Loans and deposits in the Kingdom’s crowded microfinance sector rose about 10 percent during the first quarter of the year from the same period last year, according to a report from the Cambodia Microfinance Association, which put the rise down to an expanding economy. ...

Construction on a $3 billion oil refining plant, the Kingdom’s first, will start in October this year and is expected to be finished by the end of 2018, according to a senior executive at the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday. ...

The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) has arrested a lawyer in Phnom Penh over undisclosed allegations of graft, with the bar association issuing a notice to members on Wednesday warning them against acting as a “go-between” for court officials and clients.   ...

The Finance Ministry has rescheduled a trio of timber auctions that had been set to start today after a continued lack of interest from buyers, although bidding for a lot in Stung Treng province will go ahead on Wednesday as planned.   ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has asked the European Union (EU) to decrease imports of clothing from Cambodia in an effort to put economic pressure on the government into respecting human rights and freedom of speech, saying he believed the act would not affect workers.   ...

The Cambodia Chamber of Commerce (CCC) will for the first time sign bilateral cooperation agreements with Malaysia’s External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) to pave the way for businesses in both countries to carry out matching activities, like events and expositions. ...

Sun Chanthol, senior minister and minister of Public Works and Transport, met with the president of Dansan Consultants on Friday to talk about the lack of safety signs on a construction site on National Road 21 that allegedly caused two deaths in a traffic accident. ...

The agency tasked with investigating abuse by Malaysia’s security forces said that claims of fatal abuse against foreign maids—including Cambodians—at a detention center were untrue, though it said the center where the abuse allegedly occurred was in urgent need of attention. ...

A British man who has spent five years in prison for raping a 16-year-old girl requested Monday that the Appeal Court grant him a retrial and the chance to present evidence that has not come before the court, which he says will prove his innocence. ...

A new survey of what the country’s 700,000 garment workers earn and spend in a typical month has concluded that the median take-home pay of a garment factory employee is $191, higher than the minimum wage, but lower than what employers have claimed. ...

The Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey 2014 has revealed the balanced sex ratio in the country, according to the state news agency-AKP. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen released a three-page statement Thursday claiming there were “no differences” between what opposition leader Sam Rainsy would do to the country if he won the next election and the destruction Pol Pot wrought during his three years in power. ...

Representatives of 14 ethnic mi­nority communities in Ratana­kkiri province on Friday accepted $1,700 each from Vietnamese rubber company Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) to buy a buffalo and hold a ceremony to appease the spirits that had been disturbed by the firm’s plantations. ...

An Australian senator wants to see a resolution censuring Cambodia for recent political attacks on the opposition. Ludlum told Australian lawmakers they should pass a resolution recognizing the current acts representing an “extremely bad sign for democracy in Cambodia.” ...

A group of villagers in Mondolkiri province filed a lawsuit this week against three local border police officers and a forestry official accusing them of allowing Vietnamese loggers to sneak across the nearby border and illegally log the forests they depend on for a living. ...

Human trafficking out of Cambodia is on the rise, according to an Interior Ministry report released on Thursday, and is being fueled by relaxed border controls and economic disparity in the region, according to a separate U.N. report.    ...

The Kampot Provincial Court will continue to investigate three villagers and an NGO worker after they were arrested and released on Friday for allegedly setting up an illegal checkpoint to extort money from timber and firewood transporters in Kampot’s Chhouk district, according to officials. ...

An obscure Malaysian company has obtained approval from Cambodia’s Council of Ministers to develop hotels and casinos in Sihanoukville, with an online promotional video claiming the firm will transform the coastal city into the “Macau of Southeast Asia.”     ...

Making a dramatic arrival by helicopter at the Sofitel Hotel in Phnom Penh after a flyover of Prey Lang forest, Environment Minister Say Sam Al and US Ambassador to Cambodia William Heidt discussed a plan to make the Kingdom’s largest forest a protected area. ...

Despite a precipitous drop in the start-up costs of solar energy, Cambodia’s biggest industrial parks are sticking to high-cost grid and fuel-generated electricity, claiming that when it comes to attracting foreign manufacturers, a stable power supply trumps a cheaper electricity bill. ...