National Salvation: The Voice Party

Phnom Penh: The party has been under criticism due to the unprecedented flexibility of the party for the party after the so-called culture of dialogue.

When examining this party are cautious about its position and sometimes Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha seems there are two contrasting voices by inducing fear about the future of the National Salvation Party. Mam Sonando, director of Beehive Radio has expressed frustration ready to party and hinted about the creation of a new party.

Sam Rainsy now has a good relationship with the Prime Minister Hun Sen said. His presence at the tasting investigation in Siem Reap, and his smile when walking with Hun Sen at the time, was a clear signal about his position to strengthen what he called a culture of dialogue. He also said he would be responsible with Hun Sen Cultural if talks failed.

He is the chairman of the party so his position is the position of the party. But, however, Kem Sokha, deputy party not present at the tasting investigation. In addition, his stance against Sam Rainsy's position. He still strengthen the party as an opposition party.

"I would like to remind the national party leaders at all levels do not forget that the National Salvation Party, the party is not a party partners of the ruling party in government . On the other hand, the National Salvation Party Election partnership The success of the party in the future. So, do not damage the image rescue party " . This is the speech of Mr. Kem Sokha said in "Ceremony validity vice president and party Pursat team" at the national party headquarters Pursat pm Monday, 20 April 2015.


Kem Sokha said this in the presence of the Sam Rainsy Party.

On the contrary, if we follow the activities of the SRP, he has a soft stance Kem Sokha. He wants to create and maintain a culture with Samdech Hun Sen and the CPP in the spirit of the agreement of both parties.

So it is a concern for the future of the party when leaders of the two contrasting two tone. A party must have a voice and a clear stance. R / N

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ACU Chief Denies Arrest of Ousted Court Director

BY AUN PHEAP | APRIL 9, 2015

Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) chief Om Yentieng on Wednesday denied that ousted Phnom Penh Municipal Court director Ang Mealaktei had been arrested following two days of questioning over serious graft claims, despite two well-placed officials indicating otherwise.

Mr. Mealaktei was removed in February, just hours after Prime Minister Hun Sen made a speech suggesting that the court accepted a multimillion-dollar bribe to release from prison the parents of fugitive general Thong Sarath, who is charged with orchestrating the November murder of businessman Ung Meng Chue.

Mr. Yentieng said Wednesday that Mr. Mealaktei was questioned at the ACU headquarters on Tuesday and Wednesday—after the Justice Ministry completed its investigation into him Monday—but had not been arrested.

“The ACU summoned Ang Mealaktei for questioning yesterday and today but the ACU now understands that two days of questioning and explaining are not enough,” Mr. Yentieng said via text message. “The ACU needs to meet and listen to the explanations of Mr. Ang Mealaktei many more times.”

Asked if Mr. Mealaktei had been arrested, Mr. Yentieng answered: “Not true.”

Earlier in the day, a senior official at the ACU, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, said that Mr. Yentieng and his assistant, Heng Sokheang, had been friendly with 

Mr. Mealaktei over the past two days, questioning him in the mornings before sitting down together for lunch.

“Mr. Ang Mealaktei was summoned for questioning yesterday and also today, but he was not detained,” the source said. “Mr. Ang Mealaktei returned home after eating lunch with the two officials.”

Later in the day, however, the ACU official said that Mr. Mealaktei had in fact not returned home Wednesday, but had remained at the ACU headquarters and would be sent to court in the afternoon.

“I have received information that two court officials are preparing to receive Mr. Mealaktei,” the source said. “But I do not understand how the ACU could send Mr. Mealaktei to court because he is close friends with my boss [Mr. Yentieng].”

Brigadier General Kheng Tito, spokesman for the National Military Police, also said Wednesday afternoon that he had received word of Mr. Mealaktei’s arrest.

“I have received information that the Anti-Corruption Unit arrested Mr. Ang Mealaktei, but I cannot give comment about the arrest because they are working on this case,” he said.

However, minutes later, Brig. Gen. Tito called back and said: “I request that you remove my quote because it would kill me.”

Asked about the validity of the quote in question, he said: “It is not true.”

Contacted last night, Meas Chanpiseth, a deputy prosecutor at the municipal court, said that his former boss had not been brought to the court Wednesday.

“Today, there was no questioning, and there is no need to question him,” he said, before hanging up on a reporter.

Last night, however, BTV—-a television station controlled by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s daughter Hun Mana—posted a news report to its Facebook page stating that Mr. Mealaktei would be questioned at the court today.

