Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie sign separation papers: report

By John Harlow

Hollywood golden couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have signed papers paving the way for a legal separation with joint custody of their six children, The Sunday Times in London reported Sunday.

The couple, known as Brangelina, have been together since shooting the thriller Mr and Mrs Smith five years ago.

They are said to have agreed that the children will live with Jolie.

The couple are not married - having said they would marry only when American homosexuals were also able to wed.

Even so, documents were filed with a Los Angeles lawyer earlier this month to help with a smooth separation, unnamed sources told the News of the World newspaper.
Pitt and Jolie will keep all the money they have earned, which Forbes estimates at more than US$100 million each.

Pitt, 46, will have full access to their three biological children, Shiloh and the twins Knox and Vivienne, as well as three adopted children, Maddox, from Cambodia, Zahara, from Ethiopia, and Pax, from Vietnam. All have the surname Jolie-Pitt.

On Saturday, associates of both actors declined to comment, one saying it was a "private matter".

The News of the World says the lawyers, based in Beverly Hills, have cleared the path for an announcement that has been the subject of rumors for many months.

Last week, National Enquirer magazine carried a story that Pitt and Jolie had a final explosive row at a New York restaurant called the Alto on January 6.

It claimed that Pitt staged the six-hour dinner as an intervention to persuade Jolie, 34, to get psychiatric help.

It alleged that she had suffered depression since the death of her mother from ovarian cancer three years ago, since when Jolie's weight has dropped dramatically. It also claimed she had made a suicide attempt.

The magazine said that after that stormy night, the couple agreed their relationship was over and "their focus is now on making a smooth transition for their children".

Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, 40, his former wife, were seen backstage together at the Haiti telethon in Los Angeles on Friday while Jolie was in New York promoting her next film, Salt.

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Save the tiger: Pressure mounts for tougher action

HUAI KHA KHEANG WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, Thailand (AP) — After trudging through the wilds of western Thailand for several hours, the forest rangers thought they were finally onto something: the distant sound of crunching leaves.

Automatic weapons drawn, the five Thais crept forward, hoping to catch a tiger poacher. It turned out to be a banteng, a wild cow, which disappeared into the woods.

But all in all, the absence of illegal hunters was good news, said ranger Sakchai Tessri. "When we passed before, we would always run into poachers." Now he felt their room for maneuver was narrowing.

"In the old days," he said, "they would spend many nights in the forest for poaching. Now they just come in, shoot, grab and go quickly."

The 6,400-square-kilometer (2,500-square-mile) Huai Kha Kheang and Thung Yai Wildlife Sanctuaries on the Myanmar border represent a rare success in the struggle to save the world's dwindling tiger population.

Funded by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, the increased patrols, armed with the latest technology, have scared off poachers and helped stabilize the tiger population of more than 100, along with animals such as the banteng which they prey on.

Elsewhere, tigers are in critical decline because of human encroachment, the loss of more than nine-tenths of their habitat and the growing trade in tiger skins and body parts. From an estimated 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century, the number today ranges between 3,200 to 3,600, most of them in Asia and Russia.

Now hopes are rising that 2010 will see a turning point.

Ministers from the 13 countries with tiger populations will hold a first-ever meeting Wednesday through Friday in Hua Hin, Thailand to write an action plan for a tiger summit in September in Russia, where Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been championing the survival of the tiger.

The purpose of this week's meeting is to elicit promises of more money for conservation and to persuade countries to set tiger population targets. It is being organized by the Global Tiger Initiative, a coalition formed in 2008 by the World Bank, the Smithsonian Institute and nearly 40 conservation groups. It aims to double tiger numbers by 2020.

"The bleeding continues," said the World Bank's Keshav Varma, the initiative's program director. "I'm not sure if these poachers are feeling the heat of regional and global and national action. They seem to be operating rather freely."

David Smith, a tiger expert at the University of Minnesota who will attend the meeting, says action "has got to be now. We are at that critical stage."

But at least one skeptical activist is skipping the meeting.

"All we have gotten from ministers and heads of state is rhetoric," said zoologist Alan Rabinowitz, president of Panthera, a New York City group that works to conserve the 36 species of cats. "Putin loves tigers but (Siberian) tiger numbers are plummeting in the Russian Far East."

The Wildlife Conservation Society estimates the number of Russian tigers in the wild at 300 — down from a 2005 estimate of 500.

Past efforts in tiger countries have been dogged by a lack of financing, poor coordination among conservation groups and weak government response.

India acknowledged in 2005 that Sariska National Park, a premier tiger reserve, had lost all of its big cats to poachers, who cash in on a huge market for tiger skins and a belief, prevalent in east Asia, that tiger parts enhance health and virility.

Poaching could undermine Malaysia's goal of doubling its tiger population to 1,000 by 2020, and tigers could go extinct in China in the next 30 years, the World Wildlife Fund has warned. Populations have also crashed in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Environmentalists say governments need to overhaul their protection of sanctuaries, involve local communities more deeply in their conservation efforts, and protect critical habitat from the encroachment of roads, bridges and dams.

Park patrols are often outgunned by poaching gangs, underpaid and vulnerable to bribes.

Smith said countries are starting to invest more in patrols and that the successful methods from Thailand's Huai Kha Kheang and Thung Yai reserves are being introduced in Laos, Cambodia, Nepal and Bangladesh.

The two sanctuaries are patrolled by 300 rangers

Dubbed Smart Patrols, they are equipped with guns and uniforms, digital cameras and GPS devices, and a detailed form for listing signs of poachers, tigers and prey.

Instead of just patrolling a park's perimeter, the Thai rangers trek through forest and mountains for up to five days. The data they gather go into a computer so trends can be detected to guide rangers on the next patrol.

Campfires, gunshots, shell cases, snares and other evidence of poaching have fallen by 80 percent in the past five years, said Anak Pattanavibool, the Thailand director for the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Poachers still enter the park — one was nabbed this month — but Anak said they remain at the periphery, no longer build camps and rarely stay longer than a few hours.

That's a remarkable turnaround for a time when gunfights with poachers were routine. Monuments honor four rangers killed in the line of duty 15 years ago.

The recent visit to the Huai Kha Kheang reserve revealed an ecosystem on the mend —fresh tiger tracks on a muddy river bank, and sightings of a panther, scores of deer, wild pig, jackal and a lone fish owl.

Conservationists say patrols alone are not enough — that institutions must look at the big picture of humanity and wildlife in growing confrontation.

Indian scientist K. Ullas Karanth, a tiger expert, says World Bank infrastructure projects "have been among the most damaging for tigers in Asia," and ways must be found of "separating people from breeding tigers" by drawing communities out of wildlife areas with offers of jobs and free land.

The World Bank's Varma said his organization is looking harder at development projects that split up tiger habitats.

"That is a huge change," he said. "It's a new beginning and acceptance we have made mistakes in the past."

___

The 13 countries which have wild tigers, and which will attend this week's meeting, are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

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Vietnam offers 120 scholarships to Cambodian students

Vietnam will provide 120 scholarships each year to Cambodian students majoring in agriculture, healthcare, and information technology from now to 2015, said Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan.

