‘Thais confirm killing three loggers, burning corpses’NATIONAL NEWS page - 2

Irregularities reported as Crimea votesCrImeans voted yesterday in a unique referendum on breaking away from Ukraine to join russia that has precipitated a Cold War-style security crisis on europe’s eastern frontier.

Cossacks and pro-moscow militias were seen patrolling at some polling stations and russian flags were being flown everywhere from city buses to convoys of bikers who were roaming the streets.

However, possible irregularities were highlighted early on: voters were seen casting their ballots even before the official start of the refer-endum at a polling station in sevas-topol in one of several cases.

Journalists were also turned away at some polling stations in sevastopol and the regional capital simferopol despite having official media accred-itation from Crimea’s authorities.

There was blatant campaigning for russia, which is not allowed under election rules, in the form of rehear-sals for parties later yesterday to

May TittharaBanteay Meanchey province

TO a passing stranger, the dis-tant sound of music may have hinted at just another celebration in a typically

busy wedding season fast drawing to a close.

But this was no ordinary wedding. The biggest crowd that some villagers could ever recall seeing in Banteay meanchey’s malai district was gath-ered yesterday to witness the wedding of a woman whose genealogy will for-ever remain notorious across the country and, indeed, the world.

Pol Pot’s daughter, sar Patchata, was getting married.

rows of luxury cars lined a field in malai commune’s Kbal spean village, a former Khmer rouge stronghold. assembled inside the wedding party were officials from as far away as Phnom Penh. alongside them were former Khmer rouge soldiers who had travelled a much shorter distance to attend and whose friendships with each other went back decades.

“It’s a good opportunity,” said ros Ka, a former Khmer rouge soldier who

spent years fighting with forces loyal to Pol Pot and who was enjoying the chance to see some of his former com-rades for the first time in years. “We can meet with the seniors after we have lived apart for years. You don’t know how delighted we are.”

not everyone could make it to this reunion, he added, because they sim-ply couldn’t afford the journey.

Patchata, 26, is the only daughter of Pol Pot, the former Khmer rouge lead-er responsible for an estimated 1.7 million deaths during Democratic

Kampuchea’s brutal agrarian-based dictatorship of 1975 to 1979.

Patchata’s mother, mea son, married Pot – whose real name was saloth sar – in the mid 1980s after he fled Phnom Penh and was waging bloody war from the Cambodian-Thai border.

Following Pot’s death in 1998 while under house arrest, son, then 40, told the Post that the brutal dictator had treated her and his only daughter, then known as mea sith, well right until the end.

“He was a good husband to me; we met in 1985,” she said. “I am very sad

Pol Pot’s daughter wedsevent doubles as Kr reunion

Continues on page 2

Continues on page 11

Vong Sokheng and Kevin Ponniah

THe ruling party wants “biased” elec-tion watchdogs to be on a tight leash by the next election and wants the opposition to agree to it, senior Cam-bodian People’s Party lawmaker Cheam Yeap said yesterday ahead of the third meeting of a bipartisan elec-tion reform committee this morning.

Despite mudslinging between the ruling and opposition parties last week that at one point saw Cambodia national rescue Party leader sam rainsy pledge to walk away from talks and hold more demonstrations, the CPP has agreed to discuss the opposi-tion’s key demand of national election Committee reform, Yeap said.

But in return, the ruling party wants election-monitoring nGOs, whose documenting of poll irregularities bol-stered the opposition’s rejection of the July election, to come under increased scrutiny via a long-gestating law on nGOs and associations.

On Friday, Deputy Prime minister Bin Chhin, head of the CPP’s negotiat-ing team, replied to a letter from his opposition counterpart, son Chhay, agreeing that the “reform of electoral institutions” could be added to the election reform framework the com-mittee is tasked with preparing.

He added, however, that the “neu-trality and honesty of civil society groups [working on] election” would also have to be on the table.

The CPP had already raised the issue during last week’s meet, but it was dismissed by the CnrP’s Chhay as “ridiculous”.

Yesterday, Yeap confirmed that his party wanted the nGO law to spe-cifically target the neutrality of elec-tion watchdogs.

“I would like to inform [the public] that a number of civil society groups were involved in election observation. They alleged that irregularities occurred and protested that we had

Continues on page 4

CPP wants leash on watchdogs

A man holds a sign reading ‘Ukraine will fight! General mobilisation! Weapons for the people!’ at Independence Square yesterday in Kiev. Crimeans took to the polls yesterday for a referendum on breaking away from Ukraine to join Russia. AFp

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National2 THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

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UNOPS Cambodia is in the process of bidding for the Access to Finance for Small Electricity and Water Operators in Cambodia – Support Program to Foreign Trade Bank of Cambodia (FTB) ‘s Consulting Services. Consequently, we are looking for experts as below to join the team of professionals (finance, risk management, business development, water engineer, electrification engineer, etc.) to deliver technical services to FTB.

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Thais confirm three shooting deaths: officialKhouth Sophak Chakrya and Daniel Pye

armED Thai security forces killed three illegal loggers and burned their corpses

last Wednesday, according to a district governor in Preah Vihear province, who said the Thai military had confirmed the deaths yesterday.

Sok hai, governor of choam Ksan district, said Thai armed forces killed the three illegal loggers on Wednesday after they crossed the border to fell valuable rosewood in the area, burning their bodies in the forest.

“The Thai military confirmed to us that they shot three [cam-bodians] who tried to cross the border [on Wednesday] to ille-gally log timber, then set fire to them,” he said.

he added that the Thais had denied accusations made on Friday by cambodian officials that another 12 loggers were killed on march 5.

But he said he believed the Thais were withholding infor-mation about the killings from the cambodian authorities.

“They have tried to hide in-formation about the number of people who have illegally crossed the border,” he said.

major General Prawit hoo-kaew, a spokesman for the Thai military, could not be reached for comment.

cambodian loggers are reg-ularly caught by Thai authori-ties while attempting to smug-

gle rosewood into cambodia, where it is then transported on to Vietnam and china.

The ministry of Interior said last month that at least 69 cambodians were shot dead by Thai forces last year. Local rights group adhoc maintains a more conservative figure of 30 deaths.

The announcement by the

cambodian military on Friday that 12 people were killed on march 5 has caused the lines of communication between the two sides to break down, hai said.

chan Soveth, a senior mon-itor for rights group adhoc, said the Thais had largely stopped responding to enqui-ries from cambodia over the shootings.

“We are [having] difficulties talking with the cambodian authorities, they provide just a little [information],” he said yesterday. “The Thais accused [the loggers] of having weap-ons, guns, knives.

“There are no [ongoing] negotiations. after [the shoot-ings], they went to investi-gate. Some evidence was lost. and the people [in Thailand] are afraid of the local authori-ties. So they are not provid-ing any more information to cambodia.”

Pol Pot’s daughter gets marriedContinued from page 1

that he has died and I do not know what the future may bring.”

The future was equally uncertain for Patchata. Photos at the time showed a young girl’s grief as she stood beside her mother and her father’s jailer, staring through a long black fringe. Yesterday, that same face – which bears a resemblance to her father’s – beamed as the cameras cap-tured her at every turn.

Tep Khunnal, a former malai district governor, adviser to Pol Pot and member of the Khmer rouge delegation to the UN in the 1980s, married Patchata’s mother after the dictator’s death, and brought them to live in the district.

“Khunnal has raised her since she was 10 after Pol Pot died,” said chen Nat, one of Khun-nal’s colleagues.

after earning a master’s degree in English literature in malaysia, where she met her cambodian husband-to-be Sy Vicheka, Patchata returned to her home three years before the wedding, Nat said.

“She said she will not go to live or work anywhere else now and will stay here to run her uncle and aunt’s rice mill.”

Suong Sikoeun, a former spokesman and high-ranking official in the ministry of Infor-mation and ministry of Foreign affairs during the Democratic Kampuchea era, said those who attended the wedding yes-terday remained part of a strong community.

“It’s not a meeting of politics,” he said. “It is a show of friend-ship . . . [Pol Pot’s] daughter is not mired in politics. We love and respect each other as one and help one another.”

The celebrations had all the pomp expected of a cambo-dian wedding. Just after dawn, couples with trays of fruit formed a procession that slow-ly made its way to the bride’s house.

Wedding guest meas chey spoke of her connection with

the bride. Just days after Patchata was born, chey gave birth to a child in the same camp hospital as Pol Pot’s wife.

“I don’t know her very well

anymore,” she said. “When she finished high school, she went to study in Phnom Penh. But I know she is . . . very different from her father.”

By the afternoon, friends and

relatives were offering the mar-ried couple thousands of dollars in cash and gifts – Son offered her daughter a gold necklace – as the couple prepared for a new life together.

Family and friends sit in a circle around Sar Patchata (right) and Sy Vicheka during their wedding in Banteay Meanchey’s Malai district yesterday. HENG CHIVOAN

Sar Patchata (right) and Sy Vicheka hold ceremonial items during their wedding ceremony. HENG CHIVOAN

The people [in Thailand] are afraid

. . . so they are not providing any more

information

National3THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

Ethnic villages block a road and hold placards in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley during a protest against the construction of the Stung Cheay Areng dam. photo SUppLIED

Dam route blocked Phak Seangly and Daniel Pye

DESPEraTE ethnic minority villagers in Koh Kong prov-ince’s areng Valley

have blocked a road that was to be used to transport heavy machinery onto their lands to start construction of the high-ly controversial Stung cheay areng dam, according to vil-lagers and officials.

Three chinese employees of dam concessionaire Sino-hydro corp, who were brought in to conduct assessments for the huge company, had to be escorted out of the area by military police over the week-end after being surrounded by villagers at a Sinohydro office.

Ven Vorn, 35, an ethnic chorng village representative from Thmor Baing district, said that about 150 villagers had worked in rotating shifts to ensure the machinery did not leave land rented by the company in preparation for construction of the dam.

“Thirty or 40 people took it in turns to block the access road, and if we see the com-pany bringing the machinery,

we will close [the road] imme-diately,” he said yesterday.

The villagers decided to block the road after noticing the three Sinohydro workers enter the site on Friday.

“When we saw the chinese people, we were very wor-ried. We are afraid of the dam construction,” Vorn said. “If the dam is constructed, about 10,000 hectares of our farms, houses and ancestral forest land will be inundated.”

alex Gonzales-Davidson, founder of NGO mother of Na-ture cambodia, said the villag-ers were planning to take their protest to the capital, along with members of the Indepen-dent monks Network and en-vironmental activists.

“We plan to march [to Phnom Penh], but the impor-tant thing to do now is to stop the machinery from entering the areng Valley,” he said.

“If [the machinery] is brought in, it will be hard to get [Sino-hydro] out of the area. If villag-ers are determined to resist, the world will be surprised.”

Pich Siyun, Koh Kong pro-vincial director of mines and energy, said that Sinohydro

corp was granted the contract because it had more experi-ence in large-scale dam con-struction.

“The company just wants to study the hydroelectric dam, and they need to drill the land by using the machinery, since they cannot use their hands to drill the land,” Siyun said.

Last week, the Post reported that the local firm Sinohydro corp partnered with to build the dam, Sinohydro (cambo-dia) United Ltd, had two of cambodia’s most connected brokers – cPP senator Lao meng Khin and his wife ch-eung Sopheap – on its board of governors.

Ith Praing, secretary of state at the ministry of Industry mines and Energy, could not be reached for comment.

Phay Thoun Phlam Kesorn, deputy provincial governor, said that the authorities had asked Sinohydro to stay out of the valley until the situation calmed down.

“We are trying to calm down the villagers and explain to them about the project. But the project will not be dropped,” he said.

Prince’s party progressing

Proposed Iran loan under fire

Meas Sokchea

FOrmEr Prime minister Prince Norodom ranariddh made his bid to return to politics official yesterday, signing papers to be sent to the ministry of Interior today to seek registration and recognition for his new politi-cal party.

In a closed-door meeting with around 300 supporters in Phnom Penh’s Sunway hotel, ranariddh signed the papers, which he will send to Interior minister Sar Kheng so that his new community of royalist People’s Party (crPP) can take part in the next election.

In a press conference after the meeting, ranariddh, who ruled in a coalition government with Prime minister hun Sen from 1993 to 1997, said he is return-ing to politics because the cam-bodian People’s Party and cam-bodia National rescue Party are failing to find solutions to the country’s problems.

“The party a, I will not join; the party B, I also will not join. But I have always prepared [my]self to work with any party that has [a] vision to resolve nation-al problems the same as my party [does],” ranariddh said.

The one-time political arch-

rival of hun Sen hit out at cNrP leaders Sam rainsy and Kem Sokha for posing a threat to the “royalist regime” and urged the opposition to take its seats in the National assembly.

“I dare to say . . . that if he [rainsy] is elected . . . he would end the royalist regime,” rana-riddh said.

cNrP vice president Kem Sokha scoffed at the rhetoric.

“We will not [listen to] his ideas, citizens also will not allow us to [listen to] his ideas,” Sokha said.

Political analyst Kem Ley said that ranariddh’s “unclear poli-

tics” when he was in power will stand in the way of the success of the new party and that the only way for him to return would be to join the cNrP.

cNrP lawmaker-elect Yim Sovann agreed.

“There are only two political parties in the country . . . it will stay this way,” he said, adding that the creation of the party will not stand in the way of the cNrP’s goals. “We [the cNrP] are in their hearts. They [the crPP] have the right to form a party and people have the right to choose the cNrP.” ADDItIoNAL

REpoRtING BY ALICE CUDDY

Alice Cuddy

OPPOSITION lawmakers-elect yesterday lam-basted reports that cambodia has asked Iran for a $54.45 million loan.

Following an official visit to Tehran last week by a delegation from the National assembly led by First Vice chairman Nguon Nhil, cambodia’s official news agency, agence Kampuchea Press, reported that Iran is currently pushing for a final decision on the loan.

The loan would be used on six projects focus-ing on agriculture and water resources.

“all the loans that our government receives . . . [are used] to improve the social infrastructure and agricultural development as well as voca-tional training,” senior cambodian People’s Party lawmaker cheam Yeap said yesterday.

But opposition lawmaker-elect Son chhay described the loan as a waste of money. “To bor-

row money from Iran is just ridiculous. It seems to me that the cPP doesn’t know what to do but waste a lot of money on trips just to get into more debt. It could be a disaster.”

Nhil was unavailable for comment.chhay added that Iran’s relationship with cam-

bodia is based on “an authoritarian government [looking for another] to make friends with”.

Fellow cNrP lawmaker-elect Yim Sovann said that while any country should be able to provide cambodia with loans, they should consider the “illegitimacy of the government”.

Kol Preap of Transparency International cam-bodia also expressed concerns. “Every time cam-bodian delegations visit other countries, they like to show of[f] their success . . . by declaring how much money the countries they have visited pledge to give or to lend to cambodia. as a cambodian citizen, I personally feel ashamed,” he said by email. ADDItIoNAL REpoRtING BY KhoUth SophAK ChAKRYA

Prince Norodom Ranariddh talks to media outside Sunway Hotel in Phnom Penh yesterday. hoNG MENEA

National4 THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

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clean water keeping kids in school: reportLaignee Barron

KEEPING students in school may not be as straightforward as providing them

with clean water, but a fil-tered drinking supply makes them less likely to take sick days, research published on Friday shows.

The study, conducted by a UK-based medical school, compared drinking water access in eight cambodian primary schools in Banteay meanchey, Siem reap and Battambang with the 3,250 students’ absentee records.

Students were 2.5 times more likely to attend regu-larly at the schools where French NGO 1001 Foun-taines supplied filtered wa-ter, researchers found.

however, the difference in attendance at schools with and without clean water was noted only in the dry season.

“We believe that during the wet season, children may not always be able to get to school because of flooded roads, etc. or may be kept off school to help in the fields,” said Dr Paul hunter, one of the study’s authors and a professor at

the University of East anglia.at the schools that were not

provided with drinking wa-ter, students predominantly brought their own water to class, or else drank from rain-water, public tube wells or from a nearby pond.

“Water and sanitation im-provement at schools is criti-cal to preventing students from getting sick from diar-rheal diseases,” said chay Lo, an author of the study and di-rector of Teuk Saat, the local NGO arm of 1001 Fountaines.

UNIcEF says 2,000 cam-bodian children die from preventable diarrheal dis-eases annually.

The filtered water scheme costs $1.40 per student per day, or more than $4.3 mil-lion for all public school students, an amount the ministry of Education said it can’t afford.

“The government budget can’t cover everything,” said Yung Kunthearith, deputy director of the school health department. Kunthearith was unable to supply data on ab-sentee rates, but said 59 per cent of the nation’s 11,370 schools have clean drinking water.

cPP wants to put leash on watchdogsContinued from page 1

robbed the ballots. Therefore, we want to create a law that ensures their neutrality,” he stated.

“I won’t name them, but some civil soci-ety groups have taken sides and become a tool of the opposition party or even played a more active role against the ruling party than the opposition [does].”

Earlier this month, a senior Interior min-istry official told the Post that civil society groups would no longer be consulted on the NGO law.

In January, the council of ministers’ Press and Quick reaction Unit released a booklet addressing findings made by the Electoral reform alliance, an umbrella group of elec-tion watchdogs, in a post-election report.

“It is clear that the authors of the Joint-report are talented experts having knowl-edge concerning elections and experience in tricky writing to mislead readers concern-ing the electoral process,” it said, adding that, conspicuously, the report was released at the same time the cNrP decided to hold daily demonstrations.

“It was produced to discredit the 2013 elec-toral process by manipulations and fabrica-tions, aiming to bring its readers to view the electoral system in cambodia as not fair . . . misleading the public into believing that this is the reason behind the cNrP’s loss.”

Preap Kol, executive director at Trans-parency International cambodia (TIc), a key contributor to the Era report, said yesterday that he was “surprised that the cPP considers [this issue] equally impor-tant as the reform of the [NEc]”.

While NGOs like TIc are bound by prin-

ciples of transparency and integrity that guarantee their financial funding, he said, that a “small number of NGOs might have a political agenda”.

But Kol added that the government’s focus on the NGO law at this time implied a clear agenda on their part “to suppress civil society organisations”.

hang Puthea, executive director of elec-tion monitoring group NIcFEc, also a contributing member to the Era, said that he welcomed an NGO law that would crack down on errant organisations, because he was confident that the Era groups were all impartial.

meanwhile, the cNrP’s chhay said he hoped that the cPP would stop “playing

around” in today’s discussions by outlining all the issues they want to reform, even if that includes the “irrelevant” NGO law, so the committee can push forward.

“I want them to put it all on the table . . . We aren’t going to waste our time arguing with them what issues are for discussion or not . . . Put everything and take all those issues to debate at a workshop,” he said.

he added, however, that any public con-sultation would dismiss NGO impartiality as a non-issue.

“The cPP have a kind of a problem regard-ing any organisations who dare to find the facts about the wrongdoing of this govern-ment. To report on this is [to be] considered as the enemy.”

A man casts his vote as an election official supervises at a polling station in Phnom Penh last year. SRENG MENG SRUN

National5THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

TYcOON Nhem Kosal was no-tably absent from the Phnom Penh municipal court on Fri-day as the first day of his trial for allegedly running down and injuring three pedestrians in a fit of rage in June last year started.

The 45-year-old director general of Khem Kosal De-velopment and Transport co Ltd was charged in abstentia with attempted murder and criminal damage by the court, investigating judge Sous Sam ath said yesterday.

Kosal had argued with his neighbour, Ny Sath, 49, on the day of the incident, accord-ing to witnesses. The formerly close friends had fallen out over a $10,000 commission on a land deal, Sath’s wife, Tep Liza, 41, said yesterday.

During another neighbour’s birthday party held at Sath’s house in Sen Sok district’s Phnom Penh Thmey com-mune on June 16, Kosal flew off the handle after he and Sath had become embroiled in an argument and Sath punched him in the face,

witnesses told the court. ac-cording to Liza, the pair had both been promised a hefty commission from a land sale involving a mutual friend, but only Sath had been paid.

“he was jealous [of] my fam-ily over the $10,000 commis-sion [we made] from selling his friend’s land,” Liza claimed. “So he had an argument with my husband, and also threat-ened to kill him.

“he drove his car to hit him, and when my daughter and I tried to rescue my husband . . . he drove his car into me and my daughter,” she claimed.

Judge Sam ath said in court that after knocking down the family, Kosal fled the scene in the range rover he had hit them with. he is believed to have fled to Vietnam shortly after the incident.

“after driving and hitting the victims, he managed to drive his car, escaping from the scene,” he said.

Ny Kimhor, Kosal’s defence lawyer, said that Sath had as-saulted his client and should be held accountable and fined $20,000.

a verdict is due on april 9.

Tycoon’s ‘vehicular assault’ case heard

Sugar on EU visit’s agenda Kevin Ponniah and Vong Sokheng

EUrOPEaN Union Trade commis-sioner Karel de Gucht will visit cambodia this week, the Europe-an commission announced, with

rights groups hoping that land grabbing related to sugar plantations will be high on the agenda.

Following bilateral meetings in Brussels last week between cambodia and the EU where human rights, trade and political issues in the Kingdom were raised, European officials will also arrive later this month to discuss development aid com-mitments until 2020, a foreign ministry official said yesterday.

In a four-day visit to Vietnam, cambodia and myanmar, De Gucht will aim to “bol-ster the EU’s trade links with aSEaN coun-tries”, the EU said.

according to the commerce ministry, De Gucht will meet with minister of com-merce Sun chanthol on Tuesday.

cambodia exported more than $3.3 bil-lion worth of goods to the bloc last year un-der a preferential trade scheme, Everything But arms (EBa), which gives the Kingdom duty-free access to European markets.

While sugar only made up 1.6 per cent of those exports, firms taking advantage of the trade scheme by growing sugar cane in cambodia have been linked to rampant land grabbing and forced evictions.

although a high-level government working group that includes the local EU

ambassador has been discussing a com-prehensive solution to outstanding dis-putes between sugar firms and villagers, rights groups are calling on De Gucht to push for immediate action.

“The EU has to put a clear condition, basically to demand that the cambodian government respects EBa policy and addresses the pending issues,” Eang Vuthy, executive director at Equitable cambodia, said.

“There needs to be a clear timeline and a

clear blueprint . . . and we want the EU to closely monitor this.”

returning from Brussels yesterday, Ouch Borith, secretary of state at the Foreign ministry, told reporters that he had made it clear in meetings of the cambodia-EU Joint committee that the government supports human rights, despite what the opposition might say.

“I clearly stressed to the EU that the gov-ernment is determined to protect and pro-mote human rights and democracy.”

