Korn Plous Srey Cheab Khnea
Monday, February 23, 2015
Chorng Pkeab Chet Mit Srey Bom Rong Ning Som Neang Reabkar Ber Tver Ouy Neang Khrom Chet
Greece bailout: Deadline looms for crucial reforms
Continue reading the main story
Greek bailout
Personality clash
Saved from disaster?
Chic Greek
Five things Syriza wants
Greece is preparing to present a list of reforms to lenders in order to secure a bailout extension.
The list to be submitted on Monday must be approved by international creditors to secure a four-month loan extension.
Analysts say a collapse of the deal would revive fears of a Greek exit from the euro.
Minister of state Nikos Pappas said the list would include measures to tackle tax evasion and streamline the civil service.
Germany's Bild daily newspaper, citing an unnamed source, reports that Greece aims to recover 7.3bn euros (£5.4bn; $8.3bn) with measures to combat tax evasion.
Graphic showing how much Greece owes to whom
A spokesman for the German finance ministry, Martin Jaeger, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency that Berlin expected the Greek plan to be "coherent and plausible".
Greece agreed at a meeting with its European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) lenders on Friday to submit the list of reforms before Tuesday.
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Analysis: Mark Lowen, BBC News, Athens
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis (right) and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble address a news conference following talks at the finance ministry in Berlin, 5 February
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis (right) will have to convince his German counterpart, Wolfgang Schaeuble, pictured here earlier this month in Berlin
The next few hours will determine whether last week's deal on Greece will hold or whether the two sides are still too far apart on the conditions needed for the loan extension.
The Greek government will prioritise clamping down on tax evasion and smuggling in its list of reforms, hoping that will avoid more cuts in the public sector and may free up money to rehire civil servants and increase social spending.
But Germany and others are likely to insist that past austerity measures are irreversible. The European Commission, IMF and European Central Bank will deliver their verdict on Tuesday. If there are deep disagreements, the deal could collapse.
The Greek government will continue to sell this to its voters as the first time it has a real say in the reforms it will take but the reality is that the creditors will keep Athens on a tight leash and there is little room for manoeuvre.
Varoufakis and Schaeuble: No love lost
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'Long road ahead'
Bild, Germany's biggest-selling newspaper, was publicly attacked on Friday by Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis who remarked about an earlier story: "One must believe @BILD's tall stories [about Greece] at one's peril."
In a new article (in German) the tabloid breaks down what it says is a tax hit list devised by the Greek government.
It will reportedly seek to raise 2.5bn euros from the fortunes of rich Greeks, 2.5bn from back taxes owed by individuals and businesses, and 2.3bn from a crackdown on tobacco and petrol smuggling.
Mr Jaeger said the Greek reform plan, once received, would be examined by Greece's three creditors - the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the IMF.
Once the three lenders had delivered their opinion, it would be discussed by eurozone finance ministers in a conference call on Tuesday, he said, according to Reuters.
On Friday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble stressed that there would be no payment of new funds to Greece until the conditions of the deal had been met.
Mr Varoufakis has said the bailout agreement will be "dead" if the list of reforms his government is drafting is not approved.
Greek PM Tsipras attends a cabinet meeting at the parliament building in Athens in February.
The new Greek government, led by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, was elected by promising to reverse austerity
The four-month extension deal is widely regarded as a major climb-down for Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who won power vowing to reverse budget cuts.
On Saturday, Mr Tsipras said in a televised address that his government had "won a battle, not the war".
He called the deal an "important negotiating success" but warned that there was a "long and difficult road ahead".
Source,http://www.bbc.com/
France seizes passports of six 'Syria-bound' citizens
The measure is part of new counter-terrorism laws adopted last November.
Meanwhile, France has deployed an aircraft carrier off Bahrain to be used against Islamic State (IS) militants.
Planes from the Charles de Gaulle carrier will be used against IS positions in Iraq, a spokesman for Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.
