Social development

Two Vietnamese nationals were each sentenced to 25 years in prison for concealing nearly 40 kilograms of powdered ketamine in a Phnom Penh condo last year. ...

The Siem Reap Provincial Court on Friday charged a Swiss national with having sex with three underage boys in Siem Reap City earlier this year, according to police and anti-pedophile NGO Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE). ...

Following talks with indigenous villagers over the weekend, which saw promises of jobs and English language lessons, there are high hopes that a foreign company looking to extract gold in Ratanakkiri will be awarded the first-ever mining licence in the province. Representatives of Mesco Gold met ...

The impending visit of First Lady Michelle Obama to Cambodia will serve as an opportunity for people and officials to revisit their attitude towards girls’ education, a lawmaker says. ...

Survivors of human trafficking in South-East Asia require better access to health services, especially related to mental health, a study says. ...

Keo Chkriya was pregnant when she was sentenced to prison, on charges of drug distribution. By the time she left, she had been caring for her son in a cell for nearly two years. ...

A senior refugee department official has said that ethnic Jarai Montagnards fleeing alleged persecution in neighbouring Vietnam need to enter Cambodia via official checkpoints in order to register as asylum seekers on arrival. ...

A United Nations human rights expert has called for a speedy solution to the situation of the Montagnards from Vietnam still hiding in the forests of northeastern Cambodia, after crossing the border to escape alleged persecution. About 13 of the 50 Montagnards—Christian indigenous people from ...

Four of the 36 Jarai Montagnards deported last month have “disappeared” from their village in Vietnam’s central highlands, prompting fears among villagers that they may have been detained by the authorities. The group of 36 Montagnards was deported on the night of February 24 after attempting ...

The number of abortions performed in 2014 increased nearly 51 per cent from the year before, according to the Ministry of Health. A report released March 9 showed that the total number of miscarriages and abortions for the year were up by more than 4,000 cases ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Court has agreed to a request to delay the questioning of an anti-dam activist accused of illegally felling trees to build a community center in the Areng Valley. Ven Vorn—an ethnic Chong who has joined local protests organized by the NGO Mother ...

The founder of Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), Thierry Darnaudet, this week dismissed child sex abuse claims made against him by the anti-pedophile NGO’s former director, Hang Vibol, and said their feud had created a quandary for the organization when it was asked to investigate ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen admitted Tuesday that he made an error in judgment when he doubted the veracity of a growing HIV outbreak in Battambang province’s Roka commune in December. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday chided a group of NGOs who boycotted a seminar on a pair of proposed election laws, saying the groups suffered from “main character syndrome.” ...

A man wanted by police for shooting 33 times in the air with a handgun after he was given a $3 speeding ticket turned himself into police Tuesday morning in Phnom Penh. ...

Concerned Russians in Sihanoukville are passing around a petition urging the Russian Embassy to do more for its citizens amid a recent crime wave in the coastal town. ...

High school students who fail the national exams this year will not be getting a second chance like their 2014 counterparts. While some extenuating and unavoidable circumstances will be taken into consideration, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport announced yesterday that final-year students would only ...

About 70 villagers representing hundreds of families living in Battambang City’s Prek Preah Sdech commune protested outside the provincial hall Tuesday over fears that local authorities intend to evict them to make way for military families. ...

A plantation company with its sights set on a community forest long used by local ethnic minority Jarai in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district arranged a meeting with more than 200 villagers this week to try to persuade them to sign over the woodland. Representatives of the Heng ...

The minister of health once again urged his subordinates and local authorities yesterday to shut down the country’s unlicensed clinics and doctors to prevent another HIV outbreak. ...

A woman accused of organ trafficking was tried at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday for allegedly persuading her two cousins and a neighbor to sell their kidneys in Thailand last year. Anti-human trafficking police arrested Nhem Sinuon, 29, in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district ...

A sleepy village in Kampong Thom province was the unlikely site of a major gold heist over the weekend, as a gang of heavily armed robbers raided a local market in broad daylight, making away with more than $250,000 worth of cash and jewellery before ...

A 69-year-old man who was among the more than 240 villagers to test positive for HIV in Battambang province’s Roka commune died on Saturday, local health officials said Monday. ...

Cambodia has much potential in the growth of science and technology, particularly given the motivation of young students, a US official says. In a visit to Cambodia last week, Geraldine Richmond, the US science envoy to Southeast Asia, told VOA Khmer she was surprised to see how ...