130710-The Post English by Post Media

India’s acid attack policy under fire

Preview of first Ashes Test

BUSINESS – page 7

WORLD – page 12

SPORT – page 23

Issue NUMBER 1665

Vespa sales are booming in Kingdom

Successful People Read The Post

WednesDAY, jUly 10, 2013

4000 RIEL

Stitching up an election Shane Worrell and Mom Kunthear Analysis

IN March, just months out from the national election, Prime Minister Hun Sen put an end to minimum wage negotiations between unions and factories by intervening to deliver workers an extra $14 per month – $2 more than the government had been poised to offer. Negotiations on pay hikes weren’t due until 2014 – but an election was around the corner. Not to be outdone, the CNRP synchronised its policies with what independent and oppositionaligned unions wanted, promising $150 per month if victorious on July 28. These events indicate, in no uncertain terms, the importance both parties place on the garment vote. Analysts, labour groups and unions say the industry’s 400,000-plus garment workers – many of them young women – are becoming more

They're fed up with broken promises. They're facing a lot of issues and they understand their needs politically aware. For major parties to ignore their interests in an election year, they say, would be folly. “Our research shows women in garment factories are more interested and knowledgeable when it comes to politics . . . than young women at university,” said Ros Sopheap, executive director of Gender and Development for Cambodia. This was something particularly evident in the way workers had taken an interest in last year’s commune elections, Sopheap added. “I believe factory workers are more interested in national elections as well.” Likely reasons for this, she added, were that garment workers were directly exposed to social and economic hardships and, therefore, more desperate to fight for change. “They’re fed up with broken promises. They’re facing a lot of issues, and they understand their needs,” she said. “They come to the city and they learn a lot of things – they get it from multiple channels. They can analyse their decisions and . . . they feel very confident.” Garment workers also hold a lot of leverage in Continues on page 6

Political prayers Anti-Reproductive Health bill advocates hold a prayer rally in front Manila’s Supreme Court yesterday. The bill on promoting state-funded contraceptives, passed by the Philippines’ Congress last December, was suspended in March to allow the Supreme Court to hear petitions from pro-life groups. REUTERS

sTORY > 14

Myanmar rice is back Daniel de Carteret and Hor Kimsay

HILE exports of Cambodian rice have been booming, analysts are predicting that new competition from Myanmar could eventually rain on the parade. Cambodia exported nearly 176,000 tonnes of rice in the first six months of the year, a 125 per cent increase from the same period in 2012, when about 78,000 tonnes left the country. Most of that, or about 60 per cent, went to countries in the European Union, which grants

Cambodia duty-free tariffs under its Everything But Arms agreement to provide opportunities for growth. In June, however, the EU readmitted Myanmar to its trade preference scheme in response to wide-ranging political and economic reforms taking hold in the country since President Thein Sein took power in 2011. The move should ease restrictions on an industry that is already producing vast quantities of milled rice for consumption in nonEU countries. “They have been exporting already over one million tonnes [in the fiscal year of 2012/2013]

and they plan to triple that tonnage capacity within the next couple of years,” said David Van, the deputy secretary-general for the Alliance of Rice Producers and Exporters of Cambodia (ARPEC). He said Myanmar is poised to become Cambodia’s biggest competitor, aided not only by the EU but by future regional connectivity through the planned Asean Economic Community (AEC) of 2015. “Taking into consideration AEC 2015 free flow of goods and manpower, it would be even Continues on page 8

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

National

praises PM, govt Nuon Chea slams evidence King on handling of forests Stuart White

ROCEEDINGS at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday were dominated by a lengthy indictment of the fairness of the court’s documentary presentations by Khieu Samphan defender Arthur Verken, with the heated debate giving way to the introduction of star witness Stephen Heder in the late afternoon. Earlier in the day, Nuon Chea had weighed in with his own criticisms of the court’s documentary procedures, saying he was “stunned” at the shoddy evidentiary quality of most of the documents, saying they were “nothing short of hearsay”, and that the numerous books written by academics and experts had been embellished to bolster sales. “In general, in order to make the books convince the readers, the authors had to apply some of their methodology and techniques to make sure people want to read their books. With that, the truth is compromised,” he said. “If the chamber relies on these hearsay pieces of evi-

dence, then I don’t think it can find justice for every one of us,” he added, ultimately requesting the “rejection of all the documents presented by the coprosecution”. Afterwards, Vercken launched into his own attack against documentary evidence, saying the court’s refusal to allow documents to be challenged throughout the entire trial had been a major violation “of the most elemental rights of [his] client”. “When I listen to the prosecution and the civil parties, I don’t feel like we’re taking part in a trial any more. I feel like we’re taking part in an international conference on the history of Cambodia,” Vercken said. Khieu Samphan also offered his own rationale for refusing to participate in questioning, saying first that after seeing his rights ignored, he had “no faith in the court”, reaffirming his decision even after the court intimated that it would consider acquiescing on a number of demands he made earlier. “There are other legal implications behind this decision, and I may only refer to one of them. There have been at-

Cheang Sokha and Abby Seiff

Former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea in the courtroom at the ECCC in Phnom Penh in 2012. AFP/ECCC

tempts to prevent my counsels from properly or fully and meaningfully representing me in this case,” he said, referring to limits placed on closing briefs considered unfair by the defence. In the same vein, Vercken went on to add that in the absence of “adversarial” hearings on documents, the allotted 100 pages for closing briefs was simply inadequate to challenge the tens of thousands of pages admitted before the court. Vercken, however, offered little in the way of criticism for specific documents, prompting prosecutor Tarik Abdulhak

to gamely suggest that if Vercken was unprepared, he could simply ask for more time to prepare his challenges. Near the end of the session, the court briefly called to the stand academic and author Stephen Heder, who has researched Khmer Rouge history for numerous institutions since the early 1970s. Heder’s impartiality has been questioned in the past due to the fact that he was once employed by the tribunal, both in the offices of the prosecution and the co-investigating judges. Heder’s testimony will resume tomorrow.

IN A rare public speech, King Norodom Sihamoni yesterday offered unstinting praise for the government and Prime Minister Hun Sen in their work protecting the Kingdom’s forests. Speaking at a ceremony in Preah Sihanouk to mark Arbor Day, attended by more than 10,000 villagers, high-ranking officials and foreign diplomats, King Sihamoni thanked Hun Sen for the vast efforts he’d undertaken to protect the forests. “I would like to admire Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Decho Hun Sen, the head of the government, who has put out specific measures in managing the forests in accordance to the principle of the law,” King Sihamoni said, reading from a prepared speech, only the second he has made since the death of his father last October. “I always support the policy of protecting the forestry and wildlife ,as it’s a blood line for agriculture and lives of the people,” he continued. Sihamoni then appealed to foreign donors and development partners to assist Cambodia both financially and technically “so that the government can achieve its goal”. The speech was given during a two-day trip in which he and Queen Mother Norodom

Monineath were accompanied by Prime Minister Hun Sen. The pairing of monarchy and government raised eyebrows among analysts, who said there could be little doubt that the ruling party was trying to coopt the royal family as part of their election bid. “The government made an extra effort to take [the King] to the field, meet people in the field and their home . . . it’s bound to benefit the CPP,” political analyst Lao Mong Hay said. Ostensibly an open government ceremony, it was clear from the images broadcast across the airwaves that “only ruling party officials went”, Mong Hay said. “It’s not a national event, it’s party dominated.” And though the content of the speech was not overtly political, he added, “anything is political really in Cambodia, and the publicity of the event is liable to be broadcasted [as such]”. “There’s the presence of the CPP leaders and all that. It’s what the CPP wants to show – the King – to attract the attention of the public.” More than 2.5 million hectares of land has been leased by the government for Economic Land Concessions and vast swaths of protected forests have been reclassified and turned over for agro-industry as well.

Prime Minister Hun Sen (left) and King Norodom Sihamoni water a tree at an Arbor Day event yesterday in Preah Sihanouk. PHOTO SUPPLIED

Kantha Bopha Children s Hospital Siem Reap Angkor ( Jayavarman VII )

Every Saturday, 7.15 pm

BEATOCELLO in CONCERT Cello Music and information about the five Kantha Bopha Children s Hospitals by Dr. Beat Richner

Free admission www.beatocello.com

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

National

Bribes remain rampant: TI Justine Drennan

ESPITE facing a rampant graft problem that has seen Cambodians paying bribes far more often than their regional neighbours, they have growing faith in the government’s ability to fight it, a Transparency International survey has found. TI’s 2013 Global Corruption Barometer, which measures perceptions of corruption in 107 countries, found that half the 1,000 Cambodians surveyed in the past year thought corruption in Cambodia was decreasing, and only a quarter thought it was increasing. In 2011, by contrast, only 30 per cent of Cambodian interviewees thought corruption was decreasing and 43 per cent believed it to be worsening, Preap Kol, executive director for TI Cambodia, said at yesterday’s press conference on the survey. “We think perceptions changed because there were more arrests of corrupt officials,” Kol said, noting, however, that perceptions about corruption and reality do not necessarily correspond. “According to our experience, when an anti-corruption cam-

Graft graph Judicial system Police force Registry and permit service Land services Medical and health services Education systerm Utilities Tax

Percentage of people that had come into contact with each service and had to pay a bribe *Source: Transparency International

paign begins, people are hopeful, and they have trust, and the [country’s] score increases very quickly,” he said. This year, 57 per cent of Cambodian interviewees, who were randomly selected from across the country, said the government’s actions against corruption were effective, and only 15 per cent said they were ineffective, with the rest neutral. “But if the government cannot meet people’s expectations very quickly, the [rating] will

decrease in the next few years,” Kol warned. Indeed, although 81 per cent of Cambodian respondents said they believed ordinary people could make a difference in the fight against corruption, and about the same proportion said they were willing to report corruption and mobilise against it, the survey revealed serious shortfalls when it came to individuals addressing corruption in practice. Fifty seven per cent of Cam-

Employment Opportunities Initially established in 1996 as a project of International HIV/AIDS Alliance, KHANA operated as an NGO from 1997 and was officially registered as a local NGO in 2000. Since then it has operated as a linking organization of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and is so far a leading non-governmental organization in Cambodia that has made outstanding contributions to the HIV response. KHANA’s work has been made possible through support from USAID, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, European Commission, World Food Programme and AusAID. We are now seeking qualified Cambodian nationals for the following vacancies: 1. Finance Analyst – 1 position Purpose of position: Responsible for the overall management accounts system, KHANA budgeting and donors reporting. Compile financial information, along with explanations for variances into the management account, sending it to the necessary officers. S/he will also be responsible for reviewing or developing financial policies and guidelines and raise awareness of compliance to all staff. Selection Criteria:  Graduate bachelor or master degree in finance/ accounting, or related field  At least four years working experience in financial management, analysis, etc.  High proficiency in speaking and writing English  CAT or ACCA qualification and experience in using SunSystem accounting software is a plus 2. Team Leader: IP Finance – 1 position Purpose of position: The post holder leads the team that provides financial, technical and procurement support to the staff of KHANA implementing partners (IP). S/he will lead the process of embedding the team and coordinate the efforts of the team to ensure high standards of accountability and grant management across KHANA and IP.S/he will also be responsible for reviewing or developing standardpolicies and guidelines and raise awareness of compliance to all IP. Selection Criteria:  Graduate bachelor or master degree in : Financial Management, Accounting, Economic or Business Administration, or related field  At least four years working experience in grant/ financial management, etc.  Ability to plan and organize a substantial workload comprised of complex, diverse tasks and responsibilities.  High proficiency in speaking and writing English

3. Planning, Monitoring and Reporting Officer – 1 position Purpose of position: The post holder is a key member of a planning, monitoring and reporting unit that handles, collects, reviews, and consolidates workplan, M & E plan, and reports of IPs under his/her responsibilities on regular basis. Selection Criteria:  Bachelor’s degree in public health, social sciences or other relevant fields  English proficiency in both writing and speaking  2 years of relevant experience in planning, monitoring, and reporting, and capacity building 4. Research Fellow: HIV & Health – 1 position Purpose of position: S/he is responsible for coordinating relevant researches and collecting and analyzing the secondary data on HIV and health related issues to inform KHANA programming, publication and policy and advocacy efforts. Selection Criteria:  Master of Health Social Science or Psychology or Anthropology, or other related field  4 yearsof experience in conducting researches  Knowledge of statistical software, Epi-Data, Epi-Info, SPSS or STATA  High proficiency both writing and speaking English 5. Finance Officer – 1 position Purpose of position: The post holder takes responsibility for the day-today management of the accounting transactions and recordings in KHANAaccounting system and to assist the Team Leader: Corporate Finance with management accounts and financial reporting. Selection Criteria  Bachelor degree in business administration, majoring in accounting/finance  At least 2 years of relevant work experience with NGO or private sector  English proficiency in both writing and speaking

For more information about the key responsibilities, required qualifications and detailed job descriptions, please visit KHANA’s website at www.khana.org.kh. Interested candidates must apply online via www.khana.org.kh(Employment Opportunities Section) by19 July 2013 before 5 p.m.Only short-listed candidates will be notified for further process. Applications via email or hard copies will not be considered. KHANA is committed to equal opportunities and welcomes applications from appropriate qualified people from all sections of the community. Qualified people living with HIV, MSM, disabled people and women are particularly encouraged to apply.

bodian respondents said they or someone in their household had paid a bribe in the past year, a proportion significantly higher than the 36 per cent or less reported in each of the other five Southeast Asian countries surveyed – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Moreover, 51 per cent of Cambodians said the most common reason for paying bribes was “as a gift, or to express gratitude”, compared with less than 25 per

cent of respondents in the other five countries. “In Cambodia, there’s a confusion between gift and bribe, while in other countries a bribe is [paid] to speed things up,” Kol said. Meanwhile, 77 per cent of Cambodians who said they would not report an incident of corruption gave the reason as: “I am afraid of the consequences” – an answer given less than half the time in all other Southeast Asian countries but Malaysia. “We think that Cambodia and Malaysia are similar in that way because they have the longest ruling governments,” Kol said, arguing that the longstanding concentration of power in both countries made it more difficult to call out corruption in government. He added that Article 41 of Cambodia’s Anti-Corruption Law, under which someone making unfounded accusations of corruption could be prosecuted for defamation, is a threat to whistleblowers, and recommended amending the law to protect those voicing concerns. ACU president Om Yentieng and spokesman Keo Remy could not be reached for comment.

Volunteer vandals

Youths told to go home by employers

LL six young German nationals who were briefly detained by police early on Saturday morning after pulling down a ruling party election poster left the country on Monday night, the local head of GIZ, the German government’s development arm, said yesterday. The volunteers, most of whom were placed at GIZ and the German cultural centre Meta House, were asked to leave by their hosts in cooperation with the embassy, GIZ country director Adelbert Eberhardt said. “I will say they have not accepted our GIZ rules and I cannot accept this situation . . . I have decided they have to go out from this country and the contract is finished,” he said. Kouch Chamroeun, governor of Meanchey district where the incident occurred, said he had received an official letter of apology from Eberhardt. “I received the letter and it’s good to receive it, because they accept their faults and they did not have a bad intention to do that,” he said, adding that no further actions would be taken by authorities. KEVIN PONNIAH and CHHAY CHANNYDA

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

National CPP to boost women in govt if it wins poll Vong Sokheng

HE Cambodian People’s Party will appoint one female secretary of state and one female undersecretary of state to each government ministry if it wins the National Election on July 28, a party statement said yesterday. CPP president Chea Sim signed off on the Central Committee pledge, posted on the party’s website yesterday, to boost the number of women in senior roles. “We must [diversify] . . . in order to show the CPP’s desire to increase the number of women in leadership in all national institutions,” the document states. Sonket Sereyleak, education and gender programs coordinator at the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia, said her research showed that only 16 of 198 secretary of state positions were held by women, a mere 8 per cent. And women held only 30 of the 205 undersecretary of state positions (15 per cent), she added. “We welcome the ruling CPP’s promise to appoint more women at the national

level,” she said. “It will enable them to have a stronger voice and propose laws relating to women’s issues.” Sereyleak said her organisation wanted women to hold at least 30 per cent of the leadership positions in the government and its ministries. Tep Nytha, secretary general of the National Election Committee, said he was not surprised at the announcement, because parties had been focusing on addressing issues related to women and youths. He added that about 52 per cent of the Kingdom’s 9.6 million voters are women and 36 per cent are aged between 18 and 30. Yim Sovann, spokesman for the Cambodia National Rescue Party, said his party has yet to devise plans for the make-up of its ministries if it won the election. “We haven’t started thinking about this issue,” he said. “But in principle, we’ve encouraged parties to promote more women. Numbers of female candidates, however, are still low.” Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said he was not aware of the number of women holding positions in the government.

Accused stays silent as Families complain murder case continues over visas Sen David Kim Sarom

THE Belgian national charged with the murder of a French woman found dead in Kampot in February, as well as a witness in the case, appeared at the Kampot provincial court yesterday for questioning, investigating judge Hong Sokhun Vattana said yesterday. Vattana said the witness, whose identity has remained confidential because she is under-age, yesterday confirmed she had seen suspect Oliver Van Den Bogaert walking a bike she believed to have earlier seen victim Ophélie Begnis riding on the day of her death – recollections that had prompted police to arrest Van Den Bogaert in April. Begnis was found dead, floating naked in the Kampot estuary with injuries to her head and arms, after she and her friend had been staying at the Les Manguiers guesthouse. Van Den Bogart’s lawyer, Khun Sophal, yesterday confirmed that his client also had appeared at the court for questioning but said Van Den Bogaert had remained silent.

Belgian national Oliver Van Den Bogaert in the Kampot provincial police station following his arrest in Kampot province in April. PHOTO SUPPLIED

“My client did not respond to anything in the hearing,” he said. Sophal added that the witness had not convincingly showed Van Den Bogaert’s guilt, denying that she had any proof. He said that six or seven witnesses, on the other hand, had solid proof of his client’s innocence. Vattana said the court had now questioned about half of the more than 10 witnesses it

intends to call in the case, adding that there was no set time in which the rest would be called to answer the court. “The court wants strong evidence on both sides, so the court takes a long time in this case, because there are more than 10 witnesses,” he said. “We have questioned the suspect and witnesses and heard some evidence that seems incriminating and some that seems exculpatory,” he said.

