20150108

Issue NUMBER 2088
Successful People Read The Post
thursday, january 8, 2015
4000 RIEL
As cpp marked
January 7,
opposition mum
thai pm
threatens
protesters
glorifying
gandhis
assassin
national page 3
world page 14
opinion page 16
Lack of
safrole
cant stop
menace
Islamists
kill 12
in Paris
shootout
HEAVILY armed gunmen
shouting Islamist slogans
stormed a Paris satirical
newspaper office yesterday
and shot dead at least 12
people in the deadliest
attack in France in four
decades.
Police launched a massive manhunt for the
masked attackers who
reportedly hijacked a car
and sped off, running over
a pedestrian and shooting
at officers.
Police said witnesses
heard the attackers, who
were armed with a Kalashnikov and rocket launcher,
shout we have avenged the
prophet and Allahu akbar
(God is greatest).
Two police were confirmed among the dead and
four people were critically
injured.
The capital was placed
under the highest alert
status after the attack on
Laignee Barron
FOUR deaths in the United

Kingdom last week may be
the latest in a rash of fatalities
linked to a hike in an adulterated version of party drug
ecstasy, a trend experts say
goes all the way back to the
jungles of Cambodia.
Rogue batches of synthetic
MDMA-like substances have
increasingly cropped up
amid worldwide shortages of
the common chemical precursor, safrole oil. The shortage is attributed to mass
seizures of safrole in Cambodia from 2007 to 2009, when
anti-drug officials attempted
to eradicate clandestine production camps from protected forests.
Cambodia is one of the
main sources for economical
extraction of safrole for the
production of MDMA. The
big seizure [in 2008] did
cause an MDMA drought in
Western Europe, which suggests that other sources of
safrole were not available in
sufficient quantity, said
Harry Shapiro, director of
communications at UKbased drug research centre
Drugscope.
Safrole oil, also known as
sassafras oil, is distilled in
Cambodia by boiling the
roots and bark of a fragrant
and rare tree known in Khmer
as mreah prov mhnom. Manufacturing the oil involves
felling several of the protected trees, which are found
primarily in the Cardamom
Mountains Phnom Samkos
Wildlife Sanctuary in the
Continued page 2
Firefighters carry an injured man on a stretcher in front of the offices of the French satirical
newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris yesterday,
after armed gunmen stormed the office. AFP
Continued page 13
Blood, toil and permits

Foreign workers face contagious-disease tests as ministry ups enforcement
Chhay Channyda
and Joe Freeman
OREIGNERS applying
for required work permits in Cambodia may
need to get blood
drawn at the Ministry of
Labour to see if they are free of

contagious diseases, government officials confirmed yesterday, pointing to a longstanding, but little known, part
of the Labour Law.
Heng Sour, spokesman for
the Ministry of Labour, said
yesterday that as part of the

work permit application process, foreigners without medical
certificates from abroad will
need a blood test. The same
standards apply to Cambodian
nationals, he said.
According to the procedure,
the foreign worker or the Cambodian worker who applies for

the work permit needs to come
to the Department of Occupational Safety and Health [at the
Ministry of Labour] for the
medical check-up, he said.
There is an exemption that if
the foreigner has a medical certificate from overseas, then

they can submit their health
certificate to prove that they
are healthy.
The practice, he said, has
Continued page 4
THE PHNOM PENH POST january 8, 2015
National
Ire raised
over Kotop
employees
dismissal
Cambodian
connection
Continued from page 1
western part of the country.

Though small-scale production of safrole oil for traditional remedies has been going on
for centuries in Cambodia,
experts say large-scale and
highly profitable safrole production began around 2000,
when international demand
for MDMA peaked, and shortly
after neighbouring Vietnam
issued a ban on making the
substance in 1999.
Production was ratcheted up
further in 2004, soon after
stricter controls were placed on
the industry in China. In Cambodia, felling the trees and producing safrole became illegal
in 2007, two years after Prime
Minister Hun Sen ordered a
crackdown on oil distilleries.
To strangle the elusive and
destructive industry, conservation NGO Fauna and Flora
International, the Cambodian
authorities and the Australian
Federal Police conducted highprofile raids on the remote production facilities, and in one
go, netted 5.7 tonnes of safrole
in 2008. The haul would have
produced an estimated 245
million ecstasy tablets with a
street value of nearly $8 billion. The same year, the
National Anti-drug Commission reported seizing 35
tonnes of safrole-rich oils.
We cannot allow any people
Mom Kunthear
Authorities examine a safrole oil still in the jungle near the Cardamom Mountains in 2010. Recent deaths from synthetic MDMA-like substances
may be related to Cambodias recent crackdown on safrole oil operations in the country. Safrole is used to make MDMA. photo SUPPLIED
or any company to extract safrole oil, it is too damaging to the

forest. We have to protect the
mreah prov trees, said Meas
Virith, secretary-general of the
commission.
Similar seizures continued in
2009, when 5.7 tonnes were
confiscated. And in 2010, 13,600
litres of seized safrole-rich oils
were destroyed, but by that
time, the drug industry had
already moved on to synthesising alternative precursors.
As a result of the strengthening of controls on the trafficking
of the most commonly used
Police load a truck with seized safrole oil, used to produce MDMA, also
known as ecstasy, during a raid in Phnom Penh in 2012. PHOTO SUPPLIED
precursors, illicit manufacturers have changed their

approach, said the UN Office
on Drugs and Crime in a 2011
ecstasy report.
Safrole is the precursor that
everyone would like to get their
hands on ... but when a drug
precursor stops being available,
a range of products move in as
potential replacements, said
Laurent Laniel, a scientific analyst at the European Monitoring
Centre for Drugs and Drug
Addiction. Traffickers started
marketing a whole new range
of substances as MDMA.
Worldwide, the purity of the
stimulant pills began to decline
as the MDMA compound and
its precursors were replaced or
cut with other, cheaper or more
readily available substances.
About half of ecstasy pills
seized in the UK in 2009 contained no MDMA. A similar
trend occurred in the Netherlands, where the number of
ecstasy tablets containing no
MDMA rose from 10 per cent in
2008 to 60 per cent by 2009.
New pills and forms of purported ecstasy started popping
up, some mimicking stimulating and euphoric affects. Two of
the most popular, known as
PMMA/PMA and mephedrone,

nicknamed meow meow or
bath salts, started becoming
popular through online sales
shortly after pure MDMA
became less available.
By May 2010, mephedrone
had been detected in all EU
states reporting to Interpol, as
well as in Croatia and Norway.
The appearance of mephedrone, and the ensuing legal and
chemical chaos that is the socalled legal highs scene can be
traced directly to the UNs burning of 33 tonnes of safrole in
Cambodia in 2008, said Michael
Power, author of Drug 2.0. The
same thing happened in Thailand in 2010, but had less impact,
as alternative precursors have
now been found to safrole.
However, alternative highs
have had deadly consequences. PMMA and the semi-analogous PMA have led to deaths
in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the US,
Canada, Denmark, Norway
and Australia.
Just last week, at the beginning of this year, four men in
England who thought they were
taking MDMA died with PMMA
found in their blood stream,
according to British media.
But safrole hasnt disappeared. In Cambodia, seizures

of safrole continue, albeit on a
declining scale.
Last August, more than 3,200
litres of safrole oil were found
stashed in 109 cases buried
underground in Pursat.
There's still oil coming
through Phnom Penh, said
Toby Eastoe, Cardomom Mountains project coordinator for
Conservation International.
Eastoe added that hes not
sure where or even if production is still happening. An aerial
survey of the wildlife sanctuary
revealed no stills or refineries,
but that doesnt mean they dont
exist elsewhere.
After the seizures, it shifted
so theyd log the mreah prov
trees and take the logs out the
forest like any other wood. The
[safrole producing] factories
could be located anywhere in
the country, Eastoe said.
The National Anti-Drug Commission insisted that safrole
production was over, with no
more happening in Cambodia,
but conservationists said thats
unlikely to be the case.
Its too profitable, said Tuy
Sereivathana, country director
of Fauna and Flora.
NIONISTS reacted
angrily yesterday to
the firings of more
than 50 workers at a
Phnom Penh garment factory
who were let go in the wake of a
15-day strike.
Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW )
president Pav Sina said he
would issue letters to the government and international
brands that buy from Por Sen
Chey districts Cambo Kotop
factory, including Gap Inc and
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
I will send a letter to Minister
of Labour Ith Sam Heng tomorrow to quickly intervene on
behalf of the fired workers, he
said, adding that he expects
more workers to lose their jobs.
Dismissals came after the
employees, who walked off the
job on December 15 in protest
of managements termination of
five CUMW representatives,
returned to work on December
31. The firings occurred on January 2 and 3.
The corporate social responsibility manager at the factory,
who would only identify himself
as Kwak, said the CUMW reps
whose reinstatement strikers
demanded were let go last month
because they had disrupted
operations in the factory.
The Phnom Penh Municipal
Court issued an injunction on
December 23 for employees to
return within two days, but the
approximately 600 protesters
initially ignored the order. They
returned despite the fact that
management at Cambo Kotop
did not meet their demands,
which included the reinstatement of the representatives.
Phin Rany, 28, a fired worker,
said she didn't return to work in
time because she was taking care
of her sick son. Cambo Kotop
reps could not be reached.
National
Four children dead in

three drowning cases
CPP marks politicised date
Mom Kunthear
HOUSANDS of Cambodian Peoples Party supporters gathered

yesterday morning to celebrate
one of the Kingdoms most divisive national holidays, while the opposition was unusually quiet following warnings that criticising the celebrations could
end the political deal.
January 7, Victory Over Genocide Day,
marks the anniversary of the fall of Pol
Pots brutal Khmer Rouge regime, which
was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people over its nearly
four years in power.
While the ruling CPP holds annual largescale events to mark the day that Vietnamese forces and members of Prime Minister
Hun Sens government toppled the Khmer
Rouge, opposition politicians have argued
that the anniversary should be mourned,
not celebrated, as it marks the start of a 10year Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia.
Speaking to about 15,000 supporters
gathered yesterday at CPP headquarters,
honorary party president Heng Samrin
said the most auspicious occasion was
celebrated to refresh our memory of the
historic victory.
The address marked the third year that
CPP president Chea Sim a key Khmer
Rouge defector did not deliver the address. Sim has been increasingly pushed
out of the party limelight while battling a
string of illnesses.
In his own speech, Samrin yesterday
lambasted ill-willed persons and circles
who continue to oppose the January 7 vic-
A TOTAL of four children have

drowned in three separate incidents in Svey Rieng, Kampong
Chhnang and Phnom Penh since
Monday, police said yesterday,
taking reported drownings to at
least nine since December 31.
Prak Knith, 7, and his sister,
Prak Sina, 4, drowned in a pond
behind their house in Svay
Riengs Svay Chrum district,
deputy district police chief Mao
Sokorn said.
The kids parents had gone to
work at a factory in Bavet town
and left them at home with their
grandmother, he said.
The childrens grandmother
had been visited by bank staff at
about 4pm to discuss a loan and
she had left the siblings unattended, Sokhorn added.
When she noticed they were
not around, she called on neighbours to help find them. Sadly,
they found them floating in
the pond.
In a similar case, Chhrem Ra,
a commune police chief in the
capitals Dangkor district, said
Ly Leang Heng, 2, drowned in a
fishpond under the stairs of his
family home on Tuesday.
The boy slipped, he said,
adding that the pond had con-
tained only a small amount of

water. His grandmother did
not know he had died until the
boys uncle found him.
The boys parents were also at
work at the time.
In Kampong Chhnangs Boribo district on Monday, a 4-yearold girl, Seang Kanha, drowned
after falling off a boat.
The parents put her in the
middle of the boat with a pile of
firewood, but she somehow fell
into the river, a police statement said. She could not swim
and her parents were unable to
save her.
The tragedies came after five
adults and children drowned in
Takeo and Pursat provinces on
December 31.
According to the World
Health Organization, Cambodian children aged up to 15
were twice as likely to drown as
those in other low- to middleincome countries in the region,
including Vietnam, Laos and
the Philippines.
The vast majority of drowning
deaths occur in countries where
people have close daily contact
with water for work, transport
and agriculture, according to
the World Health Organizations
Global Report on Drowning
released in November.
Vong Sokheng and Alice Cuddy
National Assembly President Heng Samrin (centre left) and Prime Minister Hun Sen release
doves yesterday in Phnom Penh during a ceremony marking Victory Over Genocide Day. AFp
tory due to their perfidious and dangerous

political ambitions, and warned opposition politicians to take precaution in making public statements for the sake of the
[political] agreement reached in July.
Seemingly heeding to Samrins demands,
multiple opposition lawmakers remained
tight-lipped yesterday.
Acting party president Pol Ham had only
a measured response.
Individual politicians have different
opinions on this history, so we dont want to
criticise or oppose this anniversary, which
depends on individual views, he said.
However, he added, his opinion on the
anniversary had not changed.

For me, I used to struggle against the
Vietnamese armed forces in the country,
so therefore my position has remained
the same. But I am not interested in going
over the old story now, he said.
Political analyst Ou Virak said both the
CPP and CNRP needed to adopt a more
measured approach.
Firstly, it marks the end of the Khmer
Rouge something we need to remember and celebrate but in the 80s we were
victims of history, he said. If Cambodia
comes to terms with that reality, we can debate how to really, truly move forward.
National
Blood tests for foreign workers

Workers excavate marble from a quarry owned by Capital Mineral Resort Investment in Stung Treng province this week, where villagers have had parts of their farmland cleared. ADHOC
Excavation worries
Sen David and Sarah Taguiam
WENTY families living

in Stung Treng provinces Thala Barivat
district have recently
filed complaints to authorities demanding compensation
from a Chinese firm, which allegedly plans to excavate their
farmlands in search of marble.
The villagers from the Chamkar Leu commune sent a total of seven complaints since
Saturday against the Chineseowned Capital Mineral Resort
Investment.
They are demanding some
compensation from the company, which plans to clear their
lands to find marble stones,
Adhocs Strung Treng coordina-
tor Hou Sam Ol said. This will

affect their farmlands and they
are concerned about eviction.
According to co-owner Lim
Ty, his company was given
permission by the Ministry of
Mines and Energy last October
to dig 3,097 hectares of land at
the commune.
Ty along with provincial authorities visited the site on
Tuesday, but said they only
found three families living at
the farmlands. He added that
they will revisit the area before
the end of the week to confirm
whether the 20 families have
ownership rights.
Im not clear why the people
are saying there are 20 families
but we will go back there to
check, Ty said.
Farm owner Chan Buntha

said they are not opposing the
excavation as long as they receive proper compensation.
Were not refusing the governments permission to give
licence to the company, but we
need to make sure that we are
getting some payment because
it will affect our livelihood.
So far, the company has only
set its sight on excavating a portion of its total allotted land, but
Buntha said villagers are worried that more of them will be
affected once the company expands its search for marble.
After we inspect this week,
we will give the families a reply
... and we will make sure that
they are properly reimbursed,
Ty said.
been standard since the late

1990s, but it has not been
enforced with much muscle.
We have been implementing such procedures since 1998
... starting from now on, we will
be strict, he said. We would
like to appeal to the foreign
worker and some of the enterprises to go through this procedure.
This [past] year, we have
more strict inspection, and for
2015, the inspection will be
more strict.
Article 261 of Cambodias
Labour Law says that foreigners must be fit for their job and
have no contagious diseases.
It does not specify what those
diseases might be.
Since August last year, when
the government rolled out a
nationwide census that
included ramped-up checks
on foreign work permits, businesses have scrambled to
meet the new or old, depending on how you look at it
requirements, which mandate
a $100 work permit, fines for
not having the necessary
paperwork, and retroactive
fines for past years worked
without the documentation.
Sok Phal, director general of
the Department of Immigration, said that the fine for being
found without a permit is
$125, and it only gets worse
from there.
For the [second] half year
of 2014, when we implemented the joint statement
between the Ministry of

Labour and Ministry of Interior, we have fined more than
$300,000 from those foreigners working without labour
IDs, he said yesterday.
Our implementation is that
first, if they dont have [the
work permit], they face fines.
Second time, they face dismissal and third time, they face
being sent to prison if they still
dont get a work permit.
However, Sour, the Labour
Ministry spokesman, said the
end result is deportation.
Foreign workers will face
penalties, and then they are
the case of Cambodia, but on

first impression, it seems to me
that this is nothing more than
a [discriminatory] effort by the
MOL to crack down on foreign
workers, said Jeffrey Vogt, legal
adviser for the International
Trade Union Confederation.
An official working for a
department inside the ministry
said that before it issues a work
permit for foreigners, he/she
must have blood tested to
check that you are healthy.
They must do blood tests
yearly and pay $25 each time.
They have to bring three photos along, said the employee,
Foreign workers will face

penalties, and then they are
subject to be deported from
Cambodia
subject to be deported from
Cambodia, he said. And for
the owner of the enterprise,
they will also be subjected to
a penalty; they will be restricted from employing the foreign worker.
Companies can have no more
than 10 per cent of personnel
made up of foreigners, unless
a special exemption is applied
for and granted.
To date, announcements
from the government have
focused on fines and other consequences, but little to nothing
has been said about the blood
tests that are part of the work
permit application process.
I havent looked into this in
who was not authorised to

speak to the media and asked
not to be named.
The employee was not aware
of what would happen if the
worker was found to be carrying the unspecified contagious
diseases.
Im not sure what policy
exists for those who are not
healthy or face dismissal from
their company, but most of
the time, there is no problem
for those foreign staff, the
worker said.
After they are tested and
their results returned, they still
work for their own company.
So we can issue a work permit
for them.
National
RCAF major
free despite
logging bust
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
A military officer was allegedly caught illegally transporting

one tonne of luxury timber in
Kandal provinces Ponhea Leu
district yesterday after the Royal
Cambodian Armed Forces truck
he was driving crashed into a
bulldozer, police said.
Second Lieutenant Seng
Savoeun, a penal police officer
in Ponhea Leu district, said
Major Sa Reap, 44, was taking
the rosewood and other luxury
timber from Pursat towards
Phnom Penh.
[Reap] drove very fast and hit
a bulldozer that was parked near
the street, causing the wood,
which was hidden, to appear,
he said.
Keo Sarin, a forestry officer in
Ponhea Leu district, said Reap
had been released after questioning based on a guarantee
from his unit, but that the truck
and wood were still in custody.
[He] has no legal documents
or authorisation to transport this
wood. He illegally transported
it, he said.
Reap, Defence Minister Tea
Banh and ministry spokesman
Chhum Socheat could not be
reached for comment.
Bridge is nothing to fear: govt

Pech Sotheary
RIVERBANK collapse under the

Prek Tamak Bridge in Kandal
province will not affect the safety
of people using the crossing, officials have said.
Flooding in November at the site of the
bridge in Kandals Muk Kampol district
caused a landslide, with the subsequent receding water level and rains leading to further erosion and worries for locals who use
the bridge to cross the Mekong River.
But Lem Sideyning, secretary of state at
the Ministry of Public Works and Transport,
said that, following an inspection, the ministry had determined that there were no
structural problems with the bridge.
In a letter dated Tuesday, Sideyning wrote
that the ministry would be dispatching a
team to build a dam in an attempt to ease
locals fears over a possible bridge collapse.
According to our inspection, there are no
problems with the bridge. But we will send
a technical team to inspect it again and
build a dam to improve the way the riverbank looks, he said.
But please, people, do not feel bad or
afraid, he added.
The letter was issued following a campaign on social networking website Facebook, where locals expressed concern
over the erosion of the riverbank next to
the bridge.
Buon Sokhorn, a local in Prey Veng provinces Pearang district who regularly crosses
the bridge, said many people were alarmed
at the extent of the exposure of the foundations of the bridge.
Anger at pillaging
Evictees to
protest over
demolition
Children look at the erosion around a foundation of the Prek Tamak Bridge yesterday in Kandal
province. hENG CHIVOAN
I can see that there are no foundations

below the bridges pillar; theres only the
concrete floor, and now the soil has gone,
he said.
I worry that [the landslide] might cause
damage to the bridge or cause accidents to
travellers who will use the bridge.
The bridge was built by Chinese firm
Shanghai Construction Group.
Company representatives could not
be reached yesterday. Chinese Embassy
spokesman Cheng Hong Bo said he was
unaware of the problems with the bridge,
also known as the third China-Cambodia
Friendship Bridge, and a representative of
the commerce department at the embassy
PNN - Cambodias newest and most modern TV channel - is recruiting staff

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PNN offers a competitive remuneration package and an excellent working environment.
Interested parties should apply with CV to studio@lypgroup.com by January 18, 2015.
could not be reached.

