What caused the disaster?

The reason that the South Korean ferry carrying 475 passengers began listing and then sunk has not yet emerged, but the manner of the evacuation has already been criticised.

Passengers were initially instructed to remain in the cabins, and only two life boats were launched.
David Shukman examines what could have been behind the disaster, and what went wrong.

A galaxy full of Earths?

The amazing discoveries from NASA's Kepler planet-hunting space telescope keep rolling in. The latest, announced this week by astronomers, is the discovery of a planet just 10% larger than the Earth orbiting in the so-called "habitable zone" of the star Kepler-186.

In our solar system, Earth is the only planet in the habitable zone -- the distance from the sun where liquid water can exist on the surface without boiling away (like on Venus), or turning to ice (like on Mars).The new planet, imaginatively dubbed Kepler-186f for now, appears to be in the same kind of Goldilocks place in its solar system. Not too hot, not too cold, just right. 186f could be the closest planet yet found.

It could be Earth 2.0. Maybe.The Kepler telescope can detect planets like 186f and tell us their size, but it can't tell us what they're made of or what they're like. Is 186f a rocky planet like the Earth with a thin atmosphere and oceans and continents? Or does it have a thick atmosphere and a small rocky core? Or is it a big metallic body with no atmosphere at all? Or something else entirely? 

Over the past decade a veritable zoo of planets has been discovered around other stars using a variety of telescopic methods, from hot Jupiters (giant planets close in to their star) to super Earths (rocky worlds many times the size of our planet). Add to that the amazing diversity of planets and moons that we've discovered right here in our own solar system during the past four decades from the Voyager spacecraft and other missions, the variety is astounding.

Even if 186f doesn't turn out to be Earth-like, the number of actual Earth-like extrasolar planets out there appears to be staggering. During its four-year mission, Kepler observed just a tiny, random, average piece of the sky, one you would cover with your fist held at arm's length. More than 1,000 planets have been discovered so far from just the nearby stars in that tiny patch of the sky.

186f, for example, is "just" 500 light years away -- a veritable next-door neighbor on the galactic scale. If you extend the results of that little survey across the entire, 100,000-light-year-wide Milky Way galaxy, you end up concluding that there are likely to be tens of billions of Earth-sized planets in our galaxy alone. And many of them must be orbiting in their sun's habitable zones as well.

Astronomers are scrambling to use other telescopes, on the ground and in space, to try to figure out what 186f and the thousand other new worlds discovered so far are really like. And new space observatories are being planned to try to follow up and expand on the results from the Kepler mission (which stopped collecting new planet data last year).

The implications of what they find could be profound, especially if they're able to detect an atmosphere there, and -- the Holy Grail -- especially if that atmosphere contains telltale gases like water vapor, oxygen, or methane, key indicators that the place may be habitable.

Just because a planet is in a star's habitable zone, though, and just because it has an environment that is potentially habitable, doesn't mean that planet is necessarily inhabited. But there are astronomers looking out for that possibility, too.

It's no coincidence, for example, that the lead author of the study that discovered 186f, Dr. Elisa Quintana, is from a research organization called the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, institute. I'm sure other SETI astronomers are making extra efforts to train their radio telescopes on Kepler-186 and those other recently discovered exoplanet systems, to listen for any stray signals.

Or, perhaps, they'll find a targeted signal, a cosmic "hello?" beamed our way by our neighboring astronomers on 186f, who are also trying desperately to answer the question, "Are we alone?"

Cops, CNRP clash at service

The deputy governor of Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district was slightly injured yesterday in a clash that broke out during a remembrance ceremony to mark the day 39 years ago the Khmer Rouge seized the capital in 1975.

Prach Seyha, Dangkor’s deputy governor, was injured in the neck and ear after he led a group of plain-clothed police to seize DVDs that opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party supporters were distributing in Choeung Ek village, home to the most well-known of Cambodia’s Killing Fields.
At the ceremony, which was held to commemorate those killed under Khmer Rouge rule, the CNRP supporters distributed DVDs promoting opposition policies, including films denouncing violence in January against garment workers and opposition supporters.

The films depicted scenes of the deadly clashes on Phnom Penh’s Veng Sreng Boulevard on January 3, when military police shot dead at least four workers, injuring many more.
Other DVDs called for Vietnam’s Phu Quoc island – which is known in Khmer as Koh Tral and which the opposition maintains is Cambodian territory – to be “returned” to Cambodia.
Shortly after the clash, Dangkor Governor Nuth Puth Dara visited the site accompanied by police to arrest those responsible for injuring Seyha.Puth Dara also ordered Phath Phalla, CNRP deputy executive committee president for Phnom Penh, to be questioned at the Dangkor district office.“We will file a complaint [to the court]. We cannot allow people who commit crimes to get away,” Puth Dara said.

Phalla declined to go to the district office, requesting the pair meet at the site of the incident to talk; however, Puth Dara rejected the proposal.“There is no problem. District Hall is the place where the state’s work is served. We just want to talk to find the suspects,” Puth Dara said.“If [Puth Dara] wanted those discs, he should have told me, I would take them for him. He seized them by himself like this and it caused the public to get angry,” Phalla said.

