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Issue NUMBER 1660

Bird flu claims six-year-old

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WednesDAY, jUly 3, 2013

Egypt on the brink of change

Protesters blocked by CPP ralliers Khouth Sophak Chakrya

RATHER than just the police and security guards who usually confront them, Boeung Kak lake protesters faced an additional obstacle preventing their converging on Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house yesterday: CPP campaigners.

Dressed in party hats and shirts, a group of ruling party campaigners joined with police on Sothearos Boulevard in the capital to block the Boeung Kak lake protesters, who had earlier blocked Monivong Boulevard for the second day in a row.

Shouting through a megaphone, activist Kong Chantha called on authorities to let them through as they protested a violent attack, allegedly by a guard, which caused a Boeung Kak woman to miscarry on Monday.

“Please make way for us to meet our leader,” she said. “We need his help.”

In response, CPP campaigners shouted: “Vote for CPP – number four”, referring to the party’s position on the ballot.

Protesters tried to push through

Shaimaa Fayed and Paul Taylor

PRESIDENT Mohamed Morsi rebuffed an army ultimatum to force a resolution to Egypt’s political crisis, saying yesterday that he had not been consulted and would pursue his own plans for national reconciliation.

But the Islamist leader looked increasingly isolated, with ministers resigning, the liberal opposition refusing to talk and the armed forces, backed by millions of protesters in the street, giving him until today to agree to share power.

Newspapers across the political spectrum saw the army’s 48-hour deadline as a turning point. “Last 48 hours of Muslim Brotherhood rule”, the opposition daily El Watan declared; “Egypt awaits the army,” said the state-owned El Akhbar.

The confrontation has pushed the most populous Arab nation closer to the brink amid a deepening economic crisis two years after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, raising concerns in Washington, Europe and neighbouring Israel.

Protesters remained encamped overnight in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square and protest leaders called for another mass rally yesterday evening to try to force the president out.

Senior members of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood used the word “coup” to describe the military ultimatum, backed by a threat that the generals will otherwise impose their own roadmap for the nation.

In a statement issued nine hours after General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi delighted Morsi’s opponents by effectively ordering the president to heed the demands of demonstrators, the president’s office used considerably less direct language to indicate he would go his own way.

“The president was not consulted about the statement issued by the armed forces,” it said. “The presidency sees that some of the statements in it carry meanings that could cause confusion in the complex national environment.

“The presidency confirms that it is going forward on its previously plotted path to promote comprehensive Continues on page 12

4000 RIEL

A protester, opposing Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, holds up Egypt's flag during a rally in Cairo's Tahrir Square yesterday demanding that Morsi resign. REUTERS

Continues on page 4

T-shirt shop raided Thik Kaliyann and Kevin Ponniah Siem Reap

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HE owner of a Siem Reap printing shop remained in police custody last night along with one of his employees in the wake of a Monday night raid that saw 500 T-shirts with anti-election slogans seized by local authorities.

The shirts were commissioned by the US-based Khmer People Power Movement, an organisation previously likened to a terrorist group by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who in May publicly accused them of training armed anti-government forces in Thailand.

Part of an order of 1,000 placed

KPPM gear seized, two detained

with the Cambodia T-shirt Printing House in Siem Reap, the T-shirts bore slogans calling on citizens to boycott the election because they are “not free and fair”.

A worker at the print shop, who asked to remain anonymous, said the shop’s owner and a designer had been detained on Monday night and remained in police custody.

“They took them to Siem Reap police station after they raided our shop. Then this morning, the police brought them back to find more evidence. After that, they took them back to the station,” he said yesterday.

Two laptops and 500 T-shirts were confiscated, he added, while the shop remained open for business.

KPPM head Sourn Serey Ratha confirmed yesterday via email that the T-shirts were commissioned by his organisation to donate to Cambodians before the election, emphasising that the group’s actions were allowed under freedom of expression laws.

“KPPM [does] not believe in [the] election and learned that the election in Cambodia is only a political tool of CPP for legalising its power . . . this is the reason why we promote and provide this awareness to people and

encourage Khmer people [to] use power to [rise up] instead” he said.

The slogan printed on the shirts said: “Cambodians unite to use people power against formal elections that are not free and fair”.

Police were led by Siem Reap court deputy prosecutor Chhoun Sopanha, who declined to comment extensively on whether charges were being sought yesterday.

“I was with the provincial police last night to investigate the Cambodia T-shirt Printing House, and we found some proof, but I cannot elaborate,” he said, adding that the case was still under investigation.

Continues on page 2

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THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

National

Girl, 6, dies of bird flu

Police raid shop over T-shirts

Justine Drennan

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Continued from page 1

Siem Reap deputy police chief Yek Keo said he could not say who tipped authorities off about the T-shirts.

“Last night, I went to [the] printing house after I got an order from the deputy prosecutor. But I cannot say anything about this while the investigation is still ongoing,” he said.

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said although he had not heard about the case, the KPPM was considered a risk to national security and if the T-shirts were against “Cambodian interests” they should not be allowed to be printed.

“The constitution, all election laws, due process have to be [upheld] . . . whoever is against this, they are against the constitution, they are against the law and they jeopardise national security . . . so they could be considered a terrorist group,” he said.

The staff member said workers did not realise that what they were printing carried sentiments against the election.

“It was our fault that we didn’t look thoroughly and think deeply about what the sentence

The Cambodia T-Shirt Printing House in Siem Reap province yesterday.

The shop was raided by local authorities on Monday after partially completing an order for shirts bearing anti-election slogans. Thik Kaliyann

meant,” he said, adding that authorities visited the shop to determine whether it was printing the T-shirts for political purposes or simply as a commercial job.

“We really had no intention of doing this,” he said.

Ou Virak, president at the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said that calling on people not to vote did not break any law.

“It’s nothing new actually . . . people in previous elections have always called on others not to vote . . . [It] is not incitement. Incitement is only illegal

when you call for people to commit a crime . . . Voting is not mandatory [in Cambodia] . . . it’s actually a right of the population,” he said.

Although the government has been quick to go after those distributing anti-government materials in the past, the KPPM and those linked to it are particularly targeted, Virak said.

“This confiscation [of T-shirts] is illegal because the KPPM are not an illegal or terrorist group . . . there’s a lot of precedent for that [from the government] but certainly it’s not proper or legal.”

EALTH officials yesterday announced the ninth death from avian influenza in Cambodia so far this year – the first from a confirmed case of H5N1 since a string of fatalities in January and February.

The latest victim, a 6-year-old girl from Kampot province’s Banteay Meas district, was admitted to Phnom Penh’s Kantha Bopha Hospital on June 28 and treated with Tamiflu but died later that night, says yesterday’s statement from the Ministry of

Health and the World Health Organization.

The girl developed fever and a headache on June 24 and was taken to a clinic two days later when she developed a cough and shortness of breath before being sent to Kantha Bopha.

“There have been recent poultry deaths in the village and the girl was likely to be exposed to sick and dead poultry before she became sick,” the statement says.

The girl was the 13th person so far this year to be confirmed with bird flu – higher than any previous year’s total. Only

four have recovered. Sonny Krishnan, spokesperson for the WHO in Cambodia, pointed out that five of the confirmed cases and four of the fatalities had been from Kampot, adding that teams now were performing tests in the province.

According to the joint statement, the total number of confirmed cases this year increased to 11 in May and 12 in June when labs re-tested samples taken in January that had been found positive for other kinds of flu at the time the patients were ill.

Masseuse says officer shot her Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

POLICE are on the hunt for a man identified as a military police officer who allegedly injured a masseuse when he angrily fired his gun after being refused service.

At about 1am on Tuesday, the man walked into a massage parlor in Sen Sok district’s Teuk Thla commune and asked Keo Srey Pov, 47, for a massage, said district police

officer Sok Thol. Srey Pov told police that the man had been wearing a military police uniform and that she had seen him in the parlor before, Thol said.

When Srey Pov refused the late-night work, the suspect, who Pov said was drunk, became angry and fired three rounds into the floor near her feet, Thol said. One of the bullets hit her right leg, causing serious injury, he said.

“After shooting, the suspect drove away on his motorbike and successfully escaped from the scene,” Thol said.

Police are investigating in order to learn the suspect’s identity and whereabouts, Thol said.

Kith Sophal, commander of the Sen Sok military police, and Sen Sok district police chief Mak Hong could not be reached for comment yesterday.

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THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

National Party crashers

Complaints against CPP, CNRP on rise

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HE number of complaints against political parties for alleged campaign violations since the campaign kicked off last Thursday has surged to 35, the National Election Committee said yesterday.

After the first four days of campaigning, only nine complaints had been filed, NEC SecretaryGeneral Tep Nytha said, though the new complaints were largely related to the same issues.

“It’s the same, same cases.

None of these concern any serious issues,” he said.

The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party has continually accused the ruling Cambodian People’s Party of defacing its propaganda, particularly in the provinces, while the Phnom Penh Municipality has now filed 13 complaints against the CNRP for hanging election propaganda on public street posts.

CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann called those complaints “laughable” on Sunday, saying the CPP has done the same thing.

Of the complaints, nine have been resolved, Nytha said, with all being filed to provincial or commune level election commissions. MEAS SOKCHEA

Rainsy Candidate summonsed again Sam no longer lawyer: bar

Meas Sokchea

T

HE Phnom Penh Municipal Court has summonsed Kem Sokha for a second time, he and a court official said yesterday.

The embattled opposition leader has been called in for questioning in response to a defamation lawsuit filed last month by S-21 survivor and victims’ association president Chum Mey, who made the complaint with three other survivors. The lawsuit came shortly after the government released an audio clip in which Sokha can be heard saying that the notorious Khmer Rouge prison was staged by the Vietnamese – audio he quickly repudiated and claimed had been doctored by the government.

Deputy prosecutor Meas Chanpisith said yesterday that he summonsed Sokha to appear on July 5. Asked whether he would ask the court to issue a writ forcing him to appear or face arrest – an option open to the court when someone fails to show twice – Chanpisith declined to comment.

“It is his right to come or not come. It is his business,” he said.

Sokha didn’t appear at court on Thursday for the first sum-

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

Opposition leader Kem Sokha greets supporters at a campaign rally in Phnom Penh last week. vireak mai

mons, saying he was focusing on the campaign, which launched that day.

Yesterday he told the Post he had no intention to appear come Friday.

“I do not have time. I am focusing on an election campaign.

The court also knows that this is the election campaign time, therefore, what intention do they have in summonsing me like that?” he asked.

His lawyer and rights moni-

tors said yesterday that the answer to that question was obviously political.

“It’s to disturb his election campaigning,” said Sokha’s attorney, Choung Choungy.

While summonses typically give the respondent two weeks’ notice, both of those issued to Sokha have allotted far less time.

Choungy said he was petitioning the court for a delay, citing Sokha’s campaign activity.

Hang Puthea, executive director of the election monitoring organisation Nicfec, said there was little reason for the court to ignore such a request and the fact that it likely wouldn’t suggested the political underpinnings of the trial.

“I think this case could have been summonsed after the election. It would not matter.

Such a summonsing [now] affects his election campaign,” he said.

NEARLY three years after he was convicted, in September 2010, opposition leader Sam Rainsy has been officially removed from the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

According to a copy of a BAKC letter dated June 25, Rainsy has been “deleted” from the bar’s ranks.

“The reason why we decided to delete Mr. Sam Rainsy’s name . . . is because he lost his legal rehabilitation as a lawyer because he was sentenced to over 10 years imprisonment,” said association spokesman Yim Sary.

“The deletion is not related to politics at all,” he added, saying Rainsy’s case was raised recently as the new president began to clear a backlog of work.

According to the body’s internal rules, any lawyer convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison automatically loses his or her standing. If Rainsy’s sentence is served or lifted, he can re-apply for his licence, said Sary.

The Cambodia National Rescue Party president lives in selfimposed exile in Paris to avoid jail time on charges that include defamation and incitement.

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THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

National

Pregnant, but still protesting

CPP blocks way of protesters Continued from page 1

the blockade, but were unsuccessful.

Earlier, the Boeung Kak protesters had been supported by a group of about 100 foreign human rights activists from Canada and South Korea, including some from Amnesty International, as they blocked Monivong Boulevard outside City Hall.

“We’ve come here to support the Boeung Kak women and children in demanding fairness, justice and freedom for [imprisoned activist] Yorm Bopha”, said Jihong Min, a Korean member of AI. But Long Dimanche, Phnom Penh Municipality spokesman, criticised the presence of foreign activists, saying they were effectively inciting the protesters. “[A protest like this] does not change Phnom Penh Municipal Hall’s land dispute procedure,” he said.

The event was almost overshadowed yesterday by the surfacing of three slickly produced videos on YouTube that emphasised the continued splintering of the Boeung Kak community.

Shane Worrell and Khouth Sophak Chakrya

D

Cambodian People’s Party supporters and Boeung Kak community protesters clash as demonstrations collided in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district yesterday. heng chivoan

The videos, uploaded about midday by a user called Hang Sangha, purported to tell the “true” stories behind Boeung Kak lake activist Tep Vanny – who is labelled “corrupt” – and imprisoned activist Yorm Bopha.

A key figure in the video is Tol Srey Pov, who was one of 12 women imprisoned with Vanny last year. Once a key figure at protests, she has since distanced herself from Vanny’s group and is now highly critical of her. “[Vanny] likes blaming the government or individuals, but she’s not clean of corrup-

tion herself. She’s more corrupt,” Srey Pov says. “The money she collects from NGOs and overseas, she doesn’t declare to the community.”

Another interviewee, Boeung Kak resident Doung Kea, also accuses Vanny of corruption in the video.

Speaking to the Post last night, Kea said he was angry because the community, led by Vanny, had played a part in his home being cut out of the titling process.

“Tep Vanny is selfish and never thinks about the whole community. She has received her

title. I am the real victim,” he said. He added he did not know who made the videos, while Vanny could not be reached for comment last night.

The Bopha video features the victims of an assault she is accused of ordering and motodop association president E Sophors, who also did not know who had made the videos.

“My organisation was interviewed by reporters from different companies, but I don’t know who made them. I haven’t seen them,” he said. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHANE WORRELL AND CHHAY CHANNYDA

ESPITE warnings from their peers to stay away from violent protests, pregnant women from Boeung Kak lake have often risked their safety – and that of their unborn children – to defend their rights, a community representative said yesterday.

Activist Song Srey Leap, 27, said Khek Chan Raksmey, 33, was the third women from Boeung Kak to miscarry after being assaulted by police or security guards at a protest.

Chan Raksmey, who was two months pregnant, was allegedly kicked in the stomach on Monday by authorities in front of Phnom Penh Municipal Hall.

“My community knows about the risks to pregnant women at protests and advises them not to get involved,” Srey Leap said.

“But they’re really desperate – so they always join. If they have no home and no land, they have nothing for their baby.”

Sia Phearum, secretariat director of rights group Housing Rights Task Force, said he was

“really concerned” about pregnant protesters but said activists’ willingness to “die in the street” for their cause was a sign of their desperation.

“They know they will face beatings and arrests,” he said. “We just urge them to be non-violent.”

In the case of Chan Raksmey, Phearum believed she had not told her fellow protesters that she was pregnant. Regardless, he said, the violence against her had been totally unacceptable.

Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said his organisation spoke to protesters about the dangers of what they did.

“We speak to them about [violence] and tell them about the risks involved in activism,” he said, noting that “it’s up to the people whether they protest”.

Two workers miscarried after violent clashes with police during strikes at the Sabrina Garment factory in late May. “We cannot tell pregnant women not to join the strikes – it’s their right to do so,” Free Trade Union president Chea Mony said. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MAY TITTHARA

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THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

National

Cadre speaks of KR purges Stuart White

L

awyers at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday launched into evidentiary hearings surrounding Kampong Chhnang province’s Kampong Tralach Leu district, the site of numerous executions of former Lon Nol soldiers.

The prosecution has long sought to establish there was an overarching policy to execute former regime officials, and though Kampong Tralach Leu itself was deemed to be outside the scope of the current case, teams went back and forth nonetheless over witness Lev Lam’s direct knowledge of the alleged killing of Lon Nol soldiers forced to move there from Kampong Chhnang town and Phnom Penh.

Despite the fact that Lam was a Khmer Rouge “militia-

He refused to flee and three days later he was taken away and killed man” in a Kampong Tralach Leu district village at the time, his duties were hardly martial in nature, he said, noting that he “did not do much” except farming.

As such, he did not participate directly in the killings, which he said took place shortly after the evacuees’ arrival in the village. He did, however, overhear the local leadership’s plan to cull the “enemies” and “capitalists” within the evacuees.

