Briefs, October 24, 2012

Cambodia deports factory manager

PHNOM PENH - A court yesterday ordered the deporation of a Chinese garment-factory supervisor after finding her guilty of defacing images of Cambodia's recently deceased king. Wang Zia Chao, who was convicted of breaking laws that forbid insulting the monarchy, also received a one-year suspended jail sentence and a fine of 2.5 million riel (HK$4,725). The 43-year-old woman caused an uproar at a factory complex on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, when she cut up two photos of former King Norodom Sihanouk that workers had been carrying. She accused them of shirking. AP

Khmer Rouge trial faces further delays

PHNOM PENH - Cambodia's landmark trial of three former Khmer Rouge leaders faces fresh delays, the UN-backed court said, explaining that funding woes would force it to hold fewer hearings each month. The court could not afford to replace "a significant number of key international legal and other staff", judges said, in the latest setback to a trial stalked by fears that its octogenarian defendants will not live to see a verdict. The oldest and frailest of the accused, former foreign minister Ieng Sary, 86, is in hospital with a string of ailments. AFP

UN peacekeepers to leave East Timor

JAKARTA - UN peacekeepers will hand over full responsibility for policing to East Timor next week as they begin withdrawing in earnest from Asia's youngest nation. The final batch of peacekeepers would leave in December, the head of the UN Integrated Mission in East Timor said. The mission arrived in 2006 after a political crisis in which dozens were killed and thousands displaced. AFP

Minister resigns after report of yakuza link

TOKYO - Japan's justice minister quit because of ill health, a cabinet official said, after calls for the minister's resignation over past ties to an organised crime syndicate. The controversy over Keishu Tanaka has dealt a blow to unpopular Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. Tanaka, 74, became justice minister in a cabinet reshuffle on October 1, and his resignation is the second by a minister since Noda took office in September last year. The resignation came a day after Tanaka left a Tokyo hospital where he had checked in on Friday with chest pains, irregular heartbeat and high blood pressure. News of his health problems followed days of calls for his resignation after a magazine report linked him to the yakuza organised crime syndicate. Reuters