Legal framework

Provincial environment department officials shut down a gem mine in Pailin province yesterday, after an inspection found that the operators had not obtained proper authorisation. ...

A 60-year-old Mexican national working at a school in Sihanoukville was convicted of sexually abusing two young girls yesterday and sentenced to two years in prison, with one year of the sentence suspended, according to APLE Cambodia, a child rights NGO. ...

Following an order from the government this week for businesses on O’Tres and O’Chheuteal beaches to shut down, about 100 protesters in Phnom Penh on Thursday called for the decision to be overturned. ...

Dozens of businesses from Sihanoukville’s Otres beach will deliver a letter to the National Assembly today seeking intervention on a government order to vacate the beach or be forcibly evicted. X Otres BeachX Yun Min ...

On trial at the Koh Kong Pro­vin­cial Court on Wednesday, anti-dam ac­tivist Ven Vorn denied the illegal logging charge laid against him last year over his involvement in the construction of a wooden community center, his lawyer said. ...

Mondolkiri provincial police chief Toch Yon has ordered authorities in Keo Seima district to search for fugitive former military police official Sou Ma­rith, after the district police chief said last week that he would not organize a manhunt without further funding. ...

Police in Kompong Thom prov­ince are searching for three men who held up the owners of a Wing mobile payment kiosk in Kom­pong Svay district on Mon­day night, the latest in a string of similar robberies. ...

A delegation from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) – a transnational organisation of lawmakers – met with lawmakers, several ministries and the UNHCR over the past two days to discuss concerns about the beating of two opposition lawmakers last October as well as the jailing of ...

More than 90 people had been hospitalized in Takeo province as of Tuesday evening after eating tainted noodles during a Buddhist ceremony at a pagoda on Monday, officials said. ...

All bars, restaurants and guesthouses along O’Tres Beach near Sihanoukville, and some on neighboring O’Chheuteal Beach, must close up shop within a month or face forced eviction, local officials confirmed on Tuesday. ...

Residents and evictees from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak and Bo­r­ei Keila neighborhoods re­turned to the World Bank’s country headquarters on Norodom Boul­evard on Monday to hurl eggs at the front gate and demand that the international lender leave Cambodia.   ...

South Korea’s Ministry of Justice has become the second of that nation’s ministries to deny it is working with Cambodia’s ambassador to the country, Suth Dina, to clamp down on illegal migrants and political dissent. ...

Phnom Penh City Hall plans to replace the controversial contractor in charge of collecting parking and stall fees from markets around the city, according to a letter from the Council of Ministers posted on social media yesterday. ...

Australian banking giant ANZ has come under fire for its response to a scandal over its financing of a sugar plantation previously linked to forced evictions and child labour in Kampong Speu province. ...

Two men have been arrested over, and a military official implicated in, illegal logging that took place at the protected Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary last week. ...

A boycott of the Capitol Bus Company organised by former drivers and their supporters is picking up steam online after a brutal beatdown took place at a protest last week. ...

The recently created nationwide anti-logging commission seized 300 logs of illegal timber at a sawmill near a Vietnamese graveyard in Stung Treng province on Friday. ...

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith took to Facebook on Saturday to remind drivers of vehicles with illegal “press” licence plates that “it will not be a fine, but prison” if police catch them. ...

After weeks of build up—including threats of protests in the U.S. and counterprotests at home—Prime Minister Hun Sen will join regional leaders today for the U.S.-Asean Sum­mit in Rancho Mirage, California. ...

A Nigerian man charged with drug trafficking told the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday that he did not know the packet he was handling contained methamphetamine. ...

A journalist who accused a military police commander of accepting bribes from illegal loggers in Mondolkiri province was arrested and briefly detained on Thursday on the commander’s orders, a move that was criticized by the Ministry of Information. ...

The National Police has hired more than 4,500 new officials into its ranks, according to a sub-decree dated Wednesday. ...

Less than a month after the government announced that more than 170 Montagnard asylum seek­ers would have their refugee applications processed, an Interior Min­istry spokesman said on Wednesday that the group had not met the criteria for refugee status and would be returned to Vietnam. ...

The government is planning to boost Cambodia’s attractiveness as a second-home tourist destination for foreign retirees, according to a draft policy obtained from the Ministry of Tourism Wednesday. ...