The volume of fish harvested from the Tonle Sap Lake is likely to rise in the fishing season that starts today due to better weather conditions, a senior official from Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry told Khmer Times yesterday. ...

Em Chan Makara, president of the Disability Action Council (DAC), told reporters that his group will issue drivers licenses for people with disabilities in conjunction with the government. The council will also discuss appropriate vehicles for disabled people with other stakeholders. ...

Hun Sen will spend two days in Bangkok and is scheduled to meet the leader of Thailand’s military government, Prayuth Chan-ocha, for talks on border issues, agriculture, trade and investment, and regional connectivity. ...

Cambodia was one of the few bright spots for the air cargo industry last year with a modest increase in year-on-year air freight shipments as other regions experienced weak growth due to the cooling global economy. ...

Around 50 people representing 83 households from Lor Peang village in Kampong Chhnang yesterday refused concessions offered to them during a meeting with the National Assembly’s Commission on Human Rights, Complaints, and Investigation. ...

Police officials yesterday called for tougher sentencing of drug dealers and for the government to make it “easier and faster [for police] to seize their property”, as the Interior Ministry’s annual drugs conference wrapped in the capital. ...

Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (PPSEZ) has signed an agreement with a Singaporean clean energy firm to install and operate a solar panel system inside the 357-hectare industrial park, the company said yesterday in a press release. ...

It will get easier for small, rural mining operations to register with the government this month, thanks to a change in the Ministry of Energy and Mines’ policy of issuing licenses, according to a ministry statement released last week. ...

Honeybees have a huge role in tropical ecosystems, but illegal logging and unsustainable honey harvesting are hurting their population. Honeybees have co-evolved with flowering plants and their overall health is an indicator of an ecosystem’s wellbeing. ...

Local authorities in Preah Vihear province are teaming up with the Apsara Authority to protect the 8,100 hectares of land surrounding the Koh Ker archaeological site, which they say is under threat from illegal loggers and intrusive settlers. ...

In order to aid waterway transport, sand-dredging – largely banned since a 2011 decree – will soon begin reappearing at dozens of locations along the Tonle Bassac river, a spokesman from the Ministry of Mines and Energy confirmed yesterday. ...

Government officials on Wednesday applauded China’s decision to take emergency measures to counter the impact of a regional drought by releasing water into the Mekong River from the Jinghong Hydropower Station in China’s southwestern Yunnan province. ...

A visiting representative of JSC Russian Railways, the state-run firm that manages rail infrastructure and operates passenger and freight services in Russia, met executives of Cambodia’s railway operator yesterday to discuss possible cooperation between the two companies. ...

A 30-month study by Vietnamese researchers on the impact of 11 proposed hydroelectric dams in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) has found that the economic damage to Cambodia alone will be worth some $450 million per year. ...

Unusually high yields of salt production in Kep and Kampot province have surpassed the market’s low demand, filling the nation’s salt storage facilities to capacity, the head of a local industry body said yesterday.   ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who is living in France to avoid prison time, will be tried over allegations of defaming National Assembly President Heng Samrin starting July 28, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court has announced.   ...

The US Department of Energy (DOE) held a workshop on “Nuclear Safeguards and the Additional Protocol” at Phnom Penh’s Sunway Hotel yesterday, highlighting the need for more technical knowledge and greater information sharing on nuclear power in Cambodia. ...

Top officials on Monday said the government would be auctioning off some of the 70,000 cubic meters of wood authorities have seized in recent months, backtracking on a recent pledge Hun Sen made to stop the sales. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday told Phnom Penh authorities and the Ministry of Social Affairs to either improve the city’s notorious Prey Speu detention center or shut it down in order to spare his government more embarrassment. ...

A series of talks will be held next month to discuss the future of minimum wages in the footwear and garment industries, with their findings to be announced and enforced early next year, according to Ministry of Labor officials. ...