Hun Sen 'undermining' court

PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIAN premier Hun Sen's calls to limit prosecutions at the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal bring into question the independence of the war crimes court, a leading rights group said on Thursday.
New York-based Human Rights Watch alleged Mr Hun Sen has attempted to control the court by asserting war could return to Cambodia if cases are brought against additional members of the late 1970s regime.
'Hun Sen has no role in this court, yet he keeps trying to use his hold over its Cambodian personnel to interfere,' Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
The lobby group demanded the court's judges, who are expected to soon rule whether to pursue additional former Khmer Rouge cadres, show independence in their decision. 'The UN and international donors need to put their foot down so that the court can get on with its work in an independent and impartial manner,' Mr Adams said.
The prime minister said in a March speech that he would prefer the tribunal fail than have war return to Cambodia as a result of additional trials. Last week Mr Hun Sen reportedly also told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that the court should limit trials to five former leaders.
The court is currently hearing its first trial. Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known by the alias Duch, has accepted responsibility for overseeing the torture and execution of over 15,000 people.
Four more former leaders from the 1975-79 regime are currently in detention awaiting trial, but the tribunal's Cambodian prosecutor has resisted efforts to pursue six additional suspects.
The Cambodian government has been accused of trying to scupper further trials out of fear that prosecutors might target former Khmer Rouge members currently in top posts in Mr Hun Sen's administration.
The Cambodian side of the international court has also been hit by a scandal in which local staff were allegedly forced to pay kickbacks for their jobs.
Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed, as the hardline Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in its drive to create a communist utopia. -- AFP

North Korea insult Hillary

Hillary's terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day

And Hillary Clinton thought she was having a bad day when she broke her elbow ...
Today, a meeting of Asian leaders in Thailand turned into the set of "Mean Girls": North Korea called the Secretary of State a "funny lady" who "looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping." Ouch. To be fair, Clinton stirred it up earlier this week when she compared North Korea to "unruly teenagers."
For the Secretary of State, this latest scrap must feel like the cherry on top of a big fat banana peel of a month.
This is Clinton's first trip abroad since she fell and broke her elbow in the White House basement last month. (Does the White House offer workman's comp?) Clinton's duties, naturally, were curtailed somewhat during her recuperation, but political pundits quickly jumped on the fact that while she was laid up, President Obama was gallivanting around the globe sans his Secretary of State. Read more................

FLU EPIDEMIC - Too many details causing panic: Ammar

Govt just telling the truth, minister says

Prominent economist and social critic Ammar Siamwalla urged the government yesterday to stop creating panic over the new flu pandemic, and said its efforts to curb with the outbreak were unclear.
"Personally, I think Thailand has disseminated too much information about the new flu virus and caused panic among people, which is unbalanced," he said.
Ammar gave a speech entitled "Economic development on a biological base" at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment's Biodiversity-Based Economy Development Office.
The move comes after a jump in the number of infections and deaths, which the Health Ministry announced on Wednesday. Thailand has had 6,776 confirmed cases of the new flu, with 44 fatalities.
But Ammar thought the Health Ministry's latest report scared people.
While reports on about the spread of the virus did not affect the economy and only slightly reduced the number of tourists, he feared serious outcomes in the future if people panicked too much.
Instead of reporting the number of people who caught the bug and increasing number of deaths, the government should focus on what people knew and understood about the disease.
"The government should inform the public that this new flu virus is easy to spread but it is not dangerous if people receive the appropriate medication immediately," he said.
He advised the government to focus on prevention and provide information to people, especially those in crowded places such as schools, or public space with airconditioners.
Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai said he conceded some failings in moves to tackle with the pandemic, including the provision of medication to patients with severe flulike symptoms.
Witthaya, who was stuck in a blockade of people during a visit to Angthong, Ayutthaya and Chai Nat, he said the ministry had not concealed any information over the influenza pandemic and condemned people for trying to distort information and politicise the issue.
"These were real figures that we reported to the public. There was no reason for us to lie to people because if we do not tell the truth to people hospitals would be pushed to breaking point," he said.
Asked if the ministry had pondered panic concern caused by the surge in infections and deaths, he said Thais knew more about the virus now, and that people all over the world did not have immunity against it, so they were equally at risk and needed to avoided getting the flu.
He urged medical workers to provide drugs faster to patients with severe flulike symptom to reduce the number of deaths.
"Most patients die because of delayed treatment," he said. "They go to hospital too late after developing a severe flulike illness."
All provinces must reserve a sufficient stockpile of the antiviral drug oseltamivir and provide it immediately to patients with severe flulike symptoms.
"Patients who have flulike symptom for two days must be given oseltamivir immediately when admitted hospital," he stressed.
Pregnant women with flulike symptoms also must be given special care.
Clinics and drug stores should not let patients who have high fever and develop severe flulike symptoms to take a fever reducer by themselves for week. They should be advised to go to hospital instead.
The Health Ministry was trying to control the spread of disease in areas where there have been a high number of infections or deaths, he said.

