City on a hill sparks little talk
A casino complex on top of Kampot province’s Bokor Mountain will open in less than two weeks – but environmental groups are strangely quiet about the effects the development, the size of a small city, could have on Cambodia’s natural heritage. The complex, in the Preah ...
Zoo fighting back from brink
A leopard appears healthy and strong as it paces the walls of its cage with a confident swagger and muffled growl that hints at its ferocity. It’s a welcome sight at Kampot province’s much-maligned Teuk Chhou zoo, which less than one year ago was struggling to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012031355003/National-news/zoo-fighting-back-from-brink.html
The Grain of Rice That Could Help Cambodia Grow
SAMRAONG TONG DISTRICT, Kompong Speu Province – Laughing, Ouch Samnang jumped back and forth over a skipping rope held by his classmates. The 13-year-old goes to school in a small village in Kompong Speu province, he has friends, five siblings and loving parents. Overall, he ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/the-grain-of-rice-that-could-help-cambodia-grow-32650/
Cambodia's garment industry at crossroads
Nun Vanak is an excellent example of how Cambodia’s garment manufacturing industry has helped to change lives of hundreds of thousands of people in this country. The 23-year-old is part of Cambodia’s half-a-million-strong workforce – mostly young women – that keeps these garment factories running. Her income ...
Baby milk recalled in Cambodia
Potentially contaminated infant milk powder that had been banned in China, Russia and Vietnam is now being recalled in Cambodia. The Cambodian distributor of a milk powder product that uses a suspect ingredient from New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra is recalling thousands of units as a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/baby-milk-recalled-cambodia
Despite Popularity, Rainsy’s Role Remains Uncertain
When opposition leader Sam Rainsy last touched down at Phnom Penh International Airport, he was greeted by some 100,000 supporters in what was the largest opposition rally in Cambodia’s 20 years of democracy. When he returns on Friday from the U.S., where he has been attending ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/despite-popularity-rainsys-role-remains-uncertain-39565/
City poised for shopping mall boom
After spending $30 on clothes, Chan Pheavy sat down for lunch in the food court of Sorya Mall, plunking her shopping bags on the floor beside her. “It is very comfortable to do shopping here,” Pheavy, 25, who works for a commercial bank in Phnom ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/city-poised-shopping-mall-boom
Bruised but Not Beaten, Protesters Return to Wat Phnom
Anger over the violent attack on peaceful protesters at Wat Phnom on Sunday night simmered at the site Monday morning, with the same demonstrators returning to confront their alleged attackers and detaining a police official they accused of spying. Shortly before 11 p.m. on Sunday night, ...
Ben Woods and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/bruised-but-not-beaten-protesters-return-to-wat-phnom-43049/
NEC Admits 270,000 Names Were Duplicated on Voter List
Just two months after the contested national election, commune officials across the country on Tuesday began the annual 20-day process of registering voters, while the National Election Committee (NEC) announced that 270,000 duplicated names would be removed from the voter list used in July. NEC Secretary-General ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/nec-admits-270000-names-were-duplicated-on-voter-list-44151/
Meas Sotha—The Man at the Center of the SL Factory Strike
Meas Sotha is not leaving the SL Garment Factory. As tensions between management and workers have intensified over the past five months, Mr. Sotha and his role at the strike-plagued factory have moved center stage. Workers claim that since Mr. Sotha took over from a previous SL ...
Colin Meyn and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/meas-sotha-the-man-at-the-center-of-the-sl-factory-strike-47684/
Challenging business for startups
The World Bank recently ranked Cambodia 184th out of 189 countries for ease of starting a business, but you wouldn’t have known it at Phnom Penh’s recent Startup Weekend. Pitches for Cambodia’s first commercial organic chicken farm and for an app to connect tuk-tuk drivers to ...
Justine Drennan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/challenging-business-startups
Unions Tell Garment Workers to Suspend Strike
Unions behind last week’s garment factory strikes said their members had largely gone back to work this week, although they have not ruled out resuming protests for a higher minimum wage later this month. Tens of thousands of workers went on strike starting on December 24 ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unions-tell-garment-workers-to-suspend-strike-50299/
Rainsy Evokes Gandhi as Example for Opposition
CNRP leader Sam Rainsy on Thursday publicly announced the opposition’s intention to conduct a campaign of civil disobedience in line with peaceful demonstrations organized by the charismatic leader of Indian nationalism Mahatma Gandhi, who helped win independence from Great Britain. Mr. Rainsy made the remarks at ...
Colin Meyn and Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/rainsy-evokes-gandhi-as-example-for-opposition-41429/
‘Land for vote’ deal backfires
Before casting their ballots, residents in three communes in Kulen district carefully mulled their options. On one hand, many have found themselves locked in a land dispute with the government – forced to farm their land in secret from the forestry administration. On the other, ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98land-vote%E2%80%99-deal-backfires
Hun Sen Offers ‘Back Pay’ to Ousted Opposition Lawmakers
Prime Minister Hun Sen has offered to pay back the lost salaries of opposition lawmakers who were stripped of their parliamentary posts in June by the then CPP-led National Assembly, a CNRP official said. The offer to back-pay the 27 lawmakers from the Sam Rainsy Party ...
Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/hun-sen-offers-back-pay-to-ousted-opposition-lawmakers-42679/
Boeung Kak men battle on homefront
When the Supreme Court hears land-rights activist Yorm Bopha’s final appeal this morning, familiar cries for justice will come from Boeung Kak women on the streets outside. Much has been written about the housewives of Boeung Kak who have risen up against the government and developers ...
Shane Worrell and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/boeung-kak-men-battle-homefront
CMAC Closes Probe Into Fire Amid Allegations of Corruption
The Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) said Wednesday that it has closed its investigation into a fire at an equipment repair workshop in Battambang City on January 24 that destroyed equipment and vehicles worth an estimated $400,000. Heng Ratana, CMAC’s director-general, said that the fire had ...
Kuch Naren and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cmac-closes-probe-into-fire-amid-allegations-of-corruption-51543/
Railway leaves area in limbo
In 2009, a railway project official arrived at 45-year-old Ry Preng’s home in Por Sen Chey district and spray-painted “1.042” in red on the side of his house. He wasn’t sure what it meant, but was told that at some point he would need to ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/railway-leaves-area-limbo
Lawmaker blasts illegal logging in Stung Treng
Two draft laws on judicial reform were easily passed by the single-party National Assembly on Friday but the session was overshadowed by a rookie lawmaker’s attack on lax enforcement of forestry laws in Stung Treng province. On the fourth day of the third plenary session of ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lawmaker-blasts-illegal-logging-in-s-treng-59494/
A year after law, acid easily available on streets
“What law? No one has ever come to speak to me about that,” said 33-year-old Lim Vannak, scanning the large plastic buckets of corrosive acids she had lined up on the pavement of Phnom Penh’s Street 144 on a recent morning. Acid in the wrong hands ...
Sek Odom and Alice Cuddy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/a-year-after-law-acid-easily-available-on-streets-51663/