banh said that the upcoming meeting would focus discussion on cooperation to strengthen peace and security along the border through jointly combating against cross- border crimes, drug trafficking, illegal logging, and other illegal activities.

Neang Phat, secretary of state of Cambodia's defense ministry, told reporters early this month that the upcoming meeting would also discuss measures to avoid (military) confrontations that may affect the two countries' development and people livelihoods.

In addition, the two ministers will discuss ways to clear landmines in the World Court-defined Provisional Demilitarized Zone surrounding Cambodia's Preah Vihear Temple, he said.

Cambodia and Thailand 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 kilometers of scrub next to the temple.

Deadly clashes between the both 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 month, the two countries delivered their oral statements on the dispute to the World Court in the Netherlands and the court is expected to issue a decision on who owns the disputed land around the temple later this year.

The eighth GBC meeting was held in Phnom Penh in December 2011.

TOKYO, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Bodies believed to be those of the six missing Russian crew members were found inside a Cambodia- registered freighter that caught fire early Thursday in a port in Japan's northern prefecture of Hokkaido, according to local media.

Rescuers, including firefighters and Japanese Coast Guard, took about 11 hours to put out the fire since they received an emergency call at around 1:45 a.m. local time, Japan's Kyodo News Agency cited local authorities as saying.

Three Russian sailors among a total of 18 crew members were rescued and have been sent to hospital without serious injuries, according to the report.

The rest sailors, including another five more Russian crew members boarded at the Wakkanai port, were confirmed safe.

About two thirds of the ship's interior was burned, said local officials, adding it is difficult to discharge large amounts of water at once to put out the fire as the vessel's interior was divided into many small sessions.

The 497-ton crab freighter docked at the port Tuesday with 14 Russian and four Ukrainian crew members on board and scheduled to leave Thursday.

PHNOM PENH, May 16 (Xinhua) -- The concrete balcony of a shoes factory collapsed in western Cambodia on Thursday morning, killing two workers and injuring five others, police said, blaming the collapse to "technical error in building construction" and " factory owner's neglect."

The incident occurred at around 7 a.m. on Thursday at Wing Star Shoes, a China's Taiwanese-owned factory, on the National Road No. 3 in Kong Pisey district in Kampong Speu province, about 40 kilometers west of Phnom Penh, Kong Pisey district police chief Khem Pannara said.

The newly-built factory employed up to 7,000 workers, he said.

"The concrete balcony of the factory collapsed due to its overload of shoes and other materials," he told Xinhua over telephone. "Luckily, the balcony collapsed at the corridor and there were no many workers underneath, so there were not many casualties."

"Two workers were killed immediately in the collapse, and five others were seriously injured," he said after hundreds of rescue forces with dozens of ambulances, fire-trucks, and excavators completed a 4-hour-rescue operations.

He said the collapsed balcony was about 8 meters by 16 meters.

"Technical error in building construction and the factory owner's carelessness are blamed for the incident," he said, adding that the factory's owner was being questioned by police.

Chea Mony, president of Cambodian Free Trade Union of Workers, which represents about 90,000 garment workers in the country, expressed sympathy over the incident and said the factory must be fully responsible for the incident and proper compensations should be given to the victims.

"We'd also like to appeal to the government to take a strict measure against the factory's owner and the building contractor in order to prevent such incident in the future," he told Xinhua over telephone.

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

The latest report of the Ministry of Commerce showed that currently, the country has about 500 garment and footwear factories employing some 510,600 workers. Last year, the country exported garment products in equivalent to 4.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 8 percent year-on-year.

The collapse raised a regional safety concern in the garment industry. Last month, a eight-storey Rana Plaza building in Savar on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed, killing 1,127 people in one of the world's worst industrial disasters.

TOKYO, May 16 (Xinhua) -- A freighter registered in Cambodia caught fire at a port in Japan's northern prefecture of Hokkaido early Thursday, leaving six Russian crew members missing, local media reported.

Local rescuers, including firefighters and Japanese Coast Guard, reached the accident site after they received an emergency call at around 1:45 a.m. local time, Japan's Kyodo News Agency cited local authorities as saying.

Three Russian sailors, among a total of 18 crew members, were rescued and have been sent to hospital without serious injuries, according to the report.

Rescuers will search for the missing sailors after the fire is controlled, said Kyodo.

The 497-ton crab freighter docked at the port Tuesday with 14 Russian and four Ukrainian crew members on board.

PHNOM PENH, May 16 (Xinhua) -- The balcony of a shoe factory in western Cambodia collapsed on Thursday morning, killing at least three workers and injuring six others.

More than 100 workers are still trapped in the wreckage, according to district police chief Khem Pannara.

The incident occurred at around 7 a.m. Thursday at Wing Star Shoes factory on the National Road No. 3 in Kong Pisey district in Kampong Speu province, about 40 kilometers west of capital Phnom Penh, Pannara told Xinhua by telephone.

"The balcony of the factory collapsed due to overload of shoes and other materials on the balcony," he said, adding rescue efforts are underway.

PHNOM PENH, May 16 (Xinhua) -- The balcony of a shoes factory collapsed in western Cambodia on Thursday morning and estimated more than a hundred workers were trapped in the wreckage, a district police chief said.

HANOI, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's agriculture, forestry and fishery sector has invested 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in 150 projects overseas so far this year, the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) reported on its website on Wednesday.

The sum accounted for 20.5 percent of the country's total foreign investment capital, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

The sector currently constitutes 32 percent of projects and 28 percent of Vietnamese investment capital in Laos and 54.4 percent in Cambodia, primarily in wood processing, rubber plantation and latex exploitation.

Vietnamese businesses are also present in other Southeast Asian nations, China and some South African nations under the South- South Cooperation Program.

The Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG), the Military Telecommunication Group (Viettel), the Vietnam National Chemical Group (Vinachem), and the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PVN) are four leading Vietnamese investors abroad.

Specifically, the VGR plans to pour 1 billion U.S. dollars into rubber plantation projects overseas until 2015, while it has disbursed about 400 million U.S. dollars to date.

Under the South-South Cooperation Program, the MARD has sent experts to Mozambique, Tanzania, Sudan, Mali, South Africa and Sierra Leone to support local people in growing rice and developing irrigation systems.

Many Vietnamese businesses have also invested in rice, aquaculture, seafood processing and fisheries in some African nations, including South Africa and Mozambique.

According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment, as the end of March 2013, Vietnam has 742 valid projects with total investment of 15.5 billion U.S. dollars operating in 59 countries and territories. Laos topped the list of Vietnamese overseas investment with 4.2 billion dollars, followed by Cambodia with 2.73 billion dollars and Russia with 2.36 billion dollars.