You can’t blame them for trying…
Cambodia, the second-poorest country in Southeast Asia, plans to complete the listing requirements for its first stock exchange by April in preparation for a December opening, a top exchange official said today.
Author: andy
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Long Time Comin’
Five former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, which caused the death of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979- nearly a quarter of the population – will finally face judgment. A U.N.-backed tribuanl announced that the first hearing, for Kaing Guek Eav, 65, known as Comrade Duch, will begin on February 17. Duch commanded the Toul Sleng prison in Phnom Penh, where at least 14,000 people were tortured, killed or sent to the nearby burial site of Cheong Ek to be executed and disposed of.
Trade between Viet Nam and Cambodia came close to US$1.7 billion in 2008, a 31 percent year-on-year increase, according to sources from the Vietnam Commerce Bureau in Cambodia.
According to state news, Vietnam exported more than $1.45 billion worth of goods, including construction steel, farm machinery, fertilisers, plant protectants, consumer goods, processed agricultural produce and seafood, dairy products and re-exported oil and gas.
The number of internet users in China reached 298 million in 2008, nearly the populations of the United States, according to the official China Internet Network Information Center. The figure is a 43 percent increase over 2007.
There have been many articles, including this excellent one by James Fallows, on the manner in which the internet in China is censored – how the so-called Great Firewall of China operates. People who live outside the wall often do not fully appreciate just how it works, doesn’t work, the ease of which it can be circumvented, and how many people actually don’t bother or care. With so many people online in China, those who are outside the wall and want to feel part of the action can dowload this Mozilla Firefox plug.
Rubber replaces rice as crop of choice in remote Laotian village, not everyone is happy about it.
Laos’ Communist regime touts rubber as a miracle crop that will help lift the country from the ranks of the world’s poorest nations. China is expected to consume a third of the world’s rubber by 2020, become its largest car market and put 200 million vehicles on the road.
But some Laotian farmers are losing their ancestral lands or being forced to become wage workers on what were once their fields. Chinese companies are accused of getting rubber concessions from officials and not compensating farmers. They also are accused of violating laws, human rights and the environment, under conditions described by experts as “anarchic.”
As China continues to assert its presence in the world, its actions will continue to be judged by both those who perscribe to the idea of a hamonious rise, and those who see something else, like the rioters in Zambia who forced President Hu Jintao to cancel an official visit to a Chinese-owned copper mine last year.
Like millions of immigrants before them, the Cham of Southern California are trying to hold onto their identity in a strange land. The Cham, descendants from the Ancient Kingdom of Champa located on the coastline of present-day Vietnam, have spent generations looking for a place to call home.
For centuries, they have been chased from place to place — from the highlands of Vietnam to the rivers of Cambodia and, in the bloody aftermath of genocide, to the United States, where thousands have settled.
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Cuba’s tourism revenues up 13%
According to a government report, some 2.35 million foreigners visited Cuba last year, 9.3 percent more than in 2007, according to a National Office of Statistics report posted online last week. The visitor surge helped the industry earn about $326 million more than it did in 2007.
That figure could double in 2009 if the United States lifts or significantly changes its embargo on the island nation.
According to the New York Times, Azerbaijan has begun to enforce a ban on foreign companies from broadcasting on national frequencies, effectively closing its airwaves to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America and the BBC.
The BBC reports that just hours before the deadline expired, negotiating teams from Vietnam and China announced a consensus on their border demarcation negoiations. However, it appears that nothing has been signed yet.
Speaking to BBC from Hanoi, Dr Nguyen Hong Thao from the State Border Committee, who was also a member of the Vietnamese negotiating team, insisted that “everything was agreed” at the final round of talks.
He said there remained only small technical details to be worked out.
Not everyone is especially happy with the negotiations it seems, and the event is getting almost no play in Vietnam.
“It seems they (Vietnam and China) were under huge time constraints to finalise the deal, even when not all was agreed and done,” [Bui Tin, a former army colonel and newspaper editor now in exile] said.
“The question is: who pressures whom?” added Mr Tin.
Many in Vietnam believe that their government has been pushed by Beijing into finalising agreements that are only beneficial to China.
Some also fear that Hanoi has conceded too much land, their concerns fuelled by the fact that no detailed map of the agreed boundaries has been made available to the public.
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Gas dispute spreads
The Russia-Ukraine gas dispute has spread to other European nations…
Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria reported dwindling pressure in their gas pipeline systems. The authorities in Bulgaria said they might have to restrict gas use.