Labourers harvest sugar cane at a plantation in an economic land concession owned by Phnom Penh Sugar Company in Kampong Speu’s Thpong district earlier this month. DANIEL QUINLAN

Vendors fight for right to stay putChhay Channyda

FOOD vendors at Phnom Penh’s O’russey market have fought and won a battle against eviction.

On Friday, about 80 vendors, includ-ing some who have sold food at the market since 1997, were told to clear out of what has become a heavily congest-ed parking lot outside the premises.

“Where do we sell when we have sold here for so long and we have regular customers?” said one female vendor who did not give her name yesterday.

District governor Som Sovann said many people were pleased with the authorities’ decision to order out the vendors, who sell items including

rice, noodles and coconut. “most people around the market are happy, because the roads are wider and now have space for pedestrians,” he said.

But vendors were complaining that they had paid $40 to sell outside the market for the whole year and were being evicted without a refund just a few months into it.

Some told the Post they were will-ing to march to city hall in protest if officials did not find them a replace-ment site.

Leng Kimsong, the market’s deputy chief, said the vendors had paid mon-ey to the parking lot’s management, not directly to the market’s bosses.

“Now we are explaining to both the

parking lot owner and the sellers about public order,” he said.

Kimsong announced later that ven-dors would be allowed to come back, provided they were more orderly and only sold “hygienic” food.

“They can come back tonight,” he said.

Sovann said earlier that authorities intended to beautify the parking lot area for customers and increase park-ing space.

Earlier this month, city governor Pa Socheatvong introduced new uni-forms for market tax collectors around the capital, a response to Prime min-ister hun Sen’s calls for officials to rein in market thuggery and make life easier for vendors.

Transport vehicles, food stalls and people crowd the front of Phnom Penh’s Orussey Market yesterday afternoon. phA LINA

Wreck just too gritty for driver of sand truckIN A hit and run on Friday, it wasn’t the drunken moto driv-er who fled. According to police in Kampong Thom’s Stung Sen town, a 32-year old speeding, drunk driver crashed into the back of a truck transporting sand. The man damaged his motorcycle and sustained serious injuries to both his head and body. The moto driver was taken to hos-pital, while the truck driver fled, abandoning his load of sand, which will remain in police custody until claimed. KAmpucheA Thmey

Blood thicker than water, but money trumps bloodA WOmAN in phnom penh’s Sen Sok district got a rude introduction to the old adage “neither a borrower nor a lender be” on Friday. The woman, 22, did her relative a favour, lending him her motor-bike to visit a friend. According to police, the male relative, 25, pawned the bike for $250 and spent all the money, hoping his relative wouldn’t need her wheels back. The woman turned her fibbing relation over to the police when she spotted him walking near his home. KAmpucheA Thmey

Lazy man executes lazy scam, too lazy to fleeA 27-yeAR-OLD Dangkor dis-trict con artist took the money, but forgot to run last week. A construction company driver, the man delivered materials to customers who paid him $2,000. On returning to the company, the driver reported that he hadn’t received pay-ment, but his suspicious boss uncovered the botched ploy with a few phone calls. On Fri-day, police nabbed the suspect who said he’d already spent all the money. KAmpucheA Thmey

Man masters jealousy, adds wrath to repertoirepAILIN town police are on the lookout for a 34-year-old con-struction worker who allegedly beat his wife to the point of unconsciousness on Friday. police said the man was jeal-ous after spotting his wife with another man in the village. The husband got drunk at a wedding, and on returning home, beat his wife with a belt and wooden stick – badly injuring her head, shoulder, eye, thigh and back – before fleeing. NOKORWAT

Stab-happy lover picks funny way of apologising A 25-yeAR-OLD man was apprehended in Kampong Speu’s Oral district Saturday after stabbing his girlfriend. The woman, 18, lived with her boyfriend in phnom penh, but went to stay with her parents in Kampong Speu after the couple had an argument. A week later, the man followed her, begging her to return to phnom penh. When the wom-an refused, the man grabbed a knife and stabbed her in the back, armpit and arm. She was hospitalised, and her par-ents prevented the man from escaping arrest. NOKORWAT

Translated by Phak Seangly

PolicebloTTer

National6 THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

Battle for taxi customer gets violent in a hurryBuSINeSS must have been rough for two Banteay meanchey taxi drivers to come to blows over a potential cus-tomer on Saturday. The two 29-year-olds work along the Thai-cambodia border in malai district. When a migrant work-er needed a lift home, the taxi drivers started to argue, lead-ing one to take out his keys and attack the other’s face. police intervened and took one driver to the hospital and the other to the slammer. The customer was left to find another way home. KOh SANTepheAp

Distracted man drives straight into bamboo FOLLOWING too closely and turning without a signal made for an unfortunate combination on Friday. A 37-year-old farm-er was driving through Kam-pong cham’s chamkar Leu district with his wife and two nephews en route to relatives for a visit. The group got stuck behind a three-wheeled moto transporting bamboo, and when the moto turned without signalling, the farmer drove stomach-first into the shoots. he is now in hospital with seri-ous injuries. KOh SANTepheAp

Suspected of chicanery, trio doesn’t disappointThRee men learned too late that hanging around a dark, lit-tle-trafficked area is no way to avoid suspicious attention. The 18-, 22- and 25-year-olds were caught trying to sell metham-phetamines in Siem Reap town on Friday night. When spotted by police patrolling the area, the trio tried to flee, but the cops closed the road and confiscated two packages of ya ma as well as drug paraphernalia from the sellers. The men admitted to selling the drugs and were shipped to court on Saturday. KAmpucheA Thmey

Neighbourhood watch undoes car thieveryA pAIR of car thieves hadn’t counted on nosy neighbours ruining their perfect heist. The duo followed an officer from the council of ministers on Friday, and when he parked his car outside a mechanic shop in phnom penh’s Tuol Kork dis-trict, the two got to work. A neighbour saw them fiddling with the car door and shouted, “thief, thief”, calling the owner to the scene. police were able to arrest one suspect, but the oth-er got away. KAmpucheA Thmey

Past sins comes back to haunt motorbike thief A 26-yeAR-OLD moto thief should’ve thought to skip town after burning all his bridges. On Saturday, the man was spotted in phnom penh’s Sen Sok dis-trict by former friends he had stolen motos from and they were in no mood to catch up. The 25-year-old student and 34-year-old taxi driver turned over the suspect to police, alleging he was the one who had borrowed and then pawned their motos last year. The man admitted to the transgressions, and added a third victim to the list. KAmpucheA Thmey

Translated by Phak Seangly

An international Christian child focused humanitarian organization working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation and fullness of life for every child.

Our Cambodia Office seeks energetic, result driven, change-oriented, creative and proactive service-minded Cambodians or International to join us.

Position: Human Resource Officer (2 posts)Location: Kompong Chhnang or Kompong Thom Province Siem Reap or Phreah Vihear Province

Closing Date: 21 Mar 2014

General Description To ensure the implementation of excellent Human Resource Management (HRM) practices as provided through the Human Resource Department ( HR Dept.) including being the HR administration service provider and business partner to the senior managers. The position will facilitate the recruitment, staff development, staff well-being, staff performance management, and staff retention of the right people to serve in our ministry.Requirements:

Bachelor degree in Human Resource Management or Business Administration.1. At least 3 years broad Human Resource experience.2. English proficiency (written & speaking), and highly competent in standard office software.3. Strongly experience in coordination, facilitation, follow up, monitor, organizational and logistics planning skills, 4. demonstrating high degree of initiative, and critical thinking ability.Fully able to embrace organizational values and commitment towards the mission of WVC.5.

Position: Technical Officer for HEA and DRR Location: Phnom Penh

Closing Date: 21 Mar 2014General Description:To Support the technical to programs and projects in the Integration of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Disaster Management (DM) into LEAP products and processes for assessment, design, monitoring, implementation, evaluation and learning. Help Humanitarian Emergency Affairs/Disaster Risk Reduction (HEA/DRR) Manager in particularly on capacity building, documentation and representation on behalf of the HEA/DRR Manager.Requirements:

University degree in social science or related fields is required.1. At least 2 years experience in disaster management or community development or programming and with previous 2. experience in Design Monitoring & Evaluation. Effective Communication, facilitation and knowledge of humanitarian Emergency affairs3. Strong planning & organizational skills, and ability to prioritize multiple tasks 4. Effective speaking and writing with a high standard of English.5. Computer literate in Microsoft Office, Lotus Notes or similar database, email and Internet.6.

Position: Technical Manager for Youth Engagement Location: Integrated Programmes, Phnom PenhClosing Date: 28 Mar 2014General Description:To provide strong technical leadership of youth programming in WV Cambodia that will lead to improved well-being outcomes for young people by equipping them to be creative and active citizens – the next generation of leaders. This position will also need to build strong relationships with internal World Vision Support Office partners to increase mutual understanding and develop positive new opportunities to work together for the benefit of young people.Requirements:

Bachelor’s Degree in any of the Social Sciences or equivalent.1. Excellent English and knowledge of youth empowerment approaches.2. Strong planning, critical analysis, negotiation, problem solving, liaison, and networking skills3. At least 3 years experience working in a relief or development or local community context.4. Proficient in the use of Information Technology, digital media (photographs, video, blogs), social media applications 5. in a youth empowerment context and Computer literate.Able to embrace organizational values towards the mission of WVC.6.

Position: Senior Officer for Strategic PlanningLocation: Phnom Penh Closing Date: 21 Mar 2014General DescriptionCoordinate WV Cambodia’s routine strategy management processes to ensure effective implementation and alignment with WV’s regional and global priorities and standards. Processes include annual business planning, quarterly business plan monitoring, annual strategic reviews, and consolidation of progress reports. This position will also provide project management of new strategic initiatives from design through to successful delivery against targets, and coordinate effective processes for communication in national, provincial and district offices.Requirements:

Master’s degree in economics, business administration, or international development 1. Strong knowledge and understanding of humanitarian industry (relief, development, and advocacy), including how 2. INGOs operate in the global, regional and local contexts.

Good verbal and written communication skills in English3. Effective computer skills in Ms. Offices and various business software applications4. Proven coordination, organization and logistics planning skills, demonstrating a high degree of initiative, attention to 5. detail, critical thinking, and broad experience in several functionsAble to embrace organizational values towards the mission of WVC. 6.

Position: Senior Program Officer for OperationsLocation: Operations Office, Phnom PenhClosing Date: 21 Mar 2014General Description:The Senior Program Officer is responsible for developing and maintaining key program information including context analysis, needs assessment, as well as project design and proposal development and information management. The Senior Program Officer is required to assist Operations Director to build relationships with key stakeholders (Government, UN, donors and International Non Governmental Organizations (INGOs), WV partners) for the critical duration of the response. Moreover, this position will provide additional support to the senior leaders of WVC’s ministry-focused business units: Operations, Integrated Programmes, and Strategy & Evidence, to enable planned strategic initiatives to be achieved within agreed time framesRequirements:

University degree in social science or related fields is required; Technical specialization in child protection, economic, 1. bio-statistics is highly preferred. At least 2 years experience in program / project planning - (Highly preferred for demonstrated competency and ability 2. in implementing assessments / evaluations including: a) monitoring and evaluation methodology; b) data collection and analysis tools; c) managing data collection in the field; analyzing data, d) experience in reporting of program / project progress; and story writing. Proven track record of experience in presentation, facilitation and coordination skills.Proven track record and strong reference in excellent interpersonal communication skill, and ability to work closely 3. and supportively within a team.At least 2 year proven experience in communication and working relationship with multi-international partners e.g. 4. donor and organizational international support office and English speaking work place.English Proficiency and possess computer skills especially Ms. Offices and internet.5.

Position: Communication Coordinator for Operations Location: Siem Reap ProvinceClosing Date: 21 Mar 2014 General DescriptionTo support the Area Development Programs (ADPs) within their operation with the coordination and production of all communication collateral; video & photography, graphic design & print, writing, events, media, and support the Creative Youth Transformation Development Facilitators (TDFs) with the implementation of the Creative Youth Curriculum. The Communication & Creative Youth Coordinator supports the Communications Team at the National Office with the gathering of communication resources, scouting stories and emergency communication support, hosting of visitors, and facilitating the delivery of the Creative Youth Curriculum into the youth clubs. Provide capacity building and technical support to the roll-out of Sponsorship 2.0 throughout the ADPs.Requirements:

Bachelor Degree in Communications or Journalism.1. Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills (Khmer and English).2. Knowledge of the communication and media industry.3. Understanding of local and international development.4. One Year communication work with experience across graphic design, photo and video production, story writing, 5. journalism, media.High level of computer proficiency, Mac and PC.6. Experience working with children and youth.7.

Position: Production OfficerLocation: Phnom PenhClosing Date: 21 Mar 2014General DescriptionLead in the effective production and dissemination of key messages, through the production of high quality videos and photographic resources, for our internal and external audiences. Act as the senior producer and head photographer with the ability to mentor and train junior staff. The Communications Department requires effective, accessible, up-to-date media resources. Contribute to the enhanced profile of WVC’s nationally and internationally.Requirements:

Must understand and agree with WV’s vision, mission and core values.1. Degree in Communications, Media, IT, Arts, or equivalent.2. Minimum 5 years experience of in digital media production (such as Video and photo production and post-3. production) with sample of relevant work. Production company experience highly desired. Experience filming video and shooting photographs with DSLR cameras, such as the Canon 7D and 5D.4. Proven experience on Mac & PC video editing platforms, like Final Cut Pro X.5. High-level computer, English communications and experience in cross-cultural work.6. Frequent travel outside of Phnom Penh and provinces to film and shoot stories.7.

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

Interested applicants should obtain an application form from WVC office or download from WVC Website and submit a cover letter, Personal CV, and ONLY photocopies of relevant formal Education certificates such as High School certificate, university degree, etc. : HR Department, World Vision Cambodia # 20, St.71, Sangkat Tonle Basak, Khan Chamkamorn, Phnom Penh, P.O Box. 479 Tel: 023 216 052. Website: www.worldvision.org.kh Email to: cam_recruitment@wvi.org.

GO GREEN! SAVE THE TREES! SUBMIT ONLY PHOTOCOPIES OF UNIVERSITY DEGREES OR EQUIVALENTS ONLY with your application.

DO NOT submit photocopies of other certificates.

Villager rep held over burning firm’s timberPhak Seangly

a rEPrESENTaTIVE for villag-ers living in ratanakkiri’s O’chum district who say that buyers from a local company failed to uphold a 2007 land deal has been charged and temporarily detained by local authorities for allegedly destroying private property.

haing Noeur, 50, was detained on Saturday after plantation owner Ly Sok Ngim filed a lawsuit against him, alleging that Noeur burned timber destined to build huts on his land, said chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for rights group adhoc.

“That land dispute involves 66 families and Ly Sok Ngim, but authorities did not intervene, and the workers keep clearing the forest on the disputed land. There is no other option but burning down the material to stop the clearing,” Thy said.

In march, an adhoc investiga-tion revealed that Seng Visith and his wife, Sek Sopheak Soeur monea, who together owned a majority share of the now bank-rupt VKm company, promised to give villagers $20,000 and to build bridges, roads, schools and a village hall.

The investigation also revealed that former owners of the 400 hectares in dispute were in debt to Sok Ngim. a court ruling in February trans-ferred five properties – includ-ing the 400 disputed hectares – to Sok Ngim.

Workers employed by Sok Ngim have been clearing the community forest unabated since early march, according to chhay, claiming that the area had been awarded to Sok Ngim by Judge Luch Lao.

“Both sides in this case, the community villagers and Ly Sok Ngim, have filed lawsuits against each other over the illegal land grabbing but the court only takes action against the simple citizen,” chhay continued, add-ing that efforts to provide legal aid to Noeur were under way.

District police chief hak Lao confirmed yesterday that authorities arrested Noeur on Friday for allegedly burning 10 cubic metres of wood.

“he poured gasoline [on the wood] and burned it down and dismissed the workers. We arrested him based on the law,” Lao said.

Neither Judge Luch Lao nor Sok Ngim could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Factory flaws go liveSean Teehan

UNIONISTS and la-bour rights officials are applauding a website scheduled

to go live today that will hold to account garment factories that flout cambodia’s labour law.

The site, created and main-tained by the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories cambodia (BFc) program, will publicly name factories that violate two or more ILO workplace standards.

“Before, [factories] were not publicly disclosed,” BFc spokesman Tivea Koam said yesterday. “all of the public pressure will push buyers to . . . make sure they comply with the law.”

a quarterly report identify-ing the factories will be avail-able through the website, Koam said. Named factories will be allowed to upload to the website photographs and other media detailing steps they are taking to improve working conditions.

“Before, reports of indi-vidual companies could only be viewed by factory owners [and buyers], the public could not check,” said ath Thorn, president of the coalition of

cambodian apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (c.caDU). “It’s a tool for pushing the companies, so this way com-panies find ways to improve working conditions and obey the labour law.”

Koam named child labour and repression of union ac-tivity as frequent violations of labour law.

The heightened transparen-cy the public notifications will bring to cambodia’s garment and shoe industry comes at a time when compliance to la-bour laws is on a downslide, said David Welsh, country di-

rector for labour rights group Solidarity center.

Telling the public which gar-ment factories subject employ-ees to poor working conditions and the clothing brands that buy from them will likely ben-efit most workers, Welsh said. But the sector has problems beyond lacking transparency.

“It’s an important first step, [but] I don’t think things are going to change overnight,” Welsh said.

Garment manufacturers as-sociation in cambodia secre-tary general Ken Loo could not be reached yesterday.

Garment workers sew clothing on a production line at the MAG factory in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district in January. phA LINA

7THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

Business

Solar move at PPWSa to cut costsHor Kimsay

ThE Phnom Penh Water Sup-ply authority (PPWSa) installed a solar power gen-eration system last week in an effort to reduce electricity bills by about $200,000 a year.

The solar power system, which was funded by the Jap-anese government, was installed at the PPWSa’s water treatment facility in the capi-tal’s Daun Penh district at a cost of $7 million.

ros Kimleang, chief of the accounting and financial department at PPWSa, said yesterday that the system is part of an overall effort to reduce dependency on other energy sources.

Kimleang said he hoped the savings would translate into profits for cambodia’s only publicly listed company, though he did not say how much the company spends on electricity each year or wheth-er the savings would be passed on to consumers.

The new system will gener-ate one million kilowatt-hours each year, enough to supply power to all of the PPWSa.

mh370 fallout to cost airlineBhavan Jaipragas

ThE mystery sur-rounding the fate of a possibly hijacked ma-laysia airlines plane

raises the spectre of costly lawsuits and a damaging drop in bookings for a national car-rier already haemorrhaging cash in the face of intense competition.

Prime minister Najib razak said on Saturday that inves-tigators believe the jet, with 239 passengers and crew on board, had been deliberately diverted from its course and flown on for hours after pri-mary radar contact was lost.

“It definitely makes inves-tors very concerned,” Daniel Wong, an analyst with hong Leong Investment Bank in malaysia, told aFP.

“People want to know what went wrong, whether there is a safety issue or security issue with malaysia airlines if the plane was hijacked,” he said.

The airline has a good safety record, although a Twin Otter aircraft belonging to its fully owned subsidiary maSWings crashed in October last year, killing two people.

Najib’s announcement all but ruled out a mechanical issue with the Beijing-bound Boeing 777 that disappeared on march 8. It also raised the alarming prospect that one or both pilots might have been involved.

The singular peculiarities of the case have kept the missing plane at the top of the global news agenda for more than a week, placing the carrier under a harsh and unwanted spotlight at a time when it is desperate to turn its finances around.

Last month, malaysia air-lines announced a 1.17 billion ringgit ($360 million) loss for the year to December 2013,

exceeding the expectations of analysts.

The airline, which is 70 per cent owned by Khazanah Na-sional, malaysia’s state invest-ment arm, last posted a net profit (237 million ringgit) in 2010. In 2011 and 2012, it re-ported consecutive losses of 2.5 billion ringgit and 433 mil-lion ringgit, respectively.

analysts have long blamed poor management, govern-ment interference, a bloated workforce and powerful, change-resistant unions for preventing the airline from remaining competitive.

Wong said the sensational daily headlines generated by the missing Boeing could only undermine efforts to bring

the carrier back to profit. “The financial impact will be lon-ger term. It could mean less people wanting to travel on malaysia airlines, and the air-line will have to reduce ticket prices to encourage people to travel with them,” he said.

Travel agents told aFP that malaysian travellers were al-ready shunning the airline.

“Of course there are custom-ers who don’t want to fly maS. They are scared,” said one travel agent, who declined to be named.

“Even if maS has the best rates, some don’t want it. They try to avoid it. They are willing to pay more.”

malaysia airlines did not immediately respond to que-

ries on whether ticket sales have been affected.

In a statement on Saturday, the airline defended itself against criticism that it was slow in disseminating fresh information about develop-ments in the search for the missing aircraft.

Shukor Yusof, an aviation in-dustry analyst with Standard & Poors capital IQ, said the airline’s earnings could be im-pacted by incidental expenses arising out of the incident, as well as potential legal costs.

malaysia airlines has of-fered family members of each passenger $5,000 in expenses as they await the conclusion of the search for flight mh370. and the possibility of legal

suits from family members “has to be taken into account when we look at maS’s earn-ings”, Shukor said.

The price of the missing Boeing 777-200Er aircraft, which has a list price of $261.5 million according to the US manufacturer, is not on the airline’s books.

Shukor said it was leased from Penerbangan malaysia, an aviation company fully owned by malaysia’s finance ministry. Irrespective of how the mh370 mystery finally pans out, analysts say that the real challenge for the air-line remains the structural and managerial inefficiencies blamed for its plunge into the red. AFP

USD / JPY

103.06

USD / SGD

1.267

USD /CNY

6.1424

USD / HKD

7.7616

USD / THB

32.35

AUD / USD

0.8966

NZD / USD

0.8464

EUR / USD

1.3859

GBP / USD

1.6626

Indicative Exchange Rates as of 12/3/2014. Please contact ANZ Royal Global Markets on 023 999 910 for real time rates.

USD / KHR

3,982

CORRECTIONSIn an article headlined “Grand Twins sets listing date” on March 13, the Post misunder-stood Stephen Hsu’s comments regarding interest in Grand Twins’ IPO road show. He was referring to the amount of peo-ple planning to attend the first day of the road show, not overall investor interest in the IPO.

In the article “Next stop for bit-coin: Cambodia?” dated March 14, the Post misstated the position of Ki Chong Tran, the author of the bitcoin proposal, in a group photograph. He stood on the far right of the picture, not the far left.

A Malaysia Airlines employee writes a message expressing prayers and well wishes for passengers on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang on Friday. AFP

Massive recall

Honda cites defect in fuel pump cover

JAPANESE automaker Honda is recalling nearly 900,000 vans in the

United States for a defect to the fuel pump that could cause a fire.

