PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Prime Minister Hun Sen has threatened to dissolve the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party if it entangles itself in the legal proceedings against its chief, charged with treason last week.

Hun Sen said during a graduation ceremony Monday that if the investigation into Kem Sokha linked his party to his actions, it would be dissolved. Kem Sokha was arrested on the basis of videos from several years ago showing him at a seminar where he spoke about receiving advice from U.S. democracy promotion groups.

His arrest is generally seen as a partisan political effort to cripple the opposition before next year's general election.

Deputy opposition chief Mu Sochua demanded Kem Sokha's immediate release and said the party would continue to support him as its chief.

Leaders of two state agencies and Berks and Lancaster counties' transit agencies have expressed concerns, with the agency leaders writing letters urging the Senate to reject the plan.
David W. Kilmer, executive director of the authority that oversees BARTA, said the 35 percent reduction the plan would mean for the South Central Transit Authority's budget would cut $3.2 million from BARTA and $2.4 million from the Red Rose Transit Authority in Lancaster County. South Central manages both systems with a $31.5 million budget. Of that, $20 million is for the bus program. The rest goes to the authority's shared-ride service.

The Senate in late July passed a package that would raise money to fund that budget - a mix of borrowing and tax increases, including a Marcellus shale extraction tax, new taxes on utility and telephone bills and levies on expanded gambling. Wolf has endorsed the Senate revenue plan and called the House's recent package "nonsense."
Not wanting to raise taxes, House members recently said they found $10 billion in state surplus savings and reserve accounts. Of that, they say, $1.2 billion could be used to help balance the budget. This money has been sitting in savings accounts, untouched for as long as three years, House leaders said. A group of House Republicans spent much of the summer combing through state accounts searching for surplus money that was free to be reassigned to the budget.

Moving $357 million from the Pennsylvania Public Transit Trust Fund would be cataclysmic, Leslie S. Richards, secretary of PennDOT, said in a letter.

"Most of these funds are not available; they are actually contractually obligated for current and pending projects," Richards wrote. "This could have been conveyed to House Republicans had the department been contacted prior to the release of this plan."
Another letter, from state Agriculture Secretary Russell C. Redding, says the House plan's cuts raise concerns "over the future of Pennsylvania's agriculture industry."
"While the Senate approved a responsible and sustainable plan to finance (the budget) the House has yet to do so," Redding wrote.

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Russia's foreign minister says Saudi Arabia assured him it backs a Moscow-led process of negotiating gradual local cease-fires in Syria, including the establishment of "de-escalation zones."

Sergey Lavrov spoke after a meeting Monday with his Jordanian counterpart and a day after talks with Saudi leaders.

Russia and Iran back Syria's government, while Saudi Arabia supports Syrian rebels. Russia, Iran and Turkey, another rebel backer, have been sponsoring talks in Kazakhstan on gradual cease-fires and de-escalation zones. A new round in the Kazakh capital, Astana, starts later this week.


Lavrov says Saudi Arabia assured him that it "supports this process and will cooperate in terms of creating de-escalation areas and other initiatives under the Astana process."


Lavrov and his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi, said the Astana approach is the most practical.

The Week Donald Trump Restored the Republic Joel Pollak, Breitbart

pacino wrote:Mitt Romney wants to be Utah's Senator if Orrin Hatch retires.

pacino wrote:Whitehouse

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mozartpc27 wrote:

pacino wrote:Whitehouse

This was cruel.

pacino wrote:guy running for West Chester mayor wants to Trust the Progress