Seyha declined to comment on what led to the clash, adding that the CNRP supporters had breached an agreement between the district and the party for the commemoration.
Man Phalla, executive president of the CNRP for Phnom Penh, blamed authorities for seizing the discs without first warning them, which he said had provoked the crowd’s rage.
“Sometimes the authorities need to show their identity, too. Sometimes [CNRP supporters] don’t know, they think [the authorities] are provocateurs. So we would like all authorities to wear uniforms,” he said.

City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche declined to comment.The CNRP and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party were close to reaching a deal prior to Khmer New Year, following top-level talks.Prime Minister Hun Sen said they had reached a deal, which included calling an election five months early, in February 2018. But Rainsy later said he had not agreed to the proposal, adding that the negotiations were only “80 per cent” complete.

Land activists ‘under threat’

Cambodian land advocates face some of the most threatening and deadly working conditions in the world, according to a new report by UK-based environmental watchdog Global Witness.

Since 2002, 908 reported killings linked to land activism have occurred across 35 countries – with 13 taking place in Cambodia – and that number has been climbing in the last four years, the report, Deadly Environment, reveals.Land disputes, shrinking natural resources and a culture of impunity are tied to the reported intimidation and killings of land activists recorded in the Kingdom, said Alice Harrison, a communications adviser for Global Witness.

“Of the reported killings that our research uncovered, the highest concentration in Southeast Asia was in the Philippines, with 67. But with 13 killings, Cambodia’s death toll is certainly significant, behind Thailand with 16,” Harrison said, adding that Cambodia ranked ninth of 35 countries.

Violence stemming from land disputes in Cambodia is highlighted in the report with the inclusion of 14-year-old Heng Chantha’s death in Kratie province in 2012. The girl was shot by security forces during an eviction mere weeks after the slaying of prominent anti-logging activist Chut Wutty.

But the cycle of violence will continue unabated as long as senior politicians keep being linked to logging cartels, warned Preap Kol, executive director of Transparency International Cambodia.

“Corrupt land dealings can be traced back to our politicians and our military officials
. . . This will keep happening until a real commitment is made to end this cycle of impunity by our leaders,” Kol said.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Land Management, Beng Hong Socheat Khemro, and military police spokesman Kheng Tito could not be reached for comment yesterday, but Ministry of Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak downplayed the report’s findings and allegations.

“I think that environmentalists and land defenders are not under threat in Cambodia, and the report’s link to land grabbing and land disputes [and] companies [being related] to the killing and intimidation of environmentalists is not true,” Sopheak said.

However, it was the fatal shooting of Wutty – one of the most high-profile killings of an activist in Cambodia since unionist Chea Vichea was slain in 2004 – that inspired Global Witness to investigate the realities land activists face on the ground in Cambodia.

Chut Wutty, one of Cambodia’s most outspoken activists against illegal logging, was shot dead on April 26, 2012, after military police stopped his vehicle in Koh Kong province. While the details leading up to Wutty’s death remain unclear, it is known that he was shot by a military police officer while investigating a company’s involvement in illegal logging.

Wutty’s son, Chheuy Oddom Rasmey, said he is not scared of the threats and harassment and will continue his father’s efforts “to protect the environment and natural resources of Cambodia for the future”.

Cambodia Must Make Union Draft Law Public: Rights Group

Cambodia’s government should make public a proposed law aimed at regulating the country’s labor movement, a rights group said Thursday, amid concerns that it includes provisions for the suspension of unions and for severely restricting their right to freedom of association.

Requests from civil society to review the Law on Trade Unions, which Prime Minister Hun Sen’s administration has pledged to adopt by the end of the year, have so far been denied, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) said in a briefing note.

Additionally, the group said, recent reports of new unions being refused registration by the authorities or having their registrations delayed constituted “a direct attack on the right to freedom of association.”

Since December last year, CCHR said it had documented six cases in which the authorities have denied or delayed new union registration, or threatened license revocation.

“It is evident that the right to freedom of association is heavily stifled in Cambodia, exacerbated further by what CCHR has documented as the increasing suppression of union registration since December 2013 to date–either through denying or delaying new registration, or through threats of license revocation,” it said.

“The dire situation of freedom of association, particularly for unions, has the potential to be made worse when compounded by the adoption of the impending Law on Trade Unions, with its probable provisions for the suspension of trade unions, which have been publically referred to by [government] officials.”

Cambodian laws at present have provisions protecting the right to freedom of association and allowing workers the right to strike and engage in non-violent demonstrations.

But only about one percent of the total workforce is unionized with the vast majority of organized workers found in the garment industry, the country’s top revenue earner.

A first draft of the Law on Trade Unions was introduced by Hun Sen’s administration in 2011, but was shelved after concerns that it would make unions vulnerable to de-registration, presented barriers to prospective union leaders, and allotted too much power to the government, among other factors.