In its notice to the Natio-nal Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Honda said no injuries or fires have been reported due the defect, linked to a crack in the fuel pump strainer cover.

The cracks, which develo-ped when acidic chemicals and a high temperature cau-sed deterioration, “could lead to a fuel smell being present or to leaking fuel, increasing the risk of fire”, Honda said in the notice.

The company is notifying van owners now, however said that parts will not be available until this summer, and a second notification will go out when the repairs can be made.

Any cars with an existing leak will be entitled to imme-diate repairs.

The recall affects 886,815 Honda Odyssey vehicles from the 2005 to 2010 model years. AFP

Business8 THE PHNOM PENH POST March 17, 2014

SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR1. Duties

Plan and implement the sales and marketing strategies Build relationship with peers, business partners and relevant customers/clientsPrepare sales/marketing reports on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis Achieve sales and marketing operational objectives by contributing sales/marketing information and providing recommendations for the strategic plan and reviews; complete action plans. Meet sale/marketing financial objectives base on forecasting requirement, prepare annual budget, schedule expenditures and analyze variances Improve service marketability and profitability by conducting research, identifying, and capitalizing on market opportunitiesDefine and implement communication and promotion plans (Advertising, PR, Social media, and direct marketing)Develop creative tools to support all marketing strategy and promotion plans

Qualifications

Minimum 3 years’ experience in Sales or Marketing Management Minimum 25 years old Minimum qualification degree holder in Marketing/ Business preferred Demonstrated experience to ensure visibility of the pipeline to sales management for forecasting and business planningUnderstanding consumer insights and market trends

CREATIVE DIRECTOR2. Duties:

Management of the Creative Department, and their duties which include:Design and production of all visual communication materials including: flyers, banners, print and web advertising, displays, internal and external signage, branded content such as tee-shirts, etc.

Design and implementation of corporate brand identity following and updating the company’s graphic charterOversight and production of visual materials including: Graphic Design, Illustration, Logo design, Photography, Video production and editing, and Event DecorationsOversight and management of the Kids City website, Facebook account and corporate online and mobile marketing campaigns, newslettersWorking in collaboration with other departments as well as acting as a liaison between Kids City and printers, designers, photographers, videographers, publishers, newspapers, etc.Management of Creative Department’s deadlines and dutiesOrganization and maintenance of Kids City communication resource filesTrain and support members of the Creative Department

Qualifications:Minimum 30 years old with at least 5 years of experience in the field of Creative DesignDegree in the field of Graphic Design or Fine Arts preferredFluency in English, mother-tongue preferred. Fundamental understanding and proficiency in:

Graphic Design - including illustration, and use - of typography, and use of: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver and other design software Typography - namely good sense of designing - with typePrint production: from design to press- Photography- Web Design: knowledge of html, CSS, PHP, - JavaScriptVideo production a plus-

Must be creative and open-minded, with an eye for qualityMust have strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple tasks under tight deadlines

KIDS CITY ASIA COMPANY LIMITED is an indoor entertainment center providing sport activities and entertainment for families such as Ice Skating, the Science Gallery, Laser Tag, Toddler Town, Clip & Climb and the Playground. Other facilities include; children’s clothing stores, a restaurant, a café and a function room for birthdays, team building programs and other exciting events at Kids City building. We are presently seeking appropriately qualified persons to support our work, to be based at our Phnom Penh Office. The following positions are currently vacant:

Applicants are requested to submit a CV and cover letter to #162, Preah Sihanouk Boulevard, Khan Daun Penh, Phnom Penh, or by email to: hr@kidscityasia.com or 012 388 836, 077 76 77 85.

Deadline for applications: by April 12th, 2014.

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT

alibaba to go public in USLulu Yilun Chen

aLIBaBa Group hold-ing Ltd, china’s biggest e-commerce firm, will begin the process of

filing for an initial public offer-ing in the US that may be the biggest since Facebook Inc.

The announcement comes after alibaba struggled to persuade hong Kong regula-tors to approve a governance structure that would allow its partners to nominate a major-ity of its board of directors.

a listing in china may be considered “should circum-stances permit in the future”, the hangzhou-based compa-ny said in a statement.

Investment banks have valued alibaba, founded by former English teacher Jack Ma, at as much as $200 bil-lion, which would make it the second-biggest Internet company behind Google Inc based on market capitalisa-tion. a US share sale by ali-baba would be a blow to hong Kong, which hasn’t hosted an IPO of more than $4 billion since October 2010.

“alibaba’s preference to keep its partnership structure is probably the biggest reason why it chose to list in the US,”

Stephen Yang, a hong Kong-based analyst at Sun hung Kai Financial Ltd, said yesterday.

alibaba hasn’t decided when to file for the listing, how much it plans to raise, how large a stake it may sell or which ex-change in the US it would seek to list on, according to a per-son familiar with the matter.

“This will make us a more global company and enhance the company’s transparency,” alibaba said in the statement. “We respect the viewpoints and policies of hong Kong.”

The prospectus for an IPO

may be disclosed as soon as april, people familiar with the matter have said. The com-pany is also working with New York-based law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, two people familiar with the mat-ter have said.

an alibaba IPO could raise about hK$100 billion ($12.9 billion), Ernst & Young LLP said on June 28. That would make it the world’s biggest first-time share offering since Facebook raised $16 billion in May 2013, and hong Kong’s largest since aIa Group Ltd’s

$20 billion sale in October 2010, according to data com-piled by Bloomberg.

alibaba’s expansion since Ma started the company in his hangzhou apartment in 1999 with two dozen items for sale mirrors china’s emergence as an economic superpower.

The company had about 25,000 employees at the end of February and generated about 70 per cent of package deliveries in china in 2012. customers bought 35 billion yuan ($5.7 billion) of goods on one sales promotion day via alibaba’s two main platforms last year.

The success has made Ma, 49, one of china’s richest people, with an estimated net worth of $11.4 billion, accord-ing to the Bloomberg Billion-aires Index.

There is still room for growth. china has 618 million Internet users, greater than the popu-lation of any other country except India, and McKinsey & co estimates china’s Internet retail market will triple to $395 billion from 2011 to 2015.

alibaba, which operates online markets for products from Louis Vuitton bags to Boston lobsters, posted its fourth straight quarterly

profit on surging sales. Net income attributable to ordi-nary shareholders was $792 million in the three months ended September, a 12 per cent increase from the June quarter, according to a Janu-ary presentation from Yahoo Inc, which owns a 24 per cent stake. revenue increased 51 per cent to $1.78 billion.

Billionaire Ma huateng’s Tencent holdings Ltd, opera-tor of the Wechat instant mes-saging service, is the biggest hong Kong-traded Internet success story so far. Shares have soared more than 150 times from the June 2004 IPO price of hK$3.70, giving the company a market value of $142 billion.

alibaba’s $792 million profit in the September quarter, the most recently disclosed by Ya-hoo, compares with the $422 million Facebook earned in the same period and Tencent’s net income of 3.9 billion yuan, or $634 million.

Weibo corp, china’s big-gest microblogging outlet, last week filed to raise $500 mil-lion in a United States initial public offering. Last year, ali-baba agreed to buy a stake in Weibo, which is controlled by Sina corp. BLOOMBERG

Employees work at Alibaba.com’s Chinese headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in 2012. BLOOMBERG

Markets9THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

Business

Fran Wang

chINa could miss its offi-cial growth target for the first time in 16 years, a snap poll of economists shows after surprisingly weak data for January and February.

Industrial output, a key measure of production at fac-tories, workshops and mines in the world’s second-largest economy, rose just 8.6 per cent in the first two months of 2014, the slowest pace in five years, government fig-ures showed on Thursday.

retail sales, an indicator of consumer spending, in-creased at the lowest rate since February 2011, while growth in fixed asset invest-ment, a gauge of government spending on infrastructure, came in at a surprisingly low 17.9 per cent during the period, according to the new data collected.

In a survey of 10 econo-mists on Friday, the median forecast for 2014 growth was 7.4 per cent, with some say-ing the weak start to the year had led them to cut their an-nual predictions.

at the just-concluded Na-tional People’s congress (NPc), Premier Li Keqiang set this year’s growth tar-get at “around 7.5 per cent”, lower than last year’s actual expansion of 7.7 per cent, which was unchanged from 2012 and the worst since 7.6 per cent in 1999.

china is a key driver of the world economy and the last time its actual GDP growth came in below the govern-ment target was in 1998, at the height of the asian fi-nancial crisis.

“The disappointing eco-nomic data in January-Feb-ruary will be a test of the government’s tolerance level, as this pace of deceleration has rarely been seen before,” Shen Jianguang, a hong Kong-based economist with mizuho Securities, said in a research note.

he cut his projection for 2014 growth from 7.5 per cent to 7.3 per cent.

Bank of america merrill Lynch analysts also lowered their prediction from 7.6 per cent to 7.2 per cent for the full

year due to the “significantly weaker than expected” data in the first two months.

Goldman Sachs, mean-while, said that if economic growth falls under 7.5 per cent in the first quarter, there will be “significant risks of not hitting the an-nual target”.

china’s top leaders have said they are ready to accept slower expansion as they seek to transform the econ-omy’s growth model away from an over-reliance on often wasteful investment, and instead make private demand the driver of future development.

after the close of the NPc, china’s communist Party-controlled legislature, on Thursday Premier Li sought to downplay the importance of the target.

“We have a level of flex-ibility by setting the target at around 7.5 per cent,” he revealed.

We think the government will not let growth slide below the seven per cent mark,” Wang Tao, a UBS economist in hong Kong, said in a report.

Key downside risks ahead this year include uncertain-ties in export recovery, credit volatilities related to china’s multi-trillion-dollar shadow banking sector, heightened by the country’s first-ever default on a domestic cor-porate bond recently, and a “more pronounced” property slowdown, she said.

The government has avoid-ed introducing major stimu-lus measures since Li took office in march last year, and the ruling party leadership promised in November to let the market play the “decisive” role in resource allocation.

But that vow could make it more difficult for the gov-ernment to intervene in the economy, for example with infrastructure investment, as such policies “may concep-tually contradict the goal”, Goldman Sachs economist Song Yu said in a report.

“It does imply more con-straints on what and how much the government can do compared with the past,” Song wrote. AFP

china growth targets in doubt as retail and production drop off

Executive Director Engineering of Maruti Suzuki India Limited, CV Raman poses with a new Celerio car during a launch ceremony in Hyderabad, India, in February. AFP

Investors see red over India, Japan car dealI

NDIa’S top carmaker maruti Suzuki said on Saturday that it would seek minority share-

holder approval for a con-troversial plan to source cars from a plant to be built by its Japanese parent that spurred an investor revolt.

Japan’s Suzuki motor co owns some 56 per cent of maruti. It said in January that it would invest nearly $500 million in building a plant in western Gujarat state, reneg-ing on an earlier plan under which maruti would build the factory itself.

Now, in the face of intense opposition from institutional shareholders, maruti after a board meeting said it had decided to give minority shareholders a chance to ap-prove the decision.

“Even though not required by law, the board decided, as a measure of good corporate governance, to seek minor-

ity shareholders’ approval,” the company said in a re-leased statement.

The decision by maruti Su-zuki to procure its cars from the Gujarat plant to be con-structed by its parent Suzuki motor co triggered an outcry from shareholders, including institutional investors.

In an unusual display of shareholder activism in India, where institutional investors are often just silent partners, fund managers wrote to mar-uti asking the company to reconsider its plans, saying they were unfair.

analysts have said minor-ity shareholders might profit more if maruti made the cars itself at the Gujarat plant as it has traditionally done at its other plants and remains a manufacturing company.

maruti added in the state-ment that in the event that “both parties mutually agree to terminate the manufac-

turing agreement, the fa-cilities of the Gujarat Sub [plant] would be transferred to maruti Suzuki India Ltd at book value”.

maruti shares have come under heavy pressure since the plan emerged in January.

The firm has two factories in northern India located in manesar and Gurgaon that can produce up to 1.5 mil-lion vehicles a year.

Local media had reported fund managers were con-sidering taking legal ac-tion against maruti over the Gujarat plant.

The plant would have an initial capacity to make 100,000 cars a year, rising to an expected 1.5 million a year, equal to the Indian car-maker’s current capacity.

“I think this is a good move by management as minority shareholders often feel their voices aren’t being heard,” said Deepesh rathore, direc-

tor of India’s Emerging mar-kets automotive advisors.

maruti, which dominates India’s car market, has insist-ed that the deal is a “win-win” plan for both the company and investors.

But minority shareholders assert that the winners would be parent Suzuki which would obtain the gains from higher domestic sales.

Under the proposal, mar-uti would purchase the cars made by Suzuki at the new factory and then sell them through its dealers.

Suzuki says its funds in Ja-pan are generating lower than desirable returns and that it would be better for its money to be invested in the Gujarat plant.

Given the Indian car mar-ket’s current weak outlook, some analysts also say it might be tough for the com-pany to fund the construction of the Gujarat plant. AFP

Elisabeth Behrmann

AS MORE environ-mentally conscious Americans do their bit to help clear the

air by paying up for an eco-friendly Prius or a sporty Tesla, a damaging form of polluted rain is falling in China.

The link is graphite, a vital component in batteries used in Tesla’s Model S, Toyota’s plug-in Prius and other elec-tric cars, as well as in electronic gadgets including iPhones. It’s mostly mined and processed in China where graphite pol-lution has fouled air and wa-ter, damaged crops and raised health concerns.

Now, in response, Chinese authorities are closing dozens of graphite mines and proces-sors in a bid for cleaner air even as global demand for the commodity is surging.

“There’s little question that the Chinese are between a rock and a hard place envi-ronmentally,” Josh Landess, an advanced transportation analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said. “There’s an obvious irony that the dis-ruption it’s causing is within the clean vehicle and trans-portation industry.”

The graphite outcry is the latest among environmental flashpoints in China that have ranged from lead poisoning to acid spills and “unbearable smog” in big cities. And while the clampdown may help im-prove the quality of China’s environment, it could also affect as much as a third of worldwide production.

Analysts disagree about the impact of a sharp decline

of graphite supplies. Simon Moores, a London-based se-nior analyst at Industrial Min-erals Data, sees China’s tough-er stance pushing graphite prices up as much as 30 per cent this year. Others say even that rise would have an only minimal impact on the overall price of electric cars though it could slow the expected long-term decline of battery prices.

The market for hybrid and electric cars such as Toyota Motor Corp’s Prius hybrid and Tesla Motor Inc’s fully electric Model S as well as for e-bikes is forecast to surge this de-cade, propelled by demand for greener vehicles.

To keep up with demand, Tesla plans to invest $5 bil-lion building a factory to produce battery packs for its luxury electric cars, it said last month. The project, dubbed the “gigafactory”, would be the world’s largest such operation, according to chief executive officer Elon Musk.

Each electric car contains about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of graphite. Hybrid cars use about 10 kilograms, e-bikes 1 kilogram, laptops about 100 grams and mobile phones about 15 grams, ac-cording to Anthony Pandolfo from Monash University’s department of materials en-gineering. The growth and diversity of electronic devices will propel demand for re-chargeable batteries, accord-ing to Lux Research.

Tesla’s factory alone could double demand for graph-ite in batteries, requiring the equivalent of six new mines to come into production, ac-cording to Industrial Miner-

als’ Moores. Battery makers include Sony Corp, Panasonic Corp, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and NEC Corp.

Instead, China is cutting back production as it battles more damaging environmental is-sues stemming from its reli-ance on coal for electricity and conventional automobiles.

As many as 55 graphite op-erations were suspended in Shandong province, which controls 10 per cent of global supply, in December last year on a range of environmental breaches. The government in-tervention could easily extend to other poorly run producers in Heilongjiang Province, said Credit Suisse Group AG ana-lyst Michael Slifirski.

More damaging than the graphite rain, the silver dust that falls from carelessly man-aged mines, is the hydro-chloric acid used in China to process raw graphite into a usable form. The acid is highly

corrosive and when released untreated as waste water into the environment is harmful to all forms of life.

No significant new mines have been added outside Chi-na since the 1980s, according to Industrial Minerals.

That’s about to change. Con-cern about diminished supply from China is prompting a rush to secure other sources, including the Uley graphite mine in Australia that’s due to reopen this month after being shut for more than two decades because of rising output from China that depressed prices.

The demand for lithium-ion batteries, which use graphite, will drive up the total value of the rechargeable battery mar-ket by 52 per cent to $41 billion by 2018, according to Cosmin Laslau, a Boston-based ana-lyst at Lux Research Inc.

The lion’s share of growth will come from products such as Apple’s iPad and Amazon.

com Inc’s Kindle, as well as smart phones, Laslau said in a presentation.

A spokesman for Toyota, the world’s biggest carmaker, said in an email that it is “important to maintain a stable supply of any raw material, and we work with our suppliers to do so”.

Tesla, Apple, Panasonic and Sony declined to comment on the potential effect of higher graphite prices for its batter-ies and production practices in China.

Seiichiro Toda, a Tokyo-based spokesman for NEC, said prices hadn’t increased at this point. Samsung said it didn’t expect an impact from capacity closures in Shandong province.

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG last month said it had 11,000 orders for its fully elec-tric four-door i3 car, while BYD Co, the Chinese auto-maker backed by investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire

Hathaway Inc, is preparing to begin US production of elec-tric buses in March.

China’s graphite pollution crackdown is raising concern among battery makers over supply security, according to Chris Darby, chief executive officer of Valence Industries Ltd, the developer of the Uley in South Australia. The com-pany already has commit-ments for initial output from stockpiles, he said.

“They can see demand growing,” Darby said. “They want certainty of supply, and they’re uncertain about the supply that’s coming out of China, or any of the other re-gions around the world.”

A 30 per cent increase in graphite prices could increase the price of battery packs for electric vehicles by as much as 5 per cent, according to Brian Warshay, a New York-based analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance. BLOOMBERG

Business10 THE PHNOM PENH POST MARCH 17, 2014

Fixed Deposit Interest RatesCambodian

Financial Institutions

On Deposits3 Months 6 Months 12 Months

As of MARCH 12, 2014 USD RIEL USD RIEL USD RIEL

PRaSac 5.50% 6.50% 6.50% 7.50% 8.00% 9.75%

aBa Bank 3.50% N/a 4.50% N/a 5.50% N/a

acLEDa Bank 2.50% 5.00% 3.75% 6.00% 5.00% 7.00%

aNZ Royal Bank 1.35% 3.50% 2.50% 4.00% 3.50% 5.50%

Bank of India 2.25% N/a 3.00% N/a 4.00% N/a

cambodia asia Bank 3.50% N/a 4.50% N/a 5.50% N/a

cambodia Mekong Bank 2.75% N/a 3.25% N/a 3.50% N/a

cambodian Public Bank 2.25% N/a 3.25% N/a 4.00% N/a

canadia Bank 2.50% 5.00% 3.50% 6.00% 4.75% 7.00%

Maybank 2.25% N/a 3.25% N/a 4.25% N/a

MaRUhaN Japan Bank 2.00% 2.00% 3.00% 3.00% 4.50% 4.50%

RhB Indochina Bank 2.75% 4.00% 3.50% 5.00% 4.75% 6.00%

SBc Bank 3.00% N/a 3.50% N/a 4.50% N/a

Union commercial Bank 3.50% N/a 4.50% N/a 5.50% N/a

EMAAR Properties PJSC, builder of the world’s tallest tower, said it expects to raise as much as $2.45 billion in the pub-lic offering of a 25 per cent stake in its shopping malls and retail business after revenue surged.

The estimated 8 billion dirhams ($2.18 billion) to 9 billion dirhams generated from the secondary public offering in the Emaar malls and retail unit will primarily be distributed to the company’s share-holders as a dividend, according to an emailed statement released on Saturday from Emaar.

The Dubai-based company didn’t give a

time frame for the share sale or location.Emaar is benefiting from a tourism and

retail boom in Dubai that’s driving up visitor numbers at its flagship malls and boosting sales.

The malls and retail business posted a 20 per cent increase in revenue to 2.84 billion dirhams in 2013, while the Dubai Mall received 75 million visitors last year.

“Emaar’s shopping malls and retails subsidiary is our high-performing busi-ness, which derives its growth impetus from the sustained growth of Dubai,” Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties, said in the statement.

Emaar also said it proposed a cash dividend of 15 per cent of the company’s share capital for 2013 as well as 10 per cent bonus shares to shareholders. Emaar is the most recent company in the region to take advantage of surging markets and asset prices to plan public offerings.

Dubai’s economy expanded about 4.9 per cent in 2013, four years after it was rescued from near default with a $20 bil-lion bailout from neighboring Abu Dhabi. Property prices are surging and compa-nies including real-estate developer Na-kheel PJSC are repaying debt early to win back investor confidence. AFP

Emaar properties aims for secondary offering

A battery awaits installation in a Tesla Motor Model S sedan at the company’s assembly plant in Fremont, California, last year. BLOOMBERG

Green cars’ dirty tracks shut mines

11THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

WorldIrregularities reported as crimea votesContinued from page 1 celebrate an expected pro-moscow result. mykhaylo malyshev, the head of the referendum organising com-mittee, denied reports that russian citizens were being allowed to cast ballots, saying that only people with Ukrainian passports and resident in crimea could take part.

at a polling station in Bakhchys-aray, a reporter saw a pensioner try-ing to vote with a russian passport being turned away. malyshev also said there had been no “incidents” requiring police involvement de-spite concern of possible “provoca-tions” by pro-unity activists.

Ukraine’s new government and most of the international communi-ty except russia have said they will not recognise a result expected to be overwhelmingly in favour of imme-diate secession.

“This is a historic moment, ev-eryone will live happily,” Sergiy aksyonov, the local pro-moscow prime minister, told reporters af-ter casting his ballot in the regional capital, Simferopol.

“We will celebrate this evening,” aksyonov said, after a man waving a blue and yellow Ukrainian flag and demanding it be put up inside the polling station was pushed away by security guards.

The Black Sea peninsula is inhab-ited mostly by ethnic russians and has been seized by russian forces over the past month after the ouster of Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin leader in February, plunging US-russia ties to their lowest point since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Ukraine’s interim President Olek-sandr Turchynov, who last month replaced the ousted Viktor Yanu-kovych, called for a boycott of the ballot, accusing moscow of prepar-ing an invasion.

“The result has been pre-planned by the Kremlin as a formal justifica-tion to send in its troops and start a

war that will destroy people’s lives and the economic prospects for crimea,” he said.

