CRIME

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sar Kheng opened an annual meeting on police affairs Wednesday. Commenting on the year's outcomes, Sar Kheng told some 500 high-ranking police officials that "our efforts towards securing political stability have helped ... in preventing political attacks on the unity of the nation and attempts to generate political crisis." However, the annual report of the Interior Ministry stated that 347 people had been killed and 1,339 people injured in 2008 as a result of armed robbery, murder and rape, and said a nationwide crackdown on over 2,089 instances of crime had resulted in 3,066 individuals arrested and tried.