Yeun Sarat, Muk Kampul district military
commander, said the Shanghai Construction Group had carried out the inspection
after the initial landslide on November 23
and had concluded that there was no danger to users.
The bridges foundations are 30 metres
deep, its not just a few metres, and there is
a 200-metre road in-between the first and
last pillars, so the people should not worry
about it, he said.
The $43.5 million bridge, financed largely
with a loan from the Chinese government,
was inaugurated in January 2011 after construction began in June 2007.
VICTEES whose homes

were destroyed amid a
land dispute in Phnom
Penhs Dangkor district will
protest at the National Assembly today.
About 30 people have been
reduced to living in tents
since district security forces
demolished and allegedly
pillaged 11 houses in Dangkor
commune on Monday.
Evictees, who have occupied
the land for 30 years, have filed
a complaint with the Housing
Rights Task Force against village chief Pich Pun and District
Deputy Governor Prach Seila.
We have no place to live,
no option but to set up tents
here, said resident Til Sarom.
According to residents,
authorities are clearing the
land to facilitate its sale to
businessman Mao Sophal.
However, Dangkor commune chief Voeuk Samoeurn
claimed villagers were given
notice to leave in 2006.
Sarom said security forces
had ransacked their homes,
taking the antiretroviral drugs
to treat her HIV and beating
a woman unconscious. Chhay
Channyda
National
No release yet
Migrants in
Kulen feud
sent to court
WO migrants were sent

to the provincial court
yesterday after they
were arrested on Monday
during a protest against
the razing of their illegally
constructed shelters at Siem
Reaps Phnom Kulen National Park.
The villagers, Tang La, 52,
and Chhun Nath, 37, were
charged with incitement to
commit a felony on Monday,
confirmed Sou Sok, Banteay
Sreys district governor.
From Sunday to Monday,
police and forestry officials demolished the residents huts.
Officials allege that the villagers who originally migrated
from nearby provinces have
been logging the conservation
site.
More than 300 residents
decried the actions at a protest
on Monday, where the two
detainees were apprehended.
On Tuesday, Siem Reap
authorities vowed to release
the prisoners once they have
negotiated conditions with residents. But we need to send
them to court first. This is our
obligation, Sok said. SEN DAVID
AND SARAH TAGUIAM
Road upkeep coming

Taing Vida
HE Japanese government will begin

the final stage of improvements to National Road 1 this spring if the
tender process for its $2 million scheme passes without a
hitch, according to officials.
Construction of the last 4.5kilometre stretch of the road
will begin in April if all goes
to plan, according to Daisuke
Fukuzawa of the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
We designed four-lane
roads with bike lanes, parking
lanes for the most crowded
areas, and sidewalks. The construction will commence in
April this year if the tender is
finished successfully. This is
the final project for upgrading National Road 1, he said.
The unsurfaced road has
been a nightmare for local
residents, who have been
forced to put up with clouds
of dust billowing into their
homes while construction has
stalled.
The completion of the longawaited project will no doubt
come as a relief to many of the
communities living along National Road 1, which connects
Phnom Penh to the town of
Bavet on the border with Viet-
Injuries as
locals clash
with UDG
Pech Sotheary
Vehicles travel along the dusty and neglected National Road 1 yesterday afternoon on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. phA LINA
nam in Svay Rieng province.

The road sustained heavy
damage during the civil war
in the 1970s; repairs began in
1981.
A statement released by
the Ministry of Public Works
and Transport on Tuesday
said the final stage of construction had been due to
start earlier but was delayed
because of a change in the
roads specifications.
Instead of a 7- to 9-centimetre surface, the road will now
be 20 centimetres thick to
limit wear and tear from the
thousands of vehicles that use
it every day.
Vacancy Announcement
The United Nations Population Fund aims at delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted,
every childbirth is safe, and every young persons potential is fullled.
Vacancy No:
FPA/15/001
Level:
SB-3
Job Title:
Programme Assistant (PD)
Duty Station:
Based at Ministry of Planning
Contract type:
Service Contract
Deadline:
15 January 2015
Duties and Responsibilities

The incumbent will be based in the Ministry of Planning and provide both administrative/nancial
and technical support to 1) the National Institute of Statistics; 2) the General Directorate of
Planning; and 3) the General Secretariat for Population and Development of Ministry of Planning to
undertake the following specic tasks:
Proactively contribute to day-to-day annual workplan implementation and ensure compliance
with the UNFPA programme and nancial rules and regulations, including NEX audits, OFA
management.
Provide support to the PD Programme Analyst in preparing and updating the annual workplans;
prepare budget revisions if and when required.
Assist in monitoring the progress in implementation of programme activities throughout the
programme timeline;
Ensure follow-up for implementation of audit recommendations of the workplan related to
the following areas.
Qualications and Experience
At least a Masters degree in Social Sciences, preferably in one of the following: Population
Studies, Demography, Economics or Statistics.
A minimum of ve years of relevant experience related to development planning.
Knowledge of rights-based approach in social development. Good knowledge and
understanding of the population issues in Cambodia. Working experience in policy analysis,
and advocacy for population in the context of poverty reduction and sustainable development;
and working experience in communication and advocacy including editing and presentation
related works. Demonstrated experience in strategic planning, results-based management
and reporting, formulation and monitoring of projects/programmes.
Fluency in written and spoken Khmer and English and ecient use of computer; knowledge
of UN languages desirable.
How to apply
Applications should be sent to UNFPA Cambodia, address directly to Dr Marc Derveeuw G.L.,
Representative, Phnom Penh Center, North Building, Room 526, Corner Sihanouk (274) and
Sothearos (3) Boulevard, Tonle Bassac, Chamkar Mon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Application must
be supported with P11 (mandatory). The Personal History Form (P11) and Job Description can
be obtained from http://countryoce.unfpa.org/cambodia. Only shortlisted candidates will be
contacted. UNFPA retains the right to contact referees directly.
There is no application, processing or other fee at any stage of the application process. UNFPA
does not solicit or screen for information in respect of HIV or AIDS and does not discriminate
on the basis of HIV status.
The added thickness is

based on technical studies
by the Ministry of Transport
related to the quality of the
road, City Hall spokesman
Long Dimanche said.
The $221 million National
Road 1 project is part of Cambodias plans for ASEAN integration this year, when it is
expected to become a major
route for travel to Vietnam,
and even as far afield as Malaysia and Singapore.
Japans investment in Cambodias roads also includes the
Neak Loeung Bridge project,
which is costing Japan $95
million.
THREE villagers suffered minor

injuries yesterday after they
clashed with security guards for
a Chinese-owned company with
which they are ensnared in a
long-running land dispute.
About 40 security guards from
Union Development Group
(UDG) and some 60 villagers
from Koh Sdech commune in
Koh Kong provinces Kiri Sakor
district threw rocks and petrol
bombs at each other, as villagers
attempted to block trucks intent
on filling a road with debris to
keep residents out of their village, said Prak Thorn, a villager
representative.
They dumped one truck-load
of soil, but we stopped another
truck that was going to dump,
Thorn said. One [villager] was
injured near his left ear, one
injured his leg and the other was
burned by a bottle of gasoline.
UDG holds a 36,000-hectare
economic land concession to
develop a huge resort area and
several planned industrial
projects. Ly Teuk Hay, who villagers and advocates said ordered
the trucks to fill the road since
December 26, could not be
reached for comment.
police
blotter
Honeytrap leads man
to stiletto-clad thieves
FOUR men in womens clothing

were arrested in Kandal province on Tuesday after allegedly
luring a man to a riverbank then
making off with his wallet.
Police said the victim fell for the
groups charm and agreed to
rendezvous in a secluded spot.
However, once there, the scantily clad robbers relieved the man
of his money and tried to make
a getaway. Hampered a little by
their heels, the four suspects
were not able to outrun nearby
police, who responded to the
victims cries for help by making
arrests. Koh Santepheap
Gamblers try getaway

but forget motorbikes
GETAWAYS are usually faster on

motorbike than foot but dont
tell cockfighting punters in Poipet that. When police raided a
barn hosting illegal cockfighting
matches this week, all they
found were a row of motos and
several confused birds. Officers
suspected that the raging gamblers running afoul of the law
had been tipped off and opted to
flee on foot. Police seized 10
motos, hoping their registration
plates will lead to as many
arrests. Deum Ampil
Duelling gangsters face

a modern re-education
THEY call it street-fighting for a
reason. Four gangsters were
arrested in Kampong Thom
town on Tuesday after a sword
fight in the middle of a busy
public road. Witnesses said two
thugs squared off against two
opponents from a rival gang,
waving swords and frightening
passing motorists. Police
arrived on the scene before any
injuries occurred. While
obstructing traffic alone can
bring a one-year prison term,
police have so far opted only to
educate the gangsters. Kampuchea Thmey
Not-so-great escape
sees dealers busted
ELEVEN alleged drug dealers

escape from police was shortlived in Poipet town on Tuesday.
Police said the men had gathered in an empty market at
night to distribute drugs when
police launched a raid on the
premises. The men scattered
like roaches, only to flee to a
spot a short distance away,
where police rounded them up.
Police confiscated four packages of drugs and sent the men
to court. Koh Santepheap
Revenge attack leaves

motodop hospitalised
POLICE suspect revenge as a

motive for an ambush that left a
27-year-old motodop badly
injured in Kratie town on Tuesday. Police said the man was
riding along when a group of six
men flagged him down. The
driver stopped, only to be set
upon by the men, who savagely
beat him. Police tried to intervene, but the men fled before
they could make any arrests.
Police ruled out robbery as a
motive since the mans bike was
left behind. They suggested a
vendetta as the reason behind
the attack, but the victim was
unable to say since he remained
unconscious. Kampuchea Thmey
Translated by Sen David
Business
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USD / KHR
EUR / USD
AUD / USD
NZD / USD
GBP / USD
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0.8147
0.7745
1.5272
6.215
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USD / HKD
119.28
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USD / THB
1.3322
32.94
Reforms raise income tax floor to $200

Hor Kimsay and Charles Rollet
orkers in Cambodia
will pay less income
tax from January as the
government raises its
lowest tax threshold from 500,000 riel
($125) to 800,000 riel ($200).
Previously, the lowest monthly income tax bracket, which was taxed at
5 per cent, started at $125 and went
to $312.50. Following an announcement from the General Department
of Taxation on Tuesday, the floor for
taxable income will rise to $200 per
month. This effectively puts about
$3.75 a month, depending on exchange rate fluctuations, back into
the disposable income of workers in
Cambodia earning more than $200.
Although the saving is small, the
governments decision to raise the
minimum threshold was welcomed
by workers and industry leaders alike
yesterday.
Sokhan Kolab, a financial controller at a private company in Phnom
Penh, was used to paying about
$73.70 in taxes from his $955 monthly salary, but the change will now put
that tax bill closer $70.
Though admittedly a minor
change, he said it would still help.
It is good in some ways. At least I
can save $3.69 and use to spend on
gasoline to drive my motorbike for
three to four days.
Acleda Bank CEO In Channy estimated that about 600 of the banks
12,000 workers mostly cleaners and
customer service associates were
paid less than $200 a month.
Channy said they would benefit
most from the tax reduction, along
with the bank itself.
If its good for the employees, its
good for the employer, he told the
Post.
The governments move to raise
the lower tax threshold came on the
heels of its decision to increase the
minimum wage for garment workers
starting in January of this year.
Since the wage was raised to $128
Customer service employees work at a financial institution in Kampong Speu province in December. Customer service employees in banking should be among some workers
who will benefit from the implementation of new tax breaks. hoNG MENEA
per month which would have put

the workers just above the old tax
bracket Prime Minister Hun Sen announced in October last year that the
threshold would be raised to $200.
Hun Sen said at the time that the
move would cost the government
about $10 million in lost revenues.
Albert Tan, treasurer for the Garment Manufacturers Association of
Cambodia, said he was sure workers
will be happier with this new monthly salary tax revision.
This will help workers increase
their take home [income.]

Although the total amount of money saved by Cambodians is small,
Hiroshi Suzuki, chief economist at
the Business Research Institute for
Cambodia, agreed that it would help
the garment sectors workers secure
their wages.
This change is indispensable for
all the workers to enjoy the wage increase.
Suzuki added that the losses to the
governments coffers were minute
$10 million compared to expected
tax revenues of $2.1 billion in 2015

and that the effect of the extra money
in workers pockets would also be
limited.
However, combined with the increase in minimum wage, the purchasing power of workers and their
families is expected to increase and
it could provide some good effect on
the local economy, Suzuki added.
Nevertheless, not all salaried Cambodian workers will be impacted by
the thresholds reduction.
Employees contracted under a net
salary, in which their taxes are paid

directly by employers, will see no
change to their take-home income.
But Clint OConnell, tax partner
with firm VDB Loi, said those workers would experience little, if any disadvantages.
Those employees that negotiated
a net salary would have done so to
pass the overall cost of the tax on salary [tax] to their employer hence the
benefits obtained from that position
would greatly outweigh the recent
change, he said.
Brent oil slumps under $50 for first time since 2009
EUROPEAN benchmark Brent
oil sank under $50 yesterday
for the first time since 2009, hit
by OPECs stance on maintaining its current production levels, market oversupply, weak
demand and the strong dollar,
analysts said.
In morning London deals,
Brent North Sea crude for
delivery in February dived to
another 5.5-year low at $49.66
a barrel, last seen in late April
2009.
Brent crude broke through
the psychologically significant
$50 a barrel this morning, said
analyst Craig Erlam at trading
firm Alpari.
The fact that traders barely
even hesitated at this level
makes $40 a barrel for Brent
crude look extremely likely.
US benchmark West Texas

Intermediate (WTI) for February also tumbled on Wednesday to a similar low at $46.85,
having already collapsed
under the symbolic $50 level
on Monday.
Oil also sank as the euro hit
another nine-year low at
$1.1843 on lingering fears that
Greece could leave the eurozone if an anti-austerity opposition party wins a general
election on January 25.
The strong greenback makes
dollar-priced oil more expensive for buyers using weaker
currencies, and this weighs on
demand and prices.
The move below $50 shows
how momentum is everything
here, CMC Markets analyst
Michael Hewson told AFP.
With no sign that OPEC will

do anything about over-production, it seems likely that we
could well see further declines
towards $40 in the coming
weeks particularly given that
demand shows no signs of
picking up.
Weak growth and weak
demand in China and Europe
are likely to continue to be the
main drivers as the battle for
market share intensifies. We
will probably still see sharp
swings in the interim but the
direction of travel seems clear,
unless OPEC acts.
Traders were meanwhile
awaiting the weekly snapshot
of crude inventories in the
United States, which is the top
global consumer. Brent later
stood at $50.47, down 63 cents
from Tuesdays close. WTI was

46 cents lower at $47.51.
The oil market had also
slumped on Tuesday to multiyear lows in another stormy
day for global financial markets, as OPEC kingpin Saudi
Arabia blamed weak global
economic growth and declared
it will stick to its guns on crude
production policy.
On Monday, Saudi Arabia
had reportedly cut its European and US export prices in
order to maintain market
share.
Oil has lost more than half its
value since June 2014 owing to
a global supply glut and slowing growth in major world
economies that has hurt
demand. Losses accelerated
late last year after the 12-na-
tion Organization of Petroleum

Exporting Countries (OPEC)
cartel decided not to cut output in response to lower prices
and oversupply.
As far as the slide in oil prices is concerned, there seems to
be no end in sight for now,
added analyst Markus Huber
at broker Peregrine & Black.
There is too much oil on the
market partially due to sluggish growth in the eurozone
and slower growth in China.
OPEC opted in November to
keep its oil output ceiling at
30 million barrels per day
(mbpd) despite ample global
supplies.
Analysts said the move was
aimed at stifling competition
from new market players with
higher costs in particular US
shale oil producers.

However, while some wellheeled OPEC members are
playing a long game to protect
their market share in the face
of a US shale boom, other oil
giants are struggling to balance
the books. Venezuela, Nigeria
and Iran, and major non-OPEC
oil producer Russia, are desperate for prices to recover.
With OPEC unwilling to
make major cuts in oil production as it wants to retain its
market share ... and other
countries like Russia whose
economy is in decline not able
to afford any [oil output] cuts,
the imbalance between too
much supply and only moderate demand seems to persist
for the foreseeable future,
added Huber. AFP
Markets
Business
Vietnam
devalues
the dong
VIETNAMS central bank said
yesterday it would devalue the
dong currency for the second
time in seven months in a bid
to boost exports and drive
economy forward.
The State Bank of Vietnam
(SBV) will devalue the reference rate by one per cent to
21,458 Vietnamese dong per
dollar to control inflation and
push up economic growth, it
said in a statement.
The latest move is in accordance with the developments of
the domestic and international
financial markets, creating a
solid stability for the forex market, the SBV said.
The dong was last devalued
by 1 per cent in June 2014.
SBV governor Nguyen Van
Binh said in December that the
regulator will not weaken the
dong by more than 2 percent in
2015.
At the new reference rate, the
currency is allowed to fluctuate
from 21,243 dong against the
dollar to 21,673 dong.
Economist Vu Dinh Anh from
the state-run Econwwomic
Finance Institute told AFP the
dong had come under mounting pressure on foreign
exchange markets late last year.
The SBV had to proceed with
the adjustment to avoid disadvantages against other currencies, he said. afp
China said to accelerate $1T in

projects to spur its GDP growth
HINA is accelerating 300 infrastructure projects valued

at 7 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) this year as policymakers seek to shore up growth thats in
danger of slipping below 7 per cent.
Premier Li Keqiangs government
approved the projects as part of a
broader 400-venture, 10 trillion yuan
plan to run from late 2014 through
2016, said people familiar with the
matter who asked not to be identified as the decision wasnt public. The
National Development and Reform
Commission, which will oversee the
projects, didnt respond to a faxed request for comment.
The move illustrates concern among
officials that Chinas shift to a domestic-consumption driven economy has
yet to produce enough growth momentum. The yuan rose, halting a two-day
decline, and Australias dollar a proxy
for China due to its shipments of iron
ore and other commodities used in
construction climbed after the news.
Its part of Chinas efforts to stabilise growth, and the news will help to
boost market confidence, said Julia
Wang, a Hong Kong-based economist
with HSBC Holdings. Infrastructure
investment will continue to be a major
driver for Chinas economic growth.
The approvals contrast with past
moves to boost growth via infrastructure in which the government gave the
green-light to projects individually.
They are part of efforts to respond to
weak output, according to the people.
Complment lannonce parue le 19, 20 et 22 dcembre 2014

Recrutement dun directeur/trice des oprations
Prol recherch :
Le LFRD recherche un(e) Directeur/trice des Oprations temps complet
pour une dure dtermine de 3 6 mois.
Sous la dlgation de responsabilit organise par le Comit de
Gestion, et en concertation troite avec le Chef dEtablissement, Le/la
Directeur/trice des Oprations organise, coordonne et gre les quipes
administratives dans les activits suivantes : Finances et comptabilit,
Ressources humaines, Administration gnrale, IT, Communication,
Service aux familles.
Dimension du poste
900 lves
110 salaris
Budget annuel de 4 MUSD
Missions
Le/la Directeur/trice des Oprations est le garant du bon fonctionnement
du lyce, dans ses aspects nanciers, matriels, et humains.
Il/elle sassure de la conformit et de la justesse des comptes, du respect
du budget et de lapplication des procdures en vigueur.
Il/elle reprsente le Comit de Gestion, sa demande, dans toute
runion interne et externe.
Il/elle est linterlocuteur privilgi du Chef dEtablissement au quotidien
pour reprsenter le Comit de Gestion, notamment dans toute action
engageant les ressources de lassociation an de mettre les moyens
ncessaires disposition de ltablissement.
Il/elle aura pour mission de mettre en place une commission qui dnira
le poste et le recrutement dnitif de ce Directeur/trice des Oprations
Prol
10 ans dexprience de gestion dentits oprationnelles de prfrence
dans un environnement multiculturel, forte capacit de Management.
Comptences et Aptitudes
Qualit de communication (parents, enseignants, autorits locales etc)
Rigueur
Esprit danalyse
Capacit traiter et rsoudre les problmes
Pragmatisme et sens du consensus
Excellente pratique de la langue franaise
Bonne connaissance de langlais
Maitrise des outils informatiques
Rponse adresser avant le 12 janvier 2015 Dposer la candidature au
secrtariat du lyce franais Ren-Descartes rue Howes Phnom Penh
ou transmettre par courrier lectronique ladresse recrutement@lfrd.net
Construction workers walk on the roof of the still-under-construction Baidu research and
development center in Beijing on December 17, 2014. afp
The projects will be funded by the

central and local governments, stateowned firms, loans and the private
sector, said the people. The investment will be in seven industries including oil and gas pipelines, health,
clean energy, transportation and mining, according to the people. They said
the NDRC is also studying projects in
other industries in case the government needs to provide more support
for growth. The NDRCs spokesman, Li
Pumin, said last month China would
encourage investment in those areas.
The Economic Observer newspaper
reported December 26 on its website

that an official from the NDRCs Zhejiang provincial bureau said the government had approved more than 420
infrastructure projects needing investment of more than 10 trillion yuan,
without specifying a timeframe.
Rail investments may exceed 1.1 trillion yuan this year as investments in
the previous four years lagged behind
the five-year plan for 2011-2015, Han
Siyi, an analyst at Shenyin & Wanguo
Securities, said yesterday.
China has sought ways to stimulate
growth without resorting to full-blown
stimulus as it seeks to keep a lid on total

debt that is now more than 200 percent
of gross domestic product. The central
bank added liquidity into the banking
system last year and announced an
interest-rate cut on November 21.
Its not 2008 again, Zhao Xijun, a
finance professor with Renmin University of China, said in reference to
a 4 trillion yuan stimulus China unleashed at that time. When China
launched the big stimulus package
in 2008 to deal with the global financial crisis, China wanted nothing but
faster growth; now China is focusing
more on quality [and] efficiency.
Chinas total fixed-asset investment in the first 11 months of the year
was 45.1 trillion yuan. Infrastructure
spending totaled 9.8 trillion yuan in
transportation; environment and water management; and the supply of
heat, gas and water, according to National Bureau of Statistics data compiled by Bloomberg.
Deutsche Bank analysts yesterday
cut their expansion projections for
this quarter to 6.8 per cent, reinforcing
their call for the central bank to step
up monetary stimulus.
We expect growth to surprise to the
downside in Q1 and policies to surprise
on the loose side in 2015, Deutsche
Bank economists led by Zhang Zhiwei
wrote. China will be hit by a double
whammy of slowing property investment and a sharp decline in land sales
by local governments, the analysts
wrote. bloomberg
Lawsuit reveals Macaus crime ties

