20140530

friday, may 30, 2014 Successful People Read The Post 4000 riEL

Issu

e N

uM

BeR

1936

NatioNal [page 5]righteous aNger

world [page 15]smoke sigNal

football [page 23]sports physics

Monks and activists looking to protest outside the Bud-dhist Institute are thwarted

WHO is urged to embrace e-cigarettes as a life saver

Stephen Hawking devises a formula to predict England’s chances in Brazil

woRldpagE 12Nigeria vows total war against terrorismA letter from the publisher naTional

pagE 2

Daniel Pye and Amelia Woodside

FOLLOWING years of allegations that she fabricated details about her own back story as well as those of supposed sexual assault victims, Somaly Mam, Cambodia’s most famous anti-sex-trafficking activist, has resigned from the global fundraising organisation that bears her name.

The high-profile resignation, announced yesterday by Somaly Mam Foundation (SMF) executive director Gina Reiss-Wilchins, sent shockwaves through the cluster of anti-trafficking organisations in Cambodia, and came just days after Newsweek published a damning indictment of her life’s work.

“We have accepted Somaly’s resig-nation effective immediately,” Reiss-Wilchins says in the statement. She adds that the decision was made after a two-month probe commissioned by the organisation. It does not mention the Newsweek article or previous media coverage about Mam that first raised questions about her past.

The foundation hired law firm Goodwin Proctor LLP in March to conduct the investigation into the claims against Mam and alleged

May Titthara and Alice CuddyOddar Meanchey

SINCE he began making the per-ilous journey to Thailand to log rosewood 10 years ago, Sao Sophon* has had plenty of

time to calculate the cost of dying.“When we cross the border to Thai-

land, our lives are equal to $80 or $90, because that is the amount we can earn for each trip. If the Thai soldiers shoot us, that is what our lives are worth,” Sophon said.

Sitting on the back of the large two-wheeled cart that he pulls from Odd-ar Meanchey province into Thailand, Sophon, the head of an illegal logging cartel, told the Post that the hunt for lucrative rosewood leads loggers on a gruelling four-hour trek over the sprawling Dangkrek Mountains and into neighbouring Thailand.

While the area offers an abundance of rosewood, it is also the base of

armed, black-uniformed Thai sol-diers, he said.

“When we cut trees at night, we divide into three groups, one on the left side and [one on] the right side watching the Thai soldiers, and a group in the middle cutting trees. Sometimes, we cannot sleep for two days and have no food,” he said.

“For safety, we have to use walkie-talkies, and the leader walks in front

of their group by about 10 metres. When they see Thai soldiers, the leader calls [to the rest of] their group to throw everything away and run to safety.”

But despite their best efforts to stay safe, fatalities are commonplace.

According to the Ministry of Interior, 69 Cambodians were shot dead while illegally crossing the Thai border last year. Suggesting this year is set to be

just as bloody, Cambodian officials said in March that Thai soldiers had shot dead 12 Cambodian loggers in a single day.

“A lot of people here, when they know their relative or husband has been shot to death by Thai soldiers, hold a funeral ceremony without the body, because Thai soldiers demand 10,000 baht [$305] if they want the body back,” Sophon said.

Rights groups have labelled the

Cross at your own riskLoggers tell of death, hunger in Thailand

Continues on page 4

Continues on page 2

Mam resigns amid claims of dishonesty

a man in oddar Meanchey’s Samrong district sits on rosewood logs on wednesday after they well felled in Thailand by loggers. CHARLOTTE PERT

INSIDEThe Lowdown on Temple Town

The Lowdown on Temple Town

National 2 THE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 2014

Letter from the pubLisher

IN TWO weeks, The Phnom Penh Post will give our readers and advertisers something they’ve been asking for since I joined the Post in November 2011: a Saturday edition.

Post Weekend, which hits newsstands on June 14, is much more than an expansion of our popular 7Days brand, it’s a commit-ment – to expanded cover-age, deeper analysis and a broader array of entertain-ing content.

It’s also a message: that Post media believes in the Cambodian marketplace and intends to continue expanding and putting down roots across the me-dia spectrum – roots that extend back to our newspa-per’s beginning as Cambo-dia’s first English-language newspaper in 1992.

Since I assumed the role of publisher following Ross Dunkley’s official exit last year, the Post has under-gone a series of exciting changes, each of them with an eye to future growth.

Key to these is the Post Weekend. When we decided to launch this ambitious project, we didn’t have to look far to find the right man to lead it. alan Parkhouse, who has helped launch several publications across the region, was quickly identified as the man with the experience and knowl-edge we needed to build a product we see as crucial to our expanding brand.

He’ll work alongside Gordon Watts, a 40-year veteran of the global news-paper scene who will serve as managing editor. Poppy mcPherson, who has done a brilliant job in transforming 7Days into an intelligent and entertaining magazine, will continue to oversee the pro-duction of in-depth, original content as features editor.

Stepping into the role of editor-in-chief of our flag-ship monday-Friday pub-

lication is Chad Williams. Chad has been the primary force behind our newsgath-ering operations since first joining the Post as national editor in October 2011, and I know he is as excited as I am about leading our award-winning newspaper to even greater heights.

Perhaps no more exciting change has taken place in my time here than our rapid expansion on the digital front. Since assum-ing the role of digital media director, David Boyle has relentlessly pushed and prodded Post media in the direction of the future.

From overseeing a com-plete revamp of our website, to assembling a video team that is now producing captivating stories about Cambodia’s biggest issues, Dave’s stewardship has seen our digital footprint grow by leaps and bounds.

With monthly page views topping two million, more than 215,000 fans on Face-book and a rapidly growing Twitter base of nearly 22,000 followers, the Post is reach-ing more readers in more formats than ever before.

and while the way we reach people will change over time, what we deliver never will – content that is independent, intelligent, in-depth and inspirational.

To paraphrase a star from a century ago: “Stick around, folks, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet”.

Chris Dawe Publisher and CEO

mam leaves foundationContinued from page 1

trafficking victim Long Pros, whom the organisation had used in media campaigns to attract support and funding. Pros’s story turned out to be a cobbled-together version of other peoples’ experiences.

“While we are extremely sad-dened by this news, we remain grateful to Somaly’s work over the past two decades and for helping to build a foundation that has served thousands of women and girls,” the state-ment reads. It adds that the foundation will continue to work with its local affiliate, agir Pour Les Femmes en Situation Precaire (afesip), which mam founded in 1996.

The foundation said Pros – whose harrowing story of being sold to a brothel where she was abused and tortured was brought under the media spot-light by New york Times col-umnist Nick Kristof and an appearance on Oprah – would also be leaving.

“We are permanently remov-ing ms Pros from any affiliation with the organisation or our grant partner, but will help her to transition into the next phase of her life,” it said.

Simon marks’s Newsweek report built on a series of stories he did while working at the local Cambodia Daily newspaper.

mam is also alleged to have

fabricated and scripted the testimony of another wom-an, meas Ratha, for a French documentary in 1998, which propelled her into the media spotlight and began her journey to celebrity status in the global fight to end sex trafficking.

moreover, mam backtracked on a statement she made in 2012 to the UN General assembly, where she claimed that Cambo-dian soldiers had killed eight girls in a raid on one of her shel-ters in Phnom Penh in 2004.

as the SmF grew in promi-nence, it attracted the backing of Hollywood stars and venture capitalists, public relations gurus and politicians, which in turn added to its fundraising power.

anti-trafficking and women’s rights groups in Cambodia yesterday responded to the news of mam’s resignation with concern.

“I’m quite disappointed in Somaly; it’s already difficult to hear that a woman working on this issue is lying to other wom-en . . . but what’s even worse is that this culture of victimhood that so many use when talking about survivors of trafficking will only be made worse,” said Ros Sopheap, executive direc-tor of rights group Gender and Development for Cambodia.

“I recognise that many wom-en and children have been sup-ported by this organisation but

why did she fabricate these lies? These women and girls don’t need more lies in their lives.

“The worst situation would be if donors back out and the women and girls being sup-ported are left behind.”

The SmF did not respond to requests for comment.

Others rallied behind mam and the work of afesip and the SmF.

Helen Sworn, founder of NGO Chab Dai, said that the situation was “difficult” but she hoped that “the good work the organi-sation was doing continued”.

“Somaly’s story needs to be separated from the work car-ried out by the organisation. I commend her decision to step down,” she said, adding that the group “does incredibly impor-tant work that should be at the centre of conversations now”.

Thomas Steinfatt, a professor of statistics at the University of

miami who conducted studies on trafficking figures for the UN’s Inter-agency Project on Human Trafficking, said that “the lies Somaly tells in her backstory are likely just the tip of the iceberg”.

Steinfatt estimated in 2008 that there were no more than 1,058 trafficking victims in the country, a figure that fell far short of figures quoted in SmF and afesip promotional mate-rial and funding requests.

annette Lyth, regional man-ager for the UN action for Coop-eration against Trafficking in Persons, said that it was “highly unfortunate” that mam had fab-ricated some of the stories.

“[Trafficking victims’] reali-ties and their needs have not changed because of this story and we pledge our support to continue supporting victims of trafficking, as do the donors we are sure,” she said.

Author and human rights advocate somaly mam attends the somaly mam foundation Gala at Gotham hall in New York last year. AFp

Children rescued

Masked mensmuggle 3 toThai border

CAMBODIAN and Thai authorities are looking for seven men who

allegedly kidnapped and at-tempted to traffic three chil-dren from Banteay Meanchey province across the Thai border.

A 12-year-old boy, his sister, 6, and their male cousin, also 6, were riding bicycles to school in Sisophon town’s O’Ambil commune on Tuesday morning when the men in masks pulled up alongside them in a minibus and forced them into it, said Prom Theng, the provincial military police’s chief of anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection.

The men drove the children to the Thai border and ordered them to walk their bicycles across the border, Theng said.

“Luckily, the Thai soldiers stopped the kids, who asked for help,” Theng said.

“The suspects escaped when they saw Thai soldiers helping the kids.”

Thai soldiers and Cambo-dian military police are both searching for the suspects, provincial military police chief Or Borin said. MoM Kunthear

National3THE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 2014

Time up asgovernor forex-KR heavy Meas Sokchea

Pailin provincial governor y Chhean, a former Khmer Rouge commander and bodyguard of Pol Pot, will be replaced by a deputy this week after being elected as president of the pro-vincial council in recent sub-national elections, government officials have said.

according to interior minis-try spokesman Khieu Sopheak, the government has decided to replace Chhean due to his new position and taking account of the fact that he has reached the age of retirement.

Chhean has been governor of the former Khmer Rouge strong-hold for over a decade. He lit the funeral pyre of former Khmer Rouge foreign minister ieng Sary at his funeral last year.

Koeut Sothea, one of Pailin’s deputy provincial governors, will replace Chhean.

Chhean could not be reached for comment, while Sothea said he was hesitant to comment but happy that the government and King wished to promote him.

“i will make an effort to serve and work hard,” he said.

The official handover is scheduled for Saturday.

Tribunal sets date for verdictStuart White

ViCTimS of the Khmer Rouge who have been waiting for justice since 1979

may only have to wait a few months more, with the court announcing yesterday that a verdict in the first subtrial of its flagship Case 002 will be pronounced on august 7.

Case 002/01 – brought against former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan and the regime’s second-in-command, nuon Chea – be-gan in november 2011 and dealt primarily with the re-gime’s policy of emptying cit-ies, particularly Phnom Penh after its fall in 1975, as well as the executions of officials from the preceding regime that im-mediately followed.

“if convictions are entered, decisions on sentencing and civil party reparation requests will also be delivered,” the court’s announcement states.

Panhavuth long, a program officer for the Cambodia Jus-tice initiative, said yesterday that he had expected the ver-dict to come a bit sooner, but that nonetheless, the appar-ent delay was “alright,” and would give the court ample time to prepare.

“i think the court should also now re-activate and make more outreach programs, so that people can come hear the verdict and understand what the verdict means,” he said.

Evidence heard in Case 002/01 is expected to feature heavily in the upcoming sub-trial, Case 002/02, which will

deal with charges such as genocide and torture.

That upcoming subtrial could well be Case 002’s last, leaving the court with the thorny question of how to

deal with the remaining gov-ernment-opposed Cases 003 and 004.

a blog post from law firm Popper & yatvin announced

that US attorney alan yatvin was admitted to the Bar as-sociation of the Kingdom of Cambodia last Wednesday in advance of assuming the rep-resentation of a suspect in one of the two upcoming cases.

according to Popper & yat-vin’s website, yatvin’s career spans some 30 years, with stints in US federal courts as well as at the international Criminal Tribunal for the For-mer yugoslavia.

Khieu Samphan during a hearing at the ECCC in August 2011. eCCC

Nuon Chea during the second day of a preliminary hearing at the ECCC in 2011. eCCC

National 4 THE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 2014

Job Announcement

Krou Yeung Centre, born since 2001 and successfully functioning for 12 years, is a private, none political, and none religious institution in Ratanakiri province with a vision to take part in developing the nation through its professional education services. Our mission is to provide professional education services including formal education, short courses, and other vocational training in terms of building new generation toward a brilliant future. We are also working to get all children and youth access to the same education quality. For more information, kindly visit our website of www.krouyeung.org and facebook with Krou Yeung Centre

With an expansion and quality strengthening, the centre’s English department is looking for one English dept’s team leader, three English Teachers, and three kindergarten teachers to work for the centre in Ratanakiri province.

Main tasks:Lead the department and coordinate with other centre’s departments (team 1. leader position)Teach English to students in accordance with the centre schedule2. Assist the department chief in terms of improving English teaching and learning quality3. Cooperate with other English teachers in developing their curriculum and session plans4. Assist the team to review or improve the existing teaching methodologies5. Teach the local English teachers if required (team leader position)6. Other relevant tasks if require7.

QualificationExpatriate (English native speaker is an advantage) with fluent English use (team 1. leader position only)Education background is an advantage2. Some experiences of teaching English3. Strong interest in education and especially with teaching young people4. Commitment to help the poor and disadvantage people5. Ability to work as a team6. Willingness to stay in Ratanakiri province at lease for three years7.

The salary is negotiable. All interested people can ask for more information or shall submit his/her CV with a cover letter to [email protected] before July 10.

KROU YEUNG CENTREWe are looking forward to a Brilliant Future!

mCÄmNÐlRKUeyIgeyIgsmøwgeTArkGnaKtd¾PøWsVag ¡

We build your children for the best!eyIgksagkUnl¥CUnelakGñknigRbeTsCati¡

Loggers tell of death, hunger in ThailandContinued from page 1 shootings “arbitrary killings” – dis-missing claims of self-defence – and demanded thorough investigations.

Sophon, who claims not to carry a firearm when logging, said he faces a greater risk than most.

“The Thai [soldiers], they are hunt-ing for the leader.”

Sophon estimates that about 1,000 illegal loggers in Cambodia cross into Thailand for the luxury wood and, along with other loggers in Oddar meanchey, told the Post that Cambo-dian soldiers are at the centre of the region’s illicit trade, which stretches from jungle areas of myanmar to buyers in China.

“We have problems with Thai sol-diers already, and when we arrive back at the border, we get problems from our Cambodian soldiers. They threaten to confiscate our wood if we do not sell it to them, and when we sell it to them, we get a lower price than we would through a broker,” Sophon said.

“We risk our lives to get that wood, but the Cambodian soldiers do not understand that . . . I am angry about this, but we have no power to say any-thing, because we are criminals.”

Sem Kosal, who also has been ille-gally logging for the past decade, said that Cambodian soldiers allow loggers to pass into Thailand but threaten to confiscate their wood when they re-turn if they refuse to pay a bribe.

“Cambodian soldiers arrest us and confiscate our wood, but if we meet a Thai soldier, we will die,” he said.

Touch Ra, deputy of Chaom-Sa Ngaom international border check-point, agreed that some Cambodian soldiers fuel the illegal trade.

“I believe there are some soldiers who buy rosewood from those people at a cheaper price to sell to other busi-nessmen for a higher price, but for me, I have never been involved with that,” he said.

according to Ra, in this year alone, two people have been shot dead and 20 arrested while attempting to cross the Chaom-Sa Ngaom border.

Illegal logger Kosal said daytime is the most dangerous time.

“When we sleep in Thailand, we are so scared . . . we just sleep under-ground. Thai soldiers open fire in daytime; at nighttime, they do not fire much,” he said.

The gruelling conditions and risk of death lead many to turn to drugs, log-gers told the Post.

Soun Samneang said that brokers provide illegal loggers with yama, a form of methamphetamine and caf-feine, to cope with the conditions on their first trip. after that, many become dependent on the substances.

“I think 70 per cent of young loggers are using drugs, and the broker is the person who teaches them to use drugs. Now loggers buy drugs by themselves,” Samneang said.

“When I go with my own group, I have never used drugs, but when I go by broker, they give us drugs. I don’t want to use it, but sometimes I can-not sleep for two days and have no food, so I have to do it.”

While many loggers use brokers to arrange the trip, others make the journey alone.

Twenty-nine-year-old Sem Thoeun was shot in the leg while logging in Thailand earlier this month. With no money for surgery, the bullet remains embedded beneath his skin.

While he had logged in Thailand be-fore, Thoeun claims that on the day of the shooting, he thought he was still in Cambodian territory when confronted by eight Thai soldiers.

“I walked passed Cambodian terri-tory without knowing, and my friend told me that we were in Thailand, so I tried to walk quickly back to Cambo-dia. But I met Thai soldiers, who fired on me. They rushed to attack me, but I fought back and tried to run back to the Cambodian border.

“I didn’t know I was injured until I touched my leg and saw the blood, then I fell unconscious. When I woke up, I was in a hospital.”

Earning just $50 from his small cas-sava plantation last year, logging has provided vital income for his family.

Thoeun said that he can fell about 30 to 70 kilograms of timber on a good day, and makes 30,000 to 50,000 riel, about $7.50 to $12.50, selling it to a furniture shop.