The first Rafale fighter jet took off on Monday morning from the carrier as it sailed about 200km (120 miles) off the northern coast of Bahrain.
Correspondents say that the deployment of the warship will halve the time it takes for military aircraft - which normally fly from the United Arab Emirates - to reach Iraq.
France began Operation Chammal in support of the US-led coalition against IS in September.
Telephone hotline
Mr Cazeneuve said authorities had acted against the six men after their departure to Syria appeared to be imminent.
Their passports and identity cards have been confiscated for six months, after which the order can be renewed. They have the right to appeal against the move in court.
Reports in French media said some of the men were reported to the authorities by relatives using a newly established telephone hotline, while others were identified by police investigations.
French police patrol near the Louvre museum. Photo: 12 January 2015
Armed police have been deployed across Paris following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January
French officials quoted by the Reuters news agency estimate that about 400 French citizens are in Syria, 180 have returned to France, 200 want to go and 200 are somewhere in Europe trying to get there.
France has been on alert after 17 people were killed in attacks on the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in January.
Foreign fighters
UK officials think some 600 Britons have fought in Syria, with 300 having returned. Police can now seize the passports of nationals trying to leave the country for up to 30 days, in addition to temporarily stopping citizens suspected of involvement with IS from entering Britain.
Last week, three British schoolgirls were said to have left London to travel to Syria through Turkey.
Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said that Turkey was working intensively with the British authorities to trace the three schoolgirls.
Thousands of foreigners from more than 80 nations have joined Islamic State and other radical groups in Syria and Iraq, many crossing through Turkey. However correspondents say they only represent a small amount of the total number of IS fighters.
Turkey has said it needs more information from the West if it is to intercept them. Mr Kalin said that his country had already deported 1,400 people suspected of attempting to join extremist groups.
Source,http://www.bbc.com/
Funcinpec Factions War Over Who Can Issue Official Letters
A petty power struggle over who is authorized to issue official Funcinpec letters broke out over the weekend amid the party’s efforts to integrate two formerly warring internal factions after Prince Norodom Ranariddh returned as its leader last month.
Prince Ranariddh returned as leader of the struggling royalist party on January 19, with erstwhile president Princess Norodom Arunrasmey and secretary-general Nhiek Bun Chhay—who deposed the prince as leader in 2006—assuming the roles of first and second vice president, respectively.
The new team vowed to put divisions behind them, but a letter issued Friday by Say Hak, the former governor of Preah Sihanouk province and an ally of Prince Ranariddh, appeared to reignite the tensions between Mr. Bun Chhay and the prince.
“Please, members of Funcinpec…be informed that invitation letters or other letters issued by Nhiek Bun Chhay, the second vice president of the party, using the stamp of the party, are not to be considered official letters, as those letters are made without a permission letter from Prince Norodom Ranariddh,” it says.
The letter, which was signed by Mr. Hak as the party’s “executive secretary-general” and did not specify what letters Mr. Bun Chhay had sent, was followed up on Saturday by another, signed only by Funcinpec’s “general secretariat.”
“Say Hak, a colleague of the party, does not hold any positions or have any duties in Funcinpec, because in the by-laws of Funcinpec, an executive secretary-general for the party has not yet been established,” it says. “Say Hak, the colleague, is violating the party’s by-laws and his leaders.”
Neither Mr. Bun Chhay nor Prince Ranariddh could be reached Sunday. However, Prince Sisowath Sirirath, a Funcinpec standing committee member, said the rift between the two had opened up shortly after the prince returned to the party in January.
He likened the division between the prince and Mr. Bun Chhay to the one between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
“They are not on good terms. When people are not on good terms, I don’t think reconciliation can work,” he said.
“It’s like Mr. Putin and the president of Ukraine. One says withdraw, the other says no withdraw. It’s very funny, I tell you, and very hard for us in Funcinpec to keep up with it when the people at the top are not in line with each other.”
