Licence deadline extended
The deadline for tuk-tuk drivers and riders of motorbikes with engine capacity above 125cc to hold valid licences or face fines has been pushed to August, a senior official at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport said on Thursday. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/licence-deadline-extended
Ministry urges schools uphold harmful food ban
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has renewed calls for all educational establishments across the country to uphold the ban on the sale of unhealthy or unsafe food, after finding that some are still failing to comply with food safety guidelines. ...
Khorn Savi
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ministry-urges-schools-uphold-harmful-food-ban
Religion ministry to hold wedding rituals seminar
In an effort to standardise wedding rituals, Cambodia’s achars, or laymen who carry out Buddhist rites of passage, have been invited to a 10-day training course next month in the capital, the Ministry of Cults and Religion announced last week. ...
Lay Samean
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/religion-ministry-hold-wedding-rituals-seminar
Casualties from UXO drop in 2015
Landmines and other old ordnance killed or injured 111 people in 2015, according to figures from the state-run Cambodian Mine Action Authority, as many as in 2013 but nearly a third less than last year, when casualties jumped to 154 people. ...
Ouch Sony and Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/casualties-from-a-drop-in-2015-106967/
Officials keep Prey Speu open after PM’s rebuke
Two days after Prime Minister Hun Sen told Phnom Penh municipal authorities to either improve the city’s notorious Prey Speu detention center or shut it down, a spokesman said on Thursday that officials had concluded that the “indispensable” facility would remain open. ...
Kuch Naren
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/officials-keep-prey-speu-open-after-pms-rebuke-113426/
Montagnards told to return to Vietnam
Almost a year since the latest wave of Montagnards began arriving in the country, claiming to be fleeing persecution in Vietnam, the Interior Ministry said on Friday that all but 13 of them have been given three months to return home or face forced repatriation. ...
George Wright
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/montagnards-told-to-return-to-vietnam-94060/
ACU accuses three state bodies of malpractice
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. ...
Sek Odom
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/acu-accuses-three-state-bodies-of-malpractice-94339/
Cambodia's lust for rubber drives ethnic group from land
For generations, the indigenous Bunong were famous as the great elephant keepers and masters of the forests in eastern Cambodia. They called the fertile, rolling hills of their ancestral homeland “meh ne,” or mother – a source of food, livelihoods and self-identity. ...
Malcolm J. Foster and Denis D. Gray
http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/cambodia-s-lust-for-rubber-drives-ethnic-group-from-land-1.2834335
Cost of state healthcare announced
According to a Labor Ministry prakas, or official statement, both employers and employees will be responsible for paying 1.3 percent of an employees’ monthly salary to the government for state-supplied health insurance guaranteed to all workers under the Labor Law. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/26176/cost-of-state-healthcare-announced/
Rainsy cancels return to Phnom Penh
Turning his back on a public promise, opposition leader Sam Rainsy canceled his scheduled return to Cambodia on Monday night and said he would instead return “in the next few days,” refusing to guarantee that his time abroad would not stretch into weeks or months. ...
Alex Willemyns and Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rainsy-cancels-return-to-phnom-penh-100503/
Health minister says time needed on Formula
The health minister on Friday defended the government’s failure to fine or shut down any of the private clinics that are currently illegally promoting baby formula to new mothers, saying that more time was needed for committees to “investigate” the breaches. ...
Khy Sovuthy and Matt Blomberg
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/health-minister-says-time-needed-on-formula-99679/
NGOs parse LANGO warning
NGOs huddled yesterday to make sense of a letter from the Interior Ministry asking them to comply with controversial provisions of the Law on Associations and NGOs (LANGO), with some considering requesting further clarification or an extension of a September deadline for compliance. ...
Ananth Baliga and Niem Chheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngos-parse-lango-warning
Minister demands loyalty to CPP from civil servants, warns protesters they will be ‘hit with bamboo’
Social Affairs Minister Vong Soth said on Monday that all civil servants must support the Cambodian People’s Party or resign from their jobs, and warned that the government will use bamboo rods to bludgeon anyone who protests after next year’s election. ...
Ministry ups scrutiny of NGOs
The Interior Ministry has instructed provincial officials to urgently report any instances in which activities are carried out by any NGOs or grassroots associations without prior notification, adding that authorities can stop any planned events if they affect “public order and national security”. ...
Mech Dara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ministry-ups-scrutiny-ngos
Cambodia holds live-fire exercise near Laos
A live-fire exercise along the Cambodian-Lao border yesterday in Stung Treng province’s Siem Pang district, where a conflict with Laos arose last year, was not to demonstrate power or threaten any neighbouring countries, according to the Ministry of National Defence. ...
Mom Sophon
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/50110701/cambodia-holds-live-fire-exercise-near-laos/
Minister calls for car check-ups
Transport Minister Sun Chanthol said yesterday that there are about 150,000 cars on Cambodia’s roads without valid road safety certificates, and called on vehicle owners to schedule safety checks on his ministry’s website or risk being fined by police. ...
Touch Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/minister-calls-car-check-ups
Opinion polls to be banned ahead of election
Cambodia’s top election body will take legal action against groups that conduct or publish opinion polls in the two weeks leading up to June 4 commune elections, its spokesman said on Sunday, warning that the surveys could lead to “social instability.” ...
Ben Sokhean and Ben Paviour
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/opinion-polls-to-be-banned-ahead-of-election-127426/
Celebration comes with threat as Cambodia’s Constitution turns 24
Senior government officials yesterday gathered to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the adoption of the Kingdom’s Constitution, lavishing praise on the Constitutional Council – while simultaneously appearing to threaten legal action against those who question the body’s independence or decisions. ...
Ben Sokhean and Daphne Chen
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/celebration-comes-threat-cambodias-constitution-turns-24
Visitors from Vietnam up 18 per cent in Q1
The number of Vietnamese tourists visiting Cambodia and Cambodians visiting Vietnam has increased recently, according to new data released by the Cambodian tourism ministry. Vietnam has the largest number of tourists visiting Cambodia at 600,000, or 21 per cent, of all international visitors. ...
EU hires experts to help gov’t compensate evictees
The European Union (EU) said this week that it has hired a pair of consultants to help the government design a system for compensating the thousands of families believed to have had their homes or farms illegally confiscated by the country’s private sugar plantations. ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eu-hires-experts-to-help-govt-compensate-evictees-76567/