THREE families lodged complaints with authorities in Banteay Meanchey on Monday, requesting that action be taken against a recruitment firm that sent their family members to work in Thailand on tourist visas, a move that subsequently led to their arrest. Son Sokheng, 27, Chhoun Phoung, 30, and Poa Khema, 21 were detained by Thai police across the border from Poipet on June 10 after authorities checked worker passports held by the company. Men Borith, 46, the father of Khema, said that he paid $150 to recruitment firm CDM Trading Manpower Co, Ltd to prepare a passport with a two-year work visa for his son to join 41 other Cambodians that the company sent to Thailand in March. “The company promised a two-year [visa] . . . The company kept his passport . . . he did not know. After two months, he was arrested and detained for having a 14-day tourist visa,” he said. Leng Yen, a monitor with Licadho, said that the company had to find a solution as they had made the mistake.

GREAT CAREER OPPORTUNITIES AT INTERCONTINENTAL PHNOM PENH

INTERCONTINENTAL PHNOM PENH Seiha loves marƟal arts. He doesn’t bring his Judo expertise to work, but he does bring his unique charm and passion for sharing personal experiences to everything he does.

Ideally, you will have:

-College or advanced vocaƟonal training plus four years of experience in general building maintenance and/or construĐƟon, or an equivalent InterConƟnental Phnom Penh looks for combinaƟon of educaƟon and people like Seiha: charming, conĮdent, experience. Hotel maintenance and sophisƟcated and internĂƟonally-minded management experience will give the people who do all they can to exceed guest prospecƟve candidate and advantage expectaƟons. during the selecƟon process. The InterConƟnental Phnom Penh is located in the central business district of -ExperƟse in plumbing, electrical, Phnom Penh and we now have an opening mechanical and carpentry Įelds in our Engineering department.

We’re looking for an ASST. CHIEF ENGINEER to join our team: This job is 2nd in command of our maintenance/engineering operaƟons in our full-service luxury hotel. We have a number of major outlets, high volume catering and convenƟon faciliƟes, and a large number of VIP and key guest. Serves as Director of Engineering in his absence.

-Proven track record of team management and communicaƟon skills -Solid mathemaƟcal skills are an advantage as they will be used frequently in the day to day operaƟons -Problem solving, moƟvaƟng, organizaƟonal and training abiliƟes are used oŌen. -May be required to work nights, weekends, and/or holidays.

In return, we’ll give you a compeƟƟve salary and beneĮts package, hotel discounts worldwide and opportuniƟes to learn new skills and grow your career. You’ll join a team passionate about delivering memorable experiences that make our guests feel special, making InterConƟnental Phnom Penh a great place to work. Most importantly, we’ll give you Room to be yourself. If this sounds like the perfect move for you or if you want to Įnd out more, visit www.ihg.jobs. Get in touch and tell us of your interest by submiƫng your leƩer of applicaƟon and your most updated CV via careers@icphnompenh.com Or you can drop your CV at our HR Oĸce- Mondays to Fridays- 8 am to 5 pm, Saturdays- 8 am to 12 noon.

Seiha- InterConƟnental Phnom Penh

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

National Failed prison bake

Brother in trouble over drug ‘bust’

n ANOTHER fruitless smuggling effort, a man was arrested when he allegedly tried to sneak methamphetamine to his brother in prison. Police sent Nuy Chandy, a 28-year-old garment worker, to Pursat Provincial Court yesterday after he allegedly smuggled four packages of the drug to his 30-year-old brother, who had been in Pursat province’s Correctional Centre 4 for two years on an armed robbery conviction, said Captain Vorng Saveth, deputy chief of Phnom Kravanh district police. “He had hidden drugs inside body lotion bottles and put it along with foods and dried fish,” Saveth said. Prison guards who searched his brother found the methamphetamine, worth about $300, Saveth said. Police arrested Chandy as he waited for a taxi to take him back to Phnom Penh. If convicted, Chandy could be jailed for up to five years. Guards at Prey Sar prison saw a similar case last week when a 25-year-old man was arrested after allegedly smuggling methamphetamine in for a friend. Buth ReakSmey Kongkea

beaten CNRP tight-lipped on return Boy by uncle, mum says

Meas Sokchea

HANDFUL of opposition party officials held an informal meeting last night to discuss details surrounding self-exiled leader Sam Rainsy’s return, though the party continued to remain tight-lipped regarding specifics. Some three days after Rainsy’s bombshell announcement, neither he nor his party have announced a date. “He will arrive soon,” is all lawmaker Mu Sochua would say yesterday. Reached following the meeting, party spokesman Yim Sovann said no date had yet been decided upon. On Saturday, Rainsy announced that he would return to Cambodia before the election, though he faces over a decade of jail time barring a lastminute deal. In 2006, an almost identical situation ended with Rainsy’s return from self-imposed exile after the government gave him a royal pardon for an 18month conviction in exchange for an apology. Rainsy has not answered questions as to whether he would be willing to apologise to the government for remov-

May Titthara

Self-exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy is seen in Yangon, Myanmar, in March . AFP

ing a border post and faking public documents – charges his supporters maintain are politically motivated. Ministry of Justice chief of cabinet Sam Prachea Meanith said they had received no pardon order as of yesterday. “[Sam Rainsy] is still a convicted person according to the court decision,” he said. On July 13, Rainsy claimed to have sent a letter to King Norodom Sihamoni requesting a

pardon, but palace officials denied the letter’s existence. “There’s no pardon,” said Oum Daravuth, secretary of state at the Ministry of Royal Palace, adding that he did not know if any letter had been sent. The CNRP promised yesterday that thousands would turn up at the airport upon Rainsy’s return, but police remained adamant that – crowds or not – they intended to arrest Rainsy upon landing.

“We are law enforcers and he is the target who the court has ordered us to arrest. So, we have no choice, we must enforce according to the law.” Rainsy has reportedly been seeking assistance from US and European officials. On Monday, the Associate Press reported that a US State Department spokesperson addressed his case, saying that the US was pushing for his return. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DAVID BOYLE AND ABBY SEIFF

POLICE have issued an arrest warrant for a Koh Kong man who allegedly bound and brutally beat his 14-year-old nephew over a $15 radio. The boy’s mother, 49-year-old Mom Muth, enlisted the help of rights group Adhoc to urge local authorities to actively pursue the arrest and prosecution of her son’s uncle and grandmother. The two allegedly conspired to have the boy taken from school on the afternoon of May 24 and beaten with wire clothing hangers, because the latter believed he stole her radio. “When I got a call from a neighbour that my son was beaten in the middle of the forest, I ran and screamed for him,” Muth recalled. “I saw he was tied behind his back with blood over his body, and I almost fainted.” Mondul Seima district police chief Kim Sany said police have now put out a warrant for Ny’s arrest. An initial attempt by the grandmother to settle the case out of court for $250 was rejected, according to Muth. The case was sent to court yesterday evening, Koh Kong court clerk Chen Long said.

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

National

police blotter

Stitching up an election

Rock-slinging neighbour a real pain in the rear A SNEAKY Pursat man left his neighbour with a sore bottom on Sunday after he took a leaf out of Dennis the Menace’s book and used a slingshot to shoot him in the derriere. The 41-year-old told police that he was annoyed with his neighbour’s family and the loud party music that they had been playing. After a bottle of wine didn’t sufficiently quell his annoyance, the inebriated man started throwing rocks at their home, before launching the offending stones with his slingshot until police attended the scene. Nokorwat

Continued from page 1

Cambodia’s most globally important industry, said Dave Welsh, country manager for trade-union rights group Solidarity Center/ACILS. “It’s no mystery this is the largest and most important element of the Cambodian economy,” he said. “It’s made up almost entirely of workers under 30, mostly women.” These workers, he said, were politically active and becoming more aware of their importance to the economy. “They’re aware of the profit margins they’re creating for major brands . . . and they’re more aware of the leverage they hold.” Furthermore, Welsh said, they’re likely to vote in huge numbers – many factories close for election weekend, and casting a ballot has become an important part of the ritual of returning home to see their families, he added.

Sowing the seeds In the tumultuous lead-up to the 1998 election, opposition lawmaker Sam Rainsy, forging his way with the fledgling Khmer Nation Party, made it his mission to appeal to workers in the rapidly expanding garment sector. “Rainsy’s cleverest move has been to take the lead in supporting factory workers’ demands for improved pay and workplace conditions,” The Post wrote in February 1997.“Lacking substantial financial resources, Rainsy has basically succeeded in engendering increased support for his party while making overseas factory owners pay for it.” It was a simple approach that no doubt contributed to the later renamed Sam Rainsy Party snaring 15 seats at the 1998 National Election and gaining ground on Funcinpec as Cambodia’s main opposition. “Even . . . before the grenade attack [in March 1997], Sam Rainsy was the leader in getting garment workers to form unions and fight for their rights,” Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmaker Son Chhay told the Post this week. “Who dared protest back then?” Whatever the figure, it is one that pales in comparison to the thousands of workers who now routinely take to the streets to demand higher wages and better conditions. The result of increased dissent, it seems, is both sides of politics paying more attention. Hun Sen’s rhetoric after delivering the $14 hike to $75 a month

Motodop’s hustle breeds scuffle in Poipet town

Garment workers sew sweatshirts and check for defects at a factory in Phnom Penh last month. pha lina

in March included reminders of how much the minimum wage had increased under the CPP in the past decade, and a colourful appeal to garment workers for their vote. But it was the CNRP’s promise of $150 per month, Chhay believed, that had become a “focal point” for workers. A recent show of support from the Cambodian Confederation of Unions endorsing the CNRP’s figure had vindicated the party’s policy, he added. “We have asked for $150 for all workers. It’s reasonable – not good enough – but reasonable and acceptable,” Chhay said. “The announcement of support from [CCU president] Rong Chhun was encouraging. The minimum wage talks six months ago really kicked things along.” Ok Kimhan, a ruling party official, said yesterday that the government still viewed the garment vote as essential to its fortunes in this month’s ballot. “We will help bring them a better standard of living and higher wages,” he said. The CPP had strategies to target areas where garment factories were situated – primarily Phnom Penh, Kandal and Kampong Speu – he added.

Voting against the union This Sunday, thousands of garment workers, who so far have been relatively quiet during the election campaign, will stream into the capital for the first of two rallies organised by the pro-government National Union Alliance Chamber of Cambodia. Som Aun, NACC president, said he openly supported the government because he was sure it would deliver further wage increases and other benefits to his members.

“I have urged workers to vote for the Cambodian People’s Party,” he said, adding that he believed most, in fact, would. “We will have campaigns with more than 10,000 workers on July 14 and 21.” Government-aligned unions take up the majority of the “space” in garment factories, Solidarity Center’s Welsh said. But he believed it would be a misnomer for the government to think such unions were effectively representing the interests of all workers and their dominance would automatically translate to votes. “We’re finding that many workers are attending opposition roundtable discussions,” he said. Chhay, from the CNRP, said he

now, and most of them support the CNRP.” While Chhun is running a wellorganised campaign, Free Trade Union president Chea Mony said political parties themselves had yet to make their presence felt in the form of raucous campaigning outside factories. “I see parties have campaigned along the roads in Phnom Penh and in some provinces, but they have not really focused on garment workers yet,” he said. Even Wing Star Shoes in Kampong Speu – where a ceiling collapsed in May, killing two workers – has been bereft of political campaigners promising workers better conditions. Mao Sisong, the factory’s administrative manager, said

They’re aware of the profit margins they’re creating ... and they’re more aware of the leverage they hold didn’t worry about “the government forming its own unions”. “The question is whether the unions will protect them and help them get their rights,” he said, adding many were likely to follow the status quo in a factory dominated by a pro-government union than vote differently. In some factories, however, pro-opposition parties are just as vocal – if not more. Chhun, the outspoken CCU president, makes no secret of which party he expects his members to vote for – he will distribute about 50,000 pamphlets to workers urging them to support the CNRP. “Workers believe they will receive about $150 per month when the CNRP wins,” he said. “More and more youths [in factories] understand politics

there had been no campaigns on the streets outside. “It’s good,” he said. “We don’t prohibit them to campaign with whichever party they choose, but they must do this out of working hours”. Ath Thorn, president of the Cambodian Labour Confederation and its affiliate, the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), said he wasn’t sure to what extent workers were involving themselves in political campaigns. “I’ve told my members not to campaign during work hours,” he said. “And if they participate outside of work, they must not use my union’s name – we’re independent.” Increasingly, however, many workers have grown politically active and begun campaigning

for their party of choice in their own time, Mony said. “They have been joining campaigns . . . and when I listen to the radio, I often hear workers calling in to appeal to their friends or other workers to vote for the CNRP for better wages.” And though garment workers might not be donning party caps and polo shirts en masse, the CNRP’s Chhay believes “a movement for change” is occurring. “By joining trade unions, they’ve learned more about their rights and how to protest. “We’ve supported workers all these years,” he said, referring back to Rainsy’s 1990s work. “But once again, the workers’ future relies on the opposition.” It sounds like political rhetoric – the type to be expected at this stage of election campaigning – but to some extent, the opposition’s ability to represent itself as the party that will deliver workers the $150 per month wage they want seems to have garnered them more support. “I will vote for the CNRP because they will give us higher wages,” said Rithy, a garment worker in the capital. “I think workers’ worries will be over if the CNRP wins the election.” That victory – as highly unlikely as it seems – would rely in no small way on the garment vote and how daring workers are prepared to be. Kimhan, from the CPP, believes few will be so desperate to turn away from a party he believes has delivered – and will continue to deliver. “The CPP has clear policies for workers such as increasing wages and benefits and improving their living standards – the kind of things we have done before,” he said.

MOTODOPS can be notoriously territorial, even towards the businesses whose customers make up their clientele. A 46-year-old Poipet motodop proved that on Monday when a hotel staff member told him to leave his regular spot outside the hotel because he was bothering guests. The warning quickly became physical, with both men being arrested. The moto driver claimed that he was being targeted, as many other drivers also parked outside were left alone. Kampuchea Thmey

Trio thins herd without permission in K Speu A GROUP of bovine bandits allegedly stole and killed two cows from a Kampong Speu farmer on Sunday. The pastoralist, 43, said that two of his cows were stolen at night, with no sign of them until the next morning, when a villager found the heads and carcasses of the animals in a nearby forest. Police agree that the cows were stolen and sold for meat and are on the lookout for three suspects. Nokorwat

Altercation with in-law makes man an outlaw FATHERS-IN-LAW can be tricky territory at the best of times. As such it’s probably not the best idea to manhandle your wife in front of him, if at all. A taxi driver, 33, did just that in the capital’s Sen Sok district on Sunday, drunkenly yelling at his wife inside to open the unlocked house gates for him. Her father responded by telling him to do it himself. The suspect began pushing his wife and ended up hitting his father-in-law in the head with a stick when he intervened, landing him in hospital. The lout was arrested the same day. Nokorwat

Trashy driver pays off garbage collector victim ONE OF the unsung heroes of Phnom Penh’s streets, a garbage disposal worker, was badly injured after being hit by a car on Sunday. Police said the worker was wheeling his cart at a Chamkarmon district intersection when a speeding car hit him, before driving away. The man was hospitalised, and the driver, who was eventually located, was not arrested. Rather, he promised to come to the station to “resolve the problem”. Kampuchea Thmey

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

Business Indicative Exchange Rates as of 8/07/2013. Please contact ANZ Royal Global Markets on 023 999 910 for real time rates.

USD / KHR

EUR / USD

AUD / USD

NZD / USD

GBP / USD

USD /CNY

4,080

1.2814

0.9042

0.7726

1.487

6.1386

USD / JPY

101.19

USD / HKD

7.755

USD / SGD

USD / THB

1.2854

31.44

Large Thai poultry company to return

A vintage Vespa parked in front of Phnom Penh's Independence Monument last year. Khouth Sophak Chakyra

Local Vespa sales brimming Hor Kimsay and Anne Renzenbrink

INE months after Italian-made scooter Vespa made its celebrated return to the streets of Cambodia, sales figures show that local popularity of the brand is surpassing expectations. Tes Dary, inventory officer of Narita Group, the authorised distributor for Vespa maker Piaggio Group, said on Monday that from January to June this year, scooter sales had reached 70 per cent of the target goal

for 2013, with the majority being Vespas. The showroom also sells Piaggio’s Fly and Liberty scooters. “We plan to open another showroom in Phnom Penh and in another province in 2014,” he said. Frederic Bachelet, the former Business Development Manager at Narita, said during the September launch of the showroom on Monivong Boulevard that the distributor had plans to sell 60 units per month until the end of 2012, then raise the volume to 80 per month in 2013.

“The Vespa has always been popular in Cambodia going back to the ’60s,” Kevin Stainburn, president of the Phnom Penh Vespa club, said yesterday. Established in 1884, Italybased Piaggio is the largest European manufacturer of two-wheeled motor vehicles, its website says. The company uses production sites in several Asian countries, including China and Vietnam. In the showroom on Monivong Boulevard, an average of 20 to 30 visitors drop by every day, Dary said.

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

But the price tag on a Vespa is not cheap, and its sales lag far behind less expensive models Honda and Yamaha. Costs range from $2,990 for a Vespa S 125 ie, to $3,280 for a Vespa S 150 ie or an LX 150 ie. Though he couldn’t comment on sales, Stainburn said the membership in the Phnom Penh Vespa Club has been growing. He added that when the club was founded in 2006, members “numbered around 30 or so when they were at their most popular”. “My understanding is that a lot of these were ex-pats

though, and partly the reason that it died is that they all moved on.” The club was revived towards the end of 2010. “Today we have 35 and there are more Khmer than ex-pats members,” he said. Data from the Ministry of Economy and Finance show that imports of motor scooters reached 264,085 units, with a total value of $139 million, in the first 11 months of 2012. That is a 55 per cent jump from 170,380 units worth $86.5 million in the same period the year before.