“I know it is dangerous, but I need food to support my wife and my two sons,” he said.

Thoeun’s neighbour, 52-year-old Et Sok, agreed.

“If we stay at home, we will die of starvation. If we cross the border and we’re lucky, we will not die and we will have food to eat,” he said.

Sok, who has been illegally logging since 1987, said he has been shot at by Thai soldiers a number of times but has always managed to escape.

“When we see Thai soldiers, we throw everything away and just run for safety,” he said.

as well as fears of zinging bullets flying past, many loggers are arrested across the border.

Sixty-three-year-old Song Siha spends hours every day thinking about her son, who has been lan-guishing in a Thai prison for the past

four months after being caught log-ging illegally.

according to Siha, her son was car-rying 40 kilograms of luxury wood on his back when he was caught and sen-tenced to 17 months.

Speaking from her home in Oddar meanchey, Siha begged for her son’s safe return.

“I want him free. I would like to ask the Cambodian government please to intervene to release him,” she said.

Siha said she had allowed her son to put his life at risk because the family could not afford to eat. Now, she says she would rather go hungry.

“When he is released from prison, I will not allow him to go again. I will let him work in the farm, even though that does not bring in enough money to live off of,” she said.

But despite the risks, many say they have no choice other than to continue to gamble with their lives.

“When we cross the border, we nev-er think that we will survive, but we have to cross it. If we don’t die, we are lucky,” said Samneang.

*Names have been changed to protect the identities of the loggers

A man lifts lumber in a makeshift back pack in Oddar Meanchey’s Samroang district earlier this week. HENG CHIVOAN

Sem Thoeun sits at a house in Oddar Meanchey on Wednesday and reveals the entry wound on his leg where he was shot by soldiers. CHARLOTTE PERT

National 5THE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 2014

Monks block Preah Sisowath Quay during a protest in front of Phnom Penh’s Chaktomuk Theatre yesterday. phA LINA

monks protest over instituteChhay Channyda

a GROUP of about 100 people, includ-ing 50 or so monks, attempted to march

yesterday to protest outside Phnom Penh’s Buddhist In-stitute but were thwarted by droves of military police and district security guards on Sisowath Quay.

No violence occurred as Independent monk Network leader But Buntenh called off the march after vocally de-nouncing the government, which he alleged was selling off the institute’s land to ca-sino operator NagaCorp.

The march came despite the ministry of Cult and Religion insisting on Tuesday that the destruction of part of the en-trance and wall surrounding the institute was only to assist the construction of an elec-tricity substation on the insti-

tute’s grounds by NagaCorp and Electricite Du Cambodge.

The substation will be used to power a new addition to the casino across the street from the institute, and the govern-ment hasn’t sold or leased any of its land, the ministry said.

as the monks and protest-ers marched up Sisowath Quay yesterday afternoon, Seng Somony, spokesman for the ministry of Cult and Reli-gion, attempted to stop them from advancing further, brandishing copies of docu-ments detailing exactly what the government had agreed to with NagaCorp.

“If NagaWorld does not fol-low this contract, I myself will bring all of you to protest in front of NagaWorld,” he said.

He added that the govern-ment was engaging with the project for development pur-poses and the destruction of the wall had only occurred in

order to avoid the pillars col-lapsing during underground construction work for the electricity substation.

However Buntenh, speaking through a loudspeaker, would not buy that argument.

“We want the government to issue a land title to the Bud-dhist Institute to guarantee that it is not sold in the future.

Or else protests against the selling-off of state property will spread throughout the country,” he told the crowd, which included Boeung Kak community members.

The group tried to continue marching onwards but were met with barricades and as-sembled military police, in

addition to security guards.a standoff ensued, with

meas Samnang, an adviser to the ministry of Cult and Reli-gion, allegedly lobbing insults at the monks from inside the ministry compound.

The crowd, which in turn accused the official of disre-specting Buddhism, had to be calmed down by Somony, who said that the ministry would “educate him” to be more respectful.

NagaCorp announced in February it would invest $369 million in its new Naga2 ca-sino opposite the institute.

Earlier this week, a manag-er at the institute said visitors to the centre had dropped from an average of 30 a day to about three since the con-struction began.

Laignee Barron and Mom Kunthear

SGNOUN Vita can’t communi-cate with most of her kinder-garten students. She teaches them colours and numbers, but can’t understand their questions or chatter.

most of Vita’s students at the Kater Primary School in Ratanakkiri’s O’yadav district speak Jarai, one of Cambodia’s 24 ethnic minority languages.

“It is very difficult for me to teach these kids, because they cannot speak or understand Khmer,” she said.

Her school’s director added that many of the students drop out, unable to understand the lessons or their schoolbooks.

In Cambodia’s remote high-lands of Ratanakkiri and mon-dulkiri, indigenous peoples make up the majority of the population, and most cannot read, write or comprehend the language spoken by up to 95 per cent of Cambodians.

The barrier has resulted in one of the lowest school com-pletion rates in the country.

a study by International Co-operation Cambodia last year found that only 63 per cent of primary school students in mondulkiri and 33 per cent in Ratanakkiri were attending some form of education.

“If the options are to take kids to the plantations to help work or to send them to a school where they can’t really understand the language, the choice becomes easy,” said Jan Noorlander, program coordi-

nator at CaRE International. NGOs CaRE and ICC have

been working with the govern-ment to develop a bilingual pri-mary school model since 2003. The project, which now oper-ates 54 community schools in four provinces, started with just six schools in Ratanakkiri, instructing students initially in their own language and then slowly transitioning into fully Khmer lessons in grade four.

“Experience in both mon-dulkiri and Ratanakkiri has shown that simply build-ing schools and sending out teachers to remote locations is not a solution,” said mari-am Smith, an education pro-gram manager at ICC. “Edu-cation must be culturally and linguistically relevant.”

In 2005, ICC created a writ-ten system for five of the indigenous languages, rec-reating written forms for lan-guages that long ago lost their orthography, and translated the national curriculum.

“It is important to preserve the traditional culture and identity while also developing shared, mainstream knowl-edge of Cambodia,” Long Serey, director of Non-Timber Forest Products, said.

With bilingual education now reaching nearly 4,000 stu-dents and boosting indigenous primary school enrolment and completion rates, the minis-try of Education is hoping to further promote the program. Earlier this year, the minister of education announced a plan to expand bilingual education starting as early as next year.

“The completion rate of indigenous students is still much, much lower than the national average [87 per cent]. many of the indigenous com-munities’ primary schools don’t have more than three grades,” Noorlander said. “There’s a solid policy frame-work in place, now it needs to be implemented.”

Classroom talkremains barrier

If NagaWorld does not follow this

contract, I myself will bring all of you

to protestCORRECTION

TUESDAY’S story HAGL called out at the UN incorrectly stated that the International Finance Corporation supplied 5.5 per cent of Vietnamese rubber firm HAGL’s investment capital via Dragon Capital. In fact, the IFC has a 5.5 per cent equity holding in investment fund VEIL, which invests in HAGL.

www.phnompenhpost.comCheCk The PoST webSiTe for breaking newS

Police shootout

What began as robbery gets 15 years

TWO men were sen-tenced to 15 years in prison each for breaking

into a home, robbing it and en-gaging in a shootout with police when the authorities tracked them down to make an arrest.

Long Kesaror, a judge at Phnom Penh Municipal Court, said Bou Sam Nang, 28, and Khean Tola, 26, were also each ordered to pay 10 million riel ($2,500) in com-pensation for items taken during the robbery.

The two were found guilty of breaking into a villager’s house in Sen Sok district’s Th-mey commune in January last year while no one was home and stealing $5,000 worth of personal property.

“They have looted money and other valuable things and escaped,” he said.

The first charge of stealing with aggravated circumstance is tied to the robbery, but the second charge – using a wea-pon without authorisation – stems from the shootout that occurred when police tried to make an arrest in Sen Sok two days after the robbery.

“During the raid, they also opened fire, shooting about five bullets at our police,” Kesaror said.

The two men and their defence lawyer could not be reached for comment yester-day. BUTH REAKSMEY KONGKEA

National6 THE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 2014

Nothing melodic about post-concert robberyA MAN in Kampong Chhnang town may have to face the music after being arrested for allegedly robbing two vendors after a concert on Wednesday. Police said the vendors, a hus-band and wife, were sleeping in their truck after the show when the man and two others alleg-edly pinched about $200 from their bag. Apparently a light sleeper, the wife awoke and raised the alarm, prompting the husband and bystanders to give chase. Two men escaped, but the one apprehended reportedly confessed, saying that the trio was broke after spending money at the concert. KOH SANTEPHEAP

Arrest made as rubber hits the road mid-flightAN ALLEGED rubber thief in Tbong Khmum provincial town tried to stretch his luck a little too far on Wednesday. Accord-ing to police, the man and four others were spied by patrolling security guards trying to make off with 10 kilos of rubber. The suspects hopped on motos, but the guards gave chase, nabbing one of them when he had the misfortune to fall off of the get-away vehicle – along with the rubber. The man told police it was his first offence, though the guards maintained other-wise. NOKORWAT

Welcome party not the welcome she plannedA YEAR on the lam wasn’t long enough for a woman arrested in Pailin town on Tuesday. Police said the woman was allegedly spotted stealing $3,000 from a neighbour last year, but fled to work in Thai-land before police could appre-hend her. Thinking – incorrectly – that time heals all wounds, she returned to town and into the clutches of the local cops, who promptly sent her to court. DEUM AMPiL

Police point to receipts to nab suspect in theftA PHNOM Penh man was caught red-handed – or pink-slipped – after allegedly selling two borrowed motos in Sen Sok district on Tuesday. According to police, two victims complained that the man had borrowed their motorbikes for a week without returning them, raising their suspicions. Once police had found and searched the suspect – and discovered bills of sale for the motos on his person – he reportedly con-fessed. KOH SANTEPHEAP

Nighttime hit-and-run seriously injures manA MAN in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district was seriously injured when a car smashed into his moto on Wednesday night. According to police, who spoke to a witness at the scene, two partiers had just left a club where they had been imbibing to excess. While speeding home in their car, the pair slammed into the moto, badly injuring the driver, before fleeing into the night. Nearby cops tried to give chase, but to no avail. KOH SANTEPHEAP

Translated by Sen David and Phak Seangly

PolicebloTTer

Villagers from Kratie province’s Snuol district sit in the Samaki Rainsy pagoda in Meanchey district yesterday during talks with Khuong Sreng, the deputy governor of Phnom Penh. HONG MENEA

Kratie villagers reject land offerKhouth Sophak chakrya

PROTESTERS from Kratie prov-ince who have spent more than a week in a Phnom Penh pago-da while demanding authorities resolve their land row yesterday rejected an offer from the gov-ernment of 750 hectares.

Phnom Penh Deputy Gover-nor Khuong Sreng announced yesterday that more than 400 families in an area of Kratie’s Snuol district would be given the land as a social land con-cession (SLC) and were expect-ed to leave the pagoda and return home.

But representatives of the families said after a meeting with officials at the Samaki Rain-sy pagoda in meanchey district that the land was not big enough for them to grow crops on.

“Giving us only 750 hectares does not equate to the real size of the land we have lost, so we can-not accept it,” community repre-sentative Nguon Vibol said.

Villagers have been in dispute with Vietnamese Rubber Com-pany Binh Phoeuk 2 over more than 2,000 hectares of land they lived and farmed on, Vibol said.

Khan Chamnan, Kratie’s dep-uty governor, said villagers had

until June 5 to return home and submit letters to the govern-ment requesting a portion of the 750 hectares.

“If the deadline passes, the authorities will consider that the families have enough land on which to live, so the case will be closed,” he said.

But the villagers said they will continue submitting petitions asking for at least 3 hectares for each family.

City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche said villagers who stay in Phnom Penh past the deadline can expect to be met with “legal action”.

Sen David

REPRESENTaTIVES of some 250 families who lost their land to a company in Kampong Speu province filed a com-plaint with adhoc yesterday, saying they have yet to receive compensation, even after land measurement volunteers al-legedly promised a resolution if villagers voted for the ruling party in last year’s elections.

Soa Pom, 52, one of 60 com-munity representatives, said the dispute between master International company and the 250 families in Phnom Sruoch district’s Taing Sam-rong commune began in 2006, when the company took some 950 hectares of the commu-nity’s land with the complicity of local authorities.

“Before the election, vol-unteer [land measurement] students told us to vote for the CPP [Cambodian People’s Party] to get a resolution, but after the election, we never got a resolution,” she said, adding that the village complied with the instructions. “We filed complaints to all the authori-ties, but in the end, we just got back ugly blame.”

Pom said villagers filed com-plaints to the then-governor of Kampong Speu province, Kong Heang, and to then-commune chief Piev Lon, as well as members of the offi-cials’ families who also signed

the documents selling the land to master International.

Fellow representative Sao yuy, 64, said that when local authorities told residents that the land would be sold, they naively expected to receive a share of the proceeds.

“They are like robbers. They robbed our farmland that we lived on and farmed since 1985,” she said. “For [almost] 10 years, while we had the dispute, I never slept well. I al-ways thought, if they grab our farmland, where is our chil-dren’s future?”

Ny Chakrya, head of adhoc‘s monitoring section, said yes-terday that his organisation couldn’t even find out what business the firm was in, and that paperwork authorising the sale lacked the usual signa-tures of high-ranking officials.

“Some of the sale documents – I wonder why only commune and village chiefs signed the agreement without high-level authorities and land manage-ment officials,” he said, urging the government to find a reso-lution to prove its commitment to land reform.

Current Taing Samroung commune chief Kong Sern, who wasn’t involved in the sale, said that “high-level au-thorities” were investigating the dispute.

Contact details for the company were not available yesterday.

Families in Kampong Speu await payments

Brands’ eyes on verdicts of 23Sean Teehan

aS 23 men accused of violent crimes stem-ming from dem-onstrations earlier

this year brace for a verdict against them today, civil so-ciety groups are alleging that no credible evidence was presented by the prosecution during the entire trial.

Nearly five months after soldiers arrested 10 men at a protest in front of yakjin gar-ment factory on January 2, and 13 others on Veng Sreng Boulevard a day later, the 23, as they’ve come to be known, face sentencing on crimes ranging from incitement to intentional violence. at least four workers were shot dead by state security forces during the deadly garment strikes.

“The consensus among civil society is there’s not one shred of evidence that can be used to convict any of the 23 of the crimes they’re accused of,” said Joel Preston, a consultant from the Community Legal Education Center, which is providing legal representation for some defendants.

Preston said a guilty verdict and harsh sentencing could result in a major backlash in the international commu-nity – namely, from clothing brands that source products from Cambodia.

Today’s verdict comes at the end of a jam-packed week of labour-related talks and ne-gotiations, which were made

more tense by the looming court date.

after a monday meeting between government offi-cials, an international labour union and brands that in-clude Puma, H&m, Gap Inc and Levi Strauss, the buyers released a statement saying the verdict should hinge on evidence that holds up to in-ternational scrutiny.

The statement warned that instability in the garment sector could result in Cam-bodia losing its “status as a

strategic sourcing market”.IndustriaLL Global Union

general secretary Jyrki Raina reported after the meeting that one of the four major brands had already cut orders from factories in Cambodia by 50 per cent.

Global brands’ specific in-terest in Cambodia’s garment sector practices confounded ministry of Labour spokesman Heng Sour.

“If the international brands are concerned about the 23 [defendants], then why are

they not concerned about their [business] in countries where conditions are much worse than [in] Cambodia?” Sour asked.

yesterday also marked the end of a workshop on a draft union law attended by repre-sentatives from unions, indus-try and the government.

The ministry will take com-ments into consideration and possibly hold another work-shop before the draft legisla-tion goes before the National assembly, Sour said.

A prison truck arrives at Phnom Penh Municipal Court last week with people who were detained during violent strikes in January on the capital’s Veng Sreng Boulevard. HENG CHiVOAN

This week in biz

Neighbouring unrest sparks tourism meet THE Ministry of Tourism on Monday held an emergency meeting calling on industry representatives to remain strong amid the loss of cross-border visitors resulting from unrest in Thailand and in Vietnam. The minister said a promotional campaign targeting countries such as Japan, South Korea, China, Singapore and Malaysia, would be also launched.

More investment from Australia welcomedTHE Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday urged Cambodia and Australia to increase bilateral trade, citing 2013 volumes, which reached $2.89 million. The Ministry’s call arrived as Australian-listed firm, Cell Aquaculture (CAQ), announced it had hosted a soft opening for the Roxy Casino, located in Bavet town, which the company bought earlier this year along with the rights to a free-trade zone in China for a combined total of A$83 million.

Thailand’s rice policy stings local exporters RICE exports to Thailand plummeted in the first four months of the year as a result of that country’s surplus. Between January and April, Cambodia exported just 1,550 tonnes of rice to Thailand, down 89 per cent from the 14,250 tonnes shipped in the same period last year. Thailand accumulated rice stockpiles of reportedly more than 12.8 million tonnes at the end of 2013 under a state purchasing program launched in 2011.

CSX to receive support from Thailand’s bourseCAMBodIA Securities Exchange (CSX) on Monday signed an agreement to partner with the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) to provide training courses for CSX staff as well as information sharing between the two exchanges.

7THE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 2014

BusinessUSD / JPY

101.65

USD / SGD

1.2547

USD /CNY

6.247

USD / HKD

7.7528

USD / THB

32.71

AUD / USD

0.928

NZD / USD

0.8495

EUR / USD

1.361

GBP / USD

1.673

Indicative Exchange Rates as of 29/5/2014. Please contact ANZ Royal Global Markets on 023 999 910 for real time rates.

USD / KHR

4,045

Underwriter resets date for Grand Twins public listingEddie Morton

Grand Twins International will list on the Cambodian Stock Exchange on June 12, according to a statement issued yesterday by underwriting firm Phnom Penh Securities (PPS).

