With dismay, the Cambodian Human Rights Committee (CHRC) has turned down a baseless report by six civil society organisations saying that the democracy in Cambodia has been deteriorating. Senior Minister H.E. Keo Remy, CHRC President, dismissed the ill-willed claim in a press conference on Dec. 22 to counter the misleading report among the media and the public at the CHRC headquarters. The response followed the submission of the misleading report by the six organisations to the U.S., European, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, British, and Japanese parliaments. According to the senior minister, the report mainly focused on outdated information about the court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), the Candlelight Party, and the opposition activists who were arrested for violating the law. The CHRC is handy with all the first-hand facts and evidence and will submit clarification to the seven parliaments that have received the report. The six politicised organisations that composed the report o n the selected facts include the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, the Asia Democracy Network, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, the Asian Network for Free Elections, the World Alliance for Citizen Participation, and the Human Rights Watch. Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse Hanoi: More than 1,100 natural disasters have taken place across Vietnam this year, heard a conference held by the office of the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control in Hanoi on December 22. Accordingly, natural disasters have to date caused 166 people dead and missing, down 5% year-on-year. The estimated economic damage is about 8.23 trillion VND (339.38 million USD), an annual decrease of 58%. Faced with the abnormal and extreme nature of the disasters, the Government, Prime Minister, national steering committee have directed ministries and localities to vigorously and promptly implement responsive solutions. According to Hoang Phuc Lam, Deputy Director of the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, this year has so far seen eight storms and tropical depressions. Severe heatwaves have occurred, with temperatures in some places reaching up to 44.2 degrees Celsius. Heavy rains have taken place in the central region, with 35 provinces and cities affected by fl oods and landslides. Throughout the year, the centre has implemented a comprehensive set of measures to enhance the detailed level of flood and landslide warning messages, focusing on applying new and modern technologies to determine more detailed rainfall thresholds. Notably, a real-time warning information system is being integrated into its related forecasting./. Source: Vietnam News Agency