But CCHR said that the law was apparently submitted for review by the Council of Ministers in late 2013 and the government intends to pass it by the end of 2014.

In addition to wanting the draft law to be made public and incorporate feedback from relevant stakeholders, CCHR called on the government to “ensure union registrations are resumed immediately and that registration requests are not further delayed.”

It said that in particular, Cambodia’s garment sector “is plagued by widespread disregard for and violations of the right to freedom of association.”

Myriad problems

CCHR said that in the past several years, Cambodia had increasingly been seen as a dangerous place for trade unionists, who are frequently met with violence and arrest for their activities, while strikes and protests led by unions are often dispersed violently by authorities, including through the use of gunfire.

Union workers and representatives are regularly sacked or targeted with legal action by factories as a result of their activities, the group said, while the government has threatened unions that they will have their licenses suspended or cancelled if they participate in further strikes.

Additionally, CCHR expressed concern over incidents of union leaders receiving death threats or even being killed as a result of their union activities.

CCHR said that businesses in Cambodia have made attempts to end the right to unionize, while some factories have even refused to receive notifications for union formation, producing lengthy delays.

The situation for the country’s civil servants—many of whom earn “unlivable wages”—is even worse than it is for general workers, as they lack the freedom to form unions to protect their rights and increase their wages, it said.

Reactions to briefing note

Responding to CCHR’s briefing note Thursday, Ath Thon, head of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU) said that independent garment unions endure difficulties operating, and even registering with the Ministry of Labor.

“The CCHR report reflects the truth,” he told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“In general, we are facing huge problems in doing our jobs … Employers use their money and power to routinely pressure the unions,” he said.Ath Thon also expressed concerns over the draft Law on Trade Unions, which he said would whittle away at union rights.“The government must ensure that the draft law complies with international standards … [and] should hold more discussions, including with the ILO.”

Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, claimed Thursday that international nongovernmental organizations had been consulted on the draft law.“Cambodian laws do not only follow Cambodia standards—we always take international law into account,” he said.“International NGOs have participated in the draft law.”

Garment strike

Meanwhile, a group of eight garment unions was set to launch a nationwide stay-at-home strike Thursday following the end of Khmer New Year celebrations a day earlier, to demand a higher minimum wage in the sector as well as the release of 21 protesters imprisoned following a January strike.A violent police crackdown on the strike by garment and footwear workers n the outskirts of the capital Phnom Penh left five people dead and wounded nearly 40 others.

According to a report Thursday by the Cambodia Daily, the unions have been spreading the word for the past several weeks about the stay-at-home strike and expressed optimism that as many as half the country’s roughly 600,000 garment workers would stay home in protest. “We expect more than 50 percent of the workers not to come to work until April 22 to demand that the government and Ministry of Labor release the 21 prisoners and give them a U.S. $160 [monthly minimum] wage,” Far Saly, president of the National Trade Union Coalition, told the daily.

“We have informed our workers, handed out 100,000 leaflets and spread the information through social media and word-of-mouth,” he said. “We will wait and see how many factories will be open or closed.”

The garment sector generated more than U.S. $5 billion in revenue last year and the last round of strikes cost the industry U.S. $42.2 million in lost production, the Cambodia Daily reported, citing data from the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), which represents factory owners.The unions have asked for the stay-at-home strike to avoid another violent confrontation and to take advantage of the Khmer New Year holiday.GMAC officials, however, have said that the strike was unlikely to have much of an effect on the industry as most factory owners already gave their workers time off for the New Year until April 21.

Car crash on Trung Luong highway kills seven, including one French

At around 9.30am, a 30-seat bus of private transportation firm Thao Chau, carrying 13 people from Ben Tre to Ho Chi Minh City, suddenly crashed into a tank truck which was watering trees on the road. The crash completely demolished the coach, killing five passengers on the spot, including a French man and a boy of about 10 years. All remaining passengers were injured. Later, two more passengers died at the hospital.

Hearing the horrible sound from the crash, which took place in the Chau Thanh District of Tien Giang, local people rushed to the scene. They used hoes and crowbars to break the coach doors and debris to rescue the victims. "The scene was horrible, blood was everywhere," said one local man.
It took 30 minutes to extract all of victims from the wreck.
Authorities are investigating the accident.
The last images of the passengers on the coach before the crash:

A camera on the coach captured the last photos of 13 passengers before the tragic accident this morning. The baby boy sleeping on the woman's thigh and the foreign passenger sitting two rows behind are two of the three people who died on the spot. Two foreigners on the bus were determined to be French. The 64 -year-old man died and the 50-year-old woman was seriously injured. Just prior to the accident, the woman was sitting on the right of the man, looking out of the window. The coach driver, Tran Thanh Phong, died in the accident. He was 25 and a native of Ben Tre Province. The driver of the tank truck is Bui Trung Duong, 25, from Dong Thap Province. All the dead and seriously injured victims were seated on the driver’s side of the bus. Baggage of passengers. The journey disk on the coach was seized by the police for investigation.