It comes after the underwriter con-firmed earlier this week that the final listing date had been pushed back from may 29 due to delays in submit-ting final documentation to the Cam-bodia Securities Exchange (CSX), which was allegedly brought on by the recent holiday period.

The PPS statement stated that

the public subscriptions process, which ended may 9, had been a success and resulted in an “over-subscribed amount”. It added that the underwriter would dispatch notice to successful applicants yes-terday, may 29.

“For the official announcement of the [subscription] result, which was expected to be released on 23 may 2014, is postponed for a few days due to holidays which have affected the whole operations,” the state-ment reads.

The latest postponement marks the second time the garment maker has

had to shift its desired listing date, which was initially slated for may 8 when the firm commenced its road-show in march.

Chhun Sambath, director of the security insurance supervision department at the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia said the two-week deferral was due to both the april Khmer new year

holiday period and PPS having to process applications of many for-eign investors.

“This is only small delay, and it will have no effect,” he said. “GTI had many subscriptions from abroad and they needed to process all those documents. and when the IPO is delayed earlier on, it is understand-ably automatic that the other dates will also be delayed.”

The SECC official added that according to the regulator’s rules, companies wishing to list on the CSX have six months to complete the IPO process and no penalty is inflicted by

the change of date. GTI’s offering of eight million

shares, set at $2.41 each, stands to generate more than $19.2 million for the Taiwanese firm if fully subscribed. With the increased liquidity, GTI, which largely makes sporting appar-el for addidas and reebok, plans to expand its operation to a new $10 million factory located outside of Phnom Penh.

GTI will be just the second com-pany to list on the CSX since the local stock market was launched in 2012, joining the state-owned Phnom Penh Water Supply authority.

Labourers pour rice onto a mat for drying at a farm in Kandal’s Muk Kampoul district in March. HoNG MENEA

rice industry caught in fluxChan Muyhong

ThE rice industries quest for greater quality at lower cost’s reached a dead-end

yesterday at a conference in Phnom Penh with exporters and farmers polarised on how to achieve greater returns for the industry.

The workshop, titled Im-proving rice Value Chain and Enhancing Farmers’ Liveli-hoods, was attended by more than 70 farmer representa-tives, businesses and govern-ment officials. On one side exporters want farmers to pro-vide a better quality rice grain, but on the other, farmers can

not afford the premium to pay for the higher quality seed.

hun Lak, president of rice exporter mekong Oryaza Trade, urged farmers to be more selective when choosing their seeds to produce better quality rice.

“Good quality rice can be sold at a higher price,” he said. “Quality rice can also help [rice exporters] to find mar-kets easier and also help us to compete in the market.”

Fellow exporters and rice millers supported Lak’s view, including Vong Bunheng, president of heng heng rice miller, who said millers can-not continue to pay farmers for poor quality rice.

“Buyers only want the long and less chalky rice. Currently only 30 per cent of stock is sell-able as premium grade. Where can I sell the remaining 60 per cent?” he said.

Kan Vesna, a farmer’s rep-resentative from Battambang province, rebutted the millers concerns, saying millers sys-tematically reducing prices across the industry created little incentive for farmers to improve their crops.

“Using quality seed and proper farming techniques means higher production costs, and if they are going to sell their paddy at the same price as other farmers, why should they do it?” he argued.

Ly Eng, another farmer’s rep-resentative from Battambang, said a lack of funds to afford good seeds meant standards would remain the same.

“Good selection seeds are expensive and most of the farmers’ knowledge with farming technique is still very limited,” he said.

Eng called on rice millers to lift their buying price.

“When you give higher prices, farmers can use the money to improve their farm-ing. Farmers will be able to cease practising outdated, tra-ditional farming techniques,” he added.

hean Vanhorn, the deputy direct for the General depart-

ment of agriculture, said the farming community should come together and stock qual-ity seed for future harvests.

“It starts with a strong rice farmer community. [The gov-ernment] will be able to pro-vide help to train farmers on farming techniques,” he said, adding that the government wouldn’t subsidise seed.

“I have listened to the com-ments of the speakers here. They are all very good, but to answer our question on how get farmers to use qual-ity seed – after the discussion this morning, it is not still an-swered yet,” said farmers rep-resentative Eng at the close of the debate.

GTI had many subscriptions from abroad and they needed to process

all those documents.

While a handful of foreign-owned mining firms continue to spend millions scouring the provinces for valuable min-eral deposits, not one has com-menced mining. Geopacific Resources, an Australian firm with copper and gold explo-ration projects in Cambodia and Fiji, under a joint venture agreement with Royal Group, has for the past 18 months been exploring land within Preah Vihear province. This week managing director of Geopa-cific, Ron Heeks, spoke with the Post’s Eddie Morton about Cambodia’s evolving mining sector and the gamble that is mineral resource exploration.

What lured Geopacific to Cam-bodia in the first place?

Cambodia was targeted be-cause it has prospective geol-ogy, the rocks are the right type and right age and there are good signs of gold and copper identified in the region.

Cambodia is a growing economy and has an evolving mineral industry that has had little systematic exploration.

How is exploration going so far?

We are still in the early stages of exploration, hav-ing commenced exploration 18 months ago. Our initial results have been promis-ing, but there is a long way to go. Exploration is time con-suming and requires a large amount of information in or-der to understand the region properly. We’re focused on the Preah Vihear region and our field camp is at Chaeb district. Our licence covers 158 square kilometres.

If everything went as fast as possible, we could see extrac-tion two years down the track. You couldn’t do it any quicker than that. So far, we have in-vested about $3.5 million into exploring Cambodia.

Was it a challenge entering the mining sector here?

Most developing countries suffer from a lack of industry specific knowledge of mining including the risks, costs and time involved to discover and bring an operation into pro-duction. Having no success stories coming out of Cam-bodia is a challenge because people simply don’t know

of the place. If we were talk-ing about a place like Ghana, people are aware of lots of success stories.

Because of this, security of tenure is one of the most critical aspects of working in any region. It is really a gamble. You can go to an area and spend millions of dollars searching and then walk away with nothing.

Consequently, exploration projects are hard to get fund-ing for. And to be frank, the

past couple of years have been the hardest I have experienced in terms of raising funds.

Cambodia, however, is an excellent place to work and it has no specific challenges ex-cept that they do not have a mining history from which to base some decisions upon.

What advice do you hope the Ministry of Mines and Energy took from its recent trip to Western Australia?

Cambodia can learn a con-

siderable amount from devel-oped mining countries such as Australia. Managed well, the industry can bring numerous benefits, especially in remote areas. Security of tenure is the most critical aspect. It is im-possible to attract investment if there is even a hint that the asset may be lost. This is why you are seeing a move away from some even very mineral rich countries.

Clear concise laws that do not change are critical and Cam-bodia is well advanced along this path. Keeping everything transparent from both the mining company and govern-ment sides is very important also, so investors know exactly what they are dealing with.

The government said they are considering introducing more lenient tax laws for mining firms off the back of Austra-lia’s now-scrapped mining tax scheme. Do you think this is a good move?

The increasing of mining tax dramatically curbed mineral investment in Australia and was removed by the next gov-ernment. Countries new to exploration need to encourage companies to come and tax benefits early on can achieve

this, combined with clarity of regulation. That Cambodia is looking at these issues is an excellent sign and should help attract more companies into the country.

With reform, do you think Cambodia’s mining sector will prosper in the coming years?

Yes definitely if they are internally competitive and transparent. The country is underexplored and most ex-ploration operations are at very early stages. Few compa-nies are working in this space at present as the industry is suffering from long term ef-fect of the global financial cri-sis of a few years ago. I would not expect a rush, but a slow steady increase in companies looking. A success story will assist greatly to help new play-ers to look at Cambodia for investment.

And while most neighbour-ing countries are ahead in terms of regulation and in regards to the amount of on-ground work, any success aris-ing out of all Asean countries would assist in bringing more companies into the region.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

Markets8 THE PHNOM PENH POST MAY 30, 2014

Business

Cambodia mining needs a success

Managing directors of Geopacific Resources Ron Heeks (left) and Mark Bojanjac. Geopacific with joint venture partner Royal Group have mining exploration projects in Preah Vihear province. photo supplied

Sophie Estienne

APPLE, seeking to bolster its position in the hotly con-tested online music sector, said on Wednesday that it

was buying Beats Music and Beats Electronics in a much-hyped deal worth $3 billion.

The move is expected to help the tech giant, a pioneer in digital music, with its wildly popular iTunes plat-form, ramp up its efforts to counter the successful models of streaming services like Pandora and Spotify.

The deal for the maker of high-end audio equipment and the sub-scription streaming music service is Apple’s largest acquisition ever. It calls for Beats co-founders Dr. Dre, a hip-hop pioneer, and Jimmy Iovine, a veteran music executive, to join the California company.

“Music is such an important part of all of our lives and holds a special place within our hearts at Apple,” chief executive Tim Cook said in a statement. “That’s why we have kept investing in music and are bring-ing together these extraordinary teams so we can continue to create

the most innovative music products and services in the world.”

Bringing Beats into the Apple fold will offer opportunities to weave iTunes Radio service into more de-vices, and even spread the App Store for mini programs to other products, according to analysts.

Adding Beats will give Apple fresh star power in music and the ability to get more ad revenues from streaming including mobile.

The deal represents a shift in strat-egy for Apple, which is known for de-veloping its own products and mak-ing only modest acquisitions.

But some analysts say the logic for the tie-up is not entirely clear.

“It’s a little confusing to me what Apple is getting out of it,” said Bob O’Donnell, analyst and founder of Technalysis Research.

O’Donnell said Beats “appeals to a demographic that is different from some of the typical Apple demo-graphics” and has a streaming mu-sic service with “a relatively limited number of customers”.

“It doesn’t seem a great match un-less there are other issues at play,” O’Donnell said. “But my guess is that

Apple isn’t going to spend that much without that being the case.”

The analyst said Apple may be able to give a boost to its recently launched iTunes streaming service, or possibly get a foothold in the lucrative market for music accessories.

Mobile music revenues in the US totaled $1.68 billion in 2013, accord-ing to the research firm eMarketer, which estimates that figure will in-crease to $2.52 billion this year.

Ad-supported mobile music rev-enues topped $1 billion in 2013 and is expected to reach $1.64 billion this year, the research firm said.

Since launching five years ago, Beats has become a popular brand for audio equipment and has attract-ed the likes of Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj, who have designed their own customised Beats head-phones and speakers.

Fashion designers and street art-ists such as Alexander Wang, Futura and Snarkitecture have collaborated on some products.

The deal could make Dr Dre hip-hop’s richest mogul, with a net worth of $700 million to $800 mil-lion, according to Forbes.

The deal, which has been rumored for weeks, is subject to regulatory ap-provals and is expected to be com-pleted later this year, Apple said.

“I’ve always known in my heart that Beats belonged with Apple,” said Iovine. “The idea when we started the company was inspired by Apple’s unmatched ability to marry culture and technology. Apple’s deep commitment to music fans,

artists, songwriters and the music industry is something special.”

The premium headphone market in the United States grew 20 per cent last year while sales of wireless speak-ers more than doubled, according to industry tracker NPD.

Beats was reported to have claimed 60 per cent of the billion dollars spent on top-end earphones in the US last year. afp

Markets10 THE PHNOM PENH POST MAy 30, 2014

Business

Call for ProposalsResearch on Social Protection and

Migration (Extension)

The UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) is inviting firms/research organizations to submit proposals to undertake a research study on social protection to women migrant workers and their families. The detailed Request for Proposal and ToR are available at: http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs

Deadline for submissions: 09 June 2014 at 5 p.m. local timePlease send your proposal to [email protected]

Any inquiries regarding the study proposal, please contact our UN Women Country Office via e-mail at: [email protected].

Please note that this e-mail is only for enquiries. Only proposals sent to [email protected] will be accepted.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin yesterday signed a deal creating an economic union with Belarus and Kazakhstan, with Ukraine absent af-ter it turned its back on Moscow.

“Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are going over to a fundamentally new level of cooperation,” Putin said at the signing ceremony in the Ka-zakh capital of Astana.

The economic union project is hugely symbolic for Putin, who in 2005 called the breakup of the Soviet Union “the biggest geopolitical disas-ter” of the 20th century. But the union crucially failed to secure Ukraine, a country of 46 million with a poten-tially strong industrial sector.

“We lost some along the way: I mean Ukraine,” Belarusian President Alex-ander Lukashenko said at the signing

ceremony. “I am sure that sooner or later the Ukrainian leadership will realise where its fortune lies.”

Ukraine plunged into a crisis last November when then-president Vik-tor yanukovych pulled out of signing an Association Agreement with the European Union. Months of protests led to yanukovych’s ouster and the in-stallation of pro-Western leaders.

The Eurasian Economic Union, which is to come into force on Janu-ary 2015, is designed to strengthen ties between the ex-Soviet countries, which have already joined forces in a customs union created in 2010.

The alliance will follow a much looser Eurasian Customs Union that Russia formed with the two nations in 2010 to build up a free trade rival to the 28-nation EU bloc. afp

EUROPEAN businesses fear the “good times are over” in China, a survey showed yesterday, citing the country’s slowing economic growth, rising labour costs, falling profits, regulatory hurdles and pollution.

The Business Confidence Survey 2014 report, released by the Euro-pean Union Chamber of Commerce in China and consultancy Roland Berger, showed firms have become pessimistic as growth decelerates.

“Business is already tough and it is getting tougher,” the report said. “This is leading many to the conclu-sion that the good times are over.”

The survey comes as China’s once double-digit annual growth rates have eased in recent years, sitting in the mid-7 per cent range as its lead-ers try to pivot the economy away from relying on exports and big-tick-et public investments.

But while top officials say they wel-come the weaker rates as part the drive to a more sustainable growth model, the report said the slowdown “surpassed rising labour costs as the number one perceived challenge for future business in China”.

The survey, based on responses from 552 European businesses in China, found that 68 per cent of large companies with more than 1,000 em-ployees said doing business had be-come harder over the last two years.

“A new sober reality is develop-ing,” the survey said, citing declin-ing financial performance, down-wardly revised business plans and regulatory obstacles as reasons.

“The companies noted that mar-gins are tight, but for the first time in the history of this survey margins have been in China on average lower than it was on their global company

average profitability,” Wuttke said.Bad air quality was cited by 68 per

cent of as the top challenge in luring expatriate talent, while 64 per cent said it was the biggest challenge in retaining such personnel.

The overall situation is pushing companies to consider opportuni-ties elsewhere, “with half the Euro-pean companies routinely reviewing investment opportunities in other Asian countries”, the survey said.

However, the report also acknowl-edged that even a challenging Chi-nese business environment still presents irresistible opportunities.

“European companies will con-tinue to regard the Chinese market-place as strategically important,” the survey found, as its “sheer size . . . means that they will continue to generate a high proportion of their global revenues” there. afp

Russia in economic union with Kazakhstan, Belarus

China slowdown scares Europeans

A pair of Beats Electronics Pro headphones. Apple announced on Wednesday it was buying Beats Music and Beats Electronics for $3 billion. afp

Apple, Beats ink $3B deal

11THE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 2014

Business

Phnom Penh, Cam-bodia on May the 17th–Three hun-dred GL Finance’s

employees from all around Cambodia gathered in Phnom Penh on May the 17th as they celebrated the outstanding performance of the Company’s sales in March 2014: 1,373 new leases.

The ceremony gathered 300 employees from nearly all of the country’s 24 provinces at a dinner party featuring various shows and dances. To the surprise of all, Su-perstar Ms.AokSokunkanha herself came to warm up the audience, giving rise to loud cheering among GLF team. “Getting our employees to know each other wherever they come from is one of the fundamentals of GL Finance HR practices. It is even better if they can do it in a fun atmosphere!” said Mr.ChrisopheForsinetti, Executive Director at GL Finance.

Having gained 1,373 cus-tomers in the single month of March 2014, GL Finance has fulfilled its objective to become the reference mo-torcycle financing company in Cambodia, in less than two years of operation.“Over 1,000 contracts in a month congratulations! GLF just started only 2years, we still have to develop our com-pany by ourselves, we re-ally need cooperate work to-gether!, The company is one of your good tool and good place for improve yourself for your life, I will promise you we will try our best together with you for our company system and of course our re-

sult.The Next Target will be 3,000 In a month!, We will do more and even bigger party again! I hope everybody can use this opportunity

to improve your life with us!” said Mr. Mitsuji Konoshita, President at GL Finance.

Beyond showing the in-creasing demand for motor-

cycles in Cambodia, these achievements are the sig-nificant message that finan-cial leasing is a major tool to help the Cambodian people

to improve their standard of living. GL Finance will there-fore continue to develop its range of services, with im-portant announcements to

come in the next few months.

GL Finance’s 1,000-Monthly-Contract Achievement Celebration Gathers Three Hundred and Superstar

GL Finance PLC. Is the first leasing company in Cambodia, with commercial presence in all the Honda dealers in Cambodia.GL Finance was setup in May 2012 as the Cambodian branch of the Stock Exchange of Thailand listed company Group Lease PCL.

Mr.MitsujiKonoshita, President of GL Finance PLC., strikes a pose with the company employees, some of them having joined GL Finance since its inception.

SUPERSTAR sings songs before GL Finance employees as a celebration of the good sales performances.

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

12 THE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 2014

World

Ladder to heavenRussia’s Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft carrying the International Space Station crew of European Space Agency’s German astronaut Alexander Gerst, Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev and NASA astronaut Gregory Wiseman blasts off from a launch pad at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome early yesterday. The crew docked with the ISS later yesterday, as space cooperation between Moscow and the West continues despite their worst standoff since the Cold War. Grinning broadly, the astronauts hugged the crew of three already on board the international space laboratory. The astronauts took a six-hour fast track route to the ISS after the previous crew to travel there in March was forced to spend two days in orbit due to a technical glitch. The new ISS crew members are due to carry out a mission lasting 167 days and return to Earth in November. AFP

mH370 pinger hunt comes up emptya

USTRaLIa ruled out a large swath of In-dian Ocean as Flight mH370’s final resting

place yesterday, compounding the frustration of passengers’ relatives who are still without answers nearly three months since the plane vanished.

