The National Defense Ministry’s annual draft report showed that Cambodia’s borders are still at risk of abuse from Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, despite the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) cracking down on nearly 6,000 border crimes over the past year. ...

Cambodia and Laos, in a bid to promote bilateral tourism, will create joint tour packages to facilitate the visit of tourists to both countries. The tour packages will focus on provinces, in both countries, that lie on either side of the Mekong river. ...

An environmental activist branded an “anarchist” by a government spokesman said he fled to the U.N. human rights office in Phnom Penh on Monday after police harassed him for becoming involved in a dispute between sand dredgers and villagers in Kandal province. ...

The cabinet will hold a debate on Friday and is expected to approve the 2018 budget of $5.86 billion, an increase of 16.2 percent from last year’s $5.04 billion, according to a government document seen by Khmer Times yesterday. ...

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. ...

Union leaders yesterday rejected a proposal from Cambodian garment makers to provide US$9 a month for a worker’s housing and transport fees, demanding an additional $1. The benefits were announced last week after unions said they would lead a large-scale protest ...

Cambodian environmental groups yesterday stepped up their calls for the Don Sahong dam in Laos to be cancelled, after a visit to the site failed to convince them the hydropower project would not harm the Mekong River and the people who depend on it. ...

Prince Norodom Ranariddh, the newly elected president of the royalist Funcinpec party, and Nhiek Bun Chhay, its new second vice president, continued to spar Tuesday over the validity of former Preah Sihanouk provincial governor Say Hak’s appointment as the party’s secretary-general. ...

Local rights group Adhoc on Thursday called on Prime Minister Hun Sen and other government officials to hold regular meetings with NGOs in order to better understand the human rights situation in the country. ...

Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng has agreed to appear before lawmakers today to answer questions about ongoing minimum wage negotiations for garment workers, a controversial draft union law and other pressing labor issues, according to the opposition CNRP. ...

Government officials remained mum Thursday over a new sub-decree purporting to formalize monthly expenditures of senior government officials while the opposition and civil society groups said the regulation was a facade meant to conceal the real amount of money being made by CPP officials. ...

Making good on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pledge late last year to help Cambodia reform its electoral system, a panel of election experts from Japan met with CPP and CNRP officials Wednesday to present the findings of their recent study into the system. ...

Ten members of the Khmer National Liberation Front (KNLF), a group of dissidents highly critical of Prime Minister Hun Sen and his close ties to Vietnam, were arrested over the last two days in Phnom Penh for allegedly plotting to incite violence, according to police. ...

In a meeting Thursday in Siem Reap province with about 270 provincial officials and members of the opposition CNRP, party President Sam Rainsy promised to find a “win-win solution” to the members’ demands that the provincial CNRP chief be removed from her post. ...

Deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha said on Thursday that the National Assembly will meet next week to debate and pass the country’s two new election laws in order for the new National Election Committee (NEC) to be established before the Khmer New Year. ...

Less than two weeks after it was established, the reformed National Election Committee (NEC) will formally convene today for the first time to meet with delegations from Japan and the European Union (E.U.), two of the biggest past contributors to electoral reform in Cambodia. ...

A complaint lodged with the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) alleges that a high-level planning official in Phnom Penh has been illegally building a house that has caused damage to neighbouring buildings, and used his influence to override a court order for construction to stop. ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng, who was on Saturday named one of two vice presidents of the CPP, will serve as acting president of the ruling party and acting premier when Prime Minister Hun Sen is absent from the country, CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said Monday. ...

A government delegation yesterday told Tbong Khmum provincial and local officials it would resolve a border dispute with Vietnam in Memot district “very soon”, as villagers blocked from their farms in the contested area by Vietnamese authorities say they fear looming food shortages. ...

Authorities rounded up around 30 homeless people in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district late last week and sent most of them for detention in the notorious Prey Speu detention centre, despite mounting criticism regarding the human rights violations in the government facility. ...