WEDNESDAY, MaRCH 19, 2014

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EU will not investigate trade deal

Daniel de Carteret

THE European Unions top trade official said yesterday that while a delegation from the European Parliament will look at land dispute claims on sugar farms later this month, an investigation into the countrys duty-free access to the EU market is, at the moment, unwarranted. Speaking to reporters at Raffles Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh, European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht sidestepped demands by rights groups and from within the EU that the countrys trade preferences under the Everything But Arms agreement be revoked in light of scathing allegations tied to the expanding sugar industry. It is obvious that it is a very sensitive matter in Europe, and while if there is a structural offence of human rights, we have to launch an investigation, then we would do it, De Gucht said. But on the other hand, we are of the opinion that this is not the case with respect to sugar cane, he added. Sugar companies in Cambodia have been accused of widespread land

Silent killer taking toll

Laignee Barron Kandal province

Continues on page 7

A man pumps water contaminated with arsenic from a well near his house in Prek Russey village in Kandal province last week.

HENG CHIVOAN

ILLAGERS emerge from the shade of their homes and gingerly roll up their sleeves, turning their palms upwards to reveal skin braided with dark lesions, ulcers and decaying tissue. They point to houses up and down the street where people have died of symptoms like theirs. Arsenic, an invisible, odourless poison, has haunted this village in Kandals Koh Thom district. Most have

Deadly arsenic levels found in village wells

been diagnosed with arsenic poisoning and many have lost children or parents to it. The children are scared of my disease, says Chhang Vern, 40. He unbuttons his shirt to show hyperpigmentation covering his chest, stomach and back, and extending down his arms and legs. His children turn away as he lifts his feet and points to blackened, oozing sores. Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians are at risk of inadvertent, mass poisoning in the same manner, experts say. Over the past 15 years, extremely high levels of arsenic have been detected in food and well water in 10 provinces, with the highest concentrations found in Kandal, Kampong Cham and Prey Veng. Once ingested, the cancer-causing toxin can take years to do its lethal work and experts predict Cambodia has yet to experience the full extent of the poisons dire health consequences. The arsenic, a naturally occurring toxin, comes from polluted groundwater dredged up by hand-operated pumps called tube wells, according to Stanford University soil biochemist Scott Fender. Starting in the 1980s, a UNICEF-led safe water program pioneered Cambodias vast network of community tube wells, installing pumps as an easy

and inexpensive alternative to bacteria-infested surface water. An independent report commissioned by UNICEF in 2006, however, found that such tube wells installed in arsenicaffected areas were contaminated. Arsenic is a silent killer, it has no taste and no smell. You can only know if its there by testing for it, Sophary Phan, a technical officer at the World Health Organization Cambodia, said. Arsenic contamination was discovered in Cambodia during a 1999 Continues on page 4

ISSUE NUMBER 1888

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

National

City Mall DVD shops raided

Sen David

Lawyers wrap probe ahead of ICC ling

Meas Sokchea

OLICE raided four shops in Phnom Penhs City Mall yesterday for allegedly selling pirated movies, a move that came a week after mall DVD vendors shut up shop to avoid a planned raid, the details of which were leaked beforehand. Ofcers conducted yesterdays raid accompanied by a representative from the Motion Picture Association of Cambodia (MPAC), who identied which titles violated copyright laws 349 copies of which were seized, police said. Last week we came, but the store owners seemed to know rst, but now they were open as usual, said a national police ofcer at the scene who asked not to be named. We are still continuing our activities to raid [shops] in order to eliminate the selling of copyright-infringing DVDs and VCDs, and warning other places to stop. According to the ofcer, the shop owners were made to sign a contract promising not to sell illegally copied lms. MPAC president Ung Nareth said yesterday that the shops would have typically carried more than the 349 illegal copies seized, but vendors again seemed to know that the crackdown was coming and hid most of their stock. Anyway, we found many DVDs and VCDs [that infringed on] copyright, he said. As you know, most movie producers are almost hopeless, and they have no incentive to produce [movies in Cambodia], because they will get no income from production as there are so many

A man sorts through a pile of discs at the entrance to a store in Phnom Penhs City Mall yesterday in search of titles that violate copyright laws. VIREAK MAI

copyright-infringing DVDs and VCDs in the market. Nareth said yesterday that authorities had focused on the large stores at City Mall because they also distribute stock to other, smaller vendors. Pich Chan Dara, 23, the owner of one of the raided stores, said that he downloaded and copied pirated lms because they were cheap, and maintained that if he were to switch to properly licensed material, he wouldnt be able to afford his rent. [Illegal copies] cost less than $1, and

if we sell originals, its more than $5, he said. Sales would not be good. As the raid was being conducted, a group of some 10 DVD vendors from other markets arrived at City Mall to ask questions and express concerns about the crackdown. Yo Kim Eng, 30, a DVD vendor at Tuol Tompoung market who came to City Mall, said she feared for her business. I came to ask police how we can buy originals, she told the Post yesterday. Police should delay the crackdown and educate the vendors.

A GROUP of international lawyers commissioned by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party to investigate alleged human rights abuses on the part of the government have nished their inquiry and are preparing a brief to the International Criminal Court, the party and the lead lawyer said yesterday. According to CNRP public affairs head Mu Sochua and international lawyer Richard Rogers, who led the investigation, the team collected evidence on such potential crimes as forced evictions and state-sanctioned violence carried out by the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen since 2002, and expects to make its ling to the ICC next month. They said that they have enough evidence, Sochua said yesterday, adding that the investigation was free from party inuence. We did not tell them to do anything it was up to them. In an email yesterday, Rogers

expressed optimism that the evidence gathered over the course of a preliminary investigation and a six-day visit to Cambodia was sufcient to justify a charge of crimes against humanity. The strongest evidence relates to the land-grabbing and forcible evictions, which have led to over half a million people being forcibly transferred, Rogers said. Indigenous groups have suffered disproportionately. The evidence suggests that this forcible transfer was widespread, systematic, and formed part of an organised policy, he added. Additional crimes ... including murder, torture, false imprisonment and persecution provide further support to our allegation. Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan, however, said the government was unconcerned by the potential ICC case, saying that the investigation lacked legitimacy because Rogers and his colleagues are not members of the Bar Association of the Kingdom Cambodia.

Troops rallied for PM

Vong Sokheng

A DAY after a bipartisan election reform committee put the neutrality of the armed forces into a list of proposed areas of reform, Defence Minister Tea Banh reiterated that the armed forces would not tolerate opposition supporters calling for Hun Sen to step down. It hurt me when I heard the voices from the street calling for change and calling for Hun Sen to step down, he told about 500 military personnel at the Institute for Peacekeeping Forces, Mines and Explosive Remnants of War Clearance yesterday. We will not allow anyone to destroy peace and stability, as they are values that we have to maintain.

Banh also called for further investigation into the violence on Veng Sreng Boulevard in January that left at least four civilians dead after protesters clashed with security forces. We have to investigate everything in order to nd out the inciters, and they will have to be made responsible [in front of the law]. Separately, a working group on the reform of security forces, including representatives from the government, civil society, armed forces and police, was formed on Monday. Heiner Hanggi of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, which is supporting the group, said its establishment was not linked to specic domestic issues.

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

National

Dam critics outline litany of risks

Daniel Pye and Phak Seangly

AS VILLAGERS in Koh Kong provinces Areng Valley continue to block Sinohydro Corp employees from entering the area where the Stung Cheay Areng dam is planned, conservationists and rights workers have spoken of the havoc it will wreak if it goes ahead. In terms of the impact on wildlife, forests and the livelihoods and traditions of the local communities, Toby Eastoe of Conservation International (CI) said that it would create a litany of problems. I have not seen the relocation plan, but it could wipe out a large amount of forest and [this] is my main concern if the dam does go ahead, he said. Eastoe said that the company, the worlds largest hydropower developer, had approached NGOs working on conservation in the area for an environmental impact assessment (EIA) that it is preparing to evaluate the costs of conservation. The rm is bound to conduct a new EIA under a 1999 law regulating development projects. As investment companies coming to Cambodia, their responsibility is to make sure that

A crocodile skull beside a river bank in Koh Kong provinces Thma Bang district in December.

PHOTO SUPPLIED

environmental offsets get to the right people and in a transparent way, as advised to them by all of the EIAs, he said. Sinohydro took over the project when China Guodian backed out after assessing the costs late last year. But some of the conservation groups projects in the area have put them at odds

with affected communities. The relocation of endangered Siamese crocodiles by Flora and Fauna International (FFI) has also drawn criticism from locals and rights groups. Villagers wrote to FFI in December, accusing the NGO of complicity in forcing the Siamese crocodiles, a rare species, into extinction, after

nding a dead crocodile and witnessing FFI staff removing another from the area, according to the letter. Be kindly reminded, the letter read, that the Siamese crocodiles are regarded by our communities as sacred, and as such have been venerated since ancient times. Sam Han, Cambodian Croc-

odile Conservation Project manager at FFI, could not be reached yesterday. Thats a very sensitive population. There might only be one or two breeding females there ... if you build a dam and ood it, its going to ood all of their nesting areas and they wont breed for a period, Eastoe said. He added that a huge ood of migrants [would come] looking for new land around the areas being cleared, and theyre going to be hunting. So, whatever happens with the dam, it will have a huge impact on that population it could wipe them out. Sure, its an important valley, but its a globally recognised species, and weve got to look at conserving it globally. Unfortunately, there could be just as much risk in relocating them so we need to do more research before anyone makes a decision that can impact the Areng population. But Alex Gonzalez-Davidson of Mother Nature Cambodia said that the NGOs cooperating with government agencies to carry out their work were acting against the interests of the local people and the environment.

FFI went back in March, secretly. They thought that the dam would be imminent, he said. The community got really angry one day when they saw a group of FFI people take a crocodile out of area ... so they chased the FFI team out. Of the conservation groups, he said theyre working essentially with the maa, referring to ofcials and the company. Yesterday, Vana Savoeurn, 26, a villager who is taking part in the blockade, said they were prepared to fell trees to block the road and stop the company transporting machinery to the site. We will use tractors, motorbikes and fell ... trees on the road to block them, she said. [If the dam is built] endangered crocodiles, giant sh and other species will be inundated and die. Well lose our home forever. Provincial Governor Bun Leut yesterday called on the community to end the blockade and allow Sinohydro to complete its assessments at the site. What we need is the nal study of the effects and to send the report to the government, which makes the nal decision on the project, he said.

THE PHNOM PENH POST march 19, 2014

National Deadly arsenic levels found in village wells

Continued from page 1

national water quality survey. By 2006, the rst cases of arsenicosis arsenic poisoning were diagnosed. Arsenic is one of the most toxic, carcinogenic molecules we know of, said Dr Craig Steinmaus, an epidemiologist at the University of California at Berkeley. But you dont get exposed one day and get cancer the next. Most of the health effects happen down the line. But efforts to calculate how many people are or may become sick have revealed a trail of unknown variables: how many wells are contaminated, how many people drink the poison, how often and how much of the food is contaminated. Based on 2004 census data, UNICEF determined that 2.25 million people live in the 1,607 most at-risk villages, but the number of well-users consuming arsenic falls somewhere below that total, with estimates ranging from 38,000 to more than 1 million people. Arsenic poses a very serious problem. Most of the high-risk areas are also high agriculture producers using [polluted] groundwater as irrigation and ... arsenic can contaminate not just water, but food as well, a local researcher who spoke on the condition of anonymity said. We lack too much data to know how to properly deal with this problem. And the problem may be getting worse. Studies show that the more water is pumped from a contaminated well, the stronger the arsenic concentration can become. Additionally, due to subterranean water ows, the toxin can leak into clean wells and agricultural elds, and be spread by annual ooding. Arsenic exposure in Cambodia has already caused more than 500 documented cases of arsenicosis, and led to numerous amputations and fatalities, according to a UNICEF brieng last year. But, the paper warned: The effects of current exposures have yet to be fully realised.

An arsenic village
Kandal province, home to some of the most densely pop-

ulated areas in Cambodia, has exhibited the most extreme arsenic pollution in the country. Thirty-ve per cent of more than 15,000 wells sampled in Kandal contained arsenic exceeding the national limit of 0.05 milligrams per litre, and as many as 54 per cent measured above the WHO standard of 0.01 milligrams per litre. During eld-testing in 2006, researchers stumbled across Prek Russey village in Kandals Koh Thom district, where well contamination averaged far beyond previously documented levels and hundreds of arsenicosis patients were found. It was the highest concentration of arsenic and number of arsenicosis cases found to date, Resource Development International Cambodia executive director Mark Hall said. Today, even as NGOs red paint warning villagers away from the hand pumps has long faded, the scars of arsenic exposure black dots covering villagers bodies like hundreds of poison freckles, gangrene and amputated limbs serve as a constant visual reminder. In 1995, UNICEF dug the villages rst tube well. Following the example, Vern and his father sunk a pump behind their house in Prek Russey village. Verns family drank the water for ve years. And then one day, he went to the doctor for an itchy, red rash. The doctor told me I had chicken pox, he said, an initial diagnosis many of the villagers received. The chicken pox affecting Vern, his father, his aunt and his now 18-year-old son, refused to go away. Months later, Vern and his father went to the hospital in excruciating pain. They were told they had advanced arsenicosis, and the spots were the poison trying to force its way out. My skin is itchy and it hurts. And my insides feel bad, too, he said, pointing to his lungs and his stomach. Its difcult to breathe, and every night I cannot sleep. The symptoms of arsenic poisoning are irreversible and cannot be treated, though vitamins and a high protein intake are thought to help manage the disease, according to Dr DN Guha Mazumder,

A man from Prek Russey village in Kandals Koh Thom district last week shows sores caused by arsenicosis on his foot.

hENG CHIVOAN

founder of a prominent arsenic research centre in India. Vern bought vitamins and painkillers at the hospital, but when he was forced to stop farming, he couldnt afford even such basic measures. I cannot stand for a long time, and my hands cannot grip tools anymore. There were people here sicker than me, but most of them have died. Verns father had a leg amputated in 2008 due to cancerous lesions. He died three years later and Vern removed their well, wrapping the remaining nozzle in a black cloth. Vern said his neighbour lost a husband and a brother. Across the street, one of the villages youngest victims, a 13-yearold boy, died after years of suffering from a rotting leg. Two other children diagnosed with arsenicosis died as well. Vern worries the disease that claimed his fathers life will take his, too, but since there isnt anything he can do about his illness, he puts bandages on his sores and goes to feed the cow.

but in Koh Thoms neighbouring Kien Svay district, no symptoms have yet been observed, even though tubewell contamination there is 10 times the national standard. There are a lot of complicated factors linked to arsenicosis symptoms like living standards, malnutrition, the individuals general health, smoking and whether there are other water sources used, WHO ofcer Sophary said. Outward arsenicosis symptoms were at one point thought to take eight to 10

food arsenic levels have been identied as a health hazard. The arsenic contamination in food samples collected from Cambodia, especially from Kandal province, is an alarming public health concern, according to a study published last summer and conducted with support from the UNs International Institute for Global Health. Arsenic water contamination remains the primary concern, but experts agree that the health risks posed by arsenic ingested through food

My hands cannot grip tools anymore ... There were people here sicker than me, but most of them have died
years to appear, but cases discovered in Cambodia have manifested in as little as three years, medical studies show. The duration of the patients arsenic exposure [and] ... the onset of symptoms does not follow a particular time frame, Mazumder said. Researchers may not be able to pinpoint a timeline, but they do agree that arsenic poses an enormous cancer risk. A study published earlier this year predicted that due to elevated arsenic levels, Kandal residents face a ve-in-1000 cancer risk, more than four times the national average. Both ... [water and food] are our main concern ... because arsenic can accumulate in the human body via both sources, Suthipong Sthiannopkao, one of the reports researchers, said. In several at-risk locations, villagers may have stopped drinking from arsenic-laden wells but still water their elds and let their animals drink from them. What other option do we have? When we water using the well, the crop isnt good either, but at least there is still a crop, said Prak Toun, 33, while taking a break from standing on his scaly, arsenicosis sores. Food samples collected in Cambodia have shown arsenic levels higher than in 17 other countries, and 60 times higher than in Bangladesh, where cannot be ignored. Arsenic in food will probably become a greater problem with the increasing groundwater irrigation, retired environmental research scientist Tom Murphy said. It needs to be addressed before it becomes a big problem ... but theres not enough research being done, no resources to get the data and the Cambodian labs dont have the ability to do the kind of chemical analysis necessary.

Cancer risk
Arsenic affects people differently, yet another piece of the puzzle when trying to determine how many lives the poison could eventually claim. Most of the people in Prek Russey village suffer from heavy arsenic contamination,

No funding, no rescue
Experts say Cambodias arsenic problem is falling between the cracks because it lacks funding. Donors decided that the government needs to take the lead and not rely on external funding, while the government lacks capacity, an aid worker wishing to remain anonymous said. Director of the Department of Rural Water Supply Mao Saray said the government does not have a budget for arsenic contamination. The lack of investment is already taking a toll. Last year, Cambodia failed to meet both 2013 goals of its ve-year arsenic strategic action plan that every person exposed to arsenic-contaminated wells have an alternative drinking source and that every person with arsenicosis receive a swift diagnosis.

A Prek Russey villager pumps water from a well last week.

Saray said the new goal is to provide 75 per cent of people in arsenic-affected areas with a clean water source by 2015. He was unable to identify how much of that target has already been achieved. Villagers in Prek Russey said they receive no assistance from the government, and many still lack clean water. Vern and his neighbours buy water at 2,000 riel per cubic metre from a system that RDI helped install. But the water, piped in from a nearby river, still needs to be treated for the bacteria and pesticides that tube wells were designed to avoid in the rst place. It is expensive for me, Vern said, adding that as he isnt able to help his wife farm anymore, he doesnt have money to both buy and treat his water. How about food and the childrens school? he asked. Saray said all school wells in the affected areas were also tested. Data from the arsenic centres show that 41 per cent of more than 1,000 school wells tested contained arsenic at or above the WHO standard. The Ministry of Education deputy director of school health said the department was not familiar with the ndings. Theres no shortage of proposed alternatives for the situation, just a shortage of funding to implement them. Rather than treating arsenic, the idea is to source water that is not contaminated. Options include rain water, dug shallow wells and pipe systems, among others, Steven Iddings, a WHO Cambodia ofcer, said. UNICEF extrapolated last year that half of the affected population continues to use arsenic-contaminated water for drinking and cooking in the dry season owing to a lack of available alternatives. When you have no choice, or other available options, what are you going to do? said Chansopheaktra Sovann, an environmental science researcher at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Youre not going to think about the possible effects 10 to 20 years from now, youre going to think with no water, you will die in less than a week. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SEN DAVID AND PHAK SEANGLY

HENG CHIVOAN

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

National

Ethnic Vietnamese not in school: study

Kevin Ponniah

Protesters win back tuk-tuk

Khouth Sophak Chakrya

NLY nine per cent of ethnic Vietnamese children in communities of almost 5,000 people in Kampong Chhnang province attend state schools due to a lack of birth certicates, a new report has found, with researchers saying that their ndings reect a situation that is all too common in the Kingdom. According to Limbo on Earth: The Situation of Stateless Eth-

Despite all villagers having been born in Cambodia and not possessing any Vietnamese identication, the vast majority of the 931 families have only . . . immigration cards and resident papers to prove that their residence in Cambodia is legal, the report says, with citizenship out of reach for those who cant afford to bribe ofcials. According to MIRO, just nine per cent of more than 2,000 ethnic Vietnamese children living in the villages attend state

All children should be able to to go school. They should provide birth certificates for all of them
nic Vietnamese in Cambodia. A Case Study from Kampong Chhnang, released yesterday by the Minority Rights Organization (MIRO), interviews with community leaders, residents and local ofcials at two oating villages in Phsar Chhnang commune found that 90 per cent of ethnic Vietnamese living there possess no birth certicates, family books or ID cards. schools due to a combination of overwhelming poverty and because a birth certicate is required for school enrolment. This is the most important issue for the Cambodian government to address . . . All children should be able to go to school. They should provide birth certicates for all of them, said MIRO director Ang Chanrith. A Jesuit Refugee Service re-

port released last year found that the lack of legal clarity for laws governing access to citizenship has left many ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia at risk of statelessness. It made several recommendations, including expanding universal birth registration. Legal provisions allow immigrants to register their childrens births with commune ofcials where they legally reside, but law enforcement is particularly weak in this area, the report says. This contradiction highlights the arbitrary application of the law, lack of knowledge by authorities of the laws in place, and discriminatory practices at local levels. Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said the government recognised that problems existed with the implementation of relevant laws. I think in this term they are going to look into that better because any baby born on Cambodian soil deserves to be a Cambodian citizen, he said, adding that the government recognised the constitutional right to universal education.

A TUK-tuk driver who damaged a car while driving drunk got off by apologising yesterday, after nearly 200 of his comrades held a loud demonstration in front of Phnom Penhs traffic police department. Police returned a tuk-tuk to Phuon Noeurn, 20, whose vehicle and means of supporting his family had been held by police since he crashed it into a Toyota Prius on March 8, after the cars owner agreed to forgo the $700 in damages he had demanded for an official apology. What is unacceptable is police allowed the car owner to take his car back before the case was resolved, but they did not allow the same for [Noeurn], who needs his tuk-tuk to earn a living, said Heang Vithya, deputy director of Cambodia Confederation Development Association (CCDA), which organised yesterdays protest. CCDA members gathered in front of the office, just off Sihanouk Boulevard, at about 8am, with a microphone and loudspeaker, demanding police return the tuk-tuk. Polices seizure of Noeurns tuk-tuk occurred about a week ago, when he crashed into the Prius, parked on Street 63, near Central Market. He admitted to

Tuk-tuk drivers protest in front of Phnom Penhs trafc police ofce yesterday to demand the return of an impounded tuk-tuk. VIREAK MAI

driving drunk and damaging the car owned by the sister of a man who identified himself to the Post as Pov, a civil servant. As the raucous demonstration unfolded yesterday, Noeurn bemoaned the fact that his tuktuk is his livelihood and that the crash was unintentional. How can I afford [to pay damages], since my family is very poor? Noeurn complained. My family depends solely on my income. Amid the protest, traffic police deputy director Sem Sokunthear called in Pov, the car owner, Noeurn and a CCDA representative to negotiate at the station.

