Rough weather to continue

OFFICIALS in Ratanakkiri province said they were prepared to evacuate roughly 2,000 families in two districts where water levels surged to 13 metres Thursday, as a week of wretched weather continued in three provinces across the Kingdom.

"There has been flooding in five communes within those two districts," said Pav Hamphan, Ratanakkiri's provincial governor.
"There will be one more district affected by floods if the rain still falls every day."

No one had been reported injured as a result of the Ratanakkiri storms.

The head of one of the affected districts said officials were prepared for an evacuation...

"We have six boats prepared for helping victims if the water rises higher," Kong Srun, Lumphat district's governor, told the Post Thursday.
"I think those boats are enough for us because the water isn't rising fast enough to make us worry," he said.

Wet weather nationwide
Three provinces - Ratanakkiri, Kratie and Kampot, where two men drowned earlier this week - have been hit with flooding, said Ly Thuch, deputy president of the National Committee for Disaster Management.

But he said the conditions weren't yet severe enough to spark a countrywide flood alert.

"The water isn't high enough yet," Ly Thuch said.
"We will issue an alert when the water reaches 22 metres."

In Kratie province, water levels had swollen to 17 metres in five districts, said Chen Hong Sry, the province's deputy chief of Cabinet.

Floods in Kratie destroyed almost 2,500 hectares of rice paddies and more than 1,200 homes on Wednesday.

After days of rough weather throughout the country, meteorologists were unable to say Thursday when the rains would end.

"I don't know when it will stop," said Seth Vannareth, director at the Department of Meteorology at the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology.

"I will announce later if [the rain] affects more people and when it's expected to end," she added.

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Child sex trial hears evidence, conspiracy

A French national accused of having sex with a 16-year-old Cambodian girl will learn his fate next week after a Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge heard evidence against the 63-year-old Wednesday.

Jacques Bernard Rene Collinet stands accused of "the purchase of child prostitution". He was arrested in April at the International Guesthouse in Daun Penh district's Kandal 2 commune, after the girl's mother contacted anti-human trafficking police to accuse the man of raping her daughter...

During the four-hour hearing, Collinet denied the charges and insisted he never had sex with the girl. He said the girl told him she was actually 18 years old, by writing the number on her hand. Collinet said he met the girl near Wat Phnom - where he said he hangs out and does exercises - and she agreed to come to his guesthouse to give him a massage.

The alleged victim, however, told the court a different story. "I agreed to go with him ... to his guesthouse for a massage," she said, "but once I got into his room, he ordered me to bathe and then he put on a condom. Then he had sex with me." The girl testified Collinet gave her US$25 in total after having sex four times.

Defence lawyer Dun Vibol, however, claimed the girl was a prostitute. She is listed as a victim in three other child prostitution purchasing cases against other foreigners. "There was a conspiracy with anti-paedophile NGOs, NGO shelter centres and police to prosecute foreigners to earn money," he said.

The head of one group specialising in child sexual exploitation scoffed at the suggestion. "To accuse our organisation and police of conspiring with the victim to prosecute the man is not only untrue but an insult," said Samleang Seila, country director for Action Pour Les Enfants.

If convicted, Collinet faces up to five years in prison. The victim's mother is also asking the court to impose a fine of US$5,000 in compensation.

Source by: Phnom Penh Post

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Storms hinder search efforts

THE bodies of two girls who were swept out to sea at a Preah Sihanouk province beach this weekend still have not been found, officials said Wednesday, as storms continued to sweep across Cambodia.

"The coast guard is looking for the bodies but cannot find them," said deputy police Chief Yin Binnath. "It is very difficult because it is still raining very heavily."

Meanwhile, Kampot province officials said floods have nearly receded except in two communes, Mak Prang and Kraeng, both in Teuk Chhou district, according to Sou Chea, deputy governor of Kampot province...

Ratanakkiri province's Lumphat district, along the Sre Pork River, has been reported to be seriously affected by floods, with officials forced to evacuate almost 300 families.

Lumphat district Governor Kong Srun said Chey Otdam, Ka Laeng and Seda communes have been severely flooded, with the river bursting its banks Wednesday.

Seth Vannareth, director of the Department of Meteorology at the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, warned that the rain would continue to fall in coastal areas and the central plain area around the Tonle Sap River. "Cambodia has been affected by the low pressure of the southwestern monsoon. The meteorology department will announce later when the effects are expected to end."


