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Issue NUMBER 1646

16 pages

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THURSDAY, june 13, 2013

national A look back with Schanberg

4000 RIEL

lifestyle The Keep Kep Clean campaign

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page 17

Hit-and-run driver to be out in weeks Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

A HIT-and-run driver who left three children dead and 11 injured in her wake was found guilty yesterday but given a suspended sentence by Phnom Penh Municipal Court that will see her released in less than two weeks.

The year six medical student, 23-year-old Keam Piseth Narita, raised a nationwide outcry in March after ploughing into a motorbike in broad daylight on Norodom Boulevard, then speeding away – only to crash into a crowd gathered outside of the Ministry of Interior, killing three children and injuring 11 bystanders.

Though the court sentenced Piseth Narita to three years in prison and issued a fine of six million riel ($1,500) on charges of “driving causing death and serious injury”, the vast majority of the jail time would be suspended and reduced to time already served due to extenuating circumstances, presiding judge Kor Vandy said.

“Based on the hearing and the accused person’s confession, the court Continues on page 6

Korean talks scrapped South Korean conservative activists prepare to set an effigy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on fire during an anti-Pyongyang rally in Seoul yesterday.

AFP

sTORY > 13

Bandith skips hearing May Titthara

F

ORMER Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith once again failed to appear at Svay Rieng Provincial Court yesterday, nearly 16 months after he allegedly shot three women at a garment factory protest.

His second no-show, coupled with the subsequent walkout of his lawyers, left hopeful victims, their attorneys and civil society representatives exasperated over a case that has been

For second time, suspect refuses to show dragged between courts and faced seemingly endless delays.

Before the hearing even began yesterday, argument broke out between the victims’ lawyers, defence lawyers and the prosecutor over a supposed technical error that included Bandith in the list of court witnesses.

Sun Bunnarith, one of Bandith’s lawyers, told the court he could not participate in the trial because Bandith

was listed as a key witness at his own trial, while technical police experts had not been invited to testify.

“I come here to protect the suspect not the witness, so I cannot join this trial. And, if the court makes any decision, I will continue to the Appeal Court because it is unfair for my client,” he said.

Neither the judge nor the court clerk responded to the supposed mistake

and ordered the hearings to continue despite Bandith’s absence, following which the defence lawyers left the court in protest.

“We have informed him and the court clerk also called to inform him so we have to continue the hearing. If his lawyers do not attend the hearing, that is their right,” judge Leang Sour told the packed courtroom.

The Appeal Court earlier this year

ordered the Svay Rieng Provincial Court to try Bandith after it dropped the charges against him, quietly and with scant explanation, in December last year.

Dozens of military police officers were deployed outside the court, with representatives from factory supplier Puma, NGOs and various supporters of the victims carefully registered and sternly warned they would not be allowed to re-enter the courtroom Continues on page 5

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THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

National

Protesters spill into capital from across the Kingdom Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Shane Worrell

WHEN Mau Choeun, 30, was summonsed to court for questioning over a land dispute in Battambang province’s Bavel district in March, he was swiftly charged and imprisoned.

Accused of violence against a private company that had seized his family’s land by way of a government-issued concession, Choeun spent almost three months locked up, only for authorities to drop charges against him in ambiguous circumstances in late May. “They had high-ranking officials behind them, and when we gathered to protest they accused us of violence,” his father, Chhuth Mau, 64, said yesterday, referring to an oknha whose name he didn’t want printed.

The father and son were among about 500 protesters

from 24 communities across the country who protested in the capital yesterday to draw attention to land disputes they say are frequently ending with imprisonment as well as eviction.

“We’ve come here to ask the [government] to stop using the court system to arrest defenders of land, natural resources and human rights,” he said.

Protesters sang and beat drums after beginning their show of dissent at the Ministry of Justice and dragged effigies of “corrupt officials” to the National Assembly, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Supreme Council of Magistracy.

Chhoeun, who himself was among protesters, said his younger brother, Mau Sanith, 28, and other representatives who had “protected our land for agriculture” had been summonsed to face court in the next two weeks.

Protesters from 24 communities affected by land disputes drag scarecrows – symbolically representing ‘corrupt officials’ and investors – in front of Phnom Penh’s National Assembly yesterday. pha lina

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“So we need the Ministry of Justice to intervene to drop our case,” he said.

Fellow villager Phon Phorn, 60, said families remained concerned that corruption was “happening everywhere”, including in court.

Members of the Community Peace Network (CPN), the Prey Lang Community Network and villagers from Snuol district in Kratie province, where logging has decimated the 75,000-hectare Snuol Wildlife Sanctuary, also marched.

Protester Sorn Yan, 60, from Snuol, said the National Assembly needed to crack down on illegal logging in remote areas and ensure concessions were cancelled when private companies breached contracts.

“Almost every day we see and hear the authorities cracking down on illegal logging and confiscating luxury timber and vehicles. Sometimes they arrest a few drivers . . . but those behind the logging are never caught.”

Seng Sokheng, executive director of Community Development for Peace and Sustainability and CPN’s national working group, lodged a petition with the National Assembly, whose officials, he said, claimed they could do little to help.

“I was very disappointed when the representative of the National Assembly . . . said it had no power to resolve our problems,” he said. “I told them that the National Assembly has the right . . . to order government officials to answer questions about whether what they are doing is against the law.”

Ministry of Justice cabinet chief Sam Pracheameinith said no one had the ability or right to interfere in court cases.

“But if [villagers] file a complaint directly to the ministry, we will send investigators to examine. But we ourselves do not interfere in court proceedings either,” he said. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MOM KUNTHEAR

Opposition leader Kem Sokha prepares for a press conference on political intimidation at the CNRP headquarters in Phnom Penh yesterday. heng chivoan

Sokha blames CPP for inciting protests Vong Sokheng

O

PPOSITION leader Kem Sokha appealed to the ruling party to halt “political intimidation”, which he blamed for the breakup of a pair of Cambodia National Rescue forums on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press conference held at CNRP headquarters a day after two meetings in Kandal province were drowned out by hundreds of protesters calling for an apology over his alleged S-21 comment, Sokha said the opposition had little doubt the incident was the work of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

“The inciting statement was broadcast across all media, and the broadcast was evidence that the CPP was behind the demonstration,” Sokha said, referring to the premier’s discussion of the

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protest in the leadup to Sunday’s mass rallies.

Demonstrations were held across the country on Sunday, calling for an apology by Sokha. Though S-21 survivor Chum Mey spearheaded the protests, the opposition – as well as some rights groups – have maintained that the government had a heavy hand in them.

Sokha said yesterday the mounting incidents had made him fear for his personal safety as well as that of “CNRP political activists across the country”.

“If there is violence against me or other activists, the ruling party has to take responsibility,” he said.

“The party has created a lot of forms of intimidation, defamation and incitement.”

Should Prime Minister Hun Sen be unable to ensure the opposition’s security, Sokha

added, he should step down.

“It is a time of political instability, and the election will not be free and fair if the ruling party takes no measures to provide security,” he said.

But ruling party officials scoffed at Sokha’s claims, saying he had no one to blame but himself if he landed in hot water.

“Samdach Techo [Hun Sen] has enough ability to maintain political stability and safety for all people, and has ordered all local authorities to prevent any act of violence, but Cambodian people are still free to organise demonstrations against Sokha,” senior CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said, before advising that Sokha apologise and defuse the situation.

“What we were concerned about is that an act of violence may be made up by Sokha and blamed on the ruling party,” he added.

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THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

National

A look back with Schanberg SYDNEY Schanberg witnessed the capture and evacuation of Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge while working as a reporter for the New York Times. After two weeks in the French embassy, he left the country, while his colleague, Dith Pran, was forced to join other Cambodians in the countryside. When the Khmer Rouge fell, Schanberg was reunited with Pran and wrote an article and book about his friend’s experience under the Khmer Rouge that was later turned into a film, The Killing Fields. Schanberg testified before the Khmer Rouge tribunal last week. Days later, he spoke with the Post’s Justine Drennan about his impressions of the trial, as well as those fateful years.

So what was it like testifying at the Khmer Rouge tribunal?

In my own mind, how I look at what happened in Cambodia is what has happened through history. You know, small countries are used by powerful countries to get what they want, and nobody really wants to talk about that.

In any case, the tribunal didn’t focus on that. They were focusing on the leaders who had sanctioned or who knew about the killings and didn’t do anything about that.

But I’m just telling you it was a different America from the country I was born into. It’s changed a great deal. Because World War II was a necessary war, and the Vietnam War was not a necessary war. But at the time, Washington was wallowing in the Domino Theory that if the North Vienamese were to

win that war, it could spread all through Southeast Asia, and that hasn’t happened. And that was a Cold War thing.

I’m just telling you my frame of mind when I look at what happened in Cambodia, and it’s another thing that didn’t have to happen. So that was what I brought in when I came to testify – that’s what was in my mind.

Beyond your own testimony, do you have thoughts about the recent proceedings at the tribunal?

When I saw Nuon Chea testifying, I understood why he said all the things he said – that they emptied the city because the Americans were going to bomb, and the Vietnamese might come in – but you know, while we were prisoners, or while we were in the French embassy, all those days, at that period, the Americans were pulling out and had already signed a peace treaty with the Vietnamese.

Nobody was talking about invading Cambodia. But I understand completely why he said those things, because he may have some fear and regrets.

And he doesn’t want to be jailed or whatever. So I understand that as a human being, and I – I have no objection to him being punished. But I also have no objection to him saying foolish things because he’s frightened, or because he actually is sorry about it. But that doesn’t bring back the people who died.

You’ve been back to Cambodia since that time. What’s that been like for you?

I went back. I’ve been back a

Sydney Schanberg, who testified at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh last week, is seen in 2010. Noah Greenberg

couple of times. And it was – how should I put it? – it reminded me of many things, and many of them were negative.

People had died, friends of mine. One of my drivers was executed, we found out later, by the Khmer Rouge. And we don’t know what was the charge and what he was supposed to have done. What rule did he break? I don’t know. His wife told me that they came to their hut, the soldiers, and took him away, and didn’t tell them anything, and she never saw him again.

And a lot of people who had lived through it have been very, very hurt, meaning they stayed alive but they dreamed about all of this.

Somebody would be riding on a bike down a major thoroughfare and they would suddenly lose control and slide off and bang into a car parked on the curb. And I saw it enough times to know what happened: they were riding on their bike and thinking about what happened during the war and saw in their memory, saw their mothers and fathers die, or sisters and brothers, and then suddenly “boom!” they’d lose control of the bicycle.

And so a lot of it was really very difficult for me. Not difficult, but disturbing. That’s probably pretty much gone now, and there’s a new generation, but it hurt to watch these people who were damaged and who had lost members of their family.

Was there anything you felt you didn’t get a chance to mention in your testimony?

After the Khmer Rouge were pushed to the western areas by the Vietnamese army of 1979, certain things happened that were really very shameful, to me, about what my country was doing.

For example, for several years after that, the seat at the United Nations was occupied by the Khmer Rouge, and not the new government.

It was the United States who led the successful effort, that the seat in the United Nations building and the General Assembly was held by the Khmer Rouge, and not by the Hun Sen government, which had been established

by Vietnamese.

Not that I’m rooting for any particular country, but here I’m saying: you know what they did, and it was a genocide.

Just as an individual, I was very, very uncomfortable and critical of that. the criminals with this seat.

This interview has been edited for clarity and space, a longer version of the interview can be seen at phnompenhpost.

Opposition to boycott law hearing in Senate Cheang Sokha

O

PPOSITION senators will boycott today’s scheduled session, where a controversial Khmer Rouge crimes denial law is set to be addressed by the ruling party dominated body.

The Senate’s nine-member permanent committee is set to meet today and decide whether to put the denial law, which was last week passed by the National Assembly, up for vote.

Kong Korm, president of the Sam Rainsy Party and one of two SRP senators who make up the Senate’s permanent committee, told the Post yesterday that the party would abstain from the session fol-

lowing last week’s expulsion of opposition lawmakers from the National Assembly.

“We will absolutely not attend this session,” Korm said, adding that the law was made without proper consultation.

According to a statement from Um Sarith, secretarygeneral of the General Secretariat of the Senate, the committee will hold the session to inspect the law and set a date for its debate.

On Friday, two days after the National Assembly expelled all 27 opposition lawmakers, it rammed through a hastily drafted Khmer Rouge crimes denial law. Although the law will not go on the books until it is passed by the Senate and approved by the king, both

steps are generally seen as little more than a rubber stamp.

The law makes denial of Khmer Rouge crimes an offence punishable by up to two years in prison and by fines of up to $1,000. Political parties and legal entities can also be held criminally liable if their representatives are found guilty, and face fines, suspension and dissolution. Rights groups have criticised the law, calling it hastily drafted, overly vague and most likely a tool for silencing dissent.

The law was proposed by the premier just days after the government leaked a tape of opposition leader Kem Sokha allegedly claiming the notorious Tuol Sleng security centre was staged.

CPP a no-show at pledge to stamp out corruption Justine Drennan and Phak Seangly

SIX of the eight political parties registered for the upcoming national election signed a pledge backed by Transparency International yesterday to buckle down on corruption – but the ruling Cambodian People’s Party was notably absent from the signing.

The CPP and the Cambodian Nationality Party had been invited to attend along with the other registered parties but had declined without giving a reason, as had representatives from the government’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), said Preap Kol, director of TI Cambodia.

“For the two other parties we have sent invitations and they have not come, the message is very clear,” TI’s Asia Pacific regional director Srirak Plipat said. “Inaction is also a form of action.”

TI Cambodia had stated in a press release earlier this week: “We expect up to 12 representatives from each of the registered parties to join this event.”

However, TI Cambodia Communications Officer Carola Jonas said yesterday that the CPP never indicated that they would attend, adding that the CPP also had been absent from other recent TI events.

Speaking before signing the pledge, Cambodia National

Representatives from six of eight political parties running in this year’s national election signed anti-corruption pledges in Phnom Penh yesterday. The ruling CPP declined to attend. Pha lina

Rescue Party representative Son Chhay said a CNRP government would raise civil servants’ wages so they would not be reduced to making money through corrupt means.

Pan Sithy of Funcinpec echoed the goal.

Ok Veth of the League for Democracy Party underlined the importance of fighting nepotism and said that if corruption were not addressed, the prime minister could “command a very big poll and continue to be in the position forever”.

“On the 28th of July, everybody must be brave,” urged Khmer Anti-Poverty Party

leader Kravanh Daran. “We must turn up to fight against corruption and… overturn the authoritarian government.”

The CPP officer who answered the phone at party headquarters yesterday said simply that the office “got the invitation letter but did not participate” before hanging up, while CPP lawmaker Chheang Vun said he was not aware of the event.

ACU spokesman Keo Remy hung up without taking questions. www.phnompenhpost.com check the post website for breaking news

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THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

National

Further pressure for Samphan’s wife Stuart White

The prosecution and civil parties continued to probe the testimony of So Socheat – wife of co-accused Khieu Samphan – at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday, seemingly dissatisfied with her insistence that she had no knowledge of the workings of Democratic Kampuchea.

Civil party lead co-lawyer Elisabeth Simonneau Fort pressed Socheat on whether she was familiar with the living conditions of the “new people” evacuated out of Phnom Penh, ultimately asking whether it was “of no interest” to her, when Socheat responded that, even after nearly 40 years, she knew nothing of the con-

ditions among the evacuees.

Simonneau Fort also responded with seeming incredulity to Socheat’s assertion that even

after the fall of Phnom Penh, her husband was not a senior leader of the Khmer Rouge.

“I did not know for sure what he did,” Socheat maintained.

“He worked at his place and occasionally he would go to K-1 and occasionally he would go

meet with Samdech [Norodom Sihanouk]. That is what I saw.”

Prosecutor Keith Raynor, who himself had grown exasperated on Tuesday with the inconsistencies in Socheat’s responses, continued to press her on seemingly conflicting accounts, ultimately concluding the morning session by asking the court to officially sanction Samphan national defence lawyer Kong Sam Onn. “It is my respectful submission that he has knowingly and wilfully interfered with the administration of justice, and he has interfered with the evidence of Madame So Socheat,” Raynor said, accusing Sam Onn of telegraphing answers to Socheat by way of his objections.

Gamblers arrested after ransom fails Kim Sarom

A group of Vietnamese gamblers lost a hefty bet on Sunday, when an attempt to hold a married couple for ransom was foiled by one of their victims.

Police in Kampong Cham province detained four men and one woman – all from Vietnam – for questioning in a seemingly haphazard kidnapping of a man and woman from Siem Reap, Kampong Cham deputy police

chief Chim Senghong said. The ordeal began when the suspects, who came to Cambodia to gamble at the Tropaing Phlong Casino, called a man in Siem Reap, telling him they had luxury grade wood to sell him, Senghong said.

When the man met the suspects in a Siem Reap guesthouse, one suspect allegedly threatened him with a pair of scissors. They shoved paper in his mouth, drove him back to the casino and called his wife, demanding she

meet them there with a $50,000 ransom, Senghong said.

Pretending she was calling her mother, the woman called the police and concocted a story with them to tell the kidnappers, Senghong said. She told them her mother was in hospital in Kampong Cham and needed to meet her there to collect the money.

Thinking she was retrieving the money, the suspects released the woman, who led police back to the Casino.

Plan to help thousands of child labourers quit Sen David

C

HAN Dany, 12, wants to go to school but instead, like too many Cambodian children, has been forced to sell groceries and do housework to provide for the family.

In January, Dany and her mother came to Phnom Penh, where mum barely scrapes by as a domestic worker so she can send remittances back to her family.

“My mum did not have the ability to send me to school because no one helps her to earn money for the family. I did not know anything. I just did what my mother told me to do,” she said.

Dany is among 15.5 million children forced into exploitative labour worldwide, a problem the Ministry of Labour and NGO World Vision announced yesterday they would tackle with a new initiative.

At a conference in Phnom Penh set to coincide with he 12th annual World Day Against Child Labour. they launched EXCEL (Eliminating Exploitative Child Labor through Education and

A young vendor sells Khmer scarves on the capital’s riverfront in 2012. derek stout

Livelihood), a project aiming to withdraw 28,000 Cambodian children from the labour force over the next four years.

About 4,200 children had been withdrawn from exploitative labour in Cambodia since 2004, though many more remained, Phak Chantha, a secretary of state of Ministry of Labour, told the Post.

“The children must be ensured safety from exploitative

labour because it is time for them to go to school,” she said.

With these efforts, the percentage of children who work could be reduced from 16.5 per cent in 1999 to 8 per cent by 2015, the program’s backers say. EXCEL also aims to provide livelihood opportunities to 14,000 vulnerable Cambodian households, enabling them to earn enough to send their children to school.

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THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

National

Bandith skips court, victims furious Continued from page 1

should they leave. Sar Chantha, the Bavet town police chief, who was charged with the shootings before the court dropped its case against Bandith, took to the stand claiming he was not at the scene of the shootings and was unarmed on that day.

