Angkor Wat is all over the Cambodian news this week, as a cool new study that includes some amazing images from NASA shows just how impressive the place actually is.

The Washington Post translates the new info into a "Consevation Wake-up Call" in their coverage of the story, which is certainly relevant in today's Cambodia.

National Geographic's site has some amazing photos and computer images showing what the "world's most extensive pre-industrial low-density complex" might have looked like during its heyday between the 9th and 14 centuries, referring to is as "an ancient wonder of urban sprawl".

Now that a building boom has inspired the unrestricted pumping of ground water, the whole shebang could be in danger of sinking into the destabilizing earth.

What a shame.

Water, apparently, has something to do with the demise of the original metropolis, according to the L.A. Times. The 115 square miles, an area as big a present day Los Angeles, was only habitable because of some sophisticated technology of the time.

Water is still a problem these hundreds of years later, as this report insists with the title, "Agricultural disaster looms in flood-affected Cambodia".

Flooding is eating acreage in the country, with 19,000 hectares of rice paddies inundated from Kompong Thom to Ratanakiri.

Cambodians uprooted by Phnom Penh's rapid development are suffering from the continuing downpours, as well.

Living now in shacks flooded with filthy water adds nothing positive to the experience of being booted out of town and into resettlement camps in what many say is nothing more than land grabbing through "trickery, shady government investment schemes or outright violence".

Speaking of water, The Cambodian navy is being trained to keep an eye on the newly discovered offshore oil fields so many are counting on to bring wealth to the country.

The move "responds to the routine need to protect maritime borders and, more especially, the offshore oil fields being explored in Cambodia," said Yim Sovann, a lawmaker from the Sam Rainsy Party.

"What we are doing is simply to safeguard environment at sea and maritime borders, prevent terrorist acts and provide security to companies," he said. "We are not going to put up any menacing presence to anyone."

Providing a safe environment for oil companies is high on the agenda, and maritime security has been set as a strategic priority.

A complicated dance seems to be going on in the Khmer Rouge tribunal with the appointment of a judge to head the Appeals Court looking like it might require some moonlighting on someone's part, and many are worried about the process slowing down.

The Dengue fever outbreak continues and insecticides still seem to be a problem. The World Health Organization is reported to be sending 25 tons of the stuff, but the Ministry of Health says they need 50 to 60 tons.

In the meantime, the estimate of cases as of August 2nd is set at 29,000, with 316 deaths.