The Joint agency Coordi-nation Centre said a lengthy underwater search of an area where acoustic transmissions were detected in early april was now complete, as a US Navy official queried whether the

missing plane ever went there.“The Joint agency Coor-

dination Centre can advise that no signs of aircraft debris have been found by the au-tonomous underwater vehicle since it joined the search ef-fort,” the JaCC said.

It added that the australian Transport Safety Bureau had advised that “the area can now be discounted as the final resting place of mH370” in an outcome that prompted anger and scorn from relatives still desperate for closure.

australian ship Ocean Shield, which is carrying the US Bluefin-21 sub, has now left the area after scouring 850 square kilometres of sea bed for the jet that vanished flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on march 8 carrying 239 people.

The end of the underwater, mini-sub’s mission came as the US Navy deputy direc-tor of ocean engineering mi-chael Dean said the pings at the heart of the search were no longer believed to have come

from the plane’s black box.Dean said that if they were

from the onboard data or voice recorders they would have been found by now. a US Navy spokesman later said his comments were “speculative and premature”.

australian Deputy Prime minister Warren Truss said the search was concentrated where the pings were detected be-cause it was “the best informa-tion available at the time”, with-out commenting on whether they came from the black box.

He added that australia re-mained “very confident that the resting place of the aircraft is in the southern [Indian] Ocean”.

The US Navy pinger locator, dragged by Ocean Shield, was used by searchers to listen for underwater signals in the re-mote southern Indian Ocean in an area where satellite data in-dicated the plane went down.

JaCC said the operation would now move to the next phase involving scanning the unmapped ocean floor, with all existing information and

analysis reviewed to define a new search zone of up to 60,000 square kilometres.

Steve Wang, a spokesman for a support group of relatives of the flight’s 153 Chinese pas-sengers, said the comments yesterday by the australian-led search coordination agency had left him seething.

“I am afraid that maybe some days later they will say that they no longer have clues about it, and we will search for more clues, but after that will stop the search,” he said. AFP

Dozens killed in fresh attack as Nigera vows total warBOKO Haram gunmen killed 35 people in attacks on three villages in Nigeria’s restive northeast Borno state near the border with Cameroon yesterday.

Dozens of Boko Haram gunmen dressed in military uniform stormed Gumushi, amuda and arbokko in all-terrain vans and motorcycles, opening fire on residents and torching homes with petrol bombs, a military source and residents said.

The news came just hours after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonath-

an promised total war against terror-ism as the country’s security forces stepped up efforts to rescue more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram 46 days ago.

“I am determined to protect our democracy, our national unity and our political stability by waging a total war against terrorism,” Jonathan said in a speech to mark 15 years since the return to civilian rule in africa’s most populous country and largest economy.

“The unity and stability of our coun-

try, and the protection of lives and property are non-negotiable,” he said.

Nigeria returned to democracy on may 29, 1999, after nearly 16 years of military rule, but the country has recently been blighted by a five-year Islamist insurgency in north and cen-tral Nigeria that has claimed thou-sands of lives.

The mass abduction of teenage girls on april 14 from a secondary school in Chibok in northeastern Borno state has sparked global outrage and drawn

unprecedented attention to Boko Haram’s extremist uprising.

The incident has also drawn offers of military aid and intelligence from several foreign powers including the US, Britain, France and China.

“I have instructed our security forc-es to launch a full-scale operation to put an end to the impunity of terror-ists on our soil,” Jonathan said.

“I have also authorised the security forces to use any means necessary under the law to ensure that this is

done. I assure you that Nigeria will be safe again, and that these thugs will be driven away,” he vowed.

Jonathan linked the Boko Haram group with foreign organisations like al-Qaeda. “For our citizens who have joined hands with al-Qaeda and inter-national terrorists in the misguided belief that violence can possibly solve their problems, our doors remain open to them for dialogue and recon-ciliation, if they renounce terrorism and embrace peace,” he said. AFP

THE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 2014

World13

PRO-RUSSIaN rebels shot down a Ukrainian helicop-ter yesterday, killing 12 sol-diers including a general in one of the biggest setbacks in Kiev’s seven-week campaign against insurgents in the sep-aratist east.

The insurgent success dealt a heavy blow to president-elect Petro Poroshenko’s repeated promise to quickly stamp out a conflict that has threatened the very survival of the splin-tered ex-Soviet state.

Separatists had earlier yes-terday also confirmed that they were holding four un-armed European monitors not far from where the heli-copter was shot out of the sky with a sophisticated surface-to-air missile.

Fresh fighting was reported yesterday across large swaths of eastern Ukraine’s rust belt as the violence that has al-ready claimed more than 200 lives continued unabated.

Western-backed Porosh-enko – winner of 54.7 per cent of Sunday’s presidential vote – must avert another showdown with Russia that could see Ukraine cut off from gas sup-plies by the start of next week.

But all attention yesterday was on Slavyansk – an indus-

trial city of 120,000 mostly eth-nic Russians that was the first of a dozen towns and cities seized by rebels in response to the February ouster in Kiev of a pro-Kremlin president.

“I just received informa-tion that near Slavyansk, the terrorists – using a Russian man-portable air defence system – shot down our he-licopter,” acting President Oleksandr Turchynov told a session of parliament.

Turchynov initially said that 13 soldiers and army General Volodymyr Kulchytskiy had died. But security officials and parliament sources later revised down the total death toll to 12.

a separatist spokesman had earlier told Russian news agencies that the helicop-ter was downed in a fierce battle that was still raging on the southern outskirts of Slavyansk.

The unnamed spokesman said that “several houses” be-longing to civilians were on fire as a result of what he said was military activity.

yesterday’s death toll is the highest since Ukraine lost 18 soldiers during hours of heavy fighting in the same Donetsk region on may 22. afp

Twelve killed as rebels down Kiev helicopter

‘US must always lead’T

HE United States should provide global leadership with less recourse to military

might in future, Barack Obama announced on Wednesday, proposing a new foreign pol-icy doctrine focused on soft power diplomacy and launch-ing financial grants to fight terrorism through interna-tional partnerships instead.

In a graduation speech to cadets at the US military acad-emy in West Point, New york, the president sought to carve a middle way between the re-lentless US interventionism of recent decades and a grow-ing isolationist tendency that some fear will leave the world less stable and without a dom-inant superpower.

The much-anticipated for-eign policy address came after Obama presented a delayed timetable for withdrawing troops from afghanistan but amid growing criticism from Republicans of foreign policy “weakness” after setbacks in Syria and Ukraine.

yet the president rejected the choice between fighting wars or withdrawing from foreign challenges, arguing it was possible for the US to lead through example and by cre-ating international alliances.

“We have been through a long season of war,” he told the first West Point class to graduate since 9/11 who are unlikely to be sent immedi-ately into combat.

“US military action cannot be the only – or even primary – component of our leader-ship in every instance. Just be-cause we have the best ham-mer does not mean that every problem is a nail.”

“Here’s my bottom line: america must always lead on the world stage. If we don’t, no one else will,” he said.

“The question we face . . . is not whether america will lead,

but how we will lead,” he said.In one of the few concrete

policy proposals of the speech, Obama gave an example of al-ternative ways to protect US national security from threats such as terrorism by calling on Congress to support a new $5 billion Counterterrorism Part-nerships Fund to train and support partner countries in areas such as the Sahel. He also announced limited new steps in response to the Syrian civil war, promising greater assis-tance to neighbouring Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq to “host refugees, and confront terrorists”. the guardian

US President Barack Obama enters a stadium to give a speech to US Military Academy graduates at West Point, New York state. afp

Clemency dream

I’d like to go home again: Snowden

FUGITIVE self-proclaimed spy Edward Snowden has said he wants to

return home, as he defended his massive leak of US intelligence secrets, saying abuses of consti-tutional rights left him no choice.

“If I could go anywhere in the world, that place would be home,” Snowden said almost a year to the day since he revealed a stunning US surveillance dragnet mining data from phones and web companies around the world.

“From day one, I said I’m doing this to serve my country. Whether amnesty or clemency is a possibil-ity, that’s for the public to decide,” he told NBC in his first interview with US television since the scan-dal broke in early June last year.

And he sought to defend himself against charges led by the US administration that he is a hacker and a traitor, saying: “The reality is the situation determined that this needed to be told to the public. You know, the Constitution . . . has been violated on a massive scale.”

Top US officials laughed off the idea of clemency. Secretary of State John Kerry said the 30-year-old former CIA employee should “man up” and return to face trial. afp

Abbas names a PM to head unity governmentPALESTINIAN President Mahmud Abbas chose a prime minister to head a unity government yesterday but announcement of the lineup was held up over the foreign affairs portfolio, officials said. Abbas sent a “letter of designation” to Rami Hamdallah, who is currently serving as premier within the West Bank-based government, an official in Ramallah said. “The government is ready, but there is only one problem, and that is that Fatah and Hamas reject Riyad al-Malki as foreign minister, something Abbas is insisting on,” the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. AFP

NK to probe abductionsJAPAN said yesterday it would ease sanctions against North Korea after the secretive state agreed to reinvestigate the kidnapping of Japanese nationals to train spies, in a significant breakthrough for testy relations. In return, Tokyo has agreed to ease some of the stinging sanctions it has levelled at the unpredictable regime, over years of mistrust. North Korea admitted more than a decade ago that it had kidnapped 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies in Japanese language and customs. AFP

World14 THE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 2014

Successful People Read The Post.

Job Announcement

The Phnom Penh Post is an independent media company in Cambodia and is seeking qualified candidates to fill the position of reporter as follows:

Lifestyle Sub-editor: 1 position

Job requirements:

Bachelor’s degree in journalism or an equivalent degree- At least 2 (two) 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)- Available to work in a high pressure environment-

Interested candidates should submit their cover letter and CV to the human resource office of The Phnom Penh Post at the below address: Post Media Co. Ltd, #888, Floor 8, Building F, Phnom Penh Center, Corner of Sothearos and Preah Sihanouk boulevards, Sangkat Tonle Bassac, Khan Chamkarmon, Phnom Penh or through email address: [email protected]; Tel: 023 214 311 or Fax: 023 214 318

Deadline: June 03, 2014

Note: Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for interview.

Riot review a ‘cover-up’: PNG

Sisi sweeps to Egypt poll win

PaPUa New Guinea police yes-terday said a probe into a riot at an australian detention cen-tre on manus Island that left an asylum seeker dead “stinks of a major cover-up”.

Deputy Commissioner Simon Kauba said the findings of the probe, carried out on behalf of the australian government, “only hampers our ongoing investigations into the riot” which also left 69 people injured in February.

“Our investigations have been frustrated from day one with a complete lack of coop-eration from all involved including [detention centre security firm] G4S employees as well as the asylum seekers themselves,” Kauba said in a statement.

“In fact the asylum seekers as well as G4S officials and

other service providers refused to give their statements to us and made it known that they preferred to talk only to aus-tralian lawyers.”

Under australia’s tough refu-gee policy, asylum seekers arriv-ing by boat are sent to detention centres on PNG’s manus Island or Nauru, a remote Pacific neighbour, for processing and permanent resettlement.

The 107-page review released on monday found Iranian asy-lum seeker Reza Barati was “brutally beaten” to death in an assault led by a Salvation army worker.

It also found that PNG police had pushed over the fence and entered the compound before opening fire after G4S had left during the riot. But Kauba said an initial investigation by local police found its officers did not

enter the camp before or dur-ing the riot, were not involved in the violence and did not injure any asylum seekers.

Police believe Barati’s death was the result of injuries caused by four detention centre staff, two PNG locals and two for-eigners, he added.

The police chief said his force’s probe into whether an asylum seeker, who was shot in the buttocks, had been injured by one of his officers was being hampered by a lack of access to the detainees.

“The only way we can con-firm this is if the injured man is brought forward and appropri-ate tests conducted to confirm the nature of the injuries sus-tained,” Kauba said.

“Otherwise, this whole mat-ter stinks of a major cover- up.” AFP

EX-aRmy chief abdel Fattah al-Sisi has scored a crushing presidential election triumph and consolidated the grip of the military, 11 months after the overthrow of the only Egyptian presi-dent not drawn from its ranks.

Ninety-six per cent of voters, at least 21 mil-lion Egyptians, chose retired field marshal abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who deposed elected Islamist president mohamed morsi, with ballots count-ed from all but a handful of 352 stations, state television reported yesterday.

Sisi’s only electoral rival, leftist leader and longtime opposition figure Hamdeen Sabbahi, won less than 4 per cent.

The former general, who retired from the army to run for office, becomes Egypt’s fifth president hailing from the military, reasserting the institution’s grip on politics in the arab world’s most populous nation.

The military has always formed the back-bone of political life in Egypt and the institu-tion has provided its leaders ever since army

officers toppled the monarchy in 1952. The only exception was morsi, elected in 2012 a year after an uprising overthrew longtime strongman Hosni mubarak, himself a former air force commander.

“Few would have imagined that . . . three years after mubarak’s toppling, a field marshal, a new pharaoh, would be elected again with 96 per cent, without even unveiling a program and without campaigning,” middle East analyst Karim Bitar said.

Sisi rode on a wave of support for a potential new strongman who can restore stability and revive the economy following three years of turmoil.

But his opponents say that since he ousted morsi last July, Egypt has undergone a return to autocratic rule.

a state crackdown targeting morsi supporters has left at least 1,400 people dead in street clashes and seen more than 15,000 others jailed. AFP

‘Six elderly kill selves’ before ban on burialsS

IX elderly people in China are said to have committed suicide to ensure they died be-

fore new regulations banning coffin burials come into force, a newspaper has reported.

China has a tradition dat-ing back thousands of years of ancestor worship, which usu-ally requires families to bury their relatives and construct a tomb.

But in recent years local gov-ernments across the country have demolished tombs as part of a national campaign encouraging cremation, in an attempt to save on limited land resources.

Government officials in an-qing, a city in the eastern prov-ince of anhui, ordered that all locals who die after June 1 should be cremated, the Bei-jing News daily reported.

Six elderly people in the area committed suicide “to avoid the new regulations on funer-als”, the newspaper quoted family members of the de-ceased as saying.

It said government officials began forcibly confiscating coffins from locals in may,

which “had a huge psycho-logical impact” on them.

But it added a note of scepti-cism, saying that the reasons for the suicides were “complex” despite the family claims.

One 91-year-old woman, Wu Zhengde, hanged herself on may 5 after learning of the new regulations, the report said.

another woman, Zheng Shi-fang, 83, killed herself after of-ficials sawed her coffin in two in front of her. a 68-year-old

woman killed herself by jump-ing into a well, while others drank poison.

The local government’s pro-paganda department told me-dia that the suicides were not

connected to the burial ban, and people had given up their coffins voluntarily.

“China is big, death and sickness amongst the elderly is normal,” the report quoted a local official as saying.

The paper quoted Beijing-based lawyer Zheng Daoli as saying the seizures were ille-gal because coffins were the property of their owners.

Elsewhere in China local of-ficials have launched massive campaigns to “flatten graves” to create land for farming and development.

Officials in the central prov-ince of Henan demolished 400,000 graves in 2012, local media reported. The case pro-voked a nationwide outcry.

Locals in anqing – who spend up to a decade preparing their coffins – were only informed of the burial ban in april, two months before the new regu-lations were due to come into force, the Beijing News said.

It quoted a local surnamed Shi as saying: “I’ve had a hard life, and when I’m dead I’d like to sleep somewhere protected from the rain – inside a cof-fin.” AFP

A woman places offering at a grave south of Beijing. AFP

Acid smokeA 998-tonne oil tanker was listing off the Japanese coast yesterday after a large explosion and subsequent fire that sent towering columns of acrid smoke into the sky. The 64-year-old captain was still unac-counted for hours after the accident, while four of his crew were in hospital being treated for severe burns. The tanker had unloaded its cargo of crude oil last week and was stationary close to the coast of Hyogo prefecture, around 450 kilometres west of Tokyo, when the explosion happened. Akihiro Komura, an official from Syoho Shipping, which owns the vessel, said: ‘The tanker was virtually empty when the accident occurred. I heard that a crew member was using a grinder to remove paint and that seems to have triggered the blast, which we be-lieve could have occurred when the remnants of the oil caught fire. AFP

THE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 2014

World15

WHO urged to protect e-cigsT

HE e-cigarette was pushed centre stage ahead of World No To-bacco Day, with doc-

tors and policy experts urging the UN’s health agency to em-brace the gadget as a life saver.

With tobacco smoke claim-ing a life every six seconds, the tar-free, electronic alternative could help prevent much of the cancer, heart and lung dis-ease and stroke caused by the toxins in traditional cigarettes, the 50-odd experts wrote to World Health Organisation chief margaret Chan.

E-cigarettes “could be among the most significant health in-novations of the 21st century, perhaps saving hundreds of millions of lives”, they said.

They urged “courageous leadership” from the WHO in guiding global and national ap-proaches to e-cigarettes, which are banned in some countries like Brazil and Singapore and face increasingly strict restric-tions in other countries amid uncertainty about their long-term health effects.

The group fears the WHO plans to lump the battery-powered devices, which re-lease nicotine in a vapour instead of smoke and contain fewer toxins, with traditional cigarettes under its tobacco

control policy. This would compel member countries to ban advertising and use of the gadgets in public places, and to impose sin taxes.

“It would be unethical and harmful to inhibit the option to switch to tobacco harm-re-duction products” like e-ciga-rettes, said the letter, a copy of which was given to aFP.