Source by: Phnom Penh Post

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Why 09/09/09 Is So Special

Have special plans this 09/09/09?

Everyone from brides and grooms to movie studio execs are celebrating the upcoming calendrical anomaly in their own way.

In Florida, at least one county clerk's office is offering a one-day wedding special for $99.99. The rarity of this Sept. 9 hasn't been lost on the creators of the iPod, who have moved their traditional Tuesday release day to Wednesday to take advantage of the special date. Focus Features is releasing their new film "9," an animated tale about the apocalypse, on the 9th.

Not only does the date look good in marketing promotions, but it also represents the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that we'll see for almost a century (until January 1, 2101), or a millennium (mark your calendars for January 1, 3001), depending on how you want to count it...

Though technically there's nothing special about the symmetrical date, some concerned with the history and meaning of numbers ascribe powerful significance to 09/09/09.

For cultures in which the number nine is lucky, Sept. 9 is anticipated - while others might see the date as an ominous warning.

Math magic

Modern numerologists - who operate outside the realm of real science - believe that mystical significance or vibrations can be assigned to each numeral one through nine, and different combinations of the digits produce tangible results in life depending on their application.

As the final numeral, the number nine holds special rank. It is associated with forgiveness, compassion and success on the positive side as well as arrogance and self-righteousness on the negative, according to numerologists.

Though usually discredited as bogus, numerologists do have a famous predecessor to look to. Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician and father of the famous theorem, is also credited with popularizing numerology in ancient times.

"Pythagoras most of all seems to have honored and advanced the study concerned with numbers, having taken it away from the use of merchants and likening all things to numbers," wrote Aristoxenus, an ancient Greek historian, in the 4th century B.C.

As part of his obsession with numbers both mathematically and divine, and like many mathematicians before and since, Pythagoras noted that nine in particular had many unique properties.

Any grade-schooler could tell you, for example, that the sum of the two-digits resulting from nine multiplied by any other single-digit number will equal nine. So 9x3=27, and 2+7=9.

Multiply nine by any two, three or four-digit number and the sums of those will also break down to nine. For example: 9x62 = 558; 5+5+8=18; 1+8=9.

Sept. 9 also happens to be the 252nd day of the year (2 + 5 +2)...

Loving 9

Both China and Japan have strong feelings about the number nine. Those feelings just happen to be on opposite ends of the spectrum.

The Chinese pulled out all the stops to celebrate their lucky number eight during last year's Summer Olympics, ringing the games in at 8 p.m. on 08/08/08. What many might not realize is that nine comes in second on their list of auspicious digits and is associated with long life, due to how similar its pronunciation is to the local word for long-lasting (eight sounds like wealth).

Historically, ancient Chinese emperors associated themselves closely with the number nine, which appeared prominently in architecture and royal dress, often in the form of nine fearsome dragons. The imperial dynasties were so convinced of the power of the number nine that the palace complex at Beijing's Forbidden City is rumored to have been built with 9,999 rooms.

Japanese emperors would have never worn a robe with nine dragons, however.

In Japanese, the word for nine is a homophone for the word for suffering, so the number is considered highly unlucky - second only to four, which sounds like death.

Many Japanese will go so far as to avoid room numbers including nine at hotels or hospitals, if the building planners haven't already eliminated them altogether.

Source by: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090908/sc_livescience/why090909issospecial

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Spreading of A(H1N1) reported in Cambodia

The Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation announced last week that the country is now facing local transmission of the influenza A(H1N1) virus, commonly known as swine flu.

A joint statement released last week said five new cases were discovered to have been contracted within the country.

"Five Cambodians were confirmed as having contracted the virus locally with no history of travel or contact with travellers," the statement read.
As of August 31, the number of laboratory-confirmed cases of swine flu in Cambodia had risen to 31.

Sok Touch, director of the Anti-communicable Disease Department at the Ministry of Health, said Sunday that the ministry will release an updated number of laboratory-confirmed H1N1 cases every week on Friday.

Quarantine
He confirmed that the number of people affected by the swine flu virus has remained the same, and that no one has died.

The ministry has also requested that members of the public stay at home if they develop flu-like symptoms and call the Ministry of Health hotline for further advice and guidance at 012 488 981 or 089 669 567.

The statement added that further measures were needed.

"In an effort to slow down the spread of the disease in Cambodia, individuals who test positive for new influenza A(H1N1) will be requested to undergo treatment and isolation either at home or at a hospital for seven days from onset of symptoms," it said.

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