Deputy PM Nhan, who is also Minister of Education and Training (MOET), made the announcement at his talks with Cambodian Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, Im Sethi, in Phnom Penh on January 22.

He also suggested organising workshops on education and training to share experiences and provide mutual assistance.

During the talks, both sides agreed to foster cooperation in education during the 2010-2020 period and they were unanimous about developing an annual plan and promoting exchanges of information, to improve the management of students.

The two sides discussed the Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam cooperation framework, under which Vietnam will continue to provide 20 scholarships for Cambodian personnel and students to study in Vietnam, commencing with the 2009-2010 academic year.

Deputy PM Nhan took this opportunity to announce that Vietnam will build a senior secondary school for the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh as a token of the Vietnam-Cambodia friendship.
Minister Im Sethi thanked the Vietnamese Government and people for their assistance in education and training, especially with the construction of boarding schools in Cambodia’s north-eastern provinces.

Aproximately 100 Cambodian students travel to Vietnam to study tertiary and postgraduate levels each year and in the 2009-2010 academic year, the Vietnam MOET received 116 Cambodian students.

During his two-day working visit to Cambodia that ended on January 22, the Deputy PM also met with Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, and toured the Norodom and Sisovat High Schools and the Royal University in Phnom Penh.

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Summit County philanthropist departs for Cambodia to support firefighters

By Robert Allen


SUMMIT COUNTY — A local man departs for Cambodia next month on one of many philanthropic trips to support firefighting services in the impoverished nation.

“The people are just so friendly, caring and giving,” Doug Mendel said, adding that they're “spiritually rich” and “materialistically poor.”

He'll leave Feb. 12 on his 16th trip to the Cambodia, where he'll distribute goods that have already set sail for the South East Asian country. Mendel has run The Douglas Mendel Cambodian Relief Fund since 2003; it has been a nonprofit since 2005.

He most recently collected goods donated by Colorado fire stations and shipped a 20-foot container with 100 sets of bunker gear, 115 helmets, 5,000 feet of fire hose, 200 pair of firefighting pants and more on Jan. 13.

The ship is expected to arrive in the country Feb. 8. It was insured for $110,000.

Three firefighters from Denver International Airport are traveling with Mendel to help train about 25 Cambodian firefighters in Phnom Penh, the nation's capitol.

Mendel said he hopes the firefighters will begin making regular trips to the country.

Cambodia has about 14 million people divided among about 25 provinces — each with only about one fire station.

Phnom Penh (pop. 2 million) has about 90 firefighters and 12 trucks “to protect the whole capital,” Mendel said.

He is trying to raise $25,000 to $30,000 for a fire station in the remote Ratanakiri Province, to which a fire truck was donated in 2007. He's raised about $15,000 so far.

In 2006, an old fire engine from the Breckenridge's Red, White and Blue Fire District was donated to Sihanoukville.

Mendel is packing several donated toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste among other items to distribute to the Cambodian people.

His relief fund's objectives also include supporting organizations that care for disadvantaged children and disabled adults, and assisting Cambodia's national parks.

Mendel lived in Summit County from 1991 to 2006. He moved to Moab, Utah and also lived in Montrose before moving to Silverthorne, where he now resides.

He sells Cambodian crafts, such as purses, through local vendors including the Next Page Bookstore in Frisco.

Robert Allen can be contacted at (970) 668-4628 or rallen@summitdaily.com.

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13 years of working to ensure that the Khmer Rouge trials belong to Cambodians

By Youk Chhang — Special to GlobalPost

Published: January 23, 2010 10:12 ETPHNOM PENH, Cambodia — During the Khmer Rouge period from April 17, 1975, to Jan. 7, 1979, Cambodians walked constantly. They walked from the cities to the countryside, from their villages to distant provinces, and from the rice fields to the battlefields. After Jan. 7, 1979, the survivors of our country's genocide walked again; this time back to their homes.

In 1997, Cambodians began another journey: the journey to seek justice for crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge. And today, 31 years after the Khmer Rouge regime fell, we are taking a giant step along the road to justice.

On Feb. 6, 2006, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) — commonly referred to as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (KRT) — officially began setting up offices at the military barracks outside of Phnom Penh. The first trial, Case 001, began on March 30, 2009, two years behind schedule. The case opened with the defendant, former head of S-21 prison Duch (Kaing Geuk Eav), apologizing to victims and accepting responsibility, but ended shockingly however on Nov. 27, 2009, with Duch rejecting responsibility on jurisdictional grounds because he was not a "senior Khmer Rouge leader or those most responsible" as stated in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal Law. The judgment of Duch will be delivered this March.

In late 2010 or early 2011, the most important Khmer Rouge trial will begin. Case 002 will try the highest level Khmer Rouge leaders still alive today: Noun Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith. This trial will be a crucial moment in Cambodia's road to justice because the evidences and analyses brought forth will provide answers to many fundamental questions about the Khmer Rouge regime that survivors had wondered for more than three decades.

The United Nations, Cambodia and several other countries have worked for many years to help us see justice delivered. The United Nations and national governments raised much of the initial $56 million budget for the KRT and stepped in during budgetary shortfalls in late 2008.

These governments have also generously funded many Cambodian human rights and international NGOs that support and monitor the trial process by helping victims file complaints of Khmer Rouge atrocities to the court, observing and reporting on the activities of the Cambodian government and United Nations, providing counseling to those who suffered during Democratic Kampuchea and other activities.

Perhaps the most important way that NGOs can help is to work with the Extraordinary Chambers and each other to ensure that the public is informed about the trials and involved in them.

These trials are about seeking justice for victims of the Khmer Rouge regime. These are your trials, Cambodians, and without your participation in them, we will not be able to judge whether the trials are fair, of high standards, and accessible to all.

But how can the people of Cambodia participate in the trials? They are far away and it is expensive to travel to Phnom Penh. Many NGOs in Cambodia are working to make certain that people can read about the trials through magazines and other written materials that are delivered to sub-district and district offices across the country. Others will broadcast news on the radio, and the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) is working with TVK and other stations to produce television programs that will help educate people about the Extraordinary Chambers.

In the past few years, DC-Cam has also implemented a project, called the Living Documents Project, which brought up to 500 villagers every month from across Cambodia to Phnom Penh to visit genocide memorial sites and meet with officials at the KRT courtroom. Phase two of the Living Documents Project began in early 2009, and allowed victims to directly attend Duch's trial hearing, participate in KRT educational workshops and view Khmer Rouge-related videos.

Villagers returned home afterward to share their experiences with community members during village forums, so that Cambodians have the opportunity to learn about the trials from people like themselves, in addition to tribunal officials and NGO staff. All of these activities have helped villagers understand how the trials work and to become familiar with the tribunal process. For Case 002, DC-Cam will increase its activities and outreach efforts given the significance of this trial.

All of us want to see trials that are fair and just, and for the Cambodian people to participate in them without fear of intimidation or uncertainty. Learning about the tribunal from the written word, radio and television, and from family, friends and neighbors will help you see that justice can work in Cambodia and that building a more just future for our children can become a reality.

Youk Chhang is the director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia. This month marks the 10th anniversary of the publishing of DC-Cam Genocide Magazine: "Searching for the Truth." With the ministries of Interior and Information, DC-Cam has distributed 1.5 million copies of the magazine to the villagers within Cambodia. DC-Cam is 13 years old. Read more!

