Police Block Monks from Delivering Petition To King

More than 150 monks gathered together on Thursday to submit a petition to the Royal Palace, asking King Norodom Sihamoni to postpone a National Assembly session on Sept. 23 that the opposition has threatened to boycott. The session is meant to ratify the July 28 election, which opposition leaders say they lost due to irregularities and fraud, and mark the formation of a new government.  It will be presided over by the king, who has declined a request by the opposition to postpone, setting up a potential boycott that could prolong Cambodia’s post-election political crisis.  The monks were stopped by security forces, who had blocked the roads surrounding the palace. The monks then sat in front of the barricades, meditating for hours, into evening.  VOA Khmer's Khuon Theara reports from Phnom Penh.