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He asked Sam Rainsy to return home as soon as possible to reclaim his parliamentary immunity, which had been withdrawn.

 

Explaining his surprise apology, Sam Rainsy, who is known for his stubbornness and sharp-tongued criticism of Hun Sen, often accusing the prime minister's government of corruption and human rights abuses, said that he made it “in order to break the stalemate and allow Cambodia to move forward.” (AP)

 

 

Monday, February 06, 2006

 

French Soldiers Linked to KNLA Deported

 

A Thai court has handed suspended four-month jail terms to two French former soldiers, after the pair was arrested for illegally crossing into Burmese territory. The 26-year-old men, Marc Delege and Patric Delalande, were detained by Thai border police on January 31 near the Thai/Burmese border town of Mae Sot. It is understood that the two had been involved with the training of soldiers in the Karen National Liberation Army, a group that along with its parent organization, the Karen National Union, has been waging a decades-long war against the Burmese government.

 

Delege and Delalande were found guilty of illegally crossing the border and using an illegal crossing point and an official from Mae Sot’s immigration police office said the men had been sent to Bangkok where they will await repatriation. The police have denied that the men had any involvement with helping or training members of the Karen National Union.  

 

Malaysian Editor Resigns over Prophet Cartoons

 

An editor of a small Malaysian newspaper has resigned for reprinting Danish newspaper caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, which have unleashed a storm of protests across the Islamic world. In a statement published by the newspaper on its front page yesterday, The Sunday Tribune newspaper in remote Sarawak state apologized and expressed "profound regret over the unauthorized publication" of one of the drawings by an editor on duty. It is the only newspaper in the mainly Muslim country to have reprinted any of the caricatures, which first appeared on September 30 in the Jyllands-Posten daily, one of Denmark's largest publications. The caricature in The Sunday Tribune had accompanied an article about the lack of impact of the controversy in Malaysia, and carried excerpts of a foreign news article. The statement said the newspaper publisher and the editorial committee feel that "the extract should not have been published at all."

 

Unlike other Islamic countries, the reaction to the publication of the caricatures by the Jyllands-Posten has been muted in Malaysia, where Islamic fundamentalists held a brief but noisy protest outside the Danish Embassy on Friday. Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi also condemned the drawings on Saturday, calling them "a deliberate act of provocation." (AP)

 

India’s president calls for ASEAN e-business framework

 

India’s President APJ Abdul Kalam on Monday urged Southeast Asia to tap the huge opportunities presented by the West’s increasing focus in the region by establishing an e-business network. “The future of business definitely will be Asia,” Kalam told a joint session of the Philippine congress, adding that the region has a tremendous, economically growing market and a large pool of human capital.