Alex Chin proves his mastery of pan-Asian food at Suzie Wong

remember when the concept of pan-Asian hit Cincinnati. Pacific Moon in Montgomery first offered dishes from various Asian cuisines -Thai, Chinese and Japanese - all on the same menu.

Now there's even more to explore as Vietnamese has become more familiar, there's a lot of interest in Korean food, and people are ready to try Malaysian and Cambodian.

Suzie Wong, newly open in East Walnut Hills, offers these newer adventures. With a smartly selected group of dishes from all corners of East and Southeast Asia, you can find something new. Not surprisingly, you'll also find Alex Chin, who was behind that first Pacific Moon menu. He is running Suzie Wong for a Chicago Chinese restaurant group.

Suzie took over the former location of Seny at DeSales Corner. Painted red, fronted by a wall of windows, it's a modern, stylish dining room. A glittery painting of a Chinese robe decorates one wall, the tableware is modern, the feeling chic.

Appetizers come in three categories: warm, cold and group. My husband and I decided we qualified as a group, and ordered two appetizers really meant to be shared by a table of people. We polished them off easily, though.

The dish I'll remember, and no doubt recommend many times, was the Cambodian carpaccio ($11.95). Slices of raw beef filet are topped with a mouth-exploding combination of flavors: tart with lime, fresh with basil, spicy, and salty, you will fight over it. Calamari ($5.95) in a thick, crisp coating with pomegranate sauce was equally hard to stop eating.

Most of the entrées are served to be eaten by one person. That worked out well for me when I ordered the green Bangkok curry served in a coconut shell ($13.95). It swam in a moderately spicy sauce, silky in both texture and taste. They use fresh coconut milk for the dish, not canned, according to Chin, and that's why it feels so light.

But when I ordered the Thai pomegranate chicken ($12.95), I encouraged sharing. It was really the only dish I didn't like, overloaded with a heavy sweet sauce splashed around not as decorative as the cook intended.

The Korean noodle bowl, jan chi guksu ($8.95) was spicy with kimchee and filled with "glass noodles", those transparent rice noodles that are the most slippery substance ever invented, and topped with a fried egg. Nothing better on a cold night - it even beats the delicious pho, ($8.95) with a rich, beefy broth, served with a veritable salad of basil, bean sprouts, lime and peppers.

There's no dessert, but the sensational kalbi ($15.95), Korean beef ribs coated with a rich, sweet sauce served on a sizzling plate, could have substituted.

Service was good, and Chin is a hard worker. Nevertheless, if we had played a drinking game, taking a sip every time any of our servers said "you guys," we would have left plastered.

But we would have had to bring our bottle. They don't have a liquor license yet. But they do deliver in the neighborhood, and I know if I lived nearby, I'd put Suzie on my speed-dial.

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Cambodia Labor Union Issues Strike Warning

Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Cambodia's largest labor union warned Friday that it would launch a nationwide strike unless authorities arrest those responsible for the killing of their prominent leader six-years ago.

Chea Vichea, 36, founder and president of Free Trade Union of Workers, was fatally shot in front of a newsstand in the capital Phnom Penh on Jan. 22, 2004. He was known for his outspoken efforts to organize garment workers and improve working conditions in Cambodia.

Two men were convicted in the deaths and sentenced to 20-year prison terms, but many people believed they were framed for the crime and the country's Supreme Court has ordered a retrial.

Chea Mony, the slain leader's brother and current leader of the union, marked the sixth anniversary of the killing by leading a march of nearly 100 workers and a dozen opposition legislators to the spot where the shooting took place. The march was held under heavy security but was peaceful and no one was arrested.

"Today, I wish to send a message to the government that it is time to arrest the real murderers," Chea Mony said. "If the government continues to ignore our appeals, then we will hold a one-week, nationwide strike," he said, adding it would come some time this year.

In December 2008, Cambodia's highest court provisionally released the two men convicted in the Chea Vichea killing Born Samnang, 24, and Sok Sam Oeun, 36, and ordered further investigation in preparation for their retrial.

The court did not give a reason, but the decision came after widespread protests over the convictions.

The Cambodian government, meanwhile, denounced a critical report by Human Rights Watch released this week.

The New York-based rights group said in its annual World Report that "the government misused the judiciary to silence government critics, attacked human rights defenders, tightened restrictions on press freedom, and abandoned its international obligations to protect refugees."

"Cambodians who speak out to defend their homes, their jobs, and their rights face threats, jail, and physical attacks," said Brad Adams, director of its Asia division.

Responding to the report, Cabinet spokesman Phay Siphan said Friday that Cambodia's human rights situation is improving every year thanks to government efforts. "That report sings the same old song and is not a truly scientific report," he said.


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East Turkestan: Cambodia's deportations ordered by China

The deportation of 20 Uighur asylum seekers to China from Cambodia is a sign of China’s influence over its neighbor.

After decades of isolation due to genocide and political conflict, Cambodia has integrated with regional groups like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and adopted a free market system. However, the right to movement in the country is still restricted and issues related to refugees and migrants are highly politicized. The deportation of 20 Uighur asylum seekers to China in December last year reveals the implications and challenges that face Cambodia.

Although many Cambodian refugees who survived the brutal Khmer Rouge regime were resettled in other countries thanks to the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, which is a legally binding treaty and a milestone in international refugee law, the Cambodian government, which is a signatory to the convention, ignored it in deporting the Uighurs. It has therefore violated its legal and humanitarian responsibilities. Ethnic tensions between the Uighurs and China’s majority Han people in China’s northwest province of Xinjiang resulted in nearly 200 deaths and 1,600 injured in a July riot last year. Subsequently, hundreds of Uighurs were detained and many executed for their involvement in the riots.

According to Human Rights Watch, at least 43 Uighurs disappeared while 22 entered Cambodia with the hope of seeking asylum to flee persecution in China. Despite appeals from human rights activists and the international community, the Cambodian government, which previously had claimed it would cooperate with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to provide asylum, promptly deported the Uighurs the day before Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visited Cambodia.

This clearly indicates China’s strong political influence on the Cambodian government, which allegedly received a package of grants and loans worth approximately US$1 billion for deporting the Uighurs.

In addition, irregularities in the application of Cambodian laws were also evident in the deportation process. Two days prior to the deportation, a new decree signed by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was issued making the processing of asylum cases the sole responsibility of the Ministry of Interior.

Although the government denied that the passage of this item, which was being drafted for more than six months, was not relevant to the Uighurs’ deportation, it seemed more than pure coincidence. Furthermore, the deportation process was completed in a hurried manner on a late Saturday night when government officials do not work.

The government later justified its action by claiming that the deportation was based on immigration laws and that the Uighurs had illegally entered the country without valid passports or visas. If that is the case, then the government has failed to tackle the many cases of illegal migrants from Vietnam. That the deportation of the Uighurs from Cambodia was influenced by China is evident from the remarks of its Foreign Ministry, which said at a press conference, “China’s stance is very clear. The international refugee protection system should not become a shelter where criminals stay to escape legal punishment.” If the Cambodian government stands by China’s remarks, then why has it not deported former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is an economic adviser to the Cambodian government, despite repeated requests from the Thai government?

Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 military coup and faces a minimum two-year jail term for corruption, according to the Thai government. But the Cambodian government says that Thaksin’s conviction is politically motivated and that the extradition treaty between the two nations allows either party to deny extradition in cases of “political offenses,” among others. But Cambodia is not the only country where deportation cases are politicized. Thailand has also been criticized for abusing the refugee convention following its late December deportation of an estimated 4,000 ethnic Hmong asylum seekers back to Laos where they face persecution.

Historically, the Hmong people supported the United States during the Vietnam War when the conflict spread to Laos. After the war ended and the communists resumed power in 1975, thousands fled to neighboring Thailand. The Thai government has repeatedly ignored accusations of alleged killings of Cambodian loggers who illegally cross the border and stray into the forests of Thailand. In addition, it has also denied the abuse of refugees from Myanmar who were turned back to sea and left to perish without food and water. Immigration laws have also been politicized in the United States. Several of its immigration laws in the past 20 years were introduced during periodic episodes of anti-migrant hysteria and have been a major political issue during presidential election campaigns.

For example, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which applied retroactively to those convicted of deportable offenses, including some who had committed minor offences decades ago, was signed under former President Bill Clinton’s administration in September, shortly before elections in November that year. Previously, immediate deportation was enacted only for offences that led to five years or more in jail. This included crimes such as murder, terrorism or threatening the president. However, the 1996 law expanded the scope of crimes meriting deportation to include even minor crimes such as shoplifting. Moreover, the act stripped judges of nearly all discretion in determining whether permanent residents should be deported. There are limits on litigation that prevent individuals or groups from suing the government or appealing decisions by the Immigration Department or lower courts.

Under the expansion of this law together with the 2002 extradition agreement between the United States and Cambodia, signed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 200 Cambodian refugees were deported by November 2008 and roughly 2,000 are waiting to be deported. Beyond the unconstitutional law provision, the deportation has been done without any consideration on the impact of the deportees’ livelihood and their families. In a nutshell, many states have abused the rights of migrants and refugees for political benefit despite being signatories to the U.N. refugee convention.

These ongoing violations are a signal to the international community to seek a more effective mechanism and willingness from governments to respect the rights of refugees instead of misusing them for political gain.

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Confucius Institute opens Chinese-language class in Cambodia

Students listen during a Chinese lesson at the Confucius Institute of the Royal Academy of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, Jan. 21, 2010. (Xinhua/Lei Bosong)

The Confucius Institute of the Royal Academy of Cambodia held a ceremony Thursday to celebrate the opening of its first Chinese-language class and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Zhang Jinfeng gave the first lecture titled "the History of Chinese and Cambodian Relationship."

The first class has 50 students from various ministries of the government, including the Council of Ministers, ministries of interior, defense, education and information, as well as some universities in the country.

Dr. Khlot Thyda, rector of the Royal Academy of Cambodia and the Confucius Institute, said that "the opening of its first Chinese-language class is of great significance for both sides, especially the big chance for our government officials to study and understand Chinese culture, as well as to promote the exchange of culture between the two countries."

The Confucius Institute in Cambodia, established on Dec. 22, 2009, was jointly run by the Royal Academy of Cambodia and China's Jiujiang University in Jiangxi Province.

On Dec. 22, 2009, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping unveiled the first Confucius Institute in Cambodia during his visit in Phnom Penh.

Zhang Jinfeng said that China and Cambodia have over 2,000 years of history of friendly exchanges. Since ancient times, China and Cambodia have learn from each other, and have made important contributions to the development and prosperity of oriental culture.

She also recalled the history that in 1955, Premier Zhou Enlai met with Norodom Sihanouk at the Bandung Conference that opened a new chapter in Sino-Cambodian relations.

In her nearly two-hour long lecture, Zhang said that at present, China and Cambodia have established comprehensive cooperative partnership and the two countries have a high degree of political trust and mutually beneficial economic cooperation in various fields, which she said, will be sure to achieve fruitful results, bringing the two peoples tangible benefits.

"I'm very glad to be a student of the first class of the Confucius Institute and listened the lecture given by the Ambassador Zhang," Long Chan Davy told Xinhua with exciting, adding that "I hope to learn more about China to promote the exchange of the culture of the two countries." She also expressed her hope that more and more Cambodians could come here to study Chinese culture.

Sok Chankrissna, student from a university, said that he wants to learn Chinese language "because Chinese language has become the one of the most vital languages in the world. So, more and more people want to grasp it."

"Cambodia and China have long history of friendship, and our Royal Government always pays a great attention to strengthen and develop the traditionally relations between our two countries," said Mam Chheang, student from government sector, adding "as a government official, I think it is very necessary to learn Chinese language to contribute to promoting and deepening the Cambodia and China friendship relations," he added.

The institute, which is the first in Cambodia, will offer a series of Chinese language programs to Cambodian learners and also offer training programs to Chinese language teachers here in the future, according to Wang Xianmiao, rector of the institute for the Chinese side.

Source: Xinhua

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Thai fugitive ex-premier Thaksin ends third Cambodia visit - Summary

Phnom Penh - Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra left Cambodia for Dubai Thursday afternoon following an overnight visit, Cambodian government spokesman Prak Sokhon said. The visit was Thaksin's third to the Cambodian capital since being named an economic adviser to the government there in October, a move that put further strains on the already tense relationship between Thailand and Cambodia.

Prak Sokhon said he did not know whether Thaksin had met members of Puea Thai, the opposition political party in Thailand with which he is linked, during his stay.

On previous visits to Cambodia Thaksin met his political supporters from Thailand, who have vowed to escalate anti-government protests there.

Describing Thaksin's stay in Cambodia as "a stopover" en route to Dubai, Prak Sokhon said the former premier had not discussed the economy with government officials or with Prime Minister Hun Sen, with whom he dined Wednesday evening.

"When politicians meet politicians, they talk about politics," he said.

The visit was unlikely to improve ties between Thailand and Cambodia, which remain at their lowest level in years.

Cambodia appointed Thaksin, who has a two-year jail sentence still to serve in Thailand for abuse of power, as an economic adviser to the government and to Hun Sen.

Those appointments and Phnom Penh's refusal to extradite Thaksin outraged Bangkok and saw both countries withdraw their ambassadors and senior embassy staff. The ambassadors have yet to return.

This month, the Cambodian government rejected a demand by Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya that Phnom Penh dismiss Thaksin as an adviser before relations between the two countries could improve.

Bangkok considers the appointment of Thaksin, the de facto opposition leader, as interference in its internal politics.

Thaksin was prime minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006 before being toppled in a bloodless coup. He fled the country and has lived in self-imposed exile, mostly in Dubai, since August 2008.

The relationship between the two neighbours has been tense for more than a year with a number of clashes reported between their troops over a disputed piece of land near the 11th-century Preah Vihear border temple in northern Cambodia.

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Cambodia's Minority Languages Face Bleak Future

The United Nations' cultural agency UNESCO warns that 19 Cambodian languages are at risk of extinction

More than 20 languages are spoken in Cambodia, but most are minority languages and face extinction in the coming decades.

