Provincial and local governments

Authorities in Stung Treng province confiscated more than 100 pieces of illegal luxury-grade wood stockpiled on the bank of the Mekong River Saturday, officials said Sunday. ...

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 ...

Companies contracted to carry out social and environmental studies of the proposed Stung Cheay Areng dam in Koh Kong province yesterday confirmed that the Sinohydro Group is set to renew work in the Areng Valley in the coming days. The studies, which would pave the way ...

More than 200 ethnic families in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom town filed complaints to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet and the provincial court yesterday, asking for the cancellation of Villa Development’s land concession and demanding $500 million for allegedly destroying their resin trees. The complaint is the ...

The heaps of fly-covered refuse known to accumulate around the capital are set to grow a whole lot worse as millions of visitors arrive for the upcoming Water Festival and tax the city’s overburdened trash collector. More than two million additional people are expected to crowd ...

More than 130 families will be relocated to make way for a multibillion-dollar development project in the capital’s Chroy Changva district after an agreement was signed yesterday by villagers, district officials and the Overseas Cambodian Investment Corporation (OCIC ) said.​ ...

Despite reports that Prime Minister Hun Sen recently offered assurances that construction of the controversial Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam would not be allowed to begin in the near future, local officials are allegedly pushing forward with plans to relocate villagers. Multiple provincial, district and village ...

The Kampong Cham Provincial Court yesterday ordered that five workers who were arrested during a violent protest at Juhui Footwear on Saturday be held in prison while charges against them are investigated. Two of them, Khun Sokhom and Mon Sarem, officials from the Coalition of Cambodian ...

Dozens of taxi drivers in Poipet City protested Monday against the creation of a new checkpoint where they are forced to pay costly bribes to transport goods that have been smuggled across the border from Thailand. ...

The seven-inch scar runs diagonally across the left flank of his skinny torso, a glaring reminder of an operation he hoped would save his family from debt but instead plunged him into shame. But on discovering the broker earned US$10,000 for each kidney they sacrificed, ...

More than 1 million hectares of forest terrain and land leased by private companies has been put under government control since Prime Minister Hun Sen initiated a moratorium on new economic land concessions (ELCs) in May 2012, the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and ...

Ten tonnes of protected rosewood found stashed in a tanker truck bearing the logo of petroleum giant Sokimex was seized by police in Oddar Meanchey province on Friday. In August, police found 14 tons of rosewood hidden in the tanker of another truck bearing the ...

Pailin province’s ex-governor and provincial council president Y Chhien yesterday denied corruption allegations against him, describing the claims as politically motivated. The two opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party members on the nine-seat provincial council accused Chhien in mid-October of misusing $400,000 in state funds and exploiting ...

Six inmates busted out of Ratanakkiri Provincial Prison in the wee hours of yesterday morning, police said, adding another incident to a string of embarrassing escapes at the facility over the past two years. According to a post on the National Police’s website, authorities in Ratanakkiri’s ...

Amid a recent spate of riverbank collapses in Kampong Cham province that have so far damaged three properties, authorities are advising the owners of nearly 40 houses to move their structures. Yesterday’s collapse in the province’s Kampong Cham commune destroyed the Khyol Tonle restaurant in front ...

Minister of Interior Sar Kheng has summonsed Kampong Thom provincial police accounting official Chem Leakhena for questioning related to allegations that he had pocketed more than 30 million riel (about $7,500) in pay raises intended for promoted officers, according to a letter obtained on Saturday. ...

Four Vietnamese women claiming to be working for a Vietnamese company attempted to obtain residency papers reserved for Cambodian citizens by bribing authorities in Ratanakkiri’s Sre Angkrang commune last week, police and an NGO said yesterday. The news comes as the government continues a “foreigner census” ...

Local branches of the CNRP and CPP in Banteay Meanchey province have been feuding since Wednesday over whether the opposition party should be allowed to plant a promotional sign in the ground above a storm drain. ...

An illegal logger in Pursat province accidentally shot a member of his own work group on Monday, according to Veal Veng district police. The loggers were allegedly going after protected timber in the Mount Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary in Veal Veng, a preserve in the Cardamom ...

The government has seized back more than 12,000 hectares of land previously awarded to seven companies as economic land concessions (ELCs), according to a letter from the Council of Ministers. It explains that licences awarded from 2006 to 2011 for eight ELCs in the provinces ...

Some two hundred villagers from Prey Veng and Svay Rieng provinces gathered yesterday and Wednesday to file complaints at the Svay Rieng provincial police station accusing the purported owner of a local water purification company of cheating them out of some $470,000 in investments. ...

Another 17 people are to be deported for living illegally in Kampong Chhnang province, bringing the total number of deportations to more than 500 nationwide since a foreigner census began in late August. ...

A provincial military police commander was named yesterday by a major conservationist group as the alleged owner of a huge haul of illegal rosewood confiscated in Kampong Speu province this week. At around 3 a.m. on Tuesday, Wildlife Alliance rangers intercepted a truck carrying 12.5 cubic ...

Kompong Chhnang provincial police on Tuesday arrested one of six suspects wanted for the murder of a journalist in Cholkiri district nearly nine months ago, police said Wednesday. Suon Chan, 44, who worked for the infrequently published Meakea newspaper, died on the way to the hospital ...