The Nation

Hwang-DBS opens bank in Cambodia

HWANG-DBS (Malaysia) Bhd has opened its first bank in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Hwang-DBS Commercial Bank plc, to capitalise on the country’s position as an attractive international destination for business and foreign direct investment. The wholly-owned subsidiary was set up with a paid-up capital of US$20 million (RM70.8 million). Hwang-DBS CB is starting its banking activities on July 27 against the competitive local backdrop of more than 27 local and foreign commercial banks.

Source: Bussiness Times

Viettel becomes sole sponsor of Cambodia’s Football Federation

Metfone Company under Vietnam’s Military Telecom Corporation (Viettel) signed a sponsorship contract with the Football Federation of Cambodia (FFC) in Phnom Penh on July 22.
Under the sponsorship contract, Metfone will become the main sponsor for most tournaments in the FFC framework and its football squads from 2010-2012 with a total donation of US$1.5 million.
Addressing the signing ceremony, FFC President Sao Sokha expressed his belief that even more favourable conditions for FFC’s operations will be created, thanks to teaming with an experienced, effective and faithful partner like Metfone. Together with Metfone, the FFC hopes to develop Cambodian football, contributing to boosting sports activities of all kinds throughout the country.
Metfone Director Nguyen Duy Tho affirmed that his company is willing to continue providing long-term sponsorship for football in the Kingdom.
Licensed in July 2007, Viettel Cambodia has about 500,000 subscribers in the country.(VNA)

Sam Rainsy Party held candle lighting

Mr.Sam Rainsy and Mrs. Mu Sok Hua, as well as Sam Rainsy Party's members, held candle lighting on Friday morning in front of Phnom Penh Municipal Court before it opened hearing on the case suied by Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen against Mrs. Mu Sok Hua of spoiling his reputation.

COULD YOU SURVIVE WITHOUT MONEY?MEET THE GUY WHO DOES

By Yahoo

DANIEL SUELO LIVES IN A CAVE. UNLIKE THE average American—wallowing in credit-card debt, clinging to a mortgage, terrified of the next downsizing at the office—he isn't worried about the economic crisis. That's because he figured out that the best way to stay solvent is to never be solvent in the first place. Nine years ago, in the autumn of 2000, Suelo decided to stop using money. He just quit it, like a bad drug habit. His dwelling, hidden high in a canyon lined with waterfalls, is an hour by foot from the desert town of Moab, Utah, where people who know him are of two minds: He's either a latter-day prophet or an irredeemable hobo. Suelo's blog, which he maintains free at the Moab Public Library, suggests that he's both. "When I lived with money, I was always lacking," he writes. "Money represents lack. Money represents things in the past (debt) and things in the future (credit), but money never represents what is present." Read more................

FLU PANDEMIC - 440,000 people said to have had the bug

The number of people in Thailand who have caught the new flu virus is getting close to half a million, the Public Health Ministry announced yesterday.

Dr Kamnuan Ungchusak, spokesperson for the Disease Control Department, said the ministry estimated the "real" number of people who had caught the typeA (H1N1) flu strain in the three months since the outbreak hit the country in early May was about 440,000. This was based on a ratio of about 10 deaths per 100,000 people infected with the new virus. Thailand has had 44 deaths attributed to the new flu. That meant about 440,000 people had had the virus. Kamnuan spoke at the first weekly press conference at the ministry yesterday, when it announced there had been 20 more deaths over the past week.The number of cases confirmed by laboratory tests is 6,776. At present, only 35 patients were in hospital. But seven were in a critical condition. Previously, Professor Prasert Thongcharoen, a leading virologist and chairman of the ministry's advisory committee on strategy for public health and medicine, had predicted the number of patients would jump because the virus was spreading more easily among people, especially in urban areas. Its spread through rural areas was also seen as rising, but over a period of months, not weeks. Prof Prasert said most did not have immunity against the new flu virus and the H1N1 pandemic was spreading faster among humans than the seasonal flu virus. Disease Control Department spokesperson Dr Suppamit Chunsutiwat estimated that between 6 to 30 million people would get the new flu virus with about 600 to 1,200 people likeฌly to die because most people do not have immunity. To reduce the mortality rate, Kamnuan said the ministry would try to control the spread of the virus by asking people with flulike symptoms to stay at home and avoid public places. Dr Somchai Chakrabhand, directorgeneral of the Disease Control Department, said his agency had sent 1.2 million antiviral oseltamivir tablets to rural hospitals nationwide in bid to boost the stockpile of essential medication in case of a surge in patients with severe symptoms. The department had earlier sent one million tablets of oseltamivir to rural hospitals. Dr Paijit Warachit, deputy permanent secretary of the health ministry, said medical schools nationwide had been asked to boost the number of higherlevel graduates available to treat patients. He said this measure would be effective in four weeks. Meanwhile, Chulalongkorn University virologist Dr Yong Pooworawan said he has studied the genetic code of the new A(H1N1) flu strain, collected from patients over the past three months. He found there were only slight changes in two proteins on the surface of the virus: hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). This meant the virus was not mutating yet. Thailand may use a lot of oseltamivir to treat patients with new flu virus, but he said the lab results showed the virus was not showing resistance to the antiviral drug.

Source: The Nation