Jean-Michel Filippi is in a race. As the foremost scholar of S'aoch, the language of one of Cambodia's minority tribes, he has only a few years to record the language before it may be lost forever. To date he has recorded 4,000 words in S'aoch. His next step is to write a grammar book on the language.

Filippi says just 10 people are fluent in S'aoch and none uses the language in their daily life. That makes S'aoch the most endangered language in Cambodia. In a decade it will likely be extinct.

For him, recording the language is one way to preserve a cultural view of the world.

"Culturally speaking a language is a unique vision of the world," Filippi said. "You can take two languages which may appear to be - if not similar then very close to each other, like French for instance and English - in fact the vision of the world which implies in French language and English language are totally, totally different. If a language disappears, a whole vision of the world disappears as well at the same time."

Cambodia's dominant language is Khmer but small ethnic groups have other languages.

The United Nations' cultural agency UNESCO warns that 19 Cambodian languages are at risk of extinction. It is not a rare problem: half of the world's 6,700 languages will likely die out by the end of the century. Most are spoken by small ethnic communities in developing nations or by groups such as Native American tribes in North America.

Blaise Kilian is UNESCO's joint program coordinator in Phnom Penh. He says there are many reasons languages die.

"When you have only a very few people speaking a language of course it is in danger of being extinct," Kilian said. "But besides this you have the environment. You have the way people, themselves, and especially the new generation, react to the changing environment. How much they are interested themselves in preserving and transmitting their own languages. So I would say it is a number of internal and external factors which play an important role besides the number of speakers."

Filippi says the S'aoch people have rejected their own language because they are extremely poor. They have decided their best bet is to adopt the Khmer language.

"In the case of the S'aoch they apparently want to get rid of their language and their cultural institution because it is linked to their poverty, to I would say their economic situation, which compared to the Khmers is a very poor one, and so on and so on," Filippi said.

The imminent extinction of S'aoch raises the question of what can be done about Cambodia's other endangered languages. With S'aoch, the only option is to write down and record as much as possible while the speakers are alive.

The situation is less dire for some languages spoken in other parts of the country. In the northeastern provinces of Ratanakkiri, Mondolkiri and Stung Treng a number of organizations are involved with youth and adult education for minority people.

One of those is Care International, which for seven years has worked with the Ministry of Education on a program teaching schoolchildren in two languages.

Care's education adviser, Ron Watt, says almost 2,000 primary school children in the three provinces last year received instruction both in their ethnic community's language and in Khmer. The program is now in 25 schools.

"Bilingual education is really spreading - people are very enthusiastic about it," Watt said.

Watt says that before the program started, the government and aid organizations had misconceptions about education for minority people. One of those misconceptions was that minority groups did not want to send their children to school.

"What we have found that that is just not the case at all - that the moment you start providing relevant education that kids can access and that kids can learn, parents are more than enthusiastic to send their kids, and kids are enthusiastic to go," Watt said.

The positive response from minority communities toward language learning programs highlights something Jean-Michel Filippi insists is essential to keeping languages alive.

"If a community wants its language to be saved and is strong enough to express the will to have its language saved, it may very well work. But you will never save a language if the community doesn't want to," Filippi said.

Cambodia's poverty does not augur well for the language survival chances of its minority peoples, many of whom are struggling to keep hold of their community land.

Language and development experts say that unless Cambodia's economic situation improves, it seems likely that it will lose far more than the S'aoch language by the end of this century.
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Leader Gets US$107 Mln Power Transmission Job In Cambodia

KUALA LUMPUR, Leader Universal Holdings Bhd's unit, Cambodian Transmission Ltd, today entered into a 25-year build-operate-transfer power transmission agreement with Electricite Du Cambodge (EDC) to develop a 230 kilovolt power transmission system from Phnom Penh to Kampong Cham for US$107 million.

EDC is Cambodia's state-owned limited liability firm.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia, Leader said the project would be funded by internally generated funds and bank borrowings.

The project would be commissioned in three stages with the first being the construction of the Kampong Cham substation which was expected to be completed by July 2011.

The second would be the new North Phnom Penh substation and this was expected to be completed by March 2012.

"The completion of the entire project with the commissioning of the approximately 110km transmission line from North Phnom Penh substation to Kampong Cham substation, from whence the commercial operation date of the project commences.

"This is expected by Dec 31, 2013," Leader said.

The project fulfils part of the planned development of the Cambodian grid system and provides for future 230 kV extension to other parts of the country around Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia, in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Currently, Leader through its 60 per cent-owned subsidiary in Cambodia, Cambodia Utilities Pte Ltd, owns and operates a 35-megawatt power generation plant in Phnom Penh and supplies electricity to EDC under a 18-year power purchase agreement. This power plant has been in operation since 1997.

Leader is also developing a 100-megawatt coal-fired power plant project in Sihanoukville through its 80 per cent-owned subsidiary, Cambodian Energy Limited. Electricity generated will be supplied to EDC under a 30-year power purchase agreement.

-- BERNAMA
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Tropical depression 01W fading over Vietnam and Cambodia

Tropical Depression 01W wasn't very well organized when it made landfall earlier today, and is dissipating as it now moves from Vietnam westward into Cambodia.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite has noticed that Tropical Depression 01W's (TD01W) rainfall is now light and very widely scattered. In addition, the low level center of the storm has been dislocated to the west of the area of precipitation as a result of wind shear.

TRMM, managed by NASA and the Japanese Space Agency flew over Tropical Depression 01W (TD01W) early today, January 20 at 0845 UTC (3:45 a.m. ET/ 3:45 p.m. local time, Vietnam). TRMM revealed that the depression was already dissipating over land because the storm's rainfall was widely scattered and light to moderate (between .78 to 1.57 inches per hour) in isolated areas.

At 4 p.m. ET yesterday, January 19 (4 a.m. January 20, Vietnam local time) the Joint Typhoon Warning Center issued its final warning on the depression. At that time, TD01W had maximum sustained winds near 25 knots (28 mph). At that time, was located about 125 miles southeast of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, near 9.8 North latitude and 107.8 East longitude. Since then, TD01W made landfall and is dissipating over land.

At 2 p.m. ET today, January 20, the cities of Battambang and Siemreap in Cambodia; and Dong Hoi, Thanh Hoa, Vinh and Son La in Vietnam were all reporting light rain, while other areas around both countries reported variable cloud conditions as TD01W's remnants continue to dissipate.

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Assumption Students Educate Cambodia

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Students in Assumption High School's Global Issues Club built a school in Cambodia last year. This year, they're on a mission to see the fruits of their labor.

It has been a four-year journey for many of the students in the group who were touched after their teacher first told them about the struggles of young women in Cambodia due to sex trafficking.

Now 10 seniors are just $10,000 and two weeks away from seeing the difference they've made in the world.

"For some it's the only way they can make money for their family, so they'll feel like it's something that they need to do to help. And a lot of the girls are really young, they're about five or six when they're sold in there, so that's why we wanted to do something to help," said student Megan Foley.

Group member Lexie Krall said the story of a woman who escaped from a brothel and now helps other escape inspired them for the special mission.

"We decided we wanted to build a school and with $20,000 ended up building a school, providing an English teacher and a computer," said Krall.

