Police and Forestry Administration officials in Banteay Meanchey province confiscated more than 120 pieces of illegally logged luxury-grade wood in two separate operations on Tuesday and Wednesday, officials said Thursday. In one case, authorities on Wednesday found 75 pieces of beng and thnong wood inside a ss='cambodia-color'>...

Police arrested another opposition activist Thursday morning for his alleged involvement in the violent July 15 protest at Freedom Park that the courts have labeled an attempted insurrection, a party official and police said. Tep Narin, a CNRP activist in his 30s, was arrested at the ss='cambodia-color'>...

Hundreds of people gathered yesterday morning in front of Phnom Penh’s Prey sar prison to demand the release of 17 incarcerated activists, monks and opposition members. The detainees include 10 land activists, three monks and four members of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party. Fifteen of ss='cambodia-color'>...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday wrapped up its three-day trial of self-exiled Cambodian sourn serey Ratha and three others accused of colluding to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Hun sen, hearing hours of old statements from the dissident. Mr. serey Ratha, president of ss='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodia’s local authorities will receive a pay bump of up to 60 per cent starting this month, the government revealed yesterday. A commune chief will now get 400,000 riel (about $100) per month, up from 300,000 riel ($75); first and second deputy commune chiefs will get ss='cambodia-color'>...

Civil society leaders on sunday called on the country’s two major political parties to scrap plans to ban them from giving media interviews during election campaigns and from issuing statements that “insult” any party. CPP Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin and senior CNRP official Kuoy Bunroeun, ss='cambodia-color'>...

A monday walk-out by cleaners at Phnom Penh International Airport has resulted in the company the airport enlists for sanitary services agreeing to hike employees’ monthly salaries by $20 yesterday. More than 30 employees at HCC Co, the airport’s cleaning service, walked off the job, demanding ss='cambodia-color'>...

The “temporary suspension” of construction works widely believed to have damaged Phnom Penh’s iconic White Building was officially lifted on the same day it was announced, according to a government notice. Large cracks appeared across the southern part of the historic apartment block on sunday evening, ss='cambodia-color'>...

A state secrets law being drafted by the Interior Ministry will not be used to target reporting on sensitive issues such as corruption, a senior military police official said yesterday. The National Police announced that the law was being drafted late last month following a ss='cambodia-color'>...

A Vietnamese-owned company in Preah Vihear province has cleared land claimed by hundreds of villagers to plant crops in violation of the law, a complaint filed with rights groups alleges. The community in Rovieng district’s Ruosroan commune, comprising 127 families, claims that since January last year, ss='cambodia-color'>...

The government’s apparent unwillingness to take seriously evidence of continued large-scale illegal logging orchestrated by the Try Pheap Group is “disappointing”, Global Witness said yesterday. A report released last week by the UK-based group titled The Cost of Luxury detailed evidence, collected during an eight-month covert ss='cambodia-color'>...

Conservation groups have called on Prime Minister Hun sen to address “the elephant in the room” and lobby Laos’ president to postpone his country’s controversial Don sahong dam project when the leaders meet later this week. Arriving on Thursday, Laotian Head of state Choummaly sayasone will ss='cambodia-color'>...

Commerce Minister sun Chanthol said yesterday that his ministry was initiating reforms that would see Cambodia’s ease of starting a business ranking leap from the current 184 to 21. He said the government would also need to make changes to the Company Registration Law, reduce ss='cambodia-color'>...

Several elderly HIV-poSitive villagerS in Battambang&rSquo;S Roka commune are SeriouSly ill, local authoritieS have Said, with Some of their familieS having called monkS to bleSS them aS they believe death may be imminent. Five people living in the commune have died Since a maSSive HIV outbreak SS='cambodia-color'>...

A visiting delegation from the European Union met with the Cambodia Rice Federation yesterday to discuss concerns raised by Italian rice producers, who say duty-free Cambodian rice imports are undercutting the Italian market. sok Puthyvuth, president of the Cambodia Rice Federation, said yesterday that the purpose ss='cambodia-color'>...

The Ministry of Mines and Energy has decided to decentralise the process for small-scale miners and dredgers to obtain licences, with the government now permitting provincial authorities to directly issue licences to operators without ministerial oversight. speaking at a meeting on the new measures, Dith Tina, ss='cambodia-color'>...

Three refugees who have agreed to travel to Cambodia are being housed in the Nauru detention centre before they are scheduled to fly out. There are currently just four refugees who have agreed to take up the Australian government’s resettlement offer in Cambodia, despite a large ss='cambodia-color'>...

As the ruling party prepares this week to elect a president and deputy president following Chea sim’s death on June 8, the Ministry of Interior has lashed out at an international rights group that last week linked sim to Khmer Rouge abuses. Though he was lauded ss='cambodia-color'>...

Opposition lawmakers and transparency groups have slammed a recent Council of Ministers directive ordering government employees to deny access to parliamentary commissions investigating corruption, saying it severely undermines democracy. Released yesterday by secretary of state Tek Reth samrach, the letter dictates public employees must follow the ss='cambodia-color'>...

More than 100 men, women and children rounded up from Phnom Penh’s streets last week remained in detention yesterday at the notorious Prey speu social Affairs Centre, with orders from City Hall to keep them there indefinitely. The detainees – who authorities say are either homeless, ss='cambodia-color'>...