INTERNATIONAL THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2014 Cambodia defends bloody protest crackdown PHNOM PENH: Cambodia yesterday defended its Municipal Court on January 14 for questioning in bloody crackdown on street protests in the face of connection with the recent unrest. growing international alarm, denouncing the ral- The opposition party has boycotted parliament lies against strongman premier Hun Sen as violent since last year’s election, alleging that Hun Sen was and illegal. Anti-government demonstrations have returned to power because of widespread vote-rig- been banned indefinitely after several striking ging. The 61-year-old prime minister has ruled for workers were shot dead by police last week while 28 years and vowed to continue until he is 74. He dozens of others were injured. On Monday five has faced mounting criticism over his rights record land activists were detained temporarily as they as well as accusations of excessive force against tried to hold a rally. “The demonstrations abused demonstrators. Last Friday police opened fire on the law,” Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told striking garment factory employees demanding a reporters, insisting that the government had exer- minimum wage of $160 per month for their work cised restraint for months. “The public generally in an industry which supplies brands like Gap, Nike applauds the decision by the government to halt and H&M. the violent demonstrations,” he said. Rights activists said at least four civilians were But the United Nations’ human rights office said shot dead in what they described as the country’s Tuesday it was alarmed by Cambodia’s crackdown worst state violence against its citizens in 15 years. and urged authorities to show restraint. Hun Sen The strike has since been called off and most of the has faced an increasing challenge to his nearly garment workers have returned to work, while three-decade rule from garment workers seeking a some fled back to their villages in fear. On Saturday pay rise, as well as from opposition supporters dozens of security personnel armed with shields demanding that he call a new election due to and batons chased hundreds of opposition pro- alleged vote fraud in a July poll. Cambodia National testers-including monks, women and children from Rescue Party leader Sam Rainsy and his deputy their rally base in a park in the capital, according to PHNOM PENH: Cambodian soldiers patrol along a street in Phnom Penh. — AFP Kem Sokha have been summoned to Phnom Penh activists. — AFP News in brief North Korea to hold A380 door ‘leaky’? SINGAPORE: A malfunctioning door is the focus of an investigation into why a Singapore Airlines Airbus 380 parliamentary election superjumbo was forced to make an emergency landing in Azerbaijan, the carrier said yesterday. Nearly 500 passengers arrived in Singapore Tuesday in a A380 relief jet after their Rodman sings Happy Birthday to N Korean leader after outcry original flight from London to Singapore was forced to land in capital Baku due to a loss in cabin pressure. “The root cause of the incident is being investigated and a team of SEOUL: North Korea announced yesterday Cheong Seong-Chang of the Sejong ment budgets and approve personnel regime might try to promote unity by target- specialists from Airbus will be assisting,” an airline elections to its rubber-stamp parliament in Institute think-tank in Seoul said the election changes. The last session in April 2013 adopt- ing the South. Kerry said an additional 800 spokesman said in a statement. “We are focusing on a door March, the first under leader Kim Jong-Un as could herald a “generational change” under ed a special ordinance formalizing the coun- US troops would be deployed to South Korea on the main deck that appears to have suffered a leak, lead- he seeks to cement his grip on power after Kim Jong-Un. The announcement of the vote try’s position as a nuclear weapons state-a for a nine-month tour from February. “We ing to the change in cabin pressure,” he said. “A replacement purging his uncle. The presidium of the coincided with the young leader’s birthday status that both South Korea and the United will continue to modernize our capabilities door will be fitted to the aircraft in Baku before it returns to Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) decided yesterday. His precise age is a matter of some States have vowed not to recognize. “We will so that we are prepared to face any threat,” Singapore for a more thorough inspection.” Passengers had the election held every five years-would take speculation due to confusion about the year not accept North Korea as a nuclear state,” US he told reporters. The United States already spoken of noise coming from one door as the aircraft came