Fifty years after the fall of Phnom Penh to Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, the book "Beyond the Horizon" is published in Italian. In it a French woman describes the genocide with the eyes of someone who had come to Cambodia for love. The book is her diary of hell, misery, lies and death experienced with her daughters. The story is extremely interesting and credible for a country where a UN tribunal failed to render justice and uncover the truth.
The leader of the Nation Power Party was one of the few critical voices still free, opposed to the Hun clan, which has ruled Cambodia of 40 years. The court found him guilty of "incitement". His "crime" was that of defending peasants from land grabs and of criticising government policies.
The strategic infrastructure in the south-west had a makeover thanks to Chinese support. For Prime Minister Hun Manet, the country will not allow foreign military bases on its territory, but is open to Chinese aid. Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit the country to promote China as the only reliable partner for the region, taking advantage of US disengagement and Trump's tariffs.
The highest US tariff announced last night is 49 per cent, which will affect imports from Cambodia. The Southeast Asian country fears serious consequences for growth and jobs. According to several observers, the real goal of the Trump administration is to indirectly hit China, which outsourced production, especially in textiles, to Southeast Asia, but with a probable boomerang effect.
Arrested in the province of Tra Vinh on charges of ‘abusing democratic freedoms’. Almost 1.3 million Khmer Krom live in a part of Vietnam that was once south-eastern Cambodia. Activists tell Radio Free Asia: ‘The Vietnamese government wants to prevent the expression of our cultural identity’.
To reach an upper-medium level of development this decade, greater investments in energy are needed. For supporters, nuclear plants would guarantee stable and "clean" energy, and improve the environment at a critical juncture for traditional renewables. Moscow and Beijing would partner in infrastructure development.