SANDS China Ltds secret
investigation of Macau government officials, allegedly ordered
by its Chairman Sheldon Adelson, is fair game in the feud
between the billionaire and the
casino operators former top
executive.
Steven Jacobs, locked in a
four-year battle with Adelson,
on Tuesday won the right to
use a report on the probe in his
wrongful-termination lawsuit.
Jacobs contends he was ousted
in 2010 as chief executive officer of the China unit of Las
Vegas Sands Corp because he
clashed with Adelson over
demands he collect information on Macau officials to exert
leverage on them.
Jacobs claims the report by a
Hong Kong risk consultant, and
two others on alleged ties
between Sands China associates and Chinese organised
crime, will expose the company
to serious political and legal
problems. Sands argued that
Jacobs stole the documents
when he was fired, and that they
should be legally off-limits.
Nevada district judge Elizabeth Gonzalez, at a hearing on
Tuesday, ruled Jacobs can use
the reports while ordering that
they be treated as confidential
information, meaning they may
not become public. Sands had
asked for them to be treated as
highly confidential.
In some cases, they would
call this blackmail, J Randall
Jones, a lawyer for Sands China,
said of Jacobss effort to use the
information.
The case has been bogged

down over the question of
whether Jacobs can sue the Chinese subsidiary in Nevada.
Sands says the unit doesnt do
business in the United States.
Gonzalez rejected Jones request
to hold a separate evidentiary
hearing on whether the reports
are relevant to the question of
the case belonging in Las Vegas.
She set a hearing for April to
consider the question.
Todd Bice, a lawyer for Jacobs,
told the judge that the reports
are relevant because they demonstrate who was really in
charge in Macau, namely the
of the betting in the worlds largest casino hub, a person familiar

with the matter said in April.
Any possible business ties
with organised-crime figures
overseas may have detrimental
consequences for Sands in the
US. Casinos in Nevada and
other states are closely monitored by gaming regulators to
keep out organised crime,
which through mob bosses had
a big hand in running the gambling businesses in Las Vegas
during the early boom years.
The Macau officials probed
by the Hong Kong consultant,
Steve Vickers of International
This is where politics, business,

and organised crime the
rubber meets the road in
Macau
Las Vegas-based parent company. Sands wants to keep them
under wraps because they are
embarrassing and contradict
Adelsons public statements,
Bice said.
The hearing comes as the Chinese government is trying to cut
the flow of illegal money through
the gambling enclave Chinese
President Xi Jinpings bid to
catch tigers and flies in an
anti-corruption drive has contributed to the first decline in its
annual casino revenue.
Sands China has increased
scrutiny of Macau junket operators in a move that may lead to
a shakeout among the middlemen who account for two-thirds
Risk Ltd, arent identified in

public court records. Adelson
has said the investigation of the
officials was commissioned by
Jacobs, not by the company, and
that he didnt learn about until
after Jacobs had been fired.
Jacobs contends Sands
engaged in a game of doublespeak, because the company first disavowed any
involvement in the reports and
later argued they should remain
confidential or be barred.
A second report Sands wanted
to keep out of court was a background investigation of Cheung
Chi Tai, an alleged member of a
Hong Kong organised-crime
group known as a triad who has
been involved in operating VIP

rooms in Macau casinos.
According to Hong Kong court
records, Cheung was one of the
owners of Neptune Group Ltd,
a listed company that has
invested in junket operators.
Cheung is also named in a
2011 Hong Kong appellate court
ruling as a triad boss who allegedly issued an order that the
arms and legs of a junket agent
be broken, and on second
thought that the man should be
killed, for taking a gambler to
Macau who had won a lot of
money. The plot wasnt carried
out, however.
Jacobs, in a revised version of
his lawsuit filed December 22,
claims one of the issues he and
Adelson clashed over was
whether the board of directors
should be informed about findings related to media reports
that the company was conducting business with Chinese
organised crime syndicates.
Vickers, former commander
of the Royal Hong Kong Polices
Criminal Investigation Bureau,
spoke at an April symposium
about the role of organised
crime in moving money from
mainland China, where gambling is illegal, to Macau. The
scale of this money is beyond all
belief, he said, estimating the
actual amount of money being
wagered is six times official estimates. The scale of it has
shocked everybody. This is
where politics, business and
organised crime the rubber
meets the road in Macau.
bloomberg
Business
Oil plunge a golden opportunity for Asia

Martin Abbugao
Analaysis
HE plunge in crude prices

will give a much-needed
boost to Asias oil-guzzling
economies and provides
governments a golden opportunity to implement crucial structural
reforms such as cutting expensive
energy subsidies, analysts say.
A slowdown in the key export markets of Europe, China and Japan, the
end of US stimulus measures, and
an expected US rate hike fuelling
a flight of foreign cash in search of
better returns has left some governments having to make tough decisions to get back on track.
But experts say lower oil prices
would ease inflationary pressures
throughout much of Asia, allowing
many central banks to either keep
monetary policy on hold or reduce
interest rates.
And the Asian Development Bank
last month said developing countries
could see an additional 0.5 percentage point of growth on average this
year if oil prices remain low.
However reforms are needed, analysts say, and among the most crucial and controversial is the removal
of fuel subsidies, which in the past
been the catalysts for sometimes
violent protests across the spectrum, from the impoverished to the
regions growing middle class.
While global equity markets are
being strafed by a continuing slump
in the prices of black gold they have
fallen more than 50 per cent since
June to five-and-a-half-year lows
Demonstrators protest against fuel price increase East Java on November 18, 2014
after Indonesian President Joko Widodo unveiled a hefty increase in the price of subsidised fuel, taking a bold, first step towards fixing Indonesias tattered finances. afp
analysts said countries should grab

the opportunity and move now
Malaysia, Indonesia and India
have already made cuts to the populist but economically disastrous
subsidies, which have contributed to
government fiscal deficits.
Shang-Jin Wei, chief economist
at the Manila-based ADB, said in
a statement that easing oil prices
present a golden opportunity for
oil-importing countries to introduce
the reforms.
And Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific chief

economist at global consultancy
IHS, warned if they fail to move,
leaders will miss the window of
opportunity and face public resistance to removal of fuel subsidies if
oil prices strengthen significantly in
future years.
Angry protests
Previous efforts in Indonesia to
slash fuel subsidies sparked violent
protests, but the countrys new presi-
dent Joko Widodo has vowed to tackle

the problem despite risks to his popularity. Widodo, who took office in
October, wants the money diverted
to overhauling infrastructure and
helping the countrys poorest. An
attempt by former Indonesian president Suharto to reduce the subsidies
triggered riots that helped end his
three-decade dictatorship in 1998.
India also experienced similar protests in the past when it tried to cut
the subsidies diverted government
funds used to artificially keep fuel
prices low. Removing the payouts
allows market forces to determine
prices and free them from political
manipulation.
The softer crude prices will also
provide some respite for the regions
oil-reliant economies, facing global
headwinds from slowing in their key
export markets. Biswas said most
of the Asian economies are large net
importers of oil and gas, and will
benefit from lower oil import costs
and significantly reduced fuel costs
for consumers.
This positive boost helps to mitigate the negative effects of Chinas
moderating growth rate and Japans
slump back into recession in late
2014, he said.
Analysts expect India, Asias thirdlargest economy, to be a major beneficiary as it imports nearly 80 per
cent of its oil needs. Like China and
South Korea, the lower prices should
keep inflation in check and allow the
central bank to implement muchneeded interest rate cuts with less
fear of stoking inflation.
Among the top winners is the air-
line sector, while shipping and energy-intensive heavy manufacturing

industries such as steel will benefit across the region. Shukor Yusof,
founder of Malaysia-based aviation
research firm Endau Analytics, said
jet fuel accounts for about a third of
airline operating costs in Asia.
Further losses ahead
Youre likely to see airlines posting profits for the fourth quarter of
2014 and for this coming quarter,
Yusof told AFP. Given the trend
in falling oil prices, we should see
a corresponding correction in air
fares as well.
However, oil and gas exporters including Malaysia and Brunei stand
to take a hit. With petroleum-related
earnings accounting for 30 to 40
per cent of Malaysian government
revenues annually, the ringgit currency has fallen almost 11 per cent
against the US dollar over the past
six months as oil prices sank.
Malaysia in October forecast economic growth of 5 to 6 per cent for
2015, but the World Bank projects
the expansion at 4.7 per cent due in
part to lower oil prices.
And there could be further falls in
the oil price from the present levels
of $47.90 for West Texas Intermediate and $50.82 for Brent.
Daniel Ang, an investment analyst
with Phillip Futures in Singapore,
told AFP he expects WTI to hit bottom at $46 and Brent to hover at $50$53 in the second quarter of this year.
He forecasts WTI to average $58-$63
a barrel this year, and Brent is projected to average $60-$65. afp
10
Markets
Business
Spain getting back on track German

labour
In brief
Ryanair eyes 20 pct
German market share
BUDGET airline Ryanair

wants to take on Lufthansa
in Germany, its chief
executive said in a
newspaper interview
yesterday and predicted the
German airline would fail in
its bid to build a low cost
business. We currently have
market share of around 4
per cent in Germany. In the
next three to four years,
were aiming to increase it to
15-20 per cent, Michael
OLeary told the business
daily Handelsblatt. He
dismissed Lufthansas plans
to expand its own budget
flight operations. Theres a
long history of expensive
airlines trying to find a
foothold in the low-cost
segment. The jets are just
repainted and the inflight
meals are cancelled. AFP
EWER Spaniards stood in jobless

queues in 2014, consumer spending rose and banks boosted lending all signs pointing to Spains
economy getting back on track after six
years of a gruelling financial crisis.
The number of people registered as
unemployed in 2014 dipped by 253,627
to 4.45 million, the labour ministry said
this week. It was the second consecutive
yearly drop since a decade-long property
bubble burst in 2008, throwing millions
of people out of work.
While the unemployment rate which
is calculated differently was 23.67 per
cent in the third quarter, one of the highest rates in the industrialised world,
the dip in the jobless numbers last year
gives a ray of hope to job seekers, many
of whom have seen their unemployment
benefits run out.
Today there is greater confidence in
Spain in the ability to find work in the
coming months, said Labour Minister
Fatima Banez of the ruling conservative
government, which faces regional and
legislative elections this year.
One in two Spaniards, 51 per cent, believe their personal economic situation
will improve or at least remain stable
in 2015, according to a survey by DYM
Market research published last week by
online newspaper El Confidencial.
Those who fear that the new year will
be one of economic difficulty fell to 36
per cent from 51 per cent during the
same time a year earlier. The growing
optimism has also spurred a shopping
spree. Sales over the Christmas season,
which in Spain ended on Tuesday on the
Feast of the Epiphany when gifts are traditionally opened, are expected to post
their biggest rise in seven years.
In November retail sales posted a 1.9
per cent increase over the same year-ago
Austria claims worlds

shortest intl flight
PASSENGERS travelling on a
new flight offered by Austrian budget airline Fly Niki
from April will hardly have
time to sip a coffee between
take-off and landing. The
flight between Vienna and
Bratislava, just about 50
kilometres apart, will last
about 20 minutes, the airline
said, claiming that this would
be the worlds shortest
international flight. The trip
between the two capitals
usually takes a little over an
hour by train or road. AFP
market
strong
Tourists and city-dwellers carrying shopping bags walk along a paved street near Puerta del Sol
in Madrid on December 16 , 2014. Retail sales are climbing, a sign of economic recovery. afp
period. New car sales a key measure of

demand jumped 18 per cent in 2014 to
855,308 vehicles, the best annual performance since 2010, helped in part by a
government subsidy scheme, according
to carmakers association Anfac.
Government borrowing costs are
down and banks, which were saddled
with bad debt after the property crash in
2008, also appear more willing to lend,
the Bank of Spain said in its latest bulletin on the state of the economy.
A tax reform which came into effect
in January may also give the economy
a boost. It will reduce the tax bill of the
lowest-income groups on average by
320 ($385) per household per year, according to the government.
Job Announcement
The Phnom Penh Post is an independent media company in Cambodia and is seeking a fulltime
qualied candidate to ll a position as follows:
Lifestyle Reporter: 1 position
Duties and responsibilities:
To write daily story related to Lifestyle

To come up with new and creative story idea
To respect the deadline set by the editor
Reporting to Post Lifestyle Editor
Job requirements:
Bachelors Degree in journalism or an equivalent degree

At least 2 years experience in Media
Knowledge of media law and professional ethics
Those who specialize in certain area such as tourism, travel entertainment and leisure news
are highly welcomed.
Very good in Khmer and English, Speaking and Writing
Computer literacy ( must be able to type Khmer Unicode well)
Must be fully aware of and obey all the codes and ethics for journalism
Available to work in a high pressure environment
Interested candidates are requested to submit a covering letter, expected salary and detailed
CVs with current photos, not later than 5:00 p.m. of January 19th, 2015 to Human Resources &
Administration Department.
Present address: Phnom Penh Center, building F,Unit:888, 8th oor, Corner Sihanouk & Sothearos
Blvd, Sangkat Tonle Bassac, Khan Chamkarmon, Phnom Penh.
Tel: +855- (0) 23 214 311-17
Fax: +855-(0)23-214 318
E-mail: jobs@phnompenhpost.com
www.phnompenhpost.com
Post Media Co., Ltd is an equal opportunity employer. Only short-listed candidates will be
contacted for interview. Application documents will not be returned.
Successful People Read The Post.
Spain emerged timidly from recession in mid-2013 and in the second

quarter of 2014 posted its strongest
quarterly growth since 2007, expanding by 0.6 per cent.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoys government estimates the economy will
have expanded by 1.3 per cent in 2014
and will grow by 2.0 per cent in 2015, a
faster growth rate than is expected in
France, Germany and Italy.
And foreign investors are stepping
back into Spain. They poured 47
billion into the eurozones fourthlargest economy last year, up from
20 billion in 2013, according to an
estimate by daily business newspaper
Expansion. afp
THE German labour market

continued to shine in December, shrugging off current economic weakness, with unemployment now at its lowest level
since unification.
The number of people registered as unemployed in Europes
biggest economy fell by a seasonally-adjusted 27,000 to 2.841
million in December, the Federal Labour Office said. That is
the lowest number since
December 1991, although the
jobless total came close to these
levels in early 2012.
The unemployment rate
which measures the jobless
total against the working population as a whole slipped to 6.5
per cent in December from 6.6
per cent in November in seasonally-adjusted terms.
The labour market continued to develop favourably, independent of the weak economy,
the labour office said.
The German economy,
Europes powerhouse, has lost a
bit of shine in recently as uncertainty resulting from geopolitical crises such as Ukraine
undermined the recovery outlook. The new political crisis in
Greece is also casting a shadow
over the eurozone. afp
Workers: the orphans of

the US economic boom
Jeremy Tordjman
Analaysis
T IS one of the contradictions of the US economic

boom: the unemployment rate has fallen to
the lowest level in six years,
but workers wages have remained almost flat.
The anomaly is troubling
enough that it has sparked
questions about whether the
economys rebound from the
2008-2009 recession is all that
strong a phenomenon studied recently by the Federal Reserves San Francisco branch.
In theory, the sharp fall in the
jobless rate from 10 per cent in
October 2009 to 5.8 per cent
today should have sparked
firm rises in the pay for the average American worker. With
the supply of available workers
falling, they should be in the
position of forcing employers
to pay more.
But the reality is that paychecks have barely risen, measured against inflation. In real
terms, wages have been about
flat, growing less than labour
productivity, said Fed Chair
Janet Yellen last August.
In November the annual
growth of wages was just 2.1
per cent, compared to the 3.9
per cent rise in 2007 before
the crisis. According to the San
Francisco Fed study, some 15
per cent of Americans saw no
wage gain in the year to No-
Workers and their supporters demand a minimum wage of $15, at a

protest in Los Angeles on December 4. afp
vember 2014, compared to 12

per cent in 2007.
Even while celebrating the
fall in the jobless rate, the
White House itself pointed to
the problem. There is more
work to be done to further
boost wage growth and address
longer-standing
challenges
around both the quality of jobs
and the growth of wages.
Indeed, in constant dollars
the average hourly salary of
$20.67 is barely higher than the
$19.18 of 1964.
The problem is worse for
those workers on the lower
ends of the pay scale. Since
2000, the 10 per cent of workers
on the bottom of the scale have
seen their weekly paychecks
shrink 3.7 per cent when measured against inflation, accord-
ing to a recent study by the Pew

Research Center. Those at the
top of the scale of wage workers saw gains of 9.7 per cent.
For most US workers, real
wages ... have been flat or even
falling for decades, said Pews
Drew DeSilver.
According to a number of experts, the contradiction of economic growth and stagnant
wages exposes certain flaws
in the jobs market. The official
jobless numbers do not include the rise of people stuck in
temporary jobs and those who
have dropped out of the jobs
market in discouragement.
The Economic Policy Institute
in Washington estimates those
would add another 5.7 million
Americans to the official number of 9.1 million. afp
11
Business
People smugglers find cargo

ships with ease of buying a car
n the murky edges of

the global shipping industry, decades-old, rusting
ships such as those used
to smuggle hundreds of people into
Italy last week are traded almost as
easily as second-hand cars.
Long past their prime, the two
ships picked up by the Italian navy
may have been worth just $150,000
each in scrap, and likely changed
hands in an underworld out of reach
of the authorities, according to shipping experts.
Neither Ezadeen, the 48-year-old
livestock carrier found with 360 desperate migrants on board, nor the
37-year-old cargo ship Blue Sky M,
carrying 768 people, had up to date
certificates of seaworthiness demanded of normal commercial ships.
For these ships, there is no value
except scrap, said Simon Ward, director of Ursa Shipbrokers in Greece.
But neither would attract more than
$250,000 each in scrapyards in Turkey, he said, and with a potential cost
of transport reaching up to $100,000,
unscrupulous owners might look favourably on a cash buyer.
If you can get someone to take the
ship for peanuts and put migrants on
board then you can see the attraction
of it, said a shipbroker in London,
who asked to remain anonymous.
Its like buying a second-hand car
its that easy.
The potential profits are huge.
The interior of the ship Ezadeen, on Monday, the day after some would-be 500 Syrian
immigrants disembarked from the ship at Corigliano harbour. afp
Italian officials said passengers on

Ezadeen paid between $4,000 and
$8,000 to cross the Mediterranean,
netting the smugglers between $1.44
million and $2.88 million.
While it remains unclear how the
ships were commandeered by the
smugglers, there is no suggestion
they were stolen.
Its entirely legal to sell a secondhand ship anywhere in the world,
said David Olsen, an editor with
London-based maritime newspaper
Lloyds List.
It has been known for cargo ships
to turn up on eBay. Certainly there
are websites that will give you bargain
basement ships. He added: I can

see people meeting over a beer and
agreeing a price that is more than the
scrap to take it off their hands.
Many reputable brokers deal in second-hand ships. But buying creaking
vessels with dodgy paperwork is far
removed from the normal commercial trade.
This is in a market outside the
main trading markets. The reputable
dealerships dont deal in this kind
of area for fear of being tarnished,
added the London broker. There are
ships that trade in the eastern Mediterranean around Turkey, around
Syria, Lebanon, north Africa, which
arent under the same kind of scrutiny or regulation. There will be plenty
more out there.
Ezadeen was last inspected by local
authorities in June 2014 in Lebanon
and Blue Sky M was inspected in Romania in April 2014.
Neither appeared to have a certificate of classification from an internationally recognised body, which
essentially acts as a marker of seaworthiness, Ward said.
He suggested Ezadeen may have
been bought as part of a scrap deal,
or been sold by the original owners
thinking it was going to go for scrap
and somebody stepped in between
and took her over.
The construction, equipping and
crewing of ships are subject to strict
regulations developed by the International Maritime Organization, which
comprises about 170 countries.
Rules are enforced by countries
where the ships are flagged and also
individual ports but some authorities are less vigilant than others.
The Blue Sky M was flagged in
Moldova and Ezadeen in Sierra Leone, both countries known to be
less strict than, for example, European Union countries.
Ships flagged in Moldova comprise seven of the 20 vessels currently banned from the Paris
MOU, a group of 27 maritime
administrations in Europe and
North America. afp
Markets
Thailand
Vietnam
Thai Set 50 Index, Jan 6

1100
Ho Chi Minh Stock Index, Jan 6

600
1025
575
950
550
875
525
800
500
998.05
South Korea
KRX 100 Index, Jan 6

4500
552.05
Philippines
PSEI - Philippine Se Idx, Jan 6

7500
4250
7125
4000
6750
3750
6375
3500
6000
3,891.44
7,309.70
Singapore
Malaysia
FTSE Straits Times Index, Jan 6

4000
FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI, Jan 6

1900
3500
1800
3000
1700
2500
1600
2000
1500
3,298.36
Hong Kong
1,709.18
China
Hang Seng Index, Jan 6

26000
CSI 300 Index, Jan 6

4500
24500
4000
23000
3500
21500
3000
20000
2500
23,681.26
Japan
Nikkei 225, Jan 6

18000
3,643.79
Taiwan
Taiwan Taiex Index, Jan 6

10000
17250
9625
16500
9250
15750
8875
15000
8500
9,080.09
16,885.33
Laos
Laos Composite Index, Jan 6

1500
Indonesia
Jakarta Composite Index, Jan 6

6000
1350
5500
1200
5000
1050
4500
900
4000
1,399.23
International commodities
Cambodian commodities
Energy
(Base rate taken on January 1, 2012)
Commodity
Units
Price
Crude Oil (WTI)
USD/bbl.
47.71
Crude Oil (Brent)
India
USD/bbl.
NYMEX Natural Gas USD/MMBtu
Change % Change Time(ET)
-0.46%
5:10:52
Item
50.8
-0.3
-0.59%
5:10:28
2.94
0.01
0.17%
5:12:00
Rice 1
Rice 2
Paddy
Peanuts
Maize 2
Cashew nut
Pepper
Beef
Pork
Mud Fish
Chicken
Duck
RBOB Gasoline
USd/gal.
134.85
-0.58
-0.43%
5:11:57
NYMEX Heating Oil
USd/gal.
170.63
-1.99
-1.15%
5:11:39
ICE Gasoil
USD/MT
488.5
-7.5
-1.51%
5:10:47
Agriculture
Commodity
Units
Price
Change
% Change
Time(ET)
CBOT Rough Rice
USD/cwt
11.61
0.00%
4:32:44
CME Lumber
USD/tbf
318
0.6
0.19%
20:53:13
Unit
Base
R/Kg
2800
R/Kg
2200
R/Kg
1800
R/Kg
8000
R/Kg
2000
R/Kg
4000
R/Kg
40000
R/Kg
33000
R/Kg
17000
R/Kg
12000
R/Kg
18000
R/Kg
13000
BSE Sensex 30 Index, Jan 6