After Noeurn said he could only afford to pay $50, Povs sister agreed to accept an apology rather than any monetary compensation at about noon. I want to say that settling this matter by holding a demonstration affected the dignity and reputation of police officials, Pov said after accepting a written apology. Do not drive drunk. Many CCDA members were active protesters during the imprisonment of land-activist Yorm Bopha, whom they claim had two of their members beaten. Bopha denied the charges but spent more than a year in prison during 2012 and last year.

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

National

RCAF joins plane search Campaign focused

Vong Sokheng

CAMBODIA has deployed four helicopters and two warships to join the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370, the Ministry of Defence announced yesterday. In a statement, the ministry said it dispatched four Chinesemade Z-9 helicopters and two P46 navy ships to join the hunt for the missing plane, by searching islands and maritime areas at the Cambodia-Vietnam border. The Ministry of Defence has agreed to continue a mission with other countries to search for the missing plane, the statement said. Vice Admiral Tea Sokha, commander of the Cambodian Maritime Space, said the mission commenced at about 5:30pm yesterday. Our mission is to cooperate with other countries in searching for the missing plane within our territorial sovereignty, Sokha said. The plane had 227 passengers and 12 crew on board when it vanished during a flight from Malaysia to Beijing on March 8. Up until this point, Cambodias aviation authority has been increasing staff levels and communicating with its Viet-

on reducing deaths
representatives from Phnom Penh, Preah Sihanouk, Kampong Speu, Kandal, Svay Rieng and Kampong Chhnang, said Leng Tong, director of the ministrys occupational heath and safety department. Regulations implemented under Zero-Accidents will run alongside existing ones under an International Labour Organization-supported Occupational Safety and Health Master Plan, ILO national project coordinator Tun Sophorn said. The ILO plan which ran from 2009 to 2013, and is in the process of renewal should expand to high-risk workplaces and foster cooperation between several ministries to also address occupational diseases, Sophorn said. For example, workers ailing from disease resulting from handling asbestos should be covered under the National Social Security fund, and those now working with asbestos should be trained how to do so safely. Both plans are theoretically beneficial, said Moen Tola, who heads the labour program at the Community Legal Education Center. But, he added, company management and the Labour Ministry inspectors rarely enforce either plan.

pOLICE BLOttER
Builders v mechanics in a beer garden rumble
TWO groups of men were quick to ignore the angels of their better nature on Monday night after a few too many drinks. The first group, five construction workers, headed to a beer garden in Phnom Penhs Sen Sok district to cool down after work. Not long after, the second gang, five motorbike mechanics, also arrived at the watering hole. A few rounds later and the men were attacking each other with sticks and stones, only to be kicked out by the owner and forced to take their respective injured buddies to the hospital.
KoH santEpHEap

Sen David and Sean Teehan

Soldiers from the Royal Cambodian Air Force watch their new Z-9 helicopters in the sky during a ceremony marking the handover of the aircraft from China in November in Phnom Penh. AFp

namese counterparts to try to locate the missing plane. Chinese embassy spokesman Cheng Hong Bo said yesterday he is happy to hear that Cambodia is using Chinese aircraft to carry out its search. For this search, we need as many countries as possible to help. We have been urging Cambodia to join and are pleased that Cambodia is using [Chinese] helicopters to [do this], he said. The four Z-9 helicopters in question were among a group of 12 formally handed over during a ceremony in November.

If the plane is discovered in Cambodia, Cheng Hong said China might help by sending over money or people [to recover the wreckage]. The Defence Ministry statement also welcomed support from Chinese and Malaysian working groups if the plane is found in Cambodia. The Ministry of Defence would like to share its condolences . . . with the family of the victims, the statement said. Minister of Defence Tea Banh could not be reached for comment yesterday. ADDITIONAL
REPORTING BY ALICE CUDDY

MID a continually rising rate of industrial accidents and deaths, the Ministry of Labour introduced a campaign focused on identifying workplace hazards before tragedy strikes. Since the ministry began keeping track of 960 Cambodian factories in 2009, workplace accidents have risen by nearly 375 per cent, reaching 16,775 incidents last year. Deaths from onthe-job injuries increased each year between 2009 and 2012, climbing from 16 to 59. Last years death toll fell to 56. The ministry has a plan to create 20 prakases related to workplace safety, Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng said at yesterdays launch of the ZeroAccident Campaign. Zero-Accidents philosophy relies on training supervisors to find site-specific workplace and behavioural hazards before they become an issue, according to the website of the Japan International Center for Occupational Safety and Health, which founded Zero-Accidents. The Labour Ministry will train employer and employee

Bovine bargain bin might see woman behind bars

NOTHING says red flag like an underpriced cow for sale. On Monday, a villager in Takeos Bati district realised his cow had gone missing and alerted police. A few hours later, police received a tip that a 47-year-old woman was trying to pawn off a large cow worth $1,000 for the bargain price of $300. Police confronted the woman, who admitted she stole the cow to fund her sons wedding. noKoRwat

Morning market mob mauls moto-snatcher

Three on trial over bribery

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

Magic banana tree bringing luck

Mom Kunthear

THREE people, including a former court clerk, stood trial yesterday, accused of unlawfully using court positions to conduct threats and bribery in Banteay Manchey province last year. Phnom Penh Municipal Court investigating judge Sous Sam Ath said former clerk at Banteay Meanchey provincial court Suong Sok Heng, 22, and Sem Sokha, 42, were arrested by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), while being handed $3,000 by Muon Sineth, 39, to settle a car crash with Sokha, in which four of Sokhas passengers were injured. The ACU detained Cambodian-Australian Uy Sopheap, 69, when he handed over a bribe of $500 to Sok Heng in November. Sokha threatened us, [saying] that she was the older sister of . . . the provincial court prosecutor. She demanded . . . $16,800 from us for the damages, Sineth told the court yesterday. After begging to lower the sum, she was asked to speak to court clerk Sok Heng, who threatened to arrest and jail my husband if I would not pay $16,800 as demanded, she said. Eight months later, a reduction to $3,000 was accepted. Meanwhile, Sineth filed a complaint with the ACU. The three denied all allegations. Sok Heng, charged with receiving bribes and power violation, maintained he had acted upon order of his supervisor, the court prosecutor. He claimed to have received $500 from Sopheap for preparing court documents. The verdict is due on March 26.

A FAMILY in Pursat towns Svay At commune is enjoying good luck and brisk business thanks to the figurative fruits of a magic banana tree they found on their property, one member said yesterday. Banana trees typically produce only one bunch of bananas and a single flower, but Chan Reth, 58, said that her rare sixflowered banana tree had brought her family unusually good luck a claim that prompted veneration in some, and scepticism in others. Last week, my husband told me that he saw a strange banana tree, and then I asked him to dig it up and plant it in a flower pot to keep in front of the house in order to easily take care of it, and for other people to see, Reth said. I did not dream about anything before I saw this magic banana tree, but after I got it I dreamed about something,

and then I tried to play the lottery, which I had never played at all in my life. I won 500,000 riel [about $125], she continued, adding that business is better than it was before I got the magic banana tree. Reth maintained that she didnt publicise her find for fear of being labelled a con artist, but said that nonetheless, some nearby villagers noticed the tree and had come to pray to it. However, Svay At commune police chief Chorn Sophy said yesterday that only a few people had visited to venerate the tree, and that while it is villagers rights to believe what they want, such trees are not so uncommon. It is not strange for me, because I used to see this kind of banana tree several years ago in Battambang province, he said. But it is their individual belief. We do not prohibit it.

TWO bag-snatchers werent as quick to the punch as watchful vendors in Phnom Penhs Sen Sok district on Tuesday morning. The thieves spotted a woman walking alone at 3:30am and swooped in on a motorbike to grab her bag. Area food vendors spotted the men in the act, and knocked the 26-year-old snatcher off the back of the moto. The driver got away, but the other crook suffered a serious bruising before police carted him to the hospital.
RASMEI KAMPUCHEA

Knock-knock, whos there? A bad burglar

A DESPERATE burglar fallen on hard times forgot to make sure no one was home before breaking and entering on Monday night. The 22-yearold unemployed man broke a fence and slipped into a house in Phnom Penh Prampi Makara district to look for valuables. A 35-year-old woman living in the home saw him and shouted for help before the thief could make his great escape. Neighbours helped detain the suspect until police arrived. noKoRwat

Chan Reth, the owner of a banana tree with six owers, poses for a photo in Pursat province this week. pHoto SUPPLIED

Global Fund defrauder repays funds

Alice Cuddy

Modern day Oliver Twist nabbed at busy market

IN a Dickensian twist of events, a 16-year-old boy was arrested on Tuesday for stealing money allegedly to buy food. The homeless boy used a razor to slice a small hole in a womans handbag and pulled out her wallet while she was distracted at a Phnom Penh market. The clever crook almost got away, but the woman caught on and called for help. Police caught the boy, who confessed he was hungry and needed cash. KampucHEa tHmEY
Translated by Phak Seangly

A RECIPIENT of Global Fund health grants found in an investigation last year to have defrauded the scheme said yesterday it had fully repaid the money it owed. Sin Somuny, executive director of Medicam, an umbrella group of health NGOs, which the report found to have charged three donors for the same staff position and to have charged the Global Fund for a position that was never occupied, said that any misappropriated money was fully repaid two months ago. Payment [was] completed in January, 2014, Somuny said by email yesterday. Global Fund spokesman Seth Faison

conrmed the money had been repaid. After MEDiCAM was named in an investigation report by the Global Fund in November 2013, MEDiCAM has fully repaid the funds misused, he said. Faison also revealed that Medicam is no longer a sub-recipient of a HIV grant from the Global Fund. The Global Fund is still working with MEDiCAM, but not as fully as in the past. MEDiCAM remains a sub-recipient of a Global Fund for efforts in health systems strengthening. Previously, it was also a subrecipient under a HIV grant, but was not kept on as a sub-recipient for the second period of implementation . . . which started on 1 January, he said by email.

Somuny said this has nothing to do with the more than $41,000 of funds that Medicam misused. This is the end of the [HIV] project and has nothing to do with anything else. This week the Global Fund announced new allocation amounts for 2014 to 2016 as part of a new funding model, which will see over-allocated countries experience a drop in funds. The Global Fund will be monitoring the results of this reform program carefully as it makes future funding decisions for Cambodia, Faison said. The Global Fund did not respond to requests for comment on whether it considers Cambodia an over-allocated country.

THE PHNOM PENH POST marcH 19, 2014

Business
Indicative Exchange Rates as of 18/3/2014. 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

USD / JPY

USD / HKD

USD / SGD

USD / THB

3,993

1.393

0.9085

0.856

1.6634

6.1864

101.8

7.7657

1.2646

32.14

Alibaba offering lures tycoon

Ilya Khrennikov and Yuliya Fedorinova

ILLIONAIRE Alisher Usmanov sold shares in Apple Inc and Facebook Inc, focusing on technology investments in China such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and may expand stakes in Russian assets, an executive said. Chinese companies account for about 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the portfolio of our foreign Internet investments, Ivan Streshinskiy, head of Usmanovs asset-management company USM Advisors Llc, said in an interview on March 14 in Moscow. Most of the investment is in Alibaba, JD.com and some other companies with great potential, Streshinskiy said. Usmanov, 60, built his Metalloinvest Holding Co iron ore business by acquisitions and is Russias richest man, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He bought a stake of about $100 million in Apple last year and sold it recently this year, according to Streshinskiy. The sale follows a gradual reduction of Usmanovs stake in Facebook, he said. We hope that our investments in Chinas Internet companies may show the same and even better returns as we had with the American companies, Streshinskiy said. China is Russias largest trading partner. Alibabas estimated valuation rose to an average of $153 billion last month after the Chinese e-commerce company reported surging sales. The Hangzhou-based company is starting the process for what may be the biggest US initial public offering in two years. Chinese online retailer JD.com may start an IPO next quarter and be valued at more than $20 billion, according to co-owner Tencent Holdings Ltd. China has refrained from crit-

Tickets for AirAsia on sale in Thai 7-Elevens

Boonsong Kositchotethana

Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov and his wife arrive for the reopening ceremony of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 2011.

AFP

icising the Kremlin for plans to annex Ukraines Crimea peninsula, abstaining from a United Nations Security Council vote on declaring the regions referendum illegal. China and Russia have voted together about Syria and Iran, while President Xi Jinping was the most prominent foreign leader to attend the Winter Olympics in Sochi this year, as US and most European Union leaders decided to stay away. Apple shares have advanced about 23 per cent since March 2013, when Usmanov rst said he bought the stake. The Cupertino, California-based companys stock has declined about six per cent this year. Facebook initially plunged after its IPO in 2012 and has more than doubled in the last 12 months, taking its market value to about $172 billion.

When Usmanov acquired a Facebook stake in 2009, his fund persuaded founder Mark Zuckerberg to sell by giving up its voting rights. Usmanov, with a partner, bought about 10 per cent of Facebook when the company was valued at $6 billion to $10 billion and sold some shares in the IPO, which valued the company at $104 billion, the businessman told state television at the time. Alibaba, which operates online markets for products from Louis Vuitton bags to Boston lobsters, posted its fourth straight quarterly prot in the three months through September, according to a January presentation from Yahoo! Inc, which owns a 24 per cent stake. The company, founded by former English teacher Jack Ma, may be worth as much as $200 billion, according to

investment bank valuations, which would make it the second-biggest Internet company behind Google Inc. Russias benchmark Micex index has declined about 14 per cent since February 17, the day before Ukrainian police red on protesters in Kievs Independence Square, and Russian stocks may drop more following the March 16 referendum in Crimea on joining Russia, Streshinskiy said. If stocks fall further, Usmanovs company may consider buying more shares of wireless operator OAO MegaFonand Internet company Mail.ru Group Ltd, he said. Mail.Ru and MegaFon revenue is coming from Russia and people wont stop making calls and using the Internet, Streshinskiy said. If the events will further escalate, we will be

buying shares. Crisis is always a good opportunity as valuations become cheap. Mail.ru agreed to buy 12 per cent of VKontakte, Russias biggest social network, raising its stake to 52 per cent, and started to buy back $45 million of its own stock, the company said in statements yesterday. Usmanovs Metalloinvest, Russias largest iron-ore producer, may switch to shipping to China and other markets should Europe apply sanctions on its exports due to the crisis in Ukraines Crimea region, Streshinskiy also said. Russian President Vladimir Putin has backed an accord on annexing the territory, signaling he wont back down after US and European Union leaders imposed sanctions on Russian ofcials and threatened further measures. BLOOMBERG

THE ubiquitous 7-Eleven convenience stores have turned into physical sales outlets for Thai AirAsia (TAA) in a partnership that breaks new ground in air ticket distribution. Thailands 7,800 7-Eleven outlets and 1,500 Counter Service Co (CS) bill payment sites nationwide began on Monday to accept bookings and payments for all AirAsia flights originating from Thailand both for domestic and international routes. The deal with CS has given TAA a nationwide physical coverage of the market and leverage on ticket sales in a channel not exploited by any other airlines. It supplements TAAs existing sales channels which encompass the airlines online booking system, call centres, travel agents and a handful of sales offices located at strategic points. While 75 per cent of its tickets are sold online, TAA hopes that 7-Eleven and CS sites will provide an easy access point for its air tickets, especially among people who frequent convenience stores. Weeradej Ackapolpanich, assistant vice-president of CS, said that 30 million people visit 7-Eleven stores each month, spending a total of 10 billion baht ($311 million). Santisuk Klongchaiya, TAAs commercial director, said it is too early to determine the contribution of 7-Eleven and CS to the airlines overall sales. He estimated initial contribution at three to 5 per cent. According to TAAs financial report, the airlines 2013 revenue was 23.5 billion baht ($731 million). The TAA-CS partnership means TAA tickets can be physically purchased at any hour of the day or night, every day of the year. BANGKOK POST

Everything But Arms deal to stay: EU trade official

Continued from page 1

grabbing and forced evictions, leading to calls from rights groups to reconsider the EBA trade scheme that they say is benefiting Cambodias wealthy at the expense of the poor. Their calls have not gone unnoticed, as the impending delegations visit and actions by other firms with interests in Cambodia make clear. Coca-Cola is conducting its own investigation into Cambodian sugar producers and the industrys impact on the local community. De Gucht is in the region about a week after bilateral meetings between Cambodia and the EU were held in

Brussels, when items ranging from trade to politics were raised. The trip was part of a four-day visit to Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar during which De Gucht will try to strengthen EU trade links with the Asean countries. De Gucht met yesterday with Minister of Commerce Sun Chanthol, Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana and Deputy Prime Minister Sok An at Chanthols office. The commissioner said the delegation arriving later this month, a visit connected to an ongoing working group on sugar issues that has involved meetings between local officials and the EUs ambassador to

Cambodia, would include two land rights experts. Chanthol, the commerce minister, said in an email yesterday that the meeting at his office lasted for one hour and that they discussed issues of land concessions for sugar plantations and the status of 21 protesters that were detained in January as part of a nationwide garment strike. I informed the EU Commissioner of the Royal Governments commitment to resolve the allegation of land grabbing linked to the land concession for sugar plantation and refinery, he said. I informed the Commissioner that the Ad hoc committee met three times, twice with the participation of

the EU Ambassador, to find solutions that can satisfy all concerned parties, he added, referring to the working group on claims tied to the sugar industry. Regarding the 21 protesters in prison, Im not in the position to comment but I suggested [to] the Commissioner to let the legal process take its course. On the detainees and the protestors who were shot and killed during the strikes in January, De Gucht said that the EU is following all these evolutions very closely and we try to influence them positively so that there is greater freedom of assembly, collective bargaining so that we can lift minimum wages in a concerted effort.

De Gucht said the EU was working on an initiative similar to Bangladeshs in which factories and buyers agree on certain workplace standards. Sugar exports, though only a fraction of Cambodias total goods sent to Europe, have quadrupled in 2013 compared to the year before. Eang Vuthy, executive director of Equitable Cambodia, said that within the sugar industry, there is more than enough evidence presented by rights monitors to warrant an investigation into EBA. We still want the EU to stay engaged but at the same time the EU needs to have clear conditions with the government, Vuthy said.

