DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Cambodia's organization to hold bike race to raise funds for vulnerable kids” plus 5 more

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Village Focus International ( VFI), a non-government organization, is scheduled to organize the Angkor Wat Bike Race & Ride on December 1 in Siem Reap province in order to raise funds to support vulnerable children, according to an organization's press release on Wednesday.

"Cyclists from all over the world are invited to sign up to the Angkor Wat Bike Race & Ride," said the press release.

Entering its seventh year, the annual charity fundraising event encourages participants of all ages and fitness levels to cycle through the beautiful temples of the UNESCO World Heritage Angkor Wat temple complex to help raise funds for VFI's life changing work supporting vulnerable children and victims of sex trafficking, it said.

Since first held in 2006, the bike event has grown each year and raised a total of 150,000 U.S. dollars towards empowering young people and communities to break out of the cycle of poverty and exploitation.

VFI implements three human rights-based programs throughout Laos and Cambodia, in cooperation with NGO partners.

Rick Reece, the VFI's director, said that the Angkor Wat Bike Race & Ride offers bikers from around the world to join in solidarity to ride on the Angkor roads through forest, rice fields and the magnificent ancient temple complex.

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian anti-drug chief on Wednesday appreciated police and customs officials for their efforts to seize more than 34 kilograms of drugs at the Phnom Penh International Airport and arrest 6 Thai drug traffickers.

"Our officials are very capable, we are proud of them, they have made largest ever cocaine busts these days," deputy prime minister and chairman of the National Authority for Combating Drugs Ke Kim Yan told reporters.

His comment came after the police and customs officials at the Phnom Penh International Airport arrested 6 Thai women who had tried to smuggle over 34 kilograms of drugs into Cambodia.

Varangkran A Phomdee, 29, and her alleged accomplice Tangboo Ketkarn, 31, were arrested on Aug. 7 and 8. The duo were charged by Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Aug. 11 with collaborating to smuggle about 3.6 kilograms of cocaine from Ecuador into Cambodia aboard a flight from Singapore.

On Aug. 13 and 14, Rodsiri Rungeiwa, 24, and Bucha Preedaporn, 35, were also arrested at the airport for concealing about 13 kilograms of cocaine each in their baggage.

In addition, on Aug. 13, Piwjansod Utsanee, 20, was also detained at the airport after police discovered 4.78 kilograms of methamphetamines in her luggage. She confessed that she brought the drug from Brazil and her final destination was Bangkok. Her fellow national Hollaus Nanthiya was also arrested for the same case, according to the website of the National Police.

"They trafficked these drugs from Ecuador, Brazil...and their final destinations are not Cambodia, but Thailand or other countries," Ke Kim Yan said Wednesday, adding that under the country's new drug law, those perpetrators will be seriously punished.

"We do not have death sentence as Singapore and Malaysia do," he said. "In Singapore, a person who traffics in over 30 grams of drug will be sentenced to death. For Cambodia, we have only a life imprisonment."

Under Cambodia's law, a person who traffics in more than 80 grams of drug will be sentenced to a life imprisonment.

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia and Vietnam on Wednesday expressed their commitment to intensify cooperation to fight against cross border drug trafficking and all forms of drug offensives.

The commitment was made during a meeting between Cambodian deputy Prime Minister Ke Kim Yan, chairman of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, and visiting Vietnamese deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, chairman of the National Committee for Prevention and Control of Drugs, AIDS and Prostitution.

Speaking at the meeting, Ke Kim Yan said that Cambodia is not the country that produces illicit drug, but it has been suffering from cross border drug smuggling, drug use, and attempts to use Cambodia as a base for illicit drug production by foreign criminals.

"In the last few years, the authority has timely cracked down on a lot of locations which have been prepared to produce drug in Phnom Penh and some provinces," he said. "The criminals have been brought to court for law-based punishment."

Currently, he said the National Authority for Combating Drugs estimated that there have been some 6,000 Cambodians using illicit drug; however, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that the country has up to 46,000 people using drug, most of them are youths.

Meanwhile, Ke Kim Yan asked Vietnamese side to continue cooperation in information exchange to prevent and crack down on transnational drug smuggling.

He also suggested Vietnam to provide aid to Cambodia for the construction of the National Center for Drug Addicts Rehabilitation.

Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that the closer cooperation between the two neighbors was very vital to eliminate all forms of drug offensives by 2015, saying that Vietnam would still continue helping Cambodia in this work.

He also promised to accept Cambodian drug law practitioners and drug rehabilitation officials to train in Vietnam.

YANGON, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Denmark has provided over 8 million U.S. dollars in cash to Myanmar through the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) aimed at boosting livelihood of the poor and to improve the health of mothers and young children in the poorest areas of the country, official media reported Wednesday.

Two agreements were signed between Mikael Hemniti Winther, Denmark's ambassador to Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia, and Sanjay Mathur, Director and Representative of UNOPS in Myanmar here on Tuesday, said the New Light of Myanmar.

Of the total, more than 4.1 million U.S. dollars will be channeled through the multi-donor Livelihood and Food Security Trust (LIFT) fund managed by UNOPS for livelihood projects.

"Denmark contribution will enable farmers to cultivate larger areas and yield better harvests, resulting in increased income for many households and villages across the country," Winther was quoted as saying.

Another 4.1 million contribution to 3 Millennium Development Fund (3MDG) Fund will be part of the basis for a program to offer health services to populations in Myanmar with the greatest need, focusing on improving the health of mothers and young children.

The aid will include components to supplement the Global Fund program on HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, in areas, which it is currently unable to support, as well as to assist the government in strengthening the health systems and capacity to deliver quality basic health to the people of Myanmar.

Denmark along with governments of Australia, the EC, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are working together through LIFT to increase food availability, income generation opportunities and food use for up to 2 million people.

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodian government had collected 455 million U.S. dollars of tax in the first seven months of this year, a 40-percent increase from 325 million U.S. dollars over the same period last year, according to the figure received from the General Department of Taxation on Tuesday.

The revenues have been collected from tax on profit, withholding tax, tax on salary, VAT (Value Added Tax), special tax on certain merchandises and services, turnover tax, vehicle tax, patent tax, property tax, and so on.

Some critics claimed that the kingdom still has much room to grow in tax revenues if the laws has been firmly enforced because to date, some businesses have still avoided paying taxes.

Speaking in a monthly meeting last week, Sim Ieng, director general of the General Department of Taxation, urged his tax officials to enforce laws in order to collect more revenues for the state coffer.