Trees for guns

political and military leaders from Cambodia and Vietnam are involved in large-scale illegal logging, according to an environmental group in Britain. If the government policies are not changed, Cambodia's forests will be logged out in three to five years, the group notes.

No longer lost

A radar of the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) has found long-lost ruins of temples in the jungles at Angkor, Cambodia. In the 12th century, nearly one million people were staying in the city. Scientists at the NASA have located two temple sites that are very close to each other. It implies that the spot was sacred to the Khmer people for many centuries. In December 1996, a NASA's DC-8 jet with specialised radar flew over and spotted a circular mound at the edge of a moat that suggested human settlement.

COMBODIA

In an attempt to check deaths from illegal operations, Cambodia has legalised abortion. The new law, passed by the National Assembly, states that girls under the age of 18 must seek parental permission to have an abortion. Under the new law, unqualified doctors will be fined up to 10 million riel (US $3,124) and could be jailed for up to 10 years if found guilty performing abortions. "Women's health is our primary concern, as many girls have died because of the inadequate equipment used by quacks," said Kann Man, a member of the National Assembly.

CAMBODIA

After suffering years of war and tyranny, the Cambodians are facing a new threat: an aids epidemic . An alarming rise in aids cases has been recorded ever since screening for the disease began in 1991. According to the World Health Organization ( who) , an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 hiv cases have been recorded in Cambodia against 50,000-90,000 cases registered last November.

CAMBODIA

The ports of Cambodia and Thailand are doing a brisk business. Huge piles of logs sawn from Cambodia's dwindling rainforests make their way daily from the main port of Sihanoukville to the Thai seaport of Klong Yai. Investigations by the British Broadcasting Corporation ( bbc ), which carried a documentary on the illegal felling of forests in Cambodia and the Global Witness, a British non-governmental organisation, have revealed that indiscriminate destruction of rainforests goes on despite a ban on logging.

KAMPUCHEA

Kampuchea's logging concession to an Indonesian company - which covers nearly 19 per cent of the country's remaining forest - has raised the spectre of an environmental disaster in southeast Asia. To counter the ill-effects of logging, King Nordorn Sihanouk called on logging companies to plant three trees for each one felled and warned that Kampuchea faced a future as a 'desert' if deforestation did not end. The desertification of

KAMPUCHEA

Foreign Companies have taken a sudden interest in Kampuchea's ageing, state-owned rubber plantations. Kampuchean officials are delighted at this development. "Today there is anarchy in the transport of the rubber," says Chhun Sareth, undersecretary of state in the ministry of agriculture. "They have to replant it or it will be like the teak plantations," he feels. Three foreign companies are competing for an investment in the plantations. Terre Rouge Consultants, affiliated to Group Rivaud of France, have offered to take over the Chop plantation in

KAMPUCHEA

In a belated step to conserve the nation's depleted forest resources, the Kampuchean government has announced a complete ban on the exports of logs and sawn timber. As if to set the seal on its new-found conservation zeal, agriculture minister Tao Senghour even announced a final date for the export of these commodities (April 30).