They built the school through American Assistance for Cambodia because experts said the best way to help change a child's life is through education.

Four-hundred children in kindergarten though 12th grade go to the school. Assumption students maintain the school by raising $6,000 a year.

The Vision for the Cambodia trip started in the classroom and students said they're really excited about the trip because for the first time they're going to be able to see how what they learned in the classroom played out in life.

"It's really fulfilling to see all the hard work that we've put in to this it's finally paying off and we're finally getting to see our dream," said Krall.

"I think when we go and we visit our school and we get to see the children and, like, interact with all the kids who go there, it's really going to put, like, a face to all the work we've been doing for the past four years and it's really exciting," said Foley.

Ten students will go on the mission trip in two weeks, but they're still trying to raise $10,000 to make the journey. To help the Assumption students achieve their goal, a donation Web site has been set up. Click here for more information on the Educate Cambodia mission. Read more!

Another Made in China Import: Smog

(AP) Ozone blowing over from Asia is raising background levels of a major ingredient of smog in the skies over California, Oregon, Washington and other Western states, according to a new study appearing in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature.

The amounts are small and, so far, only found in a region of the atmosphere known as the free troposphere, at an altitude of two to five miles, but the development could complicate U.S. efforts to control air pollution.

Though the levels are small, they have been steadily rising since 1995, and probably longer, said lead author Owen R. Cooper, a research scientist at the University of Colorado attached to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.

"The important aspect of this study for North America is that we have a strong indication that baseline ozone is increasing," said Cooper. "We still don't know how much is coming down to the surface. If the surface ozone is increasing along with the free tropospheric ozone, that could make it more difficult for the U.S. to meet its ozone air quality standard."

The study is the first link between atmospheric ozone over the U.S. and Asian pollution, said Dan Jaffe, a University of Washington-Bothell professor of atmospheric and environmental chemistry.

He contributed data from his observatory on top of Mount Bachelor in Oregon to the study.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering lowering the current limit on ozone in the atmosphere by as much as 20 percent, and has been working with China to lower its emissions of the chemicals that turn into ozone.

Ozone is harmful to people's respiratory systems and plants. It is created when compounds produced by burning fossil fuels are hit by sunlight and break down. Ozone also contributes to the greenhouse effect, ranking behind carbon dioxide and methane in importance.

Ozone is only one of many pollutants from Asia that reach the United States. Instruments regularly detect mercury, soot, and cancer-causing PCBs.

Jaffe said it was logical to conclude that the increasing ozone was the result of burning more coal and oil as part of the Asia's booming economic growth.

The next step is to track the amounts of Asian ozone reaching ground levels on the West Coast, said Cooper.

Work will start in May and end in June, when air currents produce the greatest amounts of Asian ozone detected in the U.S. Weather balloons and research aircraft will be launched daily to measure ozone closer to ground, where it affects the air people breathe, Cooper said.

The study to be published in Nature looked at thousands of air samples collected between 1995 and 2008 and found a 14 percent increase in the amount of background ozone at middle altitudes in springtime. When data from 1984 were factored in, the rate of increase was similar, and the overall increase was 29 percent.

When ozone from local sources was removed from the data, the trend became stronger, Cooper said. Using a computer model based on weather patterns, the ozone was traced back to southeastern Asia, including the countries of India, China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

The ozone increases were strongest when winds prevailed from southeastern Asian, Cooper said.
In a commentary also published in Nature, atmospheric chemist Kathy Law of Universite de Paris in France said the study was "the most conclusive evidence so far" of increasing ozone over the Western United States.

Law noted that natural sources of ozone could contribute to the increases, and there were limitations to the computer model used to trace the sources of the increases, but the study remained a "vital benchmark" that could be used to test climate change models, which have been unable to reproduce increases in ozone.

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We should take the lead on Human Rignts in Southeast Asia

By Elaine Pearson, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch


"It's not our role to tell countries what to do. These are internal affairs of the state."

These sound like the words of a Chinese official, yet this is what an Australian diplomat told me on a recent visit to South-East Asia. Geographically on the fringes of Asia and with a different culture and history, Australia is sensitive to being perceived as a big-mouthed bully in the Asia-Pacific region.

This is not to say Australia is silent on human rights. Australia has a good track record of principled diplomacy and implementing targeted sanctions against abusive military governments in Burma and Fiji. Yet it's relatively easy for Australia to speak out about countries where it has few economic interests. It takes more courage and principle to turn up the heat on countries where it has significant economic and strategic interests.

Australia has particularly good leverage for raising human rights issues in countries where it has close military ties. The Rudd Government should use it. Australia should be taking the lead in protecting rights through strong public statements, private diplomacy, and intelligent aid.

As a major donor and significant provider of military and police training, Australia already strives to improve governance and human rights and professionalise security forces in countries such as Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Australia hopes to help these and other nations to be - or become - stable and democratic, rather than authoritarian regimes.

The Rudd Government could start by being more proactive and vocal in addressing issues such as extrajudicial killings and impunity. For example, in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, the security forces commit abuses such as extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and arbitrary arrest and detention without fear of punishment. Abusive officials are rarely, if ever, prosecuted for such crimes, while those implicated in abuses remain in the security forces and often are even promoted.

For instance, in Indonesia, human rights violators continue to be promoted within the army and its special forces, Kopassus. A Kopassus soldier convicted of abuse leading to the November 2001 death of a Papuan activist now holds a senior commander position. Of 11 soldiers convicted of kidnapping student activists in the last days of the Suharto regime in 1997 and 1998, seven were known to be serving in the military as of 2007, and all had received promotions. And those who orchestrated the 1999 massacres in East Timor remain free.

The newly appointed Deputy Defence Minister, Lieutenant General Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, is a former military officer with a long history of working with Kopassus. Although he has never been charged with a crime, various witnesses and investigative journalists have implicated him in abuses, including the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre of civilians in East Timor, and widespread violence by Indonesian troops and pro-Indonesia militias at the time of the 1999 East Timor referendum on independence. In 1993, two years after the Santa Cruz massacre, he took a two-week military training course in Perth. As a close military partner, Australia should be concerned enough about this appointment to call for a credible investigation into the persistent allegations against Sjamsoeddin.

In Cambodia, the police and military are littered with notorious rights abusers serving under Prime Minister Hun Sen, himself implicated in atrocities. In Thailand, police officers known to have been involved in abuses during the 2003 "war on drugs" and counter-insurgency operations have been promoted rather than punished. In the Philippines, despite a government commission calling for the investigation of a senior military officer for command responsibility for extrajudicial killings, the retired general is now a congressman.

Australia often claims to be addressing these problems by offering military-to-military training, including training on human rights, international humanitarian law, and military rules of engagement. But training without a serious political commitment to end abuses is not enough. Australia should put a mechanism in place to guarantee that military units and personnel participating in Australian-funded programs are carefully vetted to ensure that they haven't been implicated in human rights violations.

Although the Australian Government says it vets individuals, in Cambodia, Australian military instructors have provided training to Royal Cambodian Armed Forces units that have been implicated in gross human rights abuses. This includes live-fire weapons training to the counter-terrorism special forces, a unit refashioned out of Brigade 70 (the Prime Minister's Bodyguard Unit), which has a long and well-documented record of committing politically motivated violence and other serious rights violations with impunity.

