Phnom Penh- A top judge at Cambodia's UN-backed  tribunal said Monday lack of international funding meant the court would be unable to pay its domestic staff salaries this month.

Kong Srim, president of the tribunal's Supreme Court Chamber, told a plenary session of tribunal judges in Phnom Penh that the international donor shortfall had put the Cambodian side of the hybrid court in a dire financial position.

"Unfortunately the national side of the court will not have sufficient funds for the staff salaries this month," he said.

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal on Friday postponed a hearing of the regime's former head of state after his controversial French lawyer failed to appear at court.

Khieu Samphan, 77, was in court to appeal an extension of his pre-trial detention, but judges adjourned the hearing until April 3 after it was revealed that international co-defence lawyer Jacques Verges was still in France.

Phnom Penh - Judges at Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal on Thursday postponed a hearing for the fallen regime's ailing former foreign minister after doctors declared him too ill to attend court.

Ieng Sary, 83, was due in court to appeal an order to extend his pre-trial detention but an early-morning health check found him unfit to attend the session.

Prosecutors and defence lawyers argued over whether to hold the hearing in his absence, but judges decided to adjourn the hearing to April 1.

The former schoolteacher suffers from heart disease and high blood pressure and was rushed to hospital on Monday night after blood was found in his urine.

It was his ninth hospitalization since he was arrested in November 2007.

Phnom Penh - The former "first lady" of Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime told the UN-backed war crimes tribunal on Tuesday her accusers would be "cursed to the seventh level of hell" for implicating her in the deaths of up to 2 million people three decades ago.

Ieng Thirith, 76, faces charges of crimes against humanity allegedly committed while she was minister for social affairs during the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 reign.

Phnom Penh - The long-awaited first hearing before Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal ended Wednesday after a heated debate between lawyers over the admissibility of new evidence in the trial of the genocidal regime's former chief torturer.

Presiding judge Nil Nonn said a date for the next hearing in the trial of former Tuol Sleng torture facility chief Kaing Guek Eav, known by his revolutionary name Duch, would be announced "in due course."

Phnom Penh - The chief international prosecutor for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal said Monday, one day ahead of the opening hearing, that it would be a highly technical but "hugely significant" event.

Co-prosecutor Robert Petit said although the initial trial hearing of former Tuol Sleng torture facility chairman Kaing Guek Eav, known by his revolutionary name Duch, would be a procedural affair, it would be a milestone for the UN-backed tribunal.