Government
Phnom Penh pagoda offers haven for the marginalized
When 200 villagers from Kratie province walked into Samakki Raingsey pagoda seeking safety and shelter early this month, they weren’t the first to do so. The villagers, whose homes in Snuol district had been torched by authorities just days earlier, were walking a well-trodden path—a path ...
Mech Dara and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/author/matt-blomberg/
Road accidents kill 961 people in Cambodia in 5 months
Road accidents have killed at least 961 people in Cambodia in the first five months of 2014, up eight percent over the same period last year, the latest report of the Interior Ministry’s public order department showed Monday. Approximately 2,106 cases of road accidents were reported ...
Global Post News Staff
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/140526/road-accidents-kill-961-people-cambodia-5-months
Takeo court releases eight C.CAWDU unionists after questioning
Takeo Provincial Court released eight unionists yesterday after they were questioned for several hours. The unionists from the Coalition of Cambodia Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU) were arrested on May 23 after they led workers to protest at JSD Textile (Cambodia) to demand better work condition. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NzAwOWUxZmYzM2F
Is Cambodia engulfed in a human rights crisis?
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed Australia is working on an agreement with Cambodia that would see refugees currently on Nauru resettled there. But Human rights lawyer David Manne, who launched a successful High Court challenge to the former government’s proposal to resettle refugees in ...
ABC News Staff
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-26/is-cambodia-engulfed-in-human-rights-crisis/5446002
Cambodia does not allow anybody to use its territory against other countries
Cambodia will not allow anybody to use its territory to oppose other countries, an official said Monday. Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Office of Ministers of Council, made comments after media reported that former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who is brother of recently ousted Prime ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=MzM1OGFkM2FjY2I
Cambodian officials meet with buyers from global brands on garment issues
Cambodian officials, led by Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon, on Monday met with a 18-member delegation representing global brands and trade unions to discuss garment worker rights and wages. It was the second round of talks between Cambodian government officials and representatives of major brands ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-05/26/c_133363019.htm
Workers turn models on political catwalk
About 150 garment workers turned out to the Phnom Penh offices of the United Sisterhood Alliance NGO on Sunday to watch a politically charged fashion show entitled “Beautiful Clothes, Ugly Reality.” Aimed to highlight “the income gap between Cambodian garment workers and the selected CEOs of ...
Mech Dara and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-turn-models-on-political-catwalk-59540/
To stop leaks, exam papers to be given to only one teacher
Copies of grade 12 examination papers will only be provided to a single teacher for each subject this year in order to identify the source of leaks, said Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron during a speech on Saturday. Mr. Naron, speaking at the American University of ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/to-stop-leaks-exam-papers-to-be-given-to-only-one-teacher-59555/
Sanctuary ‘protected’
More than 2,000 hectares of the decimated Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary in Ratanakkiri province have been classified by the Ministry of Environment (MOE) as the sanctuary’s first community protected area. Surrounded by three economic land concessions in Kon Mom district, the protected area is populated by a ...
Phak Seangly and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sanctuary-%E2%80%98protected%E2%80%99
More unionists charged on eve of brand meeting
The Takeo Provincial Court charged eight union representatives with incitement Sunday for taking part in a garment factory strike, bringing to 17 the number of unionists charged this month alone. The latest in the spate of recent arrests came just ahead of today’s high-level meeting between ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/more-unionists-charged-on-eve-of-brand-meeting-59538/
US army shuts down website cited in HRW report
Four days after Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report criticizing Washington for supporting Cambodia’s “abusive armed forces,” a Facebook page containing photos cited in the report has been removed from the Internet. According to the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, the Facebook page titled “Angkor ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/us-army-shuts-down-website-cited-in-hrw-report-59509/
Activist says remains are of missing teen
Human remains that an opposition activist claims are those of missing teen Khim Saphath, who disappeared after a crackdown on Veng Sreng Boulevard on January 3, will be brought to the Cambodia National Rescue Party’s headquarters in the capital today. Although no tests have been carried ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/activist-says-remains-are-missing-teen
Twenty put end to latest Caltex strike
Petrol station workers who were back on strike on Friday returned to work yesterday as they prepare to file a complaint to the Ministry of Labour against US-owned Caltex over alleged rights abuse. Yoeun Reth, one of 20 Caltex workers striking on Friday, said yesterday that ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/twenty-put-end-latest-caltex-strike
‘Deforestation plagues ASEAN’
Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have never been higher, but Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries are still failing to curb emissions created by heavy deforestation, according to a new report. Forest land in ASEAN countries declined by more than 6 per cent ...
Phak Seangly and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98deforestation-plagues-asean%E2%80%99
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/
Activist ‘threatened with knife’
A forest activist in Kampong Thom province yesterday claimed to have been threatened with a knife by a soldier after reporting that the officer was behind a number of forest crimes in the area. Pen Bunkear, a soldier with the Kampong Thom military research unit, yesterday ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/activist-%E2%80%98threatened-knife%E2%80%99
Thai tourism threatened by coup; effect on Cambodia uncertain
Thailand’s Tourism Ministry has been biting its nails since the country’s military declared a coup on Thursday and imposed a nighttime curfew, but a Cambodian official said Sunday that it is too soon to say whether the lock-down will have a knock-on effect on tourism ...
Simon Henderson and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/thai-tourism-threatened-by-coup-effect-on-cambodia-uncertain-59558/
Hun Sen returns from fruitful week in China
Prime Minster Hun Sen arrived back in Phnom Penh on Sunday after a weeklong visit to China for an international summit during which Chinese Premier Xi Jinping pledged $145 million in aid and soft loans to Cambodia. On Monday, AKP reported that China promised to ...
Phorn Bopha and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-returns-from-fruitful-week-in-china-59560/
WWF petitions to halt Don Sahong dam
World Wildlife Fund is taking to the internet to halt a hydropower project it claims will serve as the nail in the coffin for the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin. On Friday, WWF launched an online petition calling on the developers of Laos’s 120 megawatt Don Sahong ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wwf-petitions-halt-don-sahong-dam
Orphanage director in court
American national and orphanage director Daniel Stephen Johnson was tried on Friday at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on charges that he sexually abused five boys last year. The court heard that Johnson, 36, the director of the Hope Transitions Christian orphanage in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
https://cambodia.opendevelopmentmekong.net/wp-admin/post.php?post=51030&action=edit
Tourism campaign to counter unrest
The Ministry of Tourism will hold an emergency meeting with industry leaders and representatives in Phnom Penh today to look at what can be done to curb the loss of cross-border visitors resulting from unrest in neighbouring countries. Minister Thong Khon yesterday emphasised the need for ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/tourism-campaign-counter-unrest
Two dead, one seriously injured in another hit and run
Two men died and another was seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident on Friday night in Phnom Penh when a Range Rover plowed into a motorbike in Toek Thla commune, police said Sunday, adding to a recent spate of fatal—and often high-profile—hit-and-runs. Thang Ratha, 23, died ...
Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/two-dead-one-seriously-injured-in-another-hit-and-run-59553/
Cambodians wary of Australia refugee deal
Cambodians are worried about an influx of immigrants as the government nears a deal with Australia to accept refugees in return for cash. The two countries have been in discussion since February over plans to resettle an unspecified number of refugees in Cambodia. “Our country’s economy is ...
SBS News Staff
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/05/25/cambodians-wary-australia-refugee-deal
Pilot project to recruit Cambodian maids struggles to take off
A pilot project to recruit maids from Cambodia is struggling to take off as workers are turned off by high recruitment fees, and the fear of not being able to adapt to life here. Under a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) pilot scheme that began last August, ...