“I have been a police officer for 21 years and have done so much to help the community. I was very regretful beyond words when they accused me, and my reputation of 21 years has disappeared due to this accusation,” he said.

Mom Keosivin, Chantha’s defence attorney, said Bandith had found too many excuses and pretexts in order to avoid court, and asked the judge to issue a warrant for his arrest.

“If he were a simple citizen, he would have been in the prison a long time ago,” he said.

Keo Near, 18, who was shot in the hand at the protest, spoke tearfully to the judge, saying that until Interior Minister Sar Kheng fingered Bandith for the shootings, she did not think it was he who had committed the crime.

She added that she was asking for the “petty” sum of $45,000 in compensation and had she been shot anywhere else, she likely “would have died”.

Legal action possible over ‘coup theory’ Vong Sokheng and Cheang Sokha

R

Keo Near (left), Nuth Sakhorn (centre) and Buot Chinda, victims of last year’s shooting, exit the Svay Rieng Provincial Court yesterday. vireak mai

Twenty-one-year-old Buot Chinda, who was shot in the chest at the protest, said she had turned up to work not knowing the demonstration was on and was waiting at a nearby factory with Near when they were both shot.

“What I want is to insist that the court finds justice for us and put the perpetrator in jail because we have been waiting for such a long time,” she said.

Sari Butcharya, a Cambodian Legal Education Center (CLEC)

lawyer representing the victims, told the court that Bandith had no excuse to not attend the trial because he was charged as a suspect by the Appeal Court.

“My client has waited since a long time ago and this waiting is hurting my client more than her [original] wound,” she said.

Moeun Tola, CLEC executive director, said there were some positives to be taken from yesterday’s hearing − despite the actions of the defence − as a number of police

witnesses were able to testify.

“I believe that Chhouk Bandith has no intention to join the court and his lawyer just found a small technical problem that allowed him to walk out of the trial,” he said.

It did appear that the court’s error was a legitimate one, he added, saying it did not seem to be a ploy to delay proceedings further.

“I think the lawyer just took that as an opportunity.”

Hearings continue today.

oyalist party Funcinpec is considering filing a lawsuit against acting Sam Rainsy Party president Kong Korm for comments he allegedly made asserting that Lon Nol’s 1970 coup against thenPrince Norodom Sihanouk was actually carried out at Sihanouk’s behest.

According to party general secretary Nhek Bun Chhay, the party’s legal expert has been looking into the possibility of taking action against what it considers a jab at Sihanouk’s memory, but as of yet there has not been an official decision.

“We’re considering the lawsuit against Kong Korm, but the official decision on whether to file a complaint against him or not will be made by the party’s permanent committee,” Bun Chhay said.

The controversy was ignited when the ruling Cambodian

People’s Party leaked a recording purportedly capturing Korm making the offending statement. The recording comes hot on the heels of a similar leak in which Cambodia National Rescue Party president Kem Sokha allegedly made remarks denying aspects of the history of the infamous Khmer Rouge torture centre S-21.

Sokha has since denied making the remarks, saying the audio had been taken out of context and doctored.

While Korm did not confirm or deny making the remarks regarding the coup yesterday, he did maintain that the matter was purely political.

“So far I have not seen any official complaint against me on the case, and I know that this came from the order of Prime Minister Hun Sen,” he said, referring to the controversy surrounding Sokha. “I think what Nhek Bun Chhay is doing by considering filing [a lawsuit] against me is something to curry favour with Hun Sen.”

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THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

National

sentence Camera keeps S-21 Three-year set to mean months victims’ legacy alive Continued from page 1

Kevin Ponniah

T

HOUSANDS of haunting portraits documenting the callous, systematic nature of life in Tuol Sleng prison were taken by a camera, the lens of which would later be turned back on the regime itself.

The relic – a German Rolleiflex model from the 1930s or 1940s – was handed in yesterday to the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam).

Ing Veng Eang, whose father Ung Pech was one of the few prisoners to make it out of S-21 alive, gave it to the Khmer Rouge research centre after years in his family’s possession.

He told the Post that he approached DC-Cam after seeing former S-21 photographer Nhem En being interviewed on TV last week. “I then wanted to find out the history of this camera,� he said.

Pech was an engineer whose life was spared at S-21 thanks to his skills as a mechanic.

His wife and five children, who were moved from Phnom Penh to Battambang, however, died from starvation under the regime, with Veng Eang the only child to survive.

Pech became the first director of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in 1980, and subsequently used the camera to document Khmer Rouge crimes, including mass graves in the countryside, after reuniting with his son. “This camera was kept by my father until 1996 when he had to travel to the US for heart surgery. I just kept it in a

The Rolleiflex camera that was used to photograph victims of the Tuol Sleng detention centre displayed at the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh yesterday. heng chivoan

box and never used it because there was no longer any suitable film. I never thought of the camera’s importance [until now],� Veng Eang said.

He added that after recent alleged comments by acting opposition leader Kem Sokha saying that Tuol Sleng was fabricated, he wanted to add “more evidence� that the torture prison existed.

A trove of documents, photos and even video footage shot by the pair were also handed in yesterday.

After the war, it was “very rare� to get a camera, DC-Cam, Youk Chhang said, and, so, despite its dark provenance, the pair used the Rolleiflex extensively.

“This is called karma.

Things come back to you.

[The Khmer Rouge] used the camera to take away [their] life . . . and the camera was used to document the crimes committed against [them].�

The significance of the object, which likely bore witness to scenes of brutal torture and suffering, lies in its role as a link between prisoner and oppressor, Chhang said. “I think of it as having been in between the mind of the photographer and the victim . . . I imagine the sound [the camera made] and I wonder how it would have felt.� ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CHEANG SOKHA

has found that Keam Piseth Narita has committed the offence as accused,� Vandy said. “But because she had meningitis and was on medication that made her drowsy – according the official letter from the doctors – the court decided to sentence her to three years in prison, but the real implementation of her punishment will only be three months and 15 days.

The rest of the sentence was suspended, and a fine of six million riel will be put into the state’s budget.�

He added: “Keam Piseth Narita is prohibited from driving any kind of vehicle from now on.�

Piseth Narita declined to comment at yesterday’s hearing but expressed her regret during her June 6 trial, and promised to use her medical degree to improve the lives of others if released. “I know about my mistake now. I am really very regretful about it,� she said at the time. “I would like to promise that if I am allowed to stay out of detention, I will study hard in order to complete my medical doctorate, and when I start my career, I will try my best to rescue or help the poor in my country.�

According to Judge Vandy, Narita’s father – Keam Piseth, the deputy director of Kandal Provincial Hospital – had paid compensation to all the families of the victims, all of whom had since withdrawn their complaints.

To some, however, the act of compensation is part of the problem.

Medical student Keam Piseth Narita, 23, exits the municipal court yesterday. hong menea

“I think financial compensation has been used in criminal cases in a completely wrong way,� Cambodian Center for Human Rights president Ou Virak said, who noted that Piseth Narita was serving just one month for each life she took. “I think the sentence is very, very light, although I feel she had no intention to kill,� he added.

However, according to Community Legal Education Center executive director Yeng Virak, the fact that the driver was tried and sentenced marked a major improvement on how such cases were typically handled.

And, though her sentence was suspended, he added, she had been awarded the maximum possible sentence for the crime. “To me, it’s quite, quite fair,�

Yeng Virak said. “If she commits the same thing in the future, she should be severely sentenced.� ADDITIONAL REPORTING

BY SEAN TEEHAN

Coming up on Friday, June 28, The Phnom Penh Post proudly presents

INSURANCE CAMBODIA A special report that reviews what’s available and what’s new in Cambodia for:

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SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE READ THE POST

police blotter Driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advances force him into a hasty retreat

FLIRTY tuk-tuk drivers beware. Ten machete-wielding men chased a 26-year-old in Poipet town on Tuesday and hacked his passenger in the head after the threewheeled Casanova tried his charms on a taken woman.

The driver fled into a casino following the attack, leaving his tuk-tuk to be destroyed.

Police arrested three of the group, who confessed. They were sent to court while several of their mates managed to escape. nokorwat

Cleaver-wielding crooks caught cattle-catching POLICE in Kratieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sambo district arrested two men on Monday for allegedly stealing 10 cows belonging to the commune chief. The chiefâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s son-in-law spotted six men trying to catch and kill the cattle and called the cops.

Only two men were caught, and cleavers, a phone and motorbikes seized from the suspects. The group was known for stealing cattle from other villagers in the past but appear to have gone a step too far by targeting the commune chief. nokorwat

Duo let the dogs out, canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t deal with results

THE Baha Men may finally have an answer to their rhetorical question if Chamkarmon district police successfully locate two men accused of stealing village dogs on Tuesday. The nefarious pair stuffed a few dogs into a sack and then tried to escape via motorbike. The dogs, however, had a different agenda, and tried to escape, causing the driver to lose control and crash into an oncoming car. The injured pair fled, leaving behind the pups, one of which was killed in the accident. Koh Santepheap

Man downed by truck while directing others

A SECURITY guard was mowed down by a truck yesterday morning while trying to do his job. According to police, the man was outside his workplace in the capitalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Por Sen Chey district, guiding the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trucks into chaotic morning traffic, when another truck hit him from behind.

The 50-year-old was left with serious injuries and he was immediately sent to hospital.

Although police suggested the driver had not seen the guard because it was dark, the man fled, leaving his truck. Koh santepheap

Pailin police catch three alleged fans of yama

A TRIO of alleged drug traffickers and users were rounded up in Pailin town on Tuesday.

Police said village authorities had informed them where the suspects often gathered to take drugs. Police seized 18 yama tablets and the men confessed to having bought them. One of the suspects, it turned out, already had a warrant out for his arrest for thievery and drug dealing. Koh Santepheap Translated by Phak Seangly

7

THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

Business Indicative Exchange Rates as of 12/06/2013. Please contact ANZ Royal Global Markets on 023 999 910 for real time rates.

USD / KHR

EUR / USD

AUD / USD

NZD / USD

GBP / USD

USD /CNY

4,073

1.331

0.9456

0.7891

1.5642

6.1333

USD / JPY

96.48

USD / HKD

7.7638

USD / SGD

USD / THB

1.2558

31.1

Hong Kong offers visa free travel to officials Hor Kimsay

A customer browses through hundreds of pirated titles at a CD and DVD shop in Phnom Penh.

pha lina

WTO: No license, no problem T Daniel de Carteret

HE World Trade Organization agreed on Tuesday to extend a waiver that frees some lower developed countries, Cambodia included, from enforcing intellectual property laws for another eight years, a WTO official confirmed yesterday.

Proponents hailed the decision as a means to allow Cambodia access to products and technology needed for development, while critics took the slightly different view that the lack of protections would stifle economic growth.

Concerned by the amount of pirated products in Cambodia, Pily Wong, a Microsoft representative in the country and President of the Information Communication and Technology Business Association in Phnom Penh, says the WTO

extension can deter foreign investment, limit innovation and create an unequal playing field for local competitors.

“Local companies are making software for point of sale or payroll, but when they go to visit customers, those customers say, 'why would I buy your software when I can buy international or US-made software for $2?'” he said.

On the other side of the issue is Professor Brook Baker of Boston-based Northeastern University, who said waiver negotiations amounted to “relentless bullying” by US and EU interests.

He says intellectual property laws can block access to affordable educational resources, inhibit the transfer of technology and restrict gains in important areas of development, such as agriculture and climate change.

“For Cambodia, it may now reconsider

some of the commitments its made during its accession agreement to the WTO, and review any existing IP legislation to determine whether such legislation is in its interests or not,” Baker said.

Products commonly protected by intellectual property are books, music, software and films. Pharmaceuticals, which have their own 2016 deadline, are excluded from Tuesday's decision.

Microsoft's Wong said access to pirated goods may help transfer skills more cheaply in the short term, but without foreign investment, there will be a lack of sustainable employment opportunities.

“If not protected, companies like Apple, for example, have a lot of intellectual property they need to protect in the production process, so they won't be setting up plants here because they are afraid that their intellectual prop-

erty will get stolen” he said. Var Roth San, director of the intellectual property department at the Ministry of Commerce, welcomed the extension.

“I do believe that if our economy keeps growing, we definitely can meet the deadline.”

Roth San said that while it isn't difficult in establishing rules through laws and regulations, the lack of resources to implement them is the challenge.

“Why don’t we implement it now? Because we don’t have enough human resources, and we don’t have enough materials, and our budget is limited so we cannot go everywhere to teach people . . . about intellectual property," he said.

The WTO's decision marks the second time it has extended the waiver since 2006. The new deadline is July 1, 2021.

CAMBODIAN diplomats and a range of government officials can now travel to Hong Kong without a visa and stay for 14 days under a new exemption agreement with the commercial Chinese city, officials said.

The new exemption took effect on June 1, according to a statement signed by Long Visalo, a secretary of state for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The ministry’s spokesman, Koy Kuong, said yesterday that the exemption provided by Hong Kong will strengthen, “will assist the work of Cambodia’s political officials and government offices to strengthen development and economic cooperation with Hong Kong”.

Kuong did not know if the new rule applied to all civil servants in the government or a specific number of government officials.

A former British colony, Hong Kong was handed back to mainland China in 1997. But under the special administrative region and "one country two systems" policy, areas such as immigration remain independent from the mainland.

Ho Vandy, co-chair of the government-private sector working group on tourism, said that Hong Kong is a preferred destination for “Cambodia high-class people” during public holidays, but on the whole, travelers seek out other cities in the region.

On June 5, at the 22nd World Economic Forum on East Asia in Myanmar, ASEAN countries signed a statement of intent to create a paperless digital substitute for a traditional visa.

The "Smart Visa" would ideally be available from a travel agent, airline, website or mobile device.

8

THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

Business

Officials frown upon Thai airport strategy Bonsoong Kositchotethana

ONEWORLD, one of the biggest airline alliances, has warned that Bangkok risks diminishing its strategic air hub position by pursuing a dual-airport policy.

The alliance, whose 12 current members include British Airways and Cathay Pacific, said Thai authorities’ move to revive the old Don Mueang as the capital’s second international airport operating in parallel with Suvarnabhumi could backfire, especially from the perspective of flight connectivity.

“Bangkok is well served by one single airport. Any attempt to split it up [with two airports] runs the risks of diminishing Bangkok as a hub and losing connection traffic,” said Dennis Tierney, vicepresident for membership and customer experience.

If Hong Kong and Singapore did what Thai authorities are pursuing, they would lose the flight connectivity capability they enjoy, he said in Cape Town, South Africa at the International Air Transport Association’s 69th annual general meeting last week.

Oneworld expressed its staunch opposition to reactivate Don Mueang as a fullblown second international airport for Bangkok, a view shared by two other global airline alliances, the Star Alliance and SkyTeam, which prefer one airport.

Tierney also turned down an overture reportedly made by Thai authorities for Oneworld to shift its base from Suvarnabhumi to Don Mueang.

“Right now, none of our member airlines is interested

in relocating,” he said, warning that splitting Oneworld carriers between the two airports would be detrimental to flight connectivity among member and non-member airlines.

Flight connectivity is a key selling point for Oneworld airlines, which have also made a significant investment in building premium passenger lounges and other flight support facilities at Suvarnabhumi for discerning passengers, he said.

The New York-based executive pointed out that roughly 25 per cent of flight connections at Suvarnabhumi are made with Oneworld members. Another 25 per cent are connected with other airlines belonging to the Star Alliance

[Splitting it up] runs the risks of diminishing Bangkok as a hub and SkyTeam, while 30 per cent of flights are connected with Bangkok Airways, also a Oneworld member, with an extensive domestic network.

Oneworld serves more than 900 airports in almost 160 markets, with nearly 12,500 daily departures carrying some 440 million passengers a year on a combined fleet of almost 3,250 aircraft.

Tierney said Oneworld airlines are unlikely to be swayed by incentives that Airports of Thailand Plc, the state-controlled airport operator, may extend to airlines for shifting to Don Mueang: “Our focus is not on cost economy but rather service quality and connectivity, which are important for our member airlines and their passengers.” BANGKOK POST

CP All takeover approved Anuchit Nguyen

C

P ALL Pcl shareholders approved the Thai retailer’s 189 billion baht ($6.1 billion) acquisition of Siam Makro Pcl, the country’s biggest ever takeover.

About 87 per cent of shareholders who attended yesterday’s meeting in Bangkok voted for the proposal, more than the 75 per cent required, said Supot Shitgasornpongse, the company’s secretary. CP All, controlled by billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont’s Charoen Pokphand Group, offered 787 baht a share for Siam Makro, the Bangkok-based retailer said on April 24.

Dhanin is trying to reassemble his retail empire after earlier selling control of the membership-warehouse chain he founded. He’s offering about 53 times Siam Makro’s earnings last year, more than double the average for 20 retailer takeovers in emerging Asia announced over the last

A cashier scans goods at a Makro store checkout counter in Bangkok in June. Yesterday CP All shareholders approved an acquisition of Siam Makro, Thailand’s largest convenience store. reuters

five years, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“CP All would significantly strengthen its domination in Thailand’s commerce industry by expanding into the cash-and-carry business,” said Jintana Mekintharanggur, who helps oversee about $200 million as director of equities investment at Manulife

Asset Management Co. Synergies may provide a “justification for paying that expensive price,” she said.

Dhanin is buying companies at home and abroad, accounting for more than half of the record $31 billion in total deals announced this year in Thailand, including CP Group’s purchase of a $9.4

billion stake in China’s Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. Dhanin has a net worth of $6.5 billion, according to Bloomberg. Many of his assets are owned through closelyheld holding companies that he shares with his three brothers. Dhanin’s net worth calculation excludes the stakes held by his brothers, Jaran Chiaravanont, Montri Jiaravanont and Sumet Jiaravanon.

The Siam Makro purchase is the largest on record for Thai companies. CP All had cash and cash equivalents of 35 billion baht with no debt as of March 31, according to the company’s financial statements.

“In the short term, Siam Makro’s earnings contribution wouldn’t be sufficient to cover funding costs,” Chaiyatorn Sricharoen, an analyst at Bualuang Securities Pcl, said in a note on Tuesday. Still, CP All will gain long-term benefits including added bargaining power with suppliers and pooling purchases of raw materials, he said. BLOOMBERG

Egat signs energy deal with China Yuthana Praiwan

THE Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) will buy electricity from China to ensure the country’s power security.

The Thai utility authority last week signed a memorandum of understanding with China Southern Power Grid Co (CSG), the state-owned power transmission and distribution company, to supply electricity from hydroelectric power plants to Thailand.

The pact was signed after Thailand suf-

fered supply disruptions of natural gas from Myanmar and the country has relied heavily on gas for power generation.

The price of gas price, meanwhile, has continued to rise.

Egat governor Sutat Patmasiriwat said the two parties will set up a committee to discuss details of the power purchase.

This will include the cost and installation of transmission lines from southwestern China’s Yunnan province via Laos to Thailand.

Egat earlier negotiated potential power purchases from several suppliers in China

including China Resource Power but failed to reach an agreement on prices.

