Indigenous Forest Protection Group Again Told to Disband
Members of Bunong ethnic minority forest group in Kratie province who accused local police of barring their community patrols in search of illegal logging were told by a Forestry Administration official yesterday that they had no authority to operate. Mr. [Peit] Kun Pedor [head of ...
Garment Workers Set Tires on Fire as Tax Protest Continues
About 600 garment factory workers continued their strike in Phnom Penh yesterday, setting car tires alight to protest what they said were unfair salary cuts but factory representatives and labor officials described as a normal tax on income. “The factory told us that they cut our ...
Officials deny arrest has links to new loans
The rumour mill has been in overdrive regarding the arrest of The Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg; however, various government officials yesterday shunned the conspiracy theories. Tom Abrahamsson, head of administrative and consular matters at the Swedish Embassy in Phnom Penh, refuted speculation that Svartholm ...
Thousands Evacuated, but Floodwaters Abating
More than 400 families in Banteay Meanchey province have now been evacuated from their homes due to heavy flooding in towns and villages along the Thai border, provincial officials said yesterday. About 100 families were evacuated from Poipet City – the worst-hit area – yesterday alone, ...
Airport Operator to Go Ahead With Expansion
Cambodia Airports said yesterday that it planned to move forward with plans to build a new security fence at Phnom Penh International Airport ahead of next month’s Asean and East Asia summits, even though its construction will result in more than 180 families being evicted. Speaking ...
Gov’t Asks Global Fund to Unblock $20 Million Malaria Grant
A Health Ministry official said yesterday the government was still hoping to recoup the last $20 million of a Global Fund grant for fighting malaria that the international charity has held back because of Cambodia’s poor use of fund dollars. Last week, a spokesman for the ...
Casino building part of 'secret strategy' to protect Cambodia borders
Hun Sen, the prime minister of Cambodia, has said allowing the construction of a spate of casinos on the border was part of a “secret strategy” to protect the country’s territory from its neighbours. In a five hour speech addressing border demarcation issues with Vietnam, he ...
Homes Destroyed, One Arrested Amid Land Grab
The homes of 137 families in Pursat province’s Phnom Kravanh district have been demolished since Tuesday, when more than 60 police, military forces and forestry officials began evicting families from land claimed by Touch Hiv, an agricultural company, local officials and villagers said yesterday. “We ...
Int'l rights groups stand behind Chan Soveth
International human rights groups continued to rally around the local rights worker Chan Soveth on Friday, two days after it emerged that the Adhoc staff member summoned by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on charges of aiding an unnamed perpetrator with an unidentified crime. In a ...
Cambodia Wants More Information on Taiwan's Heroin Haul
Police yesterday said they were seeking more information about a massive haul of heroin-allegedly transited through Cambodia-that was seized from a boat off the coast of Taiwan this week. The Taiwanese Justice Ministry’s Investigation Bureau says it found 70 kg of heroin hidden in a fishing ...
Beef price almost doubles
High demand for beef, particularly during the Islamic Qurban festival which ended yesterday, caused beef prices to almost double compared with the same period last year, according to Islamic leaders and officials. Him Khortieth, IKatan Mahabbah Muslimin’s (IMAN) representative in Cambodia, said the association planned to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012103059462/Business/beef-price-almost-doubles.html
Phnom Penh's Historic Quarter to go to Pedestrian
A new tourist promenade is to open in the heart of Phnom Penh’s old French quarter. Scheduled for a February opening, the tourist walk zone will provide an outdoor leisure area on street 13 that will be closed to cars and motorbikes on weekends from ...
Groups slam ministers' failure to discuss Xayaburi Dam
Regional conservationists criticised the Mekong River Commission (MRC) yesterday for leaving the controversial Xayaburi Dam off its agenda at this week’s annual ministerial meeting in Luang Prabang, Laos. Laotian authorities said they would confirm their decision to go ahead with the hydropower project in the mainstream ...
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aec/Groups-slam-ministers-failure-to-discuss-Xayaburi--30198036.html
Cambodia Angkor Air expands its international network
For a long time, Cambodia’s national carrier Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA) served only as a feeder carrier to its shareholder Vietnam Airlines. Three lines were then in service on routes linking Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, Phnom Penh-Ho Chi Minh City and finally Siem Reap-HCMC. ...
http://www.traveldailynews.asia/news/article/51485/cambodia-angkor-air-expands-its
Borei Keila evictees will be given a lift back to vote
Borei Keila evictees will have a chance to revisit the area they were forcibly evicted from this Sunday when authorities truck them back from the makeshift tents of their relocation site for a special purpose – to vote. Touch Khorn, a representative of the Borei Keila ...
Phnom Penh Court Charge Four Officials Of Land Ministry Over Corruption
The media release from ministry of land management, urbanization and construction on August 10 said: after getting information of irregularity on implementing the social economic land for former armed forces and poor families which published in media on June 14,2012. Ministry set up a committee to monitor the ...
Three Rights Workers, Journalist Summoned Over Incitement
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court yesterday summoned three human rights workers and a journalist over allegations that hey incited indigenous ethnic minority villagers in Lumphat district to protest violently against a powerful agro-industry company in 2009. Deputy court prosecutor Chea Sopheak said he had requested Adhoc provincial ...
MP dialogues focus on land
Villagers took an increasingly vocal stand on land issues during rare opportunities to speak with National Assembly members this past year, according to the National Democratic Institute. During the most recent town hall-style Constituency Dialogues, started by NDI in 2004 to promote contact between assembly members ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012100559126/National-news/mp-dialogues-focus-on-land.html
Strike takes Pchum Ben break
About 600 Tae Young factory workers are back on the job thanks to a court injunction – and the desire to pocket a little cash in time for Pchum Ben – but the return will only be temporary, workers said yesterday. The decision followed a Kandal ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012101059202/National-news/strike-takes-pchum-ben-break.html
Student surveyors home for holidays
After months spent surveying land for an ambitious land-titling project, thousands of student volunteers have been granted a short reprieve to return home over the Pchum Ben holiday, the prime minister announced yesterday. At a graduation ceremony in the capital yesterday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said ...