Cambodia in brief: February 6, 2017

PM assures Myanmar’s President Kyaw that Kingdom will stay silent on Rohingya Prime Minister Hun Sen has reassured his Burmese counterpart that the Kingdom will not interfere in the escalating “Rohingya issue”, a day after a damning UN report revealed widespread gang rape and murder allegedly committed against the Muslim ethnic minority by Myanmar security forces. READ MORE Cops in Kandal beating get axe Three Kandal police officers who allegedly beat a man to death in October have been fired for failing to show up to work, according to a Ministry of Interior statement.The announcement stated that the three men had been dismissed for “abandoning their occupation”. READ MORE  Banh warns of ‘hurricane’ of change Cambodia's military should be ready to stop the “hurricane” of change as it gathers strength with the approaching election, Defence Minister Tea Banh warned last week. The leader of Cambodia’s ostensibly neutral armed forces made the comments at the Ministry of Defence...READ MORE  Interbank lending gains traction The central bank’s efforts to foster development of an interbank lending market appears to be taking off as the demand for negotiable certificates of deposits (NCDs) increased sharply last year, with the financial tool seeing wider usage among the Kingdom’s financial institutions. READ MORE Sugar giant has sweet dreams A colossal sugar mill in Preah Vihear province will roar to life again next week, promising to devour 1 million tonnes of sugarcane in a two-month production run that is expected to yield 100,000 tonnes of refined white sugar, as well as a sizeable chunk of surplus electricity, a company representative said yesterday. READ MORE Analysis: Borders ‘pre-date French arrival’ In November last year, the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments agreed to ask French authorities to draw up a larger version of the colonial-era map published by the Indochina Geographical Service, from which the current border is drawn. The irony that the demarcation was in fact a creation of Vietnamese imperialism, not a French invention, was lost on the politicians. READ MORE  Most popular story from the weekend © Athena Zelandonii   Wives bearing brunt of HIV A toxic culture of masculinity in Cambodia is contributing to the spread of HIV from husbands to wives, according to a study in the American Journal of Men’s Health. After interviewing men who contracted HIV outside of their marriage and passed the disease to their wives, researchers discovered that popular notions of what makes a “real man” contributed to risky behaviour leading to infection. READ MORE