Cambodia not to okay China base

In exchange, Cambodia has been a staunch China ally.

It has seeded disunity among the 10- member Asean bloc of Southeast Asian nations over a diplomatic pushback to Beijing’s aggression in the strategically South China Sea.

Rumours that a Chinese naval base is under construction off Cambodia’s southwest coast have been swirling.

The area under scrutiny is in the Gulf of Thailand but gives ready access to the South China Sea.

Beijing claims most of the flashpoint area, infuriating the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan who all have competing claims to its islands and potentially resource- rich waters. pivotal Mexico City, Nov. 19: Mexican drug boss Hector Manuel Beltran Leyva, once one of Mexico’s most- wanted men, died on Sunday after suffering a heart attack in jail.

The interior ministry said that Beltran Leyva, 56, was transported to a hospital the central city of Toluca after complaining of chest pains but that doctors were unable to save him.

Beltran Leyva received the necessary medical attention and prison and hospital personnel did everything in their capacity to revive him, the ministry said, emphasising that security protocols were observed.

Beltran Leyva was arrested in 2014 in San Miguel de Allende, a colonial city favoured by US retirees, but had eluded an extradition request from the United States.

The family- run Beltran Leyva cartel was once a leading player in Mexican drug trafficking, with control of the US border region in Sonora. In 2008, a federation dominated by the Sinaloa Cartel, which included the Beltran Leyva organisation, broke apart, sparking one of the bloodiest episodes of Mexican cartel infighting.

Brothers Alfredo and Carlos were arrested, while Arturo was killed by security forces. Hector’s wife Clara Laborin Archuleta was arrested in 2016 after taking over cartel operations and trying to reassert control in the Pacific Coast resort of Acapulco.