Hun Sen: Rainsy no different than Pol Pot
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. ...
Kuch Naren and Alex Willemyns
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-says-sam-rainsy-no-different-than-pol-pot-97014/
Firm gives Ratanakkiri minorities cash for ceremony
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. ...
Khuon Narim and Matt Blomberg
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/firm-gives-ratana%C2%ADkkiri-minorities-cash-for-ceremony-100330/
Australian lawmaker urges censure of acts against Cambodian opposition
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.” ...
Community sues border police over loggers
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. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/104780-104780/
Human trafficking up, spurred by migration
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. ...
Taylor O'Connell and Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/human-trafficking-up-spurred-by-migration-109004/
Three briefly held over Kampot roadblock
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. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/three-briefly-held-over-kampot-roadblock
Malaysian firm wagers on Sihanoukville's potential
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.” ...
Sor Chandara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/malaysian-firm-wagers-sihanoukvilles-potential
Officials survey Prey Lang from sky
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. ...
Pech Sotheary and Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/officials-survey-prey-lang-sky
SEZs starting to see the light of solar energy
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. ...
Kali Kotoski
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/sezs-starting-see-light-solar-energy
Officials identify leader of capital’s sex trafficking ring
Military police have identified the suspected leader of what they believe to be a sex trafficking ring masquerading as a masseuse-training agency as a 40-year-old businesswoman with Cambodian and Thai citizenship who owns karaoke parlors in both countries. ...
Transport companies agree to drop fees
Cambodia’s two largest ports and the country’s biggest transport associations agreed yesterday to cut fees on container shipments in response to newly appointed Transportation Minister Sun Chanthol’s industry-wide call on Monday for solutions to reduce the high cost of logistics and transport. ...
Cheng Sokhorng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/transport-companies-agree-drop-fees
Tea Banh’s sons given top gov’t jobs
As the government fends off continued accusations of nepotism within its institutions, a royal decree issued in early March revealed the appointment of four official assistants to four-star general and deputy prime minister Tea Banh, two of whom are the general’s own sons. ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24491/tea-banh---s-sons-given-top-gov---t-jobs/
Cambodia’s leopards facing extinction by 2018: expert
Cambodia’s population of spotted Indochinese leopards will be extinct by 2018 unless action is taken to deal with the “snaring crisis” in Mondolkiri province, where the few remaining leopards live, according to the author of a forthcoming paper on the issue. ...
Peter Ford
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodias-leopards-facing-extinction-by-2018-expert-113182/
PPSP begins trading on stock exchange
Shares in Phnom Penh SEZ debuted on Cambodia’s nascent stock exchange yesterday morning, ending the day at 2,890 riel ($0.71), down slightly more than 3 per cent from its opening price of 2,980 riel after an underwhelming level of trading. ...
Kali Kotoski
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/ppsp-begins-trading-stock-exchange
No bail for Adhoc staffers, election official
The Court of Appeal on Monday denied bail to four rights workers and an election official imprisoned in connection with a sex scandal surrounding deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha, upholding the Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s decision last month. ...
Khuon Narim and Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/no-bail-for-adhoc-staffers-114055/
Police investigate logs left by rubber plantation road
Police in Ratanakkiri province say they are investigating the origin of a pile of first grade logs stashed along a road built by and leading out of a Vietnamese-owned rubber plantation that has long been the target of illegal logging accusations. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/archives/police-investigate-logs-left-by-rubber-plantation-road-115066/
Petroleum law a step closer
The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) yesterday sent the newly-drafted petroleum law to civil society organizations and other partner institutions working in the extractive sector for consultations before submitting it to the Council of Ministers for approval by the end of this year. ...
Sok Chan
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/27469/petroleum-law-a-step-closer/
Education official did ‘not rape,’ minister says
Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron on Wednesday defended the decision not to expel a senior official from the ministry after he was arrested for sexually assaulting his interpreter during a visit to South Korea in May, saying the crime was not serious—“not rape.” ...
Janelle Retka
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/education-official-did-not-rape-minister-says-116242/
Angkor Wat ticket prices set to rise after government takeover
Tourism Minister Thong Khon said on Sunday he did not believe an upcoming hike in the cost of tickets for foreigners visiting Angkor Wat will cause fewer tourists to come to Cambodia, with surveys showing most who visit the country are prepared to pay more. ...
Kang Sothear
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/angkor-wat-ticket-prices-set-to-rise-after-govt-takeover-116386/
After abandoning auctions, government sells off seized timber
The government sold off more than 10,000 cubic meters of illegally logged wood in direct negotiations with private businessmen over the past two days, according to a Finance Ministry official, after abandoning efforts to auction it off due to a lack of interest. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/abandoning-auctions-government-sells-off-seized-timber-116575/