“They were smashed,” Lam said, adding that he learned one such “enemy” was to be his uncle, a former Lon Nol soldier. “My uncle came to meet me at my house and I told him to flee, but he said he refused to flee and three days

later he was taken away and killed.”

Lam also unwittingly led a group of 20 – including small children – to the slaughter, he said.

“I thought they were being relocated to another village, but instead they were being taken to that spot, and the district military was already there,” he said of a group he led out of town.

“Pits were already dug beforehand. Executioners told people to sit at the pits and listen to the announcement of Angkar,” he added.

Though he didn’t watch the killings himself, he said, he heard of them soon after, and he saw the evidence years later, after the fall of the Khmer Rouge.

“While I walked my dog, I saw a pit that was dug as people were looking for gold.

It was in the vicinity” of the execution site, Lam said. “And I saw skeletal remains scattered everywhere there.”

Though figures of deaths in Kampong Tralach Leu are unclear, a site visit described in Case 002’s indictment found that “many people were buried in this area”.

However, defence teams took issue with Lam’s mostly hearsay-based evidence, with Nuon Chea defence counsel Victor Koppe pressing Lam repeatedly on the sources of his knowledge, finally asking Lam to admit that “this complete testimony [is] a figment of your imagination”.

Prosecutor Dale Lysak objected to the line of questioning, saying that it was one thing for Koppe to question the lack of eyewitness testimony, but “if he’s contesting the fact that there were executions that occurred, then I have a very large problem with that”.

Bolt from the blue

Lightning casualties on the rise

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A truck carrying about 50 garment workers after a collision with another vehicle on National Road 3 in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district in February. The driver was killed and dozens were injured. pha lina

Road accidents drop in 2013 Mom Kunthear

TRAFFIC accidents in Cambodia dipped in the first six months of 2013, down four per cent from the same time frame a year ago, according to a report by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport released yesterday.

Preap Chanvibol, director of the land transport department at the ministry, said that from January to June this year there had been 2,254 road traffic acci-

dents, compared to 2,362 in the first half of 2012.

The report also shows that deaths were down, with 1,054 people killed in accidents up to the year’s halfway point, while 1,075 people were killed during the same period last year, a two per cent decrease.

“Traffic accidents are caused by speeding, lack of respect for traffic laws and drink driving, but we are seeing a decrease because people more clearly understand the traffic laws and

with the media broadcasting information about avoiding traffic accidents,” Chanvibol said. “We hope the amount of road accidents will be reduced much more than this.”

This reduction comes two years after the implementation of Cambodia’s National Road Safety Action Plan for 20112020, which aims to suppress road traffic accidents and fatalities by enforcing helmet use and cracking down on speeding and drink driving.

he Kingdom saw nearly 150 lightning strike casualties in the first six months of 2013, an almost 14 per cent increase over the same period in 2012, the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) announced yesterday.

NCDM cabinet chief Keo Vy said that lightning casualties usually spike as the weather transitions from dry to rainy, but said that numbers in 2013 were still unusually high.

“The rainy season is not over yet, so we want to remind the people again to be careful of lightning and to follow the methods that were described in the Ministry of Meteorology’s leaflets,” he said.

According to the NCDM, there have been 80 lightning deaths so far in 2013 and a further 69 injuries, with 46 cattle killed. The numbers compare poorly with the same period last year, when only 66 people were killed, 65 were injured and 32 cattle died.

This year Battambang, Kampong Thom and Takeo provinces topped the list of lightning strike deaths, with 10, nine and nine respectively.

Khoun Leakhana

Mobile + PC Fair Cambodia is a cash and carry ICT fair that provides the best offer to trade and public visitors. Consumers can learn, test and purchase the latest ICT gadgets in the market place. There will be a wide range of local and international brands for selection. It is also a great platform for trade visitors to source for exciting products and apply for local distributorship/dealership from international partners.

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THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

National

police blotter

Debt dispute

Man charged with running down friend

Leaving the scene no priority for burglar Three locks couldn’t keep a determined young thief out of a Prampi Makara district house on Sunday. The home’s owners said that when they left home to eat dinner, they made sure to use all three of their house keys to keep out intruders. But upon returning home, they saw the door was open and their possessions strewn everywhere. As it turned out, though, the intruder was better at getting in than getting out. They spotted him on the roof and detained him until police came and put him under arrest. Rasmey Kampuchea

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EARLY two weeks after a tycoon allegedly ran down a friend’s family with his Range Rover, a Phnom Penh Municipal judge yesterday charged him with attempted murder.

An officer with the Phnom Penh Municipal Police who spoke on condition of anonymity said he believed the suspect, businessman Nhem Kosal, had fled to Vietnam, eluding arrest.

In addition to attempted murder, Kosal is charged with causing property damage after the alleged June 16 attack that severely injured his friend Ny Sath, 49, along with Sath’s wife and 19-year-old daughter and damaged their car.

The argument that preceded the alleged attack stemmed from a land deal earlier this year, said Tep Liza, Sath’s 41-year-old wife.

A mutual friend had promised Sath and Kosal each a $10,000 commission on land he sold in Tuol Kork district’s Tralork Bek commune because they had helped secure a buyer, Liza said.

Kosal hadn’t received a commission yet, and when he found out Sath had been paid, he confronted Sath outside his home at about 11pm on June 16. “[Kosal] had been arguing with my husband, and had also threatened to kill him,” Liza said.

About half an hour after leaving, Kosal allegedly drove back, honked his horn and drove into all three family members as they stepped outside.

“He was crueler than an animal,” said Sath, who remains in hospital, adding that the family is seeking compensation from Kosal, but hasn’t set an amount.

BUTH REAKSMEY KONGKEA

Customer likes moto so much he steals it

First response Firefighters work to extinguish a fire that set a building ablaze in Phnom Penh’s Chamkamorn district on Monday.

HONG MENEA

Six beat, cop detained: NGO Phak Seangly

A

POLICE officer in Ratanakkiri province’s Banlung town beat six construction workers and forced them to pay a total of $1,200 before releasing them yesterday, one of the workers and rights group Adhoc claimed.

Construction worker Kong Sok said the officer had accused them of stealing his property after they attempted to sell construction equip-

ment that their employer, who had skipped town without paying them, had left at the policeman’s house.

Police detained them at the Laban Siek commune police station on Monday and the officer in question beat them before forcing them to pay $200 each yesterday, he said.

“We were handcuffed and kicked and slapped several times in the chest and face,” he claimed. “My body hurts all over.”

The six workers had at-

tempted to sell their boss’s cement mixer and machinery because he had owed them about $100 each for more than a month’s work building a guesthouse, Sok said.

“We tried to work to save money, but now we do not have even 100 riel, and our families had to transfer $1,200 to us so police would release us,” he said.

Laban Siek commune police chief Buth Heng said the officer, whose name he refused to give, only had hit the work-

ers with a water bottle and said police had accepted just a small sum from the workers for the food they had eaten while detained.

Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said the workers had wanted to file a complaint to Adhoc but had been pressured not to by a broker who helped negotiate with police.

“We will investigate this abuse and corruption even though they did not make a complaint,” he said.

When a Battambang town moto driver agreed to drive a customer home on Sunday, he didn’t realise that he was handing away his vehicle. The driver said that as they were passing through a deserted area, the inconsiderate customer threatened him with a knife, asking him to hand over the bike if he didn’t want to get hurt. Afraid for his life, the driver did as requested and then filed a complaint with police, but by then cops said the alleged thief was long gone. Kampuchea Thmey

Tuk-tuk getaway too slow for ‘customers’ Blotter has seen many moto thefts, but tuk-tuk thefts are less common. Still, a man in Pursat town complained on Saturday of the same misfortunate that befell the above moto driver. The tuk-tuk owner said that he was driving two passengers by an isolated spot when they turned a knife on him, forcing him to give up his tuk-tuk and taking all his money. But in this case, police managed to arrest one of the two suspects and have sent him to court. Deum Ampil

Anxious bag snatcher gives himself away If a 30-year-old man in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district market had played it cool on Sunday, market security probably never would have suspected him. Instead, after snatching a woman’s purse, the man caused a commotion, pushing past shoppers to escape, security guards said.

The purse’s owner said she hadn’t seen who snatched her purse, but security guards quickly spotted the man and arrested him. Deum Ampil

Wife beaten, rescuer stabbed in dispute Once again, a bystander getting injured prompted local authorities to intervene in a case of alleged chronic domestic violence. Police in Kandal province’s Sa’ang district said a 30-year-old man noticed a husband beating his wife on Saturday – not for the first time, the observer said – and attempted to stop him.

Instead, the husband stabbed the other man in the arm.

Police detained the couple and tried to sort out their issues.

Kampuchea Thmey

Translated by Sen David

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THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

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31.01

Pailin gets $4m feed processing warehouse Rann Reuy

Tourists sightseeing on a visit to Preah Vihear temple on the Kingdom's northern border with Thailand in April.

ruth keber

Preah Vihear visits on the up A May Kunmakara

S tensions subside between Thailand and Cambodia over the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, site officials are welcoming a steady increase of international tourists. At 5,240, foreign visits are up 56 per cent in the first six months of the year, compared to the same period in 2012, when 3,359 made the trip, according to statistics from Preah Vihear provincial tourism department.

Cambodians, however, are arriving in fewer numbers. In the same period last year, 56,781 came to the site, a figure that now stands at 36,340.

You Sovan, deputy of the Preah Vihear tourism department, attributes the increase in overseas visitors to road improvements and greater sta-

bility in the border area around the temple. The peace, he said, also explains the decrease in local visitors.

“We got more and more foreign tourists to visit the temple because they want to see what has been happening to the temple after the clashes, and they know that we keep the area safe,” he said, adding that the drop-off in Cambodians had to do with the fact that many had visited out of a sense of solidarity when tensions with Thailand were greater.

But the hike in out of town visitors, who stay in new hotels and go out to eat, is a boon to the local economy, business owners say.

Nou Chanty, the owner of Ponloeu Preah Chan Guesthouse in nearby Srayong village, said her business has seen a sharp increase this year compared to the previous few years.

“The development of the area, like the roads, means that tourists feel more comfortable and safe when they visit” she said.

Tu Kimsreoun, who works the front desk at the Preah Vihear boutique hotel, said that its 32 rooms are often fully booked.

“Most western tourists visit here just to see the temple. They want to know how attractive the temple is,” Kimsreoun said.

At the provincial tourism department, Sovan expects numbers to continue to rise when a new bridge and road connecting Stung Treng province to Preah Vihear province is completed in 2014.

“I hope that we will receive more tourists, particularly from Vietnam and Laos” The President of the Cambodia As-

sociation of Travel Agents, Ang Kim Eang, cites Cambodia’s chairmanship of ASEAN last year and the recent World Heritage Conference in Phnom Penh as opportunities to broaden Cambodia’s tourism base and present it as a cultural destination, while highlighting sites like Preah Vihear.

“Cambodia is now moving beyond an emerging destination; now we become a world cultural destination,” Violent and sometimes fatal clashes sporadically occurred from 2008 to 2011 between Thailand and Cambodia over disputed territory abutting the temple, which was granted to Cambodia in 1962.

Last month both countries agreed to maintain stability and abide by a decision on the contested area that the International Court of Justice is expected to hand down later this year.

CHEA Kea, owner of the Daimond Crown casino on the border with Thailand in Pailin province, is investing in a $4 million feed processing warehouse that will also be used to store commodities and house farm animals.

The move could cut down on the cost of importing animal feed over the border into an area with a dwindling domestic supply.

Construction on the warehouse, which is expected to hold 3,000 tonnes of corn and dried cassava for processing into pig feed, will finish in the next 10 months. The location is on the eastern edge of the province, near Battambang.

“With this project, we will process and export by ourselves on a large scale. We’re building this big storage place to protect the local products that get stuck when the Thai traders do not come to buy from the farmers,” he said.

Song Detan, president of export company CT Pailin’s accounting committee, said the project may help local farming by encouraging producing and selling within the province.

He said his company buys around seven to eight thousand tonnes of corn and four to five thousand tonnes of cassava a year.

Meas Loeun, a farmer in Pailin, said that the province has lacked animal food processing companies. All feed is imported and transportation can be costly.

Loeun, however, does not expect the value of agricultural products to increase because traders will fight back by demanding lower prices.

8

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

Business

Sihanoukville to be the site of first marina

UN faces eviction in Myanmar

Rann Reuy

HE United Nations is being forced out of billionaire Robert Kuok’s Traders Hotel in Yangon next month amid a tourism boom in Myanmar after housing various offices in five floors of the property since 2007.

The UN signed its last lease for the hotel owned by Kuok’s Shangri-La Asia Ltd. (69) in August 2012 for a final year, said Aye Win, a Yangon-based spokesman for the agency. A 10th of its 2,000 employees in the country are still in the hotel, he said.

“Prices for hotel rooms are skyrocketing in Yangon as limited supply cannot match the soaring demand,” Aye Win said in an e-mailed response. “Increasing demand from tourism and investment makes it more profitable for the hotel to get back to its initial purpose.”

As Myanmar President Thein Sein allows more political freedom and loosens economic controls since coming to power two years ago, nations including the US have eased sanctions.

With tourists and business travelers flocking to Yangon, the country’s commercial capital, hotels are close to full occupancy, compared with an estimated 30 per cent two years ago, according to Scipio Services Co, a real estate advisory company in the city.

The UN said it has been in Myanmar, one of Asia’s poorest countries, since its independence 65 years ago.

The nation has undergone half a century of military rule, where opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest.

The International Labour Organization, a UN group that occupied part of the space in the Traders, has already moved out, Aye Win said.

A night at the 305-room hotel today starts at $235, according to ShangriLa’s website. That’s almost twice the

RUSSIAN sailor Andrey Mantula plans to build what he is calling Cambodia’s first marina off the beaches of Preah Sihanouk province Mantula, who has lived in Cambodia for one year, is heading up the project. He expects construction to start on October 1 of this year. The marina, a dock for private boats and yachts, will have space for 20 berths.

He wrote via email yesterday that beaches in Sihanoukville have few services for tourists, and that the marina, called Oceania, will boost tourism.

“I would like to attract tourists, yachtsmen sailing in Sihanoukville.

Yachts requires special piers [for being] reliable and safe,” he said.

Mantula sees his clientele as sailors who are exploring any number of the dozens of islands in the Gulf of Thailand and have nowhere to park their boats.

He complained that in addition to the lack of services in Sihanoukville, trash tends to wash up on the beach shores, spoiling area’s pristine view.

“This is a big problem – the ecology of the sea. And it’s not good for tourism,” he said, adding that as part of his project.

He said he’ll charge about $2 per meter for each boat. The fee goes down to $1 per meter for owners staying from six to 12 months.

Seng Kha, a director of Preah Sihanouk Province’s Tourism Department, said that in general, Preah Sihanouk Province’s Ocheateal beach and other beaches consists of small boat services for rent.

“Whatever investment related to tourism is good for tourists because they will have more choices,” he said.

Sanat Vallikappen and Pooja Thakur

T

A tourist takes photos at the iconic Shwe Dagon pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, in January.

HK$950 ($122) rate for the Traders in Hong Kong and higher than the Singapore location’s price of S$250 ($197), according to the website.

“Given the continued exceptional growth in visitor arrivals, construction lag and potential economic, legal and political risks, Yangon will likely continue to experience a major shortage of hotel rooms for the next five years,” said Andrew Langdon, executive vice president for Thailand and Indochina at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc’s hotels and hospitality group.

Rising demand meant room prices jumped more than fourfold last year from 2007 levels, Langdon said. He estimated that the average daily rate for the 208 registered hotels comprising 9,110 rooms to rise 15 per cent to $160 this year.

The room shortage is drawing more global operators. Marriott International Inc, the largest publicly traded US hotel chain, expects to seal its first agreement for a property

in Myanmar in the next six months, while Best Western International Inc will open its first property in the country this year.

Only eight hotels with a total of 1,571 rooms are considered to be of international standard, Langdon said.

The country hosted the three-day World Economic Forum on East Asia last month, drawing heads of state and executives of companies including General Electric Co and CocaCola Co. Tourist arrivals rose 30 per cent to 1.06 million last year, according to government data.

The country is planning 38 tourism projects valued at $500 million, the government said in a statement last month with the Asian Development Bank and Norway. International visitor arrivals are forecast to increase sevenfold to as many as 7.5 million in 2020, with tourism spending reaching $10.1 billion, it said.

Some companies, such as Unilever

Hong Kong realtor jobs vulnerable Kelvin Wong

ABOUT a third of Hong Kong’s property agents may lose their jobs over the next year if the government persists with its real estate curbs, according to realtor Midland Holdings Ltd. “For the industry, we’re probably looking at the lowest point for over two decades,” Angela Wong, the deputy chairman and the daughter of Midland chairman and founder Freddie Wong, told Bloomberg news.