Source,/www.cambodiadaily.com
Prince Ranariddh returned as leader of the struggling royalist party on January 19, with erstwhile president Princess Norodom Arunrasmey and secretary-general Nhiek Bun Chhay—who deposed the prince as leader in 2006—assuming the roles of first and second vice president, respectively.
The new team vowed to put divisions behind them, but a letter issued Friday by Say Hak, the former governor of Preah Sihanouk province and an ally of Prince Ranariddh, appeared to reignite the tensions between Mr. Bun Chhay and the prince.
“Please, members of Funcinpec…be informed that invitation letters or other letters issued by Nhiek Bun Chhay, the second vice president of the party, using the stamp of the party, are not to be considered official letters, as those letters are made without a permission letter from Prince Norodom Ranariddh,” it says.
The letter, which was signed by Mr. Hak as the party’s “executive secretary-general” and did not specify what letters Mr. Bun Chhay had sent, was followed up on Saturday by another, signed only by Funcinpec’s “general secretariat.”
“Say Hak, a colleague of the party, does not hold any positions or have any duties in Funcinpec, because in the by-laws of Funcinpec, an executive secretary-general for the party has not yet been established,” it says. “Say Hak, the colleague, is violating the party’s by-laws and his leaders.”
Neither Mr. Bun Chhay nor Prince Ranariddh could be reached Sunday. However, Prince Sisowath Sirirath, a Funcinpec standing committee member, said the rift between the two had opened up shortly after the prince returned to the party in January.
He likened the division between the prince and Mr. Bun Chhay to the one between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
“They are not on good terms. When people are not on good terms, I don’t think reconciliation can work,” he said.
“It’s like Mr. Putin and the president of Ukraine. One says withdraw, the other says no withdraw. It’s very funny, I tell you, and very hard for us in Funcinpec to keep up with it when the people at the top are not in line with each other.”
Source,/www.cambodiadaily.com
Patient Death Blamed on Doctors’ Holiday Leave
The parents of a man who died at the Svay Rieng provincial referral hospital of wounds sustained in a motorbike crash say their son might have survived if doctors had not been absent from work celebrating Chinese New Year, and are planning to file a complaint against the hospital Monday.
Uk Say, the father of 25-year-old In Sem, who was taken to the hospital on Tuesday following a head-on collision on National Road 1 in Svay Rieng City, said his son had to wait 20 hours for a full examination and was denied vital treatment.
“On the morning after the day he was admitted, my son was groaning because of pain in his stomach,” Mr. Say said Sunday. “We called for doctors to help, but medical staff said they were busy on Chinese New Year and they didn’t have enough doctors.”
Mr. Say said that his son, a construction worker, was taken to the hospital in an ambulance at about 7 p.m. Tuesday, but that doctors did not examine him until the following afternoon.
“The doctors came to do an ultrasound scan at 2 p.m. and claimed they could not help because my son had serious damage to his intestines and bladder,” he said.
His son died four hours later, Mr. Say said. He added that he planned to file a complaint against the hospital with provincial authorities today.
The director of the hospital, Chan Dara, rejected the family’s accusations.
“We don’t have any doctors like that. When the victim arrived at the hospital, he was unconscious and so seriously injured that we could not rescue him,” Dr. Dara said.
Oep Oann, who has worked in the health sector for 15 years and was a regional coordinator for the NGO Medicam until earlier this year, said that unauthorized absences by doctors during Chinese New Year are widespread.
“As my personal remark, generally in every hospital in some departments there is a problem that they just leave some nurse or somebody who is not a doctor to look after the patients,” he said.
“Doctors just come in sometimes during Chinese New Year and then they go back to their home.”
Source,
Uk Say, the father of 25-year-old In Sem, who was taken to the hospital on Tuesday following a head-on collision on National Road 1 in Svay Rieng City, said his son had to wait 20 hours for a full examination and was denied vital treatment.