THE troubled Saha Farm Group, one of Thailand’s leading poultry exporters, aims to return to normal business in about two months after securing financial support from Middle East investors. The group, which commands approximately 20 per cent of Thailand’s poultry industry, faced a liquidity crunch due to losses incurred in 2012 from high animal feed costs, rising labour costs and the strong baht. The company had to reduce production to about half its slaughtering capacity of 600,000 to 700,000 chickens a day. The company’s factory producing frozen chicken in Chai Badan district of Lop Buri province was also hit by a fire around midnight on July 6, causing damage to the whole building which is valued at 60 million baht (nearly $2 million). Immigrant workers at the factory on July 5 held a protest demanding overdue wages, after the company failed to pay their salaries, and threatened to set the factory ablaze. The factory normally has 3,017 migrant workers from Myanmar. Panya Chotitawan, the group chairman, told Thai Rath newspaper that the company was in the process of solving its liquidity problem and will sell some assets to get money for salary payments. He said the company has received financial support from poultry importers in the Middle East to enable it to continue production and serve their markets. He said it would take about two months to get the company back to normal production. A local report said Saha Farm has debts of about five billion baht. BANGKOK POST

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

Business Tax revenues rise, but aren’t reflective of overall GDP growth May Kunmakara

WHILE the country’s tax revenue grew about 20 per cent in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2012, experts say the amount still isn’t high enough to accurately reflect the country’s GDP growth. According to data from the General Department of Taxation, total tax revenue in the first six months was $470 million, compared to $388 million from January through to June last year. As for the different sources of the total, salary tax revenue went up 24.8 per cent, income tax jumped 28.6 per cent, Value Added Tax [VAT] increased by 12.2 per cent, and special tax, referring to items such as cigarettes and entertainment, went up by 17.5 per cent. The report also listed the increase in tax collection by industry. When compared with the first six months of 2012, the largest this year, by far, was the education sector, which went up 124 per cent. Tax revenue from Cambodia’s largest export industry, the garment sector, rose about 42 per cent, while consumer products added nearly 38 per cent. Hotel and questhouse revenue rose by roughly a quarter. Keat Chhon, the Minister of Economy and Finance, repeated an explanation for previous increases in the last several months, that tax officers had stepped up efforts to make collections and had improved the quality of their work. He did, however, add that the tax department still lacked efficiency. Stephen Higgins, former CEO of ANZ Royal bank ,said that country’s nominal GDP growth was probably about 11 per cent over the same

period, “which would suggest the government overall hasn’t managed to increase revenues as a proportion of GDP, which is a little disappointing after the progress they seemed to make last year”. “The International Monetary Fund has been pretty clear that what they call revenue mobilisation, or lifting the tax take, needs to improve. Corruption is a factor, but also building up capacity and capability in revenue raising areas is important,” he said in an email message. “Improving and streamlining customs would make a big difference, and is something that most businesses would want to see,” he added. Hiroshi Suzuki, CEO and Chief Economist of the Business Research Institute for Cambodia (BRIC), said in an interview last month that beefing of tax collection is not a quick fix, and other countries face the same problems. “The improvement of taxation is not an easy job. Many developing countries, not only Cambodia, have been tackling this issue. I hope both the government and donors will continue their efforts on this issue for Cambodia,” he said. Lawmakers from the Cambodia National Rescue Party consistently claim that the government loses about $500 million every year via its poor tax collection and corruption. Last year the government collected $740 million, according to the department’s official data. Cambodia’s economic growth is forecast at 7.2 per cent in 2013. The Asian Development Bank said it could pick up to 7.5 per cent next year once economic recovery in Europe and the United States takes hold.

Myanmar set to import LNG Aung Shin

AUNG Than Oo, Myanmar’s deputy minister of electricity, says liquefied natural gas will be imported through private companies to help meet rising demand for electricity. The government will import liquefied natural gas to compensate for a shortage of gas for gas-fired power plants, officials said. U Aung Than Oo, deputy ministry of electricity, told The Myanmar Times on July 4 that four new gas-fired plants in Yangon Region need gas so that they can begin generating electricity in October. “They have a combined capacity to generate 270 megawatts. We need 230 million cubic feet per day [mmcfd] for them,” he added at a ground-breaking ceremony for a combined cycle gasfired power plant in Mon state’s Mawlamyine township. On July 1 the ministry announced a tender for private investors to import liquefied natural gas. U Aung Than Oo said a total of 500 mmcfd is needed for gas-fired power plants across the country. Kim Jong-inn, an energy specialist at the Asian Development Bank, said natural gas is vital for Myanmar’s energy needs. “In the short and medium term, it is inevitable that Myanmar has to depend on gas power plants. But availability of gas for power generation is a really challenging issue as the gas produced from the existing fields is committed to either export or domestic use,” Kim said. The new M3 and M9 offshore fields are still in the exploration and development stages and industry observers say it could be several years before they reach the commercial production stage.

An engineer from China National Petroleum observes a section of the controversial pipeline that will begin transmitting natural gas from Rakhine State to China at the end of this month. Myanmar times

Kim said the government should extend the existing power grid to remote areas and expand off-grid renewable energy. The government approved an independent power producer (IPP) system in January and signed a memorandum of understanding with IPP Myanmar Lighting, which is operating the new plant in Mawlamyine township, in the same month. U Sein Wan, the company’s chairman, said it had imported machinery from Turkey and that it will begin supplying power early next year. “We are going to transmit 43.5MW in the first phase beginning in February. When we start the second phase in August we will be able to supply 98MW,” he said. The final stage will be completed in 2015, the company said. This will allow it to supply 230MW throughout Mon and Kayin states, with surplus power sent to the national grid, U Sein Wan said.

The company said it is investing $174 million in the power plant and that it will need natural gas to run it. It will sell electricity to the government at K120 per kilowatt hour, U Sein Wan said. Myanmar has proven natural gas reserves of 7.8 trillion cubic feet and exports in 2011 totalled 303 billion cubic feet, according to the report New Energy Architecture: Myanmar, which was released by the ADB at last month’s World Economic Forum in the capital. Kim said it was critical for the government to consider three factors when developing an energy policy. It should consider how much energy is needed, how various existing sources can be used and how to achieve a mixed energy plan. The latter includes longterm financing and institutional arrangements to ensure supply, he said. Kim said that in the short term “rehabilitation of existing power

generation, transmission and distribution networks should be undertaken to recover nominal capacity and reduce system losses”. U Aung Than Oo said power losses due to obsolete transmission and distribution systems could be 22-26 per cent. As of early this year, Myanmar consumed about 2060MW of electricity per day, with 72 per cent from hydro power, 24 per cent from natural gas and 4 per cent from coal. The government has signed six deals for new gas-fired plants, according to officials at the electricity ministry. Demand for natural gas is double supply. The country needs 700 mmcfd of natural gas for domestic use but only 300 mmcfd is supplied. Most, 60 per cent, is used for 10 gas-fired electricity plants. Another 12 per cent is used to make fertiliser and 10 per cent is used for compressed natural gas, according to the ADB report. MYANMAR TIMES

Competition to rise in rice market Continued from page 1

harder for Cambodian millers to compete as it would make it a lot easier for neighbouring giants to get paddy across to mill at lower cost in their home countries since they have the capacity and economy of scale.” Before 1962, when the military that would rule for the next 50 years seized power, Myanmar was considered the world’s top rice exporter. The question is whether it can regain its title. Srey Chanthy, Acting Interim President of the Cambodian Economic Association, said that Myanmar, with its “large land cultivated area” and “plenty of rice surplus”, can be a big player. But the decades out of the game have taken their toll. “It will take Myanmar years to be recognised in the market and improve their production standards,” he said.

Chanthy said that Myanmar will have to put in place a new institutional structure and a relevant legal framework with quality standards before it can meet market needs. “Having water in the reservoir is not enough, they need the pipes to build up good systems in place to transfer the water,” Chanthy added. The United Nations seems to agree. In the latest rice market monitor for April, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization downgraded its prediction for Myanmar rice exports this year from 600,000 to 500,000 tonnes, citing “limited processing capacity” and electricity shortages across the country. Though the FAO sees potential for Myanmar rice in Japan, a recent report from the United States Department of Agriculture says that India, which re-entered the export market in 2011, has moved in on Myanmar’s more

traditional export partners Bangladesh, the Philippines and West Africa. ARPEC’s Van said Myanmar will compete on price with Cambodia’s long grain white rice, while they will also grow the short grain Japonica rice that he says is very popular among the Japanese and Koreans. Cambodia is not wholly unprepared for a more crowded EU. One of the key policies of the government in its goal to reach a million tonnes of rice exports a year in 2015 is diversification. Song Saran, chief executive officer at Cambodia’s largest rice exporter, AMRU Rice Cambodia, was positive about the exports’ continuing potential in Europe, but he was also encouraged by expansion to other Asian and African markets. “Cambodia has enjoyed good export growth (this year) through increases to existing

markets as well as being more experimental with new emerging markets,” Saran said. Statistics show that markets for Cambodian rice are beginning to open up in places as far and wide as Senegal, Kenya and Israel. For the first time, Cambodia will start exporting rice later this year to Brunei Darussalam, according to a deal for shipments of 3,000 tonnes signed between officials and announced on Saturday in Phnom Penh. At a workshop in the capital yesterday, Yang Saing Koma, president of the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture, urged farmers to produce more organic rice. Koma said that so far this year, Cambodia had already doubled it’s exports of organic rice when compared with all of 2012. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RANN REUY

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

Markets Business

Platinum Cineplex looks forward Inside Business Mak Lawrence Li

NTIL two years ago, Sokny Sao’s weekend plans were simple: spending a long time at home to watch movies. But “watching with a big screen is totally a larger satisfaction than that with small monitors”, the 33-year-old said. In August 2011, this thought took shape. The Platinum Cineplex opened on the fifth floor of the Sorya Shopping Centre, and Sokny Sao became the managing director for the theatre’s owner, the Cineplex Investment Group Plc. “The cinema has always been a big attraction for people in Phnom Penh ever since the opening. I would say the number of customers for this year will be triple [the amount] of the first year,” he says. With more than 200,000 moviegoers in 2012, the cinema – counting 300 seats – is

packed at night and on the weekends, “dragging” those at home into the cinema, according to Sao. “We offer giant screens, high quality sound system and comfortable sofas as well as 3D movies, which are all new and fascinating to local Cambodians more used to sticking to small monitors,” he says. In addition to the Platinum Cineplex, a competing site has opened its doors to Phnom Penh’s movie fans – the Legend Cinema in City Mall. But Sao said the common goals for the two theatres are to promote the culture of cinemas – a concept that can be of use. Showing a mix of international releases including Hollywood blockbusters, Asian features and locallyproduced flicks, Khmer movies are among the most popular. “The main reason is that Cambodians would love to hear their mother languages in a movie, they will have more understanding than [during] English or Thai movies,” Sao says. To boost sales and attract more customers, Plati-

Sokny Sao, Managing Director of Platinum Cineplex, speaks to the Post at his office in Phnom Penh yesterday. pha lina

num Cineplex advertises on Facebook, where they post pictures and trailers of current and up-coming movies, as well as the day’s film schedule. More than 35,000 people are following the page. Nonetheless, running a cin-

ema is not an easy business. The movie theatre has made enough profit to compensate for a start-up investment of more than one million dollar. However, fluctuating operating costs and topsy-turvy viewership can pose a threat to the business.

“Our profits depend on the occupancy of every show we are playing. We need to have an average of at least 50 to 60 per cent [of the seats] occupied in order to cover the costs,” Sao said. The occupancy rate for weekends can usually make

up to 90 per cent, but some weekday shows will fill 30 to 40 per cent of the seats. Enforcement of intellectual property laws in Cambodia is rare. While Sao says the Cineplex is not worried about the high popularity of pirate DVDs, they are joining hands with other key stakeholders like Legend and filmmakers to form the Motion Picture Association of Cambodia. The association aims at developing the local film industry and fighting against piracy. “We don’t see the problem is harming our business, as we are still growing, however, we would not ignore its side effect on our business in the future.” The Platinum Cineplex is going to launch another cinema branch next year or in 2015 in Phnom Penh – but the location is still a secret. “Some other companies from Thailand and Vietnam have already confirmed to build cinemas in Phnom Penh, and we are doing it also,” he said. “I think the market can take up a lot more cinemas in the future, so we are still very optimistic about our business.”

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

Business

Nissan targets emerging markets Siddharth Philip and Ma Jie

EW Delhi fashion designer Rebecca Nelson is the kind of customer Nissan Motor Co aims to attract as it revives the Datsun brand: Someone on a budget looking to buy her first car. Problem is, she’s never heard the name. “What is Datsun?” said the 26-year-old, who earns about $400 a month and takes the subway to work. “If I’m spending my savings on a car, I’ll opt for a tried-and-tested brand.” Nissan is resurrecting the Datsun marque after killing it in 1981 in favour of the carmaker’s namesake brand. Sold mostly in North America and Europe in the past, Datsuns were popular for their fuel economy during the 1970s oil shocks. Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn is counting on updated technology at bargain prices to overcome the lack of brand recognition in emerging markets, where Datsun will be sold. The first Datsun model – Nissan says it’s a hatchback and will cost “significantly lower” than 400,000 rupees ($6,600) – will be unveiled in India this month and go on sale next year. Within two years, Nissan expects to introduce Datsun in Indonesia, Russia and South Africa. Sketches released by the carmaker show a five-door hatchback with a hexagonal grille and swept-back headlights. The new Datsun adds another leg to Ghosn’s strategy of competing in every segment in high-growth developing coun-

A saleswoman talks to customers at a Nissan dealership in Jakarta in February. Nissan Motor Co considers emerging markets such as Indonesia key to its bid to resurrect Datsun this year. reuters

tries. Its role is to occupy the opposite end of the price spectrum from Nissan’s upscale Infiniti unit, which is undergoing a revamp to lure wealthy Chinese buyers. “Nissan realised there is huge potential in emerging markets for which it needs more affordable models,” said Ammar Master, an analyst at LMC Automotive in Bangkok. “Without Datsun, the automaker will find it difficult to grow

Macau may require tourists declare cash Vinicy Chan

MACAU is considering a system requiring travelers to declare the cash they carry across the border, according to a government agency that sets anti-money laundering guidelines. The world’s largest gambling hub is studying a “cross-border cash declaration system, but no timeframe, declaration threshold or penalties are determined yet at the present stage”, Deborah Ng, director of the city’s Financial Intelligence Office, said in an email on Monday. Visitors from China’s mainland have helped fuel a boom in Macau’s casinos, turning the city into the world’s largest gambling hub with $38 billion in revenue last year. Any controls imposed by Macau’s government would back China’s currency curbs, which restrict how much money Chinese tourists can take out of the country. “Such talk may hurt the sentiment on Macau casino stocks,” Victor Yip, a Hong Kong-based analyst at UOB Kay Hian Ltd, said by phone yesterday. “But it won’t hurt

the casino revenue because there are so many different ways a traveler can get cash in Macau.” Travelers to Macau now aren’t required to report how much cash they bring in when entering the city, said Daniel Tang, a press officer at the agency. Tourists from mainland China can bring 20,000 yuan ($3,260) when traveling across the border and withdraw as much as 10,000 yuan a day with each card at cash machines. High stake gamblers, who contribute about two thirds of the city’s casino revenue, rely on middlemen, called junket operators, for credit to make big bets. To skirt the cap on yuan they can take out of China, gamblers buy expensive goods from pawnshops using debit cards and trade them in for cash at the same store. The use of junkets, otherwise known as VIP room operators, by casino companies in Macau limits their ability to prevent money laundering and other illegal activities, one of Nevada’s top regulators said in testimony last month. BLOOMBERG

fast in emerging markets.” Datsun’s revival follows Ghosn’s $5 billion bet in 2009 on electric vehicles that so far has fallen short of targets. Nissan in January cut prices for its all-electric Leaf car after missing sales targets in the last two years. “He has to pull some rabbits out of the hat,” said Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp in Tokyo, which manages about

$3 billion in assets. “He hasn’t pulled out any for a long time. Has he no magic anymore?” Nissan’s shares have risen 29 per cent this year, trailing the 36 per cent gain by the benchmark Topix index and Toyota Motor Corp’s 56 per cent advance. The carmaker, which derives more of its sales from China than Toyota or Honda Motor Co, trailed its domestic competitors last year as a territorial dispute spurred consum-

ers to turn away from Japanese brands. In the US, Nissan notched record sales in June after cutting prices on seven models. In developing economies, such as India, Russia and Indonesia, Nissan doesn’t offer passenger vehicles in the lowest price ranges, which account for about 40 per cent of the market, Ghosn has said. Datsun will target first-time buyers upgrading from mo-

torcycles or used cars, allowing the carmaker to reach a new market segment, Ghosn said in March 2012. Reviving the Datsun name, even if it’s unfamiliar to consumers in emerging markets, beats starting a new brand in terms of customer recognition, he said. “The risk is to do nothing,” Ghosn said at the briefing announcing the brand’s comeback. Datsun will house the carmaker’s budget range to prevent the main Nissan brand, whose top-selling Altima sedan starts from $21,760 in the US, from going down-market, he said. Ghosn is adopting a similar strategy that Renault SA (RNO), which he also heads, used with the low-cost Dacia brand, which it bought in 1998 and is popular with budget buyers in Europe, said Master of LMC. Datsun will account for a third to half of total group sales in India, Indonesia and Russia by 2017, said Roland Buerk, a spokesman at Nissan’s headquarters in Yokohama. Nissan will probably use older vehicle platforms for its Datsun models to cut costs, said Kota Yuzawa, a car analyst at Goldman Sachs Group Inc in Tokyo. And since Datsun can piggyback on Nissan’s dealer network, “it doesn’t really require a lot of investment”, Yuzawa said. The carmaker doesn’t comment on the specifics of future products, said Chris Keeffe, a Nissan spokesman, adding that the newly developed Datsuns use “state-of-the-art technologies, platform and components”. BLOOMBERG

China’s annual inflation picks up to 2.7 per cent, says government Fran Wang

CHINESE inflation accelerated to 2.7 per cent in June, official data showed yesterday, but analysts cautioned demand remained weak and growth in the world’s second-largest economy may have slowed further. The year-on-year figure for the consumer price index (CPI) – a main gauge of inflation – was up from 2.1 per cent in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement. It was higher than market expectations of 2.5 per cent in a poll of 18 economists by Dow Jones Newswires. Food price increases hit an annual 4.9 per cent in June and remained the main driving force of inflation, according to the NBS. China has set its inflation target for 2013 at 3.5 per cent, much higher than last year’s actual rate of 2.6 per cent. “Inflation is not a concern yet . . . and inflationary pressure is mild and under control,” Sun Junwei, a Beijing-based economist with HSBC, said. The Chinese economy grew only 7.8 per cent in 2012, its slowest annual pace in 13 years while