Some crimeans who requested anonymity said they were planning to spoil their ballots in protest and there was a call on social media for people to stay at home and cook va-reniki – Ukrainian dumplings – in-stead of going out to vote.

accredited journalists were pre-vented from entering some polling stations in the port city of Sevasto-pol and the regional capital Simfer-opol, and several people were seen voting in Sevastopol even before the polls opened.

Foreign observers were present but the Organisation for Security and cooperation in Europe (OScE)

declined an invitation to monitor saying it was not official because it did not come from Ukraine’s nation-al government.

“We have waited years for this moment,” said 71-year-old Ivan Konstantinovich, who raised his hands in victory after voting in Bakhchysaray. “Everyone will vote for russia,” he said.

The town is the main centre of crimea’s native muslim Tatar com-munity, which is urging a boycott of the referendum, and mostly ethnic russians were seen turning out to vote there. Voters can choose to be-come part of russia or retain more autonomy but stay in Ukraine – a vote for the status quo is not an op-tion. Preliminary results were ex-

pected to be announced soon after polls close at 8pm (1800 GmT).

The referendum committee said turnout was at 44 per cent a third of the way through voting.

rehearsals for planned celebra-tions have included the slogan “We are in russia!” beamed on to the government building in Simferopol, leaving no doubt about the expect-ed outcome. In Sevastopol, home of russia’s Black Sea Fleet since the 18th century, the mood was celebratory and patriotic russian military songs blared.

Preparations to become part of russia – a process that could take months – are to begin this week if the referendum result is pro-moscow.

Pro-russia authorities and mos-cow say the referendum is an ex-ample of self-determination like Kosovo’s decision to leave Serbia but Washington says it cannot be demo-cratic because it is taking place “un-der the barrel of a gun”.

Tensions have escalated in mostly russian-speaking parts of eastern Ukraine ahead of the vote.

Three activists have been killed in the eastern cities of Donetsk and Kharkiv in the run-up, while pro-moscow supporters have called for similar separatist polls in other Ukrainian regions.

around 1,000 pro-moscow activ-ists rallied in Donetsk yesterday to support crimea’s referendum and 2,000 turned out in Kharkiv with a large russian flag and a sign reading “Our homeland is the USSr”.

russian troops and pro-Kremlin militias took control of the stra-tegic peninsula soon after Yanu-kovych fled Ukraine for russia in the wake of three months of deadly protests in Kiev.

russian senators have also given the go-ahead for President Vladi-mir Putin to invade Ukraine when he wants, citing the need to defend ethnic russians against ultra-na-tionalist radicals.

Ukrainian military bases in the re-gion are surrounded by militias and the post-referendum fate of the per-sonnel who live in crimea with their families is unclear.

There have been several attacks on journalists and pro-unity activ-ists condemned by amnesty Inter-national as “extremely worrying”.

The diplomatic wrangling and brinksmanship over crimea have been startling, including a confron-tation at the UN Security council in which interim Prime minister arseniy Yatsenyuk asked: “Do the russians want war?”

Successive rounds of negotiations between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov have failed and Kerry appeared to break diplomatic pro-tocol by not showing up for planned talks in moscow.

While the West has been powerless to stop crimea’s annexation, russia faces a painful round of sanctions against top officials that Washington and EU nations are set to unveil on monday and it could be ostracised or even ejected from the Group of Eight (G8) leading world powers.

Local authorities are calling this a “crimean Spring” but many crime-ans are concerned about a pos-sible legal vacuum and economic turmoil. One immediate worry is about the availability of cash and there have been long queues out-side banks with crimeans rushing to withdraw their money.

crimea would not automati-cally join russia after the vote and Ukraine’s government has said it cannot survive since it depends on electricity, energy and water sup-plies from the mainland.

In Bakhchysaray, anna Ivanovna, 70, said she had voted to join mos-cow, but was apprehensive.

“Yes, we will be russians. It’s good but at the same time, at my age, it’s hard to change countries,” she said. AFP

A woman holds a Russian flag a ballot and a Ukrainian passport a polling station in Sevastopol yesterday. AFP

JOB ANNOUNCEMENTMEDIVET Co., LTD is a growing animal health care company base

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JOB Announcement

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JOB Announcement

World12 THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

Giles Hewitt

malaysia said yester-day that the number of countries searching for a missing airliner had

nearly doubled to 25 as a full-scale criminal probe into its disappear-ance got under way, with particular scrutiny of the pilots.

Transport minister hishammuddin hussein said the number of partici-pating countries had jumped from 14 to 25 as the search for the aircraft focused on two vast, and vastly con-trasting, land and ocean transport corridors. The dramatic “re-calibra-tion” would inevitably bring “new challenges of coordination and di-plomacy”, the minister said.

Police said they had searched the homes of both pilots and examined the captain’s home flight simulator after it became increasingly clear that the malaysia airlines Boeing 777 that vanished on march 8 had been deliberately diverted by some-one on board.

hishammuddin cautioned people against “jumping to conclusions” about the thrust of the investigation, which national police chief Khalid abu Bakar stressed was covering “all” the 239 passengers and crew.

Engineers who may have had con-tact with the aircraft before take-off were also being looked at, Khalid said. The police action followed sat-urday’s startling revelations that the plane’s communications systems had been manually switched off before the jet veered westward and

flew on for hours. like Prime minis-ter Najib razak the previous day, his-hammuddin refused to use the word hijack, saying only that the pattern of events was consistent with “deliber-ate action” by someone on the plane.

The new search parameters in-volve two possible flight corridors – a northern one stretching from Thai-land to Kazakhstan and a southern

one from indonesia towards the southern indian Ocean.

The malaysian foreign minis-try briefed representatives from 22 countries on sunday, including the central asian states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turk-menistan, and requested support in the form of satellite and radar data. For anguished relatives, the news the

plane had been diverted was a dou-ble-edged sword – holding out the slim hope that hijackers had landed the plane somewhere, while usher-ing in another agonising open-ended waiting period.

relatives of Bob and cathy law-ton, a missing australian couple, said they were horrified by the notion of a drawn-out hijack ordeal.

“That’s one of the worst things i could have hoped for,” Bob’s brother David lawton told News limited newspapers. “Even if they are alive, what did they have to put up with?”

The scope for speculation is as broad as the new search area. Experts said it would have taken specialist knowledge to disable the communi-cations system, intensifying scrutiny of captain Zaharie ahmad shah and his First Officer, Fariq abdul hamid.

Friends and colleagues of both pi-lots have testified to their good char-acter, but questions have been raised over the simulator Zaharie installed at home – even though aviation com-mentators have said this is not un-common. Fariq’s record was queried after a woman said he had allowed her and a friend to ride in the cockpit of an earlier flight. hishammuddin noted that the two pilots “did not ask to fly together” on the missing plane.

The alternative scenario – that the cockpit was taken over or the pilots coerced – opens a Pandora’s Box of possibilities as to who might be in-volved and why.

Two passengers who boarded the plane with stolen EU passports have been identified as iranians by inter-

pol, who said they were most likely illegal immigrants who did not fit terrorist profiles. The fact that most of the passengers on board the Bei-jing-bound flight were chinese has raised speculation of involvement by militants from china’s muslim ethnic Uighur minority.

security experts warned against reading too much into partial data.

“We still really don’t have a lot of evidence to go on,” said anthony Brickhouse, a member of the interna-tional society of air safety investiga-tors. “We don’t have any wreckage, we don’t have the plane itself, we don’t have a lot of electronic data.”

The last satellite communication from the plane on march 8 came nearly eight hours after it took off – around the time the airline has said it would have run out of fuel.

hishammuddin said both search corridors were being treated “with equal importance”, but a number of analysts said the southern ocean route was more likely. Flying along the northern corridor would have re-quired the plane to travel undetected through numerous national airspac-es in a strategically sensitive region.

“i just can’t think of a scenario where this aircraft is sitting on a run-way somewhere,” Brickhouse said.

scott hamilton, managing direc-tor of Us-based aerospace consul-tancy leehman co, said a crash in the ocean would present a daunting search and recovery challenge. “any floating debris will be widely dis-persed and the main debris on the sea floor,” he said. AFP

malaysia doubles scale of mh370 search

Sources: MalaysiaAirlines/Vietnam govt/Malaysia govt/NOAA/media

BEIJING

The search now focuses on twodifferent land and oceantransport corridors

25 countriesare nowhelping with thesearch

Took off fromKuala Lumpur,March 8, 00:41 am

Air traffic controllost contact withplane at 01:30 amS

ched

uled

rou

teMALAYSIA

INDONESIA

AndamanIslands

CHINA

INDiA

PAKISTAN

KAZAKHSTAN

THAILAND

Approximatelast positiontracked bymilitary radar

Investigators say the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with 239 people on board changed courseafter someone switched off its communications systems

More countries join search for MH370

Malaysia airlines FliGHt: WHat We knoW – and WHat’s still speculation

Why did it take so long before anyone realised the plane was missing?

It didn’t. Malaysia’s acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, has confirmed that the plane ceased communicating with ground control about 40 minutes into its flight to Beijing, but this information was not made public for many hours. Malaysia has faced accusations of not sharing all of its information or suspicions about the plane’s final movements. It, however, says it would be irresponsible to narrow the focus of the search until there is firm evidence of the plane’s flight path. Malaysia’s reluctance to go public with the news that one of its planes had vanished is perhaps understandable. The disappearance of the Boeing 777 – one of the safest commercial jets in service – is one of the most baffling in aviation history. It is extremely rare for a modern passenger aircraft to disappear once it has reached cruising altitude.

Why did no one see the plane veering so far off course?They did. The New York Times, quoting American officials and others close to the investigation, said radar signals recorded by the Malaysian military appeared to show the airliner climbing to 45,000ft, higher than a Boeing 777’s

approved limit, soon after its disappearance from civilian radar, then making a sharp turn to the west. The radar tracking then shows the plane descending unevenly to 23,000ft, below normal cruising levels, before climbing again and flying north-west towards the Indian Ocean. What the military did with this information is not known.

Why this flight?Here we enter the realm of wild speculation: the internet is awash with theories. It could be that Malaysia was geographically convenient. Some suggest that, if it is a hijack, it is probably the work of Uighur separatists in Xinjiang, western China, or Islamic terrorists. On March 1 attackers armed with knives killed at least 29 people and injured more than 100 in Kunming station in southern China. Chinese authorities and state media were quick to describe this as a terror attack by Uighurs in their ‘jihad’. Hijacking a plane would be by far their most spectacular achievement. The plane had fuel to get as far north as Kazakhstan, according to some experts, which means it could have been flown to Pakistan or Afghanistan. However, given that the jet was not detected by these two militarised countries, this seems unlikely. Some say a flight from Malaysia to China was a softer target than, say, a transatlantic flight, but there is little evidence for this. There are, say pilots, many softer targets.

Why are the pilots’ homes being searched only now?This does raise questions about Malaysia’s handling of the situation. The lengthy delay appears to bolster criticism that Malaysia has been ineffective in this crisis. Numerous false sightings of wreckage may have convinced the authorities that they were dealing with a disaster, not terrorism, which could explain why they did not immediately search the men’s homes.

Why did Vietnam not raise the alarm?Once an aircraft is more than 150 miles out to sea, radar coverage fades and crews keep in touch with air traffic control and other aircraft by radio. About 40 minutes in, the flight was still the “property” of Malaysian air traffic control, which we know made contact with the plane minutes before it disappeared. All seemed fine as the pilot reported “all right, good night”. This last verbal communication came at the boundary between Malaysian and Vietnamese airspace. Malaysian air traffic control told the pilots the flight was being passed to Ho Chi Minh control. The Vietnamese authorities may never have assumed responsibility for the plane as it never entered their airspace. This would be consistent with where the search has now moved to.

how do investigators know the communications systems were shut off and did not just go wrong?This is based on information from the Malaysian

authorities who, admittedly, have given contradictory reports. The prime minister, Najib Razak, said investigators now had a “high degree of certainty” that one of the plane’s communications systems, the aircraft and communications addressing and reporting system (ACARS), was disabled before the aircraft reached the east coast of Malaysia. Shortly afterwards, someone on board switched off the aircraft’s transponder, which communicates with civilian air traffic control.

how do we know the plane flew on after the transponder was switched off?Routine, automated signals from the aircraft – known as electronic handshakes or pings – registered on the Inmarsat satellite network. MH370’s last ping suggested it was in one of two flight corridors: one between Thailand and Kazakhstan, and another between Indonesia and the southern Indian Ocean. The last confirmed communication was at 0811, which would indicate that the Boeing continued flying for nearly seven hours after contact was lost. So its location will be extremely difficult to pinpoint. Without further radar/satellite/eyewitness testimony, say experts, it is very much like looking for a needle in a haystack. A source familiar with US assessments of the Inmarsat pings said it appeared the plane turned south over the Indian Ocean, where it would presumably have run out of fuel and crashed. THE GUARDIAN

World13THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

Seven die in Nigeria stampede

at leaSt seven peo-ple were killed and dozens more injured in Nigeria’s capital

abuja on Saturday after thou-sands of panicked job-seekers stampeded during a govern-ment recruitment drive at the national stadium. Survivors said that thousands had gath-ered to apply for jobs with the immigration department in the abuja stadium.

One witness said the stam-pede broke out as applicants surged towards a central stage. they said only one entrance to the 60,000-capacity stadium was open. It was unclear how many people were inside at the time of the crush.

No official toll was given, but one journalist counted seven dead and dozens injured. the public hospital was forced to turn victims away due to a lack of capacity, spokesman tayo haastrup said.

the recruitment drive was being held at several stadi-ums around the country on Saturday. the sheer size of the crowds was testament to the vast numbers of unemployed in Nigeria, most of whose 170 million citizens live on less than two dollars a day, while the country lags behind in key development indicators such

as health. Unemployment is a particular challenge, with an estimated 37.5 per cent of un-der-25s out of work, accord-ing to the National Bureau of Statistics.

President Goodluck Jona-than’s Peoples Democratic Party said it was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the deaths of “young citizens who were at the exercise not only to secure jobs but to be allowed the opportunity to contribute towards the development of the nation”.

meanwhile, at least 100 people were killed in week-end attacks on three villages

in central Nigeria, local offi-cials said yesterday.

Scores of residents were also injured when about 40 assail-ants armed with guns and ma-chetes stormed the villages of angwan Gata, chenshyi and angwan Sankwai, attacking locals in their sleep and torch-ing their homes, said Yakubu Bitiyong, a lawmaker at the Kaduna state parliament.

“We have at least 100 dead bodies from the three villages attacked by the gunmen” over-night Friday-Saturday, he said.

Some of the victims “were shot and burnt in their homes while others were hacked with

machetes,” Bitiyong said.Kaduna state police spokes-

man aminu lawan confirmed the attacks but refused to give a casualty toll or say who was behind the violence. local residents blamed the blood-shed on muslim Fulani herds-men, who have been accused of similar raids in the past.

chenshyi village was the worst affected with at least 50 people killed, said adamu marshall, a spokesman for the Southern Kaduna Peoples’ Union, a regional political and cultural body. “many people are still in the bush, afraid to return to their burnt homes,” he said, confirming a total toll of at least 100 dead.

“the attackers looted food and set fire to the barns during the attacks,” he added.

Fulani leaders have for years complained about the loss of grazing land which is crucial to their livelihood, with resent-ment between the herdsmen and their agrarian neighbours rising over the past decade.

most of the Fulani-linked violence has been concentrat-ed in the religiously divided centre of the country, where rivalries between mostly mus-lim herdsmen and mostly christian farmers have helped fuel the unrest. AFP

a FIreBraND hardliner who was a core leader of thai-land’s “red shirts” in the coun-try’s massive 2010 protests has been chosen to head the pro-government movement, saying yesterday that a “big fight” lay ahead.

Former mP Jatuporn Prom-pan, facing terrorism charges in an ongoing trial related to the 2010 uprising, said any new red shirt tactics would be “peaceful”.

“We have to discuss our strategy,” Jatuporn said yes-terday. “the next battle will be big.” he ruled out violence, saying that any new strategy would involve “no weapons”.

Jatuporn took the helm as chairman from previous red Shirt leader tida tawornseth at a gathering of 10,000 sup-porters in ayutthaya, north of Bangkok, on Saturday.

Bangkok has been rocked by months of mass protests calling for Prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step aside in favour of an unelect-ed “people’s council” to tackle what opponents see as a cul-ture of money-driven politics.

the backdrop is a longstand-ing struggle between a royalist establishment, backed by the judiciary and the military, and

Yingluck’s billionaire family which has strong support in the north of thailand.

Yingluck now faces charges of negligence from thailand’s anti-corruption body which could lead to her being re-moved from office.

her administration has limited caretaker powers because opposition demon-strators disrupted a general election last month. But, de-spite the government’s em-battled situation, Jatuporn said the opposition, led by Suthep thaugsuban, “cannot achieve success”.

“In 2006 they used a military coup. In 2007 and 2008 they used independent organisa-tions like the constitutional court. Now they used a peo-ple’s revolution led by Suthep but it did not succeed,” Jatu-porn said.

after bringing parts of Bangkok to a standstill in a self-styled “shutdown”, op-position protesters have now rowed back their presence, instead basing themselves in a park in the city centre.

the current crisis has led to a spike in political violence, of-ten targeting protesters, which has left 23 people dead and hundreds wounded. AFP

New ‘red shirt’ leader warns of battle ahead

At least seven people were killed and dozens injured in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on Saturday after a stampede at the national stadium. AFP

World14 THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

Syrian army takes Yabrud: state TVS

Yria’S army, backed by fighters from Leba-non’s hezbollah move-ment, seized control of

the rebel stronghold Yabrud yesterday, state media said, dealing the opposition a heavy symbolic and strategic blow.

“Our brave armed forces have full control over Yabrud in Damascus province and are combing through the town and removing explosive de-vices placed by terrorists,” state television said, citing a military source.

it broadcast images of dead fighters and its correspondent on the ground said traffic was moving normally along the nearby highway that links the capital Damascus to Syr-ia’s third city homs.

rami abdel rahman, direc-tor of the Syrian Observatory for human rights NGO, said government troops were in control of “most of the town, but fighting is still ongoing”.

Opposition sources said civilians and activists in the town had fled overnight into neighbouring Lebanon. and Syrian state television said the army was targeting “groups of terrorists” fleeing Yabrud be-tween the village of Fleita in Syria and the town of arsal just across the border in Lebanon.

The fall of Yabrud comes after months of Syrian army opera-tions in the strategic Qalamun region, north of Damascus, where the town is situated.

Late last year, the army cap-tured a string of nearby towns – Qara, Deir attiya and Nabuk – as it extended its control in a southern sweep along the Damascus-homs highway.

it then turned its sights to Yabrud, which has been a rebel bastion since early in the Syrian uprising that began

in march 2011. in addition to its symbolic importance, the town is a key strategic prize because of its proximity to the highway and the Leba-nese border, across which rebels have smuggled fight-ers and weapons.

The capture of the town, and continuing army op-erations in the surrounding area, will sever important supply lines for the rebels as they face several army ad-vances on different fronts.

The town’s seizure is also likely to place new pres-sure on Lebanon’s arsal, just across the border, which is hosting tens of thousands of refugees that have fled the Qalamun region.

Sunni arsal is largely sym-pathetic to the Sunni-led up-rising, and rebel fighters are believed to have bases in ar-eas around the town.

The Syrian air force has regularly carried out air strikes with war planes and

helicopters targeting rebel positions around arsal.

Yabrud was once home to some 30,000 residents, around 90 per cent Sunni muslim and 10 per cent christian.

Last year, al-Qaeda affiliat-ed rebels seized 13 nuns from the nearby christian hamlet of maalula and held them hostage in Yabrud.

The women were released on march 10 after lengthy negotiations mediated by a Lebanese security official that saw the government agree to release dozens of female pris-oners in regime jails.

The Lebanese Shia move-ment hezbollah is believed to have played a key role in the army’s recapture of Yabrud.

The group is a staunch ally of the Syrian regime and has dispatched some of its well-trained fighters to bolster the army’s ranks.

its involvement has prompt-ed retaliatory bomb attacks by extremist groups against areas in Lebanon sympathetic to the movement. The attacks have mostly killed civilians.

hezbollah and Lebanese se-curity forces have alleged that many of the car bombs used in those attacks originated in Yabrud and were driven across the Lebanese border. AFP

18-missile salute

‘North Korea fires rockets into the sea’

North Korea yesterday test-fired 18 rockets into the sea, South Korea’s de-

fence ministry said, the latest in a series of launches to provoke criti-cism from Seoul and Washington.

the rockets were fired off the North’s east coast and flew about 70 kilometres over the Sea of Japan, a ministry spokesman said. the ministry said 10 rockets were fired at 6:20pm (0920 GMt), and eight more at 8.03pm.

Seoul’s military “has maintained a close watch for possible North Korean provocations”, the spokes-man said. Yonhap news agency earlier reported that 10 short-range missiles were fired.

South Korean troops have increased vigilance following a se-ries of rocket or missile launches in late February and this month.

the activity coincides with an-nual South Korean-US military exercises that started in February and will run until mid-April.

Yesterday’s rocket launch came two days after the North’s National Defence Commission threatened to demonstrate its nuclear deter-rence. Analysts said the com-ments could indicate the regime is preparing to carry out a fourth atomic test. AFP

A handout picture released on Saturday by the official Syrian Arab News Agency reportedly shows the city of Yabrud after the Syrian army advanced in the key rebel bastion. AFP

Political foes and allies paid trib-ute to tony Benn, the totem of the British left who spearheaded the movement against the iraq war, fol-lowing his death on Friday aged 88.

a labour cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s, Benn was a widely respected orator who clashed with his party’s leadership over its drift away from the radical socialism he espoused.

Benn also forced a change in the law allowing hereditary members of parliament’s upper House of lords to renounce their titles, after he was disqualified from his seat in the elected lower House of commons on inheriting his father’s Viscount Stansgate title in 1960.

after recently spending a month in hospital he died peacefully at his west london home surrounded by his family, his four children said.

in one of his final interviews, given a few weeks ago to BBc radio, Benn said: “i think it has been a very satis-fying life. i made every mistake in the book but making mistakes is how you learn. But as long as you say what you believe and believe what you say, that’s the test of authenticity.”

the well-spoken politician was typically pictured puffing on his pipe and drinking from a huge mug of tea. Prime Minister David cam-

eron said Benn was a magnificent writer, speaker and campaigner, with a strong record of public and political service.

the conservative party leader said: “there was never a dull moment lis-tening to him, even when you disa-greed with everything he said.”

UK labour party leader Ed Mili-band, who at 16 did work experience with Benn, paid tribute to an “iconic figure of our age”.

More than half a century after enter-ing parliament, Benn retired in 2001, only half-joking that he wanted to “spend more time on politics”.