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

Business
Bank moves

Thai group head to quell row

Nanchanok Wongsamuth

HE Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) has kicked off its search for a new chairman amid sentiments that the new head will resolve internal conicts but not bring any changes to Thailands largest private group. A total of 348 committee members were selected this week to elect the new chairman, which is a race between vice-chairmen Visit Limprana and Supant Mongkolsuthree. But Teerawut Prakaysantisuk, Visits legal adviser, threatened to le a complaint with the Central Administrative Court on electoral fraud by Supants supporters. As the FTI is considered a state agency, matters related to the elections need to be submitted to the Central Administrative Court, he said. Although the subcommittee dismissed the claims of fraud, ve out of 12 committee members responsible for the voting process walked out during vote counting claiming the process was not transparent. Wanchai Khansuwan, one of the subcommittee members, said all the documents should be re-examined rst before the ofcial results are announced. A total of 2,645 FTI members were present at the election

Supporters carry signs showing their support for the two candidates vying for the post of FTI chairman, vice-chairmen Visit Limprana and Supant Mongkolsuthree. BANGKOK POST/PattaRaCHaI PREECHapanICH

on Monday. The committee members will elect the new chairman on April 8. The FTI is divided into two camps, with one supporting current chairman Payungsak Chartsutthipol, a former executive of Siam Cement Group. At the joint conference late on Monday, Supant, who will likely be the new chairman,

given the results of the election, said that the two sides should reconcile. I want us to reconcile so it will send a message to those in politics [that they should reconcile too], he said. Visit, meanwhile, said that his team would support the activities of Supants side. I have a motto that I joined

the race but not to cause divisions in the organisation, Visit stated. However, outsiders remain sceptical about whether or not reconciliation will be brought about in the aftermath. Pornsil Patchrintanakul, vice-chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC), said that the new incoming

chairman must be free from political intervention. The new chairman must not be the slave of politics and must dare to speak about what is right, Pornsil told the Bangkok Post in a telephone interview. Unlike the FTI, TCC leaders are elected through a tradition Pornsil calls a whispering system, where senior members seek advice from a few members on who should be the chairperson. The candidate is then approached and asked whether he or she would like to take up the position. The former FTI secretarygeneral Kiatphong Noichaiboon agreed with Pornsil, saying that the FTI must be free from political intervention and inuence, while Ninnart Chaithirapinyo, honorary chairman of the FTIs automotive industry club, said he hopes the FTI will change from being divided to an organisation working in harmony. Both sides have promised to work together, so the loser should not leave, said Ninnart, also vice-chairman of Toyota Motor Thailand Co. The industrial sector plays an important role in moving forward the countrys gross domestic product, and nothing will be gained if the two sides continue to ght, he added. BANGKOK POST

Vietnam cuts key rates to spur lending

IETNAMS central bank cut its key interest rates for the first time in nearly a year yesterday in an attempt to kick-start the nations sluggish economy. The State Bank of Vietnam cut the refinancing rate charged on loans to commercial banks to 6.5 per cent from seven per cent. The discount rate was also trimmed to 4.5 per cent from five per cent. The cuts, which came into effect yesterday, aim to encourage more lending to businesses to stimulate growth, according to a report posted on the banks website. The communist nation is struggling to revitalise an economy hit by slow domestic demand, banking sector troubles, falling foreign direct investment and financial malaise among state-owned companies. Vietnam last cut rates in May 2013, taking them to their lowest level since late 2009. In 2013, Vietnams inflation slowed to 6.04 per cent, down from the previous years 6.81 per cent. Economic growth was reported at 5.43 per cent in 2013, picking up speed slightly after its worst performance in more than a decade in 2012. AFP

Thai auto officials claim Japan interest still there

Piyachart Maikaew

US listings fertile for China firms

Juliette Michel

DESPITE the prolonged political protests, Thailand remains an appealing market for Japanese car parts makers. Suttisak Wilanan, project director at exhibition organiser Reed Tradex, said several of them still want to expand their high-technology production to Thailand, which is undoubtedly Aseans automotive hub. The Japanese government is also giving full support to its small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to explore outbound investment, he said. Suttiak said Japanese SMEs investment covered both the establishment of wholly-owned subsidiaries and joint ventures with Thai manufacturers. He cited a report by the Customs Department that revealed that Thailands import values of mould and die production machinery rose by 11 per cent in January to 1.43 billion baht ($44 million), which indicated an uptrend in new investment and expansion in the auto parts market. Last year, the import value dropped 12.6 per cent year-onyear to 15.6 billion baht ($484 million) as demand from automakers and domestic car sales shrank. Thailand still remains the rst choice for Japanese automotive investors, he said. Compared with automobile production in Indonesia, Thailand still boasts positive facilities of auto parts chain,

logistics transportation and automobile production. Last week, Reed Tradex organised roadshows in Tokyo, Nakano and Sanjo to convince Japanese automotive manufacturers to participate in its Manufacturing Expo 2014, to be held at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre from June 19-22. There are about 1,800 auto parts manufacturers currently operating in Thailand, 709 of which are original-equipment manufacturers. According to SCB Economic Intelligence Centre (SCB EIC), a research unit of Siam Commercial Bank, aggressive competition in Japan coupled with the attractive factors in the Thai automotive industry have led Japanese auto part SMEs to establish their production lines in Thailand. Penetration by Japanese rms will increase competition in the auto parts industry since Japanese companies enjoy a competitive edge in controlling production costs due to larger operations and more advanced technologies. According to the Board of Investment, direct investment from Japan totalled 136 billion baht ($4.2 billion) in 2012, up from 48 billion ($1.4 billion) in 2011 and 19 billion ($589 million) in 2010. SCB EIC suggests Thai parts makers should not overlook joint venture opportunities with potential partners from overseas countries.
BANGKOK POST

IN PICKING the US to launch initial public offerings rather than their home market, Chinese technology companies Alibaba and Weibo are opting for maximum visibility and access to capital. Alibaba, an e-commerce giant that blends elements of Google, eBay and Amazon, conrmed its plans on Sunday to launch a US listing. US press reports have said the offering could be as big as $15 billion, which would make it the largest Chinese IPO ever and the biggest since Facebooks in 2012. Weibo, considered the Chinese version of microblogging site Twitter, said on Friday it planned a US offering to raise $500 million. A third Chinese technology company, JD.com, an online retailer and a smaller competitor of Alibaba, in January led to launch its own IPO in the US for up to $1.5 billion. The listings have sent a charge through Wall Street, where new offerings through January and February are at their highest level since 2000, just before the Internet bubble burst, according to Renaissance Capital. Investors are said to be salivating over Alibaba, the best known of three companies, says Mace Blicksilver, director of Marblehead Asset Management. For Alibaba, a New York listing allows it to avoid an offer-

ing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which balked at efforts by founders and senior management to retain control over the board by issuing dual classes of stock. But the US listing also means the company will have access to the most liquid market in the world, where investors surely prefer to buy stock minted on Wall Street rather than in Hong Kong, said Gregori Volokhine, president of Meeschaert Capital Markets. A US listing sends a message to investors that we are international, even though most of our business is in China, said Jack Gold, president of the research rm J. Gold Associates. Gold said a US listing could also enable the companies to grow more easily. The Internet these days is about growing by acquiring other companies, Gold said. Its easier to pick up other companies while being USlisted than Chinese-listed. Scores of Chinese companies have gained US market listings in the past decade, the number of Chinese IPOs peaking in 2010 with 39 offerings, according to data from Dealogic. But they sank to just two in 2012, amid investor distrust after numerous accusations of fraud and other ills, which led to plunging share prices and forced delistings. Such problems were particularly acute in cases of

An Alibaba employee walks through a communal space at the company headquarters in Hangzhou, China, in 2012. AFP

reverse mergers in which Chinese companies bought publicly-traded but essentially defunct US companies, taking a backdoor route to a public listing. Blicksilver said investors are sceptical about small names, but that a big blue chip company like Alibaba will get the benet of the doubt. Certainly thats been a problem in the past, Gold said of the Chinese listings. But there have been other Chinese companies, Lenovo comes to mind, that have done OK in this regard. Well have to see. It certainly could be a problem, especially if you assume, as most assume, that the Chinese government has

their hands in pretty much all the big companies over there, Gold said. Another ashpoint could be concerns about allowing Chinese Internet companies to benet from open US markets at the same time that Beijing blocks Facebook, Twitter and other US giants to the massive Chinese market. They want the best of both worlds, said Trip Chowdhry, an analyst at Global Equities Research. If these companies from China want to raise money from the US, it would be fair in the spirit of capitalism that they open their market. This is hypocritical and not in the spirit of real capitalism. AFP

THE PHNOM PENH POST march 19, 2014

Markets Business
High rollers
Steven Yang

casino Chinese real estate firm falls apart Mega headed for
CLOSELY held Chinese real estate developer with 3.5 billion yuan ($566.6 million) of debt has collapsed and its largest shareholder was detained, government ofcials familiar with the matter revealed on Monday. Zhejiang Xingrun Real Estate Co does not have enough cash to repay creditors that include more than 15 banks, with China Construction Bank Corp holding more than 1 billion yuan of its debt, according to the ofcials, who asked not to be named because they werent authorised to discuss the matter publicly. The companys majority shareholder and his son, its legal representative, have both been detained and face charges of illegal fundraising, the ofcials said. The collapse of the company, based in the eastern town of Fenghua, adds to concern of strains in the nations real estate sector and comes less than two weeks after the rst bond default by a Chinese company. Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science & Technology Cos inability to repay its debt may become Chinas own Bear

A man walks past the gate of the faculties of Chaori Solar Energy Science & Technology in Shanghai earlier this month. AFP

Stearns moment, prompting investors to reassess credit risks as they did after the US securities rm was rescued in 2008, Bank of America Corp. said March 5. Chinese developers are extremely exposed to the easy credit that is used to nance purchases and investment,

said Patrick Chovanec, the New York-based chief strategist at Silvercrest Asset Management Group Llc, which oversees $14.1 billion in assets, by phone. When credit is reined in even slightly, it undercuts demand. Stocks and bonds issued by Chinese real estate companies

slumped after reports of Zhejiang Xingruns collapse added to concern that defaults are starting to mount as the nations economy slows and the government reins in lending. Zhejiang Xingruns collapse was reported earlier on Monday by the Chinese-language National Business Daily, which

cited an unidentied government ofcial for the news. The report blamed the failure on mismanagement and high costs of private lending, according to the newspaper. The city of Ningbo has jurisdiction over the town of Fenghua, which is the birthplace of former Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek. Fenghua is in discussions with the banks and Ningbo on how to repay the debt, the people said. They said Zhejiang Xingrun has assets worth 3 billion yuan. Two calls to the chairmans ofce and nancial department at Zhejiang Xingrun werent answered on Monday. A woman who answered the phone at the Fenghua governments news ofce who declined to give her name conrmed the company can not pay its debt. A Beijingbased press ofcer at CCB said that the bank asked for more information from its local branch about the report but hasnt heard back. We think the default of the developer will alert the banks on escalating risk from developers amid the liquidity tightening, said Johnson Hu, a Hong Kong-based property analyst at CIMB-GK Securities Research. BLOOMBERG

South Korea

OUTH Korea opened its tightly controlled gambling market yesterday and approved a $697 million investment plan by foreign investors to construct the countrys biggest casino town. LOCZ Korea, a joint venture between Las Vegas-based Caesars Entertainment and Indonesias Lippo Group, has been given permission to open a foreigneronly casino in 2018, the culture ministry has said. The casino will be the rst to be owned and operated by any foreign investors in South Korea. The new casino town will feature hotels, convention centres, and shopping malls, and will be located near Incheon International Airport, South Koreas main gateway, the casino operators said. The rms will invest 744 billion won ($697 million) in the project. LOCZ Korea plans to turn the casino town into an integrated resort city with more investments by 2023, it said. Of South Koreas 17 licensed casinos, only one Kangwon Land Resort is open to locals. Last year the foreigner-only casinos pulled in a combined revenue of 1.37 trillion won. AFP

Vacancy Announcement Vacancy No.: FPA/14/004

UNFPA is seeking a consultant for the following assignment: Assignment: Consultancy for Developing National Guidelines on Violence Duty Against Women for the Ministry Station: of Health Special Service Agreement Deadline: UNFPA Office, Phnom Penh 02 April March 2014 (4pm Local Time)

Contract type:

Objectives of assignment: Review the existing relevant policies, strategies, protocols/guidelines and other related documents; Review existing initial draft Guidelines and further write up based on national and global procedures and recommendations from stakeholders; Work with the Preventive Medicine Department to hold comprehensive consultative meetings/workshops to review the draft guidelines with stakeholders; Carry on consultations on the draft the National Guidelines for Violence Against Women with inputs from all relevant stakeholders; and Finalize the Guidelines based on necessary comments and inputs from the meetings/ workshops and stakeholders. Qualifications and Experience: Masters degree in social sciences or related degree; Significant regional/global experience and technical competency in designing and managing responses to GBV/violence against women; Cambodian work experience in the areas of reproductive health and rights, gender, violence against women/GBV, highly desirable; Experience supporting government health care systems; Excellent verbal and written English communication skills; Availability for full duration of assignment. How to apply: Applications must be supported with a motivation letter, UN Personal History Form (P11), detailed CV and key relevant certificates. The sealed application should be addressed directly to Dr. Derveeuw Marc G. L., Representative, UNFPA, No. 225, Street Pasteur, Boeng Keng Kang 1, Chamkar Mon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The P11 Form and Full Terms of Reference can be obtained via email (unfpa.cmb@unfpa.org) or UNFPA Website (http://countryoffice.unfpa.org/cambodia). Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. UNFPA retains the right to contact referees directly. There is no application, processing or other fee at any stage of the application process. UNFPA does not solicit or screen for information in respect of HIV or AIDS and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV status.

10

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

Business

Second GM recall over three defects

Mira Oberman

ENERAL Motors announced its second massive recall in two months on Monday as it works to contain a growing scandal over the safety of its vehicles. The latest recall of nearly 1.8 million vehicles linked to three new problems comes as a result of an internal probe into why it took the largest US automaker so long to acknowledge the existence of a deadly ignition defect. GM is facing multiple investigations by US authorities over its slowness to react to evidence linking a defective ignition switch to 31 accidents and 12 deaths in its 2005-07 Chevrolet Cobalt and 2003-07 Saturn Ion models. The problem was detected at the pre-production stage as early as 2001, but GM waited until last month to recall 1.6 million vehicles in North America. Mondays vehicle recall covered three different defects unrelated to the ignition problems, none tied to reports of accidents or injuries, GM has said. However, the automaker said it will take a $300 million charge in the rst quarter to cover the cost of the recalls

and repairs of the vehicles. The ignition recall is the rst big crisis for new chief executive Mary Barra, who took the companys helm on January 15 as the rst woman to lead a major automaker. Barra responded forcefully, announcing she would release an unvarnished report following a thorough review and vowing to improve how GM handles defect reports. Todays announcement underscores the focus were putting on the safety and peace of mind of our customers, Barra said in a public statement. I asked our team to redouble our efforts on our pending product reviews, bring them forward and resolve them quickly. In a video statement sent to employees, Barra called the federal probes serious developments that shouldnt surprise anyone. After all, something went wrong with our process in this instance and terrible things happened, she said. Barras transparency recognises the damage that the company could endure after painstakingly rebuilding its reputation following a government-backed bankruptcy back in 2009. Japanese automaker rival

A General Motors 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt sits at Stanford Chevrolet in Dearborn, Michigan, in 2010. GM is recalling 1.8 million vehicles over three new safety problems even as it faces multiple investigations by US authorities over an ignition defect in its 2005-07 Chevrolet Cobalt and 2003-07 Saturn Ion models. BLOOMBERG

Toyotas once-stellar reputation was tarnished when it recalled some 12 million vehicles worldwide at a cost of $2.4 billion in 2009-10. Toyota executives were forced to appear at US Congressional hearings, where they were sharply denounced for allegedly hiding and down-

playing dangerous defects in some of the companys most popular models. GM faces only small ofcial nes at the moment: a possible $35 million, minute compared to $155 billion in revenues last year. Ratings group Standard and Poors said that it would moni-

tor the impact of the recalls on GMs competitive position. We believe reputational effects on GM could reduce the companys market share or pricing power, even though the company no longer produces the vehicles in question, the ratings agency wrote, adding that the nan-

cial impact on GM should be manageable. The bulk of the vehicles recalled on Monday, more than 1.5 million, were sold in the United States. Some 97,000 were sold in Canada and the remainder were sold in other markets around the world. Of the vehicles recalled on Monday, some 1.3 million were due to a defective service air bag warning light. The defect could prevent air bags and seat belts from deploying during a crash. That recall affects Buick Enclave and GMC Acadia models from the 2008-13 model years, Chevrolet Traverse from the 2009-13 model years, and Saturn Outlook from the 2008-10 model years. A failure to comply with a head impact requirement for unrestrained occupants led to the recall of 355,000 Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana from the 2009-14 model years. A problem with a brake booster pump which has been linked to two engine res in unsold vehicles at dealerships led to the recall of 66,000 Cadillac XTS fullsize sedan from the 2013 and 2014 model years. The news did not hurt the companys stock. GM shares closed up 1.6 per cent at $34.63 on Monday. AFP

Disagreement on timing for Japanese recovery plan

Masaaki Iwamoto

ECONOMISTS are split over how long Japans government has to rein in the worlds biggest debt burden, a Bloomberg News survey shows, adding to a debate on whether the government should keep ratcheting up a sales tax. Eleven of 34 analysts said the government has four years or less to put scal policy on a sustainable path and avoid a crisis. Seven said it has over 10 years. BNP Paribas Sa and Credit Suisse Group Ag were among ve

saying its too late to avert one. UBS Ag says chances of a scal crisis are remote. The lack of consensus offers an opening to opponents of a two percentage point increase in the sales tax, due next year after a three-point jump next month. At stake is ensuring an improvement in Japans nances to assure demand for public debt remains once the central bank, the biggest buyer of the securities, achieves its ination target and tapers stimulus. The government should demonstrate a clear road map

for scal reconstruction before two per cent ination takes root, said Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief economist at Itochu Corp. A longer period would offer Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his potential successors time to focus on strengthening economic growth before addressing a shortfall in social-security nancing. Government debt currently exceeds twice the size of gross domestic product. Those expressing concern about the potential damage to a Japanese recovery from scal

tightening have ranged from Nobel laureate Paul Krugman to Koichi Hamada, a retired Yale University professor who advises Abe on monetary policy. The government should freeze any plans to raise the levy and instead cut the number of parliamentary representatives and bureaucrats, opposition Your Party says. While BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda repeatedly says its too early to discuss an exit strategy for the central banks easing, he has signaled an immediate need to address scal challeng-

es. Having warned February 12 that doubts over sustainability of Japans nances would push up bond yields, Kuroda said in a March 13 interview with the Asahi newspaper that a corporate tax cut Abe plans would reduce revenue and should be considered within the overall tax framework. Japans debt will equal 242 per cent of the economy by the end of 2014, according to International Monetary Fund. Just eight per cent of its bonds are held by overseas investors, reecting a large pool of domestic sav-

ings. A risk for the government in coming years is that cushion will erode as baby boomers start to retire in larger numbers from 2015 and draw down savings, said Hidenori Suezawa, a nancial market and scal analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. Japans current-account balance could swing into a sustained decit between 2020 and 2025, boosting reliance on foreign creditors and the risk of a surge in yields, said Suezawa, who is a member of the governments scal system council. BLOOMBERG

Tata eyes $8b infrastructure spend as election looms

Bhuma Shrivastava and Rajhkumar K Shaaw

CYRUS Mistry, chairman of Indias Tata group, is planning to spend at least $8 billion building roads, airports and housing, betting a stable administration after Indias coming elections will lead to a new wave of infrastructure development. Mistry, 45, who took over as the groups chairman in December 2012 after Ratan Tatas two decades at the helm, is expanding at least three unlisted infrastructure companies within the $100 billion conglomerate, according to two people familiar with his plans. The businesses will get more attention after Mistry has overhauled operations at bigger, listed Tata companies including the auto and steel units. The initiative from Tata, which control assets including Jaguar Land

Rover and New Yorks Pierre hotel, underscores the hope among Indian corporates that infrastructure project approvals and spending will pick up when a new government is formed after elections ending in mid-May. Mistry looks at this sector as a phenomenal opportunity, said U.R. Bhat, managing director of the India unit of UK-based Dalton Strategic Partnership Llp, which manages $2 billion globally. Its a natural extension of their capabilities. Tata has the financial muscle to bid for the biggest of the projects and dominate, he said. India needs to spend $2.2 trillion by 2030 on urban transportation, housing and office space to boost infrastructure ranked below that of Guatemala and Namibia by the World Economic Forum, McKinsey & Co said in a 2010 study. From 2012 through 2017, India is likely to spend 41 trillion rupees

($668 billion) on infrastructure with almost half of it being provided by the private sector, Siddhartha Roy, Tata Groups chief economic adviser, told reporters in June. Tata Housing Development Ltd, Tata Projects Ltd and Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd or TRIL, which builds information technolog y parks, malls and residential complexes, are among the infrastructure units that are aiming to more than triple their order books to 700 billion rupees in five years, said Sarika Kapoor Chokshi, a Tata Sons Ltd spokeswoman in Mumbai. TRIL plans to spend 227 billion rupees in the next five years building highways, airports, hotels and urban transportation, according to a presentation made by Managing Director Sanjay Ubale last June. Tata Housing is developing 26 projects across 10 Indian states. Mistry is also encouraging the units

to seek contracts abroad, in particular in western Asia and southern and western Africa, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. Tata management expect infrastructure activity will expand in a year or two after a new Indian government spurs an economic rebound, the person said. Indias growth slowed to 4.7 per cent in the final three months of 2013, idling below five per cent for the seventh consecutive quarter and somewhat denting the Congress partys chances of extending its decade-long rule in national elections that begin next month and conclude in mid-May. Infrastructure interests Mistry the way designing cars fascinated his predecessor Ratan Tata, said one of the people familiar, pointing to his familys 150 year experience in the construction sector. Mistrys billionaire father and elder

brother control the $2.5 billion Shapoorji Pallonji Group, a construction conglomerate that was started by Mistrys great grandfather with an Englishman in 1865. The infrastructure initiative is a component of Mistrys strategy since becoming the Tata group chief. He also has sold assets, written down overvalued ones and restructured units. Ratan Tata had an aggressive strategy of leaving a global footprint, said Shishir Bajpai, a Mumbai-based director at IIFL Wealth Management Ltd with $1.7 billion under management and advisory. A few worked and a few didnt. It makes sense to relook and redefine it. We have been buying shares of Tata companies over the past few months. As for infrastructure, Dalton Strategics Bhat said: They are trying to find the next big opportunity and capture that. BLOOMBERG

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

Markets Business

11

Asias taste for Canada clams

Clement Sabourin

Markets
Thailand
Thai Set 50 Index, Mar 17 1100

Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh Stock Index, Mar 17 600

1025 950 875 800

550 500 450 400

ROM a basket hoisted on the back of his trawler, sherman Freddy Gutmann proudly picks up a giant geoduck clam fresh from the frigid waters off northwestern Canada. This one is a great specimen, Gutmann says as seawater gushes from the massive mollusk that measures an impressive 20 centimetres (eight inches). Gutmann has good reason to be in high spirits since within 24 hours, the super-sized shellsh, shunned by Western chefs, will be served at top restaurants in Hong Kong, Beijing or Tokyo for a steep price. Without missing a beat, the 35year veteran of the Pacic waters off northwest Canada swiftly lls three orange cases with his sorted and cleaned catch so they can be rushed to the airport in Vancouver, and on to Asia. While a kilo (2.2 pounds) of geoducks goes for some C$30 ($27) these days, six times less than what top Asian eateries will ask their patrons to fork over, that wasnt always the case, Gutmann recalled. Fifteen years ago, its price was around 30 cents per pound, maximum, he said. Whats more, licences to harvest such clams were once available for a pittance. Licence owners got them for a couple bucks. Sometimes they were given by the government, said the native of Tono, a small seaside town in the province of British Co-