Egat insists electricity bought from China should be priced at the same rate as that supplied from Laos.

Sutat said CSG has a generation capacity of 150,000 megawatts, five times higher than Thailand’s.

The country’s power demand has grown by four per cent a year and will almost triple to 70,000MW in 2030 from 27,600 MW this year. The Energy Ministry plans to buy 10,000MW each from Laos and Myanmar. BANGKOK POST

Malaysian Air to add more A380 jets Indonesia moves to Elffie Chew

MALAYSIAN Airline System Bhd plans to add more Airbus superjumbos to its fleet as modern, fuel-efficient aircraft will assist a turnaround from two years of losses.

The flag carrier, which has six A380s, may order “a few more” double-decker planes, Group Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. Malaysian Air will arrive at a decision by the end of the year, he said.

Ahmad Jauhari needs new aircraft to cut fuel expenses, the airline’s biggest cost at 37 per cent, end losses and take on competition from Singapore Airlines Ltd, which also boosted its A380 orders last year.

Asian carriers may help spur demand for Airbus’s superjumbo, whose sales have suffered in recent years as a weak global economy and a flaw with a wing component damped orders, leading to some unsold production slots.

“It’s better late than never,” said Mohshin Aziz, an analyst at Kuala Lumpur-based Maybank Investment Bank Bhd. “I believe the company will be profitable by the end of this

year because by then it would have substantially refitted its fleet with brand new aircraft.”

Malaysian Air will take delivery of 24 new aircraft this year and another 25 over the next two years, said Ahmad Jauhari, who became the CEO in September 2011. The carrier ordered 15 Airbus and 35 Boeing Co planes in 2011.

Malaysian Air currently flies its A380s to London, Hong Kong and Paris. The carrier has fitted the superjumbos with

Ahmad Jauhari said. “We have been flying the A380s aggressively, 17 hours a day.”

Malaysian Air is also retiring 30 aircraft this year to cut costs. New planes typically consume less fuel than older aircraft. With the retirement of old planes and new aircraft coming, the average age of Malaysian Air’s fleet of 110 planes will be 5.4 years by end of 2013, Ahmad Jauhari said.

The airline is targeting to achieve a passenger load factor

I believe the company will be profitable this year because it [will] have refitted its fleet with brand new aircraft first-class seats bigger than single-bed mattresses as part of efforts to win more premium traffic. Flights with the 494seat plane began in July last year with a service to London.

Airbus got nine orders for the superjumbo last year against a target of 30. In January, the planemaker said it aims to win 25 A380 sales this year.

“The A380s have been successful with passenger load factor of above 80 per cent, sometimes even full load,”

of more than 80 per cent for the rest of the year from the current 78 per cent, he said. The company’s focus will be on Asian capitals and major tourist destinations in the region.

Competition is increasing for Malaysian Air, part of the Oneworld Alliance, as budget airlines expand in Southeast Asia and Singapore Air boosts plane orders. Singapore Air last month ordered 60 planes worth $17 billion from Boeing and Airbus.

Discount carriers in Southeast Asia ordered at least 1,000 new aircraft in the past five years as economic expansion across the region enables more people to start flying in countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Some 15 low-fare carriers started flying in the past decade across Asia.

Increased competition and rising costs pushed Malaysian Air into two straight years of losses. The carrier’s loss in the first quarter of this year widened to 278.8 million ringgit ($89 million) as fares declined, eroding gains from carrying more passengers.

Malaysian Air may post a loss of 187.6 million ringgit this year and report a profit of 191 million ringgit in 2014, according to the average of 12 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Ten of the 13 analysts tracked by Bloomberg recommend selling the stock.

The company has over four billion ringgit of cash, sufficient to fund its working capital requirements for the next two to three years, Ahmad Jauhari said. The airline plans to have a capital spending of 10 billion ringgit this year and six billion ringgit next year, he said. BLOOMBERG

protect its currency

INDONESIA’S central bank has moved to shore up its rupiah currency after it hit a four-year low, as foreign investors exit emerging markets due to expectations that huge stimulus schemes in the developed world will soon end.

Developing economies around the world are starting to see their stock markets and currencies tumble on the belief that the US Federal Reserve will pull the plug on its giant easy-money program.

Bank Indonesia said it would raise the rate it pays lenders for overnight deposits, known as the Fasbi, by 25 basis points to 4.25 per cent.

The measure went into effect yesterday.

Officials hope to encourage lenders to leave their rupiah with the central bank, thereby reducing money supply and in theory stopping the rupiah from weakening further. Following the announcement late on Tuesday, the rupiah strengthened slightly.

By yesterday afternoon it was at 9,933 against the dollar, from 10,094 rupiah on

Tuesday – its lowest level since 2009.

Analysts said the fall was precipitated by a sell-off in Indonesian bonds and stocks as investors fret about when the US Federal Reserve will begin to taper its massive program of bond buying, known as quantitative easing.

The huge central bank spending sprees and low rates in the west aimed at kickstarting growth had led investors to emerging markets in search of better returns, sending markets and currencies soaring.

But a pick-up in the US economy has now made US assets and the dollar look like a better and safer bet than before.

The Bank of Japan added to investor worries on Tuesday when it decided to hold off any fresh measures to boost its economy after unleashing a giant bond-buying scheme in April.

Jakarta’s stock market plunged 3.5 per cent on Tuesday and is down about 13 per cent from its record high seen in May. AFP

9

THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

ICT sector progress in countryside still behind Rann Reuy

WHILE Cambodia’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector has seen progress, a huge gap between ICT development in urban and rural areas still exists, industry experts said in Phnom Penh yesterday.

Speaking to reporters at the National ICT Education and Technology conference, Chhunhour Long, territory business manager of Cambodia for CISCO, the world’s leading network equipment maker, said that “in general, we see a lot of developments in the capital and in other cities in the provinces, but it is still limited in rural areas”.

In recent years, Cambodia’s strong demand has needed a growing number of experts from abroad to enhance development in the ICT sector.

“I am responsible for this project [ICT], I see that a lot of projects needs outside experts to help,” he said, adding: “The demand is higher than resources we have in the country.”

Renewable energy course powers up Mak Lawrence Li

I

NSTRUCTORS at the Royal University of Phnom Penh have just finished the first academic year of a landmark physics course.

Launched in the fall of 2012, “Renewable Energy and Applications” aims to train students so they can seek internships and jobs in one of Cambodia’s fastest-growing industries.

The Department of Physics oversees the classes, with the assistance of Engineers Without Borders, an Australiabased non-profit body. More than 300 students have already enrolled.

Tharith Sriv, one of the lecturers, said the concept has been under development for more than five years.

“The former vice-president of RUPP wanted to start a course concerning the use of renewable energy in Cambodia, as no associated programs were engaged with local universities,” he said.

Students who took the course this year can move onto “Renewable Energy Systems” in the coming semester. The

Former teacher Kong Pharith test drives a self engineered solar-energy powered car in Kampong Chhnang province in 2009. heng chivoan

more advanced “Renewable Energy Projects Development” is set for year four.

Phillip Hamer, a volunteer for Engineers Without Borders and a developer of the coming course, said students would come out of the classroom with a more intimate knowledge of alternative energy usage, such as solar and hydro power.

“The renewable energy sector is growing here in Cambo-

dia, and there is indeed a need of development for increasing energy demand.” he said.

According to recent report from the World Bank, Cambodia was one of the world’s fastest expanding users of renewable energy between 1990 and 2010.

The report also found that Cambodia’s renewable energy share of total consumption was 73.3 per cent in 2010.

Markets Business Bank to join growing group from Taiwan Anne Renzenbrink

TAIWAN-based Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank Ltd plans to open a representative office in Cambodia, joining an increasing number of Taiwanese banks and garment industry investors in the Kingdom.

National Bank of Cambodia director-general Nguon Sokha said yesterday that the Taipeibased privately held bank had preliminary or “in-principle” approval on May 31.

Some banks establish representative offices to test the waters before making a decision on opening an actual branch.

The point is to “gather information about the Cambodian economy . . . they observe the performance, [but it is] for their own use”, she said.

Shanghai Commercial & Savings would enter a crowded sector, behind other Taiwanesebased financial intuitions. Hua Nan Commercial Bank said last month that it would open a branch in Cambodia, hoping to capitalise on the country’s high number of Taiwanese investors and high interest rates.

Cambodia has “many Taiwanese companies, especially in the shoe and garment industry”, senior manager of the

bank’s international banking department, Chris Lee, told the Post last month.

In September 2011, Taiwan’s Mega International Commercial Bank opened a local branch, followed by the March 2013 entry of Taiwan Cooperative Bank. That same month, Taiwan’s E Sun Commercial Bank announced plans to acquire a 70 per cent stake in Cambodia’s Union Commercial Bank for nearly $70 million.

Shanghai Commercial & Savings did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The bank’s website says that regulators in Taiwan approved the Cambodia office in January.

A share of Taiwanese investment in Cambodia flows into the garment industry.

Taiwanese-owned Sabrina Garment factory, which supplies Nike, fired hundreds of workers on Saturday following violent protests and the arrest of unionists.

Taiwanese-owned garment factories Grand Twins International (Cambodia) Plc and TY Fashion are expected to become the first foreign-owned companies to list on Cambodia’s stock exchange. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MAK LAWRENCE LI

10

THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

Business

In brief Dreamliner flight in Japan cancelled

ENGINE trouble grounded a Dreamliner in Japan yesterday, its operator said, marking the third straight day of problems for Boeing’s next generation plane after months of difficulties. While none of the recent issues was thought to be serious, they spell more misery for Boeing, whose flagship plane has been beset with delays and failures, most gravely a battery problem that kept the global fleet out of the sky. In the latest incident, one engine on a 787 would not start after 141 passengers had boarded the All Nippon Airways (ANA) plane in Yamaguchi prefecture in western Japan, bound for Tokyo. afp

South Korea jobless rate edges up in May

SOUTH Korea’s unemployment rate inched up in May, with fewer jobs being created in the manufacturing sector, government data showed yesterday. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate stood at 3.2 per cent in May, up from 3.1 per cent the previous month, according to Statistics Korea. It was the first month-on-month increase since February. The statistics agency said the number of social-welfare jobs increased while job gains in the manufacturing sector slowed down. AFP

GSK fires China research head

BRITISH drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline has fired its head of research and development in China after discovering that a study by some of its Chinese scientists contained misrepresentation of data. A company spokesman said on Tuesday that Jiangwu Zang had been dismissed and three other individuals had been placed on administrative leave, while a further employee had resigned. The decision follows an investigation into concerns about a scientific paper published in the journal Nature Medicine in 2010 involving pre-clinical research into multiple sclerosis. REUTERS

India April industrial output only 2 per cent

INDIA’S industrial output growth skidded to a lower-thanexpected two per cent in April, data showed yesterday, suggesting that recovery in Asia’s third-largest economy remains sluggish. The year-onyear growth figures from factories, mines and utilities undershot market forecasts of around 2.5 per cent and was down from a preliminary 2.5 per cent increase. Output expansion is still far below double-digit rates recorded in previous years when India’s economy was booming. The Indian rupee’s slide to record lows against the dollar this week has raised doubts about the possibility of any more interest rate cuts soon to kickstart the economy. The Congress-led government is anxious for signs of a growth turnaround before heading to the polls in the first half of 2014. afp

Oil demand growth down Richard Lein

S

LUGGISH global economic growth is crimping demand for oil, including in emerging market powerhouse China, the International Energy Agency said yesterday.

“Relatively sluggish macroeconomic conditions are expected to keep a lid on growth in 2013,” the IEA said.

The agency trimmed slightly its forecast for oil consumption, saying demand would expand by 785,000 barrels per day this year to 90.6 million barrels per day (mbd).

This marked a fall of 0.08 per cent from the previous forecast.

While emerging countries led by China have driven global oil use growth in recent years, the IEA said “there are mounting signs that China’s oil use, like its economy, may have shifted to a lower gear”.

It now sees Chinese oil demand growing by 3.8 per cent instead of 3.9 per cent this year, in line with a recent cut by the International Monetary Fund of its forecast for Chinese economic growth to 7.75 per cent instead of 8.0 per cent.

It also pointed to the latest survey data showing shrinking manufacturing output in China last month.

Nevertheless demand for oil from emerging and developing economies is set to exceed demand by advanced economies in the 34-nation OECD club this quarter, the IEA said, although they will not hold that position consistently until next year.

Oil markets, like equities markets, have been hit by sharp swings in recent weeks by the prospects of reduced monetary stimulus by central banks as economic growth picks up.

However, the IEA confirmed its

An employee welds a water turbine at a factory in Jinhua, China, in May. China’s sluggish global economic growth is crimping demand for oil. reuters

outlook for rising oil demand for the rest of 2013 as the economic recovery picks up steam.

“While demand is projected to remain relatively sluggish overall, growth is expected to gain momentum through the end of the year . . . as the underlying macro-economy strengthens,” said the Paris-based agency which advises oil consuming nations.

It said both that oil demand growth and the underlying economic expansion were expected to show their weakest growth in the current quarter.

In Asian trading yesterday, oil pric-

es fell in line with equities as traders were still preoccupied with the Bank of Japan’s decision to hold off unveiling any fresh economic stimulus, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in July, dropped 83 cents to $94.55 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for July delivery shed 53 cents to $102.43 in early afternoon trade in Asia.

Meanwhile, oil supplies edged lower on a monthly basis to 91.2 mbpd, mostly due to Canadian maintenance operations, but were still up on an annual comparison.

Supplies by the OPEC cartel rose to

a seven-month high of 30.89 mbpd in May, mostly on increased output by Saudi Arabia and Iran.

At a meeting last month, OPEC ministers kept their 30 mbd production ceiling.

Saudi output rose to a six-month high of 9.56 mbd.

Despite international sanctions over its nuclear program, Iranian output edged up to 2.68 mbd in May, with exports of about 1 mbd.

For non-OPEC countries, yearon-year production growth remains strong in North America where there has been a boom in non-conventional supplies pried shale rock formations thanks to the new extraction technique hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

However the IEA noted there are downside risks to the outlook for non-OPEC production due to the threatened blocking of South Sudan export routes and seasonal maintenance operations possibly taking longer.

Industry stocks in the 34 OECD countries rose by 16.7 million barrels in April to 2,680 mb, in line with seasonal changes, with crude stocks at the key Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub at a historical high at 50 mb throughout May. Government-controlled stocks edged up to 1,580 mb in April from March, and were up 44 mb from April 2012.

The IEA also flagged possible market disruptions caused by refining capacity climbing over 10 per cent in the coming years despited muted growth in demand by consumers.

Prices and margins could be hit, with older refineries in advanced nations expected to come under most competitive pressure. AFP

Greece downgraded Facebook tackles bevy of to emerging market questions on stock slump Tom Stoukas and Sherine El Madany

GREECE became the first developed nation to be cut to emerging-market status

by MSCI Inc (MSCI) after the local stock index plunged 83 per cent since 2007.

Greece failed to meet criteria regarding securities borrowing and lending facilities, short selling and transferability, said MSCI, whose equity indexes are tracked by investors with about $7 trillion in assets. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were raised to emerging markets, while Morocco was cut to a frontier market.

New York-based MSCI will keep South Korea and Taiwan as emerging markets, and placed Chinese shares traded local exchanges on review for inclusion in the emerging category, according to a statement on Tuesday.

Locked out of bond markets since April 2010, Greece accepted two European Unionled bailout packages as public opposition to pension and wage cuts derailed the pace of promised economic reforms.

The benchmark ASE Index was the world’s second-worst performer since October 2007.

“We’re already seeing money heading back to safe

havens and the MSCI decision may exacerbate that,” Peter Sorrentino, who helps manage about $14.7 billion at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati, said in a phone interview.

“Greece’s downgrade brings them back to the forefront and it’s a sign that the crisis in Europe is far from over.”

MSCI put Greece under review for downgrade in June 2012, saying restrictions on inkind transfers, off-exchange transactions, stock lending

Greece’s downgrade [to an emerging market] is a sign that the crisis in Europe is far from over. and short-selling stopped the country from having a fully functional market.

The probability of a demotion increased after Coca-Cola HBC AG, which previously made up almost a quarter of the Athens Stock Exchange by weight, switched its primary listing to London in April.

The index provider upgraded Greece to developedmarket status in 2001. The weight of Greek companies in the MSCI World Index has tumbled to 0.01 per cent from 0.16 per cent in May 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. BLOOMBERG

Alexei Oreskovic

FACEBOOK Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg faced a barrage of questions on Tuesday about the company’s slumping stock price during the No 1 social networking company’s first shareholder meeting since its rocky initial public offering last May. Zuckerberg, who has presided over a 37 per cent decline in the stock since its debut at $38, said he believed Facebook was on the right path toward long-term success, even though he was disappointed with its performance on Wall Street.

Nothing “has made me really think that the fundamental strategy is wrong or that what we’re building isn’t valuable”, the 29-year-old Facebook cofounder said at the event at a hotel in Millbrae, California.

In what Zuckerberg acknowledged had become a “theme” of the meeting, several Facebook shareholders complained during the question-and-answer session about how they had suffered from the stock’s decline.

They shared personal anecdotes about buying the stock with high hopes, and sought guidance on whether they might ever recoup their losses.

Facebook, with about 1.1 billion users, became the first US

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive, speaks during a Facebook press event in California in April. reuters

company to debut on stock markets with a value of more than $100 billion. But aside from its first day of trading, its shares have never traded above their offering price.

The company has scrambled to address one of the main concerns weighing on the stock price, by developing mobile ads better suited to small smartphone screens that users increasingly use to access the service.

Mobile ads account for 30 per cent of Facebook’s ad revenue.

But revenue growth remains sharply below that of two years ago, and the popularity of new

mobile apps aimed at younger users has raised concerns that Facebook may risk losing its grip on consumers.

Zuckerberg said Facebook would continue to grow alongside newer, rival services.

“None of the trends that we see right now seem like they should get in the way of our success in any meaningful way,” he said.

He noted at another point during the event that the amount of “likes” and comments that users post on the service “has gone up per person about 50 per cent” during the past year. REUTERS

11

the phnom penh post june 13, 2013

Markets Business Exchanges in Vietnam to expand their hours Nguyen Kieu Giang

VIETNAM’s two main stock exchanges will extend trading hours to help boost liquidity and lure investors to a market that’s 13 times smaller than Singapore’s.

The Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, the country’s main bourse, will extend afternoon trading hours by 45 minutes to end at 3pm local time, chairman Tran Dac Sinh said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Trading hours for the Hanoi Stock Exchange will also be extended by 45 minutes for the afternoon session, Deputy General Director Nguyen Thi Hoang Lan said by phone.

The VN Index has rallied 27 per cent this year, the best performer among benchmark gauges in Southeast Asia, as the country’s central bank cut interest rates last month for an eighth time since the start of 2012 and the government stepped up efforts to tackle banks’ bad loans.

The State Securities Commission has agreed in principle to the trading hours extension, Nguyen Son, head of market development at the regulator, said yesterday.