“The worst thing is that it’s now a stagnant market so we’re not sure whether we should expand or contract.

This is tough.”

Home prices have more than doubled since early 2009 on an influx of mainland Chinese buyers, near record-low interest rates and a lack of new supply, prompting the government to introduce a raft of measures to quell concerns of an asset bubble.

The total number of property deals has probably fallen 44 per cent to 13,960 in the second quarter from the pre-

vious three months, the lowest level since 1991, according to Midland. There were 37,016 individual real estate agents and sales-person license holders in the city at the end of May, up from 34,919 a year earlier, according to government figures.

Midland had 8,110 sales staff at the end of 2012, according to its annual report.

The company declined to provide updated figures.

July 1, 2012, when Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying was sworn in after pledging to bring home prices down to more affordable levels.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index has gained 7 per cent during the period.

Since taking over, Leung has imposed extra taxes on nonresident homebuyers, doubled the stamp duty on all property transactions, raised

The worst thing is that it’s now a stagnant market, so we’re not sure whether we should expand or contract.

The loss of agents “is only the first phase,” Wong said in an interview in the city on June 27. “And it’s not just the agents, but developers, lawyers and the advertisers as well. Every profession related to the real estate industry is crying for help.”

Shares of Midland, which has about a 30 per cent market share of all property sales in Hong Kong, have declined 21 per cent since

minimum mortgage downpayment requirements, and sped up the approval process of new home sales permits for developers.

The government won’t ease the curbs until there’s a steady supply of new properties, Leung said in an interview with Bloomberg News in June.

Financial Secretary John Tsang said the city may introduce more curbs if they are needed, the

Hong Kong Economic Journal reported yesterday.

To counter the measures, Midland has in the past year encouraged its agents to look for transactions across different classes of properties, and to help Hong Kong investors buy overseas properties, Wong said.

It is also shifting many of its more than 380 branches to “less expensive locations” to cut costs as retail rents in the city rise, she said.

Hong Kong’s home prices, the world’s highest according to Savills Plc, have fallen two per cent from a historic high in March of this year, while transactions have been near the lowest level since early 2009.

Midland will probably post a loss in the first half, Alfred Lau, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Bocom International Holdings Co, wrote in a June 25 report.

He cited an impact from the government’s curbs. He also has a sell rating on Midland stock.

The company’s profit in 2012 rose 87 per cent to HK$250 million ($32 million).

BLOOMBERG

reuters

NV, the world’s second-largest consumer goods company, have taken houses fitted out as offices in Yangon.

Rents for villas are approximately $2 per square foot per month, and may rise as international companies move in, according to a report published yesterday by Scipio. Monthly rents for two- to four-bedroom houses, which charge $4,500 to $6,500 now, will rise 44 per cent to 46 per cent in the second half, said Brett Miller, managing director of the company.

For the UN, the cost of new rental space range from $1.50 to $5 a square foot a month based on the proposals received, Aye Win said. The UN’s rent at the Traders rose 20 per cent when it renewed its lease in August last year, which is still “far below” rates at comparable prime locations, Aye Win said.

“The real estate market in Yangon is booming and UN agencies in commercial rental arrangement have to face increases in rent,” he said.

BLOOMBERG

Japan trade minister’s tough love for ASEAN Nareerat Wiriyapong

The ASEAN region has become increasingly attractive because of its fast economic growth, but infrastructure deadlock and the development gap among members still need to be addressed, says Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).

Although the ASEAN market is not as big as that of China, Southeast Asian economies have become an important sizeable market with expanding trade throughout the world, said Shigehiro Tanaka, director-general of METI’s multilateral trade system department.

The supply chain network has expanded over the years as ASEAN has become a manufacturing hub. Japan’s investment flows to ASEAN doubled from 2005 to $80 billion last year.

Under the 10-year Strategic Economic Cooperation Roadmap between ASEAN and Japan agreed to last year, trade and investment between the pair are expected to double by

2022 by focusing on the pillars of market integration, developing hard and soft infrastructure, and building capacity.

However, Tanaka said ASEAN needs to consolidate hard and soft infrastructure to facilitate cross-border shipments.

Also, there is inadequate infrastructure from Thailand to Myanmar and to the southeast of India, he told a forum of the 12th Hitachi Young Leaders Initiative discussing ASEAN’s role in the global economy.

“Countries now have infrastructure plans. Now they should think deeply about how to integrate and connect infrastructure,” Tanaka said.

In terms of soft infrastructure, rules and regulations such as labelling should be harmonised. Small and medium-sized companies will particularly benefit from easier and cheaper access to markets across the region, he said.

Huda Bahweres, of Indonesia’s Ministry for Economic Affairs, said narrowing the development gap is the real challenge. BANGKOK POST

9

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

Markets Business

Planting with water, minus the soil Inside Business Mak Lawrence Li

I

N the town of Takhmao about 11 kilometres south of Phnom Penh in Kandal province, the owner of Kannika Farm grows plants without soil.

Down a narrow alleyway off the side of a villa, heads of vegetables poke out of blue pipes filled with a mixture of water and mineral nutrient solutions.

Using hydroponics, a planting method not in widspread use in Cambodia, Paweena Man watches more than thirty varieties of veggies sprout up, ready for removal and sale.

Man, introducing herself as ‘Ms. Pook’, said she started the small business three to four months ago.

“This is really just my hobby, I would say it is a ‘hobby that produces money’,” said the 45-year-old mother of two, who also works as an administrative office assistant for a trading company in Phnom Penh.

Paweena Man, owner of Kannika Farm, checks plant growth at the hydroponic farm in Kandal province on Sunday. Mak Lawrence Li

She learned the method during a trip to a hydroponics farm in Thailand two years ago.

Her system is constructed of industrial PVC pipes, punctured, like a toy flute, with small holes set uniform distance apart. First, she places thumb-sized spong-

es carrying sprouted plant seeds into the holes. Then, she waits.

Water diluted with specific nutrients and fertilisers helps to foster growth, while an immersed pump connected to a power source cycles water through the pipes.

The supply is emptied after

and placed in a large plastic box after several circuits lasting three to five days.

When she first encountered hydroponics, she was intrigued by the lack of insects, pesticides and intensive labour required.

“I bought the full kit from the firm, and continued to

research about hydroponics on the internet.”

Learning the method over two years, she decided to test it on the market, selling hydroponics systems and vegetables from her farm.

“I had never run my own business before, and I still have a job,” she said. “The whole thing is crazy to me, but if I don’t try, I think I will regret it.”

Earlier this year, she opened Kannika Farm with an investment of $3,000; since then, she says she’s broken even.

“Our shop sells a variety of products, and I would say the hydroponics planting systems are the most profitable,” Man said.

A system holding 90 plants with free installation goes for $500.

The whole package comes with a water pump, nutrients, planting pot, sponges and enough seeds for two cycles. Smaller set-ups can sell for $50.

Man said there are usually three to four orders for a large system every month.

Most of her clientele are foreigners and “higher-income” Cambodians from Phnom Penh and Battambang.

“I just sold a large package to a wealthy family. The couple bought it for their parents. Older people love to garden and I guess hydroponics is easy and comfortable for them,” she said.

To market and advertise, Man takes to Facebook, where she posts pictures of ready-to-eat veggies fresh out of the pipes.

On Saturdays and Sundays she offers classes on hydroponics at her farm. Students get in free. Man says she wants to share the trade with anyone who wants to learn, whether for business or pleasure.

“I am happy to teach them what I know. I would like to promote hydroponics to the people in Cambodia,” she said.

For now she doesn’t have dreams of expansion, or of opening up other chain stores in Cambodia.

“I still see my operation as a past-time, rather than a trade or my full time job.

I enjoy doing all these because I love it,” Man said. “I am happy with my current situation and I don’t know if I can handle the business if it grows bigger.”

10

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

Business

Online retail starts to click in Africa Cecile de Comarmond

T

HE headquarters for this internet startup is cheekily nicknamed Graceland and its co-heads are young Harvard graduates with grand plans who have rapidly expanded the business over the past year.

Silicon Valley? Not even close. This emerging world internet company, called Jumia, is now located in Nigeria, and the founders of the business here say there is no better place to pursue their strategy.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest market of 160 million people, has seen internet access expand rapidly in recent years, opening opportunities for companies to exploit.

While major obstacles remain here for any business, from deeply rooted corruption to a lack of electricity and widespread fraud, both online and elsewhere, the potential is enormous.

Online retailers like Jumia, which is present in a handful of other African countries, are seeking to unlock the possibilities, developing plans that cater specifically to the local market.

“I doubt there are many markets in the world with 160 million people, a growing middle class and nothing in terms of organised retail,” said Tunde Kehinde, a 29-year-old Nigerian and Harvard graduate who co-founded what would become the Nigerian branch of Jumia.

“And so for us, that’s the vision that Jumia has: to help build organised retail here in the largest country in Africa.”

In one year of operation, Jumia Nigeria has grown from around 10 employees to 450. It offers 50,000 products, including clothes, phones, electronics and even cigars, and says the site receives 100,000 visitors each day.

A number of other sites are pursuing similar strategies in Nigeria, including Dealdey.com and Konga.com. According to recent figures, they have good reason to do so.

Thanks in large part to the widespread use of mobile phones, internet access grew to 46 million people in 2011 compared to 11 million in 2008, according to figures from the Freedom House NGO. Euromonitor International research firm says online sales in Nigeria nearly doubled over the course of a year, from 1.7 billion naira ($10.5 million) in 2011 to 3 billion naira in 2012.

Jumia Nigeria has not yet made a profit, but its co-founders believe it is only a matter of time.

The company was created with capital from German firm Rocket internet and telecom firm Millicom.

Kehinde and his Harvard classmate Raphael Afaedor, a 36-year-old Ghanaian, had earlier worked to launch two online retail sites in Nigeria and felt they were the perfect people for the job.

A Jumia employee arranges products to be delivered outside of the company’s headquarters in Lagos in June. afp

Rocket Internet, an aggressive investor in start-ups which says it has created 15,000 jobs in more than 40 countries, has also launched Jumia in Morocco, Egypt and Kenya. In South Africa, it goes by the name Zando. It is also planning launches in various French-speaking West African nations.

“In Africa, you have a situation where there are very few options for quality e-commerce sites” coupled with the fact that traditional retail such as supermarkets and malls are underrepresented in many countries, said Jeremy Hodara, CEO of Rocket Internet for

Job Vacancy Administrative Assistant (2 Positions) The A.P. Moller – Maersk Group was founded in 1904 in Denmark. Since then, the Group has grown into the largest shipping & logistics provider in the world. Maersk Logistics / Damco is an independent company under the Danish Maersk Group. Our group activities includes: Retail, oil & gas, tankers & offshore, terminals and container business. We are a truly global company with over 300 offices in 90 + countries and employ over 11,300 employees.

Damco is part of the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group. The company was set up in Phnom Penh in 2003 as Maersk Logistics with commitment to grow in Cambodian market. With the group’s growth and business needs, Maersk Logistics was later re-branded in September 2009 to be known today as Damco Cambodia Ltd,.

We are focus in providing second to none logistics solutions to our customers which include: - Import Export Logistics - Warehousing and Distribution - Ocean and Air Freight Forwarding - Customs Clearance and Inland Haulage - Other value added services With the dynamism of business in Cambodia, we are searching for suitable candidates for two positions of Administrative Assistant.

Administrative Assistant - General Management (1 Position) Report directly to the Country Manager Job Scope & Responsibility  Organizing, preparing agendas for, and taking minutes of meetings  Dealing with correspondence, collating information, writing reports, ensuring decisions made are communicated to the relevant people  Compose, type, and distribute newsletters  Update & Maintain scheduling and event calendars for Country Manager  Schedule and confirm appointments with clients, customers.  Using a variety of software packages, such as Microsoft Word, Outlook, Power point, Excel, Access, etc., to produce correspondence and documents, and maintain presentations, spreadsheets and databases; assist in preparing reports.  Organizing and filing paperwork, documents and computer-based information  Assist in reservation of conference facilities; booking travels & lodgings.  Involve in reviewing contractual agreements with suppliers and vendors.  Liaising with external stakeholders when necessary Administrative Assistant & Receptionist (1 Position) Report to Head of Human Resource

Job Scope & Responsibility  Travel Arrangement  International and Domestic Air ticket Booking  Passport and Visa Arrangement  Hotel Reservation  Transportation Services  Office Maintenance Supervision  Document distribution  Procurement and Office Supply Control  Reception and call center  Public Relations  Conference and Events Arrangement  IT related tasks such as printers/copier toners maintenance including some parts of network Condition and Requirement  Bachelor Degree in Secretarial Studies, Business Studies or Public Administration preferred  2-3 years working experience  Good organization skills  Good time management  Good communications skills, written and verbal  Good command of English, proficiency in any other additional languages will beadvantageous  Must be extremely competent in Microsoft Office especially Excel and PowerPoint presentation  Flexible, resourceful, discipline and able to work with minimum supervision  Accuracy and good attention to detail  Able to perform under pressure working environment  Hunger for success

This position is under outsourcing policies of Damco Cambodia.

Interested candidates should send CV, recent photo, cover letter, and certificates to: Damco (Cambodia) Ltd., Human Resources Department No. 8A, Regency Complex – A (3rd Floor), Intercontinental Hotel, 298 Mao Tse Toung Blvd, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Tel: +(855-23) 727 831, Fax: +(855-23) 424 708 www.damco.com Or send an email to channary.kong@damco.com no later than 31st July 2013.

Please state the position you are applying in the subject field of your email and indicate your salary expectation.

Applications will be considered in order until the position is filled.

Late applicants or applications without the subject field of an email will not be considered.

France and Africa. Nigeria offers “enormous” opportunity, said Hodara, but “the execution is very complex.”

The costs of doing business here add up quickly.

Despite its status as Africa’s biggest oil producer, the country does not generate nearly enough power for its population, forcing companies to employ large and expensive generators.

Real estate prices in upscale areas can be prohibitively expensive, with the oil-driven economy throwing many things off balance. Most people in the country still live on less than $1

per day. Fraud and corruption continue to be a major concern, and anyone who has ever received an email from a “Nigerian prince” would certainly think twice about buying something online here.

But Jumia has sought to address concerns such as those, particularly through cash-on-delivery, which allows customers to physically inspect their purchases before handing over any money.

Payments can also be made by card.

The company promises deliveries, even to the most remote areas of Nigeria, in a maximum of five days. It delivers through a combination of its own couriers and an arrangement it has with DHL. Recently in the upscale Lekki district in Lagos, the economic capital of some 15 million people, Dera Meka was excited to receive her first Jumia delivery – a pair of shoes ordered online and paid for in cash.

“Normally I order from abroad, but not to be delivered here. I would deliver it at somebody’s [home who lives in that country] and they would bring it back . . . but since it is already here, it’s much easier to order straight, directly,” she said.

At Graceland Kehinde and Afaedor are working out plans to move to a new, larger headquarters in another part of town. “And my biggest worry is actually when we are going to outgrow that space,” said Afaedor. AFP

Beijing investigates milk powder sellers on pricing Liza Lin

CHINA is investigating foreign milk powder sellers including Danone and Mead Johnson Nutrition Co on suspected anti-monopoly violations, the official People’s Daily reported yesterday, citing a government agency.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planning agency, started a probe into the pricing of infant formula sold by Danone, Mead Johnson, Nestle SA’s Wyeth brand, Abbott Laboratories, Dutch producer Royal FrieslandCampina NV, as well as local firm Biostime International Holdings Ltd, the newspaper reported on its front page yesterday.

The NDRC has evidence to show the companies had sold products at higher pricing in China, with prices increasing about 30 per cent since 2008, according to yesterday’s report, which cited the agency’s price monitoring and anti-monopoly

unit. Safety scares such as a melamine-tainted milk powder scandal in 2008 which killed at least six infants have increased Chinese consumers’ distrust of local milk and driven up their purchases of foreign brands at home and overseas.

“Prices of milk powder, particularly from foreign brands, have gone up because of the far greater trust Chinese consumers have in the brands,” said James Roy, an analyst at China Market Research Group. “Chinese consumers see the higher price point partly as an assurance of the product safety.”

Spokespeople for Mead Johnson, Danone, Nestle, Biostime and Abbott couldn’t be reached immediately for comment. Jan-Willem ter Avest, a spokesman from Royal FrieslandCampina, said he has no information on the probe and will look into the matter.

The investigation follows a bid by China to consolidate its milk formula industry and create strong domestic brands in the sector. BLOOMBERG

Australia holds rates steady AUSTRALIA’S central bank held the official interest rate steady at 2.75 per cent yesterday, with an uptick in the economy expected over time and hopes for a further fall in the miningpowered dollar.