Freddy Gutmann, a sherman on board the Hideaway II, sorts freshly harvested geoducks near Tono, Canada, in January. AFP

lumbia popular with surfers and ageing hippies. Today, however, theyre worth $4 to $5 million, he added. In the port of Tono, anked by rugged, snow-capped mountains, mariners talk of astronomically high fees of C$50 million per permit and annual salaries of C$200,000, all difcult to believe and verify. But just 55 shing permits have been issued by Canadian authorities who are not planning to increase that quota, even though environmentalists say the geoduck popula-

tion is overabundant. The conspicuous clams can be found all the way from Mexicos Baja California peninsula to Alaska. They are particularly present off the shores of the US state of Washington and in neighbouring British Columbia. However, harvesting the shellsh is no easy task and, except for slightly more modern equipment, the task hasnt changed much since Gutmann started his career more than three decades ago. It takes two divers weighed down

by 30-kilogram belts and taking turns over 12 hours to plunge 15 to 20 metres into the dark waters to wrest the geoducks from their perch on the sandy Pacic oor. Dressed in thick wetsuits and attached to a boat by a 300-metrelong air hose, the divers scour the sea oor for tiny holes that suggest the presence of a clam, often buried under a metre of sand. Youve got your ears against the sand, you hold it, but its ghting to leave, said David Thomas, who has spent 27 of his 48 years searching for geoducks. Its really hard to catch, especially for young divers. Boasting the build of an American football player, Thomas, who works with Gutmann, swears this season will be his last. Sometimes, the underwater current is so strong that it plasters you to the sea oor, said the family man, adding that hes even come face-toface with a sea lion. Interest in geoducks is so strong that once the Tono shing season ends, the modest local eet of 30 trawlers heads further north to the Alaska border. Theres nothing out there, you go from one bay to another and you dont see anybody, Thomas said as he pointed to a map on board the trawler known as the Hideaway II. Its all white here. But despite having spent so many years in pursuit of geoducks, neither Thomas, Gutmann or the boats third crew member have become culinary fans of the clams. AFP

932.01

599.85

South Korea

KOSPI Index, Mar 17 2100 1975 1850 1725 1600

Philippines

PSEI- Philippine Se Idx, Mar 17 7000 6625 6250 5875 5500

1,940.21

6,466.55

Singapore
FTSE Straits Times Index, Mar 17 4000

Malaysia
FTSEBursa Malaysia KLCI, Mar 17 1900

3500 3000 2500 2000

1800 1700 1600 1500

3,088.25

1,820.19

Hong Kong
Hang Seng Index, Mar 17 25000

China
CSI 300 Index, Mar 17 3000

23250 21500 19750 18000

2750 2500 2250 2000

21,583.50

2,138.13

Japan

Nikkei 225, Mar 17 16000

Taiwan

Taiwan Taiex Index, Mar 17 9000

15500 15000 14500 14000

8500 8000 7500 7000

14,411.27

8,731.94
Jakarta Composite Index, Mar 17 5000 4625 4250 3875 3500

Laos

Laos Composite Index, Mar 17 1500 1350 1200 1050 900

Indonesia

1,289.43

4,818.08

International commodities
Energy
COMMODiTY UNiTS PRice CHaNGe % CHaNGe TiMe(ET)

Cambodian commodities
(Base rate taken on January 1, 2012) (%) -0.71 % 3.64 % 2.22 % 1.25 % 4.00 % 5.50 % -40.00 % 1.82 % 7.06 % 3.33 % 15.56 % 0.77 %

India
BSE Sensex 30 Index, Mar 17 22000 21000

Pakistan
Karachi 100 Index, Mar 17 28000 27250 26500 25750 25000

Food -Cereals -Vegetables - Fruits

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

Construction equipment
Average 2780 2280 1840 8100 2080 4220 24000 33600 18200 12400 20800 13100 Item Steel 12 Cement Unit R/Kg R/Sac Base 3000 19000 Average 3100 19500 (%) 3.33 % 2.63 %

Crude Oil (WTI) Crude Oil (Brent) RBOB Gasoline NYMEX Heating Oil ICE Gasoil

USD/bbl. USD/bbl. USd/gal. USd/gal. USD/MT

98.1 106.61 4.51 288.83 291.13 888

-0.79 0.37 -0.02 -7.14 -3.18 -1.5

-0.80% 0.35% -0.51% -2.41% -1.08% -0.17%

3:55:24 3:55:41 3:53:40 3:55:57 3:55:21 3:53:49

Base
2800 2200 1800 8000 2000 4000 40000 33000 17000 12000 18000 13000

20000 19000 18000

NYMEX Natural Gas USD/MMBtu

21,847.21

27,345.53

Energy
Item Gasoline Diesel Petroleum Gas Charcoal Unit
R R R Chi Baht

Base
5250 5100 5500 86000 1200

Average
5450 5200 5500 76000 1300

(%)
3.81 % 1.96 % 0.00 % -11.63 % 8.33 %

Australia
S&P/ASX 200 Index, Mar 17 5500 5250 5000 4750 4500

New Zealand
NZX 50 Index, Mar 17 5500 5250 5000 4750 4500

Agriculture
COMMODiTY UNiTS PRice CHaNGe % CHaNGe TiMe(ET)

CBOT Rough Rice CME Lumber

USD/cwt USD/tbf

15.49 332

-0.02 -8.5

-0.10% -2.50%

2:55:21 2:49:35

5,344.56

5,135.66

Vacancy Announcement Announcement No: Location: Closing Date: EC-AN-14-0389 The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), Phnom Penh. March 21, 2014 @ 4.00 pm.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) is seeking highly qualied applicants for the position of Associate Legal Ocer (NO-B). For more details of the Job Description (JD), please visit the ECCC website at http: www.eccc.gov.kh/en/about-eccc/jobs Submission of Applications Qualied candidates may submit their applications, including a letter of interest, Curriculum Vitae along with the duly completed and signed ECCC Application Form for Employment available in the above website to: Human Resources Section (National) National Road 4, Chaom Chau Commune Porsenchey District, Phnom Penh, Cambodia The ECCC gate B or Email: personnel@eccc.gov.kh P.O Box No.71 Please note that incomplete applications or applications received after the closing date will not be considered. Only those candidates that are shortlisted for interviews will be notied. Applications from qualied female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

12

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

World
Obama Putin signs off Crimea as Russian US tells Abbas
Stuart Williams and Anna Smolchenko

LADIMIR Putin yesterday signed a treaty making Crimea part of Russia, in a historic redrawing of Russias borders after he declared that the Black Sea region has always been in the hearts of his countrymen. In a fast-moving sequence of events following Crimeas controversial secession referendum on Sunday, the Kremlin said Crimea was now considered part of Russia and no longer Ukrainian territory, shrugging off strong international objections. In the hearts and minds of people, Crimea has always been and remains an inseparable part of Russia, Putin said in an emotional address broadcast on television. Putin signed the treaty with Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov and other Crimean leaders at a ceremony at the Kremlin attended by both houses of parliament. Lawmakers, who still have to formally ratify the treaty, broke into applause and cheers after the signing. The Republic of Crimea is considered to be part of Russia from the date of the signing of the treaty, the Kremlin said. Crimea and the city of Sevastopol the home of the Russian Black Sea eet which has special status are being incorporated as new constituent parts of the Russian Federation. The signing which had not been agged in advance came after Putin gave a ery address at the Kremlin seeking to justify the incorporation of Crimea into Russia. His deant speech brushed off US and EU sanctions touted as the most severe against Moscow since the end of the Cold War. Putin said Crimea belonged with Russia and he slammed the Soviet-era decision by Nikita Khrushchev to gift the peninsula to the Ukrainian Soviet republic as riddled with violations. When Crimea suddenly ended up

The Russian president addresses its parliament in the Kremlin yesterday.

AFP

being in another state, Russia felt it was not simply robbed it was plundered, he said. He added that Russia was tired of being pushed into a corner by the West and said it had been repeatedly deceived on issues like NATO, missile defence and visa-free travel. On Ukraine the West crossed a line, he said, warning it against provoking Russia. They are trying to drive us into a corner. But he sought to play down fears that Russia was seeking to also incorporate parts of eastern and southern Ukraine. We dont want the break-up of Ukraine. We do not need it, Putin said. The seizure of Crimea by pro-Russian forces following the ouster of Yanukovych last month has been condemned around the world. But the prospect of Russias international isolation did not deter an increasingly deant Putin who

based the justication for the de-facto annexation of Crimea on the regions weekend referendum where almost 97 per cent voted to split from Ukraine. It is the rst time since World War II that Moscow is expanding its borders and represents the most radical redrawing of the map of Europe since Kosovos 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. The lush peninsula has been the base of Kremlin navies since the late 18th century and only became part of Ukraine in 1954 when it was gifted by Khrushschev. With a population of some two million, Crimea has long been seen as a favourite vacation destination and has a great hold over the Russian psyche. Patriotism has soared in Russia, with tens of thousands expected to hold a state-supported rally in Moscow with the slogan We are together. Inde-

pendent pollster Levada Centre said on Monday that two thirds of Russians 63 per cent believe Russia is a great nation, double the gure of 31 per cent in March 1999. Putins approval ratings have jumped to 72 per cent on the back of the success of the Sochi Winter Olympics and his decision to send troops to Crimea following Yanukovychs February 22 ousting. A defence ministry source said there was relief within the navy that the future was now assured of the Russian Black Sea eet at a Crimea base that Moscow was leasing from Ukraine. But the mood was far from jubilant among economists and businesses who fear Putins policies and the threat of further sanctions will inict lasting damage on Russias economy. US President Barack Obama on Monday slapped sanctions on seven Russian ofcials and four Ukrainians accused of usurping Ukraines territorial integrity, including Yanukovych. If Russia continues to interfere in Ukraine, we stand ready to impose further sanctions, Obama warned. The European Union unveiled travel bans and asset freezes against 21 Russian and Ukrainian ofcials, including Vice Admiral Alexander Vitko, the head of Russias Black Sea eet. These are by far the most comprehensive sanctions applied to Russia since the end of the Cold War far and away so, said a senior US ofcial. Those targeted under Obamas executive order will see assets and interests in the United States or under US jurisdiction blocked and Americans will be barred from doing business with them. Diplomats in Brussels said EU and Ukrainian leaders would on Friday sign the political portion of a landmark pact whose rejection by Yanukovych in November sparked the protests that led to his downfall. AFP

that peace needs risk

China finds no terror link to nationals on MH370

INTELLIGENCE checks on 153 Chinese passengers on a missing Malaysian airliner produced no red flags, China said yesterday, as Malaysia marshalled ships and planes from 26 countries to search an area the size of Australia. Eleven days after contact was lost with Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and its 239 passengers and crew, there has been minimal progress in determining precisely what happened or where the plane ended up. Lending fresh weight to the belief that the plane was deliberately diverted, the New York Times reported that the first turn it made off its flight path was programmed into the jets computer navigation system, probably by someone in the cockpit. Rather than manually operating the planes controls, whoever altered Flight 370s path typed seven or eight keystrokes into a computer situated between the captain and co-pilot, the newspaper said, quoting US officials. The head of Malaysia Airlines, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, said he was unable to confirm the report. The aircraft was programmed to fly to Beijing . . . [but] once you are in the aircraft, anything is possible. Two thirds of those on board were Chinese, and Malaysia had asked authorities in Beijing to run an exhaustive background check on all their nationals as part of a probe into everyone aboard. Particular attention was paid to a passenger from Chinas Muslim ethnic Uighur minority. Yesterday, Chinas ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang said no evidence had been found that would link anyone to a possible hijacking or terrorist attack on the jet. The current search area, which was only properly identified after a week of fruitlessly scouring the South China Sea, is enormous stretching from the depths of the Indian Ocean, up and over the Himalayas and into central Asia. Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said it covered a total of 2.24 million square nautical miles (7.7 million square kilometres) slightly larger than Australia. Chinas state media has been vocally critical of Malaysias handling of the investigation, saying valuable time and resources were wasted in the hours and days immediately after the aircraft disappeared on March 8. Desperate relatives of the Chinese passengers threatened to go on hunger strike yesterday, demanding Malaysias ambassador brief them in person. Malaysian officials insist they are investigating all the passengers and crew, but for the moment the focus is clearly on the two pilots Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid. On Monday Ahmad Jauhari revealed that the last recorded words from the cockpit All right, good night were almost certainly spoken by the co-pilot, Fariq. The identity was deemed important given that the final message came around the time the planes two automated signalling systems were disabled and it veered off course just as it was being handed over from Malaysian to Vietnamese air traffic control. Despite some confusion about when the systems were switched off, Hishammuddin stressed that investigators still believe the series of events were consistent with deliberate action by someone on the Boeing 777. Police have searched both pilots homes and are examining a flight simulator that Captain Zaharie, 53, had assembled at his home. Malaysian media reported that Zaharie was distantly related to the daughter-in-law of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, as well as being a member of his political party. Anwar said yesterday that he was disgusted by the suggestion the plane may have been sabotaged as an act of revenge hours after he was convicted on a sodomy charge widely seen as politically motivated. Hishammuddin has said that the search for the missing aircraft should remain above politics. Twenty-six countries are now involved in that search in a northern corridor over south and central Asia, and a southern corridor stretching deep into the southern Indian Ocean towards Australia. A French expert who took part in the search for Air France Flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic in 2009, said finding the Malaysian plane was a much tougher proposition. Here we simply have no idea of the location of the aircraft, because there were no ACARS signals, said Jean-Paul Troadec, a special adviser with Frances civil aviation accident investigation agency. Malaysia has deployed its nav y and air force to the southern corridor, where Australia is taking the lead in scouring a huge section of ocean off its west coast. It will take at least a few weeks to search the area thoroughly, John Young of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said. AFP

US PREsIDENT Barack Obama told Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on Monday that both he and Israels politicians must be prepared to make tough decisions and take risks for peace. Abbas arrived at the White House two weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that time was running short for a final deal, and said Israel could show it was serious by honouring a scheduled release of Palestinian prisoners this month. Obama, personally supporting Secretary of State John Kerrys exhaustive Middle East peace drive at a critical moment, is pressing both sides to accept a framework to carry negotiations past an end-of-April deadline. As I said to Prime Minister Netanyahu when he was here just a few weeks ago, I believe that now is the time . . . to embrace this opportunity, Obama said. It is very hard, very challenging. We are going to have to take some tough political decisions and risks if were able to move it forward. Obama said everyone understood the shape of an elusive peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, saying it would be based on 1967 lines with mutual land swaps. Abbas sat beside Obama in the same Oval Office chair recently used by Netanyahu, when the Israeli leader said Israel had done its part over decades of talks but the Palestinians hadnt done theirs. The Palestinian leader told Obama: We dont have any time to waste. Time is not on our side, especially given the very difficult situation that the Middle East is experiencing. Abbas did not use a photo opportunity before the talks to directly address the Israeli governments demand for the Palestinians to recognise Israel as a Jewish state in public. But he did say through a translator that the Palestinians had recognised Israels legitimacy in 1988 and in 1993 we recognised the state of Israel. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Abbas confirmed his position to President Obama refusing to recognise Israel as a Jewish State. Abbas also noted in the photo-op the agreement that the Palestinians have with Israel on the release of a fourth batch of prisoners by March 29. This will give a very solid impression about the seriousness of these efforts to achieve peace, Abbas said. Israeli ministers said last week that they would have difficulty approving the prisoner release if an agreement was not reached to extend the peace talks. AFP

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

World

13

Suicide attack kills 16 in north Afghanistan

A SUICIDE bomber riding a rickshaw blew himself up outside a checkpoint at a market in northern Afghanistan yesterday, killing at least 13 civilians, ofcials said, in the latest attack in the countdown to presidential elections to be held in less than three weeks. Nobody claimed immediate responsibility for the attack in the capital of Faryab province but it happened in an area where the Taliban and allied militant groups are active. The Taliban have threatened to unleash a campaign of violence to disrupt the April 5 vote, which will choose a new president to lead the country as foreign troops prepare to end their combat mission by the end of the year. The attacker was approaching the entry checkpoint of the market in Maymana, the capital of Faryab province, when he detonated his explosives, which were hidden in the rickshaw, the ofcials said. The provincial governor, Mohammadullah Patash, gave the death toll and said that 23 people were also wounded in the attack. The Taliban have staged numerous attacks in Faryab, far from their traditional strongholds in southern and eastern Afghanistan. In October 2012 a suicide bomber struck a mosque packed with senior regional ofcials in Maymana, killing 41 people. Previous Afghan elections have been badly marred by violence, with 31 civilians and 26 soldiers and police killed on polling day alone in 2009 as the Islamist militants displayed their opposition to the US-backed polls. Another bloodstained election would damage claims by international donors that the hugely expensive military and civilian intervention since 2001 has made progress in establishing a functioning state system. Afghan civilians are frequently caught up in the violence as insurgents battle Afghan and international troops in an effort to undermine the Western-backed government. The United Nations said 2,959 civilians were killed and 5,656 wounded last year, a 14 per cent increase from the previous year. The Taliban deny that they target civilians, but the UN report blamed 74 per cent of all civilian casualties last year on insurgents. THE GUARDIAN/AFP

Thai state of emergency to end

HAILAnD yesterday announced the end of a nearly two-month state of emergency in Bangkok and surrounding areas, hoping to lure back foreign visitors after an easing of the deadly political protests. The use of emergency rule dealt a heavy blow to Thailands key tourism industry during what is usually peak season, and also raised fears of a drop in foreign investment. The state of emergency will be replaced by another special law, the Internal Security Act, with effect from today until April 30, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatras ofce announced. Were condent that we can handle the situation so the cabinet agreed to revoke the state of emergency as requested by many parties, Yingluck stated. The cancellation is to build condence in the economy and the tourism sector. Yingluck has faced more than four months of political protests aimed at ousting her elected government and installing an unelected peoples council to oversee reforms. The state of emergency was introduced in the run-up to

Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra attends a cabinet meeting yesterday in Nakhon Pathom province near Bangkok in a wheelchair after injuring her ankle stepping from a van while in Chiang Mai on Saturday. AFP

a February 2 general election called by the premier in an unsuccessful attempt to calm the crisis. Political bloodshed, often targeting protesters, has left 23 people dead and hundreds wounded in recent months, including in grenade attacks and shootings. However, attendance at the demonstrations has fallen sharply in recent weeks while the introduction of emergency rule failed to prevent protesters disrupting the February election. The authorities were unable to use the security powers

offered by the state of emergency in any case, after a Civil Court last month ordered that the government not to use regulations issued under the decree. The court banned the use of force against the protesters, after attempts by riot police to clear areas occupied for weeks by opposition demonstrators sparked deadly clashes. Yingluck has suffered a series of legal defeats by the courts, which have been accused by government supporters of colluding with the opposition to try to oust the premier from ofce.

Yingluck also faces negligence charges that could lead to her removal, linked to a agship rice farm subsidy scheme that her critics say is riddled with corruption. Meanwhile, army chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha has little time for the red shirts, saying they are people without honour. The red shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship has appointed a perceived hardliner, Jatuporn Prompan, as chairman, amid claims the group is gearing up for a ght against anti-government protesters in Bangkok. If they continue to use evil means and speak intolerably rudely, will you let such people be important persons? It is as if we honoured them as leaders. Thais must be more enlightened, the army chief said. I do not see any importance in these people. I am not interested as to whether they have strategies or not. It is a question of whether someone violates the law. Prayuth said some Thais were encouraging compatriots to clash with one another. He said he would prosecute people found to be instigating violence and deance against authorities. If anyone uses, I will use force too, Prayuth warned. AFP/BANGKOK POST

Job Announcements

Golden West Humanitarian Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of innovative, appropriate technologies to overcome the operational limitations encountered by the humanitarian mine action community. Golden West is seeking applicants for the following positions.

Relations between Vietnam and Japan are in strong growth phase

Vietnam and Japan have enjoyed good relations for a long time, and those relations have been constantly strengthened, raised to new heights and are now in the strongest development phase. On October 9 last year, Vietnam and Japan celebrated 40 years of diplomatic relations. The two senior leaders unied to select 2013 as Vietnam-Japan friendship year with many political, cultural and diplomatic activities held in various localities of the two countries to mark and demonstrate the strong development phase of the good relations between the two countries. It can be seen that Vietnam and Japan had long-standing diplomatic relations as merchants from Japan put the rst brick building in the town of Hoi An more than 400 years ago, opening a prosperous trade period between the two countries. The relations between Vietnam and Japan developed naturally, coming from the similarities of the two cultures, reected in many works, the cultural co-operation to date is still cherished and preserved in both Vietnam and Japan. After 40 years since formally establishing diplomatic relations, Vietnam and Japan have become increasingly important partners for each other in all areas politics, diplomacy, economy, commerce, investment, development assistance, human resource development, science and technology , culture and people exchanges. Politically, friendly co-operative relations between Vietnam and Japan have been continuously strengthened and raised to new heights, typied when the two countries agreed to improve relations on strategic partnerships for peace and prosperity in Asia in 2009. A demonstration of the good relations between the two countries in the year of friendship was the visit of Japans prime minister Shino Abe to Vietnam. In particular, this was the rst foreign tour of prime minister Abe after he took ofce in 12/2012. Along with the Committee of co-

Bookkeeper
Maintains accounting records and ledgers in QuickBooks software and prepare financial reports. Assists with administration relating to bank liaison, audit requirements and local legal compliance. Candidate must have 5+ years of related job experience and a University degree in Accounting or similar. Must have good spoken and written English and Khmer and proficiency in QuickBooks and Microsoft Office.