Some of Benn’s best quotes

“If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people”

tony Benn was interviewed in Sicko, Michael Moore’s documentary film about the health industry in the US. Explaining the post-war creation of the welfare state, he said the popular mood of the 1945 election was: “if you can have full employment by killing Germans, why can’t we have full employment by building hospitals, building schools?”

His “five questions” for the powerfultony Benn’s final speech to the

House of commons as MP was an appropriately eloquent farewell, in which he talked widely on his view of the role of parliament and the wider question of democracy. He said:

“in the course of my life i have developed five little democratic ques-tions. if one meets a powerful person – adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates – ask them five questions: ‘What pow-er have you got? Where did you get it from? in whose interests do you exer-cise it? to whom are you accountable? and how can we get rid of you?’

if you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system.”

“I think there are two ways in which people are controlled. First of all frighten people and secondly, demor-alise them”

another quote from tony Benn’s interview with Michael Moore in Sicko, in which he highlighted pov-erty and healthcare inequality as a democratic issue. “the people in debt become hopeless, and the hopeless people don’t vote . . . an educated, healthy and confident nation is hard-er to govern,” he said.

“Hope is the fuel of progress and fear is the prison in which you put yourself”

tony Benn thought any meaningful change could only come from below, and felt apathy was openly encour-aged by those in positions of power.

“the Prime Minister said in 1911, 14 years before i was born, that if women get the vote it will undermine parliamentary democracy. How did apartheid end? How did anything happen?”

“We are not just here to manage capitalism but to change society and to define its finer values”

Blamed by many for contributing to labour’s lack of electoral success dur-ing the 1980s, tony Benn was a totem for those who rejected the shift to the right widely seen as necessary if the party was to regain power.

this shift was eventually complet-ed under tony Blair, who redefined labour as a party comfortable with privatisation and free market eco-nomics. the quote above indicates why Benn resisted such a move.

“There is no moral difference between a stealth bomber and a sui-cide bomber. Both kill innocent peo-ple for political reasons”

after his retirement from parlia-ment, Benn became the public face of the Stop the War coalition. in a particularly spiky edition of BBc

Question Time, his exchanges with US Republican John Bolton included this broadside: “i was born about a quarter of a mile from where we are sitting now and i was here in london during the Blitz. and every night i went down into the shelter; 500 peo-ple killed, my brother was killed, my friends were killed.

and when the charter of the UN was read to me, i was a pilot coming home in a troop ship: ‘We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind.’ that was the pledge my generation gave to the younger gen-eration and you tore it up. and it’s a war crime that’s been committed in iraq, because there is no moral differ-ence between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. Both kill innocent people for political reasons.

“A faith is something you die for, a doctrine is something you kill for. There is all the difference in the world.”

tony Benn’s calcified view of the US as an imperialist force left him on the margins of mainstream opinion dur-ing the cold war, but a voice of reason to many after the invasion of iraq in 2003. AFP/the guArdiAn

15THE PHNOM PENH POST MaRcH 17, 2014

World US is ‘deeply disturbed’ over China activist deaththe uS on Saturday offered condolences to the family of a Chinese activist who died while in detention and urged Beijing to respect human rights. “the united States is deeply disturbed by reports that rights activist Cao Shunli has passed away at a hospital in Beijing.” uS State department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “We continue to be concerned about the human rights situation in China and will continue to urge Chinese authorities to guarantee all Chinese citizens the protections and freedoms to which they are entitled under China’s international human rights commitments.” rights groups said Cao died on Friday after falling critically ill in police detention, where she was at first denied treatment. She had joined a rare protest outside China’s foreign ministry in June last year to demand greater participation in the un’s review of human rights in China, according to rights groups. AFP

Attack on anti-al-Qaeda chief leaves four dead heAvily armed militants attacked the home of an anti-al-Qaeda militiaman north of Baghdad yesterday, killing and decapitating his wife and two sons and killing another woman in a brutal pre-dawn assault. the militia leader, Abu Salim, was not in the house at the time of the attack, which involved more than a dozen vehicles and fighters armed with heavy machine guns and other weapons and also left two of his young sons wounded. Policemen at a nearby checkpoint attempted to repel the assault, the officers said, but were unsuccessful and fled the scene when they ran out of ammunition and reinforcements that they had radioed for failed to arrive. AFP

Egypt vows ‘decisive’ action after attackSamer al-Atrush

EGyPt’S interim gov-ernment pledged “decisive” action and ordered height-

ened security yesterday after gunmen killed six soldiers at a cairo checkpoint, as the countdown began to presi-dential elections this spring.

the shooting on Saturday morning came two days af-ter gunmen killed a soldier in cairo, as militants once based in the Sinai Peninsula widen attacks that surged after the army overthrew is-lamist president Mohamed Morsi last July.

the government is prepar-ing for a presidential election that will likely be contested and won by army chief abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the field mar-shal who overthrew Morsi.

Sisi is widely expected to resign as defence minis-ter and army chief and an-nounce his candidacy this week, following the interim president’s approval of a law to organise the poll.

His supporters see him as the best suited leader to re-

store stability and law and or-der amid persistent militant attacks and street protests by Morsi’s supporters.

in Saturday’s attack, masked gunmen opened fire on mili-tary policemen as they were finishing their morning Mus-lim prayers and then planted two bombs to target first re-sponders, the military said.

the health ministry said

six soldiers were killed. in an emergency meeting that end-ed early yesterday morning, the cabinet decided to “deci-sively confront whoever at-tacks citizens and civilian and government installations,” it said in a statement.

it emphasised that attacks on the army would be dealt with by military courts, in accordance with a constitu-

tion approved in a referen-dum in January.

the government also or-dered heightened security measures to counter what has become a low-level insurgen-cy that has killed more than 200 soldiers and policemen since Morsi’s overthrow.

Most of the attacks since have been carried out in the Sinai, but militants have ex-

panded their reach to the Nile Delta and the capital in recent months.

the government has mostly blamed Morsi’s Muslim Broth-erhood, which renounced violence decades ago and has denied any involvement.

the most prominent at-tacks, including a car bomb-ing at a police headquarters in cairo and the downing of a military helicopter in Sinai, have been claimed by ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem), a Sinai-based ji-hadist movement.

the group said on Friday that one of its founders, taw-fiq Mohamed Fareej, died last week when a car accident set off a bomb he was carrying.

Fareej led a 2011 cross-bor-der attack in israel that killed eight people and was also involved in a failed attempt on the life of Egypt’s interior minister, it said.

the group has said the at-tacks in Egypt are in retalia-tion for a brutal government crackdown on Morsi’s islamist supporters, which amnesty international says has claimed some 1,400 lives. AFP

Egyptian soldiers and officials inspect the sight where gunmen killed six soldiers at a Cairo checkpoint on Saturday. AFP

intelligence panel Democrat offers NSa reformSUPPoRtERS of a stalled congressio-nal effort to end the National Security agency’s bulk collection of americans’ metadata are looking warily at an alter-native proposal by a key NSa advocate purporting to seek the same goal.

this week, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, con-gressman Dutch Ruppersberger, who represents the Maryland district home to the NSa’s Fort Meade headquarters, came out in favour of a remedy for the controversial surveillance.

Ruppersberger, in interviews with the Washington Post, National Journal

and the Politico, said he was working to craft a proposal that would require court orders for government requests for americans’ phone records – per-haps on an individual basis – from the telephone companies, without requiring the companies to expand retention of their customer records beyond current practice.

it’s an idea that on its face aligns with what privacy advocates have wanted since the Guardian exposed the NSa bulk phone records collec-tion in June, thanks to leaks from Ed-ward Snowden.

But his idea also attracted suspicion. Not only has Ruppersberger been a staunch advocate for the NSa – and a fervent critic of Snowden – but his proposal would compete with the civil-libertarian alternative, the USa Freedom act, that has 163 co-sponsors in both congressional chambers and would go further than Ruppersberger’s effort, as initially described.

Ruppersberger’s office concedes that the details of the proposal, which are crucial in the arcane world of sur-veillance authorities, are still being worked out – something giving privacy

advocates pause. on the other hand, sources said, Ruppersberger’s evolving position represents what one called a “huge step forward” toward an out-right end to bulk domestic metadata collection. Ruppersberger’s credibil-ity with the NSa might also be an as-set for such an effort.

the obama administration has yet to take an outright position on the USa Freedom act, an ambivalence that several members of congress consider the equivalent of a rejec-tion several months after the bill was introduced. the guArdiAn

British socialist stalwart tony Benn dies at 88

World16 THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

Did humans kill off the giant beasts?Robin McKie

They were some of the strangest animals to walk the earth: wombats as big as

hippos, sloths larger than bears, four-tusked elephants, and an armadillo that would have dwarfed a VW Beetle. They flourished for millions of years, then seemingly van-ished from our planet just as humans emerged from their african homeland.

It is one of palaeontology’s most intriguing mysteries and will form the core of a conference at Oxford Uni-versity this week when del-egates will debate whether climate change or human hunters killed off the plan-et’s lost megafauna, as these extinct giants are known.

“creatures like megath-erium, the giant sloth, and the glyptodon, a car-sized species of armadillo, disap-peared in North and South america about 10,000 years ago, when there were major changes to climates – which some scientists believe trig-gered their extinctions,” said yadvinder malhi, professor of ecosystem science at Oxford, one of the organisers of the conference, “megafauna and ecosystem Function”.

“however, it is also the case that tribes of modern humans were moving into these crea-tures’ territories at these times – and many of us believe it is too much of a coincidence that this happened just as these animals vanished. These crea-tures had endured millions of years of climate change before then, after all. however, this was the first time they had en-countered humans.”

modern humans emerged from africa around 70,000 years ago, travelled across asia and reached australia 50,000 years ago, a time that coincides with a wave of ex-tinctions of creatures there, including the diprotodon, a species of wombat that grew to the size of a modern hip-popotamus. By about 14,000 years ago, humans had reached North america by crossing the land bridge that then linked Siberia and alas-

ka. Then they headed south.By 10,000 years ago, homo

sapiens had conquered North and South america at a time that coincided with major megafauna extinctions, in-cluding those of the giant sloth and the glyptodon.

“We think of africa and south-east asia – with their lions, elephants and rhinos – as the main home of large animals today, but until very recently in our planet’s his-tory, huge creatures thrived in australia, North america and South america as well,” said Professor adrian Lister of the Natural history museum in London. “The question is: why did they disappear in the new world but survive in the old world?

“Some believe it is because large animals in africa and south-east asia learned to be-come wary of human beings and decided to avoid them at all costs. however, I also think climate change may have

been involved in the ameri-cas and australia and that hu-mans only finished off these big animals when they were already weakened by loss of habitats and other climate-related problems.”

Lost affinity with natureThe idea that humans were

involved in any way in eradi-cating dozens of species of gi-ant animal when we were still hunter-gatherers has impor-tant implications in any case.

It was thought, until rela-tively recently, that it was only when humans invented agriculture several thousand years ago that our species’ relationship with the natural world become unbalanced.

Until then, humans had a close affinity with nature. But if ancient hunter-gatherers played a part in wiping out these species of huge ani-mals as long as 50,000 years ago, humanity’s supposed in-nate harmony with the living

world appears misplaced.more to the point, human-

ity is still paying the price for the disappearance of the megafauna of the americas and australia, the Oxford conference will hear.

“There is now a lot of evi-dence to suggest that large herbivores like gomphoth-eres, a family of elephant-like animals that went extinct in South america around 9,000 years, played a key role in spreading nutrition in areas like the amazon. They would eat fruit in the forest, includ-ing avocados, and their ex-crement would then fertilise other areas. That no longer happens and places like the amazon are today affected by low nutrition as a result,” malhi said.

another example is provid-ed by the giant wombat, the diprotodon, which some sci-entists have argued browsed bush across australia and kept biomass levels very low.

When the diprotodon van-ished, plants and shrubs across the outback grew unhindered. The result was major bush fires which, ar-chaeologists have discovered, became a serious problem just after the giant wombat disappeared from australia.

Similarly, creatures such as the mammoth played a key role in trampling tundra and maintaining healthy grass-lands in high latitudes such as Siberia. When the mam-moth became extinct, the tundra took over to the det-riment of the landscape.

“It is now becoming clear that lots of our understand-ing of contemporary ecology is incomplete because it does not take into account that ecosystems were adopted to having giant animals like the mammoth or the diprot-odon,” malhi added. “These are not natural systems to-day because they are miss-ing key components to which

most plants had adopted.”This awareness has led

some scientists to propose moving populations of the planet’s surviving large ani-mals into regions where they could help restore the ecolo-gies to their previous healthy conditions. One such experi-ment is being carried out by the ecologist Sergey Zimov at a nature reserve called Pleis-tocene Park in Siberia.

Possibilty of cloning?Zimov has reintroduced

musk ox, moose and other large animals and is attempt-ing to find out if their brows-ing will restore the landscape to its previous healthy, grassy state. Zimov is also scheduled to speak at the Oxford confer-ence. Other researchers go even further and have pro-posed bringing extinct mega-fauna back to life.

For example, several sci-entists have suggested that it could be possible to clone a mammoth from frozen re-mains found in Siberia using an asian elephant as a surro-gate mother. Lister was cau-tious about the prospects of such work, however. “I think people greatly underestimate the incredible difficulties involved. The mammoth corpses we have found are thousands of years old and we have yet to find one that pos-sesses an entire, intact cell with a nucleus. Without that, you are going to find it very difficult to bring an animal like a mammoth back to life.”

In fact, the real lesson from the fate of the earth’s mega-fauna is to appreciate how important surviving species are to our planet. Oxford University ecologist emily read, a conference organis-er, said: “We need to protect the megafauna that we have. more than 20,000 elephants were killed in 2012 for ivory and rhino numbers are de-clining because their horns are traded, illegally, at more than the price of gold.

“It’s not just the cultural val-ue of these large animals that we need to think about, but the fact that removing them affects the whole ecosystem.” The OBserver

Brendan Atkins, of the Australian Museum in Sydney, stands next to a reconstructionof a “diprotodon”, a prehistoric rhino-sized ‘mega-wombat’ on June 21, 2012. AFP

myth of ‘Planet X’ is debunked at last – probablyJean-Louis Santini

IT WaS an elusive planet that for 200 years appeared to explain Ura-nus’s wobbly orbit. and there was the sister sun theorised to be near our solar system that caused aster-oids to swerve toward earth.

There is just one problem: nei-ther “Planet X” nor “Nemesis” ever existed, researchers now say.

Or probably not.“The outer solar system prob-

ably does not contain a large gas giant planet [‘Planet X’], or a small, companion star [‘Nemesis’],” con-cluded University of Pennsylvania astronomer Kevin Luhman, who directed the study using NaSa’s Wide-field Infrared Survey ex-plorer (WISe) telescope.

The results were published in the

most recent edition of The Astro-physical Journal.

most theories had estimated Planet X to be up to four times the size of Jupiter – the biggest planet in our solar system.

They suggested it would be found some 1,486 billion kilome-tres (923 billion miles) from the sun, or about 10,000 times farther than the earth’s orbit.

But the images gathered by the telescope did not detect any object larger than Jupiter.

Luhman doesn’t rule out the possibility that a planet is lurking somewhere in the asteroid belt.

It would be hard to find if it were closely aligned with a bright star that blinds the telescope or were much smaller than had been previously theorised.

But after this latest survey, Luh-man said the odds of finding one are very unlikely: “That is like a one in a hundred chance.”

Scientists first imagined the ex-istence of Planet X in 1781, when they discovered Uranus, a gas gi-ant that astonished astronomers with its orbital variations, appar-ently incompatible with Newton’s laws of gravity.

Observers concluded that these irregularities could be explained by the existence of another, un-known planet that was exerting its own gravitational force.

attempts to track this mysteri-ous Planet X led to the discovery of Neptune in 1846. But the estimated mass of Neptune couldn’t explain the deviations of Uranus’s orbit.

That led astronomers to continue

their search for Planet X – which, in turn, led to the discovery of Pluto in 1930. But the dwarf planet was also too small to explain Uranus’s irreg-ular path around the sun.

Finally, in the 1990s, researchers determined that they had slightly overestimated the mass of Nep-tune, which meant the planet could in fact be the reason for Ura-nus’s orbital behavior.

yet Planet X believers were still not convinced.

The existence of Nemesis, a sun-like star nearby, was first posited in the 1980s. The star, by occasionally coming closer to the sun, inter-fered with the orbit of comets and asteroids leading them to occa-sionally hit the earth.

collisions like these are blamed for the five mass extinctions over

the last 540 million years – the most recent being the dinosaur extinc-tion 65 million years ago.

“So over the years, there have been different pieces of evidence suggesting there might be some-thing there,” Luhman explained.

But the WISe telescope didn’t find anything.

The hunt for Planet X and Nem-esis may have turned up empty, but the study did uncover 3,525 stars and brown dwarfs – celestial objects whose mass puts them between a star and a large planet – within 500 light years of the sun.

“Neighbouring star systems that have been hiding in plain sight just jump out in the WISe data,” said Ned Wright, a University of califor-nia, Los angeles astronomer who contributed to the study. AFP

17THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

World

United colours of VrindavanIndian widows celebrate Holi with water and ‘gulal’, coloured powder, in Vrindavan on Friday. Breaking centuries-old tradition, around 1,000 widows living in the holy city of Vrindavan celebrated the spring colour festival of Holi at Meera Sahabhagini Sadan in the city. In a symbolic gesture, the widows celebrated Holi with colours and gulal unlike the previous year where they only sprinkled flower petals over each other. As per Indian tradition, widows are considered social outcasts and refrain from celebrating Holi. AFP

Iranian militia recruiting Iraqis to die in SyriaMartin Chulov

Each day for the past nine months, the bodies have been coming. Some are carried in simple wooden

coffins strapped to car roofs. Others arrive with more ceremony, escort-ed by black-clad mourners or men in military fatigues to a hypnotic soundtrack of Islamic hymns.

The convoys turn into the lanes of the Valley of Peace cemetery, squeez-ing past tombstones weathered by millennia and stopping next to freshly dug holes in the desert soil.

The newest inhabitants of the world’s biggest cemetery were killed not here in Iraq but in Syria, where they fought under the green flag of the middle East’s most potent new Shia Islamic political force, asa’ib ahl al-haq (League of the righteous).

The militia has been busy ready-ing for the afterlife, buying up more than 2,500 square metres of burial plots and erecting shrines for its fallen. In Baghdad, nearly 100 miles north, the group has been more occupied with the here and now, im-posing its influence on Iraq’s frac-tured political scene and steadily asserting its will throughout the city’s Shia heartland suburbs.

Since the US military left Iraq in December 2011, and within two months of the first national election since then, asa’ib ahl al-haq has quietly emerged as one of the most powerful players in the country’s po-litical and public life. Through a mix of strategic diplomacy, aggressive military operations and intimida-tion – signature methods of its main patron, the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani – the group is increasingly calling the shots in two countries.

Its rise to prominence has dis-turbed many Iraqi political leaders. “Little more than seven years ago, they were just another Iranian proxy used to attack the americans,” said a minister. “Now they have political le-gitimacy and their tentacles in all the

security apparatus. Some of us didn’t notice until it was too late.”

Until early 2007, few outsiders had heard of asa’ib ahl al-haq, which emerged over several years from a split within the mahdi army, the then dominant arm of the Shia insur-gency in Iraq. Its earliest incarnation – stealth tactics and the denial of re-sponsibilty for attacks – was straight from the playbook of Suleimani, an elusive Iranian general whose influ-ence over Iran’s strategic interests has grown sharply in the past 10 years.

The group has a close connection to Lebanon’s hezbollah and ideo-logical links to Iran’s supreme leader, ayatollah ali Khamenei. Its debut as a strike weapon of Suleimani, who reports directly to Khamenei and commands the Quds Force of the Iranian revolutionary Guards, came with an attack in January 2007 on a US military outpost in Karbala, an-other Shia shrine city, south of Najaf, that killed five US soldiers.

Several months later, the group’s leader, Qais al-Khazali, his brother Laith and a senior hezbollah mem-ber, ali moussa al-Daqduq, were captured by the SaS near Basra. Then came a series of events that gave rise to the group’s claim to legitimacy.

In may 2007, a British IT consul-tant, Peter moore, and four of his bodyguards were seized by asa’ib ahl al-haq and Iraqi security force mem-bers from a government building in east Baghdad. moore was released in late 2009 after the Khazali brothers were freed from US prisons in Iraq.

however, the Briton’s guards were all killed, their bodies returned one by one as part of a choreographed exchange with asa’ib ahl al-haq prisoners who were released from US and Iraqi prisons. Daqduq, one of the last to be freed, was returned to Lebanon in 2012.

Now, as Iraq approaches parlia-mentary elections on april 30, the group is stepping up its political ac-tivism in Baghdad and its support for the regime of Bashar al-assad in Syr-

ia. In speeches and interviews in the past two years, Qais al-Khazali has claimed a role for the group based on its military “defeat” of the US.

his message has galvanised thou-sands of Iraqi Shias who have volun-teered to fight for the assad regime in Syria. and it has worried many com-munities across the Shia heartland, who see their countrymen’s involve-ment in Syria’s battles as a costly in-vestment in a sectarian conflict that increasingly respects no border.

In the Najaf cemetery, gravedig-gers say they can barely distinguish between the end of one war and the start of the next. “No sooner had the americans gone than Syria ex-ploded,” said one worker, standing against a newly built shrine. “There have been more of their bodies com-ing back from Syria than ever before. There are easily around 500 of them buried here. We’ve been getting about three a day for the past month alone. They get driven to us from across the border in Iran. When they are killed in Syria, they are flown there.”

The regular rhythms of life and death keep business ticking over in this graveyard of more than five mil-lion souls. But even by Najaf’s stan-dards, business has been brisk lately. a warm wind swirls soil from open graves nearby, and a newly etched tombstone spells out the short life of the Shia jihadist killed somewhere in Syria last November. his grave, and the 30-odd alongside it, all say the occupant died “defending the holy Shrine Sayyidah Zaynab”.

The mosque, on the southwest outskirts of Damascus, is said to be the resting place of the daughter of the Imam ali, the prophet muham-mad’s cousin, and is revered by the Shia faithful. Its defence has served as a clarion call for Shia fighters from around the middle East who believe it to be under attack from Sunni extremists.

hezbollah also claims its interven-tion in Syria on the side of assad is in defence of the shrine. So too does

Kata’ib hezbollah, another Iranian-backed Iraqi proxy, whose members are often buried alongside asa’ib ahl al-haq fighters. Both Iraqi groups fight across Syria under the ban-ner of abu al-Fadl al-abbas, which has been at the vanguard of attacks against the almost exclusively Sunni opposition across Syria.