A vendor attracts pedestrians to eat at a restaurant in Beijing yesterday. China’s annual inflation accelerated to 2.7 per cent in June. AFP

it expanded 7.7 per cent in the first three months of this year. Analysts expect growth in the second quarter to slow further on weak domestic and foreign demand, as well as Beijing’s determination to carry out reforms to reduce the country’s reliance on investment and exports. Threats to economic growth have increased, they say, after a credit squeeze last month, when the interest rates banks charge

each other surged to record highs, reflecting the government’s reluctance to loosen monetary policy. A purchasing managers’ index for China by British bank HSBC, which tracks manufacturing activity in factories and is a closely watched gauge of the health of the economy, hit a nine-month low of 48.2 in June, indicating further contraction. “The recently released data showed that (growth in) the sec-

ond quarter was no better than the first quarter and a slowing trend has apparently continued,” Sun said. China’s producer price index (PPI), which measures the costs of goods as they leave factories, fell 2.7 per cent year-on-year in June, its 16th straight month in negative territory, NBS data showed. “Of raw material purchasing prices, metals and power dropped sharply, showing that domestic demand remains weak and heavy industry still faces pressure to destock,” said economists with China International Capital Corporation in a research note. In the first half of the year CPI came in at 2.4 per cent from the same period in 2012, the NBS said. Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists Lu Ting and Zhi Xiaojia expected authorities to keep monetary policy neutral with “neither easing nor tightening”. “There will be no easing due to recognition of a slowdown in potential growth, the need for controlling debt growth and the task for taming rapidly (rising) home prices,” they said. AFP

the phnom penh post july 10, 2013

Markets Business Tesla joins Nasdaq 100 stock index

US aluminium producer predicts a rise in demand

Markets Thailand

Vietnam

Thai Set 50 Index, Jul 8 1100

Ho Chi Minh Stock Index, Jul 8 550

1025

500

950

450

875

400

800

350

959.15

Sakthi Prasad

South Korea

Euan Rocha

NASDAQ OMX Group Inc has said that Tesla Motors Inc will replace Oracle Corp on the Nasdaq 100 stock index, reflecting the rising profile of the US electric carmaker. Oracle said in June that it was moving its stock listing to the New York Stock Exchange from the Nasdaq, in the largest-ever US market transfer and a coup for NYSE Euronext. Tesla will become a component of the Nasdaq 100 Index and the Nasdaq 100 Equal Weighted Index prior to the market opening on July 15, the exchange said on its website. In contrast to several traditional carmakers that have rolled out electric vehicles that failed to live up to expectations, Tesla has sold thousands of its luxury electric cars. Tesla shares have nearly tripled this year. Traditionally, Nasdaq had a lock on technology company listings, and NYSE on blue-chip stocks, but both have made gains into each others’ respective territories in recent years. The Nasdaq 100 Index includes 100 of the largest domestic and international non-financial securities listed on the Nasdaq stock market based on market capitalisation. REUTERS

KOSPI Index, Jul 8 2100

LCOA Inc, the largest US aluminium producer, still sees global demand for aluminium products growing 7 per cent this year, signaling a potential price rise for the metal as bulging Chinese aluminium inventories begin to dwindle. The solid demand, driven by the aerospace and commercial transportation sectors, should combine with industry-wide production cuts already in place to reduce a supply glut that has driven down aluminium prices by 13 per cent this year. Alcoa on Monday affirmed its demand forecast, even as it posted a net loss in the second quarter, due to restructuring costs related to plant closures. On an adjusted basis, it achieved a larger-than-expected profit thanks to productivity gains and a strong performance from its engineered products business, which makes high-margin goods like aerospace fasteners, turbine blades and truck wheels. “It was a good, solid quarter. Alcoa continues to show they can cut costs and will be a survivor,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management, which owns some Alcoa bonds. Alcoa expects a 9 to 10 per cent increase in aluminium demand this year from the aerospace sector, driven by a recent flurry of aircraft orders at the

485.50

Philippines

PSEI - Philippine Se Idx, Jul 8 7000

1975

6625

1850

6250

1725

5875

1600

5500

1,830.35

6,327.02

Singapore

Malaysia

FTSE Straits Times Index, Jul 8 4000

FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI, Jul 8 1800

3500

1700

3000

1600

2500

1500

2000

1400

3,181.58

Hong Kong

China

Hang Seng Index, Jul 8 25000

Alcoa Inc’s aluminium plant in Portovesme, Italy, in 2012.

Paris Air Show and an already-large backlog of orders within the aerospace industry. It also sees increased demand from the automotive, commercial transportation and construction industries. But while Chinese stocks have fallen, stockpiles in London Metals Exchange-registered facilities rose to a record-high above 5.45 million tonnes at the end of June. This means that aluminium prices are not likely to stage a major rally anytime soon despite industry-wide production cuts.

reuters

1,767.88 CSI 300 Index, Jul 8 3000

23250

2750

21500

2500

19750

2250

18000

2000

20,683.01

Alcoa reported a loss from its aluminium smelting business, and said roughly a third of global aluminium is still produced at a loss, despite offsets from record high premiums above LME-prices, which end-buyers pay to take delivery of the metal. Given the plight of the aluminium industry, Alcoa’s results are no longer viewed as a proxy for economic growth, but its quarterly results are still closely watched as they mark the unofficial start of the North American earnings season. REUTERS

Japan

Nikkei 225, Jul 8 14500

2,162.67

Taiwan

Taiwan Taiex Index, Jul 8 8500

14125

8000

13750

7500

13375

7000

13000

6500

7,971.18

14,472.90

Laos

Laos Composite Index, Jul 8 1500

Indonesia

Jakarta Composite Index, Jul 8 6000

1350

5500

1200

5000

1050

4500

900

4000

1,331.68

International commodities

Cambodian commodities

Energy

(Base rate taken on January 1, 2012)

Commodity

Units

Price

Crude Oil (WTI)

USD/bbl.

102.98

Crude Oil (Brent)

India

USD/bbl.

NYMEX Natural Gas USD/MMBtu

107.11

Change % Change Time(ET)

-0.16 -0.32

-0.16% -0.30%

4:03:56 4:03:48

3.74

0.05%

4:03:06

RBOB Gasoline

USd/gal.

287.7

-0.67

-0.23%

4:03:08

NYMEX Heating Oil

USd/gal.

297.28

-0.73

-0.24%

4:03:32

ICE Gasoil

USD/MT

906.25

-4.25

-0.47%

4:04:00

Agriculture Commodity

Units

Price

Change

% Change

Time(ET)

CBOT Rough Rice

USD/cwt

14.82

0.02

0.10%

3:54:28

CME Lumber

USD/tbf

302

-0.3

-0.10%

3:12:31

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 8 21000

Karachi 100 Index, Jul 8 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

5250

5300

0.95 %

Diesel

5100

5050

-0.98 %

Petroleum

5500

0.00 %

Chi

86000

77000

-10.47 %

Baht

1200

1300

8.33 %

Gas Charcoal

4,415.26

Pakistan

19,435.23

Australia

22,690.80

New Zealand

S&P/ASX 200 Index, Jul 8 5500

NZX 50 Index, Jul 8 5000

5250

4750

5000

4500

4750

4250

4500

4,881.65

4000

4,523.69

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

World US looking at pulling all troops from Afghanistan THE United States is considering pulling out all its troops from Afghanistan next year, US officials said, amid tension between the President Barack Obama’s administration and Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government. Obama is committed to wrapping up US military involvement in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but the United States has been talking with officials in Afghanistan about keeping a small residual force there of perhaps 8,000 troops. US officials did not deny a report that Obama has become frustrated by his dealings with Karzai. Their relationship further cooled after last month’s US

Both sides understand how to pressure each other

A sweltering Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force’s 1st Airborne Brigade soldier waits for parachute-drop training during their military drill at Higashifuji training field in Susono, west of Tokyo, yesterday. reuters

Japan feels heat from China Shingo Ito

HINA’S “coercive” behaviour in waters around islands at the centre of a bitter dispute with Japan is dangerous and could trigger an incident, Tokyo said in a new defence paper yesterday. At a cabinet meeting, hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ministers adopted the defence white paper, the first annual report on Japan’s defence capabilities and regional security since the islands dispute flared anew last year. Tokyo took three of the five Senkaku islands out of private ownership in September. Beijing lays claim to the islands, and calls them the Diaoyus. “China . . . has taken action described as coercive, which includes risky behaviour,” the 450-page report said.

“China’s activities include its intrusion into Japan’s territorial waters, its violation of Japan’s territorial airspace and even dangerous actions that could cause a contingency,” it said. In particular, the paper said a Chinese frigate locked weapons-targeting radar on a Japanese destroyer in January, a claim Beijing has denied. “These acts are extremely regrettable and China should accept and stick to the international norms,” it said. Chinese and Japanese ships have for months traded warnings over intrusions into what both governments regard as their sovereign areas around the islands, which are strategically sited and rich in resources. Chinese government ships have regularly sailed into the 12 nautical mile territorial waters of the islands, where they are confronted by Japan’s

well-equipped coast guard. The most recent incident was Sunday. Masayoshi Tatsumi, press secretary at Japan’s defence ministry, said the ministry was stepping up efforts to boost cooperation between the armed forces and coastguard in patrolling Japanese waters. “We are taking all possible measures to maintain full readiness toward issues surrounding our country by using aircraft and other equipment in a flexible manner,” Tatsumi said. Japanese fighters were scrambled more than 300 times against Chinese planes flying near Japan’s airspace for the year to March, a new record, the paper said. Japan has officially been pacifist since World War II but has 140,000 troops, 140 military ships and 410 aircraft as part of its “self-defence forces”. It

raised its military budget by 0.8 per cent for the year to March, the first annual gain in 11 years, citing the need to boost island defences. The defence paper also stressed the need to enhance the country’s alliance with the United States in the face of China’s increasingly assertive behaviour. Ties with Washington had been strained under Japan’s previous centre-left government, which pushed for the relocation of US bases in Okinawa. But under the conservative Abe, Japan has adopted a more nationalistic tone. China says the Senkakus were illegally snatched by Japan as it built an Asian empire in the decades before World War II. Tokyo says it annexed an unclaimed archipelago that showed no signs of ownership. Commentators say the is-

lands are a potential flashpoint for what could be a military confrontation between Asia’s two largest powers. “Senkaku is strategically important for Japan, China and Taiwan,” said Takehiko Yamamoto, professor of international politics at Waseda University in Tokyo. Taiwan also claims the islands. “Japan may need to work together with ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] countries to jointly bring China to an arena of dialogue, but it will take some time,” Yamamoto said. Several members of ASEAN are also at loggerheads with China over separate territorial disputes in the South China Sea, which contains some of the world’s most important shipping lanes and is believed to be rich in fossil fuels. AFP

move to open peace talks with the Taliban, which led Karzai to suspend talks on a security pact between the two allies. A June 27 video conference between Obama and Karzai aimed at lowering tensions ended poorly, the New York Times reported, citing US and Afghan officials with knowledge of the conversation. Senior Afghan figures close to Karzai were sceptical that Washington would consider a complete withdrawal. “Both sides understand how to pressure each other. But both the US and Afghanistan fully understand the need for foreign troops, especially US ones, to stay beyond 2014 and that it is vital for security here and in the wider region,” a top palace official said yesterday on condition of anonymity. “We don’t think the US will compromise on that, because past experience of abandoning Afghanistan was that the country descended into chaos,” the official said, recalling the bitter civil war that raged after the 1989 Soviet withdrawal and subsequent toppling of the Najibullah government. Much of Kabul was gutted in the ensuing conflict between rival warlords until the Taliban seized control of the country in 1996 and introduced their austere Islamic regime. AFP

India’s highest court mauls government over acid attack laws INDIA’S top court criticised the government yesterday for failing to formulate a policy to reduce the number of acid attacks on women, which are often carried out by jilted boyfriends or their relatives. The Supreme Court rebuked the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for failing to consider

regulating the sale of acid used in the assaults, which leave the victims permanently disfigured. “Girls are dying every day and the central government and state governments are not serious,” a two-judge bench comprising justices RM Lodha and SJ Mukhopadhaya said in a statement. According to the London-based char-

ity Acid Survivors Trust International, about 1,500 acid attacks are reported globally each year, while groups in India say the problem is growing locally. The judges demanded that the cabinet prepare a new scheme to curb attacks and provide support to victims by July 16. Otherwise, they threatened to pass a

legally binding order compelling the government to take action. An acid called “Tezaab”, which is designed to clean rusted tools, is commonly used in assaults, local campaign groups say. In the wake of a horrifying gangrape in New Delhi in December, parliament voted to toughen laws to pro-

tect women including doubling the minimum prison sentence for gangrape to 20 years. But lawmakers voted against increasing punishment for acid attackers. They can be jailed for eight to 12 years depending on the injuries inflicted, but bail can be granted by courts for the offence. AFP

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

World

Bin Laden bungles revealed Jennie Matthew

OLLECTIVE failures, incompetence and negligence by Pakistan allowed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden to live in the country undetected for more than nine years, a leaked report says. The report by a Pakistani judicial commission also reveals new details about the US raid that killed bin Laden and intriguing details about his life on the run, including that he wore a cowboy hat to evade detection by US satellites. CIA spies tracked down bin Laden to the northwestern town of Abbottabad, where he was shot dead by US Navy SEALs on May 2, 2011, during the dramatic raid near Pakistan’s military academy. It was one of the most humiliating episodes in Pakistan’s history and exposed the country to allegations of incompetence or collusion with alQaida to hide the world’s most wanted man. The government set up the judicial commission shortly after the raid to investigate after parliament demanded an independent enquiry. It interviewed senior civilian and military officials and bin Laden’s three widows. But its findings were kept secret until the Al-Jazeera news network published them on Monday. “Culpable negligence and incompetence at almost all levels of government can more or less be conclusively established by the testimonies of witnesses,” the report said. The commission said it had found nothing to support allegations of complicity but neither could it rule out the possibility of “‘plausibly deniable’ support” from current or former officials. The 336-page report included new information about bin Laden’s day-to-day life after he fled the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, arriving in Pakistan in the spring or summer of 2002.

A mock Chinese ID card with Osama bin Laden’s information sold by peddlers in Guangzhou, in China’s Guangdong province on June 27.

He stayed in Afghan border areas, the northwestern districts Swat and Haripur, and possibly other places before settling in Abbottabad in August 2005. The widow of one of two Pakistanis who provided his core support network said they – including bin Laden – were once all stopped for speeding in Swat. Her husband “very quickly settled the matter with the policeman and they drove on”, the report said without saying how. While in the mountainous region, bin Laden was said to have met Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, in February 2003. Muhammad was arrested by Pakistani authorities a month later. By 2005, the same year that bin Laden moved to Abbottabad, Pakistan’s Inter Services

Intelligence (ISI) organisation closed its file on the hunt for the al-Qaida supremo. Foreign accusations that bin Laden was probably in Pakistan were not taken seriously by the government of then military ruler Pervez Musharraf, and nor were possible military implications ever considered, the report said. In Abbottabad, testimony from his wives said bin Laden wore a cowboy hat when he moved about the compound to avoid detection from overhead. If he felt ill, he treated himself with traditional Arab medicine and “whenever he felt sluggish he would take some chocolate with an apple”, the report said. He led an austere life, overseeing the religious education and play of his children and grandchildren, “which included cultivating vegetable plots with simple prizes for best performances”.

But for nearly six years, unusual security arrangements at his villa and other abnormalities failed to attract attention from Pakistani officialdom. “How the entire neighbourhood, local officials, police and security and intelligence officials all missed the size, the strange shape, the barbed wire, the lack of cars and visitors etc over a period of nearly six years beggars belief,” the report said. The report also contains dramatic details of the US helicopter raid recounted by the al-Qaida chief’s family. Bin Laden had retired to his room with the youngest of his three wives when they were awakened by what “sounded like a storm” shortly after midnight. They rushed to the balcony, “but it was a moonless night”. Now aware that the longfeared US threat was closing in, bin Laden stopped his wife from turning on a lamp and

Radiation soars at nuclear plant TOXIC radioactive substances in groundwater at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have rocketed over the past three days, its Japanese operator said yesterday, admitting it did not know where the leak was coming from. Samples taken on Monday showed levels of possibly cancer-causing caesium-134 were more than 90 times higher than they were on Friday, at 9,000 becquerels per litre, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) revealed. Levels of caesium-137 stood at 18,000 becquerels per litre, 86 times higher than at the end of last week, the utility said. “We still don’t know why the level of radiation surged, but we are continuing efforts to avert further expansion of contamination,” a TEPCO spokesman stated. Government guidelines permit caesium-134 and -137 at 60 becquerels per litre and 90 becquerels per litre, respectively.

Once ingested, the substances accumulate in muscle and bone and are believed to cause cancers. The new readings came two days after TEPCO said tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen used in glow-inthe-dark watches, was present at levels 10 times the permitted rate. TEPCO said in late June that it had We still don’t know why the level of radiation surged, but we are continuing efforts to avert further expansion of contamination

detected the highly toxic strontium-90, a by-product of nuclear fission that can cause bone cancer if ingested, at levels 30 times the permitted rate. The substances, which were released by the meltdowns of reactors at the plant in the aftermath of the huge tsunami of March 2011, were not absorbed by soil and have made their way into underground water.

