Temple standoff prompts UN appeal

PHNOM PENH - Cambodia has complained to the United Nations Security Council about its military standoff with Thailand over an ancient temple on their disputed border. Hundreds of Thai and Cambodian troops faced one another at the Preah Vihear temple for a sixth day yesterday, a standoff that some fear could turn violent. In a letter to the council, Cambodia's UN ambassador, Sea Kosal, said Thai troops had been occupying Cambodian territory near the 900-year-old temple since Tuesday. The temple, perched on a jungle-clad escarpment that forms a natural boundary between the nations, has been a source of tension since the International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that it belonged to Cambodia. (Reuters)

LONDON - Britain should no longer rely on US assurances that it does not use torture on terrorism suspects, an influential committee of members of Parliament said in a report released yesterday. Britain had previously taken those assurances on face value, but after the CIA acknowledged "waterboarding" detainees, Britain should change its stance, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said in its annual report on human rights. Foreign Secretary David Miliband told Parliament in April he thought the technique, in which a suspect is tied down on a board and water is poured over his or her hooded face in a form of simulated drowning, amounted to torture. (Reuters)

PARIS - President Nicolas Sarkozy of France faces a potentially hostile audience in Dublin today when he visits to "listen and understand" the reasons Irish voters rejected the European Union reform treaty last month. Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency, has the task of resolving the crisis sparked by the Irish vote, which sank hopes of adopting a treaty intended to fix the bloc's unwieldy decision-making processes. The text, agreed after French voters rejected a proposed EU constitutional charter in 2005, must be ratified by every EU member nation. Sarkozy's visit has been overshadowed by a furor over a remark he made at a closed-door meeting with French lawmakers that the Irish would have to vote again on the treaty. Opponents of the treaty were outraged by what they saw as outside interference. (Reuters)

BEIJING - China flew a provincial Communist Party boss to a remote rubber-growing area of southwestern Yunnan to investigate a weekend clash between police and residents in which two people were killed, state media said. The clash happened in the weeks leading to the Olympics as Beijing seeks to avoid the thousands of riots that break out across the country every year,unrest usually linked to corruption. Li Jiheng, deputy party chief of Yunnan, ordered an investigation after about 500 rubber farmers armed with knives attacked police, injuring 41 officers and damaging eight police cars. (Reuters)