A second ship accused by the NGO Mother Nature of illegally exporting dredged ocean sand last week is expected to arrive at a port in China today with a cargo of silica sand, which is exempt from the ban, the ship’s owner said yesterday. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/questions-linger-over-second-accused-ship/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called for the closure of a Christian anti-trafficking NGO during a heated tirade at a graduation ceremony, condemning them and CNN for broadcasting an “insulting” story about girls who were sold into sexual slavery by their own mothers. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/hun-sen-calls-for-closure-of-anti-trafficking-group-after-cnn-report/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Minister of Interior Sar Kheng held a meeting with other top ministry officials yesterday to discuss introducing a legal amendment banning insults to the King, similar to so-called “lèse-majesté” laws in Thailand, which critics have characterised as a cudgel to suppress dissent. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/proposed-law-to-ban-insulting-monarchy-prompts-free-speech-fears/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has said he believes Prime Minister Hun Sen’s recent push to convert the maps of Cambodia’s border with Vietnam to a scale of 1:50,000 and a UTM-style map projection would not require a constitutional amendment. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/divisions-over-map-proposal/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The Agriculture Ministry renewed the license for timber extraction on a land concession in a protected area in September, despite previously concluding that the land within the concession had been completely cleared, according to a conservation group and documents obtained by reporters this month. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/no-wood-but-permit-in-protected-area-extended/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A Chinese firm that plans to invest $2 billion into developing the Kingdom’s first special economic zone (SEZ) dedicated solely to agricultural processing and storage has signed on a new partner to help jumpstart the stalled project, a top agriculture official said yesterday. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/agro-processing-sez-moves-closer-to-reality/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Provinces nationwide – particularly those along the Cambodia-Thailand border – are likely to experience more flooding as a result of a low-pressure system that is expected to bring rain across the country, according to a forecast from the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/unrelenting-rains/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Malaysian-owned power infrastructure provider Pestech (Cambodia) Ltd has won a $26 million job to start on a new electricity project in Cambodia that will see Oddar Meanchey province connected to the national power grid, according to a filing on the Malaysian stock exchange.​ ​ href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/malaysia-firm-to-bring-oddar-meanchey-onto-national-power-grid/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Eighteen years ago, long before the roads cutting through the red hills of Ratanakkiri were paved, some 300 indigenous Kreung families living on a hill above a stream in O’Chum district sent a petition to the Ministry of Land Management. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/for-rural-minorities%e2%80%88land-remains-in-limbo/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Workers in the border town of Bavet continued a week-long strike Monday after a meeting to discuss wage increases was delayed for a second time to next week. Sources said all workers left the Tai Seng and Manhattan special economic zones after working for an hour. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/workers-continue-strike-as-wage-talks-delayed-to-next-week/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A Mondulkiri military police officer has been charged with intentional murder after allegedly shooting and killing a man who ignored an order to stop his car while passing through a protected forest in the province’s O’Raing district, Mondulkiri provincial prosecutor Khout Sopheang said yesterday. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/police-shooting-charges-for-intentional-murder-set/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The Labor Ministry laid out the ground rules for unions and factories Monday at the first meeting of a new working group charged with getting the two sides to agree on a new minimum wage for garment workers, including a condition that they address each href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/govt-sets-ground-rules-for-ongoing-wage-talks/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan will lead a military delegation to pay a two-day official visit to Cambodia on Dec. 24 and 25 to further boost bilateral ties and cooperation, said a press statement issued by the Cambodian defense ministry on href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/thai-defense-minister-to-visit-cambodia-to-promote-ties/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Sixteen forestry officials from three provinces were summoned to a meeting in Phnom Penh on Thursday after their names were found on a list of 49 suspected extortionists that police in Kompong Chhnang province seized from a truck that had been transporting illegally logged wood href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/forestry-officials-summoned-for-meeting-over-extortion-case/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A group of 56 rangers from the Ministry of Environment last week completed a one-month training course in Phnom Penh run by the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) to help save Cambodia’s protected areas from illegal loggers, a first for the country’s rangers. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/soldiers-train-rangers-to-fight-illegal-logging/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The Mondolkiri Provincial Court on Saturday charged a man with having sex with an underage girl, but a rights worker and the girl’s father said Sunday that the allegations were fabricated in retaliation for the man’s involvement in recent protests against a Vietnamese rubber plantation. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/protest-leader-jailed-over-alleged-sex-with-minor/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

About 200 employees of a Phnom Penh garment factory agreed to go back to work after reaching a deal with the factory Sunday, a day after they walked off the job—with some sewing machines in hand—because the owners could not pay them on time. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/workers-end-protest-after-taking-sewing-machines/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A consortium of journalists on Wednesday sent a report to the governor of Kompong Chhnang province claiming that a man arrested last week for murdering one of their associates was framed in an attempt to cover up an illegal fishing syndicate with close connections to href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/journalists-allege-cover-up-in-associates-murder/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

With Valentine’s Day just days away, the Ministry of Education on Tuesday entreated the nation’s teachers to put their students through a crash course to dispel what it believes is a widely held misconception among Cambodian youth that the holiday is a pretext for sex. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/meaning-of-valentines-day-lost-in-translation-minister-warns/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

More than 200 families embroiled in a land dispute in Battambang province have filed a complaint to the National Assembly’s anti-corruption commission, accusing a commune chief in Bavel district of colluding with the provincial director of land management to solicit bribes for land titles.​ href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/land-dispute-corruption-accusation-by-villagers/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...