29000
Karachi 100 Index, Jan 6

35000
28000
33250
27000
31500
26000
29750
25000
28000
Construction equipment
Food -Cereals -Vegetables - Fruits
-0.22
Average
2780
2280
1840
8100
2080
4220
24000
33600
18200
12400
20800
13100
(%)
-0.71 %
3.64 %
2.22 %
1.25 %
4.00 %
5.50 %
-40.00 %
1.82 %
7.06 %
3.33 %
15.56 %
0.77 %
Item
Unit
Base
Average
(%)
Steel 12
R/Kg
3000
3100
3.33 %
Cement
R/Sac
19000
19500
2.63 %
26,908.82
Energy
Item
Unit
Base
Average
(%)
Gasoline
5250
5450
3.81 %
Diesel
5100
5200
1.96 %
Petroleum
5500
5500
0.00 %
Chi
86000
76000
-11.63 %
Baht
1200
1300
8.33 %
Gas
Charcoal
5,207.12
Pakistan
Australia
32,835.94
New Zealand
S&P/ASX 200 Index, Jan 6

6000
NZX 50 Index, Jan 6

6000
5625
5625
5250
5250
4875
4875
4500
5,353.61
4500
5,558.06
12
World
Indonesia
finds tail
of AirAsia
aeroplane
INDONESIA said yesterday that
it had found the tail of an AirAsia plane that crashed into the
sea with 162 people on board,
raising hopes of finding its
black boxes.
Search and rescue agency
chief Bambang Soelistyo said
he was sure of the discovery
after divers took photographs
of the tail, wedged into the seabed 30 metres underwater, on
which the companys logo
could be seen (pictured).
We have successfully
obtained part of the plane that
has been our target. The tail
portion has been confirmed
found, Soelistyo told reporters
in Jakarta.
AirAsia Flight 8501 vanished
from radar screens during a
storm on December 28 when it
was flying from the Indonesian
city of Surabaya to Singapore.
All but seven of those on board
were Indonesian.
The Indonesian meteorological agency said weather was
the triggering factor of the
crash in the Java Sea, with ice
likely damaging the engines of
the Airbus A320-200.
But a much clearer explanation is not possible without the
black boxes, which record the
pilots voices as well as flight
information. They were housed
in the aircrafts tail.
I am led to believe the tail
section has been found. If right
part of tail section then the
black box should be there,
AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes

wrote on Twitter. We need to
find all parts soon so we can
find all [our] guests to ease the
pain of our families. That still is
our priority.
Despite a huge operation
assisted by US, Russian and
other foreign military assets,
progress in finding the wreckage of the plane and its passengers has been patchy with
stormy weather severely hampering the search. So far 40 bodies have been found, all of them
floating at sea.
And despite the discovery of
the tail, authorities could not
say when the black boxes would
be found and retrieved.
One problem is the tail being
deep into the seabed, according
to chief maritime affairs minister Indroyono Soesilo.
The search for the rest of the
plane would now focus on a
2-nautical-mile area surrounding the tail. Many of the bodies
yet to be recovered are likely in
the main parts of the plane that
have yet to be found. afp
Sri Lankas election chief to

probe military deployment
S
RI Lankas election
commission said yesterday it is investigating claims that troops
are being deployed in the
Tamil-dominated north before a closely-fought presidential vote that has already been
marred by violence.
Chief election commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said
there had been complaints
that security forces were deploying in the northern Wanni
region, in contravention of
election laws.
Wanni was part of the war
zone where Tamil separatists
fought the army in a decadeslong conflict that ended only
five years ago.
I have already taken this up
with the army commander,
who says he has not ordered
troops to deploy, Deshapriya
told reporters on the eve of the
bitterly contested election.
I hope there will be no attempt to use troops to block
people voting.
President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is standing for an
unprecedented third term, is
widely loathed by the countrys
minority Tamils after overseeing a violent military suppression of a separatist struggle.
Both local and international
poll monitors have expressed
fears that authorities could try
to prevent Tamils from voting
after the main Tamil political
party backed opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena.
The Tamils make up the
largest minority on the island,
and may be the deciders in
Thursdays election if, as appears likely, the majority Sinhalese vote is split between
Rajapakse and Sirisena.
The independent Centre for
Sri Lankan election commission workers carry ballot boxes while escorted by police on the eve of presidential elections in Colombo yesterday, as the election chief probes possible military deployments. afp
Monitoring Election Violence

(CMEV) on Tuesday accused
the ruling party of tolerating
flagrant violation of election
laws and said opposition party offices had been targeted.
The CMEV, which is deploying more than 4,000 monitors
across the country, said it had
documented 420 incidences of
violence since the election was
announced on November 20.
It said the Tamil-dominated
northern district of Jaffna was
worst hit.
South Asias longest-serving
leader had appeared politically invincible after his forces
crushed the Tamil Tigers in
2009, ending a decades-long
conflict.
But his second term has
been dogged by accusations
of corruption, including un-
dermining the independence

of the judiciary and lining the
pockets of political cronies
through lucrative contracts.
Sirisenas surprise decision to stand against him has
turned what might have been a
walkover into a bitterly-fought
contest.
Northern Sri Lanka remains
heavily militarised after the
war.
An international poll monitor who asked not to be named
told AFP he had to intervene
to secure the withdrawal of
troops from a roadblock in
Wanni on Wednesday.
Deshapriya said he had received assurances that troops
had only been placed on
stand-by, although he said they
could be deployed in the event
of post-election unrest to help
protect vital installations.

Deshapriya said the security
forces had no role in the elections and police were capable
of protecting 49 counting centres and 12,314 polling booths,
at which 15 million people are
eligible to vote.
He said police had been ordered to shoot in the head
if anyone tried to disrupt the
election.
Police have said that 65,000
officers armed with an automatic assault rifles are being
deployed around the country.
The election commissioner
also said he had issued warnings to both state and private
media organisations for violating the rules on broadcasting
campaign materials.
State television networks on
Wednesday tried to overturn
a court injunction banning

them from broadcasting an
interview with the president
because it breached election
laws.
The Tamil Tigers terrorised Sri Lanka for decades
with their trademark suicide
bombings and high-profile assassinations before suffering
a spectacular defeat in May
2009, ending a civil war that
had claimed 100,000 lives.
President Mahinda Rajapakse took credit for the no-holdsbarred military offensive that
all but wiped out the rebels,
and won a landslide re-election victory the following year.
But as the post-war gloss begins to wear off, the president
has hinted darkly at a Tiger resurgence if he is not returned
to power when the country
goes to the polls on Thursday.
The Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) traumatised the population and deliberately undermined previous Sri Lankan elections by
carrying out bomb attacks that
killed candidates and scores of
supporters.
Even the Tamils they claimed
to represent were not spared
by the rebels ruthless attacks
and they are accused of killing
thousands within the community to take leadership of the
struggle for a separate homeland for Sri Lankas biggest
ethnic minority.
In the aftermath of the war,
the president bulldozed Tamil
Tiger memorials and war
graves to remove any trace of
the fallen rebels.
But analysts say he is hoping
the prospect of a resurgence
may be enough to dissuade
voters from ditching their
strongman president. afp
Hong Kong takes next step in political reform

HONG Kong yesterday announced new
proposals for how the city should
choose its next leader but made clear
that candidates would still be screened
the key issue behind more than two
months of mass protests.
More than 20 lawmakers carrying yellow umbrellas the symbol of the prodemocracy movement walked out of
the legislative chamber (pictured) as the
consultation document was about to be
presented by government number two
Carrie Lam. They shouted I want universal suffrage as they left the chamber,
forcing a brief adjournment.
The document posted online so that
residents can give their views outlines
options for how leadership candidates
will be nominated and for the composition of the nominating committee,
which democracy campaigners fear will
be stacked with pro-Beijing figures.
But Lam emphasised that the process
would have to adhere to Chinas ruling
that candidates must be vetted.

Any attempt to revoke the Beijing
decision is unrealistic, she said.
China has pledged that voters in Hong
Kong can elect the citys next chief executive in 2017 the first time there has
ever been a public vote.
But it insists that only two or three
candidates can stand and that they will
be vetted by a loyalist committee.
That decision sparked protests that
brought tens of thousands onto the
streets at their height, before protest
camps were cleared in December.
The government has billed the reform
process as historic and says that it
wants to reflect the pluralistic nature of
Hong Kong society in the vote for the
next leader. But campaigners have
branded it fake democracy.
We call on the Hong Kong government not to waste time but relaunch the
political reform process, Alan Leong of
the pro-democracy Civic Party said after
walking out of the legislature yesterday.

Leong had earlier been called a running dog a Chinese saying meaning
traitor by pro-government protesters
gathered outside the legislature waving
a large Chinese flag.
Cyd Ho of the Labour Party added:
We cannot accept a vote after vetting
because it doesnt offer real choices.
The consultation said one option was
that anyone with 100 votes from the
1,200-strong nominating committee
could start lobbying to become an official candidate for leader. But the same
committee would carry out a second
round of vetting, with each final candidate needing to secure 50 per cent support before standing for the vote.
The consultation is the last official
gauge of public opinion before a finalised proposal on electoral reform is put
before the legislative council.
Pro-democracy lawmakers vowed to
vote against the plan unless it revokes
the vetting of candidates. If the framework fails to pass with a two thirds
majority it would mean a delay in the
introduction of a public vote.
Political analyst Sonny Lo said it was
too early to say whether the final
reform bill would be passed, as some
pro-democrats could be persuaded by
public opinion to vote for it.
Public sentiment in Hong Kong is
politically pragmatic. Most people
would like to see a more harmonious
way of discussion. afp
13
World
Yemen car bomb kills

30 at police academy
A CAR bomb blast tore
through dozens of Yemenis
lined up at a police academy
in Sanaa yesterday, killing
more than 30 in the latest attack highlighting the countrys growing instability.
Official news agency Saba
quoted the interior ministry as
saying at least 31 people had
died and dozens were wounded in what it described as the
terrorist bombing targeting
potential police recruits.
Unstable and impoverished
Yemen has been hit by a wave
of violence in recent months,
with a powerful Shiite militia, known as Huthis, clashing with tribal forces and the
countrys branch of Al-Qaeda.
Witness Khaled Ajlan said
the early morning blast targeted a group of about 60 new
students who were registering
at the police academy.
The charred remains of the

dead, mostly young men, were
piled on the sidewalk outside
the academy alongside bloodsoaked documents they had
been carrying.
The wreckage of a car presumably the one used in the
attack sat nearby, with little
remaining but mangled metal
and the steering wheel.
Rescue workers loaded bodies into the back of ambulances, which pushed their
way through gathered onlookers, many taking pictures of
the carnage with their mobile
telephones.
It was not immediately clear
who was behind the blast but
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the jihadist
networks powerful affiliate in
Yemen, has claimed responsibility for previous such attacks
on security forces. afp
Yemen attack
SAUDI
ARABIA
OMAN
Dozens dead in car bomb

attack in front of a police
academy Wednesday
ETHIOPIA
Red
Sea
SANAA
150 km
Gulf of Aden
SOMALIA
France paper hit by terrorists

Charlie Hebdo, a satirical

weekly that has sparked anger
in the past among Muslims
for publishing cartoons of the
prophet Muhammad.
Television footage showed
large numbers of police in the
area, bullet-riddled windows
and people being carried away
on stretchers.
The attack took place at a
time of heightened fears in
France and other European
capitals over fallout from
the wars in Iraq and Syria,
where hundreds of European
citizens have gone to fight
alongside the radical Islamic
State group.
President Francois Hollande,
who immediately rushed to
the scene of the shooting, described it as a barbaric terrorist attack.
An act of exceptional barbarism has just been committed
here in Paris against a newspaper, meaning [against] the expression of liberty, Hollande
said at the scene.
One man who witnessed the
shooting said that he saw two
attackers shooting their way
out of Charlie Hebdo at around
11:30am (1030GMT).
I saw them leaving and
shooting. They were wearing
masks. These guys were serious, said the man who declined to give his name.
At first I thought it was
special forces chasing drug
traffickers or something. We
back in November 2011 when

it published a cartoon of Muhammad accompanied by
the title Charia Hebdo.
Death threats
Armed gunmen face police officers near the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris yesterday. afp
werent expecting this. You

would think we were in a
movie.
Hollande called for national
unity, adding that several terrorist attacks had been foiled
in recent weeks.
The White House condemned the attack in the
strongest possible terms,
while British Prime Minister David Cameron called it
sickening.
We stand with the French
people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom
of the press, Cameron said in
a message on Twitter.
Most earth-like world ever found

AN ALIEN world that orbits a distant
star in the constellation of Lyra may
be the most Earth-like planet ever
found outside the solar system.
The planet, which has been named
Kepler 438b, is slightly larger than
Earth and circles an orange dwarf
star that bathes it in 40 per cent
more heat than our home planet
receives from the sun.
The small size of Kepler 438b makes
it likely to be a rocky world, while its
proximity to its star puts it in the
Goldilocks or habitable zone where
the temperature is just right for liquid
water to flow.
A rocky surface and flowing water
are two of the most important factors scientists look for when assessing a planets chances of being hospitable to life.
Kepler 438b, which is 470 light years
away, completes an orbit around its
star every 35 days, making a year on
the planet pass 10 times as fast as on
Earth. Small planets are more likely
to be rocky than huge ones, and
at only 12 per cent larger than our
home planet, the odds of Kepler 438b
being rocky are about 70 per cent,
researchers said.
Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
announced the discovery at a meeting of the American Astronomical
Society in Seattle on Tuesday, along
with seven other planets that also
lie in the habitable zones of their
stars. The haul doubles the number
of small planets those less than
twice the size of Earth believed to
be orbiting in their parent stars
habitable zones.
All were spotted with NASAs Kepler
space telescope which detects planets as they move across the faces of
their stars, causing the light picked

up by the telescope to dim periodically by a minuscule amount.
One of the other planets, Kepler
442b, lies in the same constellation
1,100 light years away. It is about a
third larger than Earth, receives about
two thirds as much starlight, and has
a 60 per cent chance of being rocky,
according to a report to be published
in The Astrophysical Journal.
Guillermo Torres, lead author on
the study, said the size and amount
of light falling on the planets made
them the most Earth-like planets yet
found beyond our solar system.
Before their discovery, the exoplanets
most similar to our own were Kepler
186f, which is 10 per cent larger than
[Kepler 438b and 442b

were] as close to Earth
analogues as were going to
find in the Kepler data
Earth and receives a third as much
light, and Kepler 62f, which is 40 per
cent larger and gets about 41 per cent
as much light.
The scientists do not know if the
planets have atmospheres, but if
they are cloaked in insulating layers
of gas, the mean temperatures of
Kepler 438b and 442b are expected
to be about 60 and 0 degrees Celsius
respectively.
The Harvard-Smithsonian team
used a computer program called
Blender to confirm that the planets
originally spotted by the Kepler space
telescope were real. False sightings
can happen when pairs of stars that
lie behind the one being studied
eclipse each other, causing the background light to dim slightly. In some
cases, this can be mistaken for a
planet moving in front of its star.

The pair of stars can be way behind
the target star, but if they are in the
same line of sight, the result is a very
tiny dimming that can look like a
planet, said Torres.
The Blender program gives a statistical probability that the planet is
real and not an effect of background
stars eclipsing one another. Of 12
suspected planets Torres and his
colleagues assessed with the program, 11 came out at more than 99.7
per cent likely to be real.
David Kipping, a co-author on the
study, said that Kepler 438b and
442b were as close to Earth analogues as were going to find in the
Kepler data.
Astronomers are keenly waiting
on the next generation of telescopes,
including Hubbles replacement, the
James Webb Space Telescope, and
the European Extremely Large Telescope, which is currently being
constructed in the Atacama desert
in Chile, which will help them to
examine the atmospheres of distant
planets for possible signs of life.
In the meantime, scientists are
planning to look for other, indirect
signs, that a planet may be well-suited for supporting life. Kipping is
searching through the Kepler data for
hints that some planets have moons,
which can improve their odds of
being habitable.
Our own moon stabilises Earths
tilt, making the temperatures far less
erratic than they would be otherwise.
Alien planets that share a solar system with a gas giant like Jupiter are
also interesting, because the vast size
of the planet acts as a shield against
devastating asteroid and comet
impacts. the guardian
Yesterdays shooting is one

of the worst attacks in France
in decades.
In 1995, a bomb in a commuter train attributed to Algerian extremists exploded at the
Saint Michel metro station in
Paris, killing eight and wounding 119.
The satirical newspaper
gained notoriety in February 2006 when it reprinted
cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that had originally
appeared in Danish daily
Jyllands-Posten, causing fury
across the Muslim world.
Its offices were fire-bombed
Despite being taken to court

under anti-racism laws, the
weekly continued to publish
controversial cartoons of the
Muslim prophet.
In September 2012, Charlie
Hebdo published cartoons of a
naked Muhammad as violent
protests were taking place in
several countries over a lowbudget film, titled Innocence of
Muslims, which was made in
the United States and insulted
the prophet.
French schools, consulates and cultural centres in 20
Muslim countries were briefly
closed along with embassies
for fear of retaliatory attacks at
the time.
Editor Stephane Charbonnier has received death
threats and lives under police
protection.
This weeks front page featured controversial author
French Michel Houellebecq,
whose latest book Soumission, or Submission, which
imagines a France in the near
future that is ruled by an Islamic government, came out
yesterday.
The book has widely been
touted as tapping into growing unease among non-Muslim French about immigration and the rise of Islamic
influence in society. afp
Outlawed Marxist group

claims Istanbul bombing
AN OUTLAWED Turkish Marxist group on Wednesday claimed
responsibility for a strike by a female suicide bomber on the heart
of Istanbuls tourist district, raising
fears of a wave of radical attacks one
week after it hit police guarding a
palace in the city.
The female bomber, a young woman in her 20s, killed herself and a policeman early Tuesday evening after
walking into the police station in Istanbuls Sultanahmet district, home
to the citys greatest concentration of
historical monuments.
Posing as a tourist who had lost
her wallet, she blew herself up after
police shot her in the leg after they
became suspicious, officials said.
One other police officer was lightly
injured.
The Marxist Revolutionary Peoples
Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C)
said in a statement on its website
our sacrificial fighter ... carried out

the sacrificial action on the tourist
police department in Sultanahmet.
Sultanahmet is home to some of
Turkeys top attractions including
the Aga Sophia museum and the
Blue Mosque and is thronged by
thousands of tourists each day.
It said that Tuesdays bombing
was aimed at bringing to account
the ruling Justice and Development
Party (AKP) co-founded by President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan over corruption following a ruling the day earlier
that four former ministers accused of
graft will not stand trial.
As after the January 1 attack, the
DHKP-C also said the bombing was a
reprisal for the death of Berkin Elvan,
a teenager who died in March 2014
after spending 269 days in a coma
due to injuries inflicted by the police
in the mass anti-government protests of May-June 2013. afp
Investigators scour the scene looking for evidence.
afp
14
World
Shebab executes four

accused of spying
SOMALIAS Shebab militants

have executed four people
accused of spying for the
United States, Ethiopia and the
countrys internationallybacked government, officials
and witnesses said. The
executions by firing squad took
place at a square in the town
of Bardhere, a Shebab
stronghold in Somalias
southwestern region of Gedo,
late on Tuesday, and came a
week after the US said it had
killed the al-Qaeda-affiliated
militants intelligence chief in
an air strike. One of the spies
worked with the CIA and
facilitated the killing of an
al-Shebab commander, a
Shebab judge in the town said
before the four were shot
dead. According to the judge,
another one of those executed
had been aiding US operations
in Barawe, a port town and
former Shebab stronghold that
was captured last year by
Somali and African Union
forces, while the other two
worked for Ethiopian
intelligence and Somalias
security agency. A local
witness, Ali Ronow, said
hundreds of locals watched
the execution. afp
Vietnam denies senior

party official poisoned
VIETNAMESE authorities
yesterday denied widespread
rumours that a popular senior
communist party official had
been poisoned with radioactive
material by a political rival,
state media said. Nguyen Ba
Thanh, 61, a former top official
in Danang who helped turn the
coastal city into a tourism and
investment hub, is due to
return to Vietnam this week
after months of medical
treatment in the United States.
There has been an explosion of
rumours online in recent days
that Thanh who now heads
the communist partys main
anti-corruption body was
poisoned with radioactive
substances by an adversary.
These rumours are wrong
said Tran Huy Dung, deputy
head of a government
committee in charge of the
health of senior officials,
according to a report on the
state-run news website
VietnamNet. afp
Ebola experts gather to

review disease vaccines
EXPERTS will gather in Geneva

this week to review progress
on possible vaccines against
the deadly Ebola virus, the
World Health Organization said
yesterday. The international
health community is
desperately trying to find a
vaccine to fight the virus,
which continues to rage in
west Africa where it has killed
more than 8,200 people.
Todays high-level meeting will
provide an update on the safety
and efficacy of the possible
vaccines undergoing clinical
trials. Participants, including
health officials, vaccine
manufacturers and
government representatives
from the hardest-hit countries
will also review available
financing to bring promising
candidate vaccines to the
market. They will also look at
ways to ensure the broadest
possible access once a safe
vaccine is found. afp
Prayuth threatens protesters

