NewsTracker Answers for week of Feb. 29, 2016

Q: Sent from Africa, where they successfully cleared minefields in Mozambique and Angola, trained African giant pouched rats recently began the same task in Cambodia. Where is Cambodia?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Cambodia is one of the world’s most heavily land-mined countries, with up to 6 million mines or pieces of unexploded ordnance still left in the ground from decades of war including a conflict with its eastern neighbor . . .

A. China

B. Myanmar

C. Thailand

D. Vietnam

D. Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia in 1978 and ousted the Khmer Rouge regime that had ruled since 1975. Cambodia is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the northeast, Vietnam to the east, and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest.

Q: Under the communist Khmer Rouge, cities were evacuated and people were sent on forced marches to rural work projects. An estimated 2 million people were killed – about a quarter of the population. What form of government does Cambodia have now?

A. Communist dictatorship

B. Constitutional monarchy

C. Democratic republic

D. Military junta

B. Under King Norodom Sihamoni, the government is a constitutional monarchy operated as a parliamentary representative democracy. Officially a multiparty democracy, in reality the country is a one-party state dominated by Prime Minister Hun Sen, a recast Khmer Rouge official in power since 1985.

Q: About 67,000 people in Cambodia have been killed or injured by land mines since 1979, and the danger has cut into production of the country's major crop . . .

A. Bananas

B. Barley

C. Rice

D. Wheat

C. Rice is the staple food and primary crop in Cambodia. Agriculture employs about 49 percent of the nation's workers. Other crops include rubber, corn, vegetables, cashews and cassava.

Q: Tourism is a growing area of Cambodia's economy, and its top tourist attraction is the Angkor Wat temple complex - the largest religious monument in the world. What is the dominant religion of Cambodia?

A. Buddhism

B. Christianity

C. Hindu

D. Islam

A. About 97 percent of Cambodia's people are Buddhists. Angkor Wat was originally constructed as a Hindu temple for the Khmer Empire, and gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple toward the end of the 12th century.