BLOOMBERG

Kazakhstan rail to bring back old Silk Road route

Markets Thailand

Vietnam

Thai Set 50 Index, Jun 11 1100

Ho Chi Minh Stock Index, Jun 11 550

1025

500

950

450

875

400

800

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952.47

Raushan Nurshayeva

South Korea

K

AZAKHSTAN has launched a new transit railway linking China to Europe, aiming to beat rival routes for journey time in the competition to handle a growing flow of goods along the ancient Silk Road trade route.

“Kazakhstan is a virtual bridge linking the East and the West,” Yerkin Meirbekov, deputy railway department chief at Kazakhstan’s Transport Ministry, said in an interview. “You can actually say this is the revival of the Silk Road.”

Centuries ago, it would take months for caravans of camels and horses from China to reach Europe across the sunscorched steppes and deserts of Central Asia to exchange silk for medicines, perfumes and precious stones.

Now it takes only 15 days for trains carrying containers with electronic goods, construction materials and other cargo to cover the 10,800km route from Chongqing in southwest China to Duisburg in Germany’s industrial Ruhr region.

Late last year, Kazakhstan completed construction of a 293-kilometre stretch from

KOSPI Index, Jun 11 2100

518.24

Philippines

PSEI - Philippine Se Idx, Jun 11 7500

1975

7125

1850

6750

1725

6375

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1,909.91

6,556.65

Singapore

Malaysia

FTSE Straits Times Index, Jun 11 4000

FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI, Jun 11 1800

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3,153.48

Hong Kong

China

Hang Seng Index, Jun 11 25000

A Russian security member monitors the railroad tracks in Kazakhstan. The country has launched a new transit railway linking China to Europe that loops to the existing national railway network. reuters

Zhetygen to Korgas at the Chinese border, looping it in to the existing national railway network and opening the second China-Europe link across its territory. Meirbekov said that the annual volume of freight turnover along the new route, guaranteed by China, was set to total 2 million tonnes this year and would rise eventually to 15 million tonnes.

“The Chinese side, as well as the Kazakh side and

European partners – everyone is ready (to handle these volumes) already tomorrow,” Meirbekov said.

“All railways, as well as customs and border guards, are ready to assist fast passage of cargo across their territories.”

Europe-bound trains from China cross from Kazakhstan into Russia. Then they go via Belarus and Poland before reaching Duisburg in Germany.

Transit routes are a major

earner for Kazakhstan’s fastgrowing economy, already established as a route for pipelines to pump Central Asian oil and gas to China, reducing the region’s dependency on former colonial master Russia.

“In railways, transit cargo is considered to be net profit, because there are no costs involved – you take in cargo at one border and hand it over at the other,” Meirbekov said. REUTERS

1,775.12 CSI 300 Index, Jun 11 3000

23250

2750

21500

2500

19750

2250

18000

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21,354.66

Japan

Nikkei 225, Jun 11 16000

2,484.16

Taiwan

Taiwan Taiex Index, Jun 11 8500

15250

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7500

13750

7000

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6500

8,116.15

13,289.32

Laos

Laos Composite Index, Jun 11 1500

Indonesia

Jakarta Composite Index, Jun 11 6000

1350

5500

1200

5000

1050

4500

900

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1,338.82

International commodities

Cambodian commodities

Energy

(Base rate taken on January 1, 2012)

Commodity

Units

Price

Crude Oil (WTI)

USD/bbl.

95.43

Crude Oil (Brent)

India

USD/bbl.

NYMEX Natural Gas USD/MMBtu

103.26

Change % Change Time(ET)

0.05 0.3

0.05% 0.29%

4:56:11 4:55:58

3.72

-0.01

-0.16%

4:55:31

RBOB Gasoline

USd/gal.

281.22

0.41

0.15%

4:55:03

NYMEX Heating Oil

USd/gal.

287.33

1.58

0.55%

4:55:17

ICE Gasoil

USD/MT

865

7.25

0.85%

4:55:35

Agriculture Commodity

Units

Price

Change

% Change

Time(ET)

CBOT Rough Rice

USD/cwt

16.13

-0.02

-0.09%

3:24:19

CME Lumber

USD/tbf

298.2

-7.9

-2.58%

4:40:29

Item Rice 1 Rice 2 Paddy Peanuts Maize 2 Cashew nut Pepper Beef Pork Mud Fish Chicken Duck

Unit

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BSE Sensex 30 Index, Jun 11 21000

Karachi 100 Index, Jun 11 23000

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19000

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20750

17000

20000

Construction equipment

Food -Cereals -Vegetables - Fruits Average 2760 2280 1860 8100 2080 4220 24000 33600 18200 12400 20800 13100

(%) -1.43 % 3.64 % 3.33 % 1.25 % 4.00 % 5.50 % -40.00 % 1.82 % 7.06 % 3.33 % 15.56 % 0.77 %

Item

Unit

Base

Average

(%)

Steel 12

R/Kg

3000

3100

3.33 %

Cement

R/Sac

19000

19500

2.63 %

Energy Item

Unit

Base

Average

(%)

Gasoline

R

5250

5300

0.95 %

Diesel

R

5100

5050

-0.98 %

Petroleum

R

5500

5500

0.00 %

Chi

86000

77000

-10.47 %

Baht

1200

1300

8.33 %

Gas Charcoal

4,697.88

Pakistan

19,089.69

Australia

22,380.09

New Zealand

S&P/ASX 200 Index, Jun 11 5500

NZX 50 Index, Jun 11 5000

5250

4750

5000

4500

4750

4250

4500

4,724.45

4000

4,442.13

12

THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

World President of Turkey calls for dialogue

Paper tigers Indonesian students wear masks with angry expressions during a protest outside the presidential palace in Jakarta yesterday to denounce impending fuel price increases, as the government plans to reduce a fuel subsidy. AFP

TURKISH President Abdullah Gul called yesterday for dialogue with legitimate demonstrators against the redevelopment of an Istanbul park but said those who had taken to the streets in violent protests were a different matter.

Gul spoke a day after riot police fired tear gas and water cannon for more than 18 hours to clear thousands of people from Taksim Square, the focus of nearly two weeks of protest against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan, who has repeatedly dismissed the demonstrators as “riff-raff”, was expected to meet a group of public figures to discuss the unrest, which began as a peaceful campaign against plans to build on Gezi Park abutting the square.

“If people have objections . . . then to engage in a dialogue with these people, to hear out what they say is no doubt our duty,” Gul told reporters during a trip to the coastal Black Sea city of Rize.

Gul has generally taken a more conciliatory tone than Erdogan during the unrest, but he appeared to close ranks with the prime minister yesterday, saying violence would not be tolerated. REUTERS

Gillard sees a pattern of misogyny in opposition

Asia’s web security lax

AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday accused the opposition of a pattern of misogynist behaviour, branding a menu for a party fundraiser “grossly sexist and offensive” after it featured a quail dish named after her that offered “small breasts” and “huge thighs”.

The menu was used at a dinner in March for Mal Brough, a former government minister under prime minister John Howard and now an opposition candidate for the September national elections.

Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey was the guest of honour.

The menu only surfaced on Twitter yesterday, listing a dish called “Julia Gillard Kentucky Fried Quail: Small Breasts and Huge Thighs and A Big Red Box”.

Conservative Liberal opposition leader Tony Abbott condemned the description.

But the flame-haired Gillard, whose comments on misogyny last year won her global acclaim, said it demonstrated a “pattern of behaviour” within Liberal ranks and called for Abbott to disendorse Brough.

“I’ve certainly been very

OVERNMENT and security officials in parts of Asia have been sending sensitive information and policy documents via email services offered by US web giants, and concerns are spreading that these may have been monitored and collected by the National Security Agency (NSA).

The official namecards of several directors at Indonesia’s ministry of foreign affairs, for example, give only Yahoo! or Gmail addresses. One researcher who deals regularly with Indonesian security and police officials said all of them used Yahoo! or Gmail.

Gatot S Dewa Broto, spokesman for Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications and Informatics, acknowledged that officials had long been aware that public email addresses were “prone to trespassing” but said it was hard to enforce use of official email accounts.

“Sometimes we have difficulties sending large emails with photos, file or video attachments and are forced to use a public email account. But we have reiterated that public email should not be used for highly confidential matters,”

clear on my view about Mr Abbott,” Gillard said, in reference to the parliamentary misogyny tirade that was directed at her conservative counterpart and went viral.

“Here we are yet again: Mr Abbott saying he condemns behaviour, but we see a pattern of behaviour,” she said.

Gillard said Abbott had previously stood next to signs which described her in a sexist way, including as a bitch and witch, and young Liberals had hosted a function where jokes were made about the death of her father.

“And now, we have Mr Brough and Mr Hockey sat a function with this grossly sexist and offensive menu on display: join the dots,” she said.

Gillard said that if Abbott were elected prime minister on September 14, as predicted by opinion polls, “we’d see this lack of respect for women littered throughout all of his government policy documents”.

The menu emerged a day after Gillard reignited the gender war with a speech in which she said the conservative opposition would marginalise women if they won the upcoming election. AFP

G

he said, adding that he used Gmail “in emergencies”.

Revelations this week by NSA contractor Edward Snowden of a program called Prism to sift data from US web companies raised fears of a close relationship between the companies and the NSA, something denied by both sides. Whatever the truth, the reliance of Asian officials on such services highlights how vulnerable they are to eavesdropping.

At a recent conference of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, for example, officials from 20 of 33 Asian countries represented included Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo! addresses on contact forms.

Of 18 Thai officials attending, only six gave only official email addresses. This was despite all government officials being issued secure email addresses.

“Government officials use the web domain go.th and we can vouch that this is secure,” government spokesman Theerat Rattanasewee said.

Officials around the world use personal email addresses for personal matters, but in parts of Asia some have little choice but to use them for

official business. Some ministries and agencies have no domain of their own, while those that do are poorly serviced or cannot be accessed via smartphones, officials say.

A former Lao government employee said most official agencies and ministries had their own websites “but they are not really convenient.

Sometimes they break down and are slow”.

Marek Bialoglowy, Jakartabased security consultant and chief technology officer at ITSEC Asia, said: “Government employees in AsiaPacific countries often ask to send emails to Gmail or Yahoo! because their official email rejects large or encrypted attachments.

“Sensitive information could be accessible to anyone with access to such personal email accounts, either Prism staff or someone who just cracked a shared password.”

Some countries, however are firm in applying rules. In Singapore, senior officials use separate computers to access the web and for internal communications.

Spokesmen at Japan’s foreign and defence ministries

said transmitting workrelated information through web-based email services was strictly prohibited.

“There has been a longestablished rule within the foreign ministry against using such services as Gmail and Yahoo! Mail for work, and as a matter of fact we are not using them,” said Masaru Sato, director of the foreign ministry’s international press division.

Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said yesterday: “Apart from [what’s happened in] the US, the Japanese government intends to review and reinforce information security.”

Other nations in the region have taken a more flexible approach. Indian government officials said any eavesdropping on their web-based communications would not be a problem because they used their official accounts for all internal communications and commercial services only to communicate with journalists and the outside world.

“I dont care if the Americans are watching that,” one official said. “If I am sending it by Gmail, I want the world to know.” REUTERS

13

THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

World

Thais look to ceding power A

FTER nearly a decade of conflict that has left thousands dead, Thailand is considering handing over limited powers to its Muslimmajority south in an effort to persuade rebels to lay down their arms.

Thai officials will meet with the two main insurgent groups on Thursday in Kuala Lumpur for a third round of talks that have so far failed to end near-daily violence in the region bordering Malaysia.

In an effort to find a breakthrough in a war largely forgotten by the outside world, despite more than 5,500 deaths since 2004, Thai authorities have floated the idea of handing some local decision-making to three southern provinces dominated by Malay-Muslims.

“We’re not talking about autonomy but about local administration,” Bangkok’s lead negotiator Paradorn Pattanatabut, head of the National Security Council, said last week.

“They have their own identity [in the south] so local administration might be suitable to recognise that identity, culture and religion,” he said, but added that the idea would not be on the table at this week’s talks.

His comments revived an idea previously raised by the government but later shelved.

Bangkok and the tourist hotspot of Pattaya already

Thai police inspect the site of an attack by suspected separatist militants in Narathiwat on June 1.

have a form of locally elected administration able to make bylaws, levy taxes and manage their budgets.

Paradorn said elected governors there could provide a template for the culturally distinct southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, whose top political rulers are appointed by Bangkok.

“It’s possible that there would be some kind of elections,” he said. “There could be governors for each province or a single governor for the three provinces.”

Paradorn raised the idea after meeting Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, suggesting government backing and recognition at the highest levels of a political dimension to the violence.

Hopes of progress in the bitter standoff received a boost after rebel group PULO (Patani United Liberation Organisation) joined the second round alongside the BRN (Barisan Revolusi Nasional) – held responsible for most of the violence.

Full autonomy for the south remains taboo as the constitution insists the Buddhistmajority kingdom must not be divided. While that overarching principle is in place, some experts doubt whether the insurgents will end their violent campaign.

“The rebels are fighting for independence, so exploration of alternative administrative models, along the lines of the Bangkok or Pattaya metropolitan areas, is not going

REUTERS

to mollify them,” Matthew Wheeler of the International Crisis Group said.

Moreover, concerns among the Thai elite – both political and military – mean it is far from certain that Yingluck will press ahead with a potentially divisive policy.

“Many senior military officers and civilian bureaucrats are antagonistic to the idea of a special administrative zone, as is the opposition Democrat Party,” Wheeler said, adding that it “seems unlikely” Yingluck would exhaust political capital on the issue.

Some in the south, where both Buddhist and Muslim civilians have borne the brunt of the conflict, see Paradorn’s proposal as a distraction from the wider issues of alleged

abuses by Thai security forces and the perceived denigration of Malay Muslim culture.

“It would be useful for the people to have an [elected] representative who would understand them and know their thoughts and feelings,” said Adilan Ali-Ishak, head of the Muslim Attorney Centre in Yala province.

“But I don’t think it’s the priority of the people. They want safety . . . and an end to discrimination – detainees are still assaulted, still not allowed to speak the Malay language.”

At the same time there is a growing realism among some of the south’s wider population that limited local power would represent some progress.

“It is very important to give power to the local people,” said Srisompob Jitpiromsri, director of conflict monitor Deep South Watch.

“Decentralisation is a kind of justice . . . it is a political justice that gives opportunities and rights for the people to administer themselves.”

Some experts warn that the fragile peace process could collapse altogether in the absence of an impartial mediator empowered to help draw up a roadmap out of the conflict.

“This whole process is on life-support, and it’s unclear whether either side is able to generate enough goodwill to get it off life-support,” said Anthony Davis, a security analyst with IHS-Jane’s. AFP

Don’t blame us, says Seoul Monks in Myanmar SOUTH Korea rejected any blame yesterday for the collapse of planned talks with the North, as businessmen from a closed joint industrial zone complained they were being ruined by politics.

North Korea, meanwhile, offered no comment at all on the last-minute cancellation of the dialogue and refused to answer routine calls from South on a newly restored inter-government hotline.

The two Koreas had initially agreed to hold their first highlevel talks for six years in Seoul yesterday and today, but the meeting was called off on Tuesday evening because of an apparent rift over protocol.

North Korea told the South its nomination of a viceminister as its chief delegate was an insult, while Seoul insisted his rank was commensurate with the official named by Pyongyang.

Asked in parliament why Seoul had not acceded to Pyongyang’s request to send a minister in order to save the talks, Prime Minister Chung Hong-won suggested times had changed.

“In the past we have made infinite concessions to the North, but the time has come to hold talks where both sides are represented by officials of the same level,” Chung said.

“I think the national pride of the Republic of Korea should also be considered,” he added.

to talk about violence

A South Korean conservative activist burns a placard showing a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during an anti-Pyongyang rally in Seoul yesterday. AFP

On the proposed talks agenda was the resumption of two suspended commercial projects, including the Kaesong joint industrial complex which the North shut down in April as military tensions on the Korean peninsula flared.

We are deeply disappointed that the talks failed to take place The association representing the 123 South Korean firms based in Kaesong appealed to both Seoul and Pyongyang to find a way back to the dialogue table as soon as possible.

“We are deeply disappointed the talks failed to take place,” association spokesman Yu Chang-geun told reporters.

In the meantime, engineers and technicians “must be allowed to enter Kaesong to carry out maintenance work on the production facilities,” Yu said.

Company owners warn that their plants will fall into permanent disrepair if they stay mothballed for much longer.

South Korea did attempt to contact the North on Wednesday, using a hotline that Pyongyang restored last week w h e n t h e t w o s i de s began organising the highlevel talks.

The South’s Unification Ministry said it had made two routine calls on the hotline in the morning and the afternoon.

“But the North did not answer,” it said in a statement.

AFP

BUDDHIST monks from across Myanmar will gather yesterday for talks about the religious violence that has shaken the country, after some of them were implicated in attacks on Muslims.

Deadly unrest – mostly targeting Muslims – has laid bare deep divides in the Buddhist-majority country and clouded major political reforms since military rule ended two years ago.

Around 200 Buddhist clerics have been invited to the meeting at a monastery outside Yangon to explore ways to ease tensions, according to Dhammapiya, a monk acting as a spokesman for the event.

“Foreigners think that the violence in Myanmar is being led by Buddhist monks,” he said yesterday, adding that while several monks had taken part in attacks, many more were mistaken for perpetrators as they tried to intervene to halt the mob violence.

“Monks collectively will discuss how to stop people committing violence and how to help the government solve the problem,” he said.

Wirathu, a monk from Mandalay whose anti-Muslim remarks have come under recent scrutiny, is among those due to attend, he said.

In central Myanmar, where

dozens of people were killed in March and thousands of homes set blaze, journalists saw some people in monk robes wielding sticks and knives during the unrest.

Monks – once at the forefront of the country’s prodemocracy movement – have also spearheaded a campaign to shun shops owned by Muslims and only to visit stores run by Buddhists.

Dhammapiya denied that the campaign known as “969” was responsible for several episodes of violence around the country this year, most recently in the eastern state of Shan in May. A Muslim man was sentenced to 26 years in prison on Tuesday for an attack on a Buddhist woman that triggered the clashes in Shan.

Communal unrest last year in the western state of Rakhine left about 200 people dead and 140,000 displaced, mainly Rohingya Muslims.

Muslim leaders welcomed the monks’ planned talks, saying they hoped the clerics would help to change Buddhists’ perceptions of them.

“It’s much better if Buddhist monks tell people that their views of Muslims are wrong, rather than us trying to explain,” Aye Lwin, chief convener of the Islamic Centre of Myanmar, said. AFP

Ai Weiwei weighs in on US data surveillance BOMBSHELL revelations about the United States’ wide-reaching surveillance programs could spur China and other countries to expand their own efforts, Beijing-based dissident Ai Weiwei warned yesterday.

America’s huge dragnet of internet and phone data, exposed in recent days through leaks and reports, has triggered a heated debate about privacy and national security.

Chinese social media users have made comparisons to their own government, which conducts extensive domestic surveillance and faces mounting accusations of aggressive cyber-spying abroad.