President Truong Tan Sang (Left) and Prime Minister Shinoz Abe

Administrative & Logistics Manager

Maintains accurate records of country wide assets, including planning maintenance. Assists international staff with travel and local logistical arrangements. Establishes and manages policies regarding staff, procurement, project assistance, financial liaison and customs clearance procedures. Candidate must have 5+yrs of related job experience and a University Degree in Business Management or similar. Must have good spoken and written English and Khmer and proficiency in Microsoft Office.

Administrative & Logistics Assistant

Assists the Administrative and Logistics Manager in procurement, record keeping, maintenance and international staff assistance. Candidate must have good spoken and written English and Khmer, a University Degree in Business Management or similar and proficiency in Microsoft Office.

For more information visit goldenwesthf.org/jobs

Contact Information: Contact Person: Reaksmey Chan (Ms.) Mobile: +855 (0)77-777-991 Address: House No. 18, St. 574, SangkatBoeungKak II, Khan ToulKork, P.O. Box 59 Phnom Penh, Cambodia Email: reaksmey.chan@goldenwesthf.org Website: www.goldenwesthf.org

Closing Date: 28th March 2014

operation Vietnam-Japan, the dialogue mechanism on the specic areas of co-operation has been established, the co-operation between ministries and sectors are expanding and having practical effects. The two sides also actively collaborated in the regional and international forums and in organisations such as the United nations (UN), ASEAN, APEC, and the Mekong-Japan co-operation. Economically, Japan has become the most important partner of Vietnam. Japan was the rst country to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with Vietnam. In 2008, the two countries signed the Agreement on Vietnam-Japan Economic Partnership (VJEPA). During the visit to Japan by General Secretary of Vietnam Nong Duc Manh in April 2009, the two sides issued a joint statement and asserted to building a strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia. Now, Japan is the largest investor in terms of registered capital and disbursed FDI to reach US$34.5 billion, focused primarily in the eld of industrial processing and manufacturing. In recent years, despite the difculties that have been caused by the global nancial crisis, consequences of the earthquake and tsunami, Japan is still a large provider of ofcial development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam. As of 2013, Japan pledged US$23 billion in ODA loans to Vietnam,

accounting for 30 per cent of total ODA commitments to Vietnam from the international community. Japan is the rst G7 country to recognise the market economy status of Vietnam (January 10, 2011). On trade, Japan was the third largest bilateral partner of Vietnam with a turnover of approximately US$29 billion in 2013. The two countries also signed several agreements, including agreements on Vietnam-Japan Economic Partnership (JEPA) to create favourable conditions and a legal framework for economic cooperation. Co-operation in the elds of education, science and technology, culture, sports, exchanges between localities . . . is also organised and very exciting. In 2013, there were more than 600,000 Japanese visitors to Vietnam. Vietnam now has more than 20,000 students, trainees or apprentices learning or working in Japan. The relationship between Vietnam and Japan is in a strong growth phase. In the near future, bilateral relations will denitely continue to grow more powerful, more in-depth and effective. Vietnam and Japan have political trust in each other, have opportunities and strengths to be able to complement each other develop practical benets for the two peoples and make a positive contribution to peace, stability, prosperity, cooperation and development in region and in the world.
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14

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

World
Planet Mercury found to be steadily shrinking

Dont mind us ...

Palestinian women walk past Israeli security forces during clashes with stone-throwing Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron on Monday after a demonstration by Palestinians to show their support for their president, who is in Washington. Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas was to meet President Obama in Washington today, having travelled to the US nearly a fortnight after Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did the same. AFP Obama urges Abbas to take risks for peace: see page 12

BENEATH its sun-scorched exterior, the planet Mercury is cooling, which is causing it to shrink ever so slightly, scientists have said. Over the past 3.8 billion years, the planet has shrunk by up to 14 kilometres (8.8 miles) to reach its present diameter of 4,800 kilometres (3,032 miles), they said. The Earths is 12,742 kilometres. Mercury, like Earth, is believed to have a superhot metallic core. But, unlike Earth, it has no tectonic plates which bump and jostle and slide in response to the stress that heat loss causes on the planets crust. Instead, Mercury has just a single, rigid top layer, which means the stress is transmitted directly to the planets surface, causing it to wrinkle into gouges and ridges as the planet cools. Planetary geologists led by Paul Byrne at the Carnegie In-

stitution for Science in Washington used a tally of these features to get a yardstick for the planets thermal contraction, the term for shrinkage through heat loss. They studied nearly 6,000 landforms recorded by NASAs Messenger spacecraft to look for these telltales. Earlier estimates based on images of only 45 per cent of the planet suggested a contraction of 1.6 to six kilometres (one to four miles) over the course of its history. The starting point for the measurement is the end of the late heavy bombardment of the solar system a period that ran from around 4.1 billion to 3.8 billion years ago, when our star system was a shooting gallery of comets and other icy bodies which smashed into the nascent planets. The study appears in Nature Geoscience journal. AFP

KSM: al-Qaeda in war of attrition with US

Spencer Ackerman

HE accused mastermind of the 9/11 attacks has said al-Qaeda is in a war of attrition with the United States, in one of the only statements he has issued since his capture in 2003 and subsequent torture. In the course of an interview with US defence attorneys for Osama bin Ladens son-in-law, Abu Ghaith, led to the New York federal court where Abu Ghaith faces conspiracy charges, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed mused expansively on the ideology that powered the 2001 terrorist attacks and changed the course of US foreign policy. Throughout the interview, which was facilitated by the US military command at Guantanamo Bay where the man known internationally as KSM has been detained since 2006, Mohammed portrayed al-Qaeda as a scrappy underdog compelled to assault a vastly more powerful US and thwart what he sees as the mastermind of global iniquity, hypocrisy and godlessness. The enemy occupier of the Islamic world is a superpower with a budget of billions, while we are a

small organisation whose members are limited in numbers and capabilities. There is no comparison between the two sides, so it is obvious that we would have to resort to a long war of attrition to which the military and media alike contribute, Mohammed told attorneys for Suleiman Abu Ghaith during an interview conducted about February 27 this year. The extraordinarily rare statement does not come in reference to the military commission that Mohammed faces at Guantanamo Bay for the 9/11 attack itself. Instead, lawyers for Abu Ghaith recently won in court the ability to ask Mohammed preliminary questions ahead of any potential testimony, ultimately to rebut charges from the government that Abu Ghaith conspired to kill Americans, to which he pleaded not guilty earlier this month. The judge on Monday did not immediately rule on a prosecution request to disallow the testimony. Mohammed told defence attorneys Abu Ghaith did not play any military role in al-Qaeda and probably did not swear an oath to Bin Laden. Signicantly for Abu Ghaiths case, Mohammed denied that Abu Ghaith played any role in a botched 2001

plot to smuggle bombs on planes inside shoes. It is Mohammeds most extensive public statement since his 2008 comments at a subsequently abandoned military commission at Guantanamo, which he termed an inquisition before stating a desire to plead guilty to the 9/11 attacks. In remarks in line with a manifesto Bin Laden delivered in 2004, Mohammed said the primary operational goal of al-Qaeda was to provoke the US into futile, expensive and bloody wars, thereby advancing a strategic aim of forcing US and Western retrenchment from Islamic lands. Every state of emergency declared and every change of alert level that inicts specic procedures on the military and civilian sectors costs the country millions of dollars. It is enough that the US government has incurred losses upwards of a trillion dollars in the wars it has waged in the aftermath of 9/11, the bleeding of which continues to this day, Mohammed said. Mohammed did not address the brutal treatment he received from CIA interrogators after his March 2003 capture in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, which included 183 rounds of

simulated drowning, known as waterboarding, in a single month. There is a reference in a 2007 transcript from Guantanamo, also entered into the New York court record, to Mohammeds treatment, but it is without elaboration. In the transcript Mohammed said he was responsible for the 9/11 Operation, from A to Z and confessed, with varying degrees of credibility, to responsibility for 31 acts or attempted acts of terrorism. In the February 2014 interview, Mohammed expanded on arguments he made at Guantanamo in 2007: that accusations the US has made to justify detention at Guantanamo are imsy; and that the US is the hypocritical puppet-master of what amounts to a global besiegement of Muslims. Mohammed portrayed the US as rapaciously hypocritical, funding extremist Islamic organisations during the 1980s as proxies against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. At the time, jihadist speeches were accepted and even supported and applauded by the West because they mirrored their strategic interests, he said. But after Islamist uprisings began in Bosnia and Chechnya in the 1990s, the term changed from mujahid to terror-

ist and from Jihad to terrorism. Mohammed portrayed Afghanistan under Taliban rule a time of impoverishment, global isolation and widespread human-rights abuses as a golden age, its people spared pillaging, looting, killing, rape and gang violence. Mohammed claimed Kandahar, Kabul and Jalalabad under the Taliban were even more secure than American cities such as Chicago, New York, Dallas and Los Angeles. Mohammed rst presented the growth of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan as the result of US neglect of post-Soviet Afghanistan stupid foreign policy ... completely blind to what was happening in the camps, he stated but then went on to claim Washington worked with Pakistani intelligence in the 1990s to keep Afghanistan weak. All of that was done to ensure that even if the mujahidin prevailed and expelled the Russians they would be left powerless and Afghanistan would remain dependent on Pakistan, India, Iran or Tajikistan, just as the West desired, Mohammed stated. Abu Ghaiths attorneys led a motion requesting the court to allow Mohammed to testify from Guantanamo Bay via closed-circuit television. THE GUARDIAN

British army hails Afghan withdrawal as historic moment

A HugEly symbolic moment in the British involvement in Afghanistan was reached when forces completed their withdrawal from all but two of its bases in Helmand province, the scene of some of the wars bloodiest ghting. At the peak of the violence, there were 137 bases in the province. The last of the equipment was brought from of one of the biggest bases on Saturday. British forces are due to end their combat role at the end of the year but there has been a gradual withdrawal over the past six months, largely free from publicity. Soldiers serving in Helmand spoke of nostalgia, sentimentality and also relief. Helmand will not be missed by many of those who served there. The British death toll in Afghanistan stands at 448 since the rst casualty in 2002. Asked if the deaths had been worth it, the head of British forces in Helmand, Brigadier James Woodham, said: Its always a difcult question to ask when there has been a human cost here in central Helmand. I guess ultimately history will judge the worth of what weve been doing at our governments request. Almost all the British bases in Helmand have either been dismantled or handed over to Afghan forces. Woodham described the handover as a historic moment in the British campaign in Afghanistan. The British handed over to the Afghans Lashkar Gah, which opened in 2006 and was the former headquarters of British military forces in Afghanistan, and the patrol base Lashkar Gah Durai. It has dismantled its main operating base, Price. British forces were deployed to Helmand in 2006. It is one of the major poppy-growing regions of Afghanistan, and has a strong Taliban presence. The deployment remains controversial, with questions raised about the force being seriously under-strength and without adequate equipment. With reinforcements, the British force in Helmand rose to 9,500. All that is left of British forces in Helmand is the main headquarters at Camp Bastion and, nearby, its last frontline base, Sterga 2. British forces have been largely removed from combat duties throughout Afghanistan, taking a secondary role in support of Afghan forces. About 50 per cent of British equipment has already been removed from Afghanistan as the force is gradually reduced ahead of the December deadline. One of those involved in the logistics of the drawdown, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Caldicott, said: I have an extraordinary range of feelings today: mixed feelings of relief that the task is almost complete and a degree of nostalgia because Ive seen some of these operating bases grow, regiments pass through them, my own troops deploy and return, and now weve emptied them out and theyve either transferred or closed. The UK defence secretary, Philip Hammond, claimed the handover and closure of bases across Helmand underlined what he claimed were increases in security. He also claimed that those who had served in the bases had contributed to a campaign that has safeguarded ... national security at home. On Sunday, the Ministry of Defence said that Lashkar Gah was handed over to the Afghans in a ceremony on February 24 and Lashkar Gah Durai on March 8, and Price was closed on Saturday. At one time Price held 2,000 soldiers, but in the end was down to just 200 mainly soldiers protecting engineers closing the base. The dismantling of Price was led by Captain David Goodman of the Royal Logistics Corps, overseeing the transport of equipment by road and helicopter. Speaking before the closure of the base, Goodman said: On the last day, when everything is loaded, when the last vehicles are about to go and the last helicopters are about to go out and we leave this place, it will be quite a nice feeling. Im not going to miss this place. THE GUARDIAN

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

World
HE elegant brunette gazes out from a black and white photograph, her shoulder-length hair tumbling onto a oral print dress. The ageing picture is a heartrending trace of Doina Bumbea, a 28-year-old Romanian who was ensnared by North Koreas regime in 1978 and who never saw her family again. It is a chilling reminder of the global reach of North Koreas program of abducting foreign women allegedly to breed a pool of spies for the secretive state. More than words, I want facts, her brother Gabriel Bumbea, 47, said on Monday as the UN Human Rights Council highlighted shocking violations by Pyongyang. A UN-mandated commission of inquiry estimates that 200,000 people from other countries have over the decades been abducted by the secretive state or disappeared after going there willingly. These international enforced disappearances are unique in their intensity, scale and nature, the commission said in a no-holds-barred report released last month. The overwhelming majority of the victims were South Koreans denied the right to

15

N Korea kidnap victims brother wants facts

up, including Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Macao, as well as Lebanon, Jordan, Romania, France, Italy and The Netherlands. In a bitter twist of fate, Doina had already managed to get out of one tightly controlled communist country her homeland Romania. She married an Italian in 1970 and they left for Rome before divorcing in 1972, her brother said. Living alone, she studied ne art and became a painter. She met an Italian who claimed to be an art dealer and who proposed a job as a gallery curator in Tokyo, provided she put on an exhibit in Pyongyang rst. In 1978, there was no internet like today, and she was very relaxed, an artist, so was easy to fool, Bumbea said. Thanks to information from Jenkins it emerged she was given to another US Army deserter, James Joseph Dresnock, who fathered her two boys. In 1997, my sister got sick with lung cancer and died. But I have two nephews there, the oldest is Ricardo Dresnock, and the youngest is James Gabriel Dresnock. She named him after me. They are 33 and 31, Bumbea said. He has managed to see James Gabriels face, at least, thanks to a 2006 BBC documentary about defectors, Cross the Line. The other abductees families have nothing. I have a little. Its something, he said. China yesterday urged the world community not to provoke tensions by politicising human rights in North Korea, which a UN inquiry has compared to those in Nazi Germany and under Cambodias Khmer Rouge. We oppose politicising the human rights issue or interfering in others internal affairs on the pretext of the human rights issue, foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular brieng. Hongs comments came after the head of a UN inquiry on human rights in North Korea said the regime had committed crimes as chilling as those of the Nazis, South Africas apartheid regime or Cambodias Khmer Rouge and had to be stopped. Michael Kirbys comments to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva followed a lengthy report last month that documented a range of human rights abuses, including extermination, enslavement and sexual violence. Some have called for North Korea to be referred the International Criminal Court over human rights. AFP

US student arrested for terror, eyed LA attack

Kim Jong-un inspects the Korean Peoples Army Air and Anti-Air Force Unit 188 at an undisclosed location. AFP

return home after the 1950-53 Korean War, or ethnic Koreans lured from Japan after 1959. The regimes agents also grabbed Japanese around 100, according to the commission forcing them to serve as accent and culture teachers for its spies. The fate of the Japanese has been a constant thorn between Tokyo and Pyongyang, which has acknowledged 13 cases but never disavowed the abductions. Yet the story of Bumbea and kidnap victims of other nationalities were little known until Charles Jenkins, a 1965 US Army deserter who ended up stuck in North Korea, was allowed to leave with his Japa-

nese abductee wife and their adult children in 2002. Jenkins exposed a spousesourcing program for at least four US deserters, in what the UN said was an attempt to avoid the birth of mixed-race Koreans, anathema to the regime. Couples were also said to be forcibly paired in order to breed a pool of potential non-Korean agents. Allegedly launched in 1977, according to testimony from Jenkins and others who managed to escape, the program is believed to have involved more than two dozen women. All told, citizens of 12 countries and territories are thought to have been swept

A CaLIFORNIa student was held on the US-Canada border on Monday and accused of plotting to help a terror group and join al-Qaeda, as well as talking about attacking LA, officials said. Nicholas Teausant, 20, allegedly planning to join the ISIS, was charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation. The National Guard reservist was arrested near a border crossing in Blaine, Washington state, said US Attorney Benjamin B Wagner in California. Teausant, a Muslim convert, had exchanged text messages with an FBI informer last year in which he asked how to get a firework for a planned attack on the LA subway on New Years Eve or Day. AFP

Paris car ban is halted

THe French government has halted a controversial scheme to ban half of the traffic from Paris streets after a single day, claiming the experiment aimed at curbing harmful pollution had been a success and that the majority of Parisians had cooperated. Ecology minister Philippe Martin said the alternating driving scheme ended at midnight on Monday. Martin said 90 per cent of Parisians had complied with the restrictions. THE GUARDIAN

STANDARD CONSTRUCTION &ENGINEERING CO., LTD. Job Announcement

Standard Construction & Engineering Co., Ltd. is a leading local construction company, now urgently seeking qualied candidates to ll the following position: 1. Project Manager 2. Site Manager 3. QS Engineer 01 Post 02Post 02Post

Country Manager
Tan Chong Express Auto Services and Spare Parts (Cambodia) Pty. Ltd. has been operating the e-Garage workshopsin Cambodia since 2006. We are now looking for an experienced and competent individual who can manage and grow the business operations in Cambodia. E-Garage is an auto service company that services all makes of cars. Responsibilities: Manage all operations within the countryincluding the prot and growth of the E-Garage Operations. Plan, develop and produce business performance expansion and capacity in the country. Evaluate potential business deals by analyzing market strategies, and deal requirements. Build strong relationship with Government authorities, business groups and industry players. Ensure compliance with all Government statutory and industry requirements such as legal, tax and commercial regulations. Recruit and manage sta, including performance monitoring and training. Requirements: Bachelors Degree in Business Administration, Business Management or equivalent. Minimum 10 years working management experience, preferably in automotive industry. Highly self-motivated and performance-driven individual with excellent interpersonal and communication skills. Analytical and negotiation skills. Planning and organizational management skills. Well-versed in Cambodia law and other relevant regulations or statutory requirements.

Essential requirements: 1. Project Manager - Foreigner or Cambodia Nationality - At least Bachelor degree in civil Engineer or equivalent - Fluent in English writing and speaking (can speak, read, write Chines an advance) - At least 5-year experience in project manager with 3year experience in material level as Factory construction, High-rise building, road, bridge, and drainage works etc. - Good planning, organizing, leading, managing in construction site - Good in problem-solving, motivate people, team working etc. - Strong schedule and construction site management. - Strong communication with investor and client - Can work under pressure, good personality - Willing to travelling to province and oversea - Advanced understanding in Ms. Ofce, Auto CAD, Ms Project., Outlook &Internet required. 2. Site Manager - At least Bachelor of Civil Engineer or equivalent - Good English in writing and speaking - At least 5-year experience in site management as factory construction, High-rise building, road, bridge, drainage works etc. - Experience in sub-contractor management (suppliers) for at least 10 companies - Good technical works & site management - Good in problem-solving, motivate people, team working etc. - Strong management for schedule and construction site. - Strong communication, coordination with project owner - Can work under pressure, good inter-personal skills - Willing to stay at job site - Advanced understanding in Ms. Ofce, Auto CAD, Ms Project., Outlook &Internet required. 2. QS Engineer - At least Bachelor of Civil Engineer or equivalent - Good English in writing and speaking - At least 3-year experience in BoQ, Cost Estimate, Cost Breakdown, QA, Interim progress claim, Interim progress payment, raw material analysis etc. - Experience progress report, progress claim payment to sub-contractor (suppliers) for at least 10 companies - Good in problem-solving, motivate people, team working etc. - Strong communication, coordination with site staff - Can work under pressure, good inter-personal skills, honestly - Advanced understanding in Ms. Ofce, Auto CAD, Ms Project., Outlook &Internet required. Company offer: Company will offer competitive salary &benet for qualication candidate Interested candidates are invited to submit their CV and qualications to our head ofce (SCE) #336, Street Vichealay, Sangkat Chroy Chang Va, Khan Khan Russey Keo, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Tel: 023 722 006, Fax: 023 722 007 E-mail: kongkamadmin@sce.com.kh, touchvannak@sce.com.kh Deadline for application : April 10, 2014

Interested candidates are invited to submit applications via recruitment.cambodia@tanchong.com.my or contact to +855 92 657 860/ 96 55 600 11 for further details. Contact person: Mr. VorngPonnreay Deadline: March 28th, 2014; 5.00pm

16

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

Opinion
www.phnompenhpost.com

EDITORIAL PERSONNEL Publisher Chris Dawe Editor-in-Chief Alan Parkhouse Managing Editor Chad Williams 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 Shane Worrell Digital Media Director David Boyle Deputy News Editor Vong Sokheng Group Business Editor May Kunmakara Deputy Business Editor Joe Freeman Property Editor Pisei Hin Foreign News Editor Joe Curtin Sports Editor Dan Riley Picture Editor Scott Howes Lifestyle and 7Days Editor Poppy McPherson Deputy Head of Lifestyle Desk Pan Simala Chief Sub-editor Michael Philips Sub-editors Shane Rothery, Daniel de Carteret, Amelia Woodside, Laignee Barron, Kevin Ponniah, Stuart White, Sean Teehan, Bennett Murray, Will Jackson, Daniel Pye Reporters Meas Sokchea, Mom Kunthear, Khouth Sophak Chakrya, May Titthara, Khoun Leakhana, Sen David, Phak Seangly, Buth Reaksmey Kongkea, Chhim Sreyneang, Kim Sarom, Lieng Sarith, Hor Kimsay Photographers Heng Chivoan, Pha Lina, Hong Menea, Sreng Meng Srun, Vireak Mai Web Editor Leang Phannara Webmasters Uong Ratana, Horng Pengly SIEM REAP BUREAU

Facebook and the NSA should team up to put data to good use
Catherine Rampell

Opinion

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ADMINISTRATION

ARK Zuckerberg is angry that the National Security Agency is violating Facebook users privacy, which is a bit like the Silicon Valley equivalent of Get your government hands off my Medicare. He thinks users should be upset about this, too. But you know what? Im not particularly fazed. Rather than having a turf war over who gets to surveil whom, maybe Facebook and the NSA should team up. The NSA probably already has a rich database of my calls, texts, travels, toenail clippings and repressed childhood memories; maybe, aided by such additional Big Data, Facebook could finally figure out how to show me ads for things I actually want to buy. Allegedly the best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click on ads (well, that or how to help teenagers swap naked pictures of themselves). But if the ads Im seeing today represent our best minds best work with the best Big Data available, colour me unimpressed. The department store pioneer John Wanamaker famously said he knew that half of his advertising budget was wasted, but he didnt know which half. Even that dour assessment dramatically overestimates the efficacy of modern advertising. Today, of all online display ads, the share that gets clicked on is not one in two; its somewhere between one in 500 and one in 1,000, according to marketing analysts and some of the ad networks themselves. Thats a pretty lousy batting average. Yet if you consider the number of times you have clicked on or even noticed an online ad supposedly curated just for you, these numbers may not be surprising. They certainly didnt astonish me. Facebook, despite

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during an event at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California, in 2013.

