Continued widespread logging in the Prey Lang forest is evidence that the government’s recent push to have more than 400,000 hectares of land protected is toothless, according to activists as well as a Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) report released yesterday. ...

As the government plans to transfer roughly 60 percent of detainees at the notorious Prey Speu detention center to a “mental illness” center in Kandal province, mental health experts expressed doubts this week over the country’s capacity to provide proper care. ...

Two weeks after police rounded up blind and disabled performers begging for money on streets around Phnom Penh in a bid to prevent traffic congestion, the performers were back on the streets on Wednesday, defiantly defending their right to earn their keep. ...

A new Japanese company, Gas One (Cambodia) Co Ltd, aims to tap into the surge of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) usage in the Kingdom by providing engineering and supply solutions to large-scale developments, its chief executive said yesterday. ...

After being monitored by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) for an unspecified length of time, three state-run bodies have been accused of not following legal requirements in the awarding of contracts, and have been told to fall into line or face punitive action. ...

Cambodian authorities are refusing to allow doctors from the human rights group Licadho to visit a jailed opposition lawmaker held at Prey Sar prison in the capital Phnom Penh, claiming the facility already provides adequate care, sources said. ...

During a closed-door meeting on Monday, Defense Minister Tea Banh told a Vietnamese counterpart of the CPP’s success in suppressing an opposition campaign to highlight border incursions by Vietnam and urged Hanoi to help ensure that the issue does not re-emerge. ...

Thai sugar giant Mitr Phol has hired a Swiss firm to carry out a damage assessment and agreed to compensate the hundreds of families its nowdefunct plantations in Oddar Meanchey province have robbed of their land, the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand announced Wednesday. ...

Four journalists who say they were chased by a machete-wielding man on Friday as they attempted to investigate reports of smuggling across the Chambok border checkpoint in Banteay Meanchey province filed a complaint with the provincial court yesterday accusing the man of attempted murder. ...

In an apparent attempt to distance himself from the savage beating of two opposition party lawmakers last month, Hun Sen’s son and ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) lawmaker Hun Many threatened legal action against any individuals linking him to the incident.  ...

Kampong Speu provincial deputy governor Vey Samnang is scratching his head over a dispute between a company that operates a cashew plantation, Ouk Khun, in his province and villagers who say it grabbed their land and then installed electricity cables to electrocute them.  ...

More than 200 villagers living on the fringe of a giant hydropower project in Stung Treng province are lobbying for their commune’s police chief to be removed, alleging that he habitually confiscates illegally logged wood from villagers on behalf of powerful business interests. ...

As expected, opposition leader Sam Rainsy failed to show up at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court for a scheduled questioning date on Friday, as he remains abroad after being hit with a slew of criminal charges and an arrest warrant in recent weeks. ...

A unit of domestic conglomerate Chip Mong Group, Chip Mong Insee Cement, has signed a partnership agreement with China’s CITIC Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. to build a $262 million cement plant in Kampot province, with construction slated to start next year.  ...

Cambodia will do its best to develop the traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation with Vietnam to a new height, Cambodian Senate President Say Chhum assured Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong during their meeting in Hanoi on December 16.   ...

Roughly ten residents from the Kien Kleang community set fire to tires in protest of a City Hall development near National Road 6A, along which the majority of the community lives, after bulldozers began felling their fences and clearing their land.  ...

Prosecutors in Kompong Speu province have ordered police to reinvestigate the demise of a newspaper reporter who was reportedly bludgeoned to death by an angry mob on Sunday, while the victim’s family and employer cast doubt on the official version of events. ...

On trial at the Koh Kong Pro­vin­cial Court on Wednesday, anti-dam ac­tivist Ven Vorn denied the illegal logging charge laid against him last year over his involvement in the construction of a wooden community center, his lawyer said. ...

The falling price of rice in Asia due to the slowing global economy and intensifying regional competition is taking a toll on Cambodian exporters and farmers even though exports jumped more than 20 percent last month compared to January last year, executives said. ...

An additional 70 gas stations will be set up across the country by 2020 by PTT (Cambodia) Limited, a subsidiary of Thailand’s PTT oil and gas conglomerate, while retail prices will soon be regulated to reflect the fluctuations in global oil prices. ...