place on March 9, the North’s official KCNA of his birth, with various reports that it was Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated has 28,500 troops in the South. Both coun- in to land in the central Asian republic. news agency said. It comes at a time of 1982, 1983 or 1984. Kim might well be Tuesday at a joint press conference in tries have rejected overtures from the North heightened speculation over the stability of among the parliamentary candidates if he Washington with his South Korean counter- about resuming six-party talks on its nuclear Food scandal widens Kim’s regime and growing concern over the chooses to follow his father’s example of part Yun Byung-Se. program, insisting that Pyongyang must TOKYO: More than 1,000 people have fallen ill after eating North’s nuclear weapons program. standing in the election. The very public purging of Jang amount- demonstrate some commitment to denu- pesticide-contaminated frozen food as a scandal widens The last parliamentary vote-a highly The rubber-stamp parliament usually sits ed to a rare admission of dissent within clearization. across Japan, Jiji Press reported yesterday. People have staged process with only one approved can- twice a year for a day or two to pass govern- North Korea and triggered concerns that the Meanwhile, Dennis Rodman led an audi- reported vomiting, diarrhoea and other symptoms of food didate standing for each of the 687 districts- torium of North Koreans in singing “Happy poisoning after eating products including pizza and was held in 2009 under the leadership of Birthday” to their leader yesterday, a day lasagne made by a subsidiary of Maruha Nichiro Holdings, Kim’s father, Kim Jong-Il. after the former US basketball star sparked the nation’s largest seafood firm. The number of people Kim succeeded his father in December controversy by appearing to suggest a affected by the tainted food has now risen to over 1,000, 2011, and the March election will be closely Korean-American was to blame for his cap- with more than 200 taken ill in the northern main island of watched for any further revelations on the tivity in North Korea. Rodman brought a Hokkaido alone, Jiji said. In western Osaka prefecture, a changing power structure in Pyongyang. He team of fellow former National Basketball nine-month-old baby was hospitalized with vomiting on has already overseen sweeping changes Association stars to the North Korean capital, Monday after eating a product called creamy corn cro- within the North’s ruling elite-the most dra- Pyongyang, to mark the birthday of leader quettes, the report said. Police began investigating the matic example being the execution of his Kim Jong Un with an exhibition game. The company last month after it revealed some of its frozen powerful uncle and political mentor Jang birthday is believed to have been yesterday food had been tainted with malathion, an agricultural Song-Thaek last month on charges of trea- though that has not been confirmed. chemical often used to kill aphids in corn and rice fields. son and corruption. “It started out as surreal, then people Detectives are looking at the possibility that the pesticide In his New Year message last week, Kim joined in and it sort of faded a bit, but it was deliberately added to the food at some stage of pro- said the country had been strengthened by seemed pretty heartfelt from Rodman’s side,” duction at a factory in Gunma, north of Tokyo, Jiji said. the removal of “factionalist scum”. Jang, like said Simon Cockerell, a tour guide who many top North Korean officials was a mem- watched the game in Pyongyang, said of Taiwan gets missiles ber of the SPA, and the March vote will pro- Rodman’s birthday singing. “It was unexpect- TAIPEI: Taiwan has received the first shipment of anti-ship vide an opportunity to see if any senior fig- ed, and probably unplanned,” he said. “Kim missiles which it ordered from the United States for its ures are removed from the candidates’ list. “It Jong Un appeared to smile, but he didn’t submarines, strengthening their attack capability, a senior will also be interesting to see who the new appear to expect it.” Cockerell, whose compa- official was yesterday quoted as saying. Taiwan ordered faces are, as some of them may be tagged for ny Koryo Tours took a group of tourists to the the Harpoon missiles in 2008 as part of a $6.5 billion arms a key role under Kim Jong-Un,” said Kim game, said the audience had stood and purchase which sparked strong protests from Beijing. The Yeon-Chul, a professor at Inje University’s PYONGYANG: Dennis Rodman arrives at his hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea after a cheered Kim for up to six minutes when he island already has Harpoons installed on its frigates and F- Unification Department.