The Reserve Bank of Australia judged monetary policy as “appropriate for the time being” at its monthly board meeting, keeping rates on hold for a second consecutive month.

“At today’s meeting the board judged that the easier financial conditions now in place will contribute to a strengthening of growth over time,” said RBA governor Glenn Stevens.

He said the economy was growing at below-average pace

and that was “expected to continue in the near term as the economy adjusts to lower levels of mining investment” with the peak of a decade-long China-led boom.

Treasurer Chris Bowen, giving his first press conference since taking the job in the ruling Labor party’s leadership coup last week, said commodity prices were falling as extra supply came online.

“In addition we’ve seen demand start to moderate, partly due to China’s own economic transformation and the transition that they are dealing with,” he said.

“This change will have significant implications for the Australian economy, including

the exchange rate, which has already started to fall.”

Helped by earlier cuts to the cash rate, which is at a low unseen since the bank’s establishment in 1959, the Australian dollar has dropped about 10 per cent since early April, the RBA said.

“It is possible that the exchange rate will depreciate further over time, which would help to foster a rebalancing of growth in the economy,” said Stevens.

The dollar’s strength, despite a fall in commodity prices, has squeezed the Australian economy, eroding government revenues and pressuring industries such as manufacturing and tourism. AFP

11

the phnom penh post july 3, 2013

Markets Business China sets quota for its minerals CHINA has announced its closely watched export quota for rare earth minerals in the second half of this year, bringing the full-year total to 31,001 tonnes.

China produces more than 95 per cent of the world’s rare earths, 17 elements vital in making everything from iPads to low-emission cars.

The Ministry of Commerce said China will allow exports of 15,500 tonnes of rare earths in the six months to December, according to a statement released late on Monday.

The quota for the first half had been set at 15,501 tonnes.

In a move which has angered trading partners, China has set production caps and export quotas on rare earths, saying it aims to protect resources and the environment in an effort to promote sustainable development.

But the export quotas are often not fully taken up.

China exported 16,265 tonnes in 2012, according to customs, just over half of the 30,966 tonne quota for the year after global demand slumped.

However, China’s biggest rare earth producer, Baotou Steel Rare-Earth, yesterday said it would suspend production for six months at an ore processing plant due to government caps on production. AFP

Thai government reverses stance on rice plan again

T

HAILAND’S government was set yesterday to reverse a cut to the price it gives farmers for rice, a fortnight after stoking anger from its rural heartlands by announcing a 20 per cent reduction in the fee.

The so-called rice-pledging scheme has dogged the government since its introduction shortly after Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s election victory in 2011.

Critics say the scheme is a costly sop to her government’s rural voters, is riddled with corruption and has caused the commodity’s price to surge, knocking the kingdom from its place as the world’s top rice exporter.

Ahead of a cabinet meeting expected to formally reinstate a 15,000 baht ($485) per tonne price, Yingluck said she was “willing to help farmers but farmers must also be willing to help the government” stabilise the cost of the kingdom’s rice.

Two weeks ago the government said it would cut the price by 3,000 baht, enraging farmers. Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong on Monday said that the government was restoring the price for “more than 200,000 farmers with 2.9 million tonnes of unharvested rice”.

The price would be paid until September 15, when the harvest is expected to be completed, he added. The country has paid its farmers around 50 per cent more than the market value for rice since 2011 in an effort to boost incomes in the poor countryside who

Markets Thailand

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Thai Set 50 Index, Jul 1 1100

Ho Chi Minh Stock Index, Jul 1 550

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KOSPI Index, Jul 1 2100

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PSEI - Philippine Se Idx, Jul 1 7000

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FTSE Straits Times Index, Jul 1 4000

FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI, Jul 1 1800

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Hang Seng Index, Jul 1 25000

Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is seen at the International Conference on the Future of Asia in Tokyo in May. reuters

traditionally support the ruling party.

Rice farmers welcomed the decision and dropped threats to hold protests that would have deeply embarrassed the ruling party.

“We will not rally now,” Prasit Boonchoey, chairman of The Rice Farmers’ Association, told AFP. But rice exporters reacted angrily to the decision, having struggled to sell expensive stockpiles of the commodity.

“It’s back to square one. There is nothing we can do . . . it is a political

issue,” said Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

International rice markets “are laughing” at the Thai government after it announced “the new price but in two weeks changed it again”, he added.

This year Thailand is forecast to buy 22 million tonnes of the grain at a cost of up to 500 billion baht.

Since Thailand began buying rice at inflated prices it has been overtaken by both India and Vietnam as a global rice exporter. AFP

1,771.89 CSI 300 Index, Jul 1 3000

23250

2750

21500

2500

19750

2250

18000

2000

20,658.65

Japan

Nikkei 225, Jul 1 14000

2,221.98

Taiwan

Taiwan Taiex Index, Jul 1 8500

13500

8000

13000

7500

12500

7000

12000

6500

8,015.86

14,098.74

Laos

Laos Composite Index, Jul 1 1500

Indonesia

Jakarta Composite Index, Jul 1 6000

1350

5500

1200

5000

1050

4500

900

4000

1,283.90

International commodities

Cambodian commodities

Energy

(Base rate taken on January 1, 2012)

Commodity

Units

Price

Crude Oil (WTI)

USD/bbl.

98.13

Crude Oil (Brent)

India

USD/bbl.

NYMEX Natural Gas USD/MMBtu

103.15

Change % Change Time(ET)

0.14 0.15

0.14% 0.15%

4:44:49 4:44:50

3.59

0.01

0.22%

4:43:56

RBOB Gasoline

USd/gal.

275.24

1.45

0.53%

4:40:51

NYMEX Heating Oil

USd/gal.

287.86

0.5

0.17%

4:44:41

ICE Gasoil

USD/MT

876.25

-2.25

-0.26%

4:44:12

Agriculture Commodity

Units

Price

Change

% Change

Time(ET)

CBOT Rough Rice

USD/cwt

15.41

-0.05

-0.29%

3:05:22

CME Lumber

USD/tbf

297.2

0.9

0.30%

2:47:37

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

Unit

Base

R/Kg

2800

R/Kg

2200

R/Kg

1800

R/Kg

8000

R/Kg

2000

R/Kg

4000

R/Kg

40000

R/Kg

33000

R/Kg

17000

R/Kg

12000

R/Kg

18000

R/Kg

13000

BSE Sensex 30 Index, Jul 1 21000

Karachi 100 Index, Jul 1 23000

20000

22250

19000

21500

18000

20750

17000

20000

Construction equipment

Food -Cereals -Vegetables - Fruits Average 2760 2260 1840 8100 2080 4220 24000 33600 18200 12400 20800 13100

(%) -1.43 % 2.73 % 2.22 % 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

78000

-9.30 %

Baht

1200

1300

8.33 %

Gas Charcoal

4,738.13

Pakistan

19,484.56

Australia

21,659.86

New Zealand

S&P/ASX 200 Index, Jul 1 5500

NZX 50 Index, Jul 1 5000

5250

4750

5000

4500

4750

4250

4500

4,834.00

4000

4,458.25

JOB TITLE : MERCHANDISER or SENIOR MERCHANDISER JOB LOCATION : PHNOM PENH JOB REQUIREMENT : - Candidate Must process at high school, or any field of diploma,

can write & communication in English.

- At least 1 years working experience in a similar capacity and

preferably in textile/garment manufacturing, 3years and above experience will may consider as senior position.

- Organized, proactive, mature and self motivated person.

- Proficient in Ms office such line excel/word sheet etc is an advantage JOB RESPONSIBLEBILTIES: - Company system maintains, data key-in, order inform tracking.

- Purchaser material from fabric to trims.

- Monitory approval, material movement & tracking production status. Work closely with respective sales/production controller.

- Prepare weekly report.

How to Apply Interested applicants please send the application form or submit CV to : Ghim Li (Cambodia) Pte Ltd National road No.4, Sangkat Kambol Khan Porsenchey, Phnom Penh E-mail : eefong.lim@ghimli.com, Tel : 012 890 011 Tel : +855 24 399986 (Cambodia), +607 663 1580 (Malaysia) Fax : +855 24 393838 (Cambodia), +607 663 4296 (Malaysia)

12

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

World North Korea under fire at ASEAN meet N Dan Martin

ORTH Korea came under fire at an Asia-Pacific security forum yesterday as foreign ministers called on the defiant communist state to end its nuclear weapons program.

In a flurry of diplomatic activity, the gathering in Brunei also saw Beijing pressured over its South China Sea claims, while senior US and Russian envoys met to discuss the thorny issues of Syria and US fugitive Edward Snowden.

Participants in the ASEAN Regional Forum, which include 26 countries across the Asia-Pacific and the European Union, sent a “very strong message” to North Korea, Seoul’s envoy said.

“Most ministers at the meeting expressed a very strong message to the North Korean delegation that they should denuclearise; they should refrain from provocative action,” South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told reporters.

“So they have to listen to these messages very seriously.”

However, North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun fired back in the discussions, calling the United States the “true provocateur” and saying it would retain its nuclear weapons program until Washington drops its “hostile” stance.

“Unless the US removes all its anti-North policies and threats against us, any problems including the nuclear issues on the [Korean] peninsula will not be solved,” North Korean official Choe Myung-nam told reporters, citing Pak. A day earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry said after talks with his counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea in Brunei that the four nations were united on the issue.

China is the main ally of North Korea, which defiantly carried out its third nuclear weapons test in February and threatened to attack the United States, in language shrill

even by the standards of the reclusive communist state.

A joint statement emerging from a separate meeting in Brunei of 16 East Asian countries, the US and Russia called on the resumption of long-stalled six-country talks hosted by China aimed at negotiating the North’s disarmament.

The issue of the South China Sea also simmered on after the Philippines at the weekend accused Beijing of a military build-up to enforce its claims to nearly all of the disputed waterway.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario told reporters that one foreign minister after another at yesterday’s event stressed the need for negotiations on avoiding conflict at sea.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations has been pushing a reluctant China for talks on a set of rules governing conduct at sea meant to prevent actions that could lead to conflict.

China claims virtually all of the South China Sea and has long resisted moves to talk with ASEAN as a bloc, reluctant to cede any ground on its claims.

On Sunday in Brunei it agreed to begin discussing a code of conduct.

But a senior US government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, dismissed the move as merely a gambit to deflate pressure while in Brunei.

On the final day of a series of related diplomatic events in the sultanate, Kerry said he and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov agreed on the need to hold an international conference to end Syria’s civil war.

Russia has backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the more than two-year conflict that has claimed more than 100,000 lives, while Washington has said it is boosting support for the rebel movement.

Kerry said “we both agree that the conference should happen sooner rather than later”. AFP

Gran jury hearing A woman surnamed Chu, 77, attends the hearing of a case against her daughter and husband in Wuxi, east China’s Jiangsu province. The daughter of a Chinese grandmother has been ordered to visit her at least once every two months, in the first case under a new law to protect the elderly, reports yesterday said. AFP

Egypt on the brink of change Continued from page 1

national reconciliation . . . regardless of any statements that deepen divisions between citizens.”

The Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, said the Egyptian people alone had the right to draw a roadmap for the nation and had done so in the constitution approved in a referendum last December.

It called on the people “to rally to defend constitutional legitimacy and express their refusal of any coup against it”.

Describing civilian rule as a great gain from the revolution of 2011, Morsi said he would not let the clock

be turned back. Egypt’s first freely elected leader, he has been in office for just a year. But many Egyptians are impatient with his economic management and inability to win the trust of non-Islamists.

Morsi also spoke to US President Barack Obama by phone on Monday, the presidency said in a separate statement, stressing that Egypt was moving forward with a peaceful democratic transition based on the law and constitution.

The White House said Obama, in Tanzania, encouraged him to respond to the protests and “underscored that the current crisis can only be resolved through a political process”.

Six ministers who are not members

of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood have tendered their resignations since Sunday’s huge demonstrations, including foreign minister Mohamed Kamel Amr, the official MENA news agency said.

In another blow to the president, Egypt’s highest appeal court yesterday upheld the dismissal of the prosecutor general appointed by Morsi last year. He was a major bugbear to the liberal opposition.

The court decision removed public prosecutor Talaat Abdallah, accused of using his position to pursue journalists, artists and critics of the president while turning a blind eye to human rights abuses. It reinstated his predecessor. REUTERS

13

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

World

Police chief offers an apology to the mother of rape victim

A

CHINESE police chief who sentenced the mother of a rape and kidnap victim to hard labour apologised to her during a court hearing yesterday over compensation, she said.

Tang Hui’s condemnation to 18 months in a “re-education through labour” camp for demanding her daughter’s attackers be punished sparked widespread public outrage in August last year, prompting her release just a week later and unleashing criticism of the system.

The head of the committee that sentenced her admitted in court yesterday that its action was “not appropriate”, Tang said by phone.

She said that Jiang Jianxiang told the court he “had not taken into account humanitarian care and sent me to labour camp, which was not appropriate . . . so he gave an apology”.

But she went on: “Whether or not he says such things, it makes no difference.”

The official also said in court that “inappropriate doesn’t mean illegal”, she added.

The Beijing Times also reported the appearance by Jiang, who on top of his police post is deputy mayor of Tang’s home town of Yongzhou, saying he “apologised for not acting with enough humanity or care”.

Earlier this year Tang lost a lawsuit seeking compensation of 1,463.85 yuan ($238.70) for the time she served, but she later filed an appeal.

It was heard yesterday at the Hunan provincial high court

A POWERFUL earthquake in the Indonesian province of Aceh flattened buildings and sparked landslides yesterday, killing at least three people and injuring dozens in a region devastated by the quake-triggered tsunami of 2004.

The 6.1-magnitude quake struck inland at 0737 GMT at a depth of just 10 kilometres

A man was working at a coffee plantation . . . when a landslide . . . struck

Tang Hui (right), the mother of a young rape victim, making a call in an elevator in Changsha, central China’s Hunan province, on Monday. AFP

in central China, ending without a decision after nearly four hours.

“The hearing has closed,” the court said on its official account on Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter, adding that it “will issue a decision at a future date”.

More than 200 people including 50 journalists attended the session, the court said in a series of Weibo posts accompanied by photos in and around the courtroom.

In 2006 Tang’s daughter, who

was 11 at the time, was kidnapped, raped and forced into prostitution, prompting Tang to seek justice for the abductors and the police whom she says protected them.

She took dramatic steps including kneeling for hours outside the Hunan high court and travelling to Beijing to file petitions with higher authorities, an age-old practice in China that irritates local-level officials.

Seven men were finally convicted in June 2012, with two

condemned to death, four given life sentences and one jailed for 15 years.

But Tang continued to agitate for the policemen to face trial. Two months later she received her labour sentence after being accused of “seriously disturbing social order and exerting a negative impact on society”.

The re-education through labour system gives police the right to hand out sentences of up to four years without a judicial trial. AFP

TEPCO to ask for nuclear restart FUKUSHIMA operator TEPCO said yesterday it would ask Japan’s nuclear watchdog for permission to restart reactors at the world’s largest atomic power station, its first such request since the disaster two years ago.

Tokyo Electric Power Co is readying an application for the re-firing of two of the seven units at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in Niigata prefecture in the north of Japan.

The entire power station has been shuttered for about 12 months after the tsunamisparked meltdowns at Fukushima in March 2011.

“We decided at a board meet-

Earthquake destroys homes on Sumatra

ing to apply for the safety assessment for Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant’s reactors No 6 and No 7 as early as possible,” company president Naomi Hirose told reporters.

The two reactors have a power generation capacity of 1.36 million kilowatts each.

All but two of Japan’s 50 nuclear reactors are offline, shut down for safety checks after the Fukushima disaster, the worst the world has seen since Chernobyl.

A vocal anti-atomic campaign whose leading lights say the nuclear industry had too cozy a relationship with its regulators

Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on June 12. REUTERS

in the decades leading up to Fukushima, nudged the government into establishing a new industry watchdog.

Eager to prove it has teeth, the watchdog has set strict new standards that operators must show they can meet before they will be granted permission to re-start mothballed reactors.

The new rules come into force next Monday. TEPCO said it would be making its application to the Nuclear Regulatory Authority “swiftly” after that.

Japan’s power companies have been badly hit by the surging cost of making electricity from fossil fuel alternatives since their reactors were shut down.

Resource-poor Japan has to import the coal, gas and oil it is using to replace nuclear generating capacity and the falling value of the yen has pushed up the relative cost of those dollarpriced commodities.

TEPCO is also struggling with the vast expense of the clean-up at Fukushima and with the mounting compensation bills for people whose lives or livelihoods were wrecked by the disaster.

The clean-up has been complicated by a series of incidents at the crippled plant, including leaks of radioactive water.

The latest problem came on Tuesday when a small fire was reported near an incinerator.

