Cambodia defused a tense border standoff yesterday by returning three Thai nationals, including a Buddhist monk, who had crossed into Cambodia to protest the recent decision to list Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site.
The Thais, identified as Phicharn Thapsorn, 35, Chanikarn Singnok, 64, and Buddhist monk Khamphor, were detained by Cambodian soldiers for trespassing in the Preah Vihear temple compound on the Cambodian side of the border.
The men, reportedly members of a Buddhist peace pilgrimage group, had crossed into the temple area from Khantalak District, Si Sa Khet Province, which borders Cambodia’s Preah Vihear Province, on Monday night.
PHOTO: AP
Si Sa Khet Governor Seni Chittakasem confirmed that Cambodian authorities had released the three men unconditionally by yesterday afternoon.
FEARS
An estimated 40 Thai border police had crossed the Cambodian border into Preah Vihear temple to retrieve the trespassing Thais, alarming tourists and sparking urgent talks between the two sides, Cambodian authorities said.
“After the arrests, around 40 black uniformed Thai border guards with guns arrived at the temple and scared tourists with their weapons,” said Hang Soth, secretary-general of the government’s Preah Vihear authority in a telephone interview.
Cambodia has had riot police and military on standby at the temple since Thai protests began earlier this month.
HERITAGE SITE
Preah Vihear temple, known as Phra Viharn in Thailand, was named a World Heritage Site at a UNESCO meeting in Quebec City earlier this month, despite Thai opposition to the listing.
The ancient Hindu temple, perched on a 525m-high cliff on the Dangrek Mountain range that defines the Thai-Cambodian border, has been the source of a sovereignty dispute for decades.
An ownership spat between Cambodia and Thailand led to a suspension of diplomatic relations in 1958 and eventually ended up in The Hague for an international settlement in 1962. Cambodia won.
The temple reemerged as a source of bilateral tensions in 2006 when Cambodia first proposed listing the monument as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Thailand objected, and succeeded in blocking the subscription attempt in 2006 and last year on the grounds that parts of the temple compound were still subject to a border dispute.
Cambodia redrew the Preah Vihear inscription map this year, excluding the disputed territory.
It was approved by the World Heritage Committee on July 7.
The Thai government at first backed the proposal, but then withdrew support when the issue became a political hot potato.
Residents of Si Sa Khet province, about 400km northeast of Bangkok, have been protesting the listing, prompting Cambodia to shut access to the temple from the Thai side.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
RSS