The WHO is working on rec-ommendations for e-cigarette

regulation, to be presented to a meeting of member govern-ments in October. But it does so in a scientific vacuum on the device’s long-term safety and its true value as an aid to kicking the tobacco habit.

Some fear its use and often unrestricted promotion could glamorise an addictive habit, and hook nonsmoking teen-agers on nicotine.

an estimated seven million

people in Europe alone use e-cigarettes, which were in-vented in China in 2003.

addiction specialist Gerry Stimson, an emeritus profes-sor at University College Lon-don who co-signed the letter to Chan, said they have been shown to release “very, very fractional levels” of toxins com-pared to conventional ones.

“People smoke for the nico-tine and die of the tar.” afp

Julia Boyle smokes an electronic cigarette at the Vapor Shark store in Miami. afp

THE best young spellers in the US and beyond faced a torrent of tricky dog names on Wednesday as the 86th Scripps National Spelling Bee got underway in earnest.

Borzoi, dachshund, kee-shond, schipperke, schnau-zer and Weimaraner were among the breed names that tested the spelling wits of the 281 contestants on stage at the National Harbor outside Washington ahead of yester-day’s finals.

“There were a lot of those,” acknowledged the bee’s of-ficial pronouncer Jacques Bailly, a classics professor in Vermont who himself won

the championship in 1980.“We love dogs,” added execu-

tive director Paige Kimble, the 1981 winner, who explained the names had been picked off a study list of 1,500 words dis-tributed to schools at the out-set of the current bee season.

an american institution dat-ing back to the 1920s, the Na-tional Spelling Bee has been clinched for the past six years in a row by young americans of South asian heritage.

Contestants hail from all 50 states as well as the Baha-mas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica and South Korea, as well as US military schools overseas. afp

Old dog names: New trickiness for spellers

Spelling bee contestant Amber Robinson and a miniature schnauzer. afp

Good stewards

W Cup fans, don’t buy that iguana

World Cup fans loo-king for that special souvenir from Brazil

should know it is illegal to buy parrots, iguanas and other wildlife, authorities said on Wednesday, re-leasing a list of environmen-tal guidelines for tourists.

Monkeys, birds, snakes, butterflies, spiders and scor-pions are also included on the list of off-limits purcha-ses and activities compiled by officials in the northeas-tern state of rio Grande do Norte, whose capital Natal is a World Cup host city.

“The World Cup will draw thousands of tourists, Brazilian and foreign, to rio Grande do Norte,” said Air-ton de Grande, spokesman for the state branch of the Brazilian Environment and resources Institute.

“In order to avoid embar-rassing incidents or even criminal punishment, [we] have prepared a list of 10 rules that everyone should follow.”

The list warns tourists not to buy jewellery or crafts made from wild animals, including anything with feathers, teeth, leather or butterfly wings.

Buying wildlife, dead or alive, is punishable by a fine of up to 5,000 reals ($2,300) per animal and a prison sentence of up to one year, it says. afp

Sebastien Blanc

Behind the reefs of old tires and cobble-stones that protect-ed Ukraine’s protest

movement against the now-disbanded riot police, those still camped in Kiev’s inde-pendence Square face some fundamental questions: is their revolution over? And is it time to go home?

days after elections swept into office two politicians who stood with protesters at the barricades during protests this winter, one of those leaders, Kiev mayor-in-waiting Vitali Klitschko, has called on pro-testers to go home and for the city to return to normal.

now those who toppled pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych in February are split about their next step, debating where their move-ment is headed after the land-slide victory of chocolate mag-nate Petro Poroshenko, a longtime politician who sup-ported the protesters but is still a face many of them distrust.

Candles still flicker at rain-sodden makeshift shrines that honour the more than 100 people who died here in Feb-ruary. dust has turned to mud, then baked to clay, on side-walks that were stripped of their paving stones to defend against Yanukovych’s security forces. And a thriving tent city is still home to hundreds of people who are a mostly tough crowd that has nowhere else to go. Many of the original protesters have long since returned to their jobs and their families.

“The barricades have ful-filled their function, and they must be d isma nt led,” Klitschko told reporters in Kiev this week. “Kiev must gradually return to everyday life and concentrate its efforts in that direction, while we are doing reforms, so that they are made as quickly as possible.”

But many here in the square

– also known as the Maidan – say they won’t leave until they know that Ukraine’s new leaders will bring real change to the country. Some of the civil society groups that led the original protests counter that the time has come to build a memorial on the square, along with, perhaps, a forum for public debate, but otherwise to pull back and return some measure of ordi-nary life to central Kiev.

“i’m going to stay here until the system has changed,” said Alexander Fedonyuk, 47, an out-of-work construction worker who on Thursday was sitting on a plastic porch chair in front of a faded-green mili-tary tent where three puppies

playfully nipped each other. A pile of gas masks sat in a card-board box on the pavement. “The courts are the same,” he said. “it’s too early to say whether there’s a difference.”

The demonstrations ebbed and flowed, but there are still some people who camped out in the beginning and never left. Many still in the square live in tents and dress in mis-matched camouflage. Some were unemployed to begin with and found purpose in the rhythms and camaraderie of everyday tent life. Others came from Crimea to protest and found themselves across a new border when Russia annexed the Black Sea penin-sula in March.

in front of some tents pitched on a wide boulevard that was once a main Kiev thorough-fare, campfires smolder.

The question of what to do with independence Square is far from unique, especially in the post-Arab Spring era, when many mass protests became associated with a sin-gle location in a key city.

Cairo’s Tahrir Square was the site of frequent protests against whichever power happened to be ruling – at least until riot police started keeping constant guard. in Bahrain, authorities simply demolished Pearl Square, the heart of the February and March 2011 demonstrations there, days after they crushed

the protesters. in istanbul last year, protests in Taksim Square were sparked by the government’s plans to rebuild an Ottoman-era military building on part of the site, and the government defiant-ly laid sod to renovate the park after it pushed out an encampment with clouds of tear gas.

But for some protest leaders in Kiev, the activism needs to cont i nue elsewhere i n Ukrainian society, not at the makeshift checkpoints on the roads that lead into inde-pendence Square, where men keep all-night vigils. Some groups have suggested turn-ing part of the square into a pedestrian mall but clearing away barricades elsewhere.

“The Maidan is not just about the territory. it’s a thing in life that happened to peo-ple,” said Oleksandr Melnyk, a leader of the Civic Sector of euromaidan, one of the groups that first organized protests against Yanukovych in november.

Those protests were focused on Yanukovych’s last-minute decision not to sign an agree-ment that would have brought Ukraine closer to the euro-pean Union. But they quickly turned into a broader effort to rebuild Ukraine’s civil society and to fight against endemic corruption that had plagued the country ever since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Those who have remained on the Maidan are “margin-als”, Melnyk said. “it’s people who cannot find themselves in the new society.”

“The Maidan should be a place for rallies, where people get together to talk about issues,” Melnyk said. “There should be a dialogue between the activists and the govern-ment about what to do with it,” he said, adding that “the situ-ation has changed, and with it, the methods must change, too”. THE WaSHINGTON pOST

World16 THE PHNOM PENH POST MAY 30, 2014

The scourge of ‘honour killings’ in PakistanSebastien Blanc

PAKiSTAn’S prime minister yester-day ordered provincial officials to take “immediate action” over the brutal murder of a pregnant woman bludgeoned to death outside a top court on Tuesday.

The stoning took place in the mid-dle of the day, outside a courthouse, beside a busy thoroughfare. The woman and her husband had been “in love”, her husband said, and they’d gone to a courthouse to sign the paperwork. Outside, the woman’s father, brothers and extended family waited. When the couple emerged, the family reportedly tried to snatch her, then murdered her.

“i killed my daughter as she had insulted all of our family by marry-ing a man without our consent, and i have no regret over it,” her father told police, adding that it had been an “honour killing”.

The anecdote is horrifying. But even more horrifying is the regularity with which honour killings and stonings occur in Pakistan. despite creeping

modernity, secular condemnation and the fact there’s no reference to stoning in the Koran, honour killings claim the lives of more than 1,000 Pakistani women every year, accord-ing to a Pakistani rights group.

They have widespread appeal. eighty-three per cent of Pakistanis support stonings for adultery accord-ing to a Pew survey, and only 8 per cent oppose it. even those who chose modernity over islamic fundamen-talism overwhelmingly favour ston-ings, according to Pew research.

it’s the year 2014. Why is this still happening?

Some islamic fundamentalists think that only through the murder of an offending family member can hon-our be restored to the rest of the fam-ily. honour killings predominantly affect women – 943 women were killed under such circumstances in 2011 and another 869 in 2013, though not all of them were stoned. Some were just gunned down in cold blood.

One man in Punjab province sus-pected his teenage nieces of having “inappropriate relations” with two

boys. So on January 11, he killed both girls, saying he did it for “honour”.

Another teenage girl, living in Sukkur, was allegedly shot dead by her brother while she was doing home-work because her brother thought she was sleeping with a man.

One mom and dad allegedly killed their 15-year-old daughter with acid because they said she looked at a boy and they “feared dishonour”.

“There was a boy who came by on a motorcycle,” her father told BBC. My daughter “turned to look at him twice. i told her before not to do that; it’s wrong. People talk about us”.

The mother added: “She said ‘i didn’t do it on purpose. i won’t look again.’ By then i had already thrown the acid. it was her destiny to die this way.”

Both genders face stonings in Paki-stan and across 14 Muslim countries, but women are more frequently the targets.

The reason is rooted in sexual ine-quality in such countries, where the punishment has survived through some interpretations of sharia, or islamic law, that say adultery is pun-

ishable by stoning. in countries such as iran, where stonings are legal and widespread, men often have signifi-cantly more agency than women. if accused of adultery, they may have the means to either hire lawyers or flee. But those options are frequent-ly closed to women.

Can anything stop the stonings?

it’s unclear. One petition circulated last year that netted more than 12,000 signatures called on the United nations to enact international laws against stonings. But regardless of international pressure, rights activ-ists say the number of stonings and honour killings have continued to climb in Pakistan. afp

Kiev’s newly elected mayor Vitalii Klitschko speaks to Maidan self-defence activists during a meeting at Independence Square in the Ukrainian capital on May 26. afp

Restless Kiev protesters told to go

‘Don’t even think about it.’ afp

Pakistani relatives on Tuesday transport the body of a pregnant woman who was beaten to death with bricks by members of her own family in Lahore. afp

Opinion17THE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 2014

editorial personnelPublisherChris Dawe Editor-in-Chief Chad WilliamsEditor-in-Chief Post Weekend Alan ParkhouseEditor-in-Chief Post KhmerKay KimsongManaging Editor Post KhmerSam RithChief of StaffCheang SokhaDeputy Chief of StaffChhay Channyda National News EditorShane Worrell National Assignment Editor Joe FreemanDigital Media DirectorDavid BoyleDeputy News EditorVong Sokheng Business Editor Post Khmer May KunmakaraProperty EditorPisei HinForeign News EditorJoe CurtinSports EditorDan RileyPicture EditorScott HowesLifestyle and 7Days EditorPoppy McPhersonDeputy Head of Lifestyle DeskPan SimalaChief Sub-editorMichael PhilipsSub-editorsLaignee Barron, Daniel de Carteret, Alice Cuddy, Will Jackson, Eddie Morton, Bennett Murray, Kevin Ponniah, Daniel Pye, Shane Rothery, Sean Teehan, Sam Wheeler, Stuart White, Emily Wight, Amelia Woodside ReportersKhouth Sophak Chakrya, Sen David, Hor Kimsay,Buth Reaksmey Kongkea, Mom Kunthear, Khoun Leakhana, Lieng Sarith, Kim Sarom, Phak Seangly, Meas Sokchea, Chhim Sreyneang, May Titthara PhotographersHeng Chivoan, Pha Lina, Hong Menea, Sreng Meng Srun, Vireak Mai Web EditorLeang PhannaraWebmastersUong Ratana, Horng Pengly

siem reap bureau

Bureau ChiefPeter OlszewskiOffice ManagerThik Skaline Distribution Manager Seng SechReporters Thik Kaliyann, Miranda GlasserMarketing Executive Sophearith Blondeel

production & printing

Head of Desktop PublishingNhim SokphyrakDesktop PublishingSuon Savatdy, Chum Sokunthy, Aim Valinda, Danh Borath

graphic designer

Tep Thoeun Thyda, Hafisoh, Borin, Meng

head office

Post Media Co, Ltd. 888, Building F, 8th floor,Phnom Penh Center,Cnr Sothearos & Sihanouk Blvd,Chamkarmon, Phnom Penh, CambodiaTel: 023 214 311, 0214 311-017 Fax: 023 214 318

siem reap

No 629, Street 6 Dangkum CommuneTel: 063 966 290, Fax: 063 966 590

Chief Executive OfficerChris Dawe

sales department

National Sales DirectorBorom CheaAccount DirectorsChap NarithPost Khmer Sales ManagerToun ChanreaksmeyDigital Sales ManagerSoy Sontery

circulation & distribution

Circulation DirectorSophea Kalvin Heng Circulation SupervisorChally, RithyDistribution ManagerMeas Thy

administration

HR ManagerPich SocheatHR Executive Neang SopheapAssistants to HR ManagerLay SopanhaFinancial DirectorHeang TangmengChief AccountantSren VichekaTreasurersSok Sophorn, Yon Sovannara, Cheam Sopheak

IT Manager Seng Nak, Vong Oun

TO CONTACT [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]@phnompenhpost.comwww.phnompenhpost.com© Post Media Co, LtdThe Phnom Penh Post is wholly owned and printed by Post Media Co Ltd. The title The Phnom Penh Post in either English or Khmer languages, its associated logos or devices and the contents of this publica-tion may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of Post Media Co Ltd.

www.phnompenhpost.com

www.phnompenhpost.com

Zinc, aluminium, bronze, copper and steel. These are said to reflect australia’s national identity, if you read

the blurb about the new $230 million australian Embassy complex now ris-ing on a large site in Jakarta.

its offices, residences and recrea-tion facilities will be clad in one or other of these metals, which also reflect another aspect of australia’s profile in indonesia: the new embassy is designed to be as impervious to ter-rorist attacks as possible – a car-bombing at the existing building caused carnage at its gates in 2004.

a side effect of the “fortress austral-ia” approach, though, is that virtually all australian staff members at the embassy, from ambassador down, will live in the complex, in a gated australian community, a far cry from the days when diplomats were scattered in bungalows and apart-ments around town.

For two of the most different socie-ties ever to find themselves geograph-ic neighbours, indonesia and austral-ia have been surprisingly warm towards one another. Periodic fric-tions have popped up ever since the republic was declared in 1945, only 44 years after the brash new federation came into being, but have rarely deterred close relations.

Tony abbott and Julia Bishop are the latest in a long line of australian politicians to declare the relationship has been neglected and underdevel-oped. Behind them is the usual crowd of pundits warning, as many have before, that indonesia needs us much less than we need indonesia: heading towards 300 million-plus in popula-tion, its economy growing like topsy into the world’s seventh largest in 15 years, centre of Washington’s new attention to Southeast asia, it will have many suitors.

yet both the politicians and the pundits feel obliged to put a transac-tional value on the relationship: the growing middle class and its appetite for our beef, financial services, uni-versity degrees and holidays; assist-ance in countering refugee flows and terrorists; buffering chinese power.

Where is the warmth? Only rarely do we get a voice like that of econo-mist Ross Garnaut, who points out that with a friendly indonesia, aus-tralia will never be isolated from asia.

Beneath the president and prime minister, and their foreign ministers, is a toxic layer of domestic-model politicians in both countries, ready to make the most of any sign of distrust or deception. Even that top-level wis-

dom has been strained by the Edward Snowden revelation that the austral-ian signals directorate tapped the mobile phones of President Susilo Bambang yudhoyono, his wife, and senior ministers.

in earlier times, tension would dis-sipate, because of australia’s benign image, the early support for indone-sia’s independence, the embrace of indonesian language study in our schools, some pioneer mining and other businesses, and the 20 million-strong audience for Radio australia.

That historical narrative has been tempered by the East Timor and West Papua experiences. indonesian lan-guage study has dwindled close to extinction and shortwave radio has been displaced by Wi-Fi. as for busi-ness, indonesia has made itself a per-ilous investment zone, inhabited by nationalist ministries and corruptible police and judges.

To give them credit, abbott and Bishop are opening new pathways into indonesia. One is the new colombo plan, which will place some bright australian students in indone-

sian universities. another is a new national centre for indonesian stud-ies at monash university.

yet they are also choking off or nar-rowing others. The closure of the aBc’s australia network ended a nas-cent effort to replace Radio australia as a window into indonesian house-holds − to portray australia as a place to study, park savings, take a peaceful holiday or pick up ideas.

The scrapping of ausaid as a sepa-rate organisation, folding its activities back into the department of foreign affairs and trade, killed a well-known brand name – not least in its main area of activity, where its aid projects like support for village schools stood somewhat separate from hard national interest.

Over the years i have taken part in many australia-indonesia forums, where the elite-level participants on the australian side generally end up asking why others − businessmen, students, tourists − aren’t as excited by indonesia as they are.

There are some things that could make australians sit up − a touring

exhibition of indonesia’s marvellous modern art would be one − but it will probably take a major strategic deci-sion by australia’s political leaders.

indonesian should be the lan-guage taught by all our primary schools. if students and their par-ents want to add other languages, studying one generally helps with another. it helps that indonesian is structurally simple, easily pro-nounced, written phonetically in Roman script, and usable at almost any level. Use of Skype conversation and student exchanges make it a live, fun experience for the young, as seen in schools like Leongatha in Victoria’s dairy country.

We should make this decision not because it will help win export deals or get high-paying jobs, though may-be it will for some people, but because of strategic choice: this is where we live and these are the neighbours we need to understand. THE GUARDiAN

commentHamish McDonald

The ‘fortress Australia’ approach

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa (left) and his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop as they meet in Jakarta in December. For two of the most different societies ever to find themselves neighbours, Indonesia and Australia have been warm towards one another. AFP

hamish mcdonald’s new book demokrasi: indonesia in the 21st century is out now.