There was no release of radiation.

Reports of TEPCO’s planned move to ask for the green light at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa sent its shares soaring on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The issue closed up 19.12 per cent at 623 yen.

Although the natural disaster of March 2011 claimed about 18,000 lives, no one is officially recorded as having died as a direct result of the meltdowns at Fukushima.

However, large areas around the plant had to be evacuated, with tens of thousands of people still unable to return to their homes. AFP

(6.2 miles) in the mountainous Bener Meriah district in the heart of Aceh, the US Geological Survey said.

It destroyed houses in the district, some 320 kilometres from the provincial capital Banda Aceh, and triggered several landslides in the area.

Police and military personnel were deployed to lead rescue efforts, as pictures showed the walls of houses reduced to rubble and roads badly damaged and blocked by landslips.

In Suka Makmur village, a landslide engulfed a coffee plantation, killing at least one man, Fauzi, an official from

the local disaster agency, said.

“A man was working at a coffee plantation with his wife when a landslide caused by the quake struck,” said the official, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

“His body was found under a pile of earth soon afterwards,” he said, adding that his wife and another woman were missing at the site.

Ema Suryani, a doctor at a health clinic in Lampahan city in the district, said that a child died when the quake caused a wall to collapse.

“We have received around 50 people with injuries suffered when the walls of their houses collapsed,” added the doctor.

“There are around 30 people seriously injured, some with head injuries. The rest have only light injuries like minor cuts and grazes.”

Injured people had been transported from several affected villages in two trucks, she said.

The disaster agency official Fauzi said that a man also died at a different hospital after being treated for injuries sustained in the quake. AFP

More Filipinas to be sent to work abroad THE Philippines is to deploy female labour officers to the Middle East, an official said yesterday, amid an enquiry into allegations some of its diplomats in these posts forced distressed Philippine workers there into prostitution.

A total of 13 women officials will be sent soon to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and also Malaysia, to work with current staff at Philippine embassies there, labour department spokesman Nicon Fameronag said.

They will mainly help Philippine workers who had sought refuge at embassy shelters to escape abuses by their employers, he added.

“The decision to send in women is because there are more women overseas workers who are going to the shelters than men. The shelters are for women, not men,” he said.

“They (the women officials) will be able to relate more to women than men.”

The planned deployments were announced amid an investigation by the foreign department over allegations that at

least two diplomats were forcing Philippine women at the shelters to submit to sex, either with them or other men.

The enquiry was launched last month after a member of parliament told the foreign ministry he had received anonymous complaints by some women who had been in those shelters.

The allegations have triggered a firestorm in the Philippines, which relies heavily on the salary remittances of nearly 10 million citizens – about a tenth of the population – who work abroad.

Fameronag denied that the deployment of the women labour officers was a reaction to the scandal, insisting it was part of official efforts to improve embassy services for overseas workers.

Since the allegations broke, the Philippines has recalled home a male labour attache from the Middle East to answer the allegations against him, he said.

However, Fameronag said government investigators have yet to confirm any of the claims.

AFP

ANNA (CHEA) VICHEKA (OR VICHERA) Would Ms Vicheka or anyone knowing the whereabouts of Ms Vicheka please urgently contact Armstrong Murray in respect of the will of the late Stuart John Pinker.

Please contact Michelle York, Armstrong Murray, 11 Anzac Street, Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand, ph (00649) 489 9102, fax (00649) 489-6934 , email michelle@armstrongmurray.co.nz

14

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

World

High hopes on malaria A

USTRALIAN researchers said yesterday that they were closing in on a potential malaria vaccine, with a study showing their treatment had protected mice against several strains of the disease.

Michael Good, from Queensland’s Griffith University, said the vaccine led to naturally existing white blood cells, or T-cells, attacking the potentially deadly malaria parasite which lives in red blood cells.

“A single vaccination induced profound immunity to different malaria parasite species,” the study, published yesterday in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, states.

Good said the team’s research was focused on inducing the white blood cells to attack the parasite, whatever the malaria strain.

“The T-cells [white blood cells], when they’re induced to kill malaria, can recognise proteins throughout the parasite, even internal proteins in the parasite,” he told the ABC. “So that’s where we think the novel aspect is: we’ve been able to induce a form of immune response which can recognise molecules in the parasite which are pres-

Meow, 6, an ethnic Karen girl, gets tested to ensure a malaria bug she caught a month before is no longer in her system at malaria clinic in Sai Yoke district, Kanchanaburi province, Thailand, in October 2012. AFP

ent in every single strain.”

Good said he believed it was the first time that a vaccine had been shown to protect against more that two strains of malaria in mice.

The vaccine was expected to be cheap and easy to manufacture, he added, meaning

that – if applicable to humans – it could have a significant impact in poor countries where malaria kills thousands each year.

“But we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves; we want to demonstrate, first and foremost, that the vaccine is effec-

On Friday, July 12, The Phnom Penh Post proudly presents

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Phnom Penh dŽ ĂĚǀĞƌƟƐĞ ĐŽŶƚĂĐƚ͗ borom.chea@phnompenhpost.com or call 012 763 481 / 011 743 998 SƚorLJ ŝĚĞĂƐ͍ Email stuart.becker@gmail.com ŽŽŬŝŶŐ ĚĞĂĚůŝŶĞ͗ Friday July 5. ƌƚǁŽƌŬ ĚĞĂĚůŝŶĞ͗ Wednesday July 10; WƵďůŝĐĂƟŽŶ ĚĂƚĞ͗ Friday July 12.

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SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE READ THE POST

tive in humans,” Good said.

In 2010 an estimated 219 million people were infected with the disease and some 660,000 died, most of them African children aged under five, the UN’s World Health Organization said in December. AFP

Patents put HIV drugs ‘beyond reach’: MSF NEW potentially life-saving HIV drugs are “beyond reach” due to restrictive patents, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said yesterday, even though basic medication for the disease has become cheaper.

The international medical humanitarian organisation said it was good news that the price of drugs used as firstand second-line treatments had fallen 19 and 28 per cent respectively since last year.

But “salvage regimens” – drugs used as a last resort after these first two steps fail – cost 15 times as much as first-line medicines, according to an MSF statement at the International AIDS Society conference in Kuala Lumpur.

“Patents keep them priced beyond reach. We need to watch carefully as newer, better medicines reach the market in the coming years, as these are the drugs that we’ll quickly be needing to roll out.

The price question is far from resolved,” said Jennifer Cohn, medical director at MSF’s Access Campaign.

According to MSF, first-line treatment – which has the highest efficacy against a low side-effect profile – can cost

as little as $139 per person per year, down from $172.

It cited generic competition as the main factor in the price drop, which had also made second-line drugs available for as low as $303 per year.

But MSF said its research found the best price for a possible salvage regimen was $2,006 per year in the poorest countries, while some like Armenia pay $13,213 just for one of the three or four drugs needed for a full regimen.

“Scaling up HIV treatment and sustaining people on treatment for life will depend on bringing the price of newer drugs down,” said Arax Bozadjian, HIV pharmacist at MSF’s Access Campaign.

The group called for wider “patent opposition”, claiming that a seven-year battle against Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis, was key to falling prices of first- and second-line regimens. Novartis were finally refused a patent this April in generics-producing India.

“When patents prevent access, compulsory licences should be issued [to other drugmakers] in the interest of public health,” it added. AFP

15

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

Technology

Reader is no more as Google calls time GOOGLE on Monday closed its free Reader service for gathering news stories and other online items in simple, up-tothe-minute lists.

Reader’s “RSS feeds” had long been a popular way to stay updated on subjects of interest, but users are increasingly turning to social media such as Facebook and Twitter instead.

“Most content now is tied to some dedicated platform or other,” said Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle.

“Getting rid of this service shows good governance by Google . . . In a world of limited resources, this service just wasn’t making the grade.”

Diehard Reader fans were outraged by Google’s move.

A “Keep Google Reader Running” petition online at change. org had nearly 154,000 signatures as of Monday. A “Please Don’t Kill Google Reader” petition at the same website had logged 7,598 supporters.

“This is about us using your product because we love it,

Getting rid of this service shows good governance because it makes our lives better, and because we trust you not to nuke it,” read the first petition, started by a New York City man. “So, please don’t destroy that trust.”

Google was not deterred, and visitors to Reader on Monday were greeted with a message reminding them that the service would cease to exist at the end of the day.

Online services such as Feedly, Digg Reader, Newsblur and even Flipboard have stepped up as alternatives for Google Reader, which made its debut in October 2005.

“We want everyone’s migration from Google Reader to Feedly to be perfect,” Feedly – which has won top marks as an alternative to Google Reader – said on Sunday.

“Google touches millions upon millions of people,” Enderle said. “So, even if a small fraction is upset it could be in the hundreds of thousands.”

The demise of Reader was among hot topics on Twitter on Monday, with many of the one-to-many messages focused on advice about switching to rival services.

Ironically, it was Twitter that helped make Reader obsolete by letting people get rapid-fire updates from anyone in realtime on desktop or mobile devices instead of needing to check RSS feeds in web browsing software.

But serious concern has been raised by users in the Middle East, who note that Reader is used in places such as Iran to sidestep internet censorship by oppressive regimes.

Reader feeds are on Google servers, meaning censors might have to block access to nearly all of the internet company’s websites to stop people from accessing aggregated updates from online outlets. AFP

NSA: inside the spy agency Dan De Luce

R

EVELATIONS from US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden have shed a rare public spotlight on the ultra-secret National Security Agency, which uses super computers and code-breaking mathematicians to oversee the world’s most powerful electronic spying operation.

Hollywood directors and novelists have made the CIA famous for its undercover agents in the field, but in the digital era, the hi-tech NSA may represent the most far-reaching arm of the country’s 16 spy agencies, with its intelligence at the centre of decision-making and military planning, experts say.

The latest leak from Snowden alleges that the NSA has been eavesdropping on US allies, including the European Union offices in Washington, which would fit in with the agency’s ability to scoop up any conversation or email relevant to “foreign targets”.

Created after World War II to avoid another Pearl Harbour-style surprise attack, the NSA “has transformed itself into the largest, most covert and potentially most intrusive intelligence agency ever created,” wrote author James Bamford, whose books helped lift the lid on the agency’s work.

With code-breaking services in a disorganised jumble, President Harry S Truman set up the NSA through a secret directive in 1952, allowing the agency virtually free reign to snoop on the Soviet Union and to track communications entering and leaving the United States.

Employees at the secrecy-minded agency would say they worked at the Defense Department, earning the NSA nicknames such as “No Such Agency” and “Never Say Anything”.

While the CIA may break into a building to plant a bug, the NSA is in charge of information “in motion”, vacuuming up data transiting telecommunication cables or radio waves.

Congress imposed more oversight and stricter legal guidelines in the

1970s after a Senate inquiry exposed numerous intelligence abuses, including the use of the NSA to spy on Americans involved in anti-war and other protests.

Not only is the NSA in charge of all manner of “signals intelligence”, the agency’s chief also heads up the military’s Cyber Command for digital warfare, and the service plays a vital role in securing computer networks against a cyber attack on the United States.

The NSA’s budget remains classified, but it is believed to be the largest in the intelligence community. Funding doubled since the attacks of September 11, 2011, according to the book Top Secret America by journalists Dana Priest and William Arkin.

The agency’s sprawling headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, northeast of Washington, has its own exit on the freeway for employees only.

The number of NSA workers is also a secret, although one top official once joked the workforce was somewhere between 37,000 and a billion.

Since the advent of the internet and the demand for intelligence on Al-Qaeda after 9/11, the NSA has steadily grown in importance, hiring tens of thousands of contractors, like Snowden, to manage its extensive operations that require cryptologists, linguists, electrical engineers and other technicians.

In its early years, the NSA inherited a program called “Shamrock”, in which the agency intercepted up to 150,000 telegraph messages a month, with the help of American companies who agreed to the arrangement despite worries about its legality.

Now, each day “collection systems at the NSA intercept and store 1.7 billion emails, phone calls and other types of communications”, and the NSA “sorts a fraction of those in 70 separate databases,” according to “Top Secret America”.

To store the massive amount of data, the agency is constructing a vast storage centre in the Utah desert at a cost of $2 billion, which will serve a computer “cloud” for the NSA.

A protester supporting Edward Snowden, a former contractor at the National Security Agency, holds a placard in Hong Kong on June 15. Afp

The NSA’s alleged spying on US allies is not the first time Washington has been accused of snooping on friendly governments to gain an edge in diplomacy and trade.

In 2000-2001, members of the European parliament were outraged after revelations of an elaborate eavesdropping operation carried out by

the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which they alleged had been used to undermine some European firms.

And in the 1920s, codebreakers at NSA’s predecessor, the cipher bureau or the “black chamber”, managed to spy on allies and Japan during talks on a naval disarmament treaty. AFP

Investigators get tool to tackle illegal ivory WILDLIFE crime investigators hope to crack down on illegal elephant killing with a new tool for analysing ivory that uses nuclear test residue to determine the age of a tusk, said a study out yesterday.

Tens of thousands of elephants are hunted for their ivory each year. As few as 470,000 African elephants remain, making them a vulnerable species, while the Asian elephant is endangered and may number about 30,000, experts say.

Despite international agreements that ban most raw ivory trade from Asian elephants after 1975 and African elephants after 1989, the slaughter continues in large part because police lack the means to tell the age of the ivory.

“We’ve developed a tool that allows us to determine the age of a tusk or piece of ivory, and this tells us whether it was acquired legally,” said Kevin Uno, lead author of the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Our dating method is affordable for government and law enforcement agencies and can

help tackle the poaching and illegal trade crises,” said Uno, a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University.

The test costs about $500 and uses a technique of analysing the

1960s, conducted by the United States in Nevada and by the Soviet Un i o n in Siberia.

Levels peaked in the 1960s and have been declining ever since.

We’ve developed a tool that allows us to determine the age of a tusk or piece of ivory amount of carbon-14 in the animal tissues.

Carbon-14 was formed in the atmosphere by above-ground nuclear tests in the 1950s and

The test devised by scientists should be effective for about another 15 years, by which point the atmospheric levels of carbon-14 will return to pre-nucle-

ar-test norms.

Researchers tested their technique on 29 animal and plant tissues – including elephant tusks, hippo tusks, canine teeth and monkey hair as well as grass from Kenya – each collected on known dates from 1905 to 2008.

They found that various tissues that formed at the same time had the same levels if carbon-14.

The four oldest samples were from animals that died from 1905 to 1953, and they had the least carbon-14 because they died before atmospheric nuclear

weapons tests.

“With an accurate age of the ivory, we can verify if the trade is legal or not,” said Uno. “Currently 30,000 elephants a year are slaughtered for their tusks, so there is a desperate need to enforce the international trade ban and reduce demand.”

African elephants are in “sharp decline” due to illegal poaching for the international ivory trade and habitat loss. Asian elephants are endangered with a population ranging from 25,600 to 32,750, according to the World Wildlife Fund. AFP

16

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THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

A step forward for Europe COMMENT

Jean-François Cautain

J

ULY 1 was an historical day for the European Union (EU) and Croatian citizens: the day the EU welcomed Croatia as the 28th member state of the Union.

This was the seventh enlargement of the EU from its six founding members, ie Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, which back in 1957 founded the organisation now known as the European Union.

The latest enlargement, before Croatia’s accession, took place in 2007, when Bulgaria and Romania became members of the EU. Croatia has been a candidate for accession for long and this week’s event is both a confirmation of Croatia’s capacity to deeply reform itself so as to be able to fully integrate into the EU and, at the same time, a proof of the attractiveness the EU has for its neighbouring countries.

At present, there are five recognised candidates for EU membership: Iceland (applied 2009), Macedonia (applied 2004), Montenegro (applied 2008), Serbia (applied 2009) and Turkey (applied 1987).

Serbia and Macedonia have not yet started negotiations to join. The other states in the Western Balkans – Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina – have signed Stabilisation and Association Agreements with the EU, which generally precede the lodging of membership applications.

The accession perspective provides strong encouragement for transformation, political and economic reform in the candidate countries. Reforms in the rule of law, including judicial reform and the fight against corruption and organised crime, benefit not just the countries concerned but also all the citizens and economic operators of the European Union and its partners.

The Copenhagen Criteria, defining whether a country is eligible to join the European Union, also emphasise the importance of Human Rights.

After 10 years of this rigorous process, Croatia now fully meets all the requirements to join the EU and benefit from its powerful effects on a country’s development. How will EU membership change the European Union and Croatian citizens’ life?

Croatia’s accession brings more security and stability for the country.

Croatia will benefit from the internal reforms that have been implemented: more efficient judiciary, more transparent and well-organised public administration, reinforced human rights and civil liberties.