Australia should also consider conditioning military and police assistance on progress in prosecuting abuses and reforming security forces. Bilateral security co-operation agreements (such as the Lombok Treaty) should address human rights concerns by including explicit safeguards.

Australia could have real impact in pressing countries to bring the perpetrators of abuse to justice, but this means being prepared to raise human rights in meaningful rather than abstract ways, such as publicly raising specific cases with governments. A more cautious approach only bolsters the standing of abusive governments at the expense of their people.

Elaine Pearson is the deputy director of the Asia Division at Human Rights Watch.

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ASIA: CHINA-ASEAN FREE TRADE AREA SPARKS CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM

BANGKOK, The world's largest free trade area that became a reality at the start of the year is being billed as a welcome shot in the arm for the countries comprising it, namely, China and six South-east Asian countries. It offers a route out of the global financial crisis, analysts said.

Such optimism stems from the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA), which went into effect on Jan. 1, almost eight years after it was signed on Nov. 4, 2002 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

"The CAFTA is an important vehicle for trade-led growth and recovery in ASEAN," said Ganeshan Wignaraja, principal economist at the Office of Regional Economic Integration at the Asian Development Bank (AsDB). "We expect trade-led recovery to grow from 3.9 percent in 2009 to 6.4 percent in 2010."

CAFTA dwarfs other free trade areas by the 1.9 billion people it will cater to, having a combined gross domestic product of six trillion U.S. dollars. Only the North American Free Trade Area and the European Union (EU) are larger in economic value.

The South-east Asian nations which will initially profit from such deeper trade ties with China are also members of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN). They are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. By 2015, the remaining four members of the ASEAN - Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam - will join CAFTA.

Beijing's interest to fortify this free trade terrain has been confirmed by the launch of a $10-billion infrastructure investment fund to improve roads, railways and airlines and strengthen telecommunication links between China and the ASEAN. The Asian powerhouse has also committed a $15-billion credit facility to promote regional integration.

"It will be good (for the ASEAN countries) to latch on to China's production network, to get into that value chain, and also sell to Chinese consumers," Wignaraja said during a telephone interview from the AsDB's Manila headquarters. "We think by 2017 the ASEAN region will gain 82 billion U.S. dollars at least, and this is a conservative estimate, from a zero scenario."

ASEAN countries will have to "adjust their thinking, offering a competitive advantage for companies to invest in this new climate," said Gyorgy Szirackzi, a senior economist at the International Labour Organization's Asia-Pacific office in Bangkok. "Some sectors in ASEAN will benefit early on, like the health service sector, tourism sector and the telemarketing sector."

But he cautioned that CAFTA would have birth pains, including loss of jobs in countries that cannot compete against the labour costs of their new trade partners.

"Some countries will gain, some will lose," Szirackzi told IPS. "Companies will consider how to increase their scale of production and may choose to operate from the country that makes economic sense for them."

Indonesia has already sounded such an alarm. The archipelago's trade minister, Mari Pangestu, wrote to the ASEAN secretariat this month stating that Jakarta wanted to "renegotiate" some features of CAFTA, noting that local industries like textiles and food were suffering from a flood of cheaper Chinese imports.

Filipino legislator and economist Walden Bello offered a more trenchant criticism. "The picture is more complex than that of a Chinese locomotive pulling the rest of East Asia along with it on the fast track to economic nirvana," he wrote in last Sunday's online edition of 'Business Mirror', a Manila-based newspaper.

"The reality, however, is that most of the advantages will probably flow to China," added Bello, who is also a senior analyst at Focus on the Global South, a Bangkok-based regional think tank.

The CAFTA has slashed tariffs on 90 percent of traded goods. These include final products from chilli, fish and soy sauces to manufactured products such as air conditioners, motorcycle parts and machinery. By 2015, goods described as "highly sensitive," such as rice, cars and petrochemical products, will be subject to a 50 percent import duty reduction.

Since CAFTA came into force, China has made deep inroads into ASEAN's economy. Trade between China and the regional bloc reached $193 billion in 2009, a fourfold increase since 2003. This rise has made China the ASEAN's third largest trading partner, replacing the United States, and next only to Japan and the EU.

According to the Jakarta-based ASEAN secretariat, trade between ASEAN and China grew at a rate of 20 percent annually between 2003 and 2008. Nearly a third of ASEAN exports to China consist of electrical and electronic products.

Against this picture of stronger China-ASEAN trade ties was the sobering reminder of how they collectively felt the impact of the global financial crisis, which saw export markets in the United States and the EU contract. China's exports dropped by 26 percent in early 2009 in contrast to the previous year, according to the World Bank, while Indonesia saw a 32 percent contraction, Malaysia 34 percent and the Philippines 41 percent during the same period.

Yet to enjoy the benefits of CAFTA, ASEAN countries have to address concerns over "trade facilitation," said Ravi Ratnayake, director of the trade and investment division at the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), a Bangkok-based United Nations regional body. "The region needs to simplify its trade procedures and documentation needed for exports."

There is a "lot of red tape" that exporters encounter at customs or with ministries of finance and some of them are "exhaustive," he said in an IPS interview. "Even if you reduce tariffs to zero, the trade is not going to see a boost unless you remove all the red tape."

In some ASEAN countries, delays caused by bureaucratic procedures for exports last from 22 to 29 days, an ESCAP study revealed. "The average number of documents and time required for import/export in many (Asian) subregions remain well above the (developed country) average." Read more!

Life West takes mission trip to Cambodia

Hayward, Calif., January 19, 2010 — Kim Khauv, a doctor of chiropractic and faculty member and alumnus from Life Chiropractic College West, led a team of twelve college interns who traveled to rural parts of Cambodia to provide chiropractic care. Over the course of two weeks in December 2009 they provided care to over 1500 patients, many of whom where children in orphanages and the sick and elderly in local villages.

This marks the first chiropractic mission trip to Cambodia from Life West. Arrangements were made with cooperation from government officials, village leaders and orphanage directors. The Life West team was joined by volunteer organizer, Aireen Navarro, and volunteer doctors, Amy Vevoda, D.C., and Nathan Clem, D.C., both from Seattle, Washington.

The trip had been a long-held dream by Dr. Khauv, whose family fled Cambodia in 1981 after the Khmer Rouge, a faction of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, began an agricultural reform leading to widespread famine and genocide between 1975 and 1979. After earning his graduate degree as a doctor of chiropractic and a master’s degree in public health, he began a non-profit organization, Well-Balanced World, with the sole intention of returning to his homeland and bringing chiropractic to his fellow countrymen.

Dr. Khauv is very grateful to have the opportunity to go back to Cambodia and offer healing to many who have little or no access to any health care. He states, “I sincerely appreciate Life West for their support. The devoted doctors and dedicated interns who came along allowed me to live out my dream of bringing chiropractic to Cambodia.” He is planning the next mission trip for December 2010 with the intention of increasing the number of locations and the number of patients served.
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Ghost Voices Come to Life on 'Dengue Fever Presents Electric Cambodia'

Chhom Nimol remembers hearing a song on the radio in the '80s when she was a child in Cambodia.