The high-profile outspoken artist said America’s behaviour was especially worrying because the country played a lead in setting internet norms.

“The US has the edge in technology. It’s a leader. Many of the rules about information the ethics, the laws, will be set by these leading countries,” Ai said.

“Other countries will at least refer to them or even match them.”

While the US government faced more limits, he said, both countries were violating citizens’ privacy in the name of national security.

“They face different types of restrictions, whether cultural or systematic . . . but when it comes to invading citizens’ privacy there is no difference.”

He added that the extent of both countries’ surveillance was difficult to compare since much remained unknown.

The leaks and reports have revealed that US government bodies are tapping the servers of nine internet giants including Apple, Facebook and Google, and collecting a vast sweep of phone records.

The IT contractor behind the internet surveillance leaks, Edward Snowden, gave an interview in Hong Kong soon after the story first broke.

A Chinese foreign ministry official in the semi-autonomous city was quoted in Chinese media as saying on Tuesday that Beijing had not received a request from the US regarding Snowden.

“Not yet,” the ministry’s commissioner in Hong Kong, Song Zhe, said in response to questions from the Oriental Daily.

Beijing has legal authority to handle defence and foreign affairs in Hong Kong.

Users of China’s popular Twitter-like service Sina Weibo offered mixed views.

“Terrorism is pushing the US to quietly centralise more and more power,” said one.

Another gave America credit for acknowledging its activities after they had been exposed, saying: “Some countries that monitor the phones of their people are not brave enough to admit it.”

China’s state-run media has said little of the matter.

Ai surmised: “They do the same thing themselves, so there’s not much to say.” AFP

14

THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

World

Gunmen kidnap UK man in Aceh GUNMEN have kidnapped a British man working for an energy company in the restive Indonesian province of Aceh, officials said yesterday.

Malcolm Primrose was being driven to a work site on Tuesday when he was stopped by a group of a r m e d m e n a t a ro u n d 11:00am in Lubuk Pempeng village, East Aceh district, officials said.

“The man was on his way to a drilling site when at least four men with firearms stopped his car,” provincial police spokesman Gustav Leo said.

The kidnappers tied up his driver before taking the Briton to their car and driving off, he said, adding that details of the incident came from the driver, an Indonesian.

“We are pursuing the kidnappers based on the witness’s testimony. We don’t know yet their motive.”

A source familiar with the matter said that the oil and gas company Primrose was working for, Medco Energi Internasional, had not yet received any ransom demand. AFP

Singapore wrestles dengue

S

INGAPORE is fighting back against a rapidly worsening dengue epidemic by distributing insect repellants to every household and recruiting hundreds of disease control officers, officials said.

Two Singaporeans have died from the virus so far this year and weekly cases hit an all-time high of 820 in the period ending June 8, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said in a statement issued late on Tuesday.

More than 9,300 people were infected this year as of Tuesday, fast nearing the 13,984 infections in 2005, the worst year on record, official data showed.

NEA said its officers and volunteers would be distributing 1.2 million insect repellants to all households in the compact island of over five million from July to August this year.

This would “help residents protect themselves from mosquito bites and thus break the chain of transmission,” it said.

The agency is also hiring 300 new officers to supplement its current 850-strong disease control team.

“With the strengthened operational workforce, NEA

In brief Japanese envoy to UN facing calls to resign

JAPAN’S’s human rights envoy to the United Nations was yesterday facing calls to quit over a video that showed him shouting at fellow diplomats to “shut up”. YouTube footage of the incident at the UN torture committee in Geneva has provoked a storm of criticism on the internet, with demands that ambassador Hideaki Ueda be recalled to Japan. AFP

Police in Bali hold man over Australian’s rape

Singapore is cracking down in the midst of a worsening outbreak of dengue fever. Homeowners face stiff fines if mosquito breeding spots are found in their homes. AFP

will be able to inspect 100 per cent of the premises in dengue clusters within a week, as well as to step up preventive surveillance checks in noncluster areas,” it said.

Dengue is endemic in Singapore, a rainy tropical island, as well as neighbouring Southeast Asian countries.

The virus causes high fever,

From June 16 and running through to June 27, for the first time and as second nation in Asia ever, Cambodia has the honour to be chairman of the 37th yearly convention of the World Heritage Committee.

In the eight to 16 pages strong reports published in Khmer and English version of the Post, our newspaper will give insights into how Cambodia's UNESCO chairmanship will contribute to a robust future of the national tourism industry and the conversation of our World Heritage Sites such as Angkor Wat and Preah Vihear During the convention the Kingdom will host more than 1400 delegates of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee coming from 190 different countries and more than 200 members of the international press.

The Post will publish messages of welcome from the Royal Government as well as a schedule of events and highlights of what's on the agenda.

In the June 28 report two weeks later, we will publish what happened during the important series of meetings, including the Siem Reap closing ceremony on June 27.

This is not only a chance for travel agencies, airlines, hotels, restaurants, banks, telecoms and all kinds of providers to highlight their companies in the special reports but all companies that are proud of Cambodia.

For the special occasion the Post will increase its production by several thousands and distribute the papers to the international guests. Advertisers will be offered special discount rates for inclusion in both publications on June 14 and 28.

Phnom Penh To advertise, contact borom.chea@phnompenhpost.com - call 012 76 34 81 or Siem Reap: Sophearith Blondeel - call 092 752 801 | 063 964 151 | Email:Sophearith.Blondeel@phnompenhpost.com This is a chance to show how much your company cares about the preservation of Cambodia's antiquities.

United Nations

Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization

World Heritage Convention

headaches, itching and joint pains. At an advanced stage it can lead to haemorrhaging and death.

The NEA said the current epidemic was driven by “low population immunity” and warmer weather.

The Aedes mosquito, which carries the virus and transmits the disease,

thrives during the hot season. Homeowners in the citystate – known for its fastidious sanitation – can be fined S$200 (US$160) if mosquito breeding spots are found in their homes.

Repeat offenders can be fined up to S$5,000 or jailed for up to three months, or both. AFP

INDONESIAN police said yesterday they have arrested a man suspected of raping an Australian holidaymaker during a robbery at her family’s rented villa on the resort island of Bali. The Indonesian suspect was detained at his rented room in the Balinese capital Denpasar on Monday, said local police chief Reinhard Habonaran Nainggolan. aFP

Vietnam imprisons four for human trafficking VIETNAM has sentenced four people smugglers in the southern province of Ba Ria Vung Tau to up to four years in prison for attempting to traffic 33 migrants to Australia by boat, a court official said yesterday. AFP

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THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

Science Coal plants to blame for deaths, group says John Vidal

AIR pollution from Europe’s 300 largest coal power stations causes 22,300 premature deaths a year and costs companies and governments billions of pounds in disease treatment and lost working days, says a major study of the health impacts of burning coal to generate electricity.

The research, from Stuttgart University’s Institute for energy economics and commissioned by Greenpeace International, suggests that a further 2,700 people can be expected to die prematurely each year if a new generation of 50 planned coal plants are built in Europe. “The coal-fired power plants in Europe cause a considerable amount of health impacts,” the researchers concluded.

Analysis of the emissions shows that air pollution from coal plants is now linked to more deaths than road traffic accidents in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. In Germany and the UK, coal-fired power stations are associated with nearly as many deaths as road accidents. Polish coal power plants were estimated to cause more than 5,000 premature deaths in 2010.

The cumulative impact of pollution on health is “shocking”, says an accompanying Greenpeace report. A total of 240,000 years of life were said to be lost in Europe in 2010 with 480,000 work days a year and 22,600 “life years” lost in Britain, the fifth most coalpolluted country. Drax, Britain’s largest coal-powered station, was said to be responsible for 4,450 life years lost, and Longannet in Scotland 4,210.

According to the study, Polish coal power plants have the worst health impact in the European Union. The Polish government and Polish utilities are planning to build a dozen new power plants. The utility companies with the worst estimated health impacts, according to the report, are PGE (Poland), RWE (Germany and UK), PPC (Greece), Vattenfall (Sweden) and CEZ (Czech Republic).

Acid gas, soot, and dust emissions from coal burning are, along with diesel engines, the biggest contributors to microscopic particulate pollution that penetrates deep into the lungs and the bloodstream. The pollution causes heart attacks and lung cancer, as well as increasing asthma attacks and other respiratory problems that harm the health of both children and adults.

“Tens of thousands of kilograms of toxic metals such as mercury, lead, arsenic and cadmium are spewed out of the stacks, contributing to cancer risk and harming children’s development,” says the Greenpeace report, which does not emphasise the impact of coal burning on climate change. THE GUARDIAN

A man holds a plate which was coated with the antibiotic-resistant bacteria called Klebsiella in a laboratory in north London in March 2011.

REUTERS

UK warns on drug resistance

Ian Sample, Fiona Harvey and Denis Campbell

B

RITAIN is to urge the G-8 to take action against the spread of drug-resistant microbes as medical and veterinary experts warn that coordinated international action is needed to prevent soaring rates of potentially lethal infections turning into a public health catastrophe.

David Willetts, the science minister, is set to propose farreaching measures that would clamp down on the overuse of antibiotics by GPs and hospital doctors. He will also try to restrict usage on farms and fisheries, where the drugs are blended with feed to boost yields.

Willetts will push for a consensus on ways to ramp up the discovery of new drugs to fight bacteria, speed their approval and delivery to patients, and strengthen cross-border surveillance for emerging resistant strains.

“Across the G-8, we should regard the spread of antibiotic resistance as a global challenge that is up there with climate change, water stress and environmental damage, and there are genuine policy consequences that follow from that,” Willetts said ahead of yesterday’s meeting of science ministers at the Royal Society in London.

Drug-resistance is an inevitable consequence of antibiotics. The drugs wipe out susceptible infections but leave resistant organisms behind.

The survivors multiply and, in time, can become immune to even the strongest antibiotics.

Though improved surveillance and hygiene has reduced levels of life-threatening MRSA and C difficile “superbugs” in hos-

pitals, resistant strains are on the rise.

In Britain, doctors see ever more resistant strains of TB, E coli and Klebsiella, which causes pneumonia. Some 80 per cent of gonorrhoea is now resistant to the frontline antibiotic tetracycline. Of serious concern is the rise of resistance to powerful drugs called carbapenems, the antibiotics of last resort. The first few cases were detected in Britain in 2003, but since then the numbers have soared to 217 cases in the first six months of 2011.

Willetts asked England’s chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, to brief the meeting after she warned in a March report that untreatable infections posed a “catastrophic threat” to the population.

Davies has asked for antibiotic resistance to be added to the government’s national risk register, a move that makes the issue easier to raise abroad.

Davies has already briefed senior civil servants on the threat and has rallied international experts and chief medical officers in other countries to push the EU and World Health Organisation to beef up their action plans. Ultimately, she seeks a UN treaty that would ban antibiotics in food production, such as fish farming and fruit growing, streamline the regulatory process for licensing new drugs, and commit nations to educational drives that instil more prudent usage of the drugs.”

Back in time The soaring number of antibiotic-resistant infections poses such a great threat to society that in 20 years’ time we could be taken back to a 19th century environment where

everyday infections kill us as a result of routine operations,” Davies said.

The government is to publish its antimicrobial resistance strategy next month.

It will set out plans to slow the emergence and spread of drug-resistant bugs, maintain the effectiveness of existing drugs and bolster support for researchers.

The G-8 meeting is seen as an opportunity to urge other nations to follow suit. “We can’t tackle the problem on our own and urgently need coordinated international action,” Davies said.

New research also reveals that GPs in some areas are almost three times more likely than elsewhere to prescribe antibiotics. Keith Ridge, NHS England’s chief pharmaceutical officer, said he was aware of this worryingly wide variation and keen to see if lessons from hospitals’ improved prescription of antibiotics could now be applied to England’s 8,500 G-P practices.

Davies said: “Our proposals are far-reaching, including stimulating development of new drugs through some sort of public-private partnership, cutting down the antibiotics given to farm animals and used in medical practice, making infection surveillance go across borders, and getting countries to sign up to their own education programs.”

Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said some GPs were over-prescribing antibiotics to patients simply because they were overworked, increasing the long-term risks.

“I’m not blaming them. I’ve been there myself, at the end of a very busy clinic. If you’re running over time and have a queue of patients waiting,

sometimes the least worst option is to give a prescription, even though you know that medically it’s of little value,” she said.

In the past, drug resistance was countered by a steady flow of new antibiotics on to the market. Over the past 60 years, the pharmaceutical industry released three generations of drugs, starting with natural penicillins, then synthetic penicillins, and most recently the carbapenems. But the supply has dried up. The number of new drugs in the pipeline is at an all-time low as research was shelved in favour of more profitable drugs in the 1990s, coupled with the difficulties in discovering new medication.

Farm threat Meanwhile, other experts are warning that increasing use of the drugs on farms poses a threat to people. Recent studies have shown that the overuse of antibiotics in intensive livestock farming could lead to the evolution of strains of dangerous bacteria, including MRSA, E coli and salmonella, that are resistant to some of the strongest antibiotics. An increasing body of evidence shows they can spread from farms to farm workers and their families as well as to consumers through affected meat.

Farms in the UK are not supposed to use antibiotics routinely, as happens in many non-EU countries, but the Guardian has uncovered clear problems with this regime as the current monitoring of usage does not give government regulators enough information to decide how the drugs are used in practice.

Antibiotics are routinely dumped into animal feed in

the US – where 80 per cent of antibiotics are used for animals – and Latin America and other regions because they help animals put on weight faster.

Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative MP who has tabled a motion in parliament for stronger regulation, said dealing with antibiotics on farms was as urgent as changing prescribing practices and hygiene in hospitals. “We need to phase out the routine use of antibiotics on intensive farms altogether, starting with those most important in human medicine.”

John Rex, vice president and medical director for infection at Astra Zeneca, said necessary changes were planned for the regulatory process too. “The idea that we as a society should wait for these cases before we start drug development is a non-starter. Bacterial infections can kill you in a couple of days, We are now treating young women with complicated urinary tract infections with intravenous antibiotics, not a pill. We are seeing strains of gonorrhoea for which we have no antibiotics, not just a small number, not just one, but zero,” he said.

This summer, the European Medicines Agency will overturn this system by allowing trials of antibiotics to be done differently. Trials will no longer need to recruit people with the same infection in the same place.

Instead, they can pool people with infections at any body area, such as the lungs, stomach, or skin, as long as they are caused by the same bug. The shift means trials can be run much faster, said Rex. The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to make similar changes to its guidelines.

THE GUARDIAN

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THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

Opinion www.phnompenhpost.com

editorial personnel Publisher Ross Dunkley Editor-in-Chief Alan Parkhouse Managing Editor David Boyle Editor-in-Chief Post Khmer Kay Kimsong Managing Editor Post Khmer Sam Rith Chief of Staff Cheang Sokha Deputy Chief of Staff Chhay Channyda National News Editor Chad Williams Deputy National News Editor Abby Seiff Deputy News Editor Vong Sokheng Group Business Editor May Kunmakara Deputy Business Editor Joe Freeman Property Editor Rupert Winchester Foreign News Editor Dan Besant Sports Editor Dan Riley Pictorial Editor Kara Fox Lifestyle and 7Days Editor Poppy McPherson Deputy Head of Lifestyle Desk Pan Simala Special Projects Officer Stuart Alan Becker Chief sub-editor Michael Philips Sub-editors Emily Geminder, Shane Worrell, Stuart White, Joseph Freeman, Justine Drennan, Joe Curtin, Julius Thiemann, Rosa Ellen, Claire Knox, Daniel de Carteret, Anne Renzenbrink Reporters Meas Sokchea, Mom Kunthear, Khouth Sophak Chakrya, May Titthara, Khuon Leakhana, Kim Yuthana, Roth Meas, Ung Chamroeun, Sen David, Phak Seangly, Rann Reuy, Buth Reaksmey Kongkea, Chhim Sreyneang, Sieam Bunthy, Lieng Sarith Photographers Vireak Mai, Sreng Meng Srun, Heng Chivoan, Pha Lina, Hong Menea Regional Correspondent Roger Mitton Web Editor Leang Phannara Webmasters Seng Sovan, Uong Ratana, Horng Pengly Siem reap bureau

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A boy walks through the Prasat Chen temple remains in the Koh Ker temple complex in Preah Vihear province last year. Two ancient stone statues from the area, previously housed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, have been returned to Cambodia. AFP

Reviving our rich culture

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COMMENT Phloeun Prim

A

S with all Cambodians who have been working to reclaim a vibrant Cambodian culture that was almost erased at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, I was delighted to see New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art repatriate two 10th century Khmer statues to Cambodia, where for centuries they guarded the magnificent and ancient Koh Ker temple complex.

Coming in the midst of the Season of Cambodia festival in New York City, last month’s announcement highlighted the significant successes by the government, arts organisations and international donors in preserving and promoting Cambodian arts.

Although recovering the vestiges of Cambodia’s rich tradition of artistry is crucial to connecting present generations to their roots and bringing a sense of pride back to a traumatised people, it is only the first step in building a platform in Cambodia on which its artists can improve their talents and make a crucial contribution to the development of a society that was stripped of the vast majority of its thinkers and cultural icons.

Years before the international community arrived in Cambodia to begin rebuilding the country, Cambodian artists were picking up the pieces of a broken culture.

In the 1980s, Her Royal Highness Princess Norodom Buppha Devi and surviving teachers were working in refugee camps on the Thai border, teaching a new generation of classical ballet dancers who today are among the mentors and practitioners leading a re-emergence of the form.

Soon after being released from Phnom Penh’s S-21 prison, painter Vann Nath was putting his brush to the canvas to ensure that Cambodia would not forget the haunting scenes of its dark past. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Kong Nay just kept on playing, and today is world famous and one of most beloved figures in traditional Cambodian music.

The work of these icons in salvaging our culture’s past was essential.

Without it, artists today would face the impossible task of starting from nothing.

But the arts in their true form are forever evolving. Passing down tradition was only the beginning of a story about contemporary arts in Cambodia. The next chapter is being written by the hundreds of artists, and dozens of organisations supporting them, who are redefining Cambodian arts and sharing their perspective with the world.

Remnants of a culture can be placed in a museum for all to see, but culture in its present form is a living, breathing thing and must be nurtured in order to thrive.

Today, Cambodia has a nucleus of artists who are taking the lessons of the masters and integrating

them into modern expressions of Cambodian identity.

With the tools of their forebears, they are shaping a modern vision of what the country is today, and might be tomorrow. Years of tireless work have been poured into fostering through the arts a core of intelligent and innovative young Cambodians who are now redefining their country on the world stage.

But in order for this work to have a lasting impact on the country, we have to begin investing in the next chapter of this story. These artists must be placed within an ecosystem in which they can cultivate their talent and sharpen their perspectives.

The government can lead an effort to create the necessary infrastructure to allow artists to hone their skills and speak with the same power as their international peers. We must train a group of arts managers to collaborate with these artists and ensure that their work is reaching the widest possible audience and is properly valued.

