EU SEEN OPENING UP TRADE TO VIETNAM, CLOSING DOOR TO CAMBODIAThe European Union is expected to open its markets to Vietnam on Wednesday,while closing its trade doors with Cambodia, rewarding the former forprogress on labour guarantees and sanctioning the latter for human rightsabuses.The moves mark Europe's increased insistence that trading partnerships gobeyond liberalisation and be coupled with commitments to environmental,labour and social standards. On Wednesday, it will display both its carrotand stick.In Strasbourg, EU lawmakers will vote on a free-trade agreement struck withVietnam, the EU's most comprehensive such pact with a developing country andits second with a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN).Initial backing from the international trade committee of the EuropeanParliament last month suggested the parliament as a whole would back it.Critics have taken issue with Vietnam's record on human and labour rights.Human Rights Watch urged lawmakers to delay approval until Vietnam fulfilleda pledge to allow freedom of assembly for workers and reformed a penal codethat it says puts government critics in jail.EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan told lawmakers in a debate on Tuesday thatVietnam's human rights situation was "certainly an area of concern", butsaid that forums such as an annual human rights dialogue were the way toaddress shortcomings.The deal, which could take effect in July, would eliminate 99% of tariffs,although Vietnam will have a transition period of up to 10 years for someimports, such as cars and beer.LONDON POLICE DEPLOY FACE SCAN TECH, STIRRING PRIVACY FEARSLondon police started using facial recognition cameras on February 11 toautomatically scan for wanted people, as authorities adopt the technologythat has raised concerns about increased surveillance and erosion ofprivacy.Surveillance cameras mounted on a blue police van monitored people comingout of a shopping centre in Stratford, in east London. Signs warned thatpolice were using the technology to find people wanted for serious crimes.Officers stood nearby, explaining to passers-by how the system works.It's the first time London's Metropolitan Police Service has used livefacial recognition cameras in an operational deployment since carrying out aseries of trials that ended last year.London police are using the technology despite warnings from rights groups,lawmakers and independent experts about a lack of accuracy and bias in thesystem and the erosion of privacy.Activists fear it's just the start of expanded surveillance."We don't accept this. This isn't what you do in a democracy. You don't scanpeople's faces with cameras. This is something you do in China, not in theU.K.," said Silkie Carlo, director of privacy campaign group Big BrotherWatch.Britain has a strong tradition of upholding civil liberties and of notallowing police to arbitrarily stop and identify people, she said. "Thistechnology just sweeps all of that away."