"It was very sad, slow romantic," she says. "Sounded like a ghost voice."

She's not sure, but it may have been the insinuating 'Flowers in the Pond,' by singer Ros Sereysothea, or perhaps something else by the Cambodian star.

Ros Sereysothea, 'Flowers in the Pond':

Senon Williams, Nimol's bandmate in Dengue Fever -- a Los Angeles group that began doing versions of Cambodian pop and rock tunes in the early 2000s and which was chronicled in a 2008 Around the World column -- explains that "ghost voice" is an actual technical term in Cambodian singing as heard in this track.

"It's where you break from one octave to the next and the voice cracks," he says.

"The high key," Nimol explains.

"Ros Sereysothea was the master of that," Williams adds.

But in this case it has a double meaning: The singer on the radio, whoever it was, had almost certainly been killed during the brutal late-'70s reign of Pol Pot's totalitarian Khmer Rouge. Estimates of the total deaths attributable to the Khmer Rouge range as high as 2 or 3 million from execution, starvation and disease, most of them buried in mass graves. Musicians and artists -- pretty much anyone seen as educated or connected to the cultural identity of the earlier Cambodia -- were among those targeted for elimination.

"It is very sad," Nimol says, in halting English, sometimes with help from friend Soche Meas. "Our musicians, they are gone."

"The only people who did survive were musicians, not singers," Williams says. "John Pirozzi, who directed our film 'Sleepwalking Through the Mekong,' has done insane research for his own film he's doing about this but only found a few surviving band members, guitar players. But no one in the limelight survived."

Those ghost voices are being honored on 'Dengue Fever Presents Electric Cambodia.' Subtitled '14 Rare Gems From Cambodia's Past,' the CD is just that -- samples of a lost era of Cambodian pop music. Much of the music exists today only via cassettes that made their ways around the Cambodian exile communities of California. A couple of previous compilations have made their way via the cultural curiosity seekers networks, notably the door-opening 1996 compilation 'Cambodian Rocks,' from the Parallel World label; and 2004's 'Cambodian Cassette Archives,' drawn from deteriorating tapes in the archives of the Oakland [Calif.] Public Library by global ephemera-centric Sublime Frequencies. These all show a culture enamored by Western pop -- the songs are redolent of quasi-psychedelia, with reverb guitars and cheesy organ -- without any sacrifice of Cambodian-ness.

'Electric Cambodia,' with proceeds being donated to the Cambodian Living Arts program promoting traditional performance in the Southeast Asian nation, digs even deeper to the point that none of the tracks had any identification -- neither titles nor artist information. They might have stayed that way but for the memory of Nimol's older sister, Chhom Chevin, herself a pop star in Cambodia in the '80s and '90s.

"We wanted to keep ours more obscure, things that hadn't been released to Westerners -- all our bizarre tastes," Williams says. "And Nimol's older sister enabled us to give names to all the songs. She was the No. 1 singer there through the '80s and she remembers all the voices."

As somber and heavy as that all might sound, the music is anything but. Rather, this album portrays a "golden age," even more striking for the horror that was to follow.

"What I think is interesting about the music is it doesn't depict a time of woe and sadness, but of prosperity and joy and parties," Williams says. "It's like a time when all of us think we can't be touched, living the high life. And the next you know we're mixing concrete in the streets to make a bunker. How quickly things can go from this flowering state of beauty to complete destruction -- horrific and humbling."

Of course, for Nimol it's a little more complicated and personal.

"This is like a new awakening for me," she says of hearing these songs and of her role with Dengue Fever bringing the spirit of that era back to life. "Was a sad time for my parents. Everything was forgotten."

Asked her pick of the bunch, Nimol says, "My favorite is the song that talks about a young girl waiting for the handsome guy."

"That's all the songs, Nimol!" Williams interjects.

"Some talk about bands and flowers and teenagers," she responds. "A lot talk about broken hears and break-ups. But I think my favorite song is 'Sneaha.'"

The choice is a good illustration of the era -- and it probably sounds familiar:

Pan Ron, 'Sneaha':

Yes, that's a version of the Cher hit 'Bang Bang,' sung here in Khmer by Pan Ron. You wonder if perhaps Quentin Tarantino had heard this one it might have made it into 'Kill Bill' rather than the Nancy Sinatra recording.

"I really like that one," Williams agrees. "It's just a cover of 'Bang Bang' but not even a cover. The lyrics are different. The melody's a little different. It's kind of what we've done with Dengue Fever in reverse. The song is beautiful, for one. Amazing production. But there, this way, they take this American music and just completely make it Cambodian. There's the melody and energy and all the psychedelics, but nothing remaining of the American familiarity."

And he stresses that neither 'Electric Cambodia' nor Dengue Fever's forays into the Cambodian pop catalog are meant to be taken as novelty or ironic offerings.

"For me, it's the other way around," he says. "We're trying to give respect back to the folks that influenced us. When the idea for the compilation came up, it was appealing, a way to show fans what influenced us and maybe open their eyes to dig deeper and find out more. And it allowed us to raise money for Cambodian Living Arts, which we've worked with in the past. So it's a way to shine light back on Cambodia."

Nimol says that it's a continuation of what she's seen happen since Dengue Fever plucked her out of regular club gigs singing standard pop music shortly after she emigrated in 2001 to the Long Beach, Calif., neighborhood known as Little Phnom Penh.

"I think a lot of people from Cambodia forgot -- the young teenagers don't know much of this music," she says. "I remember last year when we were on tour in New York and Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, a lot of Cambodian people came to our show and enjoyed the music."

Williams adds, "There have been young people coming up to me of Cambodian heritage telling me, 'Wow, this is the first time I've listened to Cambodian music and I really loved it.' They'd be more into rock and hip-hop and R&B and say, 'My parents turned me on to you guys, but I'd never liked what my parents liked before.' Some of the kids and parents both are finding pride in music that comes from their own culture."

A particularly moving experience in shining the light came unexpectedly in late 2009 when Dengue Fever were invited to participate in, of all things, a Hanukkah celebration in Los Angeles.
"They did a lighting of the candles on the stage between bands," Williams says. "And Nimol went up and spoke about the Khmer Rouge and said she was lighting a candle for her ancestor people who perished under Pol Pot."

"That was a terrible time," Nimol says.

"Nimol cried," Williams continues. "And it took me by surprise. Later I got an e-mail from the organizer, a Jewish guy, who had never heard that there had been a genocide in Cambodia. That something so horrific and huge can be overlooked is remarkable." Read more!

Cambodia jails Swede for sex with adopted son

A Cambodian court has sentenced a Swedish man to six-and-a-half years in prison for having sex with three underaged boys, including his adopted son.

Judge Chhay Kong says Johan Brahim Escori, 62, was convicted on Tuesday on charges of illegal sexual intercourse with his nine-year-old adopted son and indecent acts with two other boys.

He also ordered Escori to pay a four million riel ($1040) fine and be expelled from Cambodia after serving his sentence.

Lax law enforcement and poverty have made Cambodia a prime destination for foreigners seeking sex with minors. But police working with social activists have stepped up efforts to fight the crime, and several foreigners are serving lengthy prison terms.

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