The report says the former court director was being questioned by the ACU over the release of Maj. Gen. Sarath’s parents and also of Thav Thavy, a suspected drug dealer who was released on bail by the court and whose confiscated SUV was allegedly gifted to Mr. Mealaktei’s son.

“According to BTV reporters, the questioning of [Mr. Mealaktei] was stopped today and will continue tomorrow, when he will be sent to the court for further questioning,” the report says.

(Additional reporting by Sek Odom and Ben Sokhean)

pheap@cambodiadaily.com

© 2015, The Cambodia Daily. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced in print, electronically, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without written permission.

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Kem Sokha Walks Free After 7 Hours in Court

BY KUCH NAREN AND ALEX WILLEMYNS | APRIL 9, 2015

CNRP Vice President Kem Sokha walked free from the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday afternoon after being questioned by a prosecutor for seven hours over his connections to a plethora of protests that broke out in Phnom Penh following the disputed 2013 national election.

Less than a month after Prime Minister Hun Sen alleged that Mr. Sokha confessed to having tried to “topple” his government through the CNRP’s postelection protests in 2013, Mr. Sokha arrived at the court at 8:30 a.m., honoring a summons issued last week.

CNRP Vice President Kem Sokha emerges from the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday afternoon after a prosecutor questioned him for seven hours over protests following the 2013 national election. (Siv Channa/The Cambodia Daily)

About 300 people turned out in front of the court to support Mr. Sokha, remaining calm throughout most of the day with jeering breaking out only when trucks full of notoriously violent black-helmeted district security guards slowly rolled past to force the crowd from the road onto the curbside.

Mr. Sokha emerged from the court shortly after 3:30 p.m., telling gathered reporters and his supporters that the extended questioning was tedious.

“The court prosecutor questioned me for seven hours, and asked for too many details by asking about every single word I have said at the demonstrations, in America and at all incidents,” he said.

“They asked me things that did not need to be asked,” Mr. Sokha said. “They asked me for the definition of ‘revolution’ and asked me why [union leader] Vorn Pao came to greet me at the airport when I arrived from the U.S.”

On Sunday, the government aired a 30-minute film on national television building a case that Mr. Sokha and Mr. Pao worked together in an effort to overthrow the government following the 2013 election.

Mr. Sokha said the prosecutor repeatedly asked him the same questions.

“They did not press any charges, they only questioned me,” Mr. Sokha said, before leaving in an SUV.

Meng Sopheary, one of Mr. Sokha’s lawyers, said deputy prosecutor Ly Sophana first focused his questioning on a case file concerning protest events on January 3 last year.

On that day, military police put down a garment factory protest, shooting dead five workers and beginning a wave of violent repression of a nationwide strike by garment workers that had dovetailed with CNRP protests.

“[Mr. Sophana] just repeatedly asked the same questions about the matters that occurred in the past,” Ms. Sopheary said. “Whatever he said, they would just pick a single word…and ask him for his interpretation of [the word].”

“They asked about the demonstrations, the words he said in the U.S., and he was also questioned about the matter of [housing rights activist] Tep Vanny blocking the road, the issue of garment workers staging a protest in front of the Ministry of Labor to make demands about wages,” she said.

Ms. Sopheary said the list of protests Mr. Sokha was asked about ran so long that she was not sure exactly how many were raised during the seven hours.

“We requested that the court prosecutor stop summoning him for questioning like this,” Ms. Sopheary said.

Mr. Sophana could not be reached Wednesday.

The court last questioned Mr. Sokha on July 25, 10 days after a violent street brawl broke out during a CNRP-led protest near Freedom Park. But the legal cases against him went dormant after he gained immunity by swearing into parliament with 54 other opposition lawmakers in August.

However, Mr. Hun Sen last month seized on a speech that Mr. Sokha delivered in the U.S. apologizing to supporters there that the CNRP did not remove the CPP during the postelection demonstrations in the second half of 2013.

“I apologize to brothers and sisters that I could not lead change 100 percent,” Mr. Sokha told supporters on March 13.

Within a week, the prime minister said the apology amounted to a confession that the opposition leader had intended to illegally overthrow his government.

“There’s a person coming to confess that they tried to topple the government and the CPP but that they failed, and are now apologizing to people in the U.S.,” Mr. Hun Sen said on March 18.

“If the robber and robber chief confess, what legal action should we take?” he asked.

naren@cambodiadaily.com, willemyns@cambodiadaily.com

© 2015, The Cambodia Daily. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced in print, electronically, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without written permission.

