U
N Legal Advisor Hans Corell took a lashing in the UN polls for seats on the International
Court of Justice. In the General Assembly vote he was 40 votes behind the Sierra
Leonian candidate and 29 votes behind the fifth place candidate from Germany. A seasoned
observer of the exhausting and now stalled KR trial negotiations between the UN and
the Cambodian government commented: "It couldn't have happened to a nicer chap."
Another grizzled trial watcher, noting that with Corell still in his current job
and the General Assembly about to give Kofi Annan a mandate to re-start the negotiations,
said it was unclear "whether [the UN] can force him to go to PP and eat a boxcar
full of dead crow."
An inside the Beltway DC politico clarified last week that US Senator Mitch McConnell,
with reference to his remarks calling for "regime change" in Cambodia,
was not thinking about a US-led Coalition armed invasion of Cambodia. He was thinking
about something else, but it is still unclear what that was.
Security will be very tight for the Asean Summit, especially for journalists.
One was refused a pass because, of the five photos requested, in one the hack was
wearing spectacles and the powers that be said he might be unrecognizable.
The perks for votes issue could get more complicated in the run-up to next year's
elections. A recent report in the New Scientist says that eating too much MSG, called
bi-cheng in Khmer, can make you go blind. AFP reported that "Rats fed on diets
high in MSG suffered vision loss and a thinner retina." Poll watchdog organizations
may need to start thinking about warning labels.
The Hotel InterContinental will be where the action is during the ASEAN Summit.
They've booked out all 350 rooms to some of the key visiting delegations, including
the Heads of State from Japan, China, Indonesia, Thailand and India. Even PM Hun
Sen and his entourage will be moving in for the duration.
Motorists are starting to grumble about the new high-tech traffic lights. The
one at the site of the old Ambassador Hotel on the road to Pochen-tong apparently
has everyone, including the cops, totally confused. Commuters who regularly use the
road say that you can now expect at least a 15 minute jam-up as you inch your way
through 7 green and red light changes before crossing the intersection. Don't plan
on dashing to the airport during rush hour.
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