T
HAILANDS junta chief has

warned the military will take
action under martial law if
protests occur as a result of
impeachment proceedings against expremier Yingluck Shinawatra.
On Friday, the army-stacked National Legislative Assembly (NLA) will begin the impeachment of former Prime
Minister Yingluck for driving through a
costly rice subsidy scheme.
Thailands first female premier, who
is due to appear at the assembly on
Friday, was removed from office by a
court ruling shortly before the military
coup in May knocked out the rump of
her administration.
Observers say a vote to impeach her
which carries an automatic five-year
ban from politics could stir her Red
Shirt supporters to protest, ending
months of relative calm since the army
grabbed power and imposed martial
law on the kingdom.
But junta chief Prayuth Chan-O-Cha,
the prime minister, shrugged off any
potential revival of the street protests
which have blistered Thailands recent
political history.
There will be no protest, they cant
protest. If they dont accept the ruling,
we will take action, thats it, he told
reporters.
What is the condition of martial
law? No political movement, he said,
Thailands junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha (pictured) has warned against demonstrations
on Friday and said that any protests will be met with military action if necessary. afp
urging the public to allow the NLA to

reach its conclusion, which is due before the end of the month.
A successful impeachment needs
three-fifths of the 250-strong national
legislature to vote in favour.
Critics say the NLA is driving through
a junta-led agenda to dismantle the
power base of Thaksin Shinawatra
Yinglucks older brother who lives in
self-exile to avoid jail for a corruption

conviction.
Driving her [Yingluck] out of politics
could instigate resentment among her
political supporters, said Thai academic Pavin Chachavalpongpun, of
Kyoto University.
Thailand is Thailand and the rule of
law can be bent to serve the power interests of the elites.
Thaksin, who was deposed as premier in a 2006 coup, sits at the heart of
Thailands deep schism.
He is loathed by the Bangkok-centred establishment and its supporters
among the judiciary and army, but still
enjoys support in the nations poor but
populous northern half.
Shinawatra-led or aligned parties
have won every election since 2001.
In that time they have been battered
by two coups and seen three other premiers banned by the kingdoms interventionist courts.
The Shinawatras electoral dominance comes as concerns mount over
Thailands future once the reign of revered 87-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej ends.
While popular among Yinglucks rural voters, the loss-making rice policy
galvanised the protests against her
government that presaged the coup.
The scheme punched a hole in Thailands finances and led to huge rice
stockpiles as buyers baulked at the
attempt by Yinglucks administration
to fund the multi-billion dollar subsidy by hoarding the grain to force up
global prices.
The junta has said fresh polls are
unlikely before 2016 as it seeks to
re-write the constitution and enact
sweeping reforms aimed at rooting
out corruption. afp
Top LRA commander Ongwen in US custody

A TOP commander of the notorious Lords Resistance Army
(LRA) rebel army has surrendered and is now in the custody
of US forces, the Ugandan army
confirmed yesterday.
Ugandan army spokesman
Paddy Ankunda said top LRA
commander Dominic Ongwen,
who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for
crimes against humanity and
war crimes, gave himself up in
Central African Republic.
He said Ongwen one of the
last senior aides to LRA leader
and warlord Joseph Kony who
was still at large. The LRA have
been blamed for the slaughter
of over 100,000 people and kidnapping of more than 60,000
children during a three decadelong campaign across five central African nations.
His surrender puts the LRA
in the most vulnerable position.
It is only Kony left standing,
Ankunda said, adding that he

had first surrendered to CARs
Seleka rebels, before being
handed over to US forces.
Ongwen is being held in the
southeastern CAR town of Obo,
close to the border with South
Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo, Ankunda said.
abducted to be used as child

soldiers or sex slaves, as well as
carrying out attacks on civilians
in DR Congo.
On Tuesday, officials in Washington said a man claiming to
be Ongwen surrendered to
American special forces who
have been deployed in the hunt
His surrender puts the LRA

in the most vulnerable
position. It is only Kony left
standing
We are working out procedures, he added, when asked
about Ongwens immediate fate
including his possible transfer
to Ugandan authorities or to
The Hague-based ICC.
Ongwen, who is in his mid30s, is accused of directing
bloody campaigns in northern
Uganda in the early 2000s where
thousands were killed or
for Kony since 2011. The US

State Department accuses him
of murder, enslavement and
cruel treatment of civilians,
and had offered a $5 million
bounty for information leading
to his capture.
Long driven out of Uganda,
small bands of LRA fighters now
roam forest regions of CAR, DR
Congo, Sudan and South Sudan.
Kony, who claims mystical-religious powers, has long been

reported to be based in the
Sudanese-controlled Kafia
Kingi enclave.
Initially abducted by the LRA
when he was a 10-year-old and
forced to fight as a child soldier,
Ongwen was quickly singled
out for his murderous loyalty
and tactical ability and rose
rapidly through the rebels
ranks, becoming a major at 18
and a brigadier by his late 20s.
Former fellow LRA child soldiers who fought with Ongwen
before they themselves surrendered under a government
amnesty said their ex-commander should be put on trial.
None of the commanders
should be pardoned, said
Richard Ojwang, who was
seized by the gunmen and
forced to fight.
Ongwen should be brought
to see the terrible things he and
Kony did to us, said 37-year old

Ojwang, who now works as a
carpenter in the northern
Ugandan district of Gulu. They
abducted us and forced us to
fight, the LRA killed my parents
and friends.
LRA victims have spoken of
brutal initiation rituals, including biting and bludgeoning
friends and relatives to death
and drinking blood.
What they did to us was
unbelievable, Susan Amoding
told AFP, recalling how her
childhood in Gulu was spent in
fear of attacks by the fighters,
who earned a grim reputation
for slicing the lips and ears of
their victims.
LRA researcher Ledio Cakaj
said he was not sure how big
a blow Ongwens surrender was
to the LRA structure, noting
that he had been sidelined for
a while, but that it was good
news nevertheless. afp
US airstrikes may have killed civilians: Pentagon

THE US military is reviewing several
incidents in which civilians may have
been killed in coalition airstrikes against
Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria,
officials said on Tuesday. The comments
marked the first time the US military has
acknowledged that the air war may have
exacted a toll on civilians.
Smoke rises after strikes from the US-led

coalition in Kobane. afp
US Central Command, which is overseeing the air campaign, initially

looked into 18 cases and concluded 13
were not credible but five merited further review. Of those, two incidents
one in Iraq and one in Syria prompted formal investigations, defence
officials told AFP. The current probes
involved one case that occurred as
recently as December 26, officials said.
What I know is that Central Command is investigating several [of] what
they believe to be credible allegations of
civilian casualties, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said. This
is something we always take seriously.
We are very mindful of trying to mitigate
the risk to civilians every time we operate, everywhere we operate.
His comments marked a shift as the
Pentagon had insisted for months they
had not confirmed any instance of civilian deaths from the bombing raids.
Human rights organizations, however,
have previously reported that dozens of
civilians have been killed in the US-led
airstrikes, mainly in Syria.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights said in October that
32 civilians were killed after the first
month of coalition strikes in Syria, as
well as 467 fighters from the Islamic
State group.
It would be highly unlikely that there
would be no civilian casualties at this
stage in the air campaign, said one US
defence official.
But the American military was not on
the ground in Syria and had a relatively
small presence in Iraq, so it was difficult
to say definitively how many civilians
may have been killed in the air war so
far, the official added.

Allegations of possible civilian casualties had come from a range of sources
including the militarys own reviews and
internal reporting, the State Department, and accounts by news media and
non-governmental organisations, said
Major Curtis Kellogg, a spokesman for
US Central Command.
But the two formal investigations currently under way are the direct result of
our own internal review process and not
the result of allegations received from
outside of DoD [the Department of
Defense], he said in a statement.
As of mid-December, commanders
said more than 1,300 airstrikes had been
carried out in Syria and Iraq. The vast
majority of the raids have been conducted by US fighter jets, bombers and
drones. afp
15
World
Anti-Islam phobia sweeps Europe

Michel Sailhan and Martine Nouaille
ERMANY has become the

latest European country to
witness mass anti-Islamic
protests which have grown
increasingly common across the
entire continent.
In Europe in general, there is an
anxiety, an anti-Islamic phobia, developing, said left-wing activist and
Green euro MP Daniel Cohn-Bendit.
He was referring to the latest protests
by the Patriotic Europeans Against
the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA)
group that gathered an unprecedented
18,000 supporters to their rally in Dresden on Monday.
PEGIDA, which was launched only
in October, rails against a range of
enemies not just Islam, but also the
media (all those liars) and the political elite that they accuse of diluting
Germanys Christian culture.
They have won support from admirers abroad, such as Tommy Robinson,
former head of the far-right anti-Islamic English Defence League.
On Monday, he tweeted: St Georges
flags are flying in Dresden with PEGIDA. If I could be anywhere right now it
would be Dresden.
The protests have been denounced
by Germanys leading parties, with
Chancellor Angela Merkel decrying the
hate that fuels the participants.
Whats remarkable is that the phenomenon is not caused by an [economic] crisis Germany is doing well.
And in Dresden, there are no Muslims,
said Cohn-Bendit.
He says images of violence by Islamic
Demonstrators wave German and Russian national flags during a rally by a mounting
right-wing populist movement called PEGIDA on Monday in Dresden, Germany. afp
jihadists in the Middle East have frightened people even in parts of Europe
where very few Muslims have settled.
They have scared themselves with
globalised television and the internet.
Thats how you can live in the heart of
Saxony and have the feeling that youre
under attack.
The story is a familiar one of fearing
that which is not understood.
When we dont have contact with
others, when we dont know them, we
are afraid of them, said a European
diplomat, speaking on condition of an-
onymity. We saw that with the referendum on minirets in Switzerland. Those

who live in remote villages, and are
therefore the least affected, they were
the most hostile to minarets.
But that has done nothing to offset
fears in many countries over the potential impact of mass immigration.
Even Sweden, proud of its liberal attitudes, has strained under the pressure
of 100,000 asylum requests in a country
of just 10 million.
It has seen the rapid growth of the
extreme right Democrat Party which
has played on concerns about immigration, while a number of fires at

mosques have raised fears of mounting
Islamophobia.
Meanwhile France, home to Europes
largest Muslim population, is convulsed by a debate over supposed Islamisation, with fears whipped up by the
far-right Front National and a number
of public intellectuals.
It was back in the media this week
with the release of a book by Michel
Houellebecq that imagines the country ruled by a Muslim party in 2022.
Cohn-Bendit puts it down to a wider
identity crisis as traditional cultures
face rapid change.
Its PEGIDA in Germany, its also gay
marriage in France. Its the fear of losing
that which no longer exists: of losing a
pure Germany ... of losing a vision of
the family that no longer exists.
Germany is home to about 3 million
people of Turkish descent, while fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria has
caused a surge of refugees to the country in the past few years.
The Federal Office for Migration
and Refugees says Germany expects
230,000 asylum seekers in 2015, up
from a predicted 200,000 last year.
Sociologist and immigration specialist Naika Foroutan, of Berlins Humboldt University, said Germany needed
to redefine its own image after having
long refused to accept that it was a
country of immigration.
It manifests itself, for example, in the
claim of an Islamisation of Germany,
while the population of Muslim origin
only represents five percent of the total
population, she said. afp
Forcing the issue
Mali makes
case for UN
Libya action
ALIS foreign minister

told the UN Security
Council on Tuesday
that an international force
could help stabilise Libya
and the entire Sahel region
and check the threat from
Islamist groups.
Mali is among five countries
that launched an appeal to the
UN and the African Union for
foreign intervention to fight
Libyan armed groups and to
help build stable institutions.
The heads of state of Sahel
countries have clearly called
for the deployment of an
international force to contain
the terrorist threat, Foreign
Minister Abdoulaye Diop told
reporters after briefing the
Security Council.
Northern Mali was overrun
by Islamist groups in April
2012, many of whom were
armed or trained in Libya,
before France sent troops to
drive them out.
With Libya engulfed in
fighting between rival militias,
there are fears that Mali and
other countries in the region
will be dragged into violence.
Islamist militias in Libya are
said to have developed ties
with Islamic State fighters
in Iraq and Syria by offering training camps for their
recruits. afp
Fear mounts as Boko Haram control Borno borders

Phil Hazlewood
BOKO Harams seizure of a key

town and military base in
Nigerias far northeast has tightened its grip on the region,
undermining efforts to tackle
the insurgency, experts said
on Tuesday.
The capture of Baga and the
headquarters of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF)
now means the Islamists control all three of Borno states
borders with Niger, Chad and
Cameroon.
Analysts said that as a result,
the militants were in a better
position to launch fresh attacks
both within Nigeria, including
against the key city of Maiduguri, and across borders.
The capture of Baga is of
enormous significance, Abdullahi Bawa Wase, a Nigerian
security analyst who tracks the
Boko Haram conflict, told AFP.
It has put a lie to the Nigerian
government claim that it is on
top of the situation. It is a serious symptom of defeat on the
side of the government.
Boko Haram has had Baga in
its sights for months, as it was
said to be one of the last towns
in northern Borno under federal government control.
The militants have seized
more than two dozen towns in
northeast Nigeria in the last six
months in their quest to establish a hardline Islamic state.
With Baga the latest to fall,
Boko Haram has effectively
encircled the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, where it was
founded in 2002 and which has
An image grab made on October 31, 2014, shows the leader of the Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau (centre) delivering a speech.
been repeatedly attacked.

Analysts assessed that the
groups control of border areas
potentially secures it important
supply lines for weapons as well
as a wider recruitment base to
replenish its ranks.
Their next move is predictable, which is expanding their
territory southwards, said
Wase.
Strategic town
The loss of Baga not only
reinforces long-held doubts
about Nigerias inability to
tackle the insurgency but fears
about holding national and
state elections next month.

The main opposition party
has said the overall result could
be in doubt if tens of thousands
of voters are disenfranchised
because of the violence.
International Crisis Group
senior Nigeria researcher
Nnamdi Obasi said the fall of
Baga on Saturday dims the
already bleak prospect of holding any elections in northern
Borno state next month.
Ryan Cummings, chief Africa
analyst for risk consultants
Red24, added the attack could
signal the start of an increase in
violence before the ballot.
To do so would undermine
the inclusiveness and legitimacy of the vote, he said.
Strategically, Baga is an
important commercial and
agricultural centre for northeast Nigeria and the whole
Lake Chad region across to
the Central African Republic
and Sudan.
Nigerian neighbours rely on
Nigeria for substantial parts of
their goods which are supplied
through Baga and Gamboru
Ngala, which fell to Boko Haram some months ago, said
Abubakar Gamandi, head of the
Borno fish traders union.
afp
Therefore the fall of Baga to

Boko Haram will have an
adverse ripple effect on these
countries.
Morale booster
Nigerias highest ranking
military officer, Chief of Defence
Staff Alex Badeh, told reporters
on Tuesday that Baga can be
recaptured, although he refused
to give a timeframe for any
counter-offensive.
Asked whether the town can
be retaken, he said only: Why
not?
But getting it back could be a
struggle, with Boko Haram
likely to be boosted by a victory

against a multinational force.
Badeh said Niger and Chad
had withdrawn their troops
from Baga, but analysts said the
symbolism of the defeat could
have wide-ranging implications
for the insurgency and international support.
This kind of victory will
embolden them [Boko Haram]
to launch more audacious
attacks in future, said Obasi.
The capture of Baga is a big
booster to Boko Haram and
reinforces their claim that
they are in full control of the
situation because they are
matching rhetoric with
action, added Wase.
In Niger, the mayor of the
border town of Diffa, Hankaraou Biri Kassoum, said on
Monday that fear of cross-border strikes had already
increased in recent days.
Cameroons far northern
region has faced repeated
attacks, but a new multinational force to combat Boko Haram
is yet to be deployed.
The defeat of the MNJTF
could leave other partners dispirited, said Obasi, while Cummings said the Baga HQ was
likely to have been a key operational node for the planned
new unit.
This incident is probably
also an embarrassment to
Nigerias more distant international partners, as the Baga
outpost was supposed to have
been supported by military
advisers and surveillance provided by some Western countries, said Obasi. afp
16
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Meas Thy
Glorifying Gandhis assassin

Opinion
Chandrahas Choudhury
n January 30, 1948, shots

rang out in New Delhi that
plunged the entire Indian
subcontinent into silence.
Mahatma Gandhi, architect of Indias
freedom struggle and rigorous practitioner of nonviolent civil resistance,
was shot dead at point-blank range by
Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse.
Ever since, historians have contemplated a vexing question: Was it just a
single man who killed Gandhi, or was
the assassination the goal of an entire
ideology? At the time, the Hindu
nationalist movement washed its
hands of the murder. But, in 2015,
nothing demonstrates the loss of contemporary Hindu nationalisms moral
compass so much as its new campaign
to anoint Godse a national hero.
What was the chief attribute of
Godses so-called heroism? Perhaps his
persistence. It would be hard to find a
more determined stalker in history.
Godse had, with a band of co- conspirators, been shadowing and confronting
Gandhi since the early 1930s and had
been part of two previous attempts to
assassinate him. A member first of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (Indias
most powerful Hindu nationalist group
then, as now) and then a more radical
outfit called the Hindu Mahasabha,
Godse was one with the Hindu nationalists of his time in their hostility
toward Gandhi, a committed but resolutely independent-minded Hindu.
Like many in the movement, Godse
was inflamed by Gandhis rejection of
martial resistance to the British colonialists, his insistence on speaking as a
Hindu and, eventually, his (often
anguished) part in the disputes and
negotiations that led to British India
splitting up into the nation-states of
India and Pakistan in 1947, followed by
the bloodbath of Partition.
For Godse, Gandhis treachery was so
self-evident, and the call of the motherland to his own soul so insistent, that
the murder of Gandhi was the only way
of setting Indian history back on an
even keel. At his trial, he charged Gandhi for having brought rack and ruin
and destruction to millions of Hindus
and argued that There was no legal
machinery by which such an offender
could be brought to book and for this
reason I fired those fatal shots.
Its fair to say that in the decades
since, few Indians have seen reason to
agree with Godse; most have perceived
the terrible flaw of logic, not to mention
the moral blindness, involved in his
progression from diagnosis to solution.
This extended even to those who, ideologically, were on Godses side. Many
Hindu nationalists were appalled by
Mahatma Gandhi gives a speech at the opening of the Indian National Congress in 1938.
Godses act, and they belatedly took

away from it a lesson more in line with
Gandhis own thinking about the
destructive effects of violence.
Well, no more. Consider a strident
new campaign by Hindu Mahasabha to
rehabilitate Godse as an Indian hero on
par with, or even higher than, Gandhi.
It has identified a site in the north Indian city of Lucknow where it intends to
build a temple in Godses name. And on
January 30, the organisation plans to
release a film called Patriot Nathuram
Godse to emphasise Godses immense
contribution to nationalism.
According to this scandalous reasoning, because Godse too was inspired by
love of his country, his motives must
be seen as more important and worthy of emulation than his crime. A
distorted picture of Godse has been created in the media because of the Congress rule in the country, said Munna
Kumar Sharma, general secretary of the
Hindu Mahasabha, in a report published in a Hindu newspaper. Now, we
have a sympathetic government under
Narendra Modi. What better time to
make corrections to that negative portrayal of [Godse], Sharma said.
Why give such importance to the
deliberately provocative statements of
a fringe organisation? Shouldnt liberals
defend the right of their opponents to
make statements and actions they
themselves see as inflammatory?
Certainly, I dont support the court
afp
case now lodged against the Godse

film, one that seeks to stop its release
on the grounds that it might incite
people on communal lines. Not only is
it illogical to try to suppress some kinds
of argument, or art, because they could
corrupt adults, but at the end of the
day, Indian society cannot be protected
from parts of its own self, too.
But whats even more interesting is
no other Hindu nationalist organisation, including the RSS the guiding
light of rancorous Hindu nationalism in
India has uttered a word of criticism
of the Hindu Mahasabhas recent statements on Godse. The movement is so
unwilling to reveal any internal disagreement that it ends up endorsing, by
its silence, the actions of its most
extreme fringe.
Thus, the RSS cant bring itself to criticise the Hindu Mahasabhas new cult of
Godse worship and its glorification of
violence, although a few sharp words
from one of its top leaders would certainly silence the Mahasabha. And further up the chain, Narendra Modi, the
prime minister of India and a former
member of the RSS, cant bring himself
to say a word against the RSSs new
campaign to reconvert non-Hindus
to Hinduism, although its warlike rhetoric is a distraction from the economic
reforms that were at the core of his
election campaign last year.
A few critical words from Modi in a
public forum would at once rein in the
RSS. But, thats apparently too much to

expect from the prime minister, who
just in 2008 wrote a book about 16 men
who had shaped his life and thought
all of them members of the RSS.
I dont have to point out the longterm consequences of this movement.
Under the umbrella of laissez faire
extended by a sympathetic government
for the next four-and-something years,
the Hindu nationalist movement will
compulsively become ever more strident, because it cant stop itself from
allowing the frantic tail from wagging
the feckless dog. Eventually, the fallout will consume the government itself.
If for no reason other than self-interest, the prime minister must, as custodian of Indias equilibrium, break the
negative cycle the Hindu nationalist
movement has inaugurated so early in
his tenure. It is hardly unreasonable to
ask (especially from someone who has
defended himself resolutely against
serious allegations of religious violence
in the past) what Modi thinks about the
arguments of those who feel that as
long as they can insert love of Hinduism or love of nation into an argument, all actions that proceed thenceforth are justifiable.
Even the killing, in cold blood, of a
peace-loving opponent. bloomberg
Chandrahas Choudhury, a novelist, is
based in New Delhi.
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17
Lifestyle
The spirit of 95
Beautiful by Night captures a

spirit of SF thats fading away I
Boston opens
oldest US
time capsule
Soraya Nadia McDonald
ay culture continually gets called out

for being shallow,
youth-obsessed and
body-obsessed, however of
course, just like everyone else,
people get old.
In Beautiful by Night, documentary director James Hosking invites his audience to be
quiet voyeurs, offering a peak
at the three older individuals
still performing, after years
and years at Aunt Charlies, a
legendary drag lounge in San
Francisco.
For Donna Personna, Collette LeGrande and Olivia
Hart, drag is an integral part
of their lives, and Hosking
follows them as they prep at
home for their show to the bar
itself and then back home at
the end of the night.
Theres an intimacy in seeing these performers padding
about in their hose, stuffing
their bras, attaching their
lashes, brushing their wigs;
it feels akin to watching your
grandmother getting dressed.
That intimacy is what made
Dorian Corey such a great
narrator in Paris Is Burning.
You saw him in his wig cap,
wielding a blush brush midapplication, and instantly
trusted that whatever he was
about to tell you was A) worth
knowing and B) unlikely to
come from anyone else.
In Beautiful by Night, we
witness wavering hands applying liquid eyeliner, the
way powder and foundation
settle into the facial fissures
brought about by time and
sun exposure. We see the
beads of sweat that settle
and collect before the hard
work of the evening has even
commenced. Missing is the
Olivia Hart, a drag show performer, attaches an earring prior to her number at Aunt Charlies in San Francisco.
neat, vampy, airbrushed

perfectionism of the girls of
Ru Pauls Drag Race.
When you see queens,
theyre always prepared and
groomed, Hosking said. It
took a lot of trust for them
to allow me to document
that and then to allow it to
go out into the world, so I
feel very lucky.
The viewer is guided
through their world by cinematographer
Vanessa
Carr, who follows Personna,
LeGrande and Hart through
the backstage of Aunt Charlies, where wigs, costumes
and makeup share space

with boxes of beer.
Drag interests me a lot as
a form of labour, Hosking
said. As a routine, its fascinating. We go to work, and at
times we can embody different personas, but not as directly as the transformation
they undergo. I think theres
something ritualistic and
fascinating about emerging
into the world and embodying this new persona.
San Francisco has become
a city thats known for its high
housing prices, fuelled by
the proximity to Silicon Val-
courtesy of James hoskings
ley. Personna, LeGrande and

