Almost 70,000 Cambodian migrant workers were deported from Thailand through the Poipet international checkpoint in Banteay Meanchey province last year, with the daily average being about 200, Poipet checkpoint Immigration police chief Sim Sam Ath said yesterday, citing an annual report. ...

Following media reports that $40,000 was spent to build a luxury outhouse for Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn to use during her recent visit to Ratanakkiri province, authorities released a statement on Friday rejecting the notion that the building was a toilet. ...

Two women were arrested on Friday for allegedly breaching a court order related to an ongoing dispute over 1,000 hectares of land they live on along with 165 other families in Kompong Speu province’s Phnom Sruoch district.   ...

About 1,000 workers and employees of the Victco Handbags Cambodia Industrial factory, an Adidas supplier before it abruptly suspended operations earlier this year, marched in Kampong Speu’s Samrong Tong district to the provincial hall yesterday morning to deliver a petition. ...

The government has indefinitely postponed what was intended to be the first of several public auctions to sell off 71,000 cubic meters of timber seized by au­thorities since January, according to officials, who cited a lack of interest among potential buyers. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has decided to cut land from an economic land concession (ELC) and a rubber plantation to grant land titles to more than 1,000 villagers in Tbong Khmum province’s Memot district, according to the Land Management Ministry. ...

The Immigration Department at the Interior Ministry has put in a request to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor to conduct a preliminary investigation into a commune chief who allegedly forged a birth certificate for a Chinese national in exchange for $12,000. ...

Thaneakea Srov (Kampuchea) Plc, the recipient of a low-interest $15 million loan from the state-run Rural Development Bank, inked contracts yesterday with three companies to build and outfit its massive 200,000-tonne capacity silo and warehouse facility in Battambang province. ...

More than 1,000 garment workers from a factory in Kandal province’s Takhmao City blocked a public road on Wednesday in protest over unpaid wages that have left them struggling to afford food and pay their rents, a union official said. ...

Acleda Bank spent about $1 million to produce 800,000 new ATM cards with EMV chips to enable them to be used globally and also to mitigate the risk of fraud, said the bank’s president and group managing director on Friday. ...

Transport Minister Sun Chanthol said yesterday that there are about 150,000 cars on Cambodia’s roads without valid road safety certificates, and called on vehicle owners to schedule safety checks on his ministry’s website or risk being fined by police. ...

Extreme weather attributed to the tail-end of an El Niño event continues to wreak havoc on the nation’s agricultural sector, with more than 20,000 hectares of rice fields damaged so far this year, a government agricultural expert said yesterday. ...

The Social Affairs Ministry has purchased $150,000 worth of musical instruments and sound equipment for Phnom Penh’s blind musicians in a bid to persuade them to perform in designated spaces, though many worry that restricted venues will limit their income. ...

Vietnamese tourists ranked top among foreign visitors to Cambodia in the first three months this year. According to data released by the Cambodian Tourism Ministry, 179,000 Vietnamese tourists visited Cambodia from January to March, accounting for 18 per cent of total foreign arrivals. ...

The number of Vietnamese tourists visiting Cambodia and Cambodians visiting Vietnam has increased recently, according to new data released by the Cambodian tourism ministry. Vietnam has the largest number of tourists visiting Cambodia at 600,000, or 21 per cent, of all international visitors. ...

A member of Interior Minister Sar Kheng’s cabinet was on Tuesday sentenced to one year in jail for fraud after he was found guilty of accepting $38,000 in 2011 from a Taiwanese-Canadian national in exchange for citizenship documents that were never delivered. ...

A joint force of local and provincial police in Kampot on Friday burned down more than 1,000 marijuana plants growing on the side of a mountain, according to an official involved in the operation. ...

The National Assembly’s banking and finance commission decided on Wednesday to summon Leng Peng Long, parliament’s chief administrative official, for questioning over claims of nepotism and alleged spending irregularities including $25,000 spent on a flagpole, the commission’s deputy chairman said. ...

The director of a Vietnamese company hoping to buy timber off a pair of land concessions has accused three local businessmen of cheating her out of $200,000 and asked Prime Minister Hun Sen to investigate, according to a letter published by local media. ...

Following the intervention of Indonesia’s ambassador to Cambodia last week, 10 Indonesian nationals left the country Sunday after being released by police in Kandal province, where they were being held over a $161,000 theft at a local casino, an embassy official said. ...