PHNOM PENH - 'I PRAYED for dawn as soon as possible so that I could see this trial start,' said Vann Nath, one of only a handful of people to have been spared by the Khmer Rouge regime's chief torturer.

He was one of hundreds of people, from saffron-robed Buddhist monks to families who lost loved ones, who on Tuesday attended the first day of the trial of Duch, who ran the notorious Tuol Sleng detention centre.

PHNOM PENH - SURVIVORS of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge atrocities reacted with pain, anger and relief on Tuesday as they watched Pol Pot's chief torturer in the dock, 30 years after the fall of a regime blamed for 1.7 million deaths.

GEORGE TOWN - MALAYSIAN police are investigating the report lodged by a Gerakan Youth wing that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's safety is being threatened.

George Town police said it will be recording statements from reporters who reported the news, and other parties.