Tokyo, Japan, Oct 16, 2007 - (JCN Newswire) - JAL will start operating direct charter flights from Japan to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Up until the end of this fiscal year, ending March 31 2008, JAL plans to operate between 10-15 round trip flights, starting with a flight departing Osaka (Kansai) on November 20, 2007. (Subject to government approval).
The airline will operate direct flights to Siem Reap from Osaka (Kansai), Tokyo (Narita) and Nagoya (Chubu) using Boeing 767 aircraft. The aircraft will have a capacity of 200 passengers per flight, and the journey will only take from between 5 to 6 hours. The flights will only be sold as part of a holiday package offered by travel agents in Japan.
The number of Japanese travelers visiting Cambodia, location of the UNESCO World Heritage site Angkor Wat, has been increasing every year. Based on data from the Ministry of Tourism, Kingdom of Cambodia about 120,000 Japanese visited Cambodia in 2006.
Up until now there have been no direct scheduled flights from Japan to Siem Reap. Travelers have had to change flights in Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh, for example.
JAL plans to operate a total of 400 round trip charter flights this fiscal year. Between April and September this year, JAL has already operated around 225 round trip charter flights to such tourist destinations as Budapest and Prague in Central Europe, Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia as well as Toronto and Montreal in Canada.
Responding to changes in Japanese tourism demand, JAL also started operating earlier this year for the first time direct charter flights to Dubrovnik, a Croatian resort in the Adriatic Sea, and Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands, called the 'necklace of the Pacific'.
About JAL
Asia's largest airline group, the JAL Group (TSE: 9205) serves 213 airports in 33 countries and territories, including 61 airports in Japan. The Group network extends over 235 international passenger, 39 international cargo, and 160 domestic routes. Altogether, the 9 airlines of the JAL Group make a total of over 1,200 flights a day, and in fiscal year 2006 carried nearly 58 million passengers. JAL Group operates a fleet of 276 aircraft including 64 Boeing 747s and 39 state-of-the-art B777s and is gradually introducing more fuel efficient medium and small-size aircraft such as the new high-tech Boeing 787 and B737 New Generation. For more information, please visit www.jal.com .
Contact:
JAL Press Office
Stephen Pearlman
stephen.pearlman@jal.com
Tel: +81-3-5460-3109
www.jal.com/en/corporate/
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Tuesday, October 16, 2007
JAL Starts Direct Charter Flights to Cambodia
Transitions Cambodia, Inc. Gives Future Hope to Victim Survivors of Sex Trafficking
HILLSBORO, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Transitions Cambodia, Inc. based in Hillsboro, Oregon launches its new program in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We provide Cambodian and Vietnamese survivors of sex trafficking, sexual exploitation and abuse with the opportunity to re-build their future. Transitions Cambodia, Inc. establishes small scale transitional centers which have a small staff of four full-time team members and each center manages 10-15 clients. These centers are set up in apartment-style buildings, with a focus on giving clients a transitional step in adapting to the complexity of independent adult living.
Transitions Cambodia, Inc. provides housing, life skills training, health and dental care and most importantly a strong vocational training program that gives these precious girls a chance for a productive future. Training opportunities are provided in everything from IT and office skills to tailoring, depending on each girl’s interests and abilities. On completion of this program each girl is assisted in reintegrating into society with viable employment and a stable living situation.
At this moment, around the world, there are hundreds of thousands of children being used for the purpose of sexual exploitation and abuse. They are being raped, tortured and thrown away as if they had no worth. Cambodia is one of the most affected countries, due to its recent history and lack of sufficient infrastructure to protect its children. Providing a stable and semi-independent transitional home encourages and facilitates these young women in becoming self sufficient and prevents re-trafficking and re-entering the commercial sex industry as adults.
For more information about this exciting project please visit our website at www.transitionscambodia.org.
“James and Athena Pond came to Cambodia … at a time of critical need for quality, secure shelters for rescued victims of child sexual exploitation. They have filled that need wonderfully opening … [the] Transitional Living Center in 2006. Their shelters and programs are professional, nurturing and effective. The stories of restoration and hope that result from their efforts are profound and moving. Now, once again, the need is critical for transitional centers to bridge the final reintegration of survivors of child sexual exploitation into their communities. It is our privilege to partner with them in this work in Cambodia.”