THE PHNOM PENH POST May 30 , 201418

1BR ApARtment foR Rent:$250/m free wifi,cable TV garbage collection , on st 288 near Lucky Super market Tel:089 36 32 06,:[email protected]

2BR ApARtment foR Rent:$600/m on st 178 near Royal, big living room, western kitchen massive balcony, big bathroom with bath tube Tel:089 36 32 06,:[email protected]

BRAnd new 2BR ApARtment for rent:$700/m on st 294, free wifi,,cable TV, garbage collectionTel:089 36 32 06,[email protected]

2BR ApARtment foR Rent :$700/m on st 456 near Russian market,free wifi,cable TV, garbage collection,24 hrs security guard,Gym,2Baths,1 living room,1 kitchenTel:089 36 32 06,[email protected]

2BR ApARtment foR Rent:$600/m in BKK1 free wifi,cable TV,24 hrs security guard , car parking,1kitchen,1 living room,2bathrooms Tel:089 36 32 06,[email protected]

modeRn fuRnished Apartment for rent Located near Russian market,1BR:$550/m,2BR:$800/m,1living room, 1kitchen,open Balcony Tel:089 36 32 06,[email protected]

1BR ApARtment foR Rent:$250/m free wifi,cable TV garbage collection ,on st 288 near Lucky Super marketTel:089 36 32 06,[email protected]

BKK1 LuxuRy ApARtmentRent Roof top Swimming Pool, Gym $1600/Month 1Bedroom 1Bath$1800~$2300/Month 2BedroomBig Living room, Western KitchenNew Full Furniture, 1Car ParkingTel: 077 777 697 or 012 939 958

2BedRoom ApARtment foR Rent Boeung Trobek or Russian Market $500/Month 2Bedroom, 2Bath1Living room and Nice KitchenBig Balcony and Fully FurnishedTel: 012 939 958 or 077 777 697

seRvices ApARtment foR Rent New, Swimming Pool and Gym Located near Russian Market-$750/month 1Bedroom, 1Bath-$1050/month 2Bedroom, 2BathBig Living room, Western KitchenTel: 077 777 697 or 012 939 958

swimming pooL ApARtment Rent Great Location in BKK1 Area- $1400/Month 2Bedroom 2Bath- $2400/Month 3Bedroom 3BathBig Living room, Western Kitchen New Full Furniture, 1Car ParkingTel: 077 777 697 or 012 939 958

Big teRRAce ApARtment Rent in BKK3 Area, Private Terrace$550/Month 2Bedroom, 2Bath1Living room and Nice KitchenTel: 012 939 958 or 077 777 697

swimming pooL ApARtment for Rent: Good Location BKK1 Area$1200/month for 2Bedroom 2BathBig Living room, Western KitchenTel: 077 777 697 or 012 939 958

777 697

seRvice ApARtment foR Rent: BKk1: $700/Month Incl Cleaning Service, Internet, TV Cable fee 1Living room, 1Bedrooms, 2BathFully Furnished, 1Car Park SpaceTel: 077 777 697 or 012 939 958

vtRust ApARtment Building 1 For RENT at monthly price $275-$700, fully furnished, 24-hour receptionists, security guards, backup power, elevator, safe environment and security camera Location: #37, ST. 111, Boeung Brolit. 012 569 832 |012 944 191 | 012 912 651

vtRust ApARtmentBuilding 2 For RENT at monthly price $620-$900, Fully furnished 1&2 bedrooms, living room,kitchen,dining room, elevator, balcony & free entrance to Sokhah Fitness Club. Location: #31, ST. 113, Boeung Brolit. 012 569 832 | 012 944 191 | 012 912 651

swimming pooL ApARtment for rent 3 bed with bath, furnished, clean, western kitchen, big living room, big parking, and safe, swimming pool, gym Location: BKKI Tel: 012 503 356

nice Big teRRAce ApARtment for rent 3 beds - en-suit, available in BKKI area, fully furnished big balcony, huge balcony, western kitchen. Price : $ 1300 /m. Tel: 012 503 356

LARge ApARtment foR RentBeautiful 3 spacious bedrooms located in BKKI area, big living room open to the large balcony, airy & plenty of light, fully furnished. Price : 2000/m. 012 879 231

LuxuRy gARden viLLA foR Rent In Beoung Keng Kang I(BKKI),06 bed, large and open living room,basic furniture, western kitchen, garden and trees, big parking and playground, quiet & safety. the best location for residence and office.Price: US$4,500/monthTel: 092 23 26 23/ 081 23 00 00

tRAditionAL smALL viLLA For Rent In Beoung Trobek area, 04 bedr, large & open living room, basic furniture, western kitchen, garden and trees, big parking and playground, quiet & safety. the best location for residence and office.Price: $800/mTel: 092 23 26 23/ 081 23 00 00

BRAnd new modeRn viLLAFor Rent In Bassak Garden City, 05 bedrooms, large living room, very modern designed, some furniture, western kitchen, nice balcony, big parking and playground, very safety, The best location for resi-dence. Price: US$4,500/mTel: 092 23 26 23/ 081 23 00 00

modeRn swimming pooL Villa For Rent In Northbridge area, 5 bed plus 01 office room, large living room, very nice design, fully & modern furnished, nice pool and garden, western kitchen, nice balcony , big parking and playground,quiet & safe. Price: $3,000/mTel: 092 23 26 23/ 081 23 00 00

tRAditionAL viLLA foR RentIn BKKI area, 04 bedr, very big and open living room, western kitchen, good yard and parking, big balcony, very good for residence and office, very quiet and safety area.Price: $1,800/mTel: 092 23 26 23/081 23 00 00

tRAditionAL 1st fLooR viLLA For Rent Near Independent Monu-ment, 03 bed, very big and open living room, western kitchen, big balcony, very good for residence, very quiet and safety area.Price: US$800/monthTel: 092 23 26 23/081 23 00 00 www.towncityrealestate.com

modeRn ApARtment foR Rent Located in BKKI, 01-02 bed, Large living room, fully and modern furnished, modern kitchen, nice balcony, roof top gym, very good condition for living Price: US$1,200-US$1,400/month Tel: 092 23 26 23/081 23 00 00 www.towncityrealestate.com

westeRn Rooftop pooL Apartment for Rent Locatedin BKKI, 01&02&03 bed, roof top pool and gym, open living room, fully & modern furnished, western kitchen, nice balcony, very safety area, very good condition for living .Price: 1,200-$1,800-2,000/month Tel: 092 23 26 23/081 23 00 00

BRAnd new modeRnApartment For Rent BKK1, 01-02&Penthouse, Real Modern interior designed, large living room, light, fully & modern furniture, westernKitchen, roof top pool and gym, goodcondition for living, quiet & safe.Price: $1,500-2,000 and 3,500/mTel: 092 23 26 23/ 081 23 00 00

coLoniAL styLe ApARtment for Rent Located a long riverside, 01 and 02 bed, elevator, open living room, fully & classic furnished, nice kitchen, nice & big balcony, river view, very safety area, good condition for living.$930-$1770/m Tel: 092 23 26 23/081 23 00 00

veRy nice pooL ApARtment For Rent Located in BKKI area, 01-03 bed, nice pool and gym, open living room and lots of light, , fully and nice furnished, western kitchen, very nice balcony, very safety, very good condition for living. Price: $900-2,400 /mont Tel: 092 23 26 23/081 23 00 00

modeRn cLAssic ApARtment For Rent Located in BKKI, 02-03 bedrooms, fully and modernfurnished, modern kitchen, gym and nice balcony, very quiet and safety. Price: $1,400 $1,900/monthTel: 092 23 26 23/081 23 00 00www.towncityrealestate.com www.towncityrealestate.com

modeRn ApARtment foR Rent Located in south of Russian Market, 01-02 bedrooms, large living room, fully and modern furnished, modern kitchen, lots of light, nice balcony, very good condition for living, big parking.Price: US$600-US$850/monthTel: 092 23 26 23/081 23 00 00

office BuiLding foR RentLocated a long Norodom Blvd, 100 to 1700 sqm, big parking lot, big elevator, big staircase, 24h security and many facilities around. Price: US$10 - $14/month per sqm.Tel: 092 23 26 23/ 081 23 00 00www.towncityrealestate.com

BRAnd new wARehouse foR Rent Near Prey Sor Area (Ware-house zone), Size: 1,450sqm plus to 3,000sqm, electricity and water are connected. possible for trucks across.Price: US$1,7/sqmTel: 092 23 26 23/081 23 00 00

Rent styLish office spAce 440sqm to 1,300sqm, from 5$/sqmParking, 24h security, elevatorSpacious 5 meter high ceilingsLots of plants and light+ 60 sqm large balconyGreat view over Phnom Penh012 869 111 yellow-tower.com

vtRust ApARtment Building 3 For RENT, a fully furnished 1 bedroom, nice river view from your balcony, monthly price $500 with free cleaning, internet, water, cable TV, main-tenance Location: #112, St. Tonle Sap (peninsular) 012 569 832 | 012 944 191 | 012 912 651

vtRust ApARtment Building 4 For RENT, a luxurious 2bed, living room, kitchen, dining room, monthly price 1,040$, free for internet, cleaning, water & Entrance to Sokhah Fitness Club.Location: #247, ST.51 St. 360, BKK1 012 569 832| 012 944 191

| 012 912 651

ApARtment foR sALe (2 floor) Near rverside on street 130 rool enovate already (4m x8m)price: $82,000Tel: 012 30 21 37 015 836 168

Seeking to purchase Ground Level Or

Ground + Level I residential dwelling

in Phnom Penh. Up to USD 30,000

Phone: 089 721 857 / 012 927 472

Email: [email protected]

nice viLLA in BKKi foR Rent07 bed with bath located in BKKI, Basic furnished, clean, western kitchen, big living room, big balcony on the top. Rent: $3500 /m Tel: 012 879 231

swimming pooL viLLA in dp for rent 04 bed with bath located in DP, Basic furnished, clean, western kitchen, big living room, nice swimming pool, big parking.Rent: $3500 /m Tel: 012 879 231

BRAnd new ApARtment foR rent 01-02-3 bed with bath, furnished,clean, western kitchen, big living room, big parking, and safe Rent: $1200-2000-4000 /m Location: BKKI Tel: 012 503 356

THE PHNOM PENH POST May 30 , 2014 19

TravelTHE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 201420

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

PHNOM PENH - BANGKOK BANGKOK - PHNOM PENH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PHNOM PENH - BEIJING BEIJING - PHNOM PENH

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

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

QR 965 Daily 16:30 23:05 QR 964 Daily 01:00 15:05

PHNOM PENH - GUANGZHOU GUANGZHOU - PHNOM PENH

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

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

PHNOM PENH - HANOI HANOI - PHNOM PENH

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

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

QR 965 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

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

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

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

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

KA 205 2 19:00 22:35 - - - -

PHNOM PENH - INCHEON INCHEON - PHNOM PENH

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

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

PHNOM PENH - KUALA LUMPUR KUALA LUMPUR - PHNOM PENH

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

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

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

PHNOM PENH- PARIS PHNOM PENH - PARIS

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

PHNOM PENH - SHANGHAI SHANGHAI - PHNOM PENH

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

PHNOM PENH - SINGAPORE SINGAPORE - PHNOM PENH

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

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

3K 594 1234..7 15:25 18:20 3K 593 Daily 13:30 14:40

3K 594 ....56. 15:25 18:10 - - - -

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

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

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

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

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

PHNOM PENH -TAIPEI TAIPEI - PHNOM PENH

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

PHNOM PENH - VIENTIANE VIENTIANE - PHNOM PENH

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

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

PHNOM PENH - YANGON YANGON - SIEM REAP

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

SIEM REAP - PHNOM PENH

8M 401 1.3.6 11:45 12:30

SIEM REAP - BANGKOK BANGKOK - SIEM REAP

Flighs Days Dep Arrival Flighs Days Dep Arrival

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

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

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

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

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

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

SIEM REAP - GUANGZHOU GUANGZHOU - SIEM REAP

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

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

SIEM REAP -HANOI HANOI - SIEM REAP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SIEM REAP - INCHEON INCHEON - SIEM REAP

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

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

SIEM REAP - KUALA LUMPUR KUALA LUMPUR - SIEM REAP

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

MH 765 3.5.7 14:15 17:25 MH 764 3.5.7 12:10 13:15

SIEM REAP - MANILA MANILA - SIEM REAP

5J 258 2.4.7 22:30 02:11 5J 257 2.4.7 19:45 21:30

FLY DIRECT TO MYANMAR MONDAY, WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY

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

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

REGULAR SHIPPING LINES SCHEDULES CALLING PORT ROTATION

LINE CALLING SCHEDULES FREEQUENCY ROTATION PORTS

RCL (12calls/moth)

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

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

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

MEARSK (MCC)(4 calls/moth)

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

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

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

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

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

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

SGZ= Songkhla, ThailandSHV= Sihanoukville Port CambodiaSIN= SingaporeTPP= TanjungPelapas, Malaysia TYO= Tokyo, JapanTXG= Taichung, TaiwanYAT= Yantian, ChinaYOK= Yokohama, Japan

AIRLINES

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

Cambodia Angkor Air (K6)PP Office, #90+92+94Eo, St.217, Sk.Orussey4, Kh. 7Makara, 023 881 178 /77-718-333. Fax:+855 23-886-677 www.cambodiaangkorair.comE: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

Myanmar Airways International#90+92+94Eo, St. 217, Sk. Orussey4, Kh. 7 Makara, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.T:023 881 178 | F:023 886 677www.maiair.com

Dragon Air (KA)#168, Monireth, PPTel: 023 424 300Fax: 023 424 304 www.dragonair.com/kh

Tiger airwaysG. floor, Regency square, Suare, Suite #68/79, St.205, Sk Chamkarmorn, PPTel: (855) 95 969 888(855) 23 5515 888/5525888E: [email protected]

Koreanair (KE) Room.F3-R03, Intelligent Office Center, Monivong Blvd,PPTel: (855) 23 224 047-9www.koreanair.com

Cebu Pacific (5J)Phnom Penh: No. 333BMonivong Blvd. Tel: 023 219161Siem Reap: No. 50,Sivatha Blvd.Tel: 063 965487 E-mail: [email protected]

SilkAir (MI)Regency C,Unit 2-4, Tumnorb Teuk, Chamkarmorn Phnom PenhTel:023 988 629www.silkair.com

AIRLINES CODE COLOUR CODE2817 - 16 Tigerairways KA - Dragon Air 1 Monday

5J - CEBU Airways. MH - Malaysia Airlines 2 Tuesday

AK - Air Asia MI - SilkAir 3 Wednesday

BR - EVA Airways OZ - Asiana Airlines 4 Thursday

CI - China Airlines PG - Bangkok Airways 5 Friday

CZ - China Southern QR - Qatar Airways 6 Saturday

FD - Thai Air Asia QV - Lao Airlines 7 Sunday

FM - Shanghai Air SQ - Singapore Airlines

K6- Cambodia Angkor Air TG - Thai Airways | VN - Vietnam Airlines

This flight schedule information is updated about once a month. Further information, please contact direct to airline or a travel agent for flight schedule information.

SIEM REAP - SINGAPORE SINGAPORE - SIEM REAP

MI 633 1, 6, 7 16:35 22:15 MI 633 1, 6, 7 14:35 15:45

MI 622 2.4 10:40 15:20 MI 622 2.4 08:40 09:50

MI 630 5 12:25 15:40 MI 616 7 10:40 11:50

MI 615 7 12:45 16:05 MI 636 3, 2 13:55 17:40

MI 636 3, 2 18:30 21:35 MI 630 5 07:55 11:35

MI 617 5 18:35 21:55 MI 618 5 16:35 17:45

3K 598 .2....7 15:35 18:40 3K 597 .2....7 13:45 14:50

3K 598 ...4... 15:35 18:30 3K 597 ...4... 13:45 14:50

SIEM REAP - VIENTIANE VIENTIANE - SIEM REAP

QV 522 2.4.5.7 10:05 13:00 QV 512 2.4.5.7 06:30 09:25

SIEM REAP - YANGON YANGON - SIEM REAP

8M 402 1. 5 20:15 21:25 8M 401 1. 5 17:05 19:15

PREAH SIHANOUK - SIEM REAP SIEM REAP - PREAH SIHANOUK

Flighs Days Dep Arrival Flighs Days Dep Arrival

K6 130 1-3-5 12:55 13:55 K6 131 1-3-5 11:20 12:20

Will Coldwell

By THE time the World Cup is over, mary San-tos da Silva hopes she will be able to afford

to build an extra floor on the roof of her house. a resident of alto de Ondina, a neighbour-hood overlooking the ocean in the city of Salvador, mary is one of an increasing number of favela dwellers renting out their homes to football fans travelling to the tournament.

“This business helps me in two ways,” she says. “It is great to make some money for my family, and it will mean I can build an extra floor where my daughter can live. But sec-ondly, both my daughters are learning English. They love the opportunity to practise speaking and broaden their horizons through this cul-tural exchange.”

mary, like others from her favela, is renting her property with the help of nonprofit or-ganisation Football Beyond Borders. The organisation – which uses football as a means to break down prejudice and inequality – has been working with a small group of families to set up “accommodation hubs” for fans staying in the city during the World Cup, to help spread some of the gains from the influx of tourists.