They, along with the Iranian revo-lutionary Guards, are helping turn the tide in favour of assad, which in late 2012 was losing control of Damascus to rebel groups who were finding serious cracks in the regime’s inner cordon. “Then came a strategic deci-sion by all the Shia groups to defend assad whatever the cost,” said a re-gional ambassador previously based in the Syrian capital. “You could see the turnaround in assad almost im-mediately. Even in his speeches, it was like ‘we can do this’.”

Estimates of the numbers of Shia fighters in Syria range between 8,000 and 15,000. Whatever the true figure, the involvement of large numbers of Iraqis is not the secret it was in the early months of Syria’s civil war, which is now being fought along a sectarian faultline.

Outside Baghdad University, a large poster of asa’ib ahl al-haq’s dead, superimposed on a photo of the Sayyidah Zaynab shrine, greets students. Similar posters stand outside other universities, and on prominent public squares. Security forces pay them no heed.

“The government has given them cover for their political and security life,” said a senior Iraqi official with links to the intelligence community. “[The Iraqi prime minister Nouri] al-maliki is wary of them, but what can he do? his nature is that if he cannot deal with the issue he will turn his head away. he tried to set up a cell to monitor them in late 2010, but they found out and he was embarrassed. he paid them money and said sorry. They don’t respect him now.”

Iraqi intelligence officials believe asa’ib ahl al-haq is receiving $1.5-

$2 million a month from Iran. “They see themselves as the ‘Soldiers of the marjaeen’ [the ultimate Shia re-ligious authority],” the official said. “Their power is unchecked.”

The gravediggers who sit waiting for business in concrete huts along the main road through the cemetery fear nothing in death, but admit to being scared of the threat faced by anyone who earns the ire of asa’ib ahl al-haq. “They are everywhere,” said one. “They’re in the [official records] building. Don’t go asking questions there. You will be arrested.”

In Baghdad, homes and offices have been bought or, in some cases, commandeered by officials from the party who use them as recruit-ing centres for anyone looking to fight in Syria. most locals seem to give them a wide berth.

“You need to be young and you need to have two written references,” said a local man who had sat in on an interview between a would-be volunteer and asa’ib ahl al-haq of-ficials. “Those guarantees are impor-tant. It is also better if you don’t have children, or a wife.

“If you are accepted, you will be taken to Iran for about two weeks for training and then you will be sent to Syria. It’s the same way home if you die there. If someone dies, they will be looked after by Iran. The families of martyrs are paid up to $5,000 each. and if they are too poor to pay for the burial, that will be taken care of too.”

The Najaf gravediggers were staying ahead of the market, digging holes in advance for the bodies soon to fol-low. Tombstones were piled nearby for up to 30 Keta’ib hezbollah graves waiting for engravers. On a corner, a woman in a burqa was cleaning dust from large plastic bottles of pink rosewater that family members use to wipe tombs, new and old. a faint floral smell wafted past the new ar-rivals on a dusk breeze. “We’ll be back here tomorrow,” said the grave-digger. “We will bury whatever they send us.” The guArdiAn

Opinion18 THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

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LESS than 18 months after becoming General Secretary of the chinese communist Party, Xi Jinping is poised to

cage the biggest political “tiger” – a corrupt top official – in the history of the People’s republic.

although rumours of the imminent fall of former internal security chief Zhou Yongkang have been swirling for months, many observers remained unsure whether Xi would prosecute Zhou and thus break the party’s long-established unwritten rule of immuni-ty for sitting or retired members of the Politburo Standing committee.

But doubts about Zhou’s fate have now been dispelled by a recent flurry of uncensored news stories in the chi-nese media that revealed shocking details of corruption involving Zhou’s family and former subordinates. One newspaper reported that the authori-ties recently searched the homes of Zhou’s two brothers.

Though these stories have yet to implicate Zhou directly, it will be only a matter of time before the chinese government officially charges him with corruption.

Whispered reports are even more lurid. Zhou is said to have plotted to murder his first wife, and there are rumours that at the height of last

year’s scandal involving disgraced former chongqing party boss Bo Xilai, he attempted to assassinate Xi in the leadership compound at Zhongnanhai.

Based on what the chinese press has disclosed thus far, it is clear that the Zhou case will be the ugliest and most sensational scandal involving a senior party leader that the country has ever seen.

It will make Bo, an ally of Zhou and a former Politburo member who was sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption, look like a petty thief.

apparently, the chinese government is meticulously building a case against Zhou by pursuing two critical leads. The first one targets his son, Zhou Bin, a businessman who has amassed a huge fortune through shady deals and possibly criminal activities.

With so many officials and private businessmen eager to curry favour with his father, Zhou Bin had no diffi-culty cashing in.

his business activities include brok-ering sales of oil-field equipment to Iraq (causing huge losses for chinese state-owned oil companies); construc-tion of hydroelectric power stations in Sichuan (where his father was the pro-vincial party boss from 1997 to 2002); providing information technology for 8,000 state-owned gas stations; and investments in real estate, oil explora-tion, and toll roads.

The most damaging revelation so far concerns Zhou Bin’s friendship with billionaire mafia boss Liu han, who is now standing trial for organised crime and murder. Liu made his fortune with Zhou Bin’s help.

In one case, the younger Zhou allegedly used his political connec-tions to help Liu sell two hydroelec-tric power stations to a state-owned power company for a profit of ¥2.2 billion ($330 million).

The second lead centers on Zhou Yongkang’s former lieutenants. a tactic favoured by chinese anti-corruption investigators is to detain junior offi-cials who have worked closely with their primary target.

Typically, these minions are threat-ened with long prison sentences, or even the death penalty, unless they cooperate.

In this case, a dozen officials who worked for Zhou in the energy sector in Sichuan and in the ministry of Pub-lic Security (where Zhou was minister from 2003 to 2008) have been arrested.

most ominously for Zhou, the offi-cials include two of his former exec-utive assistants, who presumably have intimate knowledge of Zhou’s activities.

When the chinese government for-mally announces Zhou’s arrest – probably after the conclusion of the annual session of the National Peo-ple’s congress in mid-march – the

revelations of the rot within the chi-nese party-state will stun even the most jaded observers.

What Zhou, his family, and their cronies have done can be described only as insatiable looting and blatant gangsterism.

more important, the Zhou scandal will almost certainly implicate a record number of senior officials. as of now, one minister, two provincial vice-gov-ernors, one vice-minister and several senior executives in state-owned oil companies have been detained.

more officials are expected to fall in the coming year.

For Xi, ensnaring Zhou in his anti-corruption net will likely provide a boost in his popular standing. he can show a sceptical chinese public that he has the political will to take down one of the country’s most powerful politicians.

moreover, vanquishing a once-un-touchable politician will leave no doubt about Xi’s personal authority.

For the rest of the world, the unfold-ing Zhou scandal reconfirms a pro-foundly worrisome fact: the middle Kingdom remains deeply corrupt.

caging a tiger will not destroy a vampire. PROJECT SYNDICATE

commentMinxin Pei

Fallen tiger, shaken dragonZhou Yongkang, China’s top security official (centre), attends China’s National People’s Congress in Beijing, China, in 2012. BLOOMBERG

minxin pei is professor of government at claremont mcKenna college and a non-resident senior fellow at the german marshall fund of the united states.

19THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

Lifestyle In brief

Myanmar group rocks US fans at SXSW fest THEIR first album was almost scuppered by US sanctions and they lack the money for all their instruments, but Myanmar rockers Side Effect have played the gig of their dreams in America helped by fans from around the world. Facing everything from censored lyrics to tight restrictions on live gigs under the former junta, the band became the first from Myanmar to play the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas since their isolated country opened up following decades of military dictatorship. “There’s so much love in the air. I think because of the music, you know – all the people are here because they love music,” said lead singer and guitarist Darko C, just before playing to a packed Austin bar late on Thursday. The indie rock band sings in both English and Burmese. AFp

Ai Weiwei asks Chinese president to his showDISSIDENT Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has said he hopes president Xi Jinping makes time to see his exhibition during the leader’s visit to Germany this month, in an interview published on Saturday. “It would be good if the president found the time to go visit the exhibition. He would see how a man of the same age as him and from the same background can become a totally different person,” Ai told the daily Suddeutsche Zeitung. Xi is due to pass through Berlin at the end of this month as part of a European tour. AFp

Rome honours Great Beauty filmmakerTHE Great Beauty director paolo Sorrentino on Friday was made an honorary citizen of Rome, the backdrop for his Oscar-winning film. part ode to the architectural and artistic glory of the Italian capital, part indictment of the decadence of its elite, Sorrentino’s film has won a string of awards culminating in the Oscar for the best foreign film last month. AFp

Success for Nigerian author at book awardsCHIMAMANDA Ngozi Adichie’s first novel was long-listed for the Man Booker prize; her second, Half of a Yellow Sun, won the Orange prize. Now her third, the acclaimed Americanah, has beaten Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch to win the Nigerian author one of most prestigious literary prizes in the US, the National Book Critics Circle award. Americanah, which has also just been long-listed for the Baileys women’s fiction prize, alongside titles by Evie Wyld, Elizabeth Gilbert and Booker-winner Eleanor Catton, had previously found favour among US book reviewers. THE GUARDIAN

Songkites music festival fosters original talentBennett Murray

SarUN “Jimmy” Kaoon, son of ’60s rock star Vor Sarun, stepped into his father’s shoes last night on a stage on Koh Pich. along with 11 other young

cambodians, Kaoon performed behind city hall at Songkites, a one-night con-cert intended to garner enthusiasm for original songwriting in the Kingdom.

“It’s very important because, our past original songs are everywhere,” said

Kaoon, who supports himself as a tour guide for foreign visitors.

hundreds of young concert-goers turned out to hear the songs, sung in both English and Khmer to the back-drop of an international band. The tunes ranged from acoustic pop in the style of Sarah mcLachlan to blues.

Organised by ragamuffin arts thera-py NGO co-founder carrie herbert and musician Euan Gray, Songkites aims to promote new music as opposed to tunes that copy international hits.

“There is original music in cambo-dia, but it hasn’t really been given an opportunity to flourish,” herbert said, adding that cambodian music often takes foreign titles and adds Khmer language lyrics.

The festival marked the launch of an album, also called Songkites, which was produced during a six-month period of workshops and recording ses-sions with 12 young cambodians.

Lewis Pragasam, the leader and founder of malaysian band asiabeat and the drummer who provided per-cussion last night, likened the cambo-dian music scene to malaysia’s when he started his band 30 years ago.

“It was just in this short time that all this incredible talent came out, and

everybody started coming out,” Pra-gasam said of his native country.

Kaoon said his song Baby, I’m Sorry, which he performed at the concert, shares similarities with american blues music. “It’s about a man who made a mistake, and made his woman feel so bad,” he said.

Kaoon said that though his father – who took a job as a police officer after the Khmer rouge – helped him learn the trade, the retired rocker has not gone on stage since before 1975, despite being invited to perform abroad by overseas cambodians

“he’s very famous, but he had to burn all his photos, he had to burn all his albums and put a lot of dirt on his skin to hide himself from the Khmer rouge, and that’s why he’s still alive. But his band had died.”

Ly “Kan Pich” Vongseng, who also performed last night, said that Song-kites is all about re-igniting cambo-dia’s pre-Khmer rouge passion for original music.

“It is waking up this industry to reform, and to make a change for the writers, the production of the songs, to have original music, as it was devel-oped in the old era, in the Sinn Sisamouth era.”

Euan Gray (left) and Phillip Javelle help to set up for last night’s Songkites music show on a stage behind City Hall. pHA LINA

Young talent recognised at political debate show finale Poppy McPherson

a FEW days ahead of the reality televi-sion triumph that changed her life,

Eang Linda was modest about her chances.

“It is going . . . normal. Not very well. It’s kind of hard to talk with students,” she said, handing out flyers to girls and monks outside Pannasastra University.

a smartly dressed 20-year-old with a blunt fringe, Linda was harnessing the youth vote before the finale of Next Generation, a televised po-litical debate show funded by USaID and organised by the International republican In-stitute (IrI).

The finale, screened live on myTV on Friday and rebroad-cast on cNc on Saturday, cen-tred on whether provincial governors should be elected rather than appointed.

Three phone voting lines – one for each of the candidates – were opened and, after suc-cessfully arguing on the side of elections, Linda drew more than 2,000 votes, edging out rivals Kongkea mao, 25, and Seak Leng, 23.

The three remained from the original field of 24 contestants, all between the ages of 18 and 27 and most of whom were voted off in previous shows.

Previous episodes of the weekly one-hour show, known as Neak Beantor Vean in

Khmer, have featured young people debating controversial issues like the legalisation of prostitution and the politici-sation of monks.

But this week’s issue was particularly timely, as elector-al change has been a key de-mand by the opposition cam-bodia National rescue Party in talks with the government.

“IrI chose the topic of pro-vincial governors as the final debate topic given the rel-evant electoral reform discus-sions now under way in the country,” said Jessica Keegan, country director for cambo-dia at IrI, which has produced

similar programs in Georgia and Guyana.

“The idea of bringing repre-sentative politics closer to the people is not a new concept for cambodia, but it is a relatively new topic for television.”

The first prize, handed out by Ou Virak, chairman of the cambodian center for hu-man rights, and Jeff Daigle, charge d’affaires at the US em-bassy, includes a study tour of Washington Dc, including meetings on capitol hill with lawmakers from the house and Senate.

accepting the trophy, Linda said: “I am a small person, but

I’m solid like the core of a tree. I will learn all that I can when I’m in the United States, and bring that knowledge back to my country where I want to work to improve cambodia.”

Linda has come a long way from her roots in Kampong chhnang province, where, growing up, she had no aspi-rations to involve herself with government.

“my family told me to stay away from politics. But as I grew up, I feel like something went wrong with our society,” she said.

She started to develop an interest in social issues and

applied to take part in Next Generation at her sister’s urg-ing, on the last day before the deadline.

although she is studying business administration at Pannasastra, she hasn’t ruled out entering the political are-na later in life.

“Sometimes when I’m working on my campaign I feel like I should be a politi-cian,” she said.

Yesterday, Linda’s Facebook page was flooded with com-ments.

“congratulations on your achievement, but don’t forget me,” one person implored.

(From left) Ou Virak, Eang Linda and Jeff Daigle at the finale of Next Generation on Friday night. pHOTO SUppLIED

TravelTHE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 201420

INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT SCHEDULEFROM PHNOM PENH TO PHNOM PENHFlighs Days Dep Arrival Flighs Days Dep Arrival

PHNOM PENH - BANGKOK BANGKOK - PHNOM PENH

K6 720 Daily 12:05 01:10 K6 721 Daily 02:25 03:30

PG 938 Daily 06:40 08:15 PG 931 Daily 07:55 09:05

PG 932 Daily 09:55 11:10 TG 580 Daily 07:55 09:05

TG 581 Daily 10:05 11:10 PG 933 Daily 13:30 14:40

PG 934 Daily 15:30 16:40 FD 3616 Daily 15:15 16:20

FD 3617 Daily 17:05 18:15 PG 935 Daily 17:30 18:40

PG 936 Daily 19:30 20:40 TG 584 Daily 18:25 19:40

TG 585 Daily 20:40 21:45 PG 937 Daily 20:15 21:50

PHNOM PENH - BEIJING BEIJING - PHNOM PENH

CZ 324 Daily 08:00 16:05 CZ 323 Daily 14:30 20:50

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

QR 965 ..34..7 16:10 22:45 QR 964 ..34..7 01:05 14:30

QR 967 12...6. 22:40 05:20+1 QR 966 12...6. 07:25 20:50

PHNOM PENH - GUANGZHOU GUANGZHOU - PHNOM PENH

CZ 324 Daily 08:00 11:40 CZ 6059 2.4.7 12:00 13:45

CZ 6060 2.4.7 14:45 18:10 CZ 323 Daily 19:05 20:50

PHNOM PENH - HANOI HANOI - PHNOM PENH

VN 840 Daily 17:30 20:35 VN 841 Daily 09:40 13:00

PHNOM PENH - HO CHI MINH CITY HO CHI MINH CITY - PHNOM PENH

QR 965 ..34..7 16:10 17:10 QR 604 ..34..7 13:30 14:30

QR 967 12...6. 22:40 23:40 QR 966 12...6. 19:50 20:50

VN 841 Daily 14:00 14:45 VN 920 Daily 15:50 16:30

VN 3856 Daily 19:20 20:05 VN 3857 Daily 18:00 18:45

PHNOM PENH - HONG KONG HONG KONG - PHNOM PENH

KA 207 1.2.4.7 11:25 15:05 KA 208 1.2.4.6.7 08:50 10:25

KA 207 6 11:45 22:25 KA 206 3.5.7 14:30 16:05

KA 209 1 18:30 22:05 KA 206 1 15:25 17:00

KA 209 3.5.7 17:25 21:00 KA 206 2 15:50 17:25

KA 205 2 19:00 22:35

PHNOM PENH - INCHEON INCHEON - PHNOM PENH

KE 690 Daily 23:40 06:40 KE 689 Daily 18:30 22:20

OZ 740 Daily 23:50 06:50 OZ 739 Daily 19:10 22:50

PHNOM PENH - KUALA LUMPUR KUALA LUMPUR - PHNOM PENH

AK 1473 Daily 08:35 11:20 AK 1474 Daily 15:15 16:00

MH 755 Daily 11:10 14:00 MH 754 Daily 09:30 10:20

MH 763 Daily 17:10 20:00 MH 762 Daily 3:20 4:10

PHNOM PENH- PARIS PHNOM PENH - PARIS

AF 273 2 20:05 06:05 AF 273 2 20:05 06:05

PHNOM PENH - SHANGHAI SHANGHAI - PHNOM PENH

FM 833 2.3.4.5.7 19:50 23:05 FM 833 2.3.4.5.7 19:30 22:40

PHNOM PENH - SINGAPORE SINGAPORE - PHNOM PENH - SIEM REAP *

MI 601 1.3.5.6.7 09:30 12:30 MI 602 1.3.5.6.7 07:40 08:40

MI 622 2.4 12:20 15:20 MI 622 2.4 08:40 11:25

3K 594 1.3.5.6 15:10 18:10 3K 593 1.3.5.6 13:20 14:25

3K 592 .2.4..7 21:05 0:05 3K 591 .2.4..7 19:15 20:20

3K 598 .2.4..7 16:00 19:25 *3K 597 .2.4..7 13:50 15:15

MI 607 Daily 18:10 21:10 MI 608 Daily 16:20 17:15

2817 1.3 16:40 19:40 2816 1.3 15:00 15:50

2817 2.4.5 09:10 12:00 2816 2.4.5 07:20 08:10

2817 6 14:50 17:50 2816 6 13:00 14:00

2817 7 13:20 16:10 2816 7 11:30 12:30

PHNOM PENH -TAIPEI TAIPEI - PHNOM PENH

BR 266 Daily 12:45 17:05 BR 265 Daily 09:10 11:35

PHNOM PENH - VIENTIANE VIENTIANE - PHNOM PENH

VN 840 Daily 17:30 18:50 VN 841 Daily 11:30 13:00

QV 920 Daily 17:50 19:10 QV 921 Daily 11:45 13:15

PHNOM PENH - YANGON YANGON - SIEM REAP

8M 402 1.3.6 13:30 14:55 8M 401 1.3.6 08:20 10:45

SIEM REAP - PHNOM PENH

8M 401 1.3.6 11:45 12:30

SIEM REAP - BANGKOK BANGKOK - SIEM REAP

Flighs Days Dep Arrival Flighs Days Dep Arrival

K6 700 Daily 12:50 2:00 K6 701 Daily 02:55 04:05

PG 924 Daily 09:45 11:10 PG 903 Daily 08:00 09:00

PG 906 Daily 13:15 14:40 PG 905 Daily 11:35 12:45

PG 914 Daily 15:20 16:45 PG 913 Daily 13:35 14:35

PG 908 Daily 18:50 20:15 PG 907 Daily 17:00 18:10

PG 910 Daily 20:30 21:55 PG 909 Daily 18:45 19:55

SIEM REAP - GUANGZHOU GUANGZHOU - SIEM REAP

CZ 3054 2.4.6 11:25 15:35 CZ 3053 2.4.6 08:45 10:30

CZ 3054 1.3.5.7 19:25 23:20 CZ 3053 1.3.5.7 16:35 18:30

SIEM REAP -HANOI HANOI - SIEM REAP

K6 850 Daily 06:50 08:30 K6 851 Daily 19:30 21:15

VN 868 1.2.3.5.6 12:40 15:35 VN 843 Daily 15:25 17:10

VN 842 Daily 18:05 19:45 VN 845 Daily 17:05 18:50

VN 844 Daily 19:45 21:25 VN 845 Daily 17:45 19:30

VN 800 Daily 21:00 22:40 VN 801 Daily 18:20 20:00

SIEM REAP - HO CHI MINH CITY HO CHI MINH CITY - SIEM REAP

VN 3818 Daily 11:10 12:30 VN 3809 Daily 09:15 10:35

VN 826 Daily 13:30 14:40 VN 827 Daily 11:35 12:35

VN 3820 Daily 17:45 18:45 VN 3821 Daily 15:55 16:55

VN 828 Daily 18:20 19:20 VN 829 Daily 16:20 17:40

VN 3822 Daily 21:35 22:35 VN 3823 Daily 19:45 20:45

SIEM REAP - INCHEON INCHEON - SIEM REAP

KE 688 Daily 23:15 06:10 KE 687 Daily 18:30 22:15

OZ 738 Daily 23:40 07:10 OZ 737 Daily 19:20 22:40

SIEM REAP - KUALA LUMPUR KUALA LUMPUR - SIEM REAP

AK 281 Daily 08:35 11:35 AK 280 Daily 06:50 07:50

FLY DIRECT TO MYANMAR MONDAY, WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY

YANGON - PHNOM PENH PHNOM PENH - YANGONFLY DIRECT TO SIEM REAP MONDAY, WEDNESDAY & SATURDAYSIEM REAP - YANGON YANGON - SIEM REAP

#90+92+94Eo, St. 217, Sk. Orussey4, Kh. 7 Makara, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.Tel 023 881 178 | Fax 023 886 677 | www.maiair.com

REGULAR SHIPPING LINES SCHEDULES CALLING PORT ROTATION

LINE CALLING SCHEDULES FREEQUENCY ROTATION PORTS

RCL (12calls/moth)

1 Wed, 08:00 - Thu 16:00 1 Call/week SIN-SHV-SGZ-SIN

2 Thu, 14:00 - Fri 22:00 1 Call/week HKG-SHV-SGZ-HKG(HPH-TXGKEL)

3 Fri, 20:00 - Sat 23:59 1 Call/week SIN-SHV-SGZ-SIN

MEARSK (MCC)(4 calls/moth)