Hart are reminders of what
the city used to be like before
well-moneyed
interlopers
began to insist San Francisco
get its act together and settle
into respectability.
In some ways, the story
Hosking chooses to document of Personna, LeGrande
and Hart is an allegory for
the city. Its unclear how
much longer theyll continue
performing, or how much
longer Aunt Charlies will
stick around. Vicki Marlane,
a trans performer and famous Aunt Charlies fixture,
died in 2011 at age 76. They

carry her legacy. Will the bar
remain as a landmark beacon for tourists?
Part of the mentality is how
long can it go on for, Hoskings explained.
This wonderfully self-contained world, all these performers whove known each
other for a while, who were
drawn to San Francisco and
really embody a certain kind
of San Francisco identity, a
sort of freedom of self expression, and were drawn here because of the citys reputation.
t dates back to 1795,

and has been dubbed
the oldest time capsule
in America. On Tuesday, a
museum in Boston re-opened the relic, last seen over a
century and a half ago.
The Museum of Fine Arts
in the northeastern city
opened the time capsule at a
press conference at 6pm.
It was originally placed
under the State House
cornerstone in 1795 by thengovernor Samuel Adams,
one of the founding fathers
of the United States, and
American Revolution patriot
Paul Revere.
It was a custom of the time
thought to bring good luck.
The capsule, together with
miscellaneous coins and
newspapers, was removed
last month, weighed and
X-rayed, officials said.
It last had been unearthed
in 1855, when its contents
were documented and
cleaned.
Additional items were
added before it was plastered into the underside of a
massive granite cornerstone.
The museum says the
capsule a bit smaller than
a cigar box weighs 4.5
kilograms and measures 14
centimetres by 19 centimetres by 4 centimetres.
It contains silver and copper coins dating from 1652
and 1855, an engraved silver
plate, a copper medal depicting George Washington,
newspapers, cards, the seal
of the commonwealth and a
title page from the Massachusetts colony records. afp
the washington post
New Houellebecq book stirs European angst over Islam

A new book imagining a future
France under Islamic rule hit French
bookshops yesterday in a literary
sweep likely to fuel creeping European angst about immigration.
The novel, Soumission (Submission), is guaranteed to become
French writer Michel Houellebecq posing

during the photocall of the movie Near
Death Experience at the Venice Film
Festival in September. afp
an instant bestseller because of its

author: Michel Houellebecq, a star
French writer who has found worldwide fame with cynical works portraying an imploding society with
dry humour and graphic sexuality.
But its concept of an Islamic government emerging from 2022 French
elections ditching traditional parties for the far-right National Front
and a new Muslim Brotherhoodstyled party touches on themes already simmering in France, Britain,
Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden
and other EU nations.
An influx of Muslim immigrants,
many fleeing conflicts in Syria, Sudan and elsewhere, at a time of economic malaise has increased Europeans fears that their cultures are
under assault and strengthened the
hand of far-right parties.
It matters little that Houellebecq

himself has admitted to the Paris
Review that the books scenario for
France is not very realistic, at least
not for several decades, it has already become a hot talking point.
French President Francois Hollande told France Inter radio on
Monday, Ill read it because its creating debate, but carefully stressed
that it was just literature and the
idea of submersion, of invasion, of
submission is an old idea.
But others see Soumission filling
the sails of Europes far-right. The
arrival of the book, said Laurent Joffrin, chief editor of the left-leaning
daily Liberation, will mark the date
in the history of ideas on which the
ideas of the extreme-right made
their entrance in high literature.
The head of Frances National
Front, Marine Le Pen, told France

Info radio on Monday that while the
book was fiction, its a fiction that
could one day become reality.
The initial print run in France for
Soumission is 150,000 copies, a significant number for the countrys
market. German and Italian translations of the book will be released
in mid-January.
Houellebecq is clearly enjoying
the attention his sixth novel is getting, although he states that he is
politically neutral in the debate
around it.
Today, atheism is dead. Secularism is dead. The [French] Republic
is dead, he told the French news
magazine LObs in an interview to
be published today.
The Muslims are ... closer to the
right, even to the extreme right, he
argued. Who can they vote for, the

Muslims of France? They cant vote
for the [ruling] Socialists who put
in place gay marriages. They arent
going to vote for those on the right
either, who want to kick them out.
The only solution then is the establishment of a Muslim party.
France has been grappling in recent years with how to integrate its
Muslim population the biggest in
Europe, estimated at up to 10 per
cent of the countrys 65 million inhabitants.
Back in 2010, France prohibited
face-covering Islamic headwear in
public places, a ban that was upheld
by the European Court of Human
Rights last year. And in 2005, riots
erupted in several poor Paris suburbs with large, disaffected Muslim
populations. afp
18
Food
Japanese pubs simple bowl

of tasty late-night comfort
Joe Yonan
ZAKAYA Sekis chahan fried rice with garlic chips looks plain and even
unassuming, but all it takes is one taste to realise that this is pure comfort
food, a perfect balance of flavours and textures in each bite.
At the stove behind the bar, Hiroshi Seki, chef-owner of the restaurant
here, makes the technique look simple. In truth, there are some tricks: selecting high-quality ingredients, gently frying the garlic chips so they dont burn,
using properly cooked (and completely cooled) rice. Its simple but not easy,
he says with a smile. The result is as sublime as a late-night snack. That makes
it particularly appropriate for a Japanese-style pub; however, you might find
yourself craving it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, too. the washington post
Garlic Fried Rice (Chahan)

Makes 2 servings.
1 1/2 cups cooked Japanese shortgrain (sushi) rice
4 thinly sliced garlic cloves
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Make ahead: For the best
fried rice, make sure the
cooked rice has completely cooled, preferably
at least overnight in the
refrigerator.
Steps: Combine 1/2 cup
canola oil and 4 thinly
sliced garlic cloves in
a small saucepan over
medium heat. Let the oil
heat slowly, and, once
it is hot, fry the garlic
slices until they are deep
golden brown, about 3 to
4 minutes. Use a slotted
spoon to transfer them to
a paper-towel-lined plate.
Crush the garlic slices
into small pieces, and
reserve 1 tablespoon
1 tablespoon sake
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon thinly sliced shiso leaves
or scallions
1 tablespoon thinly sliced nori
to make the rice. (Save

the oil for stir-fries and
salad dressings, and the
remaining garlic for salad
topping.)
Pour 2 teaspoons
canola oil and 1 teaspoon
toasted sesame oil into a
medium nonstick skillet
over medium-high heat.
Swirl to coat, then add 1
1/2 cups cooked Japanese
short-grain (sushi) rice,
using a wooden spoon or
paddle to break it up. Stirfry until the rice is coated
in the oil and warmed
through, a few minutes,
shaking the pan to keep
the rice moving.
Sprinkle with 1/4
teaspoon fine sea salt and
1/2 teaspoon sugar. Pour

1 tablespoon sake and 1
tablespoon mirin around
the edges of the pan, and
stir them in, then sprinkle
in 1 teaspoon low-sodium
soy sauce, stir-frying just
until the rice is coated.
Add the tablespoon of
fried garlic pieces and 1
tablespoon thinly sliced
shiso leaves (or scallions,
if you prefer) and continue
stir-frying another minute
or two, until the rice is
glossy but dry. Taste, and
add a little more soy sauce
as needed.
Scrape the fried rice
onto a plate, sprinkle it
with 1 tablespoon thinly
sliced nori, and serve hot.
Sayonara, carbonara!
Cod Roe Spaghetti

Makes 4 servings.
5 cups cooked angel-hair
pasta
1/2 cup orange cod roe
coarsely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon low-sodium
Steps: Whisk together

orange cod roe, heavy
cream, soy sauce, sake,
Kewpie mayonnaise,
lemon juice and a small
pinch of crushed red
pepper flakes in a mixing
bowl to form a sauce.
Taste, and add up to 2 1/2
tablespoons more cod roe,
as needed.
Melt 3 to 4 tablespoons
unsalted butter (to taste)
in a large skillet over
medium-low heat until the
soy sauce
1/4 cup sake
1 1/2 tablespoons Kewpie
mayonnaise
1 1/4 teaspoons lemon
juice
butter is foamy. Add about

5 cups cooked angel-hair
pasta and toss to coat
evenly. Add the sauce;
cook just long enough to
warm through and coat
the pasta. Turn off the
heat.
Have individual serving
bowls at hand. Use long
tweezers or tongs to grab
one-quarter of the coated
pasta, twirling it into a
cylindrical shape around
the tongs, then immedi-
Crushed red pepper

flakes
4 tablespoons unsalted
butter
ately place it in one bowl.

Repeat with the remaining
pasta to create a total of
four portions.
Spoon equal amounts
of fish roe along the top
ridge of each portion of
pasta, then sprinkle with
the finely grated zest of
1 lemon. Garnish each
serving with a few chervil
or cilantro leaves and a
pinch of shredded or thinly
sliced nori. Serve right
away.
Bonnie S Benwick
N AN international smackdown of salty-creamy pastas, Id give the Japanese contender the edge over
Italys beloved spaghetti carbonara. A tidy bowl of cod roe spaghetti is food that satisfies late at night,
say, after an evening of visiting your favourite bartenders. It offers crunch, colour and a certain aesthetic, sauced in pale pink and set off by glistening fish roe, shredded nori and fragrant lemon zest.
Chef Katsuya Fukushimas kitchen crew at Daikaya Izakaya in DC plates with panache, using special tongs
to twirl just-dressed angel-hair pasta into egg-roll-size cylinders. Their technique is achievable, but the spaghetti tastes just as good no matter what shape its in. the washington post
19
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18:25
19:40
TG 585
Daily
20:40
21:45
PG 937
Daily
21:20
22:30
CZ 324
Daily
16:15
PHNOM PENH - DOHA ( Via HCMC)
16:30
10:00
DOHA - PHNOM PENH ( Via HCMC)
KA 249
12:10
15:45
KA 248
09:25
11:10
QR 964
KA 249
11:15
15:00
KA 248
07:55
09:30
CZ 323
Daily
14:30
20:50
Daily
18:30
22:20
Ryoichi Matsumoto
OZ 740
Daily
23:50
06:50
OZ 739
Daily
19:10
22:50
Daily
01:00
15:05
GUANGZHOU - PHNOM PENH

2.4.7
12:00
13:45
CZ 323
Daily
19:05
20:50
09:40
13:00
PHNOM PENH - HANOI
HANOI - PHNOM PENH

17:30
20:35
VN 841
Daily
PHNOM PENH - HO CHI MINH CITY
HO CHI MINH CITY - PHNOM PENH
QR 965
Daily
16:30
17:30
QR 964
Daily
14:05
15:05
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
19:00
22:25
PHNOM PENH - INCHEON
KA 206
4.6
16:00
17:40
INCHEON - PHNOM PENH
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

20:05
06:05
AF 273
23:05
FM 833
PHNOM PENH - SHANGHAI

19:50
20:05
06:05
SHANGHAI - PHNOM PENH
PHNOM PENH - SINGAPORE
2.3.4.5.7 19:30
22:40
SINGAPORE - PHNOM PENH
MI 601
Daily
09:35 12:55
MI 602
Daily
07:40
08:35
MI 607
Daily
18:10
21:10
MI 608
Daily
16:20
17:15
3K 594
1234..7
15:25
18:20
3K 593
Daily
13:30
14:40
3K 594
....56.
15:25
18:10
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
14:50
17:50
2816
13:00
14:00
2817
13:20
16:10
2816
11:30
12:30
PHNOM PENH -TAIPEI
TAIPEI - PHNOM PENH
Daily
10:50
15:20
CI 861
Daily
07:30
09:50
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
08:20
10:45
PHNOM PENH - YANGON
YANGON - SIEM REAP

13:30
14:55
8M 401
1.3.6
AIRLINES CODE
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.
AIRLINES
Air Asia (AK)

Room T6, PP International
Airport. Tel: 023 6666 555
Fax: 023 890 071
www.airasia.com
Cambodia Angkor Air (K6)

PP Office, #206A, Preah
Norodom Blvd, Tonle Bassac
+855 23 6666 786, 788, 789,
+855 23 21 25 64
Fax:+855 23-22 41 64
www.cambodiaangkorair.com
E: helpdesk@angkor-air.com
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
K6 700
Daily
12:50
2:00
K6 701
Daily
02:55
04:05
PG 924
Daily
09:45
11:00
PG 903
Daily
08:00
09:10
PG 906
Daily
12:20
13:35
PG 905
Daily
10:35
11:45
PG 914
Daily
15:50
17:00
PG 913
Daily
14:05
15:15
PG 908
Daily
19:05
20:10
PG 907
Daily
17:20
18:15
PG 910
Daily
20:30
21:45
PG 909
Daily
18:45
19:55
SIEM REAP - GUANGZHOU
Arrival
GUANGZHOU - SIEM REAP
CZ 3054
2.4.5.6.7
11:30
15:05
CZ 3053
2.4.6
08:45
10:30
CZ 3064
1.3.5.6.7
18:20
22:10
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
Qatar Airways (New address)

Vattanac Capital Tower, Level7,
No.66, Preah Monivong Blvd,
Sangkat wat Phnom, Khan Daun
Penh. PP, P: (023) 96 38 00.
E: pnhres@kh.qatarairways.com
LINE
RCL
(12calls/moth)
MEARSK (MCC)
(4 calls/moth)
COTS
(2 calls/month)
Daily
13:30
14:40
VN 827
Daily
11:35
12:35
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
MH 765
3.5.7
14:15
17:25
MH 764
3.5.7
12:10
13:15
19:45
21:30
SIEM REAP - MANILA

5J 258
2.4.7
MANILA - SIEM REAP

22:30
02:11
SIEM REAP - SINGAPORE
5J 257
2.4.7
SINGAPORE - SIEM REAP
MI 615
12:05
15:25
MI 616
10:05
MI 617
1.5
18:55
22:10
MI 618
1.5
16:50
11:10
18:05
MI 619
2.4.5
10:40
14:15
MI 620
2.4.5
08:40
09:50
MI 633
6.7
16:35
22:15
MI 633
6.7
14:35
15:45
SIN-SHV-SGZ-SIN
1 Call/week
SGN-SHV-LZP-SGN
- HKG-OSA-TYO-KOB
- BUS-SGH-YAT-SGN
- SIN-SHV-TPP-SIN
HCM-SHV-LZP-HCMNBO-SGH-OSA-KOBBUS-SGH-HGK-CHM
SIN-SHV-SIN
20:00
VN 3820
1 Call/week
1 Th, 08:00 - 20:00
1 call/week
19:30
18:20
VN 826
3 Fri, 20:00 - Sat 23:59
Irregula
17:45
Daily
10:35
HKG-SHV-SGZ-HKG
(HPH-TXGKEL)
SGZ-SHV-SIN-SGZ
Daily
VN 801
09:15
SIN-SHV-SGZ-SIN
1 Call/week
1 Call/week
VN 845
22:40
Daily
1 Call/week
2 Thu, 14:00 - Fri 22:00
Sat 06:00 - Sun 08:00
21:25
21:00
VN 3809
FREEQUENCY ROTATION PORTS
1 Wed, 08:00 - Thu 16:00
1 Call/week
19:45
HO CHI MINH CITY - SIEM REAP
CALLING SCHEDULES
Sun 09:00-23:00
Daily
12:30
SilkAir (MI)
Regency C,Unit 2-4,Tumnorb
Teuk, Chamkarmorn
Phnom Penh
Tel:023 988 629
www.silkair.com
1 Call/week
Daily
11:10
Tiger airways
G. floor, Regency square,
Suare, Suite #68/79, St.205,
Sk Chamkarmorn, PP
Tel: (855) 95 969 888
(855) 23 5515 888/5525888
E: info@cambodiaairlines.net
2 Fri, 22:00- Sun 00:01
VN 800
Daily
Dragon Air (KA)

#168, Monireth, PP
Tel: 023 424 300
Fax: 023 424 304
www.dragonair.com/kh
Cebu Pacific (5J)

Phnom Penh: No. 333B
Monivong Blvd. Tel: 023 219161
Siem Reap: No. 50,Sivatha Blvd.
Tel: 063 965487
E-mail: cebuair@ptm-travel.com
www.cebupacificair.com
SITC (BEN LINE

(4 calls/onth)
VN 844
VN 3818
Koreanair (KE)
Room.F3-R03, Intelligent Office
Myanmar Airways International Center, Monivong Blvd,PP
Tel: (855) 23 224 047-9
#90+92+94Eo, St. 217,
www.koreanair.com
Sk. Orussey4, Kh. 7 Makara,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
T:023 881 178 | F:023 886 677
www.maiair.com
REGULAR SHIPPING LINES SCHEDULES

CALLING PORT ROTATION
ITL (ACL)
(4 calls/month)
APL
(4 calls/month)
SIEM REAP - HO CHI MINH CITY
COLOUR CODE
2817 - 16 Tigerairways
CI 862
1.3.6
HONG KONG - SIEM REAP
08:15
CZ 6059
8M 402
SIEM REAP - HONG KONG
14:50
18:10
2.3.4.5.7
19:15
1.3.7
14:30
FM 833
17:05
4.6
Daily
1. 5
KA 248
CZ 6060
AF 273
8M 401
SIEM REAP - PREAH SIHANOUK
KA 240
11:35
4.6
21:25
15:05
08:00
KA 209
20:15
PREAH SIHANOUK - SIEM REAP
11:15
Daily
Daily
09:25
1.3.7
CZ 324
VN 840
06:30
KA 249
KE 689
PHNOM PENH - GUANGZHOU
2.4.5.7
21:05
06:40
23:05
QV 512
YANGON - SIEM REAP
17:25
23:40
16:30
13:00
4.6
Daily
Daily
1. 5
10:05
KA 241
BEIJING - PHNOM PENH

08:00
8M 402
2.4.5.7
VIENTIANE - SIEM REAP
12:05
KE 690
21:35
15:35
Daily
Relaxing on
the Motobu
Peninsula
heres a place I think
encapsulates the beautiful ocean off Okinawa
indoors: the Okinawa
Churaumi Aquarium at the
Ocean Expo Park in Motobu.
The aquarium building, facing
the East China Sea, rears up like
a gigantic castle and a stream of
people enter as if drawn to it.
Our large fish tank is one of
the biggest in the world. It contains a whale shark that holds
the world record for the longest
survival, said Asuka Kinjo, 30,
who is in charge of publicity
and planning at the aquarium.
It also contains a reef manta
ray and many other fishes.
The aquarium opened in
2002 and has recently attracted
more than 3 million people a
year, according to Kinjo.
I listened to her explanations
as we walked past the crowd at
the aquarium. Various ocean
creatures are kept in a total of
77 tanks, she said, amazing me
again at the facilitys huge size.
On weekdays, many students
from across the nation visit our
aquarium on their school excursions, even during off-seasons.
If you want to see the fish in a
tranquil atmosphere, I suggest
you come in the early morning
or the early evening on a weekend, Kinjo said.
The Ocean Expo Park encompassing the aquarium is part of
the Okinawa Commemorative
National Government Park, located on a 71-hectare lot that
was the site for the Okinawa
International Ocean Exposition. That event started in 1975,
three years after the reversion of
Okinawa to Japan from the US.
To walk through the vast lot
of the Ocean Expo Park takes
more than an hour.
The park also encompasses
the Tropical Dream Center featuring rare plants, the Oceanic
Culture Museum and a manmade beach. The park showcases the charms of Okinawa
and is meant to attract tourists
from China and South Korea.
The town of Motobu used
to flourish thanks to its bonito
fishing. As a reminder of that
time, there are many restaurants that serve Okinawa soba
using bonito soup stock.
I happened to come across a
handicraft fair in a marketplace
18:25
.2....7
SIEM REAP - VIENTIANE
QR 965
operated by the town government, near a noodle shop

where I ate. They sold vegetables, home-cooked dishes and
pins made from seashells bearing carved motifs.
When I mentioned to Madoka Seta, who was selling
handmade items, that I saw few
tourists at the fair, she replied:
Thats the attraction. Items
sold here arent meant to follow
fashion. We all bring what we
like and people who like them
come and we chat. I like to
spend time relaxing that way.
Visiting the tourism association in the neighbouring Nakijin
village, I saw a poster with the
catchphrase Nuun Nenshiga in
large letters. The phrase in the
local dialect means: We dont
have anything special, though.
Thats not true the village
has such tourist spots as the ruins of Nakijin Castle, a UNESCO
World Heritage site. However,
association director general En
Matayoshi, 45, said he would
rather promote the village as a
place with nothing special.
Recently, more and more
people are attracted to places in
Okinawa that arent meant to be
tourist destinations, Matayoshi
said. Our village is warm even
in winter. The inns are cheap
and not very crowded. Its good
we have nothing special.
On my way back from Motobu, I saw a roadside stall selling
citrus tankan, a type of tangerine grown in the prefecture. The
fruit looked tough and difficult
to eat, but to my surprise, it was
sweet and had a strong aroma.
We dont ship them to the
mainland, so you should buy it
here now, said tangerine farmer Naohide Urasaki, 60. According to Urasaki, tankan is grown
outdoors all year round.
In this region, which is some
distance from Naha and other
lively places in the southern
part of the main island, I saw a
huge showcase for tourists existing side by side with the daily
life of local people.
After the summertime bustle
and the typhoon season are
over, the beach on Sesokojima
island in Motobu regains its
calmness and time slows down
again. On a fair day, it might
be nice to sit on the beach and
do nothing all day other than
watch the gentle East China
Sea. The Yomiuri Shimbun
2.3.4
3K 598
K6 720
PHNOM PENH - BEIJING
The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium at the Ocean Expo Park in Japans