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Cambodian Officials Verifying Identities of Rescued Fishermen

BY ALEX CONSIGLIO | APRIL 9, 2015

Officials from the Cambodian Embassy in Jakarta arrived in the Indonesian city of Tual on Wednesday to begin processing 58 Cambodians who were among more than 300 enslaved fishermen rescued from a remote island last week, according to the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The fishermen, the majority of whom are Burmese, were rescued from Benjina island in Maluku province by the Indonesian government and sent to Tual following a yearlong investigation by The Associated Press (AP).

The AP revealed that the majority of the fishermen were trafficked through Thailand and forced to work on Thai-captained boats trawling Indonesian waters. They were dumped on Benjina for refusing to work and in response to a moratorium on foreign fishing issued by the Indonesian government.

Koy Kuong, spokesman for Cambodia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, said Wednesday that Cambodian officials were working to identify the 58 Cambodians among the 319 freed from Benjina.

“Officials from our Cambodian Embassy have gone there to check and verify the information,” he said. “If they are Cambodian, Cambodian authorities will work to repatriate them.”

The International Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental body, is assisting the Indonesian government in caring for all 319 rescued fishermen on Tual.

“[The] IOM deputy chief of mission for Indonesia arrived [in Tual] today with Cambodia, Myanmar and Lao embassy representatives,” Joe Lowry, IOM’s regional spokesman, said Wednesday.

“IOM already started assisting embassies with documentation for verification of citizenship to eventually issue travel documents and will begin the process of screening victims of trafficking.”

Mr. Lowry said conditions at the government facility where the fishermen are being cared for were likely “spartan,” but far better than what they endured on Benjina, where some were kept in cages belonging to Pusaka Benjina Resources, the only registered fishing company on the island.

“Local hospital staff come every day for a daily clinic lasting a few hours,” he said.

consiglio@cambodiadaily.com

© 2015, The Cambodia Daily. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced in print, electronically, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without written permission.

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Manchester City lead the chase for Joao Miranda as Atletico Madrid get ready to cash in

Manchester United and Chelsea have also been linked with the defender who could be available for £20million 

Will he make City slicker? Joao Miranda could be on the move

Atletico Madrid are willing to sell Brazilian defender Joao Miranda in January - and that has put Manchester City on red alert.

Miranda, 30, has been a target for Manchester United, Chelsea and Barcelona but City are watching developments after being sounded out.

City have already been heavily linked with Atletico striker Mario Mandzukic and it appears that the Spanish club would sell Miranda for around £20m.

City's big money defensive signing Eliaquim Mangala is taking time to settle in English football while Matija Nastasic could be sold in January.

Atletico had strong interest last summer and United have been heavily linked with a summer move for the Brazilian international.

But City have now been sounded out and Miranda is keen on a move to England if he can get a four-year deal in the Premier League.

 

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Alan Pardew has the last laugh on Newcastle's hate mob by quitting for Crystal Palace

The manager's decision to leave St James' Park for a relegation battle says much about the unhappy state of the Toon under Mike Ashley 

 

Smiling again: Alan Pardew is off to a club where he'll feel wanted

Alan Pardew has delivered a spectacular snub to Newcastle by quitting for Crystal Palace.
On Monday morning, Pardew’s peers queued up to insist you simply don’t walk out of St James’ Park (capacity 52,400) for Selhurst Park (26,000).

How could a manager with a firm belief he could one day be England boss, give a two-fingered salute to a club cruising in the top half, with a decent squad and a global profile?
And swap it for a relegation battle at a homely club with a fraction of the potential?
Then Pardew did just that.

He has the last laugh with a double-your-money new job, a fresh challenge he believes is more satisfying, and a lot less friction and vitriol to contend with now he is leaving Tyneside.
He was driven away by an impossible cocktail of factors, both football and fan-related.

 

Quids in: Newcastle owner Mike Ashley will be happy with a compensation fee from Palace

Like his wish for a new striker to be signed in January, reiterated very publicly on Boxing Day, being unlikely to happen.
Like the possibility of having his latest star man, Moussa Sissoko cashed in, either in January or the summer.

True, he has taken on a smaller club than Newcastle, but he’s wanted and loved at Selhurst Park.
He’s taking a no-lose crack at avoiding the drop, for fans who support and respect him.
For months he has taken the taunts of a Tyneside hate-mob on the chin.

Alan Pardew's Newcastle record

185 Games

71 Won

41 Drawn

73 Lost

 He called it “mass-hysteria” and played it cool, but it hurt, and he admitted it bothered his family.
It went quieter when he conjured a winning streak and won manager of the month for November, but the “Pardew Out” campaign ridiculed him daily, and made his life outside of football on Tyneside less than fun.

