New reports of border officials at Poipet International Checkpoint demanding extra from travellers crossing the border between Cambodia and Thailand have again thrown the spotlight on the oft-maligned western gateway to the Kingdom, with an opposition lawmaker pledging action to stop the “anarchy”. ...

Cambodian tycoon Kith Meng’s Royal Group failed to persuade a high-level meeting of government and Preah Sihanouk officials to resume construction of a 40-metre port at Otres Beach, and will instead have to explore the use of other locations along the coastline. ...

Speaking at the inauguration of the Heng Samrin Tbong Khmum University yesterday, Prime Minister Hun Sen called for a program to establish universities in all provinces, saying that the creation of more institutions of higher learning would improve access to education outside of the capital. ...

About 70 residents from a village in Siem Reap’s Ampil commune yesterday submitted a petition to provincial officials requesting that they not be switched to the authority of neighbouring Nokor Thom commune, though at least one local official claimed the matter was long decided. ...

While food safety control services and inspection systems for food products at the Industrial Laboratory Center of Cambodia (ILCC) have showed some improvements, the ILCC still lags behind Asean standards, according to Ministry of Industry and Handicraft secretary of state Sat Samy.   ...

Two villagers jailed earlier this month over a land dispute in Kampot province that authorities blame on League for Democracy Party president Khem Veasna were released on bail Wednesday, hours after Mr. Veasna told the media at a press conference that he had lost contact ...

Farmers hit by drought in Battambang this year are already benefitting from a new crop insurance product for rice farmers introduced by Forte Insurance, with at least 60 families in two districts of the country’s main rice-growing province collecting payments so far. ...

For many Southeast Asian countries, Japanese developmental aid may be synonymous with building bridges, roads and public facilities. But besides its infrastructure-building capacity, Japan is also boosting one of the strategic tools of diplomacy at its disposal: human resource development. ...

Phnom Penh’s Social Affairs Department yesterday dismissed reports that dozens of homeless people were sent to the city’s notorious Prey Speu detention centre this week, even as the United Nations confirmed the transfer and expressed concern at the continued use of the facility.​ ...

Kith Meng, chairman of the Royal Group, was reelected president of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce yesterday in a landslide vote at its Phnom Penh office. The tycoon, whose interests span television, banking, telecoms and property, was also reelected president of the Phnom Penh Chamber ...

Two defrocked monks were handed prison sentences at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday, with one of them found guilty of drug possession and making a death threat and the other of using fake documents and improperly wearing monks’ robes.   ...

As the opposition marked the 41st anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge, one of its senior officials yesterday lashed out at the imprisonment of a CNRP lawmaker for criticising the government’s handling of the Vietnamese border issue. ...

Although the Khmer Rouge no longer holds power, self exiled Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy alleged that the regime’s residue pervades Cambodian society and culture. He made these claims via Skype  at the Choeung Ek Genocide Center – also known as the Killing Fields – yesterday. ...

Construction on a $3 billion oil refining plant, the Kingdom’s first, will start in October this year and is expected to be finished by the end of 2018, according to a senior executive at the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday. ...

The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) has started the process of drafting two laws aimed at protecting witnesses and whistleblowers in an effort to increase their efficiency in fighting corruption. The ACU plans for drafts of the two laws to be finished later this year. ...

A new road linking Pailin province to the coastal province of Koh Kong has been planned, according to the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, aimed at helping agricultural products from the northern provinces reach sea ports quicker.    ...

Despite some appearances to the contrary, things in Cambodia are looking pretty rosy at least according to the World Bank. In its latest revision of world economies the Bank raised Cambodia’s status from a low-income economy to a lower-middle income country. ...

The agency tasked with investigating abuse by Malaysia’s security forces said that claims of fatal abuse against foreign maids—including Cambodians—at a detention center were untrue, though it said the center where the abuse allegedly occurred was in urgent need of attention. ...

The Interior Ministry’s anti-human trafficking department on Monday questioned an administrator at a maritime school over complaints lodged in September by seven former students who claim they were forced to flee a pair of Chinese-owned cargo ships after working in slave-like conditions. ...

Telecom operator Smart Axiata Co. Ltd. and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding that will see Smart donate more than $320,000 to build a facility for students at the National Institute of Post, Telecom & ICT (NIPTICT). ...