In order to engage these artists with like-minded thinkers around the world, exchange programs must be launched and fellowships created.

Government authorities must enforce copyright laws to ensure that artists and their patrons can get a return on their investment of time and money.

Artists throughout the Cambodian diaspora engage with their peers in the country to infuse the arts scene here with new ideas about what it means to be Cambodian in

the 21st century. The thing about artists is that they do more than just create art.

Even for those art students who don’t become professionals in their form, values are instilled through the arts that are otherwise difficult to obtain as a young person in Cambodia today. Artists make better citizens.

They understand the value of hard work and how to act harmoniously with others to create something beautiful. They are not scared to think critically about the world around them and share their ideas in a public forum.

Most importantly, they understand the significance of learning and will hand down these values to the generations of Cambodians yet to be born.

I applaud the effort by Cambodia’s government to lobby museums around the world to return artifacts that were stolen during the upheaval of the country. The momentum created by this work can be carried forward to revitalise Cambodian culture through its emerging arts scene.

Angkorian artists created beautiful works that deserve to be celebrated and preserved for posterity and it is through investment in today’s artists that Cambodia can ensure that its vibrant culture is carried into the future by making contributions to the cultivation of a more engaged, innovative and proud population.

Phloeun Prim is the director of Cambodiabased NGO Cambodian Living Arts and the CEO of the Season of Cambodia festival that was held in New York City in April-May 2013.

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THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

Lifestyle Keep Kep Clean campaign T H S Manjunath

WO former Japanese beauty queens will head a thousandstrong team cleaning the streets of Kep this month as part of a country-wide environmental initiative.

The endeavour, titled Keep Kep Clean, will be carried out on June 29 by the Miss Japan Volunteer Association (MJVA), with 2011 beauty pageant winner Hisae Arai at its head alongside her sister Kiko, the 2012 winner.

The Arai sisters recently organised a Dental Care camp conducted by a leading Japanese dentist for nearly 250 tennis playing kids at the Beeline Arena.

Arai is a leading member of the MJVA, heading its Southeast Asian wing in the promotion of social and environmental issues in countries that have strong and enduring relationships with Japan.

Earlier this year, Cambodia and Japan celebrated the 60th anniversary of friendship and cooperation between the two countries, marking the historic milestone by signing an aid agreement for two clean water projects in Kampong Cham and Battambang provinces.

“The two countries will pursue human resource development this year and the MJVA

initiative is a joint project which will have marked effect on health and hygiene issues, especially in Cambodia’s coastal towns and cities,” Arai told the Post.

“Kep excites me like no other coastal town in Cambodia and I love to spend as much time as possible in Kep. When I am here I feel as if I am in one of those exotic locations back home in Japan and I am determined to keep Kep clean,” said Hisae Arai.

The volunteer cleaning brigade is expected to be as big as 1,000 people, mainly comprising students from 28 schools and six orphanages in and around the town, which has a population of about 50,000.

“We set off from the City Hall. There will be four teams of around 250 each heading in different directions. Each volunteer will have a plastic bag, tongs and a pair of gloves to pick up trash from pavements and beaches. It will be a three hour operation,” Arai said.

The MJVA will put up environmental awareness sign boards in every school apart from placing them in strategic points around town. Specially designed rubbish bins will also be placed, carrying messages and caricatures designed by Arai.

The program has been supported by Minister of Trade

Former Miss Japan and leading member of the MJVA, Hisae Arai, with Minister of Trade and Commerce Cham Prasidh. supplied

and Commerce Cham Prasidh, also the Tennis Federation of Cambodia president, who spends time in his sea-front home in Kep. TFC secretary-general, Tep Rithivit, said the federation has been involved with hundreds of the children joining the clean-up as part of their junior program.

hard basketball fan, it’s exciting to know that Cambodia now has a basketball league of its own.

The establishment of the Cambodian Basketball League (CBL) was created by the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia, the Cambodia Basketball Federation, and in partnership with Beeline Arena (where the games are held). This is a monumental development in Cambodian sports, and one day the World Book Encyclopedia of Basketball will record that on June 1, 2013, Cambodia launched its first official basketball league.

“The goal of the CBL for this first year is to launch the structuring of basketball in

“We just do not teach these kids tennis skills. We want them to develop healthy habits and love for nature and beauty around them. We would be happy if our drive inspires one kid to practise it. For too long we have wasted time talking about it,” Rithivit told the Post.

The other major players joining the project are the Mu-

nicipality of Kep City, GAEA, a rubbish collection company, and the National Federation of UNESCO Association in Japan. Both the provincial governor and mayor of Kep have expressed their support and co-operation.

The MJVA has Sihanoukville within its sights for another clean up drive later this year.

the country, and expect the CBL to grow and have more and more teams, also outside Phnom Penh,” stated Michael Dibbern, Commissioner and Manager of the CBL. “We also want to develop youth programs and a youth league, and our target is to globally increase the level of Cambodia’s basketball, and also the level of the Cambodian National Team.”

Twelve teams are vying for the championship title in December, and one team, the Post Buffaloes, has high expectations from its own teammates. Consisting of expats mainly from the US, where basketball is an intricate part of the culture, the Buffaloes lost a heart-

breaking game in its debut last Saturday.

Anthony Gaglardi, general manager and Player for the Post Buffaloes said, “Losing barely by three nail-biting points was disappointing. However, this game was baptism by fire, with some players being away for work, as it strengthened our resolve as a team, with a unique comeback ability that could become the trademark of the Buffaloes in games to come.”

With basketball games (free!) every Saturday for the next six months, and a famous café/restaurant opening inside Beeline Arena very soon, spending a day with the CBL is going to be my ticket during the wet, monsoon season.

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World’s oldest ever man dies aged 116

THE world’s oldest person and the oldest man ever to have lived has died of natural causes aged 116, officials in Japan said Wednesday.

Jiroemon Kimura, who was born in 1897, died in hospital early Wednesday morning “from old age”, an official in Kyoto’s Kyotango city said in a statement. Kimura, who was from Kyotango, was hospitalised in early May suffering from pneumonia. A few days ago doctors noted that his condition was worsening. Kimura was recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest living person in December 2012. afp

Brain surgery stops Mumford and Sons tour

The CBL brings hoop dreams to the Kingdom

WITH the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals under way in the US, many fans worldwide will be watching to see whether the Miami Heat can repeat for a second championship this year. As a die-

In brief

CHART-TOPPING English indie folk rock band Mumford and Sons postponed three sell-out shows on their US tour Tuesday while bassist Ted Dwane undergoes surgery for a blood clot. Writing on its website, the group – winners of this year’s Grammy for best album – said scans had revealed a blood clot on the surface of Dwane’s brain that requires immediate treatment.

“Ted is receiving excellent care and we are being assured that he will recover quickly from surgery,” it said without disclosing where the operation will take place. afp

Man of Steel sequel flies into production

ZACK Snyder’s comic-book reimagining, which opens in the UK and US this Friday, is being tipped for an impressive box office haul. Deadline reports the film’s creative team of Snyder and screenwriter David S Goyer are both set to return for part two, which is being fast-tracked into production. The Dark Knight’s Christopher Nolan, who oversaw the film in a much-hyped “godfather” producer’s role, may have less input into the follow-up, which would be expected to see Britain’s Henry Cavill reprising his role as Kal-El. the guardian

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THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

Motoring

Bentley’s GT Speed has a most unusual blend of smoothness and power.

bloomberg

Bentley’s GT a ‘dream machine’ Jason Harper

W

ITH a starting sticker of $215,000 and a W12 engine with 616 horsepower crammed into the nose, this machine is unblinking in its mandate to cruise the asphalt.

A powerbroker’s dream machine.

The drive from New York to Beantown is one of my least favorite trips on the planet, a traffic-snarled, 215-mile stretch along commutercrowded northeastern arteries. I’ve driven it too many times over the years to visit friends and family, often along the most toilsome I-95, before common sense and Google Maps intervened and I availed myself of slightly less obvious routes.

Accompanying me on this trip are my wife, Miranda, and my eightmonth-old son, Max, along with all

the accoutrements that accompany an infant. The car has two doors and four seats, though the rear buckets only accommodate a baby seat with the front seat shoved forward as far as it will go.

With just 12.6 cubic-feet of capacity, the trunk is unlikely to please mobster hitmen, and we had to leave the boy’s stroller behind.

From the first step on the gas pedal, shooting the car onto Manhattan’s West Side Highway from a full stop, the updated, second-generation GT Speed begins speaking my language.

It has a most unusual blend of smoothness and power, creating the sensation of moving forward incredibly quickly, while taking a chunk of pavement along with you.

Onto the Saw Mill River Parkway with its off-camber curves and highspeed commuters darting home.

The wide, low car sits flat, with no body roll at all. Then the Cross County Parkway to the Hutchinson, an enjoyable piece of road as long as it’s not packed bumper to bumper.

Dusk begins falling, the spring light goes golden and the roadside trees seem very green. The car runs strongly, the massive 21-inch Pirelli P Zero tyres rolling along silently.

The base GT was gently redesigned in the 2011 model-year, and this Speed model also gets the second-generation treatment. The previous cars left me cold, the drive sterile and detached. The second generation cars don’t look much different, but the overall experience is far more interesting.

The alterations are minor, both to the exterior and the mechanicals, but the sum is more than the changed parts, like a custom ver-

sus an off-the-rack suit. Our test car has carbon-ceramic brakes, a $13,600 extra that helps explain the $251,490 price. (The Naim audio system tacks on another $7,155.)

Carbon ceramics were first found on racing cars, and the stopping power is extreme.

Yet these brakes are hard to moderate evenly. A little pressure yields little deceleration; push harder and the brakes suddenly bite down hard.

If an accident happened in front of us I could come to a mind-bendingly fast halt – but would probably be rear-ended in the process.

The idea of a “grand touring” car, or GT, which travels great distances in speed and style is nearly as old as the car itself. We’ve reached Highway 91 towards Connecticut’s Hartford and the Bentley is proving itself more than worthy of the tradition.

The model I’m driving is painted a handsomely muted shade of “Burnt Orange”, which shows off the large grille and powerful rear shoulders to best effect. The oversized wheels add extra visual heft.

The interior includes fabulous darkened aluminium panels on the front console (a $4,785 option), which mesh nicely with the dark leather and overhanging leather cowls. Masculine yet tasteful.

It’s dark now and starts to rain. I put on the windscreen wipers and they clean the glass noiselessly.

“That’s eerie,” Miranda says. I agree.

The car is mausoleum quiet.

Almost too soon to be believed, we reach the outskirts of Boston. Max has been sleeping the entire time, cocooned in the rear. The Bentley offers the very best way to conquer the most dreaded of drives. bloomberg

Mid-range, mid-size but Mazda6 wins big Martin Love

Third generation Mazda6: One of the best-looking Mazdas in years.

afp

WOULD you enter a sporting contest if you had no chance of winning? That’s the challenge facing the new Mazda6.

Coming up against Ford’s all-conquering “Miracle” Mondeo in the family saloon class is like clambering into the ring with the Undertaker – world wrestling’s 6ft 10in 300lb undisputed heavyweight. But the Mazda6 boasts wit, intelligence and ingenuity – and, sometimes, giants are slain.

In the cold world of sales, much comes down to numbers, and Mazda’s engineers have decided to play the percentage game. Their 6 is lighter and more efficient than the Mondeo. This is an entire reworking of all the car’s key components: engine, transmission,

chassis, suspension – basically anything that can be refined to help reduce carbon and increase efficiency without killing the joy of motoring.

So, having appealed to your head, Mazda now has to appeal to your heart.

When you slide into the driver’s seat of a new vehicle, you’ll do that thing where you grip the steering wheel and shrug your shoulders a couple of times, you’ll adjust the mirror and silently press the accelerator, and you’ll know if you like it before you’ve turned the key.

From the pavement the 6 is one of the best-looking Mazdas in years. The swooping front wings flow from its handsome face and are met by creased panels puckering the lower doors.

Start it up and the 2.2-litre turbo diesel feels eager and powerful; you’d

never guess it offers 67.3mpg. One neat technical development is the i-ELOOP, which gathers electricity from braking and stores it in a capacitor to power on-board systems. Another feature I liked is that the onboard computer calculates how much running time its stop-start system has saved you. Over a 350-mile weekend, and 10 hours at the wheel, the engine was switched off for two hours and seven minutes.

Smart, slick and smooth, the Mazda has a lot going for it. But Ford has dominated this sector for two decades.

And it’s going to take more than some clever gadgetry to shift the Mondeo, which also has a killer move up its sleeve: it’s cheaper. Not by much, but then matches can be won and lost by the tiniest of margins. the guardian

19

THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

Travel PREAH SIHANOUK - SIEM REAP Flighs Days Dep Arrival K6 130 1-3-5 12:55 13:55

INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT SCHEDULE FROM PHNOM PENH Flighs

Days

Dep

TO PHNOM PENH Arrival

PHNOM PENH - BANGKOK

Flighs

Days

Dep

Arrival

BANGKOK - PHNOM PENH

K6 720

Daily

12:05

01:10

K6 721

Daily

02:25

03:30

PG 938

Daily

06:40

08:15

PG 931

Daily

07:55

09:05

PG 932

Daily

09:55

11:10

TG 580

Daily

07:55

09:05

TG 581

Daily

10:05

11:10

PG 933

Daily

13:30

14:40

PG 934

Daily

15:30

16:40

FD 3616

Daily

15:15

16:20

FD 3617

Daily

17:05

18:15

PG 935

Daily

17:30

18:40

PG 936

Daily

19:30

20:40

TG 584

Daily

18:25

19:40

TG 585

Daily

20:40

21:45

PG 937

Daily

20:15

21:50

PHNOM PENH - BEIJING CZ 324

Daily

BEIJING - PHNOM PENH 08:00

16:05

CZ 323

Daily

14:30

20:50

PHNOM PENH - DOHA ( Via HCMC)

DOHA - PHNOM PENH ( Via HCMC)

QR 605

1.2..5.6

22:35

05:15+1

QR 604

1.2..5.6

08:00

21:00

QR 603

..34..7

15:50

22:25

QR 602

..3.4..7

01:25

14:20

PHNOM PENH - GUANGZHOU Daily

08:00

11:40

CZ 6059

2.4.7

12:00

13:45

CZ 6060

2.4.7

14:45

18:10

CZ 323

Daily

19:05

20:50

09:40

13:00

PHNOM PENH - HANOI Daily

17:30

20:35

VN 841

Daily

HO CHI MINH CITY - PHNOM PENH

VN 841

Daily

14:00

14:45

VN 920

Daily

15:50

16:30

VN 3856

Daily

19:20

20:05

VN 3857

Daily

18:00

18:45

PHNOM PENH - HONG KONG 1.2.4.7

11:25

15:05

KA 208

1.2.4.6.7 08:50

10:25

KA 207

6

11:45

22:25

KA 206

3.5.7

14:30

16:05

KA 209

1

18:30

22:05

KA 206

1

15:25

17:00

KA 209

3.5.7

17:25

21:00

KA 206

2

15:50

17:25

KA 205

2

19:00

22:35

PHNOM PENH - INCHEON Daily

23:40

06:40

KE 689

Daily

18:30

22:20

OZ 740

Daily

23:50

06:50

OZ 739

Daily

19:10

22:50

PHNOM PENH - KUALA LUMPUR

MH - Malaysia Airlines

2 Tuesday

AK - Air Asia

MI - SilkAir

3 Wednesday

BR - EVA Airways

OZ - Asiana Airlines

4 Thursday

CI - China Airlines

PG - Bangkok Airways

5 Friday

CZ - China Southern

QR - Qatar Airways

6 Saturday

FD - Thai Air Asia

QV - Lao Airlines

7 Sunday

FM - Shanghai Air

SQ - Singapore Airlines

K6- Cambodia Angkor Air

TG - Thai Airways | VN - Vietnam Airlines

This flight schedule information is updated about once a month. Further information, please contact direct to airline or a travel agent for flight schedule information.

AIRLINES

KUALA LUMPUR - PHNOM PENH

AK 1473

Daily

08:35

11:20

AK 1474

Daily

15:15

16:00

MH 755

Daily

11:10

14:00

MH 754

Daily

09:30

10:20

MH 763

Daily

17:10

20:00

MH 762

Daily

3:20

4:10

20:05

06:05

PHNOM PENH- PARIS

PHNOM PENH - PARIS 20:05

06:05

AF 273

23:05

FM 833

PHNOM PENH - SHANGHAI 2.3.4.5.7

1 Monday

5J - CEBU Airways.

INCHEON - PHNOM PENH

KE 690

FM 833

KA - Dragon Air

HONG KONG - PHNOM PENH

KA 207

2

COLOUR CODE

2817 - 16 Tigerairways

HANOI - PHNOM PENH

PHNOM PENH - HO CHI MINH CITY

AF 273

AIRLINES CODE

GUANGZHOU - PHNOM PENH

CZ 324

VN 840

SIEM REAP - PREAH SIHANOUK Flighs Days Dep Arrival K6 131 1-3-5 11:20 12:20

19:50

2

SHANGHAI - PHNOM PENH

PHNOM PENH - SINGAPORE

2.3.4.5.7 19:30

22:40

SINGAPORE - PHNOM PENH

Air Asia (AK) Room T6, PP International Airport. Tel: 023 6666 555 Fax: 023 890 071 www.airasia.com

Cambodia Angkor Air (K6) PP Office, #90+92+94Eo, St.217, Sk.Orussey4, Kh.7Makara, PP, Cambodia.

Tel: 023 881 178/77-718-333 Fax: (+855)-23-886-677 E: mai@royalaviationexpert.com

Jetstar Asia (3K) PP: No. 333B Monivong Blvd.

Myanmar Airways International Tel: 023 220909.Siem Reap: No. 50,Sivatha Blvd.Tel: 063 964388 #90+92+94Eo, St. 217, Sk. Orussey4, Kh. 7 Makara, www.jetstar.com Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

T:023 881 178 | F:023 886 677 www.maiair.com

Dragon Air (KA) #168, Monireth, PP Tel: 023 424 300 Fax: 023 424 304 www.dragonair.com/kh

Cebu Pacific (5J) Phnom Penh: No. 333B Monivong Blvd. Tel: 023 219161 Siem Reap: No. 50,Sivatha Blvd.