With Tripadvisor report-ing a match day increase on room rates of 212 per cent in Salvador, the price of rooms in Rio increasing by 600 per cent and the average price of a hotel room in Rio now at £289 ($483), the favelas, with rooms at around £17-£20 per night – offer a more affordable alter-native for fans already strug-gling to keep their trip within budget. The project, and other favela accommodation busi-nesses across the country, also offer an opportunity for visitors to experience a very

different side of Brazil.So far visitors from Scot-

land, France, Germany, Bra-zil, Finland and the US have booked to stay in the Salvador favelas, which have already hosted some visitors earlier this year. Guardian journalist Josh Strauss stayed in one of the apartments coordinated by Football Beyond Borders in april. The welcome he re-ceived was “incredible”.

“mama, the head of the fam-ily, took us in as one of her own – making sure we had every-thing we needed, were well fed, knew where to go and how to get there,” he says. “She would even escort us to bus stops, stop the bus and have stern words with the driver to look out for us when we needed to get off. She and her family completely changed the feel-ing and experience of our trip – knowing that we had Brazil-ians as surrogate family made us feel welcome and safe in a way only locals can.”

This is one of the positive aspects being used to promote favela holiday accommoda-tion by Brazil tourism com-pany Favela Experience who promise an “immersive” and “authentic” stay.

Other less conventional ac-commodation options being sought by budget-conscious fans during the World Cup in-clude camping and staying in one of Brazil’s many “Love Ho-tels”. World Cup Camping is a British property development company that has developed a purpose-built campsite on the outskirts of Rio to cater for football fans , with prices set at £35 per person per night. Love Hotels – traditionally rented to amorous couples by the hour – have been restructuring to accommodate advanced bookings. Six-hour blocks (just enough for a decent night’s sleep) cost between £50-£100. the guardian

Favela option for travellers to the World Cup

Rocinha is the largest hill favela in Rio de Janeiro. Some favelas will be offering accommodation for Brazil’s World Cup. PhOtO SuPPLied

Paul George scored 21 of his 37 points in the fourth quarter as the Indiana Pacers

staved off elimination by beat-ing the two-time defending champion Miami Heat 93-90 on Wednesday.

George also had 31 points in the second half and shot 15-of-28 overall from the floor for the Pacers who still trail the Heat three games to two in the best-of-seven Eastern Confer-ence championship series.

“I just came out firing. My teammates found me and I got hot,” said George. “I felt in rhythm, regardless of who was guarding me. I was just in the zone.”

The playoff series shifts back to southern Florida for game six today.

The Heat are trying to be-come the fourth team in Na-tional Basketball association history to advance to the finals four straight seasons in a row.

Miami’s leBron James fin-ished with a career playoff-low

of seven points on just two-of-10 shooting as he battled foul trouble throughout.

James played just 25 total minutes as the Heat had to play all of the second and most of the third quarters without their superstar.

“It’s not something I’m ac-customed to,” James said of sitting on the bench with foul trouble. “I wasn’t able to make plays and help our team win.”

Indiana needed to overcome a double-digit deficit earlier in the game and a Chris Bosh three-point try in the closing seconds that bounced out of danger. David West tallied 19 points, Roy Hibbert had 10 points and 13 rebounds while lance Stephenson scored 12 for the Pacers, who are trying to come back from 3-1 down and win a series for the first time in franchise history.

Rashard lewis and Dwyane Wade each scored 18 points for the Heat, while Bosh fin-ished with 20 points and 10 rebounds in the loss.

James would like to forget this game. Not only did he commit five fouls within the first three quarters for the first time in his career but it was just the second time in his career he was held to sin-gle digit scoring.

“We are going back home, learn from our mistakes and come back Friday,” said James. “We need one more win to get to the finals and that is all I am concerned about.”

Indiana trailed by 11 dur-ing an embarrassing 33-point performance in the first half. They got their offence on track in the third by scoring 31 points in the quarter, includ-ing 11 straight at one stage. George capped the surge with a fast break dunk to give the Pacers a 52-50 lead.

His buzzer-beating three-pointer put the Pacers ahead 64-57 at the end of the third.

another George dunk off a steal pushed Indiana’s lead to 77-66 early in the fourth quarter, but nine consecutive

Miami points got the Heat back into it.

Miami pushed hard to try and retake the lead but George was able to counter each time with a key bucket of his own.

“My message to the whole team was the light needs to be on green for all of us,” coach Frank Vogel said. “You need to go, you need to attack, you need to be aggressive. Paul took it and ran with it and took it to a crazy level.”

In the final seconds Miami’s Bosh had a potential go-ahead three-pointer from the corner, but his shot was contested and clanged off the rim.

Hibbert grabbed the re-bound, giving the Pacers the victory. George said going back to Miami won’t be easy but they now know what it takes to close out playoff games against the Heat.

“It will be a totally differ-ent ball game, but we have got to rise to the challenge – it will be a fun challenge,” he said. AFP

SportTHE PHNOM PENH POST MaY 30, 2014 21

WoRlD number one adam Scott and two-time major champ Rory McIlroy, who are fresh off tournament victories, were to tee off together in the opening round of the Memo-rial Tournament yesterday.

Scott, who reached number one in the world last week for the first time in his career, won the Colonial tournament while McIlroy captured the BMW PGa Championship for his sixth European Tour title but first on European soil.

They will play the first two rounds of this week’s $6.2 mil-lion Memorial Tournament in a threesome that also includes Jason Day.

“I feel like this course sets up well for me, and I am playing well,” australia’s Scott said on Wednesday. “I am going to try and keep the momentum go-ing after last week.”

Indeed, last week helped validate his rise to the top of the ladder as he was playing for the first time since over-taking Tiger Woods for num-ber one.

Scott says he didn’t want to be known as a one-week num-ber 1 wonder. So he made sure he got into a solid pre-tourna-ment routine last week so that he would be able to handle the physical and mental chal-lenges that come with trying to win a PGa tournament.

Former world number one McIlroy’s success came on the opposite side of the globe. But his impressive victory has

been tempered somewhat by his recent breakup with tennis star Caroline Wozniacki.

McIlroy called off his en-gagement to Wozniacki a little over a week ago after the wed-ding invites had already been sent out. luckily for him, he was able to lose himself in the tournament at Wentworth and come out victorious.

“It is good to be here, obvi-ously coming off the back of a win last week,” said McIlroy on Wednesday. “It gives me a lot of confidence coming into here and with the uS open in a couple week’s time.”

Tiger Woods will miss his second major championship of 2014 as he struggles to re-turn to top form following back surgery earlier this year.

The 14-time major winner announced on his website Wednesday that he is skipping next month’s uS open while he continues his rehabilita-tion. “unfortunately, I won’t be there because I’m not yet physically able to play com-petitive golf,” Woods said.

“I’d like to convey my regrets to the uSGa leadership, the volunteers and the fans that I won’t be at Pinehurst.”

Woods has not competed since the final round of the WGC-Cadillac Champion-ship in March and this is the sixth major championship the american has missed because of injuries.

He shot a third round 66 at the WGC-Cadillac to vault back into contention but struggled with back pain in the final round on March 9. Three weeks later, he under-went microdiscectomy sur-gery to alleviate a pinched nerve in his back. The 38-year-old also missed four months of the 2011 season with knee and achilles injuries.

Woods told reporters earlier this month that there was no timetable for his return.

“That has been the real question through all this. There is no date,” he said. “It’s not up to me. It’s not going to be up to me if I play. It’s up to my doctors.” AFP

Scott, McIlroy aiming to keep momentum as Woods out of uS open

Pacers stay alive with win

Tiger Woods grimaces in pain after his hitting a tee shot at the US Open on June 15, 2008. AFP

Praying to reignAfter months of sweat and toil on and off the tennis courts to keep themselves absolutely fighting fit, the Cambodian Davis Cup squad turned for a traditional spiritual lift in the coastal town of Kep yesterday as the the Asia Oceania Group III Campaign in Iran draws closer. The six members of the Tehran-bound team, Captain Tep Rithivit, coach Braen Aneiros, along with players Bun Kenny, Panhara Mam, Phalkun Mam and Long Samneang, visited the Kampoul Phnom Kep, a famous nunnery atop a mountain to offer prayers and seek divine blessings before their quest for Cup success begins in Tehran in two weeks. ‘It doesn’t matter what you believe in, be it Buddhism or Christianity, this trip and the visit to Kampoul Phnom Kep is more of a spiritual tradition,’ secretary-general of Tennis Cambodia and Captain of the Davis Cup squad Tep Rithivit said. ‘It’s something we have started and have done religiously before competition abroad, and it’s something we will continue to do long into the future.’ HS MANJUNATH

22 THE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 2014

Sport Victory at Mugello is a matter of honour: RossiVALENTINO Rossi will be hoping to entertain Italian MotoGP fans at his first home race of the year, in a contest he describes as “a matter of honour”. The Italian GP will be Rossi’s 300th career race. “It will be my 300th GP this weekend and for that I am not very happy because it means that I’m old! But I’m happy because I am in good shape and I can still be very fast,” the 35-year-old said. The Urbino native is the only rider to record seven straight wins at the Gran Premio d’Italia beteen 2002 to 2008, but will be determined to undo a “did not finish” last year and claw back some distance from championship leader Marc Marquez who has a 44-point lead over him at the top of the standings with 125 points after five wins in the first five races. Dani Pedrosa is two points ahead of Rossi in second on 83 points. “I am very happy to go to Mugello,” Rossi said. “This is a beautiful track and I like it so much. There are always 25 points as the other races, but Mugello is a matter of honour. Jorge [Lorenzo] has won the last three years on the Yamaha, doing fantastic races, and this means the M1 is very compet-itive on this track.” JOE CURTIN

Tate ‘scared’ by wild tackle in Origin game QUEENsLAND back Brent Tate said the moment he was hurled in a cartwheeling tackle during a fierce state of Origin rugby league match against New south Wales was the most frightening of his life. NsW stand-off Josh Reynolds was charged with making a dangerous throw on Tate in his team’s bruising 12-8 win over Queensland in Brisbane late on Wednesday. “I’ve never been more frightened in all my life,” said Tate, who wears a neck brace in matches following a serious neck injury in 2005. “My legs were shaking for a good 10 minutes after that. “I don’t think I’ve ever been as scared in a rugby league match as that. I had absolutely no control of where I was going. It gave me a big fright.” Reynolds successfully had the severity of his dangerous throw charge downgraded at a NRL judiciary hearing late yesterday enabling him to play in the second state of Origin game next month. AFP

IAAF to use Hawk-Eye in world championshipsHAWk-EYE software is set to be used at next year’s world championships after a successful trial by the IAAF at the inaugural world relays in Nassau, where baton changeovers were closely monitored and disqualifications decided by new cameras in the stadium. The British-based company used seven cameras to film the changeover boxes during the relays and ensure all baton exchanges were made legitimately and that runners did not step out of their designated lane. It means that future decisions on disqualification could be made in a matter of minutes ensuring that the chaotic scenes of last year’s world championships in Moscow will not be repeated. THE GUARDIAN

Saker salutes Jordan after stunning 10-wicket England rout of Sri LankaEngLand bowling coach dav-id Saker hailed Chris Jordan as the “ultimate professional” after the all-rounder spear-headed a stunning 10-wicket defeat of Sri Lanka in the third one-day international.

Sussex paceman Jordan took a career-best five wickets for 29 runs as England dismissed Sri Lanka for just 67 at Old Trafford on Wednesday. “The way he prepares for every game, the way he looks after himself, he’s the ultimate professional,” Saker said of Jordan.

Saker, himself a former Vic-toria and Tasmania seam bowl-er, added Jordan’s attitude was equalled only by his talent.

“He always wants to get bet-ter and he is getting better every game,” the 47-year-old bowling guru insisted.

“He fields really well. He bowls well and when he gets the ball in his area he hits it out of the park so he’s been a fan-tastic find for us,” Saker added of the Barbados-born Jordan, who came to England after being scouted for a sports scholarship at London school dulwich College by former Test batsman Bill athey.

Sri Lanka’s total was the low-est score made by any Test nation against England in a one-day international and sec-ond only to minnows Canada’s 45, also at Old Trafford, during the 1979 World Cup.

Bowling at a lively pace, Jor-

dan made sure there was no way back for Sri Lanka, sent into bat in overcast conditions by England captain alastair Cook, after James anderson had starred on his Lancashire home ground with a spell of two wickets for no runs in five balls to remove both openers.

Cook and Ian Bell made light work of scoring the winning runs, Bell finishing a match that lasted just 36.1 overs out of a possible 100 with a straight six off spinner Rangana Herath as England went 2-1 up in this five-match series.

But there was no doubting the star of the show, with Jor-dan collecting his second man-of-the-match award in three games after taking three for 25 in England’s series-opening 81

run-win at The Oval last week.Even more impressive was

the fact this dominant display, only their fifth 10-wicket win at this level, came just three days after England had been skittled out for 99 during Sri Lanka’s 157-run win in the sec-ond OdI at Chester-le-Street.

Sri Lanka captain angelo mathews was left hoping his side could follow England’s example in bouncing back from a heavy defeat come Sat-urday’s fourth OdI at Lord’s.

“We are in the same situa-tion,” he said. “It’s one of the worst games I’ve ever played, ever been a part of. Poor shot selection was the main reason we got so few runs. But it was never a 67 wicket – there were no demons in it.” AFP

England’s Chris Jordan celebrates after taking the wicket of Sri Lanka’s Dinesh Chandimal at Old Trafford on Wednesday. AFP

ITaLIan Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani-CSF) held off a small group of chasers in the home straight to claim his maiden giro d’Italia victory in the 17th stage on Wednesday.

Race leader nairo Quintana (movistar) crossed the finish line with the main peloton and his closest rivals nearly 15 minutes later following a 208 kilometre trek from Sarnoni-co to Vittorio Veneto that saw a breakaway go unchallenged all the way to the finish.

Quintana, the runner-up on last year’s Tour de France, spent his first day in the race’s fabled ‘maglia rosa’ (pink jersey) to retain his 1min 41sec lead on Rigoberto Uran (Omega-Pharma) and 3:21 cushion on australian Cadel Evans (BmC).

But it was a tense day in the saddle for the 24-year-old Co-lombian, who was accused of foul play following his victory on stage 16 when he took the jersey from Uran, last year’s runner-up, and then faced calls for his time advantage to be cancelled.

Quintana said of Tuesday’s controversy: “We’re making a story out of nothing. Why should they take a time ad-vantage away that I earned out on the road?

“I don’t understand the prob-lem. most of the time I made, I did on the final climb.”

With moods tense, there was little reaction from the main bunch when an early break-away formed and went on to build a healthy lead that stood at 12 minutes with a little over 50 kilometres remaining.

after a series of attacks and counter-attacks in the clos-ing kilometres, Pirazzi broke free in the final 1.3km and just thwarted a small chas-ing group from ending his bid metres before the line.

His first giro win was cele-brated by a defiant gesture at the finish, after which Pirazzi explained: “It’s my response to all my critics.”

“I’ve been searching five years for this victory, it was beginning to get me down, but finally I’ve done it,” added the 27-year-old.

“a lot of people criticised my lack of results, but I can assure them I’ve been working hard. This is my reward for that.”

It was also Bardiani-CSF’s third win inside a week, fol-lowing successes by marco Canola and Enrico Battaglin on the 13th and 14th stages.

yesterday the race moved back into the mountains on the 18th stage from Belluno to Panarotta Refuge.

Two mountain passes, the San Pellegrino and the Rede-bus, will be crossed before the peloton tackle the 16.8 kilo-metre rise to the finish. AFP

Pirazzi sprints to stage, Quintana still in pink

Sarries vow to bounce back in finala

FTER Saracens had defeated Harlequins resoundingly at Wembley in march, the di-rector of rugby of their Lon-

don rivals, Conor O’Shea, contrasted the recent trophy records of the two clubs. no English side had won more in the previous three years than Quins, he noted, while his opponents had not needed silver polish in that time.

“They will be pretty keen to end that,” he said. Even more so now after the European Cup final, between two clubs who had finished at the top of their respective leagues and were both chasing the double, was won deci-sively by Toulon. Having fallen in two semi-finals last season, to Toulon and northampton, Saracens are looking at the prospect of a repeat one stage fur-ther along.

They play the Saints in Saturday’s Premiership final at Twickenham and, while northampton have a swagger af-ter coming from behind to defeat Bath in last Friday’s amlin Challenge Cup final at Cardiff arms Park, Saracens face another season ending in anticli-max. The portents are not good: when Toulon beat them in the semi-final last season, Sarries lost at home to northampton in the Premiership semi-final two weeks later and were routed at Franklin’s gardens last October a week after being pipped by Toulouse in the Heineken Cup at Wembley.

Saracens had beaten Clermont au-vergne by 40 points in the semi-final having controlled the breakdown, but after winning early turnovers against Toulon, the tackle area became domi-nated by Steffon armitage and Juan Smith. The wolf pack scattered and Sarries became too individual.

“I hope it is something we learn from,” said the England no8 Billy Vuni-

pola. “I do not think we left anything out there as a team, they just got the better of us. We did not play as we can, but there was no lack of heart or effort. When we receive a setback, we tend to react positively and that has to be the case this week. We know what we have to improve on: we lacked a bit of detail against Toulon, which is why they won so many turnovers.

“I perhaps tried to take it on myself too much and went away from the team patterns. It think it was just my lack of spatial awareness and it is an area I need to work on, staying within the team framework rather than trying to be Superman. We know what hap-pened last year and we do not want a repeat of that: northampton are a good team and we cannot just play on emotion. They will be at the top of

their game and we need to come up with a plan and carry it out.”

Saracens were appearing in the Eu-ropean Cup final for the first time and some of their supporters missed the start of the game, the one period when they were on top, because of heavy traffic. all those who travelled on offi-cial coaches will receive a full refund.

Saracens have lost four of their past five matches to northampton, two in the LV Cup, and their last two victories against the Saints have been by narrow margins, although they were in control at allianz Park last month until con-ceding two late tries.

“We are desperate to finish the sea-son with a trophy,” said the centre Brad Barritt. “If we achieve that, we will be able to reflect on a very success-ful campaign.”

meanwhile, Toulon boss mourad Boudjellal has told his players they need to follow up their European Cup triumph by winning the French Top-14 crown against Castres on Saturday.

