KOH KONG, Cambodia (aP) &mdash; Round a bend in Cambodia’s Tatai River and the virtual silence of a tropical idyll turns suddenly into an industrial nightmare. Lush jungle hills give way to a flotilla of dredgers operating 24 hours a day, scooping up sand and piling <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/sand-for-singapores-growth-comes-at-environmental-cost-to-poorer-neighbors/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

Prime Minister Hun Sen will travel to China on Saturday to meet with the rising superpower’s new leadership, in a trip the government expects to yield nearly $2 billion in loans and aid. Most significantly, the Government is hoping to secure Chinese funding for a 1.67 <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/government-goes-to-china-in-search-of-new-loans/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

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 <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/union-wary-of-possible-crackdown/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

A fleet of five speedboAts set off from SisowAth QuAy on TuesdAy Afternoon cArrying Phnom Penh’s governor, 19 locAl officiAls, severAl bodyguArds And A press teAm, As the municipAl Authorities’ plAn to deAl with flooding in severAl districts of the city switched into first geAr. Over <A href='https://opendevelopmentcAmbodiA.net/news/governor-tAkes-to-the-river-to-promote-flood-response/ ' clAss='cAmbodiA-color'>...A>

Herbalife Ltd, a global nutrition company whose business practices are being challenged in a US court and whose marketing strategies have been the subject of public criticism, will officially open a six-storey distribution centre in Phnom Penh today, according to the New York Stock Exchange-listed <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/herbalife-to-operate-in-capital/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

CNRP president Sam Rainsy on Monday defended his recent Facebook posts urging police and soldiers to “stand up” with the people and “demand” a change of government, and dismissed claims from the ruling CPP that he was inciting a coup. “We just want to urge <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/sam-rainsy-rejects-accusation-of-inciting-military-coup/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

The government’s National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) fails to meet regularly and is void of an annual budget to cover its operations while most of its staff members are totally unaware of their job description, according to a report released in March and funded <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/report-finds-disaster-committee-severely-lacking/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

Kneeling outside a motodop and car battery store on Monivong Boulevard in the capital, a 15-year-old boy spends his days piping acid into batteries with his bare hands. His employer says she has no idea that Cambodia, as well as having an acid Control Law &ndash; <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/weak-enforcement-for-strong-acid/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

More than 55,000 people have joined an online petition set up by a pair of French nongovernment groups urging the European Union (E.U.) to immediately launch an investigation into local sugar plantations accused of illegally evicting hundreds of Cambodian families. at the center of the dispute <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/petition-for-investigation-into-sugar-trade-gains-support/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

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 <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cnrps-protest-culminates-in-25000-strong-street-march/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

The opposition CNRP announced Tuesday that it had engaged lawyer Richard Rogers, former head of the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s Defense Support Section, to analyze evidence of alleged crimes committed by the CPP government and decide whether they justify filing a complaint with the International Criminal <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/lawyer-to-assess-whether-government-crimes-worthy-of-icc/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni has come under criticism for not intervening in the country’s election crisis after he ordered parliament to be convened despite allegations of voter fraud and other irregularities that the opposition wants investigated. But some experts said the monarch has limited influence in <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodias-king-under-criticism-for-not-intervening-in-election-dispute/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

Cambodia’s factories are moving away from producing the most basic clothing items and diversifying to manufacture more intricate products for international buyers. as the garment sector has grown over the past decade, most garment factories have stuck to producing items such as T-shirts and jeans due <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodias-manufacturers-shift-to-higher-value-clothing/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

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 <A href='https://opendevelopmentcAmbodiA.net/news/lAck-of-legAl-Aid-in-cAmbodiA-puts-children-poor-At-risk/ ' clAss='cAmbodiA-color'>...A>

Challenging the ban on demonstrations in Phnom Penh, activists rallied Friday at the U.S. Embassy, the Japanese Embassy, the australian Embassy and the German Embassy before stopping for lunch and rallying again, in the afternoon, at the British Embassy, the European Union and World Bank <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/diplomats-donors-lobbied-to-help-free-jailed-protesters/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

Thy Sovantha is accustomed to being threatened on Facebook. But the 19-year-old CNRP youth activist, who became something of an online celebrity through the popular opposition Facebook page “I Love Cambodia Hot News,” says the latest threat against her, in which a copy of her passport <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/death-threat-made-against-cnrps-social-media-activist/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

SA’ANG DISTRICT, KAndAl province &ndAsh; A little over A month After supporters of Prime Minister Hun Sen forced the cAncellAtion of An opposition pArty rAlly here, CNRP leAders SAm RAinsy And Kem SokhA returned to Address followers And promise thAt the chAnge thAt swept AwAy <A href='https://opendevelopmentcAmbodiA.net/news/rAinsy-tells-supporters-to-heed-fAll-of-yAnukovich/ ' clAss='cAmbodiA-color'>...A>

KOMPONG CHAM CITY &ndAsh; Armed soldiers And militAry police prevented opposition leAders SAm RAinsy And Kem SokhA from leAding An election cAmpAign mArch here SundAy, with the pAir insteAd mAking brief stump speeches for the MAy 18 council elections in front of militArized roAdblocks And <A href='https://opendevelopmentcAmbodiA.net/news/militAry-stops-cnrp-rAlly-in-kompong-chAm/ ' clAss='cAmbodiA-color'>...A>

Royal Group executives, owners of Cambodia’s leading mobile phone operator Cellcard, vigorously denied the veracity of a London-based media report on Friday that claimed the phone company is looking for investors and wants to sell off its telecommunications towers because it is unable to raise <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/royal-group-denies-report-that-cellcard-seeks-investor/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>

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 <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/lao-dam-troubles-mekong-waters/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>