For your mid-week diversion we offer some excerpts from the Cambodian press to give you a flavour of what makes the news here. There are three English language dailies and several web sites that translate stories from the Khmer language papers, so no shortage of sources. In fact, we haven’t been saving up interesting or curious items. The following are selected just from the last two or three days’ news.
The front page news is, of course, dominated by politics and the economy. What we’ve pulled out instead is what dominates the inside of the papers: accidents, domestic violence (sadly frequent), crime and celebrity news. Yes, it sounds a bit like home, but these particular headlines and stories are unlikely to show up in your hometown paper (not even The Province) soon, or at least, not all within a couple of days as they have here.
Man crushed to death after falling from car
PHNOM PENH (The Cambodia Herald) — A man died instantly after falling off a car and being crushed to death near Monivong Bridge, police said. Police said the car was loaded with salt and speeding at the time of the accident,
Tim Rotha shows skin
Fans were shocked over Model Tim Rotha’s revealing bikini picture at a beach in Sihanoukville. ”I never wanted to reveal my sexiness,” she told the latest issue of Angkor Thom magazine. ”I am sorry if I offended people,” she said. “I never wanted that to happen… I was ashamed at myself for attracting that kind of attention.”
“I don’t want to offend my culture with the bikini,” she said. “I don’t wear it on TV.”
“I will immediately delete the photos from my Facebook profile,” she said. “I didn’t know it would attract this much attention. It was just for fun.”
Hun Sen says all villages to have electricity by 2020
PHNOM PENH (The Cambodia Herald) — Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday that all Cambodian villages would have electricity by 2020 while 70 percent of households would have power by 2030.
The prime minister noted that only 11.5 percent of rural households had electricity in 2009 with most using generators, batteries and kerosene lamps.
Best man arrested for raping 14-year-old wedding guest
Police in Kampong Thom have arrested a best man for raping a drunken 14-year-old guest at a wedding reception in Stueng Sen district, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
Kampuchea Thmey quoted police as saying that the inebriated girl had asked the suspect, identified as 21-year-old Huot Hun Ham, to carry her home from the reception on Sunday.
Medical student shot to death while urinating
PHNOM PENH (The Cambodia Herald) – A medical student was shot to death by two unidentified assailants overnight after stopping his motorcycle to urinate, police said Thursday.
The shooting took place on Street 2004 near Northbridge School in Toek Thla commune in Sen Sok district. Police identified the victim as 23-year-old Pong Chanthea from Tomnop Toek commune in Chamkar Morn district.
A friend said the victim had gone home to get money to pay their karaoke bill and was shot three times by two men who tried to steal his motorcycle.
Frisky ox horns man to death in Pailin
PAILIN (The Cambodia Herald) – A frisky ox has horned a man to death in Sala Krao district, local residents said.
The wife of the victim, 42-year-old Doung Yorn, said the incident occurred Tuesday after her husband told her that he was leading the ox to a pond to drink.
Kim Khorn, 34, said she witnessed Doung Yorn repeatedly hitting the animal as it tried to approach a female ox.
UXO claims widow’s life in Kratie province
Last Updated on 25 February 2013
A deadly blast in Kratie over the weekend saw a young widow become one of the Kingdom’s earliest reported UXO fatalities of the year.
Sok Savoeun, 36, struck the 60-mm explosive while clearing grass at a rubber plantation in Snoul district’s Kravanh village at about 7am on Saturday.
“It is a 60-mm explosive shell that was left since wartime,” said Major Chan Sokim, chief of Snoul police.
The tragedy follows just two days after a policeman lost his right leg to a landmine while on patrol in Battambang’s Solot district.
The Cambodian Mine-UXO Victim Information System said 43 people were killed and another 185 injured by mines or UXO in 2012 alone.
With twenty-plus years in the wine business and event management under our belts we've made a lateral career move. We are in Cambodia for two years to transfer some of our business skills and experience to the local community and to learn as much as we can from them.