AFp

being able to track what music I like, where Ive vacationed, which Wikipedia rabbit holes Ive fallen down and what embarrassing hypochondriacal ailments Ive googled (Are those bedbug bites? Do I have mono again and, if so, did my spleen just explode?), has strange beliefs about who I am and what Id be interested in buying. For a while last year, I was seeing a lot of ads for Mormon dating services. Meet local Mormon singles just like you! Facebook urged, not realising that I was in a relationship and, perhaps also relevant, not Mormon. Just a few weeks later, I was seeing ads for discount engagement rings. A few weeks after that, Facebook plastered my feeds with ads for diapers and child-care services. Dang, I thought, Facebook

thinks I move fast. All that was missing from this ad sequence were the shells for my fathers shotgun. The ads Ive seen since then (on Facebook, Google Display Network sites and other highly algorithmic advertising platforms) exhibit less narrative, alas, but are equally unhelpful. Online ads served to me usually fall into one of two categories: things that leave me feeling intensely, uncomfortably judged teeth-whitening, weight-loss or hair-removal products or things I already own and do not intend to duplicate. For example, the boots I bought on Zappos (but not socks, waterproofing spray or other complementary products I might actually want), the credit card I use, Broadway shows Ive seen, the hotel I just booked.

Likewise, my significant other sees ads from test-prep companies offering to help him gain admission to a university from which he already has a degree. Someday, the ads promise, he might even get accepted to the school where he now teaches. Remember, these are the ads curated specifically for our clicking and consumption pleasure by firms that have their pick of the worlds greatest talent and where even interns draw salaries of about $75,000 annualised. So if one in 1,000 is the batting average in Silicon Valley, I cannot even imagine what it is at the super-secretive NSA where the highest-paid workers make about as much as the midtier employees at a place such as Facebook, where HR cant import bunches of tal-

ented H-1B visa holders and where the mission is more complicated and diffuse than get people to click and then maybe buy stuff. Excuse me, then, if Im sceptical about the greater social welfare benefits that come from secretly collecting infinite reams of private citizens data benefits supposedly calibrated to outweigh the costs of intrusion and distrust. (What good is ubiquitous surveillance if, after more than a week, the world still cant find a missing 777?) Maybe tech firms and government agencies need to hoover up ever more data about my indecipherable mutterings to my cat. Or maybe they need to start proving theyre doing something useful with the invasive data they already have. THE
WASHINGTON POST

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THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

17

Lifestyle
In Myanmar, female artists speak out
Nyein Ei Ei Htwe

In brief
South Koreans hunt for hyped space souvenirs

UNCONVENTIONAL portraits of nude women, traditional dolls covered with sentences about womens rights and images of women farmers faces obscured by owers and black vegetables. These were some of the artworks on show at Institut Franais in Yangon in conjunction with the 102nd International Womens Day on March 8. Seventeen female artists presented work in the exhibition, titled Image of Women. Artist Phyu Mon, 53, who exhibited the installation of black vegetables, explained that her work is about the destruction some chemical fertilisers do to soil and produce. At the same time, it is about the weak state of women rights and the gender discrimination in Myanmar compared to other countries, she said. I think this situation concerns traditional customs. In other countries, women can speak out for their rights and against others, but they are accepted as activists who have a right to speak, Phyu Mon said. But in Myanmar, people get very angry when they are criticised. So women have to keep their words, and when that becomes a habit, there are few dissenting voices. To her mind, only quality and effort matter. Discrimination based on gender should stop. People say cooking is an art when its men who are cooking. But for women who have to cook every day for their family, no one praises their creations, arts and efforts, Phyu Mon said. She said she was encouraged to see that this years Womens

Phyu Mons artwork concerns the destructive effects of chemical fertilisers.

THIRI LU/THE MYANMAR TIMES

A CORNER of South Korea is in the grip of a frenzied hunt for valuable space souvenirs, following a rare meteor shower there last week. Hundreds of people have been scouring hills and rice paddies for meteorites near the southeastern city of Jinju after the shower on March 9, some of them armed with GPS devices and metal detectors, according to media reports. Media hype claiming that chrondites (a type of meteorite) could bring you a bonanza sparked the fever for space rocks, an official from the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea said. AFP
who have to work in their house cant work in the arts. But if we work with a plan, everything will be okay, Khin Than Phyu said. Artist Sandra Win Tun agreed with Khin Than Phyus words and said if women have a plan and work systematically, no one can criticise them based on gender. Her installation included sculptures of white dogs in a white house with photos of vagrant children. I dont want to say women are always better than men, Sandra Win Tun said. Because I dont want to ght. But if we focus on what we want and make a hard effort we can make our creations stand out. THE MYANMAR TIMES

Day exhibition brought together more young artists and activists than had been involved in the 2005 event. I see so many young women who are studying hard, supporting each other, and working very hard on NGO projects for womens rights, disaster relief and social welfare. Theyre not seeking fame, but they work with all their hearts, Phyu Mon said. As in other countries, Myanmar women study just as hard as men, but there are still fewer chances to put their learning to use, she added. In Asia, its a womans duty to be a good housewife and a mans duty to lead the family and earn money. Women

must handle childrens education, social life and the household chores. So, when they try to pursue their careers, they arent free to work as well as men are. Though some men share their wives work, there should be more men who understand womens feelings, Phyu Mon said. Artist Khin Than Phyu, 64, also said the era of gender discrimination and womens misery must end. Then she discussed her painting, a palecoloured image of trees without leaves. My painting corresponds to a short poem that basically says if you are a tree without leaves dont fall down because you still have your roots and

they will help you to survive. I made it for the women dont have the option of self-reliance, Khin Than Phyu said. She said shed never felt any disappointment for being a female, and she believes theres no work that women cant do like men, except for some traditional customs at parts of pagodas where women are not allowed. A single mother, she said people should know by looking at the world outside their borders that women can work on par with men. The time when women hid in the home is over, though that doesnt mean artist-mothers like herself have it easy. People think that women

LUPITA Nyongo, who picked up the best supporting actress prize for her feature film debut in harrowing race drama 12 Years a Slave earlier this month, is said to be in the running for the part of the female lead in the new Star Wars film. The 31-year-old Mexican-Kenyan actors meeting with Abrams took place prior to the Oscars, at which Steve McQueens film also took home best film and best adapted screenplay.
THE GUARDIAN

12 Years Nyongo had talks for Star Wars role

Chris Brown ordered to remain in custody

LWren Scott, partner of Mick Jagger, dies

LWREN Scott, the designer, former model and partner of Sir Mick Jagger, was found dead at her home in New York on Monday morning in an apparent suicide. A spokesman for Jagger told the Guardian in an email that the singer, who had just arrived in Australia on tour with the Rolling Stones, was completely shocked and devastated by the news. New York police sources said that Scott, 49, was discovered by her assistant at her apartment on 11th Avenue in Manhattans Chelsea neighbourhood at about 10am. She is believed to have been found hanged. Tributes owed from across the worlds of fashion and celebrity. Jaggers rst wife, Bianca, said she was heartbroken to learn of the loss of the lovely and talented LWren Scott. My thoughts and prayers are with her family. American fashion designer Marc Jacobs said: Youll forever be missed. A spokeswoman for Nicole Kidman said the actor was heartbroken and in shock, while the rock musician Bryan Adams tweeted: Devastated to have lost my friend. Rest in peace my dear, Im going to miss you. Condolences to all that were close to her. Long-time Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour wrote in a tribute: LWren was a total perfectionist, someone who absolutely embodied everything her marvellous clothes stood for: strength of character combined with a condent and powerful style. Scott created acclaimed womenswear collections, and styled some of Hollywoods biggest names. She also worked as a designer and consultant for costumes on several major lms. The most recent show for her eponymous collection was scheduled to take place in London during fashion week last month. However, it was abruptly cancelled, apparently because of production delays. Accounts led with Companies House last October show that Scotts British company, LS Fashion Ltd, ran a loss of 3.5 million in 2012, up from 2.5 million in 2011. The documents also showed that the rm owed creditors millions of pounds and that Scotts adopted brother Randall Bambrough, a successful American executive, joined the company as a co-director last year. THE GUARDIAN

A US judge ordered US rapper Chris Brown on Monday to remain behind bars for allegedly breaching his probation stemming from his notorious 2009 assault of then-girlfriend Rihanna. The 24-year-old, arrested Friday after being booted out of a rehab facility in Malibu, will have to stay in custody until a probation violation hearing on April 23. Judge James Brandlin said he found it troubling that Brown had told a group therapy session there: I am good at using guns and knives. AFP

Singer Mick Jagger and fashion designer LWren Scott pictured at an event in November. AFP

BEST-SELLING Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami next month will publish his first compilation of short stories in nine years, including one new offering, his publisher said Monday. The compilation titled Onna no Inai Otokotachi which can be translated as Men Without Women will be published on April 18, the Bungei Shunju publishing house said. Afp

Murakami to publish more short stories

18

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

Health

Nepalese women Sita Pariyar (left) and Madhuri Thakuri speak during an interview in Malekhu, Dhading district, some 80 kilometres from Kathmandu.

AFP

Nepal women endure fallen womb

Ammu Kannampilly

ITA Pariyar had barely recovered from childbirth when her uterus slipped out of her body, making her one of hundreds of thousands of Nepalese women struck by a debilitating reproductive condition. Sleep-deprived and unsteady on her feet, Pariyar was carrying rewood home to her village in the hilly district of Dhading on the outskirts of Nepals capital Kathmandu when she felt her uterus collapse. It was painful and terrifying. I had no idea what was happening, the 25-year-old said. Uterine prolapse, a condition

which sees the uterus or womb descend into and protrude out of the vagina, usually strikes post-menopausal women. In Nepal, however, 44 per cent of cases involve women in their twenties, UN data show. A recent report by Amnesty International blames widespread gender discrimination in the predominantly rural Himalayan nation for the unusually high incidence of uterine prolapse among young Nepalese women. Its high time it is seen as a human rights issue, not just a womens health issue, Madhu Malhotra, director of Amnestys Gender, Sexuality and Identity program, said.

A 2011 health ministry survey said uterine prolapse was the most frequently reported cause of poor health among women of reproductive age, affecting about one in 10 Nepalese women. Pariyar, whose impoverished Dalit family lies at the bottom of Nepals caste system, had little rest during pregnancies or after childbirth, when she was expected to do everything from cutting wood and feeding cattle to farming and housework. By the time she was 20, she was a mother to three girls and faced unrelenting pressure from her husband and his family to give birth to a son. My husband would get drunk,

beat me and threaten to marry again, all because I couldnt give him a son, she recalled. When she nally gave birth at home to a boy four years ago, her relief was short-lived. Two weeks later, she experienced heavy bleeding and shortly after, her uterus prolapsed. As the organ descended into her vagina, often leaking uid, sexual intercourse became increasingly painful. When she told her husband about her condition, he hit her and called her a dirty woman, magnifying her anxieties. Deep-rooted social stigma around the condition makes many women hesitant to seek help. Binda Dhamala suffered

uterine prolapse in her twenties. Since then the 49-yearold villagers condition has worsened to the point where her uterus protrudes, making it impossible for her to work, walk or even sit comfortably. Ten years ago, her daughter, Madhuri Thakuri, 28, experienced a sharp pain when her uterus prolapsed. Every time I cough, urine seeps out, she said. I am always worried it is going to fall out. It hurts so much and I feel dirty and embarrassed all the time. Such stories are familiar to Aruna Uprety, a Kathmandubased expert on public health who has spent more than two decades working with uterine

prolapse patients. It strikes younger women because they are malnourished, married off early and have babies at an age when their bodies cant handle it. Most of them deliver at home, where traditional birthing practices can also damage the uterus, Uprety said Many women in Nepal do not have easy access to healthcare and rarely get time to recover from childbirth before being expected to work in the elds. In 2008, Nepals Supreme Court called the high incidence of uterine prolapse a violation of reproductive rights and ordered the government to act quickly. AFP

Snail venom found to reduce pain in early lab trial

AN EXPERIMENTAL drug made from snail venom has shown early signs of promise in numbing pain, raising hopes in the hunt for new, non-addictive medications, researchers said. The drug, which has not been tested yet on humans, was judged to be about 100 times more potent than morphine or gabapentin, which are currently considered the gold standard for chronic nerve pain. The active ingredient, conotoxin, comes from carnivorous cone snails, which are common in the western Pacic and Indian Ocean. The marine animals can reach out and stab prey, injecting a venom that paralyses sh long enough for the snail to eat it up. A tiny protein derived from the snails venom has formed the basis of ve new experimental compounds, said lead researcher David Craik of the University of Queensland in Australia. A preliminary study using one of these new compounds on lab rats appeared to signicantly reduce pain, a statement released ahead of Craiks presentation at an American Chemical Society meeting in Dallas, Texas, said. This is an important incremental step that could serve as the blueprint for the development of a whole new class of drugs capable of relieving one of the most severe forms of chronic pain that is currently very difcult to treat, Craik said. Animal venoms are poisons that can block certain channels in the nervous system, and act differently than opioid painkillers such as morphine and hydrocodone, which carry the risk of addiction and death from overdose. Pharmaceutical companies have begun investigating venoms in recent years as potential sources of new drugs for managing neuropathic pain, which affects 15 per cent of the US population and can arise from cancer, AIDS, diabetes and other debilitating diseases. One conotoxin-derived drug, ziconotide, has already been approved for human use. However, it is not available in pill form and must be infused directly into the lower part of the spinal cord. The ve new compounds Craik and colleagues are developing would be taken orally. We dont know about side effects yet, as it hasnt been tested in humans. But we think it would be safe, Craik said, adding that human trials are at least two years away. AFP

Proteins found in snail venom have formed the basis of ve experimental compounds used to ease pain. AFP

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

Travel
INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT SCHEDULE
FROM PHNOM PENH
Flighs K6 720 PG 938 PG 932 TG 581 PG 934 FD 3617 PG 936 TG 585 CZ 324 QR 965 QR 967 CZ 324 CZ 6060 VN 840 QR 965 QR 967 VN 841 VN 3856 KA 207 KA 207 KA 209 KA 209 KA 205 KE 690 OZ 740 AK 1473 MH 755 MH 763 AF 273 FM 833 MI 601 MI 622 3K 594 3K 592 3K 598 MI 607 2817 2817 2817 2817 BR 266 VN 840 QV 920
8M 402 8M 401

19

MH 765 5J 258
Arrival 03:30 09:05 09:05 14:40 16:20 18:40 19:40 21:50 20:50 14:30 20:50 13:45 20:50 13:00 14:30 20:50 16:30 18:45 10:25 16:05 17:00 17:25

3.5.7 2.4.7 1, 6, 7 2.4 5 7 3, 2 5 2.4.5.7

1. 5
Days 1-3-5

14:15 22:30 16:35 10:40 12:25 12:45 18:30 18:35 10:05

20:15
Dep 12:55

17:25 02:11 22:15 15:20 15:40 16:05 21:35 21:55 13:00

21:25
Arrival 13:55

MH 764 5J 257 MI 633 MI 622 MI 616 MI 636 MI 630 MI 618 QV 512

8M 401
Flighs K6 131

3.5.7 2.4.7 1, 6, 7 2.4 7 3, 2 5 5 2.4.5.7

1. 5
Days 1-3-5

12:10 19:45 14:35 08:40 10:40 13:55 07:55 16:35 06:30

17:05
Dep 11:20

13:15 21:30 15:45 09:50 11:50 17:40 11:35 17:45 09:25

19:15
Arrival 12:20

TO PHNOM PENH
Arrival 01:10 08:15 11:10 11:10 16:40 18:15 20:40 21:45 16:05 22:45
05:20+1

SIEM REAP - MANILA SIEM REAP - SINGAPORE MI 633 MI 622 MI 630 MI 615 MI 636 MI 617 QV 522
8M 402

MANILA - SIEM REAP SINGAPORE - SIEM REAP

Days Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily ..34..7 12...6. Daily 2.4.7 Daily ..34..7 12...6. Daily Daily 1.2.4.7 6 1 3.5.7 2 Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily 2 2.3.4.5.7 1.3.5.6.7 2.4 1.3.5.6 .2.4..7 .2.4..7 Daily 1.3 2.4.5 6 7 Daily Daily Daily 1.3.6 1.3.6

Dep 12:05 06:40 09:55 10:05 15:30 17:05 19:30 20:40 08:00 16:10 22:40 08:00 14:45 17:30 16:10 22:40 14:00 19:20 11:25 11:45 18:30 17:25 19:00 23:40 23:50 08:35 11:10 17:10 20:05 19:50

Flighs K6 721 PG 931 TG 580 PG 933 FD 3616 PG 935 TG 584 PG 937 CZ 323 QR 964 QR 966 CZ 6059 CZ 323 VN 841 QR 604 QR 966 VN 920 VN 3857 KA 208 KA 206 KA 206 KA 206

Days Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily ..34..7 12...6. 2.4.7 Daily Daily ..34..7 12...6. Daily Daily

Dep 02:25 07:55 07:55 13:30 15:15 17:30 18:25 20:15 14:30 01:05 07:25 12:00 19:05 09:40 13:30 19:50 15:50 18:00

PHNOM PENH - BANGKOK

BANGKOK - PHNOM PENH

SIEM REAP - VIENTIANE

SIEM REAP - YANGON
PREAH SIHANOUK - SIEM REAP Flighs K6 130

VIENTIANE - SIEM REAP

YANGON - SIEM REAP
SIEM REAP - PREAH SIHANOUK

PHNOM PENH - BEIJING PHNOM PENH - DOHA ( Via HCMC)

BEIJING - PHNOM PENH DOHA - PHNOM PENH ( Via HCMC)

PHNOM PENH - GUANGZHOU

GUANGZHOU - PHNOM PENH 11:40 18:10 20:35 17:10 23:40 14:45 20:05 15:05 22:25 22:05 21:00 22:35 INCHEON - PHNOM PENH 06:40 06:50 11:20 14:00 20:00 06:05 23:05 KE 689 OZ 739 AK 1474 MH 754 MH 762 AF 273 FM 833 MI 602 MI 622 3K 593 3K 591 *3K 597 MI 608 2816 2816 2816 2816 BR 265 VN 841 QV 921 8M 401 Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily 2 18:30 19:10 15:15 09:30 3:20 20:05 22:20 22:50 16:00 10:20 4:10 06:05 22:40 08:40 11:25 14:25 20:20 15:15 17:15 15:50 08:10 14:00 12:30 11:35 13:00 13:15 10:45
Qatar Airways No. 296 Blvd. Mao Tse Toung (St. 245), Ground oor, Intercontinental Hotel PP Tel: +23 42 40 12/13/14 www.qatarairways.com Cambodia Angkor Air (K6) PP Ofce, #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 Dragon Air (KA) #168, Monireth, PP Tel: 023 424 300 Fax: 023 424 304 www.dragonair.com/kh Air Asia (AK) Room T6, PP International Airport. Tel: 023 6666 555 Fax: 023 890 071 www.airasia.com

Chef Rene Redzepi sits in the kitchen of Noma, his Michelin-starred restaurant in Copenhagen. BLOOMBERG

Chef lifts lid on secrets of Copenhagen

Rene Redzepi

PHNOM PENH - HANOI PHNOM PENH - HO CHI MINH CITY

HANOI - PHNOM PENH HO CHI MINH CITY - PHNOM PENH

PHNOM PENH - HONG KONG

HONG KONG - PHNOM PENH 1.2.4.6.7 08:50 3.5.7 1 2 14:30 15:25 15:50

AIRLINES CODE
2817 - 16 Tigerairways 5J - CEBU Airways. AK - Air Asia BR - EVA Airways CI - China Airlines CZ - China Southern FD - Thai Air Asia FM - Shanghai Air K6- Cambodia Angkor Air KA - Dragon Air MH - Malaysia Airlines MI - SilkAir OZ - Asiana Airlines PG - Bangkok Airways QR - Qatar Airways QV - Lao Airlines SQ - Singapore Airlines

COLOUR CODE
1 Monday 2 Tuesday 3 Wednesday 4 Thursday 5 Friday 6 Saturday 7 Sunday