1 Th, 08:00 - 20:00 1 Call/week SGN-SHV-LZP-SGN- HKG-OSA-TYO-KOB- BUS-SGH-YAT-SGN- SIN-SHV-TPP-SIN2 Fri, 22:00- Sun 00:01 1 Call/week

SITC (BEN LINE (4 calls/onth) Sun 09:00-23:00 1 Call/week

HCM-SHV-LZP-HCM-NBO-SGH-OSA-KOB-BUS-SGH-HGK-CHM

ITL (ACL)(4 calls/month) Sat 06:00 - Sun 08:00 1 Call/week SGZ-SHV-SIN-SGZ

APL(4 calls/month) Fri, 08:00 - Sun, 06:00 1 call/week SIN-SHV-SINCOTS(2 calls/month) Irregula 2 calls/month BBK-SHV-BKK-(LZP)

34 call/monthBUS= Busan, KoreaHKG= HongKongkao=Kaoshiung, Taiwan ROCKob= Kebe, JapanKUN= Kuantan, MalaysiaLZP= Leam Chabang, ThailandNBO= Ningbo, ChinaOSA= Osaka, JapanSGN= Saigon, Vietnam

SGZ= Songkhla, ThailandSHV= Sihanoukville Port CambodiaSIN= SingaporeTPP= TanjungPelapas, Malaysia TYO= Tokyo, JapanTXG= Taichung, TaiwanYAT= Yantian, ChinaYOK= Yokohama, Japan

AIRLINES

Air Asia (AK)Room T6, PP International Airport. Tel: 023 6666 555 Fax: 023 890 071www.airasia.com

Cambodia Angkor Air (K6)PP Office, #90+92+94Eo, St.217, Sk.Orussey4, Kh. 7Makara, 023 881 178 /77-718-333. Fax:+855 23-886-677 www.cambodiaangkorair.comE: mai@royalaviationexpert.com

Qatar AirwaysNo. 296 Blvd. Mao Tse Toung (St. 245), Ground floor, Intercontinental Hotel PP Tel: +23 42 40 12/13/14www.qatarairways.com

Myanmar Airways International#90+92+94Eo, St. 217, Sk. Orussey4, Kh. 7 Makara, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.T:023 881 178 | F:023 886 677www.maiair.com

Dragon Air (KA)#168, Monireth, PPTel: 023 424 300Fax: 023 424 304 www.dragonair.com/kh

Tiger airwaysG. floor, Regency square, Suare, Suite #68/79, St.205, Sk Chamkarmorn, PPTel: (855) 95 969 888(855) 23 5515 888/5525888E: info@cambodiaairlines.net

Koreanair (KE) Room.F3-R03, Intelligent Office Center, Monivong Blvd,PPTel: (855) 23 224 047-9www.koreanair.com

Cebu Pacific (5J)Phnom Penh: No. 333BMonivong Blvd. Tel: 023 219161Siem Reap: No. 50,Sivatha Blvd.Tel: 063 965487 E-mail: cebuair@ptm-travel.comwww.cebupacificair.com

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

AIRLINES CODE COLOUR CODE2817 - 16 Tigerairways KA - Dragon Air 1 Monday

5J - CEBU Airways. MH - Malaysia Airlines 2 Tuesday

AK - Air Asia MI - SilkAir 3 Wednesday

BR - EVA Airways OZ - Asiana Airlines 4 Thursday

CI - China Airlines PG - Bangkok Airways 5 Friday

CZ - China Southern QR - Qatar Airways 6 Saturday

FD - Thai Air Asia QV - Lao Airlines 7 Sunday

FM - Shanghai Air SQ - Singapore Airlines

K6- Cambodia Angkor Air TG - Thai Airways | VN - Vietnam Airlines

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

MH 765 3.5.7 14:15 17:25 MH 764 3.5.7 12:10 13:15

SIEM REAP - MANILA MANILA - SIEM REAP

5J 258 2.4.7 22:30 02:11 5J 257 2.4.7 19:45 21:30

SIEM REAP - SINGAPORE SINGAPORE - SIEM REAP

MI 633 1, 6, 7 16:35 22:15 MI 633 1, 6, 7 14:35 15:45

MI 622 2.4 10:40 15:20 MI 622 2.4 08:40 09:50

MI 630 5 12:25 15:40 MI 616 7 10:40 11:50

MI 615 7 12:45 16:05 MI 636 3, 2 13:55 17:40

MI 636 3, 2 18:30 21:35 MI 630 5 07:55 11:35

MI 617 5 18:35 21:55 MI 618 5 16:35 17:45

SIEM REAP - VIENTIANE VIENTIANE - SIEM REAP

QV 522 2.4.5.7 10:05 13:00 QV 512 2.4.5.7 06:30 09:25

SIEM REAP - YANGON YANGON - SIEM REAP

8M 402 1. 5 20:15 21:25 8M 401 1. 5 17:05 19:15

PREAH SIHANOUK - SIEM REAP SIEM REAP - PREAH SIHANOUK

Flighs Days Dep Arrival Flighs Days Dep Arrival

K6 130 1-3-5 12:55 13:55 K6 131 1-3-5 11:20 12:20

The interior of the Crowley Theater in Marfa, Texas. afp

marfa: oasis of culture in the Texan desert N

ESTLED in the Texas high desert about an hour from the mexi-can border, marfa

appears, at first glance, to be hidden from the outside world.

With a population of only 1,900, the city that began life as a railroad stop feels like a backwater, with fading build-ings, modest homes and dor-mant streets.

Yet the sleepy appearance is misleading. For the thousands who flock to the town each year from around the world, marfa is a cultural paradise, an El Dorado for art lovers.

a visitor might struggle to locate a pharmacy or a su-permarket, but will be able to enjoy bookstores, galleries, a theatre, a radio station, two annual film festivals and nu-merous art deco treasures.

Every weekend, the crowds descend on a town the lo-cal tourist board markets as: “Tough to get to. Tougher to explain. But once you get here, you get it.”

“It’s like the tide,” joked Val-erie arber, an artist who has lived in the town for 16 years.

The stream of visitors regu-larly includes luminaries from the creative world, such as the director of the Tate Gallery, Nicholas Serota, actress Sissy Spacek, singer Beyonce or edgy bands such as The xx.

“marfa is a contemporary utopia, a place for thought and art in a landscape of wild beauty,” said Fabien Giraud, a French artist who works in the Fieldwork marfa project.

Founded in the late 19th century, marfa developed into a thriving community that included ranches and a military base.

a devastating drought deci-mated livestock, however, and the end of World War II saw the military base close, triggering a decline in marfa’s fortunes.

The town received a fleet-ing moment in the hollywood spotlight when it was used as the location for the 1955 James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor classic Giant, but it would be nearly another two decades before marfa’s revival would begin in earnest.

marfa’s renaissance can be traced back to 1972, when Donald Judd, one of the most important minimalist artists of the 20th century, arrived in the town in 1972.

Tired of the frenetic pace of life in New York, and in love with the desert landscape, Judd purchased a number of former military and com-mercial buildings in marfa to house his giant sculptures.

he moved his family and his studio to the town, and with support from the Dia art Foundation in New York, set up the chinati Foundation, dedicated to the creation of a permanent exhibit of his huge works and those of fel-low artists such as Dan Flavin or John chamberlain.

Since Judd’s death in 1994, the collection has grown, helping marfa establish itself as a hub of contemporary art.

“Judd was sure of the qual-ity of his own work. he knew people would come,” chinati Foundation associate director rob Weiner said.

Other organisations have also contributed to marfa’s booming reputation as an artistic centre. The Lannan Foundation spon-sors four- to six-week residen-cies in the town for writers, po-ets and essayists.

The Ballroom marfa cen-tre for art, music and cinema opened in 2003.

“We loved the idea of a cre-ative space where people con-verge from all over the world,” co-founder Fairfax Dorn said. “We liked the idea of a new frontier.” afp

Entertainment21THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

Thinking caps

Friday’s solutionFriday’s solution

LEGEnd cinEma300: RISE OF AN EMPIREGreek general Themistokles leads the charge against invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes and vengeful commander of the Persian navy Artemisia.Toul Kork: 9:30am, 1:35pm, 3:40pm, 7:35pm, 9:55pm

ROBOCOPIn 2028 Detroit, when Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) – a loving husband, father and good cop – is critically injured in the line of duty, the multinational con-glomerate OmniCorp sees its chance for a part-man, part-robot police officer.Toul Kork: 5:15pm, 9:40pm

POMPEIIA gladiator finds himself in a race against time to save his true love, who has been betrothed to a corrupt Roman senator. As Mount Vesuvius erupts, he must fight to save his beloved as Pompeii crumbles around him.Toul Kork: 11:20am

THE MISSING PICTURERithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979. Nominated for an Oscar. Toul Kork: 8pm

MR PEABODY & SHERMANThe time-travelling adventures of an advanced canine and his adopted son as they endeavour to fix a time rift they created.Toul Kork: 9:30am, 3:25pm, 5:50pm

3AM PART 2Thai horror movie.Toul Kork: 11:35am, 1:20pm

PUCH KHNOM CHEONGKhmer film.Toul Kork: 9:30am, 1:40pm, 3:45pm, 7:45pm, 9:55pm

KON BRO SA LEUR KEURKhmer film.Toul Kork: 11:30am

NOW SHOWING Go Club @ Mloup SnaiGo, or Baduk (common meaning: “encircling game”) is a board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. The game is noted for being rich in strategy despite its simple rules. It involves black and white playing pieces called “stones”.

Go originated in China but is also popular in other parts of Asia including Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

Anyone is welcome to show up.

Mloup Snai Restaurant, #91 Street 592 (Toul Kork district). 10am

The History of Things to Come sale features authentic, hand-picked women’s clothing items from the 1940s onwards, ranging from World War II era sundresses to 1980s jumpsuits.

Private residence, #21 Street 306 next to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. 8am – 8pm

ACROSS 1 Doll’s comment, often 5 Shoelace piece 10 Tart taste 14 Early space explorer Shepard 15 Watts of Hollywood 16 English horn, e.g. 17 Reporter’s challenge 20 “Aloha!” 21 Mark with grooves 22 “Green” emotion 25 Wistful exhalation 26 Humble dwelling 29 Make watertight 31 Cascades peak 35 112.5 degrees away from S 36 Gave employment to 38 Blender’s sound 39 Solid venture 43 Ripped 44 Twig used in grafting 45 Cause of team dissension 46 Pilfers 49 Roll call response 50 Bookcase locale, often 51 Presidential caucus state 53 Icy coating 55 Bottom of a chest 58 Start for “structure” or “red” 62 Excellent thing to build on 65 Solo for opera stars 66 Bombastic 67 Change copy 68 Faculty head 69 Caught some Z’s 70 Something to play

DOWN 1 It has its pluses and minuses 2 Skin cream ingredient 3 Wound by clawing 4 Camera view 5 Santa __, Calif. 6 One of the three states of matter 7 Bottom-line bummer 8 Sends forth 9 Baghdad’s river 10 Native American weapon 11 Help, as a prankster 12 All’s alternative 13 Attain 18 Chief Japanese island 19 Close by, in poetry 23 It’s often removed from shrimp 24 Football-field units 26 Tests the weight 27 Knot-tying result 28 ___ firma 30 Parasitic creature 32 ___ away from (was timid) 33 Bit of color 34 Vacuum-tube gas 37 Beauty-shop device 40 Happening at noon 41 Singer/songwriter Amos 42 Iron deficiency 47 Chevrolet rival 48 Swallow kin 52 Run ___ of the law 54 Type in 55 Additional amount 56 Russian skater Kulik 57 See red 59 Generic name for a dog 60 Stir up 61 Pay to join the hand 62 Insufficient, as an excuse 63 Cold-day feature 64 Banned insecticide’s letters

“THIS ONE IS HARD”

Ballet class @ CSB PPThis class is structured to provide students with a firm foundation in ballet technique and vocabulary in a series of steps. This class is mainly for people who danced when they were younger, remember the basics of ballet and are looking for a refresher course. Also welcome are those who have a lot of experience in another dance style and want to quickly cover the basics of ballet before advancing.

Central School of Ballet Phnom Penh, #10 Street 183. 12:15pm

Vintage @ BKK1

TV PICKS 8:25am - MUNICH: Based on the true story of the Black September aftermath and the five men chosen to eliminate the ones responsible for that fateful day. HBO

12pm - REAL STEEL: Set in the near future, where ro-bot boxing is a top sport, a struggling promoter feels he’s found a champion in a discarded robot. During his hopeful rise to the top, he discovers he has an 11-year-old son who wants to know his father. HBO

3:50pm - ALEX CROSS: A homicide detective is pushed to the brink of his moral and physical limits as he tan-gles with a ferociously skilled serial killer. FOX MOVIES

9pm - LOOPER: In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent into the past, where a hired gun awaits – someone like Joe – who one day learns the mob wants to “close the loop” by sending back Joe’s future self for assassination. HBO

Join in with Go, or Baduk, at Mloup Snai restaurant. AFP

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in Looper. BLOOMBERG

Yahama Olympic’s business networking event, The Destina-tion, was held on March 13 to promote communica-tion between members of Cambodia’s business com-munity. The event, which was organised by Yamaha Motor Cambodian and Rose magazine, was attended by national and internation-al guests and featured an appearance from Rose magazine cover model Douch Lyda and a preview of the new season’s Yahama motos which were being sold with a special Khmer New Year discount.Photos by Chhim Sreyneang.

LifestyleTHE PHNOM PENH POST MaRCh 17, 201422

Socheata and SonterySocial Life Team

International Women’s Day brought together DKSh Cambodia and abbott Nutrition International for Journey of Success, a seminar aimed towards working mothers. The seminar, which was conducted in collaboration with the Cambodia Women Entrepreneurs association, invited Doctor heng Viroath from the Khmer-Soviet Friendship hospital to raise awareness about diseases which are common to women. Seng Takak Neary, President at CWEa, also gave a talk about women who play an important role in society, and female entrepreneur Sapor Rendall also spoke. attendees were also able to taste Similac Mum, a low-fat supplement for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, and to take a gift back home. Photos by Chhim Sreyneang.

Similac Mum presents International Women’s Day @ Sofitel

Yamaha business network @ Yamaha showroom Olympic

Rin Thyrith, violinist, Ros Keo Thida, Ros Khemarin and Bun Sambath, the guitarist in a classical band.

Nou Kimnen, manager, marketing & planning division, Numazawa Kazuhiro, managing director, and Seang Tola, general manager of the commerical department of Yamaha.

Sasaki Tetsuo, Nakaba Hayama, executive officer of Crystal Ball, Keng Socheat, legal assistant of STJ Int’l Law Office.

Khov Sokly, business manager of Borkor Bikes Shop, Chhum Bunly, sales executive. Sem, Dy Bunnara.

Kim Sokheng, brand manager, Heng Pisey, as-sistant branch manager, Ka Sovuthea from IT Jone Motor Shop.Nop Sotheavy, Ngov Eangly.

Sin Thid, Chhan Somaly, Soeun Socheata and Eang Sophuong.Sapor Rendall, Heng Viroath, doctor at Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital, and Seng Takak Neary, president of Cambodian Women Entrepreneurs Association.Hong Srey Ukem, marketing manager at DKSH.

Loren Kumalasari, general manager of 7One, Meas Panha, assistant manager marketing and sales section of Aeon, Gael Berticat, COO of Mega Leasing.

Douch Lida poses with a Yamaha Filano.

Shoung Voleak, personal assistant to the managing director of RSMK Group. VJ Nata.

Chhim SreyneangSocial Life Manager Lifestyle

23THE PHNOM PENH POST MaRCh 17, 2014

Party organisers Blue Circle presented their Unleashed-Coolness party in several high-end clubs, bringing popular Cambodian celebrities like Mea Soksophea, Ouk Sokhunkanha, Chheay Virakyuthand and Sok Silalin to perform in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville. With 12 events over several weekends, Blue Circle entertained the crowds with shadow dancers, break dancers and laser shows.

Blue Circle presents Unleashed @ various

Lafite Rothschild wines dinner @ Fox Bistro

Phin Sokhary, catering sales manager, Chhim Verak, business development manager from Naga-world.

Phe Chantravuth, Kong Samnang, managing direc-tor of KJKs Aluminum, Meas Ravuth, deputy direc-tor at Garuda Security Company. Malen Chea, Kim Hoan Pheng. Bearring Phang, COO of World Wide Investment, Siew.

Nakry Sovann, Nay Sochoeun from Huat Huat BBQ Chicken Wings.

Sao Moun Daung, general manager of Malis, Sarah Marcni, Marina Quadrao, club and bar manager.

Ellis Chheng Lang, Chea Chanraksa, sales and mar-keting manager at IDD.

Khun Niyaro, Kuch Chanvuthdy, Chhun Chetna, director of IDD.

Bill Longhurst, British ambassador to Phnom Penh, Katie Longhurst.

Ekin Balik, senior manager, Vincent Mascio, senior vice-president at Nagaworld.

Mary Sarath and Chris Thompson, brand ambassa-dor for Lafite Rothschild Wines.

Khun Channarith, Thon Molyka, Channa Morn from Frangipani Villa Hotels.

New British ambassador Bill Longhurst and wife Kathryn Scheding attended the launch of a new range of wines from distributor International Diversity Distributor at Phnom Penh’s Fox Bistro on Saturday, March 15. The wines – paired with a tasting menu – were also enjoyed by representatives of the city’s best hotels and restaurants. Chris Thompson, brand am-bassador for Lafite Rothschild wines, commented that the wine market in Cambodia was growing as Cambodians were becoming more and more interested in drinking wine and try-ing new styles and that IDD were helping to develop the market by making more varieties of wine available. Longhurst replaced the previous British ambassador, Mark Gooding, earlier this year. IDD wines are a 100 per cent Cambodian-owned and operated company. Photo by Chhim Sreyneang.

Singer Sok Silalin.

Meas Soksophea performs with dancers.Blue Circle models.Singer Chheay Virakuthand.

Singer Meas Soksophea poses with a group. Singer Ouk Sokunkanha. Blue Circle celebrated in town

24 THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

Sport

Ireland’s centre Brian O’Driscoll (right) and full-back Rob Kearney hold the trophy after winning their Six Nations rugby union match against France on Saturday at the Stade de France in Paris. AFP

retiring legend Brian O’Driscoll treasures special Ireland victoryI

rIsh rugby legend Brian O’Driscoll said ending his stel-lar international career with a rare win away against France

and taking the six Nations title to boot was a moment he would trea-sure for life.

The 35-year-old centre – the world record caps holder with 141 – bowed out in the best possible style as Ire-land beat France 22-20 in a pulsat-ing encounter at the stade de France which also secured them the cham-

pionship by virtue of a superior points difference to England.

he may not have added to his 47 Test tries – including a Five/six Nations record haul of 26 – but he was instrumental in their third try scored by Jonathan sexton which saw them to only their second win in 42 years in Paris.

suitably it came at the same ground where in 2000 and almost 14 years to the day (the match was on march 19) a callow 21-year-old

O’Driscoll had announced he was a great talent by scoring a hat-trick of tries as Ireland beat the French.

“There have been lots of good memories in between,” said O’Driscoll, who had waited pa-tiently on the stage while Ireland coach Joe schmidt rounded up his post match press conference.

“Obviously 2000 was amazing be-cause it had been 28 years since we won in Paris and to do it 14 years later is incredibly special.

“Not many people get to go out on their own terms and it is one I will treasure.

also for the fact that I was part of such a great team and bunch of guys.”

O’Driscoll, who captained Ireland to the 2009 six Nations Grand slam, said that his decision following a poor six Nations in 2013 to stay on and play for one more year had paid off.

“It is a feeling of sheer delight to have played on for one more year,” O’Driscoll, who played in a record 65 six Nations matches, said.

“I was hoping for a win over the all Blacks and that didn’t happen [the Irish led until the final minute in their November test before losing to a converted try].

“I was also hoping to win the six Nations and that did happen. You can’t have it all but you take what you get.”

O’Driscoll, who despite being erudite once confessed to former captain Keith Wood that he felt un-comfortable giving rousing speech-

es in the changing room when he assumed the captaincy, said he was finding it difficult to take off the green shirt.

“What is it an hour or more since the match finished and here I am still wearing it,” said the man known affectionately in Ireland as BOD and whose biography was titled In BOD We Trust.

“I am dragging the arse out of it a little bit but I just don’t want to take it off.

“I know I will have to when I take a shower, which I will have to do at some point soon, and it will be hard.

“however, while there have been some nearlies in my career with Ire-land when I do take it off it will be with great happiness that it came on a day like today.”

O’Driscoll, son of two doctors and who has a daughter with his actress wife amy huberman, said that there had been no tears at the end of the match.

“There were no tears flowing down my face but there was a frog in my throat,” he said.

“Even with the pre-match warm-up [there was a film played with several of present top players including Ireland captain Paul O’connell paying tribute to him], I just tried to channel those emo-tions into my performance.

“I think I played fair today. We as a team couldn’t let the occasion get the better of us because I am a tiny cog in the wheel.

“Later this evening I am sure there will be a few tears with multiple

beers. But it’s [the victory] a wonder-ful way to finish.”

England look to All Blacks series England coach stuart Lancaster

put aside the loss of the six Na-tions title to Ireland on saturday to express confidence and pride in a youthful side who will next face the formidable challenge of a three-test series in New Zealand.

a potent England scored seven tries on their way to steamroller-ing their way through a limp Italian defence and a 52-11 win at the sta-dio Olimpico to raise hopes of a last day hold-up for the title.

however for the third year running England, who beat Ireland, scotland and Wales leading into saturday’s clash, finished runners-up.

Scotland’s Hogg says sorry for redscotland’s stuart hogg made a pub-

lic apology after being sent off during his side’s record six Nations defeat by Wales in cardiff on saturday.

The full-back was given his marching orders at the millennium stadium by French referee Jerome Garces in the 22nd minute follow-ing a late shoulder charge into the face of Wales fly-half Dan Biggar.

Garces initially produced a yellow card but, after viewing replays on the stadium’s screen, changed it to a red.

scotland, already seven points down and with skipper Kelly Brown out with a head injury, then slumped to a 51-3 loss – their heaviest to Wales and record reverse in the six Nations against all opponents. AFP

Italy’s Luke McLean is tackled by England’s Mike Brown during their Six Nations International rugby union match on Saturday at Olympic stadium in Rome. AFP

SportTHE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014 25

South african captain Faf du Plessis believes australia’s strong batting line-up will have a significant impact in the World twenty20 which started in Bangladesh yesterday.

