A 'major human trafficking ring' has been busted by Cambodian police, according to reports.

Run by Sri Lankan and Pakistani ex-pats working in Cambodia ... ringleaders Mariam Pillai Lerins Ranni, the Sri Lankan owner of the Raani Curry Leaf Restaurant in Phnom Penh, Lipton Lerins, the husband of Ranni, and Mohammed Nadim, the Pakistani owner of the Taj Mahal Restaurant in Siem Reap ... the ring planned to shuffle over 200 people through the country to various destinations in Europe and Australia, most South Asian adult men.

Cambodia is asking Interpol to help find the suspects who managed to bolt before they could be tagged.

Back in 2001, police snagged a boat carrying 248 Pakistanis and Afghans and a handful of Iraqis who had allegedly paid to be smuggled into Australia and New Zealand.

Back to the missing the point thing ... or is it pointing a miss? ... how about this story of a love-sick loony who injected a syringe full of his blood into the woman of his dreams because she spurned him?

"He thought that if he could not marry her, at least his blood can stay inside her body," police officer Tan Sophal said. "That's why he injected her with his blood."

He stuck the thing into her rib cage as she walked home from school, forcryinoutloud, so you have to wonder what other wooing techniques he'd come up with before.

No word on whether or not the nutcase carries any blood-borne diseases.

Australian tennis star Lleyton Hewitt and his wife reacting to being taken to task over a Cambodian orphanage pledge by a television network in Australia.

It looks like a cyclone in a clay pot to me, but the flap is quite loud down under.

The Cambodian Tourism Administration is announcing a new project for Kep City.

With a plan to invest some $3.7 million in infrastructure, the goal is to draw tourists from Vietnam into the country with a cruise ship line and an upgrade to Xihanucvin Airport.

In what can only seem like a step in a direction that could make steps safer, a comprehensive new traffic law has been made official.

Call me a cynic, but I'm guessing it's going to be a while before drivers get the hang of actually stopping at red lights, pulling out only into lanes meant for vehicles going in the same direction they are going and yielding in anywhere near the gentle "it's not supposed to matter who's in the bigger truck" sort of way.

Given that four people died and 17 were hurt in wrecks in Cambodia EVERY SINGLE DAY of 2006 ... that's an average, of course .... there most certainly is a need for people to learn some rules. The point system being set up that will lose a driver his license may or may not do much toward convincing Cambodians that driving fast, drunk and however the mood strikes is a bad idea, however.

Sorry if I'm thinking "lip service", but this quote rather suggests this might be the case:

The deputy minister said efforts to strengthen the implementation of traffic law, which is an effective means to reduce road accident rates, are also hoped to contribute to the development of social economy to rapidly eradicate the poverty of Cambodian people.

Hmmmmmm.

Although I'm reticent to call compliance with the new traffic law a done deal, it looks like a Cambodian Stock Exchange may soon be.

New laws are on the books and there are more than a few more hoops to jump through before one can get off the ground, but things seem to be moving in that direction.

Stock market or no, Cambodia still tends to have some Wild West moments, like the shootout in Phnom Penh that left the city's deputy Military Police Chief dead after a high-speed chase through the city. Involving at least five gunmen, including an Interior Ministry cop, it was high drama.