Pick of the news

Enjoy it while you can - sunset at Boeung Kak Lake

All this week, adventure travel writer Tim Patterson is filing stories from Cambodia at the pop culture travel website, Jaunted. Read more here. As a rule, I don't regurgitate the vast majority of the news items that appear about Cambodia unless they prick my attention or are positive enough to warrant reporting here. So this week's stories, whilst plentiful, haven't really grabbed my shirt-collar enough, but may interest you. You can google-news any of them to find out more. They include the start of the filling-in of Boeung Kak Lake, the backpacker haunt and sunset-viewpoint in Phnom Penh; the rise in the price and demand for rat meat; the worthy performances of Cambodia's 4 atheletes at the Beijing Olympics, where three of them turned in all-time bests; tonight's two world championship kickboxing fights involving Khmer fighters at the Olympic Stadium; a warning that a lack of rain has damaged thousands of hectares of rice paddies in the Cambodian countryside; fears that 40 foreigners currently in jail could have their sentences reduced under new child abuse laws; CPP are raising the profile of women with female appointments at deputy governor level in 23 provinces; traffic deaths are up 15% and now stand at 4.5 fatalities in Cambodia each day, and more besides.
Postscript:
Cambodia now has 2 world champions! Both Vorn Viva and Meas Chantha defeated foreign opponents in their 5-round kickboxing ISKA world title fights at the Olympic Stadium tonight to firmly put Cambodia on the world kickboxing map. And don't even begin to think of any home bias amongst the judges, both fighers were deserved winners. I watched the bouts on television in the comfort of my own flat, and even I could see the reigning German and British world champions were beaten fair and square. Football and kickboxing are Cambodia's two favourite sports and the latter have raised the bar which the footballers will be hard pressed to equal anytime this century.

LtoR: New world kickboxing champions, Meas Chantha and Vorn Viva, being interviewed on CTN