A high-ranking police official yesterday bemoaned Cambodia’s lack of capacity to fight cybercrime, just a week after the government’s announcement of a new Anti-Cybercrime Department prompted fears of an online clampdown on dissent. ...

At least 700 applicants have signed up to join the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF), with the successful recruits to be trained to operate new Chinese-built artillery, a senior military source said yesterday.   ...

Following a meeting with Vietnam’s new defense minister, Ngo Xuan Lich, Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Banh told reporters that rising tensions in the South China Sea were not even mentioned during their discussion. “.   ...

Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak held a meeting with representatives of the European Union this week to discuss the formulation of a new trade program to be supported by the EU, the Ministry of Commerce announced yesterday. ...

About 90 per cent of workers from the Tien Tien factory in Kandal province, whose Chinese owner disappeared leaving some $30,000 in unpaid wages last month, have found new jobs according to staff and union officials. ...

With at least four Cambodians killed in recent years trying to uncover environmental crimes, the country ranks as the “deadliest” place in the world to conduct such reporting, according to a new report.  ...

The government’s tax collection body has extended the fringe benefit tax exemption to several new industries, removing the 20-percent tax that employers were previously required to pay on the benefits they offered to their workers. ...

A new study has found that open defecation, which is still commonly practised in Cambodia, has direct links to reduced heights in children, with a decrease in the practice over five years leading to increases in height. ...

Officials broke ground on Saturday on a new mental health center in Kandal province that will house detainees from the notorious Prey Speu detention center in Phnom Penh, among others, government and city officials said on Sunday. ...

Cambodian farmers are mixing pesticides to increase their potency in ways that are known to be hazardous, but increased knowledge of the hazards presented by pesticides does not appear to curb their use, a new study shows. ...

Cambodia lacks effective mechanisms to protect its citizens working both as legal and undocumented migrants abroad, where such workers also face insufficient protection from the countries that receive them, according to two new reports published last week. ...

A year after a local technology company introduced new software to combat financial crime in Cambodia, four banks have started using the system to fight against money laundering and terrorism financing, the company’s executive said yesterday. ...

The NGO Open Institute has launched a new online service that aims to help Cambodian unskilled labourers find jobs within the country as part of an effort to discourage worker migration in hopes of reducing human trafficking. ...

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) on Monday announced it will ban all imports and agricultural pesticides containing the fungicide Tricyclazole in response to the strict new Maximum Result Limit set by the European Commission. ...

A new law on a national minimum wage for all workers will come into force by the end of the year, the Labor Minister said, after union and employer representatives met officials to discuss the issue yesterday. ...

As Cambodia’s demand for electricity grows and domestic energy production increases, new data released from the Ministry of Mines and Energy yesterday show that coal-fired energy generation surpassed hydroelectricity for the first time last year. ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) on Tuesday released eight billion riel (about $2 million) at three percent interest to just one financial institution that joined the third bidding of the new Liquidity-Provided Collateralized Operation (LPCO). ...

The National Assembly will vote on Monday on landmark legislation giving the government unprecedented new powers to suspend and dissolve its political rivals, and with barely a note of concern from the democracies helping bankroll the country. ...

The capital’s listed water utility inaugurated a new treatment facility yesterday that will increase its production capacity of clean water by 30 percent, and add to its revenue stream – a move likely to impress its shareholders. ...

Us-based energy giant General Electric (GE) signed a sales agreement yesterday to outfit the new 135-megawatt coal-fired plant in Preah Sihanouk province that is being constructed by a subsidiary of Japanese electronics manufacturer Toshiba. ...