The controversial Don Sahong hydropower dam was off the agenda again during the second day of talks between Prime Minister Hun Sen and his newly appointed Lao counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith yesterday, despite international calls to halt construction and survey the dam’s environmental impact. ...

A judge postponed the start of a defamation trial against National Election Committee official Ny Chakrya on Monday after the two Siem Reap court officials who brought the case against him failed to show up at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court.   ...

Australian mining firm Emerald Resources is preparing to commence first-pass test drilling on its O’Rman prospect in northeastern Cambodia, where soil assays from augur samples have indicated the presence of gold mineralisation, the company said in its latest quarterly report.   ...

The British ambassador yesterday reaffirmed to the Cambodian government that the results of a recent referendum on leaving the EU, and a cabinet reshuffle by the ruling Conservative Party, would not have a negative impact on the country’s ties with Cambodia.   ...

Close to 300 workers at Kampong Speu province’s Grandis Timber Limited, a teak nursery, have sought the aid of an agricultural union after they were asked to stop coming to work last week after management said they did not have enough work for them. ...

The U.S. is continuing to urge the government to change and clarify key parts of a controversial trade union law that took effect in April, including an amendment to cover civil servants, the U.S.’s international labor affairs representative said on Tuesday. ...

Following the eviction earlier this month of about 1,000 mostly Vietnamese families living in floating homes in Kompong Chhnang City, provincial authorities now have plans to evict a further 1,500 mostly Cambodian families living further south on the river, officials said Sunday. ...

National flag carrier Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA) yesterday launched a new route to Laos and Vietnam, aiming to tap the rising numbers of nationals from the two countries visiting the Kingdom as well as the foreign tourists visiting neighboring countries. ...

The cracks in Mam Sonando’s recently revived Beehive Social Democratic Party are widening, with a lawsuit against the party president, alleging he embezzled funds, slated to be filed at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court today on behalf of the party’s own leadership. ...

The number of workers at the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SSEZ) is expected to increase from 30,000 now to 200,000 in the next few years as the port city becomes a manufacturing hub for the Kingdom, a senior official with the Commerce Ministry said yesterday. ...

Cambodia’s opposition party has called on the government to expedite a “dragging” investigation into a violent attack on two of its lawmakers and urged the United Nations to join the probe after the international body expressed concern over the assault. ...

The South Korean company behind the long-stalled Gold Tower 42 has again promised to resume construction on the $240-million skyscraper in Phnom Penh, telling officials from the Ministry of Land Management that work would proceed this month and wrap up in 2018. ...

Art can represent a nation’s identity, and younger generations have a responsibility to conserve it. But that means education, to help youth appreciate art and culture, says Donna Strahan, head of conservation and research at the Freer-Sackler Gallery. ...

The return of tigers to the Cambodian wild edged a little closer this week, as the wildlife charity spearheading the project sent a representative to India to see how numbers were boosted there and to discuss bringing big cats from the subcontinent to the Kingdom. ...

The Environment Ministry has revoked the rights of a company owned by government lawmaker and tycoon Sieng Nam to manage the Kulen Mountain Resort in the Preah Bat Jayavarman-Nordom National Park in Siem Reap province, saying the move was in the national interest. ...

Cambodian casino operator NagaCorp Ltd. posted a net profit of $172.6 million last year, a 27 per cent increase over the previous year, attributing the surge to increased business volume across all gaming segments at its NagaWorld casino complex in Phnom Penh. ...

Recent satellite images from NASA have captured a high number of fires blazing across Cambodia this season, illustrating what one forestry official called a chronic inability to deal with the Kingdom’s numerous illegally set fires, a problem exacerbated by especially dry El Niño conditions. ...

The Vietnamese government has given the go-ahead to a project to enlarge a major route playing an important part in the transport of goods from provinces and cities in southern Vietnam to Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries, local newswire VnExpress reported Monday. ...

A blaze authorities have attributed to a forest fire ripped through a nearly 4,000-cubic-metre timber stockpile on a social land concession in Preah Vihear’s Kulen district on the weekend, although the company yesterday said it suspected a case of arson. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s son Hun Manet inaugurated four primary schools in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley on Monday, along with the head of a group known as the Cambodia Youth Movement 157, which donated the schools, a local official said on Tuesday. ...