In their royal palace at Pnompenh one evening last week, Cambodia's King Norodom Suramarit and Queen Kossamak paused for a moment before leaving their private apartment behind the throne room. The acting protocol chief of the royal household, Prince Norodom Vakrivan, had just brought in a package newly arrived from Hong Kong. The accompanying card said that it contained a "gift for the King and queen" from a U.S. engineering company that had helped build the 134-mile Cambodian-American Friendship Highway running from Pnompenh to the seaport of Sihanoukville.
Opening the parcel, the prince found a lacquer box. Inside it was another...
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