T FEELS like one of the sleepiest capitals in Europe. A million people live in Copenhagen but everythings relaxed, nobodys in a rush and its very safe. Its very easy to nd a big space, and theres plenty of history to take in around the city. One of the best parks for kids is just outside Copenhagen. Its called Dyrehaven, which means animal garden, and thats exactly what it is. There are deer and rabbits roaming free around the park and you can walk among them. Theres also tons of things to eat there, like wild mint or the tender leaves of birch trees. Kids truly love it. I dont know if anyone does organised foraging there though Im thinking of a business model ... Once youre at Dyrehaven, you may as well continue 20 minutes further north to a modern art gallery called Louisiana which is also really good for children. Its a nice way to give them that culture hit. And since youre there you may as well keep going another 20 minutes further north to see Kronborg castle in Helsingor (the setting for Hamlet). The best view of the city is from Kastellet, an old military ground. You can see across the harbour, the residential areas and all of historic Copenhagen. You can walk all the way round the top, and its free. Its great for a morning run, too. Copenhagen has one of the best food scenes in Europe, but also some of the best coffee. The rst thing I would do in the city is grab an espresso and a croissant at Det Vide Hus (Gothersgade 113), right across from the Kings Garden, which is nice for a walk. The rst big contribution Denmark made to cooking has to be smorrebrod. Somethings denitely gone wrong with the way we describe it, though, because its just known as a sandwich. But the people who make it go to school for four years. Its not just a sandwich; its a whole cuisine. Theres

one restaurant called Schonnemann in the city centre which has been open since the 19th century, and you really feel like youre stepping back into a different age. Its really old-fashioned. Its only open for lunch, and its always booked. You go there to drink lots of schnapps, lots of beer, and big slabs of cured stuff with a bit of bread underneath them. Im not a big fan of the visuals of the new Opera House exterior. Its just another grey building in Copenhagen. But, on the inside, I nd it stunning its worth trying to see a show there. The same goes for the Danish Broadcasting Company concert hall: theyve just rebuilt it and inside its astonishing, with amazing sound. This is the biggest Copenhagen secret Ive ever given away: in the Kings Garden, there are ve 200-year-old mulberry trees and, in summer, they produce the best mulberries you will ever taste. You have to wear clothes that you can afford to throw out afterwards because they stain so much, but I can guarantee you that better ones than in that garden dont exist. Vesterbro is the coolest area, as it feels most multicultural, but theres a lot going on in Christiania, too. The cultural thing the locals do is go to Christiania. I used to go there for the sauna and the smith shops: we used to have a lot of our ironwork done by a group of lesbian smiths. The bike shop is astonishing, too hand-made bicycles by locals. I dont dine out much. Im more of a park guy, but the last restaurant I went to was Amass, across the harbour from Kastellet, which is outstanding. I ate one of the best vegetarian dishes Ive ever had in my life there biodynamically grown pumpkin, cooked slowly with freshly made hazelnut oil. It sounds like nothing but when you eat it, its just extraordinarily good. Rene Redzepi is the chef at the restaurant Noma in Copenhagen. THe gUArDIAN

PHNOM PENH - INCHEON

PHNOM PENH - KUALA LUMPUR

KUALA LUMPUR - PHNOM PENH

TG - Thai Airways | VN - Vietnam Airlines

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

PHNOM PENH- PARIS PHNOM PENH - SHANGHAI PHNOM PENH - SINGAPORE 09:30 12:30 12:20 15:10 21:05 16:00 18:10 16:40 09:10 14:50 13:20 12:45 17:30 17:50 13:30 11:45 15:20 18:10 0:05 19:25 21:10 19:40 12:00 17:50 16:10 17:05 18:50 19:10 14:55 12:30

PHNOM PENH - PARIS SHANGHAI - PHNOM PENH 2.3.4.5.7 19:30 1.3.5.6.7 07:40 2.4 1.3.5.6 .2.4..7 .2.4..7 Daily 1.3 2.4.5 6 7 Daily Daily Daily 1.3.6 08:40 13:20 19:15 13:50 16:20 15:00 07:20 13:00 11:30 09:10 11:30 11:45 08:20 SINGAPORE - PHNOM PENH - SIEM REAP *

AIRLINES
Koreanair (KE) Room.F3-R03, Intelligent Ofce Myanmar Airways International Center, Monivong Blvd,PP Tel: (855) 23 224 047-9 #90+92+94Eo, St. 217, www.koreanair.com Sk. Orussey4, Kh. 7 Makara, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. T:023 881 178 | F:023 886 677 www.maiair.com Cebu Pacic (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.cebupacicair.com

PHNOM PENH -TAIPEI PHNOM PENH - VIENTIANE

TAIPEI - PHNOM PENH VIENTIANE - PHNOM PENH

Tiger airways G. oor, 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

PHNOM PENH - YANGON SIEM REAP - PHNOM PENH

YANGON - SIEM REAP

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

REGULAR SHIPPING LINES SCHEDULES CALLING PORT ROTATION

LINE CALLING SCHEDULES 1 Wed, 08:00 - Thu 16:00 RCL (12calls/moth) 2 Thu, 14:00 - Fri 22:00 3 Fri, 20:00 - Sat 23:59 MEARSK (MCC) (4 calls/moth) SITC (BEN LINE (4 calls/onth) ITL (ACL) (4 calls/month) APL (4 calls/month) COTS (2 calls/month) 1 Th, 08:00 - 20:00 2 Fri, 22:00- Sun 00:01 Sun 09:00-23:00 Sat 06:00 - Sun 08:00 Fri, 08:00 - Sun, 06:00 Irregula FREEQUENCY ROTATION PORTS 1 Call/week 1 Call/week 1 Call/week 1 Call/week 1 Call/week 1 Call/week 1 Call/week 1 call/week SIN-SHV-SGZ-SIN HKG-SHV-SGZ-HKG (HPH-TXGKEL) SIN-SHV-SGZ-SIN SGN-SHV-LZP-SGN - HKG-OSA-TYO-KOB - BUS-SGH-YAT-SGN - SIN-SHV-TPP-SIN HCM-SHV-LZP-HCMNBO-SGH-OSA-KOBBUS-SGH-HGK-CHM SGZ-SHV-SIN-SGZ SIN-SHV-SIN

SIEM REAP - BANGKOK Flighs

K6 700

BANGKOK - SIEM REAP Dep

12:50

Days
Daily

Arrival
2:00

Flighs
K6 701

Days
Daily

Dep
02:55

Arrival
04:05

PG 924 PG 906 PG 914 PG 908 PG 910 CZ 3054 CZ 3054

K6 850

Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily 2.4.6 1.3.5.7

Daily

09:45 13:15 15:20 18:50 20:30 11:25 19:25

06:50

11:10 14:40 16:45 20:15 21:55 15:35 23:20

08:30

PG 903 PG 905 PG 913 PG 907 PG 909 CZ 3053 CZ 3053

K6 851

Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily 2.4.6 1.3.5.7

Daily

08:00 11:35 13:35 17:00 18:45 08:45 16:35

19:30

09:00 12:45 14:35 18:10 19:55 10:30 18:30

21:15

SIEM REAP - GUANGZHOU

GUANGZHOU - SIEM REAP

SIEM REAP -HANOI VN 868 VN 842 VN 844 VN 800 VN 3818 VN 826 VN 3820 VN 828 VN 3822 KE 688 OZ 738 AK 281 1.2.3.5.6 Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily 12:40 18:05 19:45 21:00 11:10 13:30 17:45 18:20 21:35 23:15 23:40 08:35 15:35 19:45 21:25 22:40 12:30 14:40 18:45 19:20 22:35 06:10 07:10 11:35

HANOI - SIEM REAP VN 843 VN 845 VN 845 VN 801 VN 3809 VN 827 VN 3821 VN 829 VN 3823 KE 687 OZ 737 AK 280 Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily 15:25 17:05 17:45 18:20 09:15 11:35 15:55 16:20 19:45 18:30 19:20 06:50 17:10 18:50 19:30 20:00 10:35 12:35 16:55 17:40 20:45 22:15 22:40 07:50

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

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

SIEM REAP - HO CHI MINH CITY

HO CHI MINH CITY - SIEM REAP

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

SIEM REAP - INCHEON

INCHEON - SIEM REAP

FLY DIRECT TO MYANMAR MONDAY, WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY YANGON - PHNOM PENH SIEM REAP - YANGON

PHNOM PENH - YANGON YANGON - SIEM REAP

FLY DIRECT TO SIEM REAP MONDAY, WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY #90+92+94Eo, St. 217, Sk. Orussey4, Kh. 7 Makara, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Tel 023 881 178 | Fax 023 886 677 | www.maiair.com

SIEM REAP - KUALA LUMPUR

KUALA LUMPUR - SIEM REAP

20

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

Entertainment
NOW SHOWING
LEGEND CINEMA

Horror Vacui exhibition @ Java Cafe

Original drawings by artist Nicholas C Grey will go on show, alongside an installation, under the title Horror Vacui: The Interior World.

300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE Greek general Themistokles leads the charge against invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes and Persian navy commander Artemisia. City Mall: 10am, 1:25pm, 3:35pm, 9:40pm Toul Kork: 11:50am, 1:30pm, 5:50pm, 7:50pm, 10pm POMPEII A slave-turned-gladiator finds himself in a race against time to save his true love, who has been betrothed to a corrupt Roman Senator. As Mount Vesuvius erupts, he must fight to save his beloved as Pompeii crumbles around him. Starring Kit Harrington and Emily Browning. City Mall: 11:35am Toul Kork: 9:50pm ROBOCOP In 2028 Detroit, when Alex Murphy - a loving husband, father and good cop - is critically injured in the line of duty, the multinational conglomerate OmniCorp sees their chance for a part-man, partrobot police officer. Stars: Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton. City Mall: 4:35pm Toul Kork: 9:30am THE MISSING PICTURE Rithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodias Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979. City Mall: 10:05pm Toul Kork: 6pm

Java Cafe, Sihanouk Boulevard. 6:30pm

Quiz @ The Willow

Probably the biggest quiz anywhere in Phnom Penh (they regularly pay out over $100 in prize money) but they dont take themselves too seriously.

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

Horror Vacui: The Interior World (detail). PHOTO SUPPLIED

Makeup @ NagaWorld
3:15pm - HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCHHUNTERS: Hansel and Gretel are bounty hunters who track down and kill witches all over the world. As the fabled Blood Moon approaches, the siblings encounter a new form of evil that might hold a secret to their mysterious past. FOX MOVIES 9:40pm - 21 AND OVER: The night before his big medical school interview, a promising student, played by Justin Chon, celebrates his 21st birthday with his two best friends. Things do not go as planned. FOX MOVIES 11:10pm - 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. With Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman. FOX MOVIES

TV PICKS

Fashion TV presents a makeup show with work by the Dollhouse, Syna Styling and others. Guests also get a complimentary makeover.

NagaWorld, Hun Sen Park. 9pm

PlaTinUm cinePleX
300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (See above.) 2:40pm, 6:40pm, 8:40pm THE MISSING PICTURE (See above.) 11:10am MR PEABODY AND SHERMAN (See above.) 1pm
Denzel Washington stars in Book of Eli.
BLOOMBERG

Indigenous @ Meta
Meta House is hosting indigenous land activists who will talk about cases aecting the Kouy minority, and show a short doco.

Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard, 8pm.

Thinking caps
A BUT?
ACROSS
1 5 10 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 23 24 25 28 30 31 33 36 40 41 42 43 44 46 49 51 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Front of a boat La ___ (Italian opera house) Fully qualified Name on many jeans labels He was pied in Hamelin Use a cat-o-nine-tails on Genesis garden Manner of speech Cant complain Many are guarded Had children, old-style Place for a watch Cut the fat Coal locale Petri dish content At right angles, in sailing Fond du ___, Wisc. Agree to wed Beast that bore Balaam Commando incursions Equine dinner The Golden ___ (Drakes ship) Stagecoach robber Bowling rentals All kidding ___ ... Have nowhere to go but up Babble on Store-hours word 5-Across highlight With the bow, musically Part of some chains Place for figure eights One who changes colors Wrongful acts, in law Ox-cessory?

DOWN

1 Naval Academy freshman 2 Provide with a new look 3 Dreaded word on The Price Is Right 4 It might cause rosy cheeks 5 Poinsettia, for one 6 Panchos TV amigo 7 No longer together 8 Big name in construction 9 Hawkish god 10 Maintain to be true 11 Russian pancake 12 Has a hankering (for) 13 Discharge, as undigested waste 21 Common Market, for short 22 Recipient of many questions 25 Hindu noble 26 Hollywood giants? 27 Banquet speakers spot 28 Puts in rollers, as hair 29 Ability to distinguish pitch 31 At the center of 32 Poorly behaved 33 Laundry measure 34 Prefix with trust or social 35 Dermatological diagnosis, sometimes 37 Emerald Isle folk 38 Berts fictional twin sister 39 Like some rewards 43 Trojan War hero 44 Sworn-upon stack 45 Without further ___ ... 46 Expensive violin, for short 47 White-haired with age 48 An ___ of prevention ... 49 He may play a part 50 Womans garment 52 What stainless steel doesnt do 53 More than suspicious of 54 Foursome minus one 55 Pig sound 56 Produce

Tuesdays solution

Tuesdays solution

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

Sport

21

SCAR Pistorius was aware of gun safety rules restricting the use of lethal force against intruders, a gun dealer testied on Monday as the Paralympians trial for killing his girlfriend entered its third week. Gun licenser Sean Rens told the court in Pretoria that the 27-yearold athlete, who stands accused of intentionally shooting dead his girlfriend, had scored highly on a test for gun owners. Always know your target and what lies behind, was one of the answers Pistorius correctly gave when asked about rearm safety rules, Rens said. The double-amputee sprinter also correctly answered that a weapon could be red only if under direct threat from advancing armed burglars, but not in other scenarios, the court heard. Pistorius claims he shot 29-yearold Steenkamp through a locked toilet door after mistaking her for an intruder. But the state has charged him with premeditated murder, arguing that he fired at Steenkamp in a fit of rage during an argument on Valentines Day 2013. As the trial marked its 11th day, police photographer Bennie van Staden walked the court through detailed pictures he took at the Paralympic gold medallists upmarket Pretoria home. He described seeing blood splatters on the bedroom duvet and the wall behind the athletes bed. The defences version of events is that Pistorius and Steenkamp were peacefully sleeping before the runner accidentally shot his girlfriend and then broke down the toilet door to reach her. The state meanwhile has drawn on previous gun incidents involving Pistorius to depict the sporting hero as a trigger-happy gun lover.

Pistorius aware of gun rules against intruders, hears court O

Spiked-up Leo Cup format unveiled

ORGANISERS of the Leo Cup announced on Monday that this years third edition of the nationwide volleyball tournament would feature a slightly altered format while the prize money would also increase. Cambodian Volleyball Federation secretary-general Boeung Kim Tao said in a press conference at NagaWorld that the provincial preliminaries, held in five locations including Phnom Penh, Battambang, Siem Reap, Kampong Cham and Sihanoukville, would be used to find 10 sides to join last years top six teams in the finals stage in the capital. This finals stage will consist of two phases. Teams are to be split into four groups of four, and then the top two of each group will advance to a Division A playoff, while the bottom two of each group will go into Division B. Kanjit Paewpunchu, marketing manager at Boon Rawd International Co Ltd, which brews Leo Beer in Thailand, said the prize fund had been increased from 60 million riel ($14,990) to 76 million riel. The preliminaries are to start in Phnom Penh on March 31 and conclude in Siem Reap on July 20. CHHORN
NORN, TRANSLATED BY CHENG SERYRITH

South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius sits in the dock on Monday, the 11th day of his trial for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria. AFP

Gun order cancelled

The court heard on Monday that Pistorius had placed an order for six guns in 2012 including a Smith & Wesson 500, described by its manufacturer as the most powerful production revolver in the world. He also ordered a Vector .223-cali-

bre rie, a 38-calibre Smith & Wesson revolver, an unidentied rie or carbine gun, and two shotguns: a Mossberg Maverick and a Winchester. But the order was annulled after Steenkamps death. The transaction was cancelled a month post-incident, said Rens, manager of a rearms training academy in Walkerville, south of Johannesburg. South African law allows non-collectors to possess only four rearms. Pistorius also faces three unrelated charges over ring a gun in a restaurant and from a moving car, and for the illegal possession of ammunition. Asked in the gun licensing test if he could fire at burglars stealing a hi-fi sound system from his house, Pistorius answered no as his life was

not in immediate danger, Rens told the court. Rens also said the athlete told him he once drew his gun inside his house at a suspicious noise, which turned out to be a laundry machine. He went into what we call code red, or combat mode, in other words to draw his gun and go and clear his house, Rens testied. Pistorius tweeted about the incident in November 2012 saying: Nothing like getting home to hear the washing machine on and thinking its an intruder to go into full combat recon mode into the pantry! He later deleted the post. Also on Monday, a series of photographs from Van Stadens 15 photo albums of the crime scene were presented in court, amid claims from the

prosecution that the police investigation was awed. Steenkamps mother June, who was attending the court proceedings for the rst time since the trial began on March 3, left as the room was shown pictures of Pistoriuss bloodstained prostheses. Defence lawyers are arguing that police contaminated the scene after ofcers last week conceded to moving evidence, handling a gun without gloves and even stealing from Pistorius house. Van Staden defended his actions, saying he moved the athletes duvet and bloodied towels in the bathroom to look for further evidence, and only after documenting their original position. AFP

CAmbodIAN national taekwondo team coach Choi Young Sok and South Korean embassy deputy general secretary Kim Hye-won made an official handover of taekwondo kit and equipment to 90 students at the National Institute of Physical Education and Sports on Monday. The equipment included mats, uniforms and protective gear worth about $6,000. This donation is from the South Korean government, the embassy and Kukkiwon, the World Taekwondo Headquarters, coach Choi told the Post. I am a Kukkiwon missionary, who is obliged to promote this martial art in the Kingdom. Ill be trying hard to find more support from other official taekwondo organisations because I love Cambodia. CHHORN NORN,
TRANSLATED BY CHENG SEYRITH

Taekwondo boosted by equipment donation

Fury, Chisora eye title shot

THE winner of the long-awaited rematch between Tyson Fury and Dereck Chisora confirmed on Monday for the Phones 4u Arena, Manchester, on July 26 has been guaranteed a shot at Wladimir Klitschkos WBO heavyweight title, probably before the end of the year. The Guardian has also learnt that the loser could end up in the ring with Deontay Wilder, the American knockout king whose one-round stoppage of Malik Scott in Puerto Rico on Saturday night brought his record to 31 wins, all of them well inside the scheduled distance, lending credence to his growing credentials as the next big draw in heavyweight boxing. However, there is more ducking and diving going on in the business than in a Frank Bruno soundbite, so expect a few twists and turns yet. Chisoras promoter, Frank Warren, conceded that Klitschko may choose to vacate the WBO title in favour of a fight with Wilder, who is scheduled to fight the winner of the bout on May 10 between Chris Arreola and Bermane Stiverne for the WBC title left vacant by Wladimirs brother, Vitali, who is campaigning for the Ukraine presidency. Wladimir, who is 37 and edging closer to retirement, needs only the WBC belt to complete a full set, alongside the IBF, WBA (Super), IBO and WBO championships he already owns. So the temptation to risk everything against the dangerous but untested Wilder is considerable. Wladimir next fights the Australian Alex Leapai on April 26. Wladimir is going to fight the Australian Alex Leapai and I would expect him to beat him, Warren said. If he doesnt fight the winner of this fight, he will have to vacate the title. Were forcing the issue. If he wants the fight, this is what it is, its what youve got to take. Warren was adamant that David Haye, who pulled out of two fights with Fury last year, was not in the picture. No, not at all. According to what he said, he had a career-ending injury unless he has a miraculous recovery. Were focusing on this fight and Id like the loser to fight Wilder. Thats what its all about. What are we going to do: bring him over another 10-rounder? THE GUARDIAN

Charity golf event to tee off at Garden City

H S Manjunath

Australian banned for penis image on pitch

THE Lighthouse Club of Phnom Penh, an international charitable institution with a well-supported social calendar, will organise a charity event at the Garden City Golf Club on April 5 to help poor university students get through their education. The tournament tees off at 8am and the cost per player is $105, which includes green fees, caddy, breakfast and lunch. The Lighthouse Club, which has its roots in the UK going back to 1956, was launched in the Cambodian capital not long ago but it has already achieved some good results in local community welfare.

Last year, the club supported students from poor homes to graduate in architecture at the Royal University of Fine Arts. This years initiative aims at sponsoring students through their entire university course besides helping them with living expenses. High on the clubs social agenda is to build toilets for 200 families in the province under a self-help scheme in which the families contribute towards the costs. Also on the anvil is a scheme to help families of workers in the construction industry in the event of work-related death or injury. According to the club, all its members give their time voluntarily.

