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PHNOM PENH: The political parties in Cambodia on
Thursday started their election campaign that will last for a month
before the general election on July 27. For starting the election
campaign, Chea Sim, President of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP)
and President of the Senate said the CPP would continue to
strengthen democracy and bring better achievements for the poor,
adding that the CPP will continue to cooperate with the Funcinpec
party for the future of the country.
--Xinhua
DILI: East Timorese President
Jose Ramos-Horta said Thursday he was considering taking the job of
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights but was torn between the post
and a sense of duty to his young country. “I’m waiting 24 hours
to say whether I’m a candidate or not because of my concern and
responsibility to this country. I’m taking all the consequences
into consideration,” he told reporters. “Many people are
supporting me out there and I’m also interested in the job.
--AFP
WASHINGTON: National Aeronautics
and Phoenix Mars lander placed a sample of
Martian soil in the spacecraft’s wet chemistry laboratory on
Wednesday for the first time after landing, the US space agency
said. Results from that instrument, part of Phoenix’s Microscopy,
Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, are expected to provide
the first measurement of the acidity or alkalinity of the planet’s
soil, said NASA’s Phoenix science team. The analysis of this soil
sample and others will help researchers determine whether the soil
has other qualities favorable for life.
--Xinhua
CAIRO: An Israeli negotiator was
due in Egypt on Thursday in a bid to speed up indirect negotiations
with the Hamas movement for the release of an Israeli soldier as
part of a prisoner swap. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s envoy Ofer
Dekel was due to hold talks with Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar
Suleiman, an Israeli government official said. According to the
pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, Corporal Gilad Shalit would be handed over
to Egypt before heading home after two years in captivity.
--AFP
KUALA LUMPUR: Indonesia is
concerned about Malaysia’s plan to carry out a mass deportation of
illegal immigrants from Borneo island, a senior official said
Thursday. Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak on Wednesday
announced a plan to clear out illegal immigrants, mainly from
Indonesia and the Philippines, who have settled in Sabah state on
Borneo. “It is a concern when you deport hundreds of thousands of
Indonesians back home,” said Eka Suripto, a counsellor with the
Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
--AFP
NAIROBI: Somalia faces a serious
food crisis if no nation steps forward with naval ships to escort
relief shipments through pirate-infested waters, the UN World Food
Program (WFP) said Thursday. A Dutch frigate now is in its last
weeks shepherding two WFP-chartered vessels which shuttle between
the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Somalia where the United Nations warns
3.5 million will need food relief by year’s end.
--AFP
NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar officials on Thursday
said the military-ruled nation was on track to be drugs-free by 2014
despite warnings from the UN that opium production here has again
soared. In a ceremony marking global anti-drugs day, Home Affairs
Minister Maung Oo said their 15-year eradication program was
working, although he cautioned more work needed to be done to tackle
new trends. The marked decline in the production of both opium and
heroin is the outcome of this program we have adopted and put into
action,” he said.
--AFP
WASHINGTON: US police arrested 389 people on child sex
trafficking charges in a major sweep across several states, The New
York Times reported Thursday. The five-day operation spanned 16
cities and involved hundreds of local, state and federal agencies
dealing with missing children, many of them runaways, and
identifying networks behind child trafficking for the sex trade, the
report said. Twenty-one sexually exploited children were rescued
from the street, it added.
--AFP
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