More than 700 villagers from five provinces yesterday protested in front of the provincial government headquarters in Kompong Chhnang after losing their community forests to large agro-industry firms. Organized by the Cambodian Grassroots People’s assembly- a network of communities that includes forestry and land activists as <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/hundreds-protests-over-forest-land-seizures/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

A court officiAl At the Kompong Speu ProvinciAl Court sAid MondAy thAt A totAl of 16 union representAtives hAve been chArged with dAmAging property And inciting violence during A protest outside A gArment fActory eArlier this month, twice the number of Arrests previously confirmed. ProvinciAl Judge <A href='https://opendevelopmentcAmbodiA.net/news/eight-more-chArged-over-violent-fActory-protest/ ' clAss='cAmbodiA-color'>...A>

Thousands of opposition supporters at Freedom Park cheered in a near-ecstatic frenzy yesterday as Cambodia National Rescue Party president Sam Rainsy compared the demonstration to those held by the ruling party with an eye to the bottom line. “The [Cambodian People’s Party] uses money to pay <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/in-the-money-at-cnrp-rally/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

At About 10 A.m. ThursdAy morning, during A press conference At the CNRP’s Phnom Penh heAdquArters, opposition leAder SAm RAinsy diAled the phone number of CPP Interior Minister SAr Kheng And told A few dozen reporters in AttendAnce thAt he would broAdcAst their conversAtion over <A href='https://opendevelopmentcAmbodiA.net/news/After-sAm-rAinsys-cAll-no-Answer-from-cpp/ ' clAss='cAmbodiA-color'>...A>

Cambodia is benefiting from a steadily growing service sector, but it needs to clear a number of obstacles to harness the sector’s potential, said a new asian Development Bank (aDB) report released on Tuesday. The report, entitled Developing the Service Sector as an Engine of Growth <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodias-service-sector-encouraging-but-reforms-needed-adb/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

Traffic police across the country have still not resumed enforcing traffic laws after a pre-election enforcement moratorium that was meant to last just a few weeks ahead of the July 28 poll, according to government and U.N. officials. “The superiors ordered [police] to stop, for a <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/police-have-not-enforced-traffic-laws-for-four-months/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

Researchers at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases have isolated a new class of drugs that could be used to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis, a disease that affects thousands of Cambodians, according to a report published in the journal Science Translational Medicine last week. The drugs, called indolcarboxamides, work <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/new-weapon-in-battle-with-drug-resistant-tb/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

The National Election Committee (NEC) on Wednesday publicly released official election documents from eight polling stations in Battambang City, revealing that forms essential to calculating results had been left blank at two booths on polling day. The Constitutional Council of Cambodia (CCC), which has ordered the <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/vote-tallies-blank-in-battambang-city-booths/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

Cambodia’s highest monks have called on the clergy to refrain from joining any political demonstrations, calling it an abuse of morals and professional ethics. In a statement issued on Sunday and obtained yesterday, the three top Buddhist leaders liken joining protests to the act of killing. “an <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/on-politics-silence-gold-top-monks/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

A pilot scheme sending 400 CAmbodiAn mAids to SingApore hAs mAde A spluttering stArt, According to locAl mediA reports, with Agencies in SingApore reportedly growing frustrAted At the slow pAce of mAid ArrivAls And “scepticAl” About the reliAbility of CAmbodiA As A source. Only About 100 <A href='https://opendevelopmentcAmbodiA.net/news/mAid-scheme-off-to-slow-stArt/ ' clAss='cAmbodiA-color'>...A>

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has landed in hot water with women’s rights activists after publicly questioning whether Prime Minister Hun Sen was being “weaker than a woman” by not calling for a new election like Thai leader Yingluck Shinawatra in the face of popular protests. Speaking <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/rainsys-speech-under-fire/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

Cambodia’s angkor Wat Temple, one of the world heritage sites, had received some 1.98 million international visitors in the first 11 months of 2013, up 8 percent from 1.83 million tourists over the same period last year, a tourism report said Wednesday. During the January-November <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodias-angkor-heritage-site-attracts-nearly-2-mln-foreign-tourists-in-11-months/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

A senior ruling pArty officiAl yesterdAy Accused foreign journAlists And mediA outlets in CAmbodiA of interfering in the Kingdom’s governAnce And urging politicAl instAbility. SpeAking to reporters in the cApitAl, CAmbodiAn People’s PArty lAwmAker And NAtionAl Assembly spokesmAn ChheAng Vun sAid A number of journAlists &ndAsh; <A href='https://opendevelopmentcAmbodiA.net/news/foreign-press-interfering-cpp-lAwmAker/ ' clAss='cAmbodiA-color'>...A>

A 39-yeAr-old womAn And two young children Are missing And presumed deAd After their home in PreAh PrAsAp commune collApsed into the Mekong River on TuesdAy night, A trAgedy villAgers Are blAming on illegAl sAnd dredging of the riverbed. Four other people were injured As A <A href='https://opendevelopmentcAmbodiA.net/news/three-missing-After-mekong-riverbAnk-collApse-in-kAndAl/ ' clAss='cAmbodiA-color'>...A>

Rubbish collectors went back to work in the capital yesterday after further concessions were made following the workers’ rejection of a deal struck on Tuesday evening between union representatives and waste disposal company Cintri. Union representatives had said they had reached a deal with the firm, <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/deal-scrapped-strike-ends/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

Promising to dramatically open up the region’s airways, the planned asean Single aviation Market (aSaM) will bring with it fierce competition and price wars, experts said yesterday during a seminar on the subject at the Phnom Penh Hotel. The seminar brought representatives from the majority of <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/open-skies-policy-examined/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

The government’s announcement on Wednesday that companies looking to start rubber plantations could skirt a moratorium on new economic land concessions (ELCs) by taking over existing, dormant ones continued to make a good impression on prospective investors in town Thursday. Ly Phalla, who heads the agriculture <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/ngos-say-selling-off-old-land-concessions-is-premature/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday lashed out at critics who claimed that the recent arrests of four opposition officials for their alleged roles in a violent protest were politically motivated, saying they had committed criminal acts and must be tried according to law. The <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodias-hun-sen-says-no-political-motive-behind-recent-arrests/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

Drive deep enough into Mondulkiri’s Pech Chreada district, and the rubber plantations that dot the roads fall away. Here, there is only mile after mile of lush, dark woodland: an ideal place to bury one’s dead and pay respects to the spirits that reside inside <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodias-muslims-and-minorities-in-land-grants-battle/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

In Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district there is a 133-hectare mound of sand that was once a lake. It took nearly four years to fill Boeng Kak with that sand. On the southern perimeter of the massive sand pit sit two large billboards. On those billboards there <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/sand-settles-on-boeng-kak-project-as-sites-future-uncertain/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>