In an effort to standardise wedding rituals, Cambodia’s achars, or laymen who carry out Buddhist rites of passage, have been invited to a 10-day training course next month in the capital, the Ministry of Cults and Religion announced last week. ...

Amid late-arriving rains and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, groundwater supplies are shrinking, a fact that could leave 1.5 million Cambodian farmers unable to water their crops within 15 years, according to a study published last month in the Journal of Hydrology. ...

Large-scale “bio-sand” filters have been found to be among the most cost-effective water cleaning methods in the Kingdom, according to a recent evaluation by the Trailblazer Foundation, which hopes to start installing them in villages soon.   ...

The government marked World Drug Day on Sunday by setting fire to almost 1.5 tons of confiscated drugs in a schoolyard in Phnom Penh. Officials conceded that efforts to curb usage were failing, pointing to a lack of public knowledge and participation. ...

As the government plans to transfer roughly 60 percent of detainees at the notorious Prey Speu detention center to a “mental illness” center in Kandal province, mental health experts expressed doubts this week over the country’s capacity to provide proper care. ...

After nearly two months tied to a tree near the Lumphat district office in Ratanakkiri province, a female elephant has finally been rehoused by the Mondolkiri Project Elephant Sanctuary, which purchased the animal in early October, according to the sanctuary’s founder. ...

Cambodia will do its best to develop the traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation with Vietnam to a new height, Cambodian Senate President Say Chhum assured Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong during their meeting in Hanoi on December 16.   ...

According to a Labor Ministry prakas, or official statement, both employers and employees will be responsible for paying 1.3 percent of an employees’ monthly salary to the government for state-supplied health insurance guaranteed to all workers under the Labor Law. ...

Preah Sihanouk authorities are scheduled to hold their annual emergency exercises for the provincial airport this morning.According to a statement released yesterday, fire engines, ambulances and military vehicles – including helicopters – have been prepped at the airport for the exercise. ...

The Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction issued a statement on Saturday defending its track record and denying that Germany ended its support for the ministry’s land rights program due to a lack of transparency and sluggish reform pace. ...

In a two-day closed-door meeting, the government asked its counterpart in the Russian Federation to provide assistance to renovate the historic Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital and continue supporting Cambodian tour guide training, according to a Foreign Affairs Ministry statement released yesterday. ...

Swedish apparel giant H&M yesterday responded to a new report that alleged labour rights abuses in its Cambodian supplier factories by saying such issues plagued the entire industry and were difficult for any one company to fix.   ...

Amid deteriorating relations with Western countries due to the government’s suppression of critics, Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to visit Cambodia this month for the first time since taking office, according to a Facebook post by National Police chief Neth Savoeun. ...

The rate at which the population of Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong River is declining has dropped dramatically in recent years, although more dolphins must be protected into adulthood to save the species from extinction, according to a new report released Tuesday. ...

Following a long delay due to a dispute between the Royal Acad­e­my for Judicial Profes­sion­als and the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), the annual exam for pros­pective judges has been rescheduled for next month, officials said on Tuesday. ...

The Cambodian embassy in Thailand has come to the aid of its citizens after authorities caught two Thai fishing boats over the past month carrying 15 Cambodian laborers that they believed to be trafficking victims, according to a Foreign Affairs Ministry statement yesterday. ...

Tax revenue from Cambodia’s 69 licensed casinos reached $37.4 million for the first nine months of the year, growing 35.5 percent compared to the same period last year, according to a report from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. ...

Opposition lawmakers yesterday left a meeting at the Interior Ministry exasperated, as officials from the latter continued to deem the presidency of their leader, Kem Sokha, and the vice presidency of three senior lawmakers, illegitimate, but offered no clear path to a resolution. ...

A staggering 35,000 Cambodian children and young people continue to be housed in a range of residential care facilities, with many of them flying under the government’s radar, according to a new report released by the Ministry of Social Affairs yesterday. ...

Cambodia’s GDP growth fell below the 7 percent mark for the first time since 2011 last year, signalling a need for the government to address the country’s low productivity and insufficient public infrastructure spending, according to a World Bank report released yesterday. ...