He isn’t perfect and had has some bad moments as United boss. Remember the headbutt and bad runs of form lasting 10 months earlier this year?

But he has also coached the team to fifth place, had a decent Europa League run, and kept the team afloat despite the club selling every top player they stumbled upon.

The thirst of some to see the back of Pardew at Newcastle – and there was a moment this season when I thought he was finished – assumes Mike Ashley is capable of making a great appointment to replace him.

Abuse: Newcastle fans wanted Alan Pardew gone

That is one huge assumption to make of an owner Pardew himself said doesn’t ­understand football and gets frustrated by its ways.

“We need a manager who is experienced in delivering trophies”, some supporters cry.
Fans drool about a statesman like Jurgen Klopp, Frank de Boer and Rafa Benitez.
De Boer’s agent says he won’t quit Ajax mid-season. Meanwhile the usual suspects including Steve Bruce and Tony Pulis are keen.

Gallery: Newcastle fans' Pardew Out campaign

 

Ashley is as likely to appoint from left-field, the inexperienced Tim Sherwood perhaps, alongside Toon legend Les Ferdinand.

Interested bosses will have to swallow their pride and be ­deferentially grateful, learning never to pick a public fight with Ashley.

Appointing a big name would assume ambition, but there is none at boardroom level.
Ashley appears happy with Newcastle finishing between eighth and 10th.

A run in the cups? No thanks, that could ruin league form, so the club policy goes.
Which next-big-thing manager is going to ­salivate at that prospect?
It is a mission for mid-table mediocrity.

 

Say goodbye: Pardew applauds the crowd after Newcastle defeated Everton on Sunday

Alan Pardew at Newcastle

Signed on December 9, 2010 with five-and-a-half year deal.
Agreed an eight-year contract extension in September 2012.
League finishes:
2010-11: 12th
2011-12: 5th
2012-13: 16th
2013-14: 10th
Overall record:
P 185 W 71 D 41 L 73

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Crystal Palace block Zeki Fryers exit until new boss Alan Pardew assesses strength of squad

The former Manchester United and Spurs defender has made just one appearance for the Eagles since his £2.5million signing on deadline day

Not gone well: Zeki Fryers signs for Crystal Palace from Tottenham on deadline day

Crystal Palace have told out-of-favour defender Zeki Fryers he cannot go out on loan.
Fryers, 22, who has made just one substitute appearance in the Premier League for the Eagles, had become surplus to requirements despite only joining in a £2.5million move from Tottenham in September.

Former Palace boss Neil Warnock made it clear the left-back could leave Selhurst Park after tabling bids for four players in his position.

But Warnock’s exit means no deal will now be sanctioned until new Eagles manager Alan Pardew checks out his squad.

The news will disappoint Wolves and Fulham who were keen on signing the former Manchester United academy prospect next month.

 

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QPR star Charlie Austin and fiancée Bianca sickened by Twitter troll threats to their daughter

The couple called the police this evening when a user on the social media site made a vile comment after striker Austin posted a photo of himself and his little girl, Ava Bella

Queens Park Rangers star Charlie Austin and his fiancée Bianca have been left sickened by Twitter trolls who threatened their two-year-old daughter.


The couple called the police this evening when a user on the social media site posted a vile comment after striker Austin posted a photo of himself and his little girl, Ava Bella.
Another tweeter joined in with another sick tweet
Bianca Parker, 24, tweeted: "I've reported you to the police. I'm doing as much as I can to get you charged.

"Bringing in my two-year-old daughter to your sick games is too far."

Distraught Bianca later told her followers: "Disgusting. I'm shaking. You don't talk about a baby that way. Let the police do their job now."

Earlier in the evening Charlie, 26, had put a picture up of himself and little Ava Bella in a toy car at their home. Austin is currently the highest British goal scorer in the Premier league with 10.

He scored a hattrick in QPR's win against West Brom last week. Manager Harry Redknapp has vowed to keep him at Loftus Road when his contract expires at the end of the season.

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Jonjo Shelvey denies intentionally elbowing Liverpool's Emre Can and apologises to Kop star

Head's gone: It was an eventful game for Shelvey - who also scored an own goal

Swansea midfielder Jonjo Shelvey has apologised for elbowing Liverpool's Emre Can, and denied any intent to hurt the Kop star.


Shelvey caught Can - who started in central defence - with a strong elbow to the face in the first half of the Reds' 4-1 win over Swansea.