The day-to-day work of the European Commission to protect the citizens

Members of Eurocorps military contingent carry a Croatian flag during a ceremony for Croatia’s accession to the European Union at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, yesterday. AFP

and lead the European Union towards a modern and effective democracy will directly affect the life of the Croatian people.

The EU membership also provides full access to the largest market in the world, with more than 500 million consumers, creating thousands of jobs and better living standards for Croatian citizens.

Croatia’s access to the single market also offers new business partners to the European economic operators. These economic effects are considerable: the year after their accession, Bulgaria’s and Romania’s GDP grew respectively by 6.2 per cent and 7.3 per cent.

Finally, each Croatian is now able to travel, study, work and even vote all over the European Union as any other European Citizen.

This enlargement of the Union is also a great chance for all EU partner countries, including Cambodia, to find new business opportunities in Croatia.

As the European Union provides an easier access to its market to Cambodia, I am sure that Croatia’s accession will be a great opportunity to reinforce the friendship between an enlarged EU and Cambodia from a business perfective and way beyond.

For instance, the European program “Erasmus Mundus” offers various opportunities for students from all over the world to go and study in the EU. This program will be extended to cover Croatian universities.

Every year, several Cambodian students are granted scholarships to study in the European Union. Next year the EU Delegation to Cambodia will strongly support a Cambodian student to study in one of the numerous renowned Croatian universities.

Croatia’s accession also provides fresh evidence of the transformative power of the EU enlargement policy: torn by conflict only two decades ago, the country, and the whole Westerns Balkans, is now a stable democracy, capable of taking on the obligations of EU membership and adhering to EU standards.

This transformation is also a powerful signal for all the potential candidates in the region: the EU keeps its commitments and accession can become a reality if the necessary reforms are undertaken.

Through Croatia’s accession, the European Union enhances its cultural diversity and its human potential

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by welcoming the wealthy Croatian culture. Moreover, the EU embraces its regional leadership by exporting its core values in the EU region and beyond.

Croatia will now participate in this challenging leadership by taking an active part in European governance, particularly with the perspective of the up-coming 2014 European Parliament Election.

In May next year, all Croatian citizens would have the opportunity to use one of their new rights provided by the accession and vote to elect the 12 Croatian Members of the European Parliament.

The world financial crisis continues to affect the European Union and its Member States.

At a time of doubt and questioning, I think that Croatia’s accession brings a strong message: even though this is a time of hardship for many in the EU, enlargement policy, and more broadly the European project, continues to contribute to peace, security, democracy and long-term prosperity across the continent.

Jean-François Cautain is the Ambassador of the European Union to the Kingdom of Cambodia.

17

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

Lifestyle Filmmakers capture Hong Kong’s struggle In brief

Matthew Scott

A

S Hong Kong grapples with its identity 16 years after returning to Chinese rule, frustration on the streets and a nostalgia for the past is providing plenty of inspiration for the city’s filmmakers.

Emotions in the former British colony run high, with tens of thousands of people marching on the handover anniversary Monday to demand universal suffrage amid concerns Beijing is increasingly meddling in Hong Kong’s affairs.

Polls have shown residents see themselves as “Hongkongers” rather than “Chinese”, while the use by protesters of old colonial flags has raised eyebrows in the city and tempers in mainland China.

“The relationship we have with China always affects the mood of Hong Kong,” film director Flora Lau told AFP. “We are a city which has a very distinct identity, and some of the people here feel that this identity has slipped away. On the other hand, we have new immigrants who think of Hong Kong as a place of dreams.”

Lau’s first feature film, Bends, was the only production from Hong Kong to be selected in competition at the prestigious Cannes International Film Festival in May. The film follows the relationship between a Hong Kong housewife (Carina Lau) and her mainland Chinese chauffeur (Chen Kun) “as they each negotiate the pressures of Hong Kong life and the city’s increasingly complex relationship to mainland China”.

“To me, Hong Kong is filled with duality, and I am interested in portraying the city, which represents a sense of deterioration for some, and yet a

Pharrell Williams sues will.i.am over ‘i am’ MUSIC producer Pharrell Williams filed a lawsuit Monday asking a US court to rule he has not violated any trademark that Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am owns for the phrase “I AM.” The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, said that will.i.am, whose real name is William Adams, has repeatedly sent letters to Williams demanding he stop using versions of the phrase “I AM” on a website founded by Williams, iamother.com.

Trademarks owned by Williams’s company do not have periods between the “i” and the “am,” while those owned by will.i.am do, the lawsuit said. reuters Hong Kong-based Chinese actress Carina Lau in a scene from director Flora Lau’s first feature film Bends.

sense of hope for others,” said Lau, who attended the London Film School.

A survey published by the Hong Kong University on Friday found only 33 per cent of Hong Kongers took pride in being a Chinese national, the lowest level since 1998.

Such statistics come amid growing resentment towards mainland Chinese visitors, whose numbers are estimated to reach 50 million annually by 2015 in a city of around seven million.

Hong Kong’s unpopular Chief Executive Leung Chunying has faced public anger, and in his first year has had to deal with shortages of maternity beds and baby formula, both blamed on the influx of mainlanders.

The city has also seen protests over the widening gap between rich and poor. Property prices have surged in recent years due to record low interest rates and a flood of wealthy mainlanders snapping up homes, while the choking smog that often hangs over Hong Kong’s spectacular Victoria Harbour is seen as a sign of China’s industrial growth.

“I think Hong Kong is a place that has gone through lots of changes and the people here adapt quite quickly,” said Lau, whose film is set for release in the city in November.

“But the changes we went through are very different from the changes China went through over the past 50 years, and now that we are more closely related to each other,

Sex and Chopsticks at China railway station

afp

we are confronted with cultural clashes on a more day-today basis.”

Others said the city has reacted to the changes by embracing a “collective nostalgia”.

“Old values and mentality seem to have disappeared, so the films we now make are a reaction to these changes,” said director Herman Yau at an Italian film in April.

Yau travelled to Europe with his film Ip Man: The Final Fight, a production that charts the later years of the eponymous martial arts master, who counted Bruce Lee among his disciples.

It is a film soaked with nostalgia for a Hong Kong the filmmakers believe has faded.

“Hongkongers were once trusting people who were not scared to leave our doors open

for our neighbours,” screenwriter Erica Li said. “But we have become a big metropolis and we are losing that sense.”

Under the “One Country Two Systems” governing arrangement, Hong Kong is a semiautonomous region within China, with its own currency and mini-constitution guaranteeing freedoms and liberties not seen on the mainland.

“Outside of Hong Kong, I would say that. from people I have talked to, not many understand the complicated political situation we have with China,” said Lau. “In my film, I have shots of the river between Hong Kong and Shenzhen and the character crossing the border, but to my surprise I have had questions about why we have a border with China.” afp

Hitler’s food taster feared every morsel Michelle Martin

MARGOT Woelk spent the last few years of World War Two eating lavish meals and fearing that every mouthful could mean death.

The former food taster for Adolf Hitler was served a plate of food and forced to eat it between 11 and 12 every morning for most of the last 2-1/2 years of the Nazi German leader’s life. If she did not fall ill, the food was packed into boxes and taken to Hitler at the Wolf’s Lair, a military headquarters located deep in woodland, in what is today northeastern Poland.

“Hitler was a vegetarian so it was all vegetarian fare – it was very good food like white asparagus, wonderful fruits, peppers and cauliflower,” the 96-year-old Berliner said.

Along with 14 other women in their 20s, Woelk lived in fear that every meal she ate would be her last.

“We cried a lot and hugged each other.

We asked each other: ‘Will we still be alive tomorrow or not?’”

Woelk, who still has nightmares about her role as a food taster and did not speak about her experiences for decades after the war, said she and her family were against the Nazis and that she landed the job “through a series of coincidences”.

Forced to leave her apartment in Berlin when allied bombing made it uninhabitable,Woelk gave up her secretarial job and moved in with her parents-in-law in the village of Gross-Partsch, then in eastern Germany and now part of Poland.

“The mayor there was a big Nazi and he

had connections with the SS [a Nazi paramilitary organisation] so I was forced into it right away. I had to work to earn money,” she said. She said she never saw Hitler, though she did see his dog.

Woelk said she heard the explosion on July 20, 1944, caused by a bomb that army generals had planted at theWolf’s Lair with the aim of taking Hitler’s life.

At the time Woelk was watching a film with soldiers in a tent not far from the military headquarters.

“We heard this huge bang then we fell off the wooden benches we were sitting on. Someone shouted ‘Hitler is dead’, but we later found out that only his hand was injured.”

After the failed assassination attempt, Woelk said she had to move into supervised accommodation and was held like

a prisoner, denied access to a telephone and able to visit her parents-in-law only with SS officers as chaperones.

When Hitler killed himself in April 1945, Woelk fled to Berlin and went into hiding.

Soviet forces were closing in on the German capital and Woelk was later pulled out of an air raid shelter and raped by Russian soldiers for a fortnight. The other 14 food tasters who had stayed behind were all killed, she said.

After the war Woelk started a job in pension insurance and was surprised when her husband, in Russian captivity and presumed dead, turned up unexpectedly.

She had not heard from him in two years and did not recognise him. “I’ve had a life full of drama and now, at the age of 96, I’m back living in the same house I lived in before the war.” reuters

A MAINTENANCE worker surprised passersby near a Chinese railway station when he started watching a banned porn film, not realising his computer was connected to a giant screen, state media said Tuesday. The worker, identified only by his surname Yuan, was supposed to repair the screen, on a building near the main railway station in Jilin in northeast China, the Global Times reported. But when he began playing The Forbidden Legend: Sex and Chopsticks, hundreds of local residents stopped to watch as well, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The company which owns the screen called him after about 10 minutes, and he immediately disconnected the computer before throwing the disc out of a window, the Global Times said. reuters

Lopez excuses song for Turkmenistan’s leader US pop diva Jennifer Lopez appeared at a birthday bash for Turkmenistan’s hardline leader but would have abstained if she had known of “human right issues of any kind” regarding him, a spokeswoman said Monday. And she only wished “Happy Birthday” to Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov as a “gracious” last-minute favour when asked to by a Chinese oil company that organised the weekend event, her publicist said in a statement. JLo was believed to be the first major Western star to visit the isolated former Soviet republic, known primarily for its vast gas reserves and a dismal human rights record. afp

18

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

Health

Halving world hunger by 2015 ‘within reach’: UN D

ESPITE economic crises and dwindling aid, the UN said Monday that huge progress had been made towards meeting the so-called Millennium Development Goals, including its bid to slash world hunger in half between 1990 and 2015.

“Given reinvigorated efforts, the target of halving the percentage of people suffering from hunger by 2015 appears within reach,” said a UN progress report on its eight Millennium goals.

Thirteen years ago, world leaders drew up the MDG’s, with specific targets to reduce poverty, stop the spread of AIDS and improve education, gender equality, child and maternal health and environmental stability.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon hailed the progress made, insisting in Monday’s report that the goals “have been the most successful global antipoverty push in history”.

The MDG target of cutting in two the number of people living in extreme poverty, defined as subsisting on less than $1.25 a day, was reached already in 2010 – five years ahead of schedule.

The report also stressed major advances in health, pointing to strides to rein in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, as well as drops in the death rates from malaria and tuberculosis, saving more than 20 million lives.

Less than 1,000 days from the cut-off date, all was not rosy, however.

Ban pointed out that “too many women die in childbirth when we have the means to save them [and] more than 2.5 billion people lack im-

Indian youths hold flower-shaped pinwheels, with each petal representing a child death caused by malnutrition, in New Delhi on June 7.

proved sanitation facilities.

Our resource base is in serious decline, with continuing losses of forests, species and fish stocks, in a world already experiencing the impacts of climate change,” he added.

One in eight people around the world are still chronically undernourished, and more than 100 million, or 16 per cent of kids under the age of five, are underweight.

But Monday’s report also pointed out that the proportion of undernourished peo-

ple in the world fell from 23.2 per cent in 1990-92 to 14.9 per cent in 2010-12, and that there were today 59 million fewer children under five who were underweight than in 1990.

Despite the significant drop, the UN report stressed that “the rate of progress is insufficient” to reach the target of halving the number of hungry people by 2015.

But progress had been “more pronounced than previously believed”, it said, insisting that if the world hit the

accelerator in its bid to root out the scourge of hunger, the 2015 target could be reached.

Noting that progress towards the Millennium goals had been uneven, the UN report urged the international community to smooth out the disparities between regions and countries, as well as between population groups within countries.

The report also warned that the world’s ability to reach its goals had been impacted by dwindling aid money, with

afp

global aid funds falling two per cent from 2010 to 2011 and another four per cent in 2012, to $126 billion.

But this too was unevenly distributed, with aid to the least developed countries shrinking a full 13 per cent last year alone, to about $26 billion.

The report called on the world to look beyond 2015 and begin crafting “an ambitious, yet realistic, agenda for the period after the MDG target date.” afp

HIV is on rise among gay men in Bangkok CASES of HIV and syphilis among gay men in Bangkok are on the rise, according to data released by US and Thai health authorities on Friday.

Syphilis cases among gay men more than doubled from five percent in 2005 to 12.5 percent in 2011, said the report in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Meanwhile, the annual prevalence of HIV also rose “significantly”, from 24.5 per cent in 2005 to 29.4 per cent in 2011 among men who have sex with men (MSM), it said.

“These data show ongoing and increasing epidemics of HIV and syphilis infection among MSM in Bangkok,” the report said.

The data came from a clinic located in a central Bangkok hospital and near entertainment venues for gay men.

The clinic was founded in 2005 by a joint collaboration between the Thailand Ministry of Public Health and the US CDC, offering free and confidential tests in an environment “receptive to the health and concerns of the MSM community.”

When the team first began collecting data about HIV infections in gay men in Bangkok in 2003, the HIV prevalence was 17 per cent.

By 2005 the HIV prevalence in that group had risen to 28 per cent, and now it is around 30 per cent, said the report.

The data reported by the CDC on Friday was based only on patients who went to the Silom Community Clinic and requested a test for sexually transmitted infection, and may not be representative of the wider gay population in Thailand, the study noted. afp

Gender difference stretches to fitness plans

Yoga enthusiasts work out in Times Square. afp

WHEN it comes to fitness, experts say men generally want to be bulkier and women want to be trimmer and everyone wants to do what they are good at.

That’s why as more women tackle brawny boot camps and men seek flexible peace on the yoga mat, crossing traditional gender lines, intelligently, can be a good idea.

“Women want to lose body fat, men want hypertrophy [bulk],” said Geralyn Coopersmith, national director of the Equinox Fitness Training Institute.

There are also hormonal, structural and body composition differences between the sexes, said Coopersmith, who trains the personal trainers for the chain’s fitness centers.

“So if they’re both training for a marathon they’ll train in very similar ways but we’ll look out for different things.”

Women’s wider hips leave them more prone to knee injuries, while men, kilogram for kilogram, will always have more lean body tissue.

“Technically the man is more fit in that regard,” she said.

It’s harder for women to tackle extreme workouts, such as Crossfit or P90X, Coopersmith said, but they can do it.

“They’re not going to beat the men but will probably get pretty good at it and get very fit,” she said, adding that too many young, healthy women don’t challenge themselves enough.

Dr Michele Olson, an exercise physiologist with the American College of Sports Medicine said while everyone needs aerobic, strength and flexibility, the activities needed to achieve it can be very different, depending gender and age.

“In the early years women need to focus on bones and men on aerobics,” said Olson, a professor at the Auburn University Montgomery Human Performance Lab, in Alabama.

She added that research shows it’s important for younger women to take on activities with sufficient impact, such as jogging, jumping rope or step aerobics, at least 20 minutes twice a week, to develop a good bone density.

“Bone density can fail women in

their 40s,” said Olson, “while men tend to have robust bones until very late in life.”

She added that heart health is especially important for men, who are plagued with heart disease at a younger age.

They need to focus on the correct exercises for the heart, including lowimpact cardio exercises like bicycling or swimming.

Women at any age should lift weights, she said, adding interval-style training is more efficient in burning the mid-belly fat women tend to store after menopause.

“It doesn’t have to be a boot camp.

You can do it on a treadmill by adjusting speed or incline at one-minute intervals,” she explained.

As men age, their lack of flexibility catches up with them, but estrogen has made the tendons of women more elastic.

“Women and men both play to their strengths,” she said.

“Even as children, athletes naturally select what they feel they’re good at.” reuters

19

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

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VN 840

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

Alarm bells for Italy’s historic monuments

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

ONCERN is growing once more over the upkeep of Italy’s historic monuments, from the Roman city of Pompeii to the Colosseum, with budget cuts hampering repairs and UNESCO issuing a stern rebuke.

“Over the past five years, the culture budget has been reduced by two thirds,” Culture Minister Massimo Bray complained in an interview on Monday.

