Cambodia’s retired king Norodom Sihanouk marks his 82nd birthday Sunday and despite promises of a hushed retirement is unlikely to bow out of public life as he goes on wielding influence, analysts say. Given his indefatigable energy and love of the limelight even after more than six decades of flamboyantly treading the international stage, they…
Read moreTechnology trumps Cambodia’s royal portrait artist
The dozens of identical photographic portraits of Cambodia’s new King Norodom Sihamoni looming over the capital’s boulevards to mark his coronation have left royal artist Kimsong Narykun wringing his hands. Technology has trumped 40-year-old Narykun, who works daily in a fan-cooled studio equipped with just one small easel set on a rattan mat, a stone’s…
Read moreCambodia’s new king faces baptism of fire into politics
The totally inexperienced Prince Norodom Sihamoni, an ex-ballet dancer named Cambodia’s new king Thursday, faces a baptism of fire when he is plunged into the kingdom’s infamously treacherous political world. The 51-year-old prince, who has spent years abroad pursuing a career in the arts, is largely unknown at home and will have few people to…
Read moreCambodia’s Prince Sihamoni — the dancer destined to be king
Prince Norodom Sihamoni, the man expected to be Cambodia’s next king, is a clasically-trained ballet dancer who has spent much of his adult life abroad pursuing a career in the arts. Inheriting his father’s King Norodom Sihanouk’s artistic streak, the 51-year-old Sihamoni has pursued a love of dance, music and cinema, and is known to…
Read moreTop Cambodian leader to beg” abdicated king to stay on throne”
Cambodia’s national assembly president left for China Saturday to beg King Norodom Sihanouk to change his mind about abdicating, but left open the option of a new monarch being appointed. Prince Norodom Ranariddh, 81-year-old Sihanouk’s son, told reporters he would "kneel down to beg His Majesty the King to continue to lead us as the…
Read moreCambodian children get cyberspace savvy with free Internet kiosks
It may be holiday time, but students still hang out at a handful of schools in impoverished Cambodia, lured by free Internet kiosks aimed at getting more people here au fait with cyberspace. At a high school outside the capital Phnom Penh, some students research Asian architecture, others check football results, and a few, like…
Read moreCambodia’s political drama serves up encore in court as lawsuits fly
The curtain has come down on Cambodia’s year-long political crisis but the stage is set for an encore in the courts with leaders serving lawsuits on each other and their critics. Political life was halted as the country’s three main parties rowed over the make-up of a new government following inconclusive national elections in July…
Read moreCambodia’s PM tightens grip on political power
As his new government finally gets to work, Cambodia’s prime minister is tightening his grip on power, shrewdly snubbing or quashing his top rivals, analysts and activists say. Hun Sen, the region’s longest serving leader, formed a coalition government last month with his former royalist coalition partner after a year-long impasse following July 2003 elections…
Read moreMomentum to stamp out foreign paedophiles builds in Cambodia
From billboards warning of harsh penalties to eagle-eyed hotel workers being called on to report suspicious people, Cambodia is stepping up its fight against foreign paedophiles preying on its children. After decades of war that ended just six years ago, the freewheeling, poverty-stricken kingdom has earned a dubious reputation as a haven for paedophiles, with…
Read morePiece by piece, Cambodia’s unique archaeological heritage up for grabs
At a bustling market in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s heritage is being sold off, piece by piece: ancient beads are snapped up at two for a dollar, while 15 dollars secures a 3,500-year-old stone tool. Sales of such ordinary antiquities are booming at markets across the kingdom, robbing it of a rich history archaeologists are only…
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