But the England international wasted no time in taking to Twitter to apologise for hurting the German utility man and denying any malice:
"Just wanna say didn't intentionally elbow emre can [sic]," Shelvey tweeted.
"Was just trying to get my arm across to get round him and it's come off as I'm trying to hurt another play and I can assure you that , that isn't the case.

"And I had apologised to emre can for catching him."
Shelvey could still face FA action over the incident if Andre Marriner mentions it in his report. The referee didn't even book the midfielder over the clash.
Player ratings: Shelvey scores a 3/10 in Swansea loss

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AirAsia flight QZ8501 disappearance caps difficult year for airline industry

Number of fatal incidents involving large passenger jets is at record low but nature of disasters has been a wake-up call

Search and rescue teams coordinate the search area for flight QZ8501. Photograph: Oscar Siagian/Getty Images

Despite the fact that flying remains, as the aviation industry likes to stress, statistically the safest form of transport, the likely loss of a third airliner in the space of 10 months appears to have made 2014 the deadliest year for passengers in almost a decade.

The still unexplained disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in March and the shooting down of the same airline’s flight MH17 over war-torn eastern Ukraine four months later cost 239 and 298 lives respectively.

Now it appears probable that another 162 fatalities will be added to the year’s toll. Although it remains unclear exactly what happened to AirAsia flight QZ8501, authorities are relatively certain they will find tragic confirmation at the bottom of the Java Sea.

Until this week’s loss, the safety record of major airlines had been on a fairly constant upward trajectory since 2005 on most counts. According to the Flight Safety Foundation, there has been a steady fall in the number of airline crashes, and the number of fatal incidents involving large passenger jets this year was 19, a record low in modern aviation (their count excludes the shooting down of MH17 as a military action).

But the Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archives, which includes smaller planes and military transport planes, puts the total number of fatalities for 2014 at 1,320, assuming no survivors from QZ8501 – the worst annual toll since 2005.

The fact that three incidents have accounted for the majority of fatalities could, on one level, bolster the industry message of increased safety. The big European short-haul carriers such as Ryanair and easyJet can still boast an accident-free history. But in an era when the trend appeared to point to a zero-casualty future, the nature of this year’s catastrophes has been a nasty wake-up call.
The International Air Transport Association, Iata, which represents most large airlines worldwide, as recently as 2012 boasted of an zero annual crash record – or zero “western-built jet hull losses” – among its members. Safety and security remained an ongoing concern, and no one at Iata betrayed any sense of complacency. In some parts of the world, such as Africa, incident rates were far higher, if falling. There was work to do on limiting “runway excursions”, which accounted for the majority of accidents.

But the message was fairly clear: if you flew on a on a new plane with a major airline that had signed up to the safety standards, you could more or less relax. Now, two Boeing 777 airliners flown by a major scheduled carrier, Malaysia Airlines – British Airways’ partner in OneWorld – from major hubs have met their end. The Airbus A320 lost by AirAsia is a plane that dots the skies from Heathrow to Honolulu.

The industry response to the new categories of disaster thrown up by MH370 and MH17 has been to assemble taskforces to report to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), a UN oversight body, with recommendations for possible future action on flight tracking and on sharing information about overflying conflict zones.
The plethora of chilling scenarios conjured up by the disappearance of MH370 should keep driving the search for its wreckage. It seems there are few parallels with QZ8501, but should there be any sizeable duration before the latest lost plane is found, the industry’s ponderous moves on aircraft tracking could look like unpardonable foot-dragging.

While the priority given to safety is a knee-jerk mantra recited by all airline executives, an acceptable level of risk versus cost has to infuse all industry thinking, especially in a business whose profit margins in recent years have been slim. The calculations run from how tired your pilots can be to how little you can pay your crew, to whether you really need that state-of-the-art tracking system. How many airlines really need to invest in the all-frills package touted by Inmarsat? What chance of any plane escaping detection given the various tracking systems in place? But then the unthinkable happened.

The upbeat assessment is that air crashes are ever rarer, and so we simply perceive them more closely. Tracking websites show every plane’s path, the global 24-hour news cycle provides footage of grieving relatives, while transport ministers and celebrity airline executives tweet their movements in real time. Should pilot error in a freakishly bad storm have sent flight QZ8501 to the bottom of the Java Sea, it will be recorded as another unhappy episode in Indonesia’s troubled aviation history. The real nightmare scenario for the industry is that once again the reason remains unknown – with at least one expert warning that the technology in planes or traffic control systems could prove susceptible to a cyber threat.

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