I'm a day late on my Cambodian news update ... so sue me ... but better late than never.

I am so excited about today's first story! Titled "Rodin's lithe muses go home to Cambodia", it's one of those, 'about time' sort of things.

In July 1906, Auguste Rodin went to the palace of the president of France for a garden party featuring the dancers of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia.

Paris was abuzz. King Sisowath... more

Continued from the previous post ...

On the not-working-so-well front, Prime Minister Hun Sen is dancing around the Khmer Rouge trials and making statements that are less than comforting.

... on Wednesday in former Khmer Rouge heartland, Hun Sen preferred to focus on Cambodia's new era of... more

Interestingly, Cambodia is being held up as an example of how to do things right in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

In an article titled, "Prudishness in the White House is costing lives", the methods used in Cambodia in the fight against the spread of AIDS are working much better than the Bush administration's efforts.

... It doesn't do much good for American officials to preach abstinence and fidelity in places... more

Tourism in the country is up, up, up, and expected to bring in more than $1.3 billion this year ... that's up .3 bill over last year ... with the biggest share coming from South Korea to the tune of 300,000. In a move that can only help the tourism industry, as well as every other business that relies on transport, money coming in from many sources will be used to restore... more

I wrote the other day about how sex selection among immigrant groups is affecting the population in Canada.

... there's enough pre-natal sex selection going on in that country these days to skew the demographics much like they skew in China and India.

There the issue is the aborting of female fetuses ... quite the dichotomy for pro-choice feminists with abortion on demand deemed a basic right,... more

Continued from the previous two posts ...

And now, on the lighter side ... Korea's top fashion designer, Andre Kim, chose Angkor Wat as the setting for the launch of his 2007 collection.

Kim's "Fashion Fantasia: Angkor Wat" is part of The Angkor-Gyeongju World Culture Expo 2006 that kicked off last month and runs through... more

Continued from the previous post ...

Here's a story that annoys and infuriates at the same time. A 60-year-old New Zealander, jailed for raping five Cambodian girls hired to work in his Siem Reap home, didn't get to "... face my accusers and I want my accusers to be cross-examined" because the Women's Crisis Center representing the... more

It's beginning to look a lot like ... the US may be sending direct aid to Cambodia again, and the government there is happy about that.

"Any assistance is useful for us," the Cambodian Daily quoted Deputy Prime Minister and Co-Minister of Defense Tea Banh as saying, while mentioning the U.S. Senate's proposed budget for the 2007 fiscal year, in which the Foreign Appropriations Subcommittee recommended that the ban on direct funding to... more

I've been hoping and waiting for an email from Cambodia for days now, and it finally came last night.

Last week, a couple left Seychelles, making their way to Phnom Penh to pick up their new baby daughter from AOA, the orphanage that cared for my kids before they came home. Coming up to five years on the suspension by the US government on Cambodian adoptions, it's even more special an event when a Cambodian child finds a loving family.

Although many nations have continued to allow adoptions from Cambodia, having... more

Continued from here ...

As expected, unfortunately, things are not going well in the lead-up to the trials of Khmer Rouge leaders that are supposed to commence in February.

The Cambodian government must end its interference in the mixed national and international tribunal set up to prosecute crimes by senior... more