Kaign N. Christy, Regional Director, International Justice Mission, Southeast Asia
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North Korea to learn about disability volleyball from Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: North Korea will send observers to Cambodia next month to learn from an international competition for disabled volleyball athletes, an official said Tuesday.
The Cambodian National Volleyball League of Disabled People is organizing the tournament from Nov. 24 to Dec. 1, said Christopher Minko, the group's secretary-general.
He said it will be the first time that North Korea will be participating in an international disability sporting event.
The Cambodian team is mostly made up of victims of land mines, the deadly legacy from three decades of armed conflict that ended with the collapse of the Khmer Rouge genocidal movement eight years ago.
"They're not sending a team but it's a delegation to come and watch how we stage this event, how we work with disabled athletes ... because they want to start their own (disability) volleyball program," Minko said.
Eight countries, including Cambodia, will be taking part in the tournament. Other teams will come from Mongolia, Canada, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, India and Malaysia.
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North Korean PM to visit Cambodia in November
During his November 1 to November 4 trip, Kim will meet Prime Minister Hun Sen and former king Norodom Sihanouk, who formed a close personal relationship with North Korean founding father Kim Il-sung at the height of the Cold War.
Sihanouk, whose playboy reputation and royal credentials did not appear to clash with Kim's austere and rigidly communist outlook, still has a palace in Pyongyang and his personal bodyguards are all North Korean agents.
A Cambodian government statement gave few other details of Kim Yong Il's visit.
Vietnam said earlier this month he would visit Hanoi, but did not say when or why. In March, Hanoi hosted talks aimed at normalizing relations between communist North Korea and Japan.
Mariella Frostrup's heaven on earth
The broadcaster doesn't normally advocate spending hours walking around old buildings - but makes an exception for the temples of Angkor in Cambodia.
The most extraordinary place I've visited is the 12th-century temple complex at Angkor Wat, completely inaccessible during Cambodia's troubled past but very easy to get to now - it's just an hour's flight from Bangkok.
I'm no great advocate of wandering around old buildings - I'm fine for about an hour but then I get a bit bored - but for Angkor Wat I make an exception.
The main temple is like a mini-Versailles and there's another one you have to visit very early in the morning because the sun lights up the many Buddhas' faces at dawn - it's one of the most spectacular things you'll ever see.
Then there's a temple where the trees seem to have grown out of the walls, one of many beautifully strange sights here. If you go, be sure to make an early start - it's worth it, just to see the complex in all its glory. It's just the most remarkable place.
Mariella Frostrup presents 'The Book Show' on Sky Arts at 7pm from October 18.
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Thai police, Interpol name suspected pedophile
BANGKOK (AFP) — A suspected pedophile being hunted worldwide after posting Internet pictures of himself raping young boys was identified by police Tuesday as a 32-year-old Canadian on the run in Thailand.
Thai police and the international police agency Interpol named the suspect as Christopher Paul Neil and said he arrived into Bangkok's main airport last Thursday.
It follows a groundbreaking urgent appeal last week when the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) issued a global request for assistance on its website, along with a picture recovered from one of his own images of him abusing boys in Cambodia and Vietnam.
"Thai police are collecting evidence and information from neighbouring countries and other Interpol members to seek a court order for an arrest warrant," police Colonel Apichart Suriboonya said.
"Thai police are working closely with Interpol to search for the man."
Interpol's Cambodian office confirmed the suspect's identity, and said that immigration officers were monitoring the borders in case he tried to enter.
"We have alerted all of our international borders," Keo Vanthan, head of Interpol in Cambodia, told reporters in Phnom Penh, adding, however, that no arrest warrant has been issued for Neil.
Interpol said Monday that Neil was a teacher of English at a South Korean school and that he was believed to be in Thailand.
Officials say he flew from Seoul to Bangkok last Thursday, when security cameras at the airport documented his arrival at immigration.
That image -- released by Interpol -- shows him as balding and with glasses, although previous pictures had him with more hair and no glasses.
"Thailand is at the centre of an international manhunt and authorities in the country, in cooperation with Interpol and police around the world, are hunting him down," Interpol chief Ronald Noble said in Monday's statement.
Some 350 people have reportedly given information after Interpol's appeal for help. The agency said key information came from five different sources on three continents.
International police and prosecutors are collecting and analysing evidence to bring charges against the man Interpol has dubbed "Vico."
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