Cambodian husband takes half in divorce settlement

Phnom Penh - A Cambodian couple decided to circumvent the country's notoriously corrupt and expensive court system in their divorce case by dividing their house in half, literally, local media reported Thursday. The Khmer-language Koh Santepheap newspaper featured a front-page photo of a precariously perched half of the stilted former home of Meuon Rima and his ex-wife Nhang, both 40, which Rima sawed with surgical precision down the middle. Rima, who sought a divorce on the grounds that his wife refused to nurse him during a recent illness, was last seen driving away from the village in south-eastern Prey Veng province with his half of the home, the daily reported.