A local subsidiary of a South Korean confectionary giant is investing $40 million to develop what it claims will be the world’s largest pepper plantation on a sprawling 1,000-hectare estate in eastern Cambodia, a company executive said yesterday. ...

Members of Mekong River Commission and civil society groups will be heading to Luang Prabang in Laos to attend the regional stakeholder meeting on Wednesday to discuss Laos’ proposal to build a third dam on the Mekong mainstream, the Pak beng. ...

More than 88,000 candidates will be vying for the 11,572 seats up for grabs in the June 4 commune elections, the National Election Committee (NEC) announced on Monday, following a three-day registration window that closed on Sunday. ...

Four senior officials for rights group Adhoc will remain behind bars after the Supreme Court on Monday upheld the Court of Appeal’s ruling that they should be held in detention while awaiting trial, but gave no reason for the decision. ...

Customs officers have released a pair of trucks that local officials said were seized late last month while being used to smuggle timber belonging to business mogul Kith Meng into Vietnam in breach of a government ban, according to police. ...

Foreign Minister Park Sokhornn will be at the White House on Thursday for the first meeting between Asean foreign ministers and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson since the new administration of President Donald Trump took office in January.   ...

The Mines and Energy Ministry on Friday defended sand exports reported last week by an environmental NGO, saying Cambodia’s sand ban did not include the type seen in a video being loaded onto vessels off the coast of Sihanoukville. ...

Exports to the United States rebounded in the first quarter of the year, an increase of almost two percent on the same period last year, despite fears over protectionist trade policies to be ushered in by US President Donald Trump. ...

Cambodia’s garment factories appear to be ramping up their use of subcontractors, which tend to get the least attention from regulators and raise the most fears of abuse among labor rights groups, according to a report released on Monday. ...

An official in Stung Treng province said there was no way to grant a last-minute reprieve requested on Thursday by villagers whose homes could be flooded within days once testing of the Lower Sesan II hydropower dam begins on Saturday. ...

Political fixture and former Co-Defence Minister Nhek Bun Chhay was officially charged yesterday with conspiracy to produce drugs and importing drug components after being linked to a decade-old bust by one of the men convicted in the original case. ...

New Thai regulations imposing stiff punishments on undocumented migrants, their brokers and their employers set to come into force on January 1 will likely be delayed by three to six months, according to Cambodian Minister of Labour Ith Sam Heng. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen issued an oblique warning in a speech to garment workers yesterday, noting that there could be no elections in a “chaotic country” – an apparent reference to the protests foreshadowed by the newly announced Cambodia National Rescue Movement. ...

Cambodia is overcoming “ineffective practices” and should not be held to the standards of developed countries, a Commerce Ministry spokeswoman said on Tuesday amid renewed calls for the government to investigate over $400 million in unrecorded sand exports to Singapore. ...

The National Election Committee yesterday announced the names of the 12 political parties that will be contesting the June commune elections. The NEC also released the names of the two organizations which applied to become observers of the electoral process. ...

The prime minister’s older brother Hun San has sent a letter to the Interior Ministry asking for “serious action” to be taken against a deputy National Police chief over an alleged dispute on his land in Banteay Meanchey province. ...

Cambodia plans to have an ambitious environmental code adopted by the end of this year, according to a legal adviser with the law firm helping to write the legislation, though conservationists yesterday remained wary about how it would be implemented. ...

Phnom Penh municipal authorities plan to restore the Stung Meanchey sewage canal, a rubbish-filled eyesore where residents face flooding, foul smells and health fears. City Hall said the canal will be developed without the need to evict or relocate residents. ...

Parents of children born to surrogate mothers in Cambodia will be required to provide the government with yearly updates of their child’s mental and physical development, according to new guidelines officially disseminated to embassies for the first time yesterday. ...

A senoir Justice Ministry official said a pilot project to increase bail approvals and community service sentencing for small-time offenders would be impossible, weeks after the project was announced during the visit of a United Nations human rights official. ...