Bernard Laporte’s side crushed Sar-acens 23-6 in Cardiff last weekend to win their second consecutive Euro-pean Cup and now have the chance to become the first French side to complete a domestic and European double.

“With all the respect I have for Cas-tres, we cannot fail” said Boudjellal as his side look to avenge their defeat to the same opposition in the final of last season’s competition. “We are fully aware that last year we underestimat-ed Castres and that they are a team who deserve to be taken seriously.

“They are the French champions, they are in the final once more, they have even knocked out Clermont and montpellier who, for me, were two of the favourites.”

Boudjellal is steadfast in his deter-mination to deliver the double for the fans, as well as for fly half Jonny Wilkinson, who will retire after Satur-day’s final. “We cannot mess it up,” the Toulon manager insisted.

Wilkinson signed off his profession-al career on British soil with a typical-ly clinical kicking display in Toulon’s comprehensive defeat of Saracens and the French side are determined to learn from last year’s disappointment, when they were unable to add to their maiden European Cup.

alongside Wilkinson, Saturday’s clash will be the final game in the ca-reers of South africans danie Rossouw and Joe van niekerk.

Saracns take on Saints at 9pm Cam-bodian time, and Toulon clash with Castres at 10.55pm. THE GUARDIAN/AFP

Saracens’ number 8 Billy Vunipola charges through the tackle of Toulon’s wing Drew Mitchell during the European Cup final in Cardiff on Saturday. AFP

23Football

THE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 2014

Svay Rieng put to sword by Niigata in SingaporeGoals from K okazaki, K sakamoto and K Fukuzaki were the difference as svay Rieng went down 3-0 to albirex Niigata in the RHB singapore Cup on Wednesday. last year’s s.league runners-up, the singapore franchise of their namesake Japanese club, opened the scoring at the Jalan Besar stadium on 9 minutes when okazaki netted. sakamoto furthered the lead 8 minutes before half-time and Fukuzaki put the contest beyond doubt in the 62nd minute. JoE CURTIN

Swansea sign Fabianski on a free from ArsenalsWaNsEa City have signed goalkeeper lukasz Fabianski from arsenal on a four-year contract, the Welsh club have confirmed. The 29-year-old will join on July 1 on the expiry of his arsenal contract to end a seven-year spell with the north london club, one that he signed off on with a Fa Cup final victory over Hull last earlier this month. arsene Wenger had said he had hoped to keep the goalkeeper as backup to Wojciech szczesny but Fabianski rejected a new contract in order to seek more regular first-team football. The Polish international becomes Garry Monk’s first signing as swansea manager, and could be an indicator that Michel Vorm, will leave the club. Vorm has reportedly been the subject of interest from both arsenal and liverpool. THE GUaRDIaN

Liverpool make $27M bid for Sevilla’s MorenolIVERPool have formalised their interest in alberto Moreno with an offer worth €20 million ($27 million) for the sevilla left-back, according to reports in spain. Brendan Rodgers has prioritised a new left-back for this summer and having considered an approach to Chelsea for Ryan Bertrand, has made Moreno his preferred option. Moreno has been linked with several clubs in recent months, including Chelsea, Napoli, who had an offer rejected in January, and Real Madrid. But liverpool have moved first with a formal offer for the left-back as they attempt to secure proven quality for next season’s Champions league. The anfield club’s bid is believed to be worth €20 million in total, a figure that includes the midfielder suso as a makeweight. THE GUaRDIaN

HS Manjunath

The clash between National Police and Boeung Ket rubber on Saturday gets the top bill-ing when a compact card of four matches in the metfone C League are gone through at the Olympic Stadium over the weekend.

The 2013 mCL runners-up Boeung Ket were in a spot of bother against Triasia, who led by an early goal for most part of the game. It was in the last 10 minutes that Boeung Ket got going and found two strikes before the final whistle to complete a thrilling victory.

Boeung Ket are hard on the heels of table-topping Phnom Penh Crown and, facing tough opposition like the Police, con-solidation could well be their watchword. Police confirmed their superiority over Build Bright United with a 1-0 win

last week that followed their hun Sen Cup final win over the same side two months ago. It is fair to expect a high intensity contest in which the stakes are bound to be high.

In the day’s second fixture, Triasia take on the punchbags of the competition, albirex Ni-igata, who have lost all but one of their 12 matches so far.

In Sunday’s fare, ministry of National Defence should as-sert themselves over Western University, whose chances of staying in the Premier League are still under a cloud.

League leaders Phnom Penh Crown, in impressive form, ought to get the measure of Kirivong Sok Sen Chey who have been nagged by indiffer-ent form like never before.

The visitors from Takeo are third from bottom and any slip-ups may pitch them into a fight for survival.

Police clash with Boeung Ket gets mCL top billing

Scotland have to settle for draw as Nigeria snatch late equaliserNIgerIa coach Stephen Keshi insisted his players are “not gamblers” after his side twice came from behind to deny Scotland a fifth victory in six. his comments came after gor-don Strachan’s side produced an impressive performance to provide further hope that their years in the wilderness are coming to an end.

Before this game the Scottish Football association was con-tacted by the National Crime agency about a potential match-fixing threat. In the end Nigeria secured a draw in the 90th minute through Uche Nwofor, adding to an earlier effort from michael Uchebo and cancelling out Charlie mulgrew’s improvised opener and an own-goal from azubuike egwuekwe.

In an incident that was timed unfortunately given the events of the week the Nigeria goal-

keeper, austin ejide, appeared to deflect the ball into his own net under pressure from grant hanley in the first half, with the referee eventually disallowing the goal.

For Scotland these are unex-pected times, even if they squandered a victory at the death. Strachan’s side per-formed well against a Nigeria team that will soon be at the World Cup as he blooded two youngsters: andrew rob-ertson making his first start and Craig Forsyth his debut.

The result means Scotland can begin preparing for their euro 2016 qualifying campaign, beginning on September 7 in germany, with optimism. “We could have ended up with four or five goals and that’s the first time I have said that. In terms of play so far that’s as good as it gets,” said Strachan, who refused to be drawn on the

match-fixing threat. “Overall I think there was a bit of flair and imagination. Nigeria are a ter-rific side and they upped their level and pressure.”

The Super eagles were not at their best but in fairness this was an experimental evening in which their big hitters were either absent or watched the majority of the match from the dugout. It was a chance for the reserves to stake a claim for a golden ticket, yet few managed to even open the wrapper.

The Nigeria players hoping to impress Keshi did not start well. In fact, the defence, which included Joseph yobo at centre-half, were all over the place. Keshi rested several key players and selected a second-string side that included Shola ameobi in attack, while efe ambrose, Peter Odemwingie and Victor moses sat on the bench. THE GUaRDIaN

United owner malcolm glazer dead at 85maLCOLm glazer, the controversial american owner of english Premier League giants manchester United, died on Wednesday. he was 85.

glazer – the son of a Lithuanian immi-grant who went on to build a diverse business empire – gained a global pro-file through his ownership of United, one of the world’s biggest and best sup-ported football clubs.

But he was deeply unpopular with hardcore United fans after loading the club with hundreds of millions of dol-lars in debt following a 2005 buyout.

his death was announced on the web-site of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers amer-

ican football team, one of his other sports franchises.

“The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are sad-dened to announce the passing of Owner/President malcolm glazer ear-lier this morning at the age of 85,” the statement said. “a dynamic business leader, glazer helped mold the Buc-caneers into a model franchise and one respected league-wide.”

Under glazer’s stewardship of the Buccaneers, the NFL team enjoyed its first Super Bowl success in 2002.

“malcolm glazer was the guiding force behind the building of a Super Bowl-champion organisation,” NFL

commissioner roger goodell said on Wednesday.

glazer’s death is not expected to have any bearing on the ownership of the club, with his family retaining a 90 per cent holding in United. his sons Joel and avram glazer continue to serve as co-chairmen of the club. another son, Bryan, remains on the United board.

“The thoughts of everyone at man-chester United are with his family tonight,” the Premier League club said on Wednesday.

glazer’s 2005 takeover of United in a leveraged $1.2 billion buyout triggered widespread protests amongst the club’s

fans. although glazer’s reign coincided with a glut of silverware – including five Premier League crowns and the 2008 Champions League title – he remained a hate figure for many supporters.

manchester United Supporters’ Trust vice-chair Sean Bones said: “It would be inappropriate for me to make any comment about the death of malcolm glazer as I didn’t know him or his fam-ily personally.

“however, as a supporter, I am aware of the detrimental effect the glazers have had on the football club and the huge debt that has been placed on man-chester United. THE GUaRDIaN

hawking calculates success in BrazilIan Sample

aS STePheN hawk-ing arrived on stage in the basement of the Savoy hotel in

London, Peter Crouch robot-danced on the screen behind, Chris Waddle skied a penalty, and a Prodigy soundtrack thundered a helpful reminder to the waiting journalists: “ex-hale, exhale, exhale.”

It was not an obvious envi-ronment for the Cambridge cosmologist, who as former Lucasian professor of mathe-matics held the position once occupied by Sir Isaac Newton. hawking, a fellow of the royal Society, was here to tout some formulae he had drawn up for a bookmaker on england’s chances of success at the World Cup in Brazil. If it were anyone else, the room prob-ably would have been empty.

hawking was approached on the understanding that a theoretical physicist might be marginally better qualified to make predictions than Paul the Octopus, the eight-armed oracle that rose to fame by correctly selecting all the win-ners through its eating habits during the 2010 World Cup.

Scientists have a long, inglo-rious history of churning out

often meaningless equations for sponsors. all are commis-sioned by companies as Pr stunts and their value ends there. They are overwhelm-ingly drawn up by scientists whose names are unknown to any Nobel committee.

hawking, who may yet win a Nobel prize for noticing that black holes can evaporate, was asked by the Irish book-maker, Paddy Power, to spend a month looking at england’s World Cup performances and draw some conclusions. The company’s spokesman, who

happens to be named Paddy Power, said he had not ex-pected the world-renowned scientist to agree. “We thought there was a 1 per cent chance he’d say yes. But he did. I was totally surprised,” said Power.

Power refused to divulge how much the bookmakers had paid hawking, but the scientist said he split the fee between two charities, one devoted to saving children in Syria and the other to motor neurone disease, the condi-tion hawking was diagnosed with as a student.

To work out the conditions that suited england’s players best, hawking (or perhaps his students) analysed 45 World Cup matches the team had played since their last tourna-ment win in 1966. They also analysed 204 penalties taken in penalty shootouts, a partic-ular weakness for england.

hawking said the factors affecting england’s perfor-mance – though surely this applies to any team – can be broken down into five areas: environmental, physiologi-cal, psychological, political and tactical.

One aspect of england’s poor record in World Cup pen-alty shootouts since they won the trophy in 1966 perhaps doesn’t require a knowledge of high-level mathematics. “as we say in science,” hawking put it, “england couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo.”

On the psychological front, england have a better record wearing red than white shirts, perhaps because red can make players feel more confident and appear more aggressive, hawking added. england nor-mally play a 4-4-2 formation, but 4-3-3 has been slightly more successful in the past, with 58 per cent of matches won. Under 4-4-2 england

won 48 per cent of matches.england have taken part

in three World Cup penalty shootouts since they were introduced in 1978, and lost every time. hawking’s tips for success may not be news to the england players.

Placing the ball in the top left or top right corner of the net – more easily done with the side of the foot – is a win-ning strategy. But speed plays its part: “get a run-up of more than three steps. give it some welly,” the professor added.

Opening the report, he writes: “It is widely accepted in the field, that a key fac-tor of achieving World Cup champions status is winning matches.”

he concluded that england need to wear red, play 4-3-3, kick off in the afternoon and avoid referees from South america to best succeed in Brazil

hawking confessed he did not bet on sport and was not a fan of football. “Shouting at the television is not for me, but each to his own,” he said. Pushed to name a favourite, he noted the home advan-tage for Brazil. “I’m sure they have enough quality to lift the World Cup for the sixth time,” he said. THE GUaRDIaN

Stephen Hawking in London on Wednesday after presenting a formula to predict the chances of England winning the 2014 World Cup. aFP

RHB Singapore Cup Svay Rieng 0 Albirex Niigata 3

International friendlies Nigeria 2 Scotland 2 South Korea 0 Tunisia 1 Mexico 3 Israel 0 Denmark 1 Sweden 0

WedneSday’S ReSultS

RHB Singapore Cup Naga Corp v Home United

– 5.30pm

International friendlies Honduras v Turkey – 7am Qatar v Macedonia – 12am Iran v Angola – 1am Austria v Iceland – 1.30am Switzerland v Jamaica

– 1.30am England v Peru – 2am Spain v Bolivia – 3am

today’S FIxtuReS

24 THE PHNOM PENH POST may 30, 2014

Sport

On top of the worldMarathon participants start the Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon at Gorakshep near Mount Everest Base Camp in Nepal yesterday. The Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon, the world’s highest marathon, starts near the Khumbu icefall at Everest Base Camp (5,364 metres above sea level) and finishes at Namche Bazaar (3,440 metres above sea level). Nepali athlete Sudip Kulung, 26, won the 42.19 kilometre race in 3 hours, 52 minutes and nine seconds. AFP

Nadal restores order at French OpenD

eFeNDiNg champion Rafael Nadal returned a sense of normality to proceedings at Roland

garros after the exits of Serena Wil-liams, her sister, Venus, No2 seed Li Na, as well as those of the australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrin-ka, the game’s glamour boy, grigor Dimitrov, and Japan’s latest hope, Kei Nishikori, who had already left gaping holes in the men’s draw.

Nadal handed out a bruising les-son to highly rated austrian Domi-nic Thiem yesterday as a 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 victory took the Spaniard into the French Open third round.

eight-time winner Nadal, bidding to be the first man to clinch five Ro-land garros titles in a row, had been expected to face a severe test from the 20-year-old world number 57.

But Thiem, who trains for big matches by running through forests carrying tree trunks to build stami-na, ran out of steam on the Philippe Chatrier court despite showing oc-casional glimpses of potential.

Nadal took his career record in Paris to 61 wins against a single loss and goes on to face either Leonardo mayer of argentina or Russia’s Tey-muraz gabashvili.

“Dominic is a dangerous player and i knew that if i wasn’t playing well then i’d be in trouble,” Nadal said. “But he is a future star, 100 per cent. His level of ball is very high, he is strong on the forehand and backhand. He has everything to be a big champion.”

Thiem had beaten australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka in madrid and gave 27-year-old Nadal plenty to think about in an eight-minute opening game.

But Nadal proceeded to pounce on Thiem’s raw inconsistencies which saw the young austrian break the Spaniard twice only to be broken himself seven times and commit 41 unforced errors.

Nadal’s compatriot David Ferrer, the fifth seed and last year’s run-ner-up, cruised past italy’s Simone Bolelli 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 and next faces either italy’s andreas Seppi or Juan monaco of argentina.

Ferrer has made the quarter-finals of all of his last nine majors and such was the ease of his fifth win in five against Bolelli that the most chal-lenging part of his day was fielding questions over his grooming.

“i changed my haircut. That’s all. But there is nothing superstitious

about it,” the Balearic islander said.Donald young, the former world

junior number one who has con-sistently struggled to live up to the huge hype surrounding him, made the third round for the first time by beating Spanish 26th seed Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 7-6 (7/1), 6-3.

“Hindsight is 20/20. The hype came because at the time i was do-ing things no one else had done,” he said. “Looking at it again, you might do some things different, but i can’t do it now. if i had it over to do again, i probably would do a few things different.”

Serena’s departure meant the top two seeds are gone from the draw after two rounds, the earliest such high-class cull in the tournament’s history. in a summer of doubt, the only certainty in tennis seems to be that the next surprise is not far away.

Williams might still be the best player in the world. and she could yet add to her collection of 17 grand slam titles, her next opportunity ar-riving at Wimbledon in June. But the 32-year-old american looked anything but a champion in Paris, either during her desultory 6-2, 6-2 second-round defeat by the 20-year-old Spaniard garbine muguruza,

when she was near tears towards the end – or in a press conference afterwards that had all the buzz of a coroner’s inquest.

Serena – who would not blame in-jury or the occasional gusts of wind on a grey day for her error-strewn tennis – looked beat, sounded exas-perated and, once she had tetchily batted away questions about the most disappointing performance of her career, could not wait to leave a place where she has won two of her slam titles.

in an opening few days of rum-bling upsets, hers was by some way the biggest: in 288 slam matches, Williams has never won fewer games than the four she eked out against muguruza, who is 35 in the world and took just two games off her when they last met, which was in the 2013 australian Open.

across Roland garros there is now a mood of insurrection, lightened only by regulation wins later in the afternoon for Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. andy murray was playing yesterday against unranked australian marinko “mad Dog” ma-tosevic and must have been hoping this nonsense will cease.

Serena, meanwhile, has some

damage to repair. “i don’t think anything worked for me today,” she said. “garbine played really well, re-ally smart. i didn’t adapt.”

However, worrying as the defeat was, of rather more concern are her prospects for the rest of the sum-mer and, if there is no quick return to her best, what remains of her wonderful career.

“i just feel like i don’t have to win another match,” she said. “i don’t have to win another tournament. everything and every day is a bo-nus for me. Obviously i want to do the best and i want to win and i want to be the best. That’s my whole goal,” she said.

“But it’s great sometimes to get knocked down because you have to get back up. i love getting back up. i love the challenge.”

Looking to make the most of the defeats of top seeds Serena Williams and Li Na in the women’s draw, Serb sixth seed Jelena Jankovic, three times a semi-finalist, eased past Ja-pan’s Kurumi Nara 7-5, 6-0.

“There is still lots of great players in the draw and every match gets tougher as we progress through the tournament,” Jankovic said. AFP/THE

GUARDIAN