Tel: 063 965487 E-mail: cebuair@ptm-travel.com www.cebupacificair.com

Tiger airways G. floor, Regency square, Suare, Suite #68/79, St.205, Sk Chamkarmorn, PP Tel: (855) 95 969 888 (855) 23 5515 888/5525888 E: info@cambodiaairlines.net

SilkAir (MI) Regency C,Unit 2-4,Tumnorb Teuk, Chamkarmorn Phnom Penh Tel:023 988 629 www.silkair.com

MI 601

1.3.5.6.7

09:30 12:30

MI 602

1.3.5.6.7 07:40

08:40

MI 622

2.4

12:20

15:20

MI 622

2.4

08:40

11:25

3K 594

1.3.6

12:35

15:55

3K 593

1.3.6

10:40

11:50

3K 599

2.4.7

17:25

20:25

3K 591

5

18:45

20:00

3K 592

5

20:45

23:45

3K 591

5

18:45

20:00

MI 607

Daily

18:10

21:10

MI 608

Daily

16:20

17:15

2817

1.3

16:40

19:40

2816

1.3

15:00

15:50

2817

2.4.5

09:10

12:00

2816

2.4.5

07:20

08:10

2817

6

14:50

17:50

2816

6

13:00

14:00

2817

7

13:20

16:10

2816

7

11:30

12:30

09:10

11:35

PHNOM PENH SORYA BUS TRANSPORT SCHEDULE INTERNATIONAL ROUTES

PHNOM PENH -TAIPEI BR 266

Daily

TAIPEI - PHNOM PENH 12:45

17:05

PHNOM PENH - VIENTIANE

BR 265

Daily

VIENTIANE - PHNOM PENH

Qatar Airways No. 296 Blvd. Mao Tse Toung (St. 245), Ground floor, Intercontinental Hotel PP Tel: +23 42 40 12/13/14 www.qatarairways.com

VN 840

Daily

17:30

18:50

VN 841

Daily

11:30

13:00

PP-HO CHI MINH DEPATURE

HO CHI MINH-PP

QV 920

Daily

17:50

19:10

QV 921

Daily

11:45

13:15

6:45, 8:30, 11:45

6:45, 8:00,11:30

PP-BANGKOK

BANGKOK-PP

6:30

6:30

PP-PAKSE,VIENTIANE

PAKSE,VIENTIANE-PP

6:45

7:30

PHNOM PENH - YANGON 8M 404

3. 6

YANGON - PHNOM PENH 20:10

21:35

8M 403

3. 6

16:45

FROM SIEM REAP

TO SIEM REAP

SIEM REAP - BANGKOK Flighs Days Dep Arrival K6 700 Daily 12:50 2:00 PG 924 Daily 09:45 11:10 PG 906 Daily 13:15 14:40 PG 914 Daily 15:20 16:45 PG 908 Daily 18:50 20:15 PG 910 Daily 20:30 21:55 SIEM REAP - GUANGZHOU CZ 3054 2.4.6 11:25 15:35 CZ 3054 1.3.5.7 19:25 23:20 SIEM REAP -HANOI K6 850 Daily 06:50 08:30 VN 868 1.2.3.5.6 12:40 15:35 VN 842 Daily 18:05 19:45 VN 844 Daily 19:45 21:25 VN 800 Daily 21:00 22:40 SIEM REAP - HO CHI MINH CITY VN 3818 Daily 11:10 12:30 VN 826 Daily 13:30 14:40 VN 3820 Daily 17:45 18:45 VN 828 Daily 18:20 19:20 VN 3822 Daily 21:35 22:35 SIEM REAP - INCHEON KE 688 Daily 23:15 06:10 OZ 738 Daily 23:40 07:10 SIEM REAP - KUALA LUMPUR AK 281 Daily 08:35 11:35 MH 765 3.5.7 14:15 17:25 SIEM REAP - MANILA 5J 258 2.4.7 22:30 02:11 SIEM REAP - SINGAPORE MI 633 1, 6, 7 16:35 22:15 MI 622 2.4 10:40 15:20 MI 630 5 12:25 15:40 MI 615 7 12:45 16:05 MI 636 3, 2 18:30 21:35 MI 617 5 18:35 21:55 3K 599 2.4.7 15:50 20:25 SIEM REAP - VIENTIANE QV 522 2.4.5.7 10:05 13:00 SIEM REAP - YANGON 8M 402 1. 5 20:15 21:25

BANGKOK - SIEM REAP Flighs Days Dep K6 701 Daily 02:55 PG 903 Daily 08:00 PG 905 Daily 11:35 PG 913 Daily 13:35 PG 907 Daily 17:00 PG 909 Daily 18:45 GUANGZHOU - SIEM REAP CZ 3053 2.4.6 08:45 CZ 3053 1.3.5.7 16:35 HANOI - SIEM REAP K6 851 Daily 19:30 VN 843 Daily 15:25 VN 845 Daily 17:05 VN 845 Daily 17:45 VN 801 Daily 18:20 HO CHI MINH CITY - SIEM REAP VN 3809 Daily 09:15 VN 827 Daily 11:35 VN 3821 Daily 15:55 VN 829 Daily 16:20 VN 3823 Daily 19:45 INCHEON - SIEM REAP KE 687 Daily 18:30 OZ 737 Daily 19:20 KUALA LUMPUR - SIEM REAP AK 280 Daily 06:50 MH 764 3.5.7 12:10 MANILA - SIEM REAP 5J 257 2.4.7 19:45 SINGAPORE - SIEM REAP MI 633 1, 6, 7 14:35 MI 622 2.4 08:40 MI 616 7 10:40 MI 636 3, 2 13:55 MI 630 5 07:55 MI 618 5 16:35 3K599 2.4.7 13:50 VIENTIANE - SIEM REAP QV 512 2.4.5.7 06:30 YANGON - SIEM REAP 8M 401 1. 5 17:05

19:10

Arrival 04:05 09:00 12:45 14:35 18:10 19:55 10:30 18:30 21:15 17:10 18:50 19:30 20:00

10:35 12:35 16:55 17:40 20:45 22:15 22:40 07:50 13:15 21:30 15:45 09:50 11:50 17:40 11:35 17:45 15:05 09:25 19:15

DOMESTIC ROUTES PP-SIEM REAP SIEM REAP-PP 6:15, 7:00- 12:00, 13:00, 14:00 5:30, 6:30, 7:00, 9:30, 10:30,12:30, 13:30 PP -SIHANOUK SIHANOUK-PP 7:00 To 12:00, 13:00, 14:30, 16:30 7:10, 8:00, 10:30,12:15, 14:00,15:30,17:30 PP-BATTAMBANG BATTAMBANG-PP 7:00, 8:00, 9:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00 5:30, 6:45, 7:45, 8:30, 9:30,10:30 PP-MONDULKIRI MONDULKIRI-PP 8:30 8:30 Further information, please contact: Tel: 023 210 359, Email:168@ppsoryatransport.com

REGULAR SHIPPING LINES SCHEDULES CALLING PORT ROTATION LINE RCL (12calls/moth) MEARSK (MCC) (4 calls/moth)

CALLING SCHEDULES

FREEQUENCY ROTATION PORTS

1 Wed, 08:00 - Thu 16:00

1 Call/week

2 Thu, 14:00 - Fri 22:00

1 Call/week

3 Fri, 20:00 - Sat 23:59

1 Call/week

1 Th, 08:00 - 20:00

1 Call/week

SIN-SHV-SGZ-SIN HKG-SHV-SGZ-HKG (HPH-TXGKEL) SIN-SHV-SGZ-SIN SGN-SHV-LZP-SGN - HKG-OSA-TYO-KOB - BUS-SGH-YAT-SGN - SIN-SHV-TPP-SIN

2 Fri, 22:00- Sun 00:01

1 Call/week

SITC (BEN LINE (4 calls/onth)

Sun 09:00-23:00

1 Call/week

HCM-SHV-LZP-HCMNBO-SGH-OSA-KOBBUS-SGH-HGK-CHM

ITL (ACL) (4 calls/month) APL (4 calls/month) COTS (2 calls/month)

Sat 06:00 - Sun 08:00

1 Call/week

SGZ-SHV-SIN-SGZ

Fri, 08:00 - Sun, 06:00

1 call/week

SIN-SHV-SIN

Irregula

2 calls/month BBK-SHV-BKK-(LZP)

34 call/month BUS= Busan, Korea HKG= HongKong kao=Kaoshiung, Taiwan ROC Kob= Kebe, Japan KUN= Kuantan, Malaysia LZP= Leam Chabang, Thailand NBO= Ningbo, China OSA= Osaka, Japan SGN= Saigon, Vietnam

SGZ= Songkhla, Thailand SHV= Sihanoukville Port Cambodia SIN= Singapore TPP= TanjungPelapas, Malaysia TYO= Tokyo, Japan TXG= Taichung, Taiwan YAT= Yantian, China YOK= Yokohama, Japan

FLY DIRECT TO MYANMAR WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY YANGON - PHNOM PENH PHNOM PENH - YANGON FLY DIRECT TO SIEM REAP MONDAY & FRIDAY SIEM REAP - YANGON YANGON - SIEM REAP #90+92+94Eo, St. 217, Sk. Orussey4, Kh. 7 Makara, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Tel 023 881 178 | Fax 023 886 677 | www.maiair.com

Sugarloaf Mountain stands in Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The city is the world’s third most expensive. bloomberg

Brazil’s prices boom ahead of World Cup Claire de Oliveira de Neto

T

OURISTS planning to flock to Brazil for the World Cup a year from now should brace for some of the world’s highest housing, restaurant and transport prices.

Prices have gone through the roof, particularly in the country’s tourism gateway Rio, which this month is one of the hosts for football’s Confederations Cup and in July welcomes Pope Francis for a major Catholic Youth festival.

Famous for its annual carnival and spectacular beaches, Rio is now the world’s third most expensive city when it comes to hotels, according to a recent Brazilian Tourism Board (Embratur) study.

A hotel room in “The Marvelous City” on average costs $246.71, compared with $245.82 in New York and $196.17 in Paris, the state-run agency noted.

Victor Mameaux and Damien Lambrecht, two 32year-old Parisians recently rented a 20 square-metre (215-square foot) apartment in the trendy Copacabana district for $1,324 for two weeks.

“We had heard that Rio is a cheap but unsafe city, while in fact it is just the opposite,” Mameaux told AFP. “I paid $40 for a ‘feijoada’ [the black bean stew that is Brazil’s most beloved dish] without a drink in an Ipanema restaurant. It is more expensive that what I pay in Paris,” he complained.

Over the past 10 years restaurant prices have soared 140 per cent, according to the national statistics agency IBGE. “Everything is expensive

except cigarettes,” according to Lambrecht, who nevertheless said he saw fewer beggars than in the French capital.

“It is not surprising. Here you have full employment while at home we have a high jobless rate,” he added.

The pair also said they never felt unsafe, including when they toured Dona Marta, the first shantytown to came under police control in 2008 after years in control of drug gangs.

Embratur chief Flavio Dino, meanwhile, blamed the price hikes on an overvalued real in relation to the dollar, and to a limited accommodation availability at a time of a high demand due to the upcoming major sporting events.

He also pointed to inadequate infrastructure in terms of goods and services to cope with a growing mass consumption market.

Brazil is as a result paying the price of its spectacular development. Economic growth coupled with social programs have lifted around 40 million Brazilians out of poverty over the past decade.

These new members of the lower middle class are now avid consumers in a country where everything, from shoes to silicon breast implants, can be paid by instalment.

Brasilia wants to use the World Cup to spur development in the 12 host cities which are all potential tourist hubs.

“We must increase offer from hotels and airlines to spur competition,” said Dino, pointing out that over the past 10 years the number of passengers on domestic flights has more than doubled to more than 100 million. afp

20

THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

Entertainment NOW SHOWING

Film @ Meta House

legend cinema

Two films exploring the absurd, one true and the other less so, take the stage at Meta House tonight. Casey Affleck's 2010 film I'm Still Here details the breakdown and fledgling rap career of actor Joaquin Phoenix. The film was the subject of much speculation before it was later revealed to be a 'mockumentary' on the nature of fame. At 7pm documentary maker Mads Brugger follows two Danish comedians on an unusual trip through North Korea, in The Red Chapel.

EPIC (3D) A teenager finds herself transported to a deep forest setting where a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil is taking place. She bands together with a rag-tag group characters in order to save their world – and ours.

9:30am, 5:45pm AFTER EARTH A crash landing leaves Kitai Raige and his father Cypher stranded on Earth, a millennium after events forced humanity's escape. With Cypher injured, Kitai must embark on a perilous journey to signal for help.

2pm, 6pm, 11:20pm, 7:45pm, 10pm

Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard, 4pm and 7pm.

NOW YOU SEE ME An FBI agent and an Interpol detective track a team of illusionists who pull off bank heists during their performances and reward their audiences with the money.

7:05pm RAPTURE-PALOOZA Two teens battle their way through a religious apocalypse on a mission to defeat the Antichrist.

4pm, 8:15pm

cineplex cinema RAPTURE-PALOOZA (See above) 7:15pm

Swing @ Equinox and ISPP

Joaquin Phoenix, playing himself, causes a stir both on and off the screen in the mockumentary I'm Still Here. BLOOMBERG

TV PICKS

BROKEN CITY In a city rife with injustice, ex-cop Billy Taggart seeks redemption and revenge after being double-crossed and then framed by its most powerful figure: Mayor Nicholas Hostetler.

8:40pm

1:45pm - TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY: Based on the John Le Carre thriller. In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semiretirement to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6. HBO 6pm - WILDEST ISLANDS: Series investigating remote and pristine island environments. Each episode explores the extremes of life in these unique and dramatic landscapes. ANIMAL PLANET

AFTER EARTH (See above) 9:15am, 1:20pm, 3:10pm, 5pm, 6:50pm, 8:40pm FAST AND FURIOUS 6 The crew reunite to take down a criminal mastermind who commands an gang mercenary drivers.

11am

11:45am - THE IDES OF MARCH: An idealistic staffer for a new presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail. Starring George Clooney and Ryan Gosling. HBO

Gary Oldman as Cold War veteran Smiley, in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. BLOOMBERG

9pm - MY EXTREME ANIMAL PHOBIA: Three people with peculiar phobias of wild animals or domestic pets, including cats, bats, snakes and even moths, embark on a five-day, live-in course of intensive exposure therapy to their most feared creature. ANIMAL PLANET

If swing’s your thing, two weekly dance classes for beginners and experienced dancers take place across town. Hop down to the intermediate swing classes at ISPP, tonight from 6:30pm to 7:30pm, for lindy-hoppers who know the basics.

Beginners and all other levels can head to Equinox bar after 9pm for a night of social swing dancing and big band beats.

Intermediate Swing at International School of Phnom Penh, #158 Norodom Boulevard, 6:30 - 7:30pm Equinox Bar, #3A, Street 278, 9pm

Sampots @ Sa Sa Bassac Using lycra, lace, beads and thread, artist Chan Dany reimagines everyday tradition in Sampot: The Collection of Small Things at the Sa Sa Bassac Gallery. Worn by both men and women with over 200 patterns to the fabric, the sampot has an ancient and living history.

Sa Sa Bassac Gallery, #18, 2nd floor, Sothearos Boulevard, 10am - 6pm

Thinking caps “ONE WAY TO LOOK AT IT” ACROSS 1 5 9 13 14 15 16 19 20 21 22 24 31 32 33 34 35 36 38 39 41 43 44 48 49 50 53 57 60 61 62 63 64 65

Type of fiddle Partner of Andy, in classic radio Rugged cliff Lingering sound effect Actress Ekberg Drying kiln Start of a somewhat needy quip Costello and Aylon Eve and Elizabeth Abbr. on a stereo Ms. Antoinette Somewhat needy quip (Part 2) Yalie Isn’t wrong?

Ho-hum state ___ up (indignant) Sandwich order, sometimes M. Mantle’s 536 Auto gizmo that talks Prefix meaning “unequal” Broken in, as a horse “___ Abner” Somewhat needy quip (Part 3) Kind of verb (abbr.)

Bambi’s mother-in-law in the movie Short conversation?

Like Phoenicia End of the quip “Arbitrage” star Richard Comes close to Folklore fiend Ranking for a tennis pro “Freeze!”

Breakfast area

DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 17 18 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 35 37 40 42 45 46 47 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 58 59

A little woman Crave Poet/cartoonist Silverstein Irritated with “Raggedy” dolls “O Sole ___” (standard Italian song) Giants Hall-of-Famer Mel African desert Disapprove of strongly Foam at the mouth Org. Pontiacs of yore Like paramecia or amoebas Sufficient, to 43-Across Purple flowers Homo sapiens Bronchial allergy Recovery clinic Turgenev heroine Protest of the ’60s Small ___-Saxon Fictional burglar Arsene Strong cotton thread Take a cash advance Kinks again Quite proficient at Trig kin Church hymn accompaniers Early empire builder Approach, in a race Archaeological sites “Makes sense to me” Rhine tributary 50+ organization Brand in the frozen food section Fiddling emperor Journey, to William Shatner But ___ Paulo, Brazil

Friday’s solution

Friday’s solution

21

THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

Sport Garcia leaves note for Tiger S Mark Lamport-Stokes

ergio Garcia on Tuesday made repeated apologies for the “fried chicken” jibe he directed at Tiger Woods last month, saying he “felt terrible” and had left a note for the American in his locker.

Though the two players shook hands on the practice range at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, on Monday in their first meeting since Garcia made the reference, the Spaniard said it had not been an “appropriate place” for him to apologise to Woods in person.

Garcia conceded that the fall-out from the whole affair could distract him in his bid to win the US Open, which tees off today, and expressed his hope that Woods would read the note at some point.

“I want to apologise for what happened a couple of weeks ago,” Garcia told reporters at the start of what turned out to be a moving and heartfelt news conference on Tuesday.

“But hopefully, like Tiger said, he’s considering the matter closed and hopefully we can all move forward and kind of start competing . . . respectfully . . . hopefully we can all have a great tournament.”

Asked if he had apologised to Woods during their brief meeting at Merion on Monday, Garcia replied: “Unfortunately not. I felt like it wasn’t the appropriate place for me to, out of

Federations to submit SEA Games squad lists

The National Olympic Committee of Cambodia held a meeting on Tuesday with representatives from 22 member and six non-member sports federations to discuss the prospective delegation of Cambodian athletes for the 27th SEA Games. According to NOCC Secretary General Vath Chamrouen, the governing body is still awaiting confirmation from the government on the size of the contingency that will be sent to the games, which are being held in December in Myanmar.

However, the federations have been given until Thursday next week to submit their squad lists. The federations were also told to prepare for this morning’s official opening ceremony of the new NOCC headquarters on the east side of the National Sport Complex, where a turnout of over 2,000 people is expected. YEUN PONLOK, TRANSLATED BY CHENG SERYRITH

Sergio Garcia of Spain hits a tee shot during a practice round on Tuesday prior to the start of the 113th US Open at Merion Golf Club.

respect to him and to the other players, to do it there. Unfortunately, when I got done practising he was gone already, so I couldn’t see him.

“This morning I was here early. I didn’t see him around, but I did leave him a note. A handwritten note.

“Hopefully he can take a look at it.

It’s a big week and I understand that it’s difficult to meet up and stuff.”

Garcia, an eight-times champion

on the PGA Tour who has yet to win a major, admitted his own form might suffer at Merion this week with his mental focus still a little shaky following the “fried chicken” affair.

“I don’t know,” said the 33-yearold Spaniard. “We’ll see. It obviously doesn’t help, but it is my own fault.

I don’t have anyone to blame other than myself.

“Obviously I’ve been very worried

AFP

about the whole situation. I felt terrible about it. But people have made me feel very good out there [on the golf course], the last couple of days, so hopefully that will continue throughout the week.

“The only thing I can do is give my best effort and hopefully that would give me a chance [to contend]. If not, we’ll move on and we’ll try to play well the week after.” REUTERS

Jakarta to host ONE FC Australia investigating James Goyder

David Warner incident

ONE FC is returning to Jakarta for a show which will be headlined by a flyweight title fight between two Japanese veterans.

Yasuhiro Urushitani (20-6-6) and Shinichi Kojima (13-5-5) have fought twice before and the trilogy will be completed at the Istora Senayan Stadium on September 13.

It will be the second time that Asia’s biggest MMA promotion has been to the Indonesian capital following on from ONE FC: Battle of Heroes in February last year, which featured Rolles Gracie, Eric Kelly, Honorio Banario and Soo Chul Kim. Whereas that show took place at the 5,000 capacity BritAma Arena, this time around ONE FC is moving to the 15,000-seater Istora Senayan Stadium for a card which will also showcase some of the top local talent.

Vincent Majid is ranked top 10 in the world in Combat Sambo and is also a submission grappling champion. He will be making his professional debut in a light heavyweight contest against Malaysian Eugenio Tan, whose record stands at 1-1.

The other fight announced at Tuesday morning’s press conference also pits Indonesia against Malaysia with local fighter Stefer Rahardian step-

Australia batsman David Warner was dropped from the team’s Champions Trophy match against New Zealand for an alleged physical altercation with an England player, Cricket Australia (CA) said yesterday.

The flamboyant left-hander, who was primed to open the batting for Australia in backto-back Ashes series against England starting in July, had been reported for breaching the code of behaviour.

“Warner . . . was allegedly involved in [an incident] with an England player in the early hours of Sunday morning following the ICC Champions Trophy match between the teams in Birmingham,” the governing body said in a statement. “Team management have stood down Warner pending the outcome of the hearing, meaning he will miss Australia’s match against New Zealand in Birmingham [yesterday].”

CA said it would make no further comment until the hearing, the time and date for which had yet to be confirmed.

Local media reports said the England player involved in the incident with Warner was young batsman Joe Root.

“The England and Wales Cricket Board confirms that

Shinichi Kojima (above) will take on fellow Japanese fighter Yasuhiro Urushitani at the ONE FC event in Jakarta on September 13. ONEFC.COM

ping into the cage for the first time to take on Penang’s Raymond Tan, who is 1-0.

This will be the 10th card which ONE FC has put together and CEO Victor Cui believes it will be relished by Indonesian fight fans.

“More than 15,000 fans will pack out the Istora Senayan Stadium to witness one of the largest sporting events in the history of Indonesia which features the two best flyweights in Asia squaring off with the

first ONE FC Flyweight World Championship title belt on the line,” he said.

Meanwhile in Cambodia, the MMA scene is taking off with televised fights taking place every Sunday night at CTN Studios. The most recent shows have consisted exclusively of local fighters, with Chhut Chhunly and Khun Sichan both demonstrating that their ground game is evolving by claiming submission wins last weekend.

David Warner initiated an unprovoked physical attack on a member of the England team in a Birmingham bar following England’s 48-run victory over Australia,” the ECB said in a statement.

“Warner has admitted behaving inappropriately and has since apologised to the player involved who has accepted the apology.

“Following a full investigation the England team management has concluded that the England player was in no way responsible for nor retaliated to the attack.”

England play Sri Lanka today from 4:30pm Cambodian time. In Tuesday’s match, India beat the West Indies by eight wickets. AFP

Cricket Australia is investigating reports that David Warner had a ‘physical confrontation with an England player’. REUTERS

Mardan is confident ahead of Queen’s Cup

Veteran star Mardan Mamat believes the euphoria of winning his first team event for Singapore will spur him to greater heights when he reignites his title ambitions at the US$300,000 Queen’s Cup which tees off today at the Santiburi Samui Country Club.

Sanctioned by the Asian Tour, the Queen’s Cup, which is sponsored by Bangkok Airways and Sports Authority of Thailand, is held in honour of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit and is one of four tournaments in Thailand to feature on the Asian Tour, which is celebrating its milestone 10th season after establishing itself as a players’ organisation in 2004. The 45-year-old Mardan received a timely boost when he played a big role in giving his country its first victory over Malaysia in a Ryder Cup-style event, the Causeway Trophy, last week. He is hoping to produce similar fireworks on the holiday isle of Koh Samui as he chases a fourth Asian Tour title. THE ASIAN TOUR

Dodgers have brawl with D’Backs after batters hit

Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks players and coaches brawled on the field after a fourth batter was hit by a pitch during a Major League Baseball game featuring five ejections. The tipping point at Dodger Stadium last night was reached when Los Angeles starting pitcher Zack Greinke was struck on the left shoulder by an Ian Kennedy pitch in the seventh inning. The benches had cleared in the sixth without a punch being thrown when Greinke hit Miguel Montero on the back with a pitch as payback for Kennedy catching Yasiel Puig on the face with a fastball in the sixth that ricocheted off the Dodgers rookie’s shoulder.

Greinke also struck Cody Ross in the fifth. BLOOMBERG

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THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

Sport

Ganzberg look to beat the Heat H S Manjunath

A

buoyant Sela Meas, oozing confidence after their easy opening round win will be up against Cellcard Eagles in the first of three games scheduled at the Beeline Arena on Saturday as the 12-team Cambodian Basketball League presented by Western Union rolls into its third week.

Clearly outpaced in the early stages, the all-Cambodian Sela Meas charged home in the second half to register a comfortable victory over NSK Dream.

The Eagles had some genuine excuses for their loss to the IRB the Lord in a low-scoring affair, having been forced to pull out key players Sean Looney and Nic Morgan, both of whom had been booked for their fourth individual fouls.

That void opened up the fourth quarter nicely for The Lord to work out their victory from a point where the Eagles were within striking range.

The Eagles will be determined to

avoid such slip-ups and if they put their twin towers to good use, Sela Meas may find the going tough.

Sok Samnang could well be Sela Meas’ trump card with Pheng Dara’s perimeter shooting success a vital supporting element.

Ganzberg, meanwhile, were brave in their defeat against Alaxan Patriots. It was only in the last two minutes of a well-contested game that Ganzberg’s resolve sagged a bit and allowed their rivals to take command.

The Filipinos-dominated team will again be called upon to do their best when they take on CCPL Heat, who showed their attacking flair in that well earned victory over Phnom Penh Dragons. This could well be the stand-out game of the day.

Meanwhile, the Dragons will be on court late in the evening, facing off against IRB the Lord. Both teams carry some positives and concerns from their previous outings.

For the Lord, the long range accuracy of national team player Monh Ratana is a key factor. It did

not work well enough in their game against the Eagles, but their fast transitions more than made up for this shortfall. These drive-ins, often done with precision, are what the Dragons should be worried about.

The Dragons’ loss to Heat had a bizzare element about it. The two referees called out no less than 64 fouls combined, literally reducing the game to a battle from behind the free throw line.

The Dragons could hardly settle down to a rhythm of their liking and adding to their misery was a fourth foul called on centre Eric Laughlin.

If they manage a much clearer passage this time, the Dragons could trouble the Lord, who on the strength of their first round showing, however, may prove hard to toss.

Saturday’s Games Cellcard Eagles v Sela Meas – 2pm CCPL Heat v Ganzberg – 4pm Phnom Penh Dragons v IRB The Lord – 6pm

An NSK Dream player (right) drives to the basket past a Sela Meas player during their Cambodian Basketball League game on June 5 at Beeline Arena. SRENG MENG SRUN

Japan baseball league chiefs admit lying over ball change Job Announcement The Phnom Penh Post, is an independent media company in Cambodia and is seeking qualified candidates to fill the position of reporter as follows: Khmer Reporter: 1 position Job requirements: -

Bachelor’s degree in journalism or an equivalent degree At least threes years’ experience in journalism Must be able to speak and write articles in both Khmer in English Computer litraty (must be able to type Khmer Unicode well) Female candidates are highly encouraged Age 25 to 40 He/she will be required to serve on the National News Desk of both the Khmer and English Newspapers - Candidates must have no political agendas, no bias, no nepotism or discrimination - Must be fully aware of and obey all the codes and ethics for journalism - Available to work in a high pressure environment Interested candidates should submit their cover letter and CV to the human resource office of The Phnom Penh Post at the below address: Post Media Co. Ltd, #888, Floor 8, Building F, Phnom Penh Center, Corner of Sothearos and Preah Sihanouk boulevards, Sangkat Tonle Bassac, Khan Chamkarmon, Phnom Penh or through email address: jobs@phnompenhpost.com; Tel: 023 214 311 or Fax: 023 214 318 Deadline: June 17, 2013 Note: Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for interview.

Successful People Read The Post.

After months of denial and an inexplicably huge surge in home runs, Japan’s baseball chiefs have admitted they secretly switched the design of the ball to make the game more exciting.

Players and fans had repeatedly quizzed Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) bosses after seeing a 40 per cent rise in the number of balls that were slugged out of the park so far this season.

In April NPB said the specifications of their ball – each of which bears the signature of its commissioner Ryozo Kato – “have not been changed”, a statement that was repeated several times since.

But on Tuesday NPB came clean, saying they had asked manufacturer Mizuno to “adjust” the ball to give it greater bounce off the bat and demanded the company keep quiet about the switch.

“Our understanding was that it would be a matter of fine-tuning,” NPB secretarygeneral Kunio Shimoda said.

“We thought it would cause confusion if we let it be known.”

Commissioner Kato – a former Japanese ambassador to Washington – originally ordered a change in the makeup of the ball back in 2011, to bring it into line with the model used in the US. The cork core of the ball was wrapped with a low resilience rubber and its seams were widened. The organisation also made Mizuno the sole ball supplier, dropping its three rivals.

At the time, the organisation said the change would help Japanese players get accustomed to international standards.

However, the switch resulted in a sharp fall in home runs – 939 in 2011 and 881 in 2012 compared with 1,605 in 2010.

When the rate of successful slugs rocketed this season – a total of 512 home-runs were hit in the first 341 games of the current March-October

season – questions began to be asked.

The Japan Professional Baseball Players’ Association wanted to know why an average of 1.50 runs were being scored in 2013, against 1.05 in the previous two years.

Mizuno initially said the increase was due to foreign batters hitting so many home runs and was also related to the higher number of games being played in domed stadiums, where wind is not a factor, Kyodo News reported.

But union chairman Motohiro Shima said it was important the organisation was honest because it affected statistics.

“The numbers of home runs and .300 hitters [considered a high batting average] has apparently increased. The earned runs average of pitchers has worsened,” he said.

“It has affected players who signed deals on the results of performances in the years when the uniform ball was introduced.” AFP

Offensive woes leave Heat down 2-1 A sudden disappearance of scoring by the top-seeded Miami Heat has the defending champions scrambling to rediscover their form in time to turn the NBA Finals back in their favour.

The Heat, who averaged nearly 103 points per game during the 82-game regular season, endured their lowest offensive output of the entire

2012-13 campaign in Tuesday’s lifeless 113-77 loss to the host San Antonio Spurs.

Following the defeat, the Heat now trail the best-of-seven NBA Finals 2-1 with the next two games being played in San Antonio tonight and Sunday.

“We got our butt kicked pretty good,” Dwyane Wade, who had a team-high 16 points on 7-of-15 shooting, told report-

ers. “This was a terrible performance by the Miami Heat.

Our worst one yet. And we have to correct it.”

The Heat shot a lousy 40.8 percent from the field and the only consistent player on the court was Mike Miller, a 12-year veteran guard, who came off the bench to score 15 points on 5-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc. REUTERS

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THE PHNOM PENH POST june 13, 2013

Sport Mexico held at home again, US take control

Mexico were booed off the field by a boisterous crowd after being held to a 0-0 draw at home to Costa Rica in the final round of CONCACAF qualifying for the 2014 World Cup on Tuesday, their third successive goalless draw at the Azteca Stadium. The United States took control of the six-team qualifying group with an impressive 2-0 win over Panama, while Honduras kept alive their hopes of making it to the finals in Brazil next year with a 2-0 win over bottom team Jamaica. REUTERS

Armenia drub Denmark in coach’s ‘worst night’

Boeung Ket ‘s Befolo Mbarga (left) heads the rain-soaked ball during their Metfone C-League game against Kirivong Sok Sen Chey at Olympic Stadium yesterday.

SRENG MENG SRUN

Kirivong roll over Boeung Ket HS Manjunath

D

efending Metfone CLeague champions Boeung Ket Rubber Field crashed to a shocking 7-5 defeat yesterday against Kirivong Sok Sen Chey, who turned the game at Olympic Stadium on its head, firing four goals in succession in the final 15 minutes.

Boeung Ket were coasting along, striker Bisan George having completed a hat-trick on 74 minutes after Sok

Pheng and Suong Vireak added a goal each to give the side a healthy looking 5-3 advantage.

All of a sudden the world around Boeung Ket seemed to collapse as the visitors from Takeo began to mount a serious comeback offensive.

Striker Nwakuna Friday, who had kept Kirivong in the hunt, rounded off his splendid effort with a hat-trick of his own, the final goal of which came deep into injury time.

Akeem Bolaji had raised visions of

an upset when he scored the side’s fourth goal in the 76th minute.

Nhem Sovannara then got his name on the scoresheet to level up at 5-5 before Savorn Ratanakvisal, who had struck his side’s third goal barely a minute before Bisan George completed his treble, got the go ahead goal to drive Kirivong to the front.

Boeung Ket’s second defeat in the past three games following their 1-0 loss to Build Bright United last weekend means their lead at the top of the

standings has been cut down to just four points, ahead of Svay Rieng in second spot.

The unexpected victory boosts Kirivong’s chances of making the fourteam cut for the post-season playoffs, known as the Super 4. They currently reside in fifth, level on points with fourth placed Naga Corp, but with a 14-goal deficit to make up.

Phnom Penh Crown, who face Boeung Ket this weekend, are a point ahead in third.

HK kids top tournament Socceroos boss says HS Manjunath

For the second year running, junior squads from Hong Kong Football Club joined local teams in seven-a-side competition organised by the IndoChina Starfish Foundation at the Mekong Pitch on Sunday.

The visitors showed their class by winning the U12 final, beating ISF Tigers 1-0.

Juice Master United overcame the Black Fins 4-2 to win the U12 Plate final.

However, HKFC missed out on their cup chances in the U10 section, finally settling down to pick up the plate

final against their own first team after a 3-0 win.

The title game was won by The Seasiders 2, who got the measure of their first string 4-2.

Him Nakha and Phanith struck a brace each for the winners, while Phanny’s double came as at consolation for the losers.

The highlight of the day was a game organised for players with learning disabilities.

The Hong Kong-based Crusaders, a team comprised of players with special needs, joined their Cambodian counterparts from four NGOs. As many as 50 players, eight of them from the Crusaders, took part in a series of fun games,

which stretched up to nearly three hours.

The event was made possible by Nigel Merritt, who has been working as a coach with the Crusaders in Hong Kong for the past 10 years. He spent some quality time with the ISF coaches, sharing his vast experience and expertise with them. Merritt will be back later this year to help the ISF coaches further.

“We were excited to learn from Nigel Merritt. We will do more to include more players with disabilities in our programs,” ISF’s Football program manager Yin Samedy told the Post.

Hong Kong FC U12s celebrate winning the seven-a-side tournament on Sunday.

PHOTO SUPPLIED

sorry for sexist gaffe Australia coach Holger Osieck apologised yesterday after being caught on camera making a sexist remark that “women should shut up in public”.

The German made the comment as he prepared to face the media after Australia beat Jordan 4-0 in Melbourne on Tuesday evening to move within one win of making the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil.

As he was being seated in the press conference room, he could be heard saying lightheartedly to an official: “You want to sit here.

You push me around like my wife.”

He added: “There is a saying, it is a very . . . er . . . women should shut up in public.

“I say it to my wife at home, it is a private one, OK.” Realising he was on camera, a smiling Osieck continued: “And you record that one as well? I am going to be the darling of all Australian wives.”

He apologised on Wednesday after his remarks made headlines and took some of the gloss off Australia’s win.

“I got some information that it obviously created

waves and that was definitely not the intent,” Osieck told reporters.

“To everyone who may feel offended I offer a sincere apology.

“It was nothing against any women . . . it was a complete misunderstanding,” he added.

“I have a lot of respect to women. I’ve been married for a number of years and I’m pretty happy with my wife.”

Football Federation Australia chief David Gallop said derogatory comments about women had no place in football.

“Holger has sincerely apologised and made it clear that he did not mean to cause offence with his comments,” he said in a statement.

“Diversity is a strength of football and respect for all participants is fundamental.

“Women have a strong voice in our game at board and senior management level,” he added.

“Clearly, therefore, any comment that implies women should remain silent in public is well out of step with the values of FFA and the Australian football community.” AFP

Armenia’s Yura Movsisyan scored twice as his unfancied side handed Denmark a shock 4-0 home defeat in their World Cup Group B qualifier on Tuesday, leaving the hosts struggling to qualify for Brazil.

“It’s the worst night of my footballing life,” Denmark coach Morten Olsen told Denmark’s TV2 in an interview.

“It’s incomprehensible that we couldn’t perform better, but it’s 100 per cent my fault.

There was a lot that went wrong, no one hit top form,” said Olsen, who has coached the national side for almost 13 years. “I don’t really want to analyse it. It simply wasn’t good enough.” REUTERS

Italy concede two late goals to be held by Haiti

Italy were embarrassed by Haiti as they conceded two late goals and were held to a 2-2 draw in a friendly on Tuesday.

Emanuele Giaccherini gave Italy’s second-string team a flying start by scoring after only 19 seconds and, after Haiti had wasted several good chances to equalise, substitute Claudio Marchisio added a second in the 72nd minute.

Olrish Saurel pulled a goal back from a penalty with five minutes left, then against all the odds Jean Philippe Peguero grabbed an equaliser deep into stoppage time. Haiti, who had lost their last six games, celebrated wildly as the Italians trudged off in disbelief. REUTERS

Spanish down Ireland in Confederations tune-up

World Cup and European champions Spain defeated Ireland 2-0 on Tuesday in a friendly football match at Yankee Stadium that served as Spain’s last preparation for the Confederations Cup, which starts on Saturday. AFP

tuesday’s results 2014 World Cup Qualifiers Chile 3 Bolivia 1 Denmark 0 Armenia 4 Korea Rep 1 Uzbekistan 0 Iran 4 Lebanon 0 Belarus 1 Finland 1 Venezuela 0 Uruguay 1 Sweden 2 Faroe Islands 0 Mexico 0 Costa Rica 0 USA 2 Panama 0 Honduras 2 Jamaica 0 Australia 4 Jordan 0 Iraq 0 Japan 1 Ecuador 1 Argentina 1 Colombia 2 Peru 0

International Friendlies Italy 2 Haiti 2 Estonia 1 Kyrgyzstan 1 Norway 2 Macedonia 0 China 0 Netherlands 2 Spain 2 Rep of Ireland 0