Okinawa prefecture is like a large palace. The Yomiuri Shimbun
Flighs
MI 636
Fri, 08:00 - Sun, 06:00
2 calls/month BBK-SHV-BKK-(LZP)
34 call/month
BUS= Busan, Korea
HKG= HongKong
kao=Kaoshiung, Taiwan ROC
Kob= Kebe, Japan
KUN= Kuantan, Malaysia
LZP= Leam Chabang, Thailand
NBO= Ningbo, China
OSA= Osaka, Japan
SGN= Saigon, Vietnam
SGZ= Songkhla, Thailand

SHV= Sihanoukville Port Cambodia
SIN= Singapore
TPP= TanjungPelapas, Malaysia
TYO= Tokyo, Japan
TXG= Taichung, Taiwan
YAT= Yantian, China
YOK= Yokohama, Japan
20
Entertainment
Finding funny in DCs halls of power

Karen Heller
ecause, seriously,
there arent enough
caucuses cluttering
Capitol Hill, US Representative Steve Israel plans
to start a new one this month.
Its tentatively called the Congressional Writers Caucus,
because theres another critical shortage in this country:
politicians publishing books.
But in that crowded field,
the Long Island politician and
former two-term chairman
of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
is surely an anomaly. Israel
has written neither a political
tract/bid for higher office nor
a memoir/bid for higher office. His offering is The Global
War on Morris, a comic novel
about Long Island and the
war on terrorism thats being released this week. In a
Washington Post review, Book
World editor Ron Charles
called it an unexpected delight, written in the full-tilt
style of Carl Hiaasen.
Morris may also be the
only comic novel written by
a member of Congress thats
dedicated to Dick Cheney. (As
well as Israels late father who,
the dedication reads, didnt
particularly care for the former vice president.)
Also, written entirely on a
cellphone.
Yes, truly. Israel, sitting in
a choice booth at a popular
diner in his district, takes
out his iPhone to show an incredulous visitor the first few
chapters, plus the epilogue, of
a second novel.
Parodies, in particular, are

a wonderful way of dealing
with the insanity of Washington, says Israel, 56. Instead
of screaming and yelling on
the floor of the House, I like to
work it out as parody.
He adds, If youre a member of Congress and cant
find the humour in yourself,
then you need to find another job. Which may help explain why so many members
recently left.
Writing satire may well have
been an antidote to chairing
the DCCC during Obamas
second term, as the presidents
numbers sank southward and
everyone anticipated major
losses for his party.
I was tempered by being
able to sit with this and start
writing, says Israel. Anybody who has an intense job
has some sort of release. Some
people have yoga, or go to the
gym. My release was writing
about everything Id seen during the day.
He wrote the novel in the
midst of his own challenging election. In 2012, Obama
barely won this district. This
is not a slam-dunk Democratic district, says Israel, first
elected to the House in 2000.
This is a new district that became more Republican. So
he made sure to be home every weekend.
The bunker-like Broad Hollow Diner is on Route 110 in
Melville, down the road from
Estelles Dressy Dresses and
what arguably may be the discount furniture centre of the
Eastern seaboard.
A diner, along with much of
Long Island, figures prominently in Morris, which takes

place between 2004 and 2012.
But its a fictional diner. During visits home to New Yorks
3rd District, Israel makes sure
to rotate meals so as to not
play favourites. You cant
spend too much time in one
diner and pizza place. So its
Diner Diplomacy, and Pizza
Parity, he says.
Israel long dreamed of being a novelist. He began writing Morris in 2006, initially on
a BlackBerry, before Washington underwent an iPhone
conversion.
I would go to these meetings with senior members
of the Bush administration,
including President [George
W] Bush, and hear the most
absurd things, Israel says.
I would be very frustrated
because I knew if I reported
these things in a congressional newsletter, no one
would believe me. So fiction
became an outlet. As chair
of the DCCC, if I had to give
three or four speeches during the day and had to raise
a tonne of money in Milwaukee, I would go back to the hotel and write.
The spark for Morris came
when Israel learned that the
NSA had accidentally done
surveillance on a group of
Quakers, one of those Washington moments that transcends fiction.
If its happening to this
group of elderly Quakers, it
has to be happening to other
people, Israel recalls thinking.
That night I went home to my
apartment in Washington and
created Morent ra nce.

ris Feldstein,
Israel claims
a meek, Walthat
the
ter Mitty-like
character
pharmaceuis a comtical salesposite of all
man.
Besenators.
cause I dont
Uh,
no,
know about
he isnt. So
elderly Quakfar,
Israel
ers, but I do
has heard
know about
no response
Jewish guys
from Senaon Long Istor Charles
land, whose
Schumer.
whole phiHe
has
losophy is,
heard from
dont get into
H i l l a r y
trouble.
Clinton,
Morris gets
though. The
into trouble.
former New
The Global War on Morris York senator
During the
Simon & Schuster
course
of
isnt
men304 pages
the
novel,
tioned in the
he grapples
novel,
but
with a terrorist towel atten- she told Israel that shes readdant, an all-knowing governing it after listening to her
ment supercomputer with husbands abundant laugha mind of its own, a seedy ter. During the last weeks of
Long Island motel (and pos- the midterm campaign, Bill
sibly fictions shortest-lived Clinton phoned Israel, who
affair) and the Guantanamo assumed that it was to drill
Bay prison, as well as being a him on DCCC efforts. Instead,
pawn of Scooter Libby, Karl the congressman recalls, he
Rove and, Israels improb- spent 10 minutes praising the
able muse, Dick Cheney. Mor- characters in the book.
ris quotes entire passages
Israel originally met with
of Cheneys 2004 national literary agent David Kuhn
convention speech linking to pitch a book on Americas
terrorism to politics to com- middle class. If you dont
ic effect.
like my nonfiction, Israel
While presidents Bush and told Kuhn, let me tell you
Obama remain mostly off- about my novel. After 90 secstage, an unnamed New York onds, Kuhns hands shot into
senator, perpetually pan- the air. Tell me about your
caked and psychologically novel, he asked.
incapable of declining any
Impressed with the manurequest that involved a cam- script, Kuhn sent a copy to Siera, makes a late yet notable mon & Schusters Ben Loehnen.
I was worried that it would be

flat-footed and a work of vanity, Loehnen recalls. Instead
of writing a soporific and sycophantic memoir, hes written a
satire thats critical and alive
and intelligent.
Former
representative
Bob Mrazek, for whom Israel worked as an aide on the
Hill, left Congress in 1993 to
return to his first career as a
writer. He has published seven works of fiction and nonfiction, as well as writing and
co-directing the independent
feature The Congressman.
And hes absolutely astonished at what Steves done.
Its typical that most authors
need a good deal of free time
to think about characters. Being in Congress youre at work
all day, plus Steve was chair of
the DCCC, which can mean
an 18-hour day. I dont know
how he was able to focus all
his creative forces.
Particularly on a satirical
novel. Its too hard. It requires
a very fine balance, a very fine
calibration of the absurd and
the believable.
Moreover, politics is noisy,
while writing generally demands quiet. Congress is
very extroverted, and writing
is a very introverted lifestyle,
Israel says. The father of two
grown daughters whos in the
midst of a second divorce,
he writes most mornings for
an hour. He also writes on
planes, trains and automobiles on the way to campaign
events. Hence the iPhone as
instrument of choice. Its always there, moulded to my
hand. the washington post
Thinking caps
GO YOUR OWN WAY
ACROSS
1 Well-dressed pitcher?
6 Chanel of fashion, and
namesakes
11 The Rum ___ Tugger
14 Its tucked under the chin
15 Moms kinsman
16 Santa ___ winds
17 Cons way out
19 Wasnt the seeker, in a game
20 Peach container
21 Island of France
23 Its tailor-made
25 Apollos parent?
27 Up and ____!
28 Beast that bore Balaam
29 Careers, classes, etc.
32 Doth speak
34 Taxpayers headache
35 Daily occurrence
38 Dakars domain
42 Most desirable people?
44 Love a lot
45 Orchestras setting
50 Start of the last qtr.
51 Alto woodwind
52 Supermans sandwich choice?
53 Big deals
54 Stamp incorrectly, perhaps
57 Faint gleam
59 Numerical ending, sometimes
60 Doctor who specializes in
diagnosis
64 Ball holder
65 Adam Bedes creator
66 Allegro and andante
67 Bobby Hockey
68 Cults
69 Geometric figures
DOWN
1 Hail! to Caesar
2 Start to approve?
3 Sort of snake
4 Eye-opener?
5 ___ Valley, Calif.
6 Breakfast bowlful
7 Lennon married her
8 Range where Prometheus was
bound
9 Football great Graham
10 Crystal-ball gazer
11 Mutiny on the Bounty isle
12 Halloween charity
13 Title for Marie Tussaud
18 Europes tallest active volcano
22 Like many peanuts
23 Verbal feistiness
24 Old Testament twin
26 Calypso offshoot
29 During
30 Work with lofty words
31 Semester ender
33 Made an outline
36 Title of respect
37 Having a sense of the beautiful
(Var.)
39 What a party host looks to provide
40 Bowed, in music
41 Allows
43 Emphatic article, often
45 Awaken
46 ___ dictum (passing remark)
47 Person enjoying a light snack
48 Specialized vocabularies
49 Act relaxed
53 Ire
55 Humankinds cousins
56 Tall story
58 Extremely small amount
61 Extremely popular
62 Spot for a relaxing soak
63 Poets contraction
Thursdays solution
Thursdays solution
21
Sport
Korean Grand Prix axed
from this years calendar
The Korean Grand Prix, dogged by

years of financial problems, has been
dropped from the 2015 Formula One
calendar, organisers confirmed
yesterday. The sports governing body,
the FIA, dropped the Yeongam race
from the final version of this years
schedule published on its website late
on Tuesday, reducing the season to 20
races. We have repeatedly conveyed
our position to F1 organisers that we
are unable to return to the race this
year, a Korean Grand Prix official
said. The Korean event in the southern
county of Yeongam made its debut in
2010 under a deal intended to last until
2016 with a five-year renewal option.
But it haemorrhaged money heavily
from the outset and having
accumulated losses of 190 billion won
($170 million) over four years, it was
dropped from the 2014 schedule. Due
to lack of financial support from either
the central government or the
provincial government, we have no
option but to abandon this years event
as well, said the official, who insisted
on anonymity. South Korea has still a
very thin fan base and local businesses
are not so eager to sponsor auto
races, he added. afp
Mat finish
Visually impaired Indian Judo players compete during the inaugural National Judo championship for the blind in New Delhi on Tuesday. The performance of participants in the
tournament will form the basis for selection for Indias national Judo team that is due to take part in fifth World Championships and Games for the Blind to be held in Seoul,
South Korea, in May. AFP
Nadal shocked in comeback

Richard Eaton
afael Nadals ability to

make a quick recovery
from multiple ailments was
thrown into doubt on Tuesday as he lost 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Michael
Berrer in Qatar.
This first round match was Nadals
first of the 2015 ATP World Tour and
he appeared to have had insufficient
time to recover from an appendectomy, and far too little match practice
over the last two months.
Nevertheless, it was a humiliating
outcome for one of the most successful players of all time, who had
won the first set at a canter before his
game crumbled.
Berrer is a 34-year-old qualifier
ranked outside the top 100 who is
playing the last season of his career.
Nadal has also been suffering from
back and wrist injuries, which reduced his service speed greatly.
And he appeared to cast doubt on
his ability to take part, let alone be
a contender at the Australian Open,
which begins in less than two weeks.
Little things didnt quite work out

for me today, he said. This is the
third comeback of my career after
injury, so we will see how it goes in
a couple of months. I wanted to start
well, but it was not the case today.
I also want to play in the Australian Open which is a tournament I
like a lot. I dont know if that will be
the case either, but I am going to
work for it. If not I will be playing at
Rio and Buenos Aires.
The season is long. After coming
back from injury you cant see the
immediate moment, you have to
look further ahead a little bit.
Now in my mind I have to practise well and try to be ready for Australia, but I know it can happen that
I will go there and lose. Perhaps I
will win a couple of matches there,
I dont know.
Raised his game

Berrer had only taken four games
in four sets off Nadal in their previous two meetings, but he recognised a career-greatest opportunity
and in patches responded by rais-
ing his standards to new heights.

He was also admirably frank in his
assessment.
Its one of the matches which will
stay in my memory for ever, but lets
be honest, it was the first match for
Rafa after injury, he said.
In the first set it felt like the other
matches against him, he added.
Then it became easy to attack because it was the only chance I had.
Its also my last season and I had
nothing to lose, and Im enjoying it
here so why not?
Berrer broke early in the final set
and led 3-1, sometimes finding angles which perhaps only a fellow lefty
could manage against Nadal.
The French Open champion almost broke back immediately, but
a Hawkeye decision showed his
ground stroke to have landed a millimetre beyond the baseline, and his
only real chance after that came in
the final game.
That saw Berrer slip to 15-40, only
to produce two good first serves, and
then go back a break point down by
delivering a double fault, before at-
tacking the net on each of the last

three points and finding Nadal unable to come up with any of those
rasping passing shots for which he
has become so renowned.
Earlier, Novak Djokovic, who succeeded Nadal as world number one
in June, made a satisfactory start
with a 6-1, 6-4 win over his Serbian
compatriot Dusan Lajovic.
I didnt know during the last couple of days whether I would be able
to play, Djokovic said, referring to
the fever he has had. So in the circumstances it was a very good start.
Djokovic next plays Sergiy Stakhovsky, the world number 57 from
Ukraine, while Berrer will face
Ivan Dodi, the world number 89
from Croatia.
Two seeds went out Philipp
Kohlschreiber, the number five from
Germany, beaten in three sets by his
58th-ranked compatriot Jan-Lennart
Struff, and Leonardo Mayer, the
number eight from Argentina, who
was beaten 5-7, 7-6(7-4), 7-6(7-4) by
Andreas Seppi, the world number 45
from Italy. AFP
Kenyan drugs cheat Jeptoo

urged to tell all on doping
Kenyas athletics boss has urged top

female marathoner and drugs cheat
Rita Jeptoo to spill the beans on her
secret doping network when she
appears before a disciplinary panel.
Jeptoo, winner of the last two
consecutive Boston and Chicago
marathons, will attend a disciplinary
hearing next week as part of
deliberations on what punishment
she should face for taking the banned
blood-boosting drug EPO. Kenyas
sports bosses have been accused of
inaction on the doping issue, which
has cast a shadow over the recordbreaking and medal-winning
achievements of its fabled distance
runners. AFP
Streaking Pistons shock

NBA champions Spurs
Detroits Brandon Jennings made

the most of a San Antonio turnover,
sinking the game-winner with onetenth of a second left on Tuesday as
the Pistons shocked NBA champions
San Antonio 105-104. The Spurs, who
led by as many as 18 in the first half,
left the door open in the tight closing
stages, making just four-of-eight from
the free-throw line in the final two
minutes. Detroit pulled within 104-103
on a pair of Jodie Meeks free throws
with eight seconds to play. After a
20-second timeout, Spurs veteran Tim
Duncan threw an inbound pass behind
team-mate Patty Mills the Spurs
17th turnover of the game and
Jennings banked in a shot at the other
end to lift the Pistons to their sixth
straight win. AFP
CS Santosh proves theres more to India than cricket

Born in Bangalore, among
the mangoes of his wealthy
familys plantation, Santosh
Chunchunguppe Shivashankars interests should naturally have turned towards
cricket, the national sport.
But the 31-year-old, better
known as CS Santosh, is instead discovering the dangers
of fesh-fesh as the first Indian
to compete in the gruelling
Dakar Rally.
I tried badminton, golf,
tennis, cricket, but I just
couldnt stick to it. And then it
was the motorbike, and that
was it. For me its destiny, CS
Santosh said.
Far from his familys mango

and perfume business, CS
Santosh has been battling
one of the most treacherous
traps of the world of rallying
fesh-fesh clay as fine as
flour which gets everywhere
and suffocates the engine.
He fought through this
perilous dust to finish 50th
in the second stage in Argentina, conditions described
as torture by Spanish race
leader Joan Barreda Bort,
and was 53rd overall going
into yesterdays fourth stage
through Chile.
CS Santosh had sacrificed
everything to follow his pas-
sion for motorcycling, giving

up his studies and continuing despite a life-threatening
accident.
It was my first rally, in 2012,
in Abu Dhabi, he explained.
I was on the floor, gasoline
was leaking, and suddenly
everything was on fire.
Suffering
third
degree
burns, he was transported by
helicopter to hospital and today still bears the scars, largely on his neck.
The accident didnt calm
the triple Indian rallying
champions passion, and he
has competed in the toughest races the sub-continent
has to offer. He raced twice in

the Raid De Himalaya, winning in 2012, and he won the
Desert Storm rally in Rajasthan in 2014.
Master within his borders,
he then competed in the
World Cup rally, which had
three stages in 2014 Morocco, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
In Abu Dhabi, he made
it into the top 10, finishing
ninth overall.
Dream for me
Competing in the Dakar
Rally is, however, the ultimate
dream.
Its just a dream for me, the
first time I saw those images

on TV, I just told myself you
have to do it one day. Its like
the Everest of rallying.
At home, we all ride motorbikes, to commute. That
is why my dad bought me
one. But I also went on to
compete, which is something else.
He continued: I had never
imagined doing the Dakar.
Offroad rallies are more than
racing so the Dakar is the ultimate adventure.
What worries me about
the Dakar is the uncertainty.
I really cant predict what can
happen. The best thing is to
try and adapt and try to bring

it home every day.
Nevertheless, my goal is to
make it in the Top 20. I hope
that the fact Im the first Indian to do it will open the eyes
of many people.
Rallying is getting bigger
in India and there are more
and more people riding motorbikes. If I do well, itll show
that there isnt only cricket in
India.
In the meantime, the KTM
riders short-term goal is simple: I just want to be back at
the bivouac every evening.
And I want to see Bueno Aires
again in 11 days! AFP
22
Sport
Smith challenging
Bradman milestones
in Test purple patch
ustralian batsman Steve Smith

sidled into Don
Bradman territory
with his fourth consecutive
Test century against India in
Sydney yesterday.
Smiths batting has grown
in stature with the Australian
captaincy handed to him after
a hamstring injury ruled regular skipper Michael Clarke out
of the India series following
the first Test in Adelaide.
Smith added his latest knock
of 117 on Wednesdays second
day of the fourth Test in Sydney to his unbeaten 162 in Adelaide, 133 in Brisbane and 192
in Melbourne.
In doing so Smith became
only the third batsman along
with Bradman and Jacques
Kallis to score tons in four
consecutive Tests in the same
series.
Its been a pretty special
summer for me personally,
obviously with some of the results that Ive got, Smith said.
But look, I always put the
team first, I think the success
the team has had over the last
little bit has been outstanding
and were in another good position in this Test match.
Australian legend Bradman
scored his centuries against
South Africa at home in
1931-2, while Kallis compiled
his hundreds against the
West Indies in South Africa in
2003-4.
Smith, 25, who played oneday and Twenty20 internationals before making his
Test debut against Pakistan at
Lords in July 2010, has now
amassed 698 runs in the series
at an average of 139.6.
That placed him third behind Bradman (715) and Ricky
Ponting (706) for most runs in
a series against India.
He still has the possibility of
batting again in the second in-
nings in Sydney and eclipsing

Bradmans record.
It was just another special
moment to get a hundred at
the SCG, my home ground,
and my favourite place to
play, he said of his latest ton.
Smith was finally out before
lunch when he was caught behind off Umesh Yadav ending
his 208-ball knock spiced with
15 fours. He has now scored
eight hundreds in 26 Tests and
is averaging almost 52. Six of
those tons have come in the
first innings of his last seven
Tests at home.
Smith is picking up this
year where he left off in 2014
when he finished fifth behind
Sri Lankas Kumar Sangakkara (1,493) with 1,146 runs
in the calendar year, edging
teammate David Warner by
10 runs.
Smith is a product of the T20
era with a dazzling array of improvised shot-making, much
Australian captain Steven Smith looks skyward after reaching his century during day two of the fourth Test
between Australia and India at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday. AFP
in the mould of dashing Australian opener Warner.
Mathews rues shocking loss

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews struggled yesterday to understand
how his side went from a position of dominance to lose the
second Test against New Zealand by 193 runs.
Sri Lanka collapsed after
their mainstay Kumar Sangakkara was sensationally given
out cheaply in their second
innings by the review system
when a draw, and possibly a
remarkable series levelling

win, were still possible.
After
Sangakkara
had
moved to one behind the legendary Don Bradman for the
most double centuries with
his 203 in the first innings, Sri
Lanka had a comfortable 135run lead.
Victory
in
Wellington
seemed a formality when they
had New Zealand at 159-5 in
their second innings, a mere
24 runs ahead with more than
two days to play.
But sloppy fielding allowed
New Zealand to total 524-5,
with four chances wasted to

remove Kane Williamson, who
went on to make an unbeaten
242 after first being dropped
on 29.
Facing a tough but not improbable target of 390 to win,
Sri Lanka reached 61-2 when
Sangakkara was dismissed for
five in the morning session of
the last day and the rest of the
batting limply folded.
It was a shocking turnaround, Mathews responded
when questioned why Sri
Lanka lost a game they had in
control. AFP
Pitchers dominate Hall of Fame bumper crop

