It sounds like something from a Victorian novel – hundreds of young women falling, en masse, into a swoon. But this phenomenon has become a bafflingly common occurrence in modern-day Cambodia. The incidents have been limited to women working in a small number of the country’s href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/baffling-mass-faintings-in-cambodia/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Villagers near the Sesan River in Stung Treng province are a step closer to being forced to make way for a hydropower dam following a National Assembly vote on Friday, but they are no closer to learning the details of such a move, a community href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/questions-follow-on-heels-of-hydropower-dam-sesan-2-vote/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Tek Nim is well versed in dealing with adversity. In year nine, she dropped out of school, began working on the family farm and finally became resigned to the belief that her brightest prospect was to leave Omlaing commune, in Kampong Speu province’s Thpong district, href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/young-chief-vs-the-system/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

All but three of a group of 20 Cambodians who were held against their will on a fishing boat in Thailand had returned after agreeing to pay a fee for “transportation”, a police official said yesterday. The men, believing they were heading to jobs in Koh href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/ransomed-workers-returned-to-cambodia/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Kampot Port Co will break ground on a Kampot port in September, company officials said yesterday. The port will be an important part of a long-delayed Kampot Special Economic Zone (KSEZ), which is hoped to revitalise trade and commerce in the province. Vinh Huor, president of the href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/port-in-kampot-to-turn-province-into-regional-trade-hub/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Khmer Resources Investment, which is backed by the Cambodian government, aims to list in Hong Kong within two years, chairman Cao Yunde said. “We intend to leverage the capital market of Hong Kong to finance our growth through a public listing so as to maximise the href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodian-miner-khmer-resources-plans-to-tap-hong-kong-capital-market-2/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The Cambodian automotive industry will expand after the Kingdom’s integration into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, thanks to the free flow of goods within the bloc and Cambodia’s competitive advantage as a low-cost manufacturer, according to Cambodian Commerce href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/kingdoms-small-auto-industry-likely-to-expand-as-aec-looms/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The Court of Appeal on Monday acquitted a South Korean businessman who allegedly stole $50,000 that was supposed to be used to acquire Cambodian citizenship for his boss in 2007. Koo Bonkwang, the former president of Commerce Central Finance, a microlender, said he paid the money href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/fraud-case-highlights-bribery-around-requests-for-citizenship/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A re-election should be held in 2015 following the implementation of a comprehensive series of electoral reforms, an umbrella group of local rights organizations and independent election monitors said Friday. The organizations, including the Committee for Free and Fair Elections (Comfrel), Adhoc, the Community Legal Education href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/ngos-call-for-vote-reform-new-election/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Supporters of the opposition CNRP and relatives of the 16 men, women and children killed in a grenade attack during a protest rally in 1997, will hold a Buddhist ceremony today at the scene of the blasts in front of the old National Assembly in href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cnrp-to-hold-ceremony-for-grenade-victims/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) on Saturday announced that it would launch a mass protest on Oct. 23 in order to submit a petition to the United Nations. “A mass protest will be held on Oct.23 from 3:00-6:00 p.m. at the Freedom Park (in href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodia-opposition-announces-to-stage-mass-protest-on-oct-23/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The Ministry of Water Resources impounded five barges in Kandal province on Saturday for flouting a government ban on sand dredging on the Mekong River, an official said Sunday. Chan Youttha, cabinet chief for Water Resources Minister Lim Kean Hor, said the minister personally led a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/barges-impounded-for-breaking-sand-dredging-ban-in-kandal/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Dozens of protesters called Monday for the release of Cambodian activists arrested during a bloody crackdown last month, as a prison official said several of the detainees were on hunger strike. The brief rally was held outside the Ministry of Justice and the Appeals Court to href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodian-activists-stage-hunger-strike/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that the government would not allow the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party to use garment workers as “political hostages” in a strongly worded rebuke of what he painted as a conspiratorial relationship between the CNRP and a number of href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/pm-slams-cnrp-incitement/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The Club of Cambodian Journalists (CCJ) released a statement on Friday expressing concern over three recent cases of reporters facing harassment while attempting to document illegal logging in Preah Vihear, Pursat and Kompong Cham provinces. Sorn Mongkul, a reporter for Kampuchea Thmey newspaper based in Preah href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/journalists-covering-logging-denounce-abuse/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

About half of the University of Health Science’s class of 2014 risks not graduating this year, having refused to register for a new compulsory final exam. A 2007 sub-decree states that a national-level examination for medical students would be implemented from that academic year onwards. But href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/medical-students-govt-tussle-over-new-exam/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The opposition may be readying a formal request that the United Nations and King Norodom Sihamoni play a role in future negotiations between the Cambodia National Rescue Party and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. On a trip to Takeo province on Saturday, CNRP deputy president Kem href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cnrp-looks-to-un-king/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A month after a call for civil servants to strike for higher pay, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday ordered government ministries to ensure that staff are paid on time, and said that otherwise workers could air their grievances in the press. The prime minister’s remarks, href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/civil-servants-given-go-ahead-to-denounce-lax-bosses-in-media/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The International Finance Corporation’s compliance ombudsman has officially accepted a complaint filed by ethnic minority families in Ratanakkiri province against the IFC for investing in rubber plantations accused of stealing land and clearing forests. In a letter sent to the families on Monday, the ombudsman deems href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/ifc-accepts-complaint-over-ratanakkiri-rubber-plantations/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Preah Vihear provincial governor Oum Mara has sent a letter to inform Interior Minister Sar Kheng that he is ordering an NGO to close its local offices, on the grounds that the organization is inciting villagers to destroy sugarcane farmed by a Chinese company. In the href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/preah-vihear-governor-to-close-ngo-office-for-inciting-workers/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...