“they’ve got a powerhouse batting attack,” said Du Plessis after australia cruised to a six-wicket win over his team at Su-perSport Park on Friday on the eve of the departure of both teams for the world event.

“Every one of their top seven or eight can take the game away from you,” said Du Ples-sis. “that makes them very dangerous. they’ve also good quality fast bowling. they didn’t give us anything to hit in the first six overs. they have a very good chance of getting to the semi-finals.”

australian fast bowler mitch-ell Starc, man of the match on Friday, said their twenty20 squad had made the most of their two weeks in South af-rica, despite rain washing out one match and reducing an-other to seven overs a side.

australia won the three-match series 2-0 to follow a 3-0 clean sweep against Eng-land earlier this year.

“We’ve got a lot out of the

three games against England and the two weeks here,” said Starc, although he admitted going to Bangladesh was a step into the unknown.

“I’ve never been there and a fair few of us haven’t been to Bangladesh,” he said. “But we’ve got a warm-up game against New Zealand which will give us a good idea of what to expect. It will be a case of doing everything as well as we can before that first game.”

australia’s first match of the tournament is against Paki-stan in mirpur next Sunday.

While australia head to Bangladesh in confident mood, South africa need to improve on two lacklustre performances.

Du Plessis admitted his side had performed poorly in all three disciplines.

“We lost early wickets and there were mistakes by the batting unit,” he said. “We’re not giving our big hitters the base to attack from. We bowled the wrong lines and lengths and we made mis-takes in the field.”

But Du Plessis said that confidence remained high. “We’ve had good success in the sub-continent and we’ve got two warm-up games be-fore the tournament. But we need to play our best cricket if we are to do well.”

Du Plessis said the return of fast bowlers Dale Steyn and morne morkel, nursing ham-string and shoulder injuries respectively, would add qual-ity and experience to South africa’s bowling attack. Both are expected to be fit to play in scheduled warm-up games against Bangladesh a and Pak-istan in Fatullah. AFP

australia a threat at World t20, says Proteas’ Du Plessis

Lee strikes the winning numberc

aNaDa’S richard t. Lee claimed a sensational comeback victory at the Solaire open in manila at

the expense of home favourite an-gelo Que whose title chances were dashed after one bad hole yesterday.

Lee overcame a four-shot defi-cit in the final round with a two-under-par 69 to defeat thailand’s chawalit Plaphol by one shot and win his first asian tour title at the uS$300,000 event.

overnight leader Que was on course for a fourth asian tour win before di-saster struck on the par-five second hole when he shot a 12 after hitting three out-of-bound tee shots at the challenging the country club.

carlos Pigem of Spain shot a 69 for tied third while Steve Lewton of England, Paul Peterson of the united States and masahiro Kawamura of Japan, whose 65 was the day’s lowest score, shared fourth.

“this win means so much to me and it opens so many doors. to be honest, I felt like I was in contention for the first three days. I shot under-par each day and I knew that if I can come out on the last day to play the way I did then I would have a chance to win. I’m glad I did just that!” said Lee, who totalled seven-under-par 277 to win uS$54,000.

Lee, whose parents are Korean, was ecstatic with his maiden victory after enjoying a solid rookie season on the

asian tour in 2013 where he finished 32nd on the order of merit. however, there was a sense of disappointment as he had to watch his best friend Que walk away empty handed.

“It was a learning experience for me on the asian tour last year. I met some great people like angelo Que, unho

Park and Lam chih Bing. they are good players and I learnt a lot from them. I wished angelo luck yesterday and told him to play his best. It was unfortunate to see what happened to him,” said the 23-year-old Lee.

Lee has endured many ups-and-downs in his career. as an amateur,

he qualified for the 2007 uS open but struggled to perform due to a wrist injury. Learning from that experi-ence, he ensured that he sealed the deal at the Solaire open with a huge 25 footer birdie putt on the 15th hole.

“I was looking at the leaderboard out there. When I made birdie on 12,

I told myself that if I can make one more birdie then I can make it hap-pen. the birdie on 15 was a great and solid putt. I think that birdie made me win the tournament,” he smiled.

chawalit, a four-time asian tour winner, narrowly missed a huge 35-feet birdie putt on the last which he needed to make to force a play-off.

“I was watching the leaderboard after 13 holes and I saw that I had a chance but I couldn’t sink my putts. It is very difficult to win a golf tour-nament if you do not have luck,” chawalit lamented.

“I had about a 35-feet putt on the last and that almost went in. I had so many long putts that almost went into the hole. this is golf for you. my game is good so hopefully the win will come soon,” added the 39-year-old thai.

Que stayed positive even though he missed out on what he claims to be his best chance to win on the asian tour again. he settled for tied 21st af-ter shooting an 82 for a 287 total.

“I can’t take my round back. It is a lesson learnt from me. I feel bad be-cause I had a chance to win but blew it on one hole. these things happen.

“that’s golf and life. all you can do is look back and see what you’ve learnt and move on. I just had one bad day. Everybody has bad days. unfortunately for me, it had to be today and on one hole!” said Que. THE ASIAN TOUR

Richard T. Lee of Canada triumphed yesterday at the US$300,000 Solaire Open Asian Tour golf tournament in Manila. AFP

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis bats during their second KFC T20 match against Australia in Durban last Wednesday. AFP

26 THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

Sport Garcia retains light welterweight titlesDanny Garcia kept his undefeated boxing record intact late on Saturday by taking a majority decision over challenger Mauricio Herrera in a light welterweight title fight. Garcia improved to 28-0 and retained his World Boxing Council and World Boxing association titles with a hard-fought victory that two judges scored 116-112 and the third had even, 114-114. american Garcia, who is of Puerto Rican ancestry, had the crowd of 10,100 at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, on his side. Herrera, also a US citizen, dropped to 20-4 with seven knockouts. aFP

Nets sign Collins for remainder of seasonTHe Brooklyn nets have signed centre Jason Collins for the remainder of the national Basketball association season, the team said in a statement. Collins, who on February 23 became the first openly gay active athlete in major US sports when he signed the first of two 10-day contracts, has scored five points and totalled six rebounds in eight games. Collins, 35, has averaged 3.6 points and 3.7 rebounds during his 13-year career. The nets have 33 wins and 30 losses, trailing the Toronto Raptors by 3 1/2 games in the nBa’s atlantic Division. BLOOMBeRG

US beat Russia for sledge hockey goldTHe United States defended their Paralympic champion title in sledge hockey on Saturday, winning 1-0 against Russia in a gruelling game that sent hockey sticks flying and at times resembled baseball. The Russian team, created in 2010, settled for silver in their Paralympic debut in Sochi, while Canada got the bronze medal after beating norway earlier in the day. The Russians had the support of over 6,000 fans packing the arena in Sochi, but made one mistake by accidentally passing to a player from the rival team who scored the decisive goal. “We played well, just made one mistake,” Russian defender Vadim Selyukin said. “This silver was hard won.” aFP

Ruby Walsh to miss two months after operationRUBy Walsh flew back to Ireland on Saturday night following a successful operation on his right arm, broken in a shocking fall at the Cheltenham Festival on Friday. He is expected to be out of action for at least two months, though that is a more optimistic prognosis than seemed possible in the immediate aftermath of his injury. “Ruby is good, relatively speaking, of course,” said Dr adrian McGoldrick, senior medical officer with the Irish Turf Club. “The operation went well.” The jockey will miss next month’s Grand national, in which he may have ridden the fancied Tidal Bay. Jump racing will be in its off-season when he returns to health, with Galway’s festival in late July being the first major meeting at which Walsh might aim. THe GUaRDIan

Cold, hard splashSwimmers compete during a kids race meet at Northbridge International School on Saturday. The event attracted participants aged between 8 and 18 years old from international schools across the capital including Hope, I-Can, ISPP, Logos and Northbridge. Individual races over 50 metres included freestyle, backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke, while there were also individual medley and relay disciplines of 4x25m. SRenG MenG SRUn

Khim Dima suffers more ONE Fc disappointmentJames GoyderKuala Lumpur

Khim Dima is still looking for his first international mixed martial arts win af-

ter suffering a heart-break-ing split decision defeat at the hands of Saiful merican in Kuala Lumpur on Friday night. The cambodian came close but could only convince one of the three judges that he had done enough to win.

Dima and merican had met before in the Kun Khmer ring in 2011 with the malay-sian losing by decision, but at ONE Fc: War of Nations, which took place at the Stadi-um Putra on Friday, the roles were reversed.

The first round was spent with both fighters standing for the full five minutes, which should have suited Dima, but save for a few solid low kicks to the lead left leg of merican he was unable to capitalise.

in the second stanza meri-

can, who tends to go the distance, began looking for a takedown and at one stage mounted Dima, but the cam-bodian did a good job of tying him up and defending him-self from any potential sub-mission attempts or strikes.

The takedowns meant merican was almost certainly ahead going into the third round but Dima didn’t fight with any sense of urgency, patiently waiting for an op-portunity to present itself.

The approach almost paid off when he sliced his oppo-nent open with a perfectly timed elbow.

Blood was pumping out of the malaysian’s face but for-tunately for him, the wound was to the side of the eye and after a brief pause while the doctor took a look at the damage the fight was allowed to continue.

Perhaps sensing he was still behind, Dima started to fight with some imminence and punished a failed takedown

attempt from merican by swinging kicks at his legs as he lay flat on his back on the canvas.

There was still time for the malaysian to score with another takedown but with damage done being a key component of the ONE Fc scoring criteria, where fights are judged overall rather than round by round, there was an argument to be made that the bloody-faced fighter had lost.

To the cambodian’s disap-pointment, two of the three judges decided that merican’s takedowns and positional control were worth more than Dima’s elbows and low kicks, meaning he is now 0-2-0-1 in mma having not won a ONE Fc fight in three attempts.

he clearly felt he had done enough to win, stating after-wards: “he never hurt me. i don’t have any marks on my body but he was cut so bad-ly that the fight was nearly stopped, so i thought i had

won because of that. i hope ONE Fc will give me another chance as i train very hard at the a Fighter gym and really want to win an mma fight for everyone in cambodia.”

merican’s record now stands at 3-1 after a third straight de-cision win. after going to war for three rounds on Friday, he donated a percentage of his winnings to his opponent to help rebuild Dima’s sister’s house, which was recently destroyed in a fire.

in the main event at ONE Fc: War of Nations, Nobutat-su Suzuki scored an upset win over american veteran Brock Larson, with the hard hitting Japanese fighter landing nu-merous knees and kicks to become the inaugural ONE Fc welterweight world cham-pion courtesy of a unanimous decision.

Friday’s other results Dae Hwan Kim defeated

Kevin Belingon by submission

(rear naked choke) at 4.39 minutes of round 1 Bantamweight bout Adriano Moraes defeated

Yasuhiro Urushitani by submission (rear naked choke) at 3.48 minutes of round 2 – Flyweight bout Kamal Shalorus defeated

Ariel Sexton by unanimous decision at 5.00 minutes of round 3 – Lightweight bout Andrew Leone defeated

Shinichi Kojima by unanimous decision at 5.00 minutes of round 3 Catchweight bout Kotetsu Boku defeated

Arnaud Lepont by TKO (strikes) at 4.06 minutes of round 1 – Lightweight bout Peter Davis defeated

Waqar Umar by submission (verbal tapout) at 3.07 minutes of round 2 Lightweight bout Herbert Burns defeated

Harris Sarmiento by unanimous decision at 5.00 minutes of round 3 Featherweight bout

FootballTHE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014 27

Women’s futsal competition kicks off at KB Field pitchesThe inaugural Cam-ed Women’s Futsal Cup, sponsored by Cam-ed Business School, got underway yesterday at KB Field opposite the Australian embassy. Nine teams split into three groups will contest games each Sunday, leading up to finals on April 6. Cam-ed Business School president Casey Barnett told the Post: “The objective of this competition is to promote the potential of women in the education and sport sectors of Cambodia.” The teams groups include Purple, Jumbo and Fantastic C (Group A), The Green, Cam-Devils and Twinkle Star (Group B) and Queen United, Cam Ulet, and Victory (Group C). ChhORN NORN,

TRANSLATeD BY CheNG SeRYRITh

Bayern plan to welcome Uli Hoeness back after jail termDeSPITe his conviction for tax fraud, Bayern Munich are planning to welcome back ex-president Uli hoeness after he has served his prison sentence. The 62-year-old resigned as both Bayern president and chairman of the club’s supervisory board on Friday and was a noticeable absentee for Saturday’s 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen. he stepped down less than 24 hours after being sentenced to three and a half years in jail by Munich regional court having cheated the state out of €28.5 million (US$39.5 million) in unpaid taxes. he admitted to hiding his wealth in secret Swiss bank accounts while obsessively “gambling” on stock and currency markets for years. AFP

Mystified Chelsea manager Mourinho awaits red-card fateCheLSeA manager Jose Mourinho is mystified as to why he was sent off in his side’s shock 1-0 loss to Aston Villa and says he is eagerly waiting on the referee’s report to discover if he faces any further disciplinary action. Mourinho found himself at the centre of a storm of controversy as his side surrendered the initiative to Manchester City in the Premier League title race. Fabian Delph’s 82nd-minute goal either side of dismissals for Chelsea duo Willian and Ramires inflicted a damaging defeat on the Blues. AFP

Police down BBU to lift first hun Sen cup titleH S Manjunath

ThE much coveted Sam-dech hun Sen cup will adorn the National Police commissary’s trophy cabi-

net as their first prized possession following the club’s guts and glory 2-0 win over Build Bright United in an enthralling final at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday.

The Policemen stormed into a 13th minute lead courtesy of a Noun Bo-rey header off a perfectly delivered corner kick by Ol ravy, whose hard work was finally rewarded when he nailed the second deep into injury time to complete a memorable twi-light triumph.

The University-backed side put up a stout-hearted performance but de-spite the disappointing outcome in the end and a rueful look back over all their spurned chances, BBU could still be proud of achieving their best cup run after being touched off in the semi-finals a couple of years ago.

“We were well aware of BBU’s tac-tic of attacking heavily on us, but we were prepared for it, so it was easy for us to fight back and defend against it,” Police coach Ung Kanya-nith told the Post.

“Ultimately, we earned the victory which we expected to do. I, the other coaches and all the players, as well as all the staff are so excited about this triumph and we all will be try-ing hard to defend the title next year and for years to come.”

BBU assistant coach chan Veasna, meanwhile, noted a lack of compo-sure in defending corners as the root cause for their failure in the decider.

“We did brilliantly in our previous cup games against [Phnom Penh] crown and Boeung Ket, but today my players made a few mistakes, es-pecially when [Ol ravy] took the cor-ner kick. We obviously tried to fight back, but our midfielders and strikers didn’t cooperate well with good un-derstanding. We are so sorry [to the fans] for this result,” he said.

history had already been made long before the first touch on Satur-

day with both teams having never managed to go this far in any major domestic competition.

Neither side lost that sense of great occasion nor did the huge captive au-dience that included former chelsea manager avram Grant, whose pres-ence in the stands diverted for a while the attention of several lensmen away from the action on the pitch.

When the teams got over the ini-tial awe and nerves, it was evident that the Police would be the one with more aggressive intent.

But what came as a mild surprise was the speed with which the Police grabbed the lead and the side had to be thankful to some sloppy BBU defending which forced goalkeeper Sos Prohim to make a panic save at the cost of a corner.

That resulting set piece from Ol

ravy and Noun Borey’s immaculate header very quickly pinned BBU down, the kind of choke the side nev-er could get out of, that despite sev-eral counter attacks of their own.

The Police spent the half-time break in a much lighter mood than their rivals with that slender lead behind them.

Though BBU showed greater ur-gency in the second session and pro-gressively got bolder in attack, they just could not get a breakthrough. captain Prom Puthsethy, Pich Sina and hong Sokly were all denied a goal by one means or another.

at times that crucial slice of luck deserted them. When not, the Po-lice somehow managed to scramble the ball to safety, such as a standout goalline clearance by Ol ravy off a BBU free kick. Even as BBU’s tale of

near misses continued amid a cou-ple of substitutions, the Police were more than happy to close up shop at the back and keep punching the breeze for more attacking options.

Tith Dina, who has had an out-standing cup campaign, was one of the prime midfield movers. Ol ravy caught the eye with some deft pass-ing and wing runs capping a highly satisfying day for him on the pitch with that injury time goal, a simple tap in job after BBU goalkeeper had been caught in a fix.

In general, the Police asserted them-selves much more than BBU could or did and the trophy was seemingly in their bag the moment Noun Borey’s thinking head put the team on the path to victory.

apart from team honours, two Police players also scooped up in-dividual awards. Prak Phirun was declared the tournament’s best goalkeeper and collected one mil-lion riel (US$250.63) as its reward.

Tith Dina was named the player of the tournament and he could liter-ally ride home with that honour on a brand new Yamaha motorbike.

Boeung Ket rubber Field striker Khuon Laboravy emerged as the top scorer with 12 goals, an effort which made him richer by one million riel.

as winners of the 2014 edition, the Police collected a cash prize of 80 million riel, with runners-up BBU banking 40 million riel and third placed Boeung Ket taking home 20 million riel. The road to the final had been littered with a clutch of fallen fa-vourites including holders Naga corp, whose controversial stance to forfeit the third place play-off last Wednes-day to Boeung Ket is currently being probed by the Football Federation of cambodia’s disciplinary committee.

according to FFc Spokesman may Tola, the committee will look into the video footage of the stoppage time handball incident and the referee’s report on it before taking a final de-cision on possible punitive action against Naga for refusing to complete their game. ADDITIONAL RePORTING BYCh-

hORN NORN, TRANSLATION BY CheNG SeRYRITh

National Police Commissary captain Say Piseth receives the Samdech Hun Sen Cup trophy from Phnom Penh governor Pa Socheatvong (left) after his team beat Build Bright United in the final on Saturday at Olympic Stadium. SReNG MeNG SRUN

National Police Commissary’s Tith Dina leaps over a challenge from Build Bright United defender Phin Pheara during their Samdech Hun Sen Cup final at Olympic Stadium on Saturday. SReNG MeNG SRUN

English Premier League Hull 0 Man City 2 Everton 2 Cardiff 1 Fulham 1 Newcastle 0 Southampton 4 Norwich 2 Stoke 3 West Ham 1 Sunderland 0 Crystal Palace 0 Swansea 1 West Brom 2

Spanish La Liga Levante 0 Celta de Vigo 1 Rayo Vallecano 3 Almeria 1 Malaga 0 Real Madrid 1 Atletico Madrid 1 Espanyol 0

On Friday Getafe 3 Granada 3

German Bundesliga Hoffenheim 2 Mainz 4 Bor Dortmund 1 Bor M’gladbach 2 E Braunschweig 1 Wolfsburg 1 Hertha Berlin 0 Hannover 3 Werder Bremen 1 Stuttgart 1

On Friday Augsburg 1 Schalke 2

Italian Serie A Verona 0 Inter Milan 2

French Ligue 1 Lille 0 Nantes 0 Ajaccio 1 Guingamp 2 Evian TG 0 Valenciennes 1 Nice 2 Bastia 0 Rennes 2 Toulouse 3 Sochaux 2 Lorient 0

On Friday Reims 1 Marseille 1

SAturdAy’S rESuLtS

Spanish La Liga Villarreal v Athletic Bilbao – 4am

Italian Serie A Torino v Napoli – 1am Roma v Udinese – 3am

tonIGHt’S FIxturES

28 THE PHNOM PENH POST march 17, 2014

Sport

The car of Caterham-Renault driver Kamui Kobayashi of Japan veers off the track during an accident at the start of the Formula One Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne yesterday. AFP

rosberg storms to aussie GP victory in F1 season opener

Nico rosberg has proved that mer-cedes are the class of the field in the

early stages of the new For-mula one world champion-ship with a runaway victory in yesterday’s australian Grand Prix. it was the fourth win of his career.

But there was an early set-back for preseason favourite and pole sitter Lewis ham-ilton who left the race after completing just two laps after a loss of power.

it was a memorable race for home hero and red Bull debutant Daniel ricciardo and mcLaren rookie Kevin magnussen, who initially both achieved podium plac-es. however, ricciardo lost his second-place finish in for breaching the rules on fuel usage, the sport’s governing body Fia said.

Jenson Button made it a sur-prisingly positive afternoon for mcLaren by finishing fourth – later promoted to third af-ter the ricciardo ruling. With three wins here, this is one of Button’s favourite tracks.

it means that mcLaren are leading the embryonic 2014 championship. “it’s nothing to do with me,” said ron Den-nis, who is very much back in charge at the Woking factory. “i was just here to watch. it was a good podium for a great young driver.”

There was also a magnifi-cent drive from the Williams of Valtteri Bottas. Pushed back five places on the grid to 15th place because of a gearbox penalty, he clawed his way up the field to sixth before mak-ing an unforced error and hitting the wall. he dropped back to 16th after coming in to replace his lost tyre but then pushed up to fifth again at the end.

and there was yet another finish for max chilton – who finished every race last year – even though his car was at a standstill when the rest of the cars started their forma-tion lap.

But the day belonged to rosberg and mercedes. The German started in third place but after darting through on the inside of hamilton he

never looked back and pulled away steadily from the rest of the team.

The race got off to a chaotic start on the first corner when caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi crashed out and took the much fancied Willliams of Fe-lipe massa with him. an angry massa later called for the Japa-nese driver to be dealt with se-verely by the stewards.

But soon there were bigger casualties taking their leave of the race. hamilton managed just one completed lap before he was hit by a power shortage because of a misfiring cylinder and was forced to retire.

hamilton must have been desperately disappointed but he sounded surprisingly up-beat when he said later: “We knew reliability could be an issue but of course it surprises you when it happens, but it’s early stages and there’s a long way to go so i will remain posi-tive and focus on the next race. i felt like i didn’t have power. i kept going as long as i could, but there was no point.

“as soon as i left the lane i had a lot less power than i

usually have. They asked me to come in, but i said ‘no, no, i can keep going’, but i then had to come in.

“i think of all the work that has gone in from the guys in the factory and all the days and nights stressing. We looked so strong but to then have a hic-cup is tough for everyone, but we will bounce back.”

But soon after that was the biggest casualty of all, with the retirement of Vettel, the cham-pion of the last four years, be-cause of a mechanical prob-lem. however it was still the German anthem that blasted over albert Park at the end of the race.

ricciardo, prior to being stripped of his second-place finish, was delighted with his success in front of his home crowd. “Two or three weeks ago, i would have bet pretty much everything i had that i wouldn’t be standing up here,” he said, referring to troubled preseason testing on his red Bull racing.

“To the aussie fans, wow – completely, completely over-whelming.” THE GUARDIAN

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg shouts in celebration on the podium after winning the F1 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne yesterday. AFP