| The body of former King Norodom Sihanouk was returned to Cambodia Wednesday, guided through the streets of the capital in a funeral procession as throngs of onlookers and mourners crowded the streets. VOA Khmer's Say Mony reports. |
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As Cambodians prepare for local elections Sunday, voters say petty corruption in their villages is very much on their mind. Meas Sokim, a motorcycle taxi driver in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district, says he recently spent $10 to obtain his family’s record book from local authorities. That’s the amount he earns in several days as a driver, for a service that should be free, or cost little money, he said in a recent interview. |
Japanese entertainer Neko Hiroshi, left, poses with Cambodian winner Em Buntin
after a half marathon Saturday, June 18, 2011 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The
Japanese finished second. More than 1,000 Cambodians and foreigners took part
in the running, celebra
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Controversy is looming in Cambodia over the government's choice of Olympic marathoner, a Japanese-born comedian with Cambodian citizenship. The International Association of Athletics Federation said this week that the comedian, Takizaki Kuniaki, would not be considered eligible because he has not been a Cambodian citizen long enough. But Cambodia’s fastest marathoner, Hem Bunting, is not being considered either. |
| Never in her life did Chhea Vat imagine she would have such an occasion: meeting her husband again after 36 years. The 73-year-old Cambodian-Canadian had always thought her husband, Peou Nam, was killed when soldiers of the regime took him away, so many years ago. “I never imagined this meeting before, because I thought the Khmer Rouge never left their captives alive,” Chhea Vat said in a recent interview in Phnom Penh, where her family had found him at long last. |
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When Chen Sokha was a young girl, she found herself, through circumstance and bad luck, an orphan, and a scavenger at Phnom Penh’s notorious Stung Meanchey dump. Things went poorly from Day One.
“While I was scavenging on the side of the trash hill, a bulldozer pushed the trash down and the trash covered one of my legs,” she said in a recent interview, recalling the day years before. |
| Reach Sambath, a seasoned reporter, revered journalism mentor and an
important public liaison for the Khmer Rouge tribunal to the public,
died on Wednesday from an apparent stroke. Reach Sambath started his career as a reporter for the Agence France-Presse, where he earned the respect of his fellow journalists and sources alike. He studied under a prestigious scholarship at Columbia University in New York before becoming a journalism instructor at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. |
| Among the more than 350 revelers killed in the pedestrian bridge calamity in Phnom Penh were 18-year-old Uch Sotheara and 25-year-old Uch Sophany. Their parents, Uch Yoan and Pa Sophat, marked their late November deaths this week on the 100th day with Buddhist offerings. They were grateful they have other younger children and that the government provided them financial support for their unexpected losses. |
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Like other families of stampede victims on Diamond Bridge, Leung Porn's family decided to hold the 100-day ceremony last weekend at a Buddhist clergyman's suggestion.
Leung Porn's wife, Tor Sophal, was one of the 353 victims killed in the stampede on the bridge during last year’s water festival. Leung Porn, who is 54 and now the single father of three children, said the ceremony will help his wife rest in peace. |
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In a remote corner of Preah Vihear province, an identity shift is under way. Here on the border, where the Mekong river spills over rocky falls from Laos into Cambodia, a younger generation is increasingly adopting a Lao way of life.
“Their parents only speak Lao with them,” said Neang Phann, an eldery villager in Kampong Sra Lao II commune, in Chaep district. “Some parents aren’t even able to speak Khmer.” |
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Res Marina had dreamed of getting married next year. That dream was buried with her on Saturday.
The 23-year-old Cham woman died of internal injuries at Calmette hospital, where she had been since the Nov. 22 bridge stampede, becoming the 353rd victim. Nearly 90 others remain in the hospital. |
| The Cambodian government held a seventh day Buddhist ceremony Nov 29 for victims of the Water Festival stampede at the site of the tragedy, Diamond bridge. More than 350 people died the week before as revelers attempted to depart an island at the conclusion of a three-day national festival in Phnom Penh. Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhayly and Pung Khieu Se, primary developer of Koh Pich |
| Mom Mon, who was back from death, said he was lucky to be alive. "I heard them saying I was among the dead, I removed the white cloth from my face," Mom Mon said adding he was lucky |
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Grey-haired Soth Sophal prepared one recent day to lead a group of six villagers through the forest to a waterfall.
He would guide them in a way responsible to the environment, showing off the natural splendor of the area, near his home village of Prey Praseth, in Preah Sihanouk province’s Kampong Seila district. |
