Little won in logging crackdown
Early on Monday morning, at about 1am, two trucks carrying roughly 10 cubic metres of illegally felled timber were bouncing down the road between Oddar Meanchey and Siem Reap. Police stopped the trucks – one of which bore military plates – and seized the haul, but ...
Stuart White and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/little-won-logging-crackdown
Union wary of possible crackdown
Preparing for a demonstration expected to draw thousands of garment workers this morning, Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), said yesterday that he feared the possibility of a heavy-handed military police response. About 4,000 workers gathered at SL ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-wary-possible-crackdown
Thai company shelves Kampot cement project
Thailand’s second-largest cement company has suspended a cement-plant project valued at about $200 million in Kampot province because of political uncertainty and better investment opportunities in Myanmar, according to a senior executive. Philippe Arto, the managing director of Siam City Cement Public Company Limited (SCCC), said ...
Rann Reuy and May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/thai-company-shelves-kampot-cement-project
Suspects Freed; No Hope of Justice for Slain Union Leader
Sok Sam Oeun and Born Samnang left Prey Sar prison’s Correctional Center 1 on Thursday for the last time, putting behind them an ordeal that has lasted nearly a decade during which they were wrongfully imprisoned for a total of five years each for the ...
Khy Sovuthy and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/suspects-freed-no-hope-of-justice-for-slain-union-leader-43679/
Taking Count of Cambodia’s Flying Fox Bats
At around 6 p.m. in Phnom Penh each evening, about 5,000 large brown bats, having spent the day dangling upside down from a tree at Wat Phnom, spread their huge wings and fly out to begin their nightly search for fruit. And as useful and ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/taking-count-of-cambodias-flying-fox-bats-45421/
Delays continue to constrain launch of Cambodia Airlines
For Cambodians aspiring to a career in aviation, this weekend looks promising. Almost seven months after its formal establishment, Cambodia Airlines is hosting a career fair in Phnom Penh. The airline is moving forward by looking for staff – from captains, first officers and cabin crew ...
Anne Renzenbrink
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/delays-continue-constrain-launch-cambodia-airlines
Flooding Spreads to Svay Rieng; 17 Provinces Now Affected
Svay Rieng became the latest province to declare emergency water levels as storms continued in the west of the country, prolonging deadly nationwide flooding that has killed at least 83 people and affected tens of thousands of families over the past month, officials said. Keo Vy, ...
Ben Sokhean and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/flooding-spreads-to-svay-rieng-17-provinces-now-affected-44702/
CNRP’s Protest Culminates in 25,000-Strong Street March
If opposition supporters are wearied by the CNRP’s continuing boycott of parliament, they refused to show it on Friday as an estimated 25,000 people turned out for the final day of a three-day protest that delivered petitions and letters to eight foreign embassies and the ...
Simon Henderson and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/cnrps-protest-culminates-in-25000-strong-street-march-45962/
Demolition Order for 2 Buildings Near Royal Palace
Government officials have ordered the immediate demolition of two buildings located within blocks of the Royal Palace because the structures are taller than the allowed limit for buildings surrounding the palace, officials said Wednesday. One building, owned by Vattanac Properties, is located a block from the ...
Aun Pheap and Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/demolition-order-for-2-buildings-near-royal-palace-45306/
Protesters Move Largely Unhindered by Police Checkpoints
Despite the return of police checkpoints around Phnom Penh on Wednesday morning ahead of the opposition CNRP’s latest protest against July’s still-disputed national election, most demonstrators coming in from the provinces were let through. Typifying what turned out to be a lighter security touch compared to ...
Khuon Narim and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/protesters-move-largely-unhindered-by-police-checkpoints-45741/
Lack of Legal Aid in Cambodia Puts Children, Poor at Risk
A national legal aid system is imperative and must be established to offset a widening gap between those who can afford justice and those who cannot, the representative for the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Cambodia said on Friday. In ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lack-of-legal-aid-in-cambodia-puts-children-poor-at-risk-48219/
Villagers Ask Chinese Embassy to Intervene Against Dam Investors
Communities threatened by the planned construction of three hydropower dams in Stung Treng and Ratanakkiri provinces will today submit to the Chinese Embassy a petition demanding that the embassy intervene against Chinese companies investing in the dams. The petition, to be presented in Chinese, Khmer and ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-ask-chinese-embassy-to-intervene-against-dam-investors-49144/
Cambodia Upgrades Diplomatic Relations With Japan
Prime Minister Hun Sen agreed to upgrade Cambodia’s diplomatic relations with Japan to a “strategic level” during talks in Tokyo on Sunday, but also thanked his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, for making efforts to mend relations with neighbor China, according to media reports. During a state ...
Phorn Bopha and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-upgrades-diplomatic-relations-with-japan-49386/
New Cambodian Land Disputes Despite Moratorium on Key Concessions
At least 41 new land disputes were reported in Cambodia last year despite a government moratorium on the widespread grant of so-called economic land concessions, a rights group said Thursday. The new cases in 17 locations—including the capital Phnom Penh—added to the 223 land conflicts previously ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/disputes-01302014194318.html
Borei Keila residents ‘occupy’ unfinished apartment block
Residents embroiled in a long-running land dispute in the Borei Keila area of Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district on Wednesday tore down three metal fences and occupied an unfinished apartment block at the site. The fences were felled with axes by irate residents, who took the ...
Khuon Narim and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/borei-keila-residents-occupy-unfinished-apartment-block-52083/
Cambodia’s parliament OKs dam compensation plan
Cambodia’s energy minister allayed concerns in parliament over inadequate compensation offered to villagers who face relocation for a proposed China-backed dam on a Mekong River tributary, saying the government has allocated to villagers more than four times the area taken over for the project. Minister of ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/dam-06192014195419.html
EU Parliamentarian Finds Abuses Fueled by Trade Scheme
Sugar plantations that benefit from the European Union’s Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme, which allows preferential access to the E.U.’s market, have further impoverished Cambodia’s poor, and an investigation needs to be launched, a member of the European Parliament (MEP) said on Friday. Patrice Tirolien, MEP ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eu-parliamentarian-finds-abuses-fueled-by-trade-scheme-51188/
China fuels Cambodia’s airline growth
The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation says Cambodia’s aviation market grew briskly for the second consecutive year as national and foreign airlines added routes to China amid a surge in Chinese nationals visiting the country. The centre reported Cambodia has emerged as one of the fastest ...
Wanwisa Ngamsangchaikit
http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2014/02/china-fuels-cambodias-airline-growth/
Lao Dam troubles Mekong waters
Being landlocked and poor has always placed Laos at a disadvantage to its more powerful neighbors. The only body of water that offers Vientiane an international reach is the Mekong River, which flows through the heartland of Southeast Asia. Now, that river, which laps the western ...
Marwaan Macan-Markar
http://www.irrawaddy.org/asia/magazine-regional/lao-dam-troubles-mekong-waters.html
Cambodia route reopens for Uighur refugees
Recent arrests by Thai authorities of groups of suspected Uighur refugees along the Cambodian border have experts convinced that Cambodia has once again become a transit hub for members of the minority group fleeing religious and political persecution in China. Last week, 14 Uighurs were reportedly ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-route-reopens-for-uighur-refugees-57340/