AN AUSTRALIAN cricketer was suspended yesterday for a bizarre incident in which he scratched the image of a penis and testicles into the pitch. South Australian paceman Daniel Worrall was slapped with a penalty of four suspension points, which is equal to two four-day matches or four one-day or T20 games. He was reported for unbecoming conduct and bringing the game into disrepute after the incident last Friday during a Futures League match between South Australia and Victoria. Worrall scratched the image into a wicket due to be used for another match. We are extremely disappointed in Daniels actions; it is not in line with the behaviour we expect, said South Australia Cricket Association high performance general manager Jamie Cox. AFP

22

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

Sport

Murray seeks consistency in Key Biscayne

NDY Murray will have to solve the problem of his patchy play quickly if he hopes to defend his Miami ATP Masters title against a star-studded eld. Murray departed Miami last year ranked second in the world after a razor-thin victory over David Ferrer in the nal gave him his second Sony Open title. He went on to claim an emotional second Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, but the 26-year-old has yet to reach a nal since having back surgery in September and is currently ranked sixth in the world. The Scot was at a loss to explain a third-set collapse against bigserving Canadian Milos Raonic in the fourth round at the Indian Wells Masters last week and admitted his condence was at low ebb. That will put him at a distinct disadvantage against the likes of world number one Rafael Nadal, who returns to Miami after having skipped last years tournament to rest his troublesome knees. World number two Novak Djokovic also arrives in Florida brimming with condence, having already secured his rst title of 2014 with a triumph over a revitalised Roger Federer in the Indian Wells nal on Sunday. It was the rst nal I played

this year, Djokovic noted. It was necessary for my condence and hopefully I can carry that into Miami and the rest of the season. Djokovic was especially pleased that he came through some tough three-set matches, including rallying from a set down against Croatian Marin Cilic in the fourth round and Federer in the championship contest. Getting through the tense encounters somewhat quelled the doubts hed felt upon arriving Stateside for the two big hardcourt tournaments without a title for the rst time in years. Djokovic avenged a loss to Federer in the semi-nals at Dubai in February, but said that the Swiss great was clearly a force to be reckoned with now that he has put his injury-marred 2013 campaign behind him. Roger is playing at a very high level, Djokovic said. He has more depth on his shots, especially from the backhand side. He gives himself an opportunity to nish with the forehand. He serves well. He just played better than he did in the last 13, 14 months. Federer, who had fallen to eighth in the world, heads into Miami back at number ve in the rankings. He too is returning to Key Biscayne after skipping the tourna-

World tennis No 6 Andy Murray of Britain will attempt to defend his Miami ATP Masters title, which started yesterday.

AFP

ment last year, and after winning the title in Dubai and reaching the nal in Indian Wells in backto-back events the 17-time Grand Slam champion left himself some wiggle room with regard to playing another tournament so soon. I will see how I feel over there, Federer said shortly after the Indian Wells nal. Most likely, yes, I will play. Womens world number one Serena Williams returns to defend the title she won last year with a victory over Maria Sharapova in the nal. The womens rst-round play

began yesterday, but the 32 mens and womens seeds all have rstround byes. Williams, owner of 17 Grand Slam titles and a record six Miami trophies, will no doubt be eager to get back on track after her seasonopening triumph in Brisbane was followed by a fourth-round loss at the Australian Open and a seminal loss to Frances Alize Cornet at Dubai in February. Sharapova will attempt to bounce back from a third-round loss to Italian qualier Camila Giorgi at Indian Wells.

The Russian reached her fth Miami nal last year, but has never managed to win the title. Chinas Australian Open champion Li Na arrives in Florida after a semi-nal defeat to eventual champion Flavia Pennetta in Indian Wells. Li struggled with her serve in the California desert thanks to a change in her mechanics, but said that she hoped to have all the problems ironed out. Nothing to worry about, Li said. Should be OK in next tournament. AFP

Srichaphan to be role model Squash star Nicol David looks to

H S Manjunath

ONe of Thailands biggest tennis celebrities, Paradorn Srichaphan has been named by the International Tennis Federation to represent the game as an Athlete Role Model at the second Youth Olympic Games to be held in the Chinese city of Nanjing from August 16-28. The 34-year-old Srichaphan, a household name in his home country who retired in 2010, won five singles titles in an outstanding career and was among the worlds top 30 during his peak playing days. A two-time Olympian, Srichaphan was his countrys proud standard bearer at the Athens Olympics Opening Cer-

emony in 2004. He was a member of the Thai Davis Cup team for nine years spread over 24 ties. He also served the team as captain and coach. The Athlete Role Models program will be implemented by the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee as part of its Culture and Education Programme. Athlete Role Models are Olympians who exemplify the Olympic values, both on and off the field of play. At Nanjing, they will connect and talk to athletes and other young people in person and via social media to share their life stories and playing experiences. Paradorn Srichaphan is an excellent choice to serve as an

Thailands Paradorn Srichaphan has been named as an Athlete Role Model for tennis at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing. AFP

Athlete Role Model, said ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti in a statement obtained by the Post. He always showed great professionalism and sportsmanship, and took great pride in playing for Thailand. I know that he will be an outstanding representative of tennis and of his country and continent in Nanjing. Srichaphan said: I am honoured to be selected as an Athlete Role Model. I believe the Youth Olympic Games will be a fantastic event for the young athletes to compete on the global stage. This should be a great opportunity for them in the early stages of their athletic careers. I am looking forward to spending time with the young athletes. Sixty-four players will contest the 2014 Youth Olympic Tennis Event, with each player taking part in three events, singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Mixed doubles will feature in the Youth Olympics for the first time following its successful reintroduction at the London 2012 Olympics. A maximum of two boys and two girls per country can be selected, with entries confirmed in June. The Nanjing Games will welcome around 3,800 athletes and officials from the 204 National Olympic Committees. Young athletes aged between 14 and 18 years will compete in 28 sports.

lift Malaysian spirits in Penang

MAlAYsiAs world number one Nicol David warned competition was now tougher than ever as she sets out to defend her title at the world womens championships on her home island of Penang. The peerless David, who has won a record seven world titles and has held the top ranking since 2006, is the hot favourite to lift the trophy for the eighth time. The 30-year-old can help boost Malaysian spirits after the disappearance of flight Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 with 239 passengers on board nine days ago caused widespread shock. David has made a turbocharged start to the year, winning back-to-back titles at the Tournament of Champions and Cleveland Classic in January and February. But despite being the overwhelming favourite in Penang, she said it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep her challengers at bay. There is not much separating the top 10 players and the gap is certainly getting closer, David said. Anyone in the top 10 is capable of ousting each other, so I have to be on top of my game as everyone will be out to get me. The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the Asian Games in South Korea and the world

Malaysian squash superstar Nicol David says there is currently not much separating the top 10 players in the sport. AFP

team championships are also on Davids 2014 schedule in what is shaping up to be a busy schedule this year. I am 30 now and the sport is very demanding, she said. I have to pay extra attention to my preparation and recovery for each match and I cant push my body too much compared to when I was younger. Having said that, I still aim to compete at the highest level for at the least the next five years. The top seed and defending champion w ill open her account against Englands Emma Beddoes in a draw

which seemingly appears to have given her a favourable route to the final. Should she make the title match on Saturday, her biggest rival Laura Massaro of England, the second seed, will hope to lie in wait. Massaros main obstacle she will face in the bottom half of the draw looks to be third seed Raneem El Weleily of Egypt. Davids last world title win came at the expense of Massaro back in 2012. The pocket-sized champion will be joined by compatriots Low Wee Wern and wildcard entry Vanessa Raj in the main draw. AFP

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

Football

23

Unravelling Man United plot season-saving salvo

TILL reeling from their humbling by Liverpool, Manchester United return to Old Trafford tonight needing to overturn a 2-0 Champions League decit against Olympiakos to save their season. Sundays 3-0 loss to Liverpool left David Moyess side 12 points below the top four in the Premier League and, having already gone out of both domestic cups, the Champions League represents a last chance of salvation. Notions of the club qualifying for next seasons Champions League by winning the current tournament appear fanciful, but elimination in the last 16 tonight would suck all intrigue from their campaign. Succeed, and United will take their place alongside Europes most glamorous sides in the quarter-nals, three years after last reaching the last eight en route to defeat by Barcelona in the 2011 nal. Fail, and the unwanted consolation of a Europa League place will be all that is left to play for; a fraught summer of soul-searching all there is to look forward to. United were synonymous with stirring comebacks under Moyess predecessor, Alex Ferguson, but they require a vast improvement on the insipid showing produced against Liverpool. Worryingly for both Uniteds supporters and the clubs hierarchy, the teams performances appear to be getting worse, despite strikers Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie both now operating at full capacity. They offered disconcertingly little resistance in the rst-leg loss to Olympiakos in Piraeus on February 25, but goalkeeper David de Gea has promised an improved showing in the return xture. We know we didnt play a good match in Greece. They were better than us and they won, the Spaniard told the UEFA website. But now there is the return leg at Old Trafford and I think that, with our fans behind us, we have to go onto the pitch

Australia welcomes bans for fixing pair

AUSTRaLIaN football chiefs yesterday welcomed worldwide bans imposed on two English players over a match-fixing scam in state soccer that has been linked to an international betting syndicate. Football Federation Australia hailed the move by world governing body FIFA to extend the Australian bans on Southern Stars players Joe Woolley and Reiss Noel after they were convicted of manipulating games. Reports in Australia have said the scam, in Victorias state league, netted around $2 million in illicit winnings and that authorities suspected links to one of the worlds most notorious matchfixers, Singaporean Wilson Raj Perumal. AFP

FA set to reject Hull City owners Tigers designs

THe Football Association looks set to reject the application by the Hull City owner, Assem Allam, to change the clubs name to Hull Tigers, after the FAs membership committee unanimously voted against it. In response Allam reiterated that he would walk away from the club if the full FA council follows the committees recommendation at its meeting on April 9. Allam, a local businessman who bought the club in 2010, clarified that he meant he would put the club up for sale, not seek immediately to recover his 72 million ($120 million) loans and cause the club financial difficulties. How could you imagine I would change my mind? he said. People who know me know that I do not go back on what I say. THE GUARDIAN

Manchester Uniteds Nemanja Vidic (left) vies with Olympiakos Michael Olaitan during their Champions League round of 16 rst leg in February.

AFP

and ght and attack from the rst minute. We will give everything we have and play a lot better than we did there. United have recovered a rst-leg decit only once in the Champions League era, atoning for a 2-1 loss to Roma in the quarter-nals of the 2006-07 tournament with a stunning 7-1 victory at Old Trafford. They twice overturned 2-0 scorelines in the now defunct European Cup Winners Cup, however, beating Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 in 1964 and storming back to beat Diego Maradonas Barcelona 3-0 in the quarter-nals in 1984. Moyes reported no fresh injuries after the defeat by Liverpool, although Spanish midelder Juan Mata will drop out of the squad as he is cup-tied. The players are capable of

turning it around, said Moyes, whose side won all three of their home matches in the group phase. Its something to go for, its another game, and well do everything possible to make that work. Olympiakos, who have lost on all of their 11 previous visits to England, are bidding to reach the quarter-nals for the rst time since 1999.

Zenit hoping for a miracle

Borussia Dortmund host Zenit St Petersburg in the second leg of their Champions League last 16 tie tonight with the Russians admitting they need a minor miracle to progress. Last seasons runners-up Dortmund enjoyed a 4-2 win in the rst leg in St Petersburg three weeks ago and Zenit have since sacked Italian coach Luciano Spalletti.

Former Paris Saint-Germain midelder and ex-Russia captain Sergei Semak has since been named as Zenits interim coach and the 38-yearold will be on the touchline in Dortmund. We want to perform with dignity in the return match with Borussia. Of course our chances are slim, but miracles sometimes happen, Semak said ahead of the game. A press release yesterday, however, stated that an agreement with Portuguese ex-Tottenham coach Andre VillasBoas to become the clubs new manager had been reached. The former Porto, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur coach is to ofcially sign the agreement with Zenit on March 20. Both Zenit and Dortmund come into the Westfalenstadion clash tonight on the back of defeats.

Zenit went down 1-0 at the hands of reigning champions CSKA Moscow on Saturday and it was the second consecutive Russian Premier League match in which they have failed to score. Meanwhile, Dortmund suffered a 2-1 loss at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach in the Bundesliga as coach Jurgen Klopp was sent from the dugout for arguing with the fourth ofcial, a misdemeanour for which he was later ned 10,000 ($13,926) by the German Football Association. Only two teams have ever won a Champions League knockout tie after losing the rst leg at home, but Zenit are at least near full-strength for the game. Both games kick off tonight at 2:45am Cambodian time. AFP

Totti strikes as Roma scrape Udinese win

CapTaIN Francesco Totti scored on his return from a monthlong injury lay-off as Roma scraped a 3-2 win over Udinese to reduce the gap on leaders Juventus to 14 points on Monday. Earlier, third-placed Napoli had pulled level on points with Roma thanks to a 90th minute strike from Gonzalo Hugauin which secured the points away to Torino. AFP

Gerrard urges new deal for manager Rodgers

Ronaldo, Romario in World Cup spat

BRAzILIAn legends Ronaldo and Romario on Monday indulged in a World Cup war of words as the former accused his compatriot of blaming him for a promise of free tickets for handicapped fans which has not materialised. It is deplorable to see Romario, once again, make me publicly responsible for things which are outside my remit, World Cup Local Organising Committee member Ronaldo wrote on his Facebook page. Romario, 1994 world champion and now a lawmaker, himself took to social media in recent days to say that 2002 World Cup star and record tournament scorer Ronaldo publicly promised free entrance for handicapped people. And so far, nothing. One post shows the pair at a 2011 press conference during which Romario announced a promise on behalf of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) offering 32,000 free tickets or 500 per match for disabled people. Is it opportunism piggybacking on my image or ignorance? an aggrieved Ronaldo asked. I do not know. What I do know is that instead of wasting time and energy trying to denigrate me, we would all gain if the congressman dedicated himself to seeking out good people or institutions. Ronaldo went on: I did what I could as a citizen, to get a positive response from the institution [the CBF], and as local organizing committee spokesman I was proud to share the news with the public, with Romario. But I am not a politician, I do not represent the CBF, and I did not promise anything I could not deliver, Ronaldo insisted, aghast that Romario was painting him as the author of the promise for the free tickets. In reality, it is a commitment of the CBF, he added. Romario, who is standing in senate elections in October, has been a vociferous critic in recent months of the organisation of the World Cup and the multibillion public investments accompanying the event a source of public ire. He has often made Ronaldo the target of some of that criticism and also last week made trenchant televised criticism of FIFA president Sepp Blatter and the bodys secretary-general Jerome Valcke. AFP

STeveN Gerrard has called on Liverpools owners to award Brendan Rodgers a new contract as soon as possible in recognition of the stunning transformation he has overseen at Anfield. Rodgers has taken Liverpool from seventh in the Premier League last season into contention for a first title since 1990 but he is approaching the final 12 months of his contract without talks opening over an extension. The 41-year-old signed a threeyear deal when he replaced Kenny Dalglish as Liverpool manager in 2012 and the clubs owners, Fenway Sports Group, have an option for an extra year on the same terms. FSG must inform Rodgers by a specified date next season whether they intend to exercise the option but a new, improved deal is expected to be signed before that stage. THE GUARDIAN

MONDAYs REsUlTs
Spanish La Liga
Villarreal 1 Athletic Bilbao 1

24

THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 19, 2014

Sport
Qataris paid Warner after bid win
Owen Gibson

ORLD footballs governing body is likely to face renewed pressure over the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, following publication by the Daily Telegraph of claims of new evidence of payments from a Qatari former FIFA vice-president to one of his fellow board members. The controversial Trinidadian former FIFA executive committee member Jack Warner received $1.2 million from a company controlled by former Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed bin Hammam in December 2010, according to the Daily Telegraph. The newspaper also alleged that a note from one of Warners companies, Jamad, to Bin Hammams rm, Kemco, requested $1.2 million in payment for work carried out between 2005 and 2010. It was also claimed that Warners two sons and an employee were paid a further $1 million by the same Qatari company. One document referred to in the article was said to have stated that payments were to offset legal and other expenses, but a separate letter claimed that more than $1 million covered professional services provided over the period 2005-2010. The payment was allegedly made a fortnight after FIFAs 22-man executive committee voted to award the 2022 tournament to Qatar. Last March it emerged that the FBI was investigating a series of corruption claims surrounding world footballs governing body and that Warners Miami-based son, Daryan, had agreed to be a co-operating witness. According to the allegations in the Telegraph, payments totalling at least $750,000 were made to Warners sons and a further $400,000 was paid to one of his employees.

Former FIFA executive committee member Jack Warner (pictured) received payment in December 2010 from a company belonging to former AFC president Mohammed bin Hammam, according to newspaper report. AFP

Bin Hammam was the most senior Qatari football ofcial inside FIFA at the time of the awed bidding race to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments. He was later banned from football for life after evidence emerged that he had bribed senior ofcials at the Caribbean Football Union at the height of a bitter battle for the presidency with the incumbent, Sepp Blatter. That ban was annulled by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but he was later banned again over conicts of interest while president of the Asian Football Confederation. On Monday night, the Qatar 2022

Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy attempted to distance itself from corruption allegations relating to Bin Hammam, whose lifetime football ban was reafrmed by FIFA in December 2012. It said: The 2022 Bid Committee strictly adhered to FIFAs bidding regulations in compliance with their code of ethics. The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy and the individuals involved in the 2022 Bid Committee are unaware of any allegations surrounding business dealings between private individuals. The Qatar 2022 organising com-

mittee has repeatedly denied any involvement in corruption during the chaotic and ill-dened World Cup bidding race, and sought to distance itself from Bin Hammam. More than half of the 22 men who voted to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 edition to Qatar are no longer members of the executive committee. Several have been implicated in corruption allegations. Warner was later found by a detailed CONCACAF investigation to have committed fraud and misappropriated football money. Warner, who claimed the CONCACAF report was baseless and mali-

cious, resigned from football for life in June 2012, a move that FIFA said put him beyond its jurisdiction. For most of his 28 years as a member of the FIFA executive committee, Warner was surrounded by controversy. In 2006, he was accused of selling World Cup tickets for three times their value and in 2010 the BBCs Panorama program alleged that he was involved in reselling tickets for the 2010 tournament. In 2011, he was claimed to have urged members of the CFU to accept gifts of $40,000 in cash from Bin Hammam and vote for him in the upcoming presidential election. Bin Hammam was found by the court of arbitration for sport to more likely than not have brought cash to two meetings in May 2011 which was then handed to FIFA delegates. He has denied wrongdoing. Controversy has continued to surround the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a country in which temperatures regularly top 40 degrees Celsius in summer. In addition to the ongoing debate about whether the tournament should be moved to the winter in order to avoid health risks for players, in-depth reports from human rights organisations and the Guardian have raised serious questions over the rights of migrant workers in the country. More than 380 Nepalese workers and more than 500 Indian migrants have died in Qatar in the past two years, amid an unprecedented construction boom to prepare the country for the tournament and position it for the future. Blatter, who has strongly hinted he will stand for re-election in April next year, and the FIFA executive committee will meet later this week with the Qatar World Cup again expected to be high on the agenda.
THE GUARDIAN

US tour makes long-term commitment to China

AMERiCAs PGA Tour has pledged to stay in China for the long haul after taking the bold step of setting up a domestic circuit offering players a new route to golfs top level, including the Olympic Games. In a move which could have a big impact on Chinese golf, and even the sports future, the newly established PGA Tour China will roll out 12 events this year with plans to steadily expand. Professionals will be able to earn their way onto Americas Web.com Tour, the gateway to the world-leading PGA Tour, through their prize money, and pick up world ranking points which are needed to reach the Olympics. The initiative could help China make good on its promise after already producing youngsters of the calibre of Guan Tianlang, who caused a sensation by making the cut at last years Masters aged just 14. As for the PGA, it gains a foothold in the worlds most populous nation, which with its vast potential market is considered a key strategic priority for many sports bodies. PGA Tour vice-president Greg Gilligan, the bodys managing director for Greater China, said the tour had plans to expand to Hong Kong, Taipei and Macau, and perhaps even further a field in Asia if successful there. Were making a long-term commitment to this partnership and to the development of golf in China, broadly speaking, he told AFP by phone from Beijing. Our money-list players can graduate from this to the Web. com, he added. Its a stepping stone where players can continue to hone their competitive skills and graduate from one tour to the next. The tour, similar to PGA development circuits in Canada and Latin America, is already underway with its second qualifying event with international as well as Chinese players being held this week. Prize money of 12 million yuan ($1.94 million) will be on offer at each tournament, as well as world ranking points. Only the top-ranked players from each country will qualify when golf returns to the Olympics in 2016. China loves all things Olympics, particularly all things successful in the Olympics, Gilligan said. So yes, I would imagine that that was one element our partners at the China Golf Association ... and the Chinese officialdom considered as part of the attraction. Despite growing interest in golf and a mushrooming number of courses, plus some world-class international tournaments, previous domestic tours in China have struggled. Players have also been slow to emerge and the current golf rankings feature only six Chinese men in the top 1,000, and none among the leading 100. By comparison, Japan has 63 players in the top 1,000, South Korea has 67, Thailand has 25 and India has 12. The PGA Tour had been considered late to make a move in Asia, and it wasnt until last year that it held its first fully sanctioned event in the region, the CIMB Classic in Malaysia. But it has now stolen a march by offering Chinas players a route to the PGA Tour while gaining valuable exposure for its brand in the country. Asias regional golf tours are supportive, with Asian Tour CEO Mike Kerr telling AFP: We believe the Chinese players can benefit immensely from this and simultaneously prepare them with the experience to compete well on other recognised Tours such as the Asian Tour. And a spokesman for OneAsia said: A thriving tour in China will be good for the game there and Asia in general ... we hope the PGA China Tour will, in a way, complement OneAsia in the same manner that the domestic tours in Australia and Korea already do. As well as Guan, Chinas promising youngsters include Ye Wocheng just 12 when he played last years China Open Dou Zecheng and Andy Zhang, who appeared at the 2012 US Open aged 14. AFP

Chinese teenager Guan Tianlang made the cut at the 2013 US Masters.

AFP