A senior Khmer Rouge leader has accused a war crimes tribunal of wanting his “head on the block”, and insisted he had no real authority during the regime’s brutal rule of Cambodia in the 1970s.

THE top surviving commanders of the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime masterminded one of the “worst horrors” of the 20th century, creating a living nightmare by killing or enslaving millions of Cambodians, a UN-backed war crimes trial has heard.

Four now old and infirm members of the Khmer Rouge's ruling elite were facing a war crimes tribunal today, decades after their plans for a Communist Party utopia in Cambodia killed around 1.7 million people by execution, medical neglect, overwork and starvation.

Renewed fighting between Cambodian and Thai troops along the countries’ disputed border killed a Thai soldier today and sent thousands of people fleeing before military commanders agreed on the second ceasefire in two days.

Thousands of Cambodians lit candles and made offerings to appease the souls of those who perished in a riverside stampede that left nearly 400 people dead as investigators tried to determine the cause of the tragedy.

A STAMPEDE in the Cambodian capital has left more than 340 people dead and hundreds injured after panic erupted at a water festival that had attracted millions of revellers.

Cambodia will not allow the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal to prosecute former low-ranking officers of the genocidal regime because it would endanger national peace, the country’s leader told the UN chief today.

A UN-BACKED tribunal sentenced the Khmer Rouge’s chief jailer to 35 years for overseeing the deaths of up to 16,000 people – the first verdict involving a senior member of the “killing fields” regime that devastated a generation of Cambodians.

A former Khmer Rouge chief jailer was sentenced to 19 years behind bars today after a United Nations-backed tribunal found him guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

A UNITED Nations backed war crimes tribunal is expected to issue a decision today in the trial of the Khmer Rouge’s chief jailer and torturer – the first verdict involving a leader of the genocidal regime that created Cambodia’s killing fields.

The Khmer Rouge prison chief blamed for thousands of deaths at an infamous torture centre asked Cambodia’s genocide tribunal to release him today saying he had already spent 10 years in jail awaiting trial.

Prosecutors in the genocide trial of a former Khmer Rouge prison chief demanded a 40-year jail sentence today for a man they said took innocent lives and spread terror across Cambodia.

A SENIOR Khmer Rouge prison guard has told a war crimes tribunal he was forced to send thousands of detainees to an execution site, where they were brutally killed and their bodies thrown into mass graves.

The Khmer Rouge jailer with the blood of thousands of victims on his hands today admitted his guilt in public for the first time.

A former teacher accused of carrying out the murderous policies of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge finally faced trial today, as prosecutors opened their first case against the hard-core communists who turned the country into a killing field three decades ago.

A gunfight broke out between Thai and Cambodian troops at a disputed border zone today, escalating a conflict that officials from both sides fear could result in a war between the neighbours.

Soldiers from Cambodia and Thailand came close to opening fire on each other today in a border confrontation over land surrounding an ancient temple.

Cambodian police blocked American actress Mia Farrow from holding a rally at a former Khmer Rouge prison today, pushing her group away from a barricade as they tried to lay flowers to commemorate victims of genocide.

Cambodia’s UN-backed genocide tribunal opened its doors today for the first public court appearance of a Khmer Rouge figure since the regime’s brutal reign of terror in the 1970s.

Two opposing groups of Cambodian Buddhist monks engaged in a street fist fight today during a protest to demand religious freedom for their fellow monks living in southern Vietnam.

THE sun is so hot, the bus-loads of Japanese tourists put away their cameras and deploy fans instead.

A former Khmer Rouge field commander, convicted in absentia over the murder of three tourists in 1994, has been apprehended in north-western Cambodia, the government said today.

IN a recent letter to the Irish Examiner, Jim Malo from Connecticut sought “specific information” on civilian torture by US authorities.

CAMBODIA’S King Norodom Sihanouk declared yesterday that his son, Prince Norodom Sihamoni, is ready to accept the crown to resolve a political crisis triggered last week when the 81-year-old monarch announced he would abdicate.

Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihanouk declared today that his son, Prince Norodom Sihamoni, is ready to accept the crown to resolve a political crisis triggered last week when the 81-year-old monarch announced he would abdicate.

Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihanouk has abdicated because of poor health and asked the country to begin a search for a successor, the head of the National Assembly said today.

THE newly-declassified document (Irish Examiner, August 28) that shows Henry Kissinger telling Argentina’s Foreign Minister “if there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly”, just before the campaign against dissidents in 1976, should come as no great surprise.

WHERE did John Kerry spend Christmas of 1968? Vietnam, it seems. Which is not what he has been saying for 25 years.

A French lawyer infamous for defending terrorists and a Nazi leader today said he has been asked to defend Saddam Hussein.

FROM the Polish undertaker caught smuggling cigarettes in a hearse to a pair of one-legged Brazilian prisoners skipping jail, the weird and wacky reigned supreme around the world in 2003.

A man believed to be the world’s oldest man has died at the age of 122 in eastern Cambodia.

I’VE been lucky enough to be a witness to a range of dramatic political events. During the years I worked in Fianna Fáil headquarters, for example, I had a bird’s eye view of controversies during the Lenihan-Robinson Presidential election in 1990 and the collapse of the Reynolds Government in 1994.

Thailand cut virtually all ties with Cambodia today and evacuated hundreds of its terrified citizens from Phnom Penh after unprecedented anti-Thai riots there.

Demonstrators looted and set fire to the Thai Embassy in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh today when police allowed a protest against a soap star to get out of control.

Officials have dismantled a map of Cambodia made out of skulls - a key icon of Khmer Rouge atrocities.

Cambodians have voted in the country's first local elections.

Thirteen children, including 10 infants as young as two weeks, have been rescued from what appears to be an illegal adoption racket in Cambodia, police and human rights workers said today.

Thirteen children, including 10 babies as young as two weeks, have been rescued from an apparent illegal adoption racket in Cambodia.

New evidence may lead to the prosecution of seven men implicated in Cambodia's 'killing fields' genocide.

Cambodia's Senate has approved a law on creating a tribunal of judges to try the leaders of the murderous Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s.