Pitchers Randy Johnson, Pedro
Martinez and John Smoltz and slugger Craig Biggio were elected to
baseballs Hall of Fame on Tuesday.
Johnson, Martinez and Smoltz
(pictured) were all elected to the 2015
class in voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America in their
first appearances on the ballot.
Biggio made it in his third year on
the ballot, after missing out by just
two votes last year.
It was the first time since 1955 that
the voting writers elected four players in the same year, and the first
time that three pitchers were elected
in the same year.
Johnson, a five-time Cy Young
Award-winner with 303 career wins
was a certain first-ballot selection.
His 4,875 strikeouts are the most
ever by a lefthanded hurler

and
second
behind Nolan
Ryans all-time
major league record
of 5,714.
The lanky lefty nicknamed The Big Unit
pitched 22 seasons
for Montreal, Seattle,
Houston,
Arizona,
San Francisco and
the New York Yankees. He enjoyed
20-win campaigns
in 1997, 2001 and
2002 and was the
2001 World Series Most Valuable Player in
sparking Arizona over the Yankees for the Major League Baseball crown.
His resume also includes a
perfect game pitched
for the Diamondbacks against
the
Atlanta
Braves
in
2004.
Bumps along the

way
Johnson said he
was most proud of
his durability.
And my tenacity to want to
stay out there and pitch, he
said. It was fun. I enjoyed it,
despite what some people
thought. I wasnt out there
smiling and laughing a lot, but I enjoyed the competition and I tried to
make it last as long as I could.
There were bumps along the
way with the injuries that I had.
But every player has those and
you have to overcome that adversity. Playing 22 years at the Major League level was something I
could never have imagined.
Martinez, a Dominican righthander, played 18 seasons for the
Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal,
Boston, Philadelphia and the New
York Mets, going 219-100 with a 2.93
earned-run average.
He had 20-win seasons in 1999
and 2002, won Cy Young Awards
in 1997, 1999 and 2000, and swept
the 1999 American League Pitching Triple Crown by leading in wins
with 23, earned run average at 2.07

and strikeouts with 313. He helped
Boston win the 2004 World Series.
Smoltz, an American right-hander,
worked as a starter as well as a closing reliever in a 21-season career for
Atlanta, Boston and St Louis, compiling a career record of 213-155
with a 3.33 earned-run average and
154 saves.
He won the 1996 National League
Cy Young Award and his 3,084 strikeouts rank 16th all-time. He helped
Atlanta to the 1995 World Series.
Among other players on the ballot, pitcher Roger Clemens and
all-time US home-run leader Barry Bonds both linked to performance-enhancing drugs near the
end of their careers fell well short
of election. AFP
Women and sport for Asia seminar out of the blocks

H S Manjunath
Siem Reap
Field experts Gabriella Mueller and Ana Natasha Lozano

firmly believe the four-day
IOC-NOCC seminar on women and sport for Asia opening
at the Sokhalay Hotel in Siem

Reap today is a unique window
of opportunity for the Kingdoms women to develop the
best practices of leadership in
the areas of sports administration and competition.
In an exclusive interview
IOC instructors Ana Natasha Lozano (left) and Gabriella Mueller

(centre) discuss matters with NOCC secretary-general Vath
Chamroeun in Siem Reap yesterday. sAreth meas
with the Post yesterday, crosscultural diversity expert Mueller and Natasha Lozano, a specialist in improving cognitive
abilities, noted that Cambodia
hosting a seminar-training
program of this significance is
in itself a great positive step.
This is the best platform for
the dozen or so Cambodian
participants among the 61 delegates from 26 countries assembled here from the most diversified continent to discuss issues
linked to womens empowerment in and through sport in
Asia, the IOC-nominated training instructors pointed out.
Making a strong case for the
proportional representation
of women in the decisionmaking process in sports
administration, Mueller and
Natasha Lozano called on the
powers that be to support the
advancement of women at
the practical level.
Powerful changes can take
firm root only when the womens vision on development of
skills, competence and leadership is backed by the NOCs
and governments, said Mueller, adding that this federal
support was all the more crucial when women grow up in
conservative societies such as
in Cambodia.
We are adopting a threetrack approach during the
next three days of interactive
training. The motto behind the
first is I want that encourages
motivation and self belief.
The second is I can which
helps them acquire skills and
competence and the third is
I will, which will help them
play their role in the practical
world, said the IOC instruc-
tors, who together have more

than two decades experience.
At the end of the training
sessions, the two experts will
draw up an action plan and
monitor its implementation
by the respective NOCs in
the next three to six months
through the IOC channels.
The seminar opens with a
welcome address by the chairperson of Cambodias Women
and Sports Commission Mak
Vansitha followed by an opening speech by Minister of
Tourism and National Olympic Committee of Cambodia
president Thong Khon.
During the plenary session
to be moderated by the member of IOC Women and Sports
Commission Beng Choo Low
there will be presentations on
national initiatives by NOCs of
Cambodia, Indonesia, South
Korea, Mongolia, Bangladesh

and Pakistan with discussions
to follow. A tour the Angkor
Wat temple complex has been
arranged for the delegates in
the afternoon.
In 2006, the IOCs International Cooperation and Development Department in
partnership with a company
specialising in training, ACT
Formation, introduced first of
such seminars in conjunction
with the Egyptian NOC. Since
then, the IOC has pivoted this
leadership training project in
other regions of the world.
While there are now many
women working in the 205
NOCs around the world, as
volunteers or staff members,
contributing to the activities,
there are still too few in the
management bodies of these
sports administrations.
23
Football
Late strike may change season

Timothy Abraham
verton manager Roberto

Martinez believes his sides
fightback to earn an FA Cup
replay against West Ham
United could be the turning point in
their season.
The Toffees were on the brink of
elimination from the competition
at the end of the 90 minutes against
West Ham after defender James Collins had headed the visitors in front
early in the second half.
But Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku ensured their third-round tie
finished 1-1 when he got on the end
of Bryan Oviedos cross in injury
time and smashed the ball home
from close range.
Lukakus late equaliser also took
some of the heat off Martinez, who
had been under pressure following a
run of four consecutive defeats before
this game.
I am pleased with the character
and our never-give-up attitude. It
could easily be a turning point in our
season, said Martinez.
That could really get us out of the
moment we have. When you get into
that wrong dynamic when everything
that can goes wrong and you can feel
sorry for yourself, I dont think the
players accepted that.
It felt like a win going into the
dressing room. Many people would
Everton striker Romelu Lukaku celebrates scoring the equalising goal in added time
during the FA Cup Third Round match against West Ham at Goodison Park on Tuesday. AFP
say you dont want an extra game. We

embrace it. To still be involved in the
FA Cup is a real positive.
It is a bit of a snowball reaction
when you get good results; you get
confidence and get better.
Scoring spree
Martinez, who confirmed the absence of left-back Leighton Baines
from the side was not serious, believes
Lukakus goal can now help him go on
a scoring spree.
The whole week he has trained
very well, Martinez said. His attitude was perfect. Romelu at his best
will change games. We carry a different threat with him.
I was really pleased with his attitude
showing real responsibility and maturity. In a period like ours you have two
options, you can shy away and hide or
you can take responsibility.
Five defeats would have been very
damaging but you always get an opportunity to win the next game.
At the moment the FA Cup is such
an important competition for us it
would have been a horrendous setback. It is very important we are still in

the cup and now look forward to the
next game in the league, still aware we
are in a bad run.
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce
admitted his side must learn to handle Lukaku after the Toffees forward
notched his fourth goal in as many
matches against the Hammers.
That man scored against us
again, Allardyce said. Every time
he plays against us he seems to score.
We could have got a better cushion
but Im pleased with the efforts of
the players.
The lads played well considering
some of them havent played as much
as we like. But we could have done so
much better for the equaliser.
We got a little desperate and instead of defending in the wide areas
we let Oviedo in.
We could have done better, relieved
the pressure, stayed on our feet, so it is
really disappointing when it is so late
in the game. It is never a particularly
easy place to come to but we were
more than a match for Everton.
Allardyce confirmed striker Andy
Carroll had missed the tie through injury but should be fit for their Premier
League clash away to Swansea.
He kicked the floor in training and
bruised his foot, Allardyce added.
But he will be fit and well for Saturday. AFP
Asian Cup under match-fixing scrutiny

Fears of match-fixing will
lurk in the background at the
Asian Cup as the stain of corruption proves hard to shift
despite efforts to clean up
football.
While most attention will
focus on the big matches in
Australia, games between
smaller teams will also be
under scrutiny for potential
manipulation by illicit betting rings.
Swiss-based
Sportradar,
which has a partnership with
the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), will monitor
for unusual betting patterns
once the tournament starts
tomorrow.
Smaller teams, where players are usually paid less, are
considered more vulnerable
to match-fixers who may offer
them bribes to throw a match.
Any time you have meaningless matches, pool games

where the result means nothing, or teams where the players
are poorly rewarded ... there is
a risk, betting industry expert
Scott Ferguson said.
Match-fixing, along with
doping, is one of the biggest threats to the integrity
of sport and is fuelled by a
multi-billion dollar illegal
betting industry.
A crackdown on several
fronts has yielded results,
with scandals uncovered in
Australia and England and
a leading suspect now detained for more than a year
in Singapore.
But incidents persist, creating the damaging perception
that any unusual results especially in hotspot Asia have
been manipulated.
Last month, Vietnamese

football officials raised concerns about their own national team after their AFF
Suzuki Cup semi-final loss to
Malaysia. No suspicious betting patterns were detected.
And in November, Saudi club Al Hilal cried foul
over their AFC Champions
League final defeat to Western Sydney Wanderers after
a string of penalty appeals
were waved away.
Alarm bells
Ferguson, a former head
of education at bookmakers
Betfair who runs the Sport
is Made for Betting website,
said the risk of match-fixing
at the Asian Cup was fairly
low, given the events high
profile and anti-corruption
efforts in Australia.
But organisers will remain

on their guard. In September,
Sportradar said betting patterns showed a strong likelihood of fixed football matches at the Asian Games.
Elsewhere, Japans coach
Javier Aguirre will appear in
a Spanish court in February
over accusations of matchfixing in 2011, when he was in
charge at Zaragoza.
Major scandals have been
uncovered in many countries in Asia, including
China, where officials were
jailed in a mass clean-up,
and South Korea, where a
player committed suicide
following revelations of fixing in the K-League.
Monitoring betting is a key
weapon in the fight against
fixed matches, giving an instant indication of whether a
shock result is legitimate or

down to foul play.
Shock results do actually happen, given a large
enough sample size. Its only
in recent years we ponder if
there was anything suspicious behind it,
Ferguson said. Highly sophisticated logarithmic models derive most betting markets these days.
There will always be room
for human adjustment on top
of that ... but particularly inplay, the models will accurately predict what each teams
respective chances are.
When markets deviate from
this and heavy monetary support continues to force prices
further away from numbers
derived from databases of
tens of thousands of matches,
alarm bells ring. AFP
No regrets for Enrique

amid Messi rift rumours
Barcelona coach Luis

Enrique insisted he had no
regrets over his handling of the
Catalans star-studded squad
this season amid reports his
relationship with Lionel Messi is
at breaking point. Enrique left
the four-time World Player of
the Year on the bench for
Barcas 1-0 defeat to Real
Sociedad on Sunday and wanted
to discipline the Argentine after
he missed an open training
session with the clubs fans on
Monday citing a stomach bug,
according to Barcelona sports
daily Sport. I dont have
anything to regret at the
moment with any of my players.
Every coach has to manage his
squad as he sees fit. The
primary objective is to win titles
and we are on that road,
Enrique said at a press
conference yesterday. afp
North Koreas Asia foray

hopes hit by coach ban
North Koreas latest flirtation

with the Asian Cup threatens to
be a brief and potentially
tempestuous one with their
coach banned over a fistshaking rant against officials.
The Norths footballers
famously became media
darlings by stunning Italy 1-0 to
reach the World Cup quarterfinals in 1966, returning to
Pyongyang as national heroes.
But they could struggle in
Australia after Yun Jong-su
was suspended for one year by
the Asian Football
Confederation (AFC) for venting
his spleen after losing to hosts
South Korea in the final of the
Asian Games last October.
North Korean leader Kim Jongun has led a propaganda drive
aimed at transforming the
isolated country into a sports
superpower, Kim himself
bestowing tactical advice to
athletes and coaches on how to
bring glory to the state. AFP
Regional teams in fray

as Hun Sen Cup kicks off
The Hun Sen preliminary

round kicks off today. Sixteen
teams from Central, South and
East Cambodia will battle it out
in a regional round robin to
enter the next stage, where
the remaining eight will face
eight clubs from the Metfone
C-League, excluding Albirex
Niigata and Kirivong Sok Sen
Chey who were involved in last
months relegation playoff.
Police Commissary are the
current holders. post staff
Kane-inspired caning sees Rathana crowned king

Joe Curtin and In Sopheng
There is a little-known Argentine

legend, one spoken of with reverence
by the rugged gaucho cowboys of the
Pampas plains, who still gain strength
from it in times of uncertainty. Folklore has it that a wise king was faced
with attack in the middle of winter
by a local warlord so powerful that it
was widely believed his army could
dominate the entire continent.
The young king rallied his young,
disorganised warriors and, despite
warnings from tribal elders that you

cant win anything with kids, put his
faith in a boy-prince. Patagonian
shaman still to this day recount that,
despite initial setbacks, the wise
kings men were so inspired by the
young mans bravery and skill in battle that a great defeat was inflicted
on the warlord, a rout so humiliating that he was heard to curse the
gods themselves, accusing them of a
campaign against him.
Anyway, whats important to Fantasy Football fans is that Spurs beat
Chelsea 5-3 on New Years Day before the distractions of the FA Cup at
the weekend.
In the most incredible game of the
season so far, Tottenhams Argentinian manager Mauricio Pochettino got
his teams fans singing We want six

as Chelseas aura of invincibility was
severely dented.
Spurs wunderkind Harry Kane
scored two and got two assists for 18
points to be crowned this weeks Star
Man. The 21-year-old east Londoner
had an amazing second quarter of
the season, amassing 67 points from
the last 10 games.
Somebody else achieving mythical status is Kuoy Rathana, manager
of Koh Kong KR, whose exploits in
securing a $20 Cellcard voucher will
be spoken of in hushed tones for
generations to come.
Rathana had Chelsea midfielder
Eden Hazard as captain to bag 14
points and other members of the
Dream Team, Spurs midfielder Nac-
er Chadli (15) and Manchester City

defender Gael Clichy (10).
The other notable Dream Teamers, in some of the other high-scoring
games, were Liverpools soon-departing captain Steven Gerrard who
scored two in the Reds 4-1 demolition
of Swansea and accrued 14 points,
and Newcastle midfielder Jack Colback who netted one and set one up
in the Toons 3-3 draw with Burnley to
help get him 13 points. Colback was
selected by just 1.1 per cent of managers and cost a bargain $4.8 million.
In the Facebook competition, Kane
proved as elusive as he was to the
Chelsea defence as no one guessed
he would top the scoring charts. That
sees us with yet another rollover so
get set for the next question, on which
answering correctly rests a whopping

$40 in Cellcard phone credit!
An intriguing Gameweek 21 kicks
off on Saturday with Chelsea only
ahead of City by alphabetical order,
with both level on points having
won 14, drawn four, lost two, with
44 goals in the for column and 19
against. City fans are (allegedly) currently campaigning to change their
name back to Ardwick AFC, the one
the club went by in 1887.
The weekends standout tie is
third-placed
Manchester
Utd
against fourth-place Southampton
at Old Trafford on Sunday. Come
Monday, who will be able to proudly
cry I am legend! and whose myths
will be busted. Only Gameweek 21
has the answers.
24
Sport
Gerrard reveals he wanted to stay at
Liverpool as Galxay confirm arrival
Tom Williams
os Angeles Galaxy coach

Bruce Arena has confirmed
that Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard will join the
club in July, in an LA Times interview
cited by British media yesterday.
Steven Gerrard arrives in July
and by then we will certainly have
a plan available, Arena told the
newspaper.
Gerrard, 34, announced last Friday that he will leave Liverpool at
the end of the season, ending a 25year association with the club that
has seen him make 696 appearances
and score 182 goals.
Press reports claim that Gerrard
will sign an 18-year contract, with
British media outlets suggesting
it will be worth around 6 million
($9.1 million).
The move to the Galaxy will reunite Gerrard with his old Liverpool team-mate Robbie Keane and
see him follow in the footsteps of
former England colleague David
Beckham, who spent five years at
the California club.
Arena added: He is a player of
quality. I am not concerned about
how hes going to fit in with our
team.
We have a club now with a proven
history of success. All those things
go hand in hand in making LA Galaxy a very attractive team for players
such as Steven Gerrard.
Gerrard told the newspaper that
the move was a match made in
heaven.
One of the reasons I chose LA
Galaxy was because of the success
theyve had recently, he said.
I want to finish my career very
strong. I want to add some medals
and trophies to my collection.
However, Gerrard has revealed
that he wanted to remain at Liverpool. He would have stayed had he
been offered a new contract during
the close season, he told a British
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has revealed that he wanted to remain at Liverpool and would have done so had he been offered a new contract during the close season. He
has, however, described his move to LA Galaxy, reportedly in July, as a match made in heaven. AFP
newspaper in an interview published yesterday.

He turned down a new contract in
November, but he says that had the
offer been made earlier, he would
have extended his commitment to
the club beyond the end of the current campaign.
If a contract had been put in front
of me in pre-season, I would have
signed it, he told regional newspaper the Liverpool Echo.
Id just retired from England to

concentrate all my efforts on Liverpool. I didnt want my club games to
be tailored.
My injury record had been fantastic for the past two and a half
years and I had a great season from
a personal point of view last season.
Its all ifs, buts and hindsight now.
That period between the summer
and the end of November gave me
thinking time.
Theres no blame and Im not angry about it. There are other people
in the squad and the club had other
things to worry about. There is no
finger-pointing from me towards the
manager or anyone else at the club.
The Galaxy won their fifth MLS title
in December and have a vacancy to
fill thanks to the retirement of longtime star Landon Donovan.
Donovans departure left the Galaxy with a vacant designated-player
berth, which they can use to sign

high-priced stars with relief from
salary cap constraints.
Gerrard, a former England captain,
famously inspired Liverpool to glory
in the 2005 Champions League final
and has also won two FA Cups, three
League Cups and the UEFA Cup.
But he has never won the Premier
League title, with Liverpool having
narrowly lost out to Manchester City
last season. AFP
Mystery death of biker clouds Dakar Rally

Dakar
Rally
organisers
yesterday hunted for clues
to the cause of the death
of motorbike rider Michal
Hernik that plunged the race
into mourning after only
three days.
The 39-year-old Polish
riders body was found 300
metres from the desert track
with no apparent injury and
no damage to his motorbike
that would indicate an
accident, according to race
director Etienne Lavigne.
Lavigne added that there
was no helmet on Hernik
when the body was found.
The
circumstances
surrounding his death have
yet to be determined, as the
competitor did not show any
external signs of an accident,

said a rally statement.
Organisers sent a helicopter
to look for Henrik after he
failed to arrive at the finish line
of Tuesdays stage between
the Argentinian towns of Villa
Carlos Paz and Chilecito. His
satellite tracker had stopped
sending signals.
The Pole was taking part
in the Dakar Rally for the
first time.
His was the fifth death since
the rally was moved to South
America in 2009 over security
concerns in the Sahara region
and the 24th since the race
was created in 1979.
Orlando
Terranova
maintained the Mini teams
winning streak by claiming
his second stage win to move

third overall in the auto
standings led by teammate
Nasser Al-Attiyah.
Al-Attiyah,
the
2011
champion and winner of
Mondays stage, finished
fifth in Tuesdays stage which
included 284km of specials.
South Africas Giniel de
Villiers, picked up his third
podium finish in three days,
ahead of another Toyota
driven by Saudi Arabias
Alrahji Zayed, to stay second
overall.
In the motorbike section,
Austrias Matthias Walkner,
was a surprise winner of his
first Dakar stage, ahead of
KTM team-mate and reigning
champion Marc Coma and
overall race leader Joan

Barreda Bort of Spain.
It was really dangerous
because we were on river
beds with a lot of stones and
broken up tracks all day, said
Barreda Bort.
Some 34 vehicles failed to
start on Tuesday after falling
victim to Mondays longest
stage, among them the 4x4 of
French duo Catherine Houles
and Sandrine Ridet, the only
100 per cent female team in
the event.
However, for Japanese
veteran Sugawara Yoshimasa,
73 and taking part in his
33rd Dakar Rally, the race
continued in yesterdays
fourth stage from Chilecito to
Copiapo in Chile. AFP
Polish biker Michal Hernik of KTM during the symbolic start of the 2015
Dakar Rally in Buenos Aires on January 3. AFP

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Issue NUMBER 2088

Successful People Read The Post

thursday, january 8, 2015

FOUR deaths in the United

Blood, toil and permits

Labour to see if they are free of

yesterday that as part of the

the foreign worker or the Cambodian worker who applies for

the foreigner has a medical certificate from overseas, then

THE PHNOM PENH POST january 8, 2015

western part of the country.

or any company to extract safrole oil, it is too damaging to the

precursors, illicit manufacturers have changed their

PMMA/PMA and mephedrone,

But safrole hasnt disappeared. In Cambodia, seizures

THE PHNOM PENH POST january 8, 2015

Four children dead in

CPP marks politicised date

HOUSANDS of Cambodian Peoples Party supporters gathered

A TOTAL of four children have

tained only a small amount of

Vong Sokheng and Alice Cuddy

tory due to their perfidious and dangerous

anniversary had not changed.

THE PHNOM PENH POST january 8, 2015

Blood tests for foreign workers

WENTY families living

tor Hou Sam Ol said. This will

Farm owner Chan Buntha

been standard since the late

between the Ministry of

the case of Cambodia, but on

Foreign workers will face

who was not authorised to

THE PHNOM PENH POST january 8, 2015

A military officer was allegedly caught illegally transporting

Bridge is nothing to fear: govt

RIVERBANK collapse under the

I can see that there are no foundations

PNN - Cambodias newest and most modern TV channel - is recruiting staff

could not be reached.

VICTEES whose homes

THE PHNOM PENH POST january 8, 2015

WO migrants were sent

Road upkeep coming

HE Japanese government will begin

nam in Svay Rieng province.

Programme Assistant (PD)

Based at Ministry of Planning

Duties and Responsibilities

The added thickness is

THREE villagers suffered minor

FOUR men in womens clothing

Gamblers try getaway

GETAWAYS are usually faster on

Duelling gangsters face

ELEVEN alleged drug dealers

Revenge attack leaves

POLICE suspect revenge as a

THE PHNOM PENH POST january 8, 2015

Reforms raise income tax floor to $200

per month which would have put

their take home [income.]

tax revenues of $2.1 billion in 2015