“On the morning after the day he was admitted, my son was groaning because of pain in his stomach,” Mr. Say said Sunday. “We called for doctors to help, but medical staff said they were busy on Chinese New Year and they didn’t have enough doctors.”
Mr. Say said that his son, a construction worker, was taken to the hospital in an ambulance at about 7 p.m. Tuesday, but that doctors did not examine him until the following afternoon.
“The doctors came to do an ultrasound scan at 2 p.m. and claimed they could not help because my son had serious damage to his intestines and bladder,” he said.
His son died four hours later, Mr. Say said. He added that he planned to file a complaint against the hospital with provincial authorities today.
The director of the hospital, Chan Dara, rejected the family’s accusations.
“We don’t have any doctors like that. When the victim arrived at the hospital, he was unconscious and so seriously injured that we could not rescue him,” Dr. Dara said.
Oep Oann, who has worked in the health sector for 15 years and was a regional coordinator for the NGO Medicam until earlier this year, said that unauthorized absences by doctors during Chinese New Year are widespread.
“As my personal remark, generally in every hospital in some departments there is a problem that they just leave some nurse or somebody who is not a doctor to look after the patients,” he said.
“Doctors just come in sometimes during Chinese New Year and then they go back to their home.”
Source,
Police Arrest Spanish Environmental Activist, Vow Deportation
Authorities this afternoon arrested environmental activist Alex Gonzalez-Davidson on Phnom Penh’s riverside, hours after Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly called on the anti-dam campaigner to leave the country following the expiration of his visa on Friday.
“Right now, we expel him, with the prakas of the deputy prime minister,” Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said, referring to a government decree.
“We expel,” General Sopheak said. “Don’t say ‘arrest.’”
Gen. Sopheak confirmed Mr. Gonzalez-Davidson’s detention moments after photos appeared online of authorities taking the Spanish national into custody along the riverside.
Mr. Gonzalez-Davidson, co-founder of the NGO Mother Nature, has raised the ire of authorities over the past several months with his tireless activism against the proposed Stung Cheay Areng hydroelectric dam in Koh Kong province. The project would displace hundreds of ethnic minority families from their ancestral lands and flood the habitat of several threatened or endangered animal species.
The government says the activist’s visa was not renewed because of an illegal roadblock he and his NGO used to temporarily stop a government convoy that was headed to the proposed dam site in September. Mr. Gonzalez-Davidson and his supporters say the government wants him out of the way because he has succeeded in stalling the project, which has the backing of ruling party Senator Lao Meng Khin and the public support of the prime minister.
Because Mr. Gonzalez-Davidson refused repeated calls to leave Cambodia voluntarily, Gen. Sopheak said the activist would not be allowed to return.
Source,www.cambodiadaily.com
“Right now, we expel him, with the prakas of the deputy prime minister,” Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said, referring to a government decree.
“We expel,” General Sopheak said. “Don’t say ‘arrest.’”
Gen. Sopheak confirmed Mr. Gonzalez-Davidson’s detention moments after photos appeared online of authorities taking the Spanish national into custody along the riverside.
Mr. Gonzalez-Davidson, co-founder of the NGO Mother Nature, has raised the ire of authorities over the past several months with his tireless activism against the proposed Stung Cheay Areng hydroelectric dam in Koh Kong province. The project would displace hundreds of ethnic minority families from their ancestral lands and flood the habitat of several threatened or endangered animal species.
The government says the activist’s visa was not renewed because of an illegal roadblock he and his NGO used to temporarily stop a government convoy that was headed to the proposed dam site in September. Mr. Gonzalez-Davidson and his supporters say the government wants him out of the way because he has succeeded in stalling the project, which has the backing of ruling party Senator Lao Meng Khin and the public support of the prime minister.
Because Mr. Gonzalez-Davidson refused repeated calls to leave Cambodia voluntarily, Gen. Sopheak said the activist would not be allowed to return.
Source,www.cambodiadaily.com