Subsoil water usually flows out to sea, meaning these two substances could normally make their way into the ocean, possibly affecting marine life and ultimately impacting humans who eat sea creatures. TEPCO said last month that the company believed the groundwater was largely contained by concrete foundations and steel sheets. But it revealed yesterday that the level of tritium in seawater near the tsunami-battered complex has been on the rise since May. The spokesman said last Wednesday’s sample showed 2,300 becquerels per litre, a record high reading since TEPCO started observation of seawater in June 2011. Although the radiation leaks from the nuclear accident are not officially recorded as having directly killed anyone, the natural disaster that caused them claimed more than 18,000 lives and was one of Japan’s worst peacetime tragedies. AFP

AFP

called for his son Khalid. While two of his daughters recited verses from the Koran, bin Laden and Khalid prepared to take their last stand – though the report also states he was unarmed when killed. Later, when Amal saw a US soldier pointing his weapon at the terror chief from the landing of their bedroom, she rushed at him as the soldier shouted “No! No!” and shot her in the knee. After the raid, US forces made off with belongings including computer hardware, gold and bin Laden’s will. One of his wives “had previously read the will but did not wish to divulge the details. She said it was not political and pertained only to personal and family-related matters”. “Other reports suggested that the will said his children should not seek the leadership of al-Qaida.” AFP

China’s Red Cross takes donations for organs THE Chinese Red Cross demands money from hospitals to help arrange organ donations, media reported yesterday. The fee charged by the staterun body varied by location and went mostly to pay donors’ medical costs, a Red Cross Society of China official told the Beijing News. It cited a hospital employee in the southern city of Guangzhou as saying the average donation for obtaining an organ was 100,000 yuan($16,000). “But exactly how this money is used, the public does not know,” the employee said. Another hospital employee in the eastern province of Jiangsu said it gave the Red Cross 50,000 yuan intended for the donor’s family. Ethical considerations are a key issue in many transplant programmes around the world, and under Chinese law it is illegal to trade in organs or to receive money for donations. Demand for transplants in the country is high, with a vast and ageing population. But supply is low because many Chinese believe they will be reincarnated after death and so feel the need to keep a complete body. Only one in 30 patients registered for an organ transplants receives one each year, the Global Times said yesterday, citing the National Health and Family Planning Commission. The shortfall opens the way to forced donations and illegal sales, while China still collects organs from executed prisoners, although it has repeatedly said it will stop doing so. A new system in 2010 aimed to make transplants fairer and more open, but a year later it was used in only a third of operations, the China Daily reported last month. Chinese Red Cross officials were not immediately available to comment. AFP

Singapore Catholic church to investigate sexual abuse THE Roman Catholic Church in Singapore has vowed to investigate any charges of sexual misconduct by its clergy after an Australian woman claimed she was abused by priests as a teenager in the city-state. Singapore-born psychotherapist Jane Leigh, 36, said in an autobiography published last month that she had been sexually abused by two priests before she moved to Australia in 1995. Leigh, now a practitioner in Melbourne, said in her book My Nine Lives that she was first abused by a priest in Singapore when she was 13. She alleged that she was abused by another priest when she was 15 after being sent to him for counselling. Leigh used pseudonyms for both churchmen, but a newspaper reported over the weekend that it contacted the priests, who denied allegations. “The Church is deeply concerned with any report of alleged sexual misconduct by its clerics, staff and those

who volunteer their services in the Church,” the Archdiocese of Singaporesaid in a statement on its website on Monday. “The Church will do all within its power to see that justice is served, not only by means of the laws of the land but as well as the laws of the Church,” it said. It encouraged victims of abuse to file police reports if the acts are criminal in nature “so that the case can be dealt with appropriately through the justice system”. The statement was prompted by a report on the book and its allegations over the weekend by Singapore tabloid The New Paper. Leigh, who also accused her late father of molesting her, told the daily that she was not planning to pursue the cases against the priests. “At the end of the day, I’m not going to put myself through the pain and anguish,” she was quoted as saying. AFP

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

World Chinese security forces fire on Tibetan protest CHINESE police opened fire on Tibetans marking the Dalai Lama’s 78th birthday, shooting at least one monk in the head and seriously wounding several other people, two overseas groups said yesterday. Security forces disrupted Tibetans in Sichuan province’s Daofu county as they carried out rituals to honour their exiled leader, whom Beijing denounces as a separatist, said the US-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and India-based phayul.com. Regional authorities denied the allegations. “Two Tibetan monks were shot in the head and several others seriously injured after Chinese police opened fire at a crowd,” ICT said, citing unnamed local and exile sources. It named the monks as Tashi Sonam and Ugyen Tashi, and said both were in hospital. Armed police and soldiers who arrived to block the group began shooting and using tear gas “without warning”, it said, citing two Tibetans in exile. At least 20 people were detained after the incident on Saturday, ICT added. Phayul, a news site on Tibet, said police opened fire

after a monk tried to “drive past the security blockade”, citing an overseas Tibetan. One monk was shot in the head, the site said. Police and religious affairs authorities in Daofu both said: “there was no incident of this kind”. The county is part of Ganzi prefecture, one of southwestern China’s Tibetanmajority areas. Members of the ethnic minority have long complained of religious and cultural repression by Beijing, and more than 100 have set themselves on fire in recent years in apparent protest at Chinese rule. Beijing insists it respects ethnic minorities and has invested heavily to develop Tibetan areas. It blames self-immolations on overseas groups seeking to push a separatist agenda. Friction in Tibetan areas has sharpened as ethnic majority Han Chinese have increasingly settled in Tibetan areas. Reports of authorities opening fire are rare, however. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 and later founded the Tibetan government-in-exile in India. AFP

Church aims at birth control

RELENTLESS Catholic Church campaign to derail a birth control law in the Philippines entered its final phase at the Supreme Court yesterday, with the verdict to have a monumental impact on millions of poor Filipinos. The court began hearing arguments against a family planning law that President Benigno Aquino, defying intense church pressure, helped steer through parliament late last year. It is the last legal recourse for the Church, which for more than a decade led resistance to birth control legislation in the mainly Catholic nation. The Church, which had threatened Aquino and other supporters of the law with excommunication, held prayer vigils, protests and masses near the Supreme Court yesterday. “We ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten and inspire the lawyers who would be arguing for our position . . . and enlighten the justices of the Supreme Court,” Bishop Gabriel Reyes told a mass at a nearby church. The law requires government health centres to hand out free condoms and birth control pills, benefiting tens of millions of the country’s poor who would not otherwise have access to them. More than a quarter of the Philippines’ nearly 100 million people live on the equivalent of 62 cents a day, according to government data. The law also mandates that sex education be taught in schools and that public health workers receive family planning training, while post-abortion medical care was legalised.

Roman Catholic activists rally at the Supreme Court in Manila yesterday against a recently passed law that requires government to provide contraceptives and sex education. AFP

Proponents say the Reproductive Health law will slow the country’s population growth, which is one of the fastest in the world, and reduce the number of mothers dying in childbirth. “To deny RH services from our people would be a denial of human rights and a grave social injustice, especially against women and the poor,” said Senator Pia Cayetano, one of the architects of the law. The Supreme Court suspended the law in March so that the judges could hear the 15 formal petitions from a range of

Church-backed groups arguing that it was unconstitutional. The opponents argue it violates various elements of the constitution, including those on protecting the sanctity of the family and guaranteeing freedom of religion. “It is a population control measure that denies the God-given right to reject contraception,” Franciso Tatad, a former senator representing the petitioners, told the Supreme Court judges in opening remarks. AFP

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

Technology

Graph Search – coming to Facebook Siraj Datoo

sonal information and “likes” on Facebook could have their privacy invaded. Graph Search has served up lists of family members of people who live in China and like Falun Gong, people who like the extreme rightwing group the English Defence League but also enjoy a curry, and Islamic men who are interested in other men and live in Tehran, where homosexuality is persecuted. Other lists included Tesco employees who like horses – a reference to the discovery of horse DNA in burger patties sold by the supermarket chain – and spouses of people who like Ashley Madison, a dating site for people already in relationships.

F your Facebook language is set to US English, you might find that your account has added a new feature. Facebook is rolling out Graph Search, a new search tool that will allow users to quickly find out information from across the site. Essentially, it’s an attempt to keep hold of an active user base by keeping them on the site for longer. In some ways, Graph Search is simply a natural extension to the News Feed. In the book about her experiences while at Facebook, The Boy Kings, Katherine Loss writes: “The general concept of News Feed was simple: An algorithm was now surfacing content that it believed, based on your activity on the site (what you looked at), you would find interesting.” Now, instead of having to follow a social graph containing your friends’ activities, Graph Search opens up your information even further. You can ask Facebook questions about your friends and find out the results, quickly. Facebook would argue that they are making it easier to find useful information that’s relevant to you. Say, for example, you’re planning a holiday to Istanbul and you’re looking for somewhere to stay. You’ve gone through Trip Advisor and every hotel that you’ve looked at has one of those delightful one-star reviews (“I was sitting by the side of the glorious pool when I suddenly saw one of the catering staff push a little

Anticipation

A screen grab of Facebook’s page for its new Graph Search.

child into the pool. DO NOT RECOMMEND.”).

Life experiences Facebook allows you to add details of “life experiences” such as where and when you have travelled somewhere. Screenshot: Facebook. In such a scenario, Graph Search would claim to offer more relevant information by looking for recommendations from a friend. Searching “Friends who have gone to Istanbul on holiday” would bring up a list of all the friends in your network who have either declared that they have gone on holiday to Istanbul or have

checked in to a location in that city. You can then message them and get a recommendation. Building on this example, Graph Search could provide a

their trip. Yet Graph Search extends beyond simply “useful information” and makes it easier to look for information that you want. It’s well-known

An algorithm was now surfacing content that it believed . . . you would find interesting

pseudo Lonely Planet. If you use it to search for images of Istanbul, you would find publicly uploaded images, as well as images uploaded to the site by your friends. Going through this, you could browse the places they visited during

that Mark Zuckerberg likes being able to get data efficiently – but in user terms, what does this mean? You could use Graph Search to find friends who speak a specific language, look for pictures that include you or

a friend, or just search for photos that you have “liked”. If Facebook can’t provide an answer, it will list results from the internet.

Privacy scare Any new product launch, however, especially at Facebook, brings along with it a new privacy scare. Do you really want friends to be able to search through everything that you have “liked” from around the web? In a blog launched last week, a series of controversial search results have been made public, showing the extent to which those who share photos, per-

Facebook has anticipated this, however, and in December released a blog post entitled, Better controls for managing your content. This accompanied a new set of tools that they launched to make it apparently easier for users to control where their information appears across the site. But for most Facebook users, the reality is that if you have been sharing information on the site for a number of years, you probably haven’t paid attention to who it was being shared with or how. The permanent addition of Graph Search will most certainly bring about yet another wave of controversy around privacy and the social network’s use of users’ data. Haven’t we been here before? THE GUARDIAN

Kabul laboratory hunts for clues to bomb makers IN a discreet laboratory in Kabul, a French military officer scans a long list of telephone numbers on a computer screen. “This is the call that triggered the explosion,” he says, pointing. The French-run facility is the nerve-centre of NATO efforts to analyse and trace how thousands of homemade bombs made by insurgents are evolving and becoming more sophisticated. The team of 15 forensic specialists puzzle over how the devices are designed and how to prevent them from being detonated – clues that could also lead back to the rebel bomb-makers themselves. The IED (improvised explosive device) came to widespread public attention during the Iraq war and has also become the signature guerrilla tactic in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other insurgent groups have fought US-led forces since 2001. The device typically uses old battlefield ordnance, explosives from mining or agricultural fertiliser, and is detonated by an electronic signal such a telephone call, a manual trigger line or a pressure plate. The Multi-National Theatre Exploitation Laboratory is located inside the Kabul airport military complex, a large highly

secure area that is a major base for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Clean, calm and quiet, the laboratory is a far cry from the frontlines where the IEDs are picked up. The devices are investigated in small rooms containing computers, monitors, spectrum analysers and oscilloscopes measuring voltage. It is here that electronic experts Adjutant Olivier, who gave only his first name in line with French military policy, says he makes hard drives, USB memory sticks, data cards and mobile phones “talk to him”. “You can retrieve calendar items, incoming and outgoing calls, contact lists, text messages, multi-media content and even erased images, videos and files,” he said enthusiastically. He also tracks the frequencies used to detonate IEDs remotely – a life-or-death calculation as it allows signal jammers to be set correctly and prevent bombs being triggered near ISAF vehicles. Although the lab specialists employ the latest hi-tech equipment to fight against the IED threat, they face a difficult challenge, with the insurgents constantly re-inventing their fatal designs. “They adapt, they are clever,

they manage to combine techniques. And on the internet, you will find many of the plans,” said the adjutant. One recent graphic example shows the rebels’ ability to come up with deadly new ideas. “In late February, an American soldier saw an American radio placed on the road,” said Lieutenant Colonel Charles, head of the centre. “The soldier recovered the radio, put it in his vehicle and a few seconds later it exploded, leaving many dead.” With materials for making IEDs freely available, their use is hard to counter. The devices were responsible for 60 per cent of ISAF fatalities in 2009, though the figure fell to 42 per cent last year. “You only need two components – an oxidiser and a fuel, such as gasoline or motor oil. It is very easy to do,” said Captain Julian, a military chemist working in the laboratory. “This is ammonium nitrate gel,” said the captain, pointing to a bottle containing a white jelly recovered after an attack in Kabul. “It is normally used in quarries instead of dynamite. Everyone knows where it comes from, exactly which company in Pakistan,” he said about the sub-

A French army specialist photographs a bullet that was recovered at an active militant area at his laboratory in Kabul International Airport ISAF military base. AFP

stance, which was banned by President Hamid Karzai to try to thwart bomb production. “But on the border with Pakistan [where the Taliban have bases] the controls are very difficult to enforce.” IEDs come in all shapes and sizes, using plastic water jugs, steel cookers and pipes, and are placed on roads, footpaths and in trees. Bigger attacks are designed to rip apart armoured trucks, while “daisy-chain” links are

often used to attack convoys so that one explosion triggers a series of follow-up blasts. The laboratory in Kabul tries to gather information on the identity of the bomb-makers by carefully gathering fingerprints and DNA traces. The analysts can even lift prints off tape that gets wrapped around a pressure plate by the insurgents. The tape is placed in a sealed tank in which glue is heated up until it becomes a vapour. This

reacts with residue from fingerprints to make them visible, and they can then be sent to a US forensic centre for checking. With most of the NATO force about to depart Afghanistan next year, the future of IED analysis is uncertain, but Charles said that the laboratory had proved its worth many times over. “It has enabled the arrest of . . . several hundred insurgents,” he said. “And kept us up-to-date with new threats.” AFP

Opinion www.phnompenhpost.com

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

Bureau Chief Peter Olszewski Office Manager Thik Skaline Distribution Manager Seng Sech Reporters Thik Kaliyann, Miranda Glasser Marketing Executive Sophearith Blondeel production & printing

Head of Desktop Publishing Nhim Sokphyrak Desktop Publishing Suon Savatdy, Tep Thoeun Thyda Chum Sokunthy, Yousos Hafisoh, Aim Valinda, Meng

head office

Post Media Co, Ltd. 888, Building F, 8th floor, Phnom Penh Center, Cnr Sothearos & Sihanouk Blvd, Chamkarmon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia Tel: 023 214 311, 0214 311-017 Fax: 023 214 318 siem reap

No 629, Street 6 Dangkum Commune Tel: 063 966 290, Fax: 063 966 590 Chief Executive Officer Chris Dawe sAles department National Sales Director Borom Chea Account Directors Chap Narith Post Khmer Sales Manager Toun Chanreaksmey Classified Ad Manager Lim Bunthoeun circulation & distribution

Circulation Director Sophea Kalvin Heng Circulation Supervisor Heng Sokal Distribution Manager Meas Thy administration

HR Manager Sothea Chap Assistants to HR Manager Pich Socheat, Lay Sopanha, Financial Director Heang Tangmeng Chief Accountant Sren Vicheka Treasurers Sok Sophorn, Yon Sovannara, Cheam Sopheak System Administration Seng Nak, Vong Oun TO CONTACT US newsroom@phnompenhpost.com advertising@phnompenhpost.com subscription@phnompenhpost.com webmaster@phnompenhpost.com www.phnompenhpost.com © Post Media Co, Ltd The Phnom Penh Post is wholly owned and printed by Post Media Co Ltd. The title The Phnom Penh Post in either English or Khmer languages, its associated logos or devices and the contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of Post Media Co Ltd.

www.phnompenhpost.com

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

The US spying game COMMENT Peter Singer

HANKS to Edward Snowden, I now know that the US National Security Agency is spying on me. It uses Google, Facebook, Verizon and other internet and communications companies to collect vast amounts of digital information, no doubt including data about my emails, cellphone calls and credit card usage. I am not a United States citizen, so it’s all perfectly legal. And, even if I were a US citizen, it is possible that a lot of information about me would have been swept up anyway, though it may not have been the direct target of the surveillance operation. Should I be outraged at this intrusion on my privacy? Has the world of George Orwell’s 1984 finally arrived, three decades late? Is Big Brother watching me? I don’t feel outraged. Based on what I know so far, I don’t really care. No one is likely to be reading my emails or listening in on my Skype calls. The volume of digital information that the NSA gathers would make that an impossible task. Instead, computer programs mine the data for patterns of suspicious activity that intelligence analysts hope will lead them to terrorists. The process is not all that different from the data collection and analysis that many corporations use to target their ads at us more effectively, or that give us the online search results that we are most likely to want. The question is not what information a government, or business, gathers, but what they do with it. I would be outraged if there were evidence that – for example – the US government was using the private information that it scoops up to blackmail foreign politicians into serving US interests, or if such information were leaked to newspapers in an effort to smear critics of US policies. That would be a real scandal. If, however, nothing of that sort has happened, and if there are effective safeguards in place to ensure that it does not happen, then the remaining question is whether this huge data-gathering effort really does protect us against terrorism, and whether we are getting value for money from it. The NSA claims that communications surveillance has prevented more than 50 terrorist attacks since 2001. I don’t know how to evaluate

Protesters rally in front of Capitol Hill in Washington against the NSA’s recently detailed surveillance programs. AFP

that claim, or whether we could have prevented those attacks in other ways. The value-for-money question is even more difficult to assess. In 2010, The Washington Post produced a major report on “Top Secret America”. After a two-year investigation involving more than a dozen journalists, the Post concluded that no one knows how much US intelligence operations cost – or even how many people American intelligence agencies employ. At the time, the Post reported that 854,000 people held “top secret” security clearances. Now that figure is reported to be 1.4 million. (The sheer number of people does make one wonder whether misuse of personal data for blackmail or other private purposes is inevitable.) Whatever we think of the NSA surveillance program itself, the US government has clearly over-reacted to the release of information about it. It revoked Snowden’s passport and wrote to governments asking them to reject any asylum request that he might make. Most extraordinary of all, it seems that the US was behind the appar-

ent refusal of France, Spain, Italy and Portugal to permit Bolivian President Evo Morales’s airplane to enter their airspace en route home from Moscow, on the grounds that Snowden might have been aboard. Morales had to land in Vienna, and Latin American leaders were furious at what they took to be an insult to their dignity. Supporters of democracy ought to think long and hard before prosecuting people like Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and Snowden. If we think that democracy is a good thing, then we must believe that the public should know as much as possible about what the government it elects is doing. Snowden has said that he made the disclosures because “the public needs to decide whether these programs and policies are right or wrong”. He’s right about that. How can a democracy determine whether there should be government surveillance of the kind that the NSA is conducting if it has no idea that such programs exist? Indeed, Snowden’s leaks also revealed that National Intelligence

Special Monsoon Subscription Promotion Subscribe to success and receive gift vouchers to enjoy at your nearest BB World, Pizza World, and T&C Cafe. Promotion ends on July 10th, 2013 Subscribe today ! please contact: Subscription 017 433 944, 017 799 942

SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE READ THE POST

Subscription period

Post Khmer

Post English

Gift

Six months

$35

$90

$5 Voucher

One year

$60

$175

$10 Voucher

Director James Clapper misled the US Congress about the NSA’s surveillance practices in his testimony at a hearing held in March by the Senate Intelligence Committee. When The Washington Post published (along with The Guardian) the information that Snowden provided, it asked Americans whether they support or oppose the NSA’s intelligence-gathering program. Some 58 per cent of those surveyed supported it. Yet the same poll found that only 43 per cent supported prosecuting Snowden for disclosing the program, while 48 per cent were opposed. The poll also indicated 65 per cent support for public hearings by the US Congress on the NSA surveillance program. If that happens, we will all be much better informed because of Snowden’s disclosures. PROJECT SYNDICATE Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne, is one of the world’s most prominent ethicists. He is the author of Practical Ethics, Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals, and One World, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason).