Italy is now lagging well behind its European counterparts: the country allocates just 1.1 per cent of its budget to culture, compared to 7.4 per cent in Ireland, 3.3 per cent in Spain and 2.5 per cent in France.

The lack of funds is having a disastrous affect on the country’s archaeological treasures, with many sites closed due to fears of rock collapses and others sporadically shut by protests and strikes.

Giovanni Puglisi, head of the UNESCO National Commission in Italy, warned the government this weekend to act fast to adopt measures for Pompeii, which has long been a sponge for funds then used poorly or siphoned off by criminal organisations.

In a January report, UNESCO documented structural shortcomings and light damage at the 44 hectare (110 acre) site in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, where collapsing walls and houses have sparked international concern.

The giant eruption devastated Pompeii nearly 2,000 years ago in 79 AD but the ash and rock helped preserve buildings – and victims – in their original state.

The hugely popular site near Naples has come to symbolise the decades of mismanagement of many of Italy’s cul-

C

tural treasures, as well as the fallout from austerity cuts in the recession-hit country.

Puglisi warned of “irregular buildings not included in the previous plan and a lack of personnel” at Pompeii and called for “a new observance zone” around the site to protect it from illegal construction encroaching on the area.

Italy, which is relying heavily on tourism to help boost the economy, moved quickly to reassure UNESCO it was doing its utmost to get the repairs made.

As well as problems with upkeep, however, a lack of staff at the sites has sparked trade union strikes.

Tourists eager to visit Rome’s Colosseum, Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper in Milan or the Uffizi Gallery in Florence last week were met with closed doors.

The number of visitors to the Colosseum has increased from a million to around six million a year over the past decade or so.

But it has also fallen into disrepair in recent years: bits of stone, blackened by pollution, have fallen off and some experts have voiced concern that the foundations are sinking, giving the amphitheatre a lean.

Long-delayed repairs to the 2,000-year-old monument, funded by Italian billionaire Diego Della Valle, are in the pipeline – but problems with red tape mean they have yet to get off the ground.

In the case of Pompeii, Italy is relying on additional funding from the EU. Conservation experts began a €105 million ($136 million) makeover of the site in February – funded to the tune of €41.8 million from the EU – to be completed by 2015. afp

PHNOM PENH - KUALA LUMPUR

5J - CEBU Airways.

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

PHNOM PENH - SHANGHAI 2.3.4.5.7

1 Monday

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

PHNOM PENH - HANOI

A sign saying ‘No entrance during works’ in front of the Colosseum, the biggest Roman amphitheatre ever built, in Rome. afp

Flighs

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

19:50

AF 273

2

SHANGHAI - PHNOM PENH 23:05

PHNOM PENH - SINGAPORE

FM 833

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, 023 881 178 /77718-333. Fax:+855 23-886-677 www.cambodiaangkorair.com 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, www.jetstar.com Sk. Orussey4, Kh. 7 Makara, 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

TAIPEI - PHNOM PENH

PHNOM PENH -TAIPEI BR 266

Daily

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

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

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

1 call/week

SIN-SHV-SIN

RCL (12calls/moth) MEARSK (MCC) (4 calls/moth)

Fri, 08:00 - Sun, 06:00 Irregula

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 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

20

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

Entertainment NOW SHOWING

The Building @ Meta House

legend cinema

Tonle Bassac’s White Building is home to a vibrant and eclectic community of Phnom Penhers, including artists and activists.

MAN OF STEEL A young journalist is forced to confront his secret extraterrestrial heritage when Earth is invaded by members of his race. Posing as a journalist, he uses his extraordinary powers to protect his new home from an insidious evil.

1:55pm, 6:50pm, 9:25pm

Tonight, Meta House will screen three films about the so-called slum: A. Dewshi’s Building, K. Neang’s Dancing in the Building and E. Lofting’s Red Earth Village.

WORLD WAR Z United Nations employee Gerry Lane travels the world in a race against time to stop the zombie pandemic toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself.

9:25am, 13:00pm, 3:25pm, 19:25pm 9:40pm

#37 Sothearos Boulevard 7pm

Trivia @ The Willow Test your trivia prowess at one of Phnom Penh’s biggest trivia nights.

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY Mike Wazowski and James P Sullivan are inseparable, though it wasn’t always the case.

The film unlocks the door to how Mike and Sulley overcame their differences and became the best of friends.

9:25am, 1:15pm, 7:05pm AFTER EARTH A crash landing leaves Kitai Raige and his father Cypher stranded on Earth, 1,000 years after events forced humanity’s escape. With Cypher injured, Kitai must embark on a perilous journey to signal for help.

11am

Set among orchids and potted plants in The Willow’s pretty courtyard, up to $100 in prize money can be won. Entry is $2, with a maximum of seven people per team.

The Willow, #1 Street 21, 7:30pm

Children play in the White Building. Documentaries about the slum will be screened tonight at Meta House. HONG MENEA

TV PICKS

FAST & FURIOUS 6 Agent Hobbs enlists the aid of Dom and team to help bring a rival gang, led by Owen Shaw, to justice. In exchange for clear records, they must put an end to their schemes, no matter how personal the cost.

9:30pm

4:35pm - 21 JUMP STREET: A pair of underachieving cops are sent back to a local high school to blend in and bring down a synthetic drug ring.

FOX MOVIES 8pm - KUNG FU HUSTLE: In Shanghai, China in the 1940s, a wannabe gangster aspires to join the notorious Axe Gang while residents of a housing complex exhibit extraordinary powers in defending their turf. FOX MOVIES

PLATINUM CINEPLEX WORLD WAR Z (See above) 9:15am, 11:30am, 1:35pm, 3:45pm, 6pm, 8:10pm MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (See above) 9:15am, 1pm

2:45pm - MEN OF HONOR: The story of Carl Brashear, the first African AmericanUS Navy diver and the man who trained him. FOX MOVIES

Matthew Morrison and Cameron Diaz in What to Expect When You're Expecting. BLOOMBERG

9:40pm - WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING: A look at love through the eyes of five interconnected couples experiencing the thrills and surprises of having a baby, and ultimately coming to understand that life doesn't always deliver what you expect. FOX MOVIES

House @ Pontoon Bistro Fancy a cheeky party on a Wednesday night? Pontoon bistro’s weekly electronic music session could be just the ticket.

House music until 3am with resident DJ Stryket Lefty.

Pontoon Bistro, #80 Street 172 11:55pm

Lipstick @ St Tropez Every Wednesday, Saint Tropez showcases Lipstick, a glamorous midweek party.

With DJ Bboy Peanut on the decks, and lucky draw prizes up for grabs. Free entrance.

St Tropez Lounge, #31 Street 174 9pm

Thinking caps “CHOOSE CAREFULLY” ACROSS 1 6 10 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 22 23 24 25 29 32 33 37 38 39 40 42 43 44 45 48 49 50 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65

Become waterlogged Made it to the ground Space shuttle staff Mail carrier’s assignment Drill Daughter of Kronos “Flowers in the ___” Highest point Roman who recorded Greek mythology Some catchy dance-move sounds Brownish-purple Hard-to-erase stuff Setting the pace Applied nutmeg Drug agent, slangily Exclamations of disdain States of seclusion “Inflammatory” prefix One left holding the bag Debate team They’re equal and opposite Creepy Breaks a small piece off from Map closeups Isaac Hayes did its theme song Not very original Supreme Court Justice Warren Spouses with a joint account?

Unless, legally Kind of beer Popeye’s skinny sweetie Suffix with “neur-” Elizabeth II’s only daughter At Mach 1 Insurer’s determination Brief letter closing Freshwater fowls

DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 21 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 33 34 35 36 38 41 42 44 45 46 47 48 50 51 52 53 54 55 56

Bric-a-___ Reluctant (var.)

Go ___ winner (retire on top) Suffix for “emblem” Computer experts, e.g.

Way to be taken Lassie’s swimming site “My Friend” of ’50s TV Informal wear, informally Steak eaters’ places Ziegfeld show Famous role for Susan Had water up to one’s ankles “... ___ Justice for All” (Pacino flick) Recite lines Jib, boom or gaff Corny item Whit or wee bit Hardly a Rambo movie Things in sentences Boons for beggars ___ into (assail) Do some bargain-hunting Acute Toil in the cutting room Dates frequently Valerie Plame scandal gp.

Blowup source, perhaps Last or farthest away Classification La Mancha title Country where Wyclef Jean was born Part of a metric foot Quarts in a peck, e.g.

Kvetching sort Edge Long, long stretches Additive in skin lotions Louise or Yothers Malicious Brief times

Tuesday’s solution

Tuesday’s solution

21

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

Sport

Murray handles home hopes A

ndy Murray insists he can cope with the burden of shouldering a nation’s growing expectations that he will finally end the 77-year wait for a British man to win Wimbledon.

Murray was in commanding form once again as he swept into the quarter-finals with a 6-4, 7-6, 6-1 win over Russian 20th seed Mikhail Youzhny on Monday.

The world number two has yet to drop a set in his first four matches and looked more at ease than ever in the All England Club spotlight as he prepares for a last eight clash with Spain’s Fernando Verdasco today.

With Laura Robson eliminated from the women’s draw on Monday, Murray is now the sole remaining focus of the British sporting public and he knows that means endless speculation about his chances of becoming the first British man to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936.

Losing to Roger Federer in last year’s Wimbledon final provoked a tearful response from Murray.

But, after winning the US Open and an Olympic gold at Wimbledon last year, Murray has appeared increasingly in command of his emotions both on and off court and he is in no doubt the pressure won’t affect him.

“There’s always pressure coming into this event and it builds with each match,” Murray said.

“But I’ve dealt with it well over my career. I’ve played well at Wimbledon.

It’s been consistently my best slam over the course of my career.

“So that’s partly down to the surface and partly down to enjoying playing in front of a home crowd and being able to kind of block everything else out.

“I work extremely hard to give myself the best chance to do well here.

“I just think the nature of how the tournament’s gone, there was a few days there where it was just strange.

I think everyone was a bit on edge, a

Pitcher Andy Pettitte, who admitted to using performanceenhancing drugs earlier in his career, passed Whitey Ford on Monday to become the New York Yankees all-time strikeouts leader. The 41-year-old lefthanded American recorded his 1,958th strikeout by fanning Justin Morneau for the second out in the fifth inning of New York’s 10-4 win over the Minnesota Twins. It was the second strikeout of the night for Pettitte, who also fanned Clete Thomas earlier in the Major League Baseball contest. Ford’s record had stood since 1967. AFP

Snooker star Ali Carter reveals cancer diagnosis

Andy Murray hits a return to Mikhail Youzhny in their men’s singles match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London.

little bit uptight because of what was happening with the injuries, withdrawals, upsets and stuff.

“I felt a little bit more relaxed over the weekend and even calmer before the match today.”

Murray admitted he effectively lives in a bubble during the tournament to ensure he doesn’t get wrapped up in the inevitable hysteria that builds as he progresses towards the final.

His path to the final this year has been eased significantly by a host of big name exits including Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

But Murray isn’t dreaming of lifting the trophy just yet.

“I don’t read everything that’s getting said and I’m not out and about on

the street speaking to people about the tournament,” he said.

“I’m with the guys I work with. I talk to them about each match individually. We don’t get ahead of ourselves because you can’t afford to do that.

“There’s a lot of tough opponents left in the draw. Verdasco’s playing very well this week as well. He’s extremely dangerous when he’s on his game.”

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic tackles Tomas Berdych for a place in the Wimbledon semi-finals today still feeling the raw pain of his defeat to the Czech at the All England Club three years ago.

World number one Djokovic was beaten in straight sets in the semi-

REUTERS

finals by Berdych in 2010, a defeat that raised serious doubts over whether or not the gifted but unpredictable Serb would ever build on his Australian Open breakthrough of 2008.

He lost that day but has since has gone on to win five more majors including the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open crowns in 2011.

“Yes, I had quite a turbulent five, six months of 2010, but the semi-finals of Wimbledon came at the right time for me because I felt that was like a springboard for me,” said Djokovic.

“From that moment on everything started going uphill really.”

Djokovic boasts a 13-2 winning record against Berdych. AFP

win completes FIA allows tyre tests Gerrans eventful start for team

Formula One’s governing body responded to a spate of British Grand Prix blowouts by deciding on Monday to change the rules and allow race drivers to test tyres with their current cars at Silverstone this month.

“Our priority is to ensure safety for all in Formula One and we believe the incidents at Silverstone represent a genuine safety concern for the drivers,” International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Jean Todt said in a statement.

“We have thus taken the decision to alter the Young Driver Test to allow teams to use drivers they deem fit to carry out tyre development work in a bid to solve the problems we saw at the British Grand Prix.

“I believe it is fitting to carry out this work at the circuit upon which the issues were manifested.”

Teams that field experienced drivers on the July 17-19 test, which had been scheduled previously for drivers without race experience only, can do so provided they are clearly testing tyres for Pirelli.

Mercedes, who won Sun-

Pettitte becomes the NY Yankees’ strikeout king

day’s race at Silverstone with Germany’s Nico Rosberg after team-mate Lewis Hamilton took pole position, will not take part however.

The team had been told to miss the young driver test by an FIA tribunal as punishment for breaking the rules after taking part in a “secret” test with Pirelli in Spain in May with their 2013 car and drivers.

Track testing with current cars is banned during the season under existing regulations.

The FIA said Mercedes, despite the nature of the test being changed, had agreed not to participate.

Teams were informed of the plan on Monday and the FIA said it would seek the immediate approval of its World Motor Sport Council to change the sporting regulations.

The FIA added it would also seek to change the technical regulations to allow Pirelli to modify the tyres during the season without requiring unanimous agreement.

Ferrari, Force India and Lotus have previously resisted Pirelli’s attempts to change the specification of the tyres

because they have got their cars working well with them and feared losing their competitive edge.

However, all three teams made it clear after Sunday’s race plunged the sport into crisis that they would not stand in the way of any changes needed to ensure driver safety.

Five drivers suffered explosive tyre failures in Sunday’s race, with even world champions like Lewis Hamilton – who had the first big failure while leading on lap eight – saying after that they had feared for their safety.

“It was the first time in my career I’ve ever felt it was dangerous,” said the 2008 champion after exploding tyres sent strips of metal-reinforced rubber flailing into the air, narrowly missing the heads of the drivers behind.

“After my incident I was definitely nervous for the rest of the race that the tyres might go again,” the Briton said on Sunday.

“Safety is the biggest issue.

It’s just unacceptable, really. It’s only when someone gets hurt that someone will do something about it.” REUTERS

Simon Gerrans’ sprint victory on the third stage of the Tour de France in Calvi on Monday completed what has been an eventful start to the race for his Orica-GreenEdge team, for good and bad reasons.

The 33-year-old’s outfit were the villains of the opening day, although it was not as if any of the Orica riders were at fault when their bus became stuck under a gantry at the finish line in an incident that was later blamed for causing a mass crash among the peloton.

Garikoitz Atxa, a Spanish former cyclist who was on his first day working as the team’s bus driver, was caught on camera with his head in his hands when the incident happened before the bus was moved out of the way just in the nick of time, and the team were later fined 2,000 Swiss Francs ($2,116) by organisers.

But, fast forward to Monday, and the Australian outfit were toasting their first stage win in the sport’s most famous race.

“It’s a fantastic victory for the team. We had a brilliant

first season last year, but we really missed winning a stage on the Tour de France so this year it was a big objective for the team to win a stage and I’m really happy to have done that,” said Gerrans, who won last year’s Tour Down Under in his home country as well as the Milan-San Remo.

His victory in Calvi was achieved by the narrowest of margins from Peter Sagan, with barely half a wheel separating Gerrans from last year’s green jersey winner.

“Sagan is such a complete rider,” he said. “He wins in the mountains and he can win bunch sprints.

“But I guess today the trick was great teamwork. I really had the full support of my team-mates, right up until the last couple of hundred metres. That was the key.”

Gerrans’ win capped what was a fine day all round for the team, with Simon Clarke starring as part of the fiveman group that broke away early in the stage and reaching the summit of each of the first three climbs in first place to take the day’s combativity award. AFP

Double World Championship finalist Ali Carter has been diagnosed with testicular cancer, World Snooker confirmed on Monday. The governing body said the 33-year-old Carter, who found out about his latest illness last week, was to undergo surgery yesterday. This was the latest health scare for Carter, who in 2003 was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a long-term condition that causes inflammation of the lining of the digestive system. AFP

England’s Swann given the all clear after X-ray

Graeme Swann has avoided a fracture to his bowling arm and is set to return to fielding duty later in England’s Ashes warmup match against Essex, an England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) spokesman said on Monday. Swann was hit on his right forearm by Essex paceman Tymal Mills while batting on Monday morning in England’s first innings 413 for nine declared. England’s leading spinner continued his innings but did not take the field when Essex batted and was instead sent to hospital for an X-ray.

