Environment and natural resources
Climate action plan needed
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said yesterday that climate change will be a concern in some Asian countries, including Cambodia. He encouraged the countries to find ways to manage any affects on their economies. Economists recognize it will lower growth in some main sectors of the economy – ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012101259257/Business/climate-action-plan-needed.html
Floods Close Roads, Force Families From Their Homes
About 70 families living in Pursat province’s Kandieng district have now been evacuated to higher ground after Pursat River burst its banks on Monday night because of heavy rain from Tropical Depression Gaemi, officials said. Mr Sokha [provincial governor] added that about 400 police officers ...
Gold struck in Mondulkiri
An Australian company working towards mining gold from the Okvau deposit in Mondulkiri province, currently estimated at 729,000 ounces, expects to employ more than 1,000 local people during the mine’s construction phase and 500 in the longer term. Renaissance Minerals managing director Justin Tremain told the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012101159244/Business/gold-struck-in-mondulkiri.html
Rights Workers Questioned by Court on 'Incitement' Charge
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court questioned two well-known human rights workers yesterday in an incitement lawsuit brought against them by a CPP commune chief, one of those questioned said. About 200 ethnic minority Tumpuon villagers, embroiled in a land dispute with the DM Group rubber company, protested ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rights-workers-questioned-by-court-on-incitement-charge-3712/
Military Figure Re-Emerges as Witness in Slain Journalist's Case
The court investigating the murder of a journalist has questioned a notorious former Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) colonel, who was last heard of serving a 10-year prison sentence for attempted murder, a court official said yesterday. The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court has this week questioned a ...
Offshore refueling on the horizon
Danish marine fuel company Go4 Bunker Denmark yesterday launched the first company in Cambodia to supply ship fuel to vessels traveling through Cambodia’s waters, according to officials. The launch ceremony for the newly established Go4 Bunker Cambodia Co Ltd yesterday was presided over by Danish Princess ...
Villagers along Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake Livelihood Threatened
Villagers on Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, who depend on fishing for subsistence, say their livelihoods are threatened by illegal commercial fishing, which continues after a government ban. And they say authorities in charge of enforcing the ban are being bribed to look the other ...
Commerce Official Denies Luxury Wood 'Logs' Exported to China
A Commerce Ministry official yesterday denied that Cambodia was exporting luxury wood logs to China, insisting that any wood leaving the country was in a “processed” form. The China Customs data also states that each year, just under 10,000 cubic meters of “logs” and about ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/commerce-official-denies-luxury-wood-logs-exported-to-china/
More questioned in journo slaying
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court has summonsed for questioning Kim Seanglay, a military policeman who was the subject of one of slain journalist Hang Serei Oudom’s articles on the illegal timber trade, Chhay Thi, an investigator for the rights group Adhoc, said yesterday. According to their ...
Verdict in Wutty case delayed
An expected verdict in the unintentional murder case of the man accused of shooting slain environmentalist Chut Wutty’s killer was delayed at Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday because the presiding judge was ill. Neang Boratino, Koh Kong provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said a ...
Court Questions Officials Over Slain Journalist
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court yesterday questioned four people- including a military police official and a police officer- in relation to the killing of journalist Hang Serei Odom, whose body was discovered hacked to death last month in the trunk of his car,a court official and ...
Verdict Delayed in Case Linked to Chut Wutty
The Koh Kong Provincial Court had postponed until October 22 the verdict of Rann Boroth, the man charged with the accidental killing of a military police officer who allegedly killed environmental activist Chut Wutty in the Cardamom Mountains in April. Though rights groups have criticized the ...
Cambodia's Luxury Wood Trade to China Revealed
Thousands of cubic meters of luxury wood is being shipped from Cambodia to China each year, according to official Chinese import documents shown to The Cambodia Daily. According to the data, some 36,000 cubic meters of logs under the “rosewood” category have been recorded entering China ...
Court calls slain journo's family
Three members of the family of murdered journalist Hang Seri Oudom will appear in Ratanakkiri provincial court on Wednesday, according to their lawyer. Oudom, who exposed illegal logging in the area for the Virakchun Khmer newspaper, disappeared last month when he left his house at night ...
Details on cancelled concessions sought
A week after Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that he would be cancelling an unknown number of economic land concessions in Prey Lang forest, activists called for details on the annulled concessions, saying such revocations would be meaningless unless they could be policed. On September ...
Criticism Continues Over Chut Wutty Murder Case
Environmental protection group Global Witness has added its voice to the growing criticism of the Koh Kong Provincial Court’s decision to end its investigation int the murder of environmental activist Chut Wutty. The decision to drop the case “can only be described by as the latest ...
Danish company to create new industry in Cambodia
The Danish company Go4 Bunker, which has developed their “Smart bunker system” in partnership with Shenfei Group Co and Maersk Broker K/s, wants to partner with Cambodian companies to develop not only the Cambodian Offshore Marine Fuel Oil Business, but also related business in connection ...
http://www.scandasia.com/viewNews.php?coun_code=kh&news_id=11271
Government Prepares for More Evacuations Due to Flooding
Authorities are preparing to evacuate more than 150 families from Banteay Meanchey province’s O’Chrou district, should flooding in the area get worse due to heavy rainfall and runoff from a dam that opened its gates in Thailand on Monday. The families’ homes are already affected by ...
Court Drops Investigation Into Killing of Activist Chut Wutty
The Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday said it had dropped its investigation into the killing of environmental activist Chut Wutty, allegedly by a now-deceased military police officer in April. The court made the surprise announcement during the tril of Rann Boroth, who took the stand yesterday for the ...
Court drops Wutty case
Five months after the fatal shooting of forestry activist Chut Wutty, Koh Kong Provincial Court dropped his case yesterday morning, saying they would only be looking into the shooting of the man who allegedly killed Wutty – a trial that wound up lasting less than ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012100559135/National-news/court-drops-wutty-case.html
European Anti-Corruption Law Could Reach Cambodia’s Oil, Forestry Sectors
New European legislation passed last month could help transparency in the extractive industries, by forcing companies to declare payments to foreign governments rich in resources For resource-rich countries like Cambodia, that means much more transparency, she said. More than 95 percent of the world’s major extractive ...
Cambodian Resorts on the Increase
International tourist arrivals into Cambodia have soared in the past year, with arrivals into Siem Reap up 30 per cent in the first eight months of 2012 over the same period the previous year. The tourist industry was hit hard by the global economic crisis in ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/Real-Estate/cambodian-resorts-on-the-increase.html
Vietnamese fishermen snared in local waters
Provincial authorities arrested eight Vietnamese fishermen who illegally crossed into un-demarcated Cambodian waters in Kampot province on Tuesday. The two boats were intercepted by river police in the early morning while they were trawling, Touch Poleak, deputy director of the water border protection department, said. Sar ...
Tropical storm threatens to extend floods
The Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology yesterday warned that a tropical storm, which is forecast to hit the coast of Vietnam this weekend, will worsen flooding across much of Cambodia. ...
By Aun Pheap, P. 18