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

Lifestyle Kathmandu’s tucked away diners offer the real deal

In brief

asdsadasdfsaf

OWN a narrow, alley a few minutes’ walk from Kathmandu’s bustling tourist hub of Durbar Square, Uttam Manandhar prepares a tapas-style array of buffalo brain, spine and testicles. It might not look appetising to Westerners but dozens of indigenous Newars gather daily in his “bhatti” as part of a centuries-old social scene largely missed by the thousands of tourists who come to Nepal in search of culture. Hidden in the capital’s myriad labyrinthine alleyways are hundreds of these traditional hole-in-the-wall eateries – “speakeasies” to the locals – serving potent home brew and various buffalo meat snacks. “These are the daily staple of Newars. I think the locals come here because, apart from being cheap, they are also nutritious and delicious,” Manandhar said. Both sides of the alley are dotted with these grimy, smoky coves that can be identified by those in the know by the greasy curtain covering the doorways. Inside, a dozen Newari dishes comprising beaten rice and every conceivable part of a buffalo, are spread out before the diners, who wash down their spicy barbecued, or sometimes raw, meat with a rice-gin concoction called raksi. Locals part with around 100 rupees ($1.83) for a filling meal while a double shot of homedistilled raksi – so potent at more than 50 per cent alcohol that you soon forget how many you’ve had – costs little more than 40 rupees. The delicacies on offer include buffalo brain, a greyish dish of boiled blood called rakti, phokso (lungs stuffed with minced meat), kachila

Lady Gaga attempts to block lawsuit docs

Customers eat food at an ethnic Newari cuisine shop in Kathmandu.

(raw meat), baked buffalo skin, boiled spinal cord and fried intestines. But the tourists who throng the courtyards of the nearby 17th-century temples and other attractions in search of the “genuine” Kathmandu experience hardly ever venture here, says Manandhar. “These places might be dark and not polished if you compare them with the fine dining places in Kathmandu. But once your palette knows about it, it will be hard for you not to be tempted by them,” he told AFP. A typical bhatti might serve 60 people on a good day, making around 4,000 rupees after expenses are deducted, although staff costs are low, with the owner usually doubling as waiter, barman and chef.

LADY Gaga has attempted to block the release of “sensitive, private and personal information” as part of an ongoing court battle between two of the singer’s former collaborators. According to website TMZ, Gaga has filed a legal request to seal certain details of the ongoing litigation between the talent scout Wendy Starland and Gaga’s former producer, Rob Fusari. If certain information were released, her lawyers claimed, it would “inflict significant personal and professional harm upon” the Poker Face star. Starland and Fusari have been battling in court since 2010, when Starland filed a lawsuit claiming she was owed money from the early part of Gaga’s career. the guardian

afp

“We are busy in the late afternoon and the evening when our customers, mainly local Newar people, come to eat and socialise,” Manadhar said. Sitting under a naked bulb in a long room with wooden chairs and tables, Narendra Gopal Shrestha is enjoying a plate of potato stew and soya bean and cucumber pickle with a generous helping of chili and vinegar. “I grew up eating the Newari food at home and I can’t think of a day when I don’t have it. It’s found nowhere else except Kathmandu and it’s cheap and the best,” the 53-year-old tour guide said. “My kids go out to expensive restaurants where they serve junk food like pizza and burgers. I think it’s only the older

generation that knows the value of this cuisine,” he said. Shrestha said the food reflected a rich culture that drew from his people’s unique mix of Buddhism and Hinduism and their agrarian past. Diners in Kathmandu’s bhattis are united about the quality of the food, but it’s the raksi or tongba, a rice beer sipped through a pipe, that really stirs their passions during the capital’s chilly winters. Because bhattis are hard to find, they have never been counted. And although there were several bhattis in every alley 10 years ago, their numbers are diminishing, according to food experts. “These places emerged before fast food and the arrival of dining out culture. Back in

the 1970s, creative people used to hang out there and spend hours over plates of the snacks and drinks on the side,” said food writer Shekhar Kharel. Kharel believes diners have become more knowledgeable and cosmopolitan as Kathmandu has opened up to the world in recent decades, gradually rendering restaurants serving only one type of cuisine obsolete. “Bhattis are now the poor cousins of the neighbourhood’s upscale cafés,” he said. “Although they are threatened by the newcomers, there are some who enjoy a loyal following. They might retain their glory if they modernise a bit because you won’t get the authentic taste anywhere else.” afp

Indian sprint hero inspires Bollywood Charlotte Turner

THE courageous story of the “Flying Sikh” – India’s most successful track athlete ever, who overcame childhood tragedy to seek Olympic glory – is the latest Bollywood biopic to hit cinemas. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (Run, Milkha, Run) charts the journey of young Milkha Singh who lost his family during India’s tumultuous partition in 1947 and went on to compete at the 1960 and 1964 Olympic Games. His rise to elite athlete made Singh a national hero and the film, which opens in theatres worldwide on Friday, joins the Bollywood trend of movies based on or inspired by real stories. “We all grew up with the folklore of Milkha, he’s a larger-than-life figure for

us,” said the film’s director Rakeysh Mehra. “He’s like what Pele meant to football, or what Jesse Owens meant for track and field for the West.” The movie title refers to the poignant last words spoken to Singh by his father. As he was dying, he told Singh to flee or he too would be killed in the post-partition riots sweeping the subcontinent – Singh ran for his life and boarded a train with other refugees. Mehra was drawn to Singh’s story not just for his sporting achievements but for the impact the athlete had on a newborn nation struggling to assert itself. “At that time, we were looking for heroes outside politics. Outside [Mahatma] Gandhi or [prime minister Jawaharlal] Nehru, there were none that the

world knew. So he went out there and in a way conquered the world for us,” he explained. “This man never ran away from his fears, he ran along with them.” Singh finished fourth in the 400 metres at the 1960 Olympics in Rome after a spectacular final that was so close it needed a photo finish to determine fourth place. A devastated Singh, who won gold at both the Asian and Commonwealth Games, never fulfilled his dream of winning an Olympic medal. The director says his film is decidedly “un-Bollywood”, deviating from the typical plotline that aims to “serve a complete meal” by combining elements of dance, drama, emotion and action into one blockbuster.

“Here, drama is the key,” Mehra said. He is the latest Bollywood director to experiment with a biographical story, following a string of true-life movies in recent years that have proved popular with wide audiences. Among the most successful was The Dirty Picture (2011), starring Vidya Balan and inspired by the life of a South Indian erotic actress in the 1980s. Last year’s critically acclaimed sports biopic Paan Singh Tomar, starring Irrfan Khan, told the story of athlete Tomar who became a notorious bandit. Currently in the pipeline are movies about playback singer Kishore Kumar and boxing star Mary Kom, a farmer’s daughter who became a five-time world champion and won a bronze medal at the London Olympics. afp

Russia replaces head of Bolshoi Theatre THE Russian government replaced the head of the Bolshoi Theatre yesterday following a series of scandals including an acid attack that left the artistic director of its ballet company almost totally blind. Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky announced Anatoly Iksanov’s departure after 13 years leading one of the world’s top theatres and said Vladimir Urin, general director of the Stanislavsky Musical Theatre, would take his place.“[Urin] will be able to unite the troupe and continue the development of the best theatre in the country and one of the best in the world,” Medinsky said. reuters

Hot enough to fry eggs? Don’t try in Death Valley DEATH Valley National Park has asked tourists not to test out the reputation of the world’s hottest spot by frying eggs on the ground, citing a growing litter problem at the popular US landmark. “An employee’s posting of frying an egg in a pan in Death Valley was intended to demonstrate how hot it can get here, with the recommendation that if you do this, use a pan or tin foil and properly dispose of the contents,” the park said on its Facebook page last week. “However, the Death Valley NP maintenance crew has been busy cleaning up eggs cracked directly on the sidewalk, including egg cartons and shells strewn across the parking lot. reuters

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

Health

Doctors create low-cost test-tube baby for poor Ben Hirschler

ELGIAN doctors have developed a low-cost version of testtube baby technology for use in developing countries, where sophisticated Western systems are unaffordable for most couples. The researchers said on Monday that their simplified process cost around €200 ($260) per cycle of treatment and delivered results that were similar to those seen with conventional in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) programs. The price is just 10 to 15 per cent of the current cost of Western-style IVF and suggests infertility care could become universally accessible, Elke Klerkx from the Genk Institute for Fertility Technology told a medical meeting. About five million babies have been born around the world since the birth of the first test-tube baby in 1978 – but the treatment remains largely the preserve of developed countries because of its high cost. “Infertility care is probably the most neglected healthcare problem of developing countries, affecting more than 2 million couples according to the World Health Organisation,” Klerkx said. In order to slash the price, Klerkx and her colleagues used an embryo culture method that removes the need for much of the expensive laboratory equipment found in Western IVF clinics. Results from a study showed similar success rates between the standard and low-cost system – and two-thirds of the top quality embryos from 35 cycles as assessed by an independent expert came from the simplified system. “Our initial results are proof of principle that a simplified culture system designed for developing countries can offer affordable and successful opportunities for infertility treatment where IVF is the only solution,” said Klerkx. “This is a major step towards universal fertility care.” Fertility experts attending the European Society of Human Reproduc-

An embryologist carries-out a sample preparation process at Fortis Bloom Fertility and IVF Centre in Punjab, India.

tion and Embryology (ESHRE) annual meeting in London, where her results were presented, said the system could bring IVF to many corners of the world, including much of Africa, where there is a huge unmet need. But they cautioned that it had, as yet, only been shown to work in a developed world setting, using a laboratory in Belgium, and larger trials in one or more developing country were now needed to test the process fully. Infertility is a serious problems in some countries in Africa and other re-

source-poor settings, where infections are a common cause of tubal blockages in women, leading to often high rates of infertility and social isolation. Many cases of infertility in the developing world are due to infectious diseases like chlamydia or tuberculosis. Richard Kennedy, general secretary of the International Federation of Fertility Societies, said the Belgian team’s work had great potential. “Infertility is a disease which does not respect national boundaries. Until now it has been unaffordable for

afp

many in the developing world,” he said in a statement. ESHRE estimates the prevalence of infertility that lasts for at least 12 months to be around nine per cent worldwide for women aged 20-44. Klerkx and the Genk team are now working to build a low-cost IVF laboratory that could be a used as a template for use in poorer countries. The cost of setting up a high-quality IVF lab is between €1.5 million and €3 million, but she expects the low-cost version to cost less than €300,000. reuters

China Red Cross: cash for organs allegations THE Chinese Red Cross demands money from hospitals to help arrange organ donations, media reported yesterday. The fee charged by the staterun body varied by location and went mostly to pay donors’ medical costs, a Red Cross Society of China official told the Beijing News. It cited a hospital employee in the southern city of Guangzhou as saying the average donation for obtaining an organ was 100,000 yuan($16,000). “But exactly how this money is used, the public does not know,” the employee said. Another hospital employee in the eastern province of Jiangsu said it gave the Red Cross 50,000 yuan intended for the donor’s family. Ethical considerations are a key issue in many transplant programs around the world, and under Chinese law it is illegal to trade in organs or to receive money for donations. Demand for transplants in the country is high, with a vast and ageing populationa. But supply is low because many Chinese believe they will be reincarnated after death and so feel the need to keep a complete body. Only one in 30 patients registered for an organ transplants receives one each year, the Global Times said Tuesday, citing the National Health and Family Planning Commission. The shortfall opens the way to forced donations and illegal sales, while China still collects organs from executed prisoners, although it has repeatedly said it will stop doing so. A new system in 2010 aimed to make transplants fairer and more open, but a year later it was used in only a third of operations, the China Daily reported last month. afp

Web health searches tracked, researchers find

Researcher Marco Huesch searched health terms on the web and found he was being tracked. afp

PATIENTS searching for healthrelated information on the internet may find their privacy threatened, said a research letter published in a major US medical journal on Monday. Marco Huesch, a researcher at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, searched for “depression,” “herpes” and “cancer” on various health-related websites and observed that the data was being tracked. “Confidentiality is threatened by the leakage of information to third parties” through trackers on the websites themselves or on consumers’ computers, he wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Should someone living with depression, herpes or cancer research his or her condition online, as an increasing number of patients are doing, these search terms might not remain private, Huesch said. Disclosure of any conditions

could result not only in “embarrassment” but also “discrimination in the labor market”, he added. The scientist used freeware privacy tools DoNotTrackMe and Ghostery to detect third party entities on the websites he browsed and commercial software called Charles to intercept any transmission of the information he generated to third parties. Of what he called a “convenience sample” of 20 high-traffic sites, which include the official pages of the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration as well as WebMD and Weight Watchers, all had at least one third-party entity, and six or seven on average, he said. Thirteen out of 20 websites contained third-party elements that tracked user data, said Huesch, highlighting the role of social media plug-ins, which appeared on five of those 13 sites.

Plug-ins such as the Facebook “Like” button “allow tracking on websites even if the online user is not logged into social media” and “the user does not actually press the social button”, he said. Seven of the 13 websites in question leaked Huesch’s searches to tracking entities. Huesch warned that the risk of personal or professional embarrassment could “reduce the willingness of some people to access health-related information online.” Currently, threats to privacy are “insufficiently addressed in current legislation and regulations”, according to the scientist. Until regulations on information-gathering are enacted, he advised patients and physicians to use free privacy tools for online browsing, or to search via websites maintained by professional societies or government researchers. afp

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

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

INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT SCHEDULE FROM PHNOM PENH Flighs

Days

Dep

TO PHNOM PENH Arrival

PHNOM PENH - BANGKOK

Flighs

Days

Dep

Arrival

BANGKOK - PHNOM PENH

K6 720

Daily

12:05

01:10

K6 721

Daily

02:25

03:30

PG 938

Daily

06:40

08:15

PG 931

Daily

07:55

09:05

PG 932

Daily

09:55

11:10

TG 580

Daily

07:55

09:05

TG 581

Daily

10:05

11:10

PG 933

Daily

13:30

14:40

PG 934

Daily

15:30

16:40

FD 3616

Daily

15:15

16:20

FD 3617

Daily

17:05

18:15

PG 935

Daily

17:30

18:40

PG 936

Daily

19:30

20:40

TG 584

Daily

18:25

19:40

TG 585

Daily

20:40

21:45

PG 937

Daily

20:15

21:50

PHNOM PENH - BEIJING CZ 324

Daily

BEIJING - PHNOM PENH 08:00

16:05

CZ 323

Daily

14:30

20:50

PHNOM PENH - DOHA ( Via HCMC)

DOHA - PHNOM PENH ( Via HCMC)

