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Sticking with the good news for a while longer, the latest HIV-AIDS numbers from Cambodia are following the country's downward trend from the past few years.

Even among sex workers the rate has dropped considerably, with 40% infected in 1997 down to 20% today.

UNAIDS co-coordinator in Cambodia Tony Lisle said a main component of the plan is the 100% condom use program, which encourages condom use among sex workers. Dan Borapich -- spokesperson for Population Services International, which distributes subsidized condoms in the country -- said that PSI makes condoms available at supermarkets, pharmacies and other venues. The government also is sponsoring safer-sex advertisements on billboards, radio and television...

In addition to a lowering rate of infection, 80% of those who are infected have access to antiretrovirals.

All in all, not bad for a country as much a mess as Cambodia can be.

In what is supposed to be a good move, but strikes me as an easy stance to take, Cambodia has agreed to sign an anti-nuclear terrorism protocol.

Saying the kingdom, "does not have any issues against signing", and that it, "views terrorism as a global but not country-specific threat", they're happy to comply.

During the meeting with U.S. Ambassador Joseph A. Mussomeli and Russian Ambassador Valery Y. Tereshenko at the Foreign Ministry, Hor Namhong said that Cambodia supports and will sign the protocol initiated by U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the summit of the Group of Eight (G8) on the prevention of nuclear terrorism.

On the KR trial fees I mentioned last week, an international judge is voicing worry at a breakdown.

Austrian judge Claudia Fenz told AFP the Cambodia's Bar Association must reconsider its decision by the end of March to impose prohibitive participation fees" on foreign lawyers,

She says the decision is essential for the trials to proceed of top Khmer Rouge leaders charged with crimes committed during the ultra-Maoist regime's 1975-79 rule.

Cambodia's Bar, which must approve all foreign defence counsel, is demanding that international lawyers wishing to participate in the trials pay fees amounting to some 4,900 US dollars a year.

Here's another article about what some of the international judges are calling a "childish game".

If only ...

This is SO not a game, nor is it childish.

Anyone want to suggest the UN pay the money? After all, they set this up, and if they can't get the process moving they'll end up having wasted a lot more than this will cost them.

UNESCO is suggesting that the 5,000 tourists that are traipsing up and down the temples at the Angkor Wat complex may not be doing them any good.

According to UNESCO’s Dr. Sheldon Schaeffer, building and construction works have added to the risk of damage to the actual monuments. “Water supply to the golf courses and hotels may affect the water table at the temple sites, further weakening the structural integrity,” he said.

Duh. Wonder what sort of salary he draws ... and what his per diem pay looks like.

Local officials are thinking of limited access to the temples. Yeah. Right.

Anyone interested in a Heng Pov update? Naaa. Didn't think so.

Digging back ten years will turn up more sleaze, and this report and others are marking a decade since a grenade attack was launched on a peaceful demonstration led by Sam Rainsy.

Human Rights Watch is urging the FBI to reopen their probe into the attack that killed at least 16 people and wounded 114 others on March 30, 1997. The US agency was involved to begin with because an American was one of the wounded.

Here's more coverage on this.

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