However, the ECB subsequently said Swann had not suffered a major injury. AFP

Phillies’ Daulton has op to remove brain tumours Former Philadelphia Phillies All-Star catcher Darren Daulton had surgery to remove two brain tumours, and next will have radiation and speech treatments. Daulton, 51, hadn’t been feeling well in recent weeks and was struggling to fully express himself, prompting him to visit a doctor who discovered the tumours. His diagnosis was disclosed last week in a statement released by 97.5 The Fanatic radio station in Philadelphia, on which Daulton hosts a show. Daulton was sedated and awake yesterday as the tumours were removed, so doctors could talk to him during the seven-hour procedure to avoid any damage to his speech functions. BLOOMBERG

Leicester chief Cockerill banned for nine games Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill was banned for nine matches by the Rugby Football Union on Monday over his conduct in a Premiership game against Northampton on May 25. A disciplinary panel found Cockerill used words that were obscene and inappropriate in an exchange with fourth official Stuart Terheege. REUTERS

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THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

Sport

Ireland women cricket team call up 13-year-old O’Reilly

Lucy O’Reilly is in line to become the second youngest cricketer to play a women’s international match after being called into Ireland’s squad on Monday for their World Twenty20 qualifiers later this month. The 13-yearold is an all-rounder with the Women’s 1st XI of Dublin’s YMCA club and the daughter of former Ireland international Peter O’Reilly. She was one of 14 players selected in Ireland’s squad for the global qualifying event, which will see the hosts competing alongside seven other countries for the three remaining places on offer for next year’s World Twenty20, set to take place in Bangladesh. AFP

Ewing links up with old rival as Bobcats’ associate head coach

Patrick Ewing was hired as associate head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats, who are owned by former National Basketball Association rival and Olympic team-mate Michael Jordan.

Ewing, 50, joins the staff of coach Steve Clifford, who was appointed by the Bobcats on May 29 after spending the past 13 years as an NBA assistant.

Ewing worked with Clifford in Houston (2003-08) and Orlando (2008-12).

BLOOMBERG

Dettori’s losing run goes on but Qatari owner offers break

Frankie Dettori extended his losing run to 49 rides at Wolverhampton on Monday and remains in perhaps the worst form of his career, though that may mean much less to him than the news of a new contract. The Italian revealed on Monday that he had signed a retainer with Sheikh Joaan al-Thani, a member of Qatar’s ruling family and an emergent force as an owner of racehorses. While there should be big days ahead for the new partnership, it will make little difference to Dettori in the short term.

Sheikh Joaan’s colours of grey with red epaulettes have been carried by seven horses in Britain this year and, although he is quite capable of acquiring many more at any moment, the focus of his bloodstock operation appears to be on quality for now. THE GUARDIAN

Horwill cleared for Sydney A Nick Mulvenney

mightily relieved Australia captain James Horwill will be available for this weekend’s third test against the British and Irish Lions after being cleared of stamping for a second time in a fortnight on Tuesday.

Horwill was cited for stamping on the head of Lions lock Alun Wyn Jones in the first test in Brisbane but exonerated by New Zealand judicial officer Nigel Hampton on June 23 only for the International Rugby Board (IRB) to appeal.

Lock Horwill said he had endured a sleepless night while he waited for the verdict and thanked the Australian public for what he described as their overwhelming support throughout the process.

“Very relieved, very relieved,” he told a news conference. “I feel very vindicated . . . I know what happened and I’m glad that the right result was come to in the end.

“I love what I do and it means a lot to me to represent my country and the opportunity to lead it in what is arguably the biggest game in this country since the World Cup final in 2003 is very exciting.”

The appeals officer Graeme Mew, who is based in Canada, delivered his decision following a lengthy hearing on Monday and said the appeal would only have been upheld if the IRB had established a clear mistake on Hampton’s part.

“There was sufficient evidence upon which a reasonable judicial officer could have reached the decision that was made,” Mew said in an Australian Rugby Union (ARU) statement.

“Accordingly, it could not be said that the judicial officer was manifestly wrong or that the interests of justice otherwise required his decision be overturned.”

Australian Wallabies captain James Horwill (right) and flyhalf James O’Connor (left) celebrate after defeating the British and Irish Lions in the second rugby Test match, in Melbourne last Saturday. AFP

Mew said the IRB had been right to appeal in their role as promoters of player welfare and protectors of the image of the game, something the governing body said was a major reason for making the appeal.

“While ultimately not proving successful in its appeal, the IRB is satisfied that it took the right approach . . . to lodge an appeal in the interests of player welfare as well as to uphold the disciplinary rules,” the body said in a statement.

“In light of the potential adverse

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implications, the IRB is keen to ensure all acts of foul play involving the head should be given serious and thorough consideration.

“This was recognised by the appeal officer in his decision.”

The decision to re-litigate the issue had provoked outrage in Australia, with the ARU themselves expressing they were “surprised and disappointed” at the appeal.

“I probably wouldn’t want to see another player go through that,” Horwill added.

“But it was incredibly thorough, fair and just.”

The test series is tied 1-1 going into the final match at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium after the Lions won the first test 23-21 in Brisbane and the Wallabies the second 16-15 in Melbourne.

The Lions have already lost their captain Sam Warburton to a hamstring injury and a decision to ban Horwill would have been as big a blow, if not bigger, to the Wallabies.

REUTERS

USPGA adopts a ban on anchored putting stroke The USPGA Tour said on Monday that it would ban the use of anchored putters, which players have controversially used to win four of the last seven major championships.

The Tour’s policy board passed a resolution making anchored putters illegal beginning in 2016.

Explaining the decision to go ahead with the ban, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said: “In making its decision, the policy board recognised that there are still varying opinions among our membership, but ultimately concluded that, while it is an important issue, a ban on anchored strokes would not fundamentally affect a strong presentation of our competitions or the overall success of the PGA Tour.

“The board also was of the opinion that having a single set of rules on acceptable strokes applicable to all professional competitions worldwide was desirable and would avoid confusion.”

The PGA Tour initially opposed the ban, raising the spectre of a damaging division in golf with different rules

Anchor ban: Australia’s Adam Scott looks at his putt while holding a long putter in the first round of the US Open on June 13. REUTERS

being applied on different continents.

The putters have been in the spotlight since being used by a clutch of players to win major championships, including Adam Scott, who used a broom-handle putter to win the Masters in April.

The putting stroke involves fixing the handle of the putter to a point on the body – usually the stomach or chest.

Anchored putting at top tournaments dates back to the

1980s when Bernhard Langer adopted it to combat his problems on the greens, but it has become more prevalent in recent years.

Keegan Bradley became the first player to win a major with a long putter at the 2011 PGA Championship, and he was followed by Webb Simpson at the US Open and Ernie Els at the British Open last year.

Scott then completed the set of major wins for long putters by winning at Augusta. AFP

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THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

Football Arsenal sign French youth striker Sanogo

Arsenal have signed French youth international striker Yaya Sanogo on a long-term contract, the London club said on their website (arsenal.com) on Monday. Sanogo, 20, a free agent after leaving Ligue 2 team Auxerre, has represented his country at U16, U17 and U19 level and is currently with the national side in Turkey for the U20 World Cup. He has scored in two of their three matches in Turkey, helping France qualify for the knockout phase. REUTERS

Celta Vigo agree terms with Benfica’s Nolito

Iran’s Andranik Teymourian (right) challenges South Korea’s Lee Dong-gook during their 2014 World Cup qualifying match in Ulsan, southeast of Seoul, on June 18.

REUTERS

Korea, Iran to bury hatchet S

outh Korea and Iran will sign a sports exchange agreement today, barely two weeks after talks of “blood” and “revenge” soured relations between their respective soccer teams ahead of a crucial 2014 World Cup qualifier.

Both nations advanced to next year’s finals in Brazil after Iran beat the hosts 1-0 in Ulsan last month in a highly charged encounter stoked by mud-slinging between Iran coach Carlos Queiroz and his South Korean

counterpart Choi Kang-hee. The Korea Football Association (KFA) website crashed because of heavy traffic after angry fans visited the portal to slam the team’s insipid performance, while Choi was criticised heavily in the local media prior to his resignation the next day.

Queiroz’s animated celebrations after the match also drew anger from the KFA, who said he had made a rude gesture after the final whistle which FIFA would investigate.

Despite the bad blood, Yoo Jin-ryong, South Korea’s minister of culture, sports and tourism, and Mohammad Abbasi, Iran’s minister of youth affairs and sports, will pen a deal on the sports exchange program.

In 2007 the countries had signed a similar agreement and the deal expired in 2010, South Korea’s sports ministry said.

The new agreement would cover bilateral exchange of athletes, coaches and other sports experts, and the two

countries would also cooperate on matters related to international sports organisations, the Yonhap news agency reported.

“We hope this signing will further expand sports exchanges and cooperation between South Korea and Iran,” Yoo was quoted as saying in the report.

“We also hope that the two countries will actively engage in exchange programs in culture and tourism, among other areas.” REUTERS

Paulinho moves to Spurs A relaxed Boeung Ket The Brazil midfielder Paulinho has confirmed he will join Tottenham Hotspur from Corinthians in a £17 million ($25.9 million) deal.

The 24-year-old, who was voted the third-best player at the Confederations Cup, will link up with his new teammates at White Hart Lane after a short holiday.

“The other interest we got was from Inter Milan but the only offer came from Totten-

ham,” he said. “The proposal came, we sat down, analysed it and decided. It was a big decision to go to a big club. There comes a certain point when you need new challenges.”

There had been speculation that Paulinho could be involved in the Recopa Sudamericana [South America’s equivalent of the UEFA Super Cup] game against Sao Paulo today. But the midfielder will instead travel to London

Brazil’s midfielder Paulinho celebrates after scoring against Uruguay during their 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final on June 26. AFP

to complete his medical and the move.

Paulinho scored 34 goals in 167 appearances for Corinthians and was instrumental in Brazil’s 3-0 win over Spain on Sunday in the final of the Confederations Cup. “I will not play in the Recopa because there are contractual requirements of Tottenham which cannot be discussed here,” he said.

“It was a decision that we all respect. Of course, I had a huge desire to win another title but the transfer has to be completed.”

In an emotional press conference at Corinthians, Paulinho said he would return to the Brazilian club one day. “It’s hard to say anything at a moment like this, but I am sure those were three wonderful years in my career, with many titles,” he said.

“What I have to say to Corinthians fans, board and staff is ‘see you soon’. I will be back in no time, due to everything they have done for me. My individual titles are all thanks to the club. Corinthians will be in my heart for the rest of my life.” THE GUARDIAN

face Army side battle HS Manjunath

Now that defending champions Boeung Ket Rubber Field have effectively dealt with some serious form fluctuations that rattled them at the start of the second half of the Metfone C-League season, the side will be eager to maintain a winning tempo when they face Ministry of National Defence at Olympic Stadium today.

With 37 points from 16 games to their credit, Boeung Ket’s standing at the top of the league table is a certainty since their nearest rivals Phnom Penh Crown have just one game to play and are five points adrift in second spot.

The 2012 champions carry no worries to the pitch but will be looking for a victory over the Army men to boost their own stock ahead of the start of the Super Four contests in 10 days’ time.

Also of significant interest for Boeung Ket will be whether their star striker and leading scorer Bisan George can add

a few more to his tally of 17 and step closer to the Golden Boot. In hot pursuit is Kirivong Sok Sen Chey’s Nwakuna Friday with 16 goals, while Svay Rieng’s Khoun Laboravy has 14, and Crown’s Elroy van der Hooft and Boeung Ket’s Chan Vathanaka are on 11 each.

Troubled as they clearly were in the first phase of the competition, MND have managed to avoid the danger of a drop.

Though a place in the Super Four for this year’s Hun Sen Cup runners-up is beyond them, the side has a reputation for slamming the best down when they least expect. Stubborn and sturdy as they always are, the Army side could use the chance to cause a dent or two in Boeung Ket’s resolve.

Stake-wise, the only midweek game at 3pm holds no terror for either side and their order of business is very well marked. If the two sides play up to their known best, there could be some good entertainment value for the spectators.

Celta Vigo have signed forward Nolito from Portuguese side Benfica and the 26-year-old has agreed a four-year contract, the La Liga club said on Monday.

Nolito, who spent three seasons at Barcelona coinciding with new Celta coach Luis Enrique’s time there as coach of the B team, has been at Benfica since 2011 and spent the second half of last season on loan at Celta’s league rivals Granada. Celta narrowly avoided relegation last term when they finished one place and one point above the drop zone. They did not specify the fee they paid Benfica for Nolito, which Portuguese media said was €2.6 million ($3.4 million). REUTERS

Union calls for FIFA to share TV rights revenues

FIFA and UEFA should share their fast-growing television revenue with players’ unions to help protect footballers who struggle when clubs fall on hard times, FIFPro board member Joaquim Evangelista said on Monday. Evangelista, also head of the Portuguese Professional Footballers Association, said he would urge fellow board members at world players’ union FIFPro to support his call for action at the general assembly in the Netherlands later on Monday. “FIFA and UEFA should stop the rhetoric and support players concretely,” he told Reuters in an interview.

“We deal with the biggest problems in football: human dramas. So those who benefit the most from players [FIFA and UEFA] should also show solidarity,” added Evangelista, referring to the ruling bodies of world and European soccer. The sale of broadcasting rights for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil has generated an estimated $437 million, while this year’s FIFA Confederations Cup has beaten television audience records. REUTERS

Bocanegra returns to MLS with Chivas USA

United States national team defender Carlos Bocanegra has signed with Major League Soccer’s Chivas USA, the team said on Monday. Bocanegra, 34, who has made 110 appearances for the US, returns to his home state of California after playing in England, France, Scotland and Spain. Bocanegra, who began his career with MLS’s Chicago Fire, played in Spain’s second division for Racing Santander last season having moved from Scotland’s Glasgow Rangers on loan. REUTERS

Chess Puzzle solution: ... Rd3! (threatening Qb3 and also loose f pawn)

24

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 3, 2013

Sport Williams beaten by brilliant Lisicki Simon Cambers

T

here are shocks and then there are shocks. What happened to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the first week at Wimbledon was pretty spectacular; what happened on Monday to Serena Williams was nothing short of unbelievable.

Five times the champion and on a winning streak of 34 matches, the American was an overwhelming favourite to win the title for a sixth time, even more so after the early exits of Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka.

But having led 3-0 and 4-2 in the final set, she slipped out of the Championships, beaten 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 by Germany’s Sabine Lisicki.

It was a brilliant performance from Lisicki, a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2010, at her best on grass and a player who on her day can be a match for anyone. She did a great job of keeping Williams off-balance and wrong-footing the American.

But what was most unusual was the way the world No 1 let slip a

Sabine Lisicki (left) celebrates after defeating Serena Williams during their women’s singles tennis match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London. REUTERS

commanding lead in the decider and for once, when the big moments came, tightened up and was found wanting.

At 31 the American has been

through enough ups and downs in her career to put things in perspective, including a near-death experience in 2011, after she suffered a pulmonary embolism because of

blood clots in both lungs. Having won 75 of her 78 matches since losing in round one at the French Open last year and less than a month since winning the Roland Garros title for a second time, she said she “couldn’t be more disappointed”.

But even as she praised Lisicki for her effort, she looked and sounded as if she was in a state of shock.

“She plays really good on grass,” she said of Lisicki, the 23rd seed whose booming serve and big groundstrokes have now taken her to the quarter-finals for the fourth time.

“She has a massive, massive serve.

Going in there, you have to know that it’s definitely not going to be an easy match at Wimbledon. I just need to do better.

“I definitely had my opportunities and I didn’t take them. I definitely feel that I backed off a little bit at some points.

“I definitely feel I could have gone for it a little more on some of the shots. Sabine played really well. But there’s huge room for improvement for me.”

That was the biggest surprise – that she did not do better when she needed to. So many times in her career Williams has dug her way out of trouble when not on her A-game.

“I am still shaking, I am so happy,” Lisicki said, bursting into tears moments after a victory which sets up a quarter-final against Kaia Kanepi of Estonia.

“It is an amazing feeling to win this match. This is such a special place for me and the crowd were brilliant to me. I gave it everything I had, I fought for every single point to try to win it somehow.”

The defeat blows a hole in the top half of the draw, as those of Sharapova and Azarenka did in the bottom half. Williams said she would just go back home and start preparing to bounce back when the tour moves to the hard courts in North America later this month.

“For me any loss is difficult to overcome,” she said.

“I’ll just have to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to win this match the next time.”

THE GUARDIAN