QR 605

1.2..5.6

22:35

05:15+1

QR 604

1.2..5.6

08:00

21:00

QR 603

..34..7

15:50

22:25

QR 602

..3.4..7

01:25

14:20

PHNOM PENH - GUANGZHOU Daily

08:00

11:40

CZ 6059

2.4.7

12:00

13:45

CZ 6060

2.4.7

14:45

18:10

CZ 323

Daily

19:05

20:50

09:40

13:00

PHNOM PENH - HANOI Daily

17:30

20:35

VN 841

Daily

HO CHI MINH CITY - PHNOM PENH

VN 841

Daily

14:00

14:45

VN 920

Daily

15:50

16:30

VN 3856

Daily

19:20

20:05

VN 3857

Daily

18:00

18:45

PHNOM PENH - HONG KONG 1.2.4.7

11:25

15:05

KA 208

1.2.4.6.7 08:50

10:25

KA 207

11:45

22:25

KA 206

3.5.7

14:30

16:05

KA 209

18:30

22:05

KA 206

15:25

17:00

KA 209

3.5.7

17:25

21:00

KA 206

15:50

17:25

KA 205

19:00

22:35

PHNOM PENH - INCHEON Daily

23:40

06:40

KE 689

Daily

18:30

22:20

OZ 740

Daily

23:50

06:50

OZ 739

Daily

19:10

22:50

PHNOM PENH - KUALA LUMPUR

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

COLOUR CODE

2817 - 16 Tigerairways

HANOI - PHNOM PENH

PHNOM PENH - HO CHI MINH CITY

AF 273

AIRLINES CODE

GUANGZHOU - PHNOM PENH

CZ 324

VN 840

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

19:50

AF 273

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

A tourist enjoys a bungy jump over the Waikato River in Taupo, New Zealand. afp

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

18:45

20:00

3K 592

20:45

23:45

3K 591

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

14:50

17:50

2816

13:00

14:00

2817

13:20

16:10

2816

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

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

Fri, 08:00 - Sun, 06:00

1 call/week

SIN-SHV-SIN

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

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

Thrill-seeking a big business in N Zealand

T was beginning to feel as if New Zealand’s national emblem wasn’t the silver fern, but the disclaimer form. The frequent signing away of liability for life and limb began shortly after I disembarked from a 26-hour flight from London to Auckland. Someone suggested that the best way to get rid of any long-haul cobwebs might be to take a lift to the top of the city’s 328-metre Sky Tower then base-jump off it (on a wire). I did, and two weeks of starting the day with “Read this and sign here” had begun. In the end, I landed at the foot of the Sky Tower, giddy with survival, went straight back up in the lift and jumped off it again. It turns out this adrenaline stuff is addictive. So much so, in fact, that entire towns and cities are given over to the business of thrill-seeking. I spent some days travelling with the Stray Travel tour, a mini-coach service, which meanders up and down the country collecting and losing backpackers along the way. Three hours south of Auckland, near the centre of the North Island, are the towns of Taupo and Rotorua. They’re about 80 kilometres apart and both littered with companies offering adventures to adventure-hunters. It’s worth stopping by Taupo’s Huka Falls for the jet boat, which skips and lurches across the Waikato river with a series of sharp 360degree spins, before darting close to the Falls themselves. It’s lsoggy, exhilarating fun. But the newest experience to hit Rotorua is a combination of eco-tourism and old-fashioned thrills. Rotorua Canopy Tours are billed as a native forest canopy zipline tour, which is a wordy way of saying that you fly through the trees like

a tui, though with panicked screaming taking the place of beautiful birdsong. After the short walk-andtalk, it’s time to jump off something. In this instance the “flying fox” experience involves zipwiring between a series of wooden platforms at increasing heights. “We’ve got a surprise for you,” our guide and Canopy Tours founder James Fitzgerald said, before hoisting me into the unknown. About halfway across that final ride, the floor of the forest suddenly drops away, and it feels as if you’re hundreds of metres in the air, dangling from a cable, soaring through the tops of the trees. I had a funny urge to flap my arms, which, I suppose, could be a sneaky conservation tactic: avian empathy. By this point, I was confident that I could conquer my fears on a near-professional level. I’m not scared of heights (hence all the jumping), but for a long time I was terrified of planes. I decided a skydive might be the thing to knock it on the head once and for all. As we flew to 5,000 metres above the Abel Tasman national park, I was not so sure about this self-prescribed therapeutic experience, but, as they say, there’s only one way down. So, I got strapped to my jump partner Chris and we tumbled out of the door and fell through the air for 70 of the longest seconds of my life. It wasn’t just the biggest buzz of the fortnight – it was the most thrilling experience of my life. I was high on it for the rest of the trip. Even now, when something feels insurmountable, I remember how it felt to sit near the exit of a tiny plane and see the North and South Islands thousands of feet below. the guardian

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

Entertainment NOW SHOWING

Film @ Meta House

legend cinema

A man's uneasy return to Phnom Penh sees the past collide with the present in the new short film Broken, premiering tonight at Meta House. Filmmaker Amit Dubey and the cast will join the screening for a Q&A. After, at 8pm, a thoughtprovoking batch of international shorts from Berlin's Interfilm Festival Confrontations 2012.

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. 1:30pm, 4:15pm, 9pm 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. 9:30am, 11:40am, 2:30pm, 6:55pm, 9:30pm

Meta House, #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. 9:30am, 11:20am, 4:40pm

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

PLATINUM CINEPLEX WORLD WAR Z (See above) 9:15am, 11:20am, 1:25pm, 3:30pm, 8:10pm MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (See above) 9:15am, 1pm

TV PICKS

11:15am - WHAT LIES BENEATH: The wife of a university research scientist believes that her lakeside Vermont home is haunted by a ghost – or that she's losing her mind. FOX MOVIES 1:25pm - PROMETHEUS: A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race. FOX MOVIES

MAN OF STEEL (See above) 5:35pm WHITE HOUSE DOWN While on a tour of the White House with his young daughter, a Capitol Hill policeman springs into action to save his child and protect the president from a heavily armed group of paramilitary invaders. 8:25pm PEE MAK Thai romance. 11am, 2:40pm, 4:40pm

House @ Pontoon Bistro

A scene from Amit Dubey's short film Broken, showing tonight at Meta House. SUPPLIED

3:30pm - THE BOOK OF ELI: A post-apocalyptic tale in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind. FOX MOVIES

Charlize Theron and Idris Elba star in sci-fi thriller Prometheus on Fox Movies this afternoon. BLOOMBERG

8pm - WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER?: A woman looks back at the past 20 men she's had relationships with in her life and wonders if one of them might be her one true love. FOX MOVIES

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 “SEE? FOOD!” ACROSS

DOWN

1 5 9 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 23 24 25 27 30 33 36 38 39 41 42 43 44

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

46 47 49 51 53 57 59 62 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71

One side of a debate Goes back out Up in the morning Principal Geometric calculation It’s a fact Tends to a sprain Iranian coin Flinch, as from pain Louisiana dish Sound of an epiphany Bike tour stop Presses in pleats Sometimes illegal auto maneuver Use your noggin Eyelash shape Excessive concern for self Clump, as of dirt Colossal commotion Driving necessity? It may be in-line Without delay Mrs. Miller’s partner, in a 1971 film Room in many houses Manufacturer’s come-on Skip the fuss, not the ceremony Circus employee Like aviator glasses ___ step further Meal served on the half shell Elephant goad Friend of Owl and Rabbit Word that causes division Centers of early development Brownish hue Cold starter Bag that lies on a mound Round wicker basket Dissenting voices

10 11 12 13 21 22 26 28 29 31 32 33 34 35 37 40 42 44 45 48 50 52 54 55 56 57 58 60 61 63

Pious Pennsylvania people Tortilla chip flavor Arena parts As originally found Sound barrier Jail on the high seas Gentleman caller Highly seasoned ragout “The Handmaid’s Tale” novelist Margaret Bombay title Sandwich filler Seven-year affliction Perlman of TV and film Curbside payment collector Top of the glass Jugular location U. marchers Sibling’s issue, perhaps Package carrier First family’s home Way off Crafty stratagem Baltimore chef’s specialty Tamperer hamperer Lustrous gem Brownish print pigment Whimper like a baby Make a mess of Warning bell Naval flag Neck sections Itchy skin problem Way in Destines to an unhappy end Massive wild ox Double preposition Tease by imitating Having smarts? Geller with the mind games

Tuesday’s solution

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

Sport

Daly out of British Open with torn elbow tendon American John Daly, who won the British Open at St Andrews in 1995, was forced to withdraw from the major championship Monday because of an elbow injury. The five-time USPGA Tour winner pulled out of the Greenbrier Classic on Friday with a torn tendon in his elbow. He is expected to undergo surgery and could be sidelined for up four months. Daly has not missed a British Open since 1999. He will be replaced in the field by Stephan Gallacher. The British Open runs from July 18-21 at Muirfield. AFp

Boss of Team Sky says hiring doc a ‘mistake’

Taking it outside

Chinese sumo wrestler Sokokurai (left) is pushed out by Tokushoryu during a match of the Nagoya grand sumo tournament at Aichi prefectural gymnasium on Sunday. Sokokurai was one of some 20 wrestlers embroiled in a huge bout-rigging scandal that rocked the centuries-old sport in 2011. REUTERS

Struggling Rebels release under-fire O’Connor Australia back James O’Connor has been dumped by the Melbourne Rebels after two injury-hit years at the Super Rugby club and following a disappointing series for the Wallabies against the British and Irish Lions. The Rebels, who have struggled since joining the Southern Hemisphere competition in 2011 and are out of the running for this season’s playoffs would not offer the 23-year-old a contract beyond 2013, the team said on Sunday. “After three years in the Super 15 competition, the club is entering the next

phase of development,” Rebels chief executive Rob Clarke said. “I am very confident in our player recruitment strategies, which continue to identify some excellent emerging talent.” O’Connor’s release caps a difficult month for the versatile utility, who was controversially picked at flyhalf by Australia coach Robbie Deans ahead of the Lions series despite having minimal experience in the position at Test level. Although showing flashes of brilliance, and scoring a fine try in the Wallabies’ 41-16 defeat in the deciding third test in

Sydney on Saturday, O’Connor largely struggled in the playmaking position throughout the three-test series. O’Connor’s off-field record has also been a concern. The Wallabies back generated headlines last week and irked his senior team-mates by being seen at a fast food outlet with team-mate Kurtley Beale at nearly 4am in the lead-up to the second test against the Lions. Along with team-mate Beale, O’Connor’s recruitment after the Rebels’ foundation season in 2011, was considered a major coup for the franchise,

which has struggled for relevance in a city dominated by Australian Rules. But he spent long stints on the sidelines with a succession of injuries and the Rebels continued to struggle even with him on the field. Beale was stood down by the Rebels for over a month after punching his captain Gareth Delve and another teammate in a boozy incident on a team bus in South Africa early in the season. The Rebels will also part ways with former Wales back-rower Delve and hooker Ged Robinson. REUTERS

Angkor Golf driving development HS Manjunath

HE award-winning Angkor Golf Resort in Siem Reap is well known as one of Sir Nick Faldo’s classy designs. It is also the home of the six-time Major winner’s annual grassroots development initiatiative Faldo Series, the second edition of which concluded two weeks ago. If the present director of golf at AGR, David Baron, carries out his own master plan for the development of the game, the resort could well house a purpose-built international golf academy in the near future. What is driving Baron is the passion he shares with the resort in promoting golf through junior initiatives. “As a member of the PGA I am happy to be a part of this and willing to give my time

and use of the AGR facilities to enthusiastic kids who want to learn,” Baron, who is from Yorkshire in the United Kingdom, told the Post in an exclusive chat yesterday With a wealth of experience both as a PGA professional and top level management executive behind him, Baron, who has extensively coached juniors in Hong Kong and China, is setting out to help Cambodian youngsters who are keen on developing their golf skills, “I taught hundreds of junior golfers at the prestigious Hong Kong Golf Club. However, golf is more mainstream and accessible to kids in HK with a strong golf association backing,” the AGR director of golf pointed out. Another well-structured golf body Baron had worked with was in China, where he opened a PGA-endorsed

David Baron holds a coaching session for local children at Angkor Golf Resort in Siem Reap. PHOTO SUPPLIED

academy as the first Jack Nicklaus-branded academy. The first phase of his longterm plan is already in motion. He has been spending his time in imparting basic golf lessons at the AGR to stu-

dents from several Siem Reap schools to spread the game’s appeal among the youth. In the weeks and months to come, Baron hopes to organise regular golf clinics and nine-hole tournaments in

Siem Reap and Phnom Penh to follow up on the splendid efforts being made by former Australian amateur team captain Roger Hunt, who has been serving the Cambodian Golf Federation as an adviser for the past five years in a purely voluntary capacity. Baron considers support from other clubs and the CGF vital to the success of his mission. Using golf, Baron is also helping a major health initiative by partnering with Cambodian Diabetes Association, encouraging the local NGO to bring kids to the resort for educational classes on the dangers, causes and prevention of diabetes. A free golf clinic will be conducted for the benefit of these children with an emphasis on fitness. The leader of the NGO, Lorraine Fraser King, is fully supportive of this partnership.

Hiring a doctor once linked with alleged doping practices was a mistake, Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford said on Monday. Last October, Sky severed ties with Belgian Geert Leinders, a former doctor at Rabobank who is under investigation by the Belgian judicial authorities after being implicated by former riders. Leinders has denied any involvement in doping. “The whole thing is my respon-sibility. I will take that squarely on the chin. It’s a mistake,” Brailsford said. Team Sky have been under the microscope since last year when they started to dominate the field in ruthless fashion, with 2012 Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins repeatedly being grilled on doping. REUtERS

Australia set to field all-Indigenous team

October’s International Rules Series, a hybrid of Gaelic football and Aussie Rules, will see Australia field an allIndigenous side. The AFL’s deputy chief Gill McLachlan said last week: ”To the best of our knowledge, the all-stars representing the AFL in this IRS series will be the first allIndigenous team to represent a sporting code at senior level overseas since that first cricket team toured England in 1868.” Sydney’s two-time Brownlow Medallist Adam Goodes and Hawthorn forwards Lance Franklin and Cyril Rioli are expected to be part of the squad that will take on Ireland in two Tests. The series has been played in some form since 1967. Joseph curtin

America’s Cup regatta is off with only one team The 34th America’s Cup sailing regatta began in San Francisco on Sunday with only one team competing in the first race as Italy’s Luna Rossa Challenge sat it out in protest of rule changes it says put it at a disadvantage. In a bizarre start, Emirates Team New Zealand sailed the race course alone in San Francisco Bay in order to formally win the first of several matches in the Louis Vuitton Cup. The winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup will challenge software tycoon Larry Ellison’s Oracle Team USA for the America’s Cup in September. REUtERS

Chess Puzzle solution: ... Nc6!! (attacks the queen and weak a5 pawn) making room for decisive Bd4

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

Football

In brief Benteke asks to leave Villa with eye on Spurs

Christian Benteke has thrown Aston Villa’s pre-season plans into turmoil by submitting a transfer request that is expected to lead to Tottenham Hotspur making a formal offer. Spurs watched Benteke on numerous occasions last season and, after becoming frustrated in their pursuit of several other forwards, will step up their attempts to sign the 22-year-old Belgium international. Villa confirmed Benteke’s request on Monday, though the Midlands club say they will not be bullied into selling a player they bought for £7 million ($10.4 million) last summer. The GUARDIAN

In [England] no one knows how to play football. We just boot the ball up the pitch – Harry Redknapp after England’s appalling U21 European Championships in Israel

Mkhitaryan Borussia move leaves Kop blue

LIVERPOOL have been left disappointed in their pursuit of the attacking midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan after the Champions League runners-up Borussia Dortmund paid €27.5 million (£35 million) for the Armenian international from Shakhtar Donetsk. “Shakhtar Donetsk and Borussia have settled all matters on Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Transfer fee is €27.5m,” Shakhtar said. Mkhitaryan, capped 37 times by Armenia, had an impressive season as he helped Shakhtar win the Ukraine league title and reach the Champions League last 16 where they were knocked out by Dortmund. rEUTERS

Rooney talk mounts as United head to Bangkok

ntense speculation over Wayne Rooney’s future looks set to dominate the headlines this week as Manchester United begin their new era under David Moyes at the start of a bumper series of pre-season tours to Asia. Moyes’s first outing as United boss, starting with Saturday’s friendly in Bangkok, will be forensically scrutinised for clues about the want-away star, who made a transfer request just before the departure of legendary boss Alex Ferguson. Britain’s Daily Mail yesterday linked Rooney with a £60 million ($90 million) bid from United’s English Premier League rivals Chelsea – who also arrive in the Thai capital this week, led by returning manager José Mourinho. The new starts by Moyes and Mourinho, and the opening of the July-August transfer window, will put extra focus on this year’s Asian visits with Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester City and Spurs also among the clubs headed east. With Manchester City led by incoming manager Manuel Pellegrini, the three biggest powers of English

football will all be under new leadership during the preseason spree, spread over a giant arc from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney. Arsenal will break new ground by becoming the first Premiership team to play in Vietnam, indicating a widening reach for a competition that is hugely popular in Asia and earns a significant share of its income from the region. Liverpool’s tour of Indonesia, Australia and Thailand will be under the microscope for news about striker Luis Suarez, while Moyes will also face questions about the possible return of Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. It is a sign of the times that Moyes will make his United bow not at Old Trafford or even Oxford’s Manor Ground – where Ferguson debuted in 1986 – but at Rajamangala Stadium in suburban Bangkok, against a Thai All-Star XI. But the former Everton manager may be glad to run the rule over his squad, and make inroads towards retaining Rooney, away from the full glare of the English media as he faces the unenviable task of following Ferguson’s 38-trophy reign.

It’s your move, plan carefully. Mikhail Botvinnik v Vasily Smyslov 8

Black to play and win

Solution on page ?

Moving house? Call 023 880 951 or visit www.asiantigersgroup.com for more information

Wayne Rooney gestures before being booked for a foul against Swansea in December 2012.

“Whoever was going to take over knows what the manager did before,” Moyes said this week. “The manager before was incredible. His achievements, there are no better. “All I can do is what David Moyes has done before. I will definitely continue the traditions of Manchester United, but I have to put my own stamp on the club.” Mourinho is also hoping to build a legacy in his second stint at Chelsea, after forays to Inter Milan and Real Madrid, and is likely to parade new signings Andre Schurrle and Marco van Ginkel during the club’s tour to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Portuguese, styling himself as the “Happy One” after returning to London, is said to be on the look-out for a new target man while he chews over the future of erratic striker Fernando Torres, as well as veteran club captain John Terry. Manchester United head to Sydney after Bangkok and they will also visit Japan, home country of their forward Shinji Kagawa, as well as Hong Kong. Arsenal are playing in Jakarta and Hanoi before also heading furthewrt north to Japan, where their games include a fixture against Nagoya Grampus, former club of their

REUTERS

manager Arsene Wenger. Manchester City, Spurs and Sunderland are due to play a mini-tournament in Hong Kong and Spanish giants Barcelona will visit Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, in early August. Many of the players, household names across much of Asia, can expect a rock-star welcome from fans with packed houses for the friendly games, and even their training sessions. European football has an enormous following in the region with the Premier League set to reap a big increase in overseas TV revenues after the latest round of negotiations. AFP

Mourinho to use Drogba as template for the young JosÉ Mourinho will use Didier Drogba as a template of how to behave as a professional when he tries to coax the best from the younger players in his Chelsea squad. The Ivory Coast forward, now at Galatasaray, scored 157 goals in 341 appearances for Chelsea after being bought in 2004 by Mourinho from Marseille in the Portuguese manager’s first spell at Stamford Bridge. “I think Didier Drogba, as a man and as a professional, is a good guy to be looked at as a very special player in the history of this club,” Mourinho told Chelsea’s monthly magazine. “I can use Didier as a profile to persuade the young boys to follow me because he did follow me from day one.” Drogba helped Mourinho win back-to-back Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006 and also scored the winning goal in the FA Cup final victory over Manchester United at Wembley in 2007. Mourinho, who on Monday took his first training session in his second stint at Chelsea after the players reported back following their close-season break, described Drogba as a “fantastic example” for any young player. “He was playing in France and nobody really knew a lot about him when I asked the owner [Roman Abramovich] to buy him,” Mourinho said. “Some people thought he was too expensive for somebody who had not proved himself. Then, in the owner’s 10th year in charge [2013], he was voted the best player in Chelsea’s history. “I think every player can have the same

ambition that Didier had because he was a guy driven by ambition, by emotion, by friendship and by loyalty. He was loyal to the club, the manager, his fellow players and the fans.” Drogba ended his eight-year spell at Chelsea by scoring the winning penalty in the 2012 Champions League final shootout victory over Bayern Munich. Mourinho did not lose at home in the Premier League in his first spell in charge, winning 46 matches and drawing 14. He often took risks when Chelsea were trailing at Stamford Bridge in order to turn things round and he said he would take the same approach on his return. “If I gamble . . . with a risky decision it can go the wrong way,” he said. “How many times did I play here with three defenders? I remember against West Ham [in 2006] we were losing 1-0 and were playing with 10 men after Maniche got a red card early in the game. “I still gambled because I wanted to win with 10 men and we did win, 4-1. Maybe one day you are losing 1-0 and you end up losing 1-0 but you are not afraid to make decisions again if people accept you are doing these things for the right reasons. “The owner knows the way I think, so do the fans, and this is all about empathy. We know that three years without a defeat at home in the league is almost impossible to achieve, but we have to have the natural tendency that, at home, we are very strong.” THE GUARDIAN

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

Cricket

Old foes face first Test Vic Marks

ere we go then. Thankfully, the time for speculation is almost gone. Today at Trent Bridge Shane Watson or Alastair Cook will take guard in sunshine, so it seems, and cricket’s oldest private battle will be resumed. It will not be that private. The press box will be packed and so, too, the stands; the TV cameras will zoom in on every combatant exposing any signs of anxiety or fear on the faces of every cricketer lucky enough to be involved. On two continents even those with a passing knowledge of cricket will want to know the score. They may not be too bothered in Mumbai or Multan, but from Melton Mowbray to Melbourne they will be avidly following the progress of Root or Rogers with furrowed brows. The first Test of an Ashes series is special. Whether the same excitement will still be there when the two captains toss up in Sydney on January 3 before the 10th consecutive Test between these two nations remains to be seen. If that is the case, we will have witnessed much staggering drama along the way. The clinical view must be that this series cannot equal the last two in England. In 2005 we witnessed the most dramatic and the best Ashes series of all, when there was never a dull hour, let alone a dull day. The 2009 contest seldom touched those heights, but the tension remained until the final day at The Oval, where Cook held the catch which ensured that the Ashes were regained. This time England set off as favourites, a little uncomfortably as recently they have been prone to play in a constipated manner when expected to win. Australia’s journey to the opening match at Trent Bridge has been eccentric, to say the least, but England’s has been as tranquil as it gets. There have been injury concerns

Due to its fragility, the 11 centimetre high Ashes urn is kept at the MCC Cricket Museum at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. REUTERS

over Graeme Swann, Kevin Pietersen and Stuart Broad, but it now seems as if all three will be fit to play. Maybe the lure of the Ashes really can be a great healer. In considerable contrast to their opponents the make-up of the England side has caused only minimal head-scratching along with some local heartache. It has been a tough month for Nick Compton. The Ashes is the pinnacle and he is going to miss out at the start of the series. The selectors have opted to open with Joe Root, with Jonny Bairstow batting at six. This may not be fair on Compton but fairness is not – and should not be – the first criterion for selectors. Their duty is to pick what they consider the best, not the fairest, team and essentially they have opted for Bairstow rather than Compton. As it happens, both average 31 in Test cricket. Compton is probably better informed about the Australian bowlers than anyone else. He has faced all of them

in the last week either for Somerset or, remarkably, for Worcester, a state of affairs that may have left him both mystified and miffed. One can only assume that after the second Test at Lord’s we will see Compton striding out against the Australians once again – for Sussex at Hove. The Australians will certainly target the two young Yorkshiremen, Root and Bairstow, who are the only players in the England side not to have experienced the peculiar thrill of an Ashes contest (Australia are likely to have five Ashes debutants in their team). It will also be tough for whichever bowler England choose to omit. The choice will be between Tim Bresnan and Steven Finn. If Bairstow is the bolder choice when selecting the batsmen, Finn is probably the more aggressive selection among the bowlers. However, Bresnan may like to point out that in his last two Tests at Nottingham, in 2011 and 2012, he took 15 wickets against India and West Indies.

Moreover Bresnan did score a century, which qualified as first-class – for a couple of days at least – against Essex in England’s desultory warmup match. The make-up of the Australian side is harder to predict but the assumption is that they will stick with the bowling attack used at Taunton: James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon. This quartet is not so experienced as England’s. Pattinson and Starc will bowl wayward spells but, when they click, they are dangerous. Australia’s new coach, Darren Lehmann, has been as candid as he can be about his batting line-up. He has already said that Watson and Chris Rogers will open – a month ago it might have been Ed Cowan and David Warner. My guess is that they will bat Cowan at three, Michael Clarke and Phil Hughes at four and five and that they will take a punt on Warner at six, even though his suspension meant that he has been unable to play in either of Australia’s warm-up games. Whoever they select, England will have the more experienced line-up. Even the Australians acknowledge that England are the favourites. In fact, they seem happy as underdogs. Starc made a point of mentioning the 1989 series the other day as a source of encouragement for the Australians In 1989 Australia were also second favourites; they had lost the previous two Ashes series and the anticipation was that Allan Border’s side would be swept away. That was the summer during which Graham Gooch was usually lbw to Terry Alderman and half the England side were eyeing an ill-conceived but highly lucrative rebel tour to South Africa. Australia won 4-0. Do not expect that scoreline to be repeated this time. But nor should anyone anticipate an easy victory for England. Despite everything the Australians are looking like a team again – and it is the Ashes. THE GUARDIAN

Sri Lanka win keeps Tri-Nations tight Kumar Sangakkara struck an unbeaten 90 as Sri Lanka beat West Indies by 39 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method in their rain-affected Tri-Nation series game in Port of Spain on Monday. The result leaves Sri Lanka and West Indies on nine points, with India on five points. India were due to face Sri Lanka yesterday, with the two spots in tomorrow’s final to be decided. Sri Lanka had struggled to 60 for three before rain halted Sunday’s play and the weather delayed the start on the reserve day with the game eventually being reduced to a 41-over contest. But Sangakkara, having initially helped solidify Sri Lanka’s innings, when they had been 29-3 on Sunday, took charge with an outstanding knock. The classy left-hander hit seven boundaries, including one six, in his innings and worked the ball around the Queen’s Park Oval as the West Indies attack struggled

to find a line or length to tie him down. After Lahiru Thirimanne went for 23, beaten by spinner Marlon Samuels’ quicker ball, skipper Angelo Mathews came in and gave Sangakkara valuable support. With 30 from 27 balls, including two sixes, Mathews helped step up the run rate as the pair put on a swift 46-run partnership, but Sri Lanka’s second top scorer was extras – West Indies bowlers gifting them 31. The total of 219 for eight in 41 overs meant, under the calculations, that West Indies needed 230 to win from their allotted overs, but once again the Caribbean side made a shaky start. Chris Gayle went for 14, slashing a Mathews delivery to Shaminda Eranga at short third man and then fellow opener Johnson Charles departed, also for 14, superbly caught and bowled by Eranga. West Indies were soon struggling at 29 for three after Mahela Jayawardene

snapped up Samuels at slip off Eranga and just two more runs were added before Devon Smith was trapped leg before by Mathews. But Lendl Simmons and Darren Bravo assembled an excellent partnership which threatened to make a real contest of the game. The Trinidadian pair put on 123 runs before Simmons (67), who had played some beautiful strokes, including four sixes, drove a full-length Eranga delivery to Thirimanne at deep cover. Kieron Pollard and Darren Sammy were removed cheaply before Bravo was finally removed, caught by Jeevan Mendis for Mathews’ fourth wicket. West Indies ended on 190 for nine, enough to stop Sri Lanka from earning a bonus point which would have secured them a place in the final. As of going to press, all three remain in with a chance, with West Indies left to hope Sri Lanka can beat India. REUTERS

The Ashes THE HISTORY Tests: England 102; Australia 133; Drawn 91 Ashes series: England 30; Australia 31; Drawn 5 THE PRIZE Unofficially: Nominal ownership of a Lord’s-based six-inch terracotta urn that may or may not contain the ashes of a bail burned in Australia in 1882 in mock memorial in the magazine Cricket: A Weekly Record of The Game to the supposed death of English cricket after an Aussie win at the Oval that year. Officially: a 16-inch Waterford Crystal urn. Also: Anglo-Australian bragging rights until the start of the next series (which on this occasion is after a non-whopping 89 days) THE CONTROVERSIES Scrapping: Australia’s David Warner punched wig-wearing Joe Root at Birmingham’s Walkabout bar last month. He has now served his suspension. Trumpets: Billy the Trumpet is set to be banned from playing at Trent Bridge, a situation described by Kevin Pietersen as a “disgrace”. Matt Prior has made it clear the team want to hear trumpeter Billy Cooper during Tests. What we’ll miss: Convict Colony (to the tune of Yellow Submarine), Swann Will Tear You Apart (Love Will Tear Us Apart), the Neighbours theme tune. Tampergate: Bob Willis suggested during the Champions Trophy that England were manipulating the ball to facilitate reverse swing. The claims were angrily denied. FIRST UP: TRENT BRIDGE The venue: cricket was first played on an area of ground behind the Trent Bridge Inn in 1838. The pavilion was built in 1886. The rather unsightly tower block at the Radcliffe Road End contains council offices. The airship shot will show the actual Trent bridge, the City Ground, home of Nottingham Forest, and further away Meadow Lane, home of Notts County. Ground overview: England in Tests: Won 36; Lost 36; Drawn 21 England v Australia: England 4; Australia 7; Drawn 9 Winners of toss in past 10 Tests: Batted first Won 4; Lost 2; Drawn 1 Bowled first Won 1 Lost 2 THE BIRTHPLACES Ten of the 13 England players picked for the first Test on Saturday were born in England, three in South Africa. The players hail from: Gloucester (Cook), Sheffield (Root), Cape Town (Trott), Pietermaritzburg (Pietersen), Coventry (Bell), Bradford (Bairstow), Johannesburg (Prior), Nottingham (Broad), Burnley (Anderson), Northampton (Swann), Pontefract (Bresnan), Watford (Finn), Gateshead (Onions). Calculating the average birthplace latitude and longitude of the English-born players, the spiritual home of this team is the Derbyshire village of Fritchley – halfway between Derby and Chesterfield. Australia were unlikely to reveal their line-up before the the match. But out of the likely contnders to start, most were born in New South Wales, with the majority from Sydney. Only Shane Watson (Ipswich, Queensland), James Faulkner (Launceston, Tasmania), James Pattinson (Melbourne, Victoria), James Siddle (Traralgon, Victoria) and Usman Khawaja (Islamabed, Pakistan) have a birthplace outside NSW of potential starters. BOWLING GREATS Eng top Test wicket-takers Aus top Test wicket-takers Tests/Wickets Shane Warne 145/708 Ian Botham 102/383 Glenn McGrath 124/563 Bob Willis 90/325 Dennis Lillee 70/355 Fred Trueman 67/307 Brett Lee 76/310 Jimmy Anderson 82/307 Craig McDermott 71/291 Derek Underwood 86/297 Jason Gillespie 71/259 Brian Statham 70/252 Richie Benaud 63/248 Matthew Hoggard 67/248 ENGLAND’S COACHING TEAM Coach: Andy Flower; Fielding coach: Richard Halsall; Batting coach: Graham Gooch; Bowling coach: David Saker; Spin bowling coach: Mushtaq Ahmed AUSTRALIA’S COACHING TEAM Coach: Darren Lehmann; Batting coach and assistant coach: Michael Di Venuto; Fielding coach: Steve Rixon; Fast bowling coach: Allister de Winter; Strength and conditioning coach: Stuart Karppinen THE MARGINS England have won seven Ashes Tests since 2005. Australia have won eight Ashes Tests over the same period. The winning margins for the English have improved in each series. 2005 – tight: two runs (Edgbaston), three wickets (Trent Bridge); 2009 – comfortable: 115 runs (Lord’s), 197 runs (Oval); 2010-11 – thrashings: innings and 71 (Adelaide), inningss and 157 (Melbourne), innings and 83 (Sydney). What does this mean for 2013? ODDS TO WIN SERIES England1-3; Australia 4-1; Drawn 6-1 (William Hill).

THE PHNOM PENH POST july 10, 2013

Sport

New Zealand's Richie McCaw attacks against Wales during their Test match in Dunedin on June 19, 2010.

REUtERS

McCaw, Sexton call for global season A Patrick Johnston

ll Black great Richie McCaw and Irish flyhalf Jonny Sexton have urged rugby leaders to move the June internationals and adopt an integrated global season to improve player welfare and safeguard the future of the game. The pair threw their weight behind a proposal by the International Rugby Players’ Association (IRPA) to make the changes for the 2016 season that would help all Test playing nations to pick their best players. The IRPA want to move the June Test window back to the end of July, allowing the Southern Hemispherebased players to finish the Super Rugby club season, while those in

Europe would start their domestic campaigns later, possibly October. McCaw said it was an opportunity to make a significant and beneficial change. “If the game’s leaders give this idea, or a variation of it, serious consideration it could be a gamechanger for professional rugby,” the 116 time-capped flanker said in a statement. “It would be fantastic to address this long standing season structure debate once and for all, the players and the game would be so much better for it.” Sexton, who started all three Tests in the British and Irish Lions’ recent Test series win over Australia, agreed. “We see this initiative as beneficial for the global game,” the flyhalf said.

“From a player perspective, we urge our leaders to get in a room together, take a positive attitude and see what can be done.” The IRPA said existing windows for World Cups, Six Nations, the Rugby Championship and November Tests would not change and that “preliminary discussions have already started with some National Unions”. Calendar complaints have been a long-standing issue in rugby, coupled with the growing demands on players through increased physicality and number of matches. Currently, European countries tour Southern Hemisphere sides in June with return matches held in November and December. The timing means teams always tour at the end of their ever growing seasons.

With hosting teams retaining all profits from the matches, ticket sales suffer if fans sense a mismatch or know a travelling side are lacking their star names. In 1998, England were heavily criticised by Australia for sending a hugely under-strength side to play against the Wallabies in a June Test which the home side predictably won 76-0. The Lions were also unhappy with Australia for holding back their international players for warm-up matches against their Super Rugby franchises in June, leaving them short of competitive action before the Tests. The IRPA said the moves for greater communication would improve the likelihood of all teams, including smaller nations like the Pacific

Islanders, fielding their strongest sides and would also see the Lions play full strength provincial sides ahead of the 2017 series against New Zealand. The IRPA asked the International Rugby Board, Southern Hemisphere union SANZAR, European clubs and the Six Nations to discuss together the issue before agreeing to terms for the years ahead. “We’re in a unique position – for the first time since rugby went professional, the major Northern and Southern Hemisphere competition and commercial structures are on the table at the same time,” IRPA chairman Damian Hopley said in a statement. “This is the ideal time to seriously consider change that will secure player welfare initiatives.” REUTERS

Pit lane rule change made after German GP injury Formula One pitlane television crews will have to film from the pit wall during races in future after a cameraman was hit and injured by a bouncing wheel in Sunday’s German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, Bernie Ecclestone said on Monday. Mechanics wear helmets during pitstops but others in a very restricted group given access to the pitlane – such as the media – do not and there were calls at the famous race track for tighter procedures. Cameraman Paul Allen was filming for Ecclestone’s Formula One Management (FOM) and the commercial supremo said the incident, caused by a wheel coming off Mark Webber’s Red Bull as the Australian pulled away from a pitstop, had been “just one of those things”. “There was a whole bunch of mechanics and the tyre could have hit any one of those guys,”

Sky Sports television, which shares British broadcast rights with the BBC, quoted the 82-year-old as saying. “The cameraman just happened to be looking the wrong way at the wrong time. In future, all our camera crews will only be allowed to film from the pit wall.” Allen was taken to hospital with a broken collarbone and fractured ribs. FOM said in a statement that he was receiving medical care and was expected to make a full recovery. Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn, whose mechanics dodged the wheel, said it was time for a rethink. “Everyone in the pitlane should have a helmet on,” he said. “It is certainly worth reviewing the whole thing.” Red Bull boss Christian Horner, whose team were fined heavily by stewards for the unsafe

release, agreed. “These cars have so much energy in them and it is a timely reminder that things can go wrong,” he said after his triple world champion Sebastian Vettel won his home race at the Nurburgring for the first time. “The mechanics wear safety gear and helmets. Maybe it is time that we looked at safety equipment for the other operational people working in the pit lane. “The camera guys are getting very close to the action. They are getting some great pictures but it is still a dangerous environment,” he added. Tyre changes are now quicker than ever, regularly under three seconds, and pitstops are also more frequent because the 2013 Pirelli tyres are less durable than last year. Allen was fortunate that the tyre struck him on the back and not the head.

This season there has already been one racetrack fatality, with marshal Mark Robinson killed at last month’s Canadian Grand Prix when he was run over by a recovery tractor removing a car from the side of the track. The two previous Formula One race weekend fatalities involved trackside marshals being struck on the head by wheels flying off cars – Paolo Ghislimberti in Italy in 2000 and Graham Beveridge in Australia in 2001. Tethers were introduced after Ghislimberti’s death to prevent wheels from flying off cars in accidents, but Webber’s was never properly attached. Television camera crews at the Le Mans 24 Hours sportscar race, where there is also the